Help me understand the Trinity: Jeff Durbin on the Trinity

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Well speaking of doing good. I want to introduce you to my friend today who we've had come in to speak

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He's going to be speaking on this essential series. We've been in I've asked him to speak on the trinity

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It that that topic gives me a headache, so I didn't want to do it So I said I'll bring in someone smarter than me and it's his name is

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Jeff Durbin And and he is so cool as I know man. They even wrote down some fun facts and stuff to let you know about him

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He's the lead pastor at Apologia Church in Tempe and Calvary Addiction Recovery Center in Phoenix he's spoken at stuff for us at Rockman before just not on a

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Sunday, and he Goes around does a lot of speaking on false teachings of Christianity on false claims on cults on on stuff that claim make false claims on on Christ and one of the primary things he speaks

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On a lot is the topic I asked him to speak on today to define defend the Trinity and talk about why does it matter what so what what does that?

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Mean for us in the essentials of Christianity, and he speaks a lot He speaks at other churches conferences camps across the nation

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He was recently featured on a documentary for the history channel called the stoned ages And let me explain because when you see him you'll think hmm

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About the Christian approach to drug and alcohol addiction He hosts a radio program called

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Redemption radio that airs Saturday mornings at 9 a .m.. On 1360 KP XQ he's been married to his wife candy for 13 years, and they have four children, so he's brave and Some of the fun facts about him is he's actually a martial arts expert.

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He's a five -time world champion And out of his his competing he got a chance to play

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Michelangelo and Donatello for the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies That's the part that everyone was listening about how he speaks at camps

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He's on the radio, and you should have seen the band I go any he played two Ninja Turtles in the fight scenes

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And they're oh You know they loved them and on top of that he got to play

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Johnny Cage in the Mortal Kombat live tour And was a fighter on MTV's the final foo

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Television series and so you know he they say Jesus walked on water. He can swim through land

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I Was gonna say he's a lot smarter than he looks, but when I realized all the martial arts experts

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He knows I said I should probably respect him, so I don't get a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick to the face But let's give him a nice big

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Rock Point welcome Jeff Durbin morning

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Rock Point So this is the the 9 a .m.. Service you guys are the brave ones 9 a .m..

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You guys are hardcore you guys get up before God does so That's cool. Why I'm a pastor at Apologia Church in Tempe, and we have our night services

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So this is all twisted me up right now um see at the bear with me I need some of that coffee you guys were just talking about Well, let's let's start with prayer, and then we'll get into the word today father.

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I want to thank you for your grace God The the grace to be able to stand here

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Lord and speak about you and your truth God, and this is such a massive

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Glorious majestic thing God the Trinity and Lord I'm unfit in myself to do this and It amazes me that you would you would call me to do this

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God and in myself Lord I'm not worthy of such a task and Lord if not for your righteousness

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Lord Jesus. I would have nothing and So I just pray God by your spirit.

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You'd speak through me spirit of God to your people that you open eyes Hearts to your truth

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God. I just pray that you would empower me Lord And I pray that you would get me out of the way I pray that people leave here forgetting my name and remembering yours, and I pray that in Jesus name

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Amen This is a huge subject As your pastor said one of the things that I've been passionate about I wasn't raised in a

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Christian home But when I came to Christ one of the things God immediately got me into was Evangelism to the cults and reaching people who are in non -christian worldviews, and I'm passionate about truth

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And and and knowing what I believe and why I believe it It's just something God sort of thrust me into and when

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I first became a believer He threw me right into speaking to people who were from Mormonism and the

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Watchtower Bible and tract society and atheists And so I've always had a passion about reaching people for Christ and knowing truth

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And and I want to say I have a lot of respect for your pastors and in doing this kind of a series Essentials what

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Christians believe because in our modern culture I mean a lot of times people want to come and just for the lights and the smoke and the fog and and Don't necessarily get into into deep message

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Some of you might have even a 20 -minute message as the common thing come in music 20 -minute message

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And I'm out the door and so to do a series on essentials and to talk about the Trinity is is a

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Significant thing you're in a good church And I'm just thankful to see other churches that would would dive into this because we talk about the

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Trinity We're talking about one of the most important Doctrines teachings in the whole

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Bible I mean from Genesis to Revelation 66 different books about over a thousand years of composition 40 different authors different geographical locations time periods some of these guys aren't even connected to each other at times in location or or in era and One here's the thing one consistent theme and it's sometimes

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It's trippy how you have this consistent theme from Genesis to Revelation About who

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God is and at times you'll see things in the Old Testament that you're like they couldn't have known that Jesus hadn't come yet and exegeted the

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Father for us and explained God to us How could Moses be writing these things? They didn't even have a full

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Concept of how God is this way. This is an essential thing and listen. Here's here's the important thing

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This is one of the most Neglected teachings in the Christian Church today to have

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Christians have a full understanding of the Trinity. What does it mean? So I'm encouraged that you called me here a little upset that it was for this one because I Jeff here

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Here's what I do. We like you come in. We want you to with your three -pound brain explained a room full of people with three -pound brains and a transcendent incomprehensible

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Majestic God who fills and inhabits eternity We want you to talk about that God and we want you to teach them how to defend that God and you got 40 minutes

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Okay So thanks for that. I appreciate that Okay, thank you very much that'll help a lot

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So this is an important subject and one of the most attacked so we got to get into the scriptures I have to confess.

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I'll be going kind of fast today your pastor did a series on this before I'd encourage you to go back and go through that series

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My my I guess I'm under the impression this would be online so you can go back you can look over it again I'll give you some book recommendations at the end of this turning your

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Bibles to John chapter 4 verse 13 John 4 13 Famous scene you got to know it.

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It's Jesus speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well That's a no -no by the way in Jesus's culture to be talking to a woman number one and then a

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Samaritan woman Two I mean it was a kind of a racist type of culture at the time where you've seen a woman

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That's bad Samaritan woman. That's even worse. So you sort of a mixed breed kind of a half Z They would you know sort of like oh, you're not quite

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Jewish not quite Gentile But here's this famous scene where the Lord speaks to the woman at the well and we're just gonna read just a part of it just to get a sort of foundation here in John 4 13

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Jesus said Everyone who drinks from this water will get thirsty again But whoever drinks from the water that I will give him will never get thirsty again ever

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In fact the water I will give him will become a well of water springing up within within him for eternal life

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Sir the woman said to him Give me this water so I won't get thirsty and come here to draw water go call your husband

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He told her and come back here. I don't have a husband. She answered you said correctly

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You have correctly said I don't have a husband Jesus said for you've had five husbands and the man you now have is not your Husband what you have said is true sir the woman replied.

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I see that you're a prophet That's the queen of Subject changers right there. I see that you're a prophet our fathers worshipped on this mountain yet You Jews say that the place to worship is in Jerusalem And so Jesus unpacks that problem

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Jesus told her believe me woman an hour is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this Mountain nor in Jerusalem you

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Samaritans worship what you do not know we worship What we do know because salvation is from the Jews here we go

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But an hour is coming and is now here when the true worshipers will worship the

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Father in spirit and truth Yes, the father wants such people to worship him

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God is spirit and those who worship him must worship in spirit and in truth

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I think people get the concept that's going on here. Where do we worship? Is it over here over there and Jesus like no you got it all wrong.

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It is not over there over there It's it's you God wants you worship him in spirit and in truth That's every place at all times, and I think we can grasp the concept of spirit in worship in spirit

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But here's the essential thing which our culture largely wants to ignore even Christian culture today

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God wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth see

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Jesus says in John 14 6 you know the verse I am the way and the

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Truth I'm the way and the truth and the life no man comes to the father but by me our culture hates that message

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That's too exclusive. That's too. Just your way But you see as Christians we say we claim we love the one who is the truth

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He is the truth and so Christians are to be lovers of truth. We don't we're not afraid of truth

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We run towards people who are antagonists to our faith skeptics critics We run right into those things

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That's just the Christian mo read the book of Acts the most hostile of situations because we love truth

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We pursue knowing truth defending truth and God wants us to worship him in spirit and in truth

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And there's a real danger here. What's the danger the danger is our condition?

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I have to do this before we even get into the message and God and Trinity It's it's this is a serious problem we have because of the fall

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Romans chapter 1 says in verse 18 the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth and Unrighteousness that what we have as a problem because of the fall because of sin

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Because of our disconnected relationship our fractured relationship with God is that we have this problem

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And that is that we suppress the truth of God and unrighteousness It's like that ball where you're in a pool, and you take that that ball

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And you try to shove it under the water you have to actively hold that ball down to keep it under What happens guys if you take if you take your hands off the ball from under the water what happens to the ball?

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It shoots right up you have to actively suppress that truth And that's our nature the Bible says is that we suppress the truth of God And this is that which is known about God is evident within them for God made it evident to them listen

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It says that God has sent the message of himself Into the hearts of every person who's ever lived or ever will live the problem is never intellectual

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It's never a lack of evidence the problem is a suppression of truth And so we do with the knowledge of God as we hold it down And then what happens it says that that that since the creation of the world is invisible attributes is

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Eternal nature and divine power have been clearly understood being understood through what has been made

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So that they are without an excuse without a defense So what it says is this

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God's made himself known to all of us and the creation is preaching to us Constantly telling us about God, and we hold that truth down, and here's the danger right here is

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That what we do as our default position as fallen people is that we exchange God for idols and There's the danger that comes out in so many different ways, too

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I think some of us can recognize some of the ways that it does we go Oh, I know what that's like Jeff I've seen video where I've seen people doing that where they go into a forest and they cry and they hug trees and they worship

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The trees or we go I get that that's idolatry or hey. I've seen that Buddhist temple I know they go down they bow before idols there, or I've seen when

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I go get my nails done Not me. I don't get my nails done, but when you get your nails done I Go in there

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And they have a little thing set up in the back and they have little fruits and everything else gonna laid before that thing And so yeah, that's idolatry, but the problem is is that's not all idolatry is our default position is idolatry

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John Calvin said the human heart is a factory of idols and it is never idle

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It's always making them sometimes our idolatry and our suppression of God comes out in Worship of drugs and alcohol.

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That's a worship problem drug and alcohol addictions a worship problem It's an exchange of God for an idol you have a spiritual need so you suppress

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God you switch him for an idol You need forgiveness from guilt and shame you need wholeness you need peace you need contentment

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So rather than going to God you switch God for an idol. We see it in false religion people say

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I don't want the way God has revealed himself to me I don't want to worship him in the spirit and in truth, so I want a

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Jesus that looks like this But wait a minute. That's not the way that Jesus has revealed himself It doesn't matter this is what

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I see Jesus to be and so we have false religion people switch God for idols They go off into false religion sometimes

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They even borrow from Christianity to store in its message, and then they go off and create an idol we switch God for idols

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There's the danger Worship him in spirit and in truth, and then our problem is that we say no not your way

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But my way we want a God in our image, and there's the danger And see the

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Bible warns you about that many places But you can go to a passage that shows the real danger here of not worshiping

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God in spirit and in Truth the way that he is the way that he calls us to worship him and to know him and that's many places

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But a good one is 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 verses 3 and 4. It's a famous passage

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Some of you guys might actually know what Paul is talking to the church in Corinth in the first century This is interesting because Christians get twisted sometimes we get irked like all these different Conceptions of Jesus all these false religions and all these religious texts and everything else and man

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We have like so many different Jesus's on the scene It's it's mind -blowing, but it's something that Paul had to deal with in the first century in the church in Corinth Relatively quickly after the resurrection

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Paul has to warn the early Christians against false versions of Jesus false

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Gospels 2nd Corinthians 11 3 and 4 he says that I'm afraid as a Serpent deceived

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Eve by his craftiness that your minds will be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion

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Which is to Christ here's where it comes for if one comes and preaches another

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Jesus whom we have not preached and then he talks about another spirit and another gospel

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He basically says to him you might even put up with them Someone could come in and not worship

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God in spirit and in truth preach another version of Jesus another gospel another spirit And you might even put up with them and Paul's worried about them.

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You see understand this the truth is truth and And we could we could run from it

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We can try to redefine it But truth will always remain truth and there is a dividing line between Christianity and the cults

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Christianity and isms there is a dividing line and we need to cross that line to reach those people with love and Respect and grace, but the line is still there

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It's still there and this issue the Trinity God is Trinity is an essential issue

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You see how essential is it that you get it, right? Well It's not the ignorance of a doctrine that condemns you

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Like right now I know you in your minds many of you guys are going I don't understand the Trinity completely and so you're worried but see it's not the ignorance of a doctrine that's condemning

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It's the denial of it when God's clearly revealed himself It's the denial of it and see one example of that and this is the last thing

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I'll say as we go into this Bigger portion of the message is in 2nd John verse 9

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John's dealing in the first century very early on with a denial of who Jesus is the nature of Christ the early beginnings of Gnosticism were creeping into the church that they no way that God can become a man

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Flesh is dirty flesh is evil. You can't God would never take on flesh

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That's evil even to say God would do something like that So the Apostle John Jesus's buddy in the first century the only one that didn't die for his faith

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Not by lack of trying Nero tried to kill him by boiling him in oil He didn't die though, but this is John in the epistles of John 2nd

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John 9 He says if anyone goes too far and does not abide in the teaching of Christ He does not have

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God That's a dividing line that Paul saying you distort the message of who

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Jesus is you don't abide in the teaching of Christ You're gonna say that God didn't become a man in the flesh

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Then you don't know God and John basically says don't even let these people into your house house being church

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You don't let these false teachers get into your church and infiltrate your ranks and lead people astray They're gonna deny that God became a man.

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They don't know God. There's a dividing line here You got to worship God in spirit and in what?

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truth Let's get into it As we talk about the Trinity there are two things you need to know right off the bat number one

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The Trinity is apprehendable number one. The Trinity is apprehendable that is to say the

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Trinity what the Bible teaches about God as one God three persons

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Try unity the Trinity. It's apprehendable. That is to say that it's it's it's logical

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It makes sense again from Genesis to Revelation Consistent message 66 different books of the

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Bible one God three persons. It's apprehendable. It's all there It's all consistent. And sometimes like I said, it's trippy how the

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Bible does this it's wild number one two Here we go.

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The Trinity is incomprehensible What do I mean by that? It's just this

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I mean try to explain Get in a classroom full of just a thousand ants and and try to explain quantum physics to the room full of ants

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Then I'm really listening number one and it's really difficult to talk to a creature that's in a completely different level

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About things that are so majestic and so big and yet so real and there are things in the Bible that we have to accept

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They're incomprehensible and I think in our arrogance at times we go. No, no, that's incomprehensible I don't want a

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God like that and that's what happens in religion. I'll give you an example of this It's too incomprehensible.

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So I don't want it. You know, what's the common thing among false religion? Here it is. Common thing is that their gods look a lot like us

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For example you live in an area where we have a lot of people to reach a community around us called

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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter -day Saints when you look at Mormonism, they borrow our terminology. They talk about God They talk about Garden of Gethsemane.

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They talk about cross, Jesus, Mary. They talk about resurrection, salvation, grace They use all our terms

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But they pour entirely different meanings into those terms and it's essential for us to get behind that language

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But you see when you look at Mormonism, they say well We're standing on the Bible and then when you get into it, you realize their

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God's not eternal God Their God was once a man who had gods before him who had gods before him who had gods before him who had gods before Him and you can become a god one day yourself and that here's how

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Jesus and us came into existence Heavenly Father who was once a man who became a god has polygamous wives in heaven and through and through celestial sex

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He produces Jesus, Satan, and us as spirit offspring and then in the in Jesus coming to the earth

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Heavenly Father comes down and produces Jesus with Mary. You see when I look at that message, I say I understand that.

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You know why? It looks like me. I get that. I know how my kids came into existence

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I know how hopefully their kids will come into existence. That God looks a lot like me. We do this. We say that's incomprehensible

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It couldn't be that way. What arrogance to say that we could look at a God who is infinitely holy and Majestic and beautiful and he is mercy.

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His mercy is new every morning. His love endures forever. He is light There's no darkness in him at all

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He is love. That God who is limitless in all of his attributes That I can look at him and I could really fully comprehend him is arrogance

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And I when we look at the Trinity we say that's huge and wow. I say yes good

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Yeah, isn't that awesome? We always want to take God and put him in our pocket and that's wrong to even want that I'll give you one moment of transparency here

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Incomprehensibility. There's something in the Bible that is incomprehensible to me. Isaiah 53, a book written 700 years before Jesus, tells you

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Jesus's whole life His death, his resurrection, who he is, what he's coming for. It's glorious.

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Read it. Isaiah 53 is an amazing passage It says that he was pierced through for our transgressions.

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I get that He was crushed because of our iniquities. I get that. The chastening for our well -being was upon him.

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I get that. Now, here's what I don't understand It says the Lord was pleased to crush him.

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I don't get that. I apprehend it. I see it. I can grab it and say yes, the

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Father crushed Jesus for me. I apprehend that But I don't comprehend that.

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I don't. You know why? Because I don't have that kind of love. And I don't think you and I have ever met anybody with that kind of love and that's incomprehensible

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That's a God love that you don't have and I don't have. I have two sons And as much as I love brothers and sisters in Christ I don't know that I have the love to give up my sons

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But God demonstrates his love for us and that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us that God gives his son and crushes him in the place of enemies.

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That is incomprehensible. That's the difference between apprehendable and incomprehensible.

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Let's get into it. Let's talk about the Trinity. I'll give you a quote from a friend and one of my heroes of the faith.

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Dr. James White wrote the book The Forgotten Trinity. You need to have that in your library, by the way. The Forgotten Trinity He says this as a definition of the

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Trinity, within the one being that is God there exists eternally three co -equal persons, namely the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And again, within the one, I want you to focus on the word being.

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Okay, so two things I want you to focus on here. Within the one being that is God there exists eternally three co -equal persons, namely the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I want you to focus on persons and being because there's not the same thing.

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You have being and you have persons, and that's a really great definition of the

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Trinity. And it's based on three biblical foundations. We're gonna do three foundations today, and I think they're in your notes.

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But number one, this one you should already know. I hope so. Number one, the foundation is this.

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There is only one God. Wow. You say, yes

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Jeff, we know that. We're raised in church. I've been to church. I heard there's only one God. But do you know how completely amazing that is?

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You look at the history of religion, that they didn't do that. They didn't have like one God, self -existent, who speaks the creation into existence, ex nihilo, that God speaks it out of nothing.

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And then it comes into existence. He's the only God. He's not dependent. No God's before, no God's after.

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That is a unique message. Monotheism. Only one

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God. From Genesis to Revelation, I'm gonna say it again. There is only one

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God. You say, Jeff, why are you stressing this? Because we live, Rock Point is, you're surrounded by churches with the name of Christ on them that say, what?

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There's not only one God. There are many gods. You can become one one day. It's messages like this that we need to get into and say there's only one

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God. I'm gonna teach you some Hebrew today. You ready? Yes? This is a 9 a .m. service. So you guys gonna help, help me and, and also you guys, if you're here in this room, you are like militant

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Christians. So let's, let's do this. There is only one God. Monotheism.

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Guy comes to Jesus and says, Master, what's the greatest commandment in the law? And I think I'm gonna answer that question a lot differently.

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But Jesus is God in the flesh, and so we should listen to him. He says here, O Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one. He quotes to another Jew, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.

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Every faithful Jew would have woken up in the morning and quoted that, including Jesus. It was the basis of all that they were taught, and all that they believed.

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There is only one God. Now I want you to repeat after me. I'll teach you the Shema. Ready? Shema.

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Yisrael. Yahweh. Eloheinu. Yahweh. Now get ready.

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Echad. Yeah, it's like a popcorn right there. It's funny when you're learning

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Hebrew, that's, you spend a lot of time just going. Trying really hard to get that sound out of your mouth.

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So Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one

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God. The Bible says in Isaiah 43 10, it says, Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

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If you had one verse alone to respond to your friend with love and grace and compassion and mercy and respect, who is

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LDS. One verse alone, Isaiah 43 10. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

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And it says in Isaiah 44 6, God says this, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no

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God. And then God says this, He asks a rhetorical question. He says this in Isaiah 44 8,

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He says this, Is there a God besides me? Indeed there is no other God.

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I know not one. Now is God all -knowing? Yes? Come on, 9 a .m.

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service. Yes, He is, right? Is God all -knowing? Yes, He is. And God says this, all -knowing God says this,

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Is there a God besides me? Indeed there is no other God. I know not one.

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No other gods. He doesn't know of any other gods. Only one God. Deuteronomy chapter 4 verses 35 and 39.

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He's God in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. It gets to the point of redundancy, guys.

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Only one God. Yes, God. Only one God. Yes, God. I don't even know of any other gods. I understand that. None before me.

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Yeah, I get it. None after. Yes, you're the only God. There's only one God.

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We clear on that? Foundation number one? Okay. Foundation number two. There are three distinct persons who are called

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God. There are three distinct persons who are called God. And this is what

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I was saying, how it gets kind of trippy, is that I just told you a bunch of verses from Isaiah and Deuteronomy and, you know, but here's what's significant, is that we know that Moses wrote the first five books of the

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Bible. Jesus said that he did. I accept Jesus' claim. Moses wrote the first five books. Moses writes, only one

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God. Heavens above, earth below. Only one God. Only one God. Heavens above, earth below. Hero Israel.

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Lord our God. The Lord is one. And yet, Genesis chapter 1.

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Same guy who wrote all those other passages. Genesis chapter 1. And then

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God said, Let us create man in our image.

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Singular. Let us create man in our image. Now, you're not created in the image of angels.

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He wasn't talking to the angels. You're created in the image of God. Here's God speaking as a plurality.

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Let us create man in our image. Singular. Not images.

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One God. Three persons. You see it as soon as your Bible opens up. God. Tower of Babel. Let us go down and confound their language.

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God speaks like that in the Old Testament. And Jesus had not yet come yet and explained the Father to us. And it had to be a bit confusing for a

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Jew who knows. Only one God. Only one God. Only one God. Why is God speaking as a plurality? There are three persons.

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And here's one you will never get disagreement on. I haven't yet. It's that the Father is God. People accept that.

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Jesus called the Father God. He prayed to the Father. Bible says the Father is God. We're not going to deal with that a lot today.

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The Father is God. Passages throughout the Bible. I want to tell you this. What everyone attacks, always and out of the gate every single time, is this.

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Every cult and religion and ism that springs up, that tries to counter Christianity or deny the

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Bible's claims, will always go after the jugular. Do you want to know the jugular is? This is the jugular. That Jesus Christ is

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God in the flesh. The jugular is this. Jesus is not

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God in the flesh. And every religion will always try to deny that. If you have someone knocking at your door at 7 a .m.,

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which is horrible. Okay, open the door. And they're at your door. We represent this church, this religion, this thing, this movement.

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All they say, is Jesus God? Fully God? Eternal God in the flesh? No. That's what they always go for.

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So I need to equip you to know that Jesus Christ is God. You need to know the starting place is the

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Old Testament. If you want to prove that Jesus Christ is fully God, don't start in the New Testament.

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Start in the Old Testament. In Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6 in the Old Testament, Isaiah 9 6, it talks about a son who's going to be given to us, a child who's going to be born.

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And then it says this, He will be called Wonderful Counselor. Those are names of God in the Old Testament, by the way.

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Wonderful Counselor. El Gibor, the Mighty God. Exclusive name of God in the

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Old Testament is El Gibor. But then it says something else. It says that He's the Father of eternity.

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And wait a second. Foundation number one, guys. How many gods are there? Only one

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God. And the Bible says in Psalm 90 verse 2, from eternity into eternity, you are

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God. He's the only eternal God. Only one God. From everlasting to everlasting. And yet Isaiah 9 6, a book written 700 years before Christ, says that His Son is coming, a child is going to be born,

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Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Father of eternity. You can get no clearer message 700 years before Jesus walks the earth, that Jesus Christ is the eternal

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God. El Gibor is an exclusive title of God in the Old Testament. And another one, another one. Micah 5 2.

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You know this one. Where? We just, we just celebrated it. I'm not going to sing it, because God has gifted me in certain ways, and I've accepted that.

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So, Micah 5 2 says, that the Messiah is going to come from a particular place.

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O little, I'm doing it. Okay. Anyways, O little town of Bethlehem. The Messiah is going to come from Bethlehem.

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But here's what's cool. We go, oh, it's in the Bible. He's going to come from Bethlehem. Did you know what else it says? His goings forth are from old, yea, even from eternity.

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How many gods are there? And only God's the eternal God. And it says the one coming from Bethlehem is from eternity.

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You have to start in the Old Testament to show that Jesus Christ is eternal God. The New Testament authors call

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Jesus God. This is no, by no means, an exhaustive sermon today, believe me. But the

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New Testament writers call Jesus Christ God. In Titus 2 13, it says that we wait for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great

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God and Savior, Jesus Christ. How many gods are there? And we're calling Jesus Christ our great

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God and our Savior. Thomas worships Jesus and calls him

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God. You know the scene. I'm not going to believe Jesus unless I put my hand in there, and there, and Jesus shows up.

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Wow. Talking about foot in your mouth, right? So he's there. Jesus is there.

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And he says, Thomas, Thomas, you know, put your hands here and here. And Thomas says, my

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Lord and my God. Uses the titles of God for Jesus.

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Jesus received worship. Matthew 28 9, when he appears to them, they like grab his feet, and it says they worship

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Jesus. Question, real fast. Go to the temptation in your mind for a second. No, don't go to temptation in your mind.

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Let me back up. Rephrase. Go to Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. And remember,

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Satan appears to Jesus, and Satan is trying to tempt Jesus and attack Jesus.

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And he says, all these kingdoms, all yours. Fall down. Worship me. Jesus says to Satan, you shall worship the

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Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. And yet Jesus, on many occasions, received worship.

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Who did Jesus say, you're only to worship? Only God. Read the book of Revelation. The angel is standing there, and John freaks out.

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He's kind of, he's freaked out by the angel. Wow! And he falls down to worship the angel, and the angel says what to him?

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Get up! I'm a servant like you. Worship God. And when

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Jesus receives worship, he receives worship because he's God. Jesus takes the the prerogatives of God.

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Jesus forgives sins. Your sins are forgiven you. The Jews say, well who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Yeah. Yes. Jesus forgives sins. Jesus knows their thoughts.

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You ever, kind of weird, right? Jesus, people are talking, and Jesus, Jesus knowing their thoughts, said to them, that's weird, right?

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Hanging out with Jesus must have been kind of strange, right? You're hanging out with him. You're like, trying really hard to, wow, this is kind of strange relationship.

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Jesus controls his own creation. You know what I'm talking about. Jesus walks on water. He, the creator of the cosmos, comes into his own creation, and he controls it.

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He walks on water. He raises a little girl from the dead. He heals Peter's mother. He's giving eyesight to blind people.

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He's giving ears to them. He's, he's raising himself from the dead. He raises his friend from the dead. Jesus knows the future.

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Jesus displays the attributes of God. He is God. And then another example here is Jesus takes a specific name of God.

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Go to John chapter 858. You know the scene. Jesus says, before Abraham was,

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I am. Now, that doesn't seem in our culture. Why is this so big of it? Why is this a big deal? Well, just go back to the

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Exodus. Moses goes burning bush. Take off your shoes. It's holy ground.

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Who do I say sent me, God? What's your name? And God tells Moses his name is? I Am.

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By the way, the name I Am is significant because what that name expresses is that God is the eternal God.

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He's the eternal God. The name I Am comes from the Hebrew verb to be, ahia, which means

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I am, I was, I will always be. In a context of a pagan culture where you've got mommy gods and daddy gods, here a

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God, there a God, everywhere a God, God. There's gods everywhere. Only one God. And God says, you tell them the

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I Am sent you. Self -existent, non -dependent, eternal God. I Am sent you.

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And Jesus says to the Jews in his day, he says, before Abraham was, I am. Wait a second. Abraham was like 2 ,000 years before Jesus.

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What's Jesus getting at? And they were like, you're not even such and such years old, and you've seen Abraham? And he says this, before Abraham was, and what'd they do?

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They picked up stones to kill him. Why? Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad.

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There's only one God. And here's a man taking the name, the divine name of God, and applying it to himself, and they picked up stones to kill him for blasphemy.

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You're a man calling yourself God? And then John chapter 10, a few chapters later, Jesus says, many good works have

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I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? And they said, for thy good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and that you being a man make yourself

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God. Jesus called himself God. Another point on there are three distinct persons.

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The Holy Spirit is God. Now this, I have to confess, this irks me. It bothers me. You know, you hear

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Christians talking today, don't know their Bibles, and they'll say, do you have it? What?

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Have what? Do you have it? What, what it? The Holy Spirit. Did you get it? It? It?

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Did I get it, the Holy Spirit? That's like, I'd like to introduce you to our pastor today. This is

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Pastor Bill, and has everyone met it yet? Met who?

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It, our pastor. Have you met it? It or him? He's a, he's a person.

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Him? I've met him. Yes, I have met him. The Holy Spirit is not an it. The Holy Spirit is a he.

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He is the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 5 verse 4, Ananias and Sapphira, careful with your giving because they died.

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I'm just saying. They died, but he says to them, you know, you've lied to the

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Holy Spirit. You haven't lied to men when you lied to the Holy Spirit. You lied to God. The Holy Spirit is not the

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Father or the Son. Jesus, read John 14 through 16, chapters 14 through 16, and you will see

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Jesus saying things like, but the Holy Spirit, the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

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Wait a minute here. Let's do that again. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the

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Father will send in my name. Ready? He, He will guide you into all truth.

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He will convict the world of sin and righteousness. He will be in you. He, he, he.

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And notice the distinction Jesus makes. The Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name.

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He will do this. He will do that. He will be in you. And then look in the book of Acts. You'll see throughout the book of Acts, the

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Holy Spirit is talking. In Acts chapter 13 verse 2, you see the

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Holy Spirit saying to set apart Paul and Barnabas for this work. He's talking. He's guiding.

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He's leading. He's indwelling. The Holy Spirit is a person, not an it, and the Holy Spirit is

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God. And we don't give the Holy Spirit the worship, and do, and respect that we should as followers of Christ.

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Foundation number three, the three persons are co -equal and co -eternal. How much time do

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I have left? Okay, okay. The three persons are the, the three persons are co -equal and co -eternal.

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Number one, there's only one God. Number two, there are three distinct persons called God. Number three, that the three persons are co -equal and co -eternal.

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We could spend weeks on this, but let me try to give you at least a place to set your feet. John chapter 1 verse 1.

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You know it, right? If you don't know it, you're gonna know it today. Okay, ready? In the beginning was the

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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

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God. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word is with God. The Word was God. That is an amazing statement. Here's why.

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Are you ready? Picture this. You're Jewish. Now if you're Christian, I would argue that you really are Jewish. Okay, but let's say you're

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Jewish. First century, synagogue. You've been raised in the Bible, raised in all this stuff, and you're in the, and you know the

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Bible. You memorize it. They didn't have scrolls in their house, like just, you know, tons of scrolls, different translations, ESV, NIB, NASB.

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They didn't know that. If you wanted to learn the Bible, you went to synagogue, and you memorized it.

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And guess what you memorized? The Psalms. You sung those in church, in synagogue, and you also memorized things like, in the beginning

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God created the heavens and the earth. So you're Jewish, right? You've been raised on this. You know a distinctive characteristic of your faith is that there's only one

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God, and he spoke, and the universe came into existence. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

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And so here's John, a Jewish person in the first century, saying to a largely Jewish audience at times, who understood this message, he says this, in the beginning.

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And a Jewish person goes, I could finish that. I could finish that. I wasn't a

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Juanus, Jewish version. I could finish that.

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In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And John says, no. In the beginning was the

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Word. In the beginning, the Word was already there. In the Greek, it says, in Archaean halagos.

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Doesn't mean much to you, maybe, but in the Greek, it's pretty significant. In Archaean halagos means this.

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Go back as far as you want to go into the beginning. Don't stop. No reference point to starting. And go, go, go, go, into eternity.

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And guess what? In the beginning, from all eternity, Jesus already existed. That's what it says.

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Here's what's really cool, too. This is amazing. And the Word was with God. Notice the distinction there.

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The word in the Greek is this, prostom theon. And it means this, face to face.

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Face to face toward God. Jesus existed from all eternity.

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Jesus was in face -to -face communion with the Father. Intimate relationship.

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Intimacy, like a husband and wife get together. And what are they? Face -to -face intimacy. We'll see

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God face -to -face. There's intimacy there. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was face -to -face with the

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Father. He was in intimate relationship with the Father from all eternity. And the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

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All things He created. Nothing came into being that's come into being except through Him. And then here's the beautiful part.

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Ready? And the Word became flesh. God became flesh and dwelt among us.

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You see a distinction in persons there. That Jesus is co -eternal with the Father. Co -equal because He's God.

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He's been in intimate relationship with the Father. If you need a passage, a springboard to show the pre -existence of Christ that He's eternal, and He is not the

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Father, you need to go there. Let's go into some errors. These are important, particularly as you're telling people about God.

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These are important. Number one error, modalism. Modalism teaches that God exists in modes. Modes.

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It's sort of like this. One God, sometimes He has the mask of the Father. So sometimes

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He's the Father. And then when He does another role, He takes that mask off. Now He's the Son. And then He takes that mask off, and now

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He's the Holy Spirit. This is the most common error in Christian churches today. The Bible teaches very clearly about who

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God is. There are three distinct persons. Jesus is not the Father. The Father is not the Son or the

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Holy Spirit. There are three persons who share the one being of God.

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The one essence, substance of God. God is not one

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God, one person fulfilling different roles. And again, the most common error that people sometimes express when they talk about God as Trinity is modalism.

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Now, I don't want to hurt anybody's feelings here, but I'm going to sort of give you an example of how this is done. We'll say, someone will say, well explain

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God to me. And somehow, again, I think that's arrogance to say, well, you want me to put God in a box? Be able to sort of like, you know, get

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Him to where you can put Him in your pocket? Like that kind of God? See, so we say, give me an idea. Well, here's what it's like. See, it's kind of like water.

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Like, God is like water. Like water can be, you know, one substance, but it can be a gas.

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It could be a liquid. It could be a solid. And have you heard this before? People say this. That's heresy.

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That's modalism. One God, three different manifestations. Or have you heard this one?

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It's God's kind of like, like, like you maybe, you're a father, and you're also someone's son, and you're also a brother.

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So you have these three different roles. Again, that's modalism. Three different modes. But the

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Bible teaches one God who is spirit, who inhabits eternity.

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This is crazy. There are 400 billion galaxies. That's crazy.

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400 billion galaxies. God spoke, and the universe is just left into existence, and God inhabits eternity.

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He is always present everywhere. The psalmist says, if I go to heaven, you're there. If I go to the grave, you're there too.

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You can't escape from God's presence no matter where you are in this, even this universe with 400 billion galaxies.

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That God exists eternally. One being of God. Three distinct persons.

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And listen, when you do evangelism with your Mormon friends, or your Jehovah's Witness friends, they'll usually say to you,

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I'll show you the Trinity is false. Here's how. So Jesus, when he's in the water, like the

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Father says, this is my beloved Son. The Holy Spirit descends. What is Jesus throwing his voice? If Jesus is

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God, how is he talking from heaven while he's in the water? What is that? Modalism.

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When Jesus was in the water, let me tell you, that was Jesus, the eternal second person of the

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Trinity who took on flesh in the water. And you know who was talking from heaven? The Father. And the

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Holy Spirit descends to the dove. There are three persons. One God. It's not

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Jesus throwing his voice. Jesus is not the Father. He's eternally existed alongside the

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Father in loving perfect fellowship and communion. Next is Arianism. These are some of the earliest heresies in the

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Christian church. The Christians had to fight against Arianism. There is only one that teaches that there is only one eternal

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God. And that Jesus is the first and greatest creation of God. That there's one

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God. Okay, and then he made Jesus. He made him. Who teaches that today?

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Jehovah's Witnesses. Which are out in full force in this area, by the way.

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And so they'll come to the door and say, no, Jehovah is the Almighty God. Jesus is a mighty God. He's the second a

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God. He is a kind of God. That's Arianism. It's one of the first heresies the Christian church had to fight against early on.

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Arianism. How do you defeat Arianism? Well, is Jesus eternal or created? This is not a trick question.

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This is an easy one. You can yell that one. Is he eternal or is he created? He's eternal.

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How do you defeat Arianism and the expression of it? The Bible teaches there's only one God. God's the first and last.

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Beginning and the end. There is no other. None before and none after. Only one God. And that Jesus is eternal.

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He's existed alongside the Father from all eternity. John chapter 1 verse 1 destroys Arianism. Jesus is not a creation of God.

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He's not a creature. He is Almighty God. Next error is tritheism. And sometimes tritheism is brought against us as Christians.

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You're tritheist. You believe in three gods. No, we believe in only one God. How many gods we believe in? Only one

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God. Not three beings who are God. One God, three persons. There's a difference. But Mormonism would be a religion that's polytheistic.

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In other words, they believe in many different versions, many different gods, and you can become one one day. And we got to reach

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Mormons with the gospel to reach them. But that's what they believe. But their view, if you could bring it down into just this world, it would be tritheistic.

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You have three gods of this earth. The Father, separate God, person, and being. Jesus, separate

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God, person, and being. Holy Spirit, separate God, person, and being. Three gods of this earth. And then many gods outside of that.

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But we only believe in one God. Tritheism is not an accurate representation of what we believe. There's only one

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God. Let me just talk. One more thing I'm going to give to you. The beauty of the

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Trinity. Here's where I need you to hang on. This is where we start talking about the so what? Beauty of the

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Trinity. Love. Is God love? Is God love?

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Think about this for a second. When you ask an atheist, explain love to me. They can do it, and they do.

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But atheism cannot give you a coherent answer to justify love.

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Atheists believe that we're just matter in motion. We're protoplasm moving throughout space. The universe is blind, purposeless, cold, and different.

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Just stuff moving around. Matter in motion. Just matter in motion. And yet atheists love, and they appeal to things like love.

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But love is immaterial. It doesn't comport with an atheistic view of reality. And look at other religions like Islam.

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I was talking to your pastor earlier about Islam. Islam is one God, one person. But the

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Bible says this. God didn't need you. He didn't need you to be happy. He didn't need you because he was lonely.

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He didn't need you because he needed something to love. So if you think about this, watch this for a second.

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Love needs an object. And if God is love, then what does God love if he's only one person?

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Love requires an object. Like I love. Love what? What do you love? I love baseball.

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Baseball. Like that. I love it. It's the object. I love baseball. I love my son. He's the object.

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I love him. You don't love without an object to love on.

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Love doesn't exist without an object. And when we say that God is love, we mean that from all eternity, love is an attribute of God because God has existed from all eternity in personal relationship.

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Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The Father was loving the Son from all eternity. The Son loving the Father. The Holy Spirit. There was perfect intimacy, fellowship, and communion from all eternity.

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The Trinity is really even the basis for love. When we say

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God is love, only the Trinity can even explain love being real, substantial, and eternal.

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God is love. If I could end on this. How important is this?

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Let me say this to us. We talk about evangelism and reaching people. We talk about telling people about Christ.

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Who are you leading people to? If we don't have a clear expression of who

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God is, then who are we worshiping? I'm not saying that as Christians we need to fully comprehend the

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Trinity, but I am saying as Christians we need to know what God says about himself. In John 17,

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Jesus says eternal life is knowing God and knowing Jesus Christ whom he has sent.

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You want to know God? You got to love the Trinity. Fall more in love with what

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God says about himself every day. Poke at him. You know I'm saying?

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Like get in his word. Like what do you like? God, I want to get to know you. Get into his word.

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Say that's how you are, and that's majestic, and glorious, and awesome, and amazing. And I got to tell people about that.

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The Trinity is an expression of what the Bible says about himself. And if eternal life is knowing God, intimate fellowship, and communion with God, then you need to be able to say with Dr.

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White in his book, The Forgotten Trinity, many Christians say, I love eschatology. Love in times.

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Got every book. Tim LaHaye. Yeah! You know, all this stuff. People, the eschatology.

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I love eschatology. I love church. I love worship. But when do you hear people saying this?

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I love the Trinity. As Christians, I think we need to be able to say that, to be a clear voice in the world.

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When Jesus says to us, you have to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. We need to be able to say,

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I love the Trinity. I'll leave you with one recommendation. Great book.

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The Forgotten Trinity by James White. Easy to read. You'll be in awe. You'll be excited.

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And you will love the Trinity. Let's pray. Father, thank you for today, and give me the grace and the gift to be here.