Back to sermon search

Full transcript

It is good to be with you once again, and thank you for your invitation. Let's begin our meditation this evening by reading two short passages from the New Testament. The first of them is to be found in the Gospel by Matthew and chapter twenty eight. It It record- records our Lord's passing words to his apostles as he was about to leave them to ascend to the Father's right hand. Says our Lord in Matthew twenty eight verse eighteen, and Jesus came to them and spake to them, saying, all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go you therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you, and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the age. Another passage from second Corinthians and its last chapter. Second Corinthians and chapter thirteen. Reading there the very last verse. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. Tonight and in the coming three Saturday nights, God willing, I propose to do my best to respond to your invitation and discuss with you the Blessed and Holy Trinity. I am grateful to be made aware of by the chairman that inviting me to address this question, you already realized what a profound question you were asking me to investigate. It is, in fact, the most profound question that it is possible for mortal men and women to think about. And certainly we shall find, as we try to think about it, it will go far beyond what we are capable of imagining, let alone thinking about. For the topic you have asked me is not so much what God has said, though we shall be, of course, interested and, uh, uh, uh, taken up with what God has said. The topic is not so much what God has done. The topic before us is what God is like in himself. And it is immense condescension on the part of the Almighty that he invites us poor little human beings to come and reverently peer into God himself, and to think what God himself in himself is like, and what are the relationships of the three persons of the Trinity, as we have learned to call them? To come near to God, to peer into the very being of God. This is a topic not lightly to be undertaken, isn't it, is it? We do well like Moses before the burning bush, to take our shoes from off our feet, for the ground upon which we stand is holy ground. The result of our thinking should be, above all, profound worship of the God that has thus invited us to think about him. You will need to pray, my brothers, my sisters, that as I talk of these things to you, I may be kept by God's Holy Spirit from saying anything unworthy, anything untrue of Almighty God. Were we to take a tiny little piece of his creation, the atom, and ask and begin to peer into it to ask what is inside it. We know, of course, from our scientists that the thing is exceedingly complicated. How could we expect that Almighty God the Creator is less complicated? So that if it is hard work, let's bring our mental capacity and our spiritual powers to the limit of their ability and work hard together to think as God invites us to think about himself. Somebody is bound to say, I suspect, but why should we travel? Even the word that you use, the blessed and holy Trinity, the very word Trinity is not a Bible word. It doesn't occur anywhere in Holy Scripture. Why then should we even think in terms like Trinity when the very word doesn't occur in Scripture? And why do I need to think about it anyway? I remember being in Russia some many years ago now, and was given the opportunity to talk to a number of people, most of whom were unbelievers and brought up in atheistic communism. And I was invited to talk, give a gospel talk to them. At the end of the talk, a learned physicist was the first to raise a question. Look here, said she, why have I got to believe in the Trinity before I can proceed any further, do you see? Because she was brought up in a, in a country where the predominant religious church takes its stand upon the Trinity and judges whether you are a Christian or not a Christian according to whether you do or do not believe in the Trinity. And as a physicist, she found this a very difficult concept. Why, said she, have I got to start off by believing in the Trinity? And I took to the liberty of saying, madam, you don't have to start off there. You need simply come and listen to Christ. And when you have listened to him and what he says, you will eventually be obliged to think about his relationship to God, and that will involve you in thinking about the Trinity. And I should like to assure everybody here tonight that you can get to heaven without understanding the Trinity, you know. You know that, surely. The dying thief upon the cross, I think he knew very little about the Trinity, and had you asked him about the three divine persons of the Trinity, he would have been hard put to make a reply. Yet he realized who Christ was and put his faith in Christ and was assured that very day he would be with Christ in paradise. Well, there you are, you say, why do you bother to come to Carrie Duff and exercise our poor brains trying to think about the Trinity when you just told us you don't need to think about it at all in order to be saved? Oh, but wait a minute. If God invites us as believers to think about the Godhead, would it be good manners, do you suppose, to say, but sorry, God, but I'm not interested in that, that's too complicated? And anyway, we're Christians, aren't we? And we love the Lord Jesus. And they're never tired about thinking about him. If, therefore, we begin to think about him seriously, we shall find ourselves driven eventually to ask what his relationship with God is. And from there on, it will be impossible to escape thinking about the Trinity. So I'm going to ask you this evening to open your Bibles, if you will, not just sit there and listen to me. I would be glad if you're prepared to do some work, actually, and actually look at the scriptures that I shall quote to see whether these things are so. And my thesis is this, that if we love the Lord Jesus and are prepared to listen to what he says, he will eventually oblige us, force us to think about this matter of the blessed and holy Trinity. To start with, as we listen to him in the gospels, we shall find that more than once he talks about his pre-existence. A thing to be pondered at once. His claim is that he didn't begin to exist when he was born of the Virgin Mary. That long before he was born of the Virgin Mary, he already existed. He talks to us about his pre-existence. Let's look at some of those passages, shall we? John the Baptist, for instance, in the Gospel of John, chapter one and verse fifteen. This is one of the first testimonies that John the Baptist, that great prophet, gave to Jesus Christ our Lord. Verse th- fifteen, John chapter one. John bears witness of him and cries, saying, this was he of whom I said, he that cometh after me has become before me because he was before me. We'd better stop over that verse. It's a little bit complicated, isn't it? This is John saying some things about our Lord. First, this was he of whom I said, he comes after me. Because John the Baptist was born into this world before our Lord was born. And John the Baptist had had a very wide public ministry, calling on the people to repent and be baptized in Jordan, a very wide public ministry before our Lord appeared publicly on the scene. Christ came after John in the course of human history. So says John, he who comes after me has become before me, meaning he has been promoted above me. Though he comes in time after me, he has been given a place above me and before me. Yes, because John was but a voice crying in the wilderness. The one that came after John was none less than God incarnate, the Lord, and therefore he is now occupying, says John, a far more elevated position than I. So he that comes after me has been promoted before me. Why? Now here comes the third statement. Because he was before me. He was first than I, says John. And here John is pointing to that vast, great, wonderful thing about Christ. Before he was born into the world, he was before me. His pre-existence. When we listen to Paul in Colossians chapter one, he will tell us he not only was before all things, he is before all things. Nothing happens in this universe that takes him by surprise because he wasn't expecting it. He's before everything that happens. As he was ever before all things, he existed before the universe was created. Not to be too gloomy, you may be sitting at night one, one night, ma'am, getting the supper ready, expecting your husband to arrive any minute. But unknown to you, he's been involved in an accident, and he will be delayed, if not he's already in hospital. You don't know that, do you? But you see, you come after the event, not Christ. He comes before all events. He belongs to eternity. His pre-existence, therefore. And he said, John chapter eight and verse fifty eight, to the Pharisees and to those who profess to be his disciples but weren't really that. John eight verse fifty eight. Jesus said unto them, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. We notice carefully the tenses he uses. Before Abram was in the past, he doesn't say I was. He says I am. He's using the timeless name of God. I am who I am, God of eternity. Before Abram was, I am. His pre-existence, therefore. And then he speaks to us in this same gospel, it's chapter seventeen, if you care to refer to it, chapter seventeen, verse 5. Uh, this is our Lord praying to his Father as he stood on the threshold of Gethsemane and the cross. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, wi- with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. Inescapably, therefore, we have to think about the question, how then is he related to God? If this is true, that before he came into our world, he pre-existed in the glory with the Father, and he repeats it in verse twenty four, does he not? Father, that which thou hast given me, I will, that where I am, they also may be with me, that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. And we begin to see, don't we? Not only the fact that he was pre-existent before he entered our world, but there was a relationship going on between him and God the Father. Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. Or again, he says, the glory which I had with thee before the foundation of the world. My brothers, if we love the Lord Jesus, we shall not pass these statements by as though they were of no interest to us. We shall take the cue and think about his pre-existence and the relationship between him and the Father before the world was. And we notice too, when we look at what he actually says, uh, we notice what he says about his way of coming into our world and where he came from. Let's look for a moment at chapter six and verse, uh, uh thirty eight. Chapter six of this same gospel, verse thirty eight. For I have come down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. We notice the phrase. Yes, of course he was born of a virgin, but that isn't the sum total of the story. Here he is pointing out that he had come down from heaven. Now, you and I were born into this world. We never would dream of saying, would we? Hope we wouldn't anyway, we're not Hindus. I have come down from heaven. He did. And when he stood on trial for his life in front of Pilate, said he to Pilate, for this cause came I int- I was I born, for this cause was I born, and for this cause I came into the world. You notice the two statements. Born of the virgin, born of a human mother, as all human beings are, and yet, and yet, and yet, I came down from heaven. Sent by the Father. Chapter seven thirty three. I read it to you. Chapter seven— sorry, fifty three. Uh, oh, now I got the wrong, uh, reference, forgive me. He was sent by the Father, he says, uh, and he is going back to the Father. I have come out from the Father and have come into the world. Now I leave the world and go unto the Father. The verse I want is in chapter sixteen. Let me repeat it again to you, verse twenty eight: I came out from the Father and am come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go unto the Father. So he came down from heaven. What does he mean when he says I come out from the Father, and I'm going back to the Father? My simple point is this. If we love him, we cannot avoid thinking of the implications of now what he says to us. If he existed in heaven before he came down into the world, then we must ask, what was his relationship with the Father then? And since he has returned, what is that relationship now? We cannot ignore the question, not if we love and believe in the Lord Jesus. And that, in essence, is what we shall be thinking about when we think of the Blessed and the Holy Trinity, as generations of believers observing this kind of statement from the lips of our Blessed Lord have sought to understand further than what is and was and shall be his relationship with God the Father. And there's another reason why we cannot avoid thinking about the topic, and that is because of what Christ said, not merely about himself, but what he said about the Holy Spirit. Let me quote you John chapter fourteen. This is our Lord preparing his apostles for the fact that he is going away, you see. And he says, verse sixteen, John fourteen verse sixteen, and I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter that he may be with you forever. So notice this, the Holy Spirit is not merely the comforter. He is that, of course, Greek word is parakletos, is the paraclete, as some call him, the comforter, the counselor, the advocate who intercedes with God on our behalf, according to Romans chapter eight. Mm-hmm. But notice what our Lord said. He's not simply the comforter, he is another comforter. And that implies, does it not, that he is another like the Lord Jesus is and was and is. He is another like the Lord, in this respect, that he is a comforter as Christ is. Christ is our advocate before the Father, is he not? If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. But in sending the Holy Spirit, Christ describes him as another like himself. Secondly, he is given us by the Father. John fourteen sixteen, the Father will send you another comforter, and he is sent by the Lord Jesus. Chapter fifteen and verse twenty six. So he is coming. He comes. And just like the Lord Jesus came at Bethlehem, so the Holy Spirit came at Pentecost. Now let me just fill that in so that we grasp the point of it. God was always omnipresent, wasn't he? God is everywhere, do you see? And therefore, as we shall come to see, the Son of God was omnipresent. He was one with the Father. And yet there was a sense in which he came to our world. And we believe it in the, uh, came at the virgin birth, of course, when he became man. He entered our world in the sense that he had not done so before. Now he talks about the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit being God is om- omnipresent. Ah yes, but there was another sense in which the Holy Spirit came into our world. He did it at Pentecost. So, of course, he's pre-existent, and he was sent by the Father and sent by the Son, and now is present with us and indeed in us. And what is more, our Lord indicates, as he proceeds to talk about the Holy Spirit in John chapter sixteen that the Holy Spirit is a person. Now, I shall have to vex you now, but there's no extra cost for this. But you see, uh, in Greek, uh, every word, every noun in Greek, uh, is one of three genders. So a man is masculine, and a woman is feminine, of course, and then other things like trees are neuter. But then it's not quite so simple as that, you see, uh, because a little child can be neuter in Greek, and so forth and so on. So it is a complicated business. Now, the word for spirit in Greek is a neuter word, pnevma. It is a neuter, and therefore, if you're refer- referring to the, uh, the spirit, then you can use a neuter pronoun, the spirit, and then you will use what in English is it. That's simply because the noun for spirit is neuter, and the pronouns normally agree in gender with the noun they refer to. Oh, you can forget that now. It was a bit painful, wasn't it? But now forget it, you see, you'll soon over it, you see. Take an aspirate tonight, and that will get rid of it. But you see, uh, in chapter sixteen, as the Lord goes on to elaborate it and uses the pronoun once more, he uses the pronoun in the masculine gender, because the Holy Spirit is not a thing. He's not a force merely. He is a person. He, when he is come, says the Holy, says our Lord, he shall convince the world of, of, of, of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. When he's come, he shall glorify me. He shall take of the things of mine and reveal them to you. The blessed Holy Spirit is not just a force or a power like electricity. He is a person. As the Lord Jesus is a person. And God, of course, is personal. Well, now we have a problem, don't we? If the Holy Spirit is a person, and he existed before he came into this world, eternally existed. How exactly would you describe his relationship with the Father? So now we have two problems, don't we? We've seen how the Lord Jesus talks of himself as being pre-existent before he came into this world. He now talks of the Holy Spirit as being pre-existent before he came into this world. And Jesus is a person, as we know, so is the Holy Spirit. How are they related to God? That is the question that Christians were posed, uh, confronted with right from the very start, and tried to think it through. It was a difficult problem. And the story of the theologians who thought about these things and then tried to explain them is a long, long story. We shouldn't despise it. Thank God for men who took our Lord seriously and wanted to know how he is related to the Father, how he is related to the Holy Spirit, how all three are related together. That then is my first point. If we love the Lord Jesus, we shall want to know, and we shall try to think about the holy, blessed and holy Trinity, the relationship of what we call the divine persons. Now I must come to some other technical things, you'll see. Promise you I won't be so technical another night. But then you love the Lord, don't you? Mm-hmm. And you see, ha ha ha, if some of you were asked to go to a garden party in Buckingham Palace, and you never know, sir, you might be one of these days, or you, ma'am. You'll say, we have one good lady in our assembly that was thus asked, you see. Hm. And when she came back, you asked her what's happening, you see. Well, it will depend on her mood, I suppose, how she refers to it. She is not likely to start off by saying, I saw Elizabeth. I see, uh, uh, um, no. And uh, Charles? Well, she might talk about Charles. But then she might talk about Her Majesty. And then she might talk about Prince, and there's that other, uh, Duke of Edinburgh, I think he is, uh, do you see? Now, how are all those related? Do you know what? Hello Magazine, hello. I believe it, I don't know whether it still exists, don't take it myself. Do you see? But we're full of it, you know, pictures of the Queen and pictures, pictures of Diana and Charles and, oh yeah, yeah, you're nobody if you don't keep up with that and know all the ins and outs of who's who there. Can you get through without knowing about who is who in the blessed and holy Trinity. That could be a much more worthwhile thinking about than the transient members of our royal family. God bless them and help them and preserve them indeed. But now let me say a word or two about this term Trinity. You'll say, but it's not in the Bible, and you're absolutely right. The word Trinity simply means a threesome. You'll see. Here, so, uh, you could talk about, uh, a business firm, you see, and this business firm is run, uh, by a Trinity, Mr. Black, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Green, you. Three fellows working together, not independently, but working all together, and they run the whole business, you'll see. They are a trinity then, a threesome. But you'll notice when it comes to Mr. Black, Mr. Brown, and Mr. Green, they are three separate people. Hence, perhaps the word Trinity is not the very best word you could, um, think of. There is a better word, and it's a word, sounds a little bit odd in English, but we use it, triunity. Because you're used, aren't you, to thinking about the triune God, one God in three persons, and therefore better than talking about the Trinity is to talk about the triunity. Because though the persons of the Godhead are three, there is only one God. So let me stay and emphasize that. This is exceedingly important. If one of these days you run across a Muslim friend in this city, it's not always the best, uh, to introduce the subject of the deity of Christ and to say that Jesus is the Son of God. Why not? Because a Muslim thinks that when you say Jesus is the Son of God, you imply that God had sexual relationships with the Virgin Mary, and Jesus was the result of it. And in a Muslim's ears, that is absolute blasphemy. They don't understand, of course. So it's better not to start off by talking about Jesus being the Son of God, but to tell some of the lovely stories that he told and the gracious deeds that he did. For truth to tell, his character and his words are infinitely more attractive than the sad character of, uh, the first prophet, Jusi, um, and, uh, uh, far more attractive than his words. Muhammad was a grim person indeed. But if you get round to talking about the Trinity, the Muslim thinks you're talking about two, if not three gods, and that to him again is blasphemous. So that you'll need to tell him that, look, no, we Christians do not believe in three gods. They think you believe in three gods. One, the Father, two, the Son, and three, the Holy Spirit. Three gods. No, we don't. There is only one God. So let us read a few passages just to hammer that home into our hearts, uh, you see, in preparation for our coming studies in weeks two, three, and four. We'll start with Isaiah, shall we? One or two representative passages from Isaiah. Isaiah forty three, for instance. Isaiah forty three verses ten and eleven. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant who I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. Again, in chapter forty six, verse, uh, forty four, sorry, and verse six, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. There is one God, not three. And our Lord Jesus himself repeats it in the Gospels, in Mark twelve, Mark chapter twelve and verses twenty eight to thirty two. Mark uh twelve verses twenty eight to thirty two. One of the scribes came and heard them questioning together, and knowing that he had answered them well, asked him, what commandment is the first of all? Jesus answered, the first is, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Christ himself affirming there is only one God. And First Timothy chapter two tells us the way we ought to pray for all men. And Paul, in exhorting us, says, do you see, uh, verse five of one Timothy chapter two: there is one God. And so now that really presents the problem to us, doesn't it? If Christ pre-existed in heaven, along with the Father, and if the Holy Spirit pre-existed before he came into our world, along with the Father, but there is only one God. How do you spell out the relationship between those three, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The short answer is, of course, that as far as their nature is concerned, every one of them, and each one singly, is God. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. They are all God in nature. But they are different. And now I'm hard up for language. So I shall have to trouble you again. But it's worthwhile in this first study getting our terms clear if we can, because they will come up again and again as we proceed in coming weeks with the topic. There are, we say, three persons. Then we have to ask ourselves exactly what we mean by the term person. You see, if you went home tonight and somebody asked you, oh, how many were there at the meeting tonight? You might say, hmm, about sixty uh persons. Or you might say about sixty people. For the term person and persons and people, interchangeable in English. sixty persons would mean sixty people, each independent of the other. But please shall we notice that when we talk about the persons of the Godhead, we do not mean people. There are, in the intended sense of the word, three persons in the Godhead. There is only one God. Three, in that sense, persons. And what do we mean by person? Well, in the first place, we mean there are within the Godhead three centers of relationship. Three centers of relationship within the Godhead. The Godhead is not a monolith. There are relationships within the Godhead. You'll say that's a difficult concept. Well, forgive me, let's change the subject and think about you. Who are you? Are you Phyllis? No, sorry, not Phyllis. That's my sister. Oh, who are you then? Oh, I'm Joan. Oh, I see. And what is your surname? Smith, you say. Oh, so you're Phyllis Smith, and um, the other one's Joan Smith? Yes. Now, you're a human being, aren't you? You've got human nature. Yes. What about your sister? Has she got human nature? You say, what on earth do you think? Do you think she's a gollywog or something? Of course she's human. Oh, you see, you're both human. You've got the same human nature, but you've got different names. Yes. That's how it is down here in our world, because you're separate people. But within the Godhead itself, the three persons of the Trinity all have the same nature, of course. Each is God. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. They do have different names, but they're not different people. Shall I expound it a bit more? There's you. What is your name? You, you say I'm Aloysius. Who are you really? You're Aloysius. That's a grand name. Now, sir Aloysius, what are you? Is that leg of yours you? You say, well, who else is it then if it isn't me? Oh. I say, you're a leg then, I suppose. Well, yes, yes, I have two legs, but my, that's not enough to describe me. Oh yes, there's something else about you? Oh yes, you say. I have, I have a heart. You do? Yes. And that's different from your leg? Yes, but it's part of me. I see. So your body is made up of different parts. Ah, but you say I'm more than that. Do you say I have a mind? Do you really? And that mind is different from your leg and different from your... well, it's different from your body, you will say. And then if you're a Christian, you'll tell me you've got a spirit presently and a soul. I should say, you're a complicated thing, Aloysius, aren't you? Do you expect me to believe all that? Thought you were just one. Now you seem to be saying you're a very complicated affair. Mm-hmm. Mind and body, soul, spirit. Marvelously. Yes, you're made, of course, in the image of God, anyway. And if human beings can be one and yet tripartite inside, made up of three, it is perhaps not surprising that the Godhead should have three persons, three different centers of relationship, and three different functions. So let us, as we draw to a close, let us think of some of those things that we know exceedingly well, but, um, that remind us that the three persons of the Godhead is not just a theory for the theologians to try and work out as a puzzle on a wet Thursday afternoon. It is a part of our salvation to know that all three persons of the Godhead are involved in our salvation. For instance, it is said, is it not, in one John chapter four, the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. God took the initiative. The Father sent the Son. Of the Lord Jesus, he said of it himself, of course, the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost. And the Holy Spirit involved. The Father sent the Son. The Son himself deliberately came. Ah, yes, but when he came born of a virgin, he was conceived by the Holy Spirit, wasn't he? Didn't come without the operation of the Holy Spirit, even in the fact that he was born of Mary. And when Mary said, how can this thing be? The angel replied that this, uh, the Almighty shall overshadow you, and the Spirit of God shall work with you. All three persons of the Trinity involved in the coming of the Lord Jesus for our salvation. And what about what our Lord did for us at Calvary? That does come near to our hearts, doesn't it? This is not mere. The Father, it is said, has made him to be sin for us, him who knew no sin, that we might be, uh, called, named, become the righteousness of God in him. The Father did it. Tomorrow morning, if you're spared to come to the Lord's Supper, it will fill your heart and mind, won't it? How could the Father do that for me, to make him to be sin, who knew no sin, that I might become the righteousness of God in him? Yes, but it is also said that the Son of God himself, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. The, um, blessed Lord was personally involved. He himself suffered, leaving us an example that we should follow his steps. He did no sin, but he bore our sins in his body on the tree. And listen how the Holy Spirit was involved. Says Hebrews chapter nine and verse fourteen, Christ, through the eternal Spirit, offered himself without blemish unto God. All three persons of the Trinity involved in the great sacrifice of Christ on our behalf at Calvary. Have you been born again? Who and what was involved in your being born again? Well, one Peter three tells us, doesn't it, that you see the God and Father, uh, of our Lord Jesus Christ has begotten us again unto a living hope. God has begotten us. Marvelous. On the other hand, you'll see John chapter one and verses twelve and thirteen says of Christ that as many as received him, he gave the power to become children of God. Christ was involved in your new birth. But then as our Lord explained to Nicodemus the Pharisee, except a man or woman be born of the spirit. All three persons involved in your being born again. Mm-hmm. And of course, we're told that all three persons indwell the believer, are we not? Whosoever confesses that Jesus is the Christ, God dwelleth in him. One John chapter four and verse fifteen. True, my fellow believer? God dwells in you? All but Galatians two verse twenty says that, uh, uh, uh, Christ, I died, nevertheless I live, nevertheless not I, but Christ lives in me. And the Holy Spirit, Romans chapter eight, verses nine onwards, the Holy Spirit dwells in us, all three divine persons dwelling in us. That is enough to bow our hearts in worship, isn't it? To think that to save the likes of you and me and rescue us from hell and perdition and to bring us home to heaven, no less than all three divine persons were and are involved. What part do they play, therefore? Well, remember when creation was made, God, in the beginning, God made the heaven and earth. He did it. The New Testament tells us, uh, that, uh, all things were made by the Word of God, that is the Son of God. And at creation, we're told the Spirit of God moved on the face of the waters. All three persons of the Trinity involved. You say it's going very complicated now. Mm-hmm. Well, my dear good man, my dear good sister, prepare yourself for going to heaven. That's going to be even more complicated, isn't it? You've got to meet them one of these days. What ho? Yes, and if they're in us, we better make them welcome guests, hadn't we? And think about them as we would think about any guest staying in our house. Why must we be careful, however, to think it through, spend a good deal of time on it? Because, you see, why they are, while, while they are all involved in our salvation, and all are in us as believers. Yet we have to be careful what we say about them. It would never be true to say, would it, that the Father died for us at Calvary. The Bible never says it. Doesn't say God died for us. Though it is perfectly true to put it the other way around, that if he who died for you wasn't God, you're not saved anyway. You say that's splitting hairs, isn't it? No. No, that's us trying to think about what God is really like. So we're better to keep to Bible language and the language God uses. It never says God died for us. It does say the Savior, Jesus Christ, died for us. It never says the Holy Spirit died for us. How could it say it anyway? Holy Spirit was involved in the sacrifice of Christ, as we've just read. Christ, by the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God. Yes. But never does it say the Holy Spirit died for us. And then, of course, in our ne- next weeks, we shall run across, uh, uh, some very big practical problems. It is said, you see, of God the Father that he neither slumbers nor sleeps. That is absolutely impossible, you know. He doesn't slumber or sleep. He that keepeth Israel doesn't slumber or sleep. And yet, we're told about our blessed Lord Jesus, that after preaching to the crowd, he got into a boat, and his disciples went to cross the lake, and he fell asleep in the boat. What does that mean? You believe he's the Son of God? Well, how can that be then? If God doesn't slumber or sleep, and yet you say, but Jesus Christ is really God, well, how could he slumber and sleep in a boat? Well, people have their ways of talking about it, don't they? They say he did some things as God, and then he did other things as a man. We shall find that that's a very unsatisfactory way of talking about the incarnation, but that's for another time. All I'm pressing on you tonight, by way of introduction, that since the divine persons have spoken to us about the Godhead and what God is like in and of himself, and the wonder of the sending of the Son and the sending of the Spirit for the sake of our salvation, then we owe it to use all the mental and spiritual powers we have to try and think this thing through with God and seek the gracious power of the Holy Spirit to enlighten our minds. Let's do it with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength, and do it above all in a spirit of worshiping the divine three. And so, as I close, let me just rehearse in your ear that delightful prayer. It was a prayer that Paul prayed for the Corinthian believers, and I take the liberty of using Paul's prayer and praying it for you, my brothers and sisters, tonight and in the days that come ahead. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. All three persons of the Blessed Trinity. As Paul prayed for the Corinthians, I pray for you and for myself. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen. Shall we just pray? Our Father, we thank thee for the compliment thou has paid us as thy sons and daughters. Thou has not treated us as slaves, for a slave does not know what his Lord does. We thank thee, Father, that thou has brought us so near and given us the possibility to begin to think and contemplate thy very essence and the three holy persons of the Godhead. Our response is to worship thee now. We humble ourselves before thee, and we pray, Lord, the grace of thy Holy Spirit, that as the days go by, we may be drawn further into the understanding of the wonder that thou art. So bless our study, we pray, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.