Transcription
Good morning, Heritage!
I know people are still coming in. It's a little wet out there, but that means it's actually cool in here today, which is amazing. Uh, it was 88 degrees, I think, last Sunday in here, which was really not amazing. It's all good.
My name is John. I'm really excited to worship with you all again today. You can see we've got a lot less people on the platform than we normally do, which just means we're going to sing out a lot more and just raise our voices as we worship together today, continuing to hear about the Trinity and understanding more of who God is. Every time we learn more about the Lord, we get to worship more completely because we get to respond more completely to who He is in our life.
He's been preparing this place, this gathering, right now, for those of us that are here, those of us that are gathered online, to unite through the Holy Spirit and worship Him. So let's stand and do that today.
Lord God, may we be aware of your presence in this place. May our hearts and eyes be open to you.
You will respond with song, with surrender.
[Music]
And God, may you meet us where we need to be met today.
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There's nothing worth more that will ever come close. Nothing can compare. Pure [Music] your presence.
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I've tasted and seen [Music] in your presence.
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Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Your glory, God, is [Music] [Music] your presence.
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There's nothing worth more that will ever come close.
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Your presence.
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When my heart becomes free and my shame is [Music] and filled [Music] by your presence.
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Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness.
Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness.
Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience the glory of your goodness.
Let us become more aware of your presence. Let us experience [Music] Holy Spirit, you are welcome here. Comfort this place and fill the atmosphere. Your glory, God, is what our hearts long for to be overcome [Music] your presence.
Do [Music] Jesus, we come to worship your holy name today. With gratitude in our hearts, we sing [Music].
There was a moment when the lights went out, when death acclaimed its victory [Music]. The King of love had given up his life [Music] there on the cross. [Music]
One final breath and it was finished, but not the end could have known [Music] for the earth [Music]. Now the sacrifice was made as the heavens roar [Music].
Oh, He'll keep, Jesus, Jesus.
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There was a moment [Music] was lost. He crossed and [Music] [Music] [Applause] forever.
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Jesus of heaven and earth.
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Jesus.
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Oh.
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Come bow before the King of [Music] kings.
Let us [Music] sing, Jesus [Music] Jesus [Music] Jesus, Lord of heaven and earth, Jesus [Music].
[Applause] [Music]
Or we sing, you pray so that the world may know Jesus, you have come to save us and you have saved us. You've redeemed us, so our worship is our witness to the nations of how great you are and how much you love us.
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The splendor of the King [Music]. Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice. He wraps Himself in light.
[Applause]
And darkness tries to hide, trembles at His [Music]. How great is [Music] is [Music].
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How great is [Music] [Music].
[Applause]
And my heart is [Music].
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How great is [Music] [Music].
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Our is [Music] [Applause] [Music].
Amen! Praise the Lord! [Applause]
Let's continue in a spirit of worship. I'm Joe Esposito, I'm one of the elders here, have the privilege of serving, and we're gathered here to lift the name of Jesus Christ up. As we do that, we worship Him through our gifts and offerings, whether it's online or here at the church.
What we want to recognize is the fact that He is the source of all things. He is our life, and without Him, we can do nothing; Jesus told us that.
I just pray that as we continue to worship—thank you, team, for leading us—help us to realize the God that we serve is above and beyond all that we can think, and we just consider it a privilege to be a part of His family.
Let's go to the Lord in prayer.
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Lord, as we come before you this morning, I pray that you would humble our hearts. Help us to realize how great and how majestic you are. Lord, what is man that you consider him? Lord, as the psalmist says, we are but dust. You are the creator of all things; you are a sustainer of all things.
So we just want to ascribe to you all praise and honor and glory. Lord, we're reminded this week as we saw pictures of the universe as we've never seen them before, God. Just a display of your glory and your power, and God, we just thank you for that.
Thank you that you have given mankind the ability to search and to develop technologies to see you. And yet, Lord, our hearts are so dark, and we need you to bring light to our hearts.
Father, I just pray that you would just do that work in our lives this morning as your word is preached by Charlie. Pray that your Holy Spirit would use it to minister to our hearts, that we would be able to worship you in spirit and truth as you've called us to.
For asking in Christ's name, amen.
Good morning! My name is Laina, I'm the connections director here at HFC. I want to let you know a few different things.
Underneath the seat in front of you is a connect card; it's also in the description on the YouTube video. You can use that for prayer requests or questions if you want to sign up for an event, or if you just are like, "Hey, Laina, what's going on?" You can fill it out, drop it in the box on your way out, or just submit that online or on the church center app.
The church center app is a really great way to have all of the details of what is going on here at Heritage. So if you need to register for something or you're looking for a time or a date, all of that is on the app. So make sure you download that and have it on your home screen.
We also use the YouVersion Bible app, which is a really great way to follow along with Sunday service. So anything that's up on the screen will be right on your phone, and you're definitely gonna want that today. You can click on "More" in the bottom right-hand corner and then click on "Events." It comes up by location, so if you're watching from far away, you'll have to search "Heritage Fellowship Church."
Some things that are going on that are super exciting is this week is training camp. Yeah! It's super fun, and we're super excited to learn about the togetherness of the body of Christ. So if you are not registered, make sure you do that on the church center app or fill out that connect card. If you are here, you can grab one of those invite cards that are on some of the seats or in the lobby, and you can bring that home to sign up your neighbors or your grandkids—whatever it is, whoever it is—we want to see you here!
Tomorrow we also have our next step baptism class that is happening on July 24th. That is if you are interested in baptism or you want to know more about baptism. We'll be having a baptism service celebration on August 7th, the first one in the new sanctuary. Yes, it's super exciting!
So if you're interested in baptism, you can sign up for class. Again, that is July 24th, and it will be during second service, so write this moment down.
Next week, we also have a next step membership class that will be happening on July 31st, and that will be after second service. Normally those classes are a few weeks long, but this one will be jam-packed together. We'll provide lunch for you, and you'll be here for a few hours to go over all of the information at one time.
So that would be really great so that you can start that process or if you're just interested in what it looks like to be a member here at Heritage, you can sign up for that as well.
Last but not least, we have been preparing tirelessly all week and many days to get that building ready for August 7th, but we need your help to prepare our sanctuary as well. We are reading through the Bible from Genesis to Revelation all the way out loud in the sanctuary to prepare that space spiritually for us.
So if you want to sign up to help, you can register on the church center app or fill out that connect card to say, "Laina, send me times and days that are available." We've made it all the way to Isaiah 29 as of this morning; I did not check in between services, so I apologize if it's not the most recent, but you can sign up on Sundays or any day during the week to come and read the scriptures.
All right, that is all I have for you. Go ahead and open up your Bible app or open up your Bibles, and we'll learn about the Trinity.
Well, good morning everyone! My name is Charlie Hensey, and one of the elders here, privileged to serve at HFC.
It's my second week preaching. It's a privilege to bring the word to you guys this morning. How many of you guys were here last week? All right, so fair amount. That's good. Well, no worries for those who weren't here because we're going to retread some of what we learned last week, just to kind of set the table for this week.
So last week, what did we talk about? Anyone want to volunteer? What did we talk about last week? The Trinity! Good!
So we talked about the Trinity; we introduced the doctrine of the Trinity. There were three questions we asked and tried to answer. The first one was, what is the Trinity?
Anybody want to volunteer that? What is the Trinity? God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit—three persons, one essence. Good! We tried to answer that question. The second one is, where do we see it in the Bible? I dumped a truckload of scripture on you guys; you have to go back in the YouVersion to track with me on all that.
And then the third and final question was, do you know God? Right, we tried to answer that.
Well, this week I've got four questions, so we might go a little long—probably about eight minutes over the time allotted. The first question is, who are the three persons of the Trinity? We're going to try to answer that this morning.
The second one is, how do they relate to one another? The third question is, what is their unified purpose? And the fourth, what does that mean for us? We're going to try to apply that a little bit as we always do.
But before I jump into all that—the four questions—I thought I'd share a story with you.
You guys want to hear a story? Yeah, everybody loves a good story, right?
All right, it was around the year 415 A.D., and Saint Augustine was walking along the beach on a bright sunny day. He was frustrated having taken a break from working on what's become known as one of the greatest doctrinal contributions to the church, the "Trinitate" (I don't know if I pronounced that right), but the translation is "On the Trinity."
The subject matter had left him bleary-eyed and in need of fresh air. It was in this moment, as the frothy tide rushed out, that a little boy caught Saint Augustine's eye. The freckle-faced child had a determined furrowed brow; he was clearly up to something, running back and forth, back and forth between the sea and a tiny hole in the ground.
"My son!" Saint Augustine called over the crashing waves. "What are you doing there, boy?" He held up the pink shell he was using to move water. "I'm trying to fit that great big ocean into this tiny little hole," he yelled, pointing assertively at the sand.
Saint Augustine smiled, charmed by the child's innocence, his bright eyes, and the way the sunlight shone in his curly hair. So he followed the child and knelt beside him next to the tiny hole, watching him spill a few meager drops into the hole.
"My child," the Bishop of Hippo broke the news gently, turning the boy's skinny shoulders to the face of the sea. He then spread his own arms wide. "How could you ever fit this great magnificent ocean into that tiny hole?"
The child didn't flinch but responded quickly, "And how could you ever possibly understand the Holy Trinity?"
Then in a flash, the boy disappeared.
It's a kind of interesting story there. You know, over the centuries, thinkers and scholars have looked at that and speculated about this legend. Was the child an angel? Was it Christ Himself? Is it possible to understand the Trinity? You know, that's the moral of the story there.
This analogy of trying to put a little water in this little hole is kind of like us trying to understand the Trinity. You know, the Bible tells us in 1 Timothy 3:16 that—"Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory."
You know, great indeed is the mystery of godliness, but the good news is—and we shared this last week—but the Bible also tells us in 1 Corinthians 2:9-12. Paul is talking about spiritual wisdom here, wisdom that comes from above, and he says, "What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love Him."
These things—these are the things that God has revealed to us by His Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person's thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
What we have received is not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given to us.
So the question is, what has God given to us? What has He freely given to us? Well, Himself, among other things. So that if He's given us Himself freely, He wants us to understand who He is. He wants us to know Him personally. And so we're going to attempt to do that today as we dive into the scripture and unpack the three persons of the Trinity as we go through our four questions.
I'm hoping we can come away with a greater understanding of who the Lord is. But before we do that, why don't we go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him to teach us this morning?
Father, you alone are wise, and all the secrets of wisdom and knowledge are hidden in you. Lord, you tell us in your word that you want us to know the things that you've really given to us, so would you teach us this morning? I just ask that by your Holy Spirit, you would just open our eyes to what's in your word. Help us to understand more about who you are, how much you love us. Lord, help us to take hold of all that you've taken hold of us for. Lord, we'll give you all the praise in Jesus' name, amen.
Before we get into the four questions, again, a little refresher on the Trinity. Actually, as we're getting into today's subject matter, we're gonna cover a lot of the doctrinal statement. We're actually gonna cover not just section two, which is the Trinity, but we're gonna cover sections three, four, and five. I'm kind of ambitious here, I don't know. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, right? Because those are the three sections.
I'm gonna throw a lot of terminology at you guys. I don't know if you're gonna understand it all. I didn't understand it all when I was first going through it; it's like having to read through. Hopefully, it comes across in a way that's distilled down in a way that you can take hold of it.
If we look at our first section—again, section two, the Trinity—I'm not going to read the verses; you can go into the YouVersion Bible app and see what I've put there in the slide. But the short definition is that basically the Trinity is that God eternally exists as three persons: who's the first person of the Trinity? God the Father. Who's the second? God the Son. Who's the third? God the Holy Spirit. Good. Three persons, one essence; it's a mystery, right?
Again, I like the Gospel Coalition’s affirmations, so I will read those out in terms of the Trinity. It says the first affirmation is that there is one and only one true and living God. The second is that this one God eternally exists in three persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit—three persons, one essence.
These three persons are completely equal in attributes, each with the same divine nature. And then finally, the fourth affirmation is that while each person is fully and completely God, the persons are not identical. The differences among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are found in the way they relate to one another and the role each plays in accomplishing their unified purpose.
All right, so now that we have kind of a working definition of the Trinity—and again, you can look at the slides that are on YouVersion—let's see if we can answer our four questions: Who are the three persons of the Trinity? How do they relate to one another? What is their unified purpose? And what does that mean for us?
You guys ready?
So, who are the three persons? Well, we got to go to section three of our doctrinal statement that's based on scripture: God the Father.
Now, the Father is the first person of the Godhead and is sovereign of the universe. He, out of love, decreed in eternity past the sending of the Son to be Savior over all who believe in Him. As spiritual Father of all born-again believers, He leads and directs their lives.
There are some scripture verses that go along with that. Some distinctives about the Father—and we're going to get more into this when we define how they relate to one another—but some distinctives is that, you know, the Father is the first person of the Trinity. He's attributed oftentimes as being the source, the sender, or the planner of our salvation, right?
He's got the plan! We don't see in the scripture the Son sending the Father to die on the cross; we don't see in the scripture the Father. Yeah, we don't see in the scripture the Holy Spirit sending the Father to die on the cross, right?
The Father is the Father; He's the planner. He's the one who sends the Son; He's the one that sends the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit, the Son, proceeds from—or is begotten from—the Father, or is eternally generated. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; He also proceeds from the Son.
So there are some distinctives, but the big takeaway is that oftentimes the Father is the planner; He's the architect of our salvation. It doesn't mean the other members of the Trinity are any lesser; they're all equals, and they're mutually submitted to one another to accomplish the unified purpose of the Godhead, which we're going to get into more later, Lord willing.
Salvation is based on the Father's power and love, is what we need to know there.
So that takes us to the second person of the Trinity, and who is the second person of the Trinity? Jesus Christ, the Son!
Section 4 of our covenant states: "Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. He has always been and will ever continue to be absolute deity. In His incarnation, He took upon Himself true humanity and thus became the unique God-man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary. His purpose in the incarnation was that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man. He lived a sinless life, died for our sins, arose bodily from the dead, and ascended into heaven. He is presently preparing a place for us as our High Priest, and His coming again."
There are a lot of scripture references there that you guys can look up.
We're not going to read it all today, but some distinctives about God the Son, Jesus Christ, is that He is known or referred to as kind of the means, or the sent one, the achiever of our salvation. You know, we see that Jesus perfectly submitted to the will of the Father to accomplish our salvation, to achieve it, to purchase us.
You guys got any questions on that?
That takes us to the third person of the Trinity. And who is the third person of the Trinity? The Holy Spirit!
Good! The Holy Spirit is the third person of the Godhead. He convicts the world regarding sin, righteousness, and judgment. At every believer's point of conversion, the Holy Spirit causes spiritual rebirth, indwells, seals, bestows gifts, and baptizes a believer into the body of Christ.
He continues to sanctify, guide, teach, and fill the believer who walks in obedience to the word. Again, there are scriptures for you guys to look up.
The main distinctives about the Holy Spirit is that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father. Again, we don't ever see the Father proceeding from the Holy Spirit, right? But the Spirit proceeds from the Father. He also proceeds from the Son.
The Father works by the Son. The Son works together with the Father through the Holy Spirit. Our salvation is based on the Spirit's regeneration and seal. The Holy Spirit proceeds from both Father and Son.
We're going to talk more about the Holy Spirit, but I want to just acknowledge before we go into how the three persons of the Trinity relate to one another is that we need a working knowledge of the scriptures. We need to understand what the Bible says, you know, the whole counsel of God.
If we don't, we open ourselves up to be influenced by every wind of doctrine, right? And cunning of man. I know that there's some here sitting here today that have come out of cults. You come out of churches where there was spiritual abuse where one member of the Trinity was emphasized over the others, and it got off into false teaching, false doctrine.
It wasn't centered on the gospel; it wasn't centered on the truth of God's word. You know, I'm thinking about that. I'm thinking about like the charismatic movement and, you know, a lot of the shenanigans you see on TV with the televangelists that are fleecing the flock, you know, and basically preying on people's feelings and taking people away from the word of God or twisting the scriptures to make money, right? To leverage people to get more people in the door.
That's why we need to be a people of the word, people of the gospel. We need to study God's word so that when those things come at us, we can test it against scripture, right? And we can also test the will of God.
You know, this is an area too where people get mixed up about the work of the Holy Spirit and discerning God's will. You know, the first principle is, is there something clearly revealed in God's word that has something to say about what you're dealing with? If there's a clear principle, follow the principle.
You know, God's not going to ask you to do something contrary to His word. He's not going to ask you to sin against Him, right? The second principle is, do you have a clear conscience? You know, if there's no clear directive in scripture and it's like a gray area you're dealing in, what does your conscience say?
You know, do you have a clear conscience? Are you fully convinced in your mind that you can proceed and it doesn't contradict God's word? Okay, that's your second check. Your third check, though, is how does it affect those around you?
You know, are you going to stumble people by insisting on this certain way? You're fully convinced this is the right way, but how is it impacting those around you, you know? And being mindful of that.
Those are some ways we can test God's will; we can test the leading of the Holy Spirit against His word and against those other two things: conscience's sake and the impact—is it loving for others around us?
So I think we've kind of touched on the first question. We've talked about who are the three persons: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.
But how do they relate to one another? There are some technical terms when I was starting this out, and there's just a lot out there. You know, when Solomon talked about how, you know, the making of many books, there's no end; much study wears the body, there's some truth in that!
Two terms, though—they're kind of high-level to keep in mind as we're studying this. The early church came up with this thing or concept called relations of origin.
Anybody know what that is? Well, relations of origin basically describes how each person of the Trinity relates to one another in the Trinity as His personal principle or source.
And how this translates for the members of the Trinity is that we see that the Father has no eternal personal principle or source, like He's the beginning of that. We see that the Father, though, is the eternal principle, a personal principle or source for the Son, through begetting the Son, eternally generating the Son.
And we see that the Father and the Son are the eternal personal principle or source of the Holy Spirit that proceeds from them through breathing, the breath of God, right? So that's relations of origin, and that's one thing to kind of keep in mind as we're kind of delving into how the Trinity relates to one another.
The second kind of fancy term is functional subordination. You guys have any clue what that is? Well, what this means is that the three persons of the Trinity, of the Godhead, are equal in substance, power, and glory, but they voluntarily submit to one another, respecting the roles they perform in creation and salvation.
In other words, they're equal in being, but they're mutually subordinate in role. And what we see this kind of clearly taught is in Philippians chapter 2, right? When Paul is talking about Christ and His humility, how, you know, He didn't consider equality with God as something to be grasped.
Though He was equal with God, instead, He took on the form of a servant. He took on flesh. He humbled Himself, even to the point of death—death on the cross. And as a result, God exalted Him, exalted His name above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee is going to bow, every tongue is going to confess that He is Lord!
Right? That's an example there. The functional subordination wasn't that Jesus was any less than God or the Holy Spirit, but to accomplish the unified purpose of the Godhead, He willingly submitted to the will of the Father because that was His part to play in accomplishing salvation and reconciling things to Himself.
So in creation, we see that the Father spoke the universe into being; the Son carried out the decrees, and the Spirit manifested God's immediate presence. And there are some scripture references on the next slide. I think there's a slide for that.
In redemption, we see that the Father planned our salvation and sent the Son. We see that the Son obeyed and purchased our salvation, and we see that the Holy Spirit regenerates and seals and preserves us. He brings our redemption to completion.
So we're going to take a little deeper dive here, and probably the best passage of scripture that illustrates this mutually—this relationship of the Trinity and the persons and how they relate to one another is Ephesians chapter one.
In Ephesians chapter one, what Paul kind of lays out, verses 1 through 14, is kind of this beautiful symphony of God's blessing, unveiling His plan of salvation for the world. It kind of breaks up into three chunks.
Ephesians one through six, we're going to look at the work of the Father. In 7 through 12, we're going to look at the work of the Son. And in the rest of it, 13 and 14, we're going to look at the work of the Holy Spirit in terms of the parts they played, the roles they played in accomplishing our salvation.
You guys ready?
Okay, Ephesians 1:1-6 says:
“Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus and are faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him. In love, He predestined us for adoption to Himself as sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of His will, to the praise of His glorious grace, which He has blessed us in the Beloved.”
You guys catch the different things that the Father did there? In verses one through three, He blessed us. In verse 4, He chose us. Ooh, that might be controversial! How many Calvinists do I have in the room?
How many Arminians?
Yeah, and we're not going to get—when we could go off on a big old rabbit trail here—but the big thing you need to know is that there's essentially kind of two camps on the spectrum in terms of like, you know, how much responsibility do we have in our own salvation? Are we responsible, or is God responsible, or is it a combination of both?
You know, Calvinists would say—and there's a lot of scripture to support this—that we were chosen; we were set apart from the foundation of the world. There's nothing we can change about that.
How many Presbyterians do I have in the room? Okay, not to put my in-laws on the spot there, but Calvinists—basically if you're a hardcore Calvinist, you know man has no responsibility in terms of your salvation; this was all chosen and arranged from the beginning.
If you're an Arminian, though—how many Methodists or Nazarenes do I have in the room? Nobody wants to volunteer that! There’s more emphasis on that side. John Wesley was a big Arminian and placed a lot of responsibility in, like, our response, our responsibility to God’s—to the Gospel—to responding to it, to receiving it, to acting on it, right?
Not that we work for our salvation, but we play a part. If we don't receive it, then, you know, and the whole thing—there's a lot of scripture supportive of both, and again, we're not going to go on that rabbit trail. Personally, the way I take it is I think the Bible teaches both. There's scriptural support for both, but I lean more towards Calvinism personally.
But when I get to sections of scripture that maybe emphasize man's responsibility, that's what is taught. Right? When we get to scriptures that emphasize God's sovereignty and whatnot, then that's what's taught.
Today, we're teaching Calvinism. You okay with that? You guys are chosen! If you believe, if you're a believer in Christ, you were chosen, right? God set you apart!
You know, you go to John chapter 1, I think that's verse 11, where John even talks about this: "For those who receive Christ, who are called by His name, they are born not of blood, not the will of the flesh or the will of man, but by the will of God," right?
It's something that the Lord did; it's His sovereign work. You guys okay with that?
Okay, so we see God the Father planning our salvation. We see Him choosing us; He did this before He made the world. He wanted us to be holy and blameless in His sight.
Let's go to the work of the Son. Now, Ephesians chapter 1:7-12 says, "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of His grace, which He lavished upon us in all wisdom and insight, making known to us the mystery of His will according to His purpose, which He set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time to unite all things to Him—things in heaven and things on earth. In Him, we have obtained an inheritance, having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, so that we who were the first to hope in Christ might be to the praise of His glory."
You guys catch all that? I know there's some hefty terms in there: redemption, some buzzwords, predestined.
The big thing you need to know is that we see in 7-12 that our salvation was purchased by the Son. You guys know that?
You know that your salvation wasn't free? That there was a price that had to be paid? The price was—it had to be paid in blood, right? It's not something we could do on our own; God had to send His Son to pay that price for us—to redeem us, to buy us back from the slave block of sin.
Not something we could do on our own; it's something that God had to do for us.
There's an interesting picture in the Old Testament. You know, it's in Genesis, in the teen chapters, 12 through 16 or something—I don't know exactly where it's at—but you see where God's cutting covenants with Abraham, right? And Abraham's at a point where he doesn't have an heir. He's wondering where all this is headed.
God promises him, like, you know, "Do you see the stars in the sky? So shall your descendants be." You know? And Abraham's like, you know, "How's this going to be? I don't have a child."
You know, and so God makes some promises. But later on, He cuts a covenant with him. And how He does that is He tells Abraham to get, you know, the sacrifices ready, to cut it up, get it prepared, and then He puts Abraham in a deep sleep.
Abraham sees this vision of a cauldron and a torch as God's passing through the pieces of the animal and declaring His covenant to him, where God essentially is cutting a covenant with Himself.
Abraham had nothing to do with the actual cutting of the covenant or keeping promises. God was promising Himself of what He was going to do on behalf of Abraham. And it's the same way with us!
God did all this for us! You know, He bought us back from the slate block of sin. He cut a covenant with Himself on the cross; He shed His blood; He died; He's buried; He rose again from the dead after three days, and then He sits at the right hand of God the Father!
You know, and it's an amazing thing.
I don't know, maybe you guys take that for granted.
Do you guys take that for granted sometimes? I think if you don't give any thought to it at all, that might be a pause for you: "Like, do I know the Lord? Am I saved? Do I even care about any of this? Or is this just a lifestyle where I'm going to church with friends, in and out—it's just part of what I do, but it's not really who I am? I don't really know the Lord personally."
Maybe the Lord's speaking to your heart this morning about that. We're going to get more into that as we go along here.
So what did Jesus do? He redeemed us by His blood; He bought us back. Someday, He's going to gather us to His name. He's given us an inheritance—verse 11.
He did it so He might give praise to God.
That takes us to the third person of the Trinity, and that's Ephesians 1:13-14.
We see He says there, "In Him also, in Him, you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in Him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of His glory."
You guys catch that? What did the Holy Spirit do? Seal!
What's that mean? It's kind of an interesting term there. What it means is He preserves us, you know? And I guess back in those times when a king or something was getting ready to travel someplace, and his luggage was going ahead of him or whatnot, like they would put a wax seal on this stuff. It was a sign of ownership that he was cut—that that was his!
You, as believers in Christ, you guys are God's prized possession, right?
In Greek culture, the term had to do with engagement; like the engagement ring. The Holy Spirit is kind of the engagement ring where we're betrothed to Christ. Someday, He's going to consummate that relationship. Someday, He's going to come again and get us, receive us to Himself, and that relationship's going to be consummated.
We're going to be united to Christ. We're united in spirit, but that will come to full consummation when the Lord comes again. That's a whole other rabbit trail; we could get off on that, Ken, if you're watching.
But the main thing you need to know is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life—it's an awesome work. Again, it's often misunderstood, but the truth of the matter is that when we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, the scriptures tell us in Galatians 4 and Romans 5 that God sends forth His Spirit abroad in our hearts, whereby we cry, "Abba, Father."
It's a mysterious thing; it's something we don't understand. You know, in John chapter 3, Jesus was talking about this when Nicodemus, who was an educated Pharisee, came to Jesus by night because he knew that nobody could do the works of God unless God sent him.
He was curious about Jesus because Jesus had done all these miracles, and he starts talking to Jesus and tells Him that, like, "Hey, we know that you're from God because nobody could do the works you could do if you weren't from God."
And Jesus kind of cuts him off and says, "Unless you're born again, you're not going to see the kingdom of God."
Jesus just kind of cut right to it!
And so there's this whole exchange; you read about it in John chapter 3, where Nicodemus is like, "How's it possible for a man to be born a second time through his mother's womb? Like, I don't understand what you're talking about here!"
Jesus goes on to say, "You know, flesh gives birth to flesh, spirit gives birth to spirit. The wind blows where it pleases. You know, you don't know what's coming or going. So it is with my spirit."
The work of the Holy Spirit—when you study out the New Testament, there are three prepositions we see in the Greek that talk about our relationship with the Holy Spirit. The first one is "para," and that's where we get the word "paraclete" or "helper," one who comes alongside.
The Holy Spirit comes alongside; He removes the veil from our heart; He gives us eyes to see, ears to hear, heart to understand the gospel so that God uses the Holy Spirit to give us the capacity to respond to persuade us the truth of the gospel and what God did for us.
That's the work of the Holy Spirit, and it's mysterious; we don't understand it.
But He does that! That's para.
And then the second preposition we see, as you study out, especially in the book of Acts, is where we see a lot of stuff, is "en." A—and this refers to the indwelling. This refers to what I shared out of Galatians 4 and Romans 5, where when we believe—when we're persuaded to believe—we place, we look to Christ in faith and say, "I believe, I believe in you, God," sends forth His Spirit abroad in our hearts.
The Holy Spirit—Christ in us. That's probably the most important aspect there! Because, you know, and some of you guys can testify to this; I hope you can testify to this—that before Christ, there was your life, but there was like an emptiness.
There was maybe this churn of just angst, you know, dealing with the pressures of life, living by your own wits—just this emptiness, you know? And we try to shove a lot of different things in it. We try to shove education into that; we try to shove career, family, riches, possessions; there are all kinds of things we try to shove into that!
You know, but the thing is, is God's design in Ecclesiastes chapter three, He talks about how He set eternity in the hearts of men but man hasn't understood it.
Right? We don't understand that, but the Holy Spirit helps us to understand that, and it's God's sovereign choice. It's the Holy Spirit, like the wind; it's blowing. We don't know what's coming or going, but He comes alongside, He opens your eyes to the truth.
And for the first time, you recognize—you recognize your need for a savior!
Perhaps you're sitting here today and that's where you're at; the Holy Spirit's come alongside. Like you're hearing these words; you're recognizing there's something missing; you're recognizing there's a quality of life you don't have. The Lord is divinely persuading you; He's got something more for you.
It talks about in John chapter 10. Jesus was talking, He says, "You know, the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I'll come that you might have life and have it more abundantly."
And the word for life there, it's not bios; it's not human life and all that—it's our physical life—it's zoe. It's a spiritual quality!
It's a quality of life that only God can give us, where we can have peace with God! That churn, that discontent—whatever it is, God wants to address that in your life!
You know, as a believer in Christ, that's what He does when you believe on Him.
[Music]
He sends forth His Spirit abroad in your heart, and suddenly there's this peace! You know, things could still be going crazy in your personal life.
It doesn't mean you're not going to have challenges, but there's this awareness of God's presence in your life, and that's the gift of the Holy Spirit.
We spent a lot of time on that; I'm already seven minutes over. You want to keep going?
That takes us to question three, and we're going to try to get through the next two really quickly.
But question three: What is the unified purpose of the Trinity? I spent a lot of time just studying this, thinking about this, and was like stumped. Like, what is it? What is it?
And then I looked in the Bible, and there's an answer! The unified purpose of the Trinity is to reveal who God is, to make known to us the mystery of His will, and to reconcile us to God to the praise of the glory of His grace.
There's a couple of things in there. Well, the first thing is, you know, the revealed who God is—well, who is God?
Well, God is love! 1 John 4:8 says, "Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love."
And because God is love, you know, God is love because He's triune. He's eternally Father, Son, Holy Spirit—three equal persons who coexist for eternity in perfect relationship to one another, always loving and glorifying one another.
Because God is love, it's His nature to share that! He wanted to share that! That's why we were created; we were created for His good pleasure.
And He wants us to know Him personally so we can enjoy who He is, and so He can share that love with us. That's the overarching purpose, unified purpose of the Trinity.
The other aspect is the mystery of His will. What is that? Well, the mystery of His will is that He's reconciling, uniting all things to Himself through Christ.
It's a plan of redemption that was revealed in Genesis, going all the way to Revelation. The Jews, God's chosen people, didn't understand the plan completely; they thought it was just for them. They didn't understand that God was going to reconcile all the world, right?
Everything to Himself!
Interestingly enough, this term reconciliation—to reconcile or unite—it's an accounting term. It means that at some point, it's all going to add up.
God is going to settle the account, so to speak, and you're going to fall on one side or the other. You're either going to fall believing and abiding—being united to Christ forever, enjoying Him, knowing Him forever, or you're going to fall on the great white throne judgment side where you're going to be judged, and you're going to stand in your own righteousness.
I don't know which side you guys want to be on. You know, I want to be on the side where I'm united to Christ! I'm with Him; He's consummated that relationship. I am known as I'm known!
That's a side that I want to be on! And Lord willing, the rest of you will be on that side as well, right? That's what the Lord's doing; He's reconciling, He's uniting all things to Himself.
So where does that take us, then? Question four: What does this mean for us?
What this means for us is that He loves us. We can know the Lord personally! You know, if you're sitting here and hearing the gospel message—is that God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
He sent His Son into the world to pay our sin debt. He came into the world—His own didn't receive Him; instead, they nailed Him to a cross. He died.
After three days, you know, He's buried. After three days, He rose again from the dead. And the truth of the matter is that He will rise again in your heart in newness of life!
That thing that's missing is Christ! And by the power of the Holy Spirit, God puts His Spirit in us by faith when we believe the gospel—believe what God did for us through His Son Jesus Christ.
If we believe that, the scriptures tell us that God sends forth His Spirit abroad in our hearts whereby we can cry, "Abba, Father," or "Daddy!"
Like we have this intimate relationship with the Lord; we're no longer alone. We have the Lord!
And then as we spend time in His word, He teaches us, and He helps us to grow in the grace and knowledge of Him. It's an amazing thing!
So as the worship team is coming up, if they're still in the building—they may have left because we're now like 11 minutes over—I want to give you guys an opportunity to just think about the things I've shared with you.
You know, maybe you're sitting here, and some of what I've shared resonates. Like, you don't know the Lord; like, you don't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You don't know anything really about the Holy Spirit, or this is all kind of news to you.
The thing is, is that it's just simply believing—believing on what God did for you through His Son Jesus Christ and believing and receiving that, and you become born again, and God does a work in your life.
You don't need to know all of it up front; God will teach you. The main thing is you need to receive Him!
If the Holy Spirit's come alongside you—the paraclete—if He's come alongside and He's speaking to your heart, don't resist that! God’s trying to persuade you!
That's what faith is—it comes from the Greek word "pistus," which means divine persuasion. The Lord is persuading you to believe; He wants you to believe; He wants you to know Him!
So I'll pray for us, and then the worship team is gonna lead us in a song, and then we'll close out. That sound good?
[Music]
Well, Father, we just—we give you all the praise and thanks! We thank you for the gospel; we thank you that you are a triune God! We thank you that you are love; we thank you for loving us enough to send your Son into the world.
And we give you praise for that! Let’s pray for those here that maybe are thinking about these things, Lord. I just pray that you would just send your Holy Spirit to come alongside, that you'd remove the veil from their hearts, that you'd give them eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to understand how much you love them, that they would believe on you—that they would receive you.
Lord, we give you all the praise; in Jesus' name, amen.
[Music]
In the darkness, we were waiting, without hope, without light. So from heaven you came running; there was mercy in your eyes to fulfill the law and prophets. To a virgin came the word from a throne of endless glory to a cradle in the dirt.
[Music]
[Music]
God [Music] to reveal the