I want to call your attention now to the portion from which we have read in 1st John chapter 5. 1st John chapter 5. We're going to read one verse, verse 7. It says, For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one. Today we begin a journey that I have looked forward to for a long time, and that is on the subject of the Trinity, the Bible doctrine of the Trinity. It is a subject that to me is somewhat overwhelming. It is as if we're standing on the shore of the ocean and there is this vast ocean out there, this deep, broad, comprehensive doctrine. And it's just frankly overwhelming. And where do you begin? to deal with this ocean of truth. It is a subject that is beyond me and yet I feel constrained to address it and to do the best I can with it. I think I know a little bit about how Moses felt at the burning bush when the Lord said to him, take off your shoes Moses. because you're standing on holy ground. Surely all of us, I do hope and pray that all of us have some sense of that awesome privilege and awesome task that is before us here in the next few weeks to consider this precious, glorious, profound teaching of scripture about the very essence of God, And the very mode of his existence. We want to just try to introduce the subject here today. And I'm afraid that even after we have finished in a few weeks, we will have only made an introduction really, because we will go on throughout the ages of eternity, learning more. about God the Father, more about Christ the Son, more about the Holy Spirit. But in way of introduction today, let me begin this way. The finite can never fully understand the infinite. So we begin acknowledging our own limitations. If we expect to understand everything about the Trinity, we're going to be disappointed. We will never understand it all. Let me give a working definition to the Trinity. This is not a complicated one, it's a working one. In the Godhead, there eternally exists three persons, co-equals, who are one God. Even with a simple working definition like that, we're already over our heads. It doesn't compute mathematically to be three and yet to be one. Some have tried to illustrate it with some earthly object I see a smile or two. You've heard some of these in the past. I'm convinced that there is nothing, there's no illustration that is worth using, that even comes close, that begins to do justice to the doctrine of the Trinity. They may do more harm than good. Perhaps the first question we need to raise is this. Is this a scriptural teaching? Is it a biblical doctrine? After all, if you have spoken to some of the cults that come and knock on your door, you know that one of the arguments that they bring up is that the term Trinity is not used in the Bible. It is not a biblical term. And so, since the term Trinity is not in the Bible, is it proper to speak of it at all? Let me answer that in this way. First, is it not better to use an unscriptural term to describe a scriptural doctrine than to use scripture terminology to deny a scriptural doctrine? Is it not more honest to define biblical truth even in unbiblical terms rather than to stick only to biblical terms and deny a vital doctrine that is taught in the scripture? But further, I believe there's a better answer than that. I believe, frankly, that the very term Trinity is almost found in Scripture. And that's why I'm using 1 John 5, 7 as our text here today. For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. And look at this last phrase, and these three are one. These three are one. If that is not a trinity, then I don't know what is. In the Greek, what we literally have here, these three, one, are. You have a three, one, or a three in one. That is what the word trinity means. Our English word trinity is actually a combination of two words, three, tri, and unity, or one, a triunity, a three in one. And that is the nearest English equivalent that I know of to what we have at the end of 1 John 5, 7, when it says these three one are. If we're going to to stick as close to the the Word of God as we can in our English language then Trinity is the best word. It's a valid word. It's the nearest single word that captures this three one. Now I can anticipate the objections that come, especially using 1 John 5, 7. The objection goes like this, wasn't this verse added later on? It wasn't written by John, it was added later on by writers who needed some help defending the doctrine of the Trinity. And so they added this in and we've been reading it ever since. Let me answer that objection this way. Rather than being added by Trinitarians, I am convinced that it was early on subtracted by anti-Trinitarians. And that's why some of the older manuscripts omit it. In fact, they do not only omit 1 John 5-7, But they omit many other phrases, verses, and passages, virtually all of which address one single issue, one single doctrine, and that is the deity of Christ, which is a vital part of the doctrine of the Trinity. If you want to do some digging on this subject, I would recommend you to read R. L. Dabney. He presents four or five arguments from the very immediate context, internal arguments from this passage, to show that without this verse, the context doesn't make sense, Some of the agreement of the, uh, pronouns and nouns and so forth and articles that is do not agree. I'll be glad to share that, uh, uh, article with you. John Gill shows that Tertullian referred to this verse in about 200 AD. That's getting pretty far back. I read another source this morning that has Cyprian or Cyprian referring to it at about the same time there, 200 AD. Let me say this, I personally would not trust a Bible that does not have 1 John 5-7 in it. I would not trust a Bible that puts a shadow of a doubt upon 1 John 5, 7 and the many other references to the deity of Christ. It was a sad day, a hundred and twenty years ago or so, when men began to put doubts in the minds of God's people as to what should be in the scripture and what should not. Now, as we shall see in the weeks to come, God willing, many scriptures, many scriptures teach the Trinity, the Triunity. But this one, to me, is the clearest one, and it is the nearest that we come to the very term, Trinity. These three are one. That's what Trinity means. And so, to answer the first question, is this a scriptural teaching? Well, in advance. Yes, indeed. And we're going to see that over and over again in many scriptures. So many that it will take us several weeks. Let me ask a second question. Why is this teaching important? Is it really necessary? Is it worth spending several hours here on Lord's Day mornings considering this doctrine? Absolutely. This is important because everything that we know about God rises and falls with this doctrine. It is essential. It is foundational. It is vital. Our Baptist forefathers in England in 1689 understood this and they wrote about it this way in our Confession of Faith. Quote, the doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence on Him. Now that says a lot. May we not fall behind at least where our forefathers in the faith have been. Without the doctrine of the Trinity, without a clear understanding of the three persons and how that relates especially to the redemption of the souls of men, We are utterly without hope. We are lost and undone. If God the Son has not come in human flesh and lived a sinless life and died a substitutionary death, then we have no Savior. If there is no Holy Spirit who regenerates, who indwells, who guides, who sanctifies, then what hope do we have? Everything we know about God rises and falls with the doctrine of the Trinity. It is a basic foundation. Let me give you a longer quotation here by a theologian, Mr. Shedd. He says, the doctrine of the Trinity is the most immense of all the doctrines of religion. It is the foundation of theology. Christianity, in the last analysis, is Trinitarianism. Take out of the New Testament the person of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and there is no God left. The Trinity is the constitutive idea of the evangelical theology and the formative idea of the evangelical experience. Mysterious as it is, the Trinity of divine revelation is the doctrine that holds in it all the hope of man, for it holds within it the infinite pity of the incarnation and the infinite mercy of the redemption. In other words, our very redemption, the very gospel is at stake in this doctrine of the Trinity. Without a mediator sent by God, who is God and man, whose atonement is applied to our hearts by the work of the Holy Spirit, then we are eternally lost. and without hope, and we have no approach to God. Without this doctrine, much of Scripture simply does not make sense. For example, the formula for baptism, you're familiar with it, I'll not ask you to turn there, but I'm going to turn there. The formula for baptism given in the Great Commission by our Lord, speaks of three persons. We're to go and make disciples or teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. If we do not have a clear concept of the Trinity, then who in the world are these persons? We have, again, moving further through the New Testament, but actually back in time, in Luke's Gospel, chapter 1, in the Annunciation to Mary, we have the Trinity in view. It says, "...the angel said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee." That's God the Father. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Here we have, in this order, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, and God the Son. Again, we have in the apostolic benediction, as it has come to be called, 2 Corinthians 13-14, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. So again, here is the Son, the Father, the Holy Spirit. These are just some of the passages that simply make no sense if we do not understand what the Scriptures teach from cover to cover about the three-in-one. There is only one other doctrine that I can imagine that is more foundational than the doctrine of the Trinity. And that is the doctrine of revelation itself. The doctrine of inspiration itself. That God has communicated to man, not only in creation, not only in conscience, but in written revelation. And that every word of this book before us today is inspired by the living God. And yes, there is the Living Word, Christ Himself, who is called by that title right here in our text, the Word. He's called that in John chapter 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. But because He no longer walks on this earth today in bodily form, we have, thank God, the written Word. written by men who were inspired by God, written, this New Testament in particular, written by men who were eyewitnesses of His resurrection, written by men who were the first generation. This is very foundational and we'll address that here in just a moment. Without written revelation, we would never imagine three-in-one. Religions that man has invented and dreamed up on his own never have anything comparable to three-in-one. It is a peculiarly biblical revelation. And so that's why this doctrine is very important. It points us to the true and living God. It assures redemption of sinners. It makes sense of the Scriptures. And it is foundational to practically everything else. Now, in the time that remains here this morning, I want to go in a little different direction here. And just briefly address the whole question that we sort of introduced just a moment ago, and that is, how do we know what we know about God? How do we know what we know about God? The technical term for that is epistemology. What is our epistemology? If God is three in one, how do we know? Well, as I said a moment ago, we only know through the written revelation. Nowadays, it is popular for those who we might call relativists to say something like this, no one can really know anything about God. It's impossible to really know anything for sure about God. The problem with that statement is that it is a self-refuting, self-contradicting statement. Because those who say it claim to be saying the one true thing about God. And that is that no one can know anything about God. They have just contradicted themselves. They claim to be the ones who know one thing about God, and that is what they have said. that he is unknowable. Well, how do they know that? Do they know that God is unknowable? That's how full of contradictions man's best attempts at finding out God are. Reminds me of those that go around saying no one should try to convert others to his way of thinking. No one should try to convert anyone else to their way of thinking. Well, those who say that are trying to convince us of their way of thinking, are they not? That no one should convince anyone else. They have just fallen into the trap that they claim to be avoiding. Finite, fallen man. can never discover God on His own. There must be an unveiling, a revealing, a manifesting of God to us. Otherwise, we will remain blinded and in darkness. Only as He reveals Himself can we know the true and living God. Therefore, written revelation is our only sure and infallible source of knowledge. We can look at nature and we might read the evidence of nature wrongly, but we cannot read the written evidence and be confused. Let me therefore emphasize to you the importance of not only possessing the Word of God, but reading it, digging into it. It's not enough just to own a copy and have it sitting on the coffee table as an ornament. If that's all we do, we're no better than the Jews who, as the Apostle says in the book of Romans, they trusted the fact that they just possessed the law. The law has been given to us. We're the most privileged nation. It didn't matter whether they kept it or not, as long as they just possessed it. Well, thank God for the possession of written revelation. but we ought to prize it highly and to prove how much we prize it by being students of it. My friend, you hold in your hands the key to intellectual and personal knowledge of God. I understand that it doesn't come automatically. I understand that a person with without spiritual illumination and regeneration can read the Bible and re-read it and still be in the dark. But at the same time, this is the means, this is the tool that God uses when He puts that illumination into our hearts, into our spiritual eyes, quickens us, gives us understanding. It doesn't come directly in that sense. It comes through. that which is written. He has begotten us again through His word, it says there in James chapter 1 and other places. And so Let me quote Mr. Morey, whose book on the Trinity is tremendous. He says, the attempt to define God on any other basis than a careful exegesis of scripture has always been the mother of heresy. If we try in our own wisdom to find out who God is, to define who God is, we are already in trouble. We're starting out on the wrong foot. There must be this careful exegesis, that is, this careful interpretation of the Word of God. We must begin with God as the absolute, as the presupposition, and from Him deduce through Scripture what is true about Him and what is true about all other persons and things that He has created. We do not work in the opposite direction. Let me again use Mr. Morey's illustration. I think it's very helpful. He says, if you want to learn about an automobile, what do you do? Do you lay out all of these hundreds of individual parts and pieces? in the middle of the floor and you have over here a fender and you have over here uh... you know one of the pistons and you have a little screw and a bolt over there and so forth and you have all these pieces laid out and you examine them all so that you can understand the automobile some people might try that but the only way the best way is to begin with an automobile That's already there, already assembled. That's your given. And from it, you deduce from what is there, what can be known about an automobile. Now, as that again is a, is a poor illustration, but the point is we don't begin just with what we see. and try to arrive at an understanding of who God is, that is the fatal flaw of multitudes. They look at themselves. I mean, this is what natural man always does, ultimately. He looks at himself. He looks in the mirror. He looks at his own reflection in the water. And he says, aha, that must be what God is like. And that's where idolatry begins. the pagan gods and goddesses were just people with some extraordinary powers and qualities. That's as far as the inductive method will get you. Rather, we must use the deductive method, in which we begin with the assumption the given that there is a God and that He has revealed Himself to us through His Word. Now, I can hear someone saying, Oh no, we can't presuppose anything. We can't have any presuppositions. Well, is that not a presupposition? that we cannot have any presuppositions? You see how self-defeating all of these best attempts of man are at approaching God and at arriving at truth. We must presuppose that there is a God. brings that to us in the very first words, in the beginning, God. It never tries to prove to us the existence of God. I don't have to prove it to you. You don't have to prove it to anybody else. The Bible says it is so. Our conscience confirms it. The conscience of every man, either publicly or secretly, confirms it. There's no true atheist in that sense. There are those who would like to be atheists. There are those who wish there were no God, but they still continue fighting against Him. We presuppose that there is a God and that He has revealed Himself to us through His Word. It's not a matter of whether we have presuppositions or not, it's a matter of Do we have the right presuppositions? Do we have the biblical presuppositions? Another way that modern philosophers attack Scripture is by telling us that it is impossible to understand what any author is saying in any book. This has come to be called deconstructionism. It's all part of this postmodernism that words don't really have any meaning. They mean different things to different people. And therefore, anything that is written only means what it was intended to mean to one person. And that is the writer of it. No one else can know. And they write books about that. They publish books telling us how that you cannot understand anything that a person has written. And again, you see the self-contradiction. They are only sure of one thing, that you can't be sure about anything. Well then, how can they be sure about that, if it is so? That is the self-defeating folly of man's wisdom. And we must submit our minds and our intellects to the wisdom of God. The truth is God has spoken in terms that we can understand. He invented language in the first place. It's his gift. And he was the one who, in Genesis chapter 12, divided the languages, brought the confusion of languages as a curse upon idolatrous man. God has made language and He communicates to us through language according to His will. That's what we have in the Word of God. So that's how we know what we know about God, what is revealed in Scripture. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. So let me hasten on here and make one last point, and that is our knowledge of God is limited. But even limited knowledge is true knowledge. As we stand before this great ocean of truth that we know in advance we will never be able to comprehend in this life, And we will go on learning more and more in the life to come. We admit our limitations and we confess that God is incomprehensible. And I have before me here a whole string of references to that. I want to read some of these. Just quickly, Psalm 145.3 says, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised, and His greatness is unsearchable. Unsearchable. Isaiah 40.28, Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? Listen to this, There is no searching of His understanding. You remember Job 9.10. It says that God does great things past finding out. Yea, and wonders without number. Canst thou by searching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto perfection? Again in Job 11. There's this great statement in Psalm 139, thinking about how God made us and watches over us and knows every detail about us. David says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is high. I cannot attain unto it. The Apostle Paul in the New Testament, Romans 11 says, Oh, the wisdom or all the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. His ways are past finding out, he says it again in Ephesians three, now that the love of Christ passes knowledge. He says it again in Philippians 4, how that the peace of God passes all understanding. God is incomprehensible. He's beyond us. Some people put that in our face and say, you ought to be ashamed then of this doctrine of the Trinity because you can't explain it to me. But the next time someone says that to you, you turn that right around and put it in their face, as it were, gently, lovingly. That if we could understand everything about God, if we could comprehend everything about God, then we would be His God. He would be beneath us. We don't even understand ourselves fully. let alone the infinite Creator who made us. And so the incomprehensibility of God in the triunity is an argument in His favor or in favor of the doctrine, not against it. But having said that, let me emphasize this then. Even the little bit of knowledge that we have, the little bit of God that we are able to comprehend and to grasp is true knowledge and is accurate. Just because we cannot understand everything doesn't mean that what we do understand by revelation is false or is faulty. God is beyond us. He is beyond our reason, but He is not contradictory to reason. Those are two very different things. Again, Mr. Morey says, faith swims when reason can no longer feel the bottom. So, as we draw to a conclusion here, Let me just say a few practical words about the study of the Trinity. We are not approaching this immense subject just in order to fill our heads with some speculative knowledge, just to make our heads swell so that we can go out and brag to others how much we know about God. and how superior our knowledge is. The purpose of knowing God, knowing Him, knowing the truth about Him, understanding better the doctrine of the Trinity, for example, is so that we might worship Him, so that we might obey Him, so that we might love Him, so that we might worship Him. But how can you worship one in ignorance? How can you worship one who you do not perceive to be worthy of worship? And that word worship, as you know, comes from the word worthy. The very idea of worshiping God is understanding that he is worthy. And in the doctrine of the Trinity, we have a great reason and a great cause to worship him because it shows us how worthy he is, how infinitely beyond us he is. And yet, therefore, how marvelous is His reaching down to reveal Himself to us, to redeem us from our iniquities. Let us approach this glorious doctrine then with humble hearts, receptive hearts, ready to receive whatever God gives us in His Word whatever He has revealed about Himself so that we might worship Him and follow Him more closely, that we might worship Him more intelligently. Romans 12 speaks of our reasonable service, our intelligent worship, if you will. We need, beloved, the integration of doctrine and practice. And so we're not just hoping to add to our store of doctrine, but to add to our practice of worship and obedience. I want to close with just a quote or two here. First, Dr. Lloyd-Jones says, this is an exalted doctrine. It is the most mysterious, most difficult of all biblical doctrines. It is the most distinctive doctrine of the Christian faith. No other religion has it. It sets us apart. In a sense, he says, the most amazing and astonishing thing that God has been pleased to reveal to us concerning himself is his three in oneness. Lloyd-Jones calls it a great and eternal mystery. And that it is and that it will remain even after I've said all that I can about it. Let me close finally with a word here from the old Scottish writer David Dixon. He said, when we are about to look upon God's perfections, we should observe our own imperfections and thereby learn to be the more modest in our searching of God's unsearchable perfection. Then do we see most of God when we see Him incomprehensible and do see ourselves swallowed up in the thoughts of His perfection and are forced to fall in admiration of God. Let us indeed fall in admiration of this Trinity that is beyond us and yet in His grace and mercy is for us. Let us rejoice and let us worship Him.