hear members of our church that have to deal with issues of criminality out there every day. Bless them, help them, keep them safe. Father, we ask that you would hear our prayers. We pray it in Christ's name. Amen. Well, when we're looking at the Trinity, We're looking at these three subsistences, the Father, the Word, our Son, and the Holy Spirit. We know that they are of one substance and power and eternity. That each of them have the whole divine essence, and yet the essence is undivided. The Father is of none. neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is eternally begotten of the Father. The Holy Spirit proceedeth from both Father and Son, and yet all of them are infinite. I mean, that talks about magnitude, that there's no matter, you know, what they do, their energy or their being, no matter where they are, they are undiminished. So God is here, the Spirit, the Father, the Son, the Spirit are here, and yet His presence everywhere else is undiminished because He's here. That's what infinite means. And then of course, without beginning, they always were. You know the The childish inquiry from where is God or where is God from doesn't relate to God because from, from comes from God. So he is eternal, never had a beginning, never will have an ending. And yet each one of these possess the exact same theme, and yet they're one God, who cannot be divided in nature and being, but he is distinguished. Now, this is the point we're trying to make. Though he cannot be divided, he is distinguished, these three subsistences, they are distinguished by several, that means more than one obviously, many, not a, not willing to define a definite number, but several peculiar, and that peculiar means it is, it is related to them. It's peculiarly related to them, not peculiar in the sense of odd, but peculiar in the sense that it's personally related to them. So there's several peculiar relative, meaning relative, that which relates one to another, relative properties, and then personal relations. Now, We see this in various parts of the scripture. We see it in John 1, for example. John 1, and of course, it's hard to break into John, but we'll break into verse, or at least to John 1, we'll break into verse 14. And the word was made flesh. The father was not made flesh. The spirit was not made flesh. That's why we have to be careful in the song, And Can It Be. I love the song. I never really heard that song until about 1983. But once I heard the song, it's really been one of those songs that have captured me. It's one of my favorite. And Can It Be. So Wesley Charles is asking the question, and can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood? Died he for me who caused his pain? For me who him to death pursued? Amazing love, how can it be? that thou my God should die for me. So we have to be careful when we understand when we say God in that verse, Christ is God. But sometime that can refer to all the Trinity, sometime that refers in contradistinction to Christ, that refers to God the Father. So it may be a little more or a little less dicey, if I can use that term, to say that amazing love, how can it be that thou, my Lord, has died for me? Well, the Word became flesh, the Son, not the Father or the Spirit. So you see, there is a peculiar distinction. And he dwelt among us. The scripture is very clear. No man has seen God at any time. but the son has revealed him. So when that uses, when the scripture used the word God, he's talking about God the father. No man has seen God the father at any time, the son has revealed him. So to be able to see him, or as John writes in his epistle, we held him, we handled him, the word of life. That can only be Christ, you see. That is this peculiar distinction this relative property and this personal relation. And then here's a parenthesis. The King James translators put this in a parenthesis, and they should have. Without the parenthesis, it would read, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth. True. But there's something that needs to be added to Christ. So here's the parenthesis. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory. as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now, if Christ was only full of grace, then he would be indulging to us, to our sin. If Christ was only full of truth, He would damn us by his life, for as a man he lived a perfect life. But he came with grace and truth. John bare witness of him, that is John the Baptist, and cried saying, this was he Of whom I say, he that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before me. Well, he was six months younger than John. What's John mean? He was before me. Well, he could be talking about he's before me in preference. He surely did say that, that he cometh after me is preferred before me. But he's saying something greater than that. This one has never not been. Christ was incarnated. Now we use the word birth, and that's fine, because he was. The humanity of Christ is surely born of Mary. But he didn't come into existence at when the Spirit of God overwhelmed Mary. And when Mary conceived Christ, Christ didn't come into being there. He just came into flesh. And that's why we use the word incarnated. Carne, you know that from Spanish, if any of you know Spanish. Carne, you go to the Spanish restaurant and you buy chili con carne, chili with flesh. Carnal is the King James Version word. The Greek word is sarx. This idea of flesh. And so he was incarnated, you see. That is this infinite, holy, eternal being was incarnated. And that's why we sing that great Christmas hymn, let all mortal flesh be silent. For Christ descended from heaven With mercy in his hand, our full homage to the man. Mind nothing earthly minded. What are we dealing with here? And it is just the fact that we have the relic of the old man in us that continues to drag us back to what we used to be before Christ, that we are not just thrilled and overwhelmed every time we reference and every time we broach the subject. Who is this man? That's what the disciple says, who is this man? that even the winds and the waves obey His voice. Who is this man who's eternal and infinite and holy and somehow some great power of God is wrapped in human flesh? Now, if His incarnation is magnificent and stunning and unable for us to to grasp. How much more is crucifixion? Wesley again in that great hymn tries to deal with this when he says the firstborn seraph tries in vain to sound the depths of love divine, to mystery all. Let heaven adore, let angel minds inquire no more. For this God, Wesley said, this God, that he died. mystery this one he was before me John said and of his fullness not just part of him not just some of him but of his fullness everything that he is have all we, that is, these believers, you see, not every man in every place, for many men have not received him at all, nor will they ever. But we, well, who are the we? Or verse 13 describes that, which were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. We who are born of God, we of his fullness have received grace for grace, or grace on top of grace. No matter how much grace you conceive, more grace is coming. No matter how much grace is poured upon you, more grace is coming. And Christ can pour all of His grace upon us, and His grace is undiminished because He is infinite. Who can know these things? As the psalmist says, these things are too wonderful for me. Who can know them? For the law was given by Moses. But grace and truth, again, there it is, grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man hath seen God at any time. The only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared Him So no man at any time has seen God but yet when Moses was on that mountain and when God said I'll put you in the cleft of the rock and I'll cause all my goodness to pass before thee I'll drop my hand. Who did he see? When the Lord God said concerning Moses, Moses is not like my other prophets. For I speak to them in similitudes and in dreams. But I've spoken to him face to face. When Abraham was under the oak of Mamre, And there three men came to him. Two were angels that went to Sodom, and one was the Lord who stayed with him. And Abraham pleaded with the Lord concerning the souls of Sodom. If there be 50, would you save it? Yes. If there be 40, would you save it? Yes. Please don't get angry with me. If there were 30, yes, or 20, yes. Or ten, yes, even if there were ten righteous men in Sodom, I would save it. To whom was Abraham speaking? Or when Hagar, because of the hatefulness of Sarah and because of the Weakness of Abraham ran her into the desert with this child. And she put the child in the shade and went away because she couldn't bear to see him die. And the Lord, the angel of the Lord, came to Hagar. Who was that? Christ. Eternally begotten. always in this relationship with the Father. And then the Spirit proceeded, both from Father and son. So in John 15, I mean, the book of John's magnificent. That's why I chose to preach through it to the congregation. What a magnificent book is the book of John. It's unlike the other three gospels in its depth and its application. And so John and Paul, between the two, wrote almost all the theological understanding of the New Testament. But here, listen to what is written in chapter 15. It begins with Jesus saying, I'm the vine, and my father is the husband. But then in verse 26, it says, Well, verse 25, it says this, but this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. But when the comforters come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even of the Spirit, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me. And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have seen me from the beginning." And then the Apostle Paul picks up this in Galatians chapter 4. And here's what he says in verse 6. And because ye are the sons, because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. And that was interesting. I used that verse when I was in Kenya one year. And we were in a place where they had to translate, Camfinza. And there are those there that they spoke English but didn't speak English as fluently as we thought they needed to to hear these sermons. So these sermons were translated into Bimba. And so when we came to this verse, I looked at my translator and I said, what is the intimate name for your father in Bimba? Like, our intimate name is Papa. He's our father. But sometime in English, we call him Papa, or we call him Dad, or the Spanish call him Papi. We call him Daddy. In fact, I don't know. you know, of any Southerner. There might be some, but I don't know if I can recall any Southerner that I ever heard call his father, father. But he calls him another name. In fact, it may just be in the full English word, world, I should say. I know that the English, both in England and in Africa, call their mother mum. Well, that's an intimate name, you see. But in Bimba, there was no intimate name. I couldn't make this point, the point of the scripture. But here's the point, that the Spirit has come to us and given us a relationship. It is the Spirit that proceeded from the Father that gives us this relationship where we can go to God. And I would never be bold enough or arrogant enough to go to the mighty God of heaven and earth and talk about Him or call him anything but that which is magnificent and grand and glorious except for the fact that not only did he say this but he sent the Spirit to teach us that we could call him Abba. It's this God we deal with And have you noticed that the more we delve into him, and I know these are very hard subjects. I know these are very difficult concepts to grasp. And I know that probably the children, the younger ones, are just having a real difficult time trying to grasp what we're saying about these things. But how can you talk about God and stay shallow very long You can't. I mean, God is mind-absorbing. In fact, just a few ideas about God fills our minds to capacity. And there's so much more to know of Him. Well, Renahan says in these phrases, articulate the peculiar relative properties and personal relations of each subsistence of the Holy Trinity. The Father is unbegotten. The Son is from eternity begotten of the Father. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. This is the classic Western Trinitarianism that is expressed by the early Nicene Creed of 325, and also the Athanasian's Creed. The simple language of this creed, or of all of these creeds, the simple language of it hides the profound nature of the doctrine. So we will go now and listen to those who were contemporaries at the 16 writing because you realize it was written earlier than 1689, it was only published in 1689 but it was written some years ahead of that But here's a man named Nehemiah Cox Here then is set before us the divine essence, subsisting in three relative properties. The relative property of the father is to begat. Now we see that. Of course, John 3.16, he sent his only begotten son. But we see it even in the pages of the Old Testament. In fact, the second most quoted chapter or passage out of the Old Testament in the New is Psalm 2. And of course, many of you know just when I reference Psalm 2 what I'm talking about. But Psalm 2 is the second most quoted passage of scripture out of the Old Testament in the New. The most quoted is Psalm 110. But listen to Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord. And this is the Tetragrammon. This is the word Yahweh or Jehovah. And against his anointing. saying, let us break their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak unto them in his wrath. and vex them in his sore displeasure. So much for those that say, well, you know, God's a God of love. He'd never do anything like this. Here it is. I can tell you this, you go on in your rebellion and in your sin, you go on sliding the holiness of Almighty God You go on rejecting His grace and His mercy as He extends His hand to you all the day long, and He will crush you, vex them, trouble them in His sore displeasure. Now God begins to speak. Yet have I set my king upon his holy hill or upon my holy hill of Zion. I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Ask of me and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance. And the utmost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel. Be wise, now therefore, O ye kings. Be instructed, ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way when his wrath is kindled but a little. But he doesn't end in judgment. The psalm does not end in hopeless judgment, but it ends in grace. Blessed are all they that put their trust in Him. You think we have to go to the New Testament? You think we have to go to the New Testament to preach the gospel? We don't. The gospel is in every page of the Old Testament, especially in these Psalms. Well, the relative property of the father is to begat. The relative property of the son is to be begotten. See the relationship, how they relate one to another. So if you have a begator, then you have to have a begetti. If you have one who is begetting, you have to have one who is begotten. And the relative property of the Holy Spirit is to be breathed. In fact, the word spirit and breath, both in Old and New Testament, are exactly the same. In the Old Testament, ruach. In the New Testament, It is Numas, but Numas starts with a P-N or Pi Nu, Numas Now so we see again if we, in John 15 26 we see, but the comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you these things and he shall bring these things to your remembrance And then Paul, again, speaks of these things. John, Peter, Paul, it's all the same theology. It's all the same doctrine. It's all these wonderful understandings of what God has done. But in Romans 8, and again, Romans 8, one of the great passages, one of the great chapters in all the Bible. But Romans 8 and verse 9 says, But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man hath not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. Now there's a false teaching among Pentecostals that you get the Spirit and a second work of grace because there are Minions, they don't understand the gospel, they have perverted the gospel, and they think that that a person becomes saved simply because they make a choice to believe. They leave out the supernatural aspect of the spirit of God and how the spirit of God must move upon someone before they can embrace Christ. So they shift, and this is their era, they shift the supernatural to the second work of grace, thinking the first work of grace is nothing but a human choice. And so they shift it to the second work of grace, that is, getting the Spirit. And then with all of the evidences, as they say, the speaking in tongues, one error leads to another error, leads to another error. But that cannot be so. This verse here, Romans 8, 9, blows their argument out of the water. If you don't have the Spirit of God, you are none of His. It all comes, you see. The eternally begotten Son comes into your being through this proceeding of the Spirit that comes from Father and Son. And what's interesting is that even though there are Pentecostals who are Trinitarian, the basis of their theology, that's why they baptize in the name of Jesus only, the basis of their theology is to deny the Trinity. They deny the Trinity. But some of them came later and said, well, no, we really can't deny the Trinity. But they're warped. and an inconsistent theology. Now unto these relative properties belong all imaginable perfections. That is based upon not just pure imagination but based upon your understanding of the Bible as the Bible continues to work through your mind and as you can can begin to build upon upon these perfections as we begin to talk about God and we meditate upon God all these perfections of God you see that we could come up with and of course we'd never be able to come up with all of them anyway but all of them belong all You know, in these properties belong all the imaginable perfections, but no imperfections, because they are in God. Therefore, as considered in him, they do infer personalities, because a personal subsistence is the most perfect manner of being in the whole reasonable nature. And throughout the scripture, when the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit are distinctly spoken of, those terms are made use of that are proper only unto a person and personal operations are everywhere ascribed to them. Though in our conception of personality, in the divine nature, we must separate from it whatsoever imperfection is seen in a created person. Every created person has a limited essence distinct and distant from one another. But all the uncreated persons in the deity have the same immense undivided essence And are the one eternal, immortal, invisible, only wise God in created persons? Also, there's a difference of time in the proceeding of one from the other. But here, though there be an eternal order of origination, There is no prior priority of time or nature. And added hereunto, the warranty of this term from Hebrews 1, 3, where it is applied to the father, there is the same reason for our using it when we speak of the son or of the spirit. Now Hebrews 1.3, let me just read that to you and then give a little more explanation of this. So Hebrews 1.3 says, who being, speaking of the Son, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sin, sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high." So he sits down at the right hand of the Father. Now what Cox is saying here is you cannot put the same understanding upon uncreated persons as you put upon created. And that's the mistake you see that most people make when they try to figure it out. So when they talk about the Father, the Son, the Spirit, then they talk about it in terms of created beings. So the Father couldn't come at the same time as the Son. nor could the spirit since he proceeds from both father and son come at the same time but that is in created beings this is an uncreated being there was never a time where there was not a father there was never a time where there was not a son there was never a time when there was not a spirit but we see in the word as it is revealed to us We see that there is a distinction, as it is called here, this relative distinction of these three persons or these three subsistences. But that doesn't mean, and this is the whole point of what they're saying, that doesn't mean that one is subordinated to the other. Not in their being. Now, obviously, when Christ says of the Father that I've come to do the Father's will, I don't speak of myself, but I speak of the Father. I mean, obviously, He is saying that He has given deference to His Father. But He is not saying that in the sense that He is less than in His being than the Father. Because I can tell you this, if Jesus Christ is not fully God, you are still in your sin. Hard concepts, but basically the language is simple. There's a father, there's a son who has been in relationship to him eternally begotten. And there's a spirit in relationship to them that proceeds from father and son. Well, I hope you understand maybe a little bit more. Maybe you don't. But you see the great wonder of this subject. Let's pray.