Once again, we're back in our study of Benjamin Keech's catechism this morning with questions eight and nine. You can find these questions on page 227 in our blue confession books. The last couple weeks of Brother Keech's preaching have left me thinking over and over again about the fact that this world and its God, who is Satan, of course, want nothing more than to discredit truth with lies. Satan hates the truth. Satan is the god of this age or the prince of this world, and his desire is to destroy the people of God by distorting everything that God has declared to be true. He is, after all, called the deceiver. That's his entire life's mission, to deceive the world and discredit God and his great kingdom. And one thing we can't forget in terms of Satan's ability to accomplish this is that he is the prince of this world. The world is his dominion and he is very successful in deceiving it. He is the god of this age, meaning he is essentially the ruler of the world. And he will be until the day of the Lord when Christ returns at last to reclaim his own creation once again. But for today, this world is under the dominion of Satan, right? The world is even deceived on this. Very few think about the fact that Satan rules over this world, do they? Although God keeps Satan on a leash, able only to do what he permits, Satan is in charge, and he influences the thoughts and the beliefs of the whole world. He is the mastermind behind every tyrant. He is the author of every genocide, and he is the patience behind the takedown of everything good. Satan certainly shouldn't be under-emphasized. He is stronger than any man, smarter than any man. He knows the Bible better than any man who ever lived apart from Christ, and he has the advantage of being a spirit able to move from one realm to the next and uninhibited by the laws of nature like you and me. His knowledge, his power, and his mobility make him able to accomplish more evil than any of us could even imagine in a hundred lifetimes. And yet we don't have a hundred lifetimes, do we? But Satan does. And his objective in the time he's given is nothing less than to place himself above the true God. He wants a people to call his own, and he wants to destroy the people of God. They say that communism builds nothing, it destroys everything. It is a destructive ideology. Communism is like a parasite. It feeds off from something that was made strong under another system and ultimately it destroys what that other system created. Communism is the brainchild of Satan. It is atheistic. It downplays the value of life and it destroys everything that is good. Satan counterfeits, and he mimics, and he disguises himself as something he's not in order to bring people to his side, and then he destroys them, much like that parasite. God, on the other hand, is the God of creation and order, the father of truth. Satan is the God of chaos and division and the father of lies and destruction. Satan plays on the morality of the human heart. He even disguises himself as an angel of light and charity and love. And yet we know who Satan truly is. He is the prince of darkness. Question eight this morning asked the question, are there more gods than one? And the answer is there is but one only, the living and true God. But I don't think we can answer that question without context. We know that Satan is called the God of this world, right? Always lowercase, of course, and only because he pretends to be God, but the God of this world nonetheless. And think about Satan's power. He has the power to do signs and wonders. He even turned sticks into snakes alongside Moses, remember? And he's the source of all forms of magic and witchcraft. Satan truly is a powerful spiritual force to be reckoned with for every creature not under the blood of Jesus Christ. If you are saved, Satan is very limited as to what he can do to you. He can harass you, he can tempt you, but he has no ability to take you from God and pull you from the kingdom of God. He can't do it by force and he can't do it by deception. Believers are safe in the arms of God when it comes to Satan's attacks. But he shouldn't be mocked as stupid or weak or unable to accomplish his evil will. There is one God, but there are others who want to take the place of God in our lives, Satan being the chief of them. But he is not God. Compared to God, he is impotent and foolish. He's short-sighted and ignorant. He is more than any man can stand up to, and yet he is infinitely inferior to Jesus Christ. He is not the true God, but a counterfeit. And yet again, the Bible calls him and all his demons gods, with a lowercase g. I'd like to consider God as the one true God in question eight, and then the doctrine of the Trinity in question nine this morning. Our question asks, are there more gods than one? The answer is there is but one only, the living and true God. But there are others who are worshipped as gods and who present themselves as gods. And yet they are not rivals to our infinite and eternal Lord. They are just fallen, created angels. And they are demons masquerading as gods, gaining power and strength from human worship. They are parasites. Our God has nothing to gain from us because he is infinite. The God of this age, on the other hand, and all his demons have nothing good and lasting to offer. Instead, they are parasites who feed off the people of the world. And just like any parasite, when Satan gets what he's looking for, he throws them off just to seek another one to destroy. Our God, though, is eternal and infinite and unchangeable and needs nothing from you and me. He has everything to offer and everything he offers is good and lasting. We saw that last time. Satan is a deceiver. God is the source of all wisdom and truth. God alone is God. So that will be our topic this morning. Who is the one true God? Let's pray as we begin. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once again to have this opportunity to join together as brothers and sisters around your word. We pray, Lord, that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher today, as we always ask. We humbly ask that you would bless our time, that you would bless your word. And we pray, Lord, that the wonderful doctrine of God and of the Trinity would be presented here today in a way that honors you and I pray Lord that you would would bless it, and I pray, Lord, that we would come away understanding you better and praising you in greater ways. And I know, Lord, that my study in the past week has been a true blessing. And anytime we seek to understand you in a more deep and meaningful way, Lord, we're always blessed. And so we thank you for that, and we ask your blessing again on this time and on your word. In Jesus' name, amen. Okay, if you look in your bulletins, you'll find our summary for today's message. It says, there is but one true God who is worthy of our worship. The one true God exists in three distinct persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is the doctrine of the Trinity that gives us our hope in eternal life through Christ. And the deity of the Son and the Spirit are crucially important in understanding the wonderful work of the cross of Jesus Christ. So the question asks, are there more gods than one? And the answer, of course, is no. There is one God. Last week I talked about what makes God, God. And no other lowercase g, God, can compare to him, right? God alone is spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. God alone possesses his glory. Satan has a glory of his own, just like man has a glory, but compared to God, the brightness of even Satan's glory fades in the light of Christ, right? God's glory is literally infinitely more glorious than Satan's. Only God is infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. Only God is infinitely wise and powerful and holy. Only God is just and good and true. So we need to understand this question remembering that God alone is God, and yet there are many lowercase g gods who rule and reign in this age, right? They are false gods, but they are real. Our first proof text for God as the true God is Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. You might turn there, we'll spend a little time here. Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4. It says, here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. This was said by Moses to the people of Israel in the wilderness to teach them and remind them that Jehovah is not one of many gods, but the only true God. The Egyptians, you might remember, of course, had had an influence on the Israelites for 430 years, worshipped many gods, And Moses was telling the people that God isn't like the gods of Egypt. He is one God. He's reminding them of that truth. There is but one God and only one God. The Lord says in Isaiah 42 in verse 8, my glory I will not give to another. And there is a glory that belongs to God alone as God, and he doesn't share that glory with anyone. He alone is God. He alone possesses the glory of God. John Gill writes, the doctrine here, in Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, is that the Lord, who was the covenant God and father of his people Israel, is but one Jehovah. He is Jehovah the being of beings, a self-existent being, eternal and unchangeable. And he is but one in nature and essence. This appears from the perfection of his nature, his eternity, omnipotence, omnipresence, infinity, goodness, self-sufficiency, and perfection. For there can be but one eternal, one omnipotent one omnipresent, one infinite, one that is originally and of himself good, oneself and all-sufficient and perfect being, and which also may be concluded from his being the first cause of all things, which he can be but one." It's a pretty good summary of our question from last time, right? What is God? What makes God God? His glory does. seen in everything Gil just mentioned, infinite in wisdom and power, unlimited by time and space, and using his unlimited glory to accomplish his own goodwill in his creation. God is defined by his glory, and he gives his glory to no one else, because he alone is God. Our next proof text for Jehovah as the one true God is Jeremiah 10 and verse 10. Jeremiah 10 in verse 10 says, but the Lord, Jehovah, is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath, the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure His indignation. So Jehovah is being presented to us as the true God, the living and everlasting King. He is true as opposed to false. He is living and the source of life as opposed to the gods of death and deception and darkness, those parasites we talked about. And he is the everlasting king as opposed to the prince of this age. And then what do we see? We see that at his wrath, the earth will tremble and the nations will not be able to endure his indignation or his anger. In other words, God is everything the false gods are not. And no matter how powerful they appear in this age, they, along with all the earthly kings and nations, will be judged and punished once and for all on the Day of Judgment. God alone is the everlasting King. Amen, right? Now listen to Jeremiah in verses 11 through 16. These verses aren't included in our proof text, but listen to how the one true God is compared to the false gods. Jeremiah says, thus you shall say to them, the gods that have not made the heavens and the earth shall perish from the earth and from under these heavens. He has made the earth by his power. He has established the world by his wisdom. and has stretched out the heavens at his discretion. When he utters his voice, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the earth. He makes lightning for the rain. He brings the wind out of his treasuries. Everyone is dull-hearted, without knowledge. Every metalsmith, those are idol-makers, is put to shame by an image. For his molded image, his idol, or his god, is falsehood. And there is no breath in them. They are futile, a work of errors. And in the time of their punishment, they shall perish. The portion of Jacob is not like them, for he is the maker of all things, and Israel is the tribe of his inheritance. The Lord of hosts is his name, and Jehovah is his name." So we see God as so much superior to these false gods that they can't even be compared. They are lifeless images, right? They are statues carved from wood and covered in gold and silver, but the question is, are they just wood and gold? They are and they aren't. Because behind all of these idols is a demon who gets his energy from the worship of men. Remember those parasites. Demons feed off from men. That's the opposite of God who feeds men, right? God is infinite, but demons are finite. They need things from outside of themselves. They need the worship of men. Listen to the Lord before the Passover meal in Egypt. Listen to how he talks about these false gods. He will judge them. God won't judge pieces of wood and gold, will he? No, but he will judge the false gods behind those idols. God alone is God, but the point I'm trying to make is that the lowercase g gods are real nonetheless. They just aren't God, like God is God. So turn with me to Exodus 12. This is Exodus 12, starting in verse 11. The Lord says, And thus you shall eat the Passover lamb with a belt on your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand. So you shall eat it in haste. It is the Lord's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast. Now listen to this. And against all the gods of Egypt, I will execute judgment. I am the Lord. He's saying, I am Jehovah, the only true God. Why would God execute judgment if false gods were just wooden images? The reason is because they're not just wooden images. The spiritual realm is real, and demons are just as real as you and me. And when a person prays to a false god, he is really serving and worshiping a demon. And God will judge those demons. He is the Lord. He is Jehovah, the one true God, and the demonic realm will be under his judgment. A couple chapters later in Exodus 15 and verse 11, it says, Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Lowercase g, gods. Who is like you, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Among the gods, it says. What does that mean if there weren't other gods? Well, the point is, that there aren't other gods because there's only one God, like Jehovah, who is glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, and doing wonders like him. But we can't deny that God is being compared and contrasted with other false gods. They are real, sure. They are called gods, absolutely, but they are not God, at least not like Jehovah. God alone is God, and he gives his glory to no one. Here's another passage showing Jehovah alongside the false gods. This time, Exodus 18 and verses 10 and 11. It's kind of an interesting passage because it's the perspective of a Gentile believer. This is Moses' father-in-law or brother-in-law, depending on who you read, commenting on the works of the Lord. And I think his perspective is interesting because he has probably seen so much witchcraft And so many signs and wonders from the pagan Gentile gods. Witchcraft wasn't reserved for back halls like it is today back in those days. Witchcraft was practiced in the streets in these ancient cultures. And so the demons were constantly displaying their power right out in the open. But listen to Jethro's commentary. Exodus 18, starting in verse 10. It says, And Jethro, Moses' father-in-law, said, Blessed be the Lord, who has delivered you out of the hand of the Egyptians and out of the hand of Pharaoh, and who has delivered the people from under the hand of the Egyptians. Now listen to this. Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods. For in the very thing in which they behaved proudly, Wood and metal don't behave proudly. He was above them. They behaved proudly in their display of power and signs and wonders. And yet the power and signs and the wonders of the true God were so much greater, they couldn't even be compared. That's quite a statement from a person who had been a witness to these other gods, right? Jethro is thought by many to be a Gentile worshiper of Jehovah, So he already believed in God, but when he saw the works of Jehovah alongside the gods of Egypt, he could honestly say that the Lord is greater than all the other Gentile gods, and all that he had spent a lifetime seeing in them. These Egyptian gods were real, and gods of a particular nation would have advantage in their own areas. So the lowercase g gods of Egypt would rarely be overpowered by the lowercase g gods from another country. That's why these people were so superstitious. Demons had their territories. That's why each nation had their own gods and they had advantages in their own territories. But Jehovah overpowered the gods of Egypt in a profound and unmistakable way. He humiliated them even in their pride, it said. meaning even in a place where they were demonstrating great power. Jethro had probably seen men have visions from these gods and had seen signs and wonders and magic and witchcraft. We're talking about a Gentile spiritual leader who had probably seen it all. And he had probably seen amazing things from these gods. But nothing compared when he heard about the parting of the Red Sea. And nothing compared when he heard about the 10 plagues. and certainly nothing compared to the complete destruction of the most powerful nation on earth in just a few short weeks. It's amazing to think about. And Jethro, with all that he had seen as a spiritual leader and priest in a Gentile land, where the occult was commonly practiced, and where people openly worshipped demons and worked magic, he had never seen anything like this. Jehovah was more than he had ever seen. God is above all the other gods. because all the other gods are false gods and he alone is the one true God. Now turn with me to Numbers 33 in verse 4. Numbers 33 in verse 4. It says, for the Egyptians were burying all their firstborn This is right after the exodus. Whom the Lord had killed among them, also on their gods the Lord had executed judgments. Interesting, right? These lowercase g gods are real. They're just not truly gods. At least not like our God. They don't share his glory. God alone is the one true God. Deuteronomy 10 and verse 17 says, For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality nor takes a bribe. Once again, he is above every other powerful thing, whether we mean men or demons. Lowercase g gods truly are real. And they are powerful, and they are influential, and they are capable of doing signs and wonders, and yet they are nothing compared to the God of gods and the Lord of lords. Now turn with me to Acts 17, starting in verse 16 for Paul's famous interaction at Athens. Let's just notice how Paul deals with the gods of these religious Gentiles in the New Testament, starting in verse 16 and reading to verse 31. Now, while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him when he saw that the city was given over to idols. Therefore, he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with the Gentile worshipers, and in the marketplace daily with those who happened to be there. Then certain Epicurean and Stoic philosophers encountered him, and some said, what does this babbler want to say? Others said, he seems to be a proclaimer of foreign gods, because he preached to them Jesus and the resurrection. And they took him and brought him in to the Areopagus, saying, may we know what this new doctrine is of which you speak? For you are bringing some strange things to our ears. Therefore, we want to know what these things mean. For all the Athenians and the foreigners who were there spent their time in nothing else but either to tell or to hear some new thing. Then Paul stood in the midst of the Areopagus and said, men of Athens, I perceive that in all things you are very religious, for as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship, I even found an altar with this inscription, to the unknown God. Therefore, the one whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you, God, who made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, Nor is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything, since he gives to all life, breath, and all things. And he has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the earth, and has determined their pre-appointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord in the hope that they might grope for him and find him though he is not far from each one of us. For in him we live and move and have our being, as also some of your own poets have said, for we are also his offspring. Therefore, since we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's devising. Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained. He has given assurance of this to all by raising him from the dead." Of course, he's talking about Jesus. Now, it almost seems as if Paul is suggesting that these idols are nothing, right? He's referring to these idols as nothing more than gold and silver and stone, shaped by art and man's devising. And that's true in the sense that these idols are nothing. But through these idols, demons are the ones being worshipped. Listen to Paul's teaching in 1 Corinthians 10, verses 19 through 22. 1 Corinthians 10 and verses 19 through 22. Paul says, what am I saying then, that an idol is anything? Or what is offered to idols is anything? Rather, that the things which the gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to demons and not to God. And I do not want you to have fellowship with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the Lord's table and of the table of the demons. Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? This is pretty amazing, really. The idols that men fashioned with their hands, the gods that they essentially created and invented, when they offer a sacrifice to that man-made idol, something supernatural happens. And they're actually fellowshipping with demons. It's scary stuff. That's what's happening in occult worship today. That's what's happened in occult worship since the beginning. That's what white and black magic are. It's argued that's what's happening in abortions. It's communion with demons. It's child sacrifice. So these people in Athens weren't innocently just playing religion. They were worshiping demons in the place of God. They were offering up sacrifices to demons just like the Jews were offering up sacrifices to Jehovah. So lowercase g gods are real, but they are not gods like the true God. Jehovah alone is God and he shares his glory with no one. So are there more gods than one? No. There is but one only, the living and true God. That's question eight. Now let's consider question nine, which ties really nicely into this God who is one. Question nine asks, how many persons are there in the Godhead? And the answer, according to our catechism, is there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory. So God is one, he is Jehovah, and yet he is a trinity. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three persons, and yet they are one Jehovah. So God, as Trinity, doesn't mean he isn't one God. And God has one will and one decree. He is fully unified as three persons in one Godhead. I'm not even going to try to create some sort of a picture for that, because I feel like they all fall so short. But God is one and God is three. And I want to talk about that. Robert Hawker writes on Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, What a blessed verse is this, which folds within its short but mighty contents, the foundation of all our faith. Our God, though existing in a manner totally distinct from all his creatures in a threefold character of person, is but one and the same Jehovah. For as the apostle beautifully represents it, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. Yet these three are but one. I would beg the reader to remark with me that though the verse be but short, yet no less than three times is the glorious name of Jehovah repeated in it. May we not suppose that the very design of this was to convey the glorious truth of a threefold character of persons in the divine unity. Happy the soul who has an evidence in his own breast of the truth of this. in being enabled there to trace the tokens of the Father's love and the Redeemer's grace and the Spirit's fellowship. I detain the reader only to make a short observation more upon this precious verse and to ask him whether the manner in which Moses calls upon Israel to attend to this leading truth, that our God is but one Lord, does not carry with it a testimony. that as the people had been accustomed to receive tokens of a plurality of persons in the Godhead, they were not to lose sight at the same time of the unity of the divine essence." Hawker sees the Trinity in this verse about a God who is one. So who's confused now? We as Christians believe that the Bible teaches clearly that God is one. We just covered those verses, right? Deuteronomy 6-4. It says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. He is one. He is not two or three or a hundred gods. He is one God. In Mark 12 in verse 32, one of the scribes said to Jesus, Well said, teacher, you have spoken the truth, for there is one God and there is no other but he. We worship one God. In Luke 18 in verse 18, we read that A certain ruler asked Jesus, saying, good teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? And then in verse 19, Jesus said to him, why do you call me good? No one is good, but one, that is God. God is singular, and there is none like him in all the world. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 5, for even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God. the father of whom are all things and we for him and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through whom we live. Christianity is what is called a monotheistic religion. It's a religion that believes in one God The pagans, on the other hand, worshipped many gods. They had a god of the sun, and of the moon, and of the rain. They had a god of the sea, and a god of war, and a god of love, and a god of every imaginable thing that a person might need help with or protection from. The Egyptians had their many gods, and the Greeks had their many gods, and the Romans did. Those are called polytheistic religions. It just means a religion with many gods. And then there are those Eastern religions where people believe that God is in everything, and everything is God. Those are called pantheistic religions. God is the whole universe to them. But we believe in a monotheistic God. That's what the Bible clearly teaches, right? We just studied through several passages teaching that explicitly. But what's interesting, and maybe a little confusing, is that Jehovah is one, but he is also three persons. God is a trinity, right? He is one God existing in three separate persons. So with that in mind, we see why this question needs to be asked and answered, right? How can we possibly believe in one God who is three persons without believing in three gods? That's a confusing concept. How can he be both one and three at the same time? Well, notice the very careful wording of the catechism question. Once again, it says, how many persons are there in the Godhead? How many persons, plural, in the Godhead, singular? The Godhead is one, and the Godhead is made up of three persons. I'm not saying that explains anything, but it helps us distinguish the plurality from the singular, right? One Godhead, three persons. One Godhead, three persons. Catechism, again, answers the question by saying there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God, the same in essence, equal in power and glory. So to understand this, let's just consider that these three persons have things they share and things they don't share. They are all fully God, and they are one God. And yet the Father is the Father, and is neither the Son nor the Spirit. The Son is the Son, and He is neither the Father nor the Spirit. And the Spirit is the Spirit and is neither the Father nor the Son. They are distinct from one another. They have different names and different works that they do, but together they are one true God. This is the Trinity. Now turn with me please to 1 John 5 and verse 7. The Apostle John explains the unity of the Trinity in 1 John 5 and verse 7. Here's what he says. For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. And these three, John says, are one. Interesting, right? And there are three that bear witness on earth, the Spirit, the water, and the blood. And these three agree as one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God, which he has testified of his Son. He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son. And this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. There are a couple words I want to hone in on here. The term bear witness and the word testify or testimony mean essentially the same thing here. To testify is to bear witness to something. And to bear witness is to testify to something. Same thing. Verse 7 says that there are three that bear witness in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the Spirit. Three heavenly persons are all testifying to something. And it says these three heavenly persons are one. Now for those who try to interpret this in a non-Trinitarian way, At the very least, they have to admit that these three heavenly persons are in agreement to what's being testified, right? They are one in agreement. They are one in their testimony. So the Father, the Word, and the Spirit are all testifying the same thing. No matter what a person's view of the Trinity, they must at least recognize that these three are testifying to the same thing here. But I think being one means more than just agreeing here. Now listen to verse nine. It says that if we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater, for this is the witness of God which he had testified of his son. Now think about that. There's that word witness again. First we see that there are three heavenly persons who bear the same witness together as one. Then it says that this witness is the witness of God. It's hard to ignore, right? The three are one, and it's pretty hard to argue against the fact that these three are also God, right? At very least, these three agree and testify together as one and alongside God. God and these three heavenly persons are in agreement about what's being testified about the Son. God testifies, the Father testifies, the Word testifies, and the Spirit testifies, and they all testify as one. But God isn't added in here as one more who testifies, is he? Of course not. No, he is the Godhead who consists of these three persons. That's the Trinity. They are not only one in testimony, they are one in essence. All truly and completely God. Spirit and infinite and eternal. Omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent. Perfectly holy and righteous, just and true. All loving and merciful. The Father, the Word, and the Spirit are one in their testimony, and they are one in their divine essence. They are distinguished from one another in verses seven and eight, and called God together in verse nine. The three persons are one God, just as the catechism tells us. Now look to verse 10. It says, he who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. So notice this testimony is of the son of God. He who does not believe God has made him a liar because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his son. So for a person to believe in the son of God is to have the witness of God in the person. God testifies or witnesses to us inside of us. It's spiritual work. It's a work of God to give us this testimony or this witness here. And what is the witness? The witness or the testimony is that God has given of his Son. And of course the Son is Jesus Christ. How do we know that? We read John chapter 1 this morning. John 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John says in his first epistle that the Father The Word and the Spirit all testify that God gave His Son. Now listen to John again, because in his Gospel, he tells us that the Word is the Son of God. Verse 14 says, And the Son and the Word became 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. And then in verse 18, The only begotten becomes the Son of God. John tells us the whole thing. Jesus Christ is God. The Father is God. The Spirit is God. This might be one of the most blessed truths in all of Scripture. Without this doctrine, Jesus Christ is not God, and he's just a man like you and me, able to fail and fall short like you and me. But if Christ is truly God, then you and I can say with certainty that God himself took our sins upon himself at the cross. And God rose from the dead so that we might live. And God took it upon himself to write the course of human history and restore a people to himself forever. It is God who calls us brother and sister. It is God who bled for us and died for us. It is God who sits at the right hand of the Father making intercession for us at his throne. And it is God who will place his own heavenly robes upon our shoulders in the day of judgment so that we might stand before the Father clothed in the very righteousness and holiness of God himself. That's what's so profound about the Trinity. The Father who called us is God. The Son who lived and died to save us is God. And the Holy Spirit who indwells us as our teacher and comforter is God. Our passage in 1 John 5 ends by saying, and this is the testimony, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. He who has the Son has life. We studied question seven last time, and the question was, what is God, right? What is God? We saw that God alone is eternal. God can't give you eternal life in me. I don't have it to offer. When it comes to eternal life in and of myself, I'm just an empty cup with nothing at all to give. Just like you. But God can give eternal life in His Son because His Son is God. And God alone possesses eternal life to give. That's what we learned last time, right? Part of what makes God God is that He is eternal. If you want a Jesus who isn't God, I'm not sure how you can interpret this verse, and I'm not sure where you can have a hope in eternal life. 1 John 5 and verse 10 says, he who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself. He who does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of his Son. Again, what is it that they testify to? They testify that Jesus is God. We worship one God, but we worship him in three blessed persons, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. One final proof text of this blessed trinity, and then I'll draw to a close. Matthew 28, verses 18 through 20 says, and Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen. No mortal man can say these things. No mortal man has authority in heaven and earth, meaning over angels and men and the weather and the seas and everything else. This is speaking of a king of both heaven and earth. And no mortal man can promise to be with his disciples even to the end of the age. These are the words of God. And maybe the most Trinitarian part of this passage reminds us that our baptism into the new covenant is in what name? We see three persons. And these three persons are all described as God elsewhere in the Bible. Think about that. You can't dodge the fact that this is a Trinitarian passage. The Father is called God the Father countless times in the Bible. John 1.1 says the Son is the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Hebrews 9.14 calls the Holy Spirit the eternal spirit. No one is eternal but God alone. And Jesus says to baptize believers into the new covenant In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We baptize in the name of the triune God. One and yet three. This is Jehovah, the one true God. My question, as we draw to a close, is the question we need to be asking ourselves constantly in this life of ours. Is this God we worship the source of our joy? Is he the source of our hope? and our eternal life and our salvation. There can be no true joy or hope or eternal life or salvation apart from this triune God of ours. The Son is with us always because he is eternal and omnipresent and omniscient and omnipotent. It's how he intercedes for all of us at all times throughout eternity. No mere man, even in his glorified state, can do the ministry of Christ. No mere man can do that. His work is infinite and eternal. Those are concepts that can only belong to God. The spirit can only be our comforter if he is omniscient and omnipresent and omnipotent. How could he possibly indwell every saint? And how could he hear the silent prayers of every saint all day long if he were not God? And how could he prompt every saint on this earth to do his will? And how could he be the teacher of every saint on each Lord's Day morning unless he is God? And how could he have penned the pages of scripture over hundreds of years and through many different people unless he had the ability to know and move the thoughts and minds and hands of men? The Spirit could only do those things if he is God. Question seven told us God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth. That could be said of the Father, that could be said of the Son, and that could be said of the Holy Spirit, and it's because of this that we can have hope in eternal life. Salvation is the work of God. God calls His elect. God saves His elect. God comforts and teaches His elect. And because God is who and what He is, He is infinitely able to affect His will. That's a blessed thought. He's infinitely patient and infinitely merciful and loving and kind. And He is infinitely good and powerful and just and true. And so when He promises eternal life to those who believe in Him, There is nothing in heaven or on earth that can make him break that promise. Come to this infinitely powerful God and come to him every day and find your hope and joy in him. No matter how much we struggle in this life with doubt and sin and temptation and the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, God is still infinitely willing and able to save us. Whether we've never turned to Him or whether we've turned to Him a thousand times, every day should be marked by a turning from sin and a turning toward God as our Savior and Lord. Whether we've never repented before or we've repented a thousand times for the same sin, this infinite Jehovah God is ready rejoicing in our repentance. The Father calls and He continues to call. The Son intercedes and He continues to intercede. The spirit comforts and teaches and he continues to comfort and teach. The Christian life is a walk that is marked by how we rely upon and trust in God to do what he's promised. He's promised to remake each and every one of us as his children into the image of his son. I pray that all of us see his workmanship being wrought in our hearts of flesh. and may this Trinitarian God of ours and all three of these blessed persons be the source of our joy and peace. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you once again for what truly is a blessed doctrine. We bless you just thinking about who you are, just thinking about how there is unity and cooperation within the Godhead It is more than our minds can understand. It is certainly more than any man can illustrate, though people try. And yet we can take it at face value, reading explicitly in your Bible, that Father and Son and Spirit are all God, and yet you are one Jehovah. How that makes sense, Lord, we will find out in eternity, but I pray, Lord, that you'd give us an understanding of it that would help our worship of you, help us to love you more, help us to serve you with greater intensity knowing just how much you love us and how much you care for us and how hard you work for us and how willing you are to forgive us and lead us into eternal life. So we thank you for all that you are. We thank you again for this time. We ask your blessing now upon the rest of our day. It's in Jesus' holy name we pray. Amen.