Participants: David Asscherick
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000054
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00:11 Welcome to Anchors of Truth from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:17 Unknown God with David Asscherick. 00:21 Well, we've been having a wonderful week here with 00:24 our Anchors Of Truth. 00:25 And the Lord has really been blessing 00:27 Pastor David, hasn't He. 00:28 Well, he has. 00:29 And you know, I guess for many years David has been coming. 00:33 I think his first time here was around year 2000. 00:36 Yes. 00:37 And David has been on many, many programs on 3ABN. 00:40 I want to tell you. 00:42 Of all the letters that we get from viewers around the world, 00:45 David Asscherick has had such an impact on people. 00:48 Literally hundreds and thousands of people around the world. 00:51 And many of those have joined God's family and joined the 00:55 Seventh-day Adventist Church as a result of the ministry 00:58 of Pastor David Asscherick. 00:59 So it is a privilege to have him here today. 01:02 And he's one of these guys who can teach you something 01:04 you didn't already know. 01:05 That's right, he does. 01:06 And he studies a lot and I really appreciate that. 01:10 You know, Danny, in 1999 he did that series down in Atlanta, 01:15 if you'll remember. 01:16 And then he came here in 2000. 01:20 I think you did the first interview with him. 01:22 I did and he had only been a Christian and an Adventist 01:26 only for a few short years. 01:28 And yet, I was amazed at the knowledge that he had. 01:31 And it shows, if we're willing and we want to 01:34 and have a desire to learn, what God can do. 01:37 And so the Lord brought him out of a lot of other things, 01:40 brought him into the direction, and he finally said, "Yes, Lord. 01:43 I'll do whatever you want me to do. " 01:44 And to this day he's still out there preaching 01:47 and traveling the world. 01:48 And we're thankful for him and his family and his commitment. 01:51 And always, when I said that a while ago, I think about 01:54 my Aunt Mildred and my Uncle Olen. 01:56 Before there was Adventist television and we were kids 01:59 growing up, I'd go over their house sometimes. 02:01 And they'd turn on the television and there would be 02:03 a few preachers talking. 02:04 And so one day, one of their sons said, 02:07 "Well mom, you're not listening. 02:08 I thought you liked to hear preachers. " 02:10 And she said, "Son, I've listened to him before. 02:12 He can't teach me something I didn't already know. " 02:14 So what we like about David is that he can teach us 02:17 something we didn't already know. 02:18 Last night being a prime example of that. 02:20 - Yea, absolutely. - Great, great. 02:21 How many of you learned something from last night? 02:24 It really was. 02:25 And you know, there are a lot of people that have really been 02:27 mixed up on this Trinity situation. 02:31 For want of a different word, we'll call it Trinity. 02:33 But they don't realize that when you do away with the Trinity, 02:39 you do away with Jesus and you do away with the Holy Spirit. 02:42 And so they just haven't thought it through, I think, 02:46 in so many cases. 02:48 Maybe sometimes they'll say, "But some of our pioneers... " 02:51 Well, some of our pioneers chewed tobacco and ate pork too, 02:54 but that doesn't mean that they kept doing it once 02:57 they found out the truth. 02:59 They also kept another day other than the seventh day, 03:02 but when they found the truth... 03:04 One of the great things about our church; it wasn't founded 03:07 by one person with one person's ideas. 03:10 A lot of the denominations were, folks. 03:12 And you'd be surprised. 03:14 But those ideas from one individual, they don't 03:18 go beyond it either one way or the other. 03:21 But there were a lot of sanctified people 03:24 involved in the bring forth of the message that we have. 03:30 And I just praise God for it, I really do. 03:32 And that's the beauty of God's word, is that 03:34 we're ever learning. 03:35 Because you never really learn. 03:37 And so it's great to sit under the ministry 03:39 of people like David Asscherick. 03:40 And we're privileged that he's here for 03:42 Anchors Of Truth this weekend. 03:44 Yes, we are. 03:45 Well, let's bow our heads for a word of prayer. 03:47 Father in heaven, we again ask for Your Holy Spirit to 03:51 come today to enlighten us, to bring us the truths from 03:57 Your Word, to help us know more about the Father, 04:02 to know more about the Son, and to really understand the 04:07 work of the Holy Spirit. 04:09 Thank You, Father. 04:11 In Jesus' name, amen. 04:14 Amen. 04:15 Well, it's our privilege at this time to bring out 04:17 my daughter, Melody Dawn. 04:19 Melody Dawn Firestone. 04:21 And Melody, it's good to have you here. 04:22 What are you going to be singing for us today, honey? 04:24 He Knows My Name. 04:25 Alright. Thank you. 04:43 He counts the stars one and all, 04:47 He knows how much sand is on the shore, 04:50 He sees every sparrow that falls. 04:58 He made the mountains and the seas, 05:02 He's in control of everything, 05:06 of all creatures great and small. 05:10 And He knows my name, 05:13 every step that I take, 05:17 every move that I make, 05:21 every tear that I cry. 05:25 And He knows my name. 05:28 When I'm overwhelmed by the pain 05:32 and can't see the light of day, 05:36 I know I'll be just fine. 05:40 Because He knows my name. 05:50 I don't know what tomorrow will bring, 05:54 I can't tell you what's in store, 05:58 I don't know a lot of things. 06:05 I don't have all the answers 06:08 to the questions of life. 06:12 But I know in whom I have believed. 06:18 And He knows my name, 06:21 every step that I take, 06:25 every move that I make, 06:28 every tear that I cry. 06:33 And He knows my name. 06:35 When I'm overwhelmed by the pain 06:40 and can't see the light of day, 06:43 I know I'll be just fine. 06:47 Because He knows my name. 06:53 He knew who I was when He carried my cross. 07:01 He knew that I would fail Him but He took the loss. 07:10 And He knows my name, 07:13 every step that I take, 07:17 every move that I make, 07:21 every tear that I cry. 07:25 And He knows my name. 07:28 When I'm overwhelmed by the pain 07:32 and can't see the light of day, 07:36 I know I'll be just fine. 07:40 Because He knows my name. 07:43 When I'm overwhelmed by the pain 07:47 and can't see the light of day, 07:51 I know I'll be just fine. 07:59 Because He knows my name. 08:10 Thank you, Melody. Good morning, church. 08:12 Happy Sabbath. 08:14 It's good to be here this morning. 08:17 He knows my name. Amen? 08:20 Well, let's start with a word of prayer. 08:22 I have quite a little bit of information 08:23 that we want to go over today. 08:24 Is that okay? 08:25 Just sort of get rid of all the niceties and get right 08:28 into the meat of the thing. 08:29 I want to thank Jim and Danny for all of those kind words. 08:34 They're going to have to repent later for lying about me 08:36 saying all of those nice things. 08:38 But it sounded good. 08:40 Let's pray together and get right into the guts, the heart, 08:43 of what we're going to study today. 08:44 I hope you brought your Bibles. You are going to need them. 08:47 Let's pray together. 08:48 Father in heaven, what a privilege and an honor 08:50 it is to be here on the Sabbath, to have heard this 08:55 beautiful song which is communicating such a 08:58 profound spiritual truth; that You know our name. 09:02 Jesus went so far as to say that the very hairs of our head 09:04 were numbered and that not a swallow or a sparrow 09:07 falls to the ground but that You are aware. 09:09 And Father, we are so thankful that even though You 09:12 superintend the universe and all of the vast galaxies and 09:16 own solar system, that You know who we are. 09:19 You know who David Charles Asscherick is. 09:22 And You know who Jim Gilley is, and Danny Shelton, 09:25 and Melody Firestone. 09:26 You know our name. 09:30 And so, Father, today we pray that You would 09:32 help us to know Your name, to know who You are, 09:36 in as much as human language and human 09:39 intellect can apprehend it. 09:41 As we stand on Scripture, we pray that we would 09:44 know who You are, that the unknown God would become 09:48 increasingly known to us, is our prayer this morning. 09:52 In Jesus' name. Let everyone say, amen. 09:57 Okay, well we're studying the unknown God. 10:00 This is our... 10:01 I almost said third, but this is our fourth installment of five. 10:04 Is that correct? 10:06 This is our fourth of five. 10:08 And I'm not going to spend a lot of time on review 10:10 but I will just simply say that we have spent most of our time 10:13 up to this point sort of laying the groundwork 10:16 and setting the table for the reality of God as both a 10:20 singularity and also as a... What? 10:23 ...Plurality. 10:24 We have seen that God is one. 10:26 If I were to ask you the question, how many 10:29 Gods are there, true Gods are there? 10:31 You would say one. 10:32 That's the word, monotheistic, or monotheism. 10:35 One God. Right? 10:37 Many of the great religions of the world are monotheistic. 10:41 Islam is monotheistic, Christianity is monotheistic, 10:45 Judaism is monotheistic. 10:47 But Christianity goes beyond a rigid monotheism to a 10:52 monotheism in which God is one, but He is comprised of... What? 10:57 ...three Persons. 10:58 Now this is a mystery. 10:59 I'm going to ask you a question. 11:00 Is this mystery fully and completely 11:02 explained in Scripture? 11:05 No. It's declared but it's not completely explained. 11:07 And as we mentioned last night, somebody who says, 11:09 "Well, I can't believe in that because I can't explain it," 11:12 you're going to have a great number of things in the Bible 11:14 that you're not going to be able to believe or proclaim. 11:17 Because how do we explain that God becomes a man? 11:19 How do we explain that God dies on a cross? 11:22 Etcetera. 11:23 So the reality is that the Bible proclaims that God is one 11:26 and yet God is Father and... What? 11:29 ...Son... And what? 11:30 ...Holy Spirit. 11:31 So, do we see God as a singularity? 11:33 The answer is... 11:34 Do we also see God as a plurality? 11:36 The answer is... 11:37 Now I want to be very, very, very sensitive here 11:40 to my Bible believing brothers and sisters 11:43 who don't see it exactly like I see it. 11:46 I don't want to say, "If you don't believe what 11:48 I believe, you're not a Christian. " 11:49 We never want to establish these sort of creeds 11:52 where we can color people in the lines, and therefore 11:54 color other people out of the lines. 11:56 I'm trying to present to you over the course of this 11:58 time together what I think is a very 12:00 compelling case from Scripture. 12:02 Are you with me on that? 12:04 But I am not suggesting that if you don't believe 12:06 just like I believe, that you're not a Christian. 12:08 What I want to try to do is to appeal especially to those 12:12 who are disinclined to believe this, 12:15 who think this isn't biblical, who think that this is just 12:17 an inheritance from papalism or from paganism. 12:20 I just want you to be open to the 12:22 evidence that we're presenting. 12:24 And can you say, can you not say with me, 12:27 "Yea, there's a case there." 12:29 In other words, it's not like I've just been standing up here 12:32 for the last three sessions saying, "Blah blah blah. 12:34 Blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah. 12:36 Blah blah blah blah. 12:38 Therefore, you should believe the Trinity. " 12:39 No, no, no. 12:40 We've been going to Scripture. 12:42 So I think it would be very unfair and disingenuous 12:46 of somebody who doesn't believe what I believe 12:47 to say, "Well, there's no biblical basis. " 12:50 Are we saying that there is a biblical basis for this idea? 12:54 Yea, the church didn't just pull this out of thin air. 12:56 The early church and the Ante-Nicene fathers, 13:00 they didn't just say, "Hey, let's come up with 13:01 something wild and crazy. " 13:03 No, no, no, no. 13:04 They were trying to affirm the unity of God, monotheistic. 13:08 But then they said, "Wait a minute. 13:09 God the Father is God, but Jesus is also God. 13:13 The gospels unanimously declare Jesus as God. 13:16 Paul declares Jesus as God. 13:18 The other epistles declare Jesus as God. " 13:20 And so the early churches, as you 13:22 learn about the development... 13:23 I'm just spending a moment here on the development 13:25 of the doctrine of the Trinity, or the articulation 13:29 of the doctrine of the Trinity. 13:30 The church was faced with a bit of a conundrum. 13:33 They knew that God was God in the sense of God the Father. 13:36 But they also believed in the full deity of Jesus. 13:39 So what do they have here? 13:40 They have a situation, don't they. 13:42 There is God here, but there is God here. 13:44 But they know there's only one God. 13:47 And so the church began to wrestle. 13:50 What's the word that I used, everyone? 13:52 They began to wrestle with the exact language and the 13:55 exact way to articulate this basic truth; 13:58 that God is one, but the Father and Jesus are God. 14:03 Now in the time leading up to the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, 14:07 and especially the time after the Council of Nicaea in AD 325, 14:10 getting right up to the Council of Constantinople in AD 321, 14:13 then they began to say, "Well, wait a minute. 14:15 It's not just Jesus. The Spirit is also God. 14:18 There's evidence that the Spirit is also divine. " 14:20 We're going to be looking at that evidence 14:21 here in just a moment. 14:22 And so what the early church was trying to do was simply 14:25 wrestle, that's our word here, with this idea that God is one, 14:29 but He is also Father, Son, and Spirit. 14:34 This is not just some idea that they said, 14:35 "Hey, let's reach into the hat and pull out a rabbit. " 14:38 No, no, no, no, no. 14:39 There are very good biblical reasons. 14:43 There are very good... What did I say, everyone? 14:45 ...very good biblical reasons. 14:47 And so I just want to appeal to my brothers and sisters 14:51 out there who are non-Trinitarian. 14:53 Okay, you don't believe exactly like I believe. 14:55 Hey, that's okay. 14:56 You don't have to believe like I believe. 14:57 You don't have to say it just like I say it. 14:58 But do not say there is no biblical basis for this. 15:02 Because frankly, you insult my intelligence 15:04 and the intelligence of other people that are here. 15:05 There is a very good reason for believing what we believe. 15:09 Amen? 15:10 Now we've looked in three sessions; 1, 2, 3. 15:13 We've sort of set the table. 15:15 We've affirmed the singularity of God 15:17 as well as the plurality of God. 15:19 We have noted very carefully that there are limits... 15:23 There are... What, everyone? 15:25 And what's our illustration that we're using? 15:26 We're standing here where? Where am I standing? 15:28 On the sea shore. 15:30 And there is an expansive and vast ocean out in front of me. 15:34 That expansive and vast ocean is who God is in His essence. 15:38 Right? 15:39 This here is what human language and human intellect 15:42 can help to understand and describe. 15:45 But even if we said the very best words in the very best way, 15:49 even if our intellect was as vast as can possibly be 15:53 in a human sense, and our language was perfect, 15:56 there would still be an infinity beyond that is God. 16:00 Amen? 16:01 So we have to ever remind ourselves of that. 16:04 That we are just children playing in the sandbox, 16:06 groping in the dark, doing our best. 16:08 But even Paul said, we see through a glass... 16:11 How do we see? ... darkly. 16:13 But then, not now, but then we will see... How? 16:16 ...face to face. 16:17 So what is not perfectly clear to us here, 16:20 what we just see glimpses of here, we will see even more 16:23 clearly when we see Him face to face. 16:26 So far so good, everyone? Okay. 16:28 So what I want to start with now is, somebody is bound to say, 16:32 appropriately enough, and I think this is a great 16:34 question for all theology, "Who cares?" 16:39 "Who cares? Big deal. " 16:41 At the Arise school that I have the privilege of directing and 16:46 teaching at, one of the things when we teach a class 16:49 is we'll teach them; what. 16:51 That's the data of what we're learning; what. 16:54 But then the next question that follows 16:56 from the "what" is, "so what." 17:00 Right? 17:01 And then after we figure out the "so what," 17:03 then you have the, "now what." 17:05 Right? 17:06 So many of our preachers give us just the "what." 17:09 But we not only need the "what," we need the "so what." 17:11 Right? 17:12 "How does it matter? What does it mean to me?" 17:15 So we've got the "what." That's the data. 17:17 Then we have the "so what." 17:18 And then we have the appeal, the "now what." 17:22 You with me on that? 17:23 So, "what," "so what," "now what." 17:24 I want to start our presentation here dealing with 17:26 some of the "so what." 17:28 "So, you say that God is three in one. 17:30 You say that Scripture teaches that God is both 17:33 singularity and plurality. 17:34 What's the big deal?" 17:36 What are some of those practical applications. 17:40 I like to tell burgeoning young preachers and people who give 17:44 Bible studies, "At the end of the study, make sure that 17:46 you've put some feet on your faith. " 17:49 You with me on that? 17:50 You need some feet on your faith and you need some 17:52 legs on your lessons. 17:54 In other words, if what we teach doesn't touch the ground, 17:57 who cares. 17:59 We're not just out to change the way that people believe. 18:01 We want to change the way that people live 18:03 and act and treat one another. 18:05 Amen? 18:06 So, "what, "so what." 18:09 And then eventually, "now what." 18:10 Okay, well I came up with just a couple; twelve. 18:16 Twelve very quick things I want to go over with you. 18:18 And I mean very quick because this is just the beginning here. 18:20 Twelve reasons why it matters. 18:22 We'll spend maybe five minutes on this. 18:24 Twelve reasons why it matters. 18:25 The first one is for the obvious reason; 18:28 that error is never harmless. 18:32 You with me on that? 18:33 It's never harmless to believe something that is not 18:36 biblical about God. 18:37 Never harmless. 18:38 Our picture of God forms how we see who He is, and then by 18:44 necessity, impacts how we behave and how we treat one another. 18:47 Error is never harmless. 18:49 Now to this effect, I want to read a 18:50 great little statement here. 18:52 Going back to the book that I mentioned yesterday. 18:53 From Millard Erickson, "Making Sense Of The Trinity," page 72. 18:56 Listen to this. 19:43 Are you with me on that? 19:44 So it's not our place... 19:45 What Erickson is saying, it's not our place to say, 19:47 "Hey, what does that have to do with me?" 19:48 The question is not, what does the doctrine have to 19:49 do with you, but what do you have to do with the doctrine. 19:52 Once something has been revealed in Scripture, that's 19:54 like somebody saying, "Okay, so Saturday's the Sabbath. 19:56 What does that have to do with me? 19:57 It has nothing to do with me. " 19:58 Oh yea it does. I has a lot to do with you. 20:00 Because it's not for Scripture to come and be relevant for you. 20:03 It's for you to be relevant to Scripture because 20:05 Scripture is God's holy Word. 20:07 So the first point is that error is never harmless. 20:09 What we believe about God radically and fundamentally 20:12 impacts how we behave and how we think. 20:15 Number two; it's important because salvation, 20:19 biblical salvation, is built around the triunity of God. 20:25 I want to say that again. 20:26 Salvation is built around the triunity of God. 20:29 I've got a great little quotation here that 20:31 communicates this in very succinct fashion. 20:33 This is from a book by Bruce Ware. 20:35 Not a member of my church. 20:37 Theologian Bruce Ware, "Father, Son, and Holy Spirit: 20:41 Relationships, Roles, and Relevance" page 17. 20:43 Listen to what he says. Tell me if you agree with this. 20:46 "To illustrate the significance of the Trinity to our faith... " 20:49 There it is, "so what." 20:51 "... consider just briefly the relation of the doctrine of 20:54 the Trinity to the Christian understanding of salvation. " 20:58 Christian understanding of... What, everyone? 20:59 ...salvation. 21:00 Now here's what he says. And I completely agree. 21:02 "In order for sinners to be saved, one must see God 21:06 at one and the same time as the one judging our sin; 21:10 the Father, the one making the payment of infinite value 21:14 for our sin; the divine Son, and the one empowering 21:19 and directing the incarnate Son so that He lives and obeys 21:22 the Father, going to the cross as a substitute for us; 21:25 the Holy Spirit. 21:26 The Christian God, to be Savior, must then be 21:30 Father, Son and Holy Spirit. " 21:33 I love this point where he basically says, this is not 21:36 just some esoteric believe pie on the sky, by and by. 21:39 He's basically saying, the Trinity radically fundamentally 21:42 impacts how we view salvation. 21:44 Because God, at one and the same time, is judging our sin; 21:48 He is paying the price for our sin; and He's the one that is 21:51 communicating what the world's Redeemer has done. 21:53 That is the person of the Spirit. 21:55 We see the Father, we see the Son, we see the Spirit. 21:58 Number two. 22:00 Now number three. 22:02 What the Trinity does, this understanding of the Trinity... 22:05 And again, remember, I'm using this word in the sense in which 22:08 the Bible defines it, not this sense in which any other person 22:11 or any internet site, etc. 22:13 For ease of communication and linguistic 22:16 simplicity here, I'm using the word. 22:20 The Trinity helps us to appreciate, listen very 22:22 carefully here, the enormity and the reality of divine 22:26 risk and sacrifice. 22:29 Divine risk and sacrifice. 22:32 One of my favorite authors, Ellen White had this to say. 22:34 She says that in the incarnation, when Jesus 22:37 became a man, she says heaven itself was imperiled. 22:41 Now I want you to just let that sink in. 22:43 Heaven itself was imperiled. 22:47 In another place, we're told that when Jesus became 22:50 a man, that God took an infinite risk. 22:55 Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Took what kind of a risk? 22:57 An infinite risk. I have a question for you. 22:59 How many infinite things are there in the universe? 23:02 One. God. 23:04 Okay, so if you have an infinite risk, who is at risk? 23:08 God is at risk. Heaven itself was imperiled. 23:11 Now follow this with me very carefully. 23:13 You're going to have to put your thinking caps on for a minute. 23:15 I'm going to do my best to do what Danny and 23:18 Jim said that I sometimes do. 23:19 I want to try to teach you something 23:20 you didn't already know. 23:22 The Bible says in Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4... 23:24 You don't have to go there. You'll just know it. 23:26 Hebrews chapter 10 verse 4. 23:27 It says, "For it is not possible that the blood of... " 23:32 Does anyone know this? 23:33 "... bulls and goats can take away sin. " 23:38 Okay, "It is not... " What's the word? 23:40 "It is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats 23:42 can take away sin. " 23:43 Now with that in mind, I have to introduce to you 23:46 a very simple philosophical distinction in entities. 23:50 Okay? A very simple philosophical distinction. 23:52 And it goes like this. 23:53 There are only two possible kinds of entities. 23:57 Created and uncreated. 23:59 That's it. 24:00 Every single entity falls into one of those two categories. 24:03 For example, what category do I fall into, created or uncreated? 24:07 I'm a created entity. How about you? 24:09 Created. How about this thing? 24:11 Created. How about this piano? 24:13 Okay, so you have two kinds of things. 24:14 Those things that have a beginning, 24:16 and thus has a creation. 24:17 And those things that have no beginning. 24:19 Okay, every single thing that you see or have ever seen 24:23 comes in this category; things that have been created. 24:26 Only one being in all of the universe comes in this category; 24:29 uncreated self-existent. 24:32 And what is that one being? God. 24:34 By the way, what's the phrase in the Old Testament that's used 24:37 to communicate this self-existence? 24:40 "I AM" That's exactly right. 24:41 Hayah. I AM. 24:42 So when Moses is standing there at the burning bush, 24:44 "Who shall I say sent me?" "I AM." 24:46 "I am Him that was and is and who is to come. " 24:48 So two kinds of beings in the universe. 24:50 Everything can be divided into this 24:52 simple bi partite structure; created or uncreated. 24:56 And only God is an uncreated self-existent being. 25:00 Amen? 25:01 In fact, the term here is that these beings, the created 25:04 beings, are what are called contingent beings. 25:07 Our existence is contingent on having been made. 25:10 And God is called, a necessary being. 25:14 Contingent beings don't have to exist. 25:17 Your non-existence is possible. 25:19 Right? I didn't exist before August 16, 1972. 25:22 Right? But God's non-existence is not possible. 25:26 He is a necessary being. 25:28 Are you with me? Yes or no. 25:29 Now keep that for just a second and listen to this. 25:33 A very interesting vision that Ellen White saw. 25:36 And I'm going to give you the quick version of this. 25:38 In the book Early Writings. 25:39 In this vision, she said that the announcement was made 25:42 to the universe that the plan of salvation 25:47 would result in the saving of man. 25:52 To which the angels said, "Yes. Great. Good. Awesome. " 25:55 And then the means of that salvation plan was communicated 25:59 to them; Jesus will become a man. 26:01 And the angels said, "Ohhh." And He will die, "Ohhh." 26:05 He will be betrayed. He will be... 26:06 And the angels just could not hardly believe it. Right? 26:08 So they liked the idea of the salvation of man, but the means 26:11 by which he was saved was hard for them. 26:14 Well in this vision, it's an awesome thing that happens, 26:17 because the angels begin to present themselves to Jesus. 26:22 And they say, "We'll go." 26:26 "We'll go." 26:27 "We will go, we will be humiliated, we will be rejected, 26:30 we will be betrayed, we will die. 26:32 We will go. " 26:33 "We'll go." 26:35 To which Jesus responds, in the vision, Jesus responds 26:38 by saying, "Thank you, but not even the life of an angel 26:44 can pay the debt. " 26:46 Now hang on to that. 26:47 Not even the life of an angel can pay the debt. 26:50 I want to ask you a simple question. 26:52 What do bulls and goats and angels have in common? 26:57 You've got it. They're in this category. 27:00 They're created beings. Right? 27:03 Not even the life of an angel can pay the debt. 27:05 No wonder the author of Hebrew said, "It is not possible 27:09 that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sin. " 27:11 Why cannot the blood of bulls and goats take away sin? 27:13 Simple. They're created beings. 27:17 Right? They're created beings. 27:19 Wait a minute. 27:21 The Trinity now, this triune nature of God, helps us to 27:24 really appreciate the hugeness, the enormity of divine risk 27:28 and sacrifice and salvation, because it's not a created being 27:33 that's hanging on that cross. 27:36 That's God on the cross, friends. 27:39 That's God Himself, 27:40 the incarnate God, hanging on the cross. 27:42 Now just imagine this. 27:44 As some of my friend like to say, they believe that at 27:46 sometime in eternity past Jesus was begotten of the Father. 27:51 They mean by that to imply that there was a time 27:56 when it was only the Father and then Jesus was begotten. 28:01 He preceded forth at some time in eternity past. 28:03 Well you can call it begotten, you can call it born, 28:05 you can call it created, you can call it made. 28:06 Whatever language you want to use, at some point 28:09 you have to concede that Jesus had a beginning. 28:13 If you believe that. 28:14 I don't believe that. 28:15 But if you believe that Jesus had a beginning, 28:17 He is a created being. 28:20 He is a... What kind of a being? 28:21 Now watch this. 28:23 If a created being is hanging on that cross... 28:27 If a created being is hanging on that cross, 28:29 then what did God risk? 28:35 Nothing. 28:36 Not only that, let's take it a step further. 28:39 The accusations of Satan against God in the great controversy 28:43 were; God is self-interested, God is not interested 28:45 in helping others, God is self-centered. 28:47 All He wants is our worship. All He wants is our adoration. 28:49 Etcetera. 28:50 God is only looking out for Himself. 28:55 Right? This is the charge in the great controversy 28:57 of Satan against God. 28:58 Now I want to ask you a simple question. 29:00 If God takes a created being, a begotten being, 29:04 and allows a created begotten being to go the cross, 29:07 how does that in any way answer the charge against God 29:11 that God is self serving? 29:14 No, no, no, no, no. 29:16 Here's God about ready to make the great sacrifice and He comes 29:19 one step short of actually making the sacrifice. 29:23 How is it a sacrifice for God to let a created being 29:26 hang on the cross? 29:28 No, no, no, no, no. 29:29 Friends, the beauty and glory and grandeur and enormity of, 29:33 not only risk, but sacrifice in the plan of salvation 29:36 is that it's not some bull or goat or begotten being or angel 29:40 hanging on that cross. 29:41 It's God in the flesh. 29:44 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, 29:46 and the Word was with God. " 29:50 Friends, this helps us to appreciate that God Himself... 29:53 Huge sacrifice. "Infinite risk," she says. 29:57 Infinite risk. 29:59 Heaven itself was imperiled. 30:02 Well, heaven itself is not imperiled when you have 30:03 the death of a bull or the death of a goat 30:05 or the death of any created being. 30:07 But if you have God Himself making the sacrifice, 30:11 God Himself taking the risk of becoming a man and 30:14 meeting Satan on his ground at infinite risk 30:17 potentially to Himself? 30:18 Now that is a God who laid everything down for the 30:23 salvation of the undeserving. 30:25 Are you with me? Amen? 30:26 And so this is huge. Absolutely huge. 30:29 Number three; it helps us to appreciate the enormity 30:31 of divine risk and sacrifice. 30:33 Number four and five, I'll put these two together. 30:35 Number four; worship is enhanced and better understood. 30:39 And number five; prayer is enhanced and better understood. 30:43 When we meet for worship, we are worshipping God. 30:46 Can you cay amen? 30:47 Jesus said, "No man comes to the Father except by Me." 30:50 So we worship God, watch this, through the Son 30:54 in the Spirit. 30:57 Right? Isn't that John 4, "God is seeking for those to 30:59 worship Him in Spirit and in... " What? 31:01 See, so rather than meeting as pagans and others did 31:04 you know, for centuries not knowing exactly 31:06 who we're worshipping; is it the volcano god? 31:08 Do we throw the virgin in the volcano? 31:10 Is it the god of the forest or the god of the... 31:11 Aghhhh. Who is this god? 31:14 No, no, no, no. 31:15 We are worshipping God the Father 31:17 through His Son in the Spirit. 31:21 When I pray, who am I praying to? 31:22 I don't know how to pray. How do I address God? 31:24 Jesus taught us to pray. 31:26 We pray to the Father in Jesus' name by the Spirit. 31:31 We're going to deal with that more in our fifth point. 31:33 So prayer and worship are significantly enhanced. 31:37 When we come in we know that we are addressing God, 31:39 but through the Son and in the Spirit. 31:42 Four and five. 31:44 Number six, seven, eight, and nine; now listen to these. 31:48 Love is found to be a fundamental value in life; 31:52 number six. 31:53 Number seven; unity is found to be a 31:55 fundamental value in life. 31:56 Number eight; diversity is found to be a 31:58 fundamental value in life. 31:59 And number nine; humility is found to be a 32:01 fundamental value in life. 32:02 Now I want you to think about that for just a moment. 32:04 Love, unity, diversity, humility. 32:07 These are not things that God just took the dice and said, 32:09 "Hey, how should we make life? 32:11 Let's make it... " and roll the dice and say, 32:13 "Well, let's go with love." 32:15 "And what else? Let's go with... " 32:17 "Yea, let's go with unity. 32:18 And let's go with diversity, and let's go with humility. " 32:21 No, no, no, no, no. 32:22 These are not arbitrary. 32:25 What word did I say, everyone? 32:27 These are not arbitrary things that God just chose 32:31 to make significant in life. 32:32 No, no, no. 32:33 What makes love fundamental to life is that God is love. 32:39 It's not something He decided. It's something He is. 32:42 At its most basic rudimentary level, life is about love 32:47 because God is love. 32:49 But take it to the next level. 32:50 Not only is God love, God is unified. 32:53 This tells us that unity, whether between 32:55 man and woman, or black and white, 32:57 or younger and older, that unity is a fundamental value 33:02 in the kingdom of heaven. 33:03 I want to say that again. 33:04 Unity is a fundamental value in the kingdom of heaven. 33:08 I have the privilege of traveling all over the world. 33:10 I've preached in the Philippines and I've preached in Africa. 33:11 I've preached in Europe, I've preached in Asia. 33:14 And beloved, it is awesome to walk into a church 33:17 where you see a whole lot of people who don't look 33:19 anything like you, and you know that they are your 33:22 brothers and sisters as verily as anyone is 33:26 your brother and sister. 33:27 Why? Because fundamental to the way the universe is constructed 33:31 is that God is unified; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 33:34 Unity is not just Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s idea. 33:37 Right? We just had MLKJ Day. 33:40 It's not his idea. It's foundational to life. 33:44 Unity; we should strive to be unified with those around us. 33:47 And all of these diversities and things, which we're going to get 33:50 to that in just a second, are not designed to keep us apart. 33:53 They're designed to help us better appreciate someone 33:56 who is not exactly like us. 33:59 Amen. 34:00 Unity is a wonderful beautiful thing. 34:03 And it is fundamental to reality. 34:06 Love, unity, diversity. 34:09 In the triunity of God, we see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit 34:13 who are all God, but who are not identical Persons. 34:17 The Father is a unique Person, distinct from the Son 34:21 who is a unique Person, distinct from the Spirit 34:24 who is a unique Person. 34:25 This helps us to appreciate diversity. 34:29 And I've been giving this a lot of thought lately. 34:30 And I wish I had time to develop this. 34:32 But the way that God has constructed the human 34:35 genetic situation, He obviously loves diversity. 34:40 Right? Have we hear that variety is the spice of... 34:43 God is not boring. 34:47 He loves diversity. 34:48 In fact, I've just been thinking about this lately. 34:50 Think of the human face. It's small. 34:52 You know, relatively. 34:54 It's about the size of a plate, a human face. 34:57 And all human faces have the same features in the 34:59 same orientation, the same features. 35:01 They have two eyes up here. They one nose in the middle. 35:04 They have a mouth. They have two ears. 35:05 So it's not like if you're an artist, you have a 35:07 lot to work with. 35:08 Right? You've got a prescribed area. 35:11 I mean, nobody has a face this big. 35:13 Right? So I mean, at the smallest maybe this. 35:15 And the biggest maybe this. 35:16 So you have a prescribed area, and you have a certain number of 35:20 features, and they have to be in the same orientation. 35:23 But I don't look anything like you and 35:24 you don't look anything like me. 35:25 For which you can be thankful. 35:27 Right? 35:28 Now you think about that. 35:29 Here, God, what is He showing? 35:30 He's showing that He values diversity in the way that two 35:35 human beings come together and another is created, 35:37 totally distinct and different, but equally valuable to 35:41 every other human being who has ever been created. 35:43 And what is true of the face is truer of the heart. 35:47 I'm not the same person as you. 35:49 But I'm not less of a person and I'm not more of a person. 35:52 God loves me uniquely. God loves you uniquely. 35:55 I'm the only available David Asscherick. 35:58 If something happens to David Charles Asscherick, 36:01 he's gone. 36:03 God values me... 36:04 In fact, I was just reading a statement this morning. 36:06 ...as if I was the only person every created. 36:08 And God values you as if you were the 36:10 only person ever created. 36:11 But you and I are different. 36:13 God values, as a fundamental value in life, diversity. 36:18 Amen? 36:19 So love is valued, unity is valued, diversity is valued. 36:23 And here, humility. This is awesome. 36:26 The book I showed you yesterday from Dr. Parfitt, 36:28 who wrote the 900 page book, 12 years preparing this book on, 36:32 "The Trinity: What Has God Revealed. " 36:34 He was interviewed and he was asked, "Dr. Parfitt, 36:36 you've been studying this topic for 12 years. 36:37 You've written a 900 page book. 36:39 What is the one thing, more than any other thing, 36:41 that you've learned about God?" 36:43 His answer was awesome. 36:45 He said, "More than any other thing, what I have learned 36:49 is the humility of God. " 36:52 Now follow this; the humility of God. 36:54 They said, "What? The humility of God? 36:56 Explain. " 36:57 Here it is. 36:59 The Father shines all the light on the Son. 37:03 "No, no. It's My Son. " 37:05 "It's My Son." 37:06 "This is My Son in whom I am well please. " 37:08 The Father defers to the Son. 37:10 "Hey, You represent Me. You go down to earth. 37:12 Men will come to Me through You. " 37:14 So the Father defers to the Son. 37:16 But who does the Son defer to? 37:18 The Son defers to the Father. 37:20 He says, "It's not Me. My Father. 37:23 It's about My Father. 37:24 Don't think... It's My Father. " 37:26 And who does the Spirit defer to? 37:28 We're going to get to this in just a second. 37:29 The Spirit defers to the Son. 37:30 Jesus even said, "When the Spirit comes to you, 37:32 He won't talk about Himself. 37:33 He's going to bring to your remembrance all things 37:35 that I command Him and that I told Him. " 37:37 So what do you have here? 37:38 It's like everybody saying, "No, no, no, no. 37:39 No, You. By all means, You. " 37:41 "No, no, no, no. By all mean, You. " 37:43 "No, no, no. By all mean, You. " 37:45 And so you have this humility within the Trinity where 37:48 no one is saying, "It's about Me." 37:51 And here's something very interesting. 37:53 Every one of us has known or knows 37:56 what I call, a "me monster." 37:58 You know, someone who had a conversation and they said, 37:59 "Me, me, me, me, and me.. " 38:01 "And I did this and I was... And I... I... I... " 38:04 Me monster, right. 38:06 How do we feel about me monsters? 38:07 Do we like to spend time around them? 38:09 Like, "Oh, I just love hanging out with that me monster. 38:11 I love the way he talks about himself. " 38:14 Right? No. 38:15 We feel that there's just something broken with a 38:18 person when all they can talk about is... 38:20 We know that's not the way that reality is supposed to be. 38:23 We see somebody who defers, somebody who's humble, 38:26 somebody who's gracious, somebody who's deferential, 38:28 and we say, "Ah, that's a good person. " 38:31 The reason that this is true is because God didn't just 38:34 roll the dice and prescribe this arbitrary meaning to life. 38:38 Because, God, in His very nature and essence, 38:41 at the rock bottom reality of what makes the universe 38:46 and life up, is this value of humility. 38:50 The Father deferring to the Son, the Son deferring to the Father, 38:53 and the Spirit deferring to the Son, who defers to the Father. 38:55 You have constant deference to one another. 38:58 Beautiful. Amen? 38:59 I love this. 39:01 This gives life such a rich tapestry and texture and beauty. 39:05 Because it's not just these arbitrary capricious 39:08 values that God thrust upon life. 39:11 In fact, I wish I had time to develop that, but I just don't. 39:13 What you have is; love fundamental to life, 39:18 unity fundamental to life, humility fundamental to life, 39:22 and diversity fundamental to life. 39:24 Does the Trinity have anything to say about how we live? 39:29 In fact, it does. 39:30 It's not just some pie in the sky, by and by. 39:33 No, no, no, no. 39:34 There's a whole lot of legs on this lesson. 39:37 And there's a whole lot of feet on this faith. 39:40 Okay, I've got three more for you. 39:42 By the way, you're lucky that I'm timed. 39:44 Or you would be here for the next three hours. 39:46 You just praise the Lord that there's such a thing as a clock. 39:51 Number ten; in the Trinity we learn the 39:54 appropriate use of authority. 39:57 Amen. 39:59 The appropriate use of authority. 40:01 The Father is supreme within the Trinity. 40:03 Not in terms of essence, but in terms of hierarchy. 40:05 The Father is supreme. 40:06 Jesus said so, "My Father is greater than I." 40:08 The Spirit defers to the Son, the Son defers to the Father. 40:12 What we see here is that authority and headship is 40:15 not in and of itself a bad thing. 40:17 What is a bad thing is the way that human beings 40:20 abuse authority and headship. 40:22 But what we have in the Trinity is a model for the appropriate 40:26 use of authority and the appropriate submission 40:30 to someone who is in a position of genuine authority. 40:33 Amen. 40:34 And there are some of us fathers in this room, and some 40:37 of us mothers in this room, that could learn this lesson. 40:40 Also as we look at governments, it helps us to say, 40:44 "That's an inappropriate use of authority. " 40:45 As we view some governments. 40:46 And perhaps others we can say, "That's an appropriate 40:48 use of authority. " 40:49 But we have modeled for us how authority 40:53 and how submission is to take place in the human sphere. 40:57 Our final two here, eleven is; we learn what true 41:02 fatherhood and sonship looks like. 41:04 We see what true fatherhood and true sonship looks like. 41:08 Jesus was the Son of God. 41:09 And I wish I had time to develop this. 41:11 That "Son" is not primarily a chronological term. 41:15 It's a relational term. 41:16 I deal with this quite extensively in my book. 41:19 And I don't have time to go into it right now. 41:21 But I'll give you, literally, the 30 second version. 41:24 When my son is zero and I'm 20, if I have a boy when I'm 20, 41:28 the difference between us is vast. 41:30 My son is perfectly dependent on me and his mother. 41:32 Right? 41:33 But as soon as my son becomes 10 and I become 30, 41:36 dependence decreases. 41:37 Is a 10 year old dependent on his parents? 41:39 Yes or no. 41:40 Is a 10 year old as dependent on his parents as a zero year old? 41:43 No. So now watch this. 41:45 When I become 40 and my son is now 20, 41:49 is dependence decreasing? 41:51 Now the reason dependence is decreasing is that even though 41:54 the difference in age between us remains fixed at 20 years, 41:56 the percentage of difference between us is getting 42:00 lesser and lesser and lesser and lesser. 42:01 So that when I'm 80 and my son is 60, 42:04 I'm now dependent on him. 42:07 Are you with me on that? 42:08 Now let's take this to its logical conclusion. 42:10 God made Adam and Eve, not to die, but to live forever. 42:12 Amen? 42:13 God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply." 42:15 So let's imagine that Adam's son lives to be a million years old. 42:20 A million. 42:21 Let's say that Cain hadn't sinned and Adam hadn't sinned. 42:23 And Cain is now a million years old. 42:26 And let's say that Adam had Cain when he was 20. 42:28 So how old is Adam? 42:29 He's a million 20. 42:30 So what's the difference between them, 42:32 the number of years between them? 42:33 20 years. But I want to ask you a question. 42:36 Is that a large difference or a small difference 42:38 relative to the total number of years they're alive? 42:41 It's a totally insignificant difference. 42:44 You see, 20 to zero is a huge difference. 42:46 But 60 to 80 are the same generation. 42:48 Right? 42:49 And a million 20 to a million, you're virtually... 42:53 So here's the point. 42:54 What this teaches us is that sonship and daughtership 42:57 is not primarily chronological. 42:59 It's relational. 43:01 When Jesus said, "I'm the Son of God," He was not making a 43:04 chronological statement. 43:06 He was making a statement of relationship. 43:08 And the Jews totally understood this because they said in 43:10 John chapter 5, "Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. 43:12 You call Yourself the Son. 43:13 You are making Yourself... " What? 43:17 "... equal with God." 43:19 You tracking on that? 43:21 It's absolutely awesome. 43:22 Sonship is not about chronology, it's not about years. 43:26 Sonship is about equality and relationship. 43:30 Amen? 43:32 Okay, and I think that was number eleven. 43:34 Our final one here is that we learn the value of delegation 43:38 and deference. 43:40 We learn the value of delegation. 43:41 The Father sends the Son. 43:44 There is a work that the Son can do that the Father cannot do. 43:47 The Son says, "It is expedient for you that I go away. 43:50 Because if I don't go away, the Comforter will not come. " 43:52 The Son delegates to the Spirit. 43:55 And so we learn that it's not all about me. 43:58 Right? 43:59 It's not all about, "I'm the one." 44:01 "No, no, no. The buck stops here. " 44:03 No, no, no, no. 44:04 All great men and great women recognize their strengths 44:07 and their limitations. 44:10 The greatest men and the greatest women that have 44:12 ever lived are always delegators. 44:15 They recognize what they can do, and by extension 44:18 what they can't do, and they bring somebody else in. 44:20 "And you can... And you and you and you. " 44:22 In other words, team work. 44:24 Now these are just 12 things, 12 simple things, that impact 44:30 how we view God... 44:32 Or rather, how we view God impacts our lives. 44:35 There are some legs on this and there are some feet on this. 44:38 Amen? 44:39 You with me on that? 44:41 Someone can say, "Oh, it doesn't make any difference. 44:43 Just pie in the sky, by and by. 44:45 It's just ethereal theology flying up at 35,000 feet 44:48 above the ground and never actually lands anywhere. " 44:51 No. These things that I've just communicated there 44:53 can land right in the living room. 44:55 And it lands right in the bedroom. 44:56 And it lands right in the workplace. 44:58 And it lands right in the church. 45:00 This is practical. 45:01 And I'll say this, all good theology is intensely practical. 45:06 Okay, now with that in mind, open your Bible to 45:08 John chapter 14. 45:13 What about the Spirit, particularly? 45:16 We're going to spend the rest of our time here in 45:18 John 14, 15, and 16 to set the table for our final message 45:22 on the divinity and Personhood of the Spirit. 45:25 But here we go. 45:27 In John chapter 14, Jesus says in verse 15 a familiar verse 45:30 to many Seventh-day Adventists, "If you love me... "What? 45:33 "... keep My commandments." 45:34 And we all say, "Ok, I'm going to do it." 45:36 "I'm going to buckle down and I'm going to 45:38 keep these commandments. " 45:40 Yea, yea. But don't forget to read the next verse. 45:42 This is how you keep the commandments. 45:45 Not by your own strength and your own intestinal fortitude. 45:49 You keep it by the Spirit. 45:51 Verse 16, the very next verse, "I will pray the Father... " 45:56 There it is, deference to the Father. 45:58 "... and He will give you another... " 46:02 Now what does your Bible say there? 46:04 Some Bibles say "Comforter," some Bibles say "Helper," 46:07 some Bibles say "Advocate," some Bibles say, "Counselor," 46:09 some Bibles say, "Friend." 46:11 Now whenever you see that kind of breadth of language; 46:14 Comforter, Counselor, Advocate, Friend, Helper, 46:17 what it lets you know is, that word is not easily translated. 46:21 The Greek word here is "parakletos." 46:24 Parakletos. 46:25 And literally what the word means is, someone to 46:28 stand by you. 46:31 Does a friend stand by us? 46:33 Yes. 46:34 Does a counselor stand by us? 46:35 Does a helper stand by us? 46:37 Does an advocate stand by us? 46:38 And so literally what Jesus is saying here is, 46:40 "I will send another Person to stand by you. " 46:44 "He will send you another Helper that 46:47 He may abide with you forever. " 46:48 Here it is. Who is it? 46:50 "The Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, because 46:52 it neither sees Him nor knows Him; 46:55 but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be... " 46:58 And this is fascinating. "... in you." 46:59 That's what we're going to spend all of our time, 47:00 well some of our time, with on our last session. 47:02 "... in you." 47:03 Verse 18, "I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you. " 47:06 And I just want to read the rest of these passages, 47:07 and then we'll go unpack the significance. 47:09 Stay in John chapter 14, look at verse 26. 47:13 John 14:26 47:16 "But the Helper... " There it is again, parakletos. 47:19 "... the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, 47:22 He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance 47:25 all things that I have said. " 47:27 So notice that He, the Holy Spirit is not showing up saying, 47:31 "Hey, I've got a lot of stuff I want to tell you. " 47:33 No, no, no. Jesus said, "When the Holy Spirit comes 47:35 He will tell you what I said. 47:37 He'll be My voice, He'll be My words here on earth to you. " 47:41 Stay in John, look at chapter 15 verse 26. 47:45 John 15:26 47:47 "But when the Helper comes," parakletos, 47:50 "whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth 47:53 who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of... "What? 47:56 "... of Me." 47:57 So notice, is He blowing His own horn? 47:59 Honk, honk. Aruga. 48:01 Who's horn is the Holy Spirit blowing? 48:04 Whose, whose, whose, whose? 48:06 Jesus. Question. 48:07 Whose horn was Jesus blowing? 48:09 Now I'm going to come back to that and it's an awesome point. 48:11 That will be another one of those saying that you might 48:13 not have known before. 48:14 And I'm going to say it in a way that I think you'll really like. 48:16 The final passage here in John 16. 48:19 Verse 8, "And when He... " 48:21 Notice the plural masculine pronoun. 48:23 "When He has come, He will convict the world of sin, 48:26 and of righteousness, and of judgment: 48:27 of sin, because they do not believe in Me; of righteousness, 48:29 because I go to My Father and you see Me no more; 48:31 of judgment, because the ruler of this world," 48:32 that is Satan, "is judged." 48:33 Verse 12, "I still have many things to say to you, 48:35 but you cannot bear them now. 48:37 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, 48:39 He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on 48:42 His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; 48:47 and He will tell you things to come. 48:48 He will glorify... " Who? Whose horn is He blowing? 48:51 "Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you. " 48:56 Fascinating. 48:57 So first of all, let's just note several things. 49:00 Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a person. 49:04 As a what, everyone? 49:05 As a person. 49:07 He doesn't refer to the Spirit as a power, as a energy, 49:10 as an effervescence. 49:11 He refers to the Holy Spirit as a person. 49:13 And notice the acts that the Spirit will do. 49:18 He says the Spirit will guide, the spirit will speak, 49:22 the spirit will reveal or disclose, 49:24 and the Spirit will glorify. 49:26 Now, question. 49:28 Can a force or an immanence or an effervescent 49:32 guide, speak, reveal, and glorify? 49:36 Yes or no? No, no, no, no. 49:38 A person speaks, and a person guides, 49:41 and a person discloses, and a person glorifies. 49:44 So two things right out of the gate. 49:45 First of all, Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as a "He." 49:50 And it's that way in the Greek, by the way. 49:51 He refers to it, not as an it, but as a He. 49:54 And the significance here is that the word 49:56 for Spirit is pneumo, which is actual neuter in the Greek. 49:59 It's actual neuter. 50:00 So the appropriate thing would be, "It." 50:01 And so there are sometimes grammatically where 50:03 it says, "Spirit, It." 50:05 But Jesus here intentionally, in John 14, 15, and 16, 50:08 actually uses the plural masculine pronoun, "He." 50:12 "He will do this." "He will do this." 50:16 "The Comforter will do this." 50:17 So Jesus refers to the Spirit as a person. 50:20 As a what? 50:21 And He attributes activities to the Spirit that only 50:25 a person can do; guide, speak, reveal, etc. 50:28 Now let's take it a step further. 50:30 He said, "I will pray the Father and He will send you 50:34 another parakletos. " 50:36 Another Comforter. 50:39 There's only one other person in the Bible 50:40 that's called, the Comforter. 50:43 Or called, the parakletos. 50:45 It's actually in 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. 50:47 You can write that down. 1 John chapter 2 verse 1. 50:49 I'll just quote it for you here. 50:50 It says, "Little children, these things I write unto you, 50:52 that you sin not. 50:53 And if any man sins, we have an Advocate... " 50:57 Guess what word that is. 50:58 Parakletos. 51:00 "... we have an Advocate with the Father, 51:03 Jesus Christ the righteous. " 51:04 So, question. 51:05 Who was the first parakletos? 51:09 Jesus. 51:10 No wonder Jesus said, "I will send you another parakletos. " 51:14 "I'll send you another Comforter. " 51:15 Think about this. 51:16 If I'm sitting across the table, say, from JD. 51:19 JD and Shelley and I are having lunch. 51:20 And you come over and you sit down and you hear me say 51:24 to Shelley, or you hear Shelley say to me, 51:27 "David, would you like another sandwich?" 51:31 Okay? 51:32 Which chances are I'm going to say "yes" to that, by the way. 51:34 "Would you like another sandwich?" 51:35 If you just walked up and that's all you know about 51:37 the conversation, what do you know if she offers 51:40 me another sandwich? 51:42 I've already had a sandwich. 51:44 I can only have another sandwich if there was a first sandwich. 51:46 So when Jesus says, "I will send you another Comforter," 51:51 that lets us know that there was a first Comforter. 51:55 And we know exactly who that was. 51:57 Who was the one who was walking and talking and living and 52:00 breathing beside the disciples for three and a half years. 52:02 Who was that? Jesus. And Jesus is leaving. 52:05 And the disciples were like, "No. "They don't understand. 52:07 They don't understand the crucifixion and the 52:08 death and resurrection. 52:09 But Jesus is saying, "I'm going away." 52:10 And the disciples were like, "No, you're not going away." 52:12 And He turns and He says, "You don't understand. 52:13 It's good for you that I go away because if I go away, 52:15 I'll send the Spirit. " 52:17 Jesus was, by His humanity, bound to a single place, 52:22 a geographical location that you could plot on a GPS. 52:24 But the Spirit could be here and here and here and here. 52:27 And so if Jesus is leaving, is Jesus a person? 52:32 I said, is Jesus a person? 52:33 So if Jesus is a person, who's going to fill that space 52:38 left vacant by a person? 52:40 Can a power do that? 52:42 Can a force do that? Can an energy do that? 52:44 Can an effervescent fill the space left vacant by a person? 52:48 What's the answer? 52:49 Only a person can fill the space left vacant by a person. 52:52 In fact, just imagine that you hire me... 52:55 This is a great little illustration. 52:56 ...to put an addition on your house. 53:00 Which I don't advice, by the way. 53:03 If it was made of Lego's, I could do it. 53:05 If you say, "David, I want you to put an addition on my house." 53:08 I say, "Hey, no problem. It'll take 7 months to do it. " 53:10 We do it and we sign the contract. 53:12 And I get three and a half months through the project, 53:14 half way through the project and I come and say, 53:16 "Man, I've got good news and bad news. " 53:17 You say, "What's the good news?" 53:18 I say, "The good news is the project is coming along great. " 53:19 You say, "What's the bad news?" 53:21 "The bad news is, I'm leaving." 53:22 "What do you mean you're leaving, you're the contractor. 53:24 You can't leave, you're the contractor. 53:26 My house is half finished. 53:27 I've got the tarp, I've got the windows. 53:28 You can't leave. " 53:29 But then I say to you, "Don't worry. 53:31 I'm leaving, and it's actually for your good, because 53:34 I'm going to send you another contractor. " 53:38 I'm going to send you another... What? 53:40 "... contractor who will finish what I've begun. " 53:42 Now imagine, Monday morning there's knock at the door. 53:45 And you open the door. 53:47 And I tell you, "Monday morning, the new 53:48 contractor, you get to meet him. " 53:49 And there is a Honda generator sitting on your front step 53:53 with a little note on it that says, 53:54 "Here's your new contractor." 53:58 And you say, "Oh, great. How are you doing? 54:01 So you can see the project is half... " 54:03 An energy source, which is what a generator is, 54:07 cannot supply the space left vacant by a person. 54:12 You with me on that? 54:13 So if Jesus is a person, which He is, 54:17 and He leaves a space vacant, only a person can fill the space 54:22 left vacant by a person. 54:24 No wonder Jesus said, "I will send you another 54:26 person to stand beside you. " 54:30 But it gets even more amazing. 54:32 The word that Jesus used for "another," 54:34 "I will send you another Comforter," 54:37 is the word "allos." 54:38 There are two Greek words that could have been used; 54:41 heteros or allos. 54:43 And "heteros" is a word that you'll be familiar with. 54:45 For example, heterosexual. 54:48 Male, female. Different. 54:50 Heteros means, another but different kind. 54:53 Allos means, another but the same. 54:57 The same kind. 54:59 Either word could have been chosen here. 55:01 Jesus could have said, or John could have written, 55:03 "I will send you heteros parakletos. " 55:05 "Another different kind." 55:07 No, but He says, "I will send you allos parakletos. " 55:10 "Another of just the same kind. " 55:15 Was Jesus a person? 55:17 Yeah? 55:18 So what's this allos parakletos going to be? 55:22 Exactly. A person. 55:25 The final thing I want to say here and then we'll close 55:26 this session and set up our final message here. 55:28 This is awesome. 55:30 John chapter 1 says, "In the beginning was the Word, 55:32 and the Word was... " What? ... "with God." 55:34 One of the names for Jesus is, the Word of God. 55:37 Are you with me on that? 55:38 In Revelation chapter 19 when Jesus returns, there is written 55:41 on His vesture and on His thigh a name written; 55:43 "King of kings and Lord of lords. " 55:44 But it says in that same chapter, His name is called, 55:46 the Word of God. 55:48 One of the name of Jesus is, the Logos, the Word. 55:51 Now get this. 55:53 So here's the Father and His word is the Son, 55:59 and the Son is a person. 56:02 Are you with me on that? 56:03 Okay, now check this out. 56:05 Jesus says, "The words I speak to you, 56:09 they are spirit and they are life. " 56:10 John chapter 6. 56:12 Jesus, as He was in the upper room with the disciples 56:14 right at the end, the Bible says He breathed on His disciples 56:17 and said, "Receive the Spirit." 56:20 And Jesus also said, as we have already seen here, 56:22 very interesting, Jesus said, "When the Spirit comes, 56:24 He will speak My words. 56:26 He won't be tooting His own horn. 56:28 He'll be speaking My words. " 56:30 So you see how the Son stands in a relationship 56:33 to the Father as His word. 56:35 And the Spirit stands in relationship to the Son 56:38 as His word. 56:40 The word of the Father is the Son. 56:42 The word of the Son is the Spirit. 56:44 What we see is absolutely awesome here. 56:47 That each one stands in deferential 56:49 relationship to the other. 56:52 The Spirit comes down... 56:53 And we're going to talk about this in our final session. 56:54 ...and His job is to bring to our remembrance, 56:57 not Himself, not to blow His own horn, 56:59 but He points us to Jesus. 57:01 And Jesus says, "Oh yes, all the words that I speak 57:04 and who I am, I have come to glorify the Father. " 57:08 Just as the Son is the word of the Father, 57:11 the Spirit is like the word of the Son. 57:14 Each pointing graciously in humility and deferentially 57:18 to the other one. 57:19 Friends, the Spirit is not a power to be used by me. 57:24 The Spirit is a person who can use me. |
Revised 2014-12-17