Perhaps some of you remember
who were here last week that we spoke a little bit about who
is God and we reminded ourselves that the Bible teaches that there
is one God, that we have one Lord and one God. And I gave you one or two little
phrases that we can use to remember the kind of God that we have. We said that God is a spirit,
and he doesn't have a body like we do. That means that he can
be everywhere at one time, and he is everywhere at one time. God can be anywhere, all the
time. He is an eternal God. He is a
spirit. He is not confined to a body
like ours. God never changes. He's always
the same. God is all-powerful. He created everything. God is
all-wise. He knows everything, everything
about us, everything about our family, everything about what
goes on in the world. There is nothing hidden from
the eyes of God. And God is holy. That is something
that we always need to remember. We are not holy, we are sinful
creatures. We do things that are wrong,
we do things that are bad, we do things that we ought not to
do. But God always does that which
is right and perfect and holy. And that also has another effect. because our sin prevents us from
approaching God. We are not able to go to God
because we are sinful creatures. And if you remember the story
of Adam and Eve, you'll remember that because of sin, they were
shut out of the presence of God. They were put out of the garden
where once they had enjoyed fellowship with God. But I might have told
you something else about God last week. I didn't mention this,
so I'm going to mention it now. God is love. God is love. And that means that God loves
his people. Though he is such a holy God,
though he is such an all-knowing and all-powerful God, he loves
his people. He loves men and women, boys
and girls like you and like me. And when we learn about God,
it is always good for us to remember that God is much bigger than
we are, that God is much more profound than we can ever fully
understand. He's more wonderful than just
mere men and women. And when we begin to learn about
him, What we really discover is that for all we know, there
is so much more that we don't know. Now, some of us have been
reading the Bible for a lot of years, and we still discover
things that we haven't learned before. And when we come to study
God, We need to remember that he is, in a real sense, beyond
our understanding. Let me give you an example. The
Bible teaches that there is one God, but the Bible also teaches
that there are three persons in the Godhead. There is God
the Father, there is God the Son, and there is God the Holy
Spirit. That's not three gods, that's
one God. There is one God in three persons. The three persons are sometimes
called the Trinity. So if you hear somebody talking
about the Trinity, or God the Father, God the Son, and God
the Holy Spirit, you've not to think about three different gods,
for the Bible tells us there is but one God. in three persons. That's hard for us to understand,
but it's what the Bible says, and we believe what the Bible
says. In 1 John 5, verse 7, this verse
is given to us by the apostle. He says, there are three that
bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, that is the Son, and
the Holy Ghost. and these three are one. Not just that they agree together,
but that they are one God. And some people say that's a
hard thing to understand, that three are one and one are three. But then, don't you agree with
me that if we knew everything about God, then God would be
much smaller than we are and we would be able to understand
all about him. It would be like we were God
and he was us. The truth is that God is wonderful
and marvellous and we believe what he has told us about himself. The Bible says that God the Father
sent God the Son into the world to die for sin. God the Son sent
God the Holy Spirit to apply the gifts of God's grace and
mercy to sinners like us. All the persons of the one true
God work together to accomplish the salvation of the people that
he loves. And he gives us understanding
of these things by faith in him. I want to give you a little reading.
This is just really for the young people to show us where the Bible
is. expressly teaches about the three
persons of the Godhead. Do you remember when Jesus was
starting his ministry, he came into the place where John the
Baptist was baptizing? He came to the river Jordan,
and John was baptizing, and Jesus went to John, and he said to
John, John, I want you to baptize me. And John said, I can't baptize
you. You're the son of God. You should
be baptizing me. And the Lord Jesus said, no,
John, you need to baptize me because that's the right thing
to do. And in Matthew chapter three,
verse 15, we read these words. Jesus, answering, said unto John
the Baptist, Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becometh
us to fulfil all righteousness. Then he was baptised. And when he was baptised, Jesus
went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were
opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like
a dove and lighting upon him. And, lo, a voice from heaven
saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Now do you see all the persons
of the Godhead working and testifying together there? God the Son was
baptised. When he was baptised, he came
up out of the water and he saw the heavens open and God the
Spirit descended like a dove and rested upon him. And God
the Father spoke these words and said, this is my beloved
Son in whom I am well pleased. One true God, three persons,
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We sometimes have
a little doxology at the end of our sermon. One of the doxologies
that the Apostle Paul left with the church is found in 2 Corinthians
chapter 13 and verse 14. Listen to this. The grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion
of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen.