Let us turn to our Bibles to Ephesians chapter 1. Ephesians chapter 1. You’ll eventually have the whole thing memorized. Ephesians chapter 1, verses 3 to 14. Let us listen attentively to the word of God.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.
In Him also you have trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory. Let us pray. We bring our petitions this morning, God, first and foremost that we would honor You and glorify You, God, by learning more of who You are, not only what You have done for us, as we learned the work of the Trinity in our salvation last week, but who the Trinity is, who You are in Your relationship to one another, God, Almighty Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and how in particular the two members of the Trinity, the Son and the Holy Spirit, are divine, that they are not some secondary deity, as many cults teach.
Our Lord and Savior, may this truth sink into our hearts and bring more praise and honor to Your glorious name we ask. Amen. Amen.
So as you can see, the main theme here, verses 3-14, is blessed be the God and Father, and He ends each section, section 6, to the praise of His glorious grace, that’s a blessing or an honor or glorifying God, and then again in verse 12, that we should be to the praise of His glory, and then in verse 14, to the praise of His glory. That’s the main theme. And in doing this, and explaining this, and unpacking this, Paul touches upon many theological topics and assumes, as in the case here, the Trinity, the glorious Trinity.
That’s why there’s a Father and there’s a Son and the Holy Spirit. He mentions all three in that order. In their work, the particular offices, to use an older language, that they exercise with respect to our salvation, as we heard last week.
And so here, in this sermon, I want to delve into the Trinity, and how this text, as well as, as we know, many other texts, explain and show to us that there is a Trinity, that there is a Father, a Son, and a Holy Spirit, and these three are one God. This is one of the defining factors of Christianity. It’s important to learn and to know and to relearn.
Go over the basics, it’s always good. Especially as false religions have multiplied in America, and now with, unfortunately, porous borders, we have a lot more foreigners, especially in the eastern part, that we never ran across. The older generation are like, what are these eastern religions? Where did this come from? We have more of this, and they’re not going to know about this stuff.
We need to learn it and teach others if they will listen. Paul’s marvelous doxology here, his praise of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, invites us to delve further into the biblical teaching of the Trinity, and therefore to meditate upon the glory of our God as He is. And although clearly listed in this passage with verse one naming the Father and the Son, and verse 13 naming the Holy Spirit, the apostle, of course, does not unpack this teaching, but assumes it and writes as though it were true.
For how could we fully bless God if we share the praise among lesser beings, as those who deny the Trinity do? No, the fact that all three members are honored and are put on par with each other in the opening is an opening argument for the Trinity itself in these verses. And so what the doctrine is and what it entails, especially with respect to the Son and Holy Spirit, proving their deity, that they are divine, is the point of this sermon. Now, it’s going to have conveniently three points, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
God the Father
Point one, God the Father. We speak of God the Father. Assumed in the Bible, mentioned virtually everywhere it seems, all throughout the Bible, wherever the Son is prophesied.
In fact, often we will read of the Father. We saw that in Psalm 2 and elsewhere. You are my Son, this day I have begotten you.
I have the nations as your inheritance. So you have a clear distinction of a Son and a Father, a divine Father, Father God. Also, when the Spirit is mentioned a number of times, many times, it’s the Spirit of God.
And the Father is involved in the verses often as well. We see this in particular in the opening chapters of Genesis. We talked a little bit about that last week in unpacking the work of the Trinity in creation and providence.
In Genesis 1, 1 and 2, you can’t get away from it. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the water.
So clearly you have God and you have the Spirit of God, two distinct persons, and the one being, obviously, the Father, verse 1. And it’s more explicit in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, it’s just God. It’s just God, God, God, the Lord God Almighty.
Whenever it’s mentioned, it’s obviously in almost every case, it’s not every case, the Father. Other cases, it’s the Son. 2 Corinthians 13, 14, where it becomes more clear in the New Testament era, right? God had progressively given more knowledge to his people over time.
We know more than they knew 2,000 years ago, and they knew more, the apostles knew more, and then their forefathers in the Old Testament from Moses to Abraham to Adam. And we have hints, of course, they knew a little more. They understood a number of things, not explicit in the text, but not as much as we have.
And we see this especially in verses such as 2 Corinthians 13, 14. You will recognize this as the Trinitarian benediction I give after the end of the sermon. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
He mentions three people, persons. Divine persons, of course, as we unpack the rest of the Bible. But they’re clearly delineated.
There’s a Father, and then there’s a Son. And of course, our text is Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 3. God and Father as coordinated names with respect towards the Son, Jesus Christ.
And Jesus Christ here meaning the God-man. Both God and man who’s incarnate and lived and died for his people. And so with respect to Jesus as man, the Father.
God is his Father. That’s why it’s God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has a Father.
It’s the Divine Father. And that Father, of course, as he is man, is also his God. And Jesus, with respect to his divinity, has the Father as well as, with respect to him as the Son of God, the second member of the Trinity.
There’s a Father and a Son within the Trinity itself. And I’m going to unpack a little more here in a little bit. But the point of this verse here is to show us that there is a Father in distinction from the Son and the Holy Spirit.
And the Father clearly is divine and often called simply God. Here it’s both. Blessed be God and Father of the singular Lord Jesus Christ.
God the Father is even assumed by those who deny the Trinity. So it’s not much of a doctrine to defend in the sense of I have to go into all the details. What I want to talk more about here is the Trinity as a doctrine.
What is the doctrine of the Trinity? Question nine of the larger catechism. You guys get an advancement beyond the shorter catechism. The larger catechism, question nine.
How many persons are there in the Godhead? There be three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. And these three are one true eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by their personal properties. One Godhead, the same in substance, equal in power and glory.
There is one deity, because there can only be one eternal being. But there are three persons distinct from each other in that one eternal being or deity or the old language is Godhead. We have similar kind of languages which is from Middle English.
I remember looking it up. Manhood, womanhood, or head. Same idea, the nature, that which makes a woman, this is what makes deity or God, God.
It’s one God in three persons. It’s the simplest way to say it. It may sound contradictory.
It is not contradictory. Our forefathers and theologians would speak of it being beyond our logical understanding but not contrary to it because God is infinitely greater than our finite knowledge. It’s another way of saying the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Father, the Son is not the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is not the Son, the Holy Spirit is not the Father.
They are distinct persons and that’s actually a technical term in theology in the Bible. As it says here, although distinguished by their personal properties, that which makes the Son, the Son and not the Father, and that which makes the Spirit, the Spirit and not the Father or the Son. And I won’t go into the depth of it but that is summarized as the Son is begotten of the Father, only begotten, and the Spirit is the spiration or going forth from the Father and the Son.
Those are the unique inter-Trinitarian properties. 1 John 5.7 to speak of the doctrine of Trinity more broadly. 1 John 5.7 is a good text.
For there are three that bear witness in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are one. You will meet out here, of course, more than elsewhere, short of Utah, more Mormons in Colorado area and a few JWs or Jehovah Witnesses and they deny the Trinity. They believe other things about the Son and the Holy Spirit like the Spirit is a power or something but certainly they think they are sub-par compared to the Father.
1 John 5.7 is a good verse to show us and to demonstrate the Holy Trinity. There are clearly three distinct and yet united here. The how is not unpacked but simply stated by John, 1 John.
For there are three that bear witness and these three are one. It doesn’t specify what that is, that one, but they are three and one. The Word, of course, is Christ.
We’ll see about that in the next point too. John 1.1, the beginning was the Word and of course there’s the Holy Spirit. So clearly there’s three.
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. All three are put on par as witnesses in heaven. If you want a witness and you had a cosmic trial, would you want a mere angel or a human to be a witness or would you rather have God to be a witness? You already know the answer to that question.
And so when John here says these three are witness, he’s saying these three are divine. They have to be divine for him to coordinate them this way. And of course they’re in heaven as well.
That’s the origin, that’s the residing or the, to speak metaphorically, because God is everywhere. God is everywhere. So often when it says he’s in heaven or he reigns from heaven, it’s a way of emphasizing his spiritual nature and how he is indeed everywhere.
Because heaven, of course, covers the entirety of the earth. You can’t get away from him. Being in heaven is also an indication that the Word and the Holy Spirit is divine.
Matthew 3, 16-17. In Matthew 3, 16-17, perhaps you hadn’t thought about this verse. Here we have the baptism of Jesus.
Jesus, the Son of God, or that is Jesus, the God-man, where he is both God and man. He took upon himself the body and soul of a man and walked among us while still being God. Matthew 3, 16-17.
When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and beheld, and behold, the heavens were opened to him. And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
This is a public testimony of the unique ministry of Jesus. We miss this, I think, especially in the American scene, because we’re very informal about a lot of things. We understand formality.
We understand when you go to a wedding, I should probably act a little different, dress a little nicer. It’s something public. It’s a little unique and different.
This was very common all over the world. And when you had an officer, somebody having public authority, they would make it clear and formal. They would have testimonies and evidences that he’s not just any Tom, Dick, and Harry, but he’s been given certain power and authority.
And that’s what you’re reading here in this text. He was baptized by John, who’s of the priesthood, by the way, John the Baptist, John the Baptizer, to show the world that he is special and he’s set aside. But God does more than that, because the prophets also had setting asides by the Holy Spirit.
But nothing like this. This is clearly unique in the biblical history. So he is baptized or set apart publicly from others by his office as prophet, priest, and king, of course.
And behold, the heavens were opened. It’s a miracle to him. Again, the heavens representing the origin of God or place of God.
And he saw the Spirit of God. The text is clear. So this is not the Father.
This is the Spirit of God, like a dove alighting upon him. Why? Because God wants to show himself as a dove, the Holy Spirit? No, it’s for our sake. It’s to show us something’s unique about this Jesus.
He’s not just another prophet. He is a prophet of the prophets. He’s not just another priest.
He’s a priest of the priests. Not another king, but a king of all kings. And so the Spirit descends upon him, giving him public credentials.
And that is actually an argument, because it is from heaven, the Holy Spirit from heaven. And what he does is a public testimony. Again, you want someone to testify that you have authority, you’re the right person, you’re not a liar, whatever the case is.
You want the best of all witnesses. This is another variation of witness, isn’t it? The Spirit is divine. And of course, the voice is the Father.
This is my beloved Son. If it’s the Son, the voice speaking must be the Father. In whom I am well pleased.
You have all three members of the Trinity here, and the evidence is that they are divine. In 2 Corinthians 13-14, I’ve not covered all the verses. This is the last one I’ll cover for the Trinity.
2 Corinthians 13-14. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all. I read that earlier to show that there is a Father, and He’s distinct from Jesus Christ.
And of course, here the Father is just called God, as He often is in the Bible. Just God. And He’s coordinated with the Holy Spirit.
What you have here, and I think you already see the argument, is a coordination of blessings. You want, if you’re a godly Jew, or any kind of human who believes in religion, you want, again, the best blessing, not from an angel, but from the Deity Himself. I want the love of the Deity, and the fellowship of the Deity.
And yet here we read Paul saying, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the Father, and the communion or fellowship of the Holy Spirit. Because those are divine requests and blessings. He’s coordinating all three.
It’s a great thing to have grace from the Father, but also grace from the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace of the Father, think of all the verses, you can go look it up, look it up when you go home. In the Old Testament, New Testament, the grace of Father, grace in Father or God, put together.
A good Jew would want the good mercies, grace from the Father, who’s the judge of the universe, and yet here He is saying, I’m going to bless you with a lesser blessing? No, it’s an equal blessing. The grace of Jesus Christ, because Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is Deity, and the Spirit as well.
And I will now go over a text showing the divine nature of the Son and Holy Spirit. So what I did here is a double argument for the Trinity. Texts that show there is this three distinctions, and yet unity as we saw in 1 John 5-7, and that these persons are divine, even given from those texts, and here I’m going to go into the singular text about the singular persons, and how they are divine.
So it’s even more evidence, heaped upon evidence, that there is a Trinity. Question 11 of the larger catechism. How does it appear that the Son and Holy Ghost, or God, equal with the Father? So that’s usually the historical debate.
Again, most religious people in Christianity and people related to cults will say there is a Father God, but it’s the Son and Holy Spirit that they balk at. So we have a specific question. How does it appear that the Son and Holy Spirit are God equal with the Father? The scriptures manifest that the Son and the Holy Ghost are God equal with the Father by ascribing unto them such names, attributes, works, worship, as are proper to God only.
And you’ve heard this syllogism before. That which has the attributes, nature, name, worship of God is God. It’s basic.
We do this. That which has the attributes of human is human. This child acts like a human, looks like a human, is a human.
We don’t say they’re subhuman. Again, we don’t think of it logically in the sense of spelling out a syllogism, but that’s what you’re doing. You just do it intuitively, very quick.
We are unpacking it in theology here for you.
God the Son
So the second point here, God the Son. God the Son. From the Old Testament, Psalm 45.6, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness.
Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness more than your companions. Therefore, God, your God. There’s two… What? How can a Jew speak of two gods? Now he’s writing this under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and as I pointed out, there’s a development of understanding of truth, just like in your own life.
When you’re a five-year-old, you don’t understand math the way an 18-year-old does. It took you time. And it’s probably not fully understood by David and the others in the Old Testament exactly always what they’re saying by prophecy, but Hebrews 1 quotes Psalm 45 as proof of Jesus’ deity.
Hebrews 1 has a lot of that. There’s three or four references to the Old Testament, explicit quotes, and this is one of them, in saying Jesus is divine. Isaiah 9.6. This is a wonderful one.
Some songs that we have. Isaiah 9.6. You’ll recognize this one. Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
Literally called, a child that’s called God. Well, go to the New Testament, that’s clearly Jesus. When you understand that the teaching of Jesus as both God and Moses, and how the attributes are both describing that single person, Jesus, and then we see the text and they open up for us.
And it’s not just the explicit words, Mighty God, that tells you something. This is kind of a strong proof text. It’s an infallible proof text that Jesus is the divine himself, the second member of the Trinity.
But even other parts where it says the government would be upon his shoulder. It’s the government of the whole world. Well, that’s the job of God, last I checked.
He’s in charge of everything. In here he’s saying, the government would be upon his shoulder. And if you recall, go through your notes, several weeks ago when I went over the kingdom of Christ and how he has a kingdom of power as the God man, not as God.
As God, he has a natural power as the rest of the members do in ruling and controlling all things in Providence. But when he took upon him the body and soul of a man, he then took upon him this kingdom of power with respect to the kingdom of grace so that he guides all things for the good of the church as the God man. That’s what you’re reading here in Isaiah 9.6. New Testament, we have more clarity.
Could have gone over again other texts in the Old Testament about Jesus being divine. John 1.1, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. So clearly here the author is switching the idea of the word God.
He speaks of this word and the word was with God, what? The Father. We speak this way again. The Bible’s not written as a precise, technical, systematic theology in the way that we’d like to write things today and think this way.
Maybe it’s just my brain as an engineer, ex-engineer. It doesn’t. It writes like the rest of us talk and think.
We speak in short terms and we’re like, you know what I mean. I have to be that precise with you all the time? How long have I been with you? Of course not. And same with this.
It’s the word and the word was with God, the Father, and the word was God, deity. He’s changed his use of the word God. And we do that when we speak as well.
We use the same word and change it and we understand the context rather well. You continue on here in verse 14. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father full of grace and truth.
That is clearly the word is Jesus as the rest of John 1 unpacks the life of Jesus. The word became flesh. John 10.
John 10.30. The book of John, as you already see here, probably new, has a lot about Jesus and his deity. That’s one of the classic books to read when you’re a young Christian. John 10.30. I and my Father are one.
This is what Jesus says. Verse 31, right after that. Then the Jews took up stones against him to stone him.
And Jesus answered them, Many good works I have shown you from my Father. For which of these works do you stone me? And the Jews answered, saying, For a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy. And because you, being a man, make yourself God.
They understood the point. They just didn’t believe it. John 10.30. Or John 10.33 in particular.
Hebrews 1, I referenced before, which quotes the Psalms and the like, and Christ’s deity, that even the angels bow before him. Romans 9.5 is another text. Romans 9.5 we read, Of whom are the fathers, and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, eternally blessed God.
Christ came, who is over all. Who’s the who? Christ. Christ is over all.
And then again, the eternally blessed God. They’re called appositional descriptions there. Phrases, right? They describe the prior noun.
Jesus Christ is the blessed over all, as well as the eternally blessed God. Romans 9.5. And then 1 John 5.20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, and his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God in eternal life.
This is, what’s the this? Well, like in English, it points to the prior sentence. This is a shortcut to the noun, that word. His Son, Jesus Christ.
This is the true God in eternal life. Now here in Ephesians, we have evidence as well, the deity of Jesus Christ. Clearly the work of him, with respect to the economic trinity, as I mentioned before.
Here I’m speaking of the deity of Jesus, as Jesus, or the ontological trinity. Beloved. It’s described as beloved in verse 6. To the praise of his glorious grace, by which he, that is the Father, made us accepted in the Beloved.
The Beloved being the Son, in him we have redemption through his blood. Clearly the Son who shed his body and blood for us, not the Father. Beloved, in Matthew 3.17 we read, and suddenly a voice came from heaven.
We read that. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Ask yourself, who would God the Father be pleased with? You? Angels? Beloved.
My beloved, showing how precious, what could be precious to deity, but the divine? We kind of forget that. Again, I think it’s the evangelical kind of watering down of the doctrine of God and exalting man in his free will. Jesus, God the Father loves us through Jesus.
Not you. Not this, you know, hey, you’re really a wonderful person deep down inside, or something like that. Sin just kind of messed you up.
He loves you for Christ’s sake. Not because of who you are as such. The mercy upon you, and God’s inscrutable will, is only and through Jesus.
And that’s because Jesus is divine. That’s the only thing that could satisfy and bring pleasing or pleasantness, I speak as a man, to the Father, is his own son. And he’s only begotten, eternally begotten, right? He’s not born.
But he’s always this relationship to the Father. So once you understand, that’s why I went over question 11. I don’t have it here.
And I gave that syllogism. The attributes, the names, the worship. And you see these texts, you’re like, oh, I didn’t know this was actually a proof text for the deity of Jesus.
I hope you’re realizing that. So, in Hinn, of course, we have redemption. Again, the Old Testament.
I’m not going to go through all those verses. It says, only God saves. Only God is your Savior.
Go through the prophets, Isaiah and Jeremiah. Only the Lord God can deliver his people. And yet, all of a sudden, New Testament, we read of Jesus delivering and redeeming his people.
How’d that happen? Well, because he’s divine. He has the attributes and the power. He exercises redemption for us because he is God, the second member of the Trinity.
He is deity. And that we who trusted in Christ, read that in a psalm last week, as I recall, that we trust in God. The psalmist says that.
We must trust in God. And yet here, he’s rejoicing that we trust in what? Christ. Verse 12.
We who first trusted in Christ. You should put your trust in the, again, the deity. Why would you want to put your trust in man? In fact, God argues against that.
Don’t put your trust in horses and chariots and princes and men. But in God himself, the second member of the Trinity. Of course, his name is Emmanuel.
Now you know some Hebrew. God with us. God with us.
So the text here, not just the other texts, here in Ephesians, necessitates that Jesus is divine.
God the Spirit
And then lastly, of course, God, the Holy Spirit. We have from the rest of the Bible, of course, Christ’s baptisms.
I went over prior. The Holy Spirit is a public testimony from heaven, not from earth. Often mentioned with the works of the Father in the Old Testament, as in Genesis 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
God created it. What’s the Spirit of God doing there? Because he’s involved in the creation as well, hovering across the face of the earth, involved in preserving the things that are created by the Father. Because he is part of divine origin of this world, the Spirit.
New Testament, Acts 5.3. I think most of us remember this. Ananias and the husband and wife lied about how much money they got from the land that they sold and gave some of the money to the church, kind of bragging how much they gave to the church. And Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back a part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, that is the land, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God.
You have lied to the Holy Spirit, he says in verse 3, and then he says in verse 4, you’ve lied to God. To lie to the Holy Spirit is to lie to God. Wow, that’s really something.
Because it implies deity. His personhood as well. You don’t lie against the force.
Right? That’s what the JWs think the Holy Spirit is, like Star Wars. It’s the force. It’s a cartoonish religion.
1 Corinthians 2.10-11 But God has revealed them to us, the salvation and gospel of Jesus Christ, God has revealed them to us through His Holy Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yea, the deep things of God. How deep is God, brothers and sisters? Of course, it’s a metaphor.
He’s eternal. How can the Holy Spirit plumb the depth of eternity unless He Himself is eternal? It’s a proof text for the deity of the Holy Spirit. For what man knows the things of man except the spirit of the man which is in him.
Your spirit knows yourself. It’s there. They’re both finite, of course.
And he’s making the parallel. Even so, no one knows the things of God except the spirit of God. So there the spirit knows things, like a person.
And he knows things infinitely. Only God can know the depth of God. Only man himself can know the depth of yourself, is the argument.
1 Corinthians 3.16 Do you not know that you are the temple of God and the spirit of God dwells in you? If anyone defies the temple of God, God will destroy him. But the temple of God is holy, which temple you are. You are the temple of God.
And you read here, and the spirit of God dwells in you. Well, that’s clear, Pastor. You have the spirit dwelling within me.
How’s that proof that the spirit is divine? Well, other than how could the spirit dwell in us at the temple of God? It’s also the spirit of God. 1 Corinthians 6.19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit? 3.16, temple of God. 6.19, temple of the Holy Spirit.
And then 2 Corinthians 3.17 2 Corinthians 3.17 Now the Lord is the spirit. Now the Lord. Remember I told you the word Lord often in the New Testament.
I don’t know how often, but very much often. Kyrios. It doesn’t mean like, well, he’s just another prince or a lord.
It means God. It’s often used for the word Jehovah in the Old Testament prophecies. They quote the Old Testament prophecies of Hebrew, quote it in Greek, and they’re going to use the word Lord.
Kyrios. The Lord is the spirit. And it’s the spirit.
The article. And of course from Ephesians. Ephesians 1.13 In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and whom also having believed, you were sealed with the spirit of promise.
Who? What is? The Holy Spirit is the guarantee of our inheritance. Verse 14. We read here, elsewhere, Now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us in God, who also has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.
In verse chapter 2. The sealing is attributed to God the Father here. Now he who established us with you in Christ has anointed us in God, who also has sealed, who? The Father, sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. And so the sealing there is describing a divine act of the Father.
Elsewhere in the Bible. And it’s being done here by the Holy Spirit. You are sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise.
And that’s a divine act. The spirit is involved and does a divine act. Therefore he is divine.
But we also have, in verse 14, he’s described as an earnest or a guarantee. We don’t use the word earnest very often anymore. A legal and commercial word.
An advanced transaction which guarantees the validity of a contract or a full purchase price down payment at the first installment or the pledge. That’s what that word means. The spirit is given as what? An advanced transaction, of course he means, it’s a metaphor, spiritually speaking.
An advanced transaction which guarantees the validity of a contract. Who can guarantee the validity of the salvation of your soul? Another angel? It’s the same question, isn’t it? You ask yourself, you realize, the nature of it tells you he must be divine. Otherwise there’s no hope in the world.
We are the most wretched of all people if the Holy Spirit is not divine. What kind of a guarantee is that if we have something less than divine? That it’s immutable. Because if he’s God, he’s immutable.
It’s one of the characteristics of God. It never changes. Hence the word guarantee.
You’re guaranteed to be saved. Ephesians 2.18, we’ll get there eventually. Through him we both have access by one spirit to the Father.
You want to get to the Father, you get through the spirit. He’s coordinated there with the Father and our redemption. Each person is divine, brothers and sisters.
I could have said more and gone over more. The Bible declares there’s only one God yet there’s clearly a distinction of three persons, each divine in one Godhead. These three are one true eternal God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, although distinguished by their personal properties.
Therefore we can learn in our praise of the glorious Trinity. It teaches us more of the unfathomable greatness of our Creator. It explains the marvelous work of redemption for our souls.
It teaches us therefore to worship and honor what they have done and are doing for us, the Father selecting and arranging our salvation, the Son saving and accomplishing our redemption, the Spirit sealing and applying our deliverance. And yet we are baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And therefore we are bound to Him all the more, even if He had done nothing for us, He is still triune and glorious.
We must therefore worship and obey Him not only for what He has done and is doing, but for who He is, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the glorious Trinity, the supreme good and the greatest being for all. We should therefore love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and love Him both as Father, as Son, and as Holy Ghost to the praise of His glorious name. Let us pray.
May you be glorified. May our hearts magnify you all the more and stand in awe of how you are one divine being in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And thus may we we pray, worship and obey you accordingly, honor you and give you all our hearts and pray in accordance to your name.
We ask God that you would draw us more unto you and grant us more of your grace and humility. We ask this in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.