This sermon delves into the importance of understanding and acknowledging Jesus as the Son of God, emphasizing the significance of His divine nature and role in the atonement. It addresses the misconceptions surrounding the Trinity, highlighting the scriptural basis for the triune nature of God and the relational dynamics within the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The sermon explores the mystery of the Trinity, cautioning against dismissing this foundational belief and emphasizing the unity of God despite His triune revelation.

Revelation 2.18, John is writing, Jesus is giving him the words to say, and this is to the church in Thyatira, it's up in that region as well. And to the angel, which is to the messenger of the church in Thyatira, write these things. It says, the Son of God. So Jesus is saying, I am the Son of God who has eyes like a flame of fire and his feet like fine brass. And I wanted to stop there for a minute because, well, for two reasons mainly. Number one is I don't want to just glance over the Son of God. And number two, to reinforce to you that Jesus said he is the Son of God. Because people will say, well, Jesus never claimed that, we don't believe that. And that's very important because part of the atonement, part of the cross, is that God, the perfect sacrifice, gave his life for us to pay that penalty of sin and death that was hanging on our shoulders. So to say it was just a created being that God created and that allowed him to suffer kind of takes away a good thrust of the gospel. And I wasn't going to say this organization, but I'm compelled that I probably should, but this is on JehovahWitness.org. JehovahWitness.org, they knock on doors, they knock on mine. They stopped a few years ago, though, once I challenged them. We follow the teachings, they said, in the example of Jesus Christ and honor him as our Savior and as the Son of God. Thus, we are Christians. However, we have learned from the Bible that Jesus is not Almighty God. And there is no scriptural support for the Trinity Doctrine. That's on their website. So the next time you think we're all the same, you know, there are glaring differences. And it's funny because most of them don't, they'll know a few scriptural references, of course, they have it down. But to say there's no scriptural basis is just, they're either ignorant or deceived because there is a lot of scriptural basis for the Trinity. That's why we believe in it, because of the scripture. But what they do is they'll put something called the Watchtower Society above the Bible and they allow the society to interpret the Bible for them. And that's where they come up with this. Now, I will say this. The Trinity is a mystery. We don't completely understand it. On one hand, and the reason a lot of these groups, Jehovah Witness, and even something within the Pentecostal movement many years ago called modalism. I don't know if you've heard of that. It basically teaches that God is one, of course, but he has three different modes. So when Jesus was being baptized in the Jordan River, the Father didn't really speak from heaven. It was more like a ventriloquist, I guess, because there's no Father in heaven. There's no Holy Spirit descending as a dove. It's just one, modalism. A oneness Pentecostalism is where that term comes from. And the reason, I've talked to these guys, the heart isn't always just blasphemy. The heart is shame. I can't understand how we don't worship three different gods. So I hear their plea on that. But we have to understand from the Scriptures that the Bible teaches that God is one. He's one, the essence of God. But he reveals himself as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. It clearly teaches that there is a relational aspect. There's also a subordination aspect. The Son is subordinate to the Father, and the Holy Spirit is subordinate to the Son. So you see this clearly taught throughout Scripture. The biggest one that jumps out is Genesis 1, in the first chapter of Genesis, when God said, Let us make man in our image. If you look at our, it's Elohim. It's a plural word. El is a singular, Ella is dual, and Elohim. There's a triune nature of God, Elohim. And I've got dozens of Scriptures here we can send you. In Isaiah, in Matthew, in 2 Corinthians. So that's the dilemma. Is we don't worship three gods, we worship God. But then he reveals himself as Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. And then the creeds throughout church history have confused some people because they'll say that there's one God, but there's three different persons. And we think of persons, three different persons. But God is not a person, he's spirit. Those who worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. And then there's been analogies. For example, that I am Morgan's husband, I'm my children's father, and I'm my mother's son. So one, but operating in those three roles, but then that kind of leans more towards modalism. And one is Pentecostalism. So you can see it's hard to find the exact definition. And I'm kind of glad we can't. We just don't understand how God is one yet three. So to say the Trinity is not taught, to say that it's just very risky business, for lack of a better phrase there, it's just not a good direction to go. Because we're not worshiping three gods, we're worshiping God. So in the back of your mind, just keep in mind what Paul said. This is a mystery. It's a complete mystery, but it's taught. We see it throughout. I mean, what do you do when Jesus was being baptized? The Father spoke, this is My Son, in whom I am well pleased. The Spirit descended as a dove. Not a little dove, but as a dove. And He spoke. What do you do with those three different things? Knowing that each member of the Trinity is God. The Father is God, of course. The Son is God, if you look at John 1. Romans 9, Colossians 2, Hebrews 1, 1 John 5. The Holy Spirit is God, if you look at Acts 5, 1 Corinthians. So you see this, what appears to be a challenge in our theology, is not really a challenge, just understanding that God is one. Hear, O Israel, I the Lord your God am one. But He goes by the name Elohim, which is a plural.