I want to state at the outset today that we are the
strongest of advocates of what theologians refer to as “The
Trinity”. “The Trinity” is a theological term that describes
the Biblical term “The Godhead”. The Godhead is made up of
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. They
are three persons in one. There is but one God manifested in
three persons. They are co-equal, co-eternal, co-existent,
and co-powerful. God the Father is the “first person” of the
Trinity. The first 35 occurrences of the word “God” in your
Bibles is translated from a uni-plural Hebrew noun. In
Hebrew, you have three different states for nouns. They are
singular, dual, and plural. Singular is one. Dual is two.
Plural is three or more. Deuteronomy 6:4 says that God is
ONE. What that proves is that the Trinity was present at the
creation. We see God in Genesis 1:1. We see the Spirit of
God in Genesis 1:2. Colossians 1:12-16 says that the Lord
Jesus Christ was at the creation: in fact, he is the
creator.
God the Son is the “second person” of the Trinity. God the
Son has three titles. He is referred to as Lord because he
is God manifest in the flesh. He is called Jesus because he
is Jehovah who saves (In other words, he is the Saviour of
all who will receive him). He is called Christ because he is
the “Anointed One”; the promised Messiah of Israel who will
rule and reign over the whole earth from the literal throne
of David in the literal city of Jerusalem. His proper full
title is the “Lord Jesus Christ”. The Lord Jesus Christ is
the Son of God and as such is an eternal being. He has
always existed in one form or another. What I mean by that
is that in eternity, he has forever existed as THE eternal
Son of God. At the incarnation, the eternal Son Of God
became the everlasting God-Man. The Bible says in Micah 5:2:
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But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall
he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from
everlasting. Micah 5:2 |
The marginal note on Micah 5:2 in the King James Bible says
of the word everlasting “from the days of eternity”. The
word “eternal” means without beginning and without end. The
word “everlasting” means having a beginning with no end.
What that means is that the God–Man, who is the crucified
and resurrected Lord Jesus Christ is an everlasting being.
His beginning came at the incarnation when he was conceived
of the virgin Mary by the Holy Ghost. At that conception,
the Word was made flesh. The Word did not become flesh or
take on a robe of flesh. The Word was made flesh. Proverbs
chapter 30 had this to say about God and his Son:
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4 Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended?
who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath
bound the waters in a garment? who hath established
all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and
what is his son’s name, if thou canst tell? Proverbs
30:4 |
God the Holy Ghost is the “third person” of the Trinity. The
“third person” of the Trinity in the New Testament is not
the Holy Spirit in the King James Bible. The “third person”
of the Trinity in the New Testament of the King James Bible
is the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is used 90 times in the
New Testament. The term holy Spirit (holy spirit, Holy
Spirit) is only used a total of seven times in the King
James Bible; three times in the Old Testament and four times
in the New Testament. The only time both Holy and Spirit are
capitalized is when they appear together is in Luke 11:13.
When the Holy Ghost is working in any vessel of flesh
including the Lord Jesus Christ he is called “the Spirit” .
The word “Spirit” will always be capitalized when that is
the case. The phrase “the Spirit” is used 137 times in the
New Testament. When speaking of the authorship of the
scriptures the “third person” of the Trinity will be
referred to as the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost sews the seed
of the word of God in our hearts.
The Word of God is the seed that germinates in the womb of
Holy Ghost conviction. Absent the Word of God or Holy Ghost
conviction the embryo for a child of God will not be
conceived. So then faith cometh by hearing and hearing by
the Word of God. Faith is the father of salvation and
repentance is the mother of salvation. Faith and repentance
come together in holy matrimony to produce a born again
child of God. Faith plants the seed of salvation in the womb
that germinates to produce the fruit of Holy Ghost wrought
repentance. Faithless repentance is fatherless salvation.
Repentanceless faith is motherless salvation. Our churches
in America are chock full of illegitimate children who are
going to burst the pits of hell wide open. Most of them have
been led in faithless sinner’s prayers that produce no
fruits meet for repentance. Do you know for sure, that if
you were to die today that you would not go to hell? I did
not ask you that if you were to die today if you know for
sure that you would go to heaven. I asked do you know for
sure, that if you were to die today that you would not go to
hell?. Folks, hell is a very real place of eternal fire,
eternal damnation, and eternal pain from which there is no
escape. 54 times the King James Bible uses the word “hell”.
At least 88 times the concept of eternal punishment and
damnation are mentioned in the King James Bible. The first
mention of hell in both the New Testament and the Old
Testament is connected with fire If you, as a professing
believer, routinely do not show forth the fruits of
repentance that is God’s proof to you that you have not
exercised saving faith. Can I say this? If you spend most of
your professed Christian life fighting off the work of the
Holy Ghost then you better check up on your salvation. If
you are constantly at war with the Holy Ghost, then you are
still at enmity with God. If you are constantly under
condemnation, then you need to do a serious soul searching
and prove to yourself that you are in the faith. The Bible
says in 2 Corinthians 13:5:
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5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith;
prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5 |
For decades now I have heard people get up in church
services and state that the Devil is making them doubt their
salvation. I do not believe that the Devil makes anyone
doubt their salvation. Why would the devil do that? That
doubt could and should motivate the professor to examine
whether they are truly saved. Continuous doubt of salvation
in the heart of a professing believer is God the Holy Ghost
warning them that they need to examine themselves as to
whether they are truly in the faith. My experience in 34
years of being saved is that when a person says the Devil is
making them doubt their salvation either they are saved and
in sin or, they are lost and giving credit to the Devil for
the convicting work of the Holy Ghost. Doubt comes
slithering out from under the rock of a hardened or
unrepentant heart. A hardened heart resisteth the work of
God the Holy Ghost both unto repentance unto salvation in
the unbeliever and unto repentance unto restoration to
fellowship with God for the believer.
You cannot be saved and not know it. God the Holy Ghost in
you is both the proof, the witness and the assurance that
you have been born again. Turn in your Bibles to Romans
chapter 8:
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1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them
which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the
flesh, but after the Spirit. 2 For the law of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law
could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh,
God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful
flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4
That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled
in us, who walk not after the flesh, but after the
Spirit. 5 For they that are after the flesh do mind
the things of the flesh; but they that are after the
Spirit the things of the Spirit. 6 For to be
carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually
minded is life and peace. 7 Because the carnal mind
is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. 8 So then they
that are in the flesh cannot please God. 9 But ye
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be
that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man
have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. 10
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of
sin; but the Spirit is life because of
righteousness. 11 But if the Spirit of him that
raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that
raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken
your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in
you. 12 Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to
the flesh, to live after the flesh. 13 For if ye
live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye
through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body,
ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the
Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. 15 For ye
have not received the spirit of bondage again to
fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption,
whereby we cry, Abba, Father. 16 The Spirit itself
beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the
children of God: Romans 8:1-16 |
There are many scriptural reasons why we say that if you are
saved you will know it. You cannot have God the Holy Ghost
dwelling in you and not know it. It was by the power of God
the Holy Ghost that the Lord Jesus Christ was raised from
the dead. It is by that same power that the virgin Mary
conceived the Son of God; the Lord Jesus Christ; God
manifest in the flesh. It is by that same power of the Holy
Ghost that lost sinners are raised from spiritual death by
being born again of the Spirit. For the lost sinner, it is
the Holy Ghost that draws them, convicts them, and
regenerates them. You cannot get saved anytime you want to.
You can only get saved when the Holy Ghost is working in you
to convict you and to draw you. It is the Holy Ghost that
empowers saved sinners to live holy lives and serve the Lord
Jesus Christ. What follows are ten scriptural reasons why
you cannot be saved and not know it. Put another way, these
ten passages of Scripture show you that you can be saved and
know it:
15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. 16 And I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another
Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; 17
Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot
receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and
shall be in you. 18 I will not leave you
comfortless: I will come to you. 19 Yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more; but ye see
me: because I live, ye shall live also. 20 At that
day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in
me, and I in you. 21 He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he
that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I
will love him, and will manifest myself to him. John
14:15-21
6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in
you: 1 Corinthians 1:6
19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of
the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of
God, and ye are not your own? 1 Corinthians 6:19
5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith;
prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves,
how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be
reprobates? 2 Corinthians 13:5
5 One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6 One God and
Father of all, who is above all, and through all,
and in you all. Ephesians 4:5-6
13 For it is God which worketh in you both to will
and to do of his good pleasure.
Philippians 2:13
25 Whereof I am made a minister, according to the
dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to
fulfil the word of God; 26 Even the mystery which
hath been hid from ages and from generations, but
now is made manifest to his saints: 27 To whom God
would make known what is the riches of the glory of
this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory: Colossians 1:25-27
26 These things have I written unto you concerning
them that seduce you. 27 But the anointing which ye
have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not
that any man teach you: but as the same anointing
teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no
lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide
in him. 1 John 2:26-27
4 Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome
them: because greater is he that is in you, than he
that is in the world. 1 John 4:4
10 He that believeth on the Son of God hath the
witness in himself: he that believeth not God hath
made him a liar; because he believeth not the record
that God gave of his Son. 11 And this is the record,
that God hath given to us eternal life, and this
life is in his Son. 12 He that hath the Son hath
life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not
life. 13 These things have I written unto you that
believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may
know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may
believe on the name of the Son of God. 1 John
5:10-13 |
So, I would ask you, do you have the Spirit of God in you?
Do you know for sure that if you were to die today that you
would NOT go to hell. The ten passages of scripture we just
read say that if you are saved, you will have the Spirit of
God in you. Yet, how is it that anyone can say that they do
not know if they are saved? If you have the Holy Ghost in
you, I cannot make you doubt your salvation on a continuing
basis. Why would the Devil make anyone doubt their
salvation? That would be counterproductive to his goals. One
of Satan’s greatest works is to deceive someone into
believing they are saved when they are on a path straight
into the pits of hell. So, is the Devil making you doubt
your salvation or, is the Holy Ghost trying to warn you that
you have bought into a religion that makes you twofold more
a child of hell? The most often perverted Biblical doctrine
man-ward is the doctrine of salvation. The second most often
perverted doctrine man-ward is the Biblical doctrine of the
scriptures. The most often perverted Biblical doctrine
God-ward is the Trinity especially as it relates to the
deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost. The Lord
Jesus Christ is not just some ideal man. He is God manifest
in the flesh. The Holy Ghost is not just some force; he is
the “third person” of the Godhead. He is directly called God
in Acts 5:3-4. In closing, Satan is not just some evil
force. He is an evil entity that possesses all the traits of
personality who seeks to usurp the throne of God. He is not
a fallen angel. He is the fallen, “anointed cherub” that
covereth, a spirit being higher than the angels (Ezekiel
28:11-19).
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