Real Life Radio

Jack Hibbs: In the Hebrew culture and in your Bible, if you want an answer of authority, you don't have to talk to the father. You can just go knock on the door, and if the son opens the door who represents the household, whatever the son says in the Jewish mind, it honors the father.

David J: Welcome to Real Life Radio with Pastor Jack Hibbs. I'm David J, thanking you for joining us today as we listen, learn, and are challenged by God's word, the Bible.

Jack Hibbs: Hey my friends, come with me on our Bold Faith Hawaii Cruise, June 12th to the 19th, 2027. We're going to set sail for seven unforgettable days with myself, Dr. Frank Turek, and special worship with Gia Lucid.

It's going to be a breathtaking trip with destinations like Hilo, Kona, Maui, and the scenic cruise along Kauai's Napali Coast. You'll never forget it. This is more than a vacation; it's a time of rest, renewal, fellowship, and spiritual strength in the word of God, all centered around the Bible. You can reserve your spot by going to jackhibbs.com.

David J: That's the Bold Faith Hawaii Cruise with Pastor Jack Hibbs. As you explore the beauty of the islands of Hawaii, you will grow in your faith and knowledge of how the word of God applies to your daily life. Once again, that's the Bold Faith Hawaii Cruise, June 12th through the 19th, 2027. For more information, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com.

On today's edition of Real Life Radio, Pastor Jack continues in his series now called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ in a message titled, "Christ and the Trinity." Now, this is a series about who Jesus really is, not the Jesus of popular opinion, but the Jesus of the Bible, God himself who stepped into our world.

And that means understanding one of the most important truths in all of scripture: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You see, the Trinity is a truth that goes beyond human reason, but it never contradicts itself. It's a mystery once hidden and now revealed, and it sets Christianity apart from every other belief system.

So today, Pastor Jack teaches us that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are perfectly one, each fully God and each equal in power. And when we see how they work together in love, we discover a God whose desire is to be known by us. Now, with his message called "Christ and the Trinity," here's pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs.

Jack Hibbs: The Trinity of God, the doctrine, the essence of it, the Trinity, we can see that there's the monotheism. And so in 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 6, Paul says, "For us there is but one God." Elohim, singular plurality, go and explain it. That's the hard thing to do. That's what I'm trying to do this morning. It's in scripture, but how do you put it into human words?

The second thing we see is that there's a plurality of the Trinity. There's the plurality. By plurality, we mean how God relates to himself. Say, "What? That's not what the word means to me." Yeah, I know, but this is what it means in biblical theology. Plurality is how God relates to himself. Did you get that?

God's not psychotic. He doesn't talk to himself. He does not have multiple personalities. "Gee, what color do we want to make the world? Gee, I don't know, what color do you think we should make it? Gee, I don't know." And he doesn't sit and have a conversation with himself.

The Son speaks to the Father, the Father speaks to the Son, the Spirit speaks to the Son, the Spirit speaks to the Father on an ongoing true definition of the original word, "dialogue." God dialogues among himself singular in the Trinity plural. Amazing.

Well, Jack, I don't like this because I can't figure it out. I can't see it. I know that's one of those things, but we're going to do our best to help you to kind of get a touch of it this morning. And maybe for some of you that are steeped in a cult, maybe this will liberate your thinking this morning in a wonderful way.

Listen, an example, Hebrews chapter 9 verse 14 concerning the plurality of the Trinity. Hebrews 9:14, listen carefully. He says there, "How much more shall the blood of Christ"—I circle Christ—"who through the eternal Spirit"—I circle eternal Spirit—"offer himself without spot to God?" Yes, that speaks of the Father, but the word again is of God in totality.

Did you get that? Right there in Hebrews 9:14 is Christ, which we'll show you this morning is God; the Spirit, which we'll show you this morning in the scriptures is God; and there he speaks of God in totality, Hebrews 9:14.

Norman Geisler gives this illustration, and I quote Norman Geisler this morning. In case you don't get it, you can blame it all on him. And here it is. Are you ready? Quote: "It has been said that God is one what," with what in quotes. "That God is one what (essence), what would be essence or nature, and three who's, which are his person." Amen. Did you get that?

"It has been said that God is one what," and "three who's," which are the persons. The who is the persons, the what is his nature or essence. Let me help you, and this is kind of neat, and we steal this from a concept of a man that you know, a guy by the name of Albert Einstein, concerning the perfection of mathematics.

And by the way, Norman Geisler came up and said that he agreed with Einstein. Einstein said that because math is absolutely perfect, which I told you before is why we hate it so much—it's perfect—it can only speak of a creative God. Math is perfect, thus God must be true because it is, so to speak, mathematics is sinless because it's perfect, even though it's not a person, it's a thing.

So check this out. This is amazing, and I hope this does something for you because it did something for me. Check it out. It says here that the closest illustration is this: not 1+1+1=3. That would be Hinduism, Buddhism, Mormonism. But in Christianity, and in fact Judeo-Christian teaching, 1x1x1=1.

All and each are equal, yet they maintain an identity. Each one of those ones that you see on the screen have all the authority, all the power, all the attributes of the number one. But with God, one is not the loneliest number. It may be for you or me, but not God. 1x1x1=1.

How about this? One Father times one Son times one Spirit equals one God. Do you see that? Does that help? I think that helps tremendously. And now you kind of agree with Einstein's observation that because math is perfect, it speaks of a God who created who's perfect.

The Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, they're not three gods, but one God. Each are equal, each have their identity, each have their purpose, as we'll see this morning. But I found that to be extremely helpful.

Another consideration is this: the triangle in geometrical form. The triangle: a triangle is three sides of an equal dimension or length or power. We can put it that way. You can put one side of the triangle blue, one side yellow, and one side green. But the three of them form how many triangles? One triangle.

Yet the sides are all equal. Very, very important and I think a very powerful picture that's seen. So this is a very, very exciting, I think, way to look at it. The third thing that we see this morning is this: that there's a unity to the Trinity. There's a unity.

I'm going to give you some scriptures and we'll be off to the second point. I gave you this one earlier, but we'll give it to you in its totality. In 1 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 6, Paul says, "For us there is but one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we are for him; and," connecting statement, "one Lord Jesus Christ."

God is the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit. 1 John chapter 5 verse 7. 1 John 5:7 says, "There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word"—you know who the Word is, right? The Logos, the Word. It's in capital letters there. The Word, that's Jesus—"There are three that bear witness in heaven: the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit. These three are one." 1 John 5:7.

John chapter 8 verse 29. "And he who sent me," Jesus said, "is with me. The Father has not left me alone, for I always do those things that please him." Now you see, Jack, I understand that. There's the Father and there's the Son. But listen, in our Western thinking, you better divorce yourself of one thing right now.

In the Bible, the Son is not less than the Father. Remember we talked about this before under the person of Jesus Christ on our earlier study. Remember, in the Hebrew culture and in your Bible, if you want an answer of authority, you don't have to talk to the Father.

You can just go knock on the door, and if the son opens the door who represents the household, whatever the son says in the Jewish mind, it honors the father. Are you with me on that? Remember that. "Well, I want to speak to your Father." You know, that's what we do here in this Western culture. "I don't want to talk to you. I want to talk to your Father."

"Well, you can speak to me. I've been authorized to do all that my Father would have done." "Oh, really?" See, that's how Jesus came. Jesus didn't somehow lessen himself to become the Son of God. He came to perform a purpose. He was always God. We saw that in Christ and his eternal existence, Christ from eternity.

He has always existed. And so when the Son says something, it's exactly what the Father would say. When the Son authorizes something, it's exactly what the Father authorizes. When the Son lets a woman go who's been caught in the act of adultery, so the Father lets her go. When Jesus opens the eyes of the blind, he's doing exactly the will of the Father. Are you with me? Do you understand that? It's very simple when you look at it in the Hebrew mind or in the Mideast understanding.

The second thing that we see this morning is this: and that is Jesus, the Father, and the Trinity. We need to understand this. Jesus, the Father, and the Trinity. Very, very important. They are one. And in 2 John chapter 1 verse 9 says, "Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son."

I don't know about you, but that gets me excited. Those of you who are witnessing to people and you come up with this doctrine of the Trinity question. You know, I love them dearly, but they're in gross error, and that's our friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses. They love to talk about this topic. They love it because to them it's illogical, it's unreasonable.

You can't come to a conclusion regarding this person of the Trinity, and they say that you believe in false doctrine. That's not true whatsoever. Just because God is beyond human reason doesn't mean that it's illogical. God created the heavens and the earth and all that is in it. That may be unreasonable to you, but not to God. They are one. They are one. Jesus said in John chapter 10, "I and my Father are one."

David J: You're listening to Real Life with Pastor Jack Hibbs. To learn more about this ministry or to catch up on some previous episodes, go to jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. And now, let's get back to today's message. Once again, here's Pastor Jack.

Jack Hibbs: The next thing that we see regarding Jesus, the Father, and the Trinity that they are one, also is that they are absolute. They are absolute. I'm going to ask you to jot down three things regarding how absolute they are. And by the way, just right now we're mentioning Jesus and the Father, but all these attributes I'm going to give you are also attributed to the Spirit.

They are, write it down, omnipotent. Omni means all, potent—all-powerful. Omnipotent. God the Father is recorded in scripture as being all-powerful. Jesus says in Matthew chapter 28 verse 18, it says Jesus spoke to them and said, "All power has been given unto me in heaven and in earth."

Friend, if you've got all power that's in heaven and on earth, you've got all power. You are omnipotent. Book of Revelation tells us that Jesus is omnipotent. You and I have no problem giving that attribute to God.

But listen, somebody might ask you, "Is God omnipotent?" You say, "Of course he is." Now watch this, if you know your Bible and somebody says, "Well then, is the Holy Spirit omnipotent?" You better know the answer to that question. Do you know what it is? Yes!

The Bible says in Psalm 139, "Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or where shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend into heaven, thou art there. If I go to the heights of heaven, behold, thou art there." So not only is God omnipotent, the Holy Spirit, Jesus, the Father, because they are God, singular, are omnipresent.

You say, "Oh, I don't know if I understand that." Omni means all, present means present. David Jeremiah was singing earlier and said, "We come into your presence with thanksgiving." A friend of mine, a cute little story, his father, they're all praying together, "Lord, we just come now to your presence. We come now to your presence."

And days went by. "Lord, we come to your presence this morning. We want to thank you for this day." And by the end of the week, his little son said, "You know what, I gotta ask you something, Dad. When are we going to get the presents?" I thought that was cute. "We come to your presence." "Well, where are they?" God is omnipresent. He's everywhere. He's everywhere. Psalm 139 verse 7 and 8.

He's omniscient. The word omniscient is all-knowing. By the way, I don't have the scripture reference in front of me, but the verse comes to my mind. The Bible says that the seven eyes of the Spirit are upon us. Seven eyes? Well, it's symbolic language. It means totality, the completeness of God. He sees all, he knows all. There's nothing hidden from him.

And in 1 John 3:20, it says, "For if our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart and knows all things." Amen! Isn't that wonderful? Do you feel condemned? "Man, I'm just such a rotten Christian." God says, "Hey, I know you. I know you're a bumbling knucklehead. Don't condemn yourself anymore. I know you. I know your heart. You want to follow me." It's beautiful.

Well, the next thing that we want to go to is this, and that's point number three. And that is Jesus, the Spirit, and the Trinity. Jesus, the Spirit, and the Trinity. And the first thing that we see here is this: that Jesus and the Spirit have personality. Now, we can all say, "Well, of course Jesus has a personality."

But the Spirit? For many people, the Holy Spirit is almost somebody that they're afraid of because some people have a hard time relating to him. How do we call him? What is a "him"? Well, he's always spoken of in scripture with the personal pronoun. Did you know that?

Ladies, I don't mean to be offensive by this, but God says in his original scripture that he is a "he." But take heart, he's nothing like us men. But he speaks of himself in a male gender. Don't know why, just that he is. He says he's a "he." And the Holy Spirit throughout the scripture says that he is a "he." Personal pronoun. Jesus, we can relate to him, no problem.

Jesus, the Spirit, and personality. In 2 Samuel chapter 23 verse 2, 2 Samuel 23:2 says, "The Spirit of the Lord spoke to me, and his words were on my tongue." That's interesting. The Holy Spirit speaks. He has that power.

Not only that, in Acts chapter 13 verse 2, there the Bible says, "And as they ministered unto the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, 'Now separate to me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.'" "I," personal pronoun describing whom? The Holy Spirit. He is a person. He can speak. Thank God he does.

When was the last time you heard from him, by the way? He loves to use the Bible. Jesus even told us, he said, "When the Holy Spirit comes, he will speak whatsoever things I've commanded you, and he will teach you," and what is implied, "from the word of God."

You want the Holy Spirit to speak to you? Read your Bible. That's all I can tell you. You don't read your Bible, you won't hear God speak. Anybody who says, "I don't hear God speak," I know, this is just between us, but when somebody says to me, "I don't hear God speak," either "A," they're not reading their Bible, or "B," they haven't learned to understand or recognize his voice when he speaks.

And again, there's always this one: when you do something wrong, he always seems to speak very loud and clear. I have no problem hearing him when I'm either thinking about doing something wrong or have done it. And it's always, "Jack." It's never, "JACK!" It's never, "JACK!" It's "Jack." "Yes, sir?" He's just got this tone in his voice.

Jot this down concerning the person of the Holy Spirit. And it's obvious that we know this concerning Jesus, but the Holy Spirit, he has a will. He has a will. I'll give you one verse, though there are many. Isaiah 48:16.

Isaiah 48:16 says, "Come near to me, hear this: I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that was past, I was there. And now the Lord God and his Spirit have sent me." Isn't that wonderful? He has a will.

I'll throw in another scripture, even though I told you I wasn't going to give you another one. In the book of Ephesians chapter 4, the Bible says that the Holy Spirit is the one who gives gifts to the members of the body of Christ. Jesus doesn't give them, the Father doesn't give them; the Holy Spirit gives them. Interesting.

He has emotions. The Holy Spirit has emotions. Isaiah 63 verse 10 says, "But they rebelled and grieved"—the word in Hebrew is "made angry"—"they rebelled and made angry his Holy Spirit. So the Spirit turned and became their enemy and he fought against them."

This is in relation to the children of Israel going through the desert. Can you imagine? Can you imagine so upsetting the Holy Spirit that he turns and becomes your enemy? Wow. Isaiah 63:10. You can make angry the Holy Spirit. The Bible says in Thessalonians, "Don't grieve the Holy Spirit."

He has an intellect. He has a mind. In 1 Corinthians 2:10, the Bible says, "But God has revealed them to us through his Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God." He has an intellect. He has deep, obviously, deep understanding.

Also this we go to: Jesus, the Spirit, and personality; also Jesus, the Spirit, and purpose. And people, we need to go quick with this, okay? I'm going to run through these very quickly.

The purpose: Matthew chapter 1 verse 18. "Now the birth of Jesus Christ is as follows: After his mother was engaged to Joseph, before they had physical union, before they had sex, she was found to be with child of the Holy Spirit." That was the purpose of God. The purpose of the Trinity was at work.

How did Mary become pregnant? By the person of the Holy Spirit. Her humanity, by the way, her DNA, her bloodline was in Jesus, but not Joseph's. If you know the Bible well, you know that from the curse of Jeconiah, none of his descendants, which Joseph was related, could have the blood in the Messiah. So what did God do? God had the Holy Spirit and she was pregnant. A miraculous conception by God.

David J: Pastor and Bible teacher Jack Hibbs here on Real Life Radio and his message called "Christ and the Trinity." Thanks so much for being with us today. You know, this message is part of Pastor Jack's series called The Life and Times of Jesus Christ. It's a series about the real Jesus of the Bible, God in the flesh, and why knowing him more deeply changes everything. And we'll continue on the next edition of Real Life Radio.

Jack Hibbs: Hey everybody, we're very excited about this special offer. It's called Bold Stand. It's a back-to-school faith guide for your young one. It's going to help them take a stand for Christ even in the public school culture.

It's very, very well done. It's a pamphlet they can put in their backpack or put within the pages of any book. It's very colorful, it's in cartoon style, and I think your kids are going to love it. So please get a copy for yourself. Bold Stand: Back-to-School Faith Guide.

David J: Get this and more at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Hey, thank you again so much for listening. And if you'd like to hear or see more of what we do here, you can always go to jackhibbs.com for all the latest on what's going on with this ministry.

And please, if you're ever in the Southern California area, come see us at Calvary Chapel Chino Hills. We'd love to see you there in person. It has been so good to be with you today, and I pray you find yourself in the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. See you on the next episode.

This program is made possible by the generous contributions of you, our listeners. Visit us at jackhibbs.com. That's jackhibbs.com. Until next time, Pastor Jack Hibbs and all of us here at Real Life Radio wish for you solid and steady growth in Christ and in his word. We'll see you next time here on Real Life Radio.