BIBLE NUMERICS

The Number THREE

Two and One is Three. A division in unity or a unity in division is a

trinitarian formula making three. We have this thing very much in

evidence in the Trinity itself. The Trinity is only divided at the

second one. The Bible says God is a spirit (John 4), and then we read

that the Holy Spirit is spirit; but the Son was a man. There is your

division. One, two--division. There is a tri-nature, a tri-unity, a

trinity. Three stands for something else, but notice that two is

division. Now, I realize that there is no controversy in the Godhead.

I realize that the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord in the book

of Acts where Agatha says, "Thus saith the Holy Ghost." I realize that

the Holy Spirit is referred to as the Lord in I Corinthians where it

says, "the Lord is that Spirit." I realize the Lord Jesus Christ is

the Everlasting Father and so forth and so on. But from the practical

standpoint, the only one of the three who appears in flesh, actually

walking around (I mean, the flesh itself), is the Son. Now, Jesus

said, "He that hath seen me hath seen the Father," but of course He

wasn't referring to the Father's body, but the Father's soul. He said,

"The Father dwelleth in me and I in him," and "As I live by the

Father, so you'll live by me." The Lord Jesus Christ is the duo in the

Trinity. The divider is that one member of the Trinity who becomes

flesh and dies. God can't die. There is your division.

Then three brings a thing back together. Three universally is a lucky

number. I don't know of any language or any nation or tribe anywhere

in the world where three is considered to be an unlucky number. Three

is a basic structure for things. Time is divided into three: past,

present, and future. Space is divided into three: breadth, length, and

width, those three. Man has a tri-parted nature: body, soul, and

spirit. God the Father has a trinitarian nature; God the Father, God

the Son, God the Holy Ghost. You have this thing throughout

constantly, this trinitarian thing--this three that brings it back

together.

Did you ever wonder about the Bible itself? The Bible itself has two

Testaments--division: the Old Testament which ends with a curse

(Malachi 4), and the New Testament which ends, "Even so, come, Lord

Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen."

There's real division. John says, "The law came by Moses, but grace

and truth by Jesus Christ." There is division between those

Testaments. They're not alike, but they need a third thing to top it

off. What do you reckon the third thing is?

Did you ever think about that?

There are two Testaments. Isn't that an incomplete Bible?

Do you know what the rest of that Bible is? It is Jesus Christ. How

about that? John 1:1 says that He was the Word; Revelation 19 says

that his name is called the "Word of God." He is the third Testament.

There are only two of them in print. The Bible says that in heaven

there are three that bear record, "the Father, the Word, and the Holy

Ghost." You've got an incomplete Bible without Jesus Christ. How about

that?!

The Neo-orthodox fellows put all the emphasis on Jesus Christ at the

expense of the Bible. Sometimes we fundamental, Bible-believing people

tend to put all the emphasis on the Bible at the expense of Jesus

Christ. It is both: it is the incarnate Word, and it is the carnate

word. There are three Testaments; only two are in print and the third

one completes it and brings it back to where it ought to be: Father,

Son, and Holy Spirit.

All right, three points to the Trinity. There is not much doubt about

the number three. The number three represents the Godhead, Himself, in

three persons, manifested throughout the universe in three phases.

History is divided into past, present, and future. Every verse of

scripture has three applications: historical, doctrinal, spiritual. We

find throughout the universe this three manifested.

I read a book by a man one time who insisted that time was the fourth

dimension. He didn't mean you had to go backward and forward in time

to get into another dimension. He said that reality (what you lived in

or experienced right now), was a combination of three dimensions,

making the fourth dimension. He proved that thing by taking out any

one of the other dimensions and showing you that without any one of

the other dimensions, you'd be unconscious and dead; the whole

universe would be unconscious and dead. He proved conclusively that

you can't have a line without three dimensions. There is no such thing

as a two-dimensional line. Did you ever think about that?

So a thing has to be three to be complete. That is the trouble with an

unsaved man; one part of him is missing. He is a two man; he is

divided; he is divided against himself. An unsaved man has a live body

and a dead spirit and a live soul. Only two parts of him are alive--

his soul and his body. That's division. He is not complete until he

gets a live spirit--that's a Trinity--and then he is born again.

Now these things are basic--they're fundamental. I haven't even begun

yet a discussion of chapter and verse headings in detail. I'm talking

about basic fundamental things that are apparent to anyone who reads

any Bible at all. Three stands for those things.

If you are working on a mathematical problem or a social problem or a

family problem or an ecclesiastical problem or a spiritual problem or

a problem in physics or a problem in chemistry, and the solution

escapes you, let me tell you something: Look for three sides and

you'll have it. When you don't have the answer, it is when you only

have one side or two sides. No problem is complete until the third

side has been found. Hegel worked on this. Hegel called this

"dialectic reasoning," having a Thesis, an Anti-thesis, and a

Synthesis. He began with A, opposed it with B, and got C, and thought

he had something new. He had something that is fundamental to leaf

structure and animal life. He had something that the writer of Genesis

knew about before Hegel's grandmother had the syrup taken out of her

formula. If you can't find an answer, it is because you don't have

three parts to the answer. That goes for fixing an automobile, or

sewing a dress. Three is a fundamental, fixed, mathematical figure

that controls the nature and function of reality; and so has God

ordained it and set it up, and thus shall it ever be, world without

end. Amen. It works by threes.

When a man believes properly according to Romans 10, he believes on

the "Lord Jesus Christ," not just "the good Lord," not just "my

blessed Jesus," not just "the Christ." Have you ever noticed how all

these false Christian gods have something hacked off their names? Did

you ever hear some rural Christian people say, "O, Lordy," "O the good

Lord," "Lordy, Lordy," "Lordy me," etc.? You haven't got ALL of it.

Did you ever hear these holiness folks sing, "My Jesus," "Blessed

Jesus," or "My Sweet Jesus"? That is interesting, but you have to be

careful. Did you ever hear these modernists talk about the "Christ of

Calvary," the "Christ of the open rood," etc.--meaning the spirit that

was in Christ who helped the socialists and the reformers centuries

later. You have to watch that kind of business. It is THE LORD JESUS

CHRIST. It's the Lord--so much for God the Father. It's Jesus--so much

for God the Son. It's Christos--anointed, the Holy Spirit--so much for

the Trinity. Three is a picture or revelation of the Godhead.

All of the light in this solar system and all of the heat in this

solar system have their eventual source in the sun. I'm not saying

that there aren't light bearers independent from the sun, but I'm

saying that if the sunlight went out there wouldn't be any phosphorus

in the water, or light in the lightning bugs, because the bugs would

all die. The chemical elements of the water wouldn't be there. It

would be a dead, blasted planet like the moon. I'm saying that all the

rays that come down to this earth are alpha rays, beta rays, and gamma

rays; three types of rays--light rays, heat rays, and actinic rays. It

is a manifestation, a type, of the Godhead so much so that Paul says

in Romans 1 that the invisible things of Him, God, "are clearly seen,

being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power

and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."

There is no doubt about the number Three, absolutely no doubt at all.


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