How To Explain The Trinity: by Jeff Durbin

All right, well, let me introduce the next speaker. Let's get this thing started. Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church and Radio. Jeff is a pastor elder at Apologia Church in Tempe, worked many years as a hospital chaplain.

He speaks on campuses, conferences, camps, churches, conferences, schools across the U .S., participated in outreach to various different religions. They go to the Mormon Temple, for example, during the pageant during Christmas and do a lot of great ministry there to the Mormons.

He's also done some public debates against atheists, so you wanna hear those. Jeff was actually on the History Channel. They did a show on drug addiction called The Stoned Ages about the Christian approach to drugs and alcohol.

He was able to represent that. He hosts a weekly radio and TV program called Apologia Radio. It's a great show. Check it out, ApologiaRadio .com. And Jeff is married to his wonderful bride, Candy, and they've got four children, Sage, Imagine, Sailor, Stellar.

So I think you're gonna be excited. Jeff's gonna talk about explaining and showing the love of the Trinity, especially to Muslim folks, because it's a big issue. So Jeff Durbin in the house. Yeah, give it up, give it up.

We're glad you're here.

Thanks, brother.

All right, let me get set up here.

How are you guys, good?

So I got the eight o 'clock Trinity discussion. End of the day, you guys are probably tired and full from dinner.

No, you guys ready to go?

I like that.

See, there you go, right on, okay.

Especially about the Trinity.

That's right. So let me just start by saying that I'm humbled to be able to do a message on the triune God. I think this is a vitally important issue. And when you consider the fact that today in modern evangelicalism, we often run into the common scenario where if you were to ask somebody, what is the Trinity, or can you define the Trinity?

The common evangelical professing Christian on the street today could not define the Trinity. And you oftentimes hear Christians, professing Christians defining the Trinity, the triune God of the Bible, in ways that really reflect ancient heresy more than actual biblical truth.

So this is a vitally important topic because what we are talking about is not something that is just mere theological gymnastics. We're talking about the God that we worship. And so this is not one of those non-essential issues.

For us as Christians.

This is not an issue like, what color should the carpet be in church? This isn't an issue like whether Christians can have a cigar at the birth of their child. This is not in the realm of those kinds of discussions.

How should you come dressed to church? Should you wear relaxed, casual clothes, like maybe like I'm wearing now? Hopefully that's not offending anybody right now. Or should you dress up in a suit and tie for church?

What kind of music should you listen to?

Or what should we worship with?

Should we do no musical instruments and just sing exclusively from the Psalms? Should we allow modern contemporary hymns? Should we only sing old hymns from the Reformation? Those are subjects that Christians can and really should have in-house debates getting to the scriptures on, but it's not something we should destroy each other over.

Amen?

I hope you guys say amen to that, okay? Some of you guys are like, no, okay, debate. This is an issue that strikes to the core of what it means to be a Christian. Again, this is about the very God that we worship.

And again, I wanna express how humbled I am to be able to speak on something like this. And I wanna confess outright that I am a mere creature talking about the incomprehensible God. And I wanna acknowledge that at the beginning that it's a real privilege and an honor to be having this talk.

But I wanna share with you something that's one of my heroes of the faith early on shared. And that is this, Dr. Walter Martin, who wrote the book, The Kingdom of the Cults. He really began a lot of the outreach and evangelism to the cults in the 20th century.

And he said, if you get your doctrine of God wrong, it doesn't matter wherever else you are right. If you have the wrong God, you have a God that cannot save you. And so this is a, again, vitally important topic and a discussion tonight.

So let's go ahead and start with prayer.

And we'll get right into tonight. Father, I wanna pray that you'd bless me. I confess God in myself, in myself, my unworthiness to be presenting such a beautiful and glorious truth. And God, we all confess, Lord, our dependence upon Father, your Son.

Lord Jesus, it's you and your life, your death and resurrection, Lord, that we cling to. Lord, we have no other boast before you. God, all we have, Father, is Jesus. And Lord, it's in him that we put all of our trust.

Lord Jesus, you lived righteously, blamelessly. You perfectly kept the law in the place of your people. You died a death that we deserve. And you rose from the dead. And Lord Jesus, we find ourselves in you, covered in your righteousness.

Lord, no longer guilty because of your work. I pray, God, that you would bless today me as I speak by your spirit. You would teach your people from your word that I would get out of the way. God, that what you do here would be to the glory of Jesus Christ and to the increase of his fame.

Among all the nations. I pray that you, God, would cause me to decrease and Christ to increase. In Jesus' name, amen. So again, vitally important topic. We're talking about the God that we worship. Jesus said this.

He said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus said that he was the exclusive way, means to have a right relationship with a living God, the only God.

Jesus affirmed absolute and strict monotheism. When he was asked a question about the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus quoted the Shema. It was part of the morning and evening prayers.

For every Jew.

Jesus would have prayed that prayer and Jews today. Still, if you go into a mall and you see a little Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke, walk up to him and ask him to quote the Shema to you,.

They'll be able to do it.

It's a part of what Jesus believed. It's a part of what every Jew believed and every Christian has always believed. There is only one true and living God. And when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus quoted the Shema.

Shema, Yisrael,.

And depending on if you want to offend anybody or not,. Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength,.

Jesus says.

He says the second commandment is, love your neighbor as you love yourself. But Jesus taught absolute and strict monotheism. There is only one true and living God. And Jesus said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth and the life.

No man comes to the Father, but by me. The Apostle Peter at Pentecost actually says, actually in direct collision with the Roman government of his day, it was something that could have gotten him.

Into a lot of trouble.

The Apostle Peter famously says, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved. And he's speaking about Jesus. And so this is a vitally important topic because this cuts to the core of all that we believe as Christians.

We're talking about the God who is, the true and living God, the only God. And this concerns that God speaking in history. We're gonna talk tomorrow, well vocab's gonna talk tomorrow, with someone who's a Muslim.

And one thing that Muslims and Christians share in common is Muslims and Christians believe that God actually has spoken. We do share some common ground in the area of how we know what we know. The idea that God has actually condescended, that God has actually stepped into history and spoken.

He's interacted with us. We actually can know things because God has spoken. 2 Timothy 3, 16 through 17, the Apostle Paul says to Timothy that all scripture is theonoustos, all scripture is God breathed, breathed out by God.

That God has actually walked among us. That's the Christian claim. God has taken on flesh. He's walked among us. John chapter one says that Jesus has exegeted the Father for us. He has explained to God that God has actually not been the God that is far off.

He's a God who is very, very near. He stepped into his own creation.

He's talked to us.

We can know him. And Muslims and Christians actually agree. God has spoken. And the glory of the gospel is actually, it's compelling. And this is something that Paul speaks about in the book of Romans.

In the first couple of chapters, he repeats himself. The fact that God has spoken in scripture, in time and in space, he's actually spoken and revealed himself to us. But there's a detail here that's very important.

God has spoken to us about Jesus in the scriptures before Jesus ever walked on the earth. God told us the story in vivid, bright detail about the Mashiach, about the Messiah, long before he came. You see, the testimony of the eyewitnesses, the testimony of those who knew Jesus was that Jesus was not a novelty in the plan of God.

He was not someone that came into history as part of a plan B in God's plan for history. But Jesus was, in fact, part of God's plan in history to bring about redemption, to bring about the salvation among all the nations for his namesake.

Jesus, everything about him, to know him as Savior and Lord is written long before Jesus actually comes to the earth in his earthly ministry in vivid detail. The good news of the kingdom of God, the good news of redemption.

You see, the promise to Abraham was that Abraham was gonna have descendants as numerous as the, what?

Stars.

That was a promise made to Abraham that it was through Abraham's seed pointing ultimately to Jesus that Abraham was gonna have descendants as numerous as the stars. The promise was that all the nations were gonna flow up to the mountain of God, that God was gonna bring redemption.

The promise was, Psalm 110 .1, that this Messiah would be seated at the right hand of the Father and that he would make all of his enemies a footstool for his feet. The promise of redemption was redemption that was gonna go to the ends of the earth.

The promise was in Psalm 72 that this Messiah would have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth. This Messiah was gonna come and bring salvation. Isaiah 53 is a glorious passage in your Bible.

If you don't know that passage, I wanna encourage you to get to know it, spend time in that passage, meditate upon it. Here we have in the book of Isaiah long before Mashiach comes, long before the Messiah comes, the description of the life, death, and resurrection of the Messiah.

That all the questions are answered there about the work of the Messiah, that he would be pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, that chastening for our well-being would be upon him and by his wounds we'd be healed.

The glory of the Messiah, that he would be without sin. There was no deceit found in his mouth. But there's something peculiar here, and this gets to the incomprehensibility of God. Not the can I understand him and what he's doing, but the incomprehensibility of it.

It says in Isaiah 53, long before Jesus comes, that the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. Now I want you to think about this real fast. Hang on to this for a moment, okay? When I talk about God as triune, when I talk about God in ways that go beyond our ability to fully grasp and grab a hold of, I am not saying that it is not apprehendable, these truths, that you cannot understand them or grasp them.

I'm saying that there are things about God, because of the nature of things, he's God and we're creatures with three pound brains. There are things about God that are incomprehensible, and that to me is one of them.

Pause for a moment, and I want you to think about it as children of God. That's something that I actually can apprehend.

I get it.

God says in Isaiah 53, the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. Stop for a moment and think about that. That's apprehendable.

I get it.

God was pleased, he took pleasure in, he was pleased to crush Jesus, Mashiach. For me, I apprehend that. I can draw a picture of it. I can explain it to my kids, my seven-year-old little boy that I call Turtle.

I can explain it to him, that the father was pleased to crush Jesus, but brothers and sisters, I don't comprehend that. I don't comprehend it. There are aspects to what God is, who God is, and what God does in the world that I apprehend, but I do not comprehend.

And the glory of the gospel is stated long before Jesus comes. This Messiah is gonna come, Isaiah 53. He's going to be counted among the rebels, counted among the rebels, that he would justify the many as he would bear their iniquities.

All of that's in the scriptures long before Jesus comes. Here's the point. God has revealed himself.

God has spoken.

God has told us about himself. That is an act of his grace, and God told us about Jesus long before he came and completed his work. God is sovereign, brothers and sisters. God says long before Jesus comes that he declares the end from the beginning.

He does according to his will and the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? God is sovereign. He is wielding history. He controls the stars, every molecule.

There are no maverick molecules in God's universe. God has told us about his good news, and now he's gonna bring about redemption to the ends of the earth. That is why this is so vitally important because God is doing something in history to bring about salvation for the rebels.

Why is that significant for you? Well, because you are one, all right, and so am I, and that's why this gospel is so vitally important because, ready, there is only one God, and there is only one way to this God to be reconciled and brought to peace with him, and that is through Jesus the Messiah, Jesus the God-man.

Jesus says in John 8 to people in front of him, he says this, unless you believe that ego e me, I am, you will die in your sins. He tells people that if you do not accept the fact, not just accept, but actually believe in and trust in me as God, you will die in your sins, and that is the message we have for our Muslim friends.

Jesus is God in the flesh coming to bring about salvation to reconcile us to his father. Now, there's a problem, though, in our discussion tomorrow and our discussion really always in our context, there's a problem, and the problem is in the fall.

Our first parents fell into sin, specifically our first parent, Adam, he fell into sin, and Romans chapter five says that because of that fall, death spread to all men, and Romans chapter one really gives us a description after verse 18 onwards of really the condition of all of humanity, we're all in there.

Our Muslim friends are in there, our Mormon friends are in there, our Hindu friends are in there, all of us before Christ are in Romans one. It says in Romans 118, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth, for that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has made it evident to them.

It says since the creation of the world, his eternal power, everything about God, to know God is so obvious, Paul says, that the creation is shouting to us so that, ready, listen closely, we are left unapologetus, without a defense, without a reasoned defense.

Listen, it says that everybody so clearly knows God, the true God, the only God, that we are such rebels, we become fools, our thoughts become futile, we switch God for idols, and we are left without an excuse before his throne.

We construct as fallen people very clever systems. We construct as fallen people our own gods made in our image that we switch the eternal God for.

That's the problem of the fall.

And there's this particular problem described in Romans one that I want you guys to grab hold of right now because it really describes the atmosphere and the circumstances that we find ourselves in when we engage in debate with any cult or any ism.

There's a particular atmosphere, and that is the atmosphere of the fall. All of us are rebels against the same God, know the same God, and have the same fundamental problem. Listen closely. John Calvin, I think he put it best when he said that the human heart is a natural idol-making factory.

And it is never, listen, idol in creating idols. It is always producing them. And in the fall, we can't help but create gods that aren't God to go and worship them. We have the problem of the fall. We have a problem of false gods and false gospels.

But listen closely. You see this is particularly important to God, really reflected from the very beginning of the Bible, but we see it in particular when God comes into relationship with his people, he condescends, comes into a gracious covenant with them, and when he gives them his 10 commandments, he reminds them that he's their God who delivered them from their slavery to Egypt.

That's gracious. And then he gives them his law. What's the first commandment in the 10? You shall have no other gods before me. Now, it's interesting how we read that. It's really actually the construction of it in English is not always something we grab hold of in the correct way.

You shall have no other gods before me almost sounds like God saying in priority, right? In other words, in position. Don't have any other gods before me, like let me be first, right? But that's not what it says.

No other gods before me means no other gods in my sight. In God's 10 commandments, he gives to us the first commandment, don't have any other gods in my sight and the second commandment is what? Don't even make a God that looks like me.

God is so concerned in his law for his people that the first thing he tells them is this, I'm the only God that you get. I'm the only God that there is. You shall have no other gods before me, not even in my sight.

The problem of the fall,.

The problem of false gods and false worship. But I wanna reiterate to you in Romans chapter one, it says very, very clearly that what we do in our fallen state outside of a redeemed, reconciled relationship with God, listen closely, it says that they switch God for idols.

They give up the incorruptible God for images. It's really powerful, guys. If you read Romans one in light of Genesis one, you see the apostle Paul as a Jewish rabbi doing something very interesting. He takes the creation account in Genesis one where it says that God, the eternal God, the creator actually speaks and creates ex nihilo out of nothing and he creates the sky, he creates everything, he creates baboons and giraffes and the creeping things and the birds and all the rest.

And then his image he creates in the garden. But listen, in Romans one, Paul, a Jewish rabbi trained under Gamaliel says that in the fall, what would the creatures do that were created by that God is instead of worshiping the creator, they worship the creeping things and the stuff.

We in the fall have a default position of idolatry. We create false gods. And you actually do see it. Listen closely to this. It's very important, especially in dialogue with Muslims. You do see this problem particularly expressed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

And I wanna say something. You see it early on in the New Testament, the problem of a distortion of God himself creating an idol, a false god. If you read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, if you're taking notes, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the apostle Paul says very early on in the history of the church, Jesus has fairly recently died, risen, and ascended.

And he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he says, I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity of devotion. And he's worried about these Christians that they'll be led astray from the simplicity and the impurity of devotion, which is to Christ.

And he says, for if one comes and preaches another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, he says this, you might even put up with them. Early on in the history of the church, the apostle Paul in our New Testament has to deal with the fallen problem or the problem in the fall of idolatry and false worship.

And that's surrounding the person of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus. We need to express to our Muslim friends, our Mormon friends, our Jehovah's Witness friends, that the problem of a false Jesus is not a 19th century problem unique to that, or a 20th century, or 21st century, or a 6th century problem.

The problem of false Christ has its genesis in the first century, 1 Corinthians chapter 11. Paul says this, somebody could come in, guys, to your assembly, and they could preach a different Jesus, and you would put up with them.

He's worried about them. The problem of false Christ is in the first century generation. It should be no surprise to us as Christians that you do see in the 6th century and onward, religions that distort the person and work of Jesus Christ.

It did not have its genesis there. It really is a problem that began in the fall, and you do see expressed in the first century. Let's start now getting into the triune God, the Trinity. It's a term that is not in your Bibles.

It's simply a word we use to describe what actually is in the Bible. The Trinity, the triunity of God, three persons, one God. I'm gonna give you guys a definition from my friend, Dr. James White. He wrote a book called The Forgotten Trinity, which I highly commend to you.

You should sell your shirt and your shoes, and you should go buy it.

It's worth it.

The Forgotten Trinity by Dr. James White. And this is, I think, a fantastic definition that you can work with to describe the triune God of the Bible. Here's the definition. There is within the one being that is God.

There is within the one being that is God, three co-equal and co-eternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here it is again. There is within the one being that is God, three co-equal and co-eternal persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Now, the foundations for the Trinity really begin with a fundamental truth. Are you ready?

Ready for this?

First point. There is only one God.

Impressed?

It's a powerful truth, and you gotta actually take something in for a moment,.

Brothers and sisters.

That is so unique and so powerful amongst the religions of the world. You see, one of the unique things about really Judaism and Christianity is monotheism, the fact that there is only one true eternal God.

He has existed from all eternity into all eternity. There is only one God. Now, think for a moment now about religions of the world that you would compare and contrast what the Bible says about God with their beliefs.

Other religions really are interesting because they look just like us. Their gods look just like us. They have mommy gods and daddy gods, baby gods. They produce other gods sexually. They get in fights with other gods.

They kill other gods. Really, there is no parallel in history to what the Bible says about God. One God, transcendent and yet imminent, covenantally active, who is eternal, who is spirit, all-knowing, all-powerful, full of justice, mercy, love, goodness, truth.

The Bible describes God as the only God. Some text for you guys. Isaiah 43 .10. It's a powerful passage. God says in Isaiah 43 .10, before me, there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

God says in Isaiah 44 .6, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. And then he asks a rhetorical question. In Isaiah 44 .8, he says this, is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other God.

I know not one. Now, passages could be multiplied nearly ad infinitum, ad nauseum here, over and over and over. There is only one God. The scriptures shout this truth to us. Jesus affirmed this truth to us.

And it's in the very basis of what God says to us in the Shema. Directly from the Torah, Shema, Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, Hero Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And in Deuteronomy 4 .35 -39, it says this, God says that he is the only God in the heavens above and on the earth below.

There is no other. There is only one God. The next point in describing the triune God, the Trinity, is that the Bible clearly teaches that there are three persons called God. There are three persons called God.

So again, first point, there is only one God. The second point is that there are clearly three persons called God. And if you have your Bibles, it'd be good for you guys to get them out.

And work through this with me.

There are three persons called God. First point, which I think is really beyond dispute and is really not worth spending our time together right now on because it's really beyond dispute. I don't think you're gonna find many people to argue with this that are in other cults that ape Christianity or other religions.

And that is that the Father is God. We know the Bible calls the Father God. Jesus calls the Father God. That's not something that really is in dispute with Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, or say Mormons.

That's a common fact accepted. But amazingly, listen closely, when someone comes to your door on Saturday morning at 7 .30 a .m., how dare they? When they come to your door at 7 .30 a .m., no matter what they're wearing, no matter what their text, no matter what their message, you know that what every religion tries to always undermine or distort is the deity of Christ, that Jesus Christ is eternal God, that he has existed from all eternity, and that he is the creator of all things, that Jesus is equal with the Father by very nature or essence.

If you have somebody come to your door and they're part of a religion that has just sprang up or a cult, ask them this question. Is Jesus God, eternal God, the creator of everything in existence? Because that is at the heart of what we believe.

And remember that Jesus says in John chapter eight, unless you believe, ego eimi, I am, you will die in your sins. So what you say about this truth, what you believe about this truth, your eternal destiny depends upon it.

Jesus is called God. Couple texts, and this is vitally important, I think exciting, this is just so exciting, it gives me goosebumps when I think about it. I mean, really, it causes me, as much as Christianly possible, to puff my chest up with pride about God.

And that is this, that if you wanna show somebody that Jesus is Yahweh, that Jesus is, in fact, the eternal God, you don't start in the New Testament. You start in the Old. And the place you wanna go to start, and this is just, again, a scratching of the surface in this whole broad subject tonight, is Isaiah chapter nine, verses six through seven.

It's, man, it's awesome. Here's what's powerful about, listen closely, is that you have a monotheistic Jew. He believes in only one God. He's that Jew that woke up in the morning and quoted the Shema.

He's that Jew who believes there is only one God. And in Isaiah nine, six through seven, listen closely, it says, listen, there's a son coming. A child is gonna be born.

What's that?

That's a human being. That's someone like you and like me. A son, a child, and it says, listen closely, his name should be called Wonderful Counselor.

Listen, El Gibor.

What is that? The mighty God. Listen, the everlasting Father. Don't get confused about that in a sense of, is he calling Jesus the heavenly Father? No, it means the Father of eternity. Listen closely.

The son who's coming, the child who's coming is the mighty God. He is the eternal one. And it says, the government will rest upon his shoulders. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

So this Messiah who's coming to bring his rule, his reign, that kingdom of redemption, he is El Gibor. If you look just one chapter later, in Isaiah chapter 10, read the passage from chapter 10 verses 20 and on, it actually calls Yahweh El Gibor.

Did you catch that?

In one chapter distance from Isaiah nine, Yahweh is called El Gibor, the mighty God. And yet in Isaiah nine, six through seven, it says the son coming, the child coming is El Gibor, the mighty God. Again, brothers and sisters, if you wanna show that Jesus Christ is eternal God, you do not start in the New Testament, you must start in the Old.

Another text that shows that Jesus Christ is eternal God is Micah chapter five, verses two and onward. Listen closer to this, because if you are like me and you're a fan of Christmas, all you haters, please be quiet, you have time to repent, okay?

I have mercy for you, okay? But if you're a fan of Christmas, you know that this is part of what we sing at Christmastime, right? Oh little town of Bethlehem. See, even if you hate Christmas, you know the song, right?

You can't get away from it, because wherever you go, it's playing, right? Which is an awesome thing, right? They're singing songs about our Messiah in the malls.

I love it, I love it.

But Micah five two actually tells us the place of the Messiah, it is Bethlehem. That's where he's coming. But listen closely to what it says about the one coming to Bethlehem. It says, his goings forth are from old, yea, even from eternity.

Did you hear that? The Messiah coming to Bethlehem is from everlasting. Well, brothers and sisters, Psalm 90, verse two says, from eternity into eternity, you are God. According to the Bible, who is the only eternal being?

God. And yet in Micah five, to and onward, it says the Messiah coming to Bethlehem is from eternity. The Messiah is the eternal God, amen?

All right.

Now you move forward now to Daniel chapter seven, and this one I want you to open your Bibles to. Daniel chapter seven is a significant passage describing the divinity of the Messiah, that he is in fact God.

This is a powerful text because this contains within it the name that Jesus used most for himself. It is recited dozens of times in the New Testament. And what was Jesus' favorite title for himself? Son of man.

It's vitally important to listen to that. Jesus' favorite title for himself was son of man. And that comes from a book that was written hundreds of years before Jesus came. Now listen closely, it's powerful, because the part of the text that's quoted often is Daniel seven, 13 through 14.

And that's where Daniel is looking into night visions and he says, behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming. Listen closely, it says he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

By the way, which direction did Jesus go in his ascension?