The Trinity (Part 4)

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered-down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you. By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her King.

Here's our host, Pastor Mike Ebendroth.

The Trinity and Why the Gospel Must Be Trinitarian

Welcome to No Compromise Radio ministry, Mike Ebendroth here. I'm sitting here drinking a powered by plant protein drink, K-O-I-A, I didn't get this at a K-O-A, K-O-I-A, Koya, Koya protein, chocolate, banana, dairy-free, taste-free, GMO-free, soy-free, what does that do to you?

I don't even know what's in this thing. Almond milk, coconut milk, coconut cream, banana puree, chicory root, I had a lot of chicory root in India. I think that's a British thing to do, to add chicory root to coffee.

Anyway, you can write me, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com, many of you do. I think the number one question I receive is, can you help me find a good church? Or can you help my loved one find a good church?

Second question probably these days is, I love my pastor, but he just whacks me with law all the time, what do I do? That's not the exact way they phrase it, but that's kind of the way. Anyway, I want to remind you that Pat Ebendroth of the Pactom and I will be leading a trip to Israel, Lord of Willing, 2023, and that is, I've got 24 spots.

I think Pat's got 24 spots, first come, first serve with the deposit and information regarding that soon enough. You can email me now and say, I'm interested. No commitments yet, no money sent in. We're still firming up prices, but that'll be a lot of fun.

If you like Bible teaching and fun, that would be a good trip for you to be on. Lots of discussion these days online about the Trinity, and I think it's good for all of us to get back into Nicene Trinitarianism.

And if you get a book by Matthew Barrett on Simply Trinity, it'll be a deep dive, but you'll be benefited by that book. If you want to get something easier by Fred Sanders or something like that, you can.

Maybe a good place to start would be, read the Confessions and see what the Confessions say about the Trinity. Read the Nicene Creed, read the Apostles' Creed, I almost said Apollo's Creed. What's...Apollo Creed?

That makes me laugh. Apollo Creed. So funny. Of course, you've probably seen some of those Lutheran videos on YouTube. That's Modalism Patrick. I found quite a bit of...I found many errors describing the Trinity in terms of analogies, right?

So you've got the shamrock, right? Where there's three petals that are unique but distinct, while there's three in one plant. Kind of, you know, clover. These are all bad, by the way. Equilateral triangle, three equal sides and three equal angles.

You take one away, you don't have it anymore. You've got three matches held together, one flame, three distinct parts to the flame. An egg, three distinct parts, egg whites, shell, and yolk. A rope with three strands, yet one rope.

A tree has branches, leaves, and roots. Sun has light, heat, and motion. Water, solid, liquid, steam. Butterfly, egg, larva, butterfly. Plant, seed, flower, stem. Plato would think intellect, will, mind.

An apple has the apple fruit, core, and seeds. Cake has layers, slices, ingredients. Body, soul, spirit. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Gregory says every illustration of the Trinity breaks down, quote, I have been unable to discover anything on earth with which to compare the nature of the Godhead.

And we here at No Compromise Radio, and of course I know you as well, believe that the Trinity, while true, is revealed. God tells us how he wants us to think about him. It's a revealed doctrine. Warfield talked about how the doctrine of the Trinity can't be discovered.

It's indiscoverable. Using logic, reason, searching, it's something that God has to reveal. Well for today, I want to talk about another error when it comes to Trinitarian thinking, which is probably more prevalent in our circles, and it's not as big of an error, but I think it's still an error.

If I say to you, gospel, what comes into your mind? Well, word association might be something, you know, on the negative side, negating it, and not law. You might think good news, you might think of the person and work of the Lord Jesus, you might think God loves sinners.

I saw again today somebody saying, I'd never tell a sinner God loves them. I used to be that guy, ugh. Right? Or I just heard somebody, you know, not that long ago, if you were ever going to try to preach a message, you wanted people to get converted, and this very well-known celebrity preacher that you probably listened to said, I'd never use John 3 .16.

I'm like, what? Jesus used John 3 .16, right? John 3 .14 and 15 about the serpent and Moses lifted up, and it's crazy. The world is crazy, of course. When I say the word gospel, one of my reflex words in my vocabulary now, at least thinking about it, I might not always say it, is the word trinity.

If I say gospel, I want you to say trinity. Yes, it's true that the gospel is about Jesus Christ. Yes, it's true that it's about the person and work of the Lord Jesus, yes and amen. But the gospel is about the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

So the purpose for my show today is I want you to basically say to yourself, when you hear the word gospel, that you think about the good news regarding the triune God. I could call this thinking Trinitarianly about the gospel.

God, the triune God, is the gospel, and that's what we need to be thinking about. Kevin Van Hooser writes, the gospel is ultimately unintelligible apart from Trinitarian theology. So dear No Compromise radio listeners, God is triune.

Your salvation is Trinitarian. Your baptism is Trinitarian. Our praise should be Trinitarian. Fred Sanders, quote, nothing we do as evangelicals makes sense if it is divorced from a strong experiential and doctrinal grasp of the coordinated work of Jesus and the Spirit worked out against the horizon of the Father's love.

Personal evangelism, conversational prayer, devotional Bible study, authoritative preaching, world missions, and assurance of salvation all presuppose that life in the gospel is life in communion with the Trinity.

That's good, and that's right. And it's important. When you think of the word Trinity, I want you to be thinking about the Father sending the Son, who both have sent the Spirit. That's what I want you to think of.

Unbegotten Father, begotten Son, the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Galatians, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who are under the law. Of course, when you begin to think about the gospel, you think Trinitarianly, and you think of the crucifixion, for instance.

And the Father did not withhold His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, right? That's what the Father did. Well, the Son, He loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2 .20, right? So is it true the Father delivered up the Son and the Son delivered Himself up?

Yes, both of those are true. Of course, the Holy Spirit, He is involved too. If you think of the resurrection, the Father exalts Him and gives Him a name that is above every name, right, for what He did.

And the Father raises Him from the dead. And we say to ourselves, did the Son also raise Himself? Augustine. Assuredly, He did, for He said of the temple as the figure of His own body, destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again.

When we think about the Gospel, we ought to think Trinitarianly. And if you say to yourself, hmm, we have designations like Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Why do we have those designations? Well, we talked about that a little bit the last three shows, except that middle show where I was interrupted all the time and was kind of in a...made me in a bad mood, I think.

The Father, He was not conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, right? He didn't die in the cross. He wasn't raised from the dead. But the resurrection of the Son was the work of the Father, was the work of the Son, and was the work of the Holy Spirit.

They do things together. Does the Father do anything without the Son, or the Son do anything without the Father? These are good questions for us to work through. Jesus became incarnate. Jesus died on the cross.

Jesus was resurrected. But the Father wasn't. The Father didn't die on the cross. The Holy Spirit didn't die on the cross. But they were working together because there's one God. That's what we have to remember.

And if you preach the gospel, you're preaching the doctrine of the Trinity. So I want you to begin to think in a Trinitarian fashion because, as one man said, the gospel is Trinitarian because what God does reflects who God is.

Not only the gospel is Trinitarian, and I want you to think through that as we go through a passage today, but I also want you to begin to think, hmm, every time I see the word Father, I also think of the Son and the Spirit.

Every time I see the word Son, or a word that talks about Jesus, I think about the Father who sent Him, and the Spirit on earth who empowered Him and assisted Him, and the Spirit who now applies the work of Christ to our account.

I want you to read one and think of three. When you read the word God, I want you to think God the Son, God the Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. If you read Elohim, the Hebrew word for God in the Old Testament, talking about powerful Creator, I want you to think Elohim the Father, Elohim the Son, Elohim the Spirit.

Yahweh, same thing. When you say one, I want you to think of all. So I want you to think not only Trinitarianly about the gospel, but also every time you hear something said of God, generally speaking, you think Trinitarianly.

And if you hear one member of the Trinity mentioned, you think of the other two because there's only one God, right? They're co-eternal. They are co-equal. Gregory of Nazanthius said, No sooner do I conceive of the one, talking about the Godhead, that I am illumined by the splendor of the three.

No sooner do I distinguish them than I'm carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three, I think of Him as the whole, and my eyes are filled, and the greater part of what I'm thinking escapes me.

I cannot grasp the greatness of that one so as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest. When I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch, and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light.".

That's 381 AD. So on No Compromise Radio, if we're going to think Trinitarianly, we ought to think about the gospel Trinitarianly. I mean, you think about the baptism, that we're supposed to baptize people in the singular name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

And I also want you to begin to think of all three members of the Trinity when one or two are mentioned, right? Or just a generic word for Yahweh, for God, Yahweh, or Elohim, or Elyon, or El. Now, if you start off reading books like this, you'll instantly begin to think Trinitarianly.

Trinitarian Reading of Romans 1 and the Pauline Epistles

Romans 1, Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus called to be an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, which he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scripture. So here we see the word God, and it's referring to the Father.

How do I know that? Verse 3, concerning his Son, so the designation of God in Romans 1 is of the Father, concerning his Son who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the capital S Spirit of holiness, that is the Holy Spirit, by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord.

When you begin to think about the gospel of God, I want you to begin to think in a Trinitarian fashion. And the rest of the epistles, if you read them, almost every one of the Pauline epistles will start off with, or everyone does start off with this, some mention more members of the Trinity than others.

It's usually the Father and the Son listed. 1 Corinthians 1, grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, grace to you in peace. 2 Corinthians 1, same thing, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Galatians, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 1, any guesses? Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Colossians 1, graced you in peace from God our Father, we always thank God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First Thessalonians chapter 1, to the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Second Thessalonians 1, to the church of the Thessalonians in God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

First Timothy chapter 1, by the command of God our Savior and Christ Jesus our hope. Second Timothy chapter 1, to Timothy my child, beloved child, grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

Titus, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Savior. Philemon, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you get the idea? We need to think about the gospel in a Trinitarian fashion, and then we need to be thinking to ourselves, when one is said, we think of the three, or when two are said, we think of the three.

And that's what Paul does in these epistles. Now I skipped one. There's one epistle of Paul that I skipped, and I'm not talking about Hebrews, let's just, let's relegate that to maybe Paul, maybe not.

So I'm not thinking about that one, and that was a, that's a sermon anyway, and it does talk and extol the Lord Jesus right there at the very beginning, of course, and then throughout the entire letter.

And I think it is a Trinitarian letter, that's for certain. But just the unarguable Pauline epistles, let's put it that way. We skipped over what particular epistle? That's right, we skipped over Ephesians.

And that's the passage I want to look at a little bit today in Ephesians chapter one. Because it will cement in your minds the fact that when I think of the gospel, I the listener, you the listener, will think, I the radio host, you the listener, will think in a Trinitarian fashion.

Because it's not just one member of the Trinity listed at the front, not two. Romans did all three, of course. Other books will talk about the Spirit. But here, from the very beginning, we have this burst of Trinitarian praise.

And so, on No Compromise Radio, we're talking today about the Trinity and thinking Trinitarianly about the gospel. Graham Goldsworthy talks about churches that have a theoretical and an operational gospel.

That is to say, they not only believe the preexistence, incarnation, life, death, burial, resurrection, ascension, session, and soon return of the Lord Jesus, but it's operational. It's in the fabric of their Sunday school classes, their outreach, their evangelism, and especially the preaching.

I think the same could be said for the Trinity. Everyone that I know, evangelically speaking, they believe in the Trinity. They might not write it down in their statement of faith correctly, and they might not know some Nicene nuances—that'd be a good show, Nicene nuances, I could be a punk rock band.

But operational, how operational is the Trinity? So I've been trying to do this more often, to speak of the Triune God when I'm preaching, when I'm praying. I want there to be both a theoretical and an operative Trinitarian theology at No Compromise Radio, and in the local church.

Christopher Hall wrote, what difference does it really make whether one believes in the Trinity or not? I never found the word Trinity in the Bible, some complain. If this doctrine were so crucial for our understanding of God and a healthy spiritual life, wouldn't writers such as Paul or John have been more explicit in their teaching?

Yes. Yes. But there's going to be some very explicit things here in Ephesians chapter 1. So if you have a Bible, turn to Ephesians 1, and we're going to think Trinitarianly about the gospel. That's what we're after.

Matter of fact, I'm looking here, I don't know if this is my final copy, but I need to take a look to see, in fact. Is this the final, final copy, or is it not? Ministry final. It says final, so I think we're going to go with ministry final.

I thought I took this particular quote out of this message, but maybe I didn't. Ephesians 2, Ephesians 1 rather, verse 2, grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. So he starts off like he does in most of his other epistles, and he talks about God the Father.

Of course, this would make us think about the deity of Christ and the divine nature of the second person of the Trinity, not only in eternity past, but also at the incarnation. One God subsisting in three persons.

And this passage is really great because it's a burst of praise regarding the Trinity. The Father's to be praised, and we see his praise because he chooses, the Son redeems and the Spirit seals. This particular book is wonderful because instead of making you think about yourself, you think about the Trinity.

You think about the glory of God, the greatness of God, Lloyd-Jones says, and the majesty and sovereignty of God. This is a Christ-centered, Father-centered, Holy Spirit-centered view. I would switch the order there if I was going to edit the show.

These three members of the Godhead, three persons, remember that song, God in three persons, blessed Trinity, that holy, holy, holy. This is a praise. This is not meant for you to go, oh, I don't understand the Trinity and I'm just bugged.

No, no, this is going to be a triune, eccentric praise. And you're going to see the sovereignty of God. You're going to see the sacrifice of the Son. You're going to see the Spirit's sealing. One sentence, everybody talks about that.

I think 203, no, excuse me, 202 words in verses three through 14, one sentence. And if you're a Christian, this is about the triune God that saves you and loves you. And this is what He's done for you.

It's amazing. It is God-centered. And when I say God, I want you to think Father, Son, and Spirit. So it is triune-centered. That's the idea. Everything's about His glory, His pleasure, His plans, His purposes, His great salvation.

What Stott said, I say to you, nobody can read it without being moved to wonder and worship and challenge to consistency of life. And when you think about the Trinity, I want you to think about, let's flip that around.

When you think about the gospel, I want you to think about the Trinity. And when you think of one member of the Trinity, I want you to think of all, because you are like Gregory. You move from one to the three, and then the three to the one, and back and forth we go.

God has revealed Himself as Trinity, and therefore we want to think about Him that way. Not tritheistically, three gods, no. Not some person's lesser, right? You've got people like Bruce Ware. Maybe he doesn't believe it anymore.

I don't know. I think he does. But I know the book has been pulled. That had many quotes where even in eternity past, in the ontological Trinity, in the nature of the Trinity itself, the Father's greater because He's the Father and He's the like supreme commander.

We don't believe that here at No Compromise Radio. Of course, with the incarnation, once Jesus, once the eternal Son takes on human nature, right now He has two natures, human and divine, two wills, human and divine.

Well, He is submissive to the Father in that sense, and only in that sense. Not in eternity future, nor eternity past. We don't want to have the Son functionally subordinate, eternally subordinate, or anything like that.

Incarnationally, Father, Son, okay. There's the Son obeying, but I don't want you to get too caught up in people that you might really like, but are kind of taking you off the deep end. So read Simply Trinity by Barrett.

I think that would be helpful. Oh, I'm out of time. Yikes. Well, we're going to do another show right after this to talk about Ephesians chapter one, and this great praise of the Father, and we'll see what we call the economic Trinity.

How God has revealed Himself when certain members of the Trinity are attributed to do certain things. Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio, Mike at NoCompromiseRadio .com.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston. Bethlehem Bible Church is a Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life transforming power of God's Word through verse by verse exposition of the sacred text.

So please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at six. We're right on route 110 in West Boylston. You can check us out online at bbchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.