Keep sharing good news without ads.
No description available
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 Abendroth.
Welcome back to No Compromise Radio ministry. Today, we're going to talk about the essential doctrine of the Trinity. What about the Trinity? If someone asks you the question, what is the Trinity and why do you believe it?
Could you go to one verse in the Bible to show that the Trinity is in fact true? Would you know any place to find information to give to that person who asks the question? Everyone listening today to WVNE 760 or on the podcast needs to know the Trinity and the implications of the Trinity.
And you can't just say, well, let's go to Isaiah 6, holy, holy, holy, and therefore holy to the Father, holy to the Son, holy to the Spirit. That's not why Isaiah's holy, holy, holy is there that the angels are saying.
That has nothing to do with that. That has to do with repetition. That has to do with these angels who say holy, holy, holy for the emphatic declaration that God, the Lord of hosts, is holy and the whole earth is full of his glory.
You can't say, well, let us make man in our image, therefore these royal we's and royal ours show the Trinity. What does the Bible say about the Trinity? And I think what you'll find soon enough that if you go to Matthew 28, where you have baptized in the name singular of the Father and the Son and the Spirit, you'll see that there is one God and three persons.
So in review from last week, we said basically there are three pillars that you need to wrap your mind around for the Trinity, for the doctrine of the Trinity. And it makes it easy because triune is three, triunity, and so we have three things to help us with the doctrine of the Trinity.
Number one, there's only one God who is eternal and unchangeable. There's only one God. You must believe that only God exists. There's one and only true God. Number two, there are three eternal persons that the Bible describes in the scripture, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
They're never identified with one another. They're differentiated. They are co-equal and co-eternal. They are distinct persons, yet they're all God. And so that's the second pillar. And finally, the third pillar is this.
The Father and the Son and the Spirit are never identified as, never identified, are identified as being fully God. In other words, the Bible teaches the deity of Christ, the deity of the Father, the deity of the Holy Spirit.
And so those are the three. There's one God, three persons, and each of the three persons is described as God. And so there you have the Trinity. Well, if you'd like to revisit the show from last week, you can on nocompromiseradio .com.
But what I'd like to do from here on out is talk about the practical ramifications, the implications of the Trinity. Since the Trinity does exist, that's what last show was to prove, what I'd like to say is today, the implications are more than abstract.
They are more than metaphysical. They are very, very practical. And so the first practical implication that I spoke of last week, but I want to do it today for emphasis, is the doctrine of the Trinity ensures that your praise is proper, ensures that your praise is proper.
And it is important to praise the right object. Tozer said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. That's the first sentence in Tozer's classic book that you need to read, the knowledge of the holy.
And you personally cannot rise above your thoughts of God. You need a proper understanding of God. And if he discloses himself, he reveals himself in scripture as triune, then you've got to think about him that way, because if you don't, you have created an idol.
John Calvin, early on in his introduction in his institutes, this is the intro sentence that contains true and substantial wisdom, principally consists of two parts, the knowledge of God and the knowledge of ourselves.
So if you'd like to be wise, if you'd like to be knowledgeable, you've got to know God first. Dr. Bartlett said, the doctrine of the Trinity lies in the very heart of Christian truth. It is the center from which all other tenants of our faith radiate.
If we entertain wrong views of the nature of the supreme being, our entire theology is imperiled. And so you must praise God for who he is, that is triune. You can't think that the spirit of God is some force.
You can't think Jesus is just some good man alone. No, you can't even say to yourself, I don't even want to know about these things. Put your fingers in your ears and say, la, la, la, la, la, la. You can't do that either.
There's nothing admirable about being anti-intellectual. This kind of theology is very relevant. It's not cold, stale, kind of moldy, unfeeling. No, B .B. Warfield was right when he said, the idea of the Trinity illuminates, enriches, and elevates all our thoughts about God.
And see, that yields proper praise. So when it comes to the doctrine of the Trinity, you've got to know who you're praising. And if you don't believe in a triune God, then you have the wrong God that you're praising.
When you're reading the scriptures, you're reading about this God, and you're reading about God so you recognize any false view about God so you can run from that essence of idolatry. Certainly Unitarianism, Uni, one, they trace their roots back to Arius, and they know in their minds that the scriptures don't teach it, but they've constructed something in their mind called Unitarianism, that the Father has created the Son, and there's not three persons.
There's just one God, one person. On the other hand, Tritheism thinks there's three gods. There's the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. We're not Unitarians. We're not Tritheists. We're not even Swedenborgians.
How about that, Swedenborgians? That sounds like some kind of goulash or something. I'd like to pass the American Swedenborgianism over here, please, not very much capsaicin pepper. Swedenborgianism says that there are three elements to God.
Just as there are body, soul, and spirit in man, there's Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in God. Well, that's incorrect, and the Sabellians are wrong as well, are modalistic people. The Father was the God of the Old Testament, the Son's the God of the New Testament, and the Holy Spirit's the God of today.
One God, one person manifests himself three different times, three different ways. And you'll even have people today like T .D. Jakes. T .D. Jakes is not believing in the Trinity. This is a big deal. Who was the lady that had the whole diet program way down?
She didn't, Gwen, Gwen Shamblin, I believe. I almost wanted to break out into a Steve Martin rambling guy there thing, but it's Gwen Shamblin denying the Trinity. You'll see this all around. The Jehovah's Witnesses deny the Trinity.
But for us, for Christians, we realize that God's revelation is final, not our subjective mysticism, not our inability to wrap our minds around how could there be three in one? God has revealed himself in Scripture.
Then we say to ourselves, that's how we'll think of God, and we'll think of him in no other way. And then we'll praise God that he could be three in one. Actually, that's a great thing to praise God for is that we can't figure out God.
When you can figure out God, you're in trouble. Let me give you a second interesting practical ramification. And this is tied in to the first one, proper praise. And this is now making sure your praise is with awe and with wonder.
The doctrine of the Trinity should inject your praise with wonder and awe. You should be stunned. You should be floored that this great holy God makes himself known. First of all, we could be out worshiping banyan trees or something, but God has told us specifically about himself, this God of grace.
He's not keeping us guessing about himself. He's told us. And this doctrine, the doctrine of the Trinity, expands our mind. We cannot get our brains wrapped around some things. And we have to say spiritually and theologically, uncle, we're to think of God three in one, but we can't know him in detail because our minds are finite.
We can't wrap our minds around this issue completely. And so we're handicapped. We are mentally challenged. Augustine said, if you try to understand the Trinity, you will lose your mind. But if you deny the Trinity, you will lose your soul.
John Calvin said, for how can the human mind measure off the measureless essence of God according to its own little measure? Yeah, we cannot do that. I don't often quote him, but I quote him positively here today.
Dr. Walter Martin, no man can fully explain the Trinity. Though in every age, scholars have propounded theories and advanced hypotheses to explore this mysterious biblical teaching. But despite the worthy efforts of these scholars, the Trinity is still largely incomprehensible to the mind of man.
That is a great thought. The psalmist says in Psalm 50, if I were hungry, speaking God here, God is speaking, I would not tell you for the world is mine and all it contains. And so here we have this revelation from God and there's a limit, a depth that we can go and we can't go any farther.
So today we wanna talk about the Trinity. My name is Mike Avendroth and we're just trying to discuss practical ramifications of the Trinity. B .B. Warfield said the Trinity is purely a revealed doctrine.
That is to say, it embodies a truth which has never been discovered and is undiscoverable by natural reason. With all his searching, man has not been able to find out for himself the deepest things of God.
So I like that. I like it that God has tried to tell, God has tried, God has told us how exactly to think of him. And it's not some kind of weird religious comparison like the Egyptian triad of Osiris and Isis and Horus or the Hindu triad of Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva.
It's not some kind of shamrock like St. Patrick used to describe the Trinity to the Irish. Three petals, unique and distinct, yet they're three in a plant, kind of clover. It's not like, God's not like some kind of equilateral triangle.
If you take an angle away, then you don't have a triangle. It's not like the three parts of a match, one flame with three matches. You take one away and it's still distinct. The egg, that's the big one.
How do you describe the Trinity? Egg white, shells, and yolk, that's the big one. But that's just modalism as well. God is like a rope with three strands, yet one rope. He's like a tree that has branches, leaves, and a root.
He's like the sun that has light, heat, and motion. He's like water, ice, liquid, steam. He's like a butterfly that is in an egg, then larva, then a butterfly. He's like a plant, seed, flower, and stem.
I mean, I'm getting tired of these human analogy, father, husband, son, Plato, intellect, will, emotions. Fingers got a bone, blood, and skin. Apples got cores and seeds, and the apple itself. Cake has layers, slices, and gradients.
Intellect, emotion, will. There's a lover, a loved one, and love itself. Ay-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi-yi. How do you describe the Trinity? How about let's look at the Bible? There's one God, three persons, and one God, and every one of those three persons is God.
There are no analogies to the Trinity in nature, B .B. Warfield said, not even in the spiritual nature of man who is made in the image of God. In his Trinitarian mode of being, God is unique. Insert praise here.
And as there is nothing in the universe like him in this respect, so there is nothing which can help us to comprehend him. So that should make you respond with awe, with praise, with acceptance. And that should take your mind off the world for a little while and the stock market and Obamacare.
Hallelujah. The Trinity affects the way you think. I think one other thing it helps you with is humility. This is the logical outcome of being filled with praise and awe of a God who reveals himself, yet we still can't manage him correctly.
We can't get him in some kind of, I hate it when they say, don't put God in a box, but we just can't fit him into our mental box. He's too high. That's why Zephaniah 2 says, seek humility. The Trinity shouldn't even be debated or explained.
It should be reverently accepted with humility. Just his overwhelming person. Martin Luther said, it is God who handles us and now we who handle God, may it never be. Isaiah is clear when the Lord speaks there, but to this one, I will look to him who is humble and contrite of spirit and who trembles at my word.
One man said, J. Kenneth Gridner, that the one God is three persons is an audacious conception. Off with your shoes, he says, please, for holy Trinity is holy ground. Away with finely figured syllogisms and ordinary arithmetic.
Here, logic and mathematics do not suffice. The need is rather for a listening ear, an obedient heart, rapt adoration, a careful engagement with the holy scriptures. So we can't figure this out by reason.
It's given to us by God, and so A, that it's given by revelation, and B, that we can't wrap our arms around it and that God should make us be humble before God. This is Mike Ebendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry.
You can write us at info at nocompromiseradio .com, info at nocompromiseradio .com, and if you've got a church that doesn't teach the Trinity, if you're at a oneness Pentecostal church who denies the Trinity, Bethlehem Bible Church is for you.
Find a church that teaches verse by verse, that teaches Jesus as the Christ, as God in the flesh, who died as a substitutionary atonement for all those who would ever believe, was physically raised from the dead, and is a person in the Godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.
Well, we're talking about the Trinity today, and we're talking about how God is big, vast, grand, and even with language in the scripture, he has accommodated himself for our weaknesses. And so there's no debate in heaven about how God can be three in one, God's reason is not too sure to somehow fathom the mystery of God.
In heaven, we will understand the sacred doctrine much better. And although Thomas Watson said it is not against reason, it is above reason, one day we'll understand. But for now, we are not very wise, we are not very mighty, we are not many noble, but we are the recipients of God, who did not have to tell us about himself, but did.
And so we wanna make sure we think about things biblically, and that we have a faith like Anselm said, that seeks understanding. I have faith that the scriptures are true, and that God is triune, and then I try to seek understanding.
That is the way to go about it. And as Spurgeon said, there is something exceedingly improving to our mind in the contemplation of divinity. It is a subject so vast that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity.
So that's what the doctrine of the Trinity will do. That's why I want you to study the Trinity. When was the last time you picked up a book? Why don't you get James White's book on the Trinity? James White, on the Trinity, it's got a title I can't remember, Forgotten Trinity, that's it.
I need somebody here in the studio with me. The Forgotten Trinity, you order that up, and read it to be reminded about the Trinity, and how God is to be praised, knowing he is triune. Well, are there other implications?
There are other things that stem from this doctrine called the Trinity. Well, there are, and that's just my way of stalling as I look at my notes, because I wanna make sure I don't miss anything. One of the things that the doctrine of the Trinity does is it shows off the glory of God as the triune redeemer.
If you have your Bibles, turn to Ephesians 1, and you'll have three sections there in Ephesians 1. Paul is praising God in verse three, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.
So Paul praises God for who he is and what he's done. And then he shows in verses four to six, the Father elects or selects before time. The Son dies for those that God has elected or selected at Calvary, verses seven through 12.
And then the Spirit of God seals them to the day of redemption. He has been given to them as a pledge of the inheritance that they have. And so you have the triune work of redemption. The Father chooses, the Son dies for, the Spirit seals.
And in each one of those, it says, to the praise of the glory of his grace, or something close, to the praise of the glory of his grace, to the praise of his glory. And so how can God allow anyone less than God to receive praise and glory and honor for salvation?
He would not, he would not give his glory to another, Isaiah says. Yet here we have the Father, Son, and the Spirit working perfectly together, ordaining this in eternity past, that the Father would choose some, the Son would die for those some, and then the Spirit would regenerate those some.
Here we have eternal security, even based on God's triunity, triunity. Eternal security is based on the nature of God himself. I think you should read that in the book by James White. The Trinity gives us eternal security.
Here, where God the Father initiates, the Son dies, for the Spirit will accomplish. When the Father gives to the Son a person, that person will come to Christ. Why, because God is triune, and the Spirit, he will do his job.
Well, what else does the Trinity do for us? I think the Trinity should give you comfort. It should give you strength. Paul is trying to encourage his readers in 2 Thessalonians, and he tells them about the three persons of the Godhead.
Listen to this, 2 Thessalonians 2 .13. But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
For it was for this he called you through our gospel that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So Paul here is trying to say, as God has spoken of, the Son has spoken of, and the Spirit has spoken of, there's a real comfort.
Where do you get comfort? Well, you get comfort from the doctrine of God. Oh, you guys thought you missed the rapture and you're in the day of the Lord for judgment? I want you to think about who God is.
Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God the Father who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word. The doctrine of the Trinity can give you great comfort.
This is a distinctive mark of Christianity. There's no Christianity without the doctrine of the Trinity. And frankly, I think the doctrine of the Trinity solves more problems than it raises. When Jesus was talking to the Father during his baptism, was that kind of ventriloquist kind of thing?
Easy for me to say. Was he schizophrenic? Was there three gods? No. When Jesus is talking to God and calling him Father, is he just talking out loud and he's really talking about himself? When Jesus prays to the Father, who is he praying to?
When Jesus teaches the disciples, our Father, just pray to me. Greg Kokel says, why is it that you can't accept the truthfulness of something if you can't imagine it in your mind? Tell me what love looks like.
Tell me what God looks like. You can't imagine God in your mind. That's why I say the Trinity is not a problem. It's a solution. If you don't believe in the Trinity, you've got a problem. What about the Father when he's spoken of as sending the Son?
Is that a lie? Is he just kind of sneaking around? What about the Father knowing and loving the Son? What about co-workers for redemption, John 5 and 10? How does the Father give special honor to the Son if it's really just him?
So I think that there are many who say, well, the problem with the Trinity is it's hard to explain, therefore I've got to jettison it. I think if you don't have the Trinity, you've got a lot more problems and you are going to come up with things that are gonna be not proper ways to think of God.
Maybe one of the things you could do is study the Athanasian Creed, A-T-H-A-N-A-S-I-A-N. Study this creed named after Athanasius, 293 to 373 A .D., and he was the one who stood up against Arians, against those who denied the doctrine of the Trinity, and he stood for the Trinity, for the orthodox doctrine of God having three, God existing in three persons.
He stood for the doctrine that Jesus Christ has two natures. And this creed, it's a lot more nuanced than the Apostles' Creed or the Nicene Creed, and it has basically been used for centuries that people could be reminded that God is one, that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Son are not anything less than God, but God the Father is not the Son and the Spirit is not the Spirit, the Spirit is not the Spirit.
Yow! I better read the Athanasius Creed. We worship one God, and we worship one God who manifests himself in three persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. Well, I hope this motivates you to go get James White's book, The Forgotten Trinity.
I hope you're motivated to say that Jesus wasn't schizophrenic, he was God incarnate, and he was praying to his Father. And I think Holy, Holy, Holy is an excellent song. God in three persons, blessed Trinity.
Well, this is Mike Abendroth, No Compromise Radio Ministry. Thanks for listening today to the Doctrine of the Trinity, indispensable for praise and proper thinking of God.
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.
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.
The thoughts and opinions expressed on No Compromise Radio do not necessarily reflect those of WVNE, its staff or management.