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Mike explains the Trinity (part 1).
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 to No Compromise Radio ministry.
This is Mike Abendroth, and I'm your host. And today I'd like to talk about a topic that is a foundational topic, a foundational doctrine. And we talk about it all the time in general. We use the word for it regularly.
But we don't really hear many sermons on the topic, or we don't hear that many radio shows that deal with the topic. It's a difficult topic, it's a controversial topic, but it's an essential topic. One man has said that if you deny this doctrine, you cannot go to heaven, but you are unable as a frail, finite human being to completely understand it.
And that doctrine is the doctrine of the Trinity. What about the Trinity? Now, let's start off right away by saying when someone comes up to you and says the word Trinity is not in the Bible, then I suggest you say, well, the word Bible's not in the Bible either.
Frankly, not one English word is in the Bible. It was written in Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic. We can have concepts like the Trinity in the Bible, and we use theological shorthand to describe those ideas, those doctrines, those things that speak of God.
And so when we talk about this doctrine today, let's just figure out what the Bible says. Thomas Jefferson quoted, said, when we shall have done away with the incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, when we shall have knocked down the artificial scaffolding, when in short we shall have unlearned everything which has been taught since his day, we shall then be truly and worthily his disciples.
Thomas Jefferson, the deist, anti-supernaturalist, said what we've got to get rid of first is the Trinity. And certainly the Jehovah's Witnesses, the Mormons, the Jewish folks, the Muslims, would all want to do that exact same thing.
Matthew Arnold said that the Trinity is the fairy table, fairy table, fairy tale of the three Lord Shafterberries. This doctrine is not liked by people. Yet, Lorraine Bettner rightly says, the doctrine of the Trinity is perhaps the most mysterious and difficult doctrine that is presented to us in the entire range of Scripture.
So could it be that since it's difficult, it's easily attacked? Could it be that since it's hard to explain and understand, that it's not talked about very often? It certainly is underpreached. If I ask you the question, when's the last time you heard your pastor preach a sermon on the Trinity, you might be hard-pressed to give an answer.
He might say, well, we believe in the Trinity, our Father, Son, and Spirit, but a full sermon, a full sermon series on the Trinity and the implications of the Trinity, we don't hear that very often. I think about my own ministry.
When's the last time I did that? I think I did a sermon series on the Trinity several years ago, but it hasn't been very regular in terms of this is a sermon on the Trinity. So today on No Compromise Radio, I'd like to talk to you about the Trinity, and I'd like you to follow Paul's words in Colossians chapter one, that you would increase in the knowledge of God.
And as you increase in the knowledge of God, you can then understand God to a greater capacity, and then you can subsequently praise Him for who He is. When you study the Trinity, you should say to yourself, it has an end, it has a telos, it has a goal, and that is devotion, praise, and worship.
It should not be necessarily and primarily for the defense of the faith. It should not be primarily for, I know what to say now to Jehovah's Witnesses who have John 1 1a God, speaking of Jesus. No, I think we would like to follow Jonathan Edwards when he said, and God has appeared glorious to me on account of the Trinity.
Can you imagine that? God has appeared glorious to me on account of the Trinity. Edwards goes on to say, it has made me have exalting thoughts of God, that He subsists in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Oh, that is brilliant. Jonathan Edwards knew what he was talking about when it comes to the Trinity. If you'd like to praise God more, worship God more, if you'd like to have more exalted thoughts of God, this is a great doctrine for you to study, a great show.
Someone recently told me that No Compromise Radio is pretty much just entertainment. Well, some shows are laced with entertainment, especially Pastor Steve, when we're singing together, but we're even teaching Bible topics then.
Today is not really entertainment at all. I hope you turn on the radio and say, I'd like to really learn more about the Trinity so I can exalt God more. See, even there, even that idea, even that premise should change the way we think about it.
This isn't theology proper, dry, Bible Institute stuff. By the way, we have a Bible Institute at the church. Classes are very inexpensive, college-level classes right here in Worcester about the Bible.
I think the class right now is Angels, Satan, and Demons. What an interesting class, reading required, et cetera. But back to the Trinity. Jonathan Edwards said, and God has appeared glorious to me on account of the Trinity.
It has made me have exalting thoughts of God that he subsists in three persons, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And so that's our goal today, is to learn about the Trinity so that you might exalt God more.
Listen to what the 1689 London Baptist Confession says for a definition to get us jump-started. There is but one and only one living and true God. He is self-existent and infinite in his being and his perfections.
Three divine persons constitute the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. They are one in substance, in power, and in eternity. Each is fully God, and yet the Godhead is one and indivisible.
And then in front of me, I have the ancient diagram of the Holy Trinity. You can't see it on radio, obviously, but if you pull it up on the internet, just type in Google, ancient diagram of the Holy Trinity, and you'll see a circle, and within the circle, you will see a triangle.
And inside the triangle, which is inside the circle, you'll see the word God. And it says, Father is God, Son is God, Spirit is God within that triangle. And then linking that triangle with the circle in the back, it says the Father is not the Son, the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.
So that's basically the idea. One God, three persons, the Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, yet we have one God, and that within the Godhead, the Father is not the Son, is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.
Let me give you some doctrines that flow directly into the river that is the doctrine of the Trinity. Number one, there is one and only one God who is eternal and immutable. And you can look all throughout the scriptures to find that out.
There is one God. Deuteronomy 6, Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. Right back in Israel's confession of faith, which predates 1689 by quite a few years, we have the Shema. Here is what it means.
Here, listen to this, Deuteronomy 6. There's one God. And James Boyce would say, this word one, echad, means not one in isolation, but one in unity. In fact, the word is never used in the Hebrew Bible of a stark, singular entity.
It is the word used in speaking of one bunch of grapes are in saying that the people of Israel responded as one people. There is one God. Deuteronomy 4, 2 Samuel 22, Isaiah 37, Isaiah 43, Isaiah 44, Isaiah 45, Isaiah 46.
There is one God. And you can look in the New Testament for those examples as well. John 5, Romans 3, Romans 16, 1 Corinthians 8, Galatians 3, Ephesians 4, et cetera. There is only one God. And furthermore, there's no one like God.
There are explicit statements that go along those lines. Isaiah 43, before me, there was no God formed and there will be none after me. So if there's no God before God and there's no God after God, there's only one God.
Isaiah 45, there is no other. Besides me, there is no God. Next verse, verse six, that there is no one besides me. I am the Lord, there is no other. And the New Testament echoes those sentiments. 1 Corinthians 8, there is no God but one.
So the Trinity would affirm that there is only one true God. We are not tritheist, we don't believe in three gods. 1 John 5, 20, and we know that the Son of God has come who has given us understanding so that we may know him who is true.
And we are in him who is true in his Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true and eternal, this is true God and eternal life. And so by implication, every other quote unquote God, small g, is a false God, not a God at all.
Maybe demon propelled, but not a God at all. Dead gods, not a living God. James White said, the most fundamental truth of the Christian faith is this, there is one God. Everything else, who he is, what he has done in Christ, how we will spend eternity, flows from this fundamental fact.
So there is one God. But furthermore, there are three persons, three eternal persons in Scripture described by the Holy Bible. In the same Bible that says there's only one God, there are three eternal persons within the Godhead.
And they are never identified with one another. They are always differentiated between. These persons are co-equal and co-eternal, but they are not the same. Jesus, some people describe it like this, where somehow God the Father in the old days, he came down in the form of the Son, and then now he's in the form of the Spirit.
That would not be right, that would be modalism, and we'll talk about that more later. My name's Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and today we're talking about the Trinity. And there are very practical ramifications to knowing the Trinity.
Not, I mean, one of the big ones we've talked about so far is praise. But there are others too, men's roles, women's roles, et cetera. But we're not quite there yet, we probably won't make it on this show.
Distinct persons within the Trinity are all called God. Webster's Dictionary, interestingly, gives this definition of the Trinity. The union of the three divine persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, in one divinity, so that all the three are one God as a substance, but three persons as to individuality.
And so we have the word Trinity, we have the word try for three, and unity, triunity, might be a better word than Trinity, because it expresses the idea of three in one. Probably my favorite Bible verse in all the discussion of the Trinity would be found in Matthew 28.
Jesus has been given authority, and he says, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
Did you notice what that passage does not say? It does not say in the names of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. It does not say in the name of the Father and in the name of the Son and in the name of the Holy Spirit somehow three distinct beings.
It does not say in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, no, not just three designations of a particular person. No, it is in the single name of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. So we have a single name, God, with three persons of the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
One man said, according to the teaching of the Scripture, the three persons are inseparable, interdependent, and equally united in one divine being. But three persons who are co-equal, co-eternal, inseparable, interdependent, and equally united in one absolute divine essence and being.
So what we have here is we have one God and we have three persons within that Godhead. Now, when we think of personal individuals, sometimes that messes us up a little bit. And so let me give you R .A. Finlayson's definition of the Trinity found in the New Bible Dictionary.
Again, this is not exactly three individuals as we think of three personal individuals, but one divine being who acts and thinks as one within a three-fold personality. This is incomprehensible to our finite and limited minds, but it is the teaching of the Scripture.
In the being of God, there are not three individuals, but only three personal self-distinctions within the one divine essence. And so what we have here is we have God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, and they are not, Jesus is not God the Father.
By the way, when you take a look at the Scripture, Jesus did not say, I am the Father, nor did he say the Father and the Son are one person. When he is quoted in John 10, verse 30, he didn't say either of those.
Did you know Jesus is not the Holy Spirit? John 14, Jesus said the another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, is going to come. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn't say, I'm gonna come back. So if you think about the Trinity, think number one, there's one God.
Number two, there are three persons. And number three, the Bible teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Spirit is God. And so you can just look through. Where in the Bible does it teach the Father is God?
Deuteronomy 4, he is God, there is no other beside him. How about the Holy Spirit is God? And I will ask the Father, John 14, 16, and he will give you another Helper that he may be with you forever. You say, well, that doesn't really help me.
Another is of a different kind, another of the same kind. Well, technically that should help you because I'm going to give you another of the same kind, meaning the same nature as Christ. God himself, he'll be with you forever.
But I think I can prove the point better in Acts 5. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? You have lied to men, not lied to men, but to God. A lie to the Holy Spirit is a lie to God.
And we have the Bible teaching us that the Holy Spirit is God. He is eternal, Hebrews 9. Omnipresent, Psalm 139. Omniscient, 1 Corinthians 2. The Spirit of God creates, Genesis 1. He is involved in the incarnation, Matthew and Luke 1.
He's involved in the resurrection. He's involved in salvation. He is a person. By the way, when the Holy Spirit is used, when I think of spirit, I use the word it. If I see a ghost, I say it. But why is it the New Testament consistently teaches that the Holy Spirit is a he?
He is a he. He's a person. He is a person. In contrast to unholy spirits, he is the Holy Spirit and he can speak. He can be lied to. He can make decisions and judgments. He intercedes for Christians with the Father.
Now, there is some impersonal language used of the Spirit, like a fire, he's poured out, being filled with the Holy Spirit. But that is not to say that he is an it. He is a he. But at the bottom page, at the bottom line issue, when it comes to the Trinity, it all swirls around the deity of Jesus Christ.
If you have a hard time believing in the Trinity, it usually comes out, it usually manifests itself in, I have a hard time with believing Jesus is God. That's where the problem usually is. One man said, the fundamental proof that God is a Trinity is supplied thus by the fundamental revelation, fundamental revelation of the Trinity in fact, in the incarnation of God the Son and the outpouring of God the Holy Spirit.
In a word, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the fundamental proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. Did you know Jesus in Isaiah chapter six is called mighty God? Do you know in John chapter one verse one, the word was God, the word became flesh and dwelt among us?
Do you know, John chapter one verse 18, no one has seen God at any time, the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. Did you know Thomas said in John 20, my Lord and my God, speaking of Jesus.
Did you know in Acts chapter 20 verse 28, the text says, be on guard for yourselves and for all the flock among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to shepherd the church of God, which he, God, purchased with his own blood.
The church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Did God the Father bleed? Did the Spirit of God bleed? The Son of God bled for the church of God, his church. That's the context there. How about Romans chapter nine?
And from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is overall God blessed forever. How about Titus chapter two verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.
Well, my name is Mike Abendroth, this is No Compromise Radio Ministry, and I'm trying to talk today about the Trinity. Yes, you have to put your thinking cap on, but we need to think about God properly.
And what are we gonna do? We wanna learn about tithing first? I think the doctrine of God is much more important. How about Hebrews 1 .8? God, Jesus, is called God by the Father. Your throne, O God, the Father says to the Son, is forever and ever.
Can you imagine God calling anybody else God and talking about a throne? Absolutely not. And you can look at 2 Peter chapter 1 .1 for the deity of Christ, 1 John 5 .20. I've just quoted. You can see how the word Lord is applied to Jesus and it's applied to Yahweh elsewhere.
Romans chapter 10, Philippians chapter two, 1 Peter chapter two. You can talk about the titles that Jesus has are only used of God, the first and the last, used in Isaiah 44 of God and used in Revelation one and 22, chapter 22 for Jesus.
King of kings and Lord of lords, savior, shepherd, rock. Jesus receives the honor even due to God alone, John five. Love that is due God alone, Matthew chapter 10. Prayer, worship, praise, faith in. Jesus receives those honors.
Jesus does the works of God, creation, sustaining, salvation, forgiving sins. Jesus has attributes of God. He's unchangeable, he's self-existent, he's eternal. Jesus is equal with God, John chapter five.
And you say, yeah, but he's the son of God. Well, son in scripture can mean simply possessing the nature of something, son of man, son of disobedience. But usually when son is used in relation to a person, son of Abraham, son of man, son of David, the son possesses the nature of the father.
Jesus is God. I believe in one God, the father almighty, maker of heaven and earth and in all things visible and invisible. This is right back from 325 AD, Nicene Creed. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten son of God, begotten of the father before all worlds, God of God, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being in one substance with the father by whom all things were made.
Jesus is God. And you can look at Isaiah chapter six, one to 10, and find out very quickly that the angels who swirl around heaven, chanting, saying holy, holy, holy, are saying that of Jesus Christ. That's the coup de grace for those who don't wanna acknowledge Jesus is God.
The angels in Isaiah six with the triumphant, holy, holy, holy, singing that over and over and over, they're singing of Jesus Christ, according to John chapter 12. These things Isaiah said because he saw his glory, Jesus's, and spoke of him.
Can you imagine Jesus's glory in Isaiah chapter six? Well, again, this is no-compromise radio ministry, and we're just laying down the foundation. There are other implications besides praise when it comes to the Trinity.
I'd like you to know one of the central facts of the Bible, and that is there's only one God, that there are three persons of the Godhead, and those persons are not the same. So we have God the son is God, God the father is God, God the spirit is God, but the spirit is not the son, and the son is not the father, and the father is not the spirit.
One God, and so for those of you who think we worship three gods, I understand how you're confused, but there is only one God. So what are the ramifications? Do you know what? Here's the bad news. The practical ramifications to the Trinity are to be found next time.
Yeah, I know that's bad, but what else am I supposed to do? Somebody told me that my show was just entertainment, and so I'm out there to show you we have some theological acumen here, not because we are great, but because we have received training from men and from the scriptures, and so do we believe in the Trinity?
The answer is yes, and if you don't believe in the Trinity, maybe because you haven't opened your Bible, you must believe in the Trinity because you need a triune God to save you. There's no other God.
You can't believe in a God who exists in one person. That's the wrong God who saves. So if you'd like to know some more information about salvation, I suggest you go to NoCompromiseRadio .com and click on the gospel.
We have 12 words that describe the gospel so that you can understand your own sin, how God can forgive sins yet still stay holy and just, and how God can lovingly send his son because he loves sinners like you and then raises him from the dead.
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.
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