The Trinity (Part I)

All right, well, why don't we begin with prayer since we've We've come in here in a flurry Pray for the Lord to ready our hearts and minds for getting into very deep truth. All right. Father in heaven we Thank you for this access that we can have before you that we have a perfect standing through the righteousness of another through your son Jesus Christ.

Not. Not our blood was shed not not our works were wrought to bring before you, but only Christ's obedience and.

That.

He has done such a good work that you accept every bit of it in our stead and are able to justify us freely by your grace Through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Lord we need your grace right now.

I Pray father that for This next time that we are going to take in the scriptures and consider this truth. I pray that you would Cause us to understand your word and apply it. Lord you say that believers have the mind of Christ, and we have the spirit of truth.

Please give us then understanding of Who you are? Lord we can't know fully who you are as you know yourself. But I pray Lord that we would grow in our knowledge of you. I pray that we would love you. We would believe what you've truly revealed about yourself in the scriptures, and I pray that you would bless this To our hearts good and Lord that the children here.

Would.

Have you as their God? And that you would be. That they would be one of your people. I pray this in Jesus name. Amen.

The Doctrine of the Trinity in the Statement of Faith

Well.

Let's take some time. Getting into the next Section of the statement of faith. I think it was the third page in or so. Maybe the maybe the fourth one on the left-hand side. That discusses the doctrine of God the doctrine of the Trinity.

And.

I'm going to just go for the first half today, and then we're going to go for the next half. Next time that we gather together. But this is what I have written down. And this is all that I'm going to be covering up to this the the point where it says their proper Consummation in Christ Jesus, so if you find that little leaflet, then you'll be able to you'll be able to follow along with me.

The one true God exists.

Exists.

Eternally in three distinct persons father son and Holy Spirit who are equal in deity power and glory. God not only created the world, but also now upholds sustains Governs and providentially directs all that exists and will bring all things to their proper consummation in Christ Jesus.

Praise God. Praise God that is a truth that we have revealed in the scriptures. This is this is hopefully going to be something that will stretch the mind as well as boggle it. Because God is Infinite and God we cannot fully comprehend and his thoughts are much higher than our thoughts as As far and as high above us as all the stars in the heavens and we can't even track how far the universe fully expands and How far the farthest star and galaxy is from us.

That is how high God's thoughts are from ours. But we do have God's Word and what he has revealed then we're going to go into. So I'm just gonna Break this into two parts. The one true God exists eternally in three distinct persons father son and Holy Spirit who are equal in deity that means Godness divine nature power and glory.

So.

In order to get across what this means we need to go to all of Scripture. We believe that Scripture is inspired as we talked about last Week in the week before and we also need to go to all of Scripture.

It's not just by Scripture alone. But it's the total account of God's Word. There's this doctrine is something that we are forced to behold as we let all all of Scripture say whatever it's going to say.

It says.

One true God exists eternally.

That's.

Monotheism there is only one God as Opposed to polytheism. There's many gods. There's a pantheon. Scripture also says that in this one God, there's three distinct personalities. So this is not going to be three appearances of God.

This is not three modes of God Manifestations of God but not three attributes of God, but three persons of God and These three persons are equal in deity and power and glory. So there's One God there's three persons and then those three persons are are equal.

Those are the three foundations that we look to Scripture and we understand. Okay.

Scripture.

Portrays a trinitarian God. If If we just had one of them monotheism, but we didn't have three persons and we'd have one person. Then we would we would have Unitarianism and that's not what the Bible.

Says.

When it says one God and then Equally says there are three persons that are also called God and Lord and Creator and Redeemer and whom we should trust. Whom we should Worship. Whom we should call upon in prayer.

Who we should? Regularly See in Scripture. Tied together with other two persons then we need to just accept the testimony of Scripture one God.

Okay.

But he is revealed in three distinct persons and that eternally if we reject monotheism we end up with multiple gods. If we reject the personhood of father son or spirit we become as.

Some.

Pentecostalists are oneness. Pentecostalist we become modalists. Just as water comes in either ice or vapor or in liquid water.

So.

God comes either as father or son or spirit at different times and that's not what the scriptures teaches.

If we reject.

The equality between the persons of the Trinity. Then we confess that the son and spirit are inferior to the father by nature. They are lower. They're on a different level. The father is the great God and then the son and the spirit are lesser gods or something else.

The Holy Spirit is a force or. Both the son and the Holy Spirit are subject to the father in a way That scripture doesn't say That they are subject. So let's go to the first one. Monotheism. First foundation of Seeing the doctrine of God within the scriptures is monotheism.

Front to back. Scripture assumes The existence of God. We don't have to prove the existence of God. What is the very first verse of the Bible in the beginning?

God.

Created the heavens and the earth and then it goes on in detail about what he did. It doesn't try to use any arguments for the existence of God. It assumes the existence of God, but not only assumes God exists.

God is Lord and creator of everything, but it is and the authors of scripture are exuberantly monotheistic exuberantly. What do I mean by that? I mean that the Bible in the Old Testament and in the New Testament is not politically correct.

You will find that God is in the habit of making fun of other so-called gods other religions and of outright atheism if You'll turn with me if you'd like to. Old Testament. Jeremiah 10. Jeremiah 10 it not only asserts God's uniqueness.

God's. That only God is God. There's only one God, but then it's not only that. But it's other gods so-called are worthless. Starting in verse 1. Here's a word that the Lord speaks to you a house of Israel.

Thus says the Lord Learn not the way of the nations nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down.

Now, this is describing their work of putting together an idol and Worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold. They fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

You don't want your idol to tip right you don't want your God to fall over. It has to be self-supporting. So you have to make it in such a way that it's gonna be held up. Their idols are like scarecrows in a cucumber field and they cannot speak.

They have no they have to be carried for they cannot walk. Do not be afraid of them for they cannot do evil neither is it in them to do good. There is none like you. O Lord you are great and your name is great in might.

Who would not fear you O King of the nations for this is your do. For among all the wise ones of the nations and in all their kingdoms. There is none like you. They are both stupid and foolish. The instruction of idols is but wood.

Beaten silver is brought from Tarshish and gold from you faz. They are the work of the craftsmen and of the hands of the goldsmith their clothing is violet and purple. They're all the work of skilled men.

But the Lord is the true God. He is the living God and the everlasting King at his wrath the earthquakes and the nations cannot endure his indignation. Thus shall you say to them? This is this is the snarky character of God in the scriptures towards Idolatry.

Thus you shall say to them the gods who did not make the heavens and the earth Shall perish from the earth and from under the heavens. Any other God is Worthless. Any other God that man could conceive in his mind is utterly rejected.

Again, they didn't just worship of the nations didn't just worship one God. They worshipped multiple gods. In Isaiah 40. 18 to 20 we see the same Exuberant confession of the uniqueness of God. 18 to 20 it says to whom then will you liken God or what likeness compare with him.

Now remember that for when we talk about How do we describe the Trinity? Remember that put that in your pocket. Okay, what likeness will you compare with him. An Idol a craftsman cast it casts it and gold.

A goldsmith overlays it with gold and Casts for its silver chains. He was too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot. Could you imagine seeing a an idol that is rotting? No, that wouldn't look very good.

He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. We know Psalm 14 1. The fool says in his heart there is no God. There's other Psalms that say that all their thoughts are there is no God.

People try to escape from the fact that one true God exists and they go about to play God. God created man in his image and what people do is they go about to play God and create gods in their own image and Put them on display.

Deuteronomy 6 of course, this is the heart of The the Bible in what it teaches about love to God. Hero Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one and You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

That is at the very core of relating to God. You worship the one true God and there's you can't view him as. If there's one God in amidst other several gods. He's not in concert with other gods. First commandment you shall have no other gods before me.

That's what that is saying one God only and to the nation's that was something that It was completely different. They had God of the corn they had God of the field they had the God of This territory that they were in locally they had the God of the mountains and the valleys and the rivers and the streams and the God of fertility and the God of women and the God of men and the God of adolescence and all of these kind of different things and stuff like that that just Thousands upon thousands of these different beings.

Yet for us there is One God and we're gonna see Paul's gonna say that in 1st Corinthians 8 actually reflecting Deuteronomy 6 yet for us there is one God. But we're gonna see actually what he does with that.

So keep that in your mind. Deuteronomy 6 Hero, Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. We'll see what Paul does in 1st Corinthians 8 5 and 6. With that so this is just not the Old Testament. Jesus Summarizes the ethic of the entire Old Testament when he says that this is the first and great commandment To love the Lord your God that he is one.

But then within that unity within that what's called simplicity. There is only one Being that is God. It strikingly says at the same time That the Father is God and That the Son is God and that the Holy Spirit is God and it doesn't add some fourth person in there or a fifth person or a sixth person it's Continuously every time there's the Father and then there's the Son and then the Holy Spirit.

Now this is not multiple personality disorder. A person that wants to escape doesn't want to face reality doesn't want to Accept what has come his or her way. In their mind they think up different personalities, and they become them.

That's just a figment of their imagination. Those personalities don't actually exist. They exist in the mind of that person. We're not saying that God is A trinity of persons that really do exist. That don't just exist in his mind, and he's not confused, and he's not trying to escape.

He created reality and He determines Reality. God is the truth. And so what we see in Scripture is that we see God as Father and The Father as God Lord creator and Redeemer. Now when we go through the Old Testament just as a side note.

The books of the Bible in the Old Testament are not Just God as Father. And then you come to Matthew Mark Luke and John and then you see God The Son. And then you go to Acts and on and you see God the Holy Spirit.

The Trinity is in the Old Testament as well. Genesis 126. Let us make man in our image. Genesis 11 God Confuses the languages of those that were building the Tower of Babel. Let us go down and confuse their language.

Isaiah 6 Who shall I send and who will go for us? Clearly there's an implication that the one true. God can exist. In a way that we can't fathom having multiple persons. The fact that the Father is God.

Nobody disputes that except for atheists. But then we come to Scriptures that talk about God having a son an only son. Not sons in the in the sense of angels, but God has one son in Psalm 2. This is a messianic Psalm, but in Psalm 2 in the Old Testament It says in verse Seven I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me you are my son today.

I have begotten you. In the in the book of Acts that's referring to the resurrection of Christ, but it is about Christ. He's the Son of God in First or sorry in John 3 16 the famous classic Text of scripture that we can use for evangelism.

God so loved the world that he gave his son. Jesus didn't become the Son of God. He was sent into the world as the Son. Galatians 4 says the same thing that of the fullness of time. God sent forth his son.

Born of woman born under the law to redeem those who are under the law. Jesus is The Son of God from eternity. He didn't become the Son of God as adoptionism teaches. John 1 1 says.

I'm sorry.

So we know that God has a son and now this only son is called God as well. John 1 1 in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. You go back down you go to John 1 14 and it says the word became flesh and And tabernacled among us and we have seen his glory glory as of the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth.

That's clearly saying that Jesus is God and was God for all eternity and yet The Father is God too. And yet there's not two gods, but one God. There's not a binity. There's one God.

In.

In.

Verse 18 of the same chapter it says the only God who is in the bosom of the Father who's at the side the At the Father's side. He has made him known the only God. Romans 9 5. Paul says Jesus is God over all.

In Titus 2 13 He calls him our great God and Savior and in 2nd Peter 1 1 he's called our God and Savior. These are things that we have to again. We don't come up with it and put it into the scripture we see.

That God has revealed himself as one God and yet also the Son is God as well. Jesus is God. Not only that the Son is Lord in Luke if you go to the Gospel of Luke, especially in the first chapters You're gonna see Lord used a couple of times.

Sometimes they will refer to the Father. And sometimes it will refer to the Son it uses it interchangeably. Jesus is Lord just like the Father is Lord in John 12 40 and 41. The narrator John. It goes back to Isaiah 6.

Isaiah 6 when we see the Lord of hosts high and lifted up sitting on the throne. Seraphim or cherubim are around him crying out. Holy. Holy. Holy is the Lord of hosts. May the whole earth be filled with his glory.

John says that Isaiah saw his glory Jesus's glory and spoke of him. So we can look at scripture and say okay. Jesus is Lord not just. Not just having lordship over us, but he is Yahweh. He's the true Covenant-keeping God who brought out the children of Israel.

When we're looking at the book of Exodus and we're talking about God speaking to Moses in the burning bush. That is Jesus Delivering them at the Red Sea that is Jesus though not in the flesh yet. It's indisputable that the Son is creator as well.

To any Jew that would look at the Old Testament and see how God says I alone Created the heavens and the earth. He would know that there is only one creator and yet at the same time John 1 verse 3. By him were all things created.

All things made and without him was not anything made that was made. Nothing could be made that Jesus didn't make so Jesus cannot be made. He created everything. He's the creator and Yet at the same time he's distinct from the father.

The son is sent by the father that he prays to the father. He doesn't pray to himself. He may say I Am in the father and the father is in me and say I and the father are one and yet there's still a distinction there.

He's sent. He prays to the father the son dies and as an offering to the father the father did not die on the cross. The incarnation God coming in the flesh is not the Trinity coming in the flesh. It's God the Son coming in the flesh.

But him speaking the father's words him empowered with the Holy Spirit yet It's the Son. And we we look at Scripture. Wow, this is this is deep. Well, this is the mind of God. The son sits at the right hand of the father.

It's not the father sitting at the right hand of the son or the Father sitting at the right hand of the father or anything crazy like that. Not only that we we see that God has a spirit. The Holy Spirit.

Genesis 1 to the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. We see that okay, there's the Spirit of God alternatively named the Holy Spirit. In first Corinthians 2 11 it makes the analogy of Between the human spirit.

We have a soul or a spirit. By which we know things we know God we know ourselves.

And.

He says in verse 11 first Corinthians 2 11 for who knows a person's thoughts. Except the spirit of that person which is in him. I can't know your thoughts. That only is belonging to the jurisdiction of your human spirit your soul.

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. He knows God's thoughts. He is the Spirit. Well, we have to do the same thing we look at Scripture and we see okay. The Father is God the Son is God, but they're distinct from each other and yet The Holy Spirit is God.

This doesn't just come because creeds have said it is so. But we go to the scriptures and we see what has God said in Acts 5. Remember when Ananias and Sapphira had lied about the money that they brought in and gave Peter said to them you have not lied to man, but to God.

In the same context. He said you have lied to the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God. In 2nd Samuel 23 verse 2 and 3 David says he calls the Spirit the Spirit of the Lord and in the same verses he calls him the God of Israel and the Rock of Israel.

Yet, of course in the minds of everybody who reads the Old Testament and every Jew that at that time There's only one God. There's not three gods. So we look at the scriptures and we see okay, we accept what they say.

The Spirit is creator. Genesis 1 to he's partaking in Creating everything he is described as giving breath. Life to us. Why do you think everybody you have life right now? Children why do you think that you have life right now?

God gave us life. He breathed life into our lungs. He gets our hearts beating our mind working gives us a soul. Just like he did to Adam exactly the breath of the Lord. He breathed into the nostrils of Adam.

Man became a living soul. Same with us as Job said the Spirit of the Lord has given me breath. I think that that's the wording there.

Okay.

So there's the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. There's Each are called God each are called Lord. Each are called creator.

And.

Share functions in creation and yet we see that there's only one God across the board and Yet the Spirit is different than the Father. The Father promises the Spirit. The Son receives and then he and the Father pour out the Spirit on the disciples.

The Spirit glorifies and testifies of Jesus Christ and Shows the things of the Son. There's difference between the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit and then there's a quality. Each person of the Trinity is equally God equally powerful and equally glorious.

We could say that they are persons Because we see that they think That they choose and That they have emotions. You if you take time sometime this week you read 1st Corinthians 12, and it will talk about This it'll talk about God.

We'll talk about the Lord and I'll talk about the Spirit. And each three of those Will things will to give to the church different gifts. A force can will anything a force is will lists because it's person lists.

But the Spirit gives gifts each each person Shares the fullness of the divine nature. So there's one God and Yet each person is fully God. We know that this is so because it calls the Spirit God and If we're talking about God, we are talking about the one true God.

We're not talking about 33 of God we're talking about God himself. To see the Spirit of God is to see God in the scriptures to see the Son of God. It is to see God. To see the Father is to see God. Yet there's one God.

Each person is equally powerful. Then we already talked about creation. The father as the architect the son as The contractor he gets things done and the Spirit is the superintendent. Each person has a role in salvation.

Why am I? Saved. If I'm saved you are saved because the father predestined you in love and chose you. The son bled for you and rose again and the Spirit seals you and You're going to be saved at the end by Christ returning and by the Spirit Changing our lowly body through the command of Christ so that we would have a body like Christ.

Each person communicates grace to us. In Romans 5 5 it says God's love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. In 2nd Corinthians 13 for the grace of the Lord is the benediction. He says the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.

Be with you all. Romans 15 13 says may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope. Grace love empowerment faith Fellowship all of those things come from the Father the Son the Holy Spirit and then each person is equally glorious.

We ought to worship and And and ascribe worth To the Holy Spirit just as we do to the Son and just as we do to the Father. When we're coming for baptism We're to baptize in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit name singular and then a plural of persons.

So you're coming up under? The Lordship of The Father the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each person deserves equal devotion. Then I'm submitted to each person of the Trinity and I'm going to have fellowship with each person of the Trinity then and.

Would we go to scripture then after that? Though the Father represents the Godhead whenever it says God in the epistles. Usually it's talking about the Father. Yet there are times when it talks about the Son and the Spirit.

And.

Though the Father is Logically the first person of The Trinity we say the first person of the Trinity is the Father. The second person of the Trinity is the Son. The third Person of the Trinity is the Spirit.

We're not talking about Chronologically, they're not in time Made or anything like that but when we go to scripture we see any and every combination of.

An.

Order of the persons of the Trinity. We'll see the Father the Son and Spirit the Father Spirit Son the Son Spirit Father and the Son Father Spirit and then we'll see the Spirit Father Son and the Spirit Son Father.

In that in that order so then it can be said that each person is equal now if we try to. If we tried to grasp this with our mind and say okay, there's one God. There's three persons. What do we have like that in creation?

Where there's one being and yet Three persons in the Godhead. How do we even? Look for something to help us out in creation like that and many different analogies have been have been made at the triangle.

Three points yet one shape. St. Patrick said the three leaf clover. It's got three leaves and yet it is one clover. For those who say that we have a body soul and spirit they say well within the image of God we have three parts.

And yet we are one being or an egg. There's a Shell, there's the yoke and the white and yet it's one egg. The problem with that I can't give you an egg. I Can't divide that and Say that the shell is the egg and the yoke is the egg and the white is the egg.

My my spirit is not Elias and my body is Elias and yet my body and spirit together are Elias. You can't get the whole thing in just the part. Creation does not have anything that is like God God himself said to whom will you compare me and.

So it boggles our mind. We don't understand it fully yet. We should worshipfully Accept that this is the way that God.

Is.

We have we have pants. Well, how many pants do you have? Well at the top, they're one at the bottom. They're two. But that still doesn't help us understand how God is one being and yet three persons and each of the three persons is.

The whole has the whole being God.

Is.

Utterly transcendent. Yet we can go to scripture and know that that it's real. So one thing that has helped me. Does anybody here like C .S. Lewis Chronicles of Narnia? C .S. Lewis had used the.

The.

Analogy of a cube. Okay, now we we have. We have three dimensions. Okay. We can go back and forth. Go side to side and we can go up and down. Okay. Three dimensions. If you were to draw on a board just using Two dimensions you could only draw a line.

Or one dimension rather you just draw a line. That's all you could do. With another line another dimension you can grow up and down but with that you can make a square. You can make a square now. Imagine we lived in two-dimensional reality.

We were just on paper and That's all that we knew is lines and squares. That's all that we would think exists. But when you add a third dimension there You're still using the same basic.

Lines.

But you're adding a dimension Squares then become a cube. Now God is otherly. He is is like us in ways that we have personhood we have being. But then he is not like us in The way that he is three persons and yet one being he is a being on a whole different level.

But that should not surprise us. This should not come to us and we should reject it. It should come to us as I Already know that God Created everything out of nothing. I Know that God knows everything.

I know that God Sees all time In front of him. He is outside of time. He doesn't have a beginning or an Ending he doesn't have a beginning if that does not stretch your mind already. Then I don't know you're not thinking about it properly.

God's being in every one of his characteristics Ought to bring forth all because we cannot fully Grasp how great God is. Now I'm on to the second part. God not only created the world but also now upholds sustains governs and providentially directs all that exists and will bring all things to their proper consummation.

In Christ Jesus God created everything.

We.

We know that We don't need the Bible to even say that that is something that God's revealed to the man without the Bible the the nature Testifies of that that's the heathen man's Bible and it's got three huge pages The heavens the earth and the seas and from that picture book People can read and see.

I Know that God made me. And what else did God make. God made all things and why did he make it? I know he made it for his glory. Psalm 33 6. Though we go to God's Word and he says by the breath Sorry by the word of the Lord the heavens were made and by the breath of his mouth all their host.

Verse 9 says for he spoke and it came to be he commanded and it stood firm. Now that is totally different then the different religions that are out there Buddhism creation created itself or there's pantheism that God is the creation.

That we are a part of God and everything that is around us as a part of God. It's different than even these these religions and their texts texts. Like Egypt and Babylon and Greece that say some of the most wacky and grotesque ugly things.

About how the creation came to be that there was a war between gods and the one goddess that got killed. The head was chopped off and that was the earth and then the blood from that goddess was the human beings and the tears from that goddess was the all of the oceans and the fountains and the waters and The body from that goddess was strapped up and then that's the heavens utter insanity and I'm not even going to tell you about what the Egyptians Wrote about how Had the heavens and the earth came into being.

It would be too Disgusting to tell you but God is here He commanded it as king and it stood firm. God didn't use evolutionary processes if you're if you know what that means God didn't start with a huge explosion and Then out of that there's these little Tiny you can't even see them.

Little.

Organisms in a pool that then get into bigger and more complex more Complicated organisms which eventually turn into fish and then into monkeys and then into mankind. God didn't use that. But he set about to make an orderly Creation and everything in its perfect time and then he rested on the seventh day.

When he created everything did God Just set the watch So that it would run on its own and then he left it. Did he throw his hands off the wheel? After he created everything. No, I think I heard autumn say no deists.

Believe that God he left us to ourselves he's he pulled out of Creation once he created it. He's gone, but God is intimately Active and involved and we can pray to him and trust that he hears. We can commit to him our our big things and our small things in life and know that he is involved if he cares for the trees and he waters them and he cares for the grass and Grows it and he cares for the birds and he feeds them and if he cares for everything He opens his hand and satisfies the desire of every living creature.