Article 2 - The Trinity

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Again, we gather together in Jesus' name.
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We pray, Lord, that you would come down upon us and that you would be the teacher, that you would cause us to grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Son of God who loved us, gave himself for us.
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Lord, help us.
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We are so dependent upon you on everything.
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And yet for all that, Lord, we confess that we so often think that we are independent.
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So may we open your word tonight, and may you be pleased to teach us and to reveal your truth to us to our own benefit and ultimately to the glory of the Savior.
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In his name we pray.
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Amen.
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OK, so as I said, we will look first at Article 2, which is concerning the Trinity.
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So I will read it to you, make some observations about what they say.
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And then as time will allow, look to as many scriptures as we can.
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Certainly won't get to them all.
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But let's at least read the article together.
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So Article 2, the Trinity.
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In this divine and infinite being, there is the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, all infinite without any beginning.
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Therefore, but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties.
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Brother Keith and I were just talking about that last phrase where it talks about peculiar relative properties.
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And he asked me what I was going to do with it.
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And I said, I'm just going to say three distinct persons and hope nobody asks me why it's just relative properties.
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Because I do think that's their intent.
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So I'm going to go with that.
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What they're saying is, but who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by three distinct persons, rather than several peculiar properties.
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So with that in mind, and again, I just thought to start it this way and remind us as, I'm sure most of us would already have known that, that if we were to try to find the word Trinity in the Bible, we are going to have to go where? Does anybody know what chapter Trinity's in? Oh, it's not in the Bible.
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Second opinion.
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Yeah, it's not in the Bible, right? Not unless you're reading a different Bible than God's Bible.
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So yeah, the word Trinity's not in it.
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And I think that's an important place to even start.
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Because if you think about it, man, in his attempt to grasp for understanding, has sought to apply words and things to some things which are, I'm going to say, truly beyond our understanding.
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And certainly, as we come to the article concerning Trinity, certainly as we come to the truth of the Trinity, I would say that perhaps the doctrine of the Trinity is the most mysterious of all Bible doctrines.
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Because it is so far above the conception of man.
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And even as we read that what we are saying can be and has been confused many times over when we say things like have the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, and but one God, yet three distinct persons.
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And so as we come to this, I think we need to come to the doctrine of the Trinity, as with all other biblical doctrines.
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But I think we've got to come with great humility and not try to, if you will, make things fit that really, again, as I say to you, are beyond our comprehension.
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And let me just add this as we look and consider this for a few minutes.
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This has to be the doctrine of God being one, yet three distinct persons.
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We are totally dependent upon God for that understanding.
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Because again, man couldn't have conceived in all his imagination, he couldn't have conceived a doctrine that really is beyond even the conception that we have in our minds.
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So I think we must approach it as always with great humility that we are dependent upon God.
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And that we are careful, and I think this is important, not only in the doctrine of the Trinity, but all others.
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When we get to a point where we can't explain accurately, then we would be better off not trying to explain, rather than trying to force either a thought or a meaning to it that's not there.
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The doctrine of the Trinity has been an issue since the inception of the church.
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And certainly, if we have time later, I will read to you, especially with the Council of Nicaea in the fourth century, wrote concerning the Trinity as they were fighting against some of the great heresies of the Arians, and the Gnostics, and some of the others.
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And that finally, by Constantine's decree, they had this council at Nicaea in the fourth century, and they wrote a statement.
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And even that statement that they write, which if we have time, we'll just read it.
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It's rather brief.
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Still doesn't explain the doctrine of the Trinity in its fullness.
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And some people have tried to make analogies of.
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One example was that some people tried to say, well, the Trinity is like, one's like the sun, the sun in the sky.
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And then you see, then you have the rays that flow from the sun in the sky, and that's another distinction.
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And then you have the warmth that comes from the sun that the rays shoot out.
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And to me, that's a poor way to try to understand something as high and as lofty as the doctrine of the Trinity.
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Some have tried to say that you can make the analogy of the seed, and the soil, and the plant.
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And again, it really falls short, brothers and sisters.
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The doctrine of the Trinity is too mysterious and too high and exalted for us.
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And so every attempt will fall short.
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And with that thought, I wanted to say this.
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If you read the words that they wrote, it's one of the shorter articles, isn't it? You see, it's one of the shorter articles in the confession.
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And at times, I think being brief is better than just keep, for lack of a better term, blabbering on.
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We state the truth, and then we look for the scriptures and rely upon the scriptures to give us some understanding, especially in this glorious truth of the Trinity.
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So let me take you through a couple of scriptures, as time allows.
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And if you have any thoughts, that would be fine too.
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So it's interesting that in Article I, which we looked at last week, the premise was that God is but one God.
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Now we come to Article II of the Trinity, and some might misunderstand it as a contradiction to the very first article that says the Lord our God is but one.
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Now we come to Article II of the Trinity, and now we're talking about three divine persons, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided, all infinite, without beginning, therefore, but one God.
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So again, there's certain times where all we could do is merely declare what we know to be true and leave alone what is just, yeah, I mean, certainly that entered into it, right? And then you take a scripture like where in John, where Jesus said, I and the Father are one.
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And how many people have misunderstood that one scripture, where in a way to try to disassociate Christ as a divine being, they've said things like, well, when Jesus said, I and the Father are one, they really had, Jesus meant him and the Father had the same purpose.
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I don't believe that's what that scripture means, that him and the Father were one in totality, in essence, and yet three distinct persons.
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So yeah, brother, you're right, and many attempts have been made for that.
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But the Trinity is not saying that there are three gods, right? I hope we would all say amen to that, right? We're not saying there are three gods.
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We are saying there is but one God, even as we always depend on that scripture in Deuteronomy, or Israel, the Lord our God is what? One Lord, right? So we're not saying there are three gods.
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What we are declaring, and I say that word, declaring, because I can't explain it.
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You can explain it.
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If you can truly explain the Trinity, I'm sure Brother Keith will give his time away to you tonight.
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Right, brother? Can't do it.
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So we can't explain it.
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All we can do is proclaim it, same way we did with the resurrection.
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All we ought to do is to declare the truth that God has revealed to us, and then God takes his word, and it never returns void.
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So what I wanted to try to do with this in the few minutes that I have is rather than spend all this time on the heresies concerning the Trinity, and there are many, right? There are those who have tried to put it in different terms and in different ways that it really, and this has to do particularly as we get to the person of Christ, where people will try to say, well, see, there was different appearances and different modes as you mentioned, and different emanations, and the spirit of God is but a force.
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Rather than spend all our time on that, because I think that just leads us down a rabbit hole, I'd rather us look at some scriptures in this light.
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We can understand the Trinity by what God says concerning the attributes of the three persons in the Godhead.
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In other words, if we are going to grasp for something that's beyond our understanding, all we can do is take in what we can comprehend.
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We can comprehend attributes, right? We can comprehend character.
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And so as we look at this tonight, that's really my desire is rather that we don't spin our wheels with all the falsehoods, but rather put ourselves to look at some scriptures and that the Trinity is best understood or best comprehended, at least in my mind, by looking at the scriptures and seeing where both the Father, the Son, and the Spirit possess, in totality, the same attributes.
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Therefore, therefore, we can work from that point backwards or upwards.
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And again, we're only going to get so far, and then we can't go no further.
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So if you'll allow me to do that, I hope it would be profitable.
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So a couple of scriptures, I would ask you to turn to them.
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I just mentioned to you where Jesus said, I am the Father, one and again, not just one in purpose, but actually one in a divine being.
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So go to John 16 for a minute.
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And again, it's interesting, and I'll just give this to you as a thought, a lot of the revelation concerning the Trinity can be found in the Gospel of John specifically because John what? If you think about it, each of the gospel writers have a different presentation, if you will, of Christ.
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And certainly, John, in his gospel, he moves away from some of the other synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke in that John truly, in many ways, presents Christ as who? The divine being, right? In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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And he follows through with that through his gospel so that the presentation is as the divine person.
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So in John chapter 16, and again, if you read it in the narrative, it makes it somewhat clear.
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So John 16, I'll pick it up in verse 5.
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As Jesus is speaking, and he says this, but now I go to him who sent me, and none of you ask me where are you going.
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But because I have said these things to you, your sorrow has filled your heart.
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Nevertheless, I tell you the truth.
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It is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the helper will not come to you, certainly the helper being the Holy Spirit.
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But if I depart, I will send him to you.
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And there is the pronoun him, right? So not it, not a force, not an emanation, not a different appearance of it, him.
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I will send him to you, and when he has come, he will convict the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment of sin, because they do not believe in me of righteousness, because I go to my father.
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And you see me no more of judgment, because the rule of this world is judged.
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I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
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However, when he, the spirit of truth, has come, he will guide you into all truth.
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He will not speak of his own authority, but whatever he hears, he will speak.
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And he will tell you things to come.
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He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you.
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All things that the father has are mine.
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Therefore, I said that he will take of mine and declare it to you.
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And again, I will submit to you that as you read this, you begin to understand the attributes of the Holy Spirit, in that he is not only the comforter or the one who comes along, but he also is the revealer of all truth.
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As the son had all truth, as the father had all truth, so the spirit.
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And that's why we can say that as we see in the scriptures, although we do not fully have a complete understanding, yet there is a revelation given to us where we can see by the attributes themselves that there are three distinct persons all of the same essence and that essence being undivided.
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In other words, as the Holy Spirit comes, it doesn't draw from the son or from the father.
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It's not to be understood that way.
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And again, very difficult for us to understand.
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And I'll just mention this to you.
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The scripture, you remember how Moses was to go to Pharaoh and what name shall I tell them who sent me? And what does God say? I am has sent you, right? And then you come to the Gospel of John.
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And again, I'll quote from John in John chapter 8, where Jesus says before Abraham was, what does he say? I am.
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See, again, the name and the attribute of the name are applied equally to the son.
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The son doesn't take an honor that's not his.
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And he says that I am.
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Here's one that I think is helpful.
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If you go to that book of Acts for a minute, and as you turn in there, I'm going to make a small confession.
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And maybe you'll agree.
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Acts chapter 5, I want to read something about the Holy Spirit.
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Perhaps I'm the only one that is so fleshly minded that it is very hard for me.
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Well, let me put it this way.
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It is easier in that way to see the Father and the Son as divine beings.
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And it seems to me sometimes as if the Holy Spirit is, if you will, like the third one in the party.
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It's a very difficult understanding, isn't it? It's very hard to put it all together in that there's almost this thought.
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And to some extent, that's the way it's presented to us of the Father being numero uno, the Son numero dos, and then the Spirit, trace.
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See, I learned Spanish in school.
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But I wanted to read this to you.
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So you remember chapter 5 of the book of Acts? That's when Ananias and Sapphira, remember they sold the land as they were having all things in common? And then Ananias decided to sell the land.
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And when he sold the land, he came to the apostles.
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And he said, we sold land for this much.
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Remember what it says.
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It says in verse 3, what Peter said of Acts chapter 5, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit to give back part of the price of the land for yourself? And while it remained, was it not your own? And after he sold it, was it still not under your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to who? God.
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Again, when people ask me about the divine being of the Holy Spirit, I can come here.
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And I could say, well, I might not be able to fully expound upon the doctrine of the Trinity.
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But as I see God's revelation, he reveals to me, in that sense, here a little and there a little, of the divine person of both the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
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And again, if we lie, we lie unto the Father.
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We lie, we lie unto the Son.
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If we lie, we lie unto the Holy Spirit.
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Those three distinct, we're still lying to God.
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That's the point, right? I hope you see that, that a scripture like this is something that we, you and I, can and ought to use.
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OK.
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A couple more, and I'll certainly leave Brother Keith his time.
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I want to go back to the Gospel of John for a minute.
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Again, Gospel of John is well worth our time to consider.
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Let's go to John 14 for a second, John chapter 14.
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And this one helps in many ways to make things clear.
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And I pick it up in verse 12.
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As Jesus is, again, revealing his truth to his disciples, he said, most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also in greater works than these.
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He will do because I go to my Father.
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Whatever you ask in my name, that I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son.
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If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.
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If you love me, keep my commandments.
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And I will pray to the Father.
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And just watch the union and the reality of the Trinity.
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I will pray to the Father, and he will give you another helper.
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And I don't know Greek that well, but I know enough to know that there's two different words you use for another.
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One means another of a different kind, and one means another of the same kind.
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And this word here for another is another of the same, not different, correct? Alas and heteros.
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Yeah.
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So again, even from that.
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But further, he says, I will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, even the spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him, but you know him.
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For he dwells with you and will be in you.
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And then look at verse 18.
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I will not leave you orphans.
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I will come to you.
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Again, it's there.
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It's clear.
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It's understandable.
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And this is where I believe we should go to the Bible for all our doctrine and not try to make it either bigger or smaller than it really is.
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Because again, once we start going down that path, brothers and sisters, there's no end to it.
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We'll become stuck in the mud.
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And men many times have tried to do that in their attempt to prove things that, again, let me just say it this way.
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We don't need to prove God.
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Do we? God doesn't need us to prove that he is.
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He is.
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That's why he is the I am.
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Doesn't need to have our, we don't need to credential God to give him any more godness, if you will.
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I want you to look at a couple more real quick.
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Second Corinthians chapter 13.
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And again, just trying to tie these three divine persons in the, as they are presented to us in the scriptures.
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Second Corinthians chapter 13, and this is maybe not one that people think about too often, but nevertheless, it certainly is.
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As Paul gives his final benediction to the church at Corinth in chapter 13, second Corinthians 13, 11.
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Finally, brethren, farewell.
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Be complete.
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Be of good comfort.
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Be of one mind.
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Live in peace.
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And the God of love and peace will be with you.
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Greet one another with a holy kiss, and all the saints greet you.
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And look at verse 14.
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The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
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Amen.
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Do you see that? There are three distinct persons.
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Now, are there different ways in which we are to understand the work that was agreed in the eternal council? Yes.
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We need to do that.
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Right? Because if you look at it, Jesus always says that he was sent by the Father.
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And then if you think about the Holy Spirit, Jesus always says that he's going to send the Holy Spirit.
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And so as you think about these things, we can come away with some different thoughts on the outworking of the Godhead, but never to divide the divine essence.
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We don't have time to turn, but if you remember when Jesus was baptized, right, and it said that the who, the Spirit of God in the form of a dove descended on him.
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So you have the Lord Jesus Christ, the Spirit of God descends on him.
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And then remember what happens? A voice was heard from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, hear ye him.
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Again, there's the three persons.
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And again, that's the way we need to look at the trinity that they possess the same attributes and that there is perfect union within them and there is no division.
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I want you to look real quick, Colossians chapter two.
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Colossians chapter two.
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Again, now I'm just trying to give us a couple of verses to take home with us if we wanted to, to think about it.
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In Colossians chapter two, I'll start at verse six, just so there's a little context.
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As you have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him.
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Rooted and built up in him, established in the faith as you have been taught, abounding with thanksgiving.
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Beware lest anyone cheat you through his philosophy or empty the seed according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world and not according to Christ.
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Look at verse nine.
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For in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
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There's a little song we used to sing with the kids.
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The fullness of the Godhead bodily dwelleth in my Lord.
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There's a little song you could teach kids that goes along with that scripture.
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But again, this is a feeble attempt, if you will.
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And why do we read Colossians, by the way? Just look across the page.
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Most Bibles are verse 13, Colossians chapter one, verse 13.
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Speaking of Christ, he has delivered us from the power of darkness and translated us into the kingdom of his son of his love in whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins.
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Look at verse 15.
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He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.
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For by him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers.
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All things were created through him and for him and he is before all thing and in him all things consist.
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Well, that's the very same truth that's given to us concerning the father.
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They referenced the section of the text where it says that he is the image of the invisible God.
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And they used it because that word image means an imprint of something or let me say a copy.
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And what we have to help them to realize is you can't copy God unless in fact you are divine.
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And therefore to say that Christ is the image of God is to say that he is God because you cannot be, not in the way that we're made in the image of God, that's different.
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But to say that Christ is the one through whom all things were made is referencing him as being the image of God, the exact imprint of his nature.
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Is it the Mormons then? Well, no, the Jehovah's Witnesses would argue the firstborn, that phrase firstborn, which means it's protocost.
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It means to be the preeminent one.
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But they would say he was the first created one.
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They would say he's created first, yes.
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And we would say no, that means he's preeminent overall.
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That's what the protocost means.
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Yeah, a new perspective, so preeminent.
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Yeah, there's lots, and again, I could have spent time on that part, that side of it.
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No, that's fine, certainly.
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But I think it's more important for us to know the truth because if you know the truth, you can defend the, if you know what's right, it's easy to discern what's wrong.
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If all you do is spend time on what's wrong, you never build a foundation on what's right, then you can, like I said, you can get lost in the woods.
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So these scriptures, there's many others we could look at.
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We could have looked at Hebrews chapter one.
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You don't have to turn there, but it's speaking of the son.
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It says, who being the brightness of his glory and the express image, there it is again, of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power, and so on, or, and I'll give this to you and I'll end it with this.
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Read Proverbs chapter eight.
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If you read Proverbs chapter eight, I believe if you read it, probably have to read it a couple times, but you'll find the father, the son, and the spirit with the same divine essence, the same attributes, and yet I believe you can find all three of them in Proverbs chapter eight.
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So that ends my time.
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As brother keeps coming, let me read to you very quickly.
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I said that the council of Nicaea in the fourth century put to death in many ways, the heresy of the Aryans, at least for the time being.
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And this was their statement concerning the Trinity.
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And then I'll sit down.
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They said this, we believe in one God, the father almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible, and in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the son of God, begotten from the father, only begotten, that is, from the substance of the father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one substance with the father, through whom all things came into being, things in heaven and things on earth, who because of us men and because of our salvation came down and became incarnate, became man, suffered and rose again the third day, ascended to heavens and will come to judge the living and the dead, and in the Holy Spirit, but as for those who say there was when he was not and before he was born, he was not, and that he came into existence out of nothing, or who assert that the son of God is of a different hypostasis or substance or created or is subject to alteration or change, these the Catholic and apostolic church anathemizes.
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So if you will, they drove a nail into the Arian heresy that was, I think if you read history, it had some good grips in what was going on.
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Okay, if that's not enough now, the decrees of God.
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Read that again.
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I'll make you a copy.