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Well again, we are here and this is our final night on our study of the doctrine of the Trinity I know we have taken an extended break at Christmas and then a break last week because I was out and I again Thank Mike Ward for teaching in my absence but tonight we're going to finalize our study of the doctrine of the Trinity and I want to just remind us some of the things that we've learned so far as we begin this final study as a Group, we've looked at the major competing views of God in the world The major competing views of God in the world are what we call monotheism Polytheism and henna theism.
What is monotheism? Monotheism is the belief in one God.
What is polytheism? Of the belief in many gods it would seem as if there's only two options Either one or more than one but henna theism.
What is that? That is right.
Henna theism says that there is one God who is to be worshipped but not to the exclusion of the possibility or the existence of other gods and Typically we see this in tribal Behavior and this is Old Testament We're like the followers of Baal would not deny that Jehovah was a God But they would say that Baal is a greater God and so they would say our God is greatest but their God is lesser, but he's still a God and They had this sense of only one God is to be worshipped, but that doesn't mean there aren't other Deities and so henna theism is found in things like Jehovah Witnesses Because the Jehovah Witnesses would say Jesus is a God, but he's not the God He is deity, but not worshipful deity He's not to be worshipped so we see in the world today monotheism polytheism and henna theism monotheism and Christianity Judaism and Islam polytheism and Hinduism and Native American religions and things like that and we see henna theism in things like Jehovah Witnesses and tribal religions The definition of Historic Trinitarianism because as if we come to monotheism, there's a branch off Monotheism can be broken into two categories Unitarianism or Trinitarianism I Don't I don't know I didn't spell that, right? Okay Unitarianism and Trinitarianism, I don't know any by Terrians.
I don't know anyone who says there's two persons But there are Trinitarians us and there are Unitarians.
What is the definition of a Unitarian the same way remember a Unitarian is a monotheist who says that God is one being and one person One being one person Typically, they will not express it that way because they don't make a distinction between being and person They simply say God is one and God is absolutely one and there's no way that we can Subdivide or there's no way that we can make a distinction in his oneness.
He is absolutely one We see this in oneness Pentecostal ism where they will say Jesus is the father.
Jesus is the son Jesus is the spirit and so it's one being one person We also see this in Islam Islam says that Christians have committed shirk Shirk is idolatry Because we call Jesus God and in calling Jesus God we commit idolatry by making a man God which is not what we're doing, but that's the assault or the the the Accusation thank you.
That's the accusation of the the Islamic person Judaism also Orthodox Judaism would argue one being one person.
They're Unitarian.
How many of you ever seen a Unitarian Universalist Church? Okay, then go over there.
I know where one is on the south side you go by and says Unitarian Universalist Yeah, yeah and They really are not Absolutely one and the other have to go together.
You can be Unitarian and not Universalist You can be Universal and not be Unitarian because Universalism is the idea that everyone will eventually go to heaven Universalism it means universal salvation But where Unitarian Universalism comes together is the belief that there is only one God and there's many ways to God so that's where the Unitarian where everyone's going up the same mountain just taking different roads as it were.
That's the idea of the Unitarian So that's why you see often Unitarian and Universal come together because Well, it's a feel-good idea I've often said if I believe that why even why worry why go in worship and their response to their credit They do have a response.
The response is what we go to worship because we worship that God has saved everyone We're just excited that God did that.
Okay, I disagree but but you know Hey, that's fine because we don't believe that we earn anything by worship either.
I Celebrating what God has done.
Well, that's what we're doing too and we worship but we're celebrating what God has done as it has been revealed in scripture not as we've Imagined it in our mind.
So Trinitarian ism makes a distinction of one being And if you want to know what I mean by being I go back to a few classes earlier We talked about who's the our essence the nature of God that which is God is one and yet within the being of God There are three Persons or the better way of saying it is through there are three persons who share the being of God the Father And the Son and the Spirit have always been in a relationship with one another the the Sun didn't come into existence At Bethlehem the Sun did not come into existence at creation This is another thing where Jehovah Witnesses will argue because else because if you say to a Jehovah Witness Well, Jesus pre-existed Bethlehem.
They'll say we know he was created before all things and he created everything else But they will argue that he was created by God as the creator of everything else They say he was the Michael the Archangel who created all things he was incarnate in Jesus and after the Crucifixion he was reestablished as Michael the Archangel and now Exists in that state So the belief in Jesus as a man is really limited to his time on earth as Jesus the man Outside of that he is the Archangel Michael So the position of there being three co-equal co-eternal Persons within the Trinity is denied by by the of course the Jehovah Witnesses But this is the the formula for Trinitarianism is simple I'm not going to write it all out because it's kind of long but there is one God There are three persons who are called God No, no denying that Jesus is called God no denying that the father is called God No denying that the Spirit is called God and these three persons are all seen as personal Eternal Equally powerful and distinct And that's how we define the doctrine of the Trinity.
Do you have a question? Yes from a historic standpoint the church fathers in trying to make clear and Sometimes in trying to make clear we can make more confusing but in trying to make clear all of the biblical data They use the term of the Son begotten not made Because in their regard For God to beget the son simply means that the son comes from him, but that this is an eternal Relationship of begetting that there wasn't a time when the son was not and then he was But that the son has always begotten from the father that as long as the father has been The son has been begotten of him And so they are in a relationship father to son and yet there is within that an eternal Relationship there wasn't a time when the son was not and so they want to use the language of Scripture, which he is called the eternal or the only begotten Son and Remember the word begotten also doesn't just mean to come from something but begotten also means to be unique begotten is from the Greek of Monogamous what is mono means one? Ganay means kind or one of a kind Jesus is the unique Son of God This is why he identifies himself as the only begotten Son of God Because he's identifying himself in his uniqueness as opposed to us who are all children of God by adoption Christ is the only Son of God who is begotten of the Father and one of the things that CS Lewis I'm not a big CS Lewis fan, but he had he did say some things that were good and CS Lewis said that We beget that which is like us like if you beget a child it's a child that's human and God begets a son that is like him from all eternity and that son is God and He doesn't beget us.
God doesn't beget nowhere in Scripture to say we are begotten of God It says we are adopted of God, but the son is begotten And so it's just speaking of the relationship Between the Father and the Son from all eternity Likewise the Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son from all eternity there was never a time when there wasn't a Holy Spirit, but the Relationship within the Trinity is one of begotten and proceeding the Son is begotten and the Spirit proceeds from the Father And yet they share an equality.
We good.
Okay So Trinitarianism Needs to be understood as absolutely unique in the world This is something I didn't really mention in the weeks before but I want to mention it tonight as we get going Trinitarianism is Absolutely unique if you say Unitarianism, you could say that shared Jehovah Witnesses.
I'm sorry Mormon.
No Muslims there we go Muslims Jews and any other Monotheistic religion that would look to one God only Typically falls in the Unitarian category.
So Unitarianism is shared by several different religions Polytheism is shared by several religions.
Hittite theism is several, you know tribal religions, but Trinitarianism is unique to Christianity We're the only faith that makes a distinction between the being of God and the persons which share the being of God and I think that that's important.
I think the distinctions Important because it helps us to understand the uniqueness of what we're saying.
I Often I think It's it's hard Sometimes to really find a distinction and then do not don't get mad Because I feel it coming and nobody on this recording.
Send me an email as I'm going to explain myself It's hard to find a distinction between Islam and Orthodox Judaism From the perspective of what and who God is because they both believe that their God is the God of Abraham Now how they exact how they express that is obviously different Obviously how the Jews express their faith and how Muslims express their faith is vastly different and has caused no end of terror But from the perspective of how they see God It's very similar They just see him as their God not the other guy's God right, but still it's Unitarian Trinitarian is very unique This is why when I talk to somebody and I talk to them if they're if they're if they're Believing well, I believe in God, but I don't believe in Jesus.
Well, you're an idol idolater I don't know.
I don't I don't start with that because that might be a little rough But but they're an idolater because what they're doing is They're they're believing in a God that doesn't exist and the Bible says what is idolatry To have any other gods before me and this is the God that doesn't exist and you're putting that God before the true God or as the true God and That's idolatry So Trinitarianism is absolutely unique and it's the hallmark of genuine Christianity anytime you see historically a divide from Genuine Christianity the divide is almost always somewhere found in the doctrine of the Trinity either It's a denial of who Christ is and his nature a denial of who God is a denial of what the Spirit has done And we see that throughout history Well, I like I said, I just wanted to kind of remind everyone where we are This is sort of going over what we've done the last two or three months and tonight We're going to go away from the abstract this is what I would say is is the abstract Teaching this is the sort of the the knowledge gnosis part of this study tonight.
We're going to move to the practical Okay, so we're going to go away from here and we're going to move to the practical Application the practical application because application application of doctrine is essential if a person has solid formulated theological knowledge But they do not apply that solid theological knowledge to their lives.
It is what is called dead Orthodoxy You ever seen somebody who's dead Orthodox? I've been to churches Where it was as if a funeral was occurring and the message Was delivered with such Lack of passion and It did not drive to a point of thus shall you live? That's really the difference between a sermon and a lesson people.
So what's the difference between teaching and preaching? Well the every sermon should in and thus should you? Do this it's pushing to an application One of the Pastors that we had preached last in our but last Bible conference Steve Krilov, you know, and I've mentioned this before the way he taught to preach and I've read his book and I've used his book I've taught from his book preaching is simple read the scripture explain the scripture and Apply the scripture.
That's all preaching is and the last part is important Thus you should do You know this now what do you do with that a Lot of people don't even know this You go to most churches today and you say what's the doctrine of the Trinity? You're gonna get some form of modalism some form of him at Hennessy ism You're gonna get some wrong teaching most people don't even know how to explain the Trinity much less live in light of it so the question becomes What do we learn? What do we do? How do we apply this? Well, I'm gonna apply it in three ways tonight We're going to talk about how the Trinity and I'm sorry that I don't have worksheets for you And if you if anybody wants scratch paper, this is the thing Mike had last week.
It's blank on the back So if anybody needs a scratch sheet of paper, you can ask for someone to pass that back We're going to look at worship as the first thing.
How should our understanding of the Trinity affect our worship the second is our understanding of salvation How should the Trinity under effect our understanding of salvation and thirdly How should the Trinity affect our relationship? With God Worship and if you want to put a little caveat, I'm really speaking of corporate worship Because one could say our relationship with God is an outgrowth of our worship and it is an expression of worship So in this particular outline, we're talking about how should it? How should it how should Trinitarianism affect us as a church how we worship corporately? How should Trinitarianism affect us individually how we understand salvation meaning? How do we explain it to others? How do we witness how does it affect that and thirdly our relationship with God our personal walk? Has to affect our personal wall.
So those are the three things we're going to go through So let's look first at number one.
How should the Trinity affect our worship? If I were to ask the average Christian, how vital is the doctrine of the Trinity to your worship? I Would probably get a pretty strange look If I went into an average church And I said, okay, I'm gonna ask you a question.
How vital is the doctrine of the Trinity to your experience in worship And I'm not talking to you directly miss Jackie, but you if somebody asked you that might be like that's kind of an odd question but the reason is because we as evangelicals and I say this to our own shame in America particularly have come to the conclusion that doctrine isn't important and So if I were to walk up to the average churchgoer and I was to say how does the doctrine of the Trinity affect your worship? They would probably if they were honest have to say it doesn't Because doctrine doesn't matter.
In fact, some have called doctrine dangerous How many ever heard that well doctrine is dangerous because what does doctrine do it divides Doctrine divides and the last thing we want is division.
So because we don't want division We don't want doctrine.
I Remember, dr.
R.
C.
Sproul tells a wonderful story He had a group of people show up at Ligonier ministries Ligonier ministries is the teaching arm of his ministry and he had an office there and he had a group of about seven people Come to his office and they were all of different faiths.
There was a Jehovah Witness.
There was a Mormon there was a Catholic there was a Protestant there was I think even a Hindu or something and They all came in and they said we have learned to live in unity we have learned to live in absolute peace and We have learned to come to the joy of a relationship Under God together and we wanted to share it with you.
Dr.
Sproul We want to get you on board with what we're doing in this great Movement of unity and dr.
Sproul said that's great but I must ask you is Salvation it's justification before God by faith alone or not And he said within two minutes they were fighting Within two minutes they were they were they were about to clobber one another sound doctrine is foundational to right worship In fact, a W Tozer says he said it would be impossible to over emphasize the importance of sound doctrine in the life of a Christian Right thinking about all spiritual matters is imperative If we would have right living as men do not gather grapes of thorns nor figs of thistles So sound character does not grow out of unsound teaching Sound Character does not grow out of unsound teaching.
I've said this from the beginning of my ministry years and years ago I said I believe my job is to teach people to think right about God because if you think right about God It will help you live right towards God.
If you don't think right about God, you will not live right at all Thinking right about God is first now.
It doesn't mean you can't think right about God and live wrong I know people do but if you don't think right about God, there's going to be an interruption in how you live Thinking right about God is essential in the beginning It's foundational without a knowledge of who we are ascribing adoration to that's what worship is to adore Actually worship is a combination of two words worth and ship It means worth ship to ascribe worth or to adore something.
That's what worship is and so to adore God Begins with understanding God God is not honored in the worship of false gods is he This would always get to me somebody to say well, you know, it's okay I can go to a Mormon Church and worship with them But you can't now you can go and share the gospel, but they're not worshiping the God you're worshiping When those two Mormons came to the house the other night, I said that can we pray together? No Because you are not praying to God you are praying to a false God and I won't pray with you.
I'll pray for you True worship is founded upon truth Remember what Jesus told the woman at the well John 4 verse 23 He said the hour is coming and is now when my people will worship me and what? in spirit and in truth worshiping God Involves the truth.
I hate it when people say it doesn't matter what you believe It absolutely matters what you believe and it will affect how you worship God has revealed things about himself He's holy.
He's just he's righteous.
He is loving And those who draw close to him are required to center their worship upon the truth of those things That he has revealed about himself and some people might ask and this might be a question You're asking somebody might say well, does that mean a person has to have all truth to worship God? No because nobody has all truth Nobody has nobody here has all truth.
I don't claim any Absolute knowledge of the truth But here's what we have to understand as we grow in grace and knowledge of God our understanding of truth should also grow Thus our ignorance lessons as we grow and our relationship with him becomes more and more Worshipful.
I told the story just a few weeks ago on Sunday morning how when I first got saved I was so ignorant of Scripture I was so ignorant I just knew I needed Christ and I had broken down and realized I was lost and I started watching the TBN station because I just wanted to learn little did I know of the poison I was imbibing and Just a few weeks after that.
My poor wife was sick and I told her she was sick because she didn't have enough faith Now, why would I say that? Because it's what I had heard and it's because it was it was what I was imbibing.
It was wrong And I knew it almost as soon as I said it that don't sound right But I said it.
I remember right where I was when I said it, but the Boy that was that was a lot and now you just I know you did you just said a mouthful and And you I don't mean to stop you But just what you just said because that's a question a lot of people have asked.
What is the minimum? That someone must know And I don't necessarily like that question because I don't like Christian minimalism There's something called the mere Christianity movement real popular CS Lewis was actually the one who wrote mere Christianity and so many people have sort of adopted that and the mere Christianity movement is sort of trying to distill it down to you have to believe just these things and then it's just these things and There's just and it's gotten to the point now Where men like Andy Stanley say that all you have to really believe in is the resurrection and everything else is up for grabs You don't have to believe in the version of birth.
You don't have to believe in the Bible just believe in the resurrection and that's enough and The reality is I would say this when God saves a man or woman God saves us for the purpose of conforming us to the image of Christ.
So where we might get saved very ignorant Unless we die soon thereafter.
I don't think we'll stay God saves us to any changes us and there's a desire in us to grow and I know you've grown because I know you and I have had so many conversations about your faith and you know, you've grown and To ask the question, where does faith come from? You know the answer to that.
It's a gift of God not of works, right? It's a gift of grace Absolutely, and so God gives us this gift of faith and it comes with it.
I think a natural desire to know more The gift of faith comes with a desire to want to know him better because it's just like a marriage relationship If I'd have got married to my wife 20 years ago, and I said, I'll see you later And I hadn't talked to her in 20 years.
We wouldn't have much of a relationship In the same way when if I'd have got saved 20 years ago, and I said to God I'll see you later I have no desire somebody might say well you really weren't in a relationship at all and so I Hope that's helpful but again the doctrine of the Trinity affects our worship first and foremost by being the truth of how God has revealed himself and to worship God is to worship him in Spirit and in truth and so it's the very foundation of our worship And it helps us to understand how we approach God if God is one in essence and three in persons all three Persons deserve to be worshipped you go into some churches.
You only hear about the father You never hear about the Son or the Spirit you go to some churches You only hear about the Son and never hear about the Father or the Spirit and in a lot of churches today You only hear about the Spirit Spirits leading me spirits doing this spirits.
Oh the power to spirit flame in a spirit slain in the spirit Right, it's all about the Spirit And I think that that actually has moved to a very dangerous place because the Bible says the role of the Spirit is to do What to point people to Christ? Because Christ is the mediator with the Father and the Spirit has a role Economically within the Trinity to point people to Jesus so if the Spirit is the over focus of the church I think that church is out of balance and we see that so Trinitarianism forces a balance in worship That we we worship the Father Through the Son by the power of the Spirit And that balance is kept When we're worshipping all three, but economically Worshipping through the Son by the power of the Spirit.
All right, the second thing How the Trinity affects our understanding of salvation? salvation is a long study and Perhaps sometime this year we may do a study of salvation This is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation.
I know on Sunday mornings starting after Resurrection Sunday I'm going to be doing a series where I go through the foundations of the faith specifically those things which are specifically refer reformed teachings but salvation itself is It's called Soteriology, this is the Greek word Soter and put into the ology Soteriology the doctrine of salvation and the question that the doctrine of the salvation Asks is how can a sinful man be made right with a holy God? That's the question that Soteriology seeks to answer And under the banner of Soteriology rests concepts like atonement sacrifice forgiveness adoption reconciliation all those things So Soteriology is at the heart of our religion.
It's at the heart of our faith So, how does the Trinity affect that? well Even though the members of the Trinity are all called God They all look upon themselves specific They all look they are all seen rather in Scripture with specific duties in the act of redemption and Having an understanding of the Trinity will help us to understand how God saves us Understanding the Trinity helps us understand how God saves us you say well, what do you mean? Well, there are three Particular things about salvation which often are confusing for people you already mentioned one.
Mr Irv and that is the doctrine of election but there is another one called the doctrine of Redemption and third there is the doctrine of Regeneration now I Do not have time To explain all three of these in their fullness But if I were simply giving a rudimentary Understanding Election is God's choosing to save and the choice to whom to save God choosing to save and choosing whom to save Now there are different doctrines regarding election certain people believe God chooses to save by looking down the corridor of time seeing who will respond and Simply choosing those who will respond that's typically called Arminianism There is the doctrine that God Chooses by virtue of the council that is hidden within himself those whom he has by his own Choice entered into relationship with before the foundation of the world.
That's typically called Calvinism Okay, and if there's any question about where I stand there shouldn't be but I am a Calvinist But I mean in the sense of that I'm not a full Calvinist.
I'm a little see Calvinist No, I'm serious because people won't ask this we're gonna watch some videos the elders and I were talking today we're gonna watch a video on some of this later in the year, but Big C Calvinism is found in Presbyterianism Because big C Calvinism includes things like infant baptism How the family structure works in that relationship of infant baptism and also how the sacraments and the elders are Administering certain things within the church the ecclesiology of Presbyterianism is different than what we do So we would not call ourselves big C Calvinist But I do believe in what are called the five doctrines of grace Total depravity unconditional election limited atonement perseverance of the saints and irresistible grace those five things which make the word tulip I don't know why I popped the P but I did of the tulip and So when we talk about election I Have a very specific Understanding of that.
I think it's biblical but for Simplicity sake everybody believes in election whether you're Calvinist or not Because it's in the Bible We are called the elect.
It says God elects.
It's you whom he chooses he calls.
I mean all it's so there's so much scripture How you understand God does it may be different but the fact that he elects isn't and isn't really an option the fourth one That's the I But ultimately though Everybody's just like the word predestination.
It's such a word.
Nobody wants to talk about it every every statement of faith from the Methodists to the Presbyterians to the Pentecostals if they have a statement of faith that is expressive and full and complete it has to mention predestination somewhere and they do Because it's in the Bible now how they understand how it works may be different But it's got to be there because the words there somebody got to deal with at some point The difference is how you understand it, but you can't deny that it's there But anyway, the point is when we talk about the father He is the one according to Scripture Who he likes Jesus said this John 6 37.
Yeah, that's what I was going the father.
It says all the father gives me Will come to me the father gives the elect to the son as a bride Who chose the bride in the ancient world? the father who are we The bride of Christ who chooses the bride The father and this that that that specific role of marriage Paul would later say is the picture of salvation Christ the The the husbandman and we the bride, right? So the father has chosen to save the son has done the work of maintaining the father's justice While also expressing his grace Romans 3 tells us what Christ did allowed God to be just and the justifier of The one who comes to faith in Christ God gets to stay just because he punishes sin But we get to be justified because our sin is punished in a substitute That's redemption Christ pays the penalty to redeem something means to purchase it to buy it back We were in the slave market of sin Christ went in as our Redeemer He took the stripes for us He took the penalty of God for us and in taking the penalty God is just because the penalty has been been meted out and We are forgiven because it wasn't meted out in us there's meted out in the substitute Christ is the Redeemer and the Spirit comes along and he Regenerates what is that? Born again, how many of you have ever heard the term born-again Christian? The Holy Spirit John chapter 3 Jesus said unless a man be born again, he will not see the kingdom of heaven and Old Nicodemus Oh Nick at night.
He comes up as he came at night.
That's funny Nicodemus came up and he said How can a man be born again, can he enter again into his mother's womb and he said no This is a spiritual truth And he went on to explain how he must be born of the Spirit That's what the Spirit does we enter into this world dead Living though dead living physically living mentally living in our soul, but not our spirit With soul biblically is speaking of our mental capacity.
We have a mental capacity We can recognize all around us that God exists In fact Romans 1 says if we don't recognize that God exists, we're denying what we know to be true But the Spirit is the one who gives us eyes to see ears to hear and a heart to believe he takes out the heart of stone and he puts within us a heart of flesh that then can beat for Christ and That's what happens.
That's the change So we see this is the work of the Trinity in salvation all three Persons of the Trinity have worked together in covenant relationship with one another to bring about our Salvation and again, I think understanding that helps us to better understand what happened when we got safe All right third and finally because I do want to finish tonight third and finally How the Trinity affects our relationship With God, this is simple.
But again, I want to just kind of bring this out my relationship with God my Walk, if you'd rather say that because I kind of get a little People always talking about their personal relationship personal relationship with God personal relationship and that's not necessarily a bad thing but I do think it gets sort of It sort of undermines I think the work of the church often because you hear people say well, I don't need the church I have a personal relationship with God or I don't need to go hear the word I have a personal relationship with God, but but there is a sense in which we all do have a unique personal experience with God or should as believers and Just like I mentioned earlier in marriage if I didn't daily Love my wife and want to know her better then our relationship wouldn't grow and Likewise with my relationship with the father that personal relationship that I have with the the Trinity Not just the father but with the Trinity.
It's their question becomes how would it grow? If I were not learning more about him, how would it grow if I were not growing deeper in my understanding of? him part of our relationship with God is Also founded on our obedience to him in our daily lives.
We call that our walk And a vital part of our walk is being a good witness in the world And that means we're supposed to be presenters of the gospel in the world But apart from the triune God there is no gospel So not only does our Understanding of the Trinity help us to grow in our understanding of God and thus our personal relationship to deepen But it also helps make us better witnesses for Christ Deepens our obedience to him and thus deepening our Closeness with him if you look at the various cult groups That attempt to call themselves Christians and yet deny the Trinity you will notice one thing that is always missing and It's the gospel because the gospel is found in the Trinity Mormonism denies the truth of God being one in essence and eternal and it leads to a perversion and What becomes of Mormonism? Well, it no longer becomes about glorifying God, but it becomes about us becoming God's Jehovah Witnesses deny the full deity of Jesus Christ and the personality of the Holy Spirit and As a result, they don't appreciate the full redemption of the Son and they have developed a works-based understanding of their faith whereby they have to become publishers of their material To have as it were earned Their way into the kingdom of Jehovah, by the way of the people who come to your door.
That's what they say They're publishers.
That's what that is they're responsible for Distributing so much of that information as part of their earning their place I remember standing in front of the Arena Jehovah Witnesses have a conference every year here Mike Collier and I went down there and we're preaching outside the the the facility on a megaphone We didn't have one of those we had a little microphone with a speaker But I remember just calling to them and I and I would say this this is all it's really I just sort of repeated this But you know sort of tried to in a loving way say this.
I said the Bible says that the gospel is The power of God to salvation for everyone who will believe to the Jew first and also to the Greek for in the gospel The power of God is revealed The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written.
The just shall live by faith What is the gospel? That was the question You are walking into a building Where you're going to be told all kinds of things But none of it will be the gospel.
Do you know what the gospel is? That's really what I when they when they come to my door.
What is the gospel they don't but that's So many don't have the assurance of salvation I mean we I went to that debate last Wednesday night The reason why I wasn't here was I was at a debate between Jehovah between James White Also JW between James White Protestant and Trent Horne who's Roman Catholic and Trent Horne's entire argument was that yes, you can lose your salvation and it's very common that people do lose their salvation and So there's really where's the assurance in that so it's not only in Jehovah Witnesses, but it's throughout And somebody asked me well, do you believe a person can lose their salvation? I believe an apostasy Apostasy means to abandon the faith But I also believe that a person who abandoned the faith was never born again You can argue with me about that But here's where I get that from and it's very simple When Jesus said in Matthew 7 that many will come unto me on that day and say Lord Lord Have we not cast out demons in your name done many mighty works in your name? Have we not done all this he looks at them and he says what depart from me.
I never Knew you he didn't say I knew you for a time, but you couldn't take it I knew you for a time, but you fell away.
I said I never knew you There are people that claim the name of Jesus There are people who work the name of Jesus all the time and are not believers And if we don't believe that we have to ask what was Judas Was he a believer who fell away? Or was he as Jesus said have I not chosen twelve of you and one of you is a devil So that wasn't the cover that wasn't the issue tonight, but but that was that's why I believe that and again I'm willing to talk to people who disagree and say well, let's talk about why are there warning passages in Scripture about losing salvation? Yes, but I think it's always got to come back to the point.
What have they lost? The person who has come and confessed Christ and walked away from that has not lost having been born again.
I Think that they have Yeah Well, that was the question again, I do recommend listening to the debate It was four hours and I loved every minute of it.
My son had the best line of the night because my son I 16 and I made him come with us.
He wasn't super stoked to go because he didn't know what to expect we sat there and for four hours he was Watching it like and at the end he said I thought it was gonna be like a turtle race Like the most boring thing I've ever seen he said that was like a prize fight That was awesome, so it was great last week was awesome But so I do recommend, you know getting the audio hearing the two sides because it was it was a very It was a very powerful exchange and both men behaved Very well I even went to the Roman Catholic afterwards and shook his hand got my photo with him and thanked him for being a Noble man who didn't resort to ugly behavior because sometimes it does happen and so I thanked him for that But again, let me just let me finish this again.
Let me finish this now Remember beloved that the doctrine of the Trinity is not something that we Should just push out and allow to be given to the ivory tower Theologians to play with the doctrine of the Trinity is something that every believer rests upon for his understanding of worship for his understanding of Salvation and for his closeness and his walk with God because when we walk with God we are walking with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit So let's pray father.
I thank you for this study time.