Hey everybody, this is Pastor John Ewart from Englewood
Baptist Church in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina.
Thank you so much for tuning into our podcast.
You're going to hear from God today as we share from his word
about important issues facing your life that can guide you
according to the Bible. Well, I want to welcome
everybody who's here physically. Thank you so much.
Every week I'm always amazed that you come.
Thank you also for coming to pray together and just pray that
you will continue to pray, pun intended.
But also for those listening online to this, either on a
podcast or some of the means, thank you for doing that.
This is an interesting lesson tonight.
That's an understatement. There is obviously no way in the
world that I can explain the Trinity period.
Secondly, that we could do that in the time we have tonight, but
we're going to do our best to explain several things we do
know and we can talk about. I think.
So I think this will be helpful and I really do hope that you
understand the two fold aspect of this core training series.
That part of this is obviously for you and your knowledge that
you will know better about beliefs and theology and
doctrine and things like that. But another side for me, which
is very important, is that you'll also have a better idea
of how I could articulate these things to somebody out there who
doesn't believe in in God or doesn't believe Scripture or is
lost. I had the privilege today and
you may be in the room if you aren't so thankful for you for
your honesty and authenticity. Today I had the privilege of
praying with a couple on the phone during my lunch hour,
which was brief. We had actually a three-way
phone call and a couple accepted Christ, prayed and accepted
Christ and are going to be baptized soon.
And So what a privilege that was.
And they were so excited and so cooperative in that and, and
they'd had an experience as children and they were just,
they needed to know all that down.
But there are people out there who've had no experience really,
or they've had a really bad one. You know, a lot of the
unchurched people in the United States of America are previously
churched people. And the number one reason
besides apathy and complacency and things like that, there
really is often there's been a bad experience somewhere.
And so sometimes they have kind of a negative thought process
about the church. So we want to help them.
We want to love them, and we want them to understand here's
what we believe about it. So if we understood all the
attributes of God, we would still not understand him fully
because again, he reveals to us what we need to know.
I'm assuming one day we'll know more, but but he does exist.
And this is where it starts getting tricky right off the
bat. And this language is going to be
repeated often tonight in this session because he exists as
three persons, yet as one God. And throughout history there
have been all kinds of attempts, attempts to have simple
solutions to that. So you hear all kinds of
analogies. You hear all kinds of
illustration. You hear things like I'm a
father, I'm a son, I'm a husband, I'm a paw paw, or that
water exists as a liquid, water can exist as a solid, water can
exist as a gas. And, and those are our human
frail attempts to try to understand these things.
And, and, and, and there's nothing really wrong with that,
although some of them have led to some heresy.
We'll talk about some of those, but they all really do fall
short. So what is God like within
himself? That's the question of the
night. What is God like with himself?
Last time in our last session, we, we looked, we, we discovered
what God looks like to us and, and how he relates to the
creation and who he is and, and whatnot.
Next session, this is going to be really important.
We only have a couple more sessions of this specific
series, but the next session we're actually going to talk
about and just follow me for a minute, sins against God.
But we're going to talk about some specific things like what
is the blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, for example.
We'll talk about that next time, and then we're going to talk
about some of the things that God is doing, and then we're
going to have a prayer service together on a Wednesday night
coming up. But anyway, So what is God like
within himself, in himself, in his very being?
God exists in the persons of Father, Son, and the Holy
Spirit, yet he's one God. And we know that.
When you believe only in one God, what is that called?
Yeah, monotheism. We know that, and so we are
monotheistic as believers, but we often get accused of being
tritheistic or polytheistic because of the Trinity.
There are certain belief systems out there to where if you're
sharing the gospel with someone from the Islamic background, for
example, don't start off by talking about the Trinity
because that's immediately going to put up a barrier because they
do not believe in the Trinity. And they think that because we
believe in the Trinity, we're actually idolaters and we
worship multiple gods. And so there are things about
this, but there are religions who do believe in monotheism.
Islam is a monotheistic religion.
Judaism is a monotheistic religion.
They believe in one God. So the doctrine of the Trinity,
though, is exclusively Christian.
Christianity is the only faith system that has any kind of
trinitarian formula, right? And so I'm going to try to keep
this as this extremely complex conversation as simple as I can
make it, but it is complex. And so it's it's often also
greatly misunderstood because it's confusing.
There's only one God, but the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit our God. So it's a paradox, it's a
mystery, and we're never really going to get beyond that too
much. But there are certain things
that we can learn. So this doctrine claims that God
is 1 as to essence, but three as to persons.
And I'm going to try to explain that to you the best way we can.
But it's interesting because nowhere does Scripture really
make that statement. The word Trinity does not occur
in the Bible, and so it is inferred.
It is, it is described and, and, and we recognize the doctrine
because of this, but it has a contentious history.
It has not always been agreed upon.
And so some of the early church councils, and I don't want to
bore you with church history, but early on in church history
you had these meetings where great theologians and leaders of
the church would gather together in certain cities and they would
discuss certain doctrinal problems and heretical issues
and they would come to conclusions.
And so one of the most famous ones is the Council of Nicaea
and, and where you get the Nicene Creed.
But it took place about the year 325, so it's a long time ago.
And then you have the Council of Constantinople, which took place
in 381. And between the two of those,
they were discussing who Jesus was, and they were also talking
about the relationship of God the Son to God the Father and
this whole idea of the Trinity. And they kind of reach and
settle the formulation of this doctrine.
But not everybody agreed. It's always been quite complex,
but there there are certain creeds and certain statements of
theology, kind of like we have our Baptist faith in message
today. There were statements throughout
history like that of some reason, belief statements that
came out of the church. One of those is the Athanasian
Creed. And and this is used by
Christians since about the 6th century.
It was the first one that really talked explicitly about the
equality. And I'm going to throw a big
word at you all ready, all ready for a big word.
Say Amen or Oh my. So it it it, it talked about the
thank you talked about the equality of the three
hypostasis. Don't worry, I'll explain it of
the Trinity. So there's this weird word, the
hypostasis. It it comes from a couple of
combination of a couple of Greek words and what it means is, is,
is substance or substance or, or subsistence, either one.
And the idea is, is that it refers to personhood.
So here are the persons, the hypostasis of the Trinity.
And that word might pop up in some of your reading every now
and then if you read weird books like I do.
But but, but basically, here's what it is there.
There's one nature or essence of God, but three hypostasis or
persons. Now listen to here's how it
goes. You ready?
The Father is God. No problem, right?
We got that. The Father is God, The Son is
God, The Holy Spirit is God. The Father is not the Son.
The Father is not the Holy Spirit.
The Son is not the Holy Spirit. There's exactly 1 God isn't that
isn't that great? Just clears mud, isn't it?
Isn't that just clear it all up? We can go home, we can pray, we
can go. So in our language and our
practice, we make this worse because then you, maybe you
never do this, but it's pretty common for a lot of us.
We kind of think like there's three different things, you
know, we, we almost separate them in our thought.
We often separate them in our language, even the way we talk
about them. It's almost like there's three
different gods, right? And so we got to be honest about
that. Like, yet the doctrine of the
Trinity is absolutely necessary. So let's talk about why do we
even need this? What?
So what's the big deal about the Trinity?
Why is this a necessary thing to believe in?
Right? Well, Wayne Grudem helps us, who
again is a systematic theologian and and I'm just using some of
his summary. First of all, when you think
about the atonement, you, you've got to recognize that if Jesus
is merely a created being and not fully God, he couldn't bear
the wrath of sin against that, that we had to pay for our sin.
God has to die, but a man also has to die.
And if you don't understand that about salvation, you need to go
back and listen to my Sunday morning message on salvation
sometime because the cross doesn't work unless this is the
God man. And so he has to be both God and
man. And then when you bring in, and
I'm working through Romans right now in my personal quiet time
along with Habakkuk. Anybody read about Habakkuk
lately? Yeah, Habakkuk sometime read.
I was just finished with I'm working through my the minor
prophets through Jonah and and Nahum because they were both
kind of talking to the same people.
Now I'm in Habakkuk just because I like saying that out loud.
Habakkuk I'm going to go back to Micah is so anyway, interesting
worth of the minor prophets. But so when we talk about
justification by faith alone, in other words, I can't I, I, I,
I'm saved by grace through faith.
So if Jesus is not fully God, we would doubt whether he can we
can really trust him to save us. If Jesus is not fully God, we
shouldn't pray to him. We shouldn't worship him.
That would be idolatry. So we have to recognize that
Jesus is God. But then when you bring in the
idea of revelation, not the book, but the idea of how we
understand Scripture and how we understand God, the Holy Spirit
indwells us, the Holy Spirit fills us, and the Holy Spirit
reveals to us, and he has to be God.
So Paul wrote in First Corinthians chapter 2, a passage
I've alluded to a lot in the last few months.
It says, but as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear
heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared
for those who love him. These things God has revealed to
us through the Spirit. For the Spirit searches
everything, even the depths of God.
For who knows a person's thoughts except the spirit of
that person which is in him? So, so also no one comprehends
the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the
Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things
freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not
taught by human wisdom, but taught by the Spirit,
interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.
And I'm going to come back to these ideas, but, but let me
just share several passages about Jesus for a moment.
That that that makes us recognize that he can't be
anything but God. Listen to Hebrews 1/3.
He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of
his nature. And he upholds the universe by
the word of this talk about Jesus, not God the Father, but
God the Son, and he upholds the universe by the word of his
power. After making purification for
sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.
But immediately we get confused because here's God up there, and
then here's Jesus sitting in the little throne next door.
All right, don't worry, we're going to clear some of this up.
Colossians 29 talking about Jesus.
For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.
Or John 14-9 Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long and
you still do not know me? Philip?
Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say show us the Father?
Or John 118 No one has ever seen God.
God, the only who is at the Father's side, He has made him
known. So if Jesus is some kind of
lesser God, and I'm going to talk about again a big word, I'm
going to talk about what's called subordination.
ISM. In other words, a subordinate
God to a higher God. We're going to talk about that
later. I'm going to talk about all
these different views. If he's a lesser God, there's no
guarantees. The one who died on the cross is
fully God and fully man. So salvation is not just his
idea, it's the plan and work of the whole Godhead.
So let's look at this a little more clearly then.
So does the Bible ever talk about the three of them?
How does it talk about the three of them?
Right. How in the world can I wrap my
head around this thing called the Trinity?
Well, the word Trinity again, it never occurs, but the idea of
three and one does. One of the clearest verses is
first John 57, and it just simply begins by saying there
are three that testify. And so we recognize that that
there the three exist and that they have roles to play.
And we're going to talk more about those different roles
later. But then we also recognize the
fact that there's one God is also clearly taught in the Old
Testament. So we're we're going back and
forth a little. So we know that Deuteronomy 64,
part of the Shamas says, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the
Lord is what one, right? So there's only one Yahweh.
No one else qualifies. Isaiah himself would go on to
talk about in Isaiah 46, Nine, remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is no other.
I am God, and there is none like me.
Well, in the New Testament it continues Romans 3.
Or is God the God of Jews only? Is he not the God of Gentiles
also Yes, of Gentiles also, since God is one who will
justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through
faith. Or one of my one of the more
interesting verses I think is James 219.
I'll be in James on Sunday. You'll hear this verse again.
But James 219 says you believe that God is 1.
You do well, but even the demons believe and shudder.
And so we recognize that the monotheistic view, it's easy.
That's easy. That would be easy.
That'd be just be easy to hang on to.
Very clear, very easy to grab when you read the Bible.
But the Bible also talks about plurality.
Plurality in the Godhead is also seen clearly in Scripture.
So we recognize it's more complex than that.
In the Old Testament we talked about the names of God, you
know, in a different session. Well, you know the basic name
for God, Elohim. I don't know if you know this or
not. It's plural.
The word is plural. In other words, even in its own
form, it's it's it's what's called divine or majestic or
royal royal, Wow, royal. And I don't say that word royal,
that Ozark stuff again, royal. I don't know what the moral
royal. I can't do it.
Royal royal divine plurality of majesty and royalty is very
common. And so we recognize that in the
Old Testament and some very well known passages, the pronouns are
plural. For example, the creation
stories that way some of you would know that some of you've
probably seen that before in Genesis chapter one verse 26.
Then God said let us who's he talking to?
So let us make man in our image. So it's Co creators he's talking
to. So let let us make man in our
image after our likeness. So he's not just talking to
angels, he's not just talking to some other heavenly being.
He's talking to other members of the Godhead.
Let us make man and after our image and let them have dominion
over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens
and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every
creeping thing that creeps on the earth.
You have dominion over creepy things.
I just wanted you to know that Don't let those creepy things
have dominion over you and dominate the creepy or in
Genesis chapter 3 then the Lord God said, behold, the man has
become like 1 of US knowing good and evil now, lest he reach out
his hand and take also of the tree of life and eat and live
forever and it continues or in Genesis Chapter 11.
Come let us this is the tower of Babel story.
Let us go down and and they're confused their language so that
they may not understand one another's speech.
Again, the prophet Isaiah adds to this in verse in chapter 6.
I heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and
who will go for us? I'll be preaching from that
passage in a few weeks when we talk about worship.
Then I said, here I am, send me. So who is us both?
The Spirit and the Son are mentioned throughout the Old
Testament as well, so we can't ignore them.
And in the New Testament, I'll come back to some of that.
Let's move on for a moment. In the New Testament, it agrees
that there's only one God, but it also speaks to the plurality
of the Godhead. So fought the Father is God.
Let me read several passages. Let let me just show you this in
Matthew 6. Therefore I tell you to not be
anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will
drink, nor about your body what you will put on.
Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing?
Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap, nor
gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?
And which of you about being anxious can add a single hour to
a span of life? And why are you anxious about
clothing? Consider the lilies of the
field, how they grow. They neither toil nor spin.
Yet I tell you, even Solomon and all his glory was not arrayed
like one of these. But if God so close the grass of
the field, which today is alive and tomorrow's thrown into the
oven, will He not much more clothe you, or you a little
faith? Therefore do not be anxious
saying, What shall we eat, or what shall we drink, or what
shall we wear? For the Gentiles seek after all
these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them
all. But seek first the Kingdom of
God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added
to you. Therefore do not be anxious
about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself.
Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
So there's obviously a heavenly Father, God the Father.
We even see interaction. Matthew 27, Jesus is on the
cross. And about the 9th hour Jesus
cried out with a loud voice saying Eli Eli Limitsabakhthani
with that is my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?
So we even have this this interesting struggle between the
divinity and humanity, humanity of Jesus.
First Peter chapter 1 according to the foreknowledge of God the
Father and the sanctification of the Spirit for obedience to
Jesus Christ. Uh oh, all three of them in one
sentence for the sprinkling with his blood.
So we see the three mentioned, the son is God.
He's mentioned John chapter 5 verse 17.
This is not just a man, He's more he's he's God.
In John 5/17 it says, but Jesus answered to them, My father's
working until now and I am working.
In other words, they're the same person.
John chapter 10, my father who has given them to me is greater
than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's
hands. I and the Father are one Paul
writes in Philippians chapter 2, who though he was in the form of
God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
Talking about the incarnation of experience.
And then Colossians one, which is an incredible passage about
Jesus talks about him being the creator.
It says he is the image of the invisible God, the first born of
all creation. Or as I've shared in recent
lessons from John chapter one, in the beginning was the Word
and the Words was with God, and the Word was God.
And as I've shared with you before, in the original
language, there is no was. It's just then the Word God.
So there's no question. John 114 And the Word became
flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory glories of the
only begotten, the only Son from the Father, full of grace and
truth. Listen to this in Titus 2.
Maybe some verses you haven't thought of or seen in a while.
Titus 213 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of
the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ.
I don't know how much clearer you get the the, the glory of
our great God and Savior. And and those aren't two
different people in the verse the way it's written in the
original language. It's one person that's being
described. It's the he's God and Savior
Jesus Christ. Jesus is God.
Hebrews 18 but of the sun, he says your throne, oh God is
forever and ever. The scepter of a brightness is
the scepter of your Kingdom. So the sun is recognized is God,
but the Spirit's also God. This gets even better.
The Spirit's also God in Second Corinthians chapter 3.
Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is,
there is freedom. And we all with unveiled face
beholding the glory of the Lord are being transformed into the
same image from 1° of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
So the Spirit's also the Lord. That term would never be used
for anyone other than curious, would never be used in the New
Testament for anyone except God. Acts chapter 28 and disagreeing
among themselves, they departed after Paul had made one
statement, the Holy Spirit was right.
And saying to your Father's through Isaiah the prophet, go
to this people and say, you will indeed hear, but never
understand, and you will indeed see, but never perceive.
For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears
they can barely hear, and their eyes have they have closed, lest
they shall should see with their eyes and hear with their ears,
and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them.
So the Holy Spirit is actually the one who Isaiah refers to and
I. And when in the passage in
Isaiah that he's quoting here, Isaiah is talking about God.
So there's no question they share attributes only God could
have. The three are eternal.
The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are distinct persons.
So these three names given to one God reveal these various
roles that God plays in relation to the world.
But it's still not that simple. That would be too easy and we
could go home. Listen to Matthew chapter 3.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the
water and behold, the heavens were open to him, and he saw the
Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.
And behold, a voice from heaven said, This is my beloved Son,
with whom I am will pleased. So there's a distinction.
There are three. John 1416 And I want, this is
Jesus speaking, and I will ask the Father, and he will give you
another helper, which is the Spirit to be with you forever.
John 1426 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father
will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring
to remembrance all that I have said to you.
Or John 1526 But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you
from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the
Father, He will bear witness about me.
So if, if, if they're not distinct, none of this makes
sense. They're obviously distinct.
So it'd be easy to believe in three, it'd be easy to believe
in one. It'd be easy to believe in
three. Now you're starting to
understand the complexity. Are you complexed?
We getting there perplexed. It's going to get better.
So John chapter 12 says this now is my soul troubled?
And what shall I say, Father save me from this hour.
So we're in the we're in the Garden of Gethsemane ideas right
now, right? But but for this or not quite
but close, but for this purpose, I've come to this hour.
Father, glorify your name. Then a voice came from heaven.
I have glorified it. I will glorify it again.
The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had
thundered. Others said an Angel has spoken
to him and Jesus answered, this voice has come for your sake,
not mine. So it's, it's like what he
prayed. It's just a little earlier.
We'll talk more about what he prayed in a minute in the
garden, but you can just see this interaction between son and
father. Matthew 2642.
Again for the second time he went away and prayed.
My father, if this cannot pass unless I drink it, your will be
done. Then we get to John 17.
Deep stuff in John 17 when Jesus had spoken these words, he
lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come,
glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, since you have
given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to
all whom you have given him. And this is eternal life, that
you may, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus
Christ whom you have sent. I glorified you on earth, having
accomplished the work that you gave me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory
that I had with you before the world existed.
Don't miss that last phrase. He always was.
The Word just became flesh. It didn't mean the Word didn't
exist before that. Read Colossians 1 and you'll see
that He was. He was there in Genesis.
Yet the Father, Son and Spirit are also one in John 17, same
chapter verse 21. And they may all be one, just as
you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in
US, so that the world may believe that You have sent me
the glory that you have given me.
I have given to them that they may be 1 even as we are one, I
and them and you and me, that they may become perfectly 1 so
that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as
you loved me. Or very simply, back in John 10
verse 30, I and the Father are one again.
John 14, nine. And Jesus said to them, Have I
been with you so long and you still do not know me?
Philip, whoever has seen me has seen the Father.
How can you say, show us the Father?
Or again in Romans 8, just to remind you.
You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if in
fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong
to him. And don't miss that.
That's an important doctrinal statement.
That means that when you're saved, you get the Holy Spirit.
You don't need to wait on the Holy Spirit for something second
blessing. You don't need something else to
happen. You get the Holy Spirit to the
moment of salvation or you are not saved.
You don't belong to Jesus if that's not true, but if Christ
is in you, although the body is dead because of sin, the spirit
of life, the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
And, and a passage that I don't know if you even think about
when we talk about this subject, but it's a passage that you talk
about a lot. It's a passage you think about a
lot. Think about the Great Commission
in Matthew 28. Go therefore, and make disciples
of all nations, baptizing them in the name of who, the Father,
and and why. Why would you baptize them in
the name of all three? Because all three are equal.
All three are God. Paul writes again to the
Corinthian church in 2nd Corinthians 1314.
The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God and
the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.
Here they are all together in John 16.
When the spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all
truth. For He will, He will not speak
on His own authority, but whatever He hears, He will
speak, and He will declare so to you.
The things that are to come, He will glorify Me, for He will
take what is mine and declare it to you.
And all that the Father has is mine.
Therefore, I said that He will take what is mine and declare it
to you. So, So listen, there's not a
clear explanation. I mean, I wish there was a
single verse that just said this is the way the whole thing
works. But there's not a clear
explanation in Scripture as to how there can only be one God
and yet Father, Son and the Holy Spirit.
But there are some things, some principles, some truth that we
can understand and we can summarize.
And it's simply this, that number one, God is 3 persons.
It's obvious in Scripture that this is true.
They're distinct. This is often easier when you
think about the Son and the Father because of the
interaction they have in the Gospels.
Some struggle, I think at times with the Holy Spirit being a
distinct person. They just see that as the Spirit
of God and nothing else. It's just his spirit working,
not a separate person. But that's not the way it really
works. Acts 1038 says how God anointed
Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
He went about doing good and healing all who are oppressed by
the devil, for God was with him. So, so the Holy Spirit is God.
And secondly, each of these is fully God.
One of the most dramatic statements ever in the Gospels
that probably gets overlooked a lot is after the resurrection
when Thomas is doubting, you know, he missed out on some of
the early, early reveals. And and so he's doubting whether
or not Jesus really was resurrected or not.
You know, doubting Thomas, therefore, right And so Jesus
appears so that he can he can prove, you know, touch my hands,
see that, see my side, I'm real, you can touch me.
I'm right here. And and Thomas's answer in John
2828 is simply this Jesus answered him.
Anybody remember the quote My Lord and my God again in the
book of Acts and Acts 5 in that hard story about Ananias and
Sapphira, you should all give the right way.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie
to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the
proceeds of the land? What remained unsold?
Did it not remain your own? And after it was so, was it not
at your disposal? Why is it that you have
contrived this deed in your heart?
You have not lied to man, but to God, Holy Spirit, God.
But we still also recognize there's only one God.
So. So let me walk through and I'm
going to try to make this not any heavier than it is because
it's pretty heavy. Let me give you a couple
summaries. There's a book in my office by
John Feinberg called No One Like Him.
Now, if you have trouble sleeping at night, it's a
fantastic book. But this book is easily 3 to 4
inches thick simply on the doctrine of God.
OK, by a deep theologian. I'm going to try to summarize a
few things that Feinberg says for our time.
Again, there's only one God. First number one, there's only
one God. There is only one divine essence
or nature. Secondly, the one divine essence
is distributed or manifested in three distinct persons, but they
are all God #3 the three persons.
Co inhering. Don't let that word throw you.
It just means existing together simultaneously.
That's very important. In other words, the Father, the
Son, and the Holy Spirit all coexist at the same time.
That's important because there's a heresy I'll tell you about in
a minute that that will be against that the three persons
cohering or existing together simultaneously in the one divine
nature exists simultaneously with one another as distinct
substances or persons. So in other words, the divine
nature, the Godhead, is not at one time entirely manifested as
the Father, and then at another moment in time he's exclusively
the Son, and then in a moment at a different time, then he
becomes the Spirit. They all three exist
simultaneously, and that's an important part of the
Trinitarian doctrine. So there's a wrong teaching.
And some of you may actually believe this and not know it
because there's certain things that just kind of make sense to
the human brain. And we try to wrestle with this,
but there's a there's a, a heresy called modalism.
Modalism was an early church heresy.
And frankly, it's still around today.
It's called different things today, but but the heresy has
been around since about the 3rd century.
It's an old heresy. Most of the things that will
come out today, some cool new movie that's going to tell you
who Jesus really was or who he was married to or you know, who
who he had an affair with or who what God really is.
You need to understand that most of this stuff is not new at all.
They're repeating old heresies and old teachings, taking,
taking old writings that were never considered scriptural and
pulling things out. But this is actually proposed a
long time ago and it basically says this God exists as one
person who shifts between three faces.
So I'm at a different mode. This is that same thing.
So one for the Father, one for the Son, and one for the Holy
Spirit. So I, I switch back and forth.
I'm in a different mode. Right now I'm the Father.
Right now I'm the son, right now I'm the Spirit.
It's called modalism. So Christians believe that God
is 3 separate eternal persons with unique roles.
We're going to talk more about that.
That's the easiest way to do this.
It's not even complete that it's the easiest way to do it.
We believe God is 3 separate eternal persons with different
roles, unique roles. Modalists believe God is 1
entity who changes modes as he sees fit.
So he was God the Father in the Old Testament, He shifted into
God the Son in the New Testament, now he operates as
the Holy Spirit. And that heresy has been around
for a long time. And so it logically follows that
that no divine mode is eternal or distinct.
Feinberg goes on. From the preceding points that
we've talked about, we can also say that Father, Son and Holy
Spirit are equal. Now here's a good word for you.
You know, I talked about this a couple weeks ago and a couple
lessons ago. The Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit are equal ontologically. Don't let that word scare you.
Basically it means this. They share the divine essence
and they are Co equally God in being and nature.
So they are all God each as is. And here just think of it this
way. Each of them is as fully God as
the next one. All right.
So there are no subordinate gods.
There's not a superior God and a lesser God.
That's not how this works. This is not Roman or Greek
mythology with Zeus sitting on the throne.
All right, So subordinationism, which is how you call that, is a
heresy that says that Christ and the Holy Spirit are subordinate
to the Father in both relationship and substance.
And and although this view kind of upholds the Trinity, at least
they believe in the Trinity, it denies equal Godhead for all the
persons within the Trinity. Right.
Let me give you at least one more docetism DOCE you should
have that somewhere. Is the heresy that that Jesus
gave the illusion of human form but was actually a fully defined
phantom like being. He was a ghost, so he's fully
God, but he was never fully man. He just appeared like a man.
He was a magic trick, but he wasn't really human.
And that's a problem because there are many problems with
this. The primary issue is that it
invalidates Christ's death and resurrection.
Without a physical body, he could not have saved the world
from sin and and given his grace.
And so this heresy contradicts scripture.
You also kind of a version of this is what's called
adoptionism, which is the belief that God the Father listen to
this one. God the Father adopted Jesus to
be his son. When he saw that this human man
named Jesus had a sinless life, all these made their rounds.
You could probably go to an airport bookstore and still buy
them. In short, God made Christ a
deity later on. And so it claims that Jesus
achieved godhood and melt most of them actually, which I don't
know how they do this one, but that most of those who believe
this, that somehow after passing the devil's temptation in the
wilderness, suddenly Jesus gets to be God, right?
But Scripture refutes all these things.
So Feinberg gives a fifth point. Here we go.
There is a distinction, and I'll explain it, between the
ontological or eminent Trinity on the one hand and the economic
Trinity on the other. Now, if you didn't understand
that sentence, raise your hand. Come on, everybody, raise your
hand. Nobody in here understood that
sentence. First time I read that sentence,
I went back and reread that sentence.
Then I needed to read the 14 paragraphs after that sentence
to understand the sentence. Welcome to the academic world.
Let me make it non academic. So the ontological or imminent
Trinity simply refers to God himself and it concerns the
internal relationship the members of the Godhead have with
one another. Which is a great question that I
was asked one day and I'm going to get to the specific answers
about those specific passages in a minute.
So the economic Trinity, don't let these descriptions worry
you. That deals with the self
disclosure of the Godhead and the members work in the world.
So in other words, how does one of them work in the world?
And they don't want us how they relate to one another.
OK, that that's that's is that good enough?
How do they relate to one another?
That's the first category. And then how are they working in
the world? That's the second category.
OK, so his big words don't let him throw you.
So while each member of the Trinity is active in, in, in
each divine action, Scripture, frequently this is part of the
confusion, associates a given activity with one member of the
Godhead more than the others. So sometimes you feel like the
Holy Spirit's doing more right here, or the Son did this part
and the Father does that part. So there's these different
roles, these unique roles that the different members of the
Godhead are performing. And so, and then you also sense
in certain passages, this is the economic part of it, that that
certain members are functionally subordinate to other persons in
the Godhead. In other words, there are times
that you see the Son submitting to the Father, right?
And so it makes him appear that he's lesser, but that's not
really the case. These are just different roles.
So the Persons of the Trinity have these different primary
functions in relating to the world.
Now, that may be as important as anything else I've said the
whole time. Maybe you don't worry about
anything else I've said too much except the scripture I've read,
and that the Persons of the Trinity have different primary
functions in the way they're relating to the creation.
And the problem we have sometimes is that we're locked
in the creation. So that's all we see.
That's all we're really paying attention to.
But you got to understand they exist beyond the creation, and
the way they're relating to them outside of us is totally
different. But here the perfect plan was is
that I'm going to do this, you do this, and you do this.
Now we're all part of it. We're all supporting one
another. We're all still one, but we're
going to have the primary functions.
But as Feinberg would say, that does not indicate, and he's
going to use the word ontological again, all that
means is an essence. That doesn't mean that there's
some essence of inferiority among the three.
That doesn't mean that the son is inferior to the father or the
spirit is inferior to the son. Let me give you an example, an
incredible question one day out in the what I call the larynx.
What do you all call that place at the the narthex, the larynx
out there. That's the lobby.
Everybody say lobby. Thank you very much.
Appreciate that from Oklahoma. That other word was throwing me
off. If you don't know it or not,
Narthex is a is a word for a portion of a medieval Catholic
cathedral. But anyway, so there you go.
The Latin word. It's a lobby.
Thank you very much. So one day out in the larynx,
I've got to ask this great question.
I mean, it was a powerful, correct question.
He's looking right at me. I'm not going to embarrass him
anymore. But it was a really good
question. And I was in the middle of a
conversation with somebody else to the point of I didn't even
know where I was. But it's a great question.
So listen to this one. This is about the knowledge of
the second coming. We talked about this a while
back. You'll know this passage,
Matthew 2436. But concerning the day and hour,
what no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son,
but the Father only. Or in Mark's gospel, Mark 1332.
But concerning that day or that hour, no one knows, not even the
angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
It's an interesting verse. So how can they be 1?
How can the Son not know something that the father knows?
It's perplexing, ain't it? Yeah.
It's a good question for the larynx.
So. So I just let me, let me start
off by quoting a couple of scholars, one of them that you
love dearly, and one of them you may or may not, I don't know.
You love Danny Eakin, don't you say?
Amen. Yeah.
So let me quote Danny Eakin. Danny Eakin has done a
tremendous amount of work in theology and especially the
study of Christ. And so I went to one of his
commentaries because I knew he would have something that would
be helpful and we could understand it.
So let me read what he has to say.
First. He says Danny Akin says it is
that phrase not nor the sun that gives us pause.
As orthodox Bible believing Christians, we affirm the full
and undiminished deity of God the Son.
As God, He possesses all the attributes of deity, including
omniscience. Yet here He clearly states
there's a body of knowledge of which He is there.
I say ignorant the day and hour of his own second coming.
This statement makes no sense apart from the incarnation.
He says in taking on a human nature and entering into the
time space reality. The Son of God did not surrender
His deity, but He did lay aside His glory.
You can see John 17. You can also this passage in
Philippians 2 where you do not consider equality with God a
thing to be grasped. I think it's all part of that
formula. In doing so, our Lord for a time
relinquished the free exercise of His divine attributes such as
omniscience. In the mystery and beauty of the
Incarnation. The all knowing Sovereign Son
could temporarily lay aside or suspend the free exercise of His
God attributes so that he might live an authentic human life in
submission to His Father and in dependence on the Holy Spirit.
This also explains why our Lord could be hungry, experience
thirst, grow tired and be killed.
And here lies another indictment for those caught up in prophetic
speculation and date setting. No one knows but God.
Now let me add to that David Platt who wrote a commentary on
one of these books and addresses it this way.
Here we see the genuine humanity of Christ, for he humbly chose
to take on the limitations of knowledge that other men have,
though he himself simultaneously remained omniscient and fully
divine. Jesus's statement is a reminder
that no man, regardless of what he claims, knows the timing of
the Second coming. So, and and I don't disagree
with them. I this, this has to do.
It must have to do. The only explanation is that it
has to do with Philippians chapter 2.
It has to do with the incarnation.
It has to do with the fact that when Christ came, this is what
it means, or partially what it means when He when he laid aside
certain things. So in Philippians chapter 2
we're reminded of this So if there's any encouragement in
Christ, any comfort from love and this is starting in verse
one. Any participation in the spirit,
any affection and sympathy complete my joy for being by
being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full
accord and of one mind do nothing from selfish ambition or
conceit, but in humility count others more significant than
yourselves that each of you look not only to your own interests
but also to the interests of others.
Now the reason I'm reading these first parts about humility is
because Jesus then becomes the greatest example of that by
doing what he's doing in the incarnation.
It says this in verse verse where am I5 have this mind among
yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was
in the form of God, did not count equality with a God, with
God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the
form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of
men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by
becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name
that is above every name, so that the name of Jesus, every
knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and
every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, the glory of God
the Father. And so there, there's no other
other explanation that I could come up with other than what
these brilliant men have said, that there are these mysteries.
And it is indeed a mystery. And it's interesting that we try
to figure out all the mysteries and sometimes they're beyond us.
In fact, let me go on for a moment.
So all the although the Bible uses a lot of analogies to teach
various aspects of God's character, and we try to review
some of those in the last session.
We'll talk about a few more of those in a few weeks.
But it's interesting that Scripture nowhere tries to use
an analogy to explain the doctrine of the Trinity.
We do that. God never did that.
The Bible doesn't ever do that. The closest is this simply the
titles themselves of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
It's interesting because Tertullian, who was a very early
theologian who frankly struggled with the Trinity, he didn't like
the Trinity, was right in affirming that.
Listen to this. The doctrine of the Trinity must
be divinely revealed and not humanly constructed.
And then Erickson, who wrote a huge systematic theology, I just
find this a very helpful statement.
It is. So the Trinity is so absurd from
the human standpoint that no one would have invented it.
And, and to me, that's these mysteries.
This is actually a testimony to the trustworthiness of the
Bible, the very fact that this is not a neatly wrapped gift at
times, that there are things here that we have a hard time
understanding. There are things here that that
are mysterious, that are paradoxes that are beyond our
human understanding. If you were writing a human book
as a human story, you'd wrap it up to where you didn't have any
perplexities like this. But but this is actually the
Trinity, I think is actually a testimony to the authority and
this the inspiration of Scripture.
So we hold it because God has revealed that that is what he's
like, period. Whether you like it, believe it
or not, this is the way He is and this is the way it's
presented. As someone has said, try to
explain it, you'll lose your mind, but try to deny it and
you'll lose your soul. So the easiest way, and it
doesn't cover it, but God is 1 to the third, the third degree,
he's 1 * 1 * 1, which equals what?
Yeah, even math testifies he's not 1 + 1 + 1, which equals
tritheism. And so even though we struggle
with this idea, and I get that we should, this idea that that
God is 1 and yet God is also three.
And for me, the, the easiest way or the way I most frequently
have to think about it, are the unique roles that the various
parts, the various persons, excuse me, of the Godhead play
in creation. Because that's all I see.
Because I'm I'm stuck in here. I'm stuck in the fishbowl.
I'm here in the, in the, in, in the, in the tank, so to speak.
So my only perspective is creation.
I am going to be absolutely fascinated when I die to see
what it looks like, to see what we see.
I've heard all kinds of things. We'll only see Jesus.
I've also said, you know, because God is spirit that they
are. Or we'll see all three or we're
only going to see one. It's a, it's an amazing thought
and it is frankly beyond our imagination to some degree.
And so, but it's something to look forward to.
In the meantime, though, we have work to do and we have people to
tell this to and to talk about. And so it's a very important
doctrine because if we don't recognize the deity of all
three, then we we actually will, we will sabotage salvation.
Jesus has to die as a perfect sacrifice.
And the only one who could do that was the ultimate God man.
And so he needs to be the perfect Passover lamb to die in
that way. And so I'm so thankful for this
in the way that he works. And so one of the things that I,
I want us to always think about as we move forward in this study
is to reflect upon not only does God exist, but how he exists and
how he is working in the world. And so when, when?
Let me go switch my hat for just a second and then I'll let you
go. But when we actually talk about
this out there, I don't generally.
I mean, sometimes people say, well, explain the Trinity to me
and I'll look back up and says, well, I can't.
But anyway. But but what I will do is I'm
going to explain how God has performed unique works in my
life in these three different persons, right?
Because honestly, be honest with you and I this, this really
frustrates apologetic people because they want perfect
answers to everything. Let me remind you about
apologetics. I've said this to you 67822
times. It's not necessarily my job to
convince you of something. That's the Holy Spirit's job.
It's not my job to even understand completely everything
you believe, although I would if I know you and I'm in
relationship with you, I certainly want to be sensitive
to that. If I have a next door neighbor
who's a Buddhist, I I want to do all I can to understand Buddhism
so I can figure out common bridges to talk about things
with a Buddhist. But I better know what I
believe. And this week as I'm meeting day
by day with these, with a group of people who are a lot smarter
than I am, frankly, and a lot more experience than doing
things that I will never do in their executive level leadership
roles. It's just humbling to facilitate
these kinds of seminars. And I've had the privilege of
doing this all around the world with these kinds of leaders.
But one of the things I watched from them and I learned from
them is the fact that that they're absolutely dependent
upon the way God is working in their life.
And they can articulate this. This is how God the Father
works. And this is how the Holy Spirit
works. And this is how God the Son
works. And so when we're out there
talking to somebody, they all, I'm telling you, if I heard it
once, we, this was a, a seminar on the, on organizational
leadership. That'll sound boring, but it was
how do you develop an organizational culture and
design? How do you actually develop
strategy and vision for that? Right.
So we're working through various exercises and now I have to help
them with papers and dissertation work for the next
day. But anyway, so, but, but one of
the things they kept saying over and over and over again
throughout this entire experience is, is that stories
communicate. And, and when we get into
personal evangelism later, part of what I want you to really
embrace is the fact that I, I may not ever, ever use the word
ontological again, right? I, I may never use the 2 words
economic Trinity or, or eminent Trinity ever in my life, but I
sure better be able to tell stories about how that works in
my life, right? How does God the Father work in
my life? How does God the Son work in my
life? And how does the Holy Spirit
work in my life? And those stories communicate
this culture is story driven and they need to hear your story.
So, so don't worry about whether you have everything memorized
perfectly. That's that's not it.
Be you, be authentic, be real and share real stories with this
world out there. That's what they need to hear.
Listen, I remember one time I was in the middle of a Central
American jungle and, and bless their hearts, they built a
platform in the middle of this jungle and invited everybody who
lived in the jungle. And it's like, I don't know
where you people are living, but they came out of the jungle and
they're like, I mean, hundreds of people suddenly gathered in
front of this wooden platform. So I'm standing up on this
wooden platform. And one of them, in their
brilliance, decided to bring a light.
Now, you got to understand that the people in Central America,
where I was, the average height was probably about 5 foot 6.
I am not 5 foot 6. So that light literally I felt
like was resting on my head. So think of a bare light bulb
with a an aluminum reflector thing as a skullcap.
I mean, that's really how I felt.
All right, so every known flying insect in the Central American
jungle was coming at me. I mean, things that I've only
I've had nightmare. I mean, I'm telling you, if
you've ever seen the original Wizard of Oz and it scared you
when those flying stinking monkeys come out, that's what I
that's what it was like. I mean, giant things that so
you're preaching. Sorry, Phil.
And, and I, I tell you, the only thing in my mind was how can I
get off this wooden platform? But I had hundreds of people
there. They wanted to hear the gospel.
So with with I'm no exaggeration, I share the most
simple testimonial story about what God was doing in my life.
And I threw in John 316. I mean, that was it.
I mean, you all would never be satisfied on a Sunday morning
with what I did. And I, and I mean, I, I, I, you
know, I just sitting there going, I don't know what to do,
but you know, I'm just, let's just for God so loved the world
that he gave us only begotten Son.
I'm not joking. It was that bad.
And the people are all standing there and there's translators
and they keep looking back at me and they're translated is like
Nehemiah chapter 8. They're all out in the crowd
translating and Spanish and Indian dialects.
And I'm done. And I'm saying all I did was
just basically this, how God worked my life.
I mean, that's it. That's what I shared from my
heart the best way I could. I was sincere, I was authentic.
I was desperate. And when I was done, I also kind
of felt bad. I mean, a really, man, I did a
lousy job, Teresa, I'll tell you, I beat myself up all the
time like this. I did a badge.
I didn't do as good as I should have.
I messed that up. There's no, you know, no way in
the world. And I'm kind of like, woe is me
and, you know, because I'm an idiot.
And so I'm sitting there, you know, last one.
And we gave an invitation, hundreds of people, because you
know what, it has so little to do with me.
But when people hear an authentic, real story about how
God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit has
impacted some life like mine, that's the gospel.
You add God's word, it's powerful.
We spent hours counselling with people.
Hours they started a church in that jungle after that night.
So you may not understand every word, you may not understand the
Trinity anymore now than you did, but I pray that you cherish
it. I pray you cherish him, and I
pray you'll just tell everybody about what he's done for you.
Let's pray together. Father, I thank you so much for
your love and your grace. Father, I'm sorry if we
complicate things. I'm sorry sometimes if we try to
overthink or figure things out that frankly, we're just not
supposed to. Father, I'm pretty convinced
we're not supposed to have all the answers.
I think, Father, if we had all the answers, we wouldn't think
we need you as much. So, Father, help us to help us
to trust in you and to believe in you, maybe more than we try
to figure you out. But Father, we also thank you
that you've revealed enough about you to us to where we know
you and we can know you and we can trust you and believe in
you, and that's very special. So Father, I thank you that
you're complicated. I thank you, Father, that you're
above. I thank you, Father, that you're
just greater. I thank you, Father, that you're
just different. I thank you, Father, that you're
transcendent above us. And yet at the same time,
Father, you seek to be intimate with us.
And Lord, that really is grace. How in the world could such
finite little people like us ever be able to connect to
Someone Like You? So thank you, Father, for your
love. Thank you, Father, for the way
you help us to trust, Lord. Help us, Father, as we encounter
this world around us that has gone absolutely berserk and
crazy. Father, they don't believe in
you, they don't trust in you. But Lord, I pray that you will
work, Father, even as you wrote through the prophet Habakkuk.
How long, Lord? How long will we watch all this
happen? How long will we wait until we
watch you work? But Father, you promise us one
day you will. So Lord, in the meantime, give
us the work to do. Let us pray for people.
Let us invite people. Let us share with people.
Let us not give up on one another, but let us rejoice in
gathering together to celebrate you, to learn about you, to
encourage one another, and to reach this world that
desperately needs to know about you.
So thank you, Father, Thank you for bugs in the jungle.
Thank you, Father. And Lord.
I look forward one time. Lord, what a blessing it'll be
to meet those brothers and sisters one day when we sit
around the throne and every knee is bowed and every tongue is
confessing who you are. And I'll get to reunite with
them, Bless his Father, watch over us for the rest of this
week. Bless the team going to Western
North Carolina and use them. Father, Lord, what a what a
blessing, what a heartache, what a hardship it's been on those
dear people. I pray, Father, that not only
will they build houses, but they'll build hope.
And they'll encourage the share about you.
And they'll come back to tell us, Thank you, Father, in
Christ's name, Amen. God bless you all.
Thank you very much. Thank you so much for listening
today. And I also hope that you'll go
to ourwebsite@englewoodbaptist.com
as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless
you and your families. Thank you once again.