All right, if you have your Bible with you, open the Romans
chapter 11, Romans chapter 11, we are beginning our Advent
Series today. And well, if you're visiting
with us, I want to say, welcome to you.
You've picked a good time to come.
Visit, my name is Kyle a service lead Pastor here and we're
jumping into Advent, which is advent, just means coming.
And when we talk about Advent, what we're talking about is the
Advent of Christmas time, the Advent of Jesus Christ.
First coming, we're talking about the coming of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. As a child, as Patricia
mentioned earlier, born to the Virgin Mary, according to God's
plan for salvation. And so that's what we're fixing
our eyes on. I think, if we're honest with
ourselves honest, with one another Christmas time, as a
Time, full of distractions. It's a Time.
Full of lots of other things going on in our lives.
It's a time, really? It's a time.
Kind of full of self-centeredness can be Anyway,
it highlights self-centeredness Even in our materialism,
especially that begins to kind of show up.
And so it's a time where the focus can be on very quickly and
I think it's exactly what the enemy wants.
It can be very quickly on everything except Christ
everything, besides, the reason for the season as the yard signs
say, right? And that's that's the case I
think in our world I think often times it's the case in the
church after the Christmas time, becomes about the idea of Christ
being born more so than about worshiping Christ as Lord.
Does that make sense. We can, we can almost idolize
the Virgin birth. We can almost idolize Christ
being born on a, on a silent night outside of the N or where
there was no room for him and and we can idolize the things
about Christmas without understanding the god.
Who has come to us and that's what we don't want to do as
Christians. We don't want to idolize the
things about our God. We want to, we want to worship
God. We don't we don't want to
worship just the ideas about God.
We want to worship who God truly is and so Christmas time, is it
makes it easy? If you will to either Focus On
Christ because it's in the songs, it's in the decorations.
It's in the Patience. If you're, if you're paying
attention but it's easy to miss Christ in Christmas, it's easy
to miss God, the significance of the Season at Christmas time.
So it's my hope that through this Advent series, what will
get a chance to do is that it's going to draw our attention back
to God, that our attention will be on God that our gaze may be
fixated if you will on the glory of God and the communion.
Coming of God, the son and so may the season.
My prayer is that the season be a time where we are all as
Christians as men and women boys and girls who love the Lord
Jesus Christ. Where we are worshipping God?
So, with our Advent series, I want us to do something.
Not really different, not really unique.
I hope to what we do normally, but I want us to talk about God,
I want us to focus on who God is.
I want us to Marvel at this, this fact For unto us.
God Has Come For unto us. God has come, this is what the
Advent season is about. And so the over the next few
weeks were going to study God. And we've broken it down the
series into these, these topics if you will.
The first one today, we're going to talk about the try Unity of
God or God exists in Trinity. Next week, we're going to talk
about the overflowing love of God.
Week after we're going to talk about a god.
Unlike all others will be the Sunday before Christmas are
going to look at a God who comes to us, not a God who remains
distant from us. And then finally, as we set to
enter into the New Year, we will talk about how to have
fellowship with this Triune God. And so I'm excited for the
season, the Christmas lights, the trees, the all the decor,
the music, all of it gets me excited.
I'd be a little happier if I wasn't having to wear summer
clothing this morning, right? But it is what it is.
We'll just pretend we're in Florida.
All right, let me pray for us and then we'll enter into this.
I've got a whiteboard today and so I'm I invite Nathan or
Kimberly up here to draw for me. But I'll try Alan.
I can't do a squirrel but your squirrel always kills it.
So I may may have you come dressed?
Draw a squirrel after church. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father. We love you and God.
We are approaching Really a topic that's that's bigger than
I am. It's bigger than any of us.
It's it far exceeds our level of understanding father, we are
limited to your own revealing of yourself.
As we think about the Trinity, we cannot say anything.
We cannot assume anything outside of what you have said,
already outside of the way that you have revealed yourself.
Not only in creation, not only in the way that you act in the
world but especially In your word.
Father, would you open our hearts today?
You open our minds today to see and to understand who you are.
Father, what we're not after is Morehead knowledge.
We're not after knowledge that puffs up.
Lord, I don't want us to walk out of here with head spinning
in such a way that we feel like we gained a bunch of knowledge
and we're kind of wrestling to put together the pieces.
It's My Hope father that by the help of your spirit today that
we walk out of here, maybe with head spinning.
But with hearts that are aflame, I pray that your spirit would
have noddin us a fire. A deep love of God.
I think the fact that you are trinitarian, Well, one that's
unique, there's no other trinitarian God.
So you are the one true. God, we confess that.
But the fact that you're trinitarian makes it possible
for us to know you to understand you on some level, maybe even a
level that's growing and especially it makes it possible
for us to fellowship with you. And so, Lord help us today to
have hearts that are filled with worship hearts that are filled
with awe. as we behold the one true, God this morning, God.
I am finite. I am imperfect.
I am oftentimes unfaithful to you.
I am a sinner with darkened. Eyes gazing upon the
excellencies of God today. And so, the task is to daunting.
And I pray that your spirits speak today.
You help us to know you as only you could do Lord.
We ask these things in the name of your son.
Jesus Christ. Amen.
So there are a great many things
to be said about God and it is my hope that I can show you some
of those today and what will look at but we cannot exhaust.
What is to be known about God. In fact, one of the Beauties
about heaven, one of the realities of heaven.
When you get to, when you as a Christian passed from this life,
from Death to life, eternal, one of the Beauties We Know About
Heaven is that we will go On growing in our understanding
growing in our knowledge of God for eternity that there will be
new excellencies, new things. In many ways.
We will no longer see in part will see in full but there will
still be things to discover about God.
This is one of the realities, one of the beautiful realities
of Heaven. You'll never reach the end of
what is to be known about God. This is one of the things that
makes being a Christian now today in this life so wonderful
is you'll never get to the end of the knowledge of God.
You'll never go beyond who God is.
You'll never arrive at something and say well, I figured God out.
And if we could figure God out, totally, if we could totally
know who he is, we can know everything about him.
Well then I declare that he would cease to be God.
Something else must be God. And so, we would probably grow
tired of him. We would grow weary of him
because he would be known already.
We get bored with God, and some of you today, may find yourself
bored with God, but it's not because God has been exhausted.
It's that your Pursuit is waning.
Your pursued is felling. Maybe sin has crept in maybe
something's keeping you from going deeper with the Lord.
And so today, I hope that some of that will be ignited in you
again, but we will not exhaust. God, that's one thing that Paul
gets out, in Romans chapter 11, it's one of the great short.
Statements about God and it comes at the end of Romans
chapter 11. Now if you, if you've read the
book of Romans, what you know about Romans 1 through 11, is
that Paul is, he's exclaiming that the sovereignty of God
especially in Salvation And he's talking about the relationship
of God to Abraham. He's talking about the
covenants, he's talking about how righteousness is by faith
alone. In Christ alone, he's talking
about how God has come to us in Christ Jesus that he became for
us, what we could not be which is sin.
So that we might become the righteousness of God and he's
laying it all out there. He's saying that man is sinful.
All mankind have fallen short of the glory of God and they're in
need of a savior, he goes on and on, And he gets to these
realities and Romans 8, we will never be separated from the love
of God. He talks about life in the
spirit chapter six and seven and eight.
And chapter 9. We see the sovereignty of God in
ten over salvation, chapter 10. He talks about how he's using
mankind to preach the good news that men and women boys and
girls might come to know Jesus Christ and faith comes by
hearing hearing by the word of God.
How will they know unless they are told?
And so every believer is in commission to be a missionary or
at least missional in the way that they live spreading the
good news of Christ, Jesus. And chapter 11 is talking about
Israel. And And how he hopes for their
Redemption. And how there's a new Vine
that's been grafted in the Gentiles.
And, and then and then he just ends in Romans 11:33 3:36.
He says he just burst into doxology, do you know what?
Doxology is? Doxology is praise.
You can't have doxology without theology because if you're
worshiping without right, understanding your likely
worshipping a false god, you're worshiping something you've made
up. That would be idolatry.
And so worship with theologies laid out, 11 chapters of
theology. This is who God is in your
salvation, Roman Believers. And then he burst into doxology
and he says, Oh, The Depths and the riches and the wisdom, and
the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his
judgments and how inscrutable his ways for who has known the
mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor?
Another one another words who can know him?
Who could teach him something? Who could tell him something?
The verse 35 he says or who has given a gift to him that he
might be repaid. Another word who has given
something to God that. Now, God owes you The reverse is
true, right? That God has given everything to
us, and so we owe him our lives. Gladly, oh, him our lives.
And then in verse 36 we have, what is?
I think one of the best short statements about the nature of
God, he says for from him and through him, and to him are all
things to him, be glory forever. Amen.
Wow, for from him is saying something about God, that all
things. Every thing in our world and the
universe everything in creation comes from God.
Now, we're not talking about just created things.
We're talking about salvation, we're talking about any kind of
blessings from the Lord, everything Paul is saying comes
from God. It doesn't just come from God
though. It comes through God, which
gives us an insight into how the Trinity works.
There's going to be different persons as we look at this.
There's different persons in these persons have different
different roles if you will and expressing God.
And I'll walk through this in a moment.
But through God, we receive all things from God, come all things
through God, we receive all things and to God, all things
exist, which is why Paul says to God be the glory forever.
Amen. So everything exists for him.
Everything comes from him, everything comes through him and
then exists to be given unto him.
Especially in ascribing Him. Praise ascribing Him Glory.
It's the last line there that really ought to stop us in our
tracks and lead us to worship God.
I don't think we can hear it too many times, so I'll read it one
more time for from him and through him.
And to him are all things, everybody say.
All all things. The thing I want to lay before
you today is this is that if you're taking notes, you can
write this down, God is self-existent.
For from him and through him. God is all sufficient.
So got a self-existent all-sufficient and he is trying.
From him through him to him all things.
Now it is the try Unity of God, that makes him self existent in
all sufficient. It's this tri-unity that
separates him from all other gods.
And so when we consider the try Unity of God, there's there's
three things that we need to have on our mind.
There's three things that we need to think about.
When we think about the try Unity of God, we might call
these pillars. If you will foundations there.
What uphold the try Unity of God.
Their kid. Their core beliefs.
And we must believe these things to Christians.
The first is this that there is one Essence in God.
There is one Essence in God. The second is that there are
three persons in God. So there's one Essence three
persons. And then finally each person is
fully gone. These are the three pillars of
the Trinity that we must believe to be trinitarian Christians.
In other words, Orthodox Christians.
True Christians. There's one, Essence, three
persons in each person is fully God.
So let's consider this first one.
God is one in essence. How is it that from him and
through him and to him are all things.
Well, it's because of his essence.
The word essence means being God is his Essence God is.
His being God is God. That's about as close as we can
come to describing the essence of God.
I'm going to take some shots at it here in a little bit.
But ultimately, the best way to describe God is as God describe
God, when he said about himself, I am who I am.
I am. God.
God is describing his Essence. When he says, I am.
He's describing exactly who he is.
And we might say, well, how does that describe who he is?
Because he's saying, he is who he is and it's not dependent on
anything outside of him. He is.
So, if I say I am, my husband was dependent on something
outside of me, is, depending on whether or not, I really have a
wife or not, right? I had a thought this morning as
I was thinking about this sermon, this is like, you know,
boxing outside your weight class a little bit thinking about the
Trinity. And I thought to myself, well,
you've done that at least once, before you convince Patricia to
marry you, right? It's okay to agree. but even
that pales in comparison to trying to understand the
trinity, But we are fighting outside of our weight class of
it here. But God's Essence, is his being
Essences. What you are.
It's now we can only speak of God's Essence by analogy because
we can't fully comprehend the essence of God in a physical
form. God is Spirit, John says, and
the Apostle, John writes in John 4:24.
Further God is not made of a bunch of ingredients.
God is not like your Christmas dinner.
There are not a bunch of ingredients that have come
together to make a meal. This is not what God is God. has
a being, he is a being and so the substance of God is God.
He is divine, amen. Now, there are these documents
in church history called confessions and and we can think
what we want about. Confessions maybe you've never
read a confession, maybe you have read confessions might be
your for them, maybe you're against them, but one of the
things that make confessions helpful is that they summarize
core beliefs really well. They do a good job of
summarizing core beliefs of the Christian faith.
And so whether you see it in confessions or like the Apostles
Creed, Is one that maybe you guys are familiar with.
There's different Creed's out there that summarize what we
believe about God. And so a confession is similar
to a Creed except it's much more exhaustive.
It's not a few paragraphs. It is hundreds of paragraphs.
and so there's one called the London, Baptist confession of
faith and it describes God, And this way and I just want to read
this to you says the Lord our God is one.
The only living and true God. He is self-existent.
And infinite and being and Perfection is Essence.
Cannot be understood by anyone, but him.
Okay, I'm going to read a little further, but I want to, this is
another problem. This is a bit more like a Sunday
school class by the way. This is a another problem with
the Trinity is if we try to describe him, we tend to get
into heresies. You know, if you say that he is
like, he's like water, he can be icy can be Vapor, he can be
water or fluid, that's actually a heresy that's called modalism.
And so that is not a good way me.
I'm a father, I'm a husband. I'm a pastor would be modalism.
And so thatís, not three distinct persons.
I'm describing one person who does three different things.
This is not what God is, God is we're not Believers in modalism,
modern-day example of modalism, is the United Pentecostal church
and their view of Oneness? God, which is to say that God
exists in three modes or moods. He can be the father, he can be
the sunning. Be the But he's not all three is
not distinct at different times. I've got three distinct persons.
So so this is a problem so we want to be careful, not to get
into that. You can equally fall into
trouble and start trying to draw things on a board for people.
And so, what were attempting to do is really dangerous.
I know you can feel the fear, right?
So, but what I want to do is I want to, I want to try to show
you in a picture, what it is, we're saying because this, this
helped me comprehend. And I'm still in this from, from
my professor in seminary, Jeff Johnson, because he draws really
good art on the board. Often post pictures of one day,
but what I want to do is make a mark up here for his Essence,
okay? So let's just assume that God's
Essence. Is this circle?
Okay, this is God. This is this is his Essence,
okay? Now let me further describe for
you, what, I know that small for many of you back there, I
apologize. We're being a back road.
Baptist doesn't pay off today. So God, this is the essence of
God. And let me explain to you a
little bit for continuing to read from the confession.
What we're saying about the essence of God.
Remember, it's only understood by God.
But it is who he is. It's his being, he is a
perfectly, pure spirit. He is invisible and has no body,
no parts, no changeable Passions. and so, when we read
things like the right hand of God, the backside of God, these
are See if I can. Anybody remember the word you
learned in Sunday School? And throw for morphisms super
exciting work, right? I'll not try to spell it but
anthropomorphism is where we try to ascribe to God human
characteristics so that we can understand him better.
God speaks to us in his word and anthropomorphism is because we
are finite and he is not so he helps us to understand some
things about who he is, all right?
But God is Spirit, you get to heaven.
You're not going to see God. The father.
You will see God, the son, amen. God the son will be present.
And you'll know the presence of God the father.
So he's a perfectly pure Spirit. He has he's invisible.
No body parts, so changeable passions, he alone has
immortality dwelling in life that no one can approach.
Again, I'm still reading from the confession, here he is.
Unchangeable You might call this immutable, he's unchangeably
doesn't change. He's immense, which means he can
be near to us, but he is eternal all sorry.
Eminent would be near to us, he's immense, which means he's
large. Eternal means that he has
neither beginning, nor ending he's in comprehensible, not
totally but fully right we can know something.
When comprehend some things about God, which can't fully
knowing At least not now he's Almighty and every way he's
infinite he's absolutely holy. So we might just I'm just going
to write a few words up here to help us.
He's holy he's eternal. He's wise.
He's free. God is not bound.
As we are bound, he's completely free.
And he's absolute. Amen.
He's absolutely. So what we're thinking of God
and right now, I'm just describing the Triune God, I'm
subscribing, the Father, the Son, the spirit.
This is some of the things, not all of the things, some of the
things about who God is, Okay, the this is the essence of God,
he's completely self existent. Now, the second thing we see
about God says, since is that he is all-sufficient, so he
self-existent, he's not dependent on anyone else and so,
therefore he is all sufficient. Now, again the London, Baptist
confession of faith is helpful. It says that God has all life.
Oh, Glory goodness and blessedness in and of himself.
He alone is also sufficient and himself.
You and I are not all sufficient and ourselves, we're dependent
one on God, but even more than that, were dependent on many
other things. God is Not.
So he is all-sufficient. He does not need any creature.
He is made. He's not needy of us.
Will talk about this more next week as we talked about.
Creation. But we're a product of his love.
He has made, he's not need of any creature.
He's made, nor does he derive any Glory from them so it
doesn't doesn't gain his glory from creationist not in creating
that he gets Glory. Now it said he's glorious before
but what he does is he demonstrates his glory in
creation him, right? He demonstrates his glory in
them. The confession says, buy them to
them and upon them. He alone is the source of all
being and everything is from him through him and to him which
again comes from our passage in Romans 11:36.
He has absolute Sovereign rule over All Creatures to act
through them, for them, or upon them as he pleases and his side,
everything is open and visible. There's nothing hidden from God,
he sees all things, always all the time from eternity past to
Eternity future. God is Bound by time, he's not
bound by perception. He's not bound by anything.
He's Limitless. His knowledge is therefore
infinite's and it's infallible. There's no fault in God.
It doesn't depend upon any creature.
So for him nothing is contingent or uncertain.
God is certain amen. How many of you want to worship
a wishy-washy? God, a God, who is uncertain?
As you are uncertain. Have you ever gone through an
uncertain time? Am I alone in this?
There's two of us. Cool, 34.
All right, now you get the drift.
Alright, it's everybody. We've all gone through
uncertainty and what we know about God is that he is not
uncertain. God is certain Because
everything is ordered by his hand.
He's absolutely holy and all his plans.
Again, I'm reading and all his works and then all his commands.
And isil in the Baptist confession of Faith chapter 2
paragraph 2. Now this is the essence of God.
What we see is that God is completely self existent in all
sufficient. He's completely self existent in
all sufficient, just in his Essence.
Justin, who who he is. Let me read you some verses.
Therefore as student the eating of food offered to Idols, we
know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no
God, but one 1st Corinthians, 8:4 First Corinthians 8:6 yet
for us. There is one.
God the father from whom are all things and for whom we exist and
one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things and through
whom we exist Deuteronomy 6:4 hear o Israel.
The Lord Our God. The Lord is one Exodus 3:14.
God said to Moses, I am who I am and he said, say this to the
people of Israel, I am has sent you.
Sorry, sent me to you. First, Timothy 1:17 to the king
of the ages Immortal invisible, the holy God.
The only God be honor and Glory forever and ever.
Amen. You see what we're getting?
I have this one God. This God is eternal.
Is all-sufficient, he self-existent?
For I the Lord do not change. Therefore, you are children of
Jacob. Are not consumed.
Malachi 3:16 unchangeable, Jeremiah, 23, 23.
Am I am I a god at hand? Declares the Lord and not a god,
far away, his Eminence, he's near to us.
God can be both out there in both right here.
Isaiah 63 and one called to the other and said, holy holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Everything exists to him, it's
full of his glory. Psalm 115 3, our God is in the
heavens, and he does all that. He pleases, there's nothing
forwarding the plans of God, there's nothing disrupting the
plans of God. He is in heaven, and he's doing
all that he pleases. One of the things that that were
we try to help our children understand at an early age that
God and Satan are not on the same playing field.
They're not both all-powerful all-knowing all presence, Satan
is limited. He's a Satan is created by God
and so he's bound and ways that God is not bound.
And so God and Satan are not up here together.
God, God is won the battle. Amen.
They do oppose one another. And make no mistake.
Satan is certainly wanting to influence.
And destroy the lives of people, especially believers.
But God is one the Bible. Amen, he can be trusted.
He is faithful. John 5 26 for as the father has
life in himself, this is Jesus speaking.
So he has granted the son also to have life in himself.
All sufficient, 148 13, Psalm 148 13.
Let them praise the name of the Lord for his name alone as
exalted. His majesty is above Earth and
Heaven Hebrews 4:13. And no creature is hidden from
his sights, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must give account. So not only is this God, holy
and eternal, and absolute wise and free and so on and so on, In
other words, what we describe as if this God is unlike you.
He's unlike me, he's perfect. And I'm imperfect, and I must
give an account to him one day. You must give an account to him
one day. Psalm, 145 17, the Lord is
righteous in all his ways. Again, there's something I can't
say about myself and he's kind and all his works.
I still can't say that about myself.
God is altogether different than you and I, and he's altogether
different than other gods as we'll see in the coming weeks.
Now here's what we know about God is that he exists in three
persons. So, this is pillar number two,
he exists in three persons in regards to the Trinity, we might
use the word person and we were right to use the word person.
But what we know about the word person is that it has a quite
different meaning now than it did, when it was first
established, its used differently.
As we're thinking about the person's of God, Then it is as
we think about person the word in everyday life, so it's not
like me. Describing myself an allen me
and Alan are two separate individual and sorry,
independent individuals, right? We exist outside of one another
apart from one another. But God is not this way.
His persons are not this way. God exists in three persons, the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Another word that was introduced and the early church is they're
trying to explain who God is. And that the Council of nicaea
they begin to and AD 325, they begin to get some of these
things nailed down so that people could understand it.
One of the things about that Council, that's quite funny is,
there's a There's a story about a man named Saint Nicholas.
Anybody knows? Saint Nicholas right?
You know, Saint Nicholas was a bishop in a place called Myra
and I know that Saint. Nicholas was a bishop in a place
called Myra Saint. Nicholas was present at the
Council of nicaea Council of nicaea was assembled because
there was a man named areas who was claiming that Jesus was not
Eternal, like God, is that he had, he had a beginning.
So he was saying he's not God. It's different than God is Not
eternally begotten. And so they assembled this
Council because he's teachings were getting out of control.
They symbolize Council of nicaea to settle this debate and at one
point, in the debate, or in the, the talks, Saint Nicholas took
offense to the fact that Arius was claiming that Jesus is not
God. How could someone disrespect God
this way? The Son of God this way and so
Saint Nicholas Santa Claus goes across the room.
Slaps areas in the face. How dare you speak this way?
About the son of God. It was a big deal, it's a really
big deal. And so he ends up on suspension
for a little while investigation done, he's reinstated.
But it's quite interesting Council of nicaea settled this
debate about the Trinity, it's settled.
This debate about is Jesus, the son of God.
And one of the things that come out of, that is an understanding
of God, the Father God, the son, and God, the spirit, being the
three persons in God, The word they use was the word
subsistence now. The word subsistence is this
idea that it it is again, we're we got to get, we got to be
careful with word pictures but it's the idea that this is under
the essence. that the essence is Is primary and the subsistence
is something comes out of the essence of it, but it's not a
part from, it's not separate from it.
And this is where we get the person's, this is where they
come in. So, one of the ways we met, if
we're going to draw this and border on heresy, one of the
things you might do is you would, you know, have your
circles in their lap? Where you have the father?
The son. Spirit.
But holy spirit. So what we know about the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit is that they are of the
essence of God that they're not apart from the essence of God,
they exist, within the essence of God, right?
And even drawing it this way, is not great, but what I'm trying
to show is that there are characteristics that the sun has
that the father doesn't have and that the spirit has that the
father, and the son don't have, there's characteristics about
how they operate so we might say that the son is God.
The father is God, the holy spirit is God, but the spirit is
not the son. The spirit is not the father of
the father is not the son. The father is not the spirit,
and the sun is not the Father, the Son is not the Holy Spirit.
Clear as mud right there are three distinct persons in God.
Again the London Baptist confession of faith is helpful
here. This was written in 1689.
So again, it was at a time where they're trying to Define things
for the church especially as they were up against Roman
Catholicism. This Divine, an infinite being
consists of three, real persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy
Spirit, these three have the same substance power in
eternity. Each having the whole Divine
Essence, without this Divine Essence, being divided So each
has the Divine Essence without it being divided.
So again, just using a few turns, not all the things that
we would use to describe the character of God the nature and
character of God is attributes just using a few of his
attributes. We would say that the holy
spirit is all-wise, all wholly free Eternal absolutes.
We said the sun, possesses all of those things.
The father possesses all the things because that is the
essence of God. There's nothing in his Essence
that the spirit doesn't have or that the sun doesn't have.
The father doesn't have. They all have the essence of God
though. They might operate in a
different fashion again. Will see the their operation
more in the coming days, coming weeks.
So let me go to some proof text. Again just to show three,
distinct persons, first John 5:7, for there are three that
Testify the father, son and spirit Matthew 28:19.
Go therefore and Make Disciples of all Nations, baptizing them
in the name of the father, and of the son and of the holy
spirit's. Jesus would not say this.
If they were not all three God, second Corinthians 13:14 Again,
probably one of the best short statements about the Trinity
that we have in scripture, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God, the Father And The Fellowship of the Holy
Spirit, be with you all, John 14 11.
Jesus is speaking says, believe me that I am in the father and
the father is in me. Other words, we have the same
essence or else. Believe on account of The Works
themselves, John 1:14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
And we have seen his glory. Glory, as of the only son from
the father full of grace and truth, Versus at Patricia.
Read this morning, John chapter 1 verses 1 through 5.
We see that the word existed in the beginning with God.
The word is Jesus. John 1:18.
No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the
father's side, but Jesus Christ has made him known to us John
15:26. But when the helper comes
talking about the Holy Spirit, whom I will send, so, Jesus is
speaking to you from the father. So, again, holy spirit is coming
to you. I will send him from the father,
Jesus sang, the spirit of Truth, who proceeds from the father, he
will bear witness about me. So again there's three distinct
persons. But all of the same Essence,
Galatians 4:6 and because you are Sons, God has sent the
spirit of his son into our hearts.
Crying Abba Father. So, because you are Sons, the
father has sent the spirit of Christ.
The Holy Spirit into your heart that you too might cry of a
father, just as Christ has and maybe one of the best instances
is the baptism of Jesus Christ. When our Lord goes down into the
water and he comes up at John's baptism.
The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove.
And so we have the we have Jesus, the son, present the Son
of God present at the Holy Spirit, descending on him like a
dove. And then we have the voice of
the father from Heaven speaking and saying this is my son in
whom I'm well pleased three, distinct persons each of these
persons finally third pillar I'll Rush a little from here is
fully God. Each person is fully God, the
father is not derived from anyone.
In the beginning Genesis 1:1 declares was God.
When was in the beginning, I don't know.
Just in the beginning was God. He's neither forgotten.
Nor is he proceeding from anyone?
The essence of God existed in the beginning, God has always
been. And we know about the sun is
that he is eternally, begotten of the father, there's never
been a time without the son. The Holy Spirit proceeds from
the father and the son is Jesus makes clear in John chapter, 16,
all three are infinite's. All three are without beginning.
All three our presence in creation have the spirit of God
hovering over The deeps. You have Jesus.
The word is it subscribe to him later and especially in
Colossians. And in John you have the word of
God speaking. And you have the father there,
orchestrating the whole thing. And so all three are infinite
without beginning and therefore only one God who is not to be
divided in nature or being. If these three are distinguished
by several distinctive characteristics and personal
relations, and that's where I'm saying, we'll get into some of
that as we go through the series.
So God is Not 3 and 1 in the same way, we don't have a
contradiction here. It sounds like a contradiction
but it's not a contradiction because he is, he is one
essence. But three persons in each of
these persons are the essence, or of the essence.
And so each person is distinct in characteristics.
And in relation yet fully God. Amen.
This is the prime tenets of our faith.
If we can understand the Trinity, we can be in fellowship
with God. In a right way, in a way that is
delightful in a way that has life to it.
I don't think you have to fully understand it to be in
Fellowship. I'm just saying, as you begin to
understand these things more and more, your fellowship flourishes
right. There are many people who don't
understand any of these things who are True Believers because
God has saved them, amen. I'm just saying as we grow in
our faith, we want to know these things so that we can have right
fellowship with God. God.
Isaiah 45:21 through 22 declare and present your case.
Let them take counsel together who told this long ago, who
declared a devold was it? Not I the lord and there is no
other God besides me a righteous God and a savior.
There is none besides me. Everybody.
Listen, turn to me and be saved. All the ends of the Earth for I
am God, and there is no other thus, says the Lord, the king of
Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts.
I am the first and I am, the last besides me, there is no
God. Who is like me, let him Proclaim
it. Let him declare and said it
before me. Since I appointed an ancient
people, let them declare what is to come and what will happen,
fear not nor be afraid. I have not told you for have I
not told you from of old and declared it.
And you are my Witnesses. Is there a god besides me?
There is no Rock. I know.
Not any God says. Amen.
Exodus 15:11 who is Like You O Lord.
Among the gods who is like you Majestic in Holiness.
Awesome and glorious Deeds doing wonders.
Brothers and sisters. I asked you, who, who is like
our God No. Deuteronomy 435 to you.
It was shown that you might know that the Lord is God, there is
no other besides him Deuteronomy, 32 29.
See now that I even I am he and there is no, God beside me, I
kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none
that can deliver out of my hand, amen.
For Samuel to to there is none. Holy like the Lord for there is
none besides you. There is no Rock like our God
first Kings 860. That all the peoples of the
earth. May know that the Lord is God,
there is no other. Amen.
There is one God. And he is the God and this the
Christian God and this God is one in essence, three in persons
all of which are equally God, fully God.
He self-existent, he's all sufficient, he's Triune, and he
is worthy worthy of our worship. He alone is worthy of our
worship. He alone is worthy of ascribing
Glory to our lives. Are meant to be spent for his
glory and make no mistake, whether you live for God, or you
live against God, you will bring God glory because he is just in
all his judgments. We need to be a people who amen
a little better. He is just and all his judgments
you will not you will not rebel against God in such a way that
you proved him to be a liar or prove him to be false.
You will not mock. God, God sits in the heavens and
he does all that, he pleases. There is one true God.
Now we're going to learn more in the coming weeks about his
character. I encourage you but because some
of this seems a bit maybe heavy-handed that this is who
God is but we must understand who God is before we can talk
about the overflowing of God's love.
It just won't matter to us if we don't know who God is so we must
have an understanding of who God is if we want to know the love
of God and next week, we're going to talk more and more
about this overflowing love of God.
The point of today the point of knowing who God is is that he's
worthy of our worship, he's worthy of our service.
He's worthy of our obedience and whatever else he might ask us to
do. Whatever else he might demand of
us. He's worthy of it.
And the thing is is you can trust that his demands are good
and right because he's righteous.
He's holy, he's perfect, he's not evil.
Again, the confession in Chapter 2 paragraph. 2, it says angels
and human beings 02, him all the worship, all the service, all
the obedience that creatures Odes of the Creator and whatever
else. He's pleased to require of them.
In Chapter 2 paragraph 3. It says the truth of the Trinity
is the foundation of all of our fellowship with God and of our
comforting dependence on him. The beauty of the Trinity is
that we know that he is not like us.
The beauty of the Trinity is that he is unlike all other
gods. The beauty of the Trinity is
that he's Dependable. He is worthy of our worship.
He's worthy of Our Lives. He's worthy of our faith or
trust. And if you haven't depended on
God, yet, if you haven't put your faith in God, yet for the
Salvation of your sins. Then today is the day of
salvation don't, wait, don't tarry place.
Your faith in Jesus Christ today.
God, the Father sent God, the son.
Again, I'll get into more of this but I can't leave you
hanging. I read a story.
Once Martyn, lloyd-jones fantastic preacher used to
preach a, an Evangelistic sermon in the mornings, and then on
Sunday, well thing is other way around.
But on Sunday nights, he would kind of bring a close to
whatever Cliffhanger he left on Sunday mornings.
Well, between Sunday morning and Sunday night, some fires broke
out across England. And many of the people who were
present Sunday morning were not present Sunday night.
Many of which died. And Martin lloyd-jones said, I
never again left the congregation hanging.
He had to know. I don't want to leave you
hanging this morning, there's a lot to say and we will say, but
what we need to know this morning is that God is worthy of
faith that you should place your faith in God.
God sent his only son Jesus Christ to be what you couldn't
be which is perfect to die death, which you couldn't die.
A perfect death. That would that would become the
atonement for sins. You couldn't do that.
So that you might believe in Jesus Christ and be saved today.
This is why a baby was born. In a Manger as the Legacy goes
but a baby was born is that man kind might be saved through
Jesus Christ. The son of God, the second
member of the Trinity and so the Trinity is the foundation for
worship, is the foundation for dependents.
Psalm 148 1. Through 14, praise the Lord,
praise the Lord from the heavens.
Praise Him in the Heights, praise him all his angels,
praise him. All his His host, Praise Him,
sun, and moon. Praise him.
All you shining stars. Praise Him.
You highest heavens and you Waters above the heavens.
Let them praise the name of the Lord for he commanded, and they
were created and he established them forever and ever.
He gave a decree. And it shall not pass away.
Praise the Lord from the earth. You great sea creatures, and all
deeps fire, and hail Snow, and Miss stormy, wind fulfilling his
word, even the storms. Sprays, the name of God
mountains and all Hills fruit trees and all Cedars beasts, and
all livestock creeping things, and flying birds Kings of the
earth, and All Peoples, princes, and all rulers of the earth,
young man and maidens together, old men and children, let them
praise the name of the Lord, for his name.
Alone is exalted. His majesty is above Earth, and
Heaven. He has raised up a horn for
People praise for all his Saints for the people of Israel who are
near to him. Praise the Lord.
All ye people of God, praise His name.
God is so unlike you He's worthy of praise.
He is faithful when we are unfaithful.
Because he is not dependent on anything outside of himself.
And so, I beg you to come to God and faith today.
If you have not, and if you are a Believer today, let your heart
soar and praise, follow the command of Psalm 148, praise
him, all you peoples of the Earth. amen, would you stand
your feet worship team, you can come Get rid of my beautiful
artwork. I want to pray for you and then
we're going to sing a new new song, Right?
Oh, Come All Ye unfaithful. And the words are incredible,
but it's an invitation. As those who are unfaithful to
come to The God, Who is faithful this morning.
Amen. So I invite you to sing it with
us to spend some time with the spirit and prayer.
Let me pray for you. Heavenly Father, we love you, we
thank you for your word. Thank you.
God. That you were unlike all the
others that you alone are God, you're the one true God.
And so our hearts today, abound with praise God, would you feel
Plus with passion and desire. Help us to burn within that we
might know you love you, pursue you.
More fully. God, would you rid of our rid,
Our Lives of anything. That's contrary to your nature.
It's contrary to righteousness, rid us of all sin, all
unrighteous Behavior, unrighteous thoughts.
Lord drive it far from us that we might worship you in spirit
and Truth. Father, I pray for anyone in
here. Who doesn't know you as Savior
has not placed their faith in you.
Would you grant them salvation today?
Would you call them to yourself? If they too might Delights in
God that they too much surrender themselves to you too.
Love you forever to know you fully Lord.
We love you. We thank you for the Light of
Christ that has Dawn and the birth of your son.
We celebrate that at this time, every year it's on our hearts
and it's on our minds. But help us father to not forget
that, that baby born is the very Son of God, the King of Kings,
the Lord of hosts. There's no name given among men.
No other name given among men by which we must be saved.
Help us to call on the name Jesus Christ.
Father, we love you, amen. Father, we love you, amen.