Core Training | Theology 101 - The Doctrine of God Pt. 3

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

1 Corinthians 2 · chapter mention

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

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

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.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

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

1 Peter 1 · chapter mention

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.

John 5:17

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

John 10 · chapter mention

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

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

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.

2 Corinthians 3 · chapter mention

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

Acts 28 · chapter mention

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.

Matthew 3 · chapter mention

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?

John 12 · chapter mention

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

John 10:30

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.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

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

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

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

Nehemiah 8 · chapter mention

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 [email protected]

as well as our app and find many other resources that will bless

you and your families. Thank you once again.