They turn in your Bibles to the book of Ephesians. We'll look at Ephesians chapter one. Ephesians one, I'll read verses one to fourteen. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the will of God to the saints who are in Ephesus and faithful in Christ Jesus.

Grace to you and peace from God, our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ. who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness of the times He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. In Him also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestined according to the purpose of Him who works all things according to the counsel of His will, that we who first trusted in Christ should be to the praise of His glory.

In Him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession. To the praise of his glory. Amen. Well, let us pray.

Father, thank you for the written word and thank you for you. Thank you for the fact that you are a great and glorious God. We pray even now you would humble us under your mighty hand again, forgive us for our sins and wash away all things that would darken our understanding and grant us grace to receive that word and to delight in it. And we pray for the ministry and the power of your Holy Spirit to work in our hearts.

We pray for the ministry and the power of the Holy Spirit to save those who have not come to Christ. We pray that even tonight, Father, it would be the time of salvation, that this would be the time when sinners would look unto you and find grace and mercy and forgiveness. And we pray through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Well,

Introduction

tonight our study will be more topical in nature rather than focusing primarily here on Ephesians chapter 1. We will refer to this section later. But I want to bring a message on the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. This morning we considered theology and how important it is.

Our Father in Heaven. The Lord Jesus sets that forth as a preface before we enter into the presence of God. We need to contemplate, we need to consider who He is. We saw that he is our heavenly father and that he has omnipotent power.

He is able to render aid and assistance and help to those who are in need. Well, I thought tonight we'd carry that theme and consider theology, the doctrine of God, This will be a little bit more of a technical sermon. I want to make sure that everybody follows along and really tries to catch the drift of what we're seeking to promote or to set forth here. There have been some recent events and broader evangelicalism which necessitates a study like this.

We need to be sure on what the doctrine of the Trinity most certainly is. And to that end, I want to do three things. define the doctrine, secondly, defend the doctrine, and thirdly, display the doctrine of the Trinity, the triune God. Well, as we consider the definition,

Defining the Trinity

we need to first notice what is taught, and then secondly, what is not taught. In other words, what we mean by the Trinity and what we don't mean by the Trinity. I think a good place to start our study is, yes, to be sure, the Bible. The Westminster Shorter Catechism sets it forth in two very simple questions and answers.

The doctrine of God, theology proper, who He is relative to Himself. It says, are there more gods than one? The answer is there is but one only, the living and the true God. That is an essential proposition in our understanding of who God is.

There is but one only, the true and the living God. Deuteronomy chapter six highlights that reality. Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, the Shema. Here, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. That was the monotheistic confession. of Israel, while the nations around them had a polytheistic approach, many gods. Israel was unique in that they had one true and living God. This is confirmed in the New Testament as well, or rather sustained in the New Testament.

In 1 Corinthians 8, verse 4, Therefore, concerning the eating of things offered to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and that there is no other god than but one. And then again in verse 6, it says, Yet for us there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things, and we for him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we live. So that first proposition is absolutely crucial that we get down. We believe in one true and living God.

The Westminster Shorter Catechism then asks the question, how many persons are there in the Godhead? In other words, in the very text that we read here, verse 6 of 1 Corinthians chapter 8, it speaks of one Lord Jesus Christ. Other places in the Scripture show us the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. So the catechism, attempting to deal with that biblical data, asks the question, how many persons are there in the Godhead?

The answer, there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And these three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory. So in the space of two brief questions and answers, I believe the Westminster Shorter Catechism does capture the essence of the biblical teaching on the doctrine of the Trinity. God is one and three.

He's not one and three in the same way. He's one in substance or one in essence, and he's three in person. See, we would have a contradiction or a problem if we said one substance, three substances, or we said one person, three persons. But he's one in one particular way in terms of substance or essence, and he's three in another way in terms of person, or what our confession refers to as subsistence.

The Puritan Robert Shaw describes it this way. He says, we do not say that three are one in the same sense and in the same respect in which they are three. That would, no doubt, be a plain contradiction in terms. But we say they are three in one respect, one in another respect. three in person, one in essence, and there is no absurdity in that at all.

It surpasses our reason indeed fully to understand it, and so do a thousand things besides which yet we know are true and real. But if it be a doctrine clearly revealed in the sacred scripture, We are bound to believe it, however incapable we may be of comprehending it. Now, having said that, it's not so absurd that we can't receive that truth. One God, three persons.

We need to be careful that we don't err on the other side, too, and say we're believing something that's so incomprehensible. Well, let's reveal. Scripture reveals. We saw that in Deuteronomy 6, 1 Corinthians chapter 8.

There is one God. As we move through our exposition, we'll see that these three persons, all that is true of God is true of them. They share the essence of deity. It is not one third each, but rather each person fully has the essence of God Most High.

So three propositions are absolutely crucial. We've already looked at the first.

Three Essential Propositions

There is one living and true God. There is one living and true God. A second proposition. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each fully and equally God.

We'll see that again as we move through our study tonight. And then the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each distinct persons. The Father did not die on the cross for our sins. The father sends the son who willingly submits himself to the father, who undertakes to be the surety of a better covenant, who lives a life of sorrow and difficulty and grief in obedience to the law of God, who ultimately dies as a sacrifice at Calvary and rises again.

He prays to his father. He communes with his father. He's filled with the Holy Spirit. All three persons, they're distinct, but each are fully and equally God.

The distinctiveness of the persons, we see that again as we move through the data this evening. But there is also unity within the Trinity. There's not three different things going on with the persons of the Trinity. There's no war.

Jesus says, I always do the will of the Father who sent me. Jesus says, my meat is to do the will of the father who sent me. Our confession says the father, the word of son and the Holy Spirit of one substance, power and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided. Need to be careful.

It's not like Jesus is one third God, the spirit is one third God and the father is one third God. They are all equal in power and in glory. They all are God most high.

What the Trinity Does Not Teach

What is not taught in the Christian doctrine of the Trinity? The first is polytheism. Poly means many. You probably have heard that if you've gone through school.

Poly, what's the word? I'm thinking of shapes. Poly shape. That means many-sided shapes.

Polygon. Thank you. A many-sided shape. Polytheism means a plurality of gods.

That is not what the Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches. We do not worship three gods. It's not tri-theism. It's not bi-theism.

It's not poly-theism. That is simply not the doctrine of the Trinity. Secondly, it's not Arianism. And by Arianism, I don't mean the white supremacists that oftentimes inhabit certain geographical regions like Idaho and prisons.

I'm not speaking about those Arians, not the Arian nation, not the Arian brotherhood. Arius was a church heretic in the church, and Arianism teaches that one God and then little G God, Jesus. There was a time, Arius said, when the sun was not. That is absolutely heretical.

Arius maintained that there was a time when the sun was not. Aryanism is represented today in full swing by the Jehovah's Witnesses. They are Aryans. They have no problem saying that Jesus is a little G-God.

They depersonalize the Holy Spirit, and instead of teaching that he is a person, that he is God Most High, they say he is God's active force. So, Arianism is alive and well today, and we need to understand that. The doctrine of the Trinity is not Arian, it's not polytheism, and it's not modalism. Modalism is that teaching which says that God is one and that he manifests himself in different modes.

God manifests himself in different ways. He was the Father, he becomes the Son, and now he's the Holy Spirit. It's as if he puts on a different mask in order to engage in particular works. Modalism is a denial of the distinction of the persons.

Modalism is represented today by a man named T.D. Jakes. Just recently, there was a big get-together, and some men asked T.D. Jakes very specific questions about the Trinity, and he was vague in his report.

Unfortunately, these men concluded that he's now a Trinitarian. I'm not suggesting that T.D. Jakes can't repent. I'm not suggesting that T.D.

Jakes hasn't changed his mind. I am suggesting that men more skilled and more educated and more theologically adept in the scriptures should ask the questions of T.D. Jakes. He's a modalist unless, again, he has really repented.

Modalists speak of God manifesting himself in a certain way. There is a whole denomination, you'll hear them referred to as Oneness Pentecostal, or Jesus name only. Pentecostalism. They deny the Trinity.

So we are here seeking to defend the Christian doctrine of the Trinity.

Defending the Trinity

So that brings us to our second main section. Everybody with me? This is really important stuff. You can get wrong on a lot of things.

I would imagine there's a lot of different views of eschatology in this room. I would imagine that all of us with our different views of eschatology will sit down at the marriage supper of the Lamb. You can't get the Trinity wrong. Can't mess up here.

There is a hierarchy of doctrines in the scripture. Yes, you need to believe how big the temple was. Yes, you need to believe how many cubits went into the construction of the temple. You need to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, or you will die in your sins.

You must believe the truth concerning God's holy word when it comes to God himself. We need to understand this. We need to think clearly. Now, there is so much in the scripture, and I know that oftentimes that's a preacher's tactic.

There really is so much. We can't spend that much time in it tonight, but just to sort of give a thumbnail sketch, Old Testament, New Testament, B.B.

The Trinity in the Old Testament

Warfield said the Old Testament may be likened to a chamber richly furnished, but dimly lighted. The introduction of light brings into it nothing which was not in it before. But it brings out into clearer view much of what was in it, but was only dimly or even not all perceived before the mystery of the Trinity underlies the Old Testament revelation. And here and there comes into view.

Thus, the revelation of God is not corrected by the fuller revelation that follows it, but only perfected, extended and enlarged. So what Warfield says is the Trinity is in the Old Testament. You see these, the appellation of the inscription of divinity to the coming Messiah. How in the world could that be if he's not God?

How in the world could that be if he's not deity? How in the world in the psalm that we sung tonight, Psalm 45, could we speak of Christ as being God if he's not God? How in the world could the prophet Isaiah prophesy concerning Jesus that he will be mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, unless of course he is God? How in the world could David in Psalm 110 say, Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool?

How in the world do we see the Holy Spirit taking on the very capacity of God Most High in instructing people and in leading people? The grieving of the Holy Spirit is not something unique to the Apostle Paul in the book of Ephesians. God, rehearsing the history of Israel, says that they grieve my Holy Spirit in the prophet Isaiah. The Old Testament is riddled with and littered with, in the righteous sense, God the triune.

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. How did he do this? He spoke it into being. Jesus Christ is the very Word of God, the agent of creation.

The Spirit of God is brooding over the waters. All three persons meet us right in the face, beginning in Genesis chapter one. It is not confined to some few proof texts in the New Testament, but rather the triune God underscores the entirety of biblical revelation. We see the plural form of the divine name Elohim.

We see repetitions of the name of God, oftentimes used by the biblical writers. The angel of the Lord takes on the very characteristic of God most high. Well, most commentators and most theologians agree that those are appearances of the pre-incarnate Christ. Before Christ came into the manger, before Christ took on flesh and blood, Christ was the angel of the Lord doing Yahweh's bidding in the Old Testament scriptures.

The messianic promises concerning the servant of the Lord, the Psalms are literally scattered and full of references to the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. I've highlighted Isaiah the prophet, the servant of the Lord. The eternality of Christ is specified in Micah chapter 5, when it announces that it would be Bethlehem, Ephrathah, that tiny place from whom a ruler would go, whose origin is from everlasting. The Lord Christ is announced as the eternal one to come to save his people from their sins.

So it's not just confined to the New Testament, but it's simply all throughout Scripture. Now,

The Trinity in the New Testament

when we get to the New Testament, Warfield again, perceptively writes this or perceptively rather, says it is not a text here and there that the New Testament bears its testimony to the doctrine of the Trinity. The whole book is Trinitarian to the core. You can't miss it. You have to really be reading in a perverse manner to miss the Trinity.

You have to try to miss it. How does John begin his gospel? By shining the spotlight upon the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word.

That's Jesus. Drop down to verse 14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. He's speaking about Jesus in John 1.1.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. There's that distinction between the persons. The Father and the Word are distinct persons, but he goes on to say, and the Word was God. There's unity in terms of essence.

You read through the upper room discourse, it is literally riddled with the triune God. Sinclair Ferguson has said something to the effect. It's very interesting that when Jesus is preparing his disciples for his coming departure, that he speaks on the Trinity, that he fills them with the knowledge of the triune God throughout the upper room discourse. It's absolutely lovely and brilliant and blessing.

So, Warfield is right. The whole book is Trinitarian to the core. All its teaching is built on the assumption of the Trinity, and its allusions to the Trinity are frequent, cursory, easy, and confident. And then he says this, and I think it's an excellent observation.

In a word, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are the fundamental proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. You see, no one questions the deity of the Father. That's pretty well assumed. Even the cults, even the heretics, even the polytheists, well, maybe not the polytheists, but the modalists, the Arians, the Sibelians, the Sassanians, the Jehovah's Witnesses, the whoever's, usually accept the deity of the Father.

It's not the issue. But what Warfield says is key to our understanding of this doctrine of the Trinity. Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit are fundamental proof of the doctrine of the Trinity. In other words, if you establish the personhood and deity of Christ in the Spirit, you've done the work of exegesis.

You have accomplished the task of defending the doctrine itself. Well, let's just look at some passages just to get into our heads.

Trinitarian Texts and Patterns

There are specific Trinitarian references. Matthew, chapter three, for a moment. Matthew, chapter three, or triadic patterns, that means the three persons present in a particular passage. Notice in Matthew, chapter three, at verse 13, and Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him.

And John tried to prevent him saying, I need to be baptized by you. And are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, permit it to be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him.

When he had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were open to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven saying, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Francis Turretin, in his Institutes of Olympic Theology, comments here on Matthew 3, 16 and 17. He says, hence the saying of the ancients.

Arian, go to Jordan, and there you will see the Trinity. Arian, go to Jordan. Remember Arius, the heretic that denied the Trinity? Arius, the heretic that is the forerunner of the modern-day Jehovah's Witness movement?

The ancients said, go to Jordan, there you will see the Trinity. You see the sun going down into the water. You see the spirit alighting upon it as a dove. And you hear the voice of God most high say, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

The baptismal formula in Matthew 28. This would've been a wonderful passage to address to Mr. Jakes, to ask him, is it proper, is it right to baptize in the name of the triune God? Again, oneness Pentecostals baptize in the name of Jesus only.

Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus came and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them, notice, in the name singular. Don't miss that. It's the name singular of the living and the true God, the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you.

And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Romans chapter 8 verse 11 again, a sampling of passages to show all three persons being spoken up as Warfield says, the allusions to the Trinity are frequent, cursory, easy and confident. In other words, the apostolic writers could use things synonymously like the Spirit of God and the Spirit of Christ all in one fell swoop because they were Trinitarian to the core. Romans chapter 8 verse 11, but if the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his spirit who dwells in you.

Going back to verse 9, you are not in the flesh but in the spirit, if indeed the spirit of God He dwells in you. Now, if anyone does not have the spirit of Christ, he is not his. You see that that cursory, that easy, that confident, that frequent allusion to the various persons involved in this act of redemption of God's people. First Corinthians, Chapter 12.

Paul dealing with the gifts. First Corinthians, Chapter 12. Notice in verse 12. I'm sorry, verse 4, 1 Corinthians chapter 12, verse 4.

There are diversities of gifts, but the same spirit. There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. We've got the spirit.

We've got the Lord Jesus. We've got God the Father here again. just being alluded to. He's not engaged in a defense of the Trinity at this point. He's doing theology in terms of the gifts, in terms of the charismata, but he is using the various persons of the Trinity, not using them in some wicked way, but using them to bolster his argument and highlight the reality that the dispensation of the gifts among God's people come from the Spirit according to his will.

And he's highlighting these blessed realities in terms of the backdrop being the triune God himself. Ephesians chapter one. Again, we're skipping here. Ephesians chapter one.

We read it. What's the whole purpose of Ephesians chapter one? Praising God, right? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

That's the purpose. Let's bless God. Let's praise God. Let's speak well of God.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. So he says, Blessed be God. And then he highlights the specific activities of each of the persons within the Godhead. The Father chooses us.

The Father predestines us. The Son comes and dies for us. He redeems us through his precious blood. And the Spirit is the one, the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance.

You see, blessed be God and the specific persons of the Trinity are celebrated for their act of redemption in the saving of sinners from their sins. It is everywhere. Assume notice in Ephesians four Ephesians chapter four verses four to six. Just wetting your appetite.

You're going to go home and get your concordance out. Start looking at father, son and spirit. Start looking at the overwhelming data that the scripture affords concerning this doctrine of the Trinity. It's not just Matthew 28, 19.

It's not one proof text here or there. Again, it presupposes the entirety of biblical revelation. There is one God, one true and living God, who exists in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Notice in Ephesians 4, 4, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in you all.

We've got a reference to the Spirit, to the Son, the Lord, and a reference to the Father as well. So there are specific Trinitarian references. Again, we don't need to spend time defending the deity of the Father. But

The Deity of the Son

what about the Son? I already mentioned John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John 20.28.

Thomas' confession of faith. See what John's doing? He's bookending. The deity of Christ.

John's Gospel promotes the glory of Christ. John's Gospel is about presenting Jesus and His Majesty and His excellence. These things I write to you so that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. John 20, 28, when Thomas sees Jesus, he says, My Lord and my God.

Jesus accepts that. It's interesting when the angel speaks to the seer in the book of Revelation, and the seer wants to worship the angel. He says, don't do that. When Paul and Barnabas go into, I think it's Lystra, the heathen want to worship them.

They said, don't do that. We're men of like nature. Don't worship us. But when Thomas says, my Lord and my God, Jesus doesn't silence him.

Jesus doesn't denounce him. Jesus doesn't dismiss him. But rather, Jesus receives that affirmation. Jesus receives that glory.

Jesus Christ is God. We saw in the scripture reading this morning in John chapter 12, these things Isaiah said when he saw his glory. What did Isaiah see? He saw the Son of Man.

He saw the Lord of glory. He saw the second person of the triune God, lofty and lifted and high and exalted. He saw the angels singing praise. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts.

The whole earth is full of His glory. We have explicit assertions concerning the deity of Christ. John 1.1, John 1.14, John 1.18, John 20.28, Romans 9.5, Titus 2.13, Hebrews 1.8, and 2 Peter 1.1 for a few of them. Again, we'll hopefully keep you busy later.

There's application of divine names to the Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah 9. Mighty God. Everlasting Father.

Prince of Peace. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. God was manifested in the flesh. That doesn't mean the manifestations of the modalists. It was rather highlighting the blessed reality that Christ came in the likeness of man.

There is the divine functions of Christ. Created all things, didn't He? John 1.1-3. Colossians 1.15-20.

Who can create but God alone? There is the divine function of government. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Colossians 1.17 says, All things consist.

Hebrews 1.3 says, He upholds all things by the Word of His power. He is the exact representation of God Most High. In the upper room, the disciples could say, Show us the Father. And Jesus says, If you've seen Me, you've seen the Father.

Christ is God. You see what the modalists and the Arians and the polytheists want to do? They want to rip Jesus off His throne. They want to cast Him down.

They want to kick dust in His face. It may sound pious. It may sound holy. It may sound like they are trying to protect the integrity of the oneness of God Most High, but it is a direct attack upon our Savior.

He has divine attributes. He is eternal. In the beginning was. Not in the beginning he came to be.

It's an interesting use of verbs there. In the beginning he was. He always was. But he became flesh and tabernacled among us. 2 Corinthians 8.

You know our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich essentially, yet for your sakes he became poor. That you through his poverty might become rich. He is omnipresent. See, say in Matthew 18.

He says, where two or three are gathered in my name, there I will be in the midst of them. What's he say in Matthew 28? And, lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Jesus is omnipotent, all authority in heaven and on earth.

Jesus describes himself in the book of Revelation, chapters two and three, as the one who searches the hearts of men. Jesus holds the keys of death and Hades. Jesus has omniscience. Jesus has immutability.

That means he's unchangeable. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever. You see, all these things are true of Christ. There were times in his ministry on Earth that men would see these things.

Remember when Jesus hushed the sea? Remember when he calmed the storm? What was the response of the disciples? They were exceedingly afraid.

You say, that's kind of an interesting response. No, it isn't. Not when they were very familiar with the Psalter, not when they were very familiar with the Old Testament that God was ruler over the waves. And so when Jesus gets up from his nap and Jesus hushes the storm and everything becomes calm, it ought not to surprise us that they were exceedingly afraid.

And their question was, what manner of man is this? What kind of a man can speak to the wind? What kind of a man can and can stop the water? What kind of a man does this?

It was a fearful thing to them because they were in the presence of God. And then as well, Jesus forgives sins. Remember in Mark, chapter two, they lower that paralytic down on his back. Jesus says, Your sins are forgiven you.

The Pharisees start to scratch their head and say, Who can forgive sins but God alone? Jesus says, Which is easier to say to the paralytic, Take up your bed and walk, or your sins are forgiven you? He says, But that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He tells the paralytic, Take up your bed and walk.

We all say, isn't that amazing, he caused this man to walk. No, what's amazing is that he forgave the man of his sins and that causing him to walk simply illustrated or demonstrated or affirmed the reality that he has the power to forgive sins. Always better to have forgiveness of sins than to take up your bed and walk. I'm not suggesting it's okay to not be able to walk.

I sympathize and empathize. I would hope that God will bring a healing to your life. But if given the choice, do you want the forgiveness of sins or the ability to run a 440? Hopefully, you'll pick the forgiveness of sins.

That's our Jesus, the Holy Spirit.

The Personality and Deity of the Spirit

Gordon Clark says, with respect to modern deviations from Orthodox doctrine, It is popularly said that we are obliged to defend the deity, not the personality of the son and the personality, not the deity of the spirit. You see, we don't deny the personhood of Jesus. We need to spend time defending his deity. We don't deny the deity generally of the Holy Spirit.

We need to deal with his personhood. Well, consider that he communicates and he instructs. He can be lied to. He can be grieved.

He intercedes for his people. He directs the church. He gives gifts to the church. He regenerates.

He illumines. The Holy Spirit is a person. Acts chapter 5. You've not lied to men, but you've lied to God.

He is speaking about God, the Holy Spirit there, very specifically and very conspicuously. You don't grieve an active force. You don't grieve impersonal power. You don't beseech impersonal power and active force to come and intercede for you, when all you can do is groan and moan and whine, and yet the Spirit presents prayer up to the Father on your behalf.

The Spirit of God, the Spirit Almighty. We have a triune God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Again, these are a sampling of texts. I don't want to go too long.

The Trinity Displayed

The doctrine displayed, we see Him at creation, we see Him in redemption. Where do we best see the glory of the triune God? When He said, let us make man, and when He says, let us redeem man. Best proof, best display, best illustration of the triune God at work, when He creates this world in Genesis chapter 1, and when He redeems us from our sins, Matthew chapter 3.

Ryle's comment on that. He says, in Genesis 1, God says, let us make man. Matthew chapter 3 says, let us redeem man.

Application and Conclusion

Well, brethren, there is a brief sketch of the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. A couple of things in conclusion. First, the importance of it.

The Importance of the Doctrine

The importance of it. We need to know who God is, don't we? We're not like the heathen. Just babbling our prayers, hoping that they'll connect to somebody.

We need to know our Father in heaven. We need to know our mediator. We need to know the Holy Spirit. We need to know the triune God, because that's who God is.

We need to understand what the scripture says concerning Him. If we do not know the Trinity, we do not know God. This is the fundamental flaw with modalism. If he only appears to be this, and he appears to be that, and he appears to be this, then we have no idea what he really is.

It is the Trinity that expresses the glory of God most high, one true, one living God, three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Blessed unity, holy distinction, and blessed, blessed activity in the lives of his people. as well with reference to the importance of the doctrine, the atonement. One of the arguments that Athanasius used in terms of his defense of the deity of Jesus Christ, Athanasius was the fighter against Arius. Athanasius said only God himself could save fallen humanity.

Jesus is no creature Jesus is not a created being. Jesus is God Most High coming to this world to save His people from their sins. justification by faith alone. We are not to put our faith in a creature. We're not to put our faith in an equal.

We're to put our faith in the Son of God, Most High, who came, who lived, who died, and who rose again. He is the target. He is the object of saving faith. Francis Turretin said, Thus he who does not acknowledge and believe the Trinity has not the true God that is erected for himself an idol in the place of God.

It is that important. You see this discussion going on right now. It's pathetic. Well, is it really that important?

Does it really matter if he's a modalist? Not even touching on his health, wealth, prosperity madness. Does it really matter? Well, to men like Paul it mattered.

To men like the prophet Isaiah it mattered. To the Godman Jesus it mattered, and it certainly ought to matter to each and every one of us. Another man, Peter Toon, said preachers and teachers need so to communicate the faith and so direct public worship that they really and truly give the impression that the Holy Trinity is God and God is the Holy Trinity. He said it before, a Jew should not be comfortable in Christian worship.

A Jew should not be able to come under Christian preaching and say, you know, that was good. I agree with it. I remember seeing a clip one time about Joel Osteen and a couple came up to Joel Osteen and one was the man was Jewish and his wife was Roman Catholic and they both together loved Joel Osteen. Chris, loan out a gun and shoot me in the head if ever that happens under preaching here.

Just take me out. Not because we should needlessly or insensitively, I don't want to be insensitive, offend Jews and Roman Catholics, but if our preaching isn't of the triune God, we're not magnifying the glory of Jesus Christ and the deity of the Holy Spirit. A Jew can come in and say, well, that was a good sermon, I feel good. That's bad preaching.

This ain't the synagogue. St. the Temple, St. the Tabernacle. We preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. To the Jews, a stumbling block.

Why was it a stumbling block? Because Paul said that God came into this world and died for sinners. See why that's a scandal to the Jew? You see why that's an offense to the Jew?

You see why that just rubs him the wrong way? Or when Jesus is interacting with the religious leaders of his day, and they say, not for good works do we try and stone you, but you being a man, make yourself equal with God. They just couldn't get their minds wrapped around this stuff. Remember, I think it was Clark, he said that Paul understood Christianity as an unconverted man very well.

That's why he fought so hard to destroy it. Paul understood the claims of the Christians. Paul understood what they were asserting of Jesus of Nazareth. And that fueled him to that almost maniacal expression of hatred for the church.

Concerning zeal, what does he say? I persecuted the church. He understood the claims. He didn't accept it until the road to Damascus.

Bavi said, Athanasius. understood better than any of his contemporaries that Christianity stands or falls with the confession of the deity of Christ and of the Trinity. In the confession of the Trinity throbs the heart of the Christian religion. Every error results from or upon deeper reflection may be traced to a wrong view of this doctrine. Take Christology, for instance.

It's well been said, a departure from the Council of Chalcedon ends you in a bad place. 431, a creed was adopted, a creed was given, a creed was written that reflected the deity of Christ as the Scripture sets it forth. A departure to the right, a departure to the left ends one in some very troubling waters. We need to understand this doctrine.

Trinity as Ground of Worship

Secondly, the worship of God, John 4, 21 to 24. Jesus says, God is spirit. Those who worship must worship in spirit and truth. The traditional interpretation of that is with the heart and with the head.

Well, that was common understanding. Everybody who sat under the prophets, everybody who sat under biblical teaching would realize you're supposed to bring the heart and the head to the synagogue. You're supposed to bring the heart and head to church. Perhaps Jesus is saying, God is spirit.

Those who worship must worship in the Holy Spirit and in Christ, the spirit and truth. The time is coming and now is when men will no longer worship just in Jerusalem. But the worship of God is universalized. It's gone global.

And the approach to this God is in the triune nature of God. Those who worship must worship in spirit and in truth. Gregory. I think that's the pronunciation.

He says, No sooner do I conceive of the one than I am. I am illumined by the splendor of the three. No sooner do I distinguish them than I am carried back to the one. When I think of any one of the three, I think of him as the whole and my eyes are filled and the greater part of what I am thinking escapes me.

I cannot grasp the greatness of that one. So as to attribute a greater greatness to the rest, when I contemplate the three together, I see but one torch and cannot divide or measure out the undivided light. And Donald MacLeod says this of God as he is. God is not simply a great sight, the object of speculative curiosity.

The revelation of his glory in the whole theological process, which legitimately follows from it, is holy ground. He says we cannot stand as superiors over God in his word. We may not coldly and detachedly analyze and collate the great self-revealing deeds and utterances of Jehovah. We may not theologize without emotion or commitment.

The doctrine must thrill and exhilarate. It must humble and cast down. Theology has lost its way, and indeed its very soul, if it cannot say with John, I fell at his feet, is dead. The right understanding of who God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, ought to evoke from us worship, praise, adoration, and then comfort.

I love this edition of the London Baptist Confession of 1689. The Westminster Divines, as wonderful as they did in terms of describing the doctrine and dealing with the doctrine, the subsistence, the unity of the persons and the Godhead, all those things, the Baptists came along and added this statement, which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God and comfortable dependence upon him. It's not some cold, detached doctrine. It ought to be in your heart, it ought to be in your mind, it ought to thrill, it ought to exhilarate.

We come to the Father through the mediation of the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit. God saves sinners. God chose, God predestined. The Son dies and rises again.

The Spirit takes that finished work of Christ and applies it to the elect. What more glorious thing can there be than who God is? What more wondrous thing than to go to the Jordan and there see the Trinity? What more wondrous thing than to behold our God in his majesty?

My brothers and sisters, this is a doctrine worth defending. It is a doctrine worth dying for. It is a doctrine currently and always under attack. And it is a doctrine that we need to think clearly about.

And if you don't know Christ tonight, believe on him. Believe on the Lord Jesus. You may not be able to formulate those propositions and quote Gregory and Donald MacLeod and all that sort of thing, but you need to look to Christ. It's Christ alone who saves his people from their sins.

It is the gospel. It is the good news. It is what Jesus did on behalf of sinners. He's a substitute.

He's a sacrifice. He gave himself for sinners. Well, let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank you for your word and thank you so very much for your glory revealed in the Holy Scripture. Thank you that you are one true and living God, that there are three persons in the Godhead, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. These three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and in glory. God, give us clarity of thought when we approach these things and give us grace to, as McLeod suggests, to take our sandals off and to stand amazed and to humble, be humbled under your glory and majesty.

We just thank you for your grace. We thank you for your mercy. We thank you that you not only made man, but you have redeemed man as well. Go with us now.

Cause your face to shine upon us. Grant us grace and help and strength to glorify you. And God, we do pray for this man, Mr. Jakes.

I pray that you would grant him repentance, that you would grant him faith, that he would believe the truth as it is in Jesus. That if he has made a change, if he has embraced Trinitarianism, then praise be to you, Lord God. May the people of God be cautious and may the people of God approach these things with due diligence. For God, we pray that in all things you would be glorified.

We ask through Christ the Lord. Amen.

Scripture References

• Genesis 1:1
• Deuteronomy 6:4
• Psalm 45; 110:1
• Isaiah 9:6
• Micah 5:2
• Matthew 3:13; 3:16-17; 18:20; 28:18-20
• Mark 2
• John 1:1; 1:3; 1:14; 1:18; 4:21-24; 12; 20:28
• Acts 5:3-4
• Romans 8:9; 8:11; 9:5
• 1 Corinthians 8:4; 8:6; 12:4
• 2 Corinthians 8:9
• Ephesians 1:3-14; 4:4-6
• Colossians 1:15-20; 1:17
• 1 Timothy 3:16
• Titus 2:13
• Hebrews 1:3; 1:8
• 2 Peter 1:1
• Revelation 2-3