The Trinity

[00:00:00] Speaker A: This morning, I want to do a quick pop quiz. Does everybody have a pen? It'll be a little interactive, but real quick, I want us to know where we stand on these. So these are going to be true. False. We'll go one by one. So write down on your paper. Doesn't matter where it is. We're not going to grade it aloud or anything. And there's not a grade. But I just want us to know, you know, how much we understand. Some of these are going to be easy, some not so easy. But number one is there is one God. True or false. So write it down. Write it down. Okay, you've probably written it down. The answer is true. Okay, might be feeling good. God is one person. True or false? God is one person. The answer is false. God is three beings. God is three beings. Giving you guys a little. Okay, I think that's enough time to write it down. False. The answer is false. If you ever have an objection, you can raise your hand and ask me. But the lesson is on this stuff, so hopefully we'll answer it later. Number four. There are three persons in the Godhead. Godhead is one word. It's how we describe God. There are three persons in the Godhead. The answer is true. True. Okay, someone's doing good. Number five. The Father is fully God. True or false. Should have had some good quiz music for this. The answer is true. The Father is fully God. The Father is the Holy Spirit. That answer is false. They're different persons. The Father is not the Holy Spirit. The Son came into being when he was incarnated. So that means incarnated is when he put on flesh. When he was conceived by Mary. The Son came into being. The answer is false. He did not come into being when he was incarnated. Now, the Son was brought into being in eternity past. So that means basically before creation. The sun was brought into being before creation. No, it's a statement. I'm saying. Well, the question is, is that true or false? The Son was brought into being before creation. Yeah, that's number eight. It's slightly different than the one before. No, no, the answer is false. It's false. The Son was never brought into being. He is God. He always is. Was. Okay, number nine. The Son is submissive to the Father in his humanity. A little more to think about. The answer is true. The answer is true. In his humanity, he willingly submits. He's not lesser than, but he submits. Number 10. The son and the Spirit are subordinate, so lesser to the Father in their nature. The Son and the Spirit are subordinate to the Father in their nature. That answer is, of course, false. Okay, maybe these are getting a little bit more difficult. Number 11. Now, in their nature, the Son and the Spirit are co equal with the Father. True or false? The Son and the Spirit are, in their nature co equal with the Father. And the answer is true. They are. Number 12. God exists as Father, Son and Holy Spirit in different eras or in different purposes, but never at the same time. He does not exist as Father, Son and Holy Spirit at the same time. That's what it's saying. True or false? The answer is false. Good. Good. Can you guys read it on my face ever? Do I have a good enough poker face? Number 13. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three different names for the one person of God as he displays his work in three different roles. It's a little bit longer. I'll read it again. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are three different names for the one person of God as he displays his work in three different roles. True or false? It's a little complicated. It's okay. You can just make a guess. The answer is false. Answer is false. Number 14. A right understanding of the Trinity is vital for right worship and a right understanding of salvation. So this is saying you must understand the Trinity to worship rightly and to know salvation rightly. Is that true or false? It is. It is. The answer is true. The answer is true. And then finally, we cannot confidently or fully derive the doctrine of the Trinity from the Bible alone. True or false? That answer is false. We can confidently derive the Trinity from the Bible. In fact, that's where we've gotten it to begin with. And hopefully we'll find the answers to these. If any of these are still a little confusing to you in your mind, you can talk. Talk to me later. But I want you to know. How did you do? Did anybody get all of them? Okay, a couple people got all of them. Good job. I mean, really good job. Because some of them. Huh? Well, there were 15, but that's still not a bad score. But it's okay, you know, you don't have to say your score. Just because you didn't get them all doesn't mean you're not a true Christian. You don't know how to worship. You don't really understand salvation. But you can, of course, worship God in a more pure way, and you can always understand salvation more. We can grasp the Trinity more, and so that's our goal. There's kind of a big difference between having a few mistaken ideas or understandings about the Trinity, which is a complicated doctrine. And being a heretic. You're not a heretic because you got a few of these wrong. You'd be a heretic if you were, like, defending them from the Bible and never giving up that position. When I was in college, I took this quiz, but it was probably about twice as long as a friend told me to, and I missed a couple. And I thought, what in the world? I thought I would have known them all. So that humbled me a little bit. Yeah. So it's difficult. Now I want to ask. And so you guys give an answer to why does the Trinity matter for the average Christian? Maybe Makes sense why it would matter for me. Why does it matter for the average Christian? Yes. [00:07:36] Speaker B: Because the Trinity. The Trinity is God, and you worship God. So it is kind of important to know what or who you are. [00:07:47] Speaker A: Yeah. Why is it important to know who you are worshiping? [00:07:53] Speaker B: Because if you don't know who you're worshiping, then it's not like you're not really worshiping because you don't know what you're worshiping. [00:08:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. It's like the Athenians, the Greeks that Paul talks to in acts that are. They have an idol to an unknown God. They're just like, I don't know. There's probably someone out there we don't know, really. It's almost a hard question to answer. Like, it's just obvious. How can you worship something you don't know? Are there any other reasons why the average Christian should care about the Trinity? [00:08:36] Speaker C: I mean, it's where you get salvation. [00:08:40] Speaker A: That's right. And salvation wouldn't actually work if God was not Trinity the way we have it all laid out. So we should want to know it because it describes, like David said, the very essence of the God we worship, who he is. And there's salvation. There's also prayer. I would add in as another reason it's important. But, you know, we've kind of discussed how it's important for salvation. One thing that Greg Allison wrote, he wrote this book called 50 Core Truths that I've used as I've prepared these lessons. He said the Father purposed and directed the Son. So the Father directed the Son to become incarnate, to put on flesh. The Son willingly obeyed the Father and accomplished salvation. And now the Spirit applies salvation to people's lives. And so all three persons are active. If you don't have one of those persons, then salvation, the process is halted at some point or another. Even if the Spirit's Gone, Salvation is accomplished, but it's never applied to anybody, and so it's for nothing. Now, how is the Trinity important for prayer? Does anybody have any ideas, maybe think of how we pray? Typically. [00:10:20] Speaker C: We pray in Jesus name. [00:10:22] Speaker A: Yeah. So that's not just, you know, a fun way that we just end our prayers. It's. It's because we are supposed to pray in his name. That doesn't mean you technically have to say it, but we are told in scripture to pray in Jesus name as he intercedes for us to the Father. So usually you'll hear people begin by saying Father or addressing God in general. So typically the direction is we pray to the Father through the Son or in the name of the Son. And we do it by the power of the Holy Spirit who helps us communicate with God. We learn that when we are unable to express ourselves truly, the Spirit is able to talk to the Father for us. Now, who can define the Trinity? Who can kind of tell us basically what it is or what it says? [00:11:26] Speaker C: Three equal persons in one being. [00:11:29] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. And I didn't even like leave do blanks on the main idea. This is kind of how I would say it, which is what Liza said, but with like the persons named, the one true God is triune or three in one, eternally existing as the three persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So that's important. Now let's get into the Word and kind of learn. We're going to go through. Let's see how many we have. Five affirmations. So these are the things the church and Christians affirm about the Trinity. But let's go to Isaiah 45 and we'll see our first one, Isaiah 45. Would somebody read verses five through seven? Five, seven. [00:12:34] Speaker C: I am the Lord, and there is no other. There is no God besides me. I will gird you, but you have not known me. That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting, that there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create calamity. I, the Lord, do all these things. [00:12:55] Speaker A: Thank you. We see here a couple times, he says, I am the Lord and there is no other. So our first affirmation is that there is one God. There is one God. So we should note as we begin that the Bible progressively reveals God. What this means is that as we start in the very beginning in Genesis, we have some very clunky basic ideas. But if that's all we had, it would Be a little hard for us to formulate. In fact, we wouldn't be able to formulate the doctrines we have to the same extent. If that's all God chose to give us, it would be sufficient. But he has given us more. And so as you read Scripture and you get to the end, especially as when it comes to the Trinity, when you see Christ and he gives his followers the Spirit, you learn more about God progressively. So bit by bit. So we're going to kind of start toward the beginning and move on beyond that. And so this is true of a lot of doctrines, but it is definitely true of the Trinity. I hope we'll see how it is. So it gets more and more clear as we go. One of the major affirmations is that God is one. He is one. Now, this can be confused, right? When we have Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, which are three, but God is one. That is kind of like the building blocks. That's what we know. That's what Israel knew and believed and held firmly. Now, how do we know this? Can I get three volunteers to read verses? And I'll give you, like, a verse. Can you do Deuteronomy 6:4? Someone else can do Isaiah 44:6. You don't even have to turn the page, really. Maybe like, once. Isaiah 44:6. And then one person to do first. Corinthians 8:4. Thank you. Okay, so can we do Deuteronomy 6:4 first? Because that comes earliest. [00:15:06] Speaker C: Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. [00:15:10] Speaker A: Thank you. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. This is one of the most important verses to the nation of Israel. This is something that they were to repeat over and over to their families. It goes on for a few more verses, but they would start by affirming that God is one. So sometimes people, especially when I went to college, professors loved to say that Israel didn't believe in a monotheistic God. That is trash. That's not true. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. They believed in one God. Okay, Mia, can you read Isaiah 44:6? [00:15:44] Speaker C: Thus says the Lord, the King of. [00:15:46] Speaker A: Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first, and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God. There is no God. So again, affirming to the nation of Israel, much later in their history, the same truth. Thank you. And then, David, can you read 1 Corinthians 8:4? [00:16:04] Speaker B: Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to items, we know that an idol has no real existence and that there is no God. But one. [00:16:14] Speaker A: Thank you. So this truth is true all throughout. It did not change at any point in Jewish or Christian history that God is one. Now there is a heresy. Our first heresy. This is heresy number one on the sheet. I just wanted to keep track. This one is tritheism. Maybe I'll write this down. I don't know. People will come in here and see that we just have a bunch of heresies written on the board. But tritheism, hopefully that's. I don't know if that's very large, but tritheism, which means there are three gods. Theos is God. So theism, you're talking about a God, then try three. Three gods. That's what they believe. Now, why is it important for us to believe that there is only one? Yeah. [00:17:17] Speaker C: Because if there are three gods, they can act separately from each other. [00:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah, both of those are absolutely true and right. So on one hand, you can't account for all the verses that we just read and many others that affirm the same truth. But also they could be competing. Who exactly do you worship and why? Why do we pray to the Father if the Son is the One that saved us? It would divide up their works. And if there is more than one God, were they all existent among themselves or did one create the others? You just have a whole host of other issues that we can't really understand. So there would be no Father to send his Son, no Son to accomplish salvation, no Spirit to apply it. We'd be lost. We would not have salvation as we know it, or at all. Now let's go to our second affirmation. Affirmation 2. God eternally exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So those are the blame. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The truth again is revealed progressively. So we're going to kind of run through the Bible. So once you guys write that down, go to Genesis 1, Genesis 1, the very beginning, and I'll read verse 26. Genesis 1 26. Then God said, let us make man in our image after our likeness, 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. So what does this reveal to us about God? You're cooking up something. What do you have? Okay, yeah. So we know. Yeah, so we know that God is able to use a first person plural pronoun, you know, but do we, like, really know why he does if this is all you have, like, at this point? No. You know, he's creator, he says us, and that's it, you know, at this point. But then you read and you want to have more revealed. So remember, you would eventually read, get to Deuteronomy 6. The Lord our God, the Lord is one. So just in the first five books we would know, okay, so he can say us, but he is one. Both of these are true. And so we don't exactly know how that can work out quite yet, but it continues to be revealed. So let's go to Psalm 45, a little further down the line of history. Quite a bit further down the line of history, I should say Psalm 45. Can someone read verses 6 and 7? Uh huh. [00:20:34] Speaker B: Your throne, O God, is forever known. The scepter of your kingdom is a scepter of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed me one with the oil of gladness beyond your convenience. [00:20:50] Speaker A: Yeah, thank you. So what does this reveal to us about God? Might be a little more difficult to see. Really? Anything. I mean, sure, I'm sure you guys see lots of right answers, but you might be thinking, you know, what does this teach us about the Trinity specifically? I gotta admit, that is kind of difficult. Well, you should notice is in verse seven, he says, God, your God. He says, God, your God has anointed you. So he's using God to refer to basically two different agents, two different persons. And that's interesting. Something similar happens in Psalm 110, verse 1, which I'll just read, says the Lord, says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So if you look at that, it says Lord in all capital letters, meaning Yahweh says to my Lord, which would be Adonai, just the regular word for Lord, sit in my right hand. So there are two people referred to as David's Lord, as David wrote that psalm. And the New Testament reveals to us that this verse is about the Father and the Son. They say, how can David refer to his Son as his Lord? That's because his son eventually is Jesus. And so we see that there is two persons referred to as God, at least in Psalm 45. Now let's go to the New Testament. This is where most of the progressive revelation becomes clear. Matthew 3, Matthew 3. And look, I will read verses 16 and 17. Jesus is being baptized. Here it says when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened 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 well pleased. What does this reveal to us about God? What holes does this fill? Yeah, yeah. All three of those persons are active at once, right? And we see them doing different things, but yet being inseparable. So we learn quite a bit there about God and his persons. The Spirit coming from the Father, and the Father claiming the Son as himself. All happens right here. And at the end of this same book. At the end of Matthew, Matthew 28:19, Jesus says, Go therefore make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. So he is placing the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit on the same plane to be baptized into the Church of God. So Jesus is claiming all three persons are the one God. We are to be baptized. Everyone, everyone is baptized into the Trinity, right? Me and Caleb just baptized last week, baptized into the Trinity like every other Christian. First Corinthians now. First Corinthians 12. So this is now after Christ has been crucified, resurrected, ascended into heaven. This is the beginning of the church. Age. 1 Corinthians 12. We're learning more and more, verses 4 through 6. I'll read this too. Now, there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of service, but the same Lord. And there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. So here again, just a repetition that the church is believing that there are these three persons to the one God that is so important to their existence and functioning as a church. And we could read other verses if you want to look at them later. 2nd Corinthians 13, 14 and 1st Peter 1:2 would be helpful if you want to write that down, but for the sake of time, we'll keep going. Now, if we deny that the Son and the Spirit are God, then we fall into our heresy number two on your sheet. Heresy number two is called Unitarianism. Unitarianism. So you might notice it's not tri, it's uni. So they are collapsing down into one person. They deny that the Son and the Spirit are God. Why is this heresy dangerous? What could be so dangerous and scary about Unitarianism? Yes, Jonah, all three persons are important. [00:27:02] Speaker B: Because if you only worship, if you only recognize the Father, then who's going to save us? If you only recognize. [00:27:13] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly, exactly. As well as prayer collapse. So those things about, right, worship, understanding, salvation, being able to pray, all of that collapses and it completely falls away. That's exactly right. Second Peter one one says, Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who obtained a faith of equal standing with ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. So Peter ascribes Godness to the Son. He says our God and Savior Jesus Christ as well. If we flip over To Acts chapter 5, verses 3 through 4, we see and I'll read this. We see. 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. While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, 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. So he says, you have lied to the Holy Spirit, you have lied to God. So here Peter, in both cases he's speaking, he attributes the Spirit to being God and he attributes the Son to being God. So Unitarianism cannot be true if the Bible is true. And we need to know this, because if the Spirit is not God like we said, then he has no sovereignty, but he must have sovereignty to apply salvation to our hearts, to grant us faith. Regeneration, which is a word that means when we are converted, is a unilateral act of the Spirit. The Spirit works it in your heart. It's when he gives you a new heart. And if the Son is not God, then his sacrificial death would have only served to save Himself. It could not have applied infinitely to all the elect. It would have only worked for Himself. And so the Son must be God too. If we deny that the Son is God, then we would just the Son is God, then we would fall into a different heresy that we'll write down. The next one is Arianism. This was a big one. And in fact there are still a couple large pseudo Christians, they're not truly Christian denominations that are Arians. The Mormons are Arians and the Jehovah's Witnesses are Arians. They have denied that Jesus is God. The same with the Father. And the Mormons claim He is a God. They both claim he's a God, but a lesser version of a God than the Father. And so this has the same sort of danger of denying the deity of the Son. And then if you only deny that the Spirit is God, you fall into the most confusing sounding heresy of them all. Pneumatomachianism. I'm going to write it down. This one's Crazy. I'd be impressed if you can even write it down. Not really, but because, I mean, it's crazy. I didn't. I never heard anyone use this in a sentence. I thought I had enough room. That last letter is an M, and if not, just say. Just put in the blank. Denying the Spirit is God. That's what it is. And it's the same sort of danger. You deny the Spirit is God, you can't apply salvation. He can't help you pray. He can't renew your heart. Salvation is lost entirely without the deity of the Spirit. Now let's do our next affirmation. So this is on the back page, affirmation number three. These next few are a lot quicker. Each of the three persons is fully God. Fully God or truly God, whatever it means to be God. They are that. Now, why is this so important to uphold? In other words, if you need help, what happens if each person is one third God? Yeah, exactly. [00:31:50] Speaker B: Isn't that like partialism? [00:31:55] Speaker A: Yes, it is, actually. It is partialism, which I don't have written down. So that's a good. I'm going to write that down. You're right. That is partialism. Good job. The Patrick thing, I thought about it, but I can't figure out how to work our projector. It's broken. There's a video that teaches you all these heresies in a relatively funny way. Oh, this is different. [00:32:22] Speaker B: To come together to create Voltron. [00:32:26] Speaker A: Yeah, that is a. That's a good analogy for partialism. Yeah. Yeah. So they. They are not. And it presupposes that they all have to exist separately, which would mean that there wasn't this one God, the Lord of God. The Lord is one. Right. This one God didn't exist in. At some point in eternity past, because these three would, in theory, have to come together. It just makes such a mess of the Trinity. So none of them could truly be God in that on their own. They aren't God, they're just a third of him. Affirmation number four. The three are distinct in roles. R, O, L, E, S. The three.