Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.
Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.
So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. When you study the Gospel of John, for example, you can find easily eight separate principles which reinforce the reality of the deity of Christ. He has the name of God. He has unity with God the Father.
He many other things that I won't go into right now. The point being is that the Bible calls Jesus God. He does the works of God. He has the name of God. He has unity with God.
The Father. It is plastered all over Scripture, especially in the New Testament, that Christ is God in human flesh. Now as we keep in mind what we're teaching on, we're teaching on the Trinity. There is one true God. This God eternally exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Father is God. The Son is God.
And then thirdly we come to the third member of the Blessed Trinity. The Holy Spirit is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And this is one that we probably don't focus on as much in theological circles as we could.
The deity of Christ has historically been a great battlefield for the church fathers throughout all of church history. The Holy Spirit not quite receiving the same level of attention on this particular point perhaps. But the Bible also teaches that the Holy Spirit is God. And beloved, before I get into some Scripture support for that, I would just say this. It's just so important for you to think rightly about God. You know, because what you think about God is going to determine whether you worship Him properly, whether you know Him properly, and eventually wrong thoughts about God will lead into wrong living as well. And so I say that by way of preface to this, is that you should not think of the Holy Spirit as being some kind of impersonal force, like gravity is a force and the Holy Spirit is a force.
No, that's not true. The Holy Spirit is a person with intelligence, will, and emotions. Let's turn to this passage in Acts chapter five. Acts chapter five. If you would, the beginning of Acts chapter five will look at verse three and four at this point.
Acts chapter five verses three and four. This was a preeminent example of church discipline when Ananias and Sapphira misled the apostles in the presentation of their gift. They made it sound like they were giving everything that they had earned from the sale of their property, but they actually held some back. They wanted the pride and honor of having been such givers, but they also wanted to keep the sum for themselves.
So they wanted the honor and they wanted to have their cake and eat it too, so to speak. Look at verse three with me. Peter said... actually, let's start in verse one and get the whole context. But a man named Ananias with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property and kept back some of the price for himself with his wife's full knowledge and bringing a portion of it he laid it at the apostles' feet.
That's not a good idea. Verse three. Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own?
And after it was sold, was it not under your control? Why is it that you have conceived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. Notice that Peter equates lying to the Holy Spirit with lying to God. That can only be true if the Holy Spirit himself is God himself.
There are other places that we could look for this, but we have to kind of keep moving here. What we've seen here is this, beloved. There is one true God, and the Bible ascribes deity to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. And so what we're left with is how do we put this together in a coherent fashion, a coherent doctrine that leaves us in a way that we can understand something about the ineffable nature of God. The doctrine of the Trinity is how we put these things together. Now, seminary professors tell you you've got to illustrate your teaching.
And the truth of the matter is, sometimes people will quibble with me over this, but this needs to be said. You cannot give an adequate illustration of the Trinity. There is nothing to compare it to that fully expresses the reality that there is one true God with one single essence, and yet this God exists in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Some people say, I've mentioned this years ago from the Pulpit of Truth community when we were over it in northern Kentucky. Some people will say that the Trinity is like water. Maybe you've heard that illustration. The point is, and what's said is, is that the same water can be ice, liquid, or steam, depending on the temperature that is applied to it.
But that's not a good example, beloved. Water, in ordinary human experience, water does not exist in all three forms at the same time. You have one volume of water at room temperature and it's liquid. You have to drop the temperature and change that for it to become ice.
You have to heat it up to boiling so that it becomes steam. Water is not, in ordinary human experience, ice, liquid, and steam at the same time. Now whatever other value there is in illustrating things with water, we're not talking about that. We're simply talking about the doctrine of the Trinity. Understand the difference here. When we teach the Trinity, we say that God is simultaneously Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, one person eternally existing all at the same time as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. To use water, I'm going to make a technical theological point here.
Bear with me. To use water as an illustration only illustrates the false doctrine of modalism, which says that there is one God who appears in three different forms at different times. That is not the doctrine of the Trinity. The doctrine of the Trinity is not that God sometimes appears as Father and sometimes as Son and sometimes as Holy Spirit, just as water is sometimes liquid, sometimes steam, sometimes ice, same volume of water. That's not the doctrine of the Trinity.
The doctrine of the Trinity is that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are simultaneously fully 100% God in one indivisible essence. How many of you have headaches right now from this? This will give it to you, won't it? I understand. That's why we're trying to just make it as clear and direct and streamlined as possible. You know, it's interesting when you read something about church history, and if any of you have an interest in church history on this particular doctrine, I have a very lengthy paper on the development of the doctrine of the deity of Christ as people understood it and studied it through church history, how the church came to articulate this over time.
Just let me know, and I'd be delighted to share that 50-page paper with you. It's a very fascinating study, and as you see the historical development of how people came to understand what God had revealed, you start to have a perspective that is very, very helpful. And let me say at that point something that is very critical, beloved. As members of Truth Community Church, you should never be misled, not just that somebody would deny the doctrine of the Trinity, but what you can find anywhere on the internet is somebody who in his self-conceit will say, I have studied Scripture personally, I've ignored all of the books, and I've just studied Scripture by myself, and I've spent 10 years and now I can definitively tell you that the Trinity is not true. Beloved, don't ever fall for that kind of spiritual hucksterism. Scripture makes very plain that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one's own interpretation. And for somebody in the 21st century to say, oh, I spent 10 years studying this and I didn't pay any attention to what other men said, I just did it all on my own and you can take my word for it that the Trinity is not true.
You know, you should just roll your eyes and turn off the TV or flip the page or, you know, or click off of the website, whatever, because you can dismiss that out of hand. All that is is the conceit and arrogance of a deluded mind speaking and discounting what noble, godly, obviously God-honored teachers for centuries and centuries have established. No single individual is in a position to deny this, and all they do is bring judgment and condemnation on their own head when they talk that way.
Don't listen to that kind of stuff. The doctrine of the Trinity is something that the church, first of all, the doctrine of the Trinity most preeminently you find as you look at Scripture and it is revealed first of all in Scripture. It is not something that theologians made up later on, but it takes time to develop and to mature the way to express these things, and we stand on the shoulders of great men like Athanasius from the fourth century who gave their lives and who suffered greatly in order to defend this doctrine. Don't throw away your heritage for the sake of some pinball head on the Internet and think that God has finally after 21 centuries clarified somebody with a laptop in North Dakota. The absurdity of that should be evident.
You can reject that out of hand and not even give it any consideration. So there is one true God eternally existing in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now if you think about it, I'm just illustrating my teaching methodology here, not with what I'm about to say.
I'm not getting ready to illustrate the character of God here. But just for the sake of helping you understand my teaching methodology here this evening, we're about to come full circle. We started with the unity of God, that there is one true God, and we came down to the bottom of the circle and said, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now we're going to tie this all together and come back up and say this on our third point. These three persons are one God. These three persons are one God. That's point number three here this evening. And you can't help but I suppose that there are many other ways that you could teach on the Trinity, but I like teaching the Trinity in three points because, you know, if you're saying that God is one and God is three, why not make it three points in order to express that?
The balance of that is appealing to me. So point number three, these three persons are one God. And here's what we mean by that. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are repeatedly placed on equal standing in Scripture. You see the three of them being described, being spoken of in the same breath as God.
And let's take just a little bit more time with this aspect of our teaching here this evening. Go back to Matthew chapter three, and we'll consider Jesus' baptism. These three persons are one God, and here's a sub point for you, at Jesus' baptism. Look at Matthew chapter three, verses 16 and 17. Matthew three, verses 16 and 17. As you read these things with a measure of understanding, you just start to shrink and you just start to feel small before the greatness of God. You realize that you're in the presence, you're in the mental realm of understanding of something that's very, very far beyond you. That is the effect that the doctrine of the Trinity should have on your heart.
It should humble you. And in Matthew chapter three, verse 16, Scripture says that after being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on him. And behold, a voice out of the heavens said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
Do you see it? One speaking of his Son. Who is that but the Father? You have Jesus Christ, the one being baptized. You have the Holy Spirit descending and falling upon Christ as it were. And so the Father speaks, Jesus is baptized, the Holy Spirit descends, and they are distinguished and yet they are existing simultaneously with one another. It wasn't Jesus who spoke from heaven, it was the Father. It wasn't the Father who was baptized, it was Jesus. It wasn't the Father who descended, it was the Spirit. And so what we see is that these three persons have different functions. They relate to one another and yet they're one God. Sometimes people will ask, what do you mean the person?
The Father is a person. Jesus is a person. The Spirit is a person. What we mean by that is that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit all have knowledge, they all have feelings, you could say, they all have volition, they all have a will. And so they are persons in that sense. The Spirit, it's possible to grieve the Holy Spirit, Ephesians 4 verse 30, for example. And so when we talk about persons, that's what we're talking about.
Jesus could say, I have come. The Father can speak in the first person, I, the Spirit can speak, I, the Spirit says come, for example. And yet they share a single essence.
These dynamics of individuality is why we call them persons. Now for another illustration of this, that these three persons are all one God. Something that's very close to my heart as we turn to Matthew chapter 28, go to the very end of the Gospel of Matthew.
And as you're turning there, I will say this. We come back again, beloved. We come back to the reality that the Bible is the Word of God. That God has revealed Himself in Scripture. And as we said when we studied the doctrine of Scripture, we said that there is a plenary inspiration of Scripture, that every word of Scripture is inspired. And therefore, every word is important in the Bible. Again, we go back to our doctrine of authority, our doctrine of Scripture, our doctrine of revelation, and let that inform the significance of what we're saying. Every word of God is important. And every word that God says is true. Every word matters. That's why, beloved, this is why we carefully study the Scriptures verse by verse and pay attention word by word, because every word of God is important.
And sometimes very crucial matters of truth are built into the simplest of grammatical points. Because we believe in the inspiration of Scripture, the omniscience of God, the purpose of God, then we pay attention to things like what we're going to see here in Matthew 28, verses 19 and 20. Look at it with me. Jesus said, go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you, and lo, I am with you always even to the end of the age. Look at verse 19. Look at it with me again if you would.
And just make a really simple observations about number here. Jesus said, baptize them in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I read that pretty fast.
I did it intentionally. The name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. But wait a second.
Wait a second. Jesus says the name, singular. And then what follows are three names, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each separated by the Greek article, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, making clear distinctions about them.
You and I wouldn't talk that way about ordinary things. Why doesn't he say the names of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit if there are three of them? You know why?
Because the singular name, the name. That's not an accident. Jesus didn't misspeak. He didn't think later when he went back and say, oh, you know what? I kind of misspoke there.
I should have said that differently. No, that's not it. He knew exactly what he was saying. Beloved, the singular name, the singular, indicates the single indivisible essence of God. The three persons, each with their own article in the Greek, distinguished the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit is the distinction between the three persons that we have been mentioning.
One name, three persons sharing the essence that belongs to that one name. So we see it in the Great Commission, the Great Commission. We see it in Jesus' baptism.
We see it in the Great Commission. Now let me give you another bad analogy that sometimes you'll hear people use. And people, you know, sometimes it's genuine, sincere teachers that are saying things like this, and they mean well, but they just haven't thought through the fullness of what they are saying. You and I need to, we need to be more precise.
We have a responsibility before God to think about him with precision, with accuracy, that we would honor him for who he is and not according to some diminished version that we make up in our own minds. So here's another bad illustration that you can understand and you will know instantly why it's a bad example, just from your own personal experience. You've seen this.
You've heard people talk this way. We'll illustrate the Trinity with the concept of an egg. And they'll say you have one egg with its shell and with the yolk and with the white of the egg. One egg, three parts, there's your doctrine of the Trinity.
What would we say about that? Well, that's not, that is not a good analogy. And you know this from eating eggs.
You do. What happens if you're eating a plate full of scrambled eggs and you suddenly crunch down on something and you go, yuck, there's eggshell in this. And you call out to your wife and say, how did you get eggshells in the scrambled eggs? That doesn't belong in what I'm ingesting here.
This ruins my breakfast. And you reach in and you pluck it out. Why do you do that? You say, well, because it's gross. Yeah, I know, I get that.
But you do that because of this. The essence of the eggshell is not the essence of the yolk and the white. They are different. And that's why you don't eat the eggshell. The essence of the eggshell is not the essence of the yolk, beloved. An egg is not like God. Better stated, God is not like an egg. And beloved, you know, I mean, this stuff is all simple when you know to find your way through it. But beloved, here's, here's the thing. And ultimately, as we come to this point in the message and what we are preeminently concerned with is to honor the greatness of God and let us never as believing people in Christ, let us never as the people of this transcendent God ever reduce Him and as it were reach into heaven and pull down this ineffable God and say, you know what, He's just like a common egg that I just pulled out of the refrigerator.
And this egg gives us a sense of what the essence of God is like. No, no. God forbid. Let's never think like that. Let's never reduce God and bring Him down to the lowest elements of His creation and say, here's a good comparison.
That's not a good comparison. You tell somebody that uses that illustration and the egg illustration. You say, okay, that's fine. You want to use that as an illustration of the Trinity?
Let me cook you up some scrambled eggs and I want to see you eat the eggshell too. You'll make your point. When it comes to illustrations, Louis Burckhoff nails it on this point. Nails it, hits it out of the ballpark. And so I gladly quote this great reformed theologian when he's speaking of the Trinity, speaking of the different analogies that have been attempted, he says this and I quote. He says, all analogies fail us. The Trinity is a mystery far beyond our comprehension. It is the incomprehensible glory of the Godhead, end quote. Only that kind of statement about God directs our thoughts to His exclusive holy exaltation in a way that is worthy of His unique being. And so let me say this one final thing here, two final things I guess, as the clock ticks down on my timer here. It's not an egg timer by the way.
It's a timer on my phone that just helps me keep track of things. Beloved, when we say that there is one God who eternally exists in three persons, this is what's very important for you to understand. We are not engaging in a contradiction. God is not one in the same way that He is three.
And that's why there is no contradiction here. We are not saying there is one God and there are three gods. We're not saying there are three gods and there are three persons.
We're not saying that. We're saying there is one God and that there are three persons. One essence, three persons who share that essence indivisibly. And so it is not a contradiction. It is a great mystery of the Godhead.
One final thing to say here. We see this doctrine expressed in Christian benediction. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 14 for those of you taking notes. 2 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14. Turn to that with me.
We'll close with this. 2 Corinthians 13 verse 14 says this. It says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. Notice this, beloved, just in that verse. Again, one of those verses that you just say, oh, I'm at the end of my reading here and I'll just blow through that.
And you realize that there's so much more there than you've ever seen before. As Paul closes this letter to the church at Corinth, he extends to them and pronounces blessings on them from the God of grace. He pronounces blessings from God, grace, love and fellowship.
Watch this. Coming from three persons on an equal basis all at the same time. One God, three persons dispensing His goodness to believers. Ultimately, as we come to the end of this discussion here tonight, ultimately the doctrine of the Trinity goes to the very heart of who we are as Christians. It goes to the very heart of our salvation.
It shapes our worship. Because, beloved, the Father sent the Son into the world to be the propitiation for our sins. The Son redeemed us with His blood.
And the Holy Spirit in time, in our lives, took that, awakened us and applied it to our lives individually. And so the fullness of our salvation is rooted in the work of a triune God who planned, executed and applied our redemption to our souls. Blessed be His holy name. Now through Christ we have communion with this ineffable triune God.
Beloved, do you know this God through faith in Christ, have you been redeemed by the blood of the Lamb? Let's pray together. Oh great God of highest praise, we honor you this evening. Father, in ways that far transcend our understanding, we ascribe glory and majesty to your holy name. And in the humble circumstances of this humble place on a humble ball of matter hurtling through space, oh God, in the universe that you created, we bow before you and we praise you as the triune God. Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one God, eternally existing in three persons who planned, executed and applied our redemption to our souls.
Oh God, we magnify your great and matchless name. As we come to the end of this study of your character, which has not given you the full honor that you do, just in our humbling, halting words of baby babble, Father, if we tried to speak of your nature, you, the invisible, independent, infinite, immutable God. You, the omniscient, wise God. You, the omnipotent, sovereign God fully able to do your will. You, our heavenly Father, good, loving, holy, righteous, true, utterly faithful.
God, we come full circle. We end where we began an hour ago. We worship you for your transcendent greatness and your imminent goodness. We thank you, our Father, that through the Lord Jesus Christ, we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of your grace. And Father, we pray that your spirit would woo to yourself those who have not yet received this blood atonement for the forgiveness of their sins. Bless us now as we go. May our minds be forever bent more closely toward worship as a result of the time that we have spent here together this evening. In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen. Well, my friend, thank you for joining us for yet another podcast from The Truth Pulpit. And we wanted to let you know that in addition to these audio resources that you are enjoying, that there are also written resources from my ministry. The Lord has given us opportunity to put some of the things that I've taught over the years in print.
And I have one book in particular that I would want to call your attention to. It's the most popular book that I've published so far called Trusting God in Trying Times. It's a book born out of deep personal sorrow and is brought into context, you might say, through the Word of God. How to trust God when you are going through the deepest valleys and the most sorrowful things in life. How do you trust God through those times when you can't see your way forward?
I've been there, my friend. And the book Trusting God in Trying Times speaks to that spiritual experience in the life of the believer. You can find all of my books at thetruthpulpit.com. That's thetruthpulpit.com. Just click on the link there.
You'll find links to different books and you will find that they take you to an easy place to purchase them for your reading enjoyment. So thank you once again for joining us on The Truth Pulpit. We'll see you next time as we continue to study God's Word together. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.
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