Today on the verdict with Pastor John Monroe. We worship one God in the Trinity. and the Trinity in unity. For the Father is a distinct person, the Son is a distinct person. And the Holy Spirit is a distinct person.
Still, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity, equal glory, and co-eternal majesty. Welcome to the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. Most followers of Jesus Christ are familiar with the general idea of the Trinity. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. But there's also much confusion.
So today on the verdict, we're continuing our series called What Would You Ask God? by asking the question, is God one or three?
Now with the start of today's lesson, here's Pastor John Monroe. When was the last time you ever heard a message on the Trinity? Do you know what the Trinity means? A famous hymn includes the lines, Holy, Holy, Holy. Merciful and Mighty, God in three persons, Blessed Trinity.
While historic Orthodox Christianity has always believed in the triune God, I find it surprising that so few pastors preach on this. Today we continue the series, What Would You Ask God? as we learn more and more about our amazing Almighty God. Our question today is this: Is God one? Or three?
Many of the cults deny the Trinity, so it is very important that we not only assert our belief in the Trinity, but study the Holy Scriptures. on this important subject. We consider one of the profoundest mysteries of the Christian faith. The mystery of the Trinity. It has well been said, try to explain the Trinity and you'll lose your mind.
try to deny the Trinity And you'll lose your soul. We don't want to lose either our mind or our soul. But we do want to consider this rather difficult subject, as I was praying, the subject of. The Trinity, the mystery of the Trinity. If God were small enough to be completely understood by us, He would not be great enough.
to be worshipped. And as we come to this subject of the Trinity, we have to say right at the outset that although the word Trinity is not found in the Bible, the truth of the Trinity is central to God's revelation of Himself. I want you to understand that. The truth of the Trinity is central to God's revelation of Himself. As we consider this series of questions, we'd like to ask God.
Our question is: is God one? or three.
Someone says, does it really matter whether God is one or three? Yes, it does matter. We must worship God as He is, not as we would like, not as we feel, but as He exists, and God is triune. And I would suggest to you that understanding something of the majesty and glory and wisdom and awesomeness and mystery of our triune God deepens our worship and deepens our love. for this God who's so great that He's greatly to be praised.
First, we want to describe the doctrine of the Trinity. Secondly, to look at the biblical proof. Let me ask you to open your Bibles to Second Corinthians chapter thirteen and the last verse, which is a familiar benediction. One perhaps that we just glide over, but we want to reflect on this subject: is God one? Or Three.
Second Corinthians then Chapter thirteen, verse fourteen. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. and the love of God And the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. What a wonderful benediction. What do we mean by the Trinity?
How would we describe or define the Trinity? When we say that God is triune, we mean that God is one being existing in three persons. That is, one substance in three persons. We're going to learn that God is one. That is, there is only one true God.
Secondly, the Father is fully God, and the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. Don't think of the Father as a third, and the Spirit as a third, and the Son as a third. No, the Father is fully God, the Son is fully God, and the Holy Spirit is fully God. And the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are three distinct persons. They are co-equal and they are co-eternal.
So is God one or three? We can say that God is one in essence, God is one in substance. That is, that there is only one. God. But within the Godhead, there are three distinct persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Listen to the Athanasian Creed written in the year four hundred. Quote. We worship one God in the Trinity and the Trinity in unity. We distinguish among the persons, but we do not divide the substance. For the Father is a distinct person, the Son is a distinct person.
And the Holy Spirit is a distinct person. Still, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit have one divinity, equal glory and coeternal majesty. Don't you wish you could write like that? Pretty well put, isn't it? In the year AD four hundred in the brilliant Athanasian Agreed.
People down through the centuries have tried to explain this difficult doctrine. Of the Trinity, the mystery of the Trinity, and various illustrations have been used. I'm not going to use any of them other than one. All of these. illustrations that we think of have their limitations, and I hate to admit this, but it was an Irishman, Saint Patrick, I think, who came up with the best illustration of the Trinity.
Not a perfect illustration, obviously, but a very good one and I think rather helpful. He took the shamrock. And looking at the shamrock, St. Patrick asked: quote, is this one leaf? Or three.
If one leaf, why are there three lobes of equal size? If three leaves, why is there just one stem? If you can't explain so simple a mystery as the shamrock, How can you hope to understand one so profound as the Holy? Trinity. That's The Trinity.
Now this, of course, has been attacked down through church history and continues to be attacked. We're told sometimes that we who are Christians are tri theists. That is, we believe in three gods.
Someone says, well, you have God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. There you have three gods. No, we don't believe in three gods. Jesus Christ is not a separate God from God the Father. We believe in a God who is triune.
God is not one plus one plus one equals three. God is one times one times one equals one. Another false view, which raises its head from time to time, even in our own times, holds that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are mere designations of the one God. In this false belief, an ancient heresy called modalism, the Father, the Son and the Spirit are merely names, merely modes of one person used at different times in God's revelation.
So in this false view, the Father created the universe. But he comes to the world, now he's the Son. When he ascends to heaven, He later returns to earth now as the Holy Spirit. But that is inaccurate. Biblical Christianity, historic Christianity, has always held that God is three persons at every moment of time.
Who are the people who would deny the Trinity?
Some of them come knocking at your doors as they do mine. Jehovah's Witnesses, for example. Muslims, much in the news. They don't believe in the Trinity. They don't believe, particularly, that Jesus Christ is God.
Jesus to them is a prophet. But he's not God. And then Unitarians in Michigan, when I pastored there, I had. the joy or otherwise of debating a Uh Women minister who was the minister of a Unitarian Universalist Church. and in dialogue with her I asked her, Do you believe that Jesus is God?
Now, they like to think they're very tolerant. You can believe as you like, and no one can ever say you're wrong.
So she was in a little bit of the hesitation. But Unitarians, by definition, are not Trinitarian. We are Trinitarians. We believe in a God who is triune. And then there are Mormons, again, who reject very strongly the doctrine of the Trinity.
I remember in Michigan, we had a few Mormon missionaries visit our church for a few weeks, and they kept coming, and I kept preaching. and the later accused me of blasphemy. Blasphemy? Because I was saying that Jesus Christ was God and that the Holy Spirit was God. A denial, in particular, that Jesus Christ is God.
Many people believe in Jesus, a prophet, a created being, but as someone less than God. False views.
Now, what's the biblical proof for the Trinity? Let me ask you to. Open your Bible to Deuteronomy, the fifth book in the Old Testament, and we'll look at chapter six for a very foundational passage. Deuteronomy chapter six. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy.
The fifth book, you've got it. Deuteronomy six verse Yeah. Here is the basic statement. of Judaism. Called the Shema after the first word in verse four in Hebrew, Shema.
Deuteronomy six, we're going to read only verses four and five, but two very, very important verses quoted in the New Testament by our Lord, referred to in the New Testament. Hero Israel. This is important. Are you listening? Hero Israel.
The Lord is our God. The Lord is One. Did you get that? Our God is one. The Lord is one.
And you shall love the Lord your God. With all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Of course that follows, doesn't it? If there is only one true God, Not many gods, but only one true God. I am to love this one true God with all of my heart, with all of my soul, with all of my mind, with all of my strength.
I can have allegiance to no other God or no other thing if this God has one. Just as a married man, I am to love my wife, not love several women. No, my love is to be focused on my wife.
So in this great Shema, The great truth is said that because God is one, there is only one true living God, the Creator of the heavens and the earth. This is the God. that you're to love totally. And completely. With every fiber in your being, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Turn to the book of Isaiah, chapter 45. We've looked quite often in the series of the book of Isaiah, particularly from chapters forty onwards, as there is such a brilliant presentation of God, chapter forty-five, two verses, verses five and six, to establish This Truth. Isaiah forty-five, verse five. I am the Lord. I'm Yahweh, and there is no other.
Besides me, there is no God. Do you get the point? There's only one. There's only one God. There's no one beside Him.
Verse six, that men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun that there is no one beside me. I am the Lord, and there is no other. Repeated throughout Isaiah. For example, in the middle of verse 21, Is it not I the Lord, and is there no other God beside me, a righteous God and a Savior? There is none except me.
Turn to me. And be saved, all the ends of the earth. Why would we turn to you, God? Why do you say that all of the ends of the earth, from the rising of the sun to the setting, why do you say that? All peoples of all time should worship and praise only you.
Why is that? Because I am God's. and there is no Other. Only one God. Turn to First Timothy.
We will see this in the New Testament. 1 Timothy 2.5. For there is How many gods in the New Testament? There is one God. And one mediator also between God and man, the man.
Christ Jesus. Central to the Old Testament, central to the New Testament, that there is only one God.
Now having established that from Scripture, let's think of the plurality In the Godhead. First of all, in the Old Testament, there is only one God, we're saying, but within the Godhead, there are three distinct persons. You say, Can you prove that from the Old Testament?
Well, I don't know whether you can say we can prove it absolutely conclusively, but it is certainly suggested and implied in the Old Testament, as we shall see. Go back. Genesis one. The first verse, which we've looked at several times now in our study. in the series.
Genesis one Verse One, let's see how God reveals himself. Genesis 1, verse 1. In the beginning, God. created the heavens and the earth. And the earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.
Now the Hebrew word translated God in our Bible is Elohim. It is a plural word. You say that's kinda odd. Hello him. In English, when we want to make a plural, we normally add the letter S, one dog, two dogs or three dogs.
We add an S. In Hebrew, when you make a plural, you don't add S, you add im, im. One Saraf, two Seraphim, one cherub, two cherubim. Elohim is then a plural word. It doesn't prove the Trinity, obviously, but it certainly allows for it.
And here in verse two, we read of the Spirit of God moving over the surface of the waters. But perhaps more to the point, verse twenty six. Genesis 1, verse 26, here is man about to be made. Then God said, Let us make man in my image. No.
No? Let us make man in our image according to our Likeness. Isn't that interesting? Plurality in the Godhead certainly suggested. Back to the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 6, that wonderful passage where Isaiah goes into the Temple of the Lord and catches something of a vision of the Lord. He hears the seraphim. Sing, Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of hosts. That's what we were singing about. We can prove that the Trinity from that, but it's certainly suggestive, not just holy.
But holy, holy, holy. But look at verse 8. I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send? And who will go? for us.
Not who will go for me, but who will go for us? Then I said, Here am I, send me. Again, plurality. In the Godhead. Chapter forty-eight, Isaiah chapter forty-eight.
And there's Sixteen. Come near to me, listen to this. From the first I have not spoken in secret. From the time it took place, I was there. The Lord God has sent me.
And his Spirit. Or there's going to come God's suffering servant, the Messiah, who is going to be sent by the Lord God. has sent me and his Spirit. Go back to the book of Genesis. Genesis.
Chapter Sixteen. Where we will see a reference, one reference of many, to what is called the angel of the Lord. Not an angel, but the angel of the Lord. What is the context of Genesis sixteen Heger Drawn out By the instigation of Sarah with approval of Abraham And we break into the passage Genesis sixteen verse ten. Moreover, The angel of the Lord.
said to her Hager? I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they shall be too many to count.
Now who is the only person in the universe who could say to anyone, I will greatly multiply your descendants? Gods. This angel of the Lord is saying, I will greatly multiply your descendants. Verse 13. Then she called the name of the Lord, who spoke to her.
But who's speaking to her? She's calling on the name of the Lord who spoke to her. Verse 10: It's the angel of the Lord that's speaking to her. Verse 11: The angel of the Lord said to her, Further, Verse 13, then she called the name of the Lord who spoke to her, You are a God who sees. Exactly.
The angel of the Lord then appearing to Hagar and Ishmael. Can only do what God can do. I will greatly multiply your descendants. Therefore, the angel of the Lord. is God.
And generally considered to be what we refer to as the second person of the Trinity, namely the pre-incarnate Son of God. You say, well, I thought Jesus came into existence at Bethlehem. I thought that's what we're going to be celebrating at Christmas. No, fundamental mistake. Jesus did not come into existence at Bethlehem.
What happened at Bethlehem was the Word becoming flesh. Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, being God, always existed. And here is a preincarnate appearance, apparently, of the second person of the Trinity, the preincarnate Son. of God. Plurality in the Godhead.
Turn to the little prophecy of Micah. little more difficult for us to find. Obadiah, Jonah, Micah. Micah chapter five, just for one Verse. It's interesting, isn't it, to read the Old Testament and think of all of the Old Testament scriptures prophesying the coming of the Messiah.
Here is one written about 700, 750 years prior to the coming of Christ. Notice. The prophecy, Micah five, verse two, Prophesying not only that the Messiah is going to come. Not only that he's going to be born, but where he's going to be born, he's going to be born in Bethlehem. You doubt the accuracy of the Bible?
You doubt that it's a supernatural book? Micah 5.2. As for you, Bethlehem Ephrada. Too little to be among the clans of Judah? Nothing particularly spectacular about Bethlehem, just one of the little towns down there.
But notice from you as Bethlehem. One, will go forth from me the Lord to be a ruler in Israel. His goings forth are from long ago. From the days of eternity, from ancient times. The Messiah not only existed prior to his birth in Bethlehem, he is eternal.
His goings forth are from long ago, from ancient times.
Some translators say from the days of eternity. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, is eternal, as is God the Father, as is God the Holy Spirit. Here we have plurality in the Godhead, at least suggested in the Old Testament.
Now, with the progress of Revelation, what is suggested Or implied in the Old Testament is made clear in the New Testament. Think with me of a few scriptures regarding the plurality in the Godhead in the New Testament. Repeatedly in the New Testament, the Father is presented as God. That the Father is God is irrefutable. For example, Romans 1, verse 7: Grace to you and peace from God our Father.
The Father is God. But Jesus Christ is also God. This is the verdict, featuring the Bible teaching of Pastor John Monroe. There's still more to hear when John returns in just a moment, so stay with us. From matters of truth and identity, to the subjects of love and grace, our world seems more confused than ever.
but to find truth and certainty about who we are, and find peace, we must turn our attention away from the world and look to the Word of God. To help you do that, John wrote a booklet titled Eternal Security, Finding Certainty in a Chaotic World. Through this special resource John shares his personal testimony, along with a careful examination of Scripture, to offer us clarity on matters of eternity. Get your copy today by visiting our website at theverdict. org.
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Now, here's Pastor John Monroe.
Well, what's your verdict? Do you believe in the Trinity? I think it was Augustine who said, if we try to explain the Trinity, we will lose our minds. But if we try to deny it we will lose our soul. Praise God that the Father loves us.
That the Son died for us, that the Holy Spirit convicts us of our sin and reveals the beauty of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do join me next time on Verdict as we continue to try and better understand. This try you in God. Thanks for joining us today on The Verdict. I'm Michelle Davies.
Today's program with Pastor John Monroe was produced and sponsored by Calvary Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. M
