[0:00] Matthew chapter 28. I really appreciate Stephen, an offering devotion on the Trinity and songs tonight on the Trinity. And what a great thing, what a great way to honor God in the Word.
[0:15] We're going to save the review to the end, if maybe we have time of what we've done in the first couple of weeks tonight. We'll talk about how the apostles taught about the Trinity, how we can teach about the Trinity. And we want to ask the scripture some questions about things.
[0:34] And as we go through, I wanted to ask the scriptures this question as I was studying them. I said, just because I see all three members of the Trinity there, how do I know that's a Trinity?
[0:48] I mean, I see Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. How do I know that that's a Trinity? And so I asked the passages while I was studying this week to answer that question while I was reading through them. And I saw a couple of things, a couple of things stuck out to me as I was reading through those.
[1:03] The first one being the continuity and the revelation of the triune God. He doesn't change the story from Genesis all the way to Revelation. And if you think about how many witnesses are involved in that story and how many people through how many people the Holy Spirit used to pen the scriptures and over how many years to have the same story, an unchanging story where God declares his oneness, but three persons in an undivided God, speaking with plural pronouns in the Old Testament, we come to Matthew chapter 28. And I know this is in the gospels, but in verse 19, he says, go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name, singular, of the Father and Son and of the Holy Ghost. And so in the Old Testament where God's oneness is in view, but he speaks in a pluralistic way. Let us go down. Let us do this. Let us make man in our image. Now he shows himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, yet that is one name. And so we've come full circle on oneness and on the triune nature of what he is. He hasn't changed his story. First Corinthians 8, 6 says, but to us, there is but one God, the Father of whom are all things, and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we by him. First Timothy 2, 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. And so this continuity of scripture stood out to me. You just keep seeing the same oneness of God and the same triune nature that's working. But that wasn't the best part.
[2:43] The best part was, and the greatest evidence that I saw for the Trinity this week, was the success of the redemption story. Salvation is a huge success in the scripture. Matter of fact, it's a stunning success in the scripture. And that is thanks to the triune nature of God. And so we'll look at that tonight. But I want you to know that I am really, truly, noticeably, permanently changed because of salvation. It's not just a change of mind. It's not just a different frame of reference for me. It's not an experiment in the Bible. It is a success. Salvation is a success in the Bible. And I owe the success of my salvation to the triune nature of God. I want you to go with me to Romans chapter 3. And I want us to look at something that depicts this success in salvation and why it had to be the way it is. But also, it shows us how the Trinity was, or is at work in this success story, which is salvation.
[3:55] Romans chapter 3, verse 23. The scriptures say, familiar verse, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Verse 24, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. My state before God, before salvation, was a sinner. That was the legal situation that I faced.
[4:42] The legal conviction that was in front of me was that I was a sinner, guilty personally of my sin, standing before God. The scripture declared me that. And the scripture declares every person that. And then he says, but I was justified freely through the redemption which is in Jesus Christ.
[5:02] Propitiation through faith in the blood of Christ to declare his righteousness. That he becomes two things. Just and the justifier. Just and the justifier. He is just because he poured out his wrath on sin. God can't overlook sin. He can't just say, I'm just going to forget about it. He has to punish it. If he doesn't punish it, he is no longer just. He is no longer righteous. And by the way, part of salvation is the punishment of sin. And so part of the rescue is the punishment of sin. He poured out his wrath on sin. And he had to in order to be just. He couldn't turn his back on it. He couldn't just overlook it. He poured out his wrath and fury on the sin of all mankind. He didn't overlook it, but he did pour it out on Jesus. And he punished Jesus in our place for all of our sin. The sin of the whole world.
[5:59] That is how God is both just and the justifier. Because the justification that he provides is for us. And it's for our sin. Wherein he can both punish it so he remains just. But yet he can show mercy on us and forgive us for Jesus' sake. The Trinity is required for this. And so in this, we see how the Trinity is working to make salvation the greatest success story you have ever read in your life.
[6:27] Faith in his blood requires a power to transform that into eternal life. Faith in his blood requires a transformative power to turn that from our belief into a permanent change inside of us. And that is done through the power of the Holy Spirit. And so we have God making an offering, Jesus being the offering, and the Holy Spirit making the offering effective in our life in salvation. This is how the Trinity is at work. I was thinking about that and I realized that the best way to teach the Trinity is to preach the gospel. It's the single best way to preach the Trinity. Let's just teach the gospel.
[7:10] And when we're teaching the gospel, we're teaching the Trinity. So that's kind of deep for an unbeliever. It's very deep for an unbeliever. And the only part he really has to get is repentance and faith in God. And then he becomes part of the family. And what we've learned about the Trinity is, it's a family thing. We learn more about it as we live it and as we participate in salvation.
[7:32] Now the apostles were the writers. They were just the writers, right? The Holy Spirit, these are the words of God and the Holy Spirit is the one who inspired these words. But there's no way I'll ever believe that the apostles didn't know what they were writing about. There's no way I'll ever believe that they didn't understand the words that were coming out because God was using who they were as a part of the way to pen the scriptures down. And I think they were just in awe of how the Trinity works. You know how to tell when the Trinity's been at work? Something got transformed. Something got changed. Something is permanently different. Something is forever, ever saved. That's the proof. Virtue, victory, faith, scripture. You can tell when the Trinity's been around because stuff starts happening and things get changed and they are permanently changed. Within the economy of this salvation that the Trinity came up with is a sanctified life that then draws us to God. It draws us closer to God, drawing our attention toward him, drawing the fellowship to us, to the fellowship which is enabled through the work of
[8:43] Jesus Christ and the redemptive power of the Holy Spirit. And we're drawn close to him. First Peter chapter 3 verse 18. You know in a mediation, Jesus is our mediator, right? In a mediation, the mediator tries to find some common ground between the two parties. That's not how this mediation works because there's no common ground between us and God. First Peter chapter 3 verse 18 says, for Christ hath also hath once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust. How about that? That he might bring us to God. And so we don't meet in the middle. Jesus brings us all the way to God through redemption. Salvation is a success.
[9:31] It's a success story that's greater than anything you've ever heard before. It's successful because in this Jesus suffers for our guilt. God receives us in justification through new life which we have through the Spirit of God. And so he remains just but yet he's able to justify us. Second Corinthians chapter 13 verse 14. Scripture says, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ, God incarnate, chosen to do a job only he could do. And why did he do it for us? Verse says, grace, because of his grace. The love of God, the demonstration of love, greater than any love we've ever heard about, is the giving of his only son, Jesus, and then the communion of the Holy Ghost. The thing that brings us together. The thing that sanctifies us, the person that sanctifies us, and draws us closer to God. And everything that goes on in our life towards sanctification is to draw us into this fellowship, into this communion with the
[10:38] Holy Ghost. It's one spirit that joins us literally to the literal body of Christ where we die in our, to our sins, and we're resurrected again because of our union with him. And then we're also brought into the communion of the church, the communion of this body through the power of the Holy Spirit. Everything that they're doing, everything that the Trinity is doing, everything that God, the one God is doing, is drawing us closer to him. Within that communion, we're drawn by the Spirit through the Son to the Father. And so, how did the apostles teach the Trinity? Well, first of all, they acknowledged it wasn't easy.
[11:15] That's just not easy teaching the Trinity, right? And in the study of the Trinity, you just wish you'd find great big long passages that would explain it in detail. That is not the way God chose to reveal this.
[11:26] God chose to reveal it as we go along through the Scripture because it takes spiritual growth to understand spiritual depth. And so, as we spend time getting closer to God, he gives us more of an insight into himself. By the way, what do you think we're going to be doing in eternity? I'll tell you about that in just a second. They acknowledged the difficulty of explaining it. Turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. 1 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16. The Bible says, and without controversy. That means nobody will dispute you when you say, great is the mystery of godliness. You know, we have spent three, almost three nights together, and we really have just discovered this thing is pretty much a mystery.
[12:11] It unfolds to us as we live our lives in Christ and get to know God better. We start to see these things, but without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. Here it goes. Here's the explanation.
[12:27] God was manifest in the flesh. That's the incarnation. Justified in the Spirit. Seen of angels. Preached unto the Gentiles. Believed on in the world. Received up into glory. Think about that. Justified in the Spirit.
[12:43] God was justified in what he did. He was justified in the way he punished sin, and he was justified in the way he showed us grace and mercy. And none of those things may put a mark on his righteousness or his justification. He was seen of angels. That's an interesting phrase, isn't it? Because angels have seen Jesus in both worlds. This one and the one we can't see into. And they're around when he's coming in the incarnation. And they're around when he's going in the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension.
[13:18] And so they have seen into both worlds things that we can't see. Preached unto the Gentiles. Believed on in the world. And received up in the glory of the ascension again. God was justified in his mode of forgiveness because he punished sin. Right? What it means to be god will continue to be a bit of a mystery to us. Here's the great news. The great news is that it'll become clearer to us as we live our life experiences for Christ. And then it will become exceeding clear to us in heaven as we study God and he reveals himself to us throughout eternity. You know, we have this tendency to look at things that we really like and that really are appealing to us. And we look at them.
[14:00] But after a while, they just, they lose their appeal in some way. Imagine looking at something that becomes more appealing every day for eternity. That's what it'll be like to admire the glory of God because we know more about him and we glorify him better as we know more about him. Well, guess what happens in eternity with him? And so for eternity, every day that we go and we look at Jesus, he will look more glorious to us than he did the day before. And if you wonder if we're going to get bored in eternity, I think not. Our experience does not, and our experiences do not define God.
[14:44] The scriptures explain our experiences to us. But to understand the Trinity means to be transformed by it. And there's just no other way around that. It means that we understand it from within its transformative power. And so in salvation is where the Trinity becomes the clearest to us. And as we increase in the knowledge of God, second Peter says it this way, he gives us his divine power lives inside of us and is at work in us. So they made a few clear statements on the Trinity. First John chapter five or seven and eight. One I'm sure you're familiar with. First John chapter five or seven and eight.
[15:21] The scripture says, for there are three that bear record in heaven, the father, the word, and the Holy ghost. And these three are one. What a great plain statement on the Trinity. I'll show you 10 more verses like that. He says, these three are one. And verse eight, there are three that bear witness in the earth, the spirit and the water and the blood. And these three agree in one. So we get two different perspectives that we can look at and understand how the Trinity reveals itself, how God reveals his triune nature, three bearing record in heaven, right? So there's three that are bearing record in heaven. Those are the father, the word, and the Holy ghost. Easy to see. We know the word is another name for the name of Jesus. We met that. We found that out in, in John chapter one, but then there's three bearing witness in the earth as well. And this is the triune God injecting himself into humanity's world for the purpose of redeeming us. Did I mention that redemption is a success?
[16:21] I mentioned that salvation is a huge success in the scripture. The elements of redemption, of course, are water, blood, and spirit. And these three agree in one. That means they converge together for one purpose and one focus, and that is the redemption of mankind. And so the official record of the will and purpose of God in heaven is the Trinity and the official notice that God has in his purpose and in his will, the redemption of mankind is the spirit, the water, and the blood. And they converge in one place. That's the redemption of fallen man in this earth. The greatest evidence of the Trinity, I believe, personal belief, is the success of redemption. It's unchangeable. You can't undo it.
[17:09] You can't turn it back. I mean, the power of transformation is so powerful that it is undoable in every way. So there are some maybe different views on how the Trinity works in these three verses, but I'll tell you that the formula for salvation is there, and it's a huge success, thanks to the triune God. Now, the apostles preached the success of the redemption plan.
[17:34] Perfectly conceived in the Trinity, redemption is the best way to, or one of the great ways to comprehend the Trinity, and the redemption plan of God, I think, is, as I could say, the masterpiece of the Trinity. Look at Ephesians chapter 2, verses 16 through 18. Ephesians chapter 2, verse 16 through 18.
[17:57] The Bible says, Now, this is a verse that talks about how Jew and Gentile are reconciled together in the church, but it's a greater story about how Jew and Gentile salvation is through the body of Jesus Christ, not the church, the literal body of Jesus Christ. The church doesn't hand out salvation.
[18:38] Jesus Christ hands out salvation. The church is where we who have experienced salvation unite together and say, we're going to live for God, and we're going to carry out the Great Commission. And so, the reconciliation unto God is through the blood of Jesus Christ, through the body of Jesus Christ, and through Jesus we have access by one spirit to the Father. Access to the Father, to the throne of grace, right? It's not a throne of criticism, it's the throne of grace. When we arrive at the throne of grace, our acceptance is there because of what Christ did for us. And so, we have access by one spirit to the Father. If you think about the Old Testament, access was restricted, right? Only to the priesthood.
[19:20] So, we've been made priests unto God, and we are a royal priesthood, and along with that, through the Holy Spirit, we have access to the Father. Perfectly conceived by the Trinity. Initiated by the love of God, executed by the Son of God, activated by the faith in the believer through the power of the Holy Spirit and the transformation. Acts chapter 2, go there with me, verse 32 and 33. Acts chapter 2, verse 32 through 33.
[19:50] When I asked this question of these verses, how do I know this is a Trinity, just because I see you three there? The solution was, for me, that I would take one person of the Trinity out of the equation and see if it still worked. And the answer is, it did not. And so, the question is answered by the fact that without all three at work as a Trinity, salvation is not a success. And so, in the formula that the Trinity put together, I can see Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God working in three persons. Acts chapter 2, verse 32 through 33. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses. Therefore, being by the right hand of God, exalted and having received of the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, he hath shed forth this, which you now see and hear. So, the apostles preached success of the redemption plan. The apostles preached repentance and salvation and revealed the Trinity through that.
[20:52] While you're in Acts chapter 2, look at verse 36 through 38. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Now, when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, men and brethren, what shall we do? Then Peter said unto them, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. God made Jesus both Lord and Christ. He knew they didn't regard Jesus as the object of their affection, like he was the object of God's affection. Jesus, of course, is the object of the gospel. He's the object of God's affection. God announces that much from heaven when he says, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. And the thing men are called on to evaluate and then decide to trust or reject is Jesus.
[21:46] I just really believe that if people ever meet the real Jesus of the Bible, they will fall in love with him. And that's our job. Introduce them to the real Jesus of the Bible. The decision that's made though is absolute. It's totally, it's completely absolute one way or the other, such that anything less than a completely unqualified acceptance of who Jesus is results in an absolute rejection of who Jesus is. This is the way the, the presentation is made. And so the Holy Spirit comes along to provide conviction and, uh, and a prick in the heart to whisper. It's true. As we hear the Bible taught or preached, or as we read it, the Holy Spirit's there whispering. It's true. It's true.
[22:33] You should believe it and pricked in our heart. Praise God for conviction. What a precious gift conviction is that could reach into our heart and touch us in such a way that our resistances and our objections to the gospel could be taken away. All objections can be overcome by the scriptures and the Holy Spirit, um, for the person who is willing to believe. But it's now, this is a, it's a dual occasion for either faith or rejection. And it's absolute either way. Pricked them in their heart.
[23:01] The Holy Spirit convinced them they needed to respond such that they asked the question, what should we do? What should we do? The Holy Spirit's speaking to you tonight. And he's saying, and you're, there's, there's a thing inside of you saying, what should I do?
[23:16] Is this real? Is this true? Thank God for conviction and respond like these men did. What shall we do? The answer was repent, profess Jesus, be reconciled to God. And guess what? The gift of the Holy Spirit will be yours. Now on the matter of the gift of the Holy Spirit, think about this for a second.
[23:33] He is the power of our new life, right? So all of the transformative things you see in the Bible, regeneration, resurrection, understanding scripture, um, eternal salvation, sanctification, all transformative power happens because of the indwelling Holy Spirit. But what do we know about members of the Trinity? Where one is, they are all there. And so I looked to the scripture to see what it says about this. First Corinthians 6, 19. What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, which is in you. The Holy Ghost is in us, which you have of God. You're not your own.
[24:11] The new owners moved in when I got saved and they did some renovating. They started cleaning things up. There was a bunch of old junk in there that they needed to kick out and clean out and throw out.
[24:21] They got rid of the rats, rats and the roaches and everything else that was inside. When the Holy Spirit moved in, he renovated. But in Romans chapter eight, verse nine, which Bo read tonight, the spirit of God dwells in us as well. And the spirit of Christ, both from that verse and the spirit, Colossians 127, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. I must be crowded in there, but it's not.
[24:51] Father, Son, and Holy Spirit take up residence inside of us. With all the Trinity at work in within us, we are to become like Jesus, the one in whom the Lord is well pleased. As a matter of fact, our life is hid. Our life is hidden in Christ. Now, God doesn't even see us. He, when he looks at us, he sees Christ when he's looking at somebody who's saved. Second Corinthians chapter three, verse 18.
[25:15] But we all with open face beholding as in a glass, the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. So teaching about the Holy Spirit, along with this, we need to remember something about what he does as far as how the Trinity works together. And that is, is that the Holy Spirit ratifies the work of the Father and the Son. That is, that he works together with the Father and the Son to ratify or make their work effectual inside of us.
[25:46] We've talked about how salvation works. We've talked about how the transformation works, but there is a, there is an action that happens with truth in the scripture. Not all truth in the scripture is just like fact that this thing happened or this thing happened. There's a lot of truth in the scripture that is formative truth and formative truth. When I submit my life to it, the power of the Holy Spirit uses it to transform my life, to make me different in, in ways that I could never do with intellect or with morality or with, you know, some sort of plan to, to improve my life. I could never do that. It is transformation that happens through the power of the Holy Spirit, through our belief in the formative truths of the scripture. And the Holy Spirit ratifies the work of the Father and the Son by making that transformation happen in us through his indwelling. The Holy Spirit gives full consent to the work of the Father and the Son by transforming the one who puts their faith in Christ. Titus chapter three, verses four through six, the Bible says, but after that, the kindness and love of God, our savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior. When I think about regeneration, I think about what happened to us in the garden of Eden and when God created us and, and our, our created self, we were in the image of God. He formed us out of the dust of an uncursed earth. At that point, he breathed into our nostrils his spirit and man became a living soul. And man at that point was in his innocency.
[27:37] And he chose to doubt the word of God. And because of that, he became a degenerate, degenerated into sin. And so today when man who's born in a, in a unregenerate state because of his ancestry, because of the blood of Adam, here's the word of God and believes its truth. He is regenerated.
[27:58] He is regenerated back into that, which God created still in sinful flesh. But as far as our, our justification, we've been declared righteous before God through regeneration. Look what he says.
[28:14] He says, according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior. You see what happens when you take something out of that equation? If you shed it through Jesus Christ, our savior, and you take Jesus out of that, you have no avenue for the Holy Spirit. And so this is how we know that they're working together as a Trinity, right? The kindness and the love of God, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, God is our savior. Jesus Christ is our savior. When you see the Trinity at work, just know they are all there and they are all at work. The Holy Spirit convicts, the Holy Spirit enables so many places where he fits into the formula. So now let's do, let's try to bring these some things together in a review. They declared salvation a great success. I just want you to know salvation is a great success.
[29:11] The redemption is the greatest success story of the scripture. How God remains just, shows mercy to the unjust, forgiving our sin completely, transforming us into new creatures, completely changed. Not just an experiment and not just a change of mind. You are changed in Christ, transformed. They declared salvation a great success. They declared how he glorified God. God, in his wisdom, was able to punish sin completely. And for the entire world, even those who reject him, their sins have been paid for. What a tragic loss if they don't accept that. God punished our sin, justified us at the same time while remaining just the triune God did that, only he could do it. They preached this everywhere they went. There's our lesson for tonight. How do we teach the Trinity? We preach the gospel. We teach other people about Jesus Christ and that they can be saved in the most wonderful success story. What if some don't believe it? What does the Bible say? Doesn't change it. That doesn't change it. It's not the Bible's fault.
[30:22] It's not the plan's fault. It's the rebellion of mankind that keeps them from experiencing the success of salvation. Knowing that it was the masterpiece of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the apostles taught it and preached it, of course, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And we find it's 100% effective in all those that believe. And the one who gets saved finds that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit takes up their, his abode inside of them, now lives in them. By the way, when I'm talking about God, I mean one God, one person. If I slip up and say they, you know I'm talking about three, the three persons that are manifest in the Trinity, but God is undivided. So I'm sure some of my pronouns have gotten caught here a little bit tonight, but just understand that that's what we're talking about.
[31:09] In the Old Testament, we saw God's essential oneness. That's how he introduces himself. I am one God. All the pagans around you worship multiple gods. I am one God, but he reveals himself in a pluralistic language. And also he talks about how his word goes out and his Holy Spirit goes out and accomplishes things. And then Jesus comes along through the incarnation, which reveals the Trinity, of course. And he comes through the incarnation and he teaches about his nature to who? To his disciples, those who had eyes to see, those who had ears to hear. And this is spiritually understood as we, as we live our Christian life. Then he revealed to us his deity. He revealed to us how he acts in the power of God, the divine human relationship, beautiful story that that is.
[31:55] And then of course, how did the apostles teach the Trinity? They taught it as the success story of the Bible, redemption. And they taught it and they preached it through preaching the gospel to everyone they came into contact with. So how do we teach it? We'll preach the gospel.
[32:13] Preach the gospel to others. So what do we do in three weeks? Well, we determined that this is a mystery. And that it is only understood by those who accept Christ and in salvation can see what the Trinity is doing and how is it at work in their life. And so maybe there are some things in there that you can use, but let's teach the gospel to others. Let's pray together. Father, we love you.
[32:40] Lord, there, there is an anticipation of understanding this better all through eternity that sits in our hearts. And Lord, there is a, an admiration of the success of your redemption for us. Lord, we often talk about how it just defies logic that you would die in our place, the just for the unjust, the innocent for the guilty. And Lord, we know it's through your grace, but father, it's the plan of your triune nature to save us. No other way this could be done. Father, help us to see you not just in the scriptures, but help us to see you as you reveal yourself to us in our, in our everyday walk and help us to share the gospel with others so that your glory could be expanded across this earth and people would admire you as we do for all the char will praise you in Jesus name. Amen.