Declaring Doctrine | Part 16 | The Doctrine of the Trinity
Alright we’re there in 1st John 5. And of course on Sunday nights we’ve been going through this series on the subject of “Declaring Doctrine”. And h1stly we’ll probably end up having like 35 different sermons in this series. Instead of making you sit through 35 straight weeks of doctrine, what we’ve been doing is we’ve been taking sections of it and taking breaks. We started at the beginning of the year and I preached about 7 sermons on the doctrines of the Word of God. So remember, we learned about general revelation and special revelation. And we talked about the King James Bible and we talked about inspiration and preservation and all those things. Then we took a break and then in the fall we started back up on Sunday nights with the “Declaring Doctrine” series. But we began to talk about the Godhead and that’s what we’ve been talking about the last several weeks.
And if you remember, we when we started back up, we started with a sermon on the natural attributes of God. We learned about the fact that he’s omniscient and omnipotent and eternal and all those things. And then we also looked at the moral attributes of God. And then we spent several weeks talking about the deity of Christ because that’s something that gets a lot of attacks today. So we talked about the deity of Christ as proven by his moral attributes; the moral attributes of Christ. We talked about the deity of Christ as proven by his personal claims. The deity of Christ as proven by the statements of scripture. We talked about the eternal Sonship of Christ. We talked about the humanity of Christ. Last Sunday we talked about the Holy Spirit. And tonight we’re finishing up this section on the Godhead. And starting next Sunday, I might just preach a few just stand al1 sermons but then we’ll start another sermons series. And then at some point we’ll come back and do another section of the doctrinal series.
I was telling my wife this earlier. I shared it with some of the guys too. I’m seriously considering doing a Sunday night series called “When Animals Attack in the Bible”. And I don’t know why the Lord laid that on my heart but there are a lot of different stories in the Bible where animals attack and all that. So I think that would be fun; kind of like the “Drop Dead” series. We did that a while ago. But tonight as we finish up this Godhead section of doctrine. I’m preaching on the subject of the Trinity and we believe in the Trinity. With the Trinity, there are so many important aspects to it. There are so many things that that we need to learn and understand about the Trinity. What I want to do tonight, and I’ve d1 this in other sermons where I spoke on the Trinity, is I want to read to you just our Doctrinal Statement on the Trinity. And if you go to our website, you’ll find our Doctrinal Statement. I wrote the Doctrinal Statement. It was not copied and pasted from anywhere. I’m the 1 who went through and chose all the words there. And I wrote this statement on the Trinity for our website and for our bylaws and things like that. I’m going to read the statement to you. And then what we’re going to do tonight is I’m going to break the statement up into sections. And we’re just going to go through the Bible and I’m going to prove this to you from the Bible and show you what we believe and why we believe it. We’re going to look at a lot of Bible tonight. I hope you’re ready to study the Bible together. But we’re talking about the Trinity and here’s our Doctrinal Statement in regards to the Trinity.
We believe in the Trinity which is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The 3 persons or members of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, intellect and will. The 3 are all equally God and eternal meaning that they have eternally existed as 3 persons. The 3 members of the Godhead voluntarily submit themselves under a chain of command. We acknowledge that each member of the Godhead is not partially God or a part of God but believe that each member is all God and all of God. We reject Partialism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a part of God that comes together to make up 1 God. We reject Polytheism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a separate God. We reject Oneness which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is the same person playing different roles. Now that’s a pretty lengthy Doctrinal Statement but the reason for it is because there are so many attacks on the Trinity today. We want to be very clear about what the Bible teaches. So I’m going to spend tonight just kind of breaking this statement down to you and proving it to you from the Bible.
And we’ll start in 1st John 5:7 which is probably the most famous and the most quintessential verse on the Trinity in the Bible. 1st John 5:7, the Bible says this “7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”. I want you to notice that the Bible says about the Trinity that there are 3 that are 3 persons that are 1 God. And that’s what we believe about the Trinity; that God exists in 3 persons. We believe in the Trinity which is the belief that God exists in 3 persons and the 3 persons are members of the Godhead. Those 3 persons are the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. So we see them there in 1 John 5:7; the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost. And I’m not going to take the time because we’ve been looking at a lot of very similar verses over the last several weeks. But of course if you go to John chapter 1, you have defined “the Word” as “the Son”. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as of the only begotten of the father.
Let me just show you from different passages that the Bible teaches that there are 3 members of the Trinity. Go to Matthew Chapter 28 if you would. And we could spend the whole night just looking at verses that reference all 3 members of the Godhead. There are so many of them throughout the Bible. But I’m just going to show you a few just to make the point. We believe that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. We believe that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And I want you to notice that throughout the Bible we see these 3 persons. We saw it there in 1 John 5:7. “7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.”.
Matthew 28:19. These are the words of Jesus. This is Jesus giving the Great Commission. And when he’s giving instructions in regards to how we should baptize, he names all 3 members of the Trinity. Matthew 28:19. “19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:”. So we see there are 3 separate members of the Godhead referenced; the 3 members of the Trinity. And that’s why when we baptize, we baptize in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. He says in verse 20 “20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”. So we see the 3 mentioned; the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost. In 1 John 5:7 we saw the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost.
Go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 13. We’re going to look at a lot of passages so just kind of be ready to look at a lot of these. I’m just showing you verses right now that highlight this idea. The idea that 1 God exists in 3 persons. 3 persons of the Godhead. 2 Corinthians 13:14, the Bible says this “14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”. So notice in this verse the 3 separate members of the Godhead are all referenced. “14 The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen.”. And we could look at other verses. I’m not going to keep doing that but there are so many verses that reference for us these 3 members of the Godhead. Because we believe that God exists in 3 persons; that there are 3 members of the Godhead.
Go to 2nd Corinthians Chapter 2. And let me talk about the next part of our statement. So number 1, we believe in the Trinity which is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The 3 persons or members of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And we looked at several verses that showed you those 3 members of the Godhead. Here’s number two or the second part of our Trinity statement; the 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, intellect and will. So we believe that the 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons. It is not Oneness. And we’ll talk more about that later in the sermon. But it is not that there’s 1 person playing 3 different roles. No, we believe that there are 3 distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body and intellect and will. It is 1 God that exists in 3 persons.
So I’m going to just show you some verses about this. And obviously there’s a lot of debate about the Father and especially the Holy Spirit as a person. We talked about that last week. So I won’t spend a lot of time on it. But I want to spend a little bit of time on it. It should be obvious that Jesus was a person. We shouldn’t have to spend too much time proving that. but I’ll just give you 1 verse as a reference. 2nd Corinthians Chapter 2 and verse 10. The Bible says this “10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;”. So he refers to the person of Christ. And obviously Jesus was a man. The man Christ Jesus. He was a person that walked on this earth. So we know that God the Son is a person. And I preached a whole sermon on the Eternal Sonship of Christ. And I’m not going to re-preach that or go through all that.
But let me show you just a couple of verses on the subject of God the Father as a person. Go to the Book of Hebrews if you would. Hebrews 1 is a passage we’ve been referencing a lot when we’ve been talking about the doctrine of the Godhead because there’s a lot in Hebrews that deals with this. But I just want you to see it again in reference to God the Father as a person. Because God the Son is a person obviously. And we even see a reference where Paul refers to the person of Christ. And then in Hebrews 1 and verse 1 the Bible says this “God,”. Now God here is God the Father. And I’m going to prove that to you here in a minute. But you know my position and my belief is this; in general when you see God referenced throughout the Bible, if there is not something in the context that’s specifically telling you it’s the Son or the Spirit, I believe in general when you see God that it’s God the Father who’s being referenced. And in Hebrews 1:1 we see God and then the context tells us that it’s God the Father.
Because notice Hebrews 11 says “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, 2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,”. So it’s saying that God the Father has spoken unto us by his Son. Hebrews 1:2 “2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds;”. Notice verse 3. “3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image”. So notice it says that the Son was the was the brightness of the Father’s glory and the Son was the express image his person (referring to God the Father). “3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person,”. This is God the Father’s person. “and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high:”.
Go to Job 13 and this is a verse I just kind of noticed when studying and preparing for the Wednesday Night sermon coming up this week. I want you to notice that there’s a reference here to God as a person in Job 13:7. “7 Will ye speak wickedly for God?”. And this is Job speaking to his friends who think they are speaking on behalf of God. “7 Will ye speak wickedly for God? and talk deceitfully for him?”. So he’s saying “Why are you guys talking wickedly for God? Why are you talking deceitfully for Him”? For who? For God.
Notice verse 8. This is Job speaking. “8 Will ye accept his person? will ye contend for God?”. So notice he says “Why are you speaking wickedly for God? Why are you talking deceitfully for him?”. Will you accept his person referring to God? So here’s another verse that is talking about God the Father as a person. He says “will ye contend for God?”. So obviously God the Son is a person and then God the Father is a person. And we’ve talked about this in last week’s sermon but I’ll just give you a proof that the Holy Spirit is a person.
I preached a 10-part series on the Holy Spirit in 2019. And in that series, I preached a sermon entitled the person of the Holy Spirit. And we went through a whole full-length sermon and showed from the Bible that the Holy Spirit is a person. Because some people teach that the Holy Spirit is a force or an energy and they try to make it this mystical type of force be with you type stuff. And the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is a person. And in that sermon, I talked about and showed from the Bible how the Holy Spirit has a body. We’re going to look at that verse here in a minute and how the Holy Spirit has a will and how the Holy Spirit communicates and how the Holy Spirit has intellect. He’s capable of thought or reason. And how the Holy Spirit has emotions. You can grieve the Holy Spirit. So the question is, does a force have emotions? Does a force like gravitational pull or like a magnetic pull have emotion? Does a force have intellect? Is it capable of thought and reasoning? Does a force communicate with people and talk to people? Does a force have a will where it wants to do certain things? Does a magnetic force have a body? And we talked about that the Holy Spirit is a person. But I’ll just show you 1 verse. We saw it last week but we’ll look at it again.
Luke 3:21. “21 Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass, that Jesus”. And notice at the Baptism of Christ we see again the 3 members of the Trinity are all present. Jesus, who’s the Son, “also being baptized, and praying, the heaven was opened,”. Notice verse 22. “22 And the Holy Ghost” which is the Holy Spirit or the 3rd member of the Godhead. “descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven, which said, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased.”. So at the Baptism of Christ, we have the Son being baptized. We have the Holy Ghost descending in a bodily shape like a dove and we have a voice from heaven saying thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. So we see all 3 members of the Godhead are all present for the Baptism of Christ are all represented. So look, we don’t believe in Oneness. Jesus is not some sort of ventriloquist where he’s getting baptized and he’s like “my beloved Son” or something and he’s like tricking people. No, he’s talking to God the Father in heaven. God the Father is present at the Baptism of the Son and the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove. So we see that all 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, their own intellect, their own will. It is 1 God that exists in 3 persons.
Number 1, we believe in the Trinity which is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The 3 persons or members of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, intellect and will. Here’s point number 3 or the third section of our Doctrinal Statement. The 3 members of the Godhead are all equally God. The 3 members of the Godhead are all God. The Son is God. Obviously, God the Father is God. But you know what, the Son is also God and the Holy Spirit is God. And again we’ve looked at this over the last couple of weeks so I don’t want to spend a lot of time on it. I preached 3 full sermons on the deity of Christ. If you want to go back and listen to those you can. But let’s just look at a couple of verses for it.
John 5:18 “18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father,”. Notice these words “making himself equal with God.”. So notice that the Son is equal with God. He’s equally God. He’s as much God as the Father is. You don’t have to turn there but Philippians 2:5 says “5 Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:”. So the 3 members of the Godhead are all equally God. 1 is not more God than the other. And oftentimes people don’t think of the Holy Spirit as God because people think of the Holy Spirit as some sort of like force or pull or energy. But you know what, the Holy Spirit is a person and the Holy Spirit is God.
When you cover multiple sermons on the Godhead, you end up overlapping a lot of different things which is fine. It’s good for us to hear things over and over again. Acts 5:3. There’s lots of ways we could prove that the Holy Spirit is God. This is just the easiest in my opinion for a sermon like this where we’re covering so many other things. If we wanted to, we could go and look at how the Holy Spirit is the creator, the Holy Spirit gives life, the Holy Spirit is omniscient, is eternal, is all-powerful. He has all the attributes of God because he is God.
Acts 5:3 “3 But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost,”. So notice Ananias is lying to the Holy Ghost. “and to keep back part of the price of the land? 4 Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men,”. Because remember in verse 3 he said “why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost,”. Now he’s saying “thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.”. Why would he say that? Because the Holy Ghost is God. Because all 3 members of the Godhead are equally God. God the Father is God. The Son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. They are all equally God.
Here’s the fourth section of our Doctrinal Statement. Not only are the 3 members of the Godhead all equally God but the 3 members of the Godhead are eternal, they are equal, and they are eternal. Meaning that they have eternally existed as 3 persons. All 3 members of the Godhead are eternal. Because again, there are beliefs today where people will say that the Father has a Son but the Son has not always existed. Now I preached the whole sermon on the eternal Sonship of Christ and we completely demolished that from the Bible. I’m not going to do that tonight again. But the point is this, all 3 members of the Godhead are eternal. They’ve always existed. They’ve eternally existed as 3 persons. And by the way, they’ve only existed as 3 persons. Because some people will say “Well God could have manifested himself however he chose to manifest himself. He could have manifested himself as six.”. No, this isn’t Hinduism. He’s eternally existed as 3 persons and always will.
Isaiah 40:28, notice what the Bible says “28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.”. So there we see that God is everlasting. The everlasting God. And then we see other of his natural attributes. “The Creator of the ends of the earth”. Notice “fainteth not”. He doesn’t get tired. Why? Because he’s omnipotent. “neither is weary”. He doesn’t get weary. Why? Because he’s omnipotent. There is no searching of his understanding. Why? Because he’s omniscient. He knows everything. So we see the attributes of God just in this verse. But notice, he’s referred to as the everlasting God. So God the Father is everlasting. That phrase is in the Bible and we’ll talk about that later on in the sermon. But also, the Son is eternal. Go to Micah Chapter 5.
So God the Father is eternal, everlasting. But also God the Son is eternal. And again, I preached a whole sermon on that so I’m not going to spend a lot of time on it. You’re welcome to go back and check out the sermon on the eternal Sonship of Christ. But I’ll just give you this 1 verse. Micah 5:2 is a very well-known prophecy of Jesus. There’s no argument that this is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ. As far as I know, everybody agrees this is about Christ. Micah 5:2 “2 But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me”. So notice, there’s one coming forth out of Bethlehem that is to be ruler in Israel. Notice what it says about Jesus “whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.”. So this is a prophecy about the Lord Jesus Christ being born in Bethlehem. But the Bible says that his goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting. This means that he’s always existed. He’s existed from everlasting. And by the way, this is why Jesus would say “Before Abraham was, I am.”. Because he is from everlasting. He always has been. So God the Son is eternal.
And then the Holy Spirit is eternal as well. Go back to Hebrews 9:14. The Bible says “14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through”. Notice these words “the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?”. So notice we have the everlasting God, the everlasting Father. We have the Son who was from everlasting and then we have the eternal Spirit. So we believe that the 3 members of the Godhead are eternal meaning they have eternally existed as 3 persons. Jesus never came into being. He was never created. When he’s referred to as the first born of creation or the firstborn, that’s a reference to his body. And we talked about that in a different sermon but he has always been the Son. The Father has always been the Father. The Holy Spirit has always been the Holy Spirit.
Go back to John 5. We believe in the Trinity which is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The 3 persons or members of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, intellect and will. The 3 members of the Godhead are all equally God. And the 3 members of the Godhead are eternal meaning that they have eternally existed as 3 persons.
Here’s point number five of this statement. The 3 members of the Godhead though all equally God voluntarily submit themselves under a chain of command. So in the Trinity you have the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And those 3 are equally God, they’re eternal and have always existed. However, they choose voluntarily to submit themselves in a chain of command. So God the Son, Jesus, voluntarily submits himself to God the Father. Let’s look at a couple verses to prove this.
John 5:30 “30 I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me.”. So notice, Jesus here is referring to the fact that he and the Father have different wills. So how could they be the same person if they have different wills? If they’re the same person, they’d have 1 will. But he says look, I have a will as the Son and the Father has a will. And he says, though I’m equally God and eternally God just like the Father, he submits himself to the will of the Father. And by the way, praise the Lord for it. Because Jesus said in the Garden of Gethsemane “let this cup pass from me”. He said that he didn’t want to die because remember, he was a human. And in his humanity, he said “I don’t want to go through the shame of the cross.”. But he said “Not my will but thine be done”. So we see that the Father and the Son can have different wills because they’re different members or different persons of the Godhead. Jesus said that he always does what pleases the Father. He chooses to voluntarily submit himself to the Father.
1 Corinthians 11:3. Notice what the Bible says “3 But I would have you know, that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God.”. Sometimes women don’t like this passage because it says that the wife is supposed to submit to her husband. But notice that Jesus as a Son submits to his Father. So look, there’s nothing degrading about submission. It doesn’t make you inferior. The Father is greater than the Son in his position. He’s not more God than the Son is. He’s not greater. Look, they’re equally God. They’re equally eternal. But in his position as the Father, he is greater than the Son. He is the head. The head of Christ is God. So look, a wife is not inferior as a human being. She’s not inferior to her husband because she submits to her husband. Just like Jesus is not inferior. Jesus is God. He’s equally God. He’s eternally God. But yet he chooses to submit himself to the Father.
Look, a child is not inferior as a being to his parents when he submits or when she submits. But he is inferior in position. An employee is not inferior as a human being to a human employer but he is inferior in the chain of command in his position. So, the Father is greater than the Son in his position. The head of Christ is God. And in fact, if you continue studying there in 1st Corinthians and you get to the part about the millennial reign, it talks about how at the end of the millennial reign Jesus will deliver the Kingdom up to his Father. And he just submits himself to the authority of the Father. So we see that the Son voluntarily submits himself to God the Father.
Not only does the Son submit himself to the Father, not only does God the Son submit himself to God the Father but God the Holy Spirit voluntarily submits himself to God the Son. So this is the chain of command. Sometimes we refer to God the Father as the first member of the Godhead and the Son is the second member of the Godhead and the Spirit is the third member of the Godhead. It’s not that the Holy Spirit is less God or inferior but in the chain of command he’s number 3. It’s God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And God the Holy Spirit voluntarily submits himself to the Son and the Son voluntarily submits himself to the Father.
John 16:13 and this is Jesus speaking about the Holy Spirit. And notice what he says. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself;”. Now when the Bible says the Holy Spirit shall not speak of himself, the word out there is referring to source not subject. When it says that he should not speak of himself it doesn’t mean that he’s never going to speak about himself. Because holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost and the Bible records the Holy Ghost. When it’s talking about, he should not speak of himself, it’s not referring to subject it’s referring to source. It is saying that the Holy Spirit is not just going to start speaking. He’s only going to speak what the Son wants him to speak. He says “for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”. He’s only going to speak from the Bible. So if the Holy Ghost is telling you to do things that the Bible doesn’t say and you’re hearing an audible voice, I don’t know what spirit that is but it’s not the Holy Spirit. Because the Holy Spirit will not speak of himself. “but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”.
Notice verse 14. “14 He shall glorify me:”. This is Jesus speaking about the Holy Spirit. He says the Holy Spirit shall glorify me. “for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.”. So notice how God the Holy Spirit voluntarily submits himself to God the Son. And God the Son voluntarily submits himself to God the Father. And they’re all equally God. They’re all equal. They’re all eternal. So there is a chain of command when it comes to the Trinity. Not only do we believe that the 3 members of the Godhead are equally God, eternal and eternally existed as 3 persons, we also believe that the 3 members of Godhead though all equally God voluntarily submit themselves under a chain of command.
Here’s part 6. We acknowledge that each member of the Godhead is not partially God or a part of God but believe that each member is all God and all of God. You say what does that mean? We acknowledge that each member of the Godhead is not partially God or a part of God but believe that each member is all God and all of God. We reject partialism. Partialism is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a part of God that comes together to make up 1 God. Now go to Colossians Chapter 2 and let me just kind of explain this a little bit. Because a lot of times what happens is that we as human beings have a problem with just accepting things from the Bible by faith. There are some things that you’re just not going to understand. The Bible says that the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. And there are just some things that we’re not going to get. We’re going to look at it later in the sermon but the Bible says that God is higher. His ways are higher. His thoughts are higher. We can’t expect to just understand everything that the Bible says. Now we can understand a lot of it through the Holy Spirit and we can learn a lot of it. But there are some things that we just have to accept by faith. We just have to accept it by faith. And when you look at the Trinity and you try to teach the Trinity, it is something we have to believe and accept by faith.
What I’ve learned when it comes to teaching the Trinity is that everybody always wants to use these illustrations or whatever and the illustrations end up falling apart and the people end up getting more confused than when you started. I just like to use Bible terminology and biblical words. We believe in 1 God that exists in 3 persons. But a lot of times what happens is that we want to make the Trinity make sense to us. So then people start coming up with these different ways of looking at it or thinking about it. Some of it is just normal people that are trying to make sense of it. So they’ll teach the Trinity in this way where it’s like it’s 3 parts that come together to make up 1 God. And you know what, that is what Partialism teaches. Partialism is basically teaching that if we had a pie then God the father is just 1/3rd of God, God the Son is 1/3rd of God and God the Holy Spirit is 1/3rd of God. And they come together to make up 1 God. The problem with that is that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible does not teach that each member of the Godhead is partially God or part of God and they come together to make up God. The Bible teaches that each member is all God and all of God.
Colossians 2:9 is one of the clearest verses on this about Jesus. It says “9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”. That word Godhead means divinity. God is divine. And the Bible says about Jesus that “in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”. Let me give you an example. Acts 17:29 “29 Forasmuch then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and man’s device.”. So he says look, the Godhead is not a statute. It’s not gold and silver. He’s saying that the Godhead is divinity, but not something physical that you bow down to. “9 For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.”. Look, the Bible says that Jesus was all God. And see, if we really want to get into semantics, people say “We believe that Jesus was 1 part of God”. By saying that, he’s like 1/3rd God. Well here’s the thing. We believe that Jesus is all God and all of God. And him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Jesus was all of God and in the Father is all of God and in the Son is all of God. Because there’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons.
This is where our minds start trying to fit this like a puzzle. We got to make all the puzzle pieces fit. But here’s the thing, God is not a puzzle. Now at this point the Oneness crowd begins to take a lot of verses out of context. They look at a lot of these verses that are teaching that Jesus is all God and all of God and they’ll say “See, that verse proves that the Trinity is a lie and there’s just 1 person playing 3 different roles.”. And what they basically think is that God is just 1 person that has like a personality disorder. And sometimes he thinks he’s the Father and sometimes he thinks he’s the Son and sometimes he thinks he’s the Spirit. But look, I’ve already spent 45 minutes of this sermon proving to you that they are 3 separate persons. So when we look at these verses that say all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, what we take away from that is that each member of the Godhead if all God and all of God and not just a part of God.
John 10:30, notice what the Bible says. “30 I and my Father are one.”. Now that sounds a lot like these 3 are 1. I and my father are one. “31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.”. The Jews knew exactly what he meant by that and they took up stones to stone him. “32 Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.”. So they understood exactly what he meant when he said “30 I and my Father are one.”.
Go to John 14:8. The Bible says this “8 Philip saith unto him, Lord, show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. 9 Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?”. Now again a Oneness person is going to take this person and say “See, Jesus is the Father in the sense that Jesus is the same person.”. But here’s the problem with that. We have all these other verses that specifically tell us they’re 3 separate persons. Look, when you study the Bible, you can’t take 1 verse out of context and form your doctrine. You need to study the whole Bible. And when all the Bible is telling you there are 3 separate persons and the 3 persons have always existed then you have to look at this verse in John 14 and ask yourself what it is referring to.
He’s referring to the fact that “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”. Jesus is saying “You want to see God? You’re looking at him. I’m all God and I’m all of God.”. He wasn’t saying “I am the person of the Father”. But here’s what Jesus is saying. I’m the same God that the Father is because there’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. Now the Father is invisible. The Bible says “no man hath seen God at any time” referring to the Father. He said if you’re looking at the second person of the Godhead, you’re looking at God. He said “I am God. I am all of God.”. In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He said “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the father”. He wasn’t saying “I’m the same person that the Father is.”. But he was saying “I am the same God that the Father is.”. There’s only 1 God. So we acknowledge that each member of the Godhead is not partially God or a part of God. “In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily”. We believe that each member is all God and all of God. We reject partialism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a part of God that comes together to make up 1 God. And again even if we have trouble understanding it, we just have to realize that when the Bible says something then we go with what the Bible says. Even if you don’t understand it, maybe one day you will but I’m just going to believe it and accept it by faith.
Here’s part 7, we reject polytheism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a separate God. And this is what the Mormons believe and this is what the heathen believe. But see, there are extremes to both sides of the Trinity. Some people go to the extreme and say “No, they’re just 1 person.”. But to believe they’re 1 person, you have to reject so much of scripture that clearly teaches that there are 3 persons. 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And then other people want to go to this other extreme because it makes sense. People can’t understand 1 God and 3 persons so they say that it must just be 3 different Gods. Well that’s polytheism. That’s heathenism. The Bible is clear that there is 1 God.
I’ll give you a couple verses on that. Isaiah 44:6 “6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.”. And by the way, Jesus said in the Book of Revelation “I am the first and the last:
18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.”. Here we have the Lord. And I believe this is all 3. This is referring to God. Then he says this “and beside me there is no God.”. So look, 1 God that exists in 3 persons is not 3 Gods. And we also don’t believe it’s 1 God that exists in 1 person who has 3 different personalities. That’s Oneness. What is the belief in the Trinity? The belief in the Trinity is this, there’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. You say “I don’t understand that.”. You don’t need to understand it. You just need to accept it by faith because that’s what the Bible says. We reject polytheism.
Deuteronomy 6:4 “4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord:”. And again, the Oneness crowd loves these verses. But just because there is 1 God doesn’t mean that there’s only 1 person. There’s 1 God and that 1 God exists in 3 persons. And you say “Well Pastor, do you understand that?”. No. And I don’t expect. Maybe one day we will and I think in heaven we probably will. But here’s what I can tell you. I can prove to you from the Bible that there’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And those 3 are eternal. They’ve always existed. they’re equal. they are not the same person but they are the same God. there’s only 1 God which is why Jesus says “Hey, you’re looking at God.”. That’s why Paul said “in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.”. He is not 1/3rd of God. All the fullness dwells in him because there’s only 1 God.
Here’s part 8. We reject Oneness. And I’ve already been bringing that up. And obviously the battle right now when it comes to the Trinity is Oneness. And this is not just in our movement but just in general. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but out soulwinning, it seems like a lot more people than used to are bringing up this Oneness. So it seems like this is definitely becoming a thing. So number 8, we reject Oneness which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is the same person playing different roles. It’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. Let me just show this to you. There are lots of verses to disprove this but I’ll just show you John 8.
John 8:13. “13 The Pharisees therefore said unto him, Thou bearest record of thyself; thy record is not true. 14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.”. The word “wither” means to what place I go. “15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man. 16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true:”. Now notice what Jesus says. Because look, if Oneness is true then there is 1 God just playing different roles. Sometimes he’s the Father, sometimes he’s the Son and sometimes he’s the Holy Spirit. And some will teach that it has to do with time. In the Old Testament he was the Father and, in the gospels, he was the Son and in the Book of Acts he was the Holy Spirit. But look, if these things are true then John 8 would mean that Jesus is insane.
We’ve talked about this before that Jesus said enough about himself that he either was who he said he was or he was a crazy man. You can’t say “Oh he’s a good man but he’s not God.”. Look, if he’s not God then he’s crazy. John 8:14 “14 Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself,”. Because they said he’s coming on and saying “Look, I’m the Son of God. I’m the messiah. I’m here to save you from your sins.”. And they say “Well if you’re bearing record of yourself then you are not true.”. And then he says “Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go. 15 Ye judge after the flesh; I judge no man.”. Notice verse 16 “16 And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone,”. He says look, it’s not just me with this testimony. “but I and the Father that sent me. 17 It is also written in your law, that the testimony of two men is true.”. Now he’s using the law against them. He’s saying look, the law says that the testimony of 2 men is true. Then he says this in verse 18 “18 I am one that bear witness of myself, and the Father that sent me beareth witness of me.”.
Here’s what he’s saying. Your law says that the testimony of 2 men is true. So I’ve got two men, two different persons testifying. He says I’m one and the Father is another one. I mean he is clearly teaching that there are two separate persons. Look, if Oneness is true then Jesus is insane or just a liar. I mean could this hold up in a court of law? “I’ve got two witnesses to the fact that he killed her.”. “Who are the two witnesses?”. “Me and me. In fact I’ve got 3. Me, myself and I.”. Well that doesn’t work. You can’t say it’s 1 person but sometimes he’s the Father, sometimes he’s the Son and sometimes he’s the Spirit. No, we reject Oneness which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is the same person playing different roles. It’s clear in the Bible that they are 3 separate and distinct persons.
And you say “Well then what about all these verses where it sounds like it’s just 1 God? For example ‘I and my Father are one. What do you do with that?”. Sometimes people try to throw that in your face like what are you going to do with that? It’s like, I’m not going to do anything with that. I love that. That’s the Word of God. So why are there lots of verses that make it sound like there is 1 God? Because there is 1 God. But it’s not 1 person. It’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The Trinity.
Isaiah 9:6 “6 For unto us a child is born,”. Now look, this is again a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don’t think anybody argues the fact that this is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”. Now this verse deals with 2 different aspects. One is the millennial reign of Christ when it says “the government shall be upon his shoulder”. That is referring to the fact that one day he will rule and reign upon this earth during the millennial reign.
But this verse is also dealing with the deity of Christ when he says “the mighty God”. So this child that was born, this Son that was given was not just a human being like you and I. The Bible says his name shall be called wonderful, counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, the prince of peace. Now here’s what’s interesting. Because people get really afraid ever since the Oneness fight about this verse like how are we going to explain this verse away. And look, I try to be very careful about ever trying to explain any verse away. If I don’t know what a verse means then I’m just going to say “Well look, the Bible’s right and we’re all wrong. If there’s 1 thing that I know is right, it’s the word of God.”.
You say “Well what is this referring to?”. Isaiah 9 6 is referring to the entire Godhead. All 3 of them. And by the way, they’re all referenced in this verse. “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:”. This is Jesus Christ. “The everlasting Father,” is a reference to God the Father. Some people say that’s not a reference to God the Father. That’s not the position I take. If that’s the position you’re going to take that’s fine. I don’t have a problem with that. But you know I believe the everlasting Father is referring to God the Father, the eternal God. You say, “Well how about the Holy Ghost?”. The Holy Ghost is not specifically referenced but it talks about the counselor. What’s a counselor? A counselor or someone who gives counsel or someone who teaches. Well what does the Holy Ghost do? He guides us in all truth. He will teach us. “the same anointing teacheth you”. So we have the counselor. “the prince of peace” of course is referring to Jesus. But remember the Bible says in Galatians that the fruit of the Spirit is “love, joy, peace”. So we see even in this verse all 3. I mean the Son and the Father are referenced and we see that even the Holy Ghost is referenced here through attributes of peace and the fact that he’s a counselor. And all 3 are wonderful. So we see that it mentions or it references all 3 of the members of the Godhead.
Isaiah 9:6 “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”. Now a couple of years ago or several years ago I remember the Oneness thing blew up and these Oneness preachers were trying to bring up what myself and my friends which are all Trinitarians had preached about Isaiah 9:6. And they started finding all these clips where we were preaching through Isaiah 9:6 and they were just cutting out these little where we’re saying Jesus is the Father. And they’re saying that we were preaching Oneness and are a bunch of hypocrites. But here’s what you need to understand. Whenever you hear somebody preach and teach, you need to be listening to what they’re saying but you also need to be listening to what they mean by what they’re saying. Because the funny thing is that in all those sermons that they found clips where we were saying Jesus was the Father, if you listen to all those sermons, because I took the time to listen to all those sermons, every single preacher preached against Oneness in those sermons. So they’re saying “Well look, they said Jesus is the Father that means they believe in Oneness.”. And then we’re preaching against Oneness in the exact same sermon a lot of times right after making that point.
Because look, when we preached Isaiah 9:6 and we said Jesus is the Father, if you would have walked up to one of us and asked if we believe that Jesus is the same person as God the Father then we would have said no. So what did we mean? Well here’s what we mean and here’s what the verse means. Jesus is the same God that the Father is. The father is the same God that the Holy Spirit is. Jesus came unto us. “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given:”. And he wasn’t just a man. He was God. He wasn’t just a part of God. He was all of God. He was all God and all of God. This is referring to all deity. This is why Jesus would say “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father”. You’ve not seen the person of the Father but you’ve seen the same God that the Father is. Because God is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. So this is what the verse is talking about.
“6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”. We need to be careful when people say things to not just make a narrative that we want but find out what they meant by it. Obviously today with the whole Oneness crowd, we’re all trying to be clear and careful with our wording. But let me give you an example. When it comes to repent of your sins, just because some preacher gets up and uses the word repent doesn’t mean that they’re just a full-blown heretic. You know our job is then to go and figure out “Well what do you mean by that? What do you mean by repent?”. And sometimes people will say to me that salvation is repent and believe and I ask them what they mean by that. I’ve literally had people say to me “I don’t know. It’s just a thing you say.”. It’s like they don’t mean anything by the word repent.
But look, when you follow up and they’re like “I mean turn from your sin.”. Okay. Then don’t excuse it. Sometimes we have to follow up a bit and figure out what they mean by that. And if what they mean by that is not right then you have to condemn it. See, when the Oneness crowd said Jesus the Father, they meant Jesus was the same person as the Father. That’s wrong. But if you hear some Old IFB preacher in Isaiah 9:6 say Jesus is the Father, don’t just assume they’re Oneness. They might just be saying that Jesus is the same God as God the Father. There’s only 1 God. But look, here’s the point. Isaiah 9:6, these are the words that the Holy Ghost teaches. I mean nobody disagrees Isaiah 9:6 is about Jesus. “6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”. The Bible says that this Son who was given, his name shall be called the everlasting Father. So we don’t need to excuse that or try to explain that away. That’s what the Bible says.
Now again, do you believe that they’re the same person? Look, I spent an hour proving to you that we don’t believe that. But it’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And the reason you have verses like Isaiah 9:6, John 14, Colossians 2:9 and others is because there is a unity in the Trinity. It’s not just 3. There are 3 that are 1. How are they 1? They are 1 in the sense that there is 1 God. How are they 3? In the sense that they are 3 persons. 3 persons that are eternal, equal, that have always existed. But you find verses like Isaiah 9:6. You find verses like Jesus saying I and my father are one. They are 1 because there’s only 1 God.
So we believe in the Trinity. The Trinity is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And when we get to verses like Isaiah 9:6, don’t let that scare you. It’s a great Christmas verse. We use this in Christmas. The mighty God, the everlasting. It’s referring to the fact that when Jesus came, he was all God and all of God because there’s only 1 God.
Go to Isaiah 55:9. Let me just end by reading our full Trinity Doctrinal Statement. “We believe in the Trinity which is the belief that there is 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The 3 persons or members of the Godhead are the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. The 3 members of the Godhead are distinct and separate persons each possessing their own body, intellect and will. The 3 members of the Godhead are equally God and the 3 members of Godhead are eternal meaning that they have eternally existed as 3 persons. The 3 members of the Godhead though all equally God voluntarily submit themselves under a chain of command. We acknowledge that each member of the Godhead is not partially God or a part of God but believe that each member is all God and all of God. We reject partialism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a part of God that comes together to make up 1 God. We reject polytheism which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is a separate God. We reject Oneness which is the belief that each member of the Godhead is the same person playing different roles.”.
And if you say “Well it still doesn’t make sense in my mind.”. Look at Isaiah 55:9. The Bible says this “9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”. Look, I think it’s good that there are some things we just don’t understand about God. Because God is bigger than us. He’s smarter than us. He’s stronger than us. He’s omniscient. He’s omnipotent.
You say, “I can’t square away this whole puzzle.”. I don’t have to square it away. I can tell you this though. It’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And when you have verses where Jesus is saying “Well I’m one person and the Father is another person.”. We say amen because it’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. And when you have verses where he’s saying “Well if you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father. There’s only 1 of us and I and my Father are one.”. We say amen because it’s 1 God that exists in 3 persons. This is the Trinity. 1 God that exists in 3 persons. The Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. And these 3 are 1.
Let’s pray.