God isn't really
something to worship. He's just waiting to
destroy all of us. I guess there's a God
out there somewhere. I hope there is a God. God isn't really
something to worship. God is everywhere. Yes, he does love you,
and I love you as well. Would you turn in your
Bibles please, this morning, to the Gospel of
John chapter 14? Let me just say how glad I
am that we are participating in a relief effort for Beirut. I've had the
opportunity to go there. I have spoken at
several times in Beirut at churches in the area. One of which sustained enormous
damage during this explosion, and it's an honor to be able to
reach out in the name of Christ and with his love to
people who are hurting. We're in John chapter 14. If you don't mind, I'm going
to ask you to do something we did a few weeks ago. Could you stand for the
reading of God's word? I'm going to read it out loud. You can read along, and then we
can sit down and get started. We're in John chapter 14. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God,
believe also in me. In my father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place
for you, I will come, again, and receive you to
myself that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know,
and the way you know. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do
not know where you are going, and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the
Father, except through me. If you had known me, you would
have known my father also. And from now on, you know
him and have seen him. Philip said to him,
Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, have
I been with you so long, and yet, you have
not known me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen
the Father, so how can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I
speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but
the Father who dwells in me does the works believe. Me that I am in the Father
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake
of the works themselves. Most assuredly, I say to you,
he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also. And greater works than
these, he will do, because I go to my father. And whatever you ask in
my name, that I will do, that the Father may be
glorified in the son. If you ask anything in
my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep
my commandments, and I will pray the Father. And He will give
you another helper, that he may abide with you
forever the spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive. Because it neither sees him nor
knows him, but you know him, for he dwells with you
and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. And then down in
verse 25, things I have spoken to you while
being present with you. But the helper, the Holy
Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he
will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance
the things that I said to you. Have a seat, please,
and thank you for that. Let's pray together. Father, thank you
for this portion of your scripture, your word,
spoken to us by the Lord Jesus himself. I pray, Lord, that even
as you promised a helper, we ask for the
Holy Spirit to help us to grasp, to understand,
to be inspired by the example we have here. Thank you, Lord, for
the ability to meet together, to give
friendly eyes or a smile, to give encouragement
to one another, to meet, to enjoy that fellowship and
the strength that comes from it. We humbly ask these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. I suppose, if I were to try to
use my sermon title in a math class, I would fail the class. One plus one plus
one equals one. I understand that's bad
math, but it's good theology. And I suppose, if I wanted
to be mathematically precise, I would state it differently. I would say one times
one times one equals one. That would be more precise,
especially with the Trinity since we are dealing
with a compound unity. The subject today, the Trinity,
the triune nature of God is foundational to our faith. It is essential to
our faith, but I also know it is controversial. Winston Churchill once described
Russian foreign policy, and he called it
a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. That's a great description. I feel the same
about the Trinity. It's a riddle wrapped in a
mystery inside an enigma. This is difficult
territory for anybody. There was a family
visiting from India, visiting friends in California. The friends in California
on a Sunday went to church and took the family
from India with them. They didn't have the
background in India in American evangelical
churches, obviously, didn't quite understand it. But after church,
the host family asked their foreign
visitors, what did you think? And the 11-year-old girl, who
is a part of that Indian family said, I don't understand why
the west coast is not included. And they looked at
her, like, what? What do you mean? And she said, well, you
know, when the minister stood up and said, in
the name of the Father, and the son, and the
whole east coast. Of course, she didn't
understand that it was the Father, and the
Son, and the Holy Ghost. That was just a foreign
expression to her. The Trinity poses
a problem to us if we try to share our faith
with a Jewish person, a Muslim, a Mormon, a Jehovah's Witness. None of those groups believe
in the Trinity at all, and apart from that, it's
a problem for some of us. We wonder, should I
pray to the Father? Is it OK to pray to Jesus? Should I pray to
the Holy Spirit? If I don't give
attention to two of them, but I give attention
to one of them, will the other two be offended? And aren't we just
dealing with one person using different names? There's confusion
even among believers. And then even beyond
that, how do I explain this mystery
to my kids who ask questions to figure this out? Do I use an egg? That's how some people try
to describe it to their kids. You know, you have one
egg, but you have a shell. And you have a white,
and you have a yolk. Or do I use water? Water can be one substance, but
appear as a solid, or a liquid, or a vapor. Or do I use three
matches, and, say, you have three
separate entities? But you put them together,
and it forms one flame. There's all sorts of creative
explanations and analogies. I don't know if any
of them is perfect. I think it's always something
we should be careful. We should be careful not to
trivialize God and reduce him to a formula. What we are dealing
with is the inability to take something
infinite and comprehend it with a finite mind. At the end of the day, it's
not going to be possible, but that is not my aim. My goal here is not to
explain to you the Trinity. I don't want necessarily you
to understand the Trinity as much as enjoy the Trinity. That is my aim. I don't want you to just
know what the Trinity is or how the Trinity works. What I hope we get out of
this out of church today is how all three members of the
Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, help us,
how they sustain us, and how they inspire
us by their example. We've read the text. I'm going to dip back into it
for just a couple of things, but I want to show you five
discoveries of the triune God out of this chapter. The first and most
obvious is all three, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit, are a reality. You notice this when you read
through chapter 14, chapter 15, and chapter 16. This whole section,
Jesus will speak of the Father or my father. He will speak of
the Holy Spirit. He will speak of himself. He will call himself the
son, and he does this freely throughout the entire section. And he gives personal pronouns
to each of the three using terms, like he, his, him. So it's pretty evident
and obvious as we read through the section
that he is speaking about three distinct persons
all working in concert together, a Trinity, a triune God. It's pretty obvious. Now not everybody agrees. Some will object, and
here is the objection. Well, the word Trinity
isn't in the Bible. So what? The words second coming
are not found in the Bible, but you read it. Jesus said, if I go
I will, come again. Guess what that is? A second coming. The word Bible
isn't in the Bible. You don't have to have the word
present for it to be a truth. Yes, I understand the word
Trinity is not a biblical term. It's a theological term meant
to express biblical truth. So if you go through
the scriptures, you get the obvious reality
that not just the Lord Jesus, but the apostles. And you have in the Old
and the New Testament the evidence that there
are three persons that we are dealing with. We find it at the
baptism of Jesus in Matthew chapter
13, where it says, Jesus came up from the water. The heavens were opened. The spirit of God descending on
him like a dove and a lighting upon him. And suddenly, a voice
came from heaven. This is my beloved son,
in whom I am well pleased. You have all three,
son being baptized, the Father speaking, the Holy
Spirit coming in presence. At the end of Jesus'
ministry in what is called the Great Commission,
Matthew chapter 28, our Lord Jesus said, go therefore
and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name of the Father, in the name of the Son,
and of the Holy Spirit. Again, there is that formula,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It's something Paul
the Apostle did in a benediction at the
end of second Corinthians in the 13th chapter. May the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ-- excuse me. May the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the
Holy Spirit, be with you all. Now, again, we're dealing
with three separate persons. After all, since the Father
sent the son into the world, John 316 for God
so loved the world that he gave his
only begotten son. Since the Father sent
the son into the world, they can't be the same person. They're separate and distinct. And as we read in our
text this morning, since the son and the Father
both send the Holy Spirit, there is a distinction
from one another. This has always been
the understanding throughout church history. Church leaders in
their generations carefully articulated the
belief that the Bible sets forth of the triune nature of God. Here's a sampling. In 96 AD, almost a century
after Christ, Clement of Rome, a leader in Rome,
was the first one to refer to all three members
of the godhead in an oath that he wrote. And he said, and I
quote, "as God lives, and as the Lord Jesus lives,
and as the Holy Spirit lives." Father, Son, Holy Spirit. In the second
century AD, leaders, like Ignatius and Justin
Martyr, did the same thing. In the third century,
Irenaeus and Tertullian did the same thing. In fact, it was Tertullian who
came up and coined the term Trinity as we know it, using
the Latin trinitas, the three in one. Fast forward a
little bit to 325 AD when church leaders
needed to come together to settle an issue. There was already a
division over, is Jesus God? Are there three different
separate persons in one God head? So they had a meeting in
Nicaea, an ancient Asia minor, modern day Turkey,
and they formulated a creed called the Nicene
Creed or the Apostles' Creed. Some of you grew up in
your churches saying it. I believe in one God, the
Father almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and
in Jesus Christ's only son, our Lord. That's the language of a creed
to distill the major beliefs of Christianity. I love what Spurgeon said. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said
to have a gospel without the Trinity is like having a
rope of sand that cannot hold together. Then Satan can overrun
it, but give me a gospel with the Trinity. And the might of hell
cannot prevail against it. No man can anymore
overthrow it than a bubble could split a rock or a
feather in half a mountain. Come on. So well put. Spurgeon just had a knack. So these three, Father, Son,
and Holy Spirit, are a reality. That's the first discovery. The second is that all
three share in divinity. It's. Not just three separate persons. It's one God, one God. This is where it gets
tough for us to understand. All three are referred to
in scripture, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as being
God and having the attributes or qualities of God. We see a sampling
here, verse nine. Jesus said, if you have seen
me, you have seen the Father. It's a bold statement to
say, the Father and the Son share the same nature. In verse 16, speaking of the
Holy Spirit, the helper-- listen to what he says.
--will abide with you forever. Now, he is assigning
an eternal nature to this third person,
the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit will
abide with you forever. Now, I've had conversations
with folks who have said, well, Jesus never
claimed to be God, and the New Testament never
says overtly that Jesus is God. Whenever somebody says
that to me, I say, could you tell me what
version of the Bible you happen to be reading? Because I have never found
what you say you have found, and I've read a lot
of different versions. First of all, Jesus said,
before Abraham was, I am. And you know what the Jews
did in response to that? Took up stones to kill him. And Jesus said, why do
you want to kill me? Think of all the
good works I've done. They said, oh, we're
not going to kill you for the good works you've done. We want to kill you, because
you being a man are constantly making yourself out to be God. So Jesus said it. His enemies understood
what he said. Then he accepted worship from
Thomas after the Resurrection when Thomas saw him alive. Thomas said, my
Lord, and my God. Don't you think, if Jewish
Jesus was just a man, he would have said to Thomas,
oh, no, no, no, don't say that. That's blasphemy,
unless he was God. And he was. He accepted Thomas' worship. Then he claimed to forgive sins. When he healed the
paralytic, he said, son, your sins are forgiven. And a Jewish leader
said, hey, wait a minute. Only God can forgive sins. Yeah, that's why I
said what I said. Then Jesus performed miracles
that only God can perform. He demonstrated power
over disease, power over demons, power over death. He claimed
omnipotence, all power. He said in Matthew
28, all authority has been given to me
in heaven and on earth. That's omnipotence. He claimed omnipresence
in Matthew 18. Wherever two or three
are gathered in my name, I will be in their midst. He showed omniscience
that he knew everything on many occasions. He was speaking to a
woman at a well in Samara, and she was getting all coy,
and hurt, and back and forth with Jesus. And she said a few things. And finally, he just said,
go call your husband. And she goes, I
don't have a husband. Jesus said, you're right. You've had five
husbands in the past, and right now, you're
living with a guy who's not your husband. She didn't tell him that. How did he know that? Well, she said, sir, I
perceive that you're a prophet. Then on other
occasions, it says, and Jesus knowing their
thoughts said to them. So he can read minds. He knows people's
past backgrounds. He showed omniscience. And not only that, but Paul the
Apostle, the rabbi from Tarsus, said Jesus was God very clearly
and overtly in a few places. Here's just a couple. Romans nine, verse five. He said, Christ, who is over
all, the eternally blessed God. You can't get any
clearer than that. Titus chapter two, verse 13,
looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our
great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Again, very clear. And then the Holy Spirit is
also called God in scripture. Fifth chapter of
The Book of Acts. You remember the story
of Ananias and Sapphira. They took some land,
sold it, pretended to give it all to
the work of the Lord, kept back part for themselves. Not that that was a problem. The problem was they lied. And so Peter said, why has
Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit? And then he says
immediately after, for you haven't lied to men. You lied to God. You see how he put that? You lied to the Holy Spirit, and
when you did, you lied to God. Then the Holy Spirit
is seen as omniscient, for Jesus and John
16, Verse 13 said, when the Holy Spirit comes, he
will guide you into all truth. Well, don't you have
to know all truth to guide somebody
else into all truth? He will guide you
into all truth and he will tell you things to come. Well, you have to
know things to come. You have to know
the future to be able to guide people and
tell them things to come. So he's omniscient. He's also seen as omnipresent. Psalm 139, David said, where
can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee
from your presence? He's also seen as
omnipotent, all powerful. He was there at the creation. The Bible says the spirit of God
was hovering over the waters. And you might say, well, that's
sort of a nebulous reference, that he was involved
in creation. Well, then you
should read Job 33, where Job the Patriarch said,
the spirit of God has made me. That's pretty clear, right? He's assigning his
existence in creation as a work of the Spirit of God. Something else. You should know that
the Trinity is at least hinted at in the very first
verse of the Bible, Genesis 1:1. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the Earth. The word for God as
Elohim in Hebrew. Elohim. Whenever you see an
-im or hear an -im, I-M, that's a masculine
plural in the Hebrew, masculine plural. So if you want to say
God, it's El, or Allah-- it's a very generic
term for God-- you want to make that plural,
it's Elohim, like gods. But though it is a plural noun,
it is singular in meaning. So all you have to
do is take Genesis 1 and keep reading, keep
reading, keep reading down to Verse 26 of Genesis 1, where
it says, then Elohim said, God said, let us make
man in our image. You start thinking,
who is he talking to? Let us make man in our image
according to our likeness. Next verse. So God created man in his image. Singular, plural singular. It is a plural noun,
singular in meaning. When God said, let us make man,
he's not talking to angels. They had nothing to
do with creation. Its intertrinitarian
communication. It's the Father and the Son and
the spirit talking together. Let us make man in our image. So God created man in his image. Plural noun,
singular in meaning. So the text shows these
three are a reality and they share in divinity. Number three, the third
observation or discovery, is these three
pose a difficulty. They pose a difficulty,
meaning it's hard-- but we can talk about
it all day long-- still hard to understand it. I'll admit that. I'm really glad
that the text shows the difficulty the disciples
have in understanding the words of Jesus. Did you notice this? Did you notice in Verse
5, Thomas said to him-- now Jesus just said,
now where I'm going, you know, and the way you know. And then Thomas has
something to say. Now you call him
Doubting Thomas. I call him Honest Thomas. He doesn't understand
what he's talking about. So he says, Lord, we don't
know where you're going. So how can we know the way? How do we know to get there? So maybe all the other
disciples are kind of like leaning in and
nodding their heads when Jesus was talking like,
yeah, man, this is heavy. This is so good. Yeah, right on. And Thomas is going,
I don't get it, and I'm going to voice
that I don't get it. So he does. And then also down in Verse,
8 Philip said to him-- because Jesus talk about
the fathers and the son, and the son is in the Father-- Philip said, Lord, just
show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us. And Jesus said, have I been
with you long enough, Philip? You don't know who I am? You've seen me, you've
seen the Father. But what comforts
me is that even Jesus' closest
followers are going, yeah, no, I don't really
understand what you're saying. Even down in Verse 22-- we didn't read that
far, but it says, Judas, not Iscariot,
said to him, Lord, how is it that you will
manifest yourself to us and not to the world? So you have in this
passage three disciples not quite understanding
the words of Christ. They're having a difficult
time with what he is saying. So if these
disciples didn't even know where Jesus was
going, how could they understand we're dealing with
one being shared by three coequal, co-eternal persons? That's way above their
pay grade at that time. They would come to believe that,
but they're just kind of going, I don't get it. I've always loved the
story of a man who was in solitary confinement
years ago in a prison, when prison cells
were completely dark, and it was pitch black. Not a bit of light in
this place of confinement. The only thing this
prisoner had was a marble to throw up against the wall
to keep him from going nuts. So his routine was
to take the marble and throw it up
against the wall, and it would bounce, ricochet
on another wall, hit the floor, roll around. He'd listen to it, and he would
search for it with his hand, he'd pick it up. And he did it again and again
and again, day after day, month after month. One day he decided
to change things up. He said I'm going to throw it
up in the air in the darkness and try to catch it. So he threw the marble
up, cupped his hands. He heard nothing. Not only did he not
catch it in his hands, he didn't hear it hit the floor. He heard nothing at all. He threw it up
and it was silent. So he started
thinking about this and trying to figure it
out and struggled with it and lost sleep over it. It drove him nuts. And he died in prison. When the guards came in to
take his body out to bury him, they brought their lanterns
in, and one of the guards looked up because he noticed
a bright little reflection out of the corner of his eye, and
he noticed a marble in a spider web at the top of the cell. And he said, look at that. Of all the crazy
things, how on Earth did that spider manage to get
that marble all the way up there? Now he's trying to figure
it out, and he's thinking, I'm going to go crazy
trying to figure this out. Have you noticed that all of
us have marbles when it comes to the things of scripture? All of us, why would
God allow this? Well, why did this happen? Listen, the Trinity is the
greatest theological marble there is. RT Kendall said the Trinity
is the most difficult subject in Christian theology,
and by the end of the day, we may feel like we
are still out at sea. Augustine-- St. Augustine,
he is often called-- a church leader in
Egypt years ago, was walking on the beach trying
to figure out the Trinity, trying to figure out
a way to articulate it so he could tell other
people the meaning of the triune nature of God. He was having a difficult time. And when he was on the beach
walking, contemplating this, he noticed a little
boy digging a hole on the beach, a sizable hole,
and taking a little vessel, a little container to the
ocean, putting water in it, going over and dumping
it in the hole, going back to the ocean, more
water, dumping it in the hole. So finally, Augustine
walked over to him and said, young man,
what are you doing? And the little boy boldly said,
I'm going to take the ocean and put it in this hole. Augustine walked away
relieved and smiling, saying, that's what I've been
trying to do with this. I am trying to take the
infinite, vast ocean of God's nature and stick
it into the little hole in my brain. And that's impossible. And this is why, though
many Americans will identify themselves as being
Christian, far less will say they believe
in the Trinity because they don't
understand it. Can I tell you something that
I think will comfort you? God understands it. It's not beyond
his understanding. We can't figure it out. It's a mystery to
us, but not to God. I just want to tell
you, don't lose sleep if the marble doesn't come down. Don't lose sleep if
you can't unravel the mystery of the Trinity. Throughout history people
have struggled with it. Throughout history people
have argued over it. Throughout history people
have divided over it. And sadly, throughout
history, people have denied it, even though it
is plainly taught in scripture. Back in the second century
there was monarchianism. Then there was
Arius of Alexandria in the Patristic period. During the period
of the Reformation there was something
known as Socinianism, all denying the Trinity. And to this day,
every major cult will deny one God with three
persons, deny the Trinity. Not just cults. Muslims, as I mentioned,
also deny the Trinity. They say the Trinity
is not only illogical, it is the major
sin, the major sin. It is what really makes
somebody, in their words, an infidel. According to the Quran, God
is merciful to adulterers and liars, but not Trinitarians. Now I'm quoting from their book,
the Quran, Surah Chapter 5, concerning Trinitarians- those
who believe in three in one because they knew
Christians did-- God will forbid him the
garden that is paradise, and his abode
shall be hell fire. So you believe like we
do, you are an infidel. But still hard for us. I mean, how can three be one? How does that work? How is that even possible? I mean, isn't the Bible
all about one God? And weren't the Jews
fiercely monotheistic? Weren't they placed
in an environment of polytheist belief with the
pagan nations all around them? And isn't there great
statement of faith found in scripture Deuteronomy
Chapter 6 called the Shema. In Deuteronomy 6:4,
here, oh Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Pious Jews say it every day. [SPEAKING HEBREW]
One, [HEBREW],, one. But that word, one,
[HEBREW],, never means one in isolation
or stark singularity. It means one in unity. According to the
Bible, you can have a multiplicity that is a unity. For example, Israel in scripture
is called one people, [HEBREW].. You have a multiple,
multiplied group of people with many
different individuals. But it's one nation. Then the Tabernacle, though
it had different implements, in Chapter 26 of
Exodus, God said you will make 50 clasps
of gold and couple the curtains together
with the clasps so that it may be one
tabernacle, [HEBREW].. I did a wedding recently where I
was reminded of this because we brought up the scripture. For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined unto
his wife, and the two shall become one, one
flesh, one flesh, [HEBREW].. The two shall become one flesh. Now that doesn't mean that
they morph into a single human, although I have noticed
as couples get older, sometimes they start
looking like each other. I don't know what's
up with that. It means unity and plurality. It's one couple, one
family, one unit. So these three are a reality. They do share in divinity. They're all God. They're all called God-- Father, Son, and Holy Spirit-- but they do pose a difficulty. But let's get beyond
that because I mentioned at the
beginning, my aim is to have us enjoy the Trinity. So let me give you the fourth
discovery about the triune God. And that is that these three,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit provide security. All three play a strategic role
in the life of the believer. There's many texts,
but I'll just show you a little sampling of it
here, Verse 16, Jesus speaking. I will pray the Father, and
He will give you another what? What is it called? Helper. Listen, don't you agree we
need all the help we can get to live the Christian life? Good news. He's going to send a
helper, another helper. Jesus helped them. He was going away, but I'm going
to send you another helper that He may abide with
you or live with you, stay with you forever, the
spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it
neither sees Him nor knows Him. But you know him, for He dwells
with you and will be in you. I will not leave you orphans. I will come to you. Then in Verse 13 Jesus said,
whatever you ask in my name, that I will do that the Father
may be glorified in the son. That should bring you comfort. Jesus promises your
prayers will be answered. It may not be the
answer you like, but he will answer all of them. Down in verse 23,
speaking of the Father now and the son, himself
and the Father, says, we will come to him
and make our abode with him. So here's what I'm driving at. All three, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit take an active role in
the believer's salvation and sanctification as a helper. The Holy Spirit comes with us. So that's why we can say, yeah,
I asked Jesus into my heart. That's sort of how we
put we came to Christ, I came to salvation, I
asked Jesus in my heart. But guess what? Jesus will come in
your heart, but he's going to bring people with
him, persons with him. The Father's coming along
and the Holy Spirit. It's a package deal. You get all three. That gives us security. The Father chose you,
the Son redeemed you, and the Holy Spirit convicts
you and purifies you. That's seen in one verse,
by the way, of scripture. 1 Peter Chapter 1, Verse 2. Peter writes, God the Father
knew you and chose you long ago, and his spirit
has made you holy. As a result, you have
obeyed him and you have been cleansed by the blood
of Jesus Christ, all three working together in your life. I suppose if you want to
put it in fishing terms, for those guys who
like to go fishing, the Father sent the
son to go fishing. Jesus baited the
hook and caught you. And then once he caught
you, he handed you off to the Holy Spirit
to clean you up. That provides security. Finally, I want to close
with this, another discovery of the triune God. And that is these three,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit promote unity. They promote unity. To me, I think this is one
of the strongest points to be made. You notice in Verse 16,
I will pray the Father, and he will give
you another helper. Now he's referring
to the Holy Spirit. He's going to give
you the Holy Spirit. In Verse 26, but the
helper, the Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name,
he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance
all the things that I sent you. I never get the feeling,
as I read through this, I get the idea that Father, Son,
or Holy Spirit are all actively performing their roles
without any hint of rebuff toward the other two in
the triune nature of God. So for example, father
sends the Holy Spirit. You never hear of the
Holy Spirit going, nah, I don't want to
do that right now. I'm not into helping that dude. Forget it. You know, I'm a person, too,
and I've got my own will. None of that. There's always this perfect
cooperation together, all the way from Genesis 1:26,
let us make man in our image-- so God did make
man in his image-- to each member
cooperating together. So here's my point. The triune nature of
God becomes for us a template of how to get
along with each other, how to cooperate together. In fact, did not Jesus
even pray that our unity would be like the unity
between the Father and the Son? Lord, I pray, Father,
I pray that they may be one as we are one. Just like we share a
unity and love and respect and cooperation
together, my prayer is that my followers
will do the same. So that it might be said
God's purpose in creating people was to expand upon
what the Trinity already enjoyed, to take this love
and unity and cooperation out and expand it into
what he calls his church. I love what Tim Keller said. And when I quote
Tim Keller here, I'm not quoting our
Mayor Tim Keller. I don't think he
would have said this. But Tim Keller, the East
Coast New York City pastor said, if this world was
made by a triune God, then relationships of love are
what life is really all about. What a powerful statement. If this world was
made by a triune God, then relationships of love or
what life is really all about. Think of it this way. The ultimate reason for
families to stay together, the ultimate reason for a
couple to stay together, is because of the
Trinity, not because we signed a legal document. It's not even
because of the kids. The reason we're
going to stay together is we both follow a
triune-natured God, and they exhibit unity
and love for each other. And the reason,
also, that church splits are sinful and
wrong is far more than just because it hurts
families in the church. It hurts the nature of God. It hurts the heart of God. The reason we should
forgive each other and mend relationships is
because we have modeled for us a relational God. So we rightly sing
the "Doxology". It's maybe not a great name
for a song, "Doxology". But it's a terrific song. You know it. Praise God from whom
all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here
below, praise him above you heavenly hosts,
praise Father, Son, and not the whole East Coast,
but Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It's a great song. We're going to close with that. Could I have you stand
as we pray together, and we'll get ready to sing. Father, we give praise to you,
one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We haven't got it figured out. We're glad that we haven't
got it figured out. There's always a
mystery to the godhead, always a mystery in our
relationship with you, which just simply shows how
far above us and transcendent above us you are. And so our posture is
always humble before you. We give you praise,
we give you thanks. And we're so grateful that
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are actively working
in our lives, giving us help, sustaining us,
giving us an example to follow, empowering us and loving
us, staying with us, abiding with us forever. Lord, may you comfort your
people this day in Jesus' name. Amen. We hope you enjoyed this special
service from Calvary Church. We'd love to know how
this message impacted you. Email us at
mystory@calvarynm.church. And just a reminder, you can
support this ministry with a financial gift at
calvarynm.church/give. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from Calvary Church.
