The Trinity & True Worship (Dr. James Dolezal)

the following is a recording of greenville presbyterian theological seminary for more information visit gpts.edu i want to take three texts briefly as a commission to us as a charge none of these will be exegeted in depth but they will simply uh frame what we endeavor to do as we consider the trinity and true worship the first two exhortations come from a holy angel of all creatures exhorting us to worship god and to refrain from worshiping that which is not god the first in revelation 19 verse 9 the in verse 10 john receives this word from that apocalyptic angelic tour guide then he said to me right blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the lamb and he said to me these are the true words of god then i fell at his feet to worship him but he said to me do not do that i am a fellow servant of yours and your brethren who hold the testimony of jesus hear these words carefully worship god for the testimony of jesus is the spirit of prophecy should only take one time to learn the lesson but a few chapters later we're back with the same angel and the same apostle and the same scenario falling down again at the feet of a creature to worship revelation 22 verse 9 but he said to me do not do that i'm putting the emphasis i think where the angel might have put it i've just said this do not do that i'm a fellow servant of yours and of your brethren the prophets and those who heed the words of this book very simple and short statement that the angel says worship god an angel who rebelled against that angelic message a fallen angel we know him as satan lucifer the serpent of old entices and solicits our lord in the wilderness to fall down and worship him do angels know to whom worship should be given most certainly they do uh and fallen angels endeavor to pervert um and misdirect that worship and he says to our lord that he will give him all the kingdoms of this world if he will but worship him and jesus like the holy angels says you shall worship the lord your god luke 4 8 and him only shall you serve let's pray god help us illumine us stir our hearts to seek you in true worship lord help us to put away all idols help us to recognize you father son and holy spirit as the true object of our worship and devotion lord help us to forsake all others and devote ourselves unto you one god and trinity trinity in unity we pray this in christ's name as creatures we are ruined if we worship or venerate as god that which is not god but rather starkly if you don't worship god you go to hell if you worship that which is not god eternal perdition results the athanasian creed sometimes called the pseudo-affination creed athanasius almost certainly didn't write it and it wasn't ratified by an ecumenical council but as part of our tradition nevertheless uh 430 to 500 ish a.d states that each one must hold to the catholic faith not roman catholic in communion with the pope of rome but rather the universal and orthodox faith of the apostles or certainly perish in eternity says or certainly perish in eternity your eternal future your hope body and soul lies in the question of to whom it is you give worship and we could also put inversely to whom it is from whom you withhold worship if you withhold worship from true god you perish if you give worship to that which is not true god you perish the creed then immediately turns to this statement with regard to the object of our worship and i want to take this as a charter for our consideration today um as an exhortation to us and also as the points of my message uh for which there will be only two now don't give yourself any false consolation i can still i can still say a lot of things even with just two points i think dr mcgraw gave us a five point sub point last night so i i may match that but um two points the creed begins to unfold the content of our faith with these words this is the catholic faith the orthodox christian faith we worship one god in trinity and the trinity in unity i want to take both of these considerations first the one god and trinity secondly the trinity in unity as our consideration and to just unfold the implications of these two statements as our basic outline as we consider the trinity and true worship we worship three who are god but we do not worship three gods we offer worship to three but we don't offer three worships 2 3 as the creed says the father is god the son is god the spirit is god and yet not three gods but one god as our consideration unfolds then the first uh thing we'll have to do is consider the warrant and the motivation for worshiping the person of the father the person of the son and the person of the holy spirit and i want to consider the persons distinctly as persons objects of our worship in their personal distinction so that scripture doesn't simply say worship god it also gives us warrant to worship the father the son and the spirit that we worship god but we worship god in trinity what will need to be done is that we will have to lay and establish some warrant for identifying the three persons as true god and this can be done in several ways theologians down the ages have done it in several ways um that peculiar divine names are shared by the three persons uh is one way of doing this attributes and proper names so if the name yahweh is given to the son by a use of the old testament then that is to share in the name for which god is jealous thereby identifying him as god and you can do this for the attributes and other proper names uh the second most common way uh is to identify works performed by the three persons that are uniquely divine operations that is to say things only god can do and then if the scripture identifies the father son or spirit alternatively as doing those things then we can take warrant from that that this person is in fact true god worthy of our worship adoration and love this is how i want to approach our consideration this morning by considering the operations of the persons uh particularly with regard to creation sustenance and redemption or creator sustainer redeemer and consider that each of these activities of our god is attributed in various places to each of the three persons thereby warranting our devotion and our worship and the importance of this is such that if we omit worship to one of the persons and yet that person is said to be creator sustainer or redeemer then we fall foul of failing to worship he who is true god again this is one of those things for which i think the creed rightly alerts us we will perish if we withhold worship from him to whom it is due if we worship the father and the son but like the one of my favorite words from the fourth century the new maramaki the spirit fighters those that finally knuckled under and accepted the authority and the divinity of the sun but refused that of the spirit we still are not confessing and abiding by the christian faith to withhold worship from any one person is in fact ruinous to us the second consideration and we'll consider this as our second consideration is concerns how and why we worship the trinity in unity in other words why is it that i do not offer three worships or three truly distinct acts of veneration i can venerate the three distinctly but the distinction lies in the three not in my veneration of the three that is to say what is it that unifies our worship that keeps our hearts undivided in the worship of the triune god this is the problem uh with all uh with all polytheism polytheism necessarily divides the devotion of your heart give me a single heart give me a singular devotion this is what scripture calls us to an exclusive and singular worships we need to consider what it is about the three that warrants this singular worship why don't we partition it out and give a third to the father a third of the son a third to the spirit we do not offer three distinct acts of worship to each of the three persons nor three venerations though we venerate and worship three who are divine so we'll have to consider what it is about the trinity that grounds the singularity of our worship and the undividedness of our hearts when we adore and venerate him our access to understanding both the trinity of persons and the singularity of their divine nature is through a consideration of god's operations it's in the work of the trinity in his action for us and this came out beautifully in last night's talk by dr mcgraw it's in his action for us as creator sustainer and most culminatively as redeemer in which we come to discern both the distinction of persons and the unity of nature in the three particularly it's the divine character of this operation that makes it clear that we're considering the true god and not merely a created minister such as an angel a prophet or some other human so to our first point the first of two we worship one god in trinity we worship one god in trinity there are three who are god scripture discloses this to us by ascribing divine names and operations to the father and to the son and spirit distinctly it also reveals uh is revealed to us in the church in several ways uh and in one sense um the way in which every christian comes to know god is triune is not simply by attending a conference that spotlights trinity uh in its title uh or attending a theology class uh in which the nicene creed is carefully examined and inspected for all of its beautiful parts and arrangement but really the way in which every christian comes personally to know god as trinity is by participation in his church and in his salvation even before we sort of descend into the theoretical depths of contemplating um how it is that one can be three without being three gods or how it is um that god is one in being three in persons without carving them into three parts or multiplying them into three gods before we get to that and i promise you we will not get deeply into that this morning in the time that we have the first way we encounter god is trinity is simply by the way in which he draws us claims us saves us sustains us and nourishes us as christians in his church first by way of entrance and baptism we enter into his church by receiving that sign and mark of ownership in baptism in which the triune name singular of father son and holy spirit is stamped upon us and marked out when we come into christ church through that visible sacrament in which god places his mark upon us the name that is stamped on you is father son and holy spirit or if you can think of it as a sort of i have some stamps that say library of and that says this book is mine and not yours um god puts a stamp on you when you come into his church your baptism says belongs unto father son and holy spirit this one is this one is mine he is making and laying a claim upon you and by that sacrament incorporating you in to the visible body of christ jesus and that is that is not just true for a few of you a few of you didn't come in in the trinitarian way if you've come in you came in in the trinitarian way baptized in this name and it's not just that our own baptism we hear this name it's that this is what we witness as the assembly of christ's body every time someone enters the church the first words we hear in that sacrament of entrance is belonging to father son and holy spirit moreover as we persist in life in the body we continue to flourish and to function within christ's body empowered by the very same god who stamps us and marks us when we come in um last night it was mentioned that first corinthians 12 is a trinitarian text indeed verse four there are varieties of gifts but the same spirit varieties of ministers but the same lord that's a reference to christ varieties of effects but the same god who works all things in all persons referring to the father our life in the body of christ is not only marked and its entrance by the trinity but is also sustained in the trinity and i could i should say even in addition to that that this sustenance of blessing is proclaimed to us when we are told this in the benediction the grace of the lord jesus christ the love of god and the fellowship of the holy spirit be with you all we are constantly hearing trinitarian benediction seeing persons come into the body being stamped with the trinitarian name each of us subjectively and existentially empowered by the operations of father son and holy spirit if i could just simply say this there just is no such thing as the experience of christianity that isn't just suffused with trinitarianism even before it becomes an article in a creed it's a reality of your encounter this is how we come to be christians it's in this trinitarian encounter that we first perceive in our experience god as trinity and that first motivates our worship of the one god and trinity but there is this question what is it then about the three who mark me out sustain me nourish me that warrants my abiding and unflinching and uncompromising worship of each the first i want to consider is that the trinity is our creator the trinity is our creator in scripture this is a line in the sand a benchmark who should you worship perhaps and i i haven't done the math on this and i i could stand corrected but perhaps god as creator is more than anything else in all of scripture that which distinguishes him from false objects of worship that is to say if you want to know who to worship most fundamentally consider this question who made you who made you we asked our children who made you god made me he loves me and takes care of me um this is all bound up in creation who made you malachi 2 10 says has not one god created us one true creator worthy of worship and adoration isaiah 44 24 says i the lord and the maker of all things stretching out the heavens and this is what he says by myself that is to say i didn't i didn't say to the angels hey guys i need 10 of you over here to give me a hand um you know hey hey prophets um i've got some building work to do and some teamwork would really help me out here he says that he may he's the maker of all things stretching out the heavens by himself and spreading out the earth it says all alone there is no god but god there is no god but the creator and the creator creates alone the creator is a singular absolute first cause of all being moreover this is what marks him out for your um proper object of worship as opposed to those imposters that seek your worship but aren't the creators of all things paul continually in his conflict particularly when he encounters greek as opposed to those in the greeks as opposed to those in the synagogue points this out he says that the true god acts 17 24 is the god who made the world and all things in it since he is lord of heaven and earth and he doesn't dwell in temples made by hands it's not served by human hands as though he needed anything since he himself gives to all life breath and all things false objects of worship are anything that doesn't give to all life breath and all things proper object the proper object of worship is whoever it is that gives to all life breath and all things this is the juxtaposition that the apostle sets us a little before that a favorite verse of mine acts 14 15 the apostle barnabas and paul are in the city of lystra and here they are wrongly identified as the gods zeus and hermes some of you remember this and the the priests of zeus came together with the people to offer worship to the apostles barnabas and paul came out with garlands and we're going to basically say these were the olympian gods come down among us and the apostles verse 15 said run out they tear their robes they rush out crying um men why are you doing these things this is analogous this is similar to what the what the angel is doing when he says to john don't do that worship that which is not god don't do that the apostles say the same why are you doing these things we are men indulge me with the king james for a moment of like passions with you which is i won't open this up but is to say we are men who are subject to the causal operations of others that's what passions are passions are states of being produced in us by agents that act upon us that's for the seminary students might be on a midterm one day so you'll want that um that's what passions are don't worship passionate entities by the way i think really quick the the nazbe says we're the same nature as you um the text doesn't say that does say we're the same passion or we are we're of like passions with you and i think the gods of mount olympus are also of like passions with them so it's not don't worship us we're not olympians it's um don't worship passionate deities or entities don't worship things that are caused by other things that would be to worship the creature rather worship that which causes all things so watch what the apostles do in the second half of the verse we preach the gospel to you that you should turn from these vain things what's the vain thing in the context worshipping passionate entities or entities that are subject to the operations of others don't worship that rather turn from that's an empty thing that's a vain thing rather that you should turn from that to a living god and then they say who made the heaven the earth and see in all that is in them and i think the juxtaposition is this in the first half of the verse don't worship things that are caused to be worship the universal causer of all worship him who gives being don't worship that which receives it from another the question then is going to become this when it comes to the father son and spirit does scripture unambiguously identify the father the son and the spirit each name distinctly as the giver the cause of all things and if it does therein you have your warrant to worship the father the son or the spirit first corinthians 8 6. the apostle says over against the worship of idols for us there is but one god the father from whom are all things from whom are all things and we exist for him here i think the reference is to the father in his personal distinction from the sun um not sometimes scripture will use the word father in a kind of general sense i mean so why does why does isaiah say that the son who's going to be born will be named everlasting father that seems like a strange thing it seems like a tailor made for a modalist but i think the point there is um that the son like the father with regard to creation is the one who brings all things about from whom all things come but here i think he's talking about the person of the father particularly and the father is the one from whom are all things ephesians 3 15 says that the father is the one from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name the idea is your name is your identity it's not my name is james um and you've you have some jonathan's and ed's and eli's and maybe stephanie's and you know in other words it's not it's not like that your name is that which says um what you are your name is what your name is what kind it's a name in the sense of humans a name i have as well and that's more constitutive of my of my nature as opposed to i mean i could be named matt and still be human um the name human would still apply to me every family in heaven and earth derives its name from the father this is an indication that he's the one who gives it is what yes i said it that way gives it its what he gives you your humanity or to your dog he gives your dog his cannonity um and two angels he gives them i don't even know what to call that angelicity um he makes them be the what is from him he is not from them he's not their handiwork they are his then he says the same thing of the son likewise the son is the maker of all he's uh he's the word who was with god and was god through whom john 1 3 says all things came into being you need no warrant beyond that to know he's the one to worship if the father is the one from whom are all things he's the one to worship if the word is the one by whom all things came into being he's the one to worship john 1 10 says of the word the world was made through him ranking with john 1 3 colossians 1 16 and hebrews 1 2 both declare that all things have been created through him that is the son hebrews 1 10 even identifies the son with yahweh back in psalm 102 25 where it says that the lord laid the earth's foundations and then hebrew says of the son he says and then he applies that text to christ so that yahweh who creates all things and lays the foundations of all things is in fact the son the same can be said of the spirit psalm 33 6 intends both the sun and the spirit when it says that by the word of the lords the heavens were made and by the breath the the ruach breath wind or spirit are the same thing so when you breathe out we say you expire um that's your that's the going forth of your spirit your breath um by the spirit of the alm the spirit of the almighty um all their hosts that is to say the heavens the stars the angels all made by the word and by the spirit irenaeus of leon says that god has his two hands when he creates the word in the spirit and he's quite emphatic that these are not created creature theirs are not created creators these are uncreated creators of all the father the son and the spirit psalm 104 verse 30 you send forth your spirit they are created the spirit is creator maybe most explicitly the words of elijah in job 33 4 the spirit of god has made me so that one's very straightforward the spirit of god has made me and the breath of the almighty gives me life for this reason not surprisingly in the nicene creed we call the sp the spirit is to be worshiped and adored together with the father and the son and then we say just briefly after that he is or uh just before that he is the lord and the giver of life there's your warrant to worship him moreover the trinity is our sustainer this kind of comes as together with creator the trinities are sustainer all three persons create all three persons are identified as providentially sustaining and providing for the creatures most fundamentally through our act of existence in him we live move and have our being from whom from the father yes the son yes the spirit yes jesus refers to the father in matthew 6 26 look at the birds of the sky that they do not sow nor reap nor gather crops into barns yet your heavenly father feeds them this is providential sustenance of his creation the father's also contemplated in romans 11 36 all things are through him this includes also the father the son's work of sustenance is related to us in similar terms it's not just that the father creates all things and sustains all things the sun creates all things and sustains all things sometimes my my youngest child so we catechized she she said to me some of the other day she said she said something like well jesus created the world which is kind of using a very messianic title to describe a divine operation but uh my my my communication idiom modem will let that work for me so i just said that's right that's right yours will too you don't even have a name for but you you know why that's right um because jesus who is true god of course is the creator of all things she says when jesus created the world i'm not that's i'm gonna let that go she's six we're gonna say it like that and because there's theological truth and grist and that the sun creates the sun also sustains first corinthians 8 6 says after it says that all things are from the father it says that jesus christ is the one by whom are all things and we exist through him without jesus you aren't i don't just mean you are saved i mean you aren't at all creates sustains colossians 1 16 says of the sun sustenance of all things he is before all things and in him all things hold together the one who made all things and sustains all things is the father undoubtedly but equally undoubtedly is the son hebrews 1 3 says that the sun upholds all things by the word of his power put very simply this is stuff only god can do and jesus does it there go there go we offer him that worship as true creator the spirit too has described the sustaining power though probably not as explicitly um as the other two job 33 4 the spirit is said not only to have made man but also sustain him it says the breath or the spirit of the almighty gives me life in him we live move and have our being just before that acts 17 25 paul says that from him we receive life breath and all things impossible not to contemplate the spirit of life or the breath of the almighty um in that sustaining operation and maybe more particularly let me say this with regard to the spirit and then we'll consider uh thirdly the trinity is our redeemer the spirit is arguably also the one who sustains the servant of yahweh in particularly and i'm thinking here of the promised messiah in isaiah chapter 42 verse one and there was there were references to this last night in dr mcgraw's talk about christ's endowment with the spirit and the spirit being the one through whom he prophesies and performs miracles so that there is a unique sustaining operation that the spirit supplies to the messiah isaiah 42 verse 1 behold my servant whom i uphold whom i uphold my chosen one and whom my soul delights he's referring here to the messiah i have put my spirit upon him i think the case can be made without much mental gymnastics that the way that the servant the messiah is upheld by the almighty is in one respect through this unique endowment of the spirit christ comes conceived in the power of the spirit christ then receives an ecstatic and visible endowment of the spirit in his baptism a lighting on him in the form of a dove and then we're told immediately after that in matthew 4 and in luke 4 that that the spirit then led him into the wilderness and then as soon as the wilderness temptation was over and successful then it says that the spirit led him to the galilee i mean just the spirit sustaining and directing as this endowment on the sun so that the spirit sustaining power is perhaps nowhere more explicitly seen than in his ministry in the life and the work of the son of god incarnate he upholds him he puts his spirit upon him most climactically he is called the spirit of life in christ jesus romans 8 2 the spirit of life in christ jesus why is he called the spirit of life in christ jesus particularly the historic occasion for calling him the spirit of life in christ jesus is the spirit's resurrecting power by which the father through whom the father raised christ jesus from the dead so that he's the spirit of life and the spirit of life of uh that gave life to christ's body will also give life to your body so that he is the one who gives us life even as he gave christ crucified life from the dead on that easter sunday of resurrection the sustainer finally then the trinity is our redeemer in isaiah 43 11 the lord says i even i am the lord he uses here the touch of graviton yahweh and there is no savior besides me that's what he says there is no savior besides me this exclusivity of creatorhood this exclusivity of the power to sustain this exclusivity of salvation that belongs to the lord the lord is jealous for this this alone god does so the question then is does the father does the son does the spirit save us scripture attributes salvation to the father son and spirit naming them distinctly i'll consider just a few passages briefly not digging in depth into any one of these first peter's pentecost sermon he speaks of christ resurrection his ascension his session at the father's hand and his bestowal of the gift of the spirit all in just two short verses this jesus verse 32 of acts 2 god raised up to which we are all witnesses therefore having been exalted to the right hand of god having received from the father the promise of the spirit the eternal son the word of god incarnate now raised receives from this receives the spirit of life from the father in his resurrection and then it says he that is the son has poured forth this which you both hear and see and what he's poured forth as the spirit so that here you have each of the persons explicitly named in the operation of the achievement and the application of our salvation christ crucified and raised the achievement of our salvation or what john murray would have called redemption accomplished christ pouring forth the spirit of union on us redemption applied all framed by his having received the spirit from the father maybe put it differently there's no way to narrate salvation's accomplishment or application without reference to the work of the father the son and the spirit who save us the trinity is our savior galatians chapter four also brings the three together uh closely in a single text galatians chapter four verses four through six but when the fullness of time came god sent forth his son born of a woman born under the law so that he might redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons because you are sons god has sent forth the spirit of his son into our hearts crying abba father the father saves us through the son and by the spirit and is the spirit particularly who is named for us as the spirit of adoption as the spirit who actually constitutes as sons of god the spirit is the one who takes us out of the coils of the serpent and the kingdom of darkness and relocates us into the kingdom and the family of god the spirit and the spirit alone does this we're told that god our savior is in fact father son and holy spirit we see the saving operation of the father and the son in a single text in john 10. i'll just take this we could do this all day and we won't john 10 28 and 29 jesus says i give to them his disciples eternal life that they will never perish by the way if you need warrant that jesus is the savior the one who gives eternal life he just says he's the one who gives it to you and no one will snatch them out of my my hand but just lest you think that jesus alone is your savior god's your judge but jesus is your savior i think dr stuyvesant said this morning that we're not to think of god as opposed to us and jesus as for us sort of trying to talk god out of his anger toward us but in fact the father is active in his love for his elect in sending forth his son so he says my father who has given them to me is greater than all and no one is able to snatch them out of my father's hand so who gives jesus the people jesus saves the love of your father is that by which jesus is given a people so that jesus saves the people that god savingly gives to jesus both of these saving actions now are are contemplated in a single text jesus holds you in his hands god puts you in his hand and holds you in his hand jill emery says that the salvific power of jesus is not only similar to that of the father but rather it is the salvific power of the father himself being applied to us one salvation but two in this case distinctly identified as effecting it i was going to talk about granville sharp's role rule and uh titus 2 and i was going to be a very proud moment for me because theologians seldom get to demonstrate any facility with the text of scripture we just quote like i'm doing we just quote it and we move on and then i was going to make an exegetical point and uh and my my own uh beloved professor lane tipton um would have been encouraged who's here would have been encouraged by that that i was actually getting into a bit of exegesis but when he says our great god and savior and uses the same article i think it's two for great god and savior it means that the great god and the savior must be one and the same um but you already beat me to it so there my moment of glory pass me by you uh you know so i'll just go i'll just go back to uh theology and leave the exegesis to the new testament professors and and others jesus is our savior god is our savior the spirit is our savior as well we contemplate this just ever so briefly in titus chapter 3 verses 5 and 6 titus chapter 3 verses 5 and 6. but when the kindness of god our savior and his love for mankind appeared he saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy and then here's how he did it by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the holy spirit whom he poured out upon us richly through christ jesus our savior so god loved us god our savior loved us he saved us through jesus and by the spirit applying the merits and the righteousness of christ to us in so much as these works creation sustaining redemption are uniquely divine and each motivates our worship to the one who creates sustains and redeems it should be clear that our worship is directed to the trinity to simple simple point we'll move on to our next major point our second and last major point um which is also the second point um whoever whoever creates you whoever sustains you whoever redeems you worship him if it's the father then worship the father and it is if it's the son then likewise worship the son and it is the son and if it's the spirit and it is the spirit then worship the spirit and in fact the point is to withhold worship from any of the persons particularly is in fact to fail to worship him who is true god so true worship requires worship of the trinity else it's not true worship you're withholding from him who is god true worship second point taking our cue again from the athanasian creed we worship the trinity in unity we worship the trinity in unity and i want to consider this with regard first to the exclusivity that is demanded of us in our worship we worship three but we worship three who are one now i'm not going to do any kind of bamboozle you with any kind of strange or or mystical mathematics here uh as to how this is the case i think the tradition and the scriptures supply us with a good and straightforward reason for understanding why it is that the three in fact are one true god but first consider this for all the warrant that we have to worship the three we must not lose sight of the fact that we have but one true god to whom we owe exclusive and undivided service and worship we worship three who are god but we don't worship three gods and we don't worship the one god with three distinct acts of worship we worship three who are distinct with an undifferentiated act of worship because in their being and in their substance they are indeed one not many three in person but one in substance or nature or power we worship the trinity in unity luke 4 8 which i read at the beginning jesus says you shall worship the lord your god and him only shall you serve it's this language of only it's this language of exclusivity it's this language of unity not a worship partitioned and distributed that's how pagans worship that's how pagans worship they perform acts of worship and ob essence to this deity and to that and to the other and even those that don't make them out of out of you know stone or wood but make them out of other ideas fame or sex or anything else that you can sort of put in the place as the object of worship this is how pagans worship they run around offering their hearts to that one and another and yet another their hearts are divided their hearts are allied with many finite sources of alleged refuge this is what they do we see an example of this kind of divided heart in psalm 16 we some we have sung from psalm 16 the latter part of it um in our conference just a little before that uh david says that the sorrows of the those who have run after another or bartered for another and the idea is another object of worship will be multiplied here's what they do they say yahweh is not enough i need to diversify the investment of my heart so i'm going to worship yahweh and make sure i'm covered there and then we syncretize that and i'm going to worship you know mammon or some other false god and i'm in a certain sense i'm going to distribute the allocation of my heart's worship to several so as to be sure that i'm covered that's how idolatry works um and i've said this in other contexts i'll say it here um that probably is a good financial strategy if we're talking about the investment of your money now i'm not licensed in the state of south carolina to give financial advice or anywhere uh so with that caveat um i think that might be right you know a little stock some bonds if you're fearful um maybe some physical property and some gold and watch out for silver you know here it's coming and you know this is and this is kind of how we and the thing is you just don't put all your eggs in one basket because if you do i don't know some of you had all your eggs in one basket i've had all my eggs in one basket and the basket the basket turned over and then the eggs got smashed to smithereens and never went back in the you know i mean like complete loss no no coming but you've been there some of you have been there um and so you think that's listen that may be terrible financial advice but that is the only good spiritual advice that i can give you devote yourself entirely to one and one alone don't diversify the investment of your heart don't diversify the investment of your worship worshipping one and another and yet another again with a bit of worship here and a bit there to make sure that when things go bad you're covered by enough of them that's not how we worship the trinity we offer a singular worship to a singular god who is three persons an exclusivity an exclusivity is demanded in our worship and in our service so we might wonder how it is that we're to offer a singular worship if in fact three are named in scripture as and identified as proper object of our worship scripture is unambiguous in its monotheistic claims isaiah 45 verse 5 i am the lord uses again the tetragrammaton yahweh and there is no other besides me there is no god nothing truly worthy of the name god besides he who is true god deuteronomy 4 verse 35 i am the lord and there is no other besides me there is no god in other words there just aren't one and another and yet another again uh which are so many gods first timothy chapter four verse 5 for there is one god this is the apostle paul who speaks quite freely of the father the son and the spirit and attributes all sorts of old testament yahweh texts to the father to the son and to the spirit and yet he says for us for for there is one god he says in first corinthians 8 4 we know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no god but one this is the apostle paul trinitarian apostle if ever there were one um and yet he says we know we know there is no god that won and by the way it's not just we who know that um james says that um the demons know it too the demons know that god is one and they fear and they tremble you know why they fear and tremble because they know that he's not just a thing among others by knowing that he is one by knowing that he's not uh just just another god a garden-variety god but in fact true god by knowing his unity of being by knowing that he is the i am i think that's the idea they fear and tremble because they know like those travelers with jonah knew when they found out that he worshipped the god who made the heavenly earth to see a dry land and then they said you mean the real god you know the one who actually is worthy of the name god i am god there is no other the demons know that god is one they fear and they tremble isaiah 42 verse 8 says i am the lord that is my name i will not give my glory to another and then he says this nor my praise to graven images so that god is jealous not only that you know there's one god not many but that also your devotion not be many your devotion should not be many so what is true worship it's right that we say true worship and not true worships which is a strange word anyway but even still not true worships but a singular worship of our heart to god the westminster confession begins its chapter of god and of the holy trinity chapter two with these words there is but one only living and true god and we should say that there is but only one true worship that corresponds to the one true god so there must be something common this is the key that's what we have to get after for the few moments we have left there must be something common literally the same in the father the son of the spirit that grounds and warrants this exclusivity of worship we worship the three recognizing their distinctions but we don't worship three we don't offer three distinct acts of worship we offer one undifferentiated act of worship to one god who is distinct in person but somehow not distinct in some other way and it's that other way that we need to consider if we are to identify the father the son of the holy spirit as the one god of whom scripture testifies we must first ask then what is common to them that warrant such an identification what is it that the father-son spirit have that is one and the same that grounds and warrants the unity of my heart's worship of the three what makes them each true god the short answer to this question is that each is possessed of the exact same nature or if i can say it like this uh paul uses the word faiates the nazbe and others translate that divine nature um you could simply say um the god-ness of god something like that that which is that and virtue of which god is god god's god ness if we can use it in that language um this must be exactly the same in each of the three and more exactly the same in those three than it is in the three of us i look at the front row and i see my friend jonathan my friend jeff um and i'm james and we are three humans and we are i'm not more human or less human than either of them or than any of you and the fact is we all share the same nature that's what enables me to point to any one of you in this room and give you the same name human human human and i don't i don't qualify i don't put a little asterisk next to it it's a human but you know no just human um and so we share this we share a nature that's common and it gives us all the same name hi i'm james i'm a human now i don't say that very often to anyone because they usually know um although sometimes i've had robo calls you've had them too you don't know that that's a human you know and i've asked that question is this a human pause yes of course i am but you know then you you know then you know but otherwise normally we know um and yet this isn't exactly what we mean with the father son the holy spirit because we have the same nature generically that is to say according to genus aristotle would say um animality and we have the same nature specifically that is according to species aristotle would say rationality and then he'd say we were all rational animals and that's what we have in common but we aren't all the same human so i'm huge i'm as much human as as jonathan and and jeff um but i'm not the human that jonathan is or the human that jeff is because my nature while it is the same generically and specifically as theirs is not the same numerically that is to say i'm one human jonathan is another and jeff another and you each another and yet we don't say of the son this the father is god and the son is another god we could say the son is another who is god but we can't say the son is another god he's other as person in distinct relation begotten of the father but he's not other with regard to his nature he is the same god that the father is he's not the person that the father is it's this unity of nature generic specific if we can use that language numeric sameness of nature that grounds this unity of worship we worship the one god and trinity but the trinity in unity what we're after here is what grounds the unity of this worship it's the exact same nature paul speaks of this in romans 1 20 of god's divine nature theo tastes clearly seen through what has been made interestingly identifying the father son and spirit each as the maker of all things indicates that each is theaters true god possessed of divine nature there is something that we call divinity by which god is divine and which is the foundation both for his act of creation sustenance redemption it's in virtue of this godness that he does god things to put it very crassly in a kind of modern way it's in virtue of this divinity that he operates and does what he does this nature both identifies him as distinct from all others in fact even in in galatians four verse eight there's an interesting statement where paul talks about our deliverance from idols and he says that we were at that time formally enslaved to things which are in his languages not by nature gods imposters frauds pretending to be gods phonies they wanted you to treat them as god but they didn't really have god nature theo taste they had some created nature and they paraded themselves and tried to sell themselves as true god and in fact this is the key we need to identify that which is god by nature in order not to be enslaved but to be free to worship him who is truly worship worthy of our worship god's substantial unity then is the ground for the singularity of our worship and of our hearts devotion it's the unity of being the unity of substance it's the sameness of theotase of godness numeric sameness that grounds the unity of our worship and our devotion to the three the nicene creed famously says the sun is homo uscias with the father usias is the word for being or substance in greek homo same um and for many this was a scandalous notion because what you're actually saying is that the sun is the same god the father is yes he's not the same divine person but he is in fact the same god we could apply the same to the spirit in fact later on at constantinople in 381 when they say that the spirit is to be worshiped together with the father and the son that's constantinople's way of saying effectively also homo uscios worthy of our devotion westminster confession of faith chapter 3 says that the persons are of one substance power and eternity you and i aren't we have a generic substance that is generically specifically the same but we're not of one substance um many of you are are older than i am and i'm older than some others of you and some of you were here humans before i was even conceived so that i'm not the human that you are your substance is yours and mine is mine while they may be generically or specifically the same they are not the same substance precisely they are like each other and genus or species but they're not the same but we say that the sun is homo uscis that the sun is of what that the father son and spirit are of one substance one power one eternity so we should note that the unity of the three persons then is not merely the consequent of their relations the way that a unity of a family or a corporate corporation results from the relations of individual members of it to each other for instance um greenville presbyterian theological seminary is i mean i haven't looked at the books but is a is a corporate entity comprised of board members and faculty members and staff and students and alumni uh and together this is the entity incorporated i suspect in the state of south carolina as not multiple entities but as a particular corporation of some sort um and this is a unity that follows from multiple parts coalescing together this person and that person and the others all in some kind of moral agreement with each other um you know you pay the registrar and the and he pays the professor and the professor shows up and teaches the class and you have sort of contracted through some mutual agreement or relation this unity of the corporation and yeah this is not what we're saying about the unity of the godhead there are three who are god but it's not god inc it's not we don't worship god incorporated do you take what i'm after in other words it's not that the father and the son and the spirit decided that um putting the god group together would be a great way to get things created sustained and redeemed you know what i'm after this is not a this is not a group in that sense the substance of the father son and spirit is in fact one and the same they are the same being not a result of three persons distinct prior to their unity coalescing together and thereby supplying some corporate unity it's not corporate unity as such it is unity of being or substance they are indeed the same divine being that we call god boethius in his day trinitata 6th century philosopher and theologian says that the substance the substance preserves the unity the relation be getting begotten spirated or proceeding the relation makes up the trinity what constitutes the three are the relations of generation and spiration within the godhead what constitutes the unity is the sameness of substance the council of florence in the 15th century these three persons are one god not three gods because there is one substance of the three one essence one nature one godhead one immensity one eternity and everything is one in god where there is no opposition of relation the only other nest that we predict in god is the father distinct from the son as the one who begets him the son is to sing from the father is the one begotten of him the spirit is distinct from the father and the son as the one proceeding from them apart from that everything we say about the persons is indeed one of the same this is the formal ground then an object of our worship and this i want to make just a careful point in closing that we need to distinguish when it comes to the worship of the trinity the the one god in trinity and the trinity in unity we need to distinguish the motivations for our worship of god from the formal object of our worship of god and what i mean by that is this maybe it'd be better if i just explain it somewhat generally when we worship as christians we worship christ and our language of worship is suffused with gratitude for his redemptive historical work on our behalf taking on flesh obeying the being born under the law for to save us who are under the law obeying even under the point of death and then being rewarded in resurrection on the third day this incarnational messianic work of the son occasions boundless joy and worship from us but this is what we need to be careful of it occasions our worship but it does not constitute the formal object of our worship it constitutes the redemptive historical motivation of our worship and what i mean is this christ incarnate christ obedient unto death christ crucified and christ raised does not make the person of the son more worthy of worship you know what i'm after it may give it may it may give you more motivation to worship but it doesn't add worship worthiness to the sun what constitutes the worship worthiness of the father the son and the spirit is not creation sustaining or redeeming those are the ways in which he demonstrates his divinity and his glory and his worth to us but that is not where he builds or constitutes his divinity in his worth his divinity that which we worship is not constituted it's uncreated it's not even historical it's actually just god's godness now creation sustaining redeeming all give us ample reason to praise him to praise him and to honor him and to petition him in prayer and to recognize his divinity but the formal object of our worship is in fact his divine nature itself and we need to make this point clear because we don't want to suggest particularly as the son himself was incarnate and the father was not incarnate if the incarnation the work of the incarnation gives to the son worship worthiness that apart from the incarnation the son lacks then we end up saying something like the son is deserving of honor and worship that the father is not because the son was incarnate and saved us through his obedience death and resurrection and the father was never incarnated never obeyed and submitted himself in person to the law unto death or resurrection and then we end up then we would end up being warranted and giving a worship to the son that we withheld from the father and from the spirit i hope that makes sense so the four so that the motivations for our worship are many creation sustenance redemption all motivate our worship and they fill our prayer they fill our praises and they fill our gratitude but what in fact warrants our our worship and what is the object of our worship is in fact simply god being god if i could put it like this if god had made a world of nothing but holy angels none of them fallen and seraphs cried antiphonally to each other holy holy holy they wouldn't have any less reason to give god worship than we who are redeemed by the blood of the lamb who are raised up together with christ and who will see that lamb seated on his throne as we as we even perceive in john 5 and we give him worship and praise those angels are not lacking if i can put it like this in formal ground and reason for their worship no new worthiness is added to god but there is a new display and manifestation of his worthiness through the works that he does in creation and in redemption and so we finish with these words again from the athanasian creed for there is one person of the father another of the son and another of the holy spirit but the divine nature of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit is one their glory is equal their majesty is co-eternal of such a nature as the father is so is the son so also is the holy spirit the father is uncreated the son is uncreated and the holy spirit is uncreated the father is immense the son is immense and the holy spirit is immense the father is eternal the son is eternal and the holy spirit is eternal and nevertheless there are not three eternals there are three who are eternal with one eternality all right back to the creed but one eternal just as there are not three uncreated beings nor three infinite beings but one uncreated and one infinite similarly the father is omnipotent the son is omnipotent and the holy spirit is omnipotent and yet not three omnipotents but one omnipotent thus the father is god the son is god and the holy spirit is god and nevertheless there are not three gods but there is one god so the father is lord the son is lord and the holy spirit is lord and yet there are not three lords but there is one lord because just as we are compelled by the christian faith and truth to confess singularly each one person as god and also lord so we are forbidden by the christian religion to say that there are three gods or three lords let's pray and ask the lord to help us as we seek to worship him in adoration our god in heaven father son and holy spirit indeed you have created us you sustain us and you have redeemed us and called us to yourself accomplishing our redemption in the personal work of the son applying it to us through the ministration of the holy spirit for this o lord we bless you and we do offer you worship and we do offer you praise lord keep our hearts true to you keep our hearts clearly perceiving and contemplating you father son of the holy spirit one in nature substance and power three in person we bless you and thank you for your love and for your redemption of us and for bringing us to yourself in faith and newness of life for all this we praise you in christ jesus amen thank you for tuning in to this production of greenville presbyterian theological seminary for more information please visit gpts.edu

Channel: GPTS Media

Views: 636

Rating: 4.7647057 out of 5

Keywords: Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary, Christianity, Reformed

Id: TzAWCcUedUc

Length: 62min 24sec (3744 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 26 2021