The "Enoughness" Of Our Triune God Series

Sermon Brief

Date Written: March 10, 2007 Edited : Sept 23, 2009

Date Preached: March 11, 2007 Repreached: Sept 27, 2009

Where Preached: OZHBC (AM) Repreached @ OPBC (AM)

Sermon Details:

Sermon Series: Back to School – Believers Edition

Sermon Title: Our Triune God

Sermon Text: Matthew 3:16-17 [NKJV]

Introduction:

The word “Trinity” has caused more controversy within the fellowship of the believers than almost any other word or subject.

And although the word ‘trinity’ does not appear anywhere in the Bible, we can find the Trinitarian or Triune nature of God being spoken of all throughout the pages of your Bibles!

For centuries Baptists have believed in the Triune nature of God and they do so NOT b/c it is something they “feel” is the right thing to do but it is something they know Scripture upholds as truth. Now as Southern Baptists we have a document called the Baptist Faith and Message

The Baptist Faith and Message is a statement of beliefs that has been made by the Southern Baptist Convention. It was originally written in 1925, and then restated in 1963 and again in 2000.

The BF&M can never be mistaken for Scripture by anyone but rather it MUST be viewed as a detailed view of Southern Baptist beliefs that emanate FROM the Scripture.

In the Baptist Faith and Message there are several basic statements of belief that Baptists have held for over 500 years, since the Protestant Reformation. But I want you to understand that these basic beliefs held by Southern Baptists are NOT original to Southern Baptist, but there are believers who have held to these beliefs since the birth of the church in the upper room in Jerusalem on that first Pentecost Sunday!

The very central core belief believed by those in the upper room and by a majority of Christianity today is the Triune nature and revelation of our God of Scripture. Contrary to what many others may say about this doctrine, it is NOT a belief in 3 separate Gods… but it is the belief in One God who’s nature is Triune and who has chosen to reveal Himself in that same Triune manner.

Now, the BF&M states that as Baptists we hold firm to the belief that there is only ONE living and true God. It states “The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence or being.”

But as I have stated already this morning, the BF&M is NOT Scripture and cannot be held up as Scripture but merely a listing of beliefs that come OUT of Scripture. So this morning I don’t want to dwell on what the BF&M states, but I want to share with you what God’s Word teaches us about God and His Triune nature…

Now as we look through Scripture we can see clearly that God’s Word reveals God’s Triune nature in the form of God the Father, Jesus the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Some Christians believe that the ‘Trinity’ or the Triune nature of God is a relatively recent idea or that at the earliest it started in the NT, but when we search the OT we find it reveals to us many passages that reveal the Triune nature of God. Let’s take a look at just a few of these passages this morning:

We don’t have to go far to get to the 1st reference to God’s Triune nature as Gen 1:26 [NKJV] reveals:

26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all[b] the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

Now some theologians look at this verse and say that this is God using royal speech. Royal speech is when a sovereign or a King or a Queen uses the 3rd person to speak about themselves.

This is because when the King or Queen spoke they represented the entire Kingdom … this sounds reasonable as we believe God to be the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords! It seems as if this is a good answer,

BUT if this were the case, I cannot find any other passages within Scripture that give us an example of Kings using royal speech on a regular and common basis, So, based on the fact that it is NOT the normative behavior of Kings.

I believe that the “Royal Speech speculation” is NOT the correct interpretation in this instance. It is my contention that God did not use royal speech, but that there were more than one present at the Creation of humanity!

Let’s look further at Scripture: