Sermon Tone Analysis

By Pastor Dennis Peery SLIDE 01

1 Peter 1:2 SLIDE 02

Summary: The fifth message in the I ARE EDUCATED series focusing on the person of God.

– 1 Peter 1:2; Deuteronomy 6:4

INTRODUCTION:

We have been taught since we were children that “1+1+1=3” but what are we to do when “1+1+1=1?”

Someone once asked Daniel Webster, a man who not only wrote the dictionary but was also a committed Christian, “How can a man of your intellect believe in the Trinity?” Webster responded, “I do not pretend fully to understand the arithmetic of heaven now.”

This morning we are again going Back to SCHOOL as we continue to look at the basics of our Christian faith.

Today we come to the second “O” of school – One God; Three Persons.

Together we want to try to gain a better understanding of an essential yet mysterious doctrine of the Church, the Trinity.

The Trinity, 1+1+1=1.

I have found that when faced with things that are hard to understand, it is sometimes easier to look at the solution (in this case “=1”) and then go back and examine the problem (how does 1+1+1=1).

So as we look at the Trinity; we will begin with the solution: ONE GOD, and then what some see as the problem: ONE GOD – THREE PERSONS; yes 1+1+1=1!

SLIDE 03

“The Solution:” ONE GOD

We believe there is ONE TRUE GOD as revealed through the scriptures.

(Our belief in ONE GOD is built upon the foundation of ONE SOURCE–The Authority of the Bible.

The Bible, both the Old and New Testaments, is God’s revelation of Himself to man.)

The Bible clearly states there is only ONE GOD.

Deuteronomy 6:4 SLIDE 04

Our God is the ETERNAL, SELF-EXISTENT, I AM.

God has further revealed Himself as having always existed without any outside cause or agent bringing Him into being.

SLIDE 05

Exodus 3:14

Isaiah 43:10 SLIDE 06

Deuteronomy 32:39 SLIDE 07

Our God is the CREATOR OF HEAVEN AND EARTH.

God is the cause or source of everything that exists, and apart from Him nothing would be that is.

Genesis 1:1 SLIDE 08

Our God is the SAVIOR Who redeems saves and rescues mankind from sin and its painful consequences.

Isaiah 43:11 SLIDE 09

We have a great God.

He is the Lord Almighty, the Creator of All, the eternal I AM, the Self-Sufficient One, our Provider, our Healer, our Savior.

There is no other God beside our ONE TRUE GOD.

Now that is a bold statement to say we serve the ONE TRUE GOD.

Is God the one and only true God, or is He just another God among many gods?

Throughout history man has tried to answer these two questions: “Does God exist?” and “What is God like?”

There have been a lot of different answers to these questions.

THE ATHEIST claims there is no god.

In other words, no matter what you may say the solution to the god problem is ZERO; no god.

THE AGNOSTIC says the answer is unknown.

No matter how we approach the problem of god’s existence we can never know with any certainty if god exists, so the solution remains A QUESTION.

THE POLYTHEIST believes in many gods; therefore, the solution to the god question must be GREATER THAN ONE.

THE PANTHEIST takes god to the extreme and believes everything and everyone is god.

For the pantheist the solution to the god problem is INFINITE.

THE DEIST believes god must have created the universe, but has abandon man and creation, therefore the solution to the god question CANNOT BE FOUND.

THE MONOTHEIST believes in only ONE GOD.

The three most widespread and established religions are each monotheistic.

The Christian

Jewish

and Islamic religions

Each believe in only one God.

However, this leads to the question which one is THE ONE?

Each of these religions say they believe in the “real God,” so either they all serve the “same God,” or only one of these religions have found who God really is and the other two have put their faith in an illegitimate god.

All three religions can’t be right and serve different gods because then there would be three rival gods and instead of being monotheistic they would have to be polytheistic.

The gods of the Christian, Jewish and Islamic faiths are not the same god!

Many people will say that each of these religions serve the same God.

By definition if these gods are the same then they would be identical with no differences; that is what it means to be the same.

ILLUSTRATION: Like the old TV show “What’s My Line” these three gods present themselves to the human race for individuals to select who they believe the real god to be.

Still some would argue that if we did away with the religious labels and simply looked at these gods we would soon see that they are the “same god.”

If we just work at it enough we can fit the pieces of the puzzle together and seed that what we initially see as three different gods are really one in the same God.

ILLUSTRATION: A script E, a 3 and an 8 are all similar in shape.

If we work out the conflicting differences we could soon discover that they are really the “same.”

When properly “understood” and “joined” in the right way they all become the “8” so there are no “differences” just the perception of those who behold it.

However, we can see that these three God’s are not the same when we ask the second question, “What is God like?”

While there may be similarities between these three competing gods they are not the same; therefore only one of the three can be the true God.

Neither the Jew nor the Muslim will acknowledge Jesus Christ as God.

Therein is everyone’s “problem” with Christianity.

We say Jesus is the second person of the Trinity; fully God just as the Father and the Spirit are fully God.

One God in Three Persons!

SLIDE 10

“The Problem:” ONE GOD—THREE PERSONS

This brings us back to what some see as the problem: ONE GOD – THREE PERSONS.

How can 1+1+1=1?

The Christian believes God has eternally existed as the Trinity: Father Son and Holy Spirit, and all three are equally God.

Not three gods, but THREE IN ONE!

When speaking of the Trinity we often refer to “THE GODHEAD”—specifically the Godhead is the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

This is not three different God, but one God revealed as three persons in perfect unity.

A good illustration of the Trinity comes from world-renowned scientist Dr. Henry Morris.

He notes that the entire universe is trinitarian by design.

The universe consists of three things: matter, space, and time.

Take away any one of those three and the universe would cease to exist.

But each one of these three parts of the universe is also a trinity or made of three parts.

>> Matter = mass + energy + motion

>> Space = length + height + breadth

>> Time = past + present + future

Thus the whole universe, matter time and space, bare witnesses to the character of the Triune God who made it.

SLIDE 11

We said we believe in ONE GOD.

Deuteronomy 6:4 SLIDE 12

God is One yet exists as Three persons joined in perfect unity.

John 10:30 SLIDE 13

Jesus further expands our understanding of the unity of the Godhead to include the Holy Spirit when He directed His disciples to “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19 NIV).

We also believe in ONE GOD who is eternally self-existent.

This applies to the Father Son and Holy Spirit.

John 1:1-2 SLIDE 14

Revelation.

22:13 SLIDE 15

Hebrews 9:14 SLIDE 16

We believe in ONE GOD the CREATOR of the heavens and the earth.