The Son of God

Announcements

Tornado Relief Efforts

Share Video, “There’s something about that name”

Our church did contribute to the cleanup efforts in Pembroke

Most of the work that is left is construction

Shirley’s Ramp

We got it done in one day

Thank you to all who came and helped, and those who prayed

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Business Meeting Next Week

My goal in this next business meeting is to pass our 2022 budget

I am also hoping to adopt a 3-year plan to give us direction into the future

We are also going to take up a special offering next week for our benevolence fund.

A Benevolence fund is used to support those in the local community who are in need such as:

Buying a family groceries

Putting gas in someone’s tank

Paying someone’s electric bill

This Friday we will meet here at 2:00 for our Christmas Eve Service

We will be joining Hilldale in Clarksville

If you would like to go, be here at 2:00

INTRODUCTION

We are going to talk about a very important subject today, “The Son of God”. Technically this is our Christmas service since we celebrate Christmas this coming Saturday. And if you notice these first three chapters have been all about Jesus.

Jesus Christ as the promised Messiah

Jesus the King of the World

Jesus’s Kingdom

And now we will see Him declared as the Son of God.

Our topic this morning is going to be the Trinity. Jesus was declared the Son of God and this is why the Pharisees wanted to kill Jesus. They claimed there is only one God and it was not Jesus! But I assure you they were wrong and I am going to show you why today.

Jesus is so much more than a perfect sacrifice for humanity. He is the eternal Son of God. “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God” (John 1:1-2). This matters because how we think about God determines how we live for God. The more we understand who God truly is it magnifies what God has done for us.

~Prayer for a better understanding of the Trinity~

MESSAGE

Matt 3:13-17

Matthew 3:13–17 NASB95

Then Jesus arrived from Galilee at the Jordan coming to John, to be baptized by him. But John tried to prevent Him, saying, “I have need to be baptized by You, and do You come to me?” But Jesus answering said to him, “Permit it at this time; for in this way it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness.” Then he permitted Him. After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

This is the first time in the New Testament that we see the Trinity in one scene.

The Son of God is being baptized by John

The Spirit of God descends and lights upon him

And God the Father speaks from heaven declaring Jesus to be the Son of God.

Question: Is the Trinity a doctrine that began in the New Testament?

Answer carefully!

No, the entire Bible testifies of our Triune God.

The Entire Bible testifies of the Trinity

James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

God never changes

God has been the same from all of eternity.

The God in the OT is the same as God in the NT…the only difference is our view of Him.

Let me point out a few Scriptures where we see the Trinity in the OT

Gen 1:26

Genesis 1:26 NASB95

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

Notice God refers to Himself in the plural, “Us”

This is not angels, or heavenly beings, because only God can create something.

This is God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Col 1:16-17 “For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.”

John 1:3 “All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

The Trinity was there at Creation…God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

Psalm 110:1

Psalm 110:1 NASB95

The Lord says to my Lord: “Sit at My right hand Until I make Your enemies a footstool for Your feet.”

Notice David mentions two Lord’s in this verse

In this verse David, speaking by the Holy Spirit hears a conversation between two persons: The LORD (Yahweh) and another Lord to come and sit at His right hand.

Who is this other Lord?

Where did Jesus ascend to? The right hand of the Father

This is the verse that Jesus quoted to silence the Pharisees about who the Son of David truly is.

He is the Lord!

But there’s much more than this!

The entire sacrificial system pointed forward to the sacrificial Lamb

The distinction between the names: Elohim and Yahweh

Psalm 22 “My God, My God why have you forsaken Me?” is a prophecy of the suffering of Jesus”

The suffering servant in Isaiah is speaking of Jesus

And on and on and on

All of these are Trinitarian Scriptures

So we can clearly see that the Trinity is not a New Testament doctrine, but who God is.

The reason we see it clearly now is because we are standing on this side of the cross

Heb 1:1-2

Hebrews 1:1–2 NASB95

God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.

The coming of Christ perfected the revelation of God in the OT

We can see far more clearer looking back than they could looking ahead.

Even when we look into the OT today, these Scriptures seem so clear to us because we are looking at them after the incarnation.

Anyone ever do those pencil mazes?

A lot of restaurants give them out to kids to keep them occupied

And we were somewhere the other day and they gave Judah one.

So I thought I’d help him out and do it for him.

It took me three tries to get it right.

I want to tell you a secret on how to get it right every single time

Start at the finish line and work your way back

You will always make the right turns and it’ll only take once

It’s the same way with the Trinity

Looking back we can see it so clearly, but looking forward they saw it so dimly

APPLICATION

Just because we do not fully understand something today does not mean we should reject it..

There are so many things about God we will never understand on this side of eternity!

Why the trials?

Why the sufferings?

Why do things have to be so hard?

Why are so few getting saved?

Why does it seem like the world is getting worse?

Don’t let your unclear vision of this life cause you to stumble!

When we cross over into eternity everything will make perfect sense

Listen to what Paul says:

1 cor 13:12 "Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely.”

We have got to understand that our vision is incomplete!

It is perfectly natural to have questions!

It is perfectly natural to not understand!

BUT THIS IS NEVER A REASON TO REJECT GOD OR HIS WORD

There is coming a time when we will see clearly and everything will make perfect sense.

The Doctrine of the Trinity REVEALS God’s great love for us

“This is My beloved Son”

The Trinity defines the Gospel

Without the Trinity we have no faith

If the Son of God is not God then we have no perfect sacrifice for sin

If the Spirit of God is not God then we have no regeneration

If they are all different god(s) then we are heretics!

Here we see the Father declaring that Jesus is His Son

The Father has sent His Son to accomplish our salvation

The Father and the Son sent the Spirit to apply that salvation to us personally.

The Gospel reveals the Trinity not creates it

The Son came to save us, He was not born to save us.

He has been existed and been promised from the beginning, but only now do we see the fullness of the Trinity.

Only now can we understand why the Trinity is necessary for us!!

But this does not mean that the Trinity exists for us!

The Trinity was not created to save us!

This is who God is and has always been!

What it reveals is the love that God has for us!

Can you imagine sending your only Son, your precious perfect Son to die for sinful human beings?

Can you imagine needing nothing at all but because of love you make a tremendous sacrifice?

Understanding the Trinity brings this to light.

God is fully self-sufficient.

The Triune God does not depend on His acts of creating or saving.

The Trinity has existed from eternity

There has always been the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.

Whether God chose to save us or not by sending His Son does not change the fact that He has always been a Triune God.

This is who God is

Application

God is not dependent upon us for His existence or happiness

Some people think God needs us, that is why He sent Christ to save us.

I have heard preachers say that God needs us and needs a relationship with us and this is untrue.

God needs nothing or no one and there is nothing that we bring to the table.

God’s saving us and using us is a complete act of grace on His part.

And we must always keep that in kind!

This does not mean that we have no worth to God

God created us in His image!

For God so loved the world that he sent His only begotten Son!

This says a great deal about what God thinks about us!

We ONLY love Him because He first loved us!

We are of great value to God, but He does not need us.

I say this because we can be tempted to think more of ourselves that we should.

We an be tempted to think that we do not owe God anything.

Pride can set in and make us think God’s owes us because we have done something for Him

It is a privilege to be used by God

There is no greater blessing this side of heaven than to be able to serve God

Do not take advantage of it

If God gives you an opportunity to serve Him, JUMP ON IT!

Don’t look at it as a burden but a blessing!

Life is not worth living unless it is spent serving our GREAT GOD!!

William Carey said, “What is there in all of this world worth living for, but the presence and service of God?”

You will never find anything comparable on earth to privilege of serving God!

God is not dependent on us WE are dependent upon Him

There is no hope in this life apart from God!

Without Him life is no life at all!

If He were to take His hand of our life nothing else would matter

I have one more important point you must know about the Trinity

Every member of the Trinity possesses the fullness of God

“This is My beloved Son”

The Son has everything the Father has because He is the same essence as the Father

The word “essence” means “nature”

Jesus Christ is the Son of God meaning He is begotten by the Father

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son”

begotten does not mean created

begotten means that Jesus came from God

One did not exist before the other, but from the other

Both have always existed from all of eternity

There are many things that Jesus is called in Scripture

Wisdom, Light, and truth

Is there ever a time when God existed without His truth?

Is there ever a time when God existed without His wisdom?

Is there ever a time when God existed without His light?

Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6)

Jesus said, I am the light of the world (John 8:12)

The Spirit is the same. He proceeds or is “breathed out” from the Father and the Son from all eternity

All of them are eternal because they are all of the same essence or nature

What does this mean be of the same essence?

God does not merely possess love, He is love.

God does not merely possess holiness; He is holy.

God does not possess mercy, He is merciful

God does not possess goodness, He is good

This is the essence of God. And this essence is in all three in its fullness!

By saying, “God is One” we are referring to His essence (nature)

When we say God is three we are referring to His persons.

God is three in One (Three persons one essence)

The three persons together are no different than they are individually

Think of three gold statues will not work

They are all three made of gold (the same essence)

But when put together the weight of the gold increases and it worth so much more

This is not like God

Having the Father and the Son is not to have more God.

He fully dwells in all three

The Son is all that the Father is except He is not the Father. The Spirit is all that the Father is except He is not the Father.

There is no hierarchy in the Trinity

God is eternal (He has always been)

The Son is also eternal

The Spirit is eternal

(John 1:1) “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God”

Jesus is not inferior to the Father and the Spirit inferior to the Son

There is 100% equality and unity because they are all three of the essence

Each person is identical wholly possessing the divine nature of God.

When we get saved it is as if the Father is dwelling within us

All the power, all the love, all the mercy, every attribute that the Father has the Spirit has.

The Spirit also has all the attributes that Christ has because Christ they are all of the same essence

John 14:12 “Truly, truly, 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 the Father.

Application:

God’s plan for your life is to live in such a way that the fullness of the Trinity manifests through you!

The very essence of the Father lives within us in His Spirit

And what the fullness of God wants to do is live through you!

It’s not about what we can do but yielding our lives to Him!

It’s not about us anymore, it is about allowing the fullness of the Trinity to permeate our lives!

His love

His mercy

His grace

His goodness

His holiness

It must be our goal that all of these thing characterize our lives!

When we understand more fully who God is our worship deepens

God seeks people who worship Him “in spirit and truth” (John 4:24).

Therefore, we must strive to know and understand these doctrinal truths like the Trinity.

Seek to know the mysteries of God even if they are hard to understand.

They are the very things that give us life and save us from hell.

Without God there is no hope

You may be sitting here this morning unsure of your salvation or know you have never been saved.

It’s hard to imagine that everything God is, comes to live in us when we are born again.

That has to change your life!

That has to make a difference!

That is what it means to be a Christian.

That is what Christmas is all about!

The gift of Jesus Christ to the world

The obedience of the Son unto death

The power of the Spirit living through us!

~PRAYER~