But to a new kind of religion and belief in supernaturalism, a belief, a religion for
the new age.
New age religion is nothing really new.
It's actually old age stuff that is dressed up in new clothes.
The new age religion does not have a singular charismatic leader, nor does it have a headquarters
located somewhere.
It is not identified with any particular denominational title.
Therefore some people have a hard time realizing that we are in fact facing a genuine movement.
But a movement it is.
The new age is mostly an informal networking of many persons, organizations, and some churches.
The unifying factors of the new age include reincarnation, holism, and what is called
the higher consciousness or the Christ consciousness which they say is in every person.
Arising out of Eastern mysticism and especially Hinduism, the theology of the new age is essentially
God is all and all is God.
In other words, the new age is actually pantheism that is dressed up in 20th century style.
This religion is insidious, being packaged in seemingly harmless, even helpful ways.
Books, tapes, and seminars for mind control, relaxation, consciousness raising are offered.
Those would be EST or the seminar as it is now called the forum by Werner Erhard.
There are other self-help seminars like these which corporations buy as a package with the
thought that they are going to help their employees, but in fact what they are doing
is proselytizing them to a new age religion.
The new age encourages contacts with ancient masters or spiritual guides who give direction
and counsel for life.
Shirley MacLaine is one of the more popular writers and well-known actresses who espouses
getting in touch with your spirit guides.
These of course are nothing less than demon spirits in disguise.
The new age is a religion that is absolutely contradictory to the Christian faith.
It is the antithesis of the theology of the Bible.
Today as we study the doctrine of the Trinity, we must recognize there has never been a time
in our culture when this doctrine has been more seriously under attack than right now.
For if what we say we believe and what we are going to talk about this morning is true,
and we know it is, then it stands in stark contrast to all of the other religions of
the world and most especially the new age religion.
The truth about the Trinity is both a mystery and it has meaning.
I would like for us to center our thoughts around those two words this morning, mystery
and meaning.
Think with me first about the mystery of the Trinity.
Let me read a statement by J. H. Large who said, one cannot meditate on the awesome and
insoluble mystery of eternal and infinite being without being made to realize that any
inquiry into the nature of God and the mode of his existence must be entered upon with
reverent caution and utter dependence upon what God has been pleased to reveal.
And so as we think about the Trinity this morning, it must be with humility that we
approach this subject.
It must be with reverence that we use the terms that we do as we think of God as the
triune one.
It is good for us to begin by recognizing our own limited capacity to comprehend God.
After all, the Bible reveals a God who is infinite.
That means he is without any bounds as to his natural attributes.
We on the other hand are finite.
We have many boundaries and limits placed upon us.
But God is without any limits.
The Trinity is a matter of God-initiated revelation.
The Trinity is not something that man discovered, nor could he in his wildest imaginations create
such an idea.
The doctrine of the Trinity is something that God has revealed to us, and we must go to
his revelation alone to attempt to understand it.
You will look in your concordance in vain to find a reference for the word Trinity.
It is a word that is not used in the Bible's vocabulary.
That is not unusual.
There are several words that theologians use to describe what the Bible teaches while that
word itself may not be found in the Bible.
The Trinity is an example of that.
The idea is clearly presented in the Bible.
It is suggested in the Old Testament.
It is presumed in the New Testament.
Please open your Bible first to Deuteronomy, the sixth chapter, the fourth verse.
Already this verse has been referenced in your worship folder, but I bring your attention
to the context of it.
Deuteronomy 6 and verse 4, hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one, and
you shall love the Lord your God.
Notice the response that is called for just after this revelation of monotheism.
The Lord is our God, the Lord is one.
Now it is interesting that the word one in verse 4 is not the Hebrew word for simple
oneness, but rather for compound or complex oneness.
Leaving room here for some plurality concept to be involved in the oneness of the Lord
our God.
It is the same word for one that is found in Genesis 2 and verse 24, where God says
regarding man and woman that they too shall be one flesh.
That is not simple unity, but compound or complex unity.
We could look at numerous other passages in the Old Testament.
Even the very name God, Elohim, is a plural name for God.
The end of it, I am, in the English is a plural form of that word.
Here we bring together in this very verse the name Lord, Yahweh, the one God, with the
other word God.
So we see even in this one verse two names that strike at the unity and yet the plurality
of God.
And yet we do not see here a clear reference to the Trinity, that God is three in one.
For that we need to come to the New Testament.
I invite you to come to Matthew chapter 28.
To this familiar commission of our Lord that we sometimes refer to as the Great Commission.
And in verse 19 he says, Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing
them in the name, notice the singularness of that, the name of the Father and the Son
and the Holy Spirit.
And so in the very formula that our Lord gives to us for baptism in this age, we find the
Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit given as the name into which converts are to be
baptized or by which they are to be identified.
Then of course there is the great benediction of the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians, the
grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be
with you all.
Those are but a couple of the many references in the New Testament to the fact of the Trinity,
a fact that is actually presumed in the New Testament.
We speak of God as being one who has eternally existed in three persons.
And yet we are not to think of that word persons in the same sense as which we are personalities.
But it is perhaps the best word which has been found to express the real, eternal and
ineffable distinctions in the one divine being.
The Bible reveals the Father as God.
It reveals the Son as God.
It reveals the Holy Spirit as God.
I remind you of how Paul begins Ephesians, blessed be the God, the Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ.
They're saying that the Father is God.
And in chapter 4, verses 14 through 16, he goes on to say that he bows his knees before
the Father after whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.
The Father is God, is to be worshiped as God.
And then of course the Son.
Jesus himself accepted the title of God as he was worshiped.
In Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 8, however, we find God the Father speaking to him and
calling him deity.
Maybe you'd like to look at that with me.
Hebrews chapter 1.
The writer is quoting from the Old Testament here showing the superiority of the Son.
And in verse 8, it says, but of the Son he says, that is God says this, thy throne, O
God, is forever and ever.
In other words, God the Father is in this verse from Psalm 45 speaking to the Son.
And God the Father says to God the Son, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever.
And the righteous scepter is the scepter of his kingdom.
So God the Father calls him God, calls him deity.
And one who comes to Jesus Christ for salvation must confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, that
he is God in order to be saved.
One cannot be a Christian and deny the deity of Jesus Christ, the Son.
And then the Holy Spirit is called God.
In Acts chapter 5, I simply remind you, we will not take time to read it, that in that
text Peter speaks to Ananias and Sapphira.
And in verse 3, he speaks of the Holy Spirit.
And in verse 4, in the same context, calls the Holy Spirit God.
My point is simply this, that the Bible reveals God in three persons.
The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Each of them is referred to as deity in individual passages and worship is prescribed and appropriate.
While the Bible does not give a full explanation of the Trinity, it does reveal its reality
to us.
We must be careful of not falling into tri-theism, which says that we worship three gods.
That is a false teaching and enemies of our faith accuse us of that.
We do not believe in three gods, but one God who has eternally existed in three co-equal
persons.
Nor are we Unitarians.
Unitarianism is not the Christian faith.
It denies the God of the Bible.
It denies Jesus Christ as God and the Holy Spirit as God.
Unitarians are not Christians.
They are not of our faith.
We are those who worship God as a triune eternal being.
When we worship God this way, we are worshiping him as have true believers down through the
centuries.
All of the orthodox creeds of our faith refer to God in this way.
Even perhaps the most ancient of them, the Apostles' Creed, says, I believe in God the
Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ his Son our Lord, and
in the Holy Spirit.
The most ancient creed of the Church is Trinitarian in its expressions.
All orthodox Christians must be Trinitarians.
There are analogies that we have from time to time pointed to which help us to get over
some of the mental difficulties associated with this thought, this revelation.
There is no analogy that does not have shortcomings.
Every analogy ultimately breaks down.
But some of the more popular ones are H2O, which can be found in three forms as gas,
as liquid, as solid, but all of it is the same essence, H2O.
The only problem with that is it's not all three at the same time.
The triune God is deity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit eternally.
And then there has been pointed out to the dimensions of an object that any object has
height, it has depth, it has width, all being part of the one object.
Or the sides of a parallel triangle, all being equal, each vital to the object, the geometric
figure that is in view.
Whatever analogy helps you, that's fine.
But remember that just because something is difficult to understand, it does not mean
that it's untrue.
However long you study the Trinity, ultimately you will come away by saying this is a mystery.
And indeed, it always will be.
Whether in heaven we will one day be able to fully grasp the triunity of God, I do not
know.
But that is the way God reveals himself in the Bible, and we are to accept that, to understand
it as much as we can, but be careful not to deny it.
Someone has said you try to understand the Trinity and you'll lose your mind, but if
you deny the Trinity, you lose your soul.
It's that critical.
Let's think something about the meaning of it.
So God is triune.
What does that mean to me today?
Let me suggest in the first place, a salvation has been provided for you by a God who is
triune.
And who as the Father and as the Son and as the Holy Spirit is active in your redemption.
It was God the Father who sent the Son.
It was God the Son who came and paid the redemption price on the cross of Calvary and rose again
from the dead and ascended back to heaven.
It is God the Holy Spirit who convicts us of our sin, who gives us new life by regeneration,
and who applies to us the blessings of our salvation.
The triune God will indwell you and will fill you if you will receive him as an act of faith.
You say God as the triune God will infill me?
Absolutely.
The Holy Spirit indwells us permanently as the seal of our salvation.
But the Lord Jesus said that he and the Father also would come to us.
And so God as the triune God indwells us as believers.
If you have not trusted in the triune God who provided for your salvation, I call upon
you to do that today.
And as an act of faith to give your life to him and allow him to fill you, control you.
Someone has put it this way, the Father thought it, the Son bought it, the Spirit wrought
it, the Bible taught it, the devil fought it, but faith brought it and I got it.
That pretty well summarizes it, doesn't it?
The triune God has provided the salvation for us.
The Father has chosen us, said Peter.
The Holy Spirit sanctifies us unto obedience and the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ.
First Peter 1, 2.
Let me say secondly as to the meaning and the importance of this doctrine.
It means that you have a God who has entered into your experience as a creature and who
can therefore sympathize with all of your creaturely concerns.
God the Son came into this world in the person of Jesus Christ.
So God not only knows what it is to be a creature because he created us, but also because he
came and lived among us and experienced what it means to be human but without sin.
Therefore he knows your every thought, your every emotion, fear or joy.
Even before you can frame these in the words of your mouth, God knows them.
As your creator he understands exactly what makes you tick and he understands how you
feel because he came.
As the incarnate Savior he came to fully experience for himself all that being human means.
So never think of God as up there and away from here somewhere.
He is separate from his creation.
That is the lie of the new age.
God is not all and all is God.
God is the creator who put into place the time, the matter, the space that make up the
universe and he is separate from that.
But at the same time he pervades his universe and he is here in this room this morning.
And he knows you and he knows me and he understands what it means to be human because he came
and was a part of the creation he made.
That's why Peter says we may cast all of our care upon him for he cares for us.
He does care.
That's why he came.
There is nothing that you cannot share with him.
You can be absolutely confident that he knows and he sympathizes with you.
If you have needs this morning and who amongst us would say we have no needs, I remind you
that Jesus said your Father knows what you need before you ask him.
He knows.
He understands those longings within your heart.
He understands the disappointment that you might feel.
He understands the anxiety.
The fear that some hope of yours will not be realized.
He knows that because he is triune.
As God the Son he came.
This brings me to a third significance that I want to point out.
You are created and loved by a God who is inexpressibly great and who is worthy of your
thoughtful worship.
I repeat you are created and loved by a God who is inexpressibly great and who is worthy
of your thoughtful worship.
Any revelation of God should bring us to worship him.
Any new understanding of himself that God gives us should bring us to respect, fear,
serve, and praise him.
When he revealed himself as the God who is one, the very next thing he said to Israel
was and you shall love the Lord your God.
Most of you have heard for most of your lives that God is triune.
In the doxology that perhaps you sung as you grew up as a child in that church, you praise
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.
Amen.
But do you understand the uniqueness of that?
Do you understand that there is no religion in all of the world like the one where you
are today in your faith?
There are those on the one hand who have many gods who are not monotheistic.
The Hindus, for example, have millions of gods.
On the other hand, you have Islam who believes in one God but denies the Trinity.
His name is Allah.
It is not the God of the Bible.
Your faith is unique in all of the world in that your faith rests upon a revelation of
a God who is one in his substance, in his essence, but who eternally and co-equally
exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
The three in one.
As we begin to probe that with our minds, it ought to bring us to reverence before God.
As we come together for worship as a congregation, it means that we ought to come with care and
with forethought.
That we ought not to rush into worship without first reminding ourselves why we are here
and who it is that we are worshiping.
We need to remind ourselves furthermore as we come that we are not here to receive something,
but that we are profoundly here to give something, to give worship to the God who is one in three.
As we worship a triune God who is one, let us remind ourselves that the Son prayed that
we might be one as he and the Father are one.
Just as God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit do not quarrel with each other.
Just as there is perfect harmony and agreement among the persons of the Godhead, so ought
we to be in harmony with one another, with other believers.
We are not to allow differences that bring division.
Now there will be differences, but we are to lay them aside so as not to create division.
It is the Holy Spirit who brings that unity to us and we are to guard it because it is
that unity in our fellowship which speaks of God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
as one.
Because we are one.
As we worship the triune God who is fully content with himself, so ought we to be content
with his provisions for us.
There is an old monologue that is written picturing God as a lonely God who one day
desired to have some company.
And so he created the sun and the moon and the earth and a man so that he could be fulfilled.
What blasphemy actually.
It's a rather entertaining monologue, but in the end it's blasphemy because God lacks
nothing.
God did not need to create us.
He does not need our worship today.
He is a God who is entirely content with himself and not sinfully.
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit need nothing beyond himself.
God is the God that we worship, the God who is perfectly content.
And his desire is that you and I might learn also in life to be content with him.
Content with his ways, content with his will, content with his provision.
When we are anxious, when we are restless, when we are frustrated, in those moments we
are not reflecting the God that we worship, who is content.
You begin to think about your life and how the triune God, the worship of him, should
impact it.
You'll be amazed at some of the things that come to your mind because of the uniqueness
of our God.
In all of the world our faith is unique.
And coming to a deeper understanding of him should bring us to genuine and profound worship.
I invite you to join me in bowing our heads as we worship him in song.
Father, we adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.
Jesus, I adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.
Spirit, I adore you, lay my life before you, how I love you.
Could you address God in the sanctuary of your heart right now and speak to the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, words of love and devotion.
Our Father, we confess that as we study this doctrine in the Word, it is a mystery to us.
But oh the meaning and how relevant it is in our day.
I pray that you will in fact draw us to true worship of yourself.
And I pray also that you will make us faithful ambassadors of the triune God and of the redemption
that you have provided for us through the Son.
Tell us we pray with the Holy Spirit that we might be powerful and energized to represent
you and to live a life with the likeness of Jesus in the midst of a dark, a perverse generation.
Cause us to shine forth as the sons of God.
Oh God, the Lord who is one, we worship you.
We worship you as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Amen.
The Lord our God, the Lord is one.
And we want to praise you Lord, you three.
And let's do so by singing together number 46, praise ye the triune God.
Please stand together as we sing.
Praise ye the Father for his loving kindness, Tenderly cares he for his erring children.
Praise him ye angels, praise him in the heavens.
Praise ye Jehovah.
Praise ye the Savior, great is his compassion.
Graciously cares he for his chosen people.
Praise ye the young men and maidens, Ye old men and children.
Praise ye the Savior.
Praise ye the Spirit, Comforter of Israel, Sent of the Father and the Son to bless us.
Praise ye the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Praise ye the triune God.
You seated.
Well in the name of the Lord we again welcome you to the service and we ask all of you to
complete the registration form and to put it in the offering plate when it's passed
in just a moment.
I hope you'll be back tonight at 6 o'clock for our service which will focus on baptism
and the testimonies of those who are following the Lord in obedience.
There will also be some good music, it will be a great evening and we hope that you'll
join us in this time of fellowship.
Please notice that this Wednesday night begins our summer life ministry.
It starts at 7 o'clock, not 6.30 as indicated in the newsletter.
Please take note of that, 7 o'clock under the capable leadership of Steve Hinkle this
ministry to children entering kindergarten up through the sixth grade this fall will
continue each night usually from 7 to 8 o'clock and that will occur through August the 16th.
Children may register the first night this week and there is no nursery that is available
on Wednesday night, those notes from Pastor Bartlett.
So I hope that you'll plan to have your children here and they'll enjoy a great time under
the leadership of Steve Hinkle and his helpers.
By the way in the back of the newsletter today there are a number of summer changes that
you'll need to notice.
A few of those will affect you, most of you I should say and that starts on June the 4th.
Now while you're reading that just out of the other ear, notice that this Thursday is
our St. Paul Fellowship luncheon.
We'd like you to be a part of that if you work in downtown St. Paul.
Please call us at the office to let us know.
Those of you who normally come should get a call this month, this week I should say,
reminding you about it.
But if you have not been a part of that before and would like to come, we can give you the
details if you'll just call the office.
The roses on the organ this morning are in honor of Tyler James, born on May the 13th
to Bruce and Debbie Dahl, and Elizabeth Rose, born on the 19th to Rob and Jill Burton.
We congratulate them.
Also enclosed in your newsletter today should be a copy of our summer preaching schedule
in the morning services.
Summer is often looked upon as a time to sort of relax and sit back and maybe even take
off.
I want to encourage you to make this summer a time of spiritual advance.
Have a summer adventure.
Along with the topics that you see covered here which focus on the Christian life, there
are some other things that we're going to be doing that I hope will enhance your spiritual
adventure through this summer.
So join us, won't you?
June 4th right through September 3rd.
Recognizing you'll be out of town for vacation some, but when you're in town be faithfully
here with us and worship at Grace Church.
The greatest thing that I can do for you as your pastor to increase your joy in the Lord
is to encourage your generosity and giving.
For it is that generous heart that God blesses with joy.
I want to encourage you today to be a joyful giver and to know the blessing of God in your
life.
Let's bow together as we pray.
And now our Lord as we bow together, we want to remember John and Lydia Rhodes.
How grateful we are for this couple who have poured out their lives in evangelism and discipling.
We pray that you will bless their resettlement in Oregon.
And we also would pray for their disciples, the young men who are scattered throughout
Asia, evangelizing and planting churches.
Particularly do we think of our friend whom we helped as a church, Chaya Robahi in Indonesia.
As he comes to the end of the school year there and the young men that he's trained
scattered throughout that nation.
We pray that your hand will be upon them.
You would go before them and lead them to the villages where they ought to evangelize
and plant churches.
Provide the needs we pray for that work in Indonesia.
And Father, our minds are upon China this morning.
In this time of unrest in that populous.
We believe that somehow your sovereign hand is working there.
May the outcome of it be the advancement of the gospel.
We do pray for increased freedom, but only if it will serve the purposes of the kingdom
of God.
How we pray that multiplied millions in that land would come to Christ and find in him
their eternal hope of salvation.
And we think too of your work in Russia and those nations behind the Iron Curtain in Eastern
Europe.
Many of whom are experiencing days of unparalleled freedom in recent years at least.
And we pray that your people will take advantage of this for your work.
But particularly we pray for the believers in Bulgaria, in Romania, and for the very
few apparently that are in Albania.
God we pray that they will sense today your support in this time of persecution and hardship.
Father, we commit to you the ministry to our children in the midweek.
Bless Steve and the others who will be leading that.
May this be a profitable summer of teaching important principles to the children and just
having fun with them in a godly way.
Use the example of the leaders to reinforce what the parents are teaching in the home.
May that be true in Sunday school as well, right through the summer.
We pray that you will raise up the workers that are needed to fill the holes here and
there.
Lord, you are doing great things in our midst.
Thank you for those in recent days who have trusted the Savior.
We pray for their growth and their encouragement in the things of the Lord.
And now bless each one who gives.
Fill them I pray with the joy that you have promised because of their generosity.
In Jesus name, amen.