The Triune God Who Saves

 

Sermon by Rev. John Zuidema on Lord’s Day 8

 

Rej 477 Refresh my heart

Speak O Lord

BOW: 102 “You O Lord, are God alone”

BOW: 465 “My hope is built on nothing less”

BOW: 379 “My God how wonderful you are”

Scripture Readings: Deut 6:1-9; Luke 9:28-36;

BOW: 188 vv 1,2; “Just as I am”

BOW: 188 vv 3,4 “Just as I am”

 

Beloved people of the Lord.

Last week I emphasized that the Triune God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit work in complete unity to ensure that all whom the Father has chosen before the foundations of the earth were put in place, will be brought to a saving knowledge of His Son, through the gracious work of God’s Word and Spirit.

Now not only is that a long sentence, it’s loaded with theological truth. No one comes to faith because they were clever. Rather, the God Triune causes those who are elect to meet various people, some of them Christians, to hear the saving message of Jesus Christ from His Word.

And the Holy Spirit has used that to bring them to a saving faith in Jesus Christ. Let us never forget that it is ‘hearing’ the Word that creates faith in the hearts of people. It’s hearing the wonderful Word about Jesus Christ, which causes people to be born again. So those of us who are in Christ have no reason to boast, but every reason for thankfulness. Without the Triune God working for us, we would never be saved to eternal life!

Now if you were to say to your unbelieving friend that you worship one God made up of three persons, they will have some questions for you. Let’s be honest, it isn’t all that easy to understand that we worship a Triune God who has saved us. For on the one hand we say with the OT Jew, that the Lord our God is one (Deut 6:4), yet we also believe that there are three persons in the God-head, each with a different task.

We confess that there is God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth who initiated salvation. We confess that there is God the Son, the Saviour, our deliverer and redeemer. And we confess that there is God the Spirit who is our sanctifier, the One who makes us holy. We worship one God in three persons!

Now the best way to explain this understanding of God is by pointing to God’s Word, for it is in His Word that He has revealed himself to us most comprehensively. However, that raises a problem. We can tell people that God is all-powerful, all present, all knowing, that he loves and cares and can be angry and all those things that the Bible reveals to us about God. Yet the difficult remains, that even our best description of God still falls short of a full description.

Our finite sinful minds cannot fully comprehend or describe our great Triune God. He’s far greater than ice, liquid and steam, even though their base is water. He is far more than a triangle of equal sides. The reality is that this side of heaven we cannot fully comprehend or describe our Triune God.

Now in a real sense that is sad. For if we could only find the right words that could describe our most wonderful, loving God, then perhaps many unbelievers would come to faith. How often don’t we just want to tell people what believing in Jesus means for us! We as believers simply stand in awe of Him. We delight in Him and what he has done and is doing and what He still promises to do!

Oh how lovely it is to just bask in his glory and the knowledge of him, even though this side of the grave it may be limited. Yet, words escape us to say it well. We cannot find the right words. Interestingly, today perhaps more so than before, not too many people have trouble with acknowledging that there is a God who has created the heavens and earth. Yet history has shown and I believe it is just as true today, many have difficulty in acknowledging that Jesus is the Son of God and equally God.

Many years ago, a man called Arius, around 260 AD, taught that Jesus is the first and best created being that God made. The JW’s still teach this today. For them Jesus is not seen as equal with God the Father, nor as His Son, but as some created being, albeit the best created being.

The Apostle John addresses this heresy in 1 John 2:22 “Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist–he denies the Father and the Son.” John writes such strong words because if Jesus is not equally God, or not the Son of God, then we cannot be sure of our eternal salvation, for a “created being” could not satisfy the justice of God for our sin.

Strangely, Jesus’ enemies actually understood who Jesus was better than the JW’s. When Jesus said to the crippled man in Mat 9:2-3; “take heart son, for your sins are forgiven” the Jews were fuming for they believed only God could forgive sins. They believed Jesus to be blaspheming.

The Jews were committed to Deut 6:4 that God is one. And for someone to come along and claim they could forgive sins would not only be rather arrogant, it meant that they claimed to be God. And for this, the Jews eventually hung Jesus on the cross (Jn 19:17).

Now we have a couple of instances when all three persons of the Trinity are mentioned. At Jesus’ baptism, in Mat 3 and Luke 3, and the transfiguration in Luke 9. Doubting Thomas had to finally fall on his knees and confess “My God and my Lord” when he saw the resurrected Jesus standing before him. Thomas was confronted with the mystery that Jesus was also God.

He confessed the faith that is beyond comprehension. Every Sunday we profess our faith in the Triune God, Father, Son & Holy Spirit. It’s a great blessing that the Triune God has led us to this profession. I say it’s a remarkable blessing, for many people seem to be happy to have a God whom they call Father, but when Jesus is mentioned, he is often used as a swear word and I cringe every time.

Seldom will you hear about God’s greatest and ultimate act of love when He sent his only Son to be the Saviour of sinners. Why is that? Because Satan hates Jesus. And if sinful man admits that Jesus is God’s Son, they have to admit that they are sinful and need saving! And Satan doesn’t want that for a moment!

So thanks be to God the Father, who chose us to be in Christ before the world began. Thanks be to God the Father who chose all believers here to be in Christ before the world began. Thanks be to God the Father who already announced that His Son would be the Saviour when Adam and Eve fell into sin and contaminated all mankind. Thanks be to God the Father for teaching His chosen people to bring sin offerings on the day of atonement which pointed to His Son’s perfect sacrifice on the cross with which his Father was satisfied as his resurrection indicates.

Thanks be to the Son who willingly and freely came down to do the Father’s will. Is it any wonder that we read of men and angels singing to God and to the Lamb in heaven? “You are worthy our Lord and God” (4:11), and “worthy is the Lamb that was slain” (5:12). “To Him who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honour and glory and power forever and ever.” And then the whole cosmos replies with a loud ‘Amen’.

Scripture actually commands the worship of the Son. “Every knee should bow and every tongue confess that he is Lord to the glory of God the Father” [Phil 2:11]. That’s why idol worship is so abhorrent for the Christian! When Paul and Barnabas healed the crippled man in Lystra (Act 14) the people brought bulls and wreaths to make sacrifices to them. And Paul and Barnabas ripped their clothes, and shouted to them not to do this but to worship the living God.

The apostle John was so overcome with his vision of heavenly things in Rev 22 that he bowed down before an angel. And the angel said, “I am a fellow servant with you, don’t worship me but God.” God and God alone! So God the Father initiated salvation. God the Son accomplished it at Calvary and beyond. Let’s now turn our attention to God the Holy Spirit, who also had much to do with bringing us to a saving profession.

Let us understand that God the Holy Spirit is equal with the God the Father and God the Son. When Ananias and Sapphira had lied to the Holy Spirit in Acts 5, they were told that they had not lied to men, but to God! Now I wish to be a little more practical about the Holy Spirit. Once God the Father has called us and God the Son has given his life for us, the Holy Spirit gets to work. This teaching of the Triune God is more than dry doctrine. It is not something we leave on the shelf. God the Father’s work, God the Son’s work has an effect on us, and that is brought about by the work of God the Holy Spirit.

How do we come to know God the Father? Through the God the Son! How do we come to know God the Son? Through the God the Holy Spirit! How do we come to know God the Holy Spirit? We don’t. He comes to us and makes himself known.

Whenever we hear the Word of God, the Spirit knocks at the door of our hearts. And when he has broken our resistance, which he certainly will if you are amongst the elect, our whole being becomes the ground, the instrument for the work of the Triune God. It is then that we become an offering of praise.

And the proof of our profession is in daily living. We all know that if we say we love God and hate our neighbour we are liars (1 Jn 4:20). We cannot claim, through the Son, to have God as the Father without having the love of God’s Spirit within us, for God is One.

Those of us who have been Christians for some time know that God is above us and for us only when He is in us. He is the one and only God who exists in three persons. That is exactly what makes us different from those who do not believe. Believers know the Triune God and unbelievers don’t.

Now we may be inclined to say that our unbelieving friends and neighbours should be the beneficiaries of that new life, and light within us and this is undoubtedly true. But it is not the first thing. We, and our neighbours for that matter, have been created for one purpose and that is to praise God. All of us come to our goal and purpose in life when we praise God.

Therefore, all talks about God, all sermons, all books, miss the point unless they help us to praise Him. The greatest moments in our lives are those in which we spontaneously sing to God, “Praise to the Lord, let all that is within me adore him.”

Have you ever experienced that? Psalm 98 calls on everything to sing to God. Floods, fields and mountains. Rev 5 – the whole universe sings about our awesome God! That is real living – praising God, delighting in Him! That is where the meaning of life is found. You are not alive when you merely exist from day to day! Our greatest moment is not pay day, or retirement day, or graduation day, our greatest moment is when we can praise our loving Redeemer Triune God!

You don’t have to be a theologian or a scholar to experience that. Doesn’t matter who you are, just come to the point where you can sing, “My God how wonderful You are, how beautiful.”

We must come to a point in our lives when we can sing it in the morning, at sunset, in the evening. We must come to a point when we can sing it at work, at a wedding, yes, even at a funeral. “My God, oh, let all that is within me adore You.” For you are my God, three in One!

God can bless people with sorrow. He can punish with prosperity. He can convert unrighteousness into justice, and turn evil to our benefit. And he can do that because He is God and there is no other! Him we praise today, tomorrow and forevermore. Every time someone professes their faith in Jesus Christ we have seen the Triune God in action.

It is my prayer that we will praise the Triune God all the days of our lives. May we never stop marvelling at our Creator, Redeemer, and our Sanctifier. Indeed may all that is within us adore Him! Amen.