1. Bethlehem Baptist Church September 17 – December 10 2014 January 14 – April 29 2015

2. The aim of our charge is love that issues from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (1 Timothy 1:5 ESV)

3. Introduction Scripture: 2 lessons The Trinity God’s Eternal Purposes: 2 God’s Creation: 2 Man’s Sin and Fall Jesus Christ: 2 The Saving Work of Christ (Jan. 2015)

4. The Curriculum One God in Three Persons God the Father, God the Son God the Holy Spirit The Happy God Other Writers John Piper – Desiring God Jonathan Edwards – Essay on the Trinity Fred Sanders – The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything.

5. Deuteronomy 6:4 The Lord is One Isaiah 45, 46, 42 “there is no other” Matthew 28:18-20 In the name of... 2 Corinthians 13:14 The three Matthew 3:16-17 The members of the Trinity Romans 11:34-36 Supremacy of God John 1:1-3, 8:57-59 Diety of Christ 1 Corinthians 2:10-11 The HS searches the depths of God Trinitarian work – many verses

6. 1) God is three persons 2) Each person is fully God 3) There is One God Definition: God eternally exists as three persons, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and each person is fully God, and there is one God.

7. “ We always tend in our folly to consider things as antitheses which are meant to be complementary.” Martyn Lloyd-Jones Sermon on the Mount (p. 182)

8. There is One God “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. (Deuteronomy 6:4 ESV) Isaiah 45: I am the Lord, and there is no other. And there is no other God besides me,... There is none besides me. For I am God, and there is no other.

9. There is One God and He is Unique Isaiah 46: I have made and I will bear, I will carry and will save. I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”

10. There is One God and He is Three And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age (Matthew 28:18-20 ESV) The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all (2 Corinthians 13:14 ESV)

11. There is One God and He is Three And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; 17 and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16-17 ESV)

12. 6 yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist (1 Corinthians 8:6 ESV) “For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counselor?” 35 “Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?” 36 For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen (Romans 11:34-36 ESV)

13. Ontologic Equality of the three persons of the Trinity They are of the same substance They are each fully God They are each eternal They are fully unified They delight in love towards each other The Economic relationship within the Trinity The Father is preeminent The Son submits to His Father’s will The Spirit acts on behalf of the Father and the Son

14. 1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made (John 1:1-3 ESV) So the Jews said to him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?” 58 Jesus said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.” 59 So they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple (John 8:57-59 ESV) [cp. Exodus 3:14]

15. 22 “Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth!For I am God, and there is no other. 23 By myself I have sworn; from my mouth has gone out in righteousness a word that shall not return: ‘To me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance. ’ (Isaiah 45:22-23 ESV) 9 Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:9-11 ESV)

16. John 1:14-18 The Word... Has made him known. Hebrews 1:1-3 The radiance of God, the exact representation Colossians 1:11-15 He is the image of the invisible God Colossians 2:9 In Him all the fullness of deity dwells bodily. 2 Corinthians 4:4 the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God

17. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Genesis 1:2 ESV) For the Spirit searches everything, even the depths of God.... So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11 ESV) 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God (Acts 5:3-4 ESV)

18. When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come. 14 He will glorify me, for he will take what is mine and declare it to you. 15 All that the Father has is mine; therefore I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you (John 16:13-15 ESV) He (refers to a person) has a mind and a will, can be grieved, lied to, resisted, and insulted.

19. “To generalize: The Father foreordains, The Son accomplishes, And The Spirit applies the work of Christ to the heart” John Frame, Salvation belongs to the Lord

20. in accordance with the gospel of the glory of the blessed God with which I have been entrusted (1 Timothy 1:11 ESV) which he will display at the proper time—he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Timothy 6:15 ESV) 11 These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full (John 15:11 ESV) I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them (John 17:26 ESV)

21. Desiring God by John Piper God is never frustrated in any of His plans. Therefore He must be the happiest of beings. He loves Himself absolutely; to do otherwise would be idolatry. Within the triune Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), God has been uppermost in His own affections for all eternity. This belongs to His very nature, for He has begotten and loved the Son from all eternity. Therefore, God has been supremely and eternally happy in the fellowship of the Trinity.9 P 43 Desiring God, reference 9 (Jonathan Edwards)

22. A Essay on the Trinity Jonathan Edwards A view of the Trinitarian relationship from eternity past https://www.dropbox.com/s/ui5izq59v600pr0/An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity by JE.pdf?dl=0 https://www.dropbox.com/s/ui5izq59v600pr0/An Unpublished Essay on the Trinity by JE.pdf?dl=0

23. The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything Fred Sanders He outlines C S Lewis’s Trinitarian views His evangelism is Trinitarian The doctrine of salvation is itself the doctrine of the Trinity, “he shows us the dance of divine love and indicates that there is room for another dancer to join in.” Our Sanctification (practical Christian living) is a “constant reenactment of that same movement – [the dance of divine love] – of stepping into the place that the Son of God is holding open for us.”

24. What analogies for the trinity do you recall? Are they helpful or misleading? What do you think typical evangelicals think about the Trinity today?

25. What is at stake in the doctrine of the Trinity? Ch. 14 Doubt the atonement Justification by faith alone is threatened It would be idolatry to worship Jesus We must attribute salvation to a creature The independence and personal nature of God are in question The unity of the universe is undermined

26. Modalism God exists in different “modes” at different times. Arianism Jesus was not fully God Nicene Creed 325 AD (p 1169 in Grudem) And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father... Modern Day Arianism: Jehovah’s Witnesses

27. 2.1 We believe in one living, sovereign, and all- glorious God, eternally existing in three infinitely excellent and admirable Persons: God the Father, fountain of all being; God the Son, eternally begotten, not made, without beginning, being of one essence with the Father; and God the Holy Spirit, proceeding in the full, divine essence, as a Person, eternally from the Father and the Son. Thus each Person in the Godhead is fully and completely God.

28. 2.2 We believe that God is supremely joyful in the fellowship of the Trinity, each Person beholding and expressing His eternal and unsurpassed delight in the all-satisfying perfections of the triune God. Why is this section in the Affirmation of Faith?