God is One

We're beginning a new series today on what I believe to be the single most central and essential doctrine of the Christian faith, which is the Holy Trinity. This is the teaching that the Lord our God is but one God in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I'm calling this series the Foundations of the Trinity because my desire is simply to explain the foundations of this doctrine from the biblical text and to show you where this doctrine comes from and then to show you why it's so important to us. Lord willing, today's sermon will be the first of three exploring the three core foundations of this doctrine. Today, we'll focus on the proposition that God is one.

This is our God, a singular divine being. and this will be the first biblical foundation of our doctrine of the Trinity. So this will be a series of topical sermons rather than a verse-by-verse exposition of a single text, but we will start by reading one important text, which is from the book of Isaiah. So please turn to chapter 43 for our initial reading. We will read Isaiah 43, but first let's pray to our God.

Lord God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, You are our God, almighty, majestic, all-glorious, creator of all things visible and invisible. You're the Lord of the heavens and the earth. Lord, we desire to know you. We desire to think true and right thoughts about you so that we would honour you with truth in our minds and in our hearts and on our lips. And in this truth, Lord, let us praise you and adore you as our only God and saviour, God in three persons, blessed Trinity.

Lord, be with us as we contemplate you. Grant us the humility to submit ourselves utterly to your holy word. Grant us the diligence to seek understanding, not by mere human wisdom, but by faith and with the wisdom that's given from above. Lord, have mercy upon me as I speak about such holy and sacred things. Keep me from error, Lord, and keep your people from error.

Fill our hearts with holy reverence, because we do indeed stand on holy ground as we approach these things. Lord, I pray in the name of Jesus, our only mediator. Amen. So we want to read a portion of the book of the prophet Isaiah from chapter 43. We'll start with verse 8 and read through to verse 13.

In case you're interested, I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible today, which is a little bit different, but I think will be helpful to us. So this is Isaiah 43, starting with verse 8. Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears. All the nations have gathered together so that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this and make us hear the former things?

Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified. Or let them hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me, there was no God formed, and there will be none after me. I, even I, am Yahweh, and there is no Savior besides me.

It is I who have declared and saved and caused it to be heard. There was no strange God among you. So you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and I am God. Even from eternity, I am He. There is none who can deliver out of my hand.

I act, and who can reverse it? Amen. So my purpose today in this series is to begin to show you the biblical foundations of our doctrine of the Trinity. Why is it that we say that our God is triune? This is important, of course, because this is our God.

This is who we worship. This is who has saved our souls. This means that all of Christian life and all of our doctrine and practice ought to be radically shaped by the Trinity. Think of our doctrine of creation, for example. The Father creates all things through his word, the Son.

The Holy Spirit in the creation account hovers over the face of the waters and creates and gives life. The Father then upholds all creation, again through the Son, in whom all things hold together. Think also of our doctrine of salvation. In eternity, the Father elects a people in the Son. The Father sends the Son, who becomes one of us, conceived of the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin.

The Son lives and dies and rises again for our sake. The Father and the Son then send the Holy Spirit, who gives spiritual life, drawing sinners to the Father through the Son. The Spirit then dwells in us, sanctifying us, empowering us, and sealing us as a guarantee of our inheritance. And think of the whole Christian life and our devotion and worship. We are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

We pray to the Father in the name of the Son. The Holy Spirit intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words. The Spirit illumines to us the Holy Scriptures. We worship in the Spirit. It is by the Holy Spirit that we proclaim that Jesus is Lord.

All of that to say, the Trinity is no small matter. Christianity stands or falls on the doctrine of the Trinity. It is the dividing line between true Christianity and many cults. It is the central point of division between religions like modern Judaism and Islam. Knowing God as Trinity means knowing the true God, knowing the true Christ, having true salvation.

This is why we need to take the time to consider this important truth. And I think we can often be very intimidated by this doctrine. We can be very confused by this doctrine. We might struggle to defend it. And that's not hard to understand why.

Because of course, the Trinity is a difficult matter. There's not one simple proof text that we can turn to that will prove the Trinity. It forces us to approach the Bible in a much more careful way. Understanding the Trinity requires us to engage deeply with scripture, rigorously and systematically. So I'm hoping that this series can help us at least begin to do this and approach this wonderful doctrine together.

What I'm not going to do in this series is resolve every question you might have or clear up every mystery. This is God we're talking about, of course. So we should not expect to be able to wrap our minds around his infinite greatness. But what we can do is ensure that what we think and what we say about God is grounded in what he has revealed about himself. What we need to do is allow scripture to set the parameters for what we say and what we don't say about God.

And if we do this, I believe that we can have clarity about what scripture says about God and what we can rightly deduce from scripture. The series that we're beginning, as I said, is called the Foundations of the Trinity because I want to show you the biblical foundations of the classical Christian doctrine as it exists in our confession of faith and in the ancient creeds of the church. I want to show you that scripture overwhelmingly compels us to confess this traditional Christian doctrine. I often find that what distinguishes orthodoxy from heresy that orthodoxy, true doctrine, can account for everything that scripture says about a given subject, whereas heresy takes just some texts which they twist while explaining away the rest. It's my firm conviction that only the traditional doctrine of the trinity can make sense of everything that scripture proclaims about God.

While every heresy that denies the trinity ultimately does great violence to scripture, and undermines the faith once delivered to the saints. Then we can identify three key biblical foundations, or you could say pillars, that undergird our doctrine of the Trinity. We're going to explore each one of these in separate sermons. The first foundation is monotheism. That is, that scripture declares that there is only one God.

There is one divine being, substance, or essence. The second foundation is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each identified with this one God. Scripture teaches that the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. The third foundation is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are personally distinguished from one another. That is, the Father is not the Son, nor is He the Spirit.

Rather, while the persons are one in being, they are distinguished by their personal relations to one another. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding. The Son is begotten of His Father. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Thus, we have three distinct divine persons.

Put together, we find that scripture compels us to say that God is one God in three persons. Deny any one of these three foundations and you'll end up in serious heresy. Throughout the history of the church, and indeed to this very day, you'll find many false teachers, many cults, who'll deny one or more of these three foundations. Indeed, every one of them has been denied and rejected by various groups throughout the ages. So it's imperative that we prepare ourselves to resist these wicked corruptions of biblical truth.

In laying out these foundations, I do aim for a beginner's level. So I do hope that even the, I suppose, older children here or any new Christians who haven't heard too much of this doctrine before should hopefully be able to follow along. These matters do go very deep and they can get very philosophical and detailed, but I'm going to try to restrain myself and hopefully focus on the central issues. So let's get into it. As I said, we want to begin with the first foundation.

which is once again, monotheism. My contention today is that the Holy Scripture sets before us one and one only living and true God. He is the only God that exists. This means that he is the only being worthy of worship. He is the only creator.

He is the only savior. When we say one, we mean absolutely and numerically one. I say this because the word one is sometimes slightly ambiguous, because sometimes it can mean just a kind of unity among distinct beings. For example, husband and wife are called one flesh. Meaning there is a real unity and union, but they don't therefore become one being.

They remain two distinct beings. Jesus prays that his disciples would all be one, but that doesn't mean that we all have to merge together to become one undifferentiated entity. We all know that when you stack a bunch of Lego bricks together, you might get one tower, but that remains a tower composed of many different parts. So in many cases, oneness is not absolute oneness. It's a qualified, composite oneness.

But that's not what we're saying when we say that God is one. What we're saying is that God is absolute, indivisible oneness. God is absolutely one in being without qualification. Other words that we might use for being, a substance or essence. That is, when we talk about God's being, what we're talking about is what God is.

And there is only one of those. There is one God, and that's what we're going to see, hopefully, from the scriptures. And you might wonder how this absolute oneness of being could give any room for there to be three persons. So I want to be very clear about this. When we speak about the Trinity, we do not say that God is both one being and three beings at the same time.

That would simply be nonsense. That would be a contradiction. But no, the sense in which God is one is different from the sense in which he is three. So we propose no contradictions. We say one being and three persons.

Here's a key idea. Each of the three persons has the whole divine being. The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are not parts of God. It's not like how three thirds of a pizza might add up to one whole pizza. In the case of God, each of the persons simply is God, the one God, the same God.

When we talk about the persons, we'll talk more about them in the third part of this series. And hopefully we'll be able to see how we distinguish this idea of person from the idea of being. But for now, I hope that we can just be content to consider how the scriptures consider that God is one being. So you might think that this is extremely obvious. Doesn't scripture just state this very explicitly over and over again?

And actually, yes, you would be right about that. This is one of the most basic and foundational teachings about God from the scriptures. But that hasn't stopped sinful man from making a mess of it, of course. We know that many cults deny that God is one. Most famously, perhaps, the Mormons or the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints or something like that, that's what they call themselves, they believe in an infinite regress of gods, gods begetting gods forever and ever.

The World Mission Society, Church of God, is one that I came across recently, I was making my way to the train station in Brisbane and I found these guys, they show me this little video and they claim that there's two gods, God the father and God the mother, which I thought was pretty bizarre. The Seventh-day Adventists are also a little bit diverse on this matter, so not everyone you speak to will believe this, at least consciously, but many of their teachers and even their prophet, L. N. G. White, effectively believe in three gods.

That is, they make the three persons of the Trinity three distinct beings. Ellen White is on record talking about the three beings of the heavenly trio, which is not orthodox language by any stretch of the imagination. You'll also get this idea of monotheism questioned by many liberal and secular biblical scholars today. These are people who treat the Bible as nothing more than another ancient artifact to come out of the Near East. They say that Israel's religion evolved out of a kind of primitive polytheism, that is, a belief in many gods.

They'll say that that had many stages and developments towards something more like the monotheism that we see today. They'll say, especially in some of the earlier books of the Bible, this idea that the God of Israel is just one of many local gods who all competed with each other and existed in their own little realms. In the more evangelical world, there's also a lot of confusion on this topic, I'm sad to say. There is the strange view that I've been seeing more frequently lately, that there is this vast divine council of created gods that are ruled over by Yahweh as the chief God. And I think that's quite troubling, actually, coming from professing Christians.

And in the broader Christian world, I think we just see a lot of confusion on this doctrine of the Trinity and what it actually means. I think we often have this dangerous tendency to assume that the three persons of the Trinity are alike in many respects to three human persons. And so we have this tendency, I think, to think of them as three distinct beings. I think this is more often just ignorance rather than actual conscious intention to depart from the traditional doctrine, but I think it is a problem nonetheless. Now all that to say, I think the doctrine of monotheism is under threat.

I think it's clear that Satan really hates this doctrine. And so it's not something that we can just ignore or pretend is obvious because the fact is it's not obvious to a lot of people. So I think we should dive in. What I want to start with today is just a few reflections on the biblical language about God and gods. And in particular, we want to talk about the divine name as it appears in the Old Testament.

And then we'll examine some key biblical texts that I think just say extremely clearly that there is one God. And that one God is Yahweh, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We'll see at the same time that this only God is also identified as the one and only creator and one and only savior. Finally, we'll try to sum up what we see from the scriptures and consider the implications that this might have on our doctrine of the Trinity. So let's start with the way the Bible uses the word for God.

In the Hebrew, the word usually translated God, or sometimes gods, is Elohim. In Greek, the word is theos. hence the word monotheism for the belief that there is one God. God is also given many titles in the scriptures, like Almighty God, Ancient of Days, the Everlasting God, the Most High God, and so on. And importantly, in the Old Testament, God has a personal name.

In Hebrew, this is written as four letters, which we could write in our alphabet as Y-H-W-H. This is called the Tetragrammaton. Over the centuries, a tradition developed among the Jews that this name was so sacred that it shouldn't be spoken aloud. So the name came to be substituted with the word for Lord, which would be Adonai in Hebrew and Prios in Greek. Most of our modern Bibles follow this convention where the divine name is written as Lord in capital letters.

So if you are reading along and you see Lord with those small caps, then that is a representation of the sacred divine name. Now, I don't see anything wrong with this tradition. In fact, I know it can't be wrong because this tradition was followed by the apostles of our Lord and the writers of the New Testament. When they quote from the Old Testament, whenever they come to the divine name, they'll always render this as kurios, the Greek word for Lord. So I think it's perfectly fine to do this, contra the Jehovah's Witnesses and others who think it's very important that we say the Divine Name.

So I don't have any problem with all our standard English translations, but nor do I think it's wrong to speak the Divine Name, especially if we can do so reverently. The only difficulty is that no one is perfectly sure about how it should be pronounced, given that the original Hebrew doesn't contain a record of the vowel sounds. One historical attempt at pronouncing the name was Jehovah. For a number of reasons, this probably isn't very close to what it would have sounded like in Hebrew. Our best guess today is Yahweh or something similar.

So when you hear me say Yahweh today, just know that I'm referring to the divine name. the name of our God. And that's one reason why I'm turning to the LSB today, because that is one of its unique selling points, is that it is rendering Yahweh instead of Lord in the Old Testament. The main advantage of this, I think, is just clarity. Especially when speaking things aloud, you'll know when I'm using the word Lord as a title and when I'm using the divine name, Yahweh.

So having clarified that, we can restate our thesis statement for today. There is only one God, and Yahweh is that one God. Yahweh is numerically one being. The last thing I want to note before diving into our biblical text is that the truth of monotheism, the truth of monotheism, is not threatened by the fact that the Bible does sometimes use the word for God of different beings other than Yahweh. So there is sometimes this use of God in different senses.

it's true that the Bible does sometimes speak of the gods or the Elohim of the nations. In some places, angelic beings are called Elohim. Psalm 82 apparently refers to earthly judges as gods. In the New Testament, even Satan is called the god, the theos of this world. But what we have to understand is that none of these are ever called gods in the proper sense, but only by way of resemblance or analogy.

That is, they're called gods only because they resemble the true god in some limited respect. The gods of the nations are not actual gods, but so-called gods. They are false gods, inventions of the imagination of man. as the Bible, I think, argues very strongly. Powerful angelic beings, or demons, or even human judges, might be called gods simply because they wield power and authority.

They maybe are worshipped as gods, but again, they're not true gods in any absolute real sense. As to their nature, they are radically different from the true god. They are only creatures, they're only created beings. So when we say we believe in monotheism, this is not really an argument about words. We're not saying that the label god can't possibly be used in any other sense.

But we are making an ontological claim, that is a claim about the nature of reality. What we're saying is that only Yahweh is God by nature, in the truest, fullest, proper sense. Only Yahweh is a true God, whose nature is divine. There's only one such being. I hope that's clear.

But let's get to the biblical text. I want to begin with what Brother Diego alluded to, is the Shema in Deuteronomy chapter 6. This is that great Old Testament creed that identifies Yahweh as one God. So let's go to Deuteronomy chapter six, and we're going to read a few verses starting from verse four. Deuteronomy chapter six.

We'll start with verse four. This is what it says. Hear, O Israel, Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

These words, which I'm commanding you today, shall be on your heart. shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall speak of them when you sit in your house when you walk by the way when you lie down or when you rise up shall bind them as a sign on your hand they shall be as phylacteries between your eyes shall write them on your doorposts of your house and on your gates so i call this a creed because it's a confession of belief That's to be repeated, memorized, treasured in the heart, passed on to future generations. And this was definitional of Old Testament religion. So let's consider the content of this creed. First, Yahweh is our God.

This excludes all the other so-called gods that people would have heard of in Egypt and in the surrounding nations. Only this specific God, who has rescued this people from Egypt and made covenant with their forefather, Abraham, and indeed with themselves, only this Yahweh is to be recognized as Israel's God. And then it says, Yahweh is one. There is only one Yahweh. One God you are to worship.

Yahweh is not a title that can be shared. Yahweh is not a group or a coalition of gods, but just one God. Finally, this one God, Yahweh, is to be the object of our highest devotion. You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. Jesus identifies this as the first and greatest commandment.

With all that we are, we are to be lovingly devoted to this one God. Now the substance of this creed is repeated in many different ways and many different times throughout the rest of the scriptures. Israel is held accountable to this creed. They are repeatedly judged for going after the false gods of the nations, failing to be devoted to Yahweh alone. This is the message of all the prophets.

And I think the prophet who argues most consistently for this absolute monotheism is a prophet Isaiah. So that's where we're going to turn next. I want to point you to a number of passages in the book of Isaiah, but we're going to start with chapter 42. Isaiah 42 and this one verse eight Isaiah 42 and we want to read verse eight. He says this.

I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another nor my praise to graven images. So the glory of Yahweh is exclusively His. He doesn't share it.

He doesn't give it to anyone else. It is His alone. This rules out any worship of graven images. This is also going to be relevant when it comes to considering the deity of the Lord Jesus, which we'll do more in our next sermon. The Lord Jesus is going to be worshipped and glorified with the Father.

And so if it's true that Yahweh doesn't give His glory to another, And it follows that Jesus can't really be another, another being. In fact, must really be Yahweh himself. But let's turn to the next chapter of Isaiah, chapter 43. This is the passage we started with today. And I think this is a pretty crucial text, actually.

So let's read it again. We'll read from verse 10. So Isaiah chapter 43, we'll read from verse 10. It says this. You are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and my servant whom I have chosen.

so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He. Before me there was no God formed. There will be none after me. I, even I, am Yahweh, and there is no savior besides me. It is I who have declared and saved and caused it to be heard.

There was no strange God among you. So you are my witnesses, declares Yahweh, and I am God. Even from eternity I am He. There is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act, and who can reverse it?

So I think this is pretty conclusive for monotheism. Look again at the end of verse 10. It says, This completely rules out the Mormon idea of gods, getting gods forever and ever. It's very clear. There was no God before Yahweh.

There will be none after. That's pretty absolute. It doesn't leave a lot of room for there to be any other gods. Notice also the emphasis on the eternality of this true God. I am God, even from eternity.

I am He. You can go back to my previous sermon on the eternality of God if you want to hear more about this particular subject, but this is an essential element of the identity of the true God. Where everything else began to exist, only God is eternal. Only He is before all things. Only the true God is eternally God.

Here's something else to notice. Again, Let's look at verse 13. It says, I think this is important because it tells us that if none can deliver out of God's hand, if no one can reverse what God wills to take place or act against him, then that makes his power the supreme power. He has no rival. There are no other beings like him.

Finally, let's look at verse 11. So Yahweh is not only the only God who is eternal, supremely powerful, but he's also the only savior. This is stated elsewhere, like Psalm 3, which says salvation belongs to Yahweh. So don't call on anyone else. No other so-called gods can save you.

You have to trust in this Yahweh alone. But Isaiah doesn't leave it at that. Let's turn to Isaiah 44. It's not going to leave us any wiggle room at all to believe in any other gods. Let's read from verse 6, Isaiah 44, verse 6.

Thus says Yahweh, king of Israel and his redeemer, Yahweh of hosts. I am the first and I am the last. There is no God besides me who is like me. Let him call out and declare it. Let him tell it to me in order from the time that I established the ancient people.

and let them declare to them the things that are to come and the events that are going to take place. Do not be in dread and do not be afraid. Have I not long since caused it to be heard to you and declared it? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me or is there any other rock?

I know of none." So here again, Yahweh declares that there is no God besides him. He doesn't even know of any. That means a lot when the one who says it is all knowing. And he asks, who is like me?

Look at verse seven. I think this is interesting. and let them declare to them the things that are to come and the events that are going to take place. So the real God's knowledge extends even to the future. No false God can do that.

Here's something else unique to the only God. Let's go down to verse 24 of chapter 44. Same chapter, look at verse 24. Thus says Yahweh, your Redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb. I, Yahweh, am maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone.

So we've seen that Yahweh is the only God, eternal, almighty, all-knowing. He is the only savior, but he's also the only creator. That's what it says here. He stretched out the heavens and spread out the earth all alone. It wasn't a team effort.

He didn't have any help. Creation was the work of the one and only God. And indeed, God as creator is absolutely definitional to our understanding of God. The divide between what is God and what is not God is the same as the divide between creator and creature. If only Yahweh is creator, then everything else that exists must be created.

So you can imagine this divide on one side is only Yahweh, one single being. On the other side is absolutely everything else. Everything else completely depends upon him. belongs to him, is sustained by him. Scripture affirms this in several places, but I think you can think perhaps of Paul's address to the pagans of Athens in Acts 17.

The God that he proclaims is the God who made the world and all things in it. And this God is not in need of anything, since he himself gives to all people life and breath and all things. This makes God absolutely unique among beings. It establishes an absolute distinction between God and everything else. So what God is, his being or essence, is something fundamentally different from everything else.

It couldn't be any clearer. If Yahweh is the only creator, that means he is the only God. And though we focused on Isaiah, the affirmation of monotheism is something that's certainly not unique to him. Just as an example, in Psalm 86, verse 10, we read, for you are great and do wondrous deeds. You alone are God.

And monotheism is asserted in many places in the New Testament as well. James affirms that even the demons are monotheists, even if they don't like it. He writes, you believe that God is one. You do well. The demons also believe and shut up.

The Lord Jesus also clearly teaches monotheism. He says this, addressing his father in John 17, verse three, And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So the Father is the only true God. Jesus teaches monotheism. Now, some people misunderstand this text and think that he means to say that only the Father is God, and therefore not the Son or the Spirit.

But you'll notice that that's not actually what he says. He says the Father is the only true God. But this doesn't exclude the Father, or the Son, or the Spirit, because they're not separate gods. The doctrine of the Trinity says that The God that the Father is simply is the God that the Son is, and the God that the Spirit is. So we can say, perfectly truly, that the Father is the only true God, just as we could also say that the Son is the only true God, and the Spirit is the only true God.

We believe in one only God, and that is exactly what Jesus here affirms. The Apostle Paul says something similar in 1 Timothy chapter two. He says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Again, let's look at 1 Corinthians chapter eight. And I want you to turn here and follow along for yourself because I think this is an important text.

1 Corinthians chapter eight. This is a text where the apostle is addressing this issue of foods sacrificed to idols, which is causing some debate and division in the church. So let's read what he says. 1 Corinthians chapter 8, and we're going to read starting from verse 4 through to verse 6. Therefore, concerning the eating of things sacrificed to idols, we know that an idol is nothing in the world and that there is no God but one.

For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and we exist for him. and one Lord, Jesus Christ, by whom are all things, and we exist through him." So here we have another clear affirmation of monotheism. There are many that are called gods and called lords, but Christians know better. We have one God and one Lord.

What we should recognize here is that two divine titles are used, God and Lord, and these are given to the father and to the son. Many scholars have noticed that the language here is very close to the Shema that we read earlier from Deuteronomy. We read, hear O Israel, Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one. But what the Jews of Paul's day would have recited every day would have been something more like this, hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is one. So what Paul seems to be doing here is deliberately identifying both Jesus and his father as with this one Lord, this God of Israel.

I think it's fascinating. You can also notice that the father and the son are both associated with creation. All things are from God the Father and by the Lord Jesus Christ. We exist for God the Father and through Jesus Christ. So the Lord Jesus is involved in creation as the agent or instruments of creation.

If we think back to Isaiah, which we just read, Yahweh is said to have made all things alone and by himself. So either Paul here is contradicting the prophet, or Jesus should be identified with Yahweh himself. He is on that creator side of the creator-creature distinction. Thus the Son is not to be understood as a distinct God or distinct Lord from the Father, but is indeed one and the same God and Lord. We're going to focus a little bit more on this in our next sermon.

But one other thing I wanted to note about this text. So it's very clear that the idols are nothing. There may be other beings in the imagination of man that are called gods. That doesn't mean that any other gods actually exist as real gods. Paul says, an idol is nothing.

There is no God but one. Paul's language reflects what we find in Psalm 86, 96. It says, for great is Yahweh, greatly to be praised. He is more fearsome than all gods. And if you were to stop there, you might assume from this verse that we're recognizing that other gods exist, but that Yahweh just happens to be the most fearsome of the lot.

But this is clarified in the next verse. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but Yahweh made the heavens. So the gods of the peoples aren't really gods. They're just idols. There's no reality behind them.

That's why food sacrificed to idols aren't spiritually dangerous. There's no need for superstition around these false religions. And that's why Yahweh is superior to the idols. Only Yahweh is the real God. Only he truly made the heavens.

And so we see the prophets are really good at mocking the unreality of the false gods. Think of Elijah confronting the prophets of Baal, or I think people say Baal. They dance around and they're crying out and they cut themselves, but nothing they can do can make fire fall from heaven. Elijah suggests that Baal might be on a journey, or perhaps relieving himself, which I think is very funny. But the truth is, Baal simply isn't real.

That's why there's no effect. Of course, when the real God is called out to by Elijah, he responds immediately, and the people are amazed and acknowledge that Yahweh is God. Isaiah is brilliant on this as well. He mocks the idolaters for bowing down to dead wood and stone. From the same tree a man gets wood that he burns on the fire.

The rest he makes a god which he bows down to and he calls out to for help. A god that he made himself. It's ridiculous. You can't hear, you can't see, you can't do anything. So we have this idea that while the word God might be applied to things other than Yahweh, Those things aren't literally gods.

They're false gods. So-called gods. Maybe even, in some cases, demons masquerading as gods. But only Yahweh is the real God. So let's sum up what we've heard.

Yahweh, the Lord, is the one and only God. He's not only the only God of Israel, but he's also the only God that is. There are no other gods before him or after him. He doesn't know of any other. We've seen that he's distinguished from all other beings by several key attributes.

He has a unique glory, which he gives to no other. Only he is to be worshipped. His power and authority is unstoppable. He knows the future. He's from eternity while all other beings came into being.

He is the only creator. He is the only saviour. He could say a lot more, but that's just from what we gathered from those few passages that we looked at today. All of this put together tells us that Yahweh is utterly other. He's not just one example of a broader category of beings.

He is unique. There is none like him. You and I are human beings. We're different human beings, but we're ultimately the same kind of thing. But when it comes to God, there is nothing else of the same kind.

God, properly speaking, is not a category of beings or a class of beings. He is one and there can only ever be one. So this has to be the first and foundational pillar of our doctrine of the Trinity. Whatever else we say about God or about the Trinity has to be consistent with this absolute monotheism that we find taught in the scriptures. This means, most crucially, that if the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each identified with this one God, which we will see, Lord willing, very soon in another sermon, that if that's true, there can't be different gods.

Scripture does not permit us to worship three gods. Father, Son, and Spirit must be one God. We say in technical language that they must share the same being, or essence, or substance, or nature. As a Nicene Creed says, they must share the same substance. They must be consubstantial with one another.

The Greek term is homoousios, meaning same substance or same being. It follows then that whatever belongs to the essence of God belongs to each of the three persons equally. The three persons have the same power, knowledge, will, and authority. I think the Athanasian Creed summarizes this very well. So I want to read some of it for you.

This is a creed probably written around the sixth century, not composed by the famous Athanasius himself, but very much representing the orthodox doctrine that he and many others defended over the centuries. This is a bit of a longer quote, but I think it is well worth hearing. So this is what it says. We worship one God in Trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither blending their persons nor dividing their essence. For the person of the father is a distinct person.

The person of the son is another. and that of the Holy Spirit still another. But the divinity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, their glory equal, their majesty co-eternal. What qualities the Father has, the Son has, and the Holy Spirit has. The Father is uncreated, the Son is uncreated, the Holy Spirit is uncreated.

The Father is immeasurable, the Son is immeasurable, the Holy Spirit is immeasurable. The Father is eternal, the Son is eternal, the Holy Spirit is eternal. Yet there are not three eternal beings, there is but one eternal being. So too, there are not three uncreated or immeasurable beings, there is but one uncreated and immeasurable being. Similarly, the Father is almighty, the Son is almighty, the Holy Spirit is almighty.

Yet there are not three almighty beings, there is but one almighty being. Thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods, there is but one God. Thus the Father is Lord, the Son is Lord, the Holy Spirit is Lord, yet there are not three Lords, there is but one Lord. Just as Christian truth compels us to confess each person individually as both God and Lord, so Catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three Gods or Lords.

So I hope that just reinforces the point that I've been trying to make. Scripture compels us to confess that there is only one God. This has to be central to how we understand the Trinity. The consequence of denying this essential foundation of the Trinity is ultimately some form of polytheism. One version of this is a heresy known as tri-theism.

That is a belief that the father, son, and spirit are distinct persons, good, and are each god also good, but are not the same god, which is not good. And so you end up with three different gods, which in my mind is just nothing more than Christian-flavored paganism. It's pretty rare that someone will openly confess to be tri-theistic, so you often have to be careful to spot it. The telltale sign is whenever someone talks about the persons in ways that imply that they are distinct beings. I think the canonic heresy is one example of this.

You might remember that I explained this in the previous sermon. Many people believe, wrongly, that God the Son had to empty himself of his divine attributes to become man, that his divinity had to somehow change in the incarnation. We call this the canonic heresy, from the Greek word kenosis, meaning an emptying. But think of what this implies about the nature of the Son. If something changes in the nature of the Son, and not the Father or the Spirit, what that implies is that they can't be the same thing, they're not the same being.

So the Son's nature is a different nature to the other persons of the Trinity. Otherwise an emptying would have to apply to them as well. So this kind of error is only possible if you're already not clear on the fact that Scripture teaches that there is only one God, and not three gods. So let's be on the lookout for errors in our own thinking that might tend in this direction. If we imagine the Trinitarian persons as three human persons living together, then the odds are that we're going to end up making some serious errors.

The big point of difference between three humans and the three divine persons, of course, is that the three humans are distinct beings. They're separate things. They have separate minds and wills and powers. But when it comes to God, that's very different. There's only one divine being.

We make so many errors in theology when we let our imaginations run wild, and we take what's true of man and apply that to God without justification from the scriptures. Rather, what we have to do is we have to be humble. We have to recognize the limitations in comprehending who and what God is, and we want to say only what scripture permits us to say. That includes, first and foremost, that God is one. So let's be diligent in our commitment to biblical monotheism, that our Lord, the Lord our God, is one and only living and true God.

I hope I've convinced you that that is what the scriptures indeed teach. Let's pray. Lord God, you are one. And we give thanks that we can call you our God and our Lord. Thank you that you have revealed yourself to us so clearly, saved us by your amazing grace.

Lord, I ask that each one of us here would be committed to the truths that we've heard from your word today. that we would not fall into errors or heresies concerning your oneness. Lord, should we ever be mistaken in our thinking on any of these things, Lord, be gracious to us, humble us, and correct us by your word. Lord, lead us by the hand into the fullness of your truth. We love you, Lord.

We glorify you, our one triune God. We pray these things in the name of Jesus, our mediator. Amen.