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Luke 3:21-22

 

21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened, 22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”

 

            The picture of Jesus at his baptism is one of the sweetest and simplest arguments for the triune nature of God that one can find in the Scriptures.  Though there are many groups, Oneness Pentecostals and Muslims for example, who would argue that the Bible does not teach the doctrine of the trinity, this simple snapshot shows us all three persons of the one Holy God in one frame.

 

            Look at the picture spelled out in the words of the verses above.  God the Father’s voice is resounding, declaring Jesus to be his Son.  Jesus, God the Son, is center-stage, coming up out of the water.  God the Holy Spirit is descending upon Jesus visibly. 

 

            There is no modalism here.  God the Father did not become the Son.  God the Son did not become the Holy Spirit.  No, all three persons are present in one biblical event.

 

            Is there polytheism here?  No, because Scripture does not contradict itself.  There is only one God.  Yet, in an amazing way that we cannot grasp with our finite minds, that one God is revealed in three persons.  Each person is distinct and yet there is still only one God. 

 

From the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689:

 

Chapter 2: Of God and of the Holy Trinity

 

1._____The Lord our God is but one only living and true God; whose subsistence is in and of himself, infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but himself; a most pure spirit, invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; who is immutable, immense, eternal, incomprehensible, almighty, every way infinite, most holy, most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of his own immutable and most righteous will for his own glory; most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek him, and withal most just and terrible in his judgments, hating all sin, and who will by no means clear the guilty.

 

 

3._____ In this divine and infinite Being there are three subsistences, the Father, the Word or Son, and Holy Spirit, of one substance, power, and eternity, each having the whole divine essence, yet the essence undivided: the Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding; the Son is eternally begotten of the Father; the Holy Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son; all infinite, without beginning, therefore but one God, who is not to be divided in nature and being, but distinguished by several peculiar relative properties and personal relations; which doctrine of the Trinity is the foundation of all our communion with God, and comfortable dependence on him.

Exodus 33:15-16

 

15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”

 

                This morning, I cannot imagine a statement with more radical implications for our Christian lives than what I just read.  Moses, the man of God, has just been told by God that God will give Israel success.  God will give them the land.  God will give them victory over their enemies.  God has only said that God himself will not go up with them.

 

                Moses responds to God with exactly the right thing.  Moses says to God, if God does not go up with the people, it’s not worth going.  If God is not with the people, they are no different than any of the pagan nations around them.  Yes, maybe they will have the land and military victory, but if God is not with them, it is all worthless.

 

                Christians, could you pray like Moses?  Would you tell God, “I don’t’ want any success if you’re not in it”?  Could you tell God that if his presence does not mark your success that the success is really failure?  Could you tell God that it does not matter how healthy or comfortable your family is if his presence is not clear in it?  Could you ask God not to let your church grow if his Spirit does not shine through that growth?

 

                God is the treasure, not our success.  God is the reward, not the land.  It means nothing to gain the promised land if you do not have the God who promised it.  O how we need to grasp this desire that we see in Moses.  We want nothing that does not lead us into the presence and glory of God. 

Exodus 21:16

 

“Whoever steals a man and sells him, and anyone found in possession of him, shall be put to death.”

 

        Just in case you have ever wondered if the Bible promotes the kind of slavery that the people of the US participated in through the nineteenth century, the verse above is clear.  To steal and sell a person is wrong.  How wrong?  God made it punishable by death.  There were other forms of slavery, and God did not condemn them all, but chattel slavery, kidnapping and selling people is never, ever acceptable.

 

        Boy, aren’t we glad that we’re not in a nation where that stuff goes on?  Aren’t we?  If you are not aware, the United States is still participating in chattel slavery, but now in what might even be a more gruesome way.  Human trafficking is what it is now called, and it is just as detestable.  Young people, usually but not exclusively little girls, are being tricked, taken in, kidnapped, threatened, abused, and sold.  This is all part of the sex industry in our country, an industry which Americans know is there, but which we somehow fail to be honest enough to see for what it is.

 

        For more information, you might visit Shared Hope International or read some of the other articles in this Links of Interest from last week.

 

        God says to steal a person and sell them is wrong, punishable by death.  It’s happening right now.  Be aware.  Pray.  Speak out.  Do whatever you can within the bounds of the law to see to it that this industry is stopped.  So long as there is prostitution, there will be human trafficking.  So long as there is pornography, there will be human trafficking.  We must prayerfully do what we can to rescue those who are being abused and to keep others from having a market for the victimization of the vulnerable.

Exodus 19:10-12

 

10 the Lord said to Moses, “Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their garments 11 and be ready for the third day. For on the third day the Lord will come down on Mount Sinai in the sight of all the people. 12 And you shall set limits for the people all around, saying, ‘Take care not to go up into the mountain or touch the edge of it. Whoever touches the mountain shall be put to death.

 

        I wonder if any biblical concept has been lost as much as the understanding of God’s holiness.  I know that we often use the word.  We sing, “Holy, holy, holy,” but do we have a clue what we are talking about?  I don’t think that we generally do.

 

        Exodus 19:10-12 gives us a picture of what it looks like to prepare to experience the holiness of God.  You get ready.  You must be clean, consecrated.  Then, you dare not encroach.  God said that anybody who even dared to touch the mountain upon which he was standing was to be shot on sight.  God’s holiness is nothing to be trifled with.  God’s holiness is deadly.

 

        Now, return to our modern era.  Our modern sensitivities have little place for a holy God who would demand separate space from us.  How dare he not let anybody who wishes simply to climb up and take a peek at him?  Why can’t we simply bound into his presence?  Why would we need to be cleaned up?  These are the kinds of questions that show in the lives of many of us today.

 

        If you think my questions of the last paragraph unrealistic, just think about the world’s concept of whom God must accept.  It is nearly universal outside the church that the world assumes that, if there is a God, he must accept anyone who is not Hitler or Stalin.  The majority of people think they will go to heaven when they die (if there is a heaven) simply because they want to.  Very few understand that God has the right to demand that only the pure stand in his presence.

 

        Don’t get me wrong, I know I’m not pure in and of myself.  I am a sinner.  But God made a way, only one way, for sinners to be made clean in his sight.  God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus, to pay for my sin and to cleanse me in his sight.  Because of Jesus, I can be forgiven and enter into God’s presence.  Because of Jesus, any person who will repent of sin and place their trust in Jesus will become God’s child.  This is the good news.

 

        Christians, don’t let the good news become blasé.  It is stunning to think that God would let us in his presence.  He has every right to fence off the mountain and kill anyone who would even look at it.  He has every right to shut the gates of heaven and consign us all to the torment that our sin deserves.  That God would allow us to live is grace.  The fact that God would forgive us, that is amazing grace.  The fact that God allows us to be made clean in Christ and to enter his presence for eternity, that is amazing, glorious, unbelievable, marvelous, matchless grace.  Give God praise for such kindness from one who is so holy.  And let’s try to keep the holiness of God in mind as we approach him in worship.

14:15-16

 

15 The Lord said to Moses, “Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward. 16 Lift up your staff, and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it, that the people of Israel may go through the sea on dry ground.

 

        I see this morning a question that I love.  When the people of Israel found themselves pinned between the charging Egyptian army and the Red Sea, they cried out in fear.  God responds with a simple question of why?  Why be afraid?  Why cry out in terror?  It’s only a sea and an army.

 

        Then God moves.  God blows back the sea and makes a path for the people to walk on.  No problem.  Why were you all so scared?

 

        O that we would remember that we serve the same God.  Our God made the seas.  Our God spoke the stars into space.  Our God has set kings on thrones and torn down empires.  Our God is able to do far more than we could ever ask and imagine.

 

        Why then do we fear?  Why then do we fret?  Why do we think that it will be our power or our cleverness that will rescue us?  Why do we think that we are the ones who have to figure everything out?  God is able.  Let’s learn to trust him and praise him for his miraculous provision.

Job 40:6-8

6 Then the Lord answered Job out of the whirlwind and said:

7 “Dress for action like a man;

I will question you, and you make it known to me.

8 Will you even put me in the wrong?

Will you condemn me that you may be in the right?

 

            In verses 6-8 of Job 40, we see God continue to question Job.  He’s been showing Job how incapable is man to understand and judge the deeds of God.  But God is not done yet.  Job had impugned the righteousness of God, and God will simply not let such a thing go.

 

            What grabbed my attention this morning is verse 8.  God asks Job if Job would dare actually try to defend himself and place God in the wrong.  Such is what Job had done.  Such is what all men do who allow themselves to be angry toward God. 

 

            Stop and think about God for a moment.  God is perfect.  He is holy.  The is righteous.  There is no taint of sin mixed in with God’s character.  Sin, by definition, is that which opposes or sinks beneath the perfection of God.  To think, even for a moment, that God has done wrong is to think that God is not God. 

 

            How careful we need to be.  It is our nature to look at facts and then subject those facts to our own judgment.  We see something happen, and in our hearts we say, “That is good,” or “That is wrong.”  Such should be the case when we examine our own deeds or the deeds of others.  But we dare not do so with God.  God’s deeds are always right.  God will not do wrong.  We dare not consider that we can sit in judgment over his actions and think such things.  We are too small, too weak, too foolish, too sinful, too limited, too frail, too not-God to be able to say that God has done wrong.  All we know, all we can say for sure, is that the God who made the universe is always right.  He is the definition of what is right.

 

            A look at Job’s experiences will help us all to understand his motivation.  We can all sympathize with his suffering.  But God wants to teach us all that God is the Holy One.  When we are exposed to God’s holiness, we rightly tremble and bow before him.  We may not understand God’s ways.  We may not grasp what God is up to.  But this is the point, isn’t it: God is God and we are not.  God will always do that which, by definition, is perfect.  Our lives might be desperately hard.  Our circumstances might be utterly depressing.  God is still God, he is still good, and he will still have a glorious eternity for all who will trust him through the work of his Son.