Is Jesus God?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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May 3, 2013

00:00: Alright, we are beginning.
00:06: What week are we in? How many weeks have we been going through the questions? This is a series of questions and answers.
00:15: You all wrote down questions and we're dealing with...
00:19: Once a week we come together and we deal with these questions.
00:21: This is week five or this is week six.
00:24: So what were the first five questions? I know you have them written down.
00:29: Or maybe you don't.
00:30: No, that's okay.
00:33: Go ahead Carly.
00:33: Give me the first five questions were...
00:40: Why do we believe God exists? Why do we believe our God is the right God? Why does God allow the devil to exist? Why does He let bad things happen to good people or to anyone? And what was last week? Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? So that was the first five questions.
01:11: Today's question is a little shorter, but kind of profound.
01:17: Today's question is this.
01:20: Is Jesus God? Is Jesus God? Simple three word question, but is a profound and serious question.
01:37: It is a question that literally separates the true teachers of the faith from the heretics.
01:47: It separates the true followers of Christ from those who are false faith or false believers.
01:54: This one question is foundational to our entire faith.
02:01: And before we simply answer the question, before we simply give it a yes or a no, I want us to make sure that we understand some terms.
02:16: So let's just go ahead on with the lesson before we even try to answer it.
02:20: Let me begin.
02:22: One of the things that I think is very important.
02:26: Thought he was on his cell phone, didn't he? Yeah.
02:31: He's taking notes on a little notepad.
02:33: His mom thinks he's texting.
02:34: That's awesome.
02:35: But it also shows where we are as a people.
02:38: Because when you see somebody holding something, you don't think notepad.
02:44: OK.
02:45: Is Jesus God? The first thing that I think is very important for everyone to understand is that Jesus never said the phrase, I am God.
02:59: Everybody understand that? He never said, I am God.
03:02: That's that's an important truth, because that's one of the things that people who don't believe in the deity of Christ often look at.
03:14: They say, well, if Jesus was God, wouldn't he have said so? And he never said, I am God.
03:18: So if so facto, he's not God.
03:21: That's that's the argument that often comes from those who would say that he's not.
03:27: What are some mainline groups? By mainline groups, I mean religious groups that would say Jesus was not divine, that he was not God.
03:42: Yes.
03:43: Muslims.
03:45: The Islamic people do not believe that Jesus was divine.
03:49: In fact, they're very clear that anyone who says that Allah has a son is cursed and Allah is there what they call God.
04:00: And they say if anybody says Allah has a son, which is what we believe Jesus is God's son, then they're cursed.
04:07: So that's right from the text of the Koran.
04:10: So that's true.
04:11: There's that's one group.
04:12: And they often make that argument.
04:14: Jesus never said he was God.
04:17: OK.
04:19: All right.
04:20: What's another group that might disagree and say he's not God? Oh, Mormons.
04:30: Mormons are what are Mormons are actually polytheistic.
04:33: They believe in many gods and they do believe Jesus was divine, but just not the same way we did.
04:38: So not so much.
04:40: But close.
04:41: Good job.
04:42: What's another group that would say Jesus was not divine? Buddhists.
04:48: Yeah, that's true.
04:49: So you would put it all under one umbrella and take Eastern religious systems would say Jesus was not divine because that's Buddhism.
04:57: Taoism, Shintoism, competing dualism, all those different systems which all kind of fall under.
05:02: And even even though it's not really Eastern mysticism, Hinduism would also say that because Hinduism is a polytheistic religion.
05:10: I'm thinking of I'm thinking of.
05:13: Who is it? Jehovah Witnesses.
05:16: That's really that's one of the ones I was really thinking about, because Jehovah Witnesses make this a big deal and they will come to your house at eight o'clock on Saturday morning, which if I ain't got nowhere to be, I'm still in bed at eight o'clock on Saturday morning.
05:33: But they will come knocking on your door and wanting to tell you about the Watchtower track and Bible Society, which is their what they push.
05:45: They push the Watchtower magazine.
05:47: They push their tracks.
05:48: They push now what's called a wake magazine.
05:51: It's just all these things that they try to give out.
05:55: But one of their tenants in their faith of the Jehovah Witness is that Jesus is not divine.
06:01: They do believe that Jesus is a special creation of God, but they still believe that he's created.
06:09: They don't believe that he is the creator.
06:12: OK, so that's very important to understand about the Jehovah Witnesses.
06:17: Also, Orthodox Jews would say Jesus is not God.
06:23: And they would say he never said he was.
06:25: He never said that he was.
06:27: So, hey, how can you say Jesus is God if he never said that he was God? Well, actually one in the same essence and person in essence is different because the father and the son and the spirit are three persons in one essence.
06:51: And that I'm just giving you a little bit.
06:54: There is a there's a theological difference between being in person.
06:58: I'll give it to you simply.
07:00: A rock has being, but no person.
07:03: I have being and person.
07:07: God has being and three persons.
07:10: OK, so it's different in how we understand being or essence and person and personality.
07:16: God has three personalities, father, son, Holy Spirit.
07:18: You're getting a little ahead of me, but I wanted to stop and address that's what I was talking about.
07:23: Very quickly, Jesus never said I am God.
07:26: And that's true as far as it goes.
07:28: Jesus never said I'm God.
07:29: However, he did say many things that would cause us to come to that conclusion.
07:36: So today I want to look at some Bible verses for us to to read and see how we come to that conclusion.
07:44: John 10.
07:46: I'm going to write it down for you.
07:48: John 10, 25 through 33.
07:55: John 8 and 58.
08:05: Luke 7, 48 through 50.
08:12: And we'll stop there and we'll do just those first.
08:19: I'm a little embarrassed.
08:24: No, no, no, no.
08:25: No, I said I'm embarrassed because I don't have my Bible.
08:29: I walked up here with my notes and with my Bible.
08:31: Would you grab me mine? All right.
08:36: So let's I'm going to call on you guys to read.
08:39: Who wants to read? All right.
08:41: Courtney, you're going to read John 10.
08:43: Carly, you read John 8.
08:45: And who else? Christelle, that's perfect.
08:48: Thank you.
08:48: Yeah, it's got my name on it.
08:51: Pasta.
08:53: Luke 7, 48 through 50.
08:56: So let's go to John 10 first.
09:00: Yes.
09:09: Yep.
09:12: No, but I can buy the name.
09:23: Yes.
09:24: Is it a universalist Unitarian Church? OK, well, the reason why when you said unity.
09:34: Yes.
09:36: Universalist Unitarian.
09:38: Well, that's actually two different types.
09:40: But often you'll find universalist Unitarian churches.
09:44: Unitarianism is the is the view that God is one being and one person.
09:53: Trinitarianism, which is what we are, believes God is one being and three persons.
09:57: So you understand in the Unitarian system, God the Father is the only divine being.
10:05: God, Jesus is the son, but he's not divine.
10:08: The Holy Spirit is just an essence or a power.
10:12: He is not a person.
10:13: So God the Father is the only divine being in Unitarianism.
10:18: So it's likely that that's the type.
10:19: And when you say it's called Unity Church, it makes me think it's probably Unitarian Church.
10:25: That fallacy, that heresy was actually first presented.
10:29: Well, it was presented with the most influence first prior to the Council of Nicaea, which happened in 325.
10:37: The Council of Nicaea was actually convened to discuss and debate the subject of the divinity of Christ, which is why the Nicene Creed, which came out of the Council of Nicaea, gives us a very clear and distinct expression of the Christian understanding of the Trinity.
10:54: There was a man by the name of Arius.
10:55: Arius taught the Unitarian perspective.
10:58: He taught that Jesus was a created being, a special created being, but not divine.
11:02: And he was he was considered a heretic, is still considered a heretic, but he is the father of modern day Jehovah Witnesses, Unitarians and the like.
11:16: So real quick, is Jesus God? He never said he was, but he did say some things that would lead us to that conclusion.
11:24: Number one, read me John 10, 25 to 33.
12:24: Right here, Jesus has made an expression about himself.
12:27: He said, my sheep hear my voice and I give them eternal life.
12:33: They are in my hand.
12:35: I am in my father's hand and no one can snatch them out of my hand.
12:40: I and the father are one.
12:42: He made this very clear.
12:44: He's giving the gift of eternal life and they pick up stones to stone him.
12:50: And Jesus says, why are you stoning me? Are you stoning me for good works? And they said, it is not for good works that we're stoning you.
12:58: We're stoning you because you just said a blasphemy.
13:02: You just said you are God.
13:05: So right here, Jesus didn't say I am God, but he made a statement expressing his own divinity.
13:13: He said, I am the one who grants eternal life.
13:16: And I am the one who is in my father's hand and I and the father are one.
13:23: So he makes an expression about himself and they don't miss it.
13:26: They didn't miss his claim to divinity because they pick up stones to stone him.
13:32: Anyone else who said something like that, if I said to you, I grant you eternal life, every one of you should get up and leave because I am a heretic.
13:45: I can't grant anyone eternal life.
13:49: But if Jesus says it, it's an expression of his own divinity.
13:56: All right.
13:56: So that is the first one.
13:59: Let's go to the second one.
14:00: John 8.
14:01: So you're going to turn back a couple of verses or a couple of pages.
14:05: John 8 and verse 58.
14:11: Go ahead, Carly.
14:12: You had that one.
14:21: Most assuredly, I say to you, but for Abraham was I am.
14:26: Does everybody's Bible read that way? What does yours say? The part where he says I am.
14:35: Does everybody say before Abraham was I am? Doesn't that sound funny? Doesn't that sound really funny? I'm asking, doesn't it sound funny to say before Abraham was I am? In the vernacular, shouldn't it be before Abraham was I was? I mean, to say before he before Abraham was I am sounds funny, but it sounds funny for a reason.
15:07: Go ahead.
15:07: I think you want to say that's right.
15:14: He used the divine title, Ego, Amy, in the Greek.
15:20: Yeah, there's a funny there's a term in Greek Lego and Ego.
15:24: Lego, my ego is actually a Greek term.
15:28: Lego, my ego is a thing.
15:29: But Ego, Amy is I am.
15:34: It's present tense.
15:37: It is an expression of being.
15:40: When God spoke to Moses, he says, you tell him because he says, what will I say when I face Pharaoh? He says, you tell him I am has sent you.
15:51: I am not I was not I will be, but I am.
15:58: It's an expression of self-existence.
16:01: And Jesus used the same term of himself.
16:04: And he talked about the fact that he preexisted Abraham because he said Abraham long to see my day.
16:09: They said, how could Abraham long to see your day? You're not even 50 years old.
16:13: He couldn't know you were coming.
16:14: He lived 1500 years ago, 2000 years ago.
16:17: How could he even know you were coming? Before Abraham was, I am.
16:21: If that's not an expression, at least of preexistence, I don't know what is.
16:26: That's a simple expression of Christ of his own preexistence.
16:29: He has your hand up for somebody.
16:32: All right.
16:33: One more from the words of Jesus, and then we're going to look at some other passages.
16:37: But just from the words of Jesus, go to Luke, Christel.
16:43: Luke chapter seven, verse 48 through 50.
16:47: This is the story of the woman who came to wash Jesus's feet with her tears and dry them with her hair.
16:54: Do you remember the story? All right, go.
16:57: Luke 7, 48.
17:24: Christel, I think you're on the wrong chapter.
17:28: That's okay.
17:29: I was close to the other one.
17:30: I was like, well, maybe it's just a different translation.
17:32: All right.
17:33: Try again.
17:34: Verse 48, chapter seven, verse 48.
17:37: Yeah.
17:38: Okay.
17:42: Go again.
17:46: Nope.
17:46: Still still.
17:48: It's a chapter seven.
17:57: All right.
18:20: Right there.
18:22: Think of that.
18:23: Think of what happened here.
18:25: This woman has come in.
18:26: She is a sinful woman.
18:28: The Bible tells us she's a woman who has come in.
18:31: Her heart is broken over her sins.
18:34: She comes into where Jesus is.
18:35: He's eating at the house of a very important person.
18:39: And she just comes right into the festivities and she comes in crying.
18:45: Her tears are being used to wet Jesus's feet and she's drying them with her hair.
18:51: She is broken over her sin.
18:53: And what does Jesus say? You need to pray and do seven Hail Marys to get that sin forgiven.
19:00: No, I mean, that's what we might expect.
19:04: You might need to go do some penance.
19:05: You need to go, you know, build an orphanage.
19:07: You got to do, you got a lot of sin, got a lot of, got a lot of fixing to do.
19:10: No, Jesus at that moment says, your sins are forgiven.
19:16: And what's the response of the people around him? Who is this man that he forgives sin? But that's the point.
19:29: That's the point.
19:30: Men cannot forgive sin.
19:35: Only God has the power to forgive sin.
19:39: So, in John 10, when Jesus says, I am the father of one, and he says, I grant eternal life.
19:46: That is an expression of his own deity.
19:49: John 8, 58, when he says, before Abraham was, I am, that is an expression of his own deity.
19:55: And in Luke, when he says, your sins are forgiven, everybody around him knows what it means.
20:00: Everybody says, this guy is making himself out to be God.
20:05: And that's true.
20:07: It is an expression of his own divinity.
20:10: So based on just those alone, we could do a bunch more.
20:13: He told many people their sins were forgiven.
20:15: He performed many things that only God could do.
20:20: But that was three easy ones that we could write down and look up.
20:23: So from those expressions, we know at least, even though Jesus never said, I am God.
20:32: In those terms, he did say that he was divine in many different ways.
20:39: All right.
20:40: Now, not only did Jesus express that he was divine, but the apostles also expressed that he was divine.
20:52: John chapter one and verse one says what? We ain't even got to go there.
20:57: You know, who knows John 1, 1? That's right.
21:06: In the beginning was the word.
21:09: In Arche Einhalagos, in the Greek, in the beginning was the word and the word was with God.
21:17: Kaipheus Einhalagos, Einhalagos, yeah.
21:34: And the word became flesh and blood among us.
21:36: That's verse 14.
21:36: We talked about that in Sunday school a few weeks ago.
21:38: Right there.
21:39: Yes, we that that was where we were.
21:48: Yeah, absolutely.
21:49: Absolutely.
21:50: But in this first verse of John, in the beginning was the word, the word.
21:55: Later, it says the word became flesh and blood among us.
21:57: We beheld his glory, the glory of the Lord, the God and the Father.
21:59: So there's no doubt who the word is.
22:02: In the beginning was the word.
22:03: The word was with God and the word was God.
22:08: That's hard for us to understand.
22:10: And that verse is impossible to understand outside of Trinitarian theology.
22:15: You cannot have John 1, 1 with Unitarianism.
22:20: It does not work that Jesus can at the same time be God and be with God at the same time, because that's what that verse says.
22:27: It says he was with God and he was God both at the same time.
22:31: The only way that works is Trinitarian theology that maintains monotheism.
22:37: Because you become a polytheist, but if you become a polytheist, you have to deny monotheism.
22:42: And that's the tenet of Judaism is what? Deuteronomy, Chapter six, the Shema, which is the prayer of the Jewish people.
22:52: Hear, O Israel, the Lord, our God, the Lord is one Lord.
22:56: And that was always the foundation for Jewish theology was that there was only one God.
23:01: And yet here comes Jesus, who they are claiming is with God and he is at the same time God.
23:07: How can there be one and more than one? Well, Trinitarianism is the only satisfactory answer to that question.
23:17: All right.
23:17: So we know that John and John 1, 1 says in the beginning was the word.
23:22: The word was with God and the word was God.
23:25: In verse 14, it says the word became flesh.
23:29: And then go to John, Chapter 20, John, Chapter 20, and go to verse 28.
23:49: I'll set the stage.
23:50: Jesus has appeared to Thomas.
23:53: Thomas has already said, I will not believe in Jesus unless I see the scars in his hands.
23:58: Right.
23:58: Unless I unless I see him with my own two eyes, I won't believe.
24:04: And Jesus appears to him.
24:06: And what happens in verse 28? Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God.
24:17: And Jesus didn't say, hey, now, come on, you're going too far.
24:20: Now, you're so good with the flattery, man.
24:22: He didn't say that.
24:23: But you think he would have if he was wrong, because there are other times in Scripture where people are bowed down to and they say, get up.
24:34: Think about when the person bowed down to Peter.
24:35: Peter said, no, you don't bow down to me.
24:37: I'm just a man.
24:38: But when John bowed down to the angel in the book of Revelation, don't bow down to me.
24:42: I'm just an angel.
24:43: But here Jesus receives worship and he does not rebuke it.
24:55: He doesn't say, Thomas, you're wrong.
24:57: But instead, he receives the claim that he is both courios, which is Greek for Lord, and he is theos, Greek for God.
25:07: He is both Lord and God.
25:11: OK, so here is just another expression of his divinity.
25:17: And there are, in addition, several times in the Bible where Jesus received worship.
25:21: Matthew, Luke, Mark and John all show Jesus having people worshiping him, praying to him, throwing palm branches at his feet.
25:34: Right.
25:35: What did Jesus say when we pray? You pray in whose name? In Jesus name.
25:43: I know we don't really I think a lot of people missing that.
25:46: I'm going to go way off on a tangent.
25:47: I'll try to stay.
25:48: We get way off on that because here's how we pray in Jesus name.
25:53: In Jesus name, amen.
25:54: In Jesus name, amen.
25:55: It's like it's like we try to just tag it on to the end of our prayers, tag it on to the other person.
26:02: You know what? You can pray and not say the words and in Jesus name.
26:07: I always do at the very beginning of my prayer.
26:09: Father, I come to you in Jesus name.
26:12: But you know what? Even if I didn't say that, I would still be praying in Jesus name.
26:15: Amen.
26:16: Because I understand one thing.
26:21: Prayer goes through the son to the father.
26:24: Whether I say it or not, I understand that.
26:29: I understand that Christ is the mediator between God and man.
26:33: Christ is the he is the go between between me and God.
26:37: I am unholy.
26:39: God is holy and Christ covers me with his blood and he becomes my mediator, my advocate with the father.
26:48: We have sinned.
26:49: We have an advocate with the father of Jesus Christ, the righteous.
26:51: So every time I pray, it has to go through Jesus or it don't get God.
26:56: Yeah, it don't.
26:58: It's because there's all these people they say, well, you know, I know a lot of unbelievers, but they pray so hard.
27:05: They like praying against the wall.
27:06: What are you doing? You ain't praying through Christ.
27:08: You ain't praying to God.
27:10: This is this.
27:12: Are you saying God can't hear God hears everything? But that's but it doesn't make it prayer.
27:18: The Islamic people pray five times a day.
27:20: They face a certain direction.
27:22: Pray five times a day.
27:24: They get special position.
27:26: Pray five times a day.
27:28: And it is nothing but meaningless words because they're not praying to Christ.
27:38: OK, by the way, I'm very politically incorrect for those who are maybe moms.
27:44: Just remember, you brought your kids.
27:51: Yeah, I lost my marker.
27:54: OK, well, all right.
28:01: Now we understand the Bible is clear that Jesus said things that only God could say.
28:11: Jesus is spoken of in a way only God can be spoken of.
28:16: And the Bible very clearly says in John one one and in other places, but in John one one specifically, that he is God.
28:26: So when we ask the question, is Jesus God? What's the answer? Well, let me before I answer God, everybody says yes.
28:38: And obviously the answer is going to be yes, but I want to I want to want to challenge you now.
28:46: Because I imagine one day you will all be challenged with this.
28:50: I know I've been I know I've had atheist people, I've had I've had people that don't believe as I do.
28:55: I've had I've talked to Jehovah's Witnesses on my front step.
28:58: I chased him down the driveway to bring him back one morning because they were leaving.
29:04: I was asleep.
29:05: My wife comes in the room and she says the Jehovah's Witnesses are just here.
29:08: I told him that we weren't interested.
29:10: I said, what do you mean we're not interested? Of all the people in the neighborhood, I am most interested.
29:15: So I got up through my through my shorts on through my shirt on and ran down the driveway and brought him back up.
29:21: What's that? OK, so but, you know, bring him back up.
29:30: And I had to talk with him to the point that they got mad and left because they weren't used to that.
29:37: And what they said, well, this guy obviously knows what he believes.
29:39: We need to go somewhere else.
29:41: You need to go talk to people who don't know anything so that you can spin them in circles with your bad theology is what you're saying.
29:48: He didn't like me.
29:51: No, my house has been marked.
29:54: I did catch some Mormons on somebody else's property and I stopped them on somebody else's property.
29:59: I stopped my truck, got out and I was having a bad day anyway.
30:04: I'm pulling by.
30:05: I see two guys.
30:06: It was a person I knew.
30:07: So I just walk on private property.
30:08: I knew the person.
30:09: I just got out and walked up there.
30:11: I said, hey, you're trying to tell my friends about false theology.
30:15: Come here.
30:17: What other way would you do it? Is there another way? Yeah, let's find some common ground in your Harris.
30:26: No, we're going right away.
30:28: You're preaching something false.
30:30: I know them.
30:31: I like them.
30:32: I don't want them hearing your garbage.
30:33: Let's talk.
30:34: Maybe I can talk you out of going to any of my neighbors.
30:39: Yeah, this is my my neighborhood.
30:43: Yeah, I was a little bit a little bit more aggressive than maybe I should have.
30:49: But that was that was the first time I'd ever heard that the Mormons became the the.
30:56: And don't this is not true, but the guy argued because I said that I said there's no archaeological evidence for the Mormon Bible and the things that it says happened.
31:05: There is no evidence.
31:06: I mean, there's still a Jerusalem.
31:07: There is still a Mount of Olives.
31:09: We can go there and look.
31:10: Say, hey, we're right there.
31:10: You know, the Bible says Jesus is here.
31:12: At least it's still there.
31:14: They the whole Mormon system is based on a history that never happened.
31:19: The people, there's no evidence that it ever happened.
31:21: There's no there's none of it.
31:23: And yet in Joseph Smith is a storyteller.
31:26: He told all these stories and people believe it.
31:28: And the guy said, well, what happened was the Mormon people went south and they became the who was it that was going to we were going to twenty twelve people.
31:37: The Mayans, he said, the Mormons became the Mayans.
31:40: I was like, I was like, you know what? Evil Knievel couldn't make that jump.
31:44: That was a big jump.
31:46: But that was his.
31:48: All right.
31:48: Where was I like teaching kids? Y'all can chase rabbits with me and you don't get exhausted.
31:56: I were almost done.
31:58: So I want to ask you a question.
31:59: We were saying that Jesus has said things that only God can say.
32:03: He did things only God could do.
32:05: Accepted worship.
32:05: He did these things.
32:06: But how could Jesus be God if he and listen to the question, because this is the question you may hear one day and I want to help you with this.
32:16: How could Jesus be God if he prayed, if he got tired, if he got hungry, if he got thirsty and if he died? I'm just I want to hear your answer.
32:37: Just let the questions sink in first, because this is how the atheists often attach the deity of Christ or the person who doesn't believe it.
32:47: Their first question.
32:47: Would Jesus prayed if he was God? Was he praying to himself? Was he a paranoid schizophrenic? He's got two people inside talking to both.
32:53: Well, I mean, I've heard is Jesus a schizophrenic? Is he talking to himself? Is he a ventriloquist? When he came up out of the water, was it his voice saying, this is my beloved son and whom I'm well pleased.
33:06: He's kind of like this, right? But, OK, that's true, the incarnation and that is true, that that is the answer to the question.
33:22: The answer to the question is that very simply, to understand how Christ is divine, we must understand that he is also when he came into this world, he took on a human nature and at that end in doing so, he became the only being that had ever been both God and man.
33:54: The Trinity is easy to understand.
33:56: People make too big a deal about it.
33:58: Here's the Trinity.
33:59: If you want the theological definition, if you want to write down here goes very people say it's hard.
34:04: I don't think it's hard.
34:05: I think it's I think I think I think it's harder because people try to make analogies.
34:10: Well, the Trinity is like water.
34:11: You know, sometimes it's ice and sometimes it's steam and sometimes it's liquid.
34:15: No, it ain't.
34:16: It ain't like that.
34:17: Well, it's like sun rays.
34:19: You got some of them solar and some of this and some of it is all different.
34:22: No, it ain't like that, neither.
34:25: It ain't.
34:28: There is no analogy to the Trinity in nature.
34:34: There's not.
34:36: There is none like God.
34:39: God is absolutely unique in all of the analogies that we make up, by the way, the water analogy.
34:45: That is an analogy of something called modalism.
34:47: That's not Trinitarianism.
34:50: That is a heresy which was taught by a man named Sibelius, who was eventually kicked out of the church's heritage.
34:57: That is modalism.
34:58: It is not Trinitarianism.
35:00: But yet people still use that as the analogy.
35:06: Here is.
35:09: The expression of Christian Trinitarianism.
35:13: There is only one God.
35:17: But that one God exists eternally in three persons.
35:24: There is only one God, but that God exists eternally in three persons.
35:35: The persons of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
35:38: They are one in essence, they are one in purpose, they are one in will.
35:43: Jesus said, I have come to do the will of my father.
35:45: I can't do anything else but that because they share that desire, they share that will.
35:50: They are one in essence, but yet they are three in person.
35:54: This is, by the way, how we can say that love is eternal because Muslims can't say that because here's the Muslim view of God.
36:09: There was God and nothing else, and so God created the world and he created the people of the world.
36:17: There was no relationship prior to him creating something to have a relationship with.
36:24: And the world hasn't always existed, but God has always existed.
36:28: So there was a time when God was alone.
36:31: I've even heard Christians say it, not real deep ones, mind you, but I have heard people say, well, the reason why God made man was because he was lonely.
36:42: Have you heard that? OK, so I'm not alone.
36:45: You've heard people, well, God was lonely.
36:49: There's a Greek word for that.
36:51: It's baloney.
36:53: Not only God being lonely is foolish, but the three persons of the Trinity have always existed.
37:03: They have always interrelated.
37:05: And you know what? They covenanted together before they even created the world.
37:11: There was a covenant made within the Godhead before the world was ever created, that the son would be the redeemer, that the spirit would be the one who applies the work of redemption, and that the father would be the sovereign one who oversaw it all.
37:29: The father elects, the son redeems, the spirit regenerates.
37:33: And that's how they work together in the process of salvation.
37:38: OK, but yet without the Trinity, you end up with a unitarian God who is without a relationship, thus without any form of love.
37:48: You know, the Bible says God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world.
37:54: And he actually had a relationship with Christ before he made the world.
37:58: There was love before there were people.
38:02: There was an interrelationship within the Trinity before God ever created anything, and that has always existed, that relationship has always existed.
38:12: So when Christ, who is the second person of the Trinity, entered into human flesh, he took upon himself a human nature and he took upon himself certain aspects of the limitation of entering into humanity.
38:29: Where do you find that in the Bible? Well, let's look, Philippians, this is the last place you're going to, Philippians 2, 5-11.
38:37: When Jesus came into the earth, he did not cease to be divine, but he did, as the text will say, he did make himself nothing.
38:55: Well, we'll see what that means.
38:56: Let's read it.
38:57: Philippians 2, verse 5, this is known as the Carmen Christie passage.
39:06: Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped.
39:17: That's talking about when he came to earth.
39:19: He came to earth as being the second person of the Trinity.
39:23: He came to earth as being divine.
39:24: But while he was here, he did not express his divinity in such a way that people would receive that.
39:33: He didn't consider it a thing to be grasped.
39:34: He didn't seek equality with God when he was here.
39:37: He bowed down to God because he had submitted himself to God.
39:41: That's why I said it for seven, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form.
39:50: He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
39:56: Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father.
40:10: Right there.
40:12: Christ humbled himself so that he could die for us.
40:18: And at that, God exalted him for it.
40:22: So now every knee shall bow and every knee will bow.
40:26: We will either bow now because we have been regenerated and we willfully choose to bow or.
40:34: After the judgment, they will have their knees planted.
40:41: But it will not it will then be too late for redemption.
40:47: So here's what I want to finish with.
40:50: If somebody asked me, is Jesus God? I would say this, saying Jesus is God is to me somewhat of a confusing thing to say because it gives the next question, well, if he's God, how can he die? How can he be hungry? How can he do this? How can you do that? It is true.
41:14: Jesus is divine.
41:16: It is true.
41:17: Jesus is God.
41:18: But I do not believe that is the best way to express the truth.
41:22: It is better to say that Jesus is God incarnate or to say Jesus is God in the flesh or Jesus is the God man to simply say Jesus is God creates a series of questions that you can eliminate by adding the simple phrase Jesus is God incarnate.
41:45: He is God in the flesh.
41:47: He is the God man.
41:50: I understand.
41:52: All right, lesson went a little long.
41:53: Let's pray and then you guys have your time closer.
41:56: Lord, thank you for this opportunity to study together.
41:59: I praise you and thank you for it.
42:01: And we thank you for your word.
42:02: In Jesus name we pray.
42:03: Amen.