How To Explain The Trinity: by Jeff Durbin

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October 20, 2015

Jeff Durbin from Apologia Radio/TV/Church recently spoke at a conference on Islam. Jeff was asked to teach on one of the central teachings of the Christian faith: the Trinity. Have you struggled to understand this vitally important teaching? Have you wanted to be able to explain this truth? Take a look and share this message with your friends and church! For more from Jeff Durbin, go to apologiaradio.com.

00:00: All right, well let me introduce the next speaker. Let's get this thing started. Jeff Durbin of Apologia Church and Radio.
00:06: Jeff is a pastor elder at Apologia Church in Tempe, worked many years as a hospital chaplain. He speaks on campuses, conferences, camps, churches, conferences, schools across the
00:16: U .S., participated in outreach to various different religions. They go to the Mormon Temple, for example, during the pageant during Christmas and do a lot of great ministry there to the
00:25: Mormons. He's also done some public debates against atheists, so you wanna hear those.
00:31: Jeff was actually on the History Channel. They did a show on drug addiction called The Stoned Ages about the
00:36: Christian approach to drugs and alcohol. He was able to represent that. He hosts a weekly radio and TV program called
00:42: Apologia Radio. It's a great show. Check it out, ApologiaRadio .com.
00:48: And Jeff is married to his wonderful bride, Candy, and they've got four children, Sage, Imagine, Sailor, Stellar.
00:55: So I think you're gonna be excited. Jeff's gonna talk about explaining and showing the love of the
01:00: Trinity, especially to Muslim folks, because it's a big issue. So Jeff Durbin in the house.
01:06: Yeah, give it up, give it up. We're glad you're here. Thanks, brother.
01:14: All right, let me get set up here. How are you guys, good? So I got the eight o 'clock
01:20: Trinity discussion. End of the day, you guys are probably tired and full from dinner.
01:27: No, you guys ready to go? I like that. See, there you go, right on. That's right.
01:33: So let me just start by saying that I'm humbled to be able to do a message on the triune
01:42: God. I think this is a vitally important issue. And when you consider the fact that today in modern evangelicalism, we often run into the common scenario where if you were to ask somebody, what is the
01:54: Trinity, or can you define the Trinity? The common evangelical professing Christian on the street today could not define the
02:01: Trinity. And you oftentimes hear Christians, professing Christians, defining the Trinity, the triune
02:06: God of the Bible in ways that really reflect ancient heresy more than actual biblical truth.
02:14: So this is a vitally important topic because what we are talking about is not something that is just mere theological gymnastics.
02:22: We're talking about the God that we worship. And so this is not one of those non -essential issues for us as Christians.
02:28: This is not an issue like, what color should the carpet be in church? This isn't an issue like whether Christians can have a cigar at the birth of their child.
02:38: This is not in the realm of those kinds of discussions. How should you come dressed to church?
02:44: Should you wear relaxed, casual clothes, like maybe like I'm wearing now? Hopefully that's not offending anybody right now.
02:51: Or should you dress up in a suit and tie for church? What kind of music should you listen to or what should we worship with?
02:59: Should we do no musical instruments and just sing exclusively from the Psalms?
03:05: Should we allow modern contemporary hymns? Should we only sing old hymns from the
03:11: Reformation? Those are subjects that Christians can and really should have in -house debates getting to the scriptures on, but it's not something we should destroy each other over.
03:20: Amen? I hope you guys say amen to that, okay? Some of you guys are like, no, okay, debate.
03:27: This is an issue that strikes to the core of what it means to be a Christian. Again, this is about the very
03:33: God that we worship. And again, I wanna express how humbled I am to be able to speak on something like this.
03:39: And I wanna confess outright that I am a mere creature talking about the incomprehensible
03:45: God. And I wanna acknowledge that at the beginning that it's a real privilege and an honor to be having this talk.
03:51: But I wanna share with you something that's one of my heroes of the faith early on shared.
03:57: And that is this, Dr. Walter Martin, who wrote the book, The Kingdom of the Cults. He really began a lot of the outreach and evangelism to the cults in the 20th century.
04:08: And he said, if you get your doctrine of God wrong, it doesn't matter wherever else you are right.
04:14: If you have the wrong God, you have a God that cannot save you. And so this is a, again, vitally important topic and a discussion tonight.
04:23: So let's go ahead and start with prayer and we'll get right into tonight. Father, I wanna pray that you bless me.
04:29: I confess God in myself, in myself, my unworthiness to be presenting such a beautiful and glorious truth.
04:40: And God, we all confess, Lord, our dependence upon Father, your
04:45: Son. Lord Jesus, it's you and your life, your death and resurrection,
04:52: Lord, that we cling to. Lord, we have no other boast before you. God, all we have,
04:58: Father, is Jesus. And Lord, it's in him that we put all of our trust.
05:04: Lord Jesus, you lived righteously, blamelessly. You perfectly kept the law in the place of your people.
05:12: You died a death that we deserve. And you rose from the dead.
05:18: And Lord Jesus, we find ourselves in you, covered in your righteousness.
05:25: Lord, no longer guilty because of your work. I pray, God, that you would bless today me as I speak by your spirit.
05:33: You would teach your people from your word that I would get out of the way. God, that what you do here would be to the glory of Jesus Christ and to the increase of his fame.
05:44: Among all the nations, I pray that you, God, would cause me to decrease and Christ to increase.
05:53: In Jesus' name, amen. So again, vitally important topic, we're talking about the
05:59: God that we worship. Jesus said this, he said in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, and the life.
06:07: No man comes to the Father but by me. Jesus said that he was the exclusive way, means to have a right relationship with a living
06:17: God, the only God. Jesus affirmed absolute and strict monotheism.
06:22: When he was asked a question about the greatest commandment in the law, Jesus quoted the Shema. It was part of the morning and evening prayers for every
06:29: Jew. Jesus would have prayed that prayer and Jews today. Still, if you go into a mall and you see a little
06:35: Jewish boy wearing a yarmulke, walk up to him and ask him to quote the Shema to you, they'll be able to do it.
06:41: It's a part of what Jesus believed. It's a part of what every
06:47: Jew believed and every Christian has always believed. There is only one true and living God. And when Jesus was asked, what's the greatest commandment in the law,
06:54: Jesus quoted the Shema. Shema, Yisrael, and depending on if you want to offend anybody or not.
07:03: Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the
07:09: Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength,
07:15: Jesus says. He says the second commandment is love your neighbor as you love yourself.
07:22: But Jesus taught absolute and strict monotheism. There is only one true and living God. And Jesus said in John 14, six,
07:29: I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but by me.
07:34: The apostle Peter at Pentecost actually says, actually in direct collision with the
07:42: Roman government of his day, it was something that could have gotten him into a lot of trouble. The apostle Peter famously says, there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby you must be saved.
07:54: And he's speaking about Jesus. And so this is a vitally important topic because this cuts to the core of all that we believe as Christians.
08:02: We're talking about the God who is, the true and living God, the only God. And this concerns that God speaking in history.
08:10: We're gonna talk tomorrow, well vocab's gonna talk tomorrow with someone who's a
08:15: Muslim. And one thing that Muslims and Christians share in common is Muslims and Christians believe that God actually has spoken.
08:22: We do share some common ground in the area of how we know what we know. The idea that God has actually condescended, that God has actually stepped into history and spoken.
08:33: He's interacted with us. We actually can know things because God has spoken. 2
08:38: Timothy 3, 16 through 17, the apostle Paul says to Timothy that all scripture is theionoustos, all scripture is
08:46: God breathed, breathed out by God, that God has actually walked among us.
08:51: That's the Christian claim. God has taken on flesh. He's walked among us. John chapter one says that Jesus has exegeted the
08:59: Father for us. He has explained to God that God has actually not been the
09:05: God that is far off. He's a God who is very, very near. He stepped into his own creation.
09:11: He's talked to us. We can know him. And Muslims and Christians actually agree. God has spoken.
09:18: And the glory of the gospel is actually, it's compelling. And this is something that Paul speaks about in the book of Romans.
09:25: In the first couple of chapters, he repeats himself. The fact that God has spoken in scripture, in time and in space, he's actually spoken and revealed himself to us.
09:36: But there's a detail here that's very important. God has spoken to us about Jesus in the scriptures before Jesus ever walked on the earth.
09:45: God told us the story in vivid, bright detail about the
09:50: Mashiach, about the Messiah, long before he came. You see, the testimony of the eyewitnesses, the testimony of those who knew
09:57: Jesus was that Jesus was not a novelty in the plan of God. He was not someone that came into history as part of a plan
10:07: B in God's plan for history. But Jesus was, in fact, part of God's plan in history to bring about redemption, to bring about the salvation among all the nations for his namesake.
10:20: Jesus, everything about him, to know him as Savior and Lord is written long before Jesus actually comes to the earth in his earthly ministry in vivid detail.
10:32: The good news of the kingdom of God, the good news of redemption. You see, the promise to Abraham was that Abraham was gonna have descendants as numerous as the, what?
10:43: Stars. That was a promise made to Abraham that it was through Abraham's seed pointing ultimately to Jesus that Abraham was gonna have descendants as numerous as the stars.
10:54: The promise was that all the nations were gonna flow up to the mountain of God, that God was gonna bring redemption.
11:01: The promise was, Psalm 110 .1, that this Messiah would be seated at the right hand of the
11:06: Father and that he would make all of his enemies a footstool for his feet. The promise of redemption was redemption that was gonna go to the ends of the earth.
11:15: The promise was in Psalm 72 that this Messiah would have dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth.
11:24: This Messiah was gonna come and bring salvation. Isaiah 53 is a glorious passage in your
11:32: Bible. If you don't know that passage, I wanna encourage you to get to know it, spend time in that passage, meditate upon it.
11:39: Here we have in the book of Isaiah long before Mashiach comes, long before the Messiah comes, the description of the life, death, and resurrection of the
11:50: Messiah. That all the questions are answered there about the work of the Messiah, that he would be pierced through for our transgressions, crushed for our iniquities, that chastening for our well -being would be upon him and by his wounds we'd be healed.
12:04: The glory of the Messiah, that he would be without sin. There was no deceit found in his mouth.
12:11: But there's something peculiar here, and this gets to the incomprehensibility of God, not the can
12:17: I understand him and what he's doing, but the incomprehensibility of it. It says in Isaiah 53 long before Jesus comes that the
12:26: Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. Now I want you to think about this real fast.
12:32: Hang on to this for a moment, okay? When I talk about God as triune, when
12:37: I talk about God in ways that go beyond our ability to fully grasp and grab ahold of,
12:43: I am not saying that it is not apprehendable, these truths, that you cannot understand them or grasp them.
12:51: I'm saying that there are things about God, because of the nature of things, he's God and we're creatures with three pound brains.
12:59: There are things about God that are incomprehensible, and that to me is one of them.
13:05: Pause for a moment, and I want you to think about it as children of God. That's something that I actually can apprehend.
13:13: I get it. God says in Isaiah 53, the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief.
13:23: Stop for a moment and think about that. That's apprehendable. I get it.
13:30: God was pleased. He took pleasure in. He was pleased to crush
13:35: Jesus, Mashiach, for me. I apprehend that.
13:41: I can draw a picture of it. I can explain it to my kids, my seven -year -old little boy that I call
13:47: Turtle. I can explain it to him, that the father was pleased to crush Jesus, but brothers and sisters,
13:53: I don't comprehend that. I don't comprehend it. There are aspects to what
13:59: God is, who God is and what God does in the world that I apprehend, but I do not comprehend.
14:07: And the glory of the gospel is stated long before Jesus comes. This Messiah is gonna come, Isaiah 53.
14:13: He's going to be counted among the rebels, counted among the rebels, that he would justify the many as he would bear their iniquities.
14:23: All of that's in the scriptures long before Jesus comes. Here's the point. God has revealed himself.
14:29: God has spoken. God has told us about himself. That is an act of his grace.
14:34: And God told us about Jesus long before he came and completed his work. God is sovereign, brothers and sisters.
14:42: God says long before Jesus comes that he declares the end from the beginning. He does according to his will and the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
14:51: And no one can stay his hand and say, what have you done? God is sovereign. He is wielding history.
14:57: He controls the stars, every molecule. There are no maverick molecules in God's universe.
15:03: God has told us about his good news and how he's gonna bring about redemption to the ends of the earth. That is why this is so vitally important because God is doing something in history to bring about salvation for the rebels.
15:17: Why is that significant for you? Well, because you are one. All right, and so am I. And that's why this gospel is so vitally important because ready, there is only one
15:27: God. And there is only one way to this God to be reconciled and brought to peace with him.
15:34: And that is through Jesus, the Messiah, Jesus, the God -man. Jesus says in John 8 to people in front of him, he says this, unless you believe that ego eimi,
15:45: I am, you will die in your sins. He tells people that if you do not accept the fact, not just accept, but actually believe in and trust in me as God, you will die in your sins.
15:59: And that is the message we have for our Muslim friends. Jesus is God in the flesh coming to bring about salvation, to reconcile us to his father.
16:10: Now there's a problem though in our discussion tomorrow and our discussion really always in our context.
16:16: There's a problem and the problem is in the fall. Our first parents fell into sin, specifically our first parent,
16:24: Adam, he fell into sin and Romans chapter five says that because of that fall, death spread to all men.
16:31: And Romans chapter one really gives us a description after verse 18 onwards of really the condition of all of humanity.
16:38: We're all in there. Our Muslim friends are in there. Our Mormon friends are in there.
16:45: Our Hindu friends are in there. All of us before Christ are in Romans one.
16:50: It says in Romans 1 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.
17:00: For that which is known about God is evident within them for God has made it evident to them.
17:06: It says since the creation of the world, his eternal power, everything about God, to know
17:11: God is so obvious, Paul says, that the creation is shouting to us so that, ready, listen closely, we are left unapologetus without a defense, without a reasoned defense.
17:26: Listen, it says that everybody so clearly knows God, the true God, the only
17:32: God, that we are such rebels, we become fools, our thoughts become futile, we switch
17:38: God for idols and we are left without an excuse before his throne. We construct as fallen people very clever systems.
17:49: We construct as fallen people our own gods made in our image that we switch the eternal
17:56: God for. That's the problem of the fall. And there's this particular problem described in Romans one that I want you guys to grab hold of right now because it really describes the atmosphere and the circumstances that we find ourselves in when we engage in debate with any cult or any ism.
18:13: There's a particular atmosphere and that is the atmosphere of the fall. All of us are rebels against the same
18:18: God, know the same God and have the same fundamental problem. Listen closely. John Calvin, I think he put it best when he said that the human heart is a natural idol -making factory and it is never, listen, idol in creating idols.
18:36: It is always producing them. And in the fall, we can't help but create gods that aren't
18:42: God to go and worship them. We have the problem of the fall. We have a problem of false gods and false gospels.
18:50: But listen closely. You see this is particularly important to God really reflected from the very beginning of the
18:57: Bible, but we see it in particular when God comes into relationship with his people, he condescends, comes into a gracious covenant with them.
19:06: And when he gives them his 10 commandments, he reminds them that he's their
19:11: God who delivered them from their slavery to Egypt. That's gracious.
19:18: And then he gives them his law. What's the first commandment in the 10? You shall have no other gods before me.
19:29: Now, it's interesting how we read that. It's really actually the construction of it in English is not always something we grab hold of in the correct way.
19:37: You shall have no other gods before me almost sounds like God saying in priority, right?
19:43: In other words, in position. Don't have any other gods before me, like let me be first, right?
19:49: But that's not what it says. No other gods before me means no other gods in my sight.
19:56: In God's 10 commandments, he gives to us the first commandment, don't have any other gods in my sight.
20:04: And the second commandment is what? Don't even make a God that looks like me. God is so concerned in his law for his people that the first thing he tells them is this,
20:15: I'm the only God that you get. I'm the only God that there is. You shall have no other gods before me, not even in my sight.
20:25: The problem of the fall, the problem of false gods and false worship. But I wanna reiterate to you in Romans chapter one, it says very, very clearly that what we do in our fallen state outside of a redeemed, reconciled relationship with God, listen closely, it says that they switch
20:41: God for idols. They give up the incorruptible God for images.
20:49: It's really powerful, guys. If you read Romans one in light of Genesis one, you see the apostle
20:56: Paul as a Jewish rabbi doing something very interesting. He takes the creation account in Genesis one, where it says the
21:04: God, the eternal God, the creator actually speaks and creates ex nihilo out of nothing, and he creates the sky, he creates everything, he creates baboons and giraffes and the creeping things and the birds and all the rest, and then his image he creates in the garden.
21:19: But listen, in Romans one, Paul, a Jewish rabbi trained under Gamaliel says that in the fall, what would the creatures do that were created by that God is instead of worshiping the creator, they worship the creeping things and the stuff.
21:37: We, in the fall, have a default position of idolatry. We create false gods.
21:44: And you actually do see it. Listen closely to this. It's very important, especially in dialogue with Muslims. You do see this problem particularly expressed in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
21:55: And I wanna say something. You see it early on in the New Testament, the problem of a distortion of God himself creating an idol, a false god.
22:05: If you read 1 Corinthians chapter 11, if you're taking notes, 1 Corinthians chapter 11, the apostle
22:11: Paul says very early on in the history of the church, Jesus has fairly recently died, risen, and ascended.
22:20: And he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 11, he says, I'm afraid that as a serpent deceived
22:28: Eve by his craftiness, your minds will be led astray from the simplicity of devotion.
22:33: And he's worried about these Christians that they'll be led astray from the simplicity and the impurity of devotion, which is to Christ.
22:43: And he says, for if one comes and preaches another Jesus, another spirit, another gospel, he says this, you might even put up with them.
22:51: Early on in the history of the church, the apostle Paul in our New Testament has to deal with the fallen problem or the problem in the fall of idolatry and false worship.
23:04: And that's surrounding the person of Jesus, the work of Jesus, the gospel of Jesus. We need to express to our
23:11: Muslim friends, our Mormon friends, our Jehovah's Witness friends, that the problem of a false
23:19: Jesus is not a 19th century problem unique to that, or a 20th century, or 21st century, or a 6th century problem.
23:29: The problem of false Christ has its genesis in the 1st century, 1 Corinthians chapter 11.
23:35: Paul says this, somebody could come in, guys, to your assembly, and they could preach a different Jesus, and you would put up with them.
23:43: He's worried about them. The problem of false Christ is in the 1st century generation.
23:51: It should be no surprise to us as Christians that you do see in the 6th century and onward, religions that distort the person and work of Jesus Christ.
24:03: It did not have its genesis there. It really is a problem that began in the fall, and you do see expressed in the 1st century.
24:11: Let's start now getting into the triune God, the Trinity. It's a term that is not in your
24:18: Bibles. It's simply a word we use to describe what actually is in the
24:23: Bible. The Trinity, the triunity of God, three persons, one
24:28: God. I'm gonna give you guys a definition from my friend, Dr. James White. He wrote a book called
24:33: The Forgotten Trinity, which I highly commend to you. You should sell your shirt and your shoes, and you should go buy it.
24:40: It's worth it. The Forgotten Trinity by Dr. James White. And this is, I think, a fantastic definition that you can work with to describe the triune
24:50: God of the Bible. Here's the definition. There is within the one being that is
24:57: God. There is within the one being that is God, three co -equal and co -eternal persons, namely the
25:06: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Here it is again. There is within the one being that is
25:13: God, three co -equal and co -eternal persons, the Father, the
25:18: Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now, the foundations for the Trinity really begin with a fundamental truth.
25:27: Are you ready for this? First point. There is only one God. Impressed?
25:35: It's a powerful truth, and you gotta actually take something in for a moment, brothers and sisters. That is so unique and so powerful amongst the religions of the world.
25:46: You see, one of the unique things about really Judaism and Christianity is monotheism, the fact that there is only one true eternal
25:56: God. He has existed from all eternity into all eternity. There is only one
26:02: God. Now, think for a moment now about religions of the world that you would compare and contrast what the
26:08: Bible says about God with their beliefs. Other religions really are interesting because they look just like us.
26:15: Their gods look just like us. They have mommy gods and daddy gods, baby gods.
26:21: They produce other gods sexually. They get in fights with other gods. They kill other gods.
26:27: Really, there is no parallel in history to what the Bible says about God. One God, transcendent and yet imminent, covenantally active, who is eternal, who is spirit, all -knowing, all -powerful, full of justice, mercy, love, goodness, truth.
26:46: The Bible describes God as the only God. Some text for you guys. Isaiah 43 .10,
26:53: it's a powerful passage. God says in Isaiah 43 .10, before me there was no
27:00: God formed, neither shall there be after me. God says in Isaiah 44 .6,
27:08: I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no
27:13: God. And then he asks a rhetorical question in Isaiah 44 .8.
27:18: He says this, is there a God besides me? Indeed, there is no other God.
27:23: I know not one. Now, passages could be multiplied nearly ad infinitum, ad nauseum here, over and over and over.
27:34: There is only one God. The scriptures shout this truth to us. Jesus affirmed this truth to us.
27:41: And it's in the very basis of what God says to us in the Shema. Directly from the
27:47: Torah, Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad, hero
27:53: Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. And in Deuteronomy chapter four, verses 35 and 39, it says this,
28:01: God says that he is the only God in the heavens above and on the earth below.
28:07: There is no other. There is only one God. The next point in describing the triune
28:16: God, the Trinity, is that the Bible clearly teaches that there are three persons called
28:24: God. There are three persons called
28:30: God. So again, first point, there is only one God. The second point is that there are clearly three persons called
28:38: God. If you have your Bibles, it'd be good for you guys to get them out and work through this with me. There are three persons called
28:43: God. First point, which I think is really beyond dispute and is really not worth spending our time together right now on because it's really beyond dispute.
28:53: I don't think you're gonna find many people to argue with this that are in other cults that ape Christianity or other religions.
28:59: And that is that the Father is God. We know the Bible calls the Father God. Jesus calls the Father God. That's not something that really is in dispute with Muslims, Jehovah's Witnesses, or say
29:09: Mormons. That's a common fact accepted. But amazingly, listen closely, when someone comes to your door on Saturday morning at 7 .30
29:19: a .m., how dare they? When they come to your door at 7 .30 a .m., no matter what they're wearing, no matter what their text, no matter what their message, you know that what every religion tries to always undermine or distort is the deity of Christ.
29:38: That Jesus Christ is eternal God. That he has existed from all eternity and that he is the creator of all things.
29:47: That Jesus is equal with the Father by very nature or essence. If you have somebody come to your door and they're part of a religion that has just sprang up or a cult, ask them this question.
30:02: Is Jesus God, eternal God, the creator of everything in existence? Because that is at the heart of what we believe.
30:11: And remember that Jesus says in John chapter eight, unless you believe, ego eimi, I am, you will die in your sins.
30:17: So what you say about this truth, what you believe about this truth, your eternal destiny depends upon it.
30:26: Jesus is called God. Couple texts, and this is vitally important. I think exciting, this is just so exciting, it gives me goosebumps when
30:33: I think about it. I mean really, it causes me as much as Christianly possible to puff my chest up with pride about God.
30:44: And that is this, that if you want to show somebody that Jesus is Yahweh, that Jesus is in fact the eternal
30:51: God, you don't start in the New Testament. You start in the old.
30:58: And the place you want to go to start, and this is just again a scratching of the surface in this whole broad subject tonight, is
31:06: Isaiah chapter nine verses six through seven. It's, man, it's awesome. Here's what's powerful about, listen closely, is that you have a monotheistic
31:14: Jew. He believes in only one God. He's that Jew that woke up in the morning and quoted the
31:21: Shema. He's that Jew who believes there is only one God.
31:27: And in Isaiah nine, six through seven, listen closely, it says, listen, there's a son coming.
31:34: A child is gonna be born. What's that? That's a human being. That's someone like you and like me.
31:42: A son, a child, and it says, listen closely, his name should be called Wonderful Counselor.
31:48: Listen, El Gibor. What is that? The mighty
31:54: God. Listen, the everlasting Father. Don't get confused about that in a sense of, is he calling
32:01: Jesus the Heavenly Father? No, it means the Father of eternity. Listen closely. The son who's coming, the child who's coming is the mighty
32:09: God. He is the eternal one. And it says, the government will rest upon his shoulders.
32:15: Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. So this
32:22: Messiah who's coming to bring his rule, his reign, that kingdom of redemption, he is
32:28: El Gibor. If you look just one chapter later, in Isaiah chapter 10, read the passage from chapter 10 verses 20 and on, it actually calls
32:40: Yahweh El Gibor. Did you catch that? In one chapter distance from Isaiah nine,
32:48: Yahweh is called El Gibor, the mighty God. And yet in Isaiah nine, six through seven, it says the son coming, the child coming is
32:56: El Gibor, the mighty God. Again, brothers and sisters, if you wanna show that Jesus Christ is eternal
33:01: God, you do not start in the New Testament, you must start in the old. Another text that shows that Jesus Christ is eternal
33:08: God is Micah chapter five, verses two and onward. Listen closer to this, because if you are like me and you're a fan of Christmas, all you haters, please be quiet, you have time to repent, okay?
33:22: I have mercy for you, okay? But if you're a fan of Christmas, you know that this is part of what we sing at Christmastime, right?
33:28: Oh little town of Bethlehem. See, even if you hate Christmas, you know the song, right?
33:35: You can't get away from it, because wherever you go, it's playing, right? Which is an awesome thing, right? They're singing songs about our
33:41: Messiah in the malls. I love it, I love it. But Micah five, two, actually tells us the place of the
33:47: Messiah, it is Bethlehem. That's where he's coming. But listen closely to what it says about the one coming to Bethlehem.
33:56: It says, his goings forth are from old, yea, even from eternity. Did you hear that?
34:02: The Messiah coming to Bethlehem is from everlasting. Well, brothers and sisters,
34:08: Psalm 90, verse two says, from eternity into eternity, you are God.
34:14: According to the Bible, who is the only eternal being? God. And yet in Micah five, to and onward, it says the
34:23: Messiah coming to Bethlehem is from eternity. The Messiah is the eternal
34:28: God, amen? All right. Now you move forward now to Daniel chapter seven, and this one
34:34: I want you to open your Bibles to. Daniel chapter seven is a significant passage describing the divinity of the
34:44: Messiah, that he is in fact God. This is a powerful text because this contains within it the name that Jesus used most for himself.
34:57: It is recited dozens of times in the
35:02: New Testament. And what was Jesus' favorite title for himself? Son of man.
35:09: It's vitally important to listen to that. Jesus' favorite title for himself was son of man.
35:17: And that comes from a book that was written hundreds of years before Jesus came.
35:23: Now listen closely, it's powerful, because the part of the text that's quoted often is Daniel 7, 13 through 14.
35:28: And that's where Daniel is looking into night visions and he says, behold, with the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man was coming.
35:35: Listen closely, it says, he came up to the ancient of days and was presented before him.
35:41: By the way, which direction did Jesus go in his ascension? Up. And it says, and was presented before him, and listen, and to him was given, what?
35:52: Anyone there already? Glory, dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and languages should worship him.
36:05: Modern translations have, I think, appropriately interpreted that, or translated that word, serve him, is worship him.
36:14: The Messiah comes up in Daniel's vision to the ancient of days, he's presented before him. To him is given dominion, glory, and a kingdom that all the peoples, nations, and men of every language might worship him.
36:25: His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and his kingdom is one which will not be destroyed.
36:32: That is the Messiah. Notice, by the way, and this is just, I love this, I love it, he comes up to the ancient of days, right?
36:42: And he's given kingdom and dominion that everybody from all the nations and languages would serve him, would worship him, and in Matthew 28, 18 through 20,
36:52: Jesus says, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.
37:02: Go, therefore, and make disciples of what? All the nations.
37:09: Which direction did the Messiah go in the vision? Son of man went up. What was he given?
37:15: The nations. Matthew 28, Jesus went where? Up. And what did he tell us to get?
37:21: The nations. Is that awesome or what? But in that text,
37:27: Daniel chapter seven, in Daniel chapter seven, go to your Bibles. If you look, starting in verse nine, you see this glorious scene that needs to be paid attention to that has to do with the divinity, the deity of the son of man.
37:48: It says in verse nine, as I looked, thrones, plural, were placed.
37:54: And the ancient of days took his seat. There are plural thrones with the ancient of days taking his seat, and then the son of man coming up to join him on those thrones.
38:07: The son of man is divine. He is, in fact, God. But a powerful text now, that was just the
38:14: Old Testament, powerful text now from the New Testament, our favorite, right? It's got to be your favorite.
38:20: I hope you have this memorized. John chapter one, verse one.
38:26: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
38:32: God. That is powerful. John loves
38:39: Jesus, and he wants you to know who he is. He said at the end of John that he wrote these things so that you would believe.
38:49: He wants you to know about the person and the work of Jesus, and he begins his description of Jesus in a very interesting way.
38:58: Ready? To every Jew who went to their Jewish Awanis class, if John would have opened up in fellowship, in assembly with them, ready, with in the beginning, every little
39:14: Jewish boy and girl would have said, God created the heavens and the earth. No, John says, in the beginning, the
39:21: Word was already there. He takes his readers to the beginning of the
39:28: Bible. He borrows words that they all understood about God in the beginning, the eternal
39:34: God who created all things, and he says this, in the beginning, Jesus was already there. And then he says,
39:41: I'm gonna unpack this, in the Greek it says, in archein hal logos. Now you don't need to be a
39:47: Greek scholar to understand this, just listen closely. In archein hal logos means this, in the beginning was the
39:53: Word, it means that in the beginning, as far back as you go without stopping, no point of stopping, forever go back,
40:00: Jesus was already there. It doesn't mean in the beginning, at a starting point, there
40:06: Jesus was, it means in the beginning, in archein hal logos, go back for eternity with no stopping point,
40:12: Jesus was already there. And then it says, in archein hal logos, archein hal logos in proston theon, and the
40:19: Word was with God, proston theon means toward God. Listen closely to what
40:24: John says here, Jesus was always there, always existing, in proston theon, face to face, intimate relationship with the
40:35: Father. When you're kissing your child, when husbands and wives are kissing one another, some cultures, they get face to face,
40:45: I was in Buenos Aires when I was 18 years old, with Mortal Kombat, the live tour, don't judge me,
40:52: I was young, okay? I played Johnny Cage, and when I was in Buenos Aires, it was a little uncomfortable, because in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when
41:00: I first got off the plane, it happened from when I got there to when I left, all the men with greasy, hairy faces would walk up to me and they'd kiss me on my cheeks, they'd get face to face with me and they'd kiss my cheeks.
41:12: It was just their culture, their custom. And I became, I actually got used to it. But it was very intimate, it was very face to face, and when you are in an intimate relationship with a person, you are face to face with them, it describes intimacy, and in John, he says
41:27: Jesus always existed, and he was in proston theon, toward God, face to face relationship with God.
41:35: And then it says, and the word was God. Everything God was, the word was.
41:41: And it says about Jesus, moving to verse three, he was in the beginning with God. He repeats himself, and he says that what?
41:47: Jesus created all things, and without him, nothing came into being that came into being. Jesus is described in ways that cannot be misinterpreted.
41:59: You must just destroy the text. Jesus is the eternal God, he's always existed alongside the
42:06: Father, with the Father, he is God. He created everything in existence, and in John 1, 14, it should be our favorite part of that.
42:13: It says, and God, the word, became flesh.
42:18: He tabernacled among us. God took on flesh, and tabernacled among us.
42:25: And it says in John 1, verse 18, about Jesus, that nobody has seen
42:30: God, that's the Father, at any time, the monogamous theos, the unique and one of a kind God.
42:39: Did you get that, get that? It says, Jesus is the unique and one of a kind God. He has explained the
42:47: Father to us. It is a glorious truth that is pervasive all throughout our
42:55: Bibles. Jesus Christ is King of kings, Lord of lords, the first, the last, he is
43:01: Yahweh, the mighty God, the Father of eternity, he is God in the flesh.
43:08: Jesus is described in Colossians 1, 16 through 17, as the creator of all things.
43:14: It says that Jesus is the firstborn over all creation. Don't be thrown by that. Firstborn does not mean created, firstborn, it's a very
43:23: Jewish way of thinking about the heir, the one who had preeminence, because in Jewish thinking, the firstborn was the heir of the family, the heir of all things.
43:33: He had preeminence. Prototokos, firstborn, did not mean created, it meant he was the heir.
43:39: And it says that by him, Jesus, all things were created, whether in heaven or on earth, visible or invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created by Jesus.
43:53: Colossians 1, 16 through 17. John chapter eight, verse 58, is that powerful scene.
43:59: You gotta grab hold of this. It's powerful. Because Jesus says something to people in his day, and he gets a reaction from them that you really do get from Muslims today,
44:13: Jehovah's Witnesses today, and Mormons today. In John chapter eight, verse 58, Jesus says this about Abraham.
44:20: Before Abraham was, ego eimi, I am. And there was no confusion on their part as to what he was saying, because it says what?
44:31: They picked up stones to kill him. Jesus says ego eimi,
44:38: I am. Ego eimi is the same word that was in the Septuagint, the most popular translation,
44:44: Greek translation of Jesus' day, which was quoted from there. Ego eimi is the name of God before Moses.
44:52: Who do I say sent me? And God says, I am. I am, ego eimi.
45:00: It comes from the Hebrew verb to be, ahia, which means I am, I was, I will always be.
45:06: Jesus is called what? The same yesterday, today, and forever. By the way, did you know that when
45:13: Jesus is described that way in the New Testament, they are calling him Yahweh? The same yesterday, today, and forever?
45:21: But Jesus, listen, if you don't get it, if you don't grasp what Jesus is saying there, when he says before Abraham was,
45:29: I am, and they picked up stones to kill him, just move two chapters later. In John chapter 10, where Jesus says,
45:36: I and the Father are one, and they picked up stones to kill him again. And he says to them, many good works have
45:43: I shown you from the Father. For which of these do you stone me? And they said, for thy good works we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, and that you being a man make yourself
45:53: God. They knew what he was saying. Jesus called himself God. Muslims will often say,
45:59: Jesus never said, I am God. And I wanna say to that, no, he did something better.
46:06: He called himself Yahweh. He didn't just say he was a God. He didn't just align himself with other pagan religions where you had all kinds of different gods.
46:17: He actually described himself as the monotheistic, eternal
46:23: God of the Jews, Yahweh, the eternal God.
46:29: Titus 2 .13, the apostle Paul calls Jesus Christ our great God and savior.
46:36: In 2 Peter 1 .1, the same thing takes place. Peter calls Jesus God, directly
46:43: God in that passage. Hebrews 1, go to you in your
46:48: Bibles. You need to see this, because it is absolutely mighty and compelling. And by the way, I think I may end up going over.
46:55: I hope you're okay with that. Okay, thank you. I have that sin. Everybody in here that knows me is like,
47:02: I didn't think anything else. Hebrews 1 is a powerful text about the deity of the
47:09: Lord Jesus Christ. In Hebrews 1, go there in your Bibles. You begin to see the context after it says that in the past,
47:17: God spoke many times, many ways to our fathers by the prophets. In these last days, he has spoken to us by his son.
47:25: So there's the context. Verse three, he is the radiance of his glory, of the glory of God.
47:31: And listen, the exact imprint of his nature.
47:38: Listen, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.
47:44: Now, we might say, I don't really understand what that means. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. But in the original language, listen, he upholds the universe by the word of his power as Jesus carries the universe along to its intended destination.
47:59: Do you catch that? Jesus is described in Hebrews 1 as the one who carries the universe along to its intended destination.
48:07: That is absolutely powerful. But listen closely. In verse five, for to which of the angels did
48:13: God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.
48:21: Now, take a breath for a moment now. I know it's a lot to take in. But who is speaking to who in this passage?
48:32: The father is speaking to the son. Okay, that's the context.
48:39: In verse six, and again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, who says?
48:46: The father says, let all God's angels worship him.
48:55: Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.
49:02: But watch this. But of the son, he, the father says, your throne, oh
49:09: God, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
49:17: You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness. Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.
49:27: Did you catch that? That's the father calling Jesus God, telling the angels to worship him.
49:35: Muslims often say, if Jesus is God, how come he calls the father God? Well, that's not really a problem because that was in his earthly ministry.
49:43: What you would expect our substitute to do, to be with the father, to worship the father, to be monotheistic, to call him
49:51: God. But listen, when Muslims say, what's Jesus doing calling the father God? You can show them, well, that's no problem.
49:57: The father calls Jesus God as well. But look closely in verse 10. And the father says to the son, you,
50:06: Lord, you, Yahweh, you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.
50:14: Stop. Because it's a lot. The writer of Hebrews here, quotes from Psalm 102, 25 through 27.
50:25: Now this ought to shake you up. In Psalm 102, that passage is
50:32: Yahweh laying the foundations of the earth. And in this passage,
50:38: Hebrews chapter one, the father says to the son, he applies it to him.
50:44: He calls him Yahweh. And that he laid the foundations of the earth. Mighty stuff, powerful.
50:51: We can go on and on. Jesus receives worship in Revelation 5, 8.
50:57: In Revelation 5, 8 and onward, Jesus receives worship. The glorious scene of the throne of God is there.
51:04: All of these saints worshiping God and Jesus is being worshiped there and heralded as God.
51:11: And in John 20, 28, famous passages. Good for you guys to know. It's a scene we all recognize. It's the doubting
51:17: Thomas, right? It's a famous, it's actually something people all know about today. Oh, you're a doubting Thomas. It's a scene where Thomas is not gonna believe that Jesus is alive from the dead unless he puts his hand into his side.
51:28: Unless he sees him with his own eyes. He's an empiricist. He wants to observe it, right? I wanna know,
51:33: I wanna see, I wanna touch. And Jesus appears and says to Thomas, put your hand into my side.
51:41: Handle me and see. A spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see me have. And what is Thomas, what is his reaction to seeing
51:50: Jesus before him, the risen Savior, now alive from the dead? His reaction is, Hoc Curios Mu Chai Hothaios Mu.
51:57: The Lord of me and the God of me. Jesus, the
52:04: Lord of me and the God of me. Chai Hoc Curios Mu Chai Hothaios Mu. It's a direct address.
52:11: Jesus is called God. Again, we are not exhausting in any way the texts. But the spirit is also called
52:18: God. In Acts chapter five, the apostle Peter asks, why?
52:25: Why have you lied? You have not lied to men. You've lied to the
52:31: Holy Spirit and you have not lied to men when you've done that. You've lied to God. Calling the
52:37: Holy Spirit God in Acts chapter five. The Holy Spirit speaks in the book of Acts.
52:43: He directs. The spirit is counted equal with the Father and the Son. Matthew 28, 18 through 20.
52:50: What's the text say? Go make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name, singular, of the
52:58: Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You catch that? The name, singular, of the plural
53:06: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. The spirit is called He by the
53:13: Lord Jesus. Now watch this. This is very, very important. It's vitally important, particularly in a day where we have people abusing the gifts in many ways of the
53:21: Holy Spirit and speaking about the Holy Spirit in such low and really,
53:26: I think, sinful ways. People will ask questions like this. And listen, you might've heard this. They'll say, did you get it when you were saved?
53:34: You say, get what? Get what? Do you have it? Well, do
53:40: I have what? Do you have it? Did you get it when you were saved? What, the spirit, did you get it?
53:47: Do you have it? Now, brothers and sisters, think about this in a different context.
53:52: If I brought my wife up here tonight before you to introduce you to my wife, and I said, guys, have you met it yet?
54:02: I might be sleeping on a couch tonight, right? You don't speak about a person in that way as it.
54:11: And Jesus in John 14 says, watch, he says this about the spirit of God. He says, the
54:17: Holy Spirit whom the Father will send in my name, did you catch that? The Holy Spirit whom the
54:23: Father will send in my name. There's a distinction in persons there. He says, he will guide you into all truth.
54:30: He will be in you. He will convict the world of sin and righteousness, but the
54:35: Holy Spirit is called God. Now watch here, here's the third foundation of the Trinity. First foundation was there is only what?
54:41: One God. The second foundation is there are three persons called God. The fourth foundation is very, very clear in scripture, and that is this, ready, the three persons are distinct.
54:53: The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit or the Father. The three persons are distinct.
55:00: There is one God, three persons called God, and yet Jesus is not the
55:06: Father. The Father is not Jesus. The Spirit is not the Father or the Son. There are three persons, co -equal, co -eternal, who share the same nature of God.
55:18: The three persons are distinct, and I want you to see this in scripture, and you guys, most of you already know this. You see it all the time, but are you ready?
55:25: The Father speaks to the Son in Psalm chapter two. It's a famous passage, powerful.
55:30: In Psalm chapter two, the Father says to the Son, ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, the very ends of the earth for your possession.
55:42: The Father speaks to the Son, and then he warns the kings of the earth to obey the Son. He says, be wise,
55:49: O kings, obey the Son, or you will perish. There's a distinction in persons.
55:56: Psalm 110 .1, God says, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
56:04: Matthew chapter three, the Father speaks to the Son. The famous scene, the baptism of Jesus. Jesus is anointed there into ministry, and the
56:11: Father says over Jesus what? This is my beloved Son. This is the
56:16: Son of my love. In him I'm well pleased. There's a distinction in persons there. The Son speaks to the
56:23: Father. In John 17, you see Jesus' high priestly prayer for his people in John 17.
56:29: In John 17, Jesus says, Father, sanctify them by your truth.
56:35: Thy word is truth. Father, I do not pray that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.
56:41: Jesus petitions the Father for his people on behalf of his people. Jesus speaks to the
56:47: Father. Jesus distinguishes again between himself, the Father, and the
56:52: Spirit in John chapters 14 through 16. Jesus calls the Father God in John 20, 17, and the
57:01: Father calls Jesus God in Hebrews chapter one. The Old Testament, now this is really powerful.
57:10: The Old Testament displays long before Jesus a plurality of persons within God.
57:19: Now this, I gotta say this, this trips me out. It does, because if you think of this for a second,
57:26: Jews in the time of Moses and onward before Jesus came into earthly ministry, all they know is that there's one
57:34: God, one God, one God, worship only God. There's none before him, none after him. He's the eternal God.
57:39: There's only one God, one true and living God, only worship God, one God. And yet, in those very same texts, before Jesus, John chapter one, comes and explains the
57:53: Father to us, you have at the very beginning of your Bible something compelling. John chapter one, sorry,
58:01: Genesis chapter one, verse 26. Let us create man in our, plural, image, singular.
58:13: Now brothers and sisters, there is no record in the BC era anywhere where you have the royal we sense.
58:25: There is no record in the BC era of a singular speaking as a plural. This is a unique instance, particularly in Hebrew literature that actually emphasizes that there is only one
58:37: God, where God is speaking, let us create man in our image, the plural speaking as a singular.
58:44: It's powerful. Now watch this. This is for free tonight. I heard earlier in the message, we're giving a lot of stuff away for free.
58:51: Here's another free one, okay? And I love this one. When I first heard this passage,
58:57: I gotta be honest, I got goosebumps, shivers. I was like, that is so powerful.
59:04: And it just, it caused me to love God more. It was one of those things where you're like, I'm like, I'm gonna be defiant against the world now because God is so real and so powerful.
59:13: It's just amazing. In Genesis, same book, beginning of the Bible, and again, this is just scratching the surface, brothers and sisters, this is not everything.
59:21: In Genesis chapter 19, go there, Genesis 19. I want you to see this. Genesis chapter 19, verse 24.
59:32: Genesis 19, verse 24. You guys read your Old Testaments and you see there is the angel of the
59:39: Lord. You ever see that? The angel of the Lord appears with Abraham and Isaac.
59:45: We all know the famous scene. I'll give you the easy one. Abraham's told, what? To bring Isaac to this special designated place which took him three days to get to, to bring his son, the son of his love, his only son, to slay his son for him there.
59:59: And his son, the son of his love, his only son, carries the wood to the place of the sacrifice.
01:00:05: And then Isaac says, well look, there's the wood and the fire, but where's the lamb?
01:00:12: And he says what? Abraham says to him, God will provide for himself the lamb, my son.
01:00:19: And he goes to slay his son and the angel of the Lord appears and says, no, no, no, don't do it. And he says what to him?
01:00:26: I see that you fear God and you have not kept your son from me.
01:00:32: Did you catch that? The messenger of the Lord, the angel of the Lord says you haven't kept your son from me.
01:00:40: And then they see a ram, not a lamb, caught in a thicket. And then
01:00:46: Abraham names that place, this is the place the Lord will provide it. And it was about 2 ,000 years later that Jesus, the son of God's love, his only son, carried the wood to the place of that sacrifice and that is where the lamb was actually provided as God promised.
01:01:03: But notice that it was the angel of the Lord that said to Abraham, you haven't kept your only son from me.
01:01:09: And brothers and sisters, this is crazy. The angel of the Lord is Jesus. He was there that day with Abraham.
01:01:17: When Abraham was giving this picture, he didn't even realize of what God was gonna do in Jesus. It was
01:01:23: Jesus who was standing there that day. And that picture was about him.
01:01:30: Isn't that compelling? But the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament appears many times. He's worshiped in the
01:01:37: Old Testament. And in Genesis chapter 19, verse 24, I want you to see it.
01:01:45: It's a destruction, you know, of Sodom and Gomorrah. Start in verse 23.
01:01:52: The sun had risen on the earth and the lot came to Zohar. Then, watch, Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven.
01:02:08: Yahweh, the angel of the Lord, rained all of this down from Yahweh.
01:02:17: Yahweh brought judgment from Yahweh. One Yahweh, another
01:02:22: Yahweh. And yet there is only what? One Yahweh. Do you see it?
01:02:29: Is this not awesome? God is absolutely amazing, glorious and powerful.
01:02:36: The Bible displays the plurality of persons. Now, I want to leave you guys with this today.
01:02:41: I know it's a lot to take in, and I did my best to squeeze in a discussion of the triune God into an hour.
01:02:47: I did my best, and I failed, but I hope you guys will forgive me. The difference between being and person.
01:02:55: Between being and person. When we talk about being, we're talking about the nature of something.
01:03:03: And when we talk about God and his being, we're talking about what God is.
01:03:09: His nature as God. So when we say there is only one God and three persons, we're talking about there is one being of God, one nature of God, one substance of God, and three persons.
01:03:25: Those are not the same thing. And you all know it. We all know it.
01:03:31: Rocks have being, but rocks are not persons. You are a human being and you are a person.
01:03:42: So think about it for a moment. Sorry to use you here as an example, okay? But if I was to do this in a scientific class,
01:03:48: I could, speaking ontologically, speaking metaphysically to talk about reality and being,
01:03:54: I could appropriately, without offense, say to my brother here, I could say, scientifically speaking, what is that?
01:04:03: Now, it's awkward. I know it's a little weird. We don't usually talk about each other in that way.
01:04:09: But I could, scientifically speaking, say, what is that?
01:04:14: Now, ready? What is the scientific classification to describe the nature of that?
01:04:20: What? Human being. He has the being of a human, the nature of a human.
01:04:25: But I can ask it another way, can't I? Ready? Who is that?
01:04:33: Who is it? What is it? Christian. Good name. So you have what and who?
01:04:41: And when we talk about God, we say, what? One God. That's what
01:04:46: God is. And we talk about who? Father, Son, Holy Spirit.
01:04:53: There are three persons who share the one being, the one essence, the one nature of God.
01:04:59: Heretical beliefs. Modalism. The idea that God exists as one
01:05:05: God and the same person, but different modes. It was one of the earliest heresies rejected by the
01:05:12: Christian church in the second century. Sabellianism rose up, Modalism rose up, and Christians fought against it, specifically
01:05:19: Tertullian in the late second century of the church. The idea that God exists in modes, that's he takes different masks.
01:05:29: At one time he's the Father, and then he's the Son, and then he's the Spirit. The early church rejected that teaching because it was not consistent with Scripture.
01:05:38: Today, popular Modalists would be guys like T .D. Jakes. He's a
01:05:44: Modalist. Or at least he was until he took a lot of heat for it. I don't know if he's changed his position now and waffled.
01:05:51: But Modalism is the idea that God exists in different modes. Tritheism is another heresy, the idea that there are three beings and three persons.
01:06:02: Polytheism is the idea that there are many beings and persons, gods.
01:06:07: Mormonism is a polytheistic religion. Arianism is the idea that there is one
01:06:13: God who created Jesus as the first and greatest creation. That was an early thing rejected early on in the church by Bishop Arius of Alexandria.
01:06:22: What's a modern religion that has essentially resurrected Arianism? Anybody know? Jehovah's Witnesses.
01:06:29: They're Arianists, exactly. People will ask, if Jesus is
01:06:34: God, why is he speaking to himself? Is he throwing his voice? Is he a ventriloquist?
01:06:41: Brothers and sisters, when people ask that question, they are displaying that they do not fundamentally understand what the
01:06:47: Bible teaches about God, nor what Christians have taught for 2 ,000 years about God. We do not believe that Jesus is the
01:06:54: Father. Jesus is the God -man, God who humbled himself, the person of Christ, took on flesh, and walked among us as a servant, became obedient to death,
01:07:04: Philippians chapter two. So when Jesus, in his earthly ministry as the God -man, as our representative, is praying to the
01:07:12: Father, he is doing, in relationship with the Father, what every one of us should have done with our lives.
01:07:19: He is representing us perfectly, and he's speaking to the Father because he is not the Father.
01:07:25: How is Jesus calling the Father God if Jesus is God? Philippians chapter two.
01:07:31: Jesus, who being in the very form of God, did not consider equality with God a thing to be grasped, but he emptied himself and took upon himself the nature of a servant.
01:07:44: God became flesh. Jesus is the God -man, fully
01:07:50: God, fully man. So when Jesus calls the Father God and submits to him as God, we see
01:07:57: Jesus as the God -man. Why is it important? This is the last thing
01:08:02: I'll say. Why is it important? At the beginning of this message, I told you,
01:08:08: Jesus says in John 14, six, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man comes to the
01:08:13: Father but by me. I know in our day and age of pluralism, that's offensive.
01:08:21: In our day and age where people say there is just no objective truth, it's all subjective, your truth is your truth, my truth is my truth, in our day and age, it's offensive to recite
01:08:31: Jesus' claims. But brothers and sisters, make no mistake about it, Jesus told people in his day, unless you believe ego eimi, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.
01:08:40: Jesus says, light came into the world and men loved darkness rather than the light.
01:08:46: And he says that those who don't know him, the wrath of God abides on them. And the only freedom, the only life anybody will ever experience is through faith in Jesus Christ.
01:08:58: Through faith alone in Jesus Christ, through his work alone, he is the only way that we will ever have peace with God.
01:09:05: And that is ultimately the hope of every Jew long before Jesus came, shalom, shalom.
01:09:13: Matter of fact, in Hebrew today, and I'm not a Hebrew scholar, I'm working on it, I'm working on learning it, but I know that in Hebrew today, when you ask people, how are you doing?
01:09:24: You're asking them how their peace is. Ma shalom mech, ma shalom ha.
01:09:30: What's your peace? Yeah, what's your peace, right? What is your peace? Yeah, ma shalom ha.
01:09:35: It's the idea of what is your peace? It's everything their hearts are moving towards. God is the
01:09:41: God of peace. You want shalom with God, and that's what Paul describes in Romans. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God.
01:09:53: That's what God brings you, and only Jesus Christ can bring you shalom, peace with God.
01:09:59: That is what every Muslim in his heart of hearts is seeking, and that's what every person in this world needs, is peace with God, and the only way we find it is through faith in the true and living
01:10:08: Christ, the only God, the only Savior. Let's pray. God, I pray that you'd bless the message that was preached today, that you'd use it for your glory, that you would transform our hearts and our minds, and that,
01:10:21: Lord, you would send it out into the world to do what you have called it to do, and it would prosper in Jesus' name, amen.