Jeff Durbin | Core Doctrine: The Trinity

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If you would please open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 44.

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If you're new to the Bible that's in your Old Testament, it's one of my very favorite books of the Old Testament.

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It is glorious in how much it tells us about God, about the Messiah, about the future.

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It's powerful. Isaiah chapter 44, starting in verse 6,

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Isaiah 44, 6. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray.

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Lord, this is your word. You have spoken. You've condescended.

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You have revealed yourself to us. Lord, this word that you've given to us is a gift.

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We acknowledge that. We are so thankful for that. And we recognize, God, that our only boast is in Jesus Christ, the gift of eternal life we have in you through faith in Jesus.

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And so we are your children, called by your name, blessed by you, loved by you.

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And so we come to you and seek your face. Help us to understand. Help us to know what you say about yourself, your nature.

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Help us to be able to defend it. Lord, help us to have these truths of who you are buried deep within us.

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Lord, I pray that you would allow me to get out of the way. You would speak through your word today. Help your people to remember what you've said and forget me.

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In Jesus' name, amen. There are so many texts like this throughout the

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Bible. God declaring who he is, that he's the only God, none before him, none after him.

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The Bible teaches very clearly about these essential truths about God and his nature,

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God being the only true God, the living God. The Bible is monotheistic from beginning to end, meaning only one

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God, teaching about only one true and living God. And so we're doing sort of a side series right now at Apologia Church on core doctrine, core teachings of our church, some of the foundations that we've stood on for over 10 years as God gave life to this church body.

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And so the first one we're starting with is on God himself. Who is God? How do we come to know

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God? Two of the most important questions you can ask yourself, who is God and how do we come to know

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God? The Trinity is an essential Christian doctrine. Everything throughout scripture depends upon it.

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It's a unified revelation from one God. It is his story of redemption through history.

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And the Trinity is essential because we're talking about who God is. And as I said a few moments ago,

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Dr. Walter Martin, who was really someone that God used to help start the movement of the

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Christian church in this last century to go and reach the cults. It was really a counter -cult ministry.

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He wrote the book, The Kingdom of the Cults. He said something I've never forgotten. He said that if you're wrong on the doctrine of God, it doesn't matter where else that scripture writes.

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If you have the wrong God, you are worshiping a fiction. You are worshiping an idol. And one of the great tragedies of image bearers of God and the plight, our plight in the world is that we pursue idols throughout our lives.

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We worship false gods. Sometimes those false gods are very, very obvious. You know, you go to sort of the

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Asian market down on Dobson and you can't help but notice when you go to the Asian market or the

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Asian stores, like every store there, because of the culture, because of the pagan background and those peoples, you see all of the obvious marks of idolatry with, you know, sort of the idols in the front and the things that people are putting change in.

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Apparently these gods need coins and, you know, they need, you know, money and all the things that, you know, you put them in there and you sort of, you know, pray and burn incense to these obvious idols.

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And we see them sometimes, they're very obvious. Idolatry. We worship, we sacrifice to and we glory in something that is not

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God. And that is the premier problem of fallen humanity, is our idolatry.

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We know, Paul says in Romans 1, the true God, he's made himself known to every single human being who has ever lived, that it is not a problem of light or evidence or God is somehow hidden.

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God has made himself known through all of creation itself, it testifies, and he has made himself known to every single image bearer of God.

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So why all the different religions? Why all the false gods? Why the idols?

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The problem is, is that because we're fallen, we rebel against the true God and we'd rather worship something else in his place.

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And again, sometimes those something else's are very obvious, like Paul, when he comes into Athens or he's at the

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Areopagus, he's provoked in his spirit because there's all of these idols and they're building things to all these different gods.

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And Rome was known for that, all kinds of gods. And so idolatry can look like that, very obvious.

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It's wood or stone or gold or whatever the case may be. And then other times, the idols in our lives are not as obvious.

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We glory in and sacrifice to something that is not God. We are worshiping, in a sense, something that is not

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God. Sometimes you see that in relationships. Sometimes you see it in sexual relationships.

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Sometimes you see it in addiction. We're going to something that only, for something that only

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God can truly deliver, peace, joy, comfort, salvation, intimacy, relationships, something that God can only truly deliver.

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We would rather have the substandard thing rather than have it truly in God. And so we give ourselves away to all these different idols in our lives.

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I mean, it's interesting, don't you think, that the Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter three, when he's describing that we are raised up with Christ, seated with him in the heavenly places, that he talks about putting things to death in our lives because we're in Jesus, keep seeking what is above, and therefore put to death what is earthly within you.

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And he names some sins, and he even names sexual immorality. He says, which is idolatry?

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Sexual immorality, false worship. And so thinking through the foundation of the

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Christian faith, we have to recognize that the premier problem in humanity is false gods, false worship, going to something else rather than the true

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God. And the Trinity is essential. This is not, when you talk about the Trinity, we are not talking about something that is adiophora, something that is a side issue, right?

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I mean, in this room, one of the things that I hope never changes with Apologia Church, and we get in trouble for it with other

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Reformed Baptists, is that we have such diversity here. So much diversity.

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And what I mean by that is, even in terms of the obvious, look at the different colors in here, right?

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Look at the diversity. I love the fact that you can come to Apologia Church, and some of you dress kind of weird, and some of you, no, no, some of you may have a particular style of clothing.

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Some of you guys dress a different way. Some of you guys wear head coverings. Some guys don't wear head coverings, right?

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Some of you guys have a particular standard. You want to come to church, suit and tie and all the rest, glorify God with this, you know, pop an outfit, and you're like,

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I'm going to glorify God by coming to meet the president. And some of you guys come a little disheveled, but it's okay.

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It's okay. I love the diversity. I think it's a problem when you come into a church, and you have to walk in, and you've got to get into lockstep, right?

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We have a particular dress code here. We have a particular way we all like to look, and when you come in, it's completely uniform.

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Everyone has to sort of fall in line, and I praise God that we've been able to resist that kind of thing here in worship at Apologia Church, where there is diversity, and we have even deeper diversity amongst us.

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I love the fact, and this is what we get into trouble for sometimes as Reformed Baptists with our Reformed Baptist brethren.

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We have this church that is filled with people who are Reformed Baptists in their convictions, and we've got

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Paedo -Baptists throughout this room. We've got people who are technically, by profession,

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Presbyterian, and yet we are one church body. You have a unified teaching coming from the pulpits, but we have leadership, people who fill leadership positions in our church body, who are not

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Reformed Baptists. They are Presbyterians. You can take any responsibility and role at Apologia Church as somebody who's not even

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Reformed Baptist, and that causes problems for some people. Like, I don't even like that you guys have that much diversity, but what we want to say is that we are together on the essentials, on the core teachings of the faith.

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Now, there's never going to be a Presbyterian as an elder here, so okay, no. But, just joking.

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So, not really. We are together on the core things, on the essential things.

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We allow for those distinctions and differences. That's the unity of the faith! That is a glorious unity!

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And one of the things I learned very early on from Pastor James is that we may have sharpened things up as the

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Christian church in terms of being able to really precisely defend the Trinity, really precisely explain grace in salvation, really precisely, because of the fights behind us, been able to describe justification by faith and defend it.

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We've been able to precisely do those things, and that's a blessing. That's a good thing. But if you look in church history and you think everybody has to look like you in every way to be truly solid and truly

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Christian, you're not going to find a Christian in history. Because there's diversity in Christian history.

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Unity on the essentials, but there is diversity within the Christian faith.

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However, unity on the essentials, and let me just say, one of the essentials that you must be willing to let goods and kindred go, your mortal life also, you must be willing to let all of it go for is the doctrine of the

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Trinity. This is something that we hold on to and we never let go of.

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We cannot yield when it comes to false doctrine related to God, the nature of God, the persons of the

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Trinity, because we're talking about the God that we worship. What is more foundational than that?

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The God you have a relationship with, the God who has saved you. This is the core thing.

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This isn't an issue of baptism and color of your floor and church government structure and those sorts of things.

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This is the God that we worship. And so this has to be, for us as a church body, a doctrine we never budge on.

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We hold tight to. We can defend. Can you defend it? That's the question. I asked that at the beginning, didn't

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I? What did you just think about? You don't need to yell it out, but what did you think about when

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I said if somebody came to you and challenged you on the doctrine of the Trinity, would you be able to defend it?

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Would you even be able to define it? Because I want to say, and I think you'll agree with me on this, if you go to the average evangelical church in North America and you walk up to a large crowd of believers walking out of that church, maybe a big mega church context, and you said, hey, can you define and defend the

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Trinity for me? How well do you think we'd do today in the modern context? How well? Not very well in my estimation.

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Not very well in my estimation. Or how about right now? I love that this is happening. I love that this is happening.

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All of a sudden, out of nowhere, after just being gone from the community and just can't find them anywhere, all of a sudden, the

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Jehovah's Witnesses are back in full effect, at least in South Phoenix. I actually love now,

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I know where they're posted up, like at the airport. Like if we want to go do evangelism with Jehovah's Witnesses, we know where they're at.

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They're at, all day and all night, is Phoenix Sky Harbor Airport. They're there, posted up, upstairs, downstairs.

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So if you want to go do some evangelism, hot tip, go to Phoenix Sky Harbor. Go in there and talk to the

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Jehovah's Witnesses. But they're all over my street now. They were coming a lot to my door and then they stopped, recently.

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But now I see them on the street and I run and chase them. Don't you think it's glorious?

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I think that's just so special when God brings the fish to your boat, right? It's like, I don't even have to work for this, right?

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I know what you believe, I know what you're doing, and so I can immediately engage with you.

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But, the Jehovah's Witnesses are out in full effect right now. They come knocking at your door.

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I hope you answer. I hope you answer. And when you answer, will you be able to engage with them on the doctrine of the

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Trinity? Because one of the core issues for them that they will engage with, or in with you when they come to your door, is on the doctrine of the

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Trinity. And they are trained and they are taught on how to dismantle

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Christian arguments for the Trinity. Do you know how to defend it? Could you engage with them?

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That's the question. So this is an important one. It's an essential. It's one we can never let go of.

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But God is jealous for His name. Would you agree with that? God is jealous for His name. God is specific in His word about who

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He is, being the only God, the only true God. If you would go to Exodus 20,

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Exodus 20, hopefully you all know this already, but for those of you that don't,

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I want to make sure you have the reference. Exodus chapter 20, when

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God gives His people the 10 words, the 10 commandments, it says in verse 1, and God spoke all these words saying,

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I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.

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You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image or anything, any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth.

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You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I am the Lord your God. For I, the

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Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.

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So there it is. You shall have no other gods before me. Now oftentimes I think in, when we're reading this in English, we think of it in terms of a list, right?

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You shall have no other gods before me. Like God's saying, like in your list of gods, make sure that I'm the top, right?

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Don't put anyone before me. Like have, have me before the other ones in your life. Like it can sound like that.

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Have no other gods before me. Keep me first out of all the others. That's not what it's saying.

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You shall have no other gods before me. You shall have no other gods in my sight. No other gods.

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So is God concerned with his name? Is God concerned with us knowing the true

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God? He's saying, it's so specific, I don't even want you to make one that looks like me. Don't bow down to anything that's not me.

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I am the only God. Have no other gods before me. God cares about what we say, what we think, and what we believe about him.

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You shall have no other gods before me. So, when we think about the

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Trinity, we're talking about the tri -unity of God. And the

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Trinity starts, this whole discussion on God starts with a discussion of strict monotheism.

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There is only one true and living God. Christians are monotheists, strict monotheists.

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There is only one God, eternal, from all eternity into all eternity.

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None before him, none after him. The true God, the living God, the only God. Christians historically have always believed there is only one true and living

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God. Now we should, when we come to ask this question about monotheism, we should of course go to the

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Lord Jesus as our prime example of, well, what should we believe about God? Show us the

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Father, Jesus, okay? What should we believe about God? And I think a fantastic passage to go to that expresses so clearly what

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Jesus taught about monotheism is Mark chapter 12. Go to your New Testament, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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Mark chapter 12, starting in verse 28.

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Mark 12, 28. And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, which commandment is the most important of all?

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Jesus answered, the most important is, hear, O Israel, the

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Lord our God, the Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

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The second is this, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these.

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And listen to the response. Listen to what was known by the Jews. And the scribe said to him, you are right, teacher.

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You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him.

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There is no other besides him. And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength and to love one's neighbor as oneself is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.

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And when Jesus saw that he had answered wisely, he said to him, you are not far from the kingdom of God.

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So Jesus' response was not to correct the scribe, no, no, no, no, there's more than one God, or there's different levels of gods, there's something to that effect.

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Jesus says there's only one God, love him with your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Love your neighbor as you love yourself. And he says, you're right, teacher, there's only one

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God and there is no other. And Jesus says, you're not far from the kingdom of God. There is only one

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God. Jesus taught that, all the scriptures teach that. And Jesus here quotes what was commonly known amongst

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Jews of that day and ours. It was part of the morning and evening prayers.

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He quotes the Shema, Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, it's still today recited and understood and prayed in the morning and evening.

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It's something they would have done in this day the same way. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the

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Lord is one. Let's do it in Hebrew together, shall we? Ready? Shema Yisrael Yafweh Eloheinu Yafweh Echad.

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Some of you guys are new, you're like, I got here during COVID, I wasn't taught this. So repeat after me.

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Shema Yisrael Yafweh Eloheinu Yafweh Echad.

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There you go. Like popcorn. Okay, good. Careful, COVID.

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Just kidding, we don't care. But this is something that you can walk up today to a little

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Jewish boy, maybe he's walking around in the mall, has a yarmulke on, might be able to ask, hey, can you do the

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Shema for me? Now they replaced Yafweh with Adonai, but they know it. It's the foundation.

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It's the foundation of the Christian faith. There is only one true and living

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God. Now, it would take us weeks to go through and unpack all the scriptures in the

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Bible from beginning to end and talk about the fact that there is only one true and living God, but let's do some together.

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Just move back since you were already there in Deuteronomy to Deuteronomy chapter four.

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Deuteronomy chapter four, this is again, just a handful of texts so that you have something to go to for your walk with God and to be able to define and defend the

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Trinity. In Deuteronomy chapter four, verse 35, the text says, to you it was shown that you might know that the

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Lord is God. There is no other besides Him. And then in 39, know therefore today and lay it to your heart that the

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Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath. There is no other. In heaven and on earth, there is no other

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God. Isaiah 43 .10, Isaiah 43 .10,

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I'd say probably most of you already have this memorized if you've been doing evangelism with our

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Latter -day Saint friends, family, and neighbors. Latter -day Saints believe that God was once a man who became a

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God one day, who had a God before him, who had a God before him, who had a God before him, and the ultimate goal in Mormonism is exaltation through obedience to the laws and ordinances of the gospel to ultimately become a

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God yourself one day of a planet just like this one and to populate it with your spirit children just like the

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God of this earth did and Isaiah 43 .10 says something powerful. It says, you are my witnesses, declares the

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Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am

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He before me. There was no, there was no God formed, nor shall there be any after me.

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Listen to verse 11 though. Listen to verse 11 though. I, I am the

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Lord and besides me there is no Savior. Remember that.

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Here is God long before this beautiful story of redemption that enters into history during the time of Jesus, the life, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of Jesus.

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Here is God long before that, about 700 years before that. Here is God saying, there's no gods before me, no gods after me.

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I am Yahweh and besides me there is no Savior. What is

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Jesus called throughout the New Testament? Our Savior. Only Yahweh is the

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Savior. So Isaiah 44 .6, Isaiah 44 .8 we did at the beginning of the message today.

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He's the first, he's the last, besides him there is no God. Is there a God besides him? There is no other

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God. I know not one. He's the only God. There are many, many texts and so I'll just read through a smattering of verses.

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You already got Deuteronomy 4 .35 and 39, Deuteronomy 6 .4, Deuteronomy 32 .39,

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2 Samuel 7 .22, 1 Kings 8 .60, 2 Kings 5 .15. Why aren't you turning? I'm just joking.

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Just joking. I'm just giving this for the video. You can go back and get them later, okay? You gotta be faster guys, okay?

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Use your AI or something, okay? First Chronicles 17 .20,

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Nehemiah 9 .6, Psalm 18 .31, Psalm 86 .10, Isaiah 37 .16

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and 20. Isaiah 43 .10 and 11, Isaiah 44 .6

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and 8, Isaiah 45 .21, Isaiah 46 .9, Hosea 13 .4,

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Joel 2 .27, Zechariah 14 .9, Mark 12 .29 -34, John 17 .3,

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Romans 3 .30, 1 Corinthians 8 .4 -6, Galatians 3 .20, Ephesians 4 and 6.

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There's a smattering of verses. Go back and collect those later. The Bible teaches there's only one

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God, amen? That's the foundation. That is the foundation of the

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Trinity. Not three gods of this earth, one God. One God in heaven and on earth.

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One eternal God by nature. Now I think as we lay that foundation, we have to think, okay, now redemptive history revealed more.

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Like God was giving us marks of the Trinity, of course, in the Old Testament. You see, you see all of those pointers to the

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Trinity in the Old Testament, things that had to have confused the Jews, right? I know there's only one

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God, I'm confessing there's only one God, but what's the angel of the Lord doing here with Abraham being worshipped?

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The angel of the Lord here being worshipped? Who is God talking to, the

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Father to the Son? How's all this working out? And there had to be some moments where you just be gracious to the

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Jewish people who had the Scriptures, they knew there's only one God. They probably hit points in the Scriptures of the Old Testament, they said, okay, that's kind of weird, can't really explain that, kind of strange.

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But it's there. The Trinity is there. But more is revealed in the incarnation of Jesus.

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We see light now shed into the Old Testament, and we go, oh, it was there all along.

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I saw it, but I didn't understand it completely, and now with the revelation of Jesus Christ, I understand.

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So in redemptive history, you have this moment where more light comes in. Not something new, not something novel, but more light is shed on what was already there to begin with.

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And so when we define the Trinity, I think one great way to define it is what is found in our pastor's book,

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The Forgotten Trinity. When I got that book as a young man, I saw that definition and I thought, that's beautifully written and done,

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I'm going to memorize that. So I've had it memorized since then, although I haven't slept in about nine months, so let's hope that it's still in there.

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Okay? Within the one being called God, there exists eternally three co -equal and co -eternal persons, namely the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. I did it. Okay, I got it. Okay, I was a little off there.

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Okay, just one or two words, one or two words kind of matter, homoousius, yeah, okay. You could really mess things up with just a letter.

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But there's only one God eternally, by nature, one being of God, and yet three co -equal and co -eternal persons, namely the

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Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Now here's what I mean, or here's what he meant when he said that, or what Christians mean when they say that.

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There's only one God by nature, one being of God. And yet the

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Bible clearly, clearly teaches that the Father is

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God. And no one really disputes that. It's not even something you really have to spend a lot of time defending, because even amongst counterfeit

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Christian cults, they typically will say, yeah, the Father's God, no question. We're all good with that.

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So the Bible teaches that there's only one God, but it teaches that the Father is God, the

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Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God. Now this is a point to make sure we understand as Christians.

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When we talk about the being of God and the persons of God, we're talking about two different things, right?

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So for example, if you look down at your feet, at yourself, you are a human what?

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Being. You have the nature of a human. You're an image bearer of God, and if somebody was to put you under a microscope, cut something else and look at it under a microscope, they'd be able to say, this is a human being.

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That's what this is. If you took some other product of creation and put it under a microscope, you'd be able to say, not human being, you'd say canine or feline, ew, right?

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Like, sorry, I hate cats. I have like several living in my front yard right now, always destroying and eating my trash.

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They're really evil creatures. I think it was probably a translation issue. It was a cat in the garden.

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That's what it was. The deceiver. Okay. Just kidding.

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Okay. He loves cats. I just thought about that video.

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I love cats. I love every kind of cat. Sorry. I told you it was going to get weird, guys.

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No sleep. I'm learning to manage with it. Okay. Where were we? Okay. I lost it on the cats.

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Okay. The point is, is we know the difference in terms of the nature of a thing. If you put it under a microscope, you can say, what is this?

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And you might say, oh, okay, that's a human being, or that's a horse, or that's just a rock by nature.

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So when you talk about being, that's what you're referring to. What is the nature of this?

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What is this? What is this? However, you can ask that question like this.

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If I walked into the room right now, I said, everybody, what's that? You'd probably be pretty offended and say,

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I don't know why you're talking about her like that, right? You know I never would. But I'd say, what is that?

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Now watch. Actually, in a technical kind of way, it's not an offensive thing to say, to say, what's this?

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Right? Or what's that? Or like a baby's in a baby carrier in church, and you go, what is that?

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Right? Sometimes, trust me, you do want to say that. Whoa. Okay. Right? Some babies are like, oh, it's a baby.

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I told you it was going to get weird. I'm saying a lot of things right now. A lot of things.

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Now, you could look at her. You could look and say, where's she going?

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I don't know. You could say, what is that? And it's a meaningful question.

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Like if you asked it in a biology class, what is that toward a human?

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It's a good question to ask. Or in the discussion we're having when we try to defend the preborn.

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That's what you're pointing to, biologically. You're saying, what is in the womb?

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By nature, it's a biological and biblical fact, what's in the womb?

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That's the question you bring to the legislature, right? You're saying, what is it? You can't deny it.

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It's indefensible. Your position is indefensible to say it's not human. What is it? Feline?

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Canine? What is the nature of what's in the womb? From fertilization, human.

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What is it by nature? However, it's weird to say it like that in personal conversation, right?

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Like you don't walk to a crowd of people in a room and try to get to know people and go, what's this? What's that, right?

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It's not the question you ask. What do you ask? Who? Who's this?

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Who's she? Who is he? You're asking an entirely different question when you ask the who question.

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You're not asking the nature of the thing. I know what it is. It's a human. You're asking who.

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You're asking about who is this person. And so when we defend and define the Trinity, when we say monotheism, we're asking the question of what?

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One being of God, God by nature. When we ask the question of who is

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God, we're asking a different question because the Bible actually gives us the who by way of explaining that the

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Father, the person of the Father is God and has been God from all eternity.

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The person of the Son is God and has been God for all eternity. The person of the Holy Spirit is

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God and has been God for all eternity. And yet the Bible never, not once, ever confuses the persons.

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The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the

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Father or the Son. There is one God by nature, eternally existing as Father, Son, Holy Spirit, three distinct persons, one eternal

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God. So again, the Father is called God. Amen? Won't even bother defending that because that's generally, again, not in dispute.

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And yet also Jesus is called God. Here is where the cults will go.

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Counterfeit Christian cults? You can guarantee it. If they're going to corrupt the doctrine of God, they're going to do it here, on the person of Jesus Christ.

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Of course, they do it in the person of the work of Jesus Christ, but the person of Jesus Christ, they'll say that he's like God or kind of like God or almost like God or he becomes

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God, but he's not eternally God, existing as God. Sort of maybe like a second step, right, to God.

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Now, Jesus is called God in numerous places, Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, a popular one in the

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Old Testament, a prophecy of Jesus who was to come, and it uses titles there about Jesus who is to come and his kingdom that is going to come that are exclusive titles to Yahweh himself, the only true

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God. He should be called Wonderful Counselor, El Gibor, the

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Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end.

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That's written about 700 years before the time of Jesus, and it's got to be kind of confusing to Isaiah who has said over and over and over through this revelation, only one

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God, none before, none after, eternal God, no other God. And yet, in Isaiah 9, 6 through 7, the child who is coming, the son who is coming, is

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El Gibor, the Mighty God. It's powerful.

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The testimony to the deity of Christ is right there in the Old Testament before Jesus comes.

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So Jesus is called God. Go to John 1, please. Now we could spend, honestly, months on the doctrine of the deity of Christ, but today just a smattering of verses,

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John chapter 1, one of my favorites, the Gospel of John. Many of you already have this memorized.

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Verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the

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Word was God. All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.

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In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

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There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him.

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He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

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He was in the world, and the world was made through him. Yet the world did not know him.

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He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

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And the word became flesh, and dwelt among us.

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And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

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John bore witness about him and cried out, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.

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For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

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No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the

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Father's side. He has made him known." Eighteen verses, eighteen verses, beginning of John.

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Eighteen verses, and what do you see about Jesus? This one who has come, who has taken on flesh and walked among us, who created all things, and nothing's come into being except through him.

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And what have you learned? Is that he was always there. An arche in hal logos.

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He was always there, as far back as you want to go. In the beginning was the

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Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

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God. One verse in the beginning of John's Gospel tells us so much about Jesus, and yet at the same time, also about the

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Father. But notice that John doesn't confuse the persons of the Trinity.

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He makes a distinction between the Father and the Son. Both are called God in John 1, and yet there is only one eternal

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God. It's a powerful verse. I am going to check the time today so I don't get yelled at next week.

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Just joking. I don't really care. So you preach two sermons for every one of mine.

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The disciple has become the master. No, I'm just joking.

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Just joking. I told you it was going to get weird. Philippians chapter 2.

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Philippians chapter 2, go there. Philippians chapter 2, starting in verse 4.

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The Apostle Paul speaks to the church and says, Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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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, but emptied himself.

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By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.

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So here you have the Apostle Paul explaining who Jesus is, that Jesus was in the very form of God.

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But let's talk for a second. The Apostle Paul is a trained monotheistic Jew. How many gods does he believe in?

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Only one God. And he says, about the person of Christ, he existed in the form of God and did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped or held on to, but he emptied himself and became obedient even to death.

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The Apostle Paul clearly speaks about the deity of Christ. You can see more in Colossians 1 .15,

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Colossians 2 .9, 2 Peter 1 .1, Hebrews 1, verse 3. Now, there are many texts you can go to that Jesus is called

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God, and there's more beyond that, but it is interesting that Jesus takes also the prerogatives of God.

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The prerogatives of God. So if you would, go to your Bibles and look at Mark. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.

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Mark, chapter 2. It's a powerful testimony to the deity of Jesus that Jesus is truly

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God. That we often miss when we're new to the Bible, new to the

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Christian faith, and we just come right to this. It misses us sometimes, the power of this moment. They understood it when it happened better than we often do today.

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In Mark, chapter 2, Jesus, in verse 5, says,

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And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Son, your sins are forgiven.

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Now, some of the scribes were sitting there, questioning in their hearts, Why does this man speak like that?

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He is blaspheming. Who can forgive sins but God alone? And you know what?

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They're right. They're right. So, for example, just put it into context for a second.

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If you walked into the room right now, and we're talking about maybe some sins you're struggling with or that you want forgiveness, and I said to you,

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Son, daughter, your sins are forgiven. Like, on my authority,

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I'm telling you, I am forgiving your sins. Your sins are forgiven. You should walk right out of this church.

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Never come back. Do some Instagram stories about it or some reels and say, This guy is a nutter, this guy behind the pulpit here.

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He thinks he can forgive sins. He's just a man. And that's the point. They understood. Wait, what are you saying?

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Your sins are forgiven? Only God can forgive sins. And the story actually gets even more amazing.

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Can I read it to you for a second? It's actually powerful. When they say it's blasphemy that he's forgiving sins, it says,

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And immediately Jesus, perceiving in his spirit that they had thus questioned him within themselves, said to them, Why do you question these things in your hearts?

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Which is easier to say to the paralytic? Your sins are forgiven?

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Or to say, Rise, take up your bed, and walk. But that you may know, that the

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Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralytic, I say to you, Rise, pick up your bed, and go home.

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And he rose, and immediately picked up his bed, and went out before them all, so that they were all amazed, and glorified

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God, saying, We never saw anything like this. What's the point? They don't know if it's true.

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He can say all day, Your sins are forgiven you, but the problem is that they all can't really see, Did that really happen?

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Did he have the power to do that? Is it something that actually happened in them? It's easy to say it, but is it true?

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Does he really have the power to do it? It's hard to prove it if he's just saying it. You don't see the sins fall off the body, or get sucked away from them.

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Nobody sees that. And so Jesus is making the point, which is easier, to say this, or to say to him,

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Take up your bed, and walk. And then Jesus says, Take up your bed, and walk. And what happens?

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He does it. So the point there is Jesus saying, I can prove to you that I have the authority to do it, and it really happened, because look, get up, and walk.

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That's something now you see, I have the power to do, and I have power and authority to forgive sins as well.

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I think it's a powerful thing. Jesus takes the prerogatives of God. Jesus shows throughout the

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Gospels, he has the characteristics of God. Jesus controls his own creation, walks on water, divides the loaves and the fishes.

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Jesus heals the blind. It's an amazing testimony of Jesus actually having the very power of God himself over his own creation.

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But in Isaiah 43 .10, I wanted to point to you again.

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You don't need to go there again. Isaiah 43 .10 through 11, note that the text says that only

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Yahweh is the Savior, and yet Jesus is the Savior of our sins, forgives our sins.

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Jesus receives worship in the Gospels, in the

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New Testament. Jesus receives worship. Matthew 2 .11, Matthew 14 .33,

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Matthew 28 .8 through 9, and you see this glorious scene, go read it later, in the beginning chapters of the book of Revelation, the

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Father and the Son being worshipped, being worshipped. Jesus takes the divine name of God for himself.

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Go to your Bibles to John chapter 8. John chapter 8, famous scene.

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I'm going to start in verse 54. Jesus is here in conflict with the

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Jews of his day. And in verse 54, it says, Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing.

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It is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say he's our

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God, but you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him,

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I would be a liar like you. But I do know him, and I keep his word. Your father

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Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. So the

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Jews said to him, You're not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham? Jesus said to them,

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Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. And so they picked up stones to throw at him, but Jesus hid himself.

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So John has already called Jesus God, said he's the creator of all things.

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And now we have this amazing scene where Jesus says to Jewish people who know the divine name, they know the redemptive story.

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He says, before Abraham was, I go, I am. And then

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John chapter 10, we see it again. John chapter 10, verse 30.

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Jesus says, I and the father are one. The Jews picked up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them,

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I've shown you many good works from the father. For which of them are you going to stone me? The Jews answered him,

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It is not for a good work that we are going to stone you, but for blasphemy. Because you, being a man, make yourself

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God. They knew exactly what Jesus was saying and they picked up stones to kill him.

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Again, today, just a smattering of verses. Jesus takes a divine name upon himself. Now it's interesting here.

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If you're in John 11, just move right over to John 17. A powerful thing to note about the persons of the

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Trinity and their divine nature. In John chapter 17, we have a moment where the incarnate one, the eternal son of God, is giving us this amazing high priestly prayer.

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And he says something about the father. In verse 1 of 17, it says, When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,

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Father, the hour has come. Glorify your son, that the son may glorify you.

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Since you have given him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.

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And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true

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God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So here you have

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Jesus referring to the father as the only true God. It's powerful.

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Testimony to the father is God. And sometimes people have a challenge with that and they say, well, wait a second.

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If Jesus is the true God, then why is Jesus calling the father the only true

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God? How is Jesus calling the father God if Jesus is also God? It's not a problem. That's exactly what the

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Messiah would have to do and be as the incarnate one, as our representative in humanity. What would we expect him to be?

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An atheist? A polytheist? There is only one. An atheist? A polytheist?

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There is only one true and living God. And of course, Jesus refers to the father as God. But you know what else is powerful?

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It's not just Jesus referring to the father as God. The father refers to Jesus as God.

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And so if you would, go to Hebrews. Chapter one. Hebrews chapter one, starting in verse one.

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Text says, Long ago, as at many times, and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

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He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature.

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And he upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high.

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A distinction of persons, and yet by nature, God. Having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

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For to which, follow the argument closely, for to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today

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I have begotten you. Notice, God, God the father, to which of the angels did he ever say, you are my son, today

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I have begotten you. Notice the distinction of persons. Or again, I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

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And again, when he brings the firstborn into the world, he says, let all God's angels worship him.

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Who says that? God. God is saying, let all the angels worship him.

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Of the angels, he says, he makes his angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire.

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But of the son, he says, your throne, oh God, is forever and ever.

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The scepter of uprightness is a scepter of your kingdom. You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.

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Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.

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And you, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.

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They will perish, but you remain. All this about Jesus. Angels worship Jesus. Your throne, oh

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God, is forever and ever. Someone says, well, what is Jesus doing calling the father God if Jesus is

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God? It's not a problem because the father here is calling Jesus God because the father is

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God. The son is God. The Holy Spirit is God. There are three persons who are called

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God. One eternal God. Amen? A point to make here, really important point.

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Two points. Back in John 17, what does Jesus say? Father, now glorify me with the glory that I shared with you before the world was.

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You go, that's powerful, amazing, beautiful prayer. I love that. Except there's a bit of a problem if your theology is twisted here.

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And that is, in Isaiah 42, verse eight, what does God say about himself and his glory?

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That he is God and he shares his glory with nobody else.

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So if Yahweh says he is God and he doesn't share his glory with anybody, then what is

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Jesus doing saying to the father, glorify me with yourself with the glory

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I shared with you before the world was? Oh, it's because Jesus is

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God. That's why. Because Jesus is Yahweh. One more point to make as well.

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When the father is telling all the angels of God to worship Jesus, to worship

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Jesus, what do angels think about that? Well, let's turn to the book of Revelation, for goodness sakes.

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Revelation 22. Let's just unpack this entire chapter tonight.

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What do you say? No, I'm just joking. Revelation 22. There's a moment here with John.

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He sees all these incredible things. He's so blown away. In verse eight,

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I, John, am the one who heard and saw these things. And when I heard and saw them,

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I fell down to worship at the feet of the angel who showed them to me.

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But he said to me, you must not do that. I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers, the prophets, and with those who keep the words of this book, worship

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God. So here's a moment where let's give the guy some grace.

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Apparently when angels show up, first thing, people freak out. The angels have to always say, don't freak out.

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Don't be afraid. That's a modern English translation. Don't freak out. But do not fear. It's something like that.

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Don't be afraid. It's apparently being in the presence of an angel is kind of a freaky experience. And here,

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John bows down to worship this angel. And the angel's response is, get up, don't you dare.

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I'm a fellow servant. Worship God. Only God is to be worshiped.

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And yet the writer of Hebrews, inspired revelation given to us in Hebrews, the father tells the angels to worship

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Jesus. Angels don't worship anybody but God. They won't do it.

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It's a powerful thing. Now, just quickly, the Holy Spirit is called

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God. We will someday, Lord willing, of course, do a sermon series on the Holy Spirit of God. I really would love to do that.

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We really need to. But just briefly for today, in terms of giving you a smattering of verses, things to think about the

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Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is called God. The Holy Spirit is active in creation, in Genesis, as the story of creation opens up.

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The Holy Spirit is moving above the face of the waters. The Holy Spirit speaks, talks to people, tells them what to do, tells them where to go.

01:00:02

Acts 13 verse 2. And yet, there's a distinction between the persons of the

01:00:11

Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. We see, of course, in the famous scene, you know, in the book of Acts, Ananias and Sapphira, they're lying.

01:00:21

And Peter says, you know, you've lied to the Holy Spirit. In doing that, you've lied to God.

01:00:27

This is important. When you look at the Holy Spirit in Scripture, you see the Holy Spirit is referred to as He.

01:00:34

He will be in you. He will guide you into all truth. Now this is important, by the way, just noting this for today.

01:00:41

It's important as you do evangelism with Jehovah's Witnesses, for example, because they say the Holy Spirit is the active force of God, something like electricity.

01:00:50

So when you go to the text in the New Testament, you see something wholly different. You see the Holy Spirit of God is talking to people.

01:00:56

The Holy Spirit of God is convicting people. The Holy Spirit is in you. You can grieve the

01:01:02

Holy Spirit of God. How do you grieve a force? You can grieve the Spirit of God, but the

01:01:10

Scriptures clearly display that there's a distinction between the persons of the Father, the

01:01:15

Son, and the Holy Spirit. So when you do evangelism, say, with the Jehovah's Witness or the Mormon, when they try to go after the

01:01:21

Trinity, they often go after what are really ancient heresies, which Christians don't believe.

01:01:27

And they'll usually say something just silly like, oh yeah, Jesus is God. Watch this, watch this.

01:01:34

If Jesus is God, then who's Jesus talking to, right? Who's He praying to if He's God?

01:01:41

Is He talking to Himself? Or when the Father is there in heaven and Jesus is in the baptism, He says, this is my beloved

01:01:47

Son. Is Jesus like a ventriloquist, He's throwing His voice to heaven? Because Jesus is God, right?

01:01:53

So like He's the Father, who's He talking to? We don't believe that, do we? Jesus is talking to the

01:01:59

Father, the Father is talking to Jesus. They're not the same person. They share the same nature or substance, the one being of God.

01:02:07

But just a text to have, that's just beautiful anyways, but to show the distinction in persons, go finally to John 14.

01:02:18

John 14. John 14, verse 25.

01:02:36

The Lord Jesus says, these things I have spoken to you while I am still with you. But the

01:02:42

Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name,

01:02:50

He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

01:02:57

Peace I leave with you. My peace I give to you. Not as the world do

01:03:02

I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. So here's a powerful section, right?

01:03:12

Jesus is revealing the Father to us, revealing God to us, and here He makes a distinction between Himself, the

01:03:20

Holy Spirit, and the Father. Hear it one more time. The Helper, the

01:03:27

Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you.

01:03:34

Jesus refers to the Holy Spirit as He. The Helper, the Holy Spirit, He. So again, the

01:03:41

Bible teaches there is only one true and living God. And if the Bible teaches the Father is God, the

01:03:47

Bible teaches the Son is God, the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is God. And yet the three persons are never confused.

01:03:56

The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Spirit. The Holy Spirit is not the Father or the

01:04:01

Son. There are three distinct, co -equal, co -eternal persons, namely the Father, the

01:04:06

Son, and the Holy Spirit. And here's a key thing. Key thing. If we don't understand the

01:04:14

Trinity, I'm not saying fully comprehend, but if we don't apprehend these truths and embrace them, then we really do also miss the personal nature and glory of the story of redemption.

01:04:30

The Father choosing a people in Jesus Christ to be saved. The Son willingly laying

01:04:37

His life down, laying His life down for the sins of the people that God the

01:04:42

Father has chosen in Christ. And the Holy Spirit of God coming into the life of the believer, opening their eyes, raising them to spiritual life.

01:04:50

The plan of redemption, the story of redemption is a triune story of redemption. Amen? This is the

01:04:57

God that we worship. And so just quickly, if I could, can I have Pastor James come up here, not to talk to you about cats, but Pastor James has written a book on the

01:05:10

Trinity, has defended the Trinity, seriously, defended the Trinity against some of the best who oppose the

01:05:17

Christian faith. He's defended the Trinity in mosques around the world. He's defended the Trinity. One of my, listen, if you want just a grand time, like get popcorn and like, let's watch this, because it's going to be just not only edifying, but just so fun to watch, is the debate on the

01:05:34

Trinity that Pastor James did with Joe Ventilacion from Iglesia Ni Cristo.

01:05:42

It is such a fun debate to watch. It is seriously so entertaining. Sometimes when

01:05:48

I want to laugh and do theology, I'll just put that on and just keep giggling at the same parts over and it's like watching your favorite movie over and over.

01:05:56

Like here comes my favorite part. It happens often. So go look that up. But also another debate to recommend to you guys

01:06:03

Pastor James did was with, partnering with Dr. Michael Brown.

01:06:09

It was actually here in Phoenix and that was about 15 years ago or so, 14 years ago.

01:06:16

Long time. And I, yeah, yeah.

01:06:23

Summer was there. Summer was there. Yeah, I'm in the video asking a question at the end. I look very young.

01:06:30

He looks, just kidding. Okay. I told the pastors

01:06:39

I was going to find a way to poke you in the sermon today. And I think I have. Anyway, go watch those debates.

01:06:45

They're, bless you. I'm grateful for Pastor James, all the work he's done to defend the Trinity. But I think that that debate with Dr.

01:06:51

Brown, they didn't even prepare for, they just sat down together and started defending the Trinity against some pretty heavy contenders or at least one heavy contender.

01:07:00

And it's just a beautiful thing to watch. But I wanted to have Pastor James come up here for a moment and talk to us about some of the common objections to the

01:07:07

Trinity and how to be ready to defend against. And I will do so briefly.

01:07:20

You don't have to. They don't care. They're fine. Oh, yeah. Right. I like when the mother is still like me at the end of the sermon.

01:07:26

So that's a good thing. Let me just share one thing with you that I think is extremely important for you to understand to sort of put all of this together.

01:07:35

The vast majority of the objections that people have to the doctrines of Trinity come from their looking at the scriptures.

01:07:44

If they're not part of a cult group and they have other scriptures and all that kind of stuff, the vast majority of the objections come from people who look at the scriptures and they see

01:07:55

Jesus in the incarnate state. John 1 .14, the word became flesh.

01:08:02

The greatest thing that causes Muslims to stumble is the idea that God could enter into his own creation.

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And so they see Jesus saying things like, the father is greater than I am.

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And they see Jesus submitting to the father, being obedient to the father, being a man, growing.

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And they go, that can't be God. God doesn't grow. God does not submit to someone else.

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All of that comes into the mind because they don't see that the scripture says there's only one true

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God. The scriptures clearly, as we just saw, identify the son as creator, as eternal, identify him with the name

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Yahweh, all these things. And they miss the incredible condescension that the son demonstrates in entering into his own creation.

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So as to be the one to whom we, his people, can be joined.

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The God -man. We have been joined to the God -man so that his death becomes our death, his resurrection our resurrection.

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We receive from him life. What can we receive from Adam?

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Death. What do we receive from the second Adam? Life, because he is the

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God -man. He is Emmanuel, God with us. They don't see that.

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They will not, for various reasons, they may have traditions that limit them to a Unitarian way of looking at things, but they simply will not allow the scriptures to say to us, you must accept not only that there's one

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God, but you also must accept the reality that God can, in the person of the son, enter into his own creation.

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That's the issue. You name almost anybody. If you name the

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Muslims, they have their external sources of authority. The founder of their religion did not understand what the

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New Testament taught about this subject. If you look at Jehovah's Witnesses, they have their traditions.

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They simply cannot believe that God would enter into his own creation.

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And that is, they say, well, that's a stumbling stone. It's a stumbling stone to many people. Yes, it is a stumbling stone.

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That's what makes Christianity unique. That's what makes it unlike anything else.

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There is no other conception of God that could have ever said that God could enter into his own creation so as for there to be a full revelation of God's justice and holiness and wrath, as well as his love and his mercy and his grace.

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And so they will point to places where the son does something different in the drama of redemption than the father or than the spirit.

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Yes, the Bible teaches all of those things. But when you begin where you need to begin, absolute monotheism, then you understand that the name

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Yahweh is used for father, son, and spirit, and then recognize that it's the son who becomes incarnate, not the father, not the spirit.

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You begin to see the fullness of the divine revelation. I'd like to recommend a book to you if you want to do some further reading.

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It's not overly popular. I think you can still get it on Amazon. If not, I'm sure it's available in a used form someplace like that.

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The Lord of Glory by B .B. Warfield. B .B. Warfield was very, very important in my development as a

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Trinitarian theologian. But that particular book was extremely helpful because what it does is it doesn't just focus upon the text that identified

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Jesus as God or something like that. It goes through the tremendous amount of evidence in the New Testament that would simply make no sense if Jesus wasn't truly

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God. All of the places where, because you and I, we already have the faith, we hear these things, where Jesus does and says things that simply would not be possible, where people say things about Jesus that would simply not be possible if he was not truly divine.

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We miss most of that evidence. We end up arguing about the same text over and over again rather than seeing the broad spectrum of evidence that the

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New Testament presents to us. And so I would recommend that to you, Lord of Glory by Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield.

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Normally, and if I had been B .B. Warfield, I would have shortened it to B .B.

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as well. B .B. Warfield, tremendous writer, very, very useful on these particular subjects.

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I'd highly recommend it to you. Keep those things in mind. Thank you very much. Thank you,

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Pastor James, for those brief comments. Praise God.

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Kelly's laughing. She got it. Okay. Praise the Lord. Amen? So I want to encourage you to look at those resources, watch those debates, review these texts, because really this is where it starts in terms of our worship.

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Who do we worship? What do we believe as Christians? And when we're out doing evangelism out there with people who deny who

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Jesus is, or who God is, we need to be able to explain what we believe and why we believe it.

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And so let's pray towards that end. Lord, we thank you for your word. We thank you, Lord, for the blessing we have as your people to gather together around your word to fellowship, to worship you.

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We pray, God, as a church, that you would take these truths from your word, bury them within us, make us useful in your hands as you bring glory to yourself and the salvation that goes to the ends of the earth.