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Well last week we began on The essentials of the faith and as I said, it's the three J's for this series and what's funny I put on the sermon audio Essentials of Jehovah or you know the essentials of the faith essentials of Jehovah.
It got four times as many downloads as My last three sermons. I Don't know I don't know sometimes I don't know if it's the name or the content or what but it's been downloaded a whole bunch of times since last Wednesday.
So maybe this one. Maybe this one will be interesting to people too as well. It does help me gauge what what you know. Not here, but outside what people are wanting to learn about and I do think foundational things are important.
You know not everybody gets Solid theological Foundational teaching in their churches and a lot of people are hungry for that. And when you say okay tonight We're just going to talk about the basics of who God is and what he's done.
Some people get really excited because they never get that they get so much pablum and never any meat. That even the least amount of meat is like a whole meal. So I'm thankful for people who listen and I'm thankful that it's able to go out and minister to people.
But tonight last week we started in Genesis 1 1 in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Well tonight We're going to look at them the the sister passage to Genesis 1 1 and when I call it the sister passage.
What I mean by that is this particular passage starts in the very same way. It's in the Gospel of John chapter 1 verse 1. So if you want to turn to John 1 1 some of you probably can quote it. I maybe some of you can even quote it in Greek.
This is probably one of the most Popular New Testament passages for those who have studied the person and work of Jesus Christ John 1 and verse 1 and if you've ever been in my Sunday school class. You've probably had seen me go over this before and I've preached on it a few times.
It's one of my favorite verses of the Bible and when you do study Greek it becomes an interesting Linguistic study because you study Things like predicate nominatives and things that all influence how you interpret this particular passage if you pick up a Jehovah Witness Translation, which is the New World Translation.
I have one in my office. I just for reference The New World Translation reads much differently at John 1 1 then does any other translation that's been translated by Christians. Christians translate John 1 1 is in the beginning was the word and The word was with God and the word was God.
But if you pick up a Jehovah Witness Translation the New World Translation it will say in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was a God it adds the indefinite article a. Because in the Jehovah Witness theology Jesus is a divine being but he is not Jehovah.
There is but one God and he is Jehovah. Jesus is a created being. And if you go into the full theology of Jehovah Witness, they believe that he was Mark Michael the Archangel. That Michael the Archangel was then incarnated into the person of Jesus Christ and now he again has become Michael the Archangel after the resurrection and and that's their their their philosophy belief in who Jesus is.
So Jesus in Jehovah Witness theology is not God, but he is a Deity or a God and so they add the indefinite article a at John 1 1. So that's again is is is where we're going to start tonight. We're going to look at John 1 1 and we're going to look at the person and work of Jesus Christ.
We look at the essentials of his nature and you've got a sheet here I've given you with a bunch of blanks and if you'd like we'll go ahead and fill in a few of them because we're going to look at the essentials of Jesus's nature the essentials concerning his work and the.
And those two things are going to be the primary focus of tonight, but the essentials Concerning his nature. The first one is His relationship or the relationship of the Trinity now as most of you know because I've already told you this we are going to be doing a Extended series on the Trinity Beginning at the end of this month.
So if we Spend all of our time tonight on that then we'll just be going back over those same things again a month from now, but I Have heard people say this. Well, the the Trinity is impossible to explain.
The Trinity is not impossible to explain. The Trinity is impossible to fully comprehend. That don't mean you can't explain it I I don't comprehend Eternity, but I can explain it. It don't got a beginning and it don't got an end.
Even old country boys can I know what it is now? Can I comprehend? Eternity. No, because I deal only in beginnings and endings causes and effects and I know that that's how life works for me and it's hard for me to imagine anything that that doesn't work like that for so I can say eternity and I can understand the under the definition of eternity.
But that doesn't mean I comprehend eternity. Well, the same is true for the Trinity. People say well, I don't understand the Trinity. Well, let me explain it. It is not really that hard. The Trinity is based on three simple precepts and they are all based on Scripture.
The one first precept is there is one God. That is a biblical teaching monotheism is that there is one God and if you want to be even more specific. And we will get more specific in our coming lessons, but we will say God is one in being All right.
Ontologically God is one being and ontologically simply means according to his nature. He is one being or how he is actually All right three persons. So we said God is one being and three persons. Historically.
From the very earliest days of Christianity from the very earliest years of Christianity. There was a distinction made between being and person and. And You make that distinction also we've talked about this before I think.
Talked about the rock. Have we touched? Yeah, because if I say I say this this marker has being. Because it is if it didn't have being it would is not. Yeah, it wouldn't be but it has being if you don't believe it.
I thought actually when it hits you you go. Hey that hurt and I say because it has being it was it has you know. It exists. All right, and it has being but has no person. I Have being and I have person singular in both cases one being one person right.
God has one being and Three persons those three persons share the one being which is God now when I say the word share that Can confuse and and help at the same time because Oftentimes we think of sharing as as you know, what we what how we share things.
Well within the Trinity or in understanding the Trinity the sharing is simply to understand the fact that the three Persons make up the one being but they're not three Beings it's not as if it's three gods and So God is one God.
Within the being one being of God. There are three persons and this is the third Statement that is essential to understand is that co-equal and co-eternal. In their nature. Co-equal and co-eternal the three persons are Co-equal.
God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are all God. It's not as if Jesus Christ is some kind of sub deity or the Spirit is just some kind of a sub sub deity. They are all three co-equal and all three eternal.
There wasn't a time when there was not a son. There wasn't a time when there was not a spirit and So the three persons and this is I think I may have mentioned this last week, but did I mention the love of God?
Being eternal. I did talk about this. I don't want to go over that again. But the God's love is eternal because there's always been three persons within the Trinity. There's always been a relationship Within the Trinity.
God didn't create you because he needed something to love. You know He already had a love relationship within the Trinity. Love precedes us love precedes creation. Because there's always been an eternal relationship within the Trinity.
So anyhow, there's one God there's three persons. There's code their co-equal cardinal if you don't understand anything else, you should understand that. And I'm not saying you have to be able to comprehend all that that is but that is the.
That is the understanding if you want a really enlightened Explanation of that I Would invite you to read the Athanasian Creed which we will be reading in the in the series coming. The Athanasian Creed is 1 ,800 years old.
Well, no 1 ,600 years old 1 ,600 years ago Athanasius put together one of the most Incredible explanations of that that you will ever read. Most thoughtful powerful. About the fact of who Jesus is and who the Spirit is and how they relate to the Father within the one being which is God.
See, that's why that why I said that pastor said we're so much smarter. Now. We ask tougher questions boy. You don't know Athanasius. Athanasius a th e n I s now a se Us. Athanasius s se us is the last one.
That's his name Athanasius and the ass Athanasian. I'm I didn't look that up myself. I'm sorry. Hmm where did Athanasius. I Have to look that up. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I think he was from Alexandria, so I think it's Egyptian but I Athanasius of Alexandria, I believe that because I think that he was I think that he was the.
No, I don't want to say but I Yes, I believe is I believe it's Alexandria. So this is as I don't want to get into the Trinity too much, but we did so the essentials concerning the Trinity. And all of this honestly you can it's not as if I have to prove this simply from philosophy.
I prove it from Scripture go to Deuteronomy 6. There is one God go throughout the Old Testament. There's one God go through the New Testament. There's one God one mediator with God a man the man Christ Jesus right there.
I mean the Bible is clear that God is one and yet three persons are called God. Jesus is called Jehovah. Hebrews chapter 1 other places in this very verse. He was God and he was with God, you know that it says that.
There are times where we see not only Jesus being referenced as God. Thomas said my Lord and my God. Jesus didn't correct him when he saw him after the cross. But there are other times where it's implied that Jesus is God.
Jesus said I forgive sins. I forgive your sins. Nobody can forgive sins, but God the Pharisees knew that that's why they condemned him because he said he's making himself equal with God absolutely was I Mean they were not wrong.
They were just wrong about him. They weren't wrong about what they were saying. He was making himself equal with God. Absolutely, because he said I forgive sins. So, I mean there is he forgave sins he was.
He said in him his life. I Mean he said things about himself. He says he says before Abraham was I am using the divine name of himself. You know, what does God say about himself when Moses said who are you?
He says tell him I am has sent you I am the is God's divine Way of saying who he is because he's he's the absolutely independent one. He's the I am and Jesus said before Abraham was I am. He didn't say the proper way would have been to say before Abraham was I was if he was simply trying to indicate that He preceded him, but that's not what he said.
He said before Abraham was a go a me I am I Have always been. You know because the Pharisees were asking him there. They were saying how can you say that Abraham was excited to see your day when you're not even 30 years old?
Jesus said well before Abraham was I am. I mean that's a powerful statement all in of itself and the Spirit is also referred to as Completely God. Acts chapter 8 with Ananias and Sapphira. Well, is it Acts 8?
Maybe it's acts. Yeah. Okay. It's yeah, I was thinking of Simon. I was talking about Simon the Magi earlier. That was actually yeah earlier in Acts. We have the story of Ananias and Sapphira and Peter Challenges them or challenges Ananias.
How have you you've lied to the Holy Spirit? You've not lied to men, but to God indicating the Holy Spirit is God. So, you know the Jehovah Witnesses will tell you that the Holy Spirit is like the electricity that flows through your house.
It's not personal. It's just powerful and It's an it not a he this is one of the things I even catch my Catch myself sometimes not purposefully, but every once in a while we use the the the non personal Pronoun for the Holy Spirit.
I'll call the Holy Spirit it not thinking. But you shouldn't because the Holy Spirit is not an it he is he. He is a person and he's the third person in the Trinity. So the co-equality co-eternity. Eternality, I love John 17.
Jesus said father glorify me with that glory, which we shared Before the world was I love that phrase and that's where we get the word share. We talk about this sharing of the being of God. Jesus used the word that glory that we shared before the world was you know.
So like I said, there's a lot more we're going to talk about when we get to that study. And I guess I wasted all our time tonight on it. But but let's move on because not only do we need to understand the Trinity.
We need to understand the full humanity and deity of Christ. And this is the part that Really should not be missed because Whenever we talk about Jesus I Find that people will either go to one or the other extreme.
They will so focus upon his deity That they will abandon his humanity or they will so focus upon his humanity that they uproot his deity. A right understanding of who Jesus is requires us to consider he as both God and Man, if we consider him less in either area.
We have misunderstood him. This is why I say the people who consider Christ's only deity really throw off the issues of Christ saying certain things. Christ said things that touched his humanity specifically.
Such as when he said I do not know the hour. Only the father knows the hour remember that when he said that I What Is what is what the reason I'm not I'm just not understanding the question brother. I'm sorry Is the reason why he didn't know the time because of his propitiation.
I'm just I'm confused. I'm sorry. That's okay. It's okay happens to me all the time. Not a problem, but We are going to talk about propitiation in a minute though because that's when you get to his work but what I was saying about there are times when Christ did and said things that were specifically about his Humanity and yes his humanity did it was required for him to be human to propitiate for our sins because we needed a priest to do the work of the propitiatory sacrifice and a priest has to share the nature with the with the person that He's you know He's standing up for us.
So he has to stand as one of us is the way that we understand the reason why he became fully human is because he's Standing in our place. It wasn't as if God as a spirit came and died God became a man.
So that he could stand in the place of men and died and so there is yes. So that's I was trying to connect. I think I got what you're saying now in regard to propitiation. The full humanity of Christ is important.
But it's also again important to consider the issues of you know, when we see Jesus tired or we see Jesus Dealing with things in life weeping at the break side of a friend or Saying he didn't know about the the the time of his return and somebody says well in his in his what is he?
How is he speaking? I think he's speaking in terms of his Humanity because in his humanity he lived a life as a man and there were things that were veiled while he was a man. I for instance, I think he had I think his mother had to raise him as a child as raised.
I Do think he had to grow in wisdom and in favor with God and men because that's what the Bible says. You know, he grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and men. He was a little boy. Now he was a wise little boy because he was teaching the teachers at 12 years old but If he This is gonna sound weird, but I'm gonna quote of all people who's that a Christian comedian Mark Lowry.
He said if Jesus was completely aware of his full divinity. He was faking all those diaper changes. Yeah, you know, I mean he was a baby and Then he was a child and he grew and yet the full fullness of deity was in him.
How those two things are reconciled again is quite beyond us but they are both true. He was fully man and he experienced life as a man. Yes. Oh, yeah. I'm not saying he was a sinner. No, no. No, absolutely.
I hope that I hope I didn't in any way insinuate that he was a sinner. But yeah and raising it. Can you imagine being his brother and sister? Yeah. Well, Jesus did it. I don't think he did. You know, so.
But it is funny because there are times in the Gospels where it seems that even his mother and his his siblings Did not fully understand Who he was? You know, I think Mary understood better than the others, but there were times where the siblings You know did not understand the fullness of who he was.
What did Jesus do for 30 years? We know of one instance in 30 years outside of his birth and outside of the 12 year old situation there in the temple. We know of nothing in 30 years. Except that he was without sin, but we know he was a man.
I Assume he was a Carpenter because you know the scripture talks about that in the trade of his father. And he would have grown into the trade of his father and he would have you know, I imagine. You know, that's in my question.
Is this having done woodwork as a hobby? I always wonder if he ever got a bent nail, you know, yeah, cuz he's perfect but you know as a man. He I'm he probably did you know, but you look like you want to ask me something.
There's a whole thing. Absolutely, he must and he said my time. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, and that's the thing. I'm not saying I'm not saying Jesus was ignorant of his divinity. Especially during his ministry what I was saying is throughout his especially younger adulthood and childhood he grew in knowledge as a person and.
And there was always that there's always that balance when you think of Jesus full human full people. I people say a hundred percent human hundred percent divine. I don't ever say that because when you talk about divinity you can't speak in percentages.
As God's either God or he's not he's not 50 God or 70 God. So I don't say Jesus is a hundred percent man and a hundred percent God. I say Jesus is fully man and Jesus is fully God and that may just be a vernacular hiccup for me, but it's the way I like to say it because what I'm saying is everything a man is that necessarily makes him man.
Jesus is and everything God is that necessarily makes him God Jesus is. And somebody says now wait a minute. Does that mean Jesus is a sinner? No, you don't have to be a sinner to be human because God didn't create Adam as a sinner.
Adam became a sinner. Jesus had the nature as a human. I would say in the same way that Adam had the nature of a human. That was without sin before Adam did sin. Sin is not an essential part of humanity.
Sin is a is a is a repugnant. Stain on the nature of humanity. It's essential for every person now because we all are born with the curse of Adam. But it's not an essential part of what makes you a person.
Sin is not what makes you a person and some people argue that they'll say well, I'm you know. Sinning is a human nature trait. Well, it is because of Adam. It wasn't the way we were created. Sin is a stain on our created makeup.
Yeah, and and he did and and and He showed that he was absolutely without sin by being by being tempted. Yes.
He also said that through Adam sin came to the world.
Yeah, Romans 5. Yeah. Yeah through one man sin entered the world. Yep, one man came the the the remedy which was Christ. Well, let me give you the rest of these blanks. We've kind of talked about some of these things because we talked about the humanity and the deity of Christ.
Let's talk now the essentials concerning his work. A, B, and C is the finished work. The present work and the future work and under the present work. I'm sorry the finished work under the work under the finished work one two, three and four.
Substitution redemption. Propitiation and Justification those are things that are already done. They need not. Being repeated. Jesus Christ finished the work of coming as a substitute. Now, why do we mention the being a substitute?
Well Jesus Christ when he came to the earth He substituted for us in two ways. Number one He substituted in our sin. He took the burden of our sin on himself. You deserve to be punished for your sin. Christ was punished in your place.
That's how he was a substitute. On the other hand he also substitutes for your righteousness. You've lived however many years it is 36 years for me and however many years it is for you. You have lived your whole life and yet you have nothing To say to God here is why I deserve your favor.
Christ lived his whole life and His whole life was an offering to God everything he did pleased the Father. He said that was my will. It's my will to do the will of him who sent me. It's my you know that he he from the moment he began when he was 12 I'm about my father's business.
So I say that simply to say this when you go before God you go before God with one or two sets of merits yours. Which ain't good enough and Jesus which is more than enough so he substitutes for you both in your sin as your sin bearer and in your righteousness as Your righteousness he is your righteousness so the substitute the second is redemption redemption.
Redemption means to buy something back by the way if you want a Bible verse. The substitution verse I would say it's 1st Peter 2 24. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. That we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you have been healed.
That's 1st Peter 2 24. And if you want to also add to that 2nd Corinthians 5 21 God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us that in him We might become the righteousness of God that that was that's that's the gospel in a nutshell 2nd Corinthians 5 21 and that substitution.
He who knew no sin became sin so that we who didn't know righteousness could become righteous. It was the great transaction. But under redemption, I would just look at 1st Corinthians 620 you have been bought with a price.
Christ's blood purchased us out of the slave market of sin. That's the picture redemption is a picture of purchasing out of The slave market. Propitiation the verses would be Romans 3 21 to 26 21. Yeah 21 to 26.
And it specifically says God put forward as a propitiation by his blood. There's a lot of people who've given up propitiation. Because you know what propitiation means to satisfy wrath. That's what the word propitiation means.
It means to satisfy wrath and Because people have given up the idea that God has wrath. They have so to given up the idea that God's wrath must be propitiated and so they turn it to something else. It's like that song I think I've told you this story on that cross where Jesus died the wrath of God was satisfied.
Well, this church wanted that in their hymn books, but they didn't like that line. So they wrote to the authors of the song It's called in Christ alone the name of the song and they said can we change it to on that cross when Jesus died?
The love of God was magnified. That's right without the wrath of God and the understanding of his wrath on sin. Yeah. So the author said no they wouldn't let him change the song so they didn't put it in there.
Which had thumbs up to that. Keep it in. Last but not least justification justification is The verse of the Romans 5 1. Therefore since we have been justified by faith past tense. It has already occurred.
We have been justified by faith. We have Present tense right now as a Something we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's justification. We went from being guilty sinners to being Justified and by the way, the word justified the definition of justify means to declare righteous.
To declare righteous you are not righteous because you're righteous. You are righteous because God has declared you righteous in his courtroom based on the work of someone else. Christ applies his goodness to you and God can say now you're righteous because of him not because of you.
That's a big important thing. Because how many people if you ask them today if you face God and he said why should you let me go to heaven? Their answer would be something to the effect of well, I'm a good person.
I've done good. I've given to this I've done that the only right answer to that question is Jesus Christ. The only reason why God should let me into heaven is because of Jesus not because of me far be it for me to.
Absolutely, if it were to me if God face if God said why should I let you into heaven if there was no Jesus? I would say you shouldn't if there was no cross. He should not. Yeah. And see that's a difference between and I I could boy howdy I could spend all night on this and I won't but there's a Difference between imputed righteousness and infused righteousness.
You see that was one of the big issues of the Reformation Protestants. We Believe that righteousness is imputed which means to be charged to your account. Your account was empty. Righteousness has been given to you as a gift charged to your account.
It's used in the scripture Genesis 15 6 Abraham believed God. It was imputed unto him as righteousness. That's what that means. It was charged to his account as righteousness. Catholicism teaches Infused righteousness, which is that the righteousness of Christ gives you the ability it infuses you with the ability for you to be righteous yourself and thus merit your own salvation and Salvation then becomes a meritorious work.
Versus a work that it's still both by grace and those Catholics don't ever say Catholics don't believe in grace they do. But they still believe that you merit. Because you merit it through The gracious work of infusing righteousness and it is a difference.
It's a it's a big difference. Let's look now the present work if you just want a Bible verse for that I Would say the work of Christ as an intercessor. Romans 8 34 That he is at the right hand making intercession for us and Hebrews 7 25 says he ever lives to be an intercessor for his people to make intercession for his people.
That's Christ's work right now. You say well, why does he have to intercede for us? Why does he have to intercede for us if we're already taken care of and the blood's already bought and everything's already does.
What Christ's intercession does is Multifold but if you want to talk about your security. Your security is wrapped up in his present work as well because he is standing before the father always on your behalf.
Do you sin today? The Bible says I rightly say so you say that you won't sin, but if anyone does sin he has a what an advocate with the father. You see you're never going to be without the need of an advocate you see Christ provides for us an Advocate with the father always he provides for us and a an intercessor with God.
This is why you pray In Jesus name you go to the father through the son finally the future work the future work of Christ deals primarily with a second coming in Which he will act one as a restorer. He's going to take that which Adam destroyed.
He's going to burn it with fire and he's going to restore it to a new heaven and a new earth. And he's going to be the judge and the ruler of all. Revelation 19 verses 11 through 16 talks about this it says then I saw heaven opened and Behold a white horse the one sitting on it is called faithful and true and in righteousness.
He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of fire and on his head are many Diadems and he has a name written that no one knows but himself. He is clothed in a robe dipped in blood and the name by which he is called is the Word of God and The armies of heaven arrayed with fine linen white and pure were following him on white horses from his mouth Comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations and he will rule them with a rod of iron.
He will tread the winepress of the fury of the wrath of God the Almighty and on his robe and on his thigh he has a name written which is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When Jesus returns he will not return as the lamb.
He will return as the lion and his enemies Will be beyond his mercy. This is why we preach the gospel now. So what we see when we look at the person and work of Jesus Christ is we see that he came and He had work to do and he did it.
He presently has a work to do and he is doing it and We look forward to the work that he will do when he comes again. So as believers we have to remember our our faith is wrapped up in Jesus what he did what he's doing and what he's going to do and Those are that is a very simplified overview of the essentials of Jesus.
I hope it was helpful and I hope next week when we look at the essentials of salvation We can build on what we learned tonight. Let's pray Father I thank you for your word. I thank you for the truth. I pray that it's been helpful and fruitful in the minds of your people and that you would use it To continue to instruct them in godliness in Jesus name Amen.