Isaiah Lesson 55

The Self-Existing God and the Apologetic Value of Hebrew and Greek

God, we are privileged to be here because we are worshiping and hearing from the one true God. There is a message that you have for us, there is truth that you give us, while the world at the same time is trying to lead us astray, and idols and false gods that seek our attention.

Lord, we pray that our focus would be, without compromise, on the true God. Be with Pastor Jeff as he brings us into this passage in Isaiah. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

So we pick up this week where we left off last week. You'll notice your notes are actually the same, because I only made it halfway through, so I figured I would just continue with where we left off last week, made it easy on me this week.

But does anybody remember the Hebrew and the Greek for I am?

Ego, Emi for me.

Ego, Emi is the Greek, and that came from the Hebrew.

It came from Lego my Ego.

Anyhoo.

Anyhoo.

Anyhoo.

So it's like, anyhoo, let's move on. And then Lego my Ego, that helps you remember Ego Emi. Now, why would we want to be learning obscure Hebrew and Greek phrases like that? Is it really worth our time?

I mean, couldn't we be watching football?

Well, they represent the text of the Primaton, which is the self-existing God.

It derives from Exodus 3 .14, the Tetragrammaton, YHWH, the name which means I am. Well, here's a practical reason. If you study this carefully and add this tool, you know how we studied in Hebrews that you would be equipped for every good work.

This will be equipment to fight theologically every Muslim and Mormon and Jehovah's Witness and secular humanist that says that Jesus was, you know, just a good man. Every form of heresy about the person of Christ is refuted from what we study today.

That's some pretty good ammo to have, right? Wouldn't it be great to just have knowledge from the Scripture that if it's a Jehovah's Witness knocking on your door.

So what you're really doing is you're teaching apologetics.

This is apologetics. That's very well said.

Yeah.

And apologetics, of course, is a defense of the faith. We need to defend and have a reason for the hope that is in us. We had a lady in our church who was approached before she had come to faith or had a strong knowledge of the faith, in any case, and that person was a next door neighbor and gave her a Bible.

And she had that as she started to come to Cornerstone. Well, when I saw her with her Bible, I didn't encourage her to keep it. I told her to throw it away because that Bible was a New World translation.

And it doesn't translate, ego I am. It simply says, I have been, which is something sort of different. Yeah. Because the claim is different. A Jehovah's Witness New World translation does not believe that Jesus is God, the only.

God.

But the book of John introduces him that way.

John one, one in the beginning of the word.

And the word was God.

And then he put an indefinite article in there.

Right.

They say, and was a God.

Right.

It's not there.

So they mistranslate John one, one.

Yeah.

Not knowing Greek scholarship, how to do that. There, there is actually a definite article there. The hop, the rough breathing hop, which means he's the God.

Yeah.

So that's there in John one, one. John one, 18. The only God he has made him known. Jesus is referred to as the monogamous. They are the only, the unique God who is at the father's side. He has made him know.

The only subject of John one, 18 is Jesus. So John introduces his epistle by calling Jesus the word of God, who is not only with.

God, he is God.

And then he says, he's the monogamous. They are the unique God. Jesus is identified as God, but the strength of our argument comes through the book as that's expounded from the very words of the mouth of the Messiah himself.

And he doesn't just draw from Exodus three 14. Sometimes we say, well, you know, Tetragrammaton, I am, that's enough for us. No, actually Isaiah 40 to 48 gives us the context of why we identify him as God.

This section of the book of Isaiah we have called the trial of false gods again and again. The false gods are put on trial and the true God, the unique God is set up over against them as better and the true.

And we're able to identify who that true God is because he can tell us the former things and the things to come. So we come into Isaiah 43. Beautiful section in verses one to seven, where we saw the uniqueness of the God of Israel and his special love, his unique love for his people.

Verse one said, fear not for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. That's pretty comforting, isn't it? And then we see his special love for his people and he's the only savior.

We pick up where we left off last week at verse eight. So John, would you read for us? Verses eight, nine, Isaiah 43, eight, nine. And here again, it's the trial of false gods. So see how he puts the false gods on trial and he condemns the idolaters.

And then the people of Yahweh are exalted as belonging to the true God.

So verses eight, nine, bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes who are deaf yet have ears. All the nations gathered together and the people's assemble who among them can declare this and show us the former things.

Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right and let them hear and say it is true.

The Jehovah's Witness claims his special standing before Yahweh as a witness from these very verses and especially verse ten. Isn't that interesting? Did you ever wonder where the JW's got their name?

Isaiah 43, nine and ten. And yet ironically, let's do what the text says and let's put that God to the trial. Because that's what Yahweh is doing. He's putting false gods on trial.

Look at verse eight.

Who are the blind and the deaf? Are they the physically blind and deaf?

The Jehovah's Witnesses.

Well, yeah, that would be an example.

Yeah.

But here it's kind of anachronistic because they wouldn't even existed back then because the Jehovah's Witnesses come later in time. Although they are actually early in church history because Marcion and I'm sorry, Arius was Jehovah's Witness, essentially anachronistic.

Yeah.

Arius was claiming that Jesus wasn't the true God. He was some lesser deity that the true God name, which is the exact opposite of this passage. In any case, it says in verse eight, bring out the people who are blind.

That's spiritual blindness because it says yet have eyes. So these are those who are spiritually blind. They think they see. And they're deaf yet have ears.

They think they hear.

Do you guys think that Muslims genuinely believe that they're right?

Yeah.

They do.

You're right, John.

A lot of them were forced by the sword.

Sure.

A lot of it, you know, the church in Iran is growing like crazy.

Right.

So they're coming.

Yeah.

Praise God.

Well, the reality, too, is if you go to the Crusades, I mean, Christianity tried to spread Christianity by the sword.

By the sword, too. Not as bad as Muslims.

But yeah, but Muslims don't have their own. You cannot force faith by violence. Faith comes by hearing and by grace. Now, they unfortunately, I think you're right, Jeff. They are convinced what they know to be true.

Yeah.

They're trained since childhood, since the Middle East.

Right.

Yeah, absolutely.

I was watching a documentary yesterday, not to get off the subject, but they were saying the hatred that we teach our children is sacred.

Hmm.

That's what they say. A hatred for the Jews that we teach the children is sacred.

Yeah.

And that is the case with many in the Middle East. Is trained from birth to hate the Jewish.

People.

They're going to be sorely disappointed.

Yes. Yeah.

And yet the point here in the text is they think they see the Mormon in Utah who's raised a certain way and has this quote unquote experience of the burning in the bosom. They think they've experienced something from the true God.

The same with the Jehovah's Witness who's next door to the lady in our church and giving out a New World translation. She thinks and she is convinced that we are pagans and celebrate Christmas because of our paganism.

She's what religion?

Jehovah's Witness.

But we don't even have to go that far because there are small e with quotes around evangelism and evangelical churches that are compromised away from the truth and convinced that they're.

Right.

Yeah, they have eyes, but they don't see.

Yeah, absolutely true.

Yeah.

Very good.

So bring them out. The test is not whether you sincerely think you're right.

That's not the test.

Sincerity is not the test because people who think they see and they think they hear and yet they're blind and deaf. So verse 9, all the nations gather together and the people's assembled who among them can declare this and show us the former things.

Now, this is a repetition of what has been repeated through the trial of false gods beginning Isaiah 40 and we'll go through 48. It's this idea that the true God is identifiable because he has a purpose a plan that explains everything that's happened.

Why the Assyrian came against Jerusalem and then why the Assyrians were vanquished everything that's happened in the past and he can declare the future things. So he uniquely knows the future and we're going to see in John 13 with Jesus explaining what Judas Iscariot will do.

He tells the future in the very claim where he goes to verse 10 and claims a go Amy. We'll get to it. We'll get to that. But just noticing here declaring the future things and showing us the former things let them bring their witnesses and prove them right in our culture today.

Maybe the greatest danger is the abject rejection of rationality. The things can't be proven that whatever a person believes is true simply because they believe it, but the Bible does not hold that test of faith.

The Bible actually holds that there are provable rational evident truths that must be accepted and if rejected you break yourself against them. It's not a matter of sincerity.

Daniel 2 prophesied that Babylon, Greece, Persia, it was so precise that Porphyry, 2nd century Porphyry said it had to be written after the fact. Can you still say that now?

Until the Dead Sea Scrolls proved that they were dated earlier. That's their only explanation for the prophetic element of the scripture. Okay, now let's get into the meat of this. So let them bring their witnesses to prove them right and let them hear and say it is.

True.

That's an objective truth.

Okay.

So here is then the crucial verses for refuting a Jehovah's Witness or Muslim or a Mormon who believes that there's three separate gods. Let's look at it. Somebody want to read that? How about you Bob?

Let's just do 10 to 13.

10 to 13. You are my witnesses declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed nor will there be one after me.

I, even I, am the Lord and apart from me there is no savior. I have revealed and saved and proclaimed. I am not some foreign god among you. You are my witnesses declares the Lord that I am God. Yes, and from ancient days I am he.

No one can deliver out of my hand. When I act who can reverse it.

Beautiful.

So there is a repetition here as it has already been the case beginning back in Isaiah 41. Flip back to verse 4. Do you recognize this language in the trial of false gods? It says who has performed and done this calling the generations from the beginning.

I, the Lord, the first and with the last I am he. Somebody tell me how to say that in the original Hebrew.

Any who.

Any who.

Very good. We are going to learn this.

Any who. Any who. Any who.

We move on.

Any who.

Any who. So, any who, and the reason I stress this though is because it is very important for the claim that is going to be made. Now, raise your hand, don't blur it out, if you know what is the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible which was written at least 100 maybe 300 or more years before Christ came, I am going to call him Bob.

Septuagint. Were you going to say that?

Septuagint.

OK, the scholars, supposedly 70 scholars, we don't know about the historicity of this, but the etymology of the term Septuagint is that 70 rabbis, scholars, went and took the Hebrew Bible and translated it into Greek.

And miraculously, their manuscripts all came out word for word exact. If God did that in his province, that would be a strong symbol. But whatever the case is, they translated from Hebrew.

To Greek.

And how was any who rendered in the Septuagint? Ego eimi. You see where this is so important? Now, what translation of the Bible did Jesus and the apostles work from?

Hebrew.

The Septuagint, actually. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, any time they quote, they're quoting from the Septuagint. They're writing in Greek, Koine Greek, and they're using the Septuagint as their reference.

So when John uses the language of Jesus 24 times, saying ego eimi, there is a reference to this repetition, ego eimi, in the trial of false gods. Let me show you the first strong one. And you're going to even see it goes beyond the word itself to the particulars.

Check this out. Isaiah 41, 4. This is amazing. Who has performed and done this, calling the generations from the beginning?

I, the Lord.

That's the tetragrammatron, YHWH, the name of God from Exodus 3 .14. The first and with the last, I am He. Now, what's so significant with that is any who in the Hebrew or ego eimi in the Greek finishes the sentence.

There's no predicate.

It's not saying, I am the living water.

I am the bread of life.

I am the good shepherd. I am something else, the door or the gate. It just ends literally, it's just I am in the Greek. So I am He is implied that this is the He. But recognize what I'm saying. This verse actually ends with ego eimi.

It's a strong, forceful conclusion that has no predicate. It ends in and of itself. It's a claim, I am. You see that? That's how it reads in the Hebrew and in the Septuagint. Now turn with me, if you will, to John 13, verse 19.

And Barbara, when you get there, would you be willing to read that for us?

I will, John.

John 13, 19. Let me set it up while you find it. Jesus is the speaker. He says that a servant is not greater than his master, nor a messenger greater than the one who sent him. If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them.

Now in John 13, 18, he says, I am not speaking of all of you. I know whom I have chosen, but the scripture will be fulfilled. He who ate my bread has lifted his heel against me. Who's he referring to there?

Judas Iscariot. He's prophesying a future event, something that's yet to come. Now who knows the future and is able to prophesy the future? God himself, right? But look at verse 19. Barbara, you got it?

I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am he.

Wow.

You see it? The very test of the true God, future telling, and the very expression, I am he.

And not only that, there's no predicate.

There's no ending. Here he's already made major claims to deity, and the Jews were catching what he was saying.

To claim to be the bread of life, the living bread. Can just anybody make that claim?

Only Jesus, not nobody today.

No, because I mean, what would that mean? That you're living bread? That if you eat my flesh and drink my blood, then you have a part in me? And that this bread sustains you and gives you life? What a strong, but it's still got a predicate.

It's still saying, I am this. And then it's an analogy to explain who he is. Now it's such a strong analogy that only God could say it. But what I'm telling you here is in that John 13, verse 19, it's also true of three verses in John 8, and three verses in John 18.

There's no predicate in John 8. Before Abraham was, I am, he just leaves it there. Just claiming the sentence itself, I am. That's a reference to Isaiah 43, 10. Here in John 13, 19.

I am telling you this now.

Before it takes place, that when it does take place,.

You may believe that. Ego eimi.

Do you see it now?

What a claim.

That's the name of God. That's the test of the trial of false gods. Only the true God can say Ego eimi in that sense.

The Pharisees knew what he was saying.

They knew.

And in John 8, they pick up stones to stone him, because they totally get what he's saying. That's why it's such a forceful claim. John 8, 58. Before Abraham was born,. Ego eimi.

They're ready to kill him.

They try to stone him to death. He's claiming to be God. They know the book of Isaiah.

What's the JW's answer to that?

They wouldn't have one.

I don't think many people from the JW side would even be able to engage at that level of the Greek, to be honest with you. I'm sure there's some that would make a pretense to it, but there's no answer to it.

You don't have a New World translation for it?

Oh yeah, well, their false translation is, I have been, the NWT. I have been. Just saying that God made him and he had been there. But no, he's claiming according to Isaiah. They don't know the connection with Isaiah 40 to 48, and how this had been the test of the true God.

I have a New World translation. The Leviticus said you should throw that away,.

And I didn't.

Well, the lady in our church trashed hers, too. So do you see the force of that? When they came to arrest Jesus, they asked for him.

Who are you looking for?

But how does he answer, Rich?

I am thee?

Right, but in the Greek, he says, I am.

And the very force of claiming ego eimi knocks the soldiers over. Do you see the force of what John is presenting from this? It comes, let's go back, from Isaiah 43 .10. So Isaiah 41 .4, you saw it already.

And that has that same parallelism with the context of John 13, verse 19. So look at this. Now we're in Isaiah 43 .10. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord. Someone may claim to be a witness. Jehovah's witness, but they're not if they deny the ego eimi, the true God.

And my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that any who, that ego eimi. I'm just going to keep repeating this till it's in our brains. Any who, ego eimi. Do you see how he finishes the sentence again?

It's just pregnant with this meaning, that I am. And there's no predicate, there's nothing more. It's just left so full with this statement, I am. And what does that pregnancy of the sentence imply? This is God speaking, he is who he is.

The self-existent one. The one who always has been. The one that Moses saw in the burning bush and asked, who shall I say, sent me. And God simply says, I am who I am. And from then on, his personal name, Yahweh, Jehovah, was made known to Israel.

As John brought up on Sunday, they wouldn't even speak it, right?

No?

And he says in verse 11, beside me there is no savior.

Right.

No savior has come yet. It has to be formed back before Jesus.

Yep.

Now, if you're ever dealing particularly with a Mormon, this is the first verse to go to, okay? Because Mormon theology says that Jesus is not Elohim, the father, he's the son of God. And in truth, Jesus is the son of God, but by that they mean an offspring between a heavenly father and a heavenly mother.

And this offspring Jesus would then be kind of the God over a planet, and there would be other gods that come from him, namely the Mormon, who will be resurrected and be the God over another planet. So Elohim comes from Kolob, but before Elohim was at the planet Kolob, his parents, Jesus's grandparents, were gods over another planet.

Do you see how they have a council of the gods? And there's an infinite regression, as far as we know, that before the grandparents, there were great-grandparents. Do you see the idea of God that the Mormons hold?

And why as God is, we shall become. And as he was, that's how we elevate. The same way Elohim became a god, we can become gods. So look at the verse. Before me, no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

That right there is the death knell of Mormonism. Because the true Jesus is not the spirit brother of Lucifer. He's the one through whom the world was made. He is one in essence in being with his father, sharing all the attributes of deity, always existing.

He is the I am. So when Jesus comes in the book of John and 24 times uses that expression, ego me, sometimes with a predicate that only would describe God, as in I am the bread of life, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life.

Who could claim to be the life? I am the resurrection and the life. All of these ego me's that have a predicate, but even more forcefully, the seven times, John eight, three times, John 13, 19, John 18, three times.

He just leaves it pregnant with ego me, I am. You cannot miss the reference to Isaiah 43, 10. He's claiming to be God. One, not just in purpose, but ontologically unified in one being, one essence with the five.

This is the basis of the Trinity. Did Christians make up the doctrine of the Trinity in Nicaea in 325 AD?

No.

They refuted a heretic named Arius who was finally bringing a false teaching against what was always believed from the Bible. So Jesus himself said he will send another counselor who will be with you, and he's called the Spirit of Truth.

He is the paraclete, the helper, another member of the Trinity, which is easy for us to understand once you have father and son. It's not hard for us to recognize Jesus' authority in revealing the third member of the Trinity.

But the Trinity is built right from this passage. Ultimately, it's revealed when Christ walks among us, the Word made flesh, and like C .S. Lewis says, Lord, liar or lunatic, he makes the claim to be the Lord.

To be, and by Lord, we mean capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. The tetragrammatron, Yahweh, he claims to be God. I am, that's the claim that changes everything. Now, God in the flesh, that's the claim he makes.

Now, he's either the Lord he claims to be, ego me, or he's a lunatic or a liar. And of course, he is.

C .S. Lewis said that, didn't he?

Liar, lunatic, liar, or Lord.

C .S. Lewis, yep.

What does the JW say about the verse where Jesus says, I am the Father, are one?

Okay, very interesting, that's John 10, 30. And if you read the context of John 10, he actually is, and this is why we have to be careful in our apologetics, and as John said, we're studying apologetics this morning.

He is talking about purpose in John 10, 30. He is saying, in the context there, that the Father and the Son are perfectly united in purpose.

In the context.

Yes.

I would not use John 10, 30 to prove the Trinity. However, I would use it to fight against a modalist like Genogenics.

Genogenics.

Because if you actually look at the Greek of, I and my Father are one, then it reads more literally, I and my Father, we are one.

Isn't that interesting?

Because that plural for we indicates two persons in the sentence, I and my Father. So Genogenics and other modalists, these are Socinians, these are those who believe that God only exists in different modes, right?

The Father, Jesus was a modal expression of Yahweh in the flesh, but he's not the Son of God from eternity past. So I'll go to Hebrews 1, 2 and show that the world was made through Christ. Jesus as the Son, through the Son.

The Son was the Son from eternity past, Hebrews 1, 2. But I'll also go to John 10, 30. I and my Father, we are one. So there is a distinction between the person's Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Distinct personhood.

Not the essence.

Right, and in John 10, to answer your question directly, he is referring to oneness and redemption. That the Father has planned and elected a people for redemption, and Jesus has the same will and accomplishes that redemption in his blood.

And they're one in that redemptive purpose. And so if you study the context, the Mormon does the same thing. Well, if you look at it, it looks like they're talking about one in purpose. Absolutely true.

But that purpose of saving is a divine purpose. So that itself proves the deed, because who brought this up just a minute ago? Look at the next verse, verse 11. I, I am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior.

So in that saving purpose, Father, Son and Spirit are perfectly united as the one God. And there's no God besides God. This is why we're monotheists. We're not polytheists. We don't believe that there are three gods.

That's anathema, according to this scripture. And so the only answer is the Trinitarian conception. One God, three persons, right? Just according to what the scripture says. So, verse 11. I, I am the Lord, and besides me there is no savior.

So, if the Jehovah's Witness says, well, Jesus is the savior, but Jehovah is God. You look at verse 11. I, I am God, and besides me there is no savior. No other savior, yeah, or no savior, yeah.

Or no God?

Right.

No other God?

He is the one and only savior. When Jesus comes as the savior of the world, he is God in flesh. The Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. One God, Jesus is the second member of the Trinity, and a distinct person from the Father.

Think about it. He prays to his Father. So, there's distinction in communication. There's distinction in love. There's an object of love. My Father has loved me, and I have loved my Father. There's a distinction in sharing glory.

The glory which the Father has given me before the foundation of the world. So, there's communication between. He's not a ventriloquist, right? There's a distinction in the persons of the Trinity. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

But a unity of essence, of the being of God himself is one in nature. All the attributes of deity are shared. In other words, the Spirit is omniscient, and omnipresent, and omnipotent. And the Son has those same attributes, and the Father shared this deity as the one true God.

And yet, there's distinction.

That's the Trinity, and we get it right here.

I believe the early Greek from Assia was the same, was una substantia tres personae.