Advent And The Trinity

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If you would, turn in your Bibles to the Gospel according to Luke, chapter 2.

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Luke chapter 2 has been the starting verse for us over the last few

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Lord's days. Luke chapter 2, starting in verse 1.

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Hear now the word of the living and the true God. In those days, a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.

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This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town.

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And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called

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Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.

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And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth. And she gave birth to her firstborn son.

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And wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

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And in the same region, there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.

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And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were filled with great fear.

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And the angel said to them, Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.

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For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the

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Lord. And this will be a sign for you. You will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.

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And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising

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God and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom

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He is pleased. Thus far is the reading of God's holy word. Let's pray. Lord, we give

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You thanks for Your Word, this gift of Your revelation. Lord, You've made

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Yourself known to people who do not deserve You. People who shun

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Your goodness, Your grace, at every turn of our lives. Lord, You've given us

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Your Word, and You've called us to Yourself. Lord, You have known us before the foundation of the world.

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You chose us in Christ. Father, before the foundation of the world, You've called us

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Your own. We call You Father now because of Your grace, because of Your mercy, because of Your love.

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We thank You, Lord, for acting in history. Lord Jesus, walking among us, coming to save that which was lost.

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We love You, Lord. We thank You for the gift of Your Spirit indwelling us. And we pray today,

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God, as we, Lord, look into Your Word, at the glory of the

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Trinity, the triune God. We pray that You would speak by Your Spirit through Your Word, that You, Lord, would transform our hearts and our minds.

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Let us see. Let us understand. Lord, please forgive us of our sins in Jesus' name.

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And Lord, allow us, Lord, to be filled with peace and with joy as we focus on,

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Lord, Your truth about You coming to save the rebels. In Jesus' name, amen.

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So today we're talking about Advent, the coming of the Messiah, and the

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Trinity, the triune God. There are so many aspects to Advent that you can look at.

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And so many of them bring you peace and comfort and joy. They can heal your mind and your heart.

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They can heal your relationship with God. I mean, that's what Advent is all about. It's about reconciliation and peace with God.

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So many of the truths that we can focus on, and there are so many, the depth of it we'll never be able to get to the bottom of, that would heal our relationships with one another.

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You see, peace with God leads inevitably to peace among men. But it starts there.

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Peace with God. And it leads to peace everywhere else. Jesus is called, before He even enters into human history and the

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Incarnation, He's called the Prince of Peace because that's what He brings. And so my hope is, as we've been focusing in upon Advent, the coming of the

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Messiah, that these truths would bring you peace. They would increase your joy in God, your rejoicing in God.

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They would increase the depth of your intimacy and your awe before God, your worship of God. But we need to understand, really, what we're talking about when we talk about Advent is

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God, the true and living God, the only God. And God has revealed Himself to us especially in the season of Advent that we celebrate,

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He's revealed Himself to us as the Triune God. You see all of the amazing glimpses of the

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Trinity throughout the Old Testament revelation. I mean, it cannot be missed. From the first chapter of Genesis, written by Moses, you can see these bursts of revelation coming that, of course, we have to confess.

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We just have to be humble enough to confess. In many ways, they're incomprehensible. They understand so much about God because He's revealing

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Himself. They understand that God is one. There is only one true and living God. And yet God is clearly showing

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Himself to us in that Old Testament revelation as one God, but there are different persons.

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And there had to be aspects to the Old Testament revelation that were sort of confusing to the covenant people of God, the

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Jews, Israel. There's only one God, and yet we see these moments where God is actually walking among us in the pre -incarnate

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Christ. You see God talking to God, the Father talking to the Son. In the Old Testament revelation, there was something there.

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Of course, it's there. Pastor James, in his book, The Forgotten Trinity, talks about it in terms of a dimly lit room.

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If you go into a dimly lit room, I mean, everything that's in that room is there.

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Like, it doesn't enter the room when the lights come on. It's just dimly lit. Everything is there.

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I mean, you can kind of see it. It's hard. You've got to really focus your eyes, but when the lights come on, you see what is actually there in high definition.

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Now you can really see and examine, and that's what we get with the New Testament revelation. Pastor James has mentioned many times before that the

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New Testament authors were experiential Trinitarians. Experiential Trinitarians.

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Of course, they had that Old Testament revelation of God. It's all there. They weren't inventing something new.

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They were seeing Christ and God incarnate and going, oh, now I see. Now I understand.

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But they got to experience the Trinity. They got to experience the Father speaking from Heaven at the baptism of Jesus.

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This is my beloved Son. They get to actually witness that. On the

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Mount of Transfiguration, they get to actually see Jesus in this glory that's so bright, and hearing the

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Father speaking from Heaven. They get to actually experience the now outpouring of the

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Holy Spirit at Pentecost, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit of God, the empowering of the Spirit of God.

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The Apostle Paul gets to actually hear from the Spirit of God, speaking to Him. They were experiential

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Trinitarians, but in the most spectacular way, the most majestic of ways, they experienced the

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Trinity in the incarnation. God became an actual man.

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God with us. And it was there all along. You shall call His name what?

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Emmanuel, which is God with us. And this is what's so spectacular about not just Advent, but the entire story of redemption and salvation and forgiveness.

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What's so spectacular about it is that the God that we have actually offended. And just even saying that ought to light up Advent for us, because it's not common today to talk about our position before God in that way.

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We like to talk about ourselves and our condition before God as though we were kind of sick. There's a sickness.

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There's a bit of a disease. Maybe you need some therapy or a pill or something like that, but it's more of a sickness, right?

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Like, yeah, we're bad, but we're not so bad. Our relationship with God is tainted so badly that we can't climb our way to God.

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And Scripture doesn't talk about our condition in that way. It actually uses words like dead. You're dead in your sins and trespasses,

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Ephesians chapter 2. It uses words like enemy. You're an enemy of God.

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You are hostile to God. You are a hater of God. And you see, that's what makes

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Advent so special is that that God, the only God, we're made in His image, and we've offended

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Him. Every sin, every thought, every bit of lawlessness is first and foremost against Him.

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All of our sin is intensely personal. It's intensely personal. We are offending

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God, and that is very personal because we were all created for the glory of God.

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To bring Him praise, glory, and honor. Each and every single individual who has ever been created by God has the vocation, the calling of God in their life to bring

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Him glory, honor, and praise. And yet, we hate Him. And yet, we rebel against Him.

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And that is why Advent's so powerful. Because it's that God. The holy

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God. The just God. The righteous one. The perfect God. That we've all offended. He fashioned us together in our mother's wombs.

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We are all uniquely made by God. And we've offended Him, the

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Bible teaches, we've run astray from the womb! We're rebels against this

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God. And that God enters into the womb. Did you ever stop and think about the fact that the incarnation of the

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Messiah, the incarnation, the taking on of flesh in the Messiah, God becoming a man, didn't take place at the birth of Christ.

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It took place in the womb of His mother. It was nine months before this beautiful moment.

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Before this powerful choir and orchestra of the heavenly host, the incarnation took place and it was much more humble.

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It was much smaller. You think about a manger at Advent, and there's no room for them in the end, and how lowly is that?

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But it actually goes deeper than that. It's in the womb. It's at that moment of conception, that spark.

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That's where the incarnation takes place. God with us. The true glory of Advent is the incarnation.

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God, the one we have offended and rebelled against, condescended to save those who were

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His enemies. Forgiveness. Divine love. Incomprehensible mercy.

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This is the glory of Advent. You see, here's what's

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I think the depth of it today. Not just the fact that the eternal God who created the cosmos and you and I and everything in the world.

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It's not just that that God became man. It's that it was about forgiveness. It was about mercy.

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It was about salvation. It was about peace with God. And the reason this is so special and so powerful and why we make such a big deal about it, is that if you've been in God's world for just a wee bit, you've been hurt and victimized by others.

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And here's what has to be acknowledged. Is that there is no greater pain in terms of us being victimized or offended or wounded or hurt than by people who are professing as non -believers.

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Right? You feel the weight of that? It's one thing to be hurt and sinned against and violated by people who are still in their hostility towards God.

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They're still rebellious against their Creator. They reject God's revelation. They don't want God. It's one thing to be wounded and offended by them because you say, well, they're being consistent with their profession.

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They hate God and so they hate me. And they don't want God. They want to be lawless and so they don't obey

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His law, so I anticipate the unbeliever offending and hurting and wounding. And that's one thing.

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Still painful. Still so hard to forgive. But it's so much different, isn't it?

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There's a level of pain and hurt and depth to sin against us when it's somebody who's actually a

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Christian who wounds us. Somebody who professes to love Jesus who wounds us and hurts us or harms us or violates

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God's law against us. I was having a recent conversation where somebody was talking about this being hurt by a believer and offended by somebody and the conversation was when

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I was talking about you need to forgive. You need to have a heart that is open, that is merciful, that reaches out and tries to outdo the person with honor and mercy and love and seeks unity.

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This person asked me, how? How can I love and forgive a person who has acted as my enemy?

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How can I love and forgive a person who has acted as my enemy? A person who continues to sin against me.

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A person who has bitterness in their heart towards me. They are hostile towards me. How can you ask me to be merciful and forgiving to a person that does that to me?

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And I've had this conversation so many times. Forgive a person who is out for my life.

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Forgive a person who hates me. Forgive a person who wounds me and victimizes me.

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How could you expect me to forgive a person like that? And the answer is that's you before God.

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That's you before God. That's me before God. Not just before coming to Christ, but that's us before God and that's our story every single day.

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Do you sin every day? One person does. We sin every day against God and yet He loves us.

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He knew all about us before we got here. He knew every detail of our lives. He's decreed everything in human history down to the smallest detail and yet He chose before the foundation of the world to take your punishment.

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To take your shame and to take your guilt. That God is so full of mercy and forgiveness that He chases down the rebel you.

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He is the one that you offends. And so when we look across the landscape and we see the people who have harmed us, the people who seem out for our lives, the people who gossip and slander, the people who hurt and harm, we look across the landscape and we ask the question, how could

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God ever expect me to have mercy and forgiveness for this person?

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How can I pursue peace with a person who hates me and they are hostile towards me every day of their life?

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How could He ever ask me to do such a thing? And the answer is because that's the depth of His love and mercy for you. And every single day

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His love is limitless. Every single day, what's the scripture say?

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What is it? His mercy is new every morning. If that's not hope for you every day,

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I don't know what can settle your heart. I don't know what can bring you peace because this is the God that we worship, especially as we reflect on this in Advent.

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His mercy is new every single morning. We tend to bring yesterday's troubles and yesterday's pain and that hostility into the new day.

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We wake up alert, ready to remember, thinking about it. We wake up ready to fight, ready to swing back, ready to sin back.

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And it says that His mercies are new every single morning. It's fresh every single day.

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And that is an incomprehensible divine love. And that is at the heart of what we talk about when we talk about Advent and the

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Incarnation itself. That is what makes this so glorious. That's what

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God does in the Incarnation and daily with His children. In Romans chapter 5.

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In Romans chapter 5 this is how God speaks about it. Romans chapter 5 starting in verse 9 it says this, since therefore we have now been justified by His blood.

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What's that word justified mean brothers and sisters? What's it mean? Declared righteous. You're in a courtroom.

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God's the judge. You're the guilty one. All the facts are true. You know your life and He knows it better than you.

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Jesus says every single idle word. Every single idle word.

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Every idle thought God knows about. And God will respond to.

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And it says this. It says since therefore we have now been justified, declared righteous by His blood.

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That's shorthand for talking about the atonement. The death of the Messiah. Since we've been declared righteous because of what was accomplished here in the

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Incarnation and Christ living and dying and rising again on behalf of His people. Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood.

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Much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. We don't like to talk about that today.

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Advent's not so special. Good Friday's not so special. Resurrection Sunday's not so special because we don't think that God is full of wrath.

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We don't think that He's really a good judge. We don't think that He'll actually stand in opposition to every single injustice and act of lawlessness that's ever been committed in human history.

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We don't think He's like that. He's just the God of love. He's just the God of mercy.

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The truth is is His mercy exists because His wrath does also. And it says clearly in this text we much more shall we be saved from Him from the wrath of God.

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For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son much more now that we are reconciled shall we be saved by His life.

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We've been reconciled to God by the death of His Son. And what makes that so spectacular is that word there in that text.

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We were enemies. And if you love Jesus if you trust in Christ if you belong to Him, if you know

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Him and He knows you, you were an enemy of God.

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And you're not. Now. You are free. You are forgiven.

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What's the text say just above this in Romans 5 verse 1? What's it say? It's one of my favorite verses in the entire

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Bible. The whole revelation of God is glorious. Every word is spectacular. But this is one of mine that I lean on constantly.

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Romans 5 .1. Therefore since we have been declared righteous, justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. You see there's the contrast and there's the glory of the incarnation and the entire work and ministry of Jesus on behalf of His people is we've been reconciled who were once sinners and that means we now presently have peace with God.

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My declaration of righteousness is something that has already taken place in my life.

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He has already declared me righteous through faith. Not because I am. Not because I am.

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But because Jesus is. Because God incarnate lived a life that I failed and died in my place.

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He took that curse and that death that I deserve. He shed His blood for me, the enemy.

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And then He was buried and rose again from the dead. See that is my salvation and yours if you know

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Him. You have peace with God. You know Him. He knows you. You are no longer an enemy. You've been declared righteous.

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And if you think that just sounds too incomprehensible and you just can't bring the parts together, welcome to this divine story of love.

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Because that is exactly the glory of Jesus Christ. God becoming a man so that you and I could hide in Jesus and His righteousness.

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Because that's where you stand. You've been declared righteous not because God looked at your life or mine and said okay you were an enemy but let me see what

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I can find that's good in there. That's not how you were declared righteous. That God sort of just decided to look past His standards and look into the life of the rebel and say, let me see if I can find anything in there worthy of declaring righteous so that you can have peace with me.

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The answer is no. There was nothing. There is nothing. There never will be anything worthy of God.

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Because we're enemies. God declares you righteous as a gift by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ because you are hiding in Jesus.

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You've been not united to Him. You are clothed in His righteousness. You have a righteousness that is from above.

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And all of that is true because of this beautiful story of Advent. Advent.

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But you see, we won't see the majesty of Advent. We can't see it. We won't be able to fully delight in the majesty of Advent if we don't understand the

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Trinity. The Triune God that's given to us in Scripture. And here's the key.

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This is why I wanted to talk about this today. We've been talking about how we know Jesus is the Messiah, providing us a foundation for that so we can defend it.

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We talked about the Gospel itself. The Gospel of grace that brings us to God and brings us salvation and forgiveness and to reconciliation with God.

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However, we need to talk about the Trinity itself.

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And the problem is if we're honest, we don't understand.

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Now let me stop there for a second. When I say we don't understand the Trinity, I don't want to be offensive to God as a creature and say that you're supposed to be able to put this infinite, eternal

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God into a box and be able to fully comprehend Him as a creature. That cannot happen.

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It's like trying to explain algebra to a room full of cockroaches. Sorry, I used the wrong word there.

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Grasshoppers. I don't know. Praying mantises. I don't know. What do you guys want to be called? When I say algebra to an insect, at a certain point the creatureliness breaks down.

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We can't understand. But when I say that the problem is today we don't understand the Trinity, what

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I'm saying is that what God has revealed is for us and our children. Amen? And if God has told us something about Himself, then that is something we can stand on and be certain about.

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I have certainty about God, God's nature and God's character, and I can declare it boldly.

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I know and I am certain that this is true. That's what I mean by understanding. What God has revealed about Himself, He wants us to understand.

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He wants us to know. He wants us to believe in and find solace in. But when I say we don't understand the

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Trinity today, what I mean is fundamentally in the West we've so abandoned the historical commitments to the rigorous nature of the

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Christian faith and God's Word and theology and doctrine and all that is that we've abandoned really any need for understanding the triune nature of God.

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And so we talk about the Trinity, churches may even sing the doxology, and they have no idea what any of it means.

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They don't understand it. We can't defend it. You see the polls that go often where they ask questions of professing

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Christians, you've got those polls that are just shameful today. People that don't even believe Jesus is actually

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God incarnate, people that don't believe salvation is only through Christ alone. We are in a shameful place in this nation, and it starts here in the pulpit.

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It starts in the pulpit. The failure is in the pulpit. We don't know it, we can't understand it, and we certainly can't defend it.

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And that's a failure first and foremost because of the Christian pulpit in the West, and so God forgive us. But we do it too at Apologia.

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At the end of every worship service, what do we sing? The doxology. Let's do it together. Praise God from whom all blessings flow.

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Sounds beautiful. Doesn't it? But is it just a tradition?

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Right? I mean, are our children being raised in a context where they sing this beautiful song and it's just something that lifts their spirit?

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It sounds beautiful and it sounds spiritual. Is it something that they know why they're singing it?

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They can defend it. They can answer yes, I know why I believe that there is one

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God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Let's try it this way. Kids, this is your chance.

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This is one of the benefits of family integrated church, right? Children, just the children,

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I want just the children, as loud as you can, to sing the doxology. Ready? Praise God.

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They sounded better than the adults. But let's consider it.

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We can't do a comprehensive study today on the triune nature of God and the

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Trinity, but you really can't understand the glory of Advent unless you understand the Trinity and why this is so special.

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But there was the children. I sing this with Augustine every night before bed. This is what he wants to sing before bed is the doxology, and I'm sure many of you are the same.

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Last couple days we went out to dinner as a family and my little granddaughter Eve, we said, do you want to pray for dinner?

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And she said yes, and then her prayer for dinner was the doxology. I'll accept that, right?

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I'll accept that, right? It's just a tiny little girl, and she's, okay, I'll pray, here's the doxology. So we have all these children singing songs,

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Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, but do we understand why we believe that?

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Can we defend it? And I want to say at the start of this, our understanding and our commitment to the

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Trinity itself, that doctrine, doesn't come, and this needs to be stressed, it does not come because certain

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Christian counsels gave it to us. Are we grateful to God for His moving in His people and the work of His Spirit in His people defending and defining the truth throughout church history?

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We're not the first ones here. We're not divorced from the sanctifying work of the Spirit of God in Christian history.

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God has had His people from the very beginning. Jesus said that He would build His church and the gates of hell would not prevail against it.

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This is the kingdom that endures forever, and so God has had His people from the very beginning until now, and we are grateful to God for every counsel that gathered together to fight against error, and those who are trying to destroy the knowledge of Christ, we're grateful to God for all those counsels when they got it right and stood on the revelation of God.

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And even those involved in those times, like even Augustine, the great, not my son, but you know,

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I'll use Augustine, okay? The great saint of history, Augustine, even he recognizes and disputes like, you can't believe me because of what

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I'm saying, or because some counsel gathered to say this. It has to be, the debate has to be what does the

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Word of God say? That is where this is grounded. We believe in the Trinity not because of the authority of a counsel.

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Praise God they got it right. Praise God. Because they were standing on the Word of God. But we believe in the

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Trinity because the revelation of God Himself, His self -disclosure teaches us the

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Trinity. It teaches us the Trinity. And again, to think about Advent and to truly celebrate the coming of the

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Messiah into the world, we have to understand who is God? Who is

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He? What does He tell us about Himself? Why is the incarnation so special?

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So the first thing, and again this can't be comprehensive, but let's reflect on these truths and make sure that we know why we believe them and that we can defend them.

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The first foundation of the triune God in Scripture is what? David said it, and he has not been sleeping, he just has a newborn.

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So there's only one God. There is only one God. I think when

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David and I first met and David came to Christ and one of the first things I wanted to focus on with him as his pastor and as his brother was laying a foundation for essential truths, so it was the

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Trinity and it was justification by faith and I was making sure that that was in David and so that's why he has it.

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There is only one true and living God. There is only one God. Scripture is clear from the beginning of the

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Bible to the end of the Bible. It is strictly monotheistic. There is only one true and living

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God. There is a creator and there is a creation. There is a distinction.

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It's something a very famous modern theologian says. One of the things that sets the Bible apart from every other known religion of man is this distinction between one -ism and two -ism.

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That all is one. Everything is one. Even the gods that they have in their systems are a part of the created order itself.

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They have mommy gods and daddy gods and baby gods who give birth to crocodile gods and all that nonsense.

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There is this one -ism. Every man -made religion mostly falls into that except for those that borrow from Christianity like say

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Islam. One -ism versus two -ism. There is a creator, creation, distinction and the

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Bible teaches us that there is only one true and living God. You know the verse.

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Of course we have to start with this. It's what they would have been reciting then in the morning and evening prayers and it's still done to this day in traditional

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Jewish homes and Orthodox Jewish belief is the Shema. It comes from Deuteronomy 6 -4 and when

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Jesus was asked as a Jew, a faithful Jew, what is the greatest commandment in the law?

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What does Jesus recite? He recites the Shema. Let's do it together. Ready? Shema Yisrael Yahweh Eloheinu Yahweh Echad.

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Here O Israel the Lord our God the Lord is one. There is only one true and living

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God. There is none before Him. There is none after Him. Isaiah 43 -10 Before me there was no

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God formed, neither shall there be after me. I even I am alone the Savior. There is no other

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Savior besides Yahweh. There is only one God and God says in Isaiah 44 -6

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I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God.

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We could go for days about this. There is only one true and living God. That is the foundation of the

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Trinity. There is only one being of God and yet Scripture teaches us plainly and clearly without contradiction throughout

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God's revelation that the Father is called God. Now here's the issue with that.

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Have you ever ran into somebody that disputes that the Father is God? Nobody disputes that the Father is God. Those who try to distort

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God's nature, those who try to co -opt Christianity and distort the message itself, when they try to twist the revelation of God about God's nature, about the person of God and create, you know, one being of God, one person who like, you know, sort of modalism, sort of puts on different masks.

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Sometimes He's the Father, sometimes He's the Son. What tends to happen is people distort that, but they will always acknowledge the

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Father is God. No question the Father is called God. And yet, the

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Bible also teaches that the Son is called God. And you know, when

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I first came to faith in Christ, I didn't know anything.

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I'm telling you, I mean, it was like just brand new. All I knew was that there was someone named

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Jesus that people say He died and rose again, and I knew that this book sitting in my parents' stereo that collected like a, you know, an inch of dust everywhere

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He went in the world, I knew that was supposed to be His book. I didn't know anything about the Trinity. I knew nothing.

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So when I first heard the Gospel and had a profession of faith in Jesus, I started digging into the Bible, and I'm reading the Bible, reading the

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Bible, and I don't even have a church I'm going to yet. I had never really met a professing Christian who like went to church, loved

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Jesus, until after I was converted. And so I'm just reading the Bible, and I'm reading the

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Gospel of John over and over and over and burying myself in Scripture, and I'm reading it, and I'm seeing this

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Jesus here is God? Clearly? He's God? He's clearly

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God? Forgiving sins? Called God? I get it. And so I remember my first Sunday in church,

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I walk up to the pastor, and I'm having a conversation with him, the pastor that baptized me, and I remember that I was nervous because I was new to the

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Bible, and I was talking about Jesus, and I said, yeah, and then Jesus, and I said, and Jesus is

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God, right? And he just looks at me and cracks a smile, and he says, well, of course.

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But I was afraid because I was afraid, I'm so ignorant, I don't know anything about this book. And I was like, and then Jesus, and he's

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God, right? I saw that in the text itself. And when I first started really getting into studying the truth and defending the truth,

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I read the Forgotten Trinity. And the Forgotten Trinity just is filled with Scripture that shows from God's revelation in the

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Old and the New Testament, it's clear that Jesus is called God. The first place to go to see that Jesus is called

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God, that eternal God, that Jesus is called God is Isaiah chapter 9, verses 6 -7, one of my favorite spots.

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There's more, but Isaiah 9, 6 -7, what does it say about this one who's coming? It's a child, it's a son, he's coming, it's 700 years before Christ, child and a son.

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And what's it say about him? He is wonderful counselor, he is El Gabor, the mighty

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God. The very same word used to describe Yahweh in Isaiah 10 is used to describe this coming son, this coming child.

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He is God, the mighty God. So long before Jesus enters into his earthly ministry, we already have

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God giving us the revelation that it is God himself who's coming as a son, who's coming as a child.

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He is El Gabor. Now we also see in John chapter 1, go there, John chapter 1, starting in verse 1, it says,

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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was

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God. He was in the beginning with 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 has 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. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.

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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 the 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.

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Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only

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God who is at the Father's side, He has made him known. Just John chapter 1 verses 1 through 18.

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How powerful is that? There's the glory of Advent. That's the incarnation right there. Here you have in the beginning

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John, a Jew who knows his Bible, is using the very same words that every Jew knew the

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Bible started off with. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.

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And John takes your mind and your heart back to that story, and he says, put your eyes on this.

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In the beginning was the Word. He was already there.

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En arche hologos. As far back as you want to go. No stopping point.

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Keep going and going and going and going and going back, and the Word, Jesus, was already there.

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And it says this, and this is what's again the glory of Advent. And the

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Word was with God. And the Word was with God. Forever ago

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He was already there. And it says He was toward God.

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Face to face. He was in this intimate relationship. Face to face.

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With God. So you have a distinction now. The Word was already there, but the Word was face to face. Toward.

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An intimate relationship with. He was with God. And then John says, and He was

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God. It says that He created everything in existence. Everything in existence.

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In Hebrews chapter 1, speaking about Christ, it says that He actually carries everything along to its intended destination.

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That Jesus Christ is actually the one who's holding all things together. He holds everything together right now.

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I mean, there's a certain part of this I see this stuff and I'm like, you don't know that. You don't know that.

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You're guessing. You think that. I saw this scientific video the other day. It was talking about what we know about the universe today.

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It was talking about the Milky Way galaxy. And the Milky Way galaxy, we're in that. If you didn't know, welcome to it.

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The Milky Way galaxy is just one galaxy in this ginormous, crazy, ginormous isn't even the word for it, universe that God created.

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We're one galaxy. We can't even get really to the end of it. And it's just crazy and glorious and complex.

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And this guy was like, yeah, you know, we're traveling in the Milky Way galaxy at this many miles per hour. And we're traveling throughout the universe.

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And there's other galaxies. But ours is going this fast. And it's like, do you? Come on. Do you really know that?

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Like, you just got that clock down. Do you really understand? I think there's things that we just cannot possibly comprehend or understand at this point in time.

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We're learning more, yes. But then you have inside this Milky Way galaxy, you've got black holes and so many stars.

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Our sun is one. And you've got us in orbit with the moon and everything is balanced just, it's just right.

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Like if the moon is a little farther away from us, it throws the whole system off. It's a little closer to us.

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Life isn't possible. We're in just the right spot away from the sun. And we're going and we're traveling and we're doing all these things.

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And right now, every flat earther watching this online is like freaking out. Okay. Good. My point is that it's so complex and so detailed and even, we've been doing the

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Proverbs, right? We talked about in the Proverbs that the system in the world is supposed to speak to the wisdom and understanding of God.

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The way that the rain falls and the dew comes up and falls and feeds everything. Everything is being held together by Jesus.

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He holds it all together. He made everything. He made everything and you.

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And He holds you together right now. He holds you together. He sustains you in your seat right now.

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You're being held down right now by Jesus. Yeah, we can say it's gravity. Don't you love the whole discussion?

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I'm sorry, I'm going off on a tangent here. But don't you love the discussion about gravity? Like before it was like, you know, people were talking about waves and particles and everything else.

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And it was like, gravity works like this. And it's like, you don't even know. Nobody really understands how in the world this thing, gravity, works.

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And yet, and we fly planes constantly.

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Like we're doing, we're building helicopters like, whee! People are like jumping into airplanes and wingsuit diving and we're flying airplanes and doing all this crazy stuff because we're like, we can clock it.

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We can understand it. But we don't really understand this magic and how this is all working.

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And scripture says, yeah, Jesus is sustaining the whole thing. He's carrying everything along to his intended destination, including you right now.

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Your heart's beating right now. Your lungs are filled with air right now. You're sitting here alive right now because God has ordained it.

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And the moment he says, it's over, he brings you home. He sustains you.

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That's who we're talking about. The eternal God existing forever in intimate fellowship with the

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Father, who is God who created everything in existence. That God, who is spinning the

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Milky Way throughout this vast, crazy universe. That God condescended and became a baby.

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And not simply to show off, right? But to be broken.

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Like how would you do it? How would you or not? Come on, be honest. As a creature, as a prideful person at times, if you were

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God and you were the offended one, how would you step into history? Probably swinging, right?

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Alright, I'm coming down, and it's not going to be pretty. Right? How would you and I, with our sinful hearts, and our lack of forgiveness, and our lack of mercy, our mercy is measured like this, right?

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I got a limit on my mercy and on my forgiveness. And if I got a chance to step into history as a sinful person that I am,

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I'd step into history swinging. Right? I'd come for blood. But you see,

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He comes into history, and it's completely humble. It's completely broken. It's to rescue people who hate

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Him. That's what this story is all about. John chapter 1.

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We can go for days here, but again, not comprehensive, and I do want you to go home tonight. John chapter 8. 48 through 59.

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John chapter 8, verse 24. Jesus says, unless you believe, egoe me, unless you believe

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I am, you will die in your sins. He takes a divine name upon Himself, and they knew exactly what

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He was saying, because He goes even further. Same chapter. Unless you believe, egoe me, you'll die in your sins. And then He goes even further.

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In case you didn't hear me, before Abraham was, egoe me, I am.

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And they knew exactly what He was saying, because it says they picked up stones to kill

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Him. And in John chapter 10, they do it again. He says to them, many good works have

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I shown you from the Father, for which of these do you stone me? And they said, for your good works we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and that you being a man, make yourself

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God. They knew exactly what He was saying, taking the divine name of God, Yahweh, and saying it of Himself.

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Jesus called Himself the Eternal God. Scripture says that He's the

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Eternal God. Jesus took the prerogative that is only God's. In Mark chapter 2 verse 7,

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He forgives sins and they say in response to His forgiving sins, who can forgive sins but God alone?

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Because you see, the moment I start saying that to you, on the basis of my authority, fire me.

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Get me out. Run me out of town on a rail. Do what you have to do to get me out, because if I as a human being say to you, your sins are forgiven you,

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I've forgiven your sins. I have no authority to do that. Forgiveness is for God alone, and they understood that, and yet Jesus took that prerogative.

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He said your sins are forgiven you. He had the authority to forgive sins, and only God can do that.

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And of course Jesus is called our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ in Titus 2 .13.

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But, as you move throughout the Scriptures, you begin to see even more. Again, they were experiential

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Trinitarians. They were experiencing this live and in high definition. It was right in front of them.

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The Father is God. The Son is God. He is walking among them. He's the righteous one. He's the blameless one.

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But they're also learning more and more from God about the Holy Spirit of God. In Scripture you see at the very beginning of the story given to us of God's creation.

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The story of redemption. You begin to see the Holy Spirit of God active and involved in creation itself.

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In Genesis chapter 1, what does it say? The Spirit of God is doing what? Over the face of the waters.

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The Spirit of God is there in the beginning. And of course you have in spectacular fashion in Genesis chapter 1

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God creating man, male and female in our plural image.

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Singular. The Spirit of God is involved there, but we see this and I wanted you to all put this before you in your hearts and have it ready as a defense of the

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Trinity in John chapter 14. Go there. John chapter 14. Starting in verse 12.

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It says, truly, truly, the Lord Jesus says, truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do, and greater works than these will he do, because I am going

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I am going to the Father. So Jesus makes a distinction between his own person and the person of the

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Father. It's consistently happening throughout the New Testament revelation. But he says in verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, this

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I will do that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything, if you ask me anything in my name,

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I will do it. If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the

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Father, I will ask the Father, and he will give you another helper to be with you forever.

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Even the Spirit of Truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees

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Him nor knows Him. You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

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I will not leave you as orphans. I will come to you. Yet a little while and the world will see me no more, but you will see me.

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Because I live, you also will live. In that day you will know that I am in the Father and you in me and I in you.

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And so Jesus goes on in verse 25 to say, these things have

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I spoken to you while I am still with you, but the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the

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Father will send in my name, He will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

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So you see Jesus here, again, experiential Trinitarians, God Incarnate revealing

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His nature, His person to His people. Notice in that one section there,

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He makes a distinction between the Father Himself and the Spirit of God. And notice what

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He calls the Spirit of God. He calls the Spirit of God what? He. He.

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He will be in you. He will guide you into all truth. He will convict the world of sin and unrighteousness.

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The Father will send in my name the Spirit of God and He, so Jesus makes a distinction between the

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Father and Himself and the Holy Spirit, and this is important too as in our evangelism to the

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Jehovah's Witnesses, which are out heavy in Mesa especially, the

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Holy Spirit of God is not an active force or a power, right? An impersonal force.

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He's a He. And He's a He in Acts chapter 13 verse 2 that actually speaks to the

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Apostle Paul. He speaks. He reveals truth. He talks to His people.

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But He's the person of the Holy Spirit of God. And so what do we have there? We have the definition that I'm stealing from this guy who just had his birthday.

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Happy birthday, Pastor James. How old? Just say ancient, right?

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Okay. I'm sorry. You said something about me over there. I still don't know what it is.

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It is coming from me. The definition that I have taken from Pastor James, I encourage you to memorize it.

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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. One being called God, three co -equal, co -eternal persons, namely the

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

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Father, and the Spirit is not the Father or the Son. There are three distinct persons, eternal, co -equal, co -eternal, one being of God.

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You and I are the being of a human. You have the nature or being of a human, and you are one person.

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There is one being of God, three co -eternal, co -equal persons. Now, that we've laid that down, just something to dwell on this week, to glory in, to delight in.

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Why is Advent so special beyond what we've already laid down? For that,

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I chose at least this one place.

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John 17. This is

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Christ's high priestly prayer. Verse 1. It says, when Jesus had spoken these words,

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He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come.

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Glorify Your Son that the Son may glorify You, since You have given

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Him authority over all flesh to give eternal life to all whom

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You have given Him. And this is eternal life, that they know

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You, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom

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You have sent. I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work that You gave

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Me to do, and now, Father, glorify Me in Your own presence, with the glory that I had with You before the world existed.

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Jesus existed for all eternity, glorious with the Father. And by the way, if you hear these words and you know your

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Old Testament, you know that is a no -no. God says that He is Yahweh, and He does not share

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His glory with another. And so here is Jesus sharing in the glory of the

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Father before the world even began. And Jesus saying to the Father, glorify Me now.

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So, this particular text is, I think, so powerful because it is intensely personal.

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It is intensely personal, listen, in two ways. One, it's intensely personal because it shows the depth of this love and relationship and fellowship between the

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Father and the Son. And brothers and sisters, we can't understand this. I grant that, that this is something that is incomprehensible.

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This relationship between the Father and the Son and the Spirit existed from all eternity.

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There was never, ever, ever a time where the Father and Son and Spirit were not in perfect, glorious fellowship and harmony.

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God didn't need you. He didn't need me. He didn't need to make this universe to make anything better for Himself.

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God has existed from all eternity in perfect delight and joy, perfection, fellowship,

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Father, Son, and Spirit forever. And yet, here we have Jesus now in a place, condescended, in humility, talking to the

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Father about what the Father had ordained for Him to do. He's speaking to the Father about what

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He's going to do to glorify Himself. And He's speaking about these people these people that the

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Father has chosen to give to Jesus. That Jesus came to save these particular people.

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So it's intensely personal in two ways. One is this shows the intense personal, intimate fellowship and relationship between Jesus and the

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Father. But here Jesus is talking about this beautiful thing that He's doing to save His people.

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The Father gave a people to Jesus Christ and Jesus has come now to glorify the Father in the redemption of those people and He's coming to lay

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His life down for them. What kind of love is this? What depth of love?

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What powerful mercy for God who has existed from all eternity in perfection and fellowship to condescend in this way to save rebellious sinners?

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And of course, you can read this later. Philippians 2. Make sure you have this in your heart as well.

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In Philippians 2, the Apostle Paul talks about the condescension, the humility of the

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Messiah. Jesus who existed in the very form of God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped or held on to.

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But what's it say Jesus did? It says that He emptied Himself. He emptied

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Himself. He became a servant. He became obedient even to the point of death. And I think there's something...

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Watch. Can I say this? And I don't know all of our hearts and minds so I'm not going to impose this upon you but I think this is true.

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There's an element to the Incarnation and Advent and this glorious story that I believe can miss us.

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We will miss it. We won't delight in it. We won't experience the power of it because of this point.

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I think in some sense we think a little too highly of ourselves. We can't see the glory of this story and the power of it because in some sense deep down somewhere we think we kind of deserve

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Him. He kind of should have picked me. He couldn't have given me justice.

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He needed to save me. In some sense He's obligated to do so and so we don't really experience the weight of the

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Incarnation and Advent itself because in some sense we think we kind of deserve this. Like He condescended yes and He humbled

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Himself to the point of even the obedience of death but in some sense we don't really feel the weight of it because we think

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He kind of had to. I should have gotten it. And that is in fact not true.

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But to really understand the glory of Advent understanding the Triune God understanding the relationship between the

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Father and the Son and the Spirit I think we would do best to meditate on these last two verses.

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Go to Isaiah 53 I took you there a couple of weeks ago but I want to stay here for a moment in Isaiah 53 to reflect on Advent in terms of the love of God for undeserving people.

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Isaiah chapter 53 it says in verse 4 about 700 years before Jesus again comes into His earthly ministry it says this about Jesus Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed

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Him stricken, smitten by God and afflicted but He was pierced through pierced for our transgressions

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He was crushed for our iniquities upon Him was the chastisement that brought us peace and with His wounds we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to His own way and here it is incomprehensible

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I understand but we should feel it and the

01:00:00

Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all and then it says it again different words but it says it again same concept verse 10 when it says that He had done no violence there was no deceit in this

01:00:18

Messiah's mouth it says this yet it was the will of the Lord to crush

01:00:23

Him He has put Him to grief when His soul makes an offering for guilt

01:00:29

He shall see His offspring He shall prolong His days the will of the Lord shall prosper in His hand out of the anguish of His soul

01:00:35

He shall see it and be satisfied by His knowledge shall the righteous one My servant this is Jesus make many to be accounted righteous there is justification and He shall bear their iniquities therefore

01:00:50

I will divide Him a portion with the many and He shall divide the spoiled with the strong so you see this powerful section here about this substitution of the

01:01:00

Messiah and Him taking our sins but what did it say it was the will of the

01:01:05

Lord to crush Him He has put Him to grief that doesn't make any sense that doesn't make any sense humanly speaking the

01:01:23

Lord lays on Jesus the iniquity of us all it was the will of the Lord to crush Jesus now

01:01:29

I think if we're honest men fathers David you probably feel the way to this now

01:01:39

I don't believe any of us have that in us I don't if you're a father in this room right now and you're the father of a son or a daughter as much as you would want to say

01:01:51

I'll lay down my life for another greater love has no man than this and a man lay down his life for his friends as much as you as a man want to say and I as a man want to say that we'll give up our lives for others for victims

01:02:07

I believe that's true on behalf of ourselves I think most of us as men who love our families love our friends we would step in the way we would lay our lives down but change the story a little bit now somebody asks you to give up your son to give up your daughter for somebody who absolutely despises you hates your soul works against you do you and I have that kind of divine love to give up our sons and daughters on behalf of the person who hates us

01:02:46

I don't believe we have it in us if I'm honest and not trying to puff up or make myself look better if I'm honest

01:02:56

I wouldn't give up my children for any of you I'd give my life in your place but as much as I love my church

01:03:07

I'd give myself I want to lay my life down for my church I'll die for this body Christ has called me to do that I'll do that but if you ask me if I'd give up my children for you my answer is

01:03:17

I can't I don't have the depth of that kind of divine love and this is what you're reading here in this story is the glory of Advent is in the triune of God you have the love of God that is so deep and incomprehensible for sinners and rebels that the

01:03:33

Father is willing that your sins go to Jesus and he knew all about you when he did it and he didn't do it because he saw some spark of amazement in you like God looked through time and he saw like I really need

01:03:50

Marilee right or I really need

01:03:55

Pete I gotta have James White gotta have that guy the answer is if God looked through the corridors of time he would see a graveyard with a bunch of corpses dead people spiritually who hate

01:04:10

God so when God determines to save the lost and to give his son on their behalf he is choosing to give

01:04:17

Christ for people who left to themselves would rail and hate God for all eternity that is the glory of the incarnation

01:04:26

Advent is about God's divine love for sinners and it is my hope that looking at these truths from Scripture putting down these foundations would transform you this week that it would change the way you see yourself today with your heavenly

01:04:47

Father it would change the way that you live with your brother and sister next to you and that it would give you a boldness with the message of God's love for sinners let's pray

01:04:59

Father I pray that you'd bless the word that went out today for your glory and kingdom I pray Lord that all the messages that we've delivered from this pulpit over the last few weeks would bring you praise and glory that they would transform your church your people, us we pray

01:05:14

Lord over this next week that we would reflect daily on these truths about the coming of the

01:05:20

Messiah Lord Jesus you're everything to us, we trust you, we love you we follow you we pray