Participants: David Asscherick
Series Code: AOT
Program Code: AOT000053
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00:11 Welcome to Anchors Of Truth from the 3ABN Worship Center.
00:17 Unknown God with David Asscherick. 00:21 It has been a cold and rainy evening 00:25 here in southern Illinois. 00:27 If I were to use a technical term, I would say, 00:29 "It's been a yucky day." 00:32 You know, yucky days. 00:33 Sometimes you have those yucky days. 00:34 And yet, we have entered now the sacred Sabbath hours. 00:39 And there's something about the Sabbath that can even 00:42 defeat or override the yuckiness of a cold day in January 00:47 in southern Illinois. 00:49 We are so very, very pleased to welcome our worldwide audience 00:53 watching, listening, and our audience here 00:56 in Thompsonville, Illinois. 00:58 My name is C.A. Murray and it is my privilege and pleasure 01:01 to welcome you to the Sabbath, to welcome you to this house, 01:05 and to welcome you to another night in this series 01:08 where we explore the mystery of God and godliness. 01:12 Our speaker, our friend, David Asscherick will talk 01:15 about the personality of the Holy Spirit this very night. 01:18 And we shall learn once again that the Holy Spirit 01:21 is not an it, but it is a personality and it is a 01:27 portion, dare I say, of the Godhead, a part of the Godhead 01:30 that is very intimate and very close to us. 01:33 And so we ask you to give ear this night 01:35 as we listen to David. 01:38 I was teasing him backstage. 01:39 He is the husband of one wife and the father of two children. 01:44 And I praise the Lord that it is in that order. 01:46 He is the co-director of Light Bearers Ministry 01:49 with Ty and James. 01:50 They make a formidable trio. 01:52 Weapons in the hand of God for the salvation of the souls 01:54 of men and women. 01:55 And we are pleased that he could take time from his schedule, 01:58 which is very busy, to come and share with us 02:00 what God has given to him. 02:02 So we ask you to give ear this night, because God has much 02:06 to say to us through His manservant. 02:09 Would you now bow your heads with me in a word of prayer. 02:12 Gracious Father, we praise You and thank You 02:16 for Jesus; the Author and Finisher of our faith. 02:22 We thank You for the power in His word. 02:25 And we ask this night as the Word is opened, 02:29 that our hearts, our minds, our ears may be receptive. 02:33 That we may hear the Word, that it may fill us and fix us 02:39 and fit us for habitation with You. 02:41 Give us strength and courage as together we walk this 02:45 road that leads to glory. 02:46 But more than that, give Your manservant 02:50 an anointing so that he will speak Your words 02:53 to our thirsty souls. 02:54 And we thank You in Jesus' name, amen. 03:00 One of the songs that has become a favorite of mine, 03:02 I sing this every now and again. 03:04 My wife says, "You sing that song too much." 03:06 But sometimes you sing things not so much for others. 03:08 Maybe you do it for yourself because it gives you courage 03:11 and it ministers to you. 03:13 It's a bit of a mantra, dare I say, for me. 03:15 I'll Tell The World That I'm A Christian. 03:33 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian, 03:40 I'm not ashamed His name to bear. 03:47 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian, 03:54 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 04:01 I'll tell the world how Jesus saved me, 04:09 and how He gave me a life brand new. 04:17 And I know that if you trust Him, 04:23 that all He gave me, He'll give to you. 04:34 I'll tell the world that He's my Savior, 04:41 no other one could love me so. 04:48 My life, my all is His forever, 04:55 and where He leads me I will go. 05:06 I'll tell the world Jesus is coming, 05:13 and it may be near or far, far away. 05:20 But we've got to live as if His coming 05:27 could be tomorrow or today. 05:34 For when He comes and life is over, 05:42 for those who love Him there's more to be. 05:50 Eyes have never seen the wonders 05:56 that He's preparing for you and me. 06:07 Go tell the world that you're a Christian, 06:14 don't be ashamed His name to bear. 06:21 Just tell the world that you are a Christian, 06:28 and take Him with you everywhere. 06:37 I'll tell the world how Jesus saved me, 06:46 and how He gave me a life brand new. 06:54 And I know that if you trust Him, 07:00 that all He gave to me, He'll give to you. 07:12 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian, 07:18 and I'm not ashamed His name to bear. 07:25 I'll tell the world that I'm a Christian, 07:32 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 07:40 I'll take Him with me anywhere. 07:58 Thank you C.A. That was beautiful. 08:01 I was back there... 08:03 Well don't talk this the wrong way, but 08:04 I felt like falling asleep. 08:08 I mean, it was such a nice... 08:10 Wasn't it like that? Just a nice relaxing melody. 08:15 Anyway, I was back there like, "Does he sing to you like this?" 08:19 Because C.A.'s wife back there, "Does he sing to you like this?" 08:21 She said, "Oh, I ask him to sing me this song." 08:24 Beautiful. 08:25 Did you have a good day today? 08:27 Yea, I had a great day. 08:28 I went for a run here, a 10 mile run, all around. 08:32 What's this little town here? Thompsonville. 08:35 I ran every single street in Thompsonville. 08:38 And then I ran back to 3ABN. 08:40 And then I ran back to Thompsonville and I ran 08:42 every single street again. 08:43 And then ran back home. 08:45 So I had a good day, felt really nice. 08:47 Drove down to Carbondale and had lunch with a 08:49 former Arise student and good friend of mine, Dee. 08:52 And the day was just going absolutely stellar 08:55 until I got back here and 15 seconds from where I'm sleeping 09:00 I hit a deer. 09:02 Right here, right here on campus. 09:04 And the moment I hit it, I thought, "Oh no. 09:07 This is the Lord rebuking me for telling the world 09:10 that my wife got a speeding ticket the other night." 09:14 So the moment I hit it, I thought, "Oh no. 09:16 I've killed this beautiful animal." 09:17 Just as the Sabbath was coming. 09:19 And it was rolling down the middle of the road. 09:21 I wasn't going too fast, sort of 25. 09:22 But I mean, if you hit me with a car going 25, 09:26 it's not going to be pretty. 09:27 So I was like, "Oh no. I hurt this deer." 09:31 So I pulled off the road. 09:32 It's raining right now, as you know. 09:34 But for those that are viewing, don't know that. 09:35 So I pulled off the road here. 09:37 Is that a good idea or bad idea in southern Illinois 09:39 to pull off the road? 09:40 That was a bad idea because I just went... 09:45 But the bad news is, I got the car stuck. 09:47 And I want to thank Don for getting me out. 09:49 But the good news is, that I went looking for the deer 09:51 and he was gone. 09:53 So he either just had a little tumble and ran away, 09:56 or the Lord resurrected him. 09:58 But either way, it was not the way 10:01 I wanted to begin the Sabbath. 10:02 But now that I'm here with you, I'm very happy to be here. 10:07 And so without further adieu, I'm just going to have 10:08 a quick prayer here. 10:10 And we're going to continue through our study 10:12 of the unknown God. 10:15 And we're going through methodically. 10:18 Are we going through a little slowly? 10:21 Somebody said to me just the other day, they said, 10:22 "You know, David Asscherick is getting old 10:25 because he's slowing down." 10:26 Now I take a little offense at that, I have to tell you. 10:29 That doesn't sit with me. 10:30 So we might go like on hyper drive tonight 10:33 just to prove that I'm not getting... 10:34 I'm kidding, I'm kidding. 10:36 Let's pray together. 10:37 Father in heaven, what a privilege it is to be here 10:39 this evening and the precious Sabbath hours are upon us. 10:43 And Father, as C.A. has sung, it's so true. 10:45 We want to tell the world that we are Christians, 10:46 followers of the Christ. 10:49 And Father, we're seeking to understand better who You are 10:52 and who Christ is, and particularly in the context 10:55 of this series, who the Spirit is. 10:59 And so Father, be with us as we seek to know the unknown God, 11:04 the God that is, at some level, absolutely mysterious to us. 11:09 Father, we know so little about Your nature. 11:12 We know a great deal about Your character, 11:14 but Your nature is necessarily and inherently mysterious to us. 11:19 So Father, help us to recognize the limits of human intellect, 11:22 the limits of human language. 11:24 But let us come to Scripture and let us claim that Bible promise 11:28 that the things that are revealed are for us and our 11:29 children, but the things that are not revealed are for You. 11:32 They're secrets to us. 11:34 And so Father, tonight we don't want to guess, 11:36 we don't want to conjecture, we don't want to imagine. 11:38 We just want to stand on a plain, "Thus saith the Lord." 11:42 So help us to do that this evening. 11:43 As we open Scripture, we would ask that You would 11:46 come and open our hearts. 11:48 In Jesus' name. Let everyone say amen. 11:53 Well, our final passage that we looked at last night 11:55 was John chapter 8 verse 58 where Jesus made this 11:58 audacious claim when He was in the sort of discussion 12:02 slash argument with the religious leaders of His day. 12:04 And He said, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see My day 12:08 and he was glad when he saw My day." 12:10 And of course, the religious leaders of Jesus' day responded 12:12 by saying, "How could you have seen Abraham's day. 12:14 You're not even 50 years old." 12:16 And Jesus responded with these words, absolutely 12:19 stupendous words, He said, "Before Abraham was... 12:24 And then what did He say? 12:25 "...I AM." 12:26 "Before Abraham was, I AM." 12:27 And this an unambiguous reference to the very 12:32 name of God in the Old Testament when Moses was standing 12:36 there at the burning bush. 12:37 And Moses was told by God to go tell Pharaoh, 12:40 "Let My people go." 12:41 Moses protested and said, "Who shall I say sent me?" 12:44 And He said, "I AM..." What? 12:46 "I AM that I AM." 12:48 And that word there is "hayah." 12:50 That's the Hebrew word, "hayah." 12:53 It sounds a little like a karate chop, doesn't it. 12:55 Hayah. 12:56 But it means, it's the present perfect tense 13:00 of the verb "to be." 13:02 "I exist." Literally, "I exist." 13:04 And that's why it's rendered in the English, "I AM." 13:07 When we get to the book of Revelation, we find this very 13:10 same kind of language, "I am He that was, 13:12 and who is, and who is to come." 13:15 Someone has said that all of us say, "I am becoming." 13:20 Right? We're in the state of becoming something. 13:22 But only God can say, "I AM." 13:25 He is not becoming a thing, He is what He always has been 13:29 and always will be. 13:30 And so when Jesus was there standing before the religious 13:33 leaders of His day and He had the temerity, the audacity 13:36 to say, "Before Abraham was, I AM." 13:40 The religious leaders understood exactly what Jesus was saying. 13:42 He was saying, "I am the God of the Old Testament. 13:46 That's Me, I'm Yahweh. 13:48 I am the God that spoke to Moses out of the burning bush." 13:51 We know that they understood that because the very 13:53 next verse, in verse 59, says that they picked up stones. 13:57 For their rock collection? 13:59 What was it for? They were going to stone Him. 14:02 They understood perfectly well what Jesus was saying. 14:04 We looked at a verse just three chapters earlier 14:07 than that in John chapter 5 where Jesus says, 14:08 "My Father is working and I am working." 14:10 And the Jews took significant umbrage at this, 14:12 the Jewish leaders of Jesus' day, and they said, 14:15 "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You call God Your Father? 14:17 You better be careful with that because when You call God 14:20 Your Father, You make Yourself..." 14:22 Does anyone remember this? 14:23 "...equal with God." 14:25 "You are making Yourself equal with God." 14:27 Now what we're beginning to see here in the passages that 14:29 we've look at; John 1, Matthew 3, Matthew 28, 14:32 John 8, John 5, is that there is singularity and plurality 14:38 within the context of the Godhead. 14:42 We began in the Old Testament. 14:43 And I want to ask you a question here. 14:45 In the Old Testament, is the Trinity communicated explicitly? 14:50 No, it's hinted at. It's suggested. 14:53 In fact, I said that yesterday. You might remember. 14:54 What is suggestive in the Old Testament becomes increasingly 14:58 clear and determinative in the New Testament. 15:00 We'll see how clear it does become. 15:03 But the point is basically this. 15:04 In the Old Testament, we find elements of singularity 15:07 and we find elements of plurality. 15:10 Now, when we come to the New Testament, we find Jesus saying 15:13 things like, "I..." 15:14 We did this yesterday. 15:16 "I and My..." What? "...Father..." 15:19 So that's two entities. Right? 15:21 "I..." There's an entity. 15:22 "...and My Father..." There's another entity. 15:24 "...are..." What? "...one." 15:26 So the two are one. 15:29 John chapter 1, "In the beginning was the 15:32 Word..." There's an entity. 15:33 "...and the Word was with God..." 15:34 The word "with" communicates adjacency. 15:37 I'm here, you're there. Adjacency. 15:39 So, "In the beginning was the..." 15:41 "...and the Word was..." 15:43 "...with God..." Or adjacent to God. 15:44 And here it comes. "...and the Word was God." 15:46 So do we see singularity there? 15:49 And do we see plurality there? 15:50 We see both. 15:52 Now just a word on that. 15:53 I was holding up these book yesterday and I had 15:55 somebody send a question and say, 15:56 "What are those books that he keeps holding up?" 15:57 The first, I've already mentioned, is the book 15:59 just titled simply, The Trinity. 16:01 By Woodrow Whidden, Jerry Moon, John W. Reeve. 16:04 Published by Review and Herald Publishing. 16:05 Very good, great introduction both theological and 16:08 historical to this teaching on the singularity 16:11 and plurality of God. 16:12 And the other book is just a little light reading, 16:16 900 pages worth of light reading. 16:19 Written by a friend of mine, Glyn Parfitt. 16:21 He's an Australian. 16:22 It's titled, The Trinity: What Has God Revealed? 16:25 Two excellent book resources that I certainly recommend. 16:29 In fact, I think I'm going to be quoting from this one 16:31 a little bit later this evening. 16:33 We quoted from this one yesterday. 16:35 Now, we've looked at several passages in the gospels. 16:38 What I want to do now is look at several passages, 16:41 triadic passages, in the epistles of Paul. 16:45 Passages in which, that which is suggested in the Old Testament 16:49 and which becomes clear in the gospels, 16:51 becomes clearer still in the epistles of Paul. 16:55 And we're just going to look at several of these. 16:56 Many of them, frankly, require very little comment because 16:59 they're just so plain in and of themselves. 17:01 But let's go first to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 17:05 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 17:06 And while I'm turning there, I going to ask you, 17:08 how many of you saw Dr. Stefanovic's 17:09 program last night? 17:11 I thought it was superb. 17:12 I thought the good doctor did a marvelous job. 17:14 And much of what he said, we're going to sort of 17:17 look at again today. 17:18 Some of what he discussed we won't be looking at. 17:20 But there's a few little things that he brought out last night 17:23 that I thought, "Man, that's good stuff. 17:24 I want to re-mention that in my program here." 17:27 So, we're going to go to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2. 17:32 2 Thessalonians chapter 2, we're going to read here 17:33 verses 13 and 14. 17:37 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 verses 13 and 14. 17:43 It says, "But we are bound to give thanks to..." Who? 17:48 "...to God always for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, 17:52 because God from the beginning has chosen you for salvation 17:56 through sanctification by the..." What? 17:59 "...by the Spirit and belief in the truth..." 18:01 So here we have, God has called. Right? 18:04 And, "through the sanctification of the Spirit." 18:06 Now look at verse 14. 18:07 "...to which He called you by our gospel, 18:09 for the obtaining of the glory of our Lord..." Who? 18:14 "...Jesus Christ." 18:15 So here in this passage, 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 18:17 verses 13 and 14, do we see God the Father there? 18:20 Yes or no. 18:21 Do we see the Spirit there? 18:23 Yes, the sanctification of the Spirit. 18:24 And do we see the gospel of Jesus Christ there? 18:26 Okay so this is what is referred to as a triadic reference. 18:30 A triadic reference; a passage in which we see in very 18:33 close proximity the Father, the Spirit, and the Son. 18:38 Right? The Father, the Spirit, and the Son. 18:40 And in this passage, it's expressly clear that 18:43 the Father, the Son, and the Spirit each have a 18:46 specific role to play in regards to the plan of salvation. 18:51 You follow that, everyone? 18:52 We're going to talk about that in just a moment here. 18:53 But let's look at another passage. 18:55 2 Corinthians chapter 13. 19:04 This is sometimes referred to at the apostolic benediction. 19:07 2 Corinthians chapter 13 and verse 14. 19:12 2 Corinthians 13:14 says, "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 19:18 and the love of God, and the communion of the..." What? 19:23 "...Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen." 19:24 Okay, question. 19:26 Do we see Jesus Christ in this passage? 19:28 Do we see God in this passage? 19:30 And do we see the Holy Spirit? 19:32 There's something I want you to note here, by the way. 19:34 So this is clearly a triadic passage. 19:36 This is the benediction here. 19:37 "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, 19:39 and the communion of the Holy Spirit." 19:40 But notice this language here, "The communion..." 19:44 And some of your translations might say, 19:45 "the fellowship of the Holy Spirit." 19:48 "The fellowship of the Holy Spirit." 19:49 Now I want to ask you a question. 19:50 Can I have fellowship with a piece of plastic? 19:54 Oh I just had such a great time fellowshipping with the pulpit. 19:58 I had a great time fellowshipping with the piano. 20:01 How you been? 20:02 You like it up here? 20:04 This is a good place to be, isn't it. 20:06 Man, you're quiet tonight. 20:07 You see, it's very difficult to fellowship with a thing. 20:11 In order to actually fellowship, to interact, the Spirit would 20:16 have to be a person. 20:18 Are you with me on that? 20:19 The fellowship of the Spirit. 20:21 The fellowship belonging to the Spirit. 20:23 And so we have Jesus, we have the Father, 20:26 and we have the Spirit. 20:27 Another unequivocal, unambiguous triadic reference. 20:30 Let me show you another one. 20:31 Stay in Corinthians but go to 1 Corinthians. 20:34 1 Corinthians chapter 12. 20:38 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and we're going to note here 20:41 verses 4 to 6. 20:43 1 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 4. 20:46 Speaking of the spiritual gifts. 20:48 This is one of the three lists of 20:50 spiritual gifts found in Scripture. 20:52 The others in Ephesians 4 and Romans 12, of course. 20:54 Here it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 4. 20:58 "There are diversities of gifts, but the same..." What? 21:01 "...Spirit. 21:02 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 21:07 And there are diversities of activities, 21:08 but it is the same..." 21:11 Okay, do you see the triadic reference there? 21:13 Verse 4, "the same Spirit." Verse 5, "the same Lord." 21:16 Verse 6, "the same God." 21:18 This is a passage that, to me, is very suggestive 21:21 of the passage that we saw in Numbers chapter 6 21:23 where it says, "The Lord bless you and keep you. 21:25 The Lord make His face to shine upon you. 21:27 The Lord be gracious unto you." Etcetera. 21:29 We see these sort of triadic elements in the Old Testament. 21:33 We're seeing them here in the New Testament. 21:34 They are more suggestive in the Old Testament, 21:37 more explicit in the New Testament. 21:39 But in Isaiah chapter 6, when Isaiah goes into the temple, 21:41 what are the angels crying out? 21:43 What are they crying out? "Holy, holy, holy." 21:46 And so here in the dispensation of the gifts, 21:50 Paul says it expressly, "There are diversities of gifts, 21:53 but the same Spirit." There's one. 21:54 "There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord." 21:57 There's two, the Lord Jesus. 21:58 "And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same 22:01 God who works all in all." 22:03 This is a classic parallelism. 22:05 One Spirit, one Lord, one God. 22:08 Another unambiguous triadic reference. 22:10 Does everyone see that? Yes or no. 22:12 Now here's a very interesting thing. 22:13 Well, I'll get to that in just a second. 22:14 I'm going to come back to that idea of, why three. 22:17 Why this significance of three. 22:20 Come with me now to the book of Hebrews. 22:22 Stay in the New Testament. 22:24 In fact, we're going to spend, I think, all of our time tonight 22:25 in the New Testament. 22:27 And I remember a conversation that I had with a 22:30 Jehovah's Witness probably 5 or 6 years ago. 22:33 And I want to go on record as saying that some of the most 22:36 sincere and wonderful people that I have met 22:38 are Jehovah's Witnesses. 22:39 In fact, when I meet somebody who says that they're a 22:41 Jehovah's Witness, I always say, "Whoa, what a coincidence. 22:45 I too am a witness for Jehovah." 22:48 And they're like... 22:49 Like "Yea, I'm a witness for Jehovah. 22:51 You're a Jehovah's Witness. I'm a witness for Jehovah." 22:53 It's a great conversation starter. 22:55 By the way, when I meet my friends the Mormon's 22:56 and they say, "Oh, I'm a Mormon." 22:57 And I just came through the Salt Lake City airport here. 22:59 And they're just like streaming out of there. 23:03 So when I have the opportunity to interact with a Mormon 23:05 and they say, "Oh, I'm a Latter Day Saint," 23:06 I say, "Coincidence of coincidences. 23:09 I too am a latter day saint." 23:13 Aren't you? Absolutely. 23:15 They're like, "Really? Well... uh... uh..." 23:17 And then it just gets fun from there. 23:19 Okay? But the point is basically this. 23:21 I was sitting with a plane... On the plane, not with a plane. 23:23 There I am fellowshipping with pulpits and pianos again. 23:26 I was sitting on a plane with my friend. 23:29 A person that I just met, actually, 23:30 who was a Jehovah's Witness. 23:31 And I said, "Hey, I got a question for you. 23:33 And he had noticed that I was reading from the Bible. 23:35 And so we struck up a conversation. 23:37 And he had told me that he was a Jehovah's Witness. 23:38 And he began sort of the classic thing, you know; 23:42 Jesus is not the God, He a God. 23:45 And I say, "Hey, Can I ask you a question?" 23:47 And I took him to Hebrews chapter 1. 23:49 Now in Hebrews chapter 1, we have here... 23:51 I'm just going to kind of begin at the beginning. 23:53 Which is a good place to begin, obviously. 23:55 Verse 1, it says, "God, who at various times and in 23:57 various ways spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets, 24:02 has in these last days spoken to us by..." Who? 24:05 "...His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, 24:08 through whom also He made the worlds; 24:09 who being the brightness of His glory and the express image 24:12 of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power, 24:14 when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down at the 24:17 right hand of the Majesty on high, having become so much 24:19 better than the angels, as He by inheritance has obtained 24:23 a more excellent name than they have." 24:24 And so the author of Hebrews begins by saying, 24:27 God spoke by the prophets in the past, but now 24:29 He is spoken by His Son. 24:31 And His Son, when He had expunged our sins, 24:33 sat down at the right hand of God. 24:35 And He was given a name that is better than any name 24:38 that was ever given to an angel. 24:40 By the way, do you know what that name is? 24:41 The name is, Son. 24:43 The Son, He's called the Son. The Son of God. 24:46 Now check this out in verse 5. 24:48 "For to which of the angels did He..." 24:50 Now who is "He" there? 24:53 God the Father. Very good. 24:55 "For to which of the angels did He," 24:56 God the Father, "ever say..." 24:57 And this is what I was going through with my friend 24:59 there on the plane. 25:00 I said, "Okay, now who is 'He'? 25:01 Help me to understand. Who is 'He'?" 25:03 And he said, "Well, that's God." I said, "Okay, we agree." 25:05 "For to which of the angels did He ever say..." 25:07 And then he quotes here from one of the Psalms. 25:10 "'You are My Son, today I have begotten You.' 25:12 And again, 'I will be to Him a Father, 25:15 And He shall be to Me a Son.'" 25:17 So you see, he's asking a question here. 25:19 A hypothetical question. 25:20 "To whom did He ever say, 'You're My Son, 25:23 today I have begotten You.'" 25:24 He's trying to show the elevation of Christ over angels. 25:27 Verse 6, "But when He..." There's our pronoun again. 25:31 Singular masculine pronoun. 25:33 Who is "He" here? Once again. 25:36 Very good. It's God the Father. 25:38 "But when He again brings the firstborn into the world, 25:41 He says, 'Let all the angels of God worship Him.'" 25:45 So he's trying to show the superiority of Jesus 25:47 over the angels because Jesus doesn't worship the angels. 25:50 The angels worship Jesus. 25:51 Verse 7, "And of the angels He says..." 25:55 Now, question again. Who is "He"? 25:58 Still God. 25:59 Our pronouns are being consistent here. Right? 26:01 It's always the Father. 26:03 "And of the angels He says, 'Who makes His angels spirits 26:08 and His ministers a flame of fire.'" 26:09 Now look at verse 8, "But to the Son He says..." 26:13 Okay, I'm going to ask again. 26:14 And forgive me for being so consistent with this. 26:17 But who is "He" in verse 8, "To the Son He says." 26:21 God. Watch this. 26:22 "To the Son, God the Father says, 'Your throne...'" 26:29 What are the next two words? 26:33 "Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. 26:36 A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Your kingdom. 26:39 You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. 26:41 Therefore God, Your God, has anointed You 26:44 with the oil of gladness more than Your companions." 26:47 Now there's a very interesting thing. 26:49 Here, you have God the Father calling Jesus the Son... 26:55 What's He calling Him? 26:57 God. 26:58 God in the most emphatic and absolute sense. 27:00 So here's the question. 27:01 As I was going through with my friend, I said, 27:03 "Okay, Who is 'He'?" 27:04 And he said, "That's God the Father." 27:05 I said, "Who's 'He' in verse 5?" "That's God the Father." 27:07 "Who is 'He' in verse 6?" "That's God the Father." 27:09 "Who is 'He' in verse 7?" "That's God the Father." 27:10 I said, "Who's 'He' in verse 8?" "That's God the Father." 27:12 And I said, "Now, I have a question. 27:14 Here's God the Father speaking to the Son, Jesus, 27:16 and He says, 'Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.'" 27:21 And he went... 27:24 "I'll have to study that out." 27:25 "See, I'm just curious. What do you think of that?" 27:28 Beloved, the point is this. 27:29 If God the Father is comfortable calling Jesus "God," in the 27:35 most absolute and emphatic sense of the word "God," 27:37 we can be comfortable calling Him "God". 27:40 Amen? 27:41 Now, that gets us back to our point that 27:42 we were making earlier. 27:44 Question, is God the Father God? 27:47 So there's an entity. 27:48 Is God the Son called God? 27:50 So there's an entity. 27:51 But they're both God. 27:53 And so what do we see? 27:54 Singularity, but we also see plurality. Okay? 27:59 Now someone is bound to say, "Well, that's a contradiction. 28:03 That is inherently contradictory." 28:05 Oh contraire mon frere. It is not a contradiction. 28:08 A contradiction only actualizes... 28:11 Now forgive me here for just giving a little lesson here 28:13 on how contradictions actually work. 28:16 You only have an actual contradiction if you affirm 28:19 the same thing in the same way as both true and not true. 28:23 A contradiction only arises when you have a violation of 28:27 what's called, the law of non-contradiction. 28:29 Okay? 28:30 The law of non-contradiction says that a statement cannot be 28:33 true and false in the same way at the same time. 28:37 So if we were saying, "There are three Gods 28:41 and there is one God," and we meant God in the same sense, 28:44 that would be contradictory. 28:45 But that's not what we're saying. 28:47 We're saying, "There are three Persons." 28:50 Three what, everyone? 28:51 Three Persons who make up one what? God. 28:55 Okay, so if you take my wife and I. 28:58 Because the two become one flesh. 29:00 Two people become one family. 29:03 You tracking with me? 29:04 Is that a contradiction? It's not. 29:06 But if we said, "Two people become one people, one person," 29:10 would that be a contradiction? 29:12 That would be a contradiction because it's trying to 29:14 affirm and deny the same thing in the same way. 29:17 It's a violation of the law of non-contradiction. 29:20 The statement becomes incoherent. 29:22 And therefore, contradictory. 29:24 The Trinity is not incoherent. 29:26 Some people will say, "It's illogical. 29:27 It's irrational. It doesn't make any sense. 29:29 You're saying God is three and God is one." 29:31 Yes, but we're not saying that God is three in the same sense 29:35 that He is one. 29:36 He is one in the sense that He is one God. 29:40 He is three in the sense that this one God is comprised 29:43 of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 29:46 You tracking with me? 29:47 Now, as Dr. Stefanovic said on the program last night, 29:50 and I want to repeat this, the Bible nowhere explains this. 29:56 Okay, the Bible is not a systematic theology. 29:59 In fact, there's only a few books in all of Scripture that 30:02 could be considered systematic in a theological sense. 30:04 One of which, of course, is many of the epistles of Paul. 30:07 For example, in Romans. Etcetera. 30:09 So, you're not going to find any systematic treatment 30:13 of the Trinity trying to explain the threeness and the oneness. 30:18 You don't find it. 30:20 What you find is an affirmation that there is only one God. 30:23 And you find an affirmation that God is 30:25 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 30:27 It's up to us as Bible students and as theologians 30:30 and as scholars to try and understand it. 30:34 But the point is this. 30:35 Whether or not we can understand it does not prevent 30:38 us from proclaiming it. 30:40 Are you with me on that? 30:41 Some people say, "Oh, I can't proclaim that. 30:43 I can't proclaim that because I don't understand it." 30:46 Well, good luck proclaiming anything in Scripture. 30:51 Do you understand how God, the infinite, illimitable, 30:54 eternal God of the universe becomes a Man? 30:58 Does anyone understand that? 31:00 How does God become a 6 foot tall Man who walks around, 31:03 who has to walk from Jericho to Galilee, and from Galilee 31:07 to Jerusalem? 31:08 Do you understand that? 31:09 Can anyone in this room explain how God becomes a Man? 31:12 Let's take it a step further? 31:13 God died on a cross. 31:16 The Man, Jesus Christ, died on a cross. 31:19 Can anyone explain that here? 31:20 But do we proclaim that? 31:22 Do we preach that? 31:24 That's the gospel, beloved. 31:25 The life, death, and resurrection of the Man, 31:27 Jesus Christ, who was in fact the incarnate God. 31:29 So if somebody says, "Well if I can't explain it, 31:32 I can't proclaim it, I can't believe it." 31:34 Well good luck with anything in Christianity. 31:36 Right? 31:37 This point is this; we are not affirming something that is 31:39 incoherent or irrational. 31:41 What we're simply saying is that Scripture affirms that 31:44 God is one, but then Scripture also affirms that 31:47 God is Father, God is Son, and God is Holy Spirit. 31:53 Amen? 31:54 Come with me to the book of Revelation 31:56 for another unambiguous triadic passage. 31:59 Revelation chapter 1. 32:00 In fact, this is how the book of Revelation opens up. 32:04 Revelation chapter 1 and we'll pick it up in verse 4. 32:08 Right at the outset, Revelation chapter 1 verse 4. 32:13 "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. 32:17 Grace to you and peace from..." 32:19 Now this is... Most scholars believe... 32:21 Virtually every scholar of Revelation believes 32:25 that this next passage here is a New Testament 32:28 way of saying, "I AM." 32:30 "Hayah" from the Old Testament. 32:33 Verse 4, "John, to the seven churches which are in Asia. 32:36 Grace to you and peace from Him who..." What? 32:40 "...is and who was and who is to come..." 32:45 In other Words, from the I AM. 32:47 "Grace and peace to you from Him who is 32:50 and who was and who is to come, and from the seven Spirits 32:54 who are before His throne..." 32:56 Okay? So here you have God and here you have the seven Spirits. 33:00 Which is a book of Revelation way of saying, 33:02 "the Holy Spirit." 33:03 "The seven Spirits that are before His throne." 33:05 They show up in Revelation 4 and 5 as well. 33:07 Verse 5 says, "...and from..." Whom? 33:10 "...Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn 33:13 from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of the earth." 33:14 So in verse 4, you basically have this greeting. 33:17 Greeting to you from God, I AM, who was and 33:20 who is and who is to come. 33:21 And from the seven Spirits, which is the book of Revelation 33:24 way of saying, "the Holy Spirit." 33:25 And from Jesus Christ. 33:29 Now let's take it even a step further 33:31 in the book of Revelation. 33:32 To me, this is absolutely fascinating. 33:35 A major motif in the book of Revelation is what has been 33:39 called, the counterfeit motif. 33:41 What motif, everyone? 33:43 The counterfeit motif. 33:45 Okay, what do we mean by that, the counterfeit motif? 33:47 Well, what we find is that when God does something, 33:50 Satan counterfeits it. 33:52 Right? 33:54 Just the other day, I was at a grocery store here and 33:56 someone paid with a 100 dollar bill. 33:58 And the cashier was holding up the 100 dollar bill 34:02 looking for that little strip that runs through it. 34:03 He was looking for it. 34:05 Okay, he's looking for it because a counterfeit is 34:07 going to look similar to but not identical to the real thing. 34:11 You will never see a counterfeit 57 dollar bill or a counterfeit 34:16 29 dollar bill or a counterfeit 33 dollar. 34:18 Why? because there's no original. 34:20 There's no original so there's no point in counterfeiting. 34:24 What we find in the book of Revelation is that 34:26 God has a church, Revelation chapter 12. 34:28 A pure church clothed with the stars and the sun, 34:32 the moon under her feet. 34:33 That's God's true church. 34:34 But then in Revelation 17, there's a counterfeit. 34:37 There's a fallen church, a false church, who's bedecked with 34:39 all of these jewels and is drunk with the blood of the saints. 34:41 And so God has a church, here's a counterfeit. 34:45 In the book of Revelation, God has a city. 34:49 What is God's city in the book of Revelation? 34:52 The New Jerusalem. 34:54 Does Satan have a city in the book of Revelation? 34:58 What's the city? 34:59 Okay, Babylon. Very Good. 35:01 There are others as well. 35:02 God has a message in the book of Revelation; 35:04 the three angels messages. 35:06 And Satan has a message in the book of Revelation; 35:09 as the demons that look like frogs go out to 35:13 bring their message. 35:15 Very interesting. 35:16 You have this counterfeit motif. 35:18 God has a thing, Satan has a thing. 35:21 Counterfeiting, counterfeiting. 35:22 He sees aping. God does this, he does this. 35:25 Now here's a fascinating thing. 35:28 When we get to the latter part of the book of Revelation 35:33 beginning in say chapter 12, chapter 12 down to chapter 22, 35:38 really chapter 20, from 12 to 20 you have three primary figures 35:43 who are warring against God's people. 35:46 Three primary figures who are warring against God's people. 35:49 The first one we're introduced to in Revelation chapter 12, 35:52 he's called the dragon. 35:55 Okay who is it, everyone? 35:57 The dragon. 35:58 Now the very interesting thing about the dragon 36:00 is that when we're introduced to the dragon, he has a 36:02 kind of preeminent role, an almost authoritative role 36:06 over the other two. 36:07 The dragon, according to Revelation chapter 12, makes 36:09 war with the last, the remnant of God's people on earth. 36:12 He's making war. 36:13 Now that's how Revelation chapter 12 ends. 36:15 Verse 17, "The dragon was wroth with the woman and went to 36:17 make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the 36:19 commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus." 36:20 Now the next chapter, chapter 13, tells us how 36:24 he's going to make war. 36:26 What vehicle is he going to use, or vehicles. 36:30 And two beasts come up in succession in Revelation 13. 36:36 So don't miss that. 36:37 Revelation 12, the dragon is going to make war. 36:39 Revelation 13, this is how. 36:42 And right at the very beginning, it's fascinating, right at the 36:44 beginning of Revelation 13, this first beast comes up. 36:47 He has the body of a leopard and mouth of a lion, and all this. 36:50 And it's very interesting what the Scripture says. 36:52 The Scripture says, the dragon gave this first beast 36:56 that comes up out of the sea his power, his throne, 36:59 and his great authority. 37:01 Well, why is the dragon giving his power, throne and 37:03 great authority to this beast? 37:05 Why is he doing that? 37:06 Because this is the means through which he's making 37:08 war against the remnant, making war against the people of God. 37:12 This beast comes up... 37:13 And I don't have time to go into it right now. 37:14 But I can give you the... I can let you know... 37:16 How many of you have heard a sermon that I preached called, 37:18 Does Jesus Christ Have A Twin? 37:21 Has anyone heard that? 37:22 I think they've only played it like 50 million times on 3ABN. 37:26 Okay, so the point is this. 37:28 What you find in Revelation chapter 13 is that this 37:31 first beast apes what Jesus does. 37:33 Jesus was baptized and began His mission, comes out of the water. 37:36 This beast rises out of the water, begins his mission. 37:38 Jesus was resurrected; lived, was slain, then resurrected. 37:43 This beast was slain and then received a deadly wound, 37:47 and then it was healed. 37:48 Jesus ministered for three and a half years. 37:51 This beast reigns for 42 months. 37:53 You just have this controversy or this counterfeit motif. 37:59 It's well documented that the actual term here that's 38:02 used by John in other passages for this beast is, 38:06 the antichrist. 38:07 And the antichrist, it's well documented, is basically 38:09 trying to take the place of Christ, trying to receive 38:13 the position and preeminence of Christ. 38:16 Now don't miss that. 38:17 The dragon, who's sort of the overseer, the supervisor of the 38:23 whole project, he gives his power, throne, and great 38:26 authority to this first beast who is a counterfeit of Jesus. 38:30 Now the fascinating thing is that when this beast receives 38:33 the deadly wound in verse 3, but when he goes down, 38:36 "he that leads into captivity will go into captivity, 38:38 he that kills with the sword will be killed with the sword," 38:40 in verse 10. 38:41 In verse 11, another beast starts to come up. 38:44 And this beast comes up out of the earth. 38:46 And here's the fascinating thing. 38:47 The second beast, the earth beast, is essentially 38:50 an apologist or a spokesperson for the first beast. 38:55 And what this second beast does is absolutely remarkable. 38:59 He calls down fire from heaven on the earth 39:03 in the sight of men. 39:04 That's what the Holy Spirit did. 39:07 The Holy Spirit brought fire down on the day of Pentecost. 39:10 And there's many other passages we could go to. 39:11 But this beast is also referred to as the false prophet. 39:15 Now here's the fascinating thing. 39:17 When we come to the book of Revelation, which is 39:21 saturated with this counterfeit motif, what do we encounter? 39:24 We encounter a supervising figure, the dragon, 39:29 who gives his power, throne, and great authority to 39:32 represent him on earth, the first beast. 39:34 Who, when he goes down, turns his authority over to, 39:38 and the sort of PR person, public relations person, 39:43 is the second beast. 39:45 The counterfeit of the Father, counterfeit of the Son, 39:48 counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. 39:50 Now think about that for just a moment. 39:52 Is this not one of the most profoundly persuasive arguments 39:56 that there must be a real Trinity if Satan is 39:59 counterfeiting it in the book of Revelation? 40:02 Think that through. 40:03 Right? Why would you make a counterfeit of a thing 40:06 that there wasn't an original article of? 40:07 But when we come to Revelation 12 to 20, what do we see? 40:11 The dragon making war. 40:12 The first beast, the antichrist beast, making war. 40:14 And the second beast, the land beast, making war. 40:17 Counterfeit of the Father, counterfeit of the Son, 40:19 counterfeit of the Holy Spirit. 40:20 We'll what does that tell you? 40:21 That tells you that there's a Father, there's a Son, 40:25 and there's a Holy Spirit. 40:27 You with me on that? 40:29 Powerful, powerful. 40:31 Now let me take you to what, for me, is the single most 40:35 persuasive evidence in all of Scripture that God 40:38 is in fact triune. 40:41 And it's three words long. 40:42 It's found in 1 John chapter 4 verses 8 and 16. 40:45 Three simple words. 40:48 It's where John says, "God is love." 40:54 "God is love." 40:56 John here gives us a grammatical equivalence. 40:59 God is this thing. 41:02 John does not make the far more modest claim 41:07 that God is loving. 41:10 Loving. 41:11 How many of us in this room are loving? 41:14 I mean, at times. 41:16 Right? I am. 41:17 My wife would tell you that. 41:18 She'd say, "He's a loving husband." 41:20 So you could say, "David Asscherick is a loving husband." 41:24 Or even with my children, my two boys Landon and Jabel. 41:26 You might see me fishing with them or out in the woods 41:30 backpacking with them, and you might say, 41:31 "Oh, he's a good dad. He loves his children. 41:34 He's a loving father." 41:36 So it would be totally grammatically experientially 41:39 correct to say, "David Asscherick is loving." 41:43 It would be the same, I'm sure, for all of you as well. 41:46 We have instances of loving. 41:47 Now we are not always loving. 41:48 Sometimes we blow it. 41:50 At least I do. Maybe you don't. 41:52 But occasionally I become unloving. 41:55 Now here's the interesting thing. 41:56 While you could say, "David Asscherick is loving." 41:59 Do you know what you could not say? 42:02 That's right. 42:03 You could not say, "Oh, that David Asscherick guy, 42:06 he is love." 42:08 No, no, no, no, no. 42:09 I'm not love. I'm loving. 42:12 John could have made the far more modest claim. 42:16 He could have simply said, "God is loving." 42:18 An adjective describing a behavior or an attribute of God. 42:24 That's a very modest claim. 42:25 But John doesn't make this modest claim, "God is loving," 42:28 an adjective describing a behavior. 42:29 What he says is, in a grammatical equivalence, 42:32 he says, "God is..." the noun, "...love." 42:37 That is to say, something that is the essence of Godness, 42:43 what makes God God is identical to what makes love love. 42:50 Now this is awesome. 42:52 Because when we go to the actual biblical definition 42:54 of love rather than this soupy, sappy, warm, fuzzy-wuzzy love 42:58 that's basically just emotion or lust masquerading as love, 43:02 but when we go to the biblical definition of love, 43:04 love is not a feeling or an emotion 43:06 or a, "Man, I just feel so good." 43:08 It's not that. 43:10 Love is a principle. 43:13 Love is a... What, everyone? 43:15 Love is a principle. 43:16 And that principle says, "I'm going to put you and your needs, 43:20 your wants, your dreams, your hopes, your desires, 43:22 your visions in front of my own hopes, dreams, 43:25 wants, desires, and visions. 43:27 Right? 43:28 The Bible says it this way in the so called love chapter. 43:31 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 5 says, 43:33 "love seeks not its own." 43:38 Which raises the question, if love is not looking out 43:40 for itself, the me monster... 43:44 ...okay, who is it looking out for? 43:47 It's looking out for others. "Love seeks not its own." 43:49 And so we can derive this very simply. 43:51 Jesus said this, "Greater love hath no man than this; 43:54 that a man would lay down his... 43:56 ...for his friend." 43:58 Here's another one, "For God so loved the world that 44:00 He gave His Son." 44:01 So what we find in love is this other centeredness. 44:05 This, "No, no, no, no. You have it. 44:07 No, you take it." 44:08 And not the disingenuous, "No, no. I'll pay for the meal." 44:11 When really you're thinking, "I hope he offers because 44:13 I don't want to pay for the meal." 44:14 Right? 44:15 True love is a; throwing yourself, an almost reckless, 44:20 if I can use that word, an almost reckless 44:22 throwing of yourself at the expense of others. 44:26 Alright, not at the expense. 44:27 But for the benefit of others and at the expense of yourself. 44:30 "It's not what I want. It's what you want. 44:31 How can I help you." 44:33 In fact, we find this phrase. 44:34 And I wish I had time to develop this. 44:36 But Paul uses this phrase over and over and over 44:39 and over again in his epistles. 44:41 He uses this phrase, that Jesus gave Himself. 44:46 Study that phrase out in Paul's writings, "He gave Himself." 44:50 "Husbands love your wives as Christ also loved the church 44:53 and gave Himself." 44:56 "Be imitators of God as dear children and walk in love 44:59 as Christ also loved us and gave Himself." 45:03 Ephesians 5:1 and 2, Ephesians 5:25. 45:05 "Gave Himself." 45:06 "I am crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live; yet not I, 45:10 but Christ lives in me: and the life which I now live 45:11 in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, 45:14 and gave Himself for me." 45:16 For Paul, this phrase, "gave Himself," 45:19 is an equivalence to love. 45:22 So it's not this fuzzy-wuzzy, namby-pamby, air-conditioned, 45:27 milk toast, vanilla version of love, you know, that you sing 45:32 and you forget tomorrow or next year. 45:34 Love is a principle that says, "You are more important to me 45:39 than I am to me." 45:40 Jesus gave Himself, He gave Himself. 45:44 But here's a fascinating thing. 45:46 In order to have love, if love is the principle of putting 45:49 somebody else first, definitionally, 45:54 you have to have another. 45:56 Have to. 45:58 Right? 45:59 You gotta. 46:00 You cannot have love in a vacuum. 46:03 If you have a single solitary being, namely just God 46:08 who's all by himself in the most emphatic sense of one, 46:12 this God could become loving if He made an object 46:16 upon which to bestow His love. 46:18 But listen to the language, "He becomes loving." 46:22 That's not what John said. 46:24 John said, "God is love." 46:27 Something about God, in the very fiber and fabric of who He is, 46:31 is this principle of putting someone else first. 46:35 But how can you put someone else first if there's 46:37 no one else to put first. 46:41 Now, I thought this was pretty clever. 46:44 I was having this conversation with my friend, Ty Gibson. 46:46 He said, "Well, let me take it a step further." 46:48 I've got this amazing quotation. 46:49 In fact, I think it's going to be here on the 46:51 screen so you can read it. 46:52 It's a little lengthy, but follow this. 46:53 This is awesome. I hadn't thought of this. 46:56 To me, what I was saying, I was like, "Yeah." 46:58 But then Ty, he took it to the next level. 47:02 Okay, watch this. 48:15 Have you followed that? That is awesome. 48:18 What he's basically saying is, that if there were just two 48:22 you have the potential for a selfish self-absorption. 48:25 And anyone who has ever seen two young people 48:29 fall in love... 48:30 They don't even have to be young. 48:31 In fact, I had a friend of mine who recently just fell in love 48:33 with a young lady I guess it was about a year ago. 48:35 And these two were just ridiculous. 48:38 And listen, I'm all for young people falling in love 48:41 with other godly young people. 48:43 But they were just, "Oh, hmm hmm hmm. 48:45 Oh, hmm hmm hmm." 48:47 And they just... It's like, ugh. 48:50 I mean, okay a little bit. 48:52 I mean, a little bit of that is okay. 48:53 But I mean, it's just like they were on their own little... 48:57 And it was just like the rest of the world just disappears. 49:00 Right? 49:01 Now, I don't want to get into any trouble. 49:03 Please, please, please don't take offense at this. 49:05 But I'm going to say it anyway. 49:07 It is sometimes the case... 49:10 Okay, I'm going to make you repeat that. 49:11 It is sometimes the case... 49:14 Did I say always? No. What did I say? 49:17 It is sometimes the case that when you have a married 49:21 couple who decides not to have children, okay, 49:27 I have noticed in a pastoral setting and just as an observer 49:30 of human beings that there is a tendency or a propensity 49:36 for those couples to become isolationists 49:39 and even a little selfish. 49:40 Right? 49:42 So what does God say? 49:43 What's the first thing that God says to Adam and Eve 49:44 so that they won't sit there batting their eyelashes 49:46 at each other all day? 49:48 What does He say? 49:49 "Be fruitful and..." 49:51 Listen, I tell people this all the time. 49:53 The change that happens in your life... 49:55 I tell single people this. 49:56 The change that happens in your life when you get married, 49:59 in my opinion, is smaller than the change that happens 50:03 in your life when you're married and you have kids. 50:06 Are you with me on that? 50:07 Because if you get married and you're 25 50:09 and you're traveling the world and whatever, 50:11 and then you marry another 25 year old who's 50:13 traveling the world, now you're just two sort of selfish people 50:17 gallivanting around the world with one another. 50:19 But now you bring a little pooping crying eating whining 50:24 thing into your life, you're like, "Ugh...you...I'm..." 50:30 Right? You've got this thing now. 50:32 And now what you have is the opportunity, as soon as you have 50:35 more than two, now you have the opportunity for... 50:41 If I'm bestowing my love, for example, upon my wife, my son... 50:47 Right? In the context. 50:48 Of course, I have more than one. 50:49 But in a familial setting, now my son has to be comfortable 50:53 with being on the, not the outs, but with seeing my love 50:58 lavished upon my wife. 50:59 And the converse is also true. 51:01 When I'm lavishing my love upon my son, 51:04 my wife has to be... 51:05 And so this is Ty's point when he says that 51:07 three is the essential numeric value of love. 51:10 Because if you have just two, you could have just 51:12 a self absorption. 51:13 But you introduce a third party and then now you really have the 51:17 potential for someone to feel as though they were left out. 51:21 But in the triune nature of God, the Father lavishes His love 51:25 upon the Spirit and the Son. 51:27 The Son lavishes His love upon the Spirit and the Father. 51:30 And the Spirit lavishes His love upon the Father and the Son. 51:34 It's absolutely beautiful. 51:36 And this is, I believe, the point that John was making 51:38 when he said not merely that God is loving, 51:41 but that God is love. 51:47 Now one of my very favorite statements to this effect 51:51 is from an evangelical theologian, 51:54 former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, 51:57 a man by the name of Millard Erickson. 51:59 He wrote a book called, Making Sense Of The Trinity. 52:01 Now listen to this language. 52:28 Now let me unpack that for you. 52:32 In the non-theistic or atheistic world, people who don't believe 52:35 that there is a God, they think that all there is 52:38 is matter and energy. 52:39 Everything that we see around us from stages to pulpits 52:43 to people to speakers and everything that you see 52:47 is made up of two constituent elements; 52:49 matter and energy. 52:50 That's it. 52:51 At its most fundamental rock bottom level, 52:55 reality is about matter and energy. 52:58 And so Millard Erickson's point is a fascinating one. 53:00 It says, if you're an atheist, if you're a non-theist, 53:02 then if the most fundamental truth about reality 53:08 is that at the basic level we are made up of matter, 53:11 then the most powerful constituting force 53:14 in the universe is electromagnetism. 53:17 That's what keeps things together. 53:19 Right? 53:20 Some things come together like that. 53:21 Some things come together like this. 53:22 Some things come together like that. 53:23 He says, but reality at it's most basic fundamental level 53:28 is not matter, but social. 53:32 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 53:34 The most basic truth, the most basic fundamental 53:37 reality about the universe is that there is 53:39 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 53:41 He says, "Ah, if reality is fundamentally social, 53:45 then the most powerful constituting force, the thing 53:49 which binds us together, is not merely electromagnetism. 53:55 It's love." 53:57 And friends, isn't that the world we live in? 53:59 I mean, isn't that the world we live in? 54:01 I mean, how many movies is Hollywood producing 54:03 about the glory and the passion and the thrill 54:07 of electromagnetism. 54:10 No. I mean, can you imagine. 54:12 That's not the world we live in. 54:13 Hollywood makes their money and their bread and butter; 54:15 and the magazines, the various magazines that 54:18 people buy; and the books that people buy; and the stories 54:21 that they read... What are they about? 54:22 They're about love, they're about relationships, 54:25 they're about overcoming. 54:27 I mean, just all of the... It's about love. 54:29 We are wired for love. 54:32 And Millard Erickson's point is a fascinating one, 54:33 and it's the biblical point. 54:35 The reason that you're wired for love is that the universe 54:38 is wired for love. 54:39 As a fundamental reality, a fundamental extension. 54:44 God created, God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, 54:46 created all of these wonderful beautiful, 54:49 and in our case sentient, beings and said, 54:53 "Participate with Me in My triune love." 54:56 "Participate with Me." 54:58 Love created. 55:00 In fact, I'll say something a little philosophical here, 55:02 but you'll get this. 55:04 Creation did not make God loving. 55:09 God's love made creation. 55:13 You got it? 55:14 But if I believe that God is just rigidly singular, 55:17 like my friends the Unitarian believe... 55:19 Right? If I don't believe in the triune nature of God, 55:22 if I think that God is just one in the most emphatic sense of 55:25 singularity, this God cannot be love. 55:29 This is not the God of Scripture. 55:31 Because this God could only become loving 55:36 once He made an object upon which to bestow His love. 55:41 No, no, no, no, no. 55:44 What God does is amazing. 55:45 What God is is amazing. 55:48 He didn't create and then become loving. 55:52 He created because He was love. 55:56 The Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in their eternal counsels 56:00 came together and said, "This love that We have, 56:02 this joy that We have, this happiness that We have, 56:05 this beauty that We have, let's share it. 56:10 Let's create others who will understand who We are. 56:12 Let's create others who can participate with Us 56:15 in this beautiful thing. 56:17 Let's create others." 56:18 And, of course, there was a huge danger. 56:21 I mean, that's a slippery slope because the moment that 56:23 you create beings who are genuinely free, 56:25 because love requires freedom, 56:28 then you create a risky universe, necessarily. 56:32 Because love requires freedom, and freedom entails risk. 56:36 But God said the risk is worth it. 56:38 The risk is worth it. 56:39 This is why the very three opening words of the 56:42 Conflict Of The Ages series written by Ellen White 56:45 more than 100 years ago, the very first three words are... 56:48 Do you know? 56:50 "God is love." 56:52 And then go all the way through all of the volumes; 56:55 Patriarchs And Prophets, Prophets And Kings, 56:56 Desire Of Ages, Acts Of The Apostles, 56:58 The Great Controversy. 57:00 And then you come to the very last three words. 57:02 Do you know what those last three words are? 57:04 "God is love." 57:06 Friends, we have fully set the table now. 57:10 In our final two presentations, we're going to go take a 57:13 specific look at the person and the divinity of the Spirit. 57:18 Who is the Spirit? 57:19 Because if the Spirit is merely a power, 57:22 I'm going to use Him. 57:24 But if the Spirit is a person, then He's going to use me. |
Revised 2014-12-17