SPEAKER_00: We're gonna look at one verse tonight, but kind of a bigger scope of John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: It's John 1, verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made.
SPEAKER_00: John in John chapter 1 begins where Genesis chapter 1 begins, the very beginning of the Bible.
SPEAKER_00: The Bible begins with in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And John begins the same way.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_00: That's John 1, verse 1.
SPEAKER_00: And then John follows that with a series of what are almost riddles, aren't they?
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: He was with God in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And you read this for the first time, and John is a common book that you tell a new believer to read, or it's even handed when I used to do college evangelism, I would have these Gospels of John that I got from Crossway, and I would hand them out all the time and encourage people to read them.
SPEAKER_00: And that's great because John goes to the I am statements and it keeps moving pretty fast.
SPEAKER_00: And so it's a great book for non-believers to read.
SPEAKER_00: But you have to admit that it starts with a bit of a riddle.
SPEAKER_00: How can something be with God but distinct from God, maybe?
SPEAKER_00: Or, I mean, how are you with somebody that you are distinct from, not distinct from?
SPEAKER_00: It's very riddle-like.
SPEAKER_00: Well, John is drawing imagery from Proverbs chapter 8, which we have talked about many times.
SPEAKER_00: If you remember, Proverbs chapter 8 has the same kind of tension in it.
SPEAKER_00: In Proverbs 8, it is the wisdom of God that is with God.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's wisdom that is alongside God.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's wisdom that creates the world.
SPEAKER_00: It is God who creates the world, but through wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, you can put both texts next to each other to get kind of an overview of them.
SPEAKER_00: This is wisdom speaking in Proverbs chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Yahweh possessed me at the beginning of his work, the first of his acts of old.
SPEAKER_00: Ages ago I was set up at the first, before the beginning of the earth.
SPEAKER_00: And so you're seeing that same riddle-like nature in these two verses in Proverbs 8, aren't you?
SPEAKER_00: That wisdom is saying I was the first thing God did before there was a first thing.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom says, I was there before God created the world, and then I created the world with God.
SPEAKER_00: And this is basic, you know, Judaism 101 here, that God created the world.
SPEAKER_00: Only God created the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so Proverbs in the heart of the Old Testament here is declaring that only God created the world, of course, but God created the world through through wisdom.
SPEAKER_00: The word was with God, John 1 says, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom was with God, Proverbs 8 says, because wisdom was God.
SPEAKER_00: The language in Proverbs 8, again, we've talked about this over the last several weeks, creates a riddle that is solved with the doctrine of eternal generation.
SPEAKER_00: The idea that the Father begets the Son, that the eternal Son of God is the only begotten Son of God.
SPEAKER_00: The Father begets the Son at all times.
SPEAKER_00: The Father is always generating the Son.
SPEAKER_00: There was never a time where that started.
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like there was just God the Father without a Son, and then He beget the Son.
SPEAKER_00: The Father and Son are co-eternal, and yet the Son comes from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And this happens before God creates the universe.
SPEAKER_00: This is always happening.
SPEAKER_00: And so that's how you unwind Proverbs chapter 8, that Yahweh possessed wisdom because Yahweh was begetting wisdom at the beginning of his works.
SPEAKER_00: Like at the very beginning, at the starting line, wisdom was already there.
SPEAKER_00: Before God made anything outside of himself, he had wisdom, which is another way of saying that wisdom is God.
SPEAKER_00: Ages ago, I was in that language set up.
SPEAKER_00: I was set up, this is the language of eternal generation.
SPEAKER_00: John 1 picks up on that.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the word.
SPEAKER_00: And the word was with God.
SPEAKER_00: And the word was God.
SPEAKER_00: He was in the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the language in the beginning is used both in Proverbs 8 and in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: This idea of word and wisdom are also conceptually linked.
SPEAKER_00: It is not a stretch to see how wisdom and word are the same category of terms.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like Proverbs 8 says God's wisdom was with him, and John 1 says God's alligator was with him, or whatever.
SPEAKER_00: No, wisdom and word are the same category of concept.
SPEAKER_00: But John sets aside the language of wisdom and takes on the language of word.
SPEAKER_00: That's because in the Greek world they had this concept of logos, this logical system, this the ideal reality, the logical construct that is behind all things.
SPEAKER_00: It is somewhat of a Platonic concept that everything in the Greek mind, everything that had substance and value had an image that was the source of its value and the source of its definition and concept and the ideal dog and the ideal tree.
SPEAKER_00: And it's all fun and games when you're talking about dogs and trees, but it actually means something when you're talking about goodness and righteousness.
SPEAKER_00: There's this concept of goodness and righteousness, or this concept of logic that is above this world.
SPEAKER_00: And in this world, we have goodness and we have righteousness and we have beauty and we have logic because of the Lagos.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word the Greeks used for it.
SPEAKER_00: And so John takes that word, that pattern, that type, that source of all wisdom, all goodness, all righteousness, all virtue, all beauty in this world comes from this, in the Greek mind anyway, this concept of Lagos.
SPEAKER_00: And John doesn't reject that.
SPEAKER_00: John doesn't fight that.
SPEAKER_00: John leans into it and says, that's great.
SPEAKER_00: Greek philosophers, well done.
SPEAKER_00: Plato, you've been gone a few hundred years, but well done, man.
SPEAKER_00: I'll take that Lagos.
SPEAKER_00: And you're right, there is a concept of goodness, beauty, and truth and righteousness and logic and reason and rationality that transcends the universe.
SPEAKER_00: That's always been with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because it is God.
SPEAKER_00: And with that, John in John chapter 1 gets to verse 3, where verse 3 almost becomes a commentary on Genesis chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: I'll put both verses next to each other on the screen again so you see them.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Whereas in John 1, verse 3, all things were made through him.
SPEAKER_00: That's another way of saying that God made the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: All things encompass the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: The all thing of John 1 encompasses the heavens and the earth of Genesis 1.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that was made is made through God's wisdom or through God's word.
SPEAKER_00: Now, where did God's wisdom and God's word come from?
SPEAKER_00: Well, of course, from God.
SPEAKER_00: Silly goose, of course it comes from God.
SPEAKER_00: God always has his wisdom and he always has his word.
SPEAKER_00: God is a father, so he always has a son.
SPEAKER_00: God is a speaker, and so he always has a word.
SPEAKER_00: And like I said, that language is already prevalent in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm 2, verse 7, the Father speaks to the Son and says, You are my son, today I have begotten you.
SPEAKER_00: And you recall last week, we talked about this last week, when the Father says, Today I have begotten you, it's not talking only about the future resurrection or the future ascension of Jesus to the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: It's not talking about the virgin birth only.
SPEAKER_00: When the scripture says, Today I have begotten you, it's using today to say something that is true every day.
SPEAKER_00: The Father has always begotten his son.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is always with the Father, including at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: At the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: That's what eternally begotten means.
SPEAKER_00: The Son was with the Father at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And I draw your attention to it because it's obvious all over John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: I want you with your eyes to kind of look through John chapter 1 and see all the times that concept of eternal generation is referenced.
SPEAKER_00: You can look at verse 9, for example.
SPEAKER_00: The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_00: And then I see creed refers to God as, uh, refers to Jesus as light from light, true light from true light.
SPEAKER_00: That's a language from John 1, verse 9.
SPEAKER_00: That God is light, the Father is the light source, and the Son is the manifestation of that light, the true light.
SPEAKER_00: The only way you can see the light of God is through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Through the second person of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: You see it again in verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Jog your eyes down to John 1, verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: The word became flesh, the second person of the Godhead, the eternal Son of God, became flesh, took on a human nature, was born on earth, and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, and here's the phrase glory as of the only Son, or the only begotten Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_00: So John 1, verse 14 says that the Son has the glory of the Father, full of it.
SPEAKER_00: Maximal glory is in the Son.
SPEAKER_00: We've seen his glory, glory as of the Son from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Where does that come from?
SPEAKER_00: Well, the Son is the Father's glory.
SPEAKER_00: He's the Father's light, he's the Father's glory, is the language of verse 14.
SPEAKER_00: Go down to verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: No one has ever seen God, the only God who is at the Father's side.
SPEAKER_00: What?
SPEAKER_00: How can John highlight that there's only one God, but then describe someone at the Father's side?
SPEAKER_00: Because they are both truly God.
SPEAKER_00: All the Father is is begotten to the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And so the Son is the only true God.
SPEAKER_00: He is at the Father's side.
SPEAKER_00: The language at the Father's side is the language from Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
SPEAKER_00: At his bosom, you could say, is the way some older translations translate it in John 1, verse 18.
SPEAKER_00: But at the Father's side, at the Father's heart, but the language of wisdom being at the Father's side is from Proverbs chapter 8.
SPEAKER_00: Wisdom is always with God.
SPEAKER_00: So recall, this is the basics of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: There is one God who exists in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: God is one and three, but God is not one and three in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: And if you remember that sentence, you're going to be so far along in Trinitarian theology.
SPEAKER_00: God is one and three, but he's not one and three in the same way.
SPEAKER_00: That would be gibberish.
SPEAKER_00: He is one in his essence.
SPEAKER_00: There is one being.
SPEAKER_00: There is one glory.
SPEAKER_00: There is one essence, being that is God.
SPEAKER_00: All of the attributes reside in that person in an undivided way.
SPEAKER_00: God is perfect.
SPEAKER_00: God is holy, he is glorious, he is righteousness, there is one glory, there is one righteousness, there is one perfection, there is one being.
SPEAKER_00: But that essence exists in three persons.
SPEAKER_00: And you see that in the passages we just looked at, the light from light at the Father's side, that kind of language.
SPEAKER_00: Well, that raises a very common question that every four-year-old asks when you try to explain them to the trinity, explain the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: The four-year-old at nighttime, and remember, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, they love Trinitarian questions at nighttime because they reject nighttime.
SPEAKER_00: They reject sleep time.
SPEAKER_00: You know, in the morning, they never ask Trinitarian questions.
SPEAKER_00: They never wake up in the morning and say, How can Jesus be truly God and truly man?
SPEAKER_00: Did Adam have a belly button?
SPEAKER_00: Is never a question you get at eight in the morning.
SPEAKER_00: It is always a question at 8 p.m.
SPEAKER_00: And so I wonder the sincerity of those questions.
SPEAKER_00: But the way the question is normally worded, if God is one in three, how does that work?
SPEAKER_00: That's a theological way of asking the question.
SPEAKER_00: How does that work?
SPEAKER_00: How can God be one being in three persons, one essence, one nature in three persons?
SPEAKER_00: How can that be?
SPEAKER_00: God is the unity of the divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: And three is the number of persons that divine essence exists in or subsists in simultaneously.
SPEAKER_00: We've covered two of the persons, the Father a few weeks ago, the Son last week, and maybe the last two weeks, and the Son the next two weeks as well.
SPEAKER_00: We'll get to the Holy Spirit in a few weeks because we're going through it in the order of the creed.
SPEAKER_00: And when I teach Trinitarian theology and seminary, I like to do father, son, and spirit together before I get to how God is working in the world, talk about the relations of origin.
SPEAKER_00: The father begets the son, the father and the son together bring forth the spirit.
SPEAKER_00: But the creed doesn't do it in that way.
SPEAKER_00: The Nicene Creed doesn't do Father, Son, Spirit, then the world.
SPEAKER_00: The Nicene Creed does Father, Son, then the world, and redemption and all of that, and then the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And so we're following the order of the Creed.
SPEAKER_00: And I understand the reasons why the Creed is in that order, but it does make this part confusing because as we talk about how God works in the world if He is one and three, we've only established the two so far.
SPEAKER_00: But just know that everything that is true about the two is true about the third as well.
SPEAKER_00: Everything that is true about the Father and the Son is true about the Father and the Son and the Spirit as they work in the world.
SPEAKER_00: And so I think the logic behind the Nicene Creed is that it's easier to understand if you just have two moving pieces than if you throw in the third piece.
SPEAKER_00: And so let me read the sentence one more time, then we'll start to unpack tonight.
SPEAKER_00: God is one in unity of the divine essence, but God is three in the number of persons in which that divine essence subsists.
SPEAKER_00: God is one in the unity of his divine essence, but there are three persons that essence subsists or exists in.
SPEAKER_00: How does that work is a theological question.
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is two words.
SPEAKER_00: It's the doctrine, two words, it is a doctrine of inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: That's the official name for the doctrine.
SPEAKER_00: You will not be asked to name this doctrine at the pearly gates.
SPEAKER_00: When you die and you stand before God for judgment, and Jesus says, Why should I let you into heaven?
SPEAKER_00: And you say, Because I've trusted completely in the finished work of Christ on the cross, I've turned from my sin and received the free gifts of the gospel by placing my faith in the saving work of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The follow-up question will not be, what is the name of the doctrine then that describes how the Trinity works.
SPEAKER_00: However, I do think it's helpful for you to know it.
SPEAKER_00: And who knows, sometimes an angel might ask you, you don't know.
SPEAKER_00: You're ready.
SPEAKER_00: If an angel ever asks you, you're ready.
SPEAKER_00: The answer is inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: And that is just a fancy way of saying that all of God's work is undivided.
SPEAKER_00: God's work in this world can't be separated.
SPEAKER_00: You can't say this is the Father's work, that's different in the Son's work, that's different in the Spirit's work.
SPEAKER_00: All of God's work is undivided.
SPEAKER_00: And remember, this is answering the question: how does that work?
SPEAKER_00: How does the Trinity work?
SPEAKER_00: And I'm taking that question literally.
SPEAKER_00: When you ask, how does the Trinity work?
SPEAKER_00: By that question I hear, how is God working in the world if he is both one and three?
SPEAKER_00: And the answer is inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: There's one divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: That essence is the source of will, that essence is the source of how God desires to act, what God wants to do, God's decree is found in his divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: So when God says, This is what I'm going to do in the world, I'm going to create.
SPEAKER_00: That is found in the divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: Election is found in the divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: Whom God is going to save is found in the divine essence.
SPEAKER_00: The divine decree is part of who God is.
SPEAKER_00: And so, as God looks to the world, he looks to the world with a unity to him.
SPEAKER_00: He decides to create with a unity to his decision, with a unity to his plan, with a unity to his election.
SPEAKER_00: The plan of redemption has a unity behind it.
SPEAKER_00: The Father, Son, and Spirit, together in a united and undivided way, decide to create the world, to save the world.
SPEAKER_00: The plan of salvation is theirs.
SPEAKER_00: It's undivided.
SPEAKER_00: There's one work, but there are three workers.
SPEAKER_00: There's one work of God.
SPEAKER_00: But there are three persons who carry out that work.
SPEAKER_00: But the work itself is not divided.
SPEAKER_00: The work can't truly be distinguished or separated because all three persons are doing the same thing, but there are three persons that are doing it.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of bad analogies for this, just like the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of bad analogies for the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: There's all kinds of bad analogies for inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: You hire three people to do a job in your yard, to dig a ditch in your yard.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really matter which one is doing the actual digging, all three are getting paid to do it.
SPEAKER_00: The work belongs to all three of them.
SPEAKER_00: Assuming they're not working at cross purposes from each other, they all are working together.
SPEAKER_00: They're partners in that sense.
SPEAKER_00: Now I say that's a bad analogy because in that analogy, the three persons have their own intellect, their own will, their own motivations for digging the hole and all that, that is different from their work partners, probably.
SPEAKER_00: But you understand the point of that analogy.
SPEAKER_00: It's not that the three persons actually are one person or anything like that.
SPEAKER_00: No, it's the three persons are all doing the same work.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really matter which one is doing it, the work can't truly be divided from each other.
SPEAKER_00: That's a very bad analogy, but to get you that concept.
SPEAKER_00: This concept is taught all over the Bible, and I'm going to give you a bunch of verses about this, uh, all from John's gospel, because that's where we are, and I hope it'll help you as you think through this.
SPEAKER_00: John 5, verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: This is Jesus speaking.
SPEAKER_00: The works that the Father has given to me to accomplish, the very works I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me.
SPEAKER_00: You see what Jesus is saying here?
SPEAKER_00: The Father has given him works to do.
SPEAKER_00: And they are the very works that he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, there's no separation there.
SPEAKER_00: It's not like the Father gave him a to-do list and he's gradually working his way through it, deciding what he's going to do and when he's going to do it.
SPEAKER_00: No, he's saying here that his will and the father's will are one will.
SPEAKER_00: All the Father has designed, the Son is executing.
SPEAKER_00: The very self-same works, he's saying, the exact works the Father designed.
SPEAKER_00: That's what he's doing.
SPEAKER_00: And notice that those works, the unity of the works, that Jesus can say, the Father's desire and my desire, the Father's works and my works are the same works.
SPEAKER_00: Notice what he says at the end of verse 36.
SPEAKER_00: They bear witness about me.
SPEAKER_00: Specifically, they bear witness that the Father sent him.
SPEAKER_00: The fact that the Son's work and the Father's work are the same work is a strong argument.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus is the one making the argument.
SPEAKER_00: It's a strong argument that he and the Father are the same being.
SPEAKER_00: They bear witness about who he is.
SPEAKER_00: Even the language of the Father sent me.
SPEAKER_00: It speaks in one hand to the Father sending the Son in the world, of course, which is patterned off of the Father begetting the Son in eternity past.
SPEAKER_00: John 10, 32.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus answered the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: I have shown you many things.
SPEAKER_00: He says, Many good works from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: For which of them are you going to stone me?
SPEAKER_00: So that's the question.
SPEAKER_00: The crowd's going to put Jesus to death.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus asked, I've done a lot that the Father told me to do.
SPEAKER_00: Which one of the good works I did are you going to kill me for?
SPEAKER_00: Which is, it's kind of a funny question.
SPEAKER_00: I know it's not a funny scene.
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to kill Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But it is kind of a funny question, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like he's raised the dead.
SPEAKER_00: He's healed the blind, healed lepers, given widows back their children.
SPEAKER_00: He's done so many good works.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they're going to put him to death.
SPEAKER_00: Why?
SPEAKER_00: And notice the Jewish response.
SPEAKER_00: The Jews answered him, it is not for a good work that we're going to stone you, but for blasphemy.
SPEAKER_00: Because you being a man, make yourself out to be God.
SPEAKER_00: Notice that the Jewish people understood what we're calling the doctrine of inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: They understood that by Jesus continually saying that he's doing the Father's work, that's Jesus making himself out to be God.
SPEAKER_00: The more Jesus says, I'm only doing what the Father told me to do, the more the Jews understand him saying that he is in fact God.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, Jesus goes on in the section to say, John 10.37.
SPEAKER_00: If I'm not doing the works of my Father, then don't believe me.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus makes his whole identity hinge on this point.
SPEAKER_00: If inseparable operations is not true, Jesus says, then why are you following me?
SPEAKER_00: If God has commanded me to do things and I'm doing them exactly, then that's an argument that he is from God and He is God.
SPEAKER_00: But if that's not true, then don't believe me.
SPEAKER_00: But if it is true, verse 38 of John 10 says, even though you don't believe me, believe then the works.
SPEAKER_00: That you may know and understand that the Father is in me and I am in the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So he's not talking about obedience, like the Father told him to do things, and he's just obeying God.
SPEAKER_00: And doing it.
SPEAKER_00: No, this is way beyond that.
SPEAKER_00: He's saying, when you understand the Father's works are the very things I'm doing, then you understand that the Father is in me and I'm in the Father, that our being is one.
SPEAKER_00: That's very different than three guys digging a ditch, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: Like when you understand, when you understand this ditch is dug, you understand.
SPEAKER_00: The guys might say that you understand we work as a seamless team.
SPEAKER_00: That's very different than saying we actually, our natures self-fill each other.
SPEAKER_00: But that's what Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: If you understand that the Father's works are in me, then you understand that the very essence, the divine essence of the Father is in me, and I am in him.
SPEAKER_00: John 14.
SPEAKER_00: Verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: Do you not believe that I am in the Father?
SPEAKER_00: And that the Father is in me?
SPEAKER_00: The words that I say to you, I don't speak on my own authority.
SPEAKER_00: Remember when I talked about God as one and three, and I said some ways he's one and some ways he's three.
SPEAKER_00: Authority is the one side.
SPEAKER_00: There's one divine authority.
SPEAKER_00: And so Jesus says, I don't have my own authority.
SPEAKER_00: The authority I have is the Father's.
SPEAKER_00: It's God's authority.
SPEAKER_00: And it dwells in me at the end of verse 10.
SPEAKER_00: That authority, that indwelling is what is doing the work.
SPEAKER_00: The very will of God dwells in me, Jesus says.
SPEAKER_00: The very authority of God dwells in me, the very essence of God dwells in me, and that is what you see working.
SPEAKER_00: So believe me, Jesus says, that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, or else believe on the account of the works that I'm doing.
SPEAKER_00: Like if you don't, if you don't, if you can't chart out the argument in your head, because inseparable operations is a hard thing to get your head around, granted.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, listen, I can see the glazed overlook in your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this was like a Saturday evening service, I don't know.
SPEAKER_00: I see the glazed overlook in your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: If you don't follow the argument, at least believe the works themselves.
SPEAKER_00: That's the idea.
SPEAKER_00: There's one work.
SPEAKER_00: But that work comes to us through two or really through three persons.
SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you why this matters.
SPEAKER_00: With syllogisms.
SPEAKER_00: It's syllogism time.
SPEAKER_00: Idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: Idol worship is worshiping anything other than God.
SPEAKER_00: That's probably a pretty good worship, a pretty good definition of idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: Idol worship, you might be worshiping an idol if you're worshiping anything other than God.
SPEAKER_00: Agreed?
SPEAKER_00: Point B.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus does different work than the Father.
SPEAKER_00: So this is not, I'm not advancing this argument, I'm just saying this is the argument.
SPEAKER_00: If idol worship is worshiping anything other than God, and if Jesus is doing different work than the Father, then worshiping Jesus would be idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: If Jesus is doing works independent of the Father, if Jesus had his own independent will, his own independent authority, then worshiping him would be worshiping an idol.
SPEAKER_00: And by the way, this is just, it's in the news right now because of the attack on the um the Mormon worship center last week or two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_00: I'm seeing a lot of politicians talk about how Mormons are Christians and all of this.
SPEAKER_00: And you know, this syllogism kind of puts an end to that talk right there.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Mormonism, Jesus is not acting out the will of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Father and the Son do not mutually fill each other, they have different authorities, different essences, they're different beings.
SPEAKER_00: Mormons will argue that they're Christians because they worship Christ.
SPEAKER_00: They worship Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: But the Christ they worship is not truly God, not truly from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: And so if that is true, then Mormonism, at its most basic definition, is idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: Because it's worshiping someone other than God.
SPEAKER_00: But you can go beyond Mormonism to this.
SPEAKER_00: You can go to the worship of a Jesus that is submissive to the Father, or a Jesus that doesn't have a Jesus that has his own will and his own authority and his own center of consciousness and all of that, and it quickly slides into idol worship.
SPEAKER_00: In contrast, the syllogism.
SPEAKER_00: God's works are undivided.
SPEAKER_00: If that is true, and it is true that Jesus is God, what follows is that Jesus' work is God's work.
SPEAKER_00: And that's really how Jesus is arguing over and over in John's gospel.
SPEAKER_00: In John 5, in John 10, John 14, he continually argues that his work and the Father's work are one.
SPEAKER_00: And again, even the Jews understood this because the Jews picked up rocks to stone him to death when he was making this very argument.
SPEAKER_00: They said, You keep making yourself out to be like God.
SPEAKER_00: What this means, by the way, you can set the syllogisms aside.
SPEAKER_00: You can go back to this.
SPEAKER_00: There's one divine work, but there are three divine workers.
SPEAKER_00: There's one work that God is doing in the world, but there are three divine workers.
SPEAKER_00: There's three persons who do the work, but that work itself cannot truly be separated.
SPEAKER_00: And I think you know this.
SPEAKER_00: This might sound more complicated to you, maybe if you haven't thought about this before, this might sound over your head or more complicated than it really is.
SPEAKER_00: The way I can prove to you that you know this is because you can you can start to play with the words a little bit and you can hear something that doesn't sound right.
SPEAKER_00: There's one creator, but three who create.
SPEAKER_00: That's inseparable operations.
SPEAKER_00: That's biblical.
SPEAKER_00: But if I change it to there's three creators, you would probably say, no, that's bad.
SPEAKER_00: There's not three creators, there's only one creator.
SPEAKER_00: That's evidence that you understand this concept.
SPEAKER_00: But all that God does, God does indeed do is trinity.
SPEAKER_00: What does that mean?
SPEAKER_00: It means there's an order in God's work.
SPEAKER_00: All God does, he does do is trinity.
SPEAKER_00: There's one God, there's one work, and that work is undivided, but all of that work does occur as trinity.
SPEAKER_00: What do I mean when I say God works as trinity?
SPEAKER_00: That there's an order to his work.
SPEAKER_00: He works Father, Son, Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you can do this with prepositions.
SPEAKER_00: When I say God works as Trinity, His work is undivided, but the prepositions change.
SPEAKER_00: All of the work is from the Father, and it's through the Son, and it's in or by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to leave that up on the screen for a while because I want you to think about this and understand that while the prepositions change, the work itself does it.
SPEAKER_00: And everything that God does, all three persons of God are at work.
SPEAKER_00: And yet they're always at work in that order, from through, and in, or from through, and by.
SPEAKER_00: Now, with that on the screen, I want you to notice that these are the personal distinctions inside of the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: That the Father is Father because all things are from him.
SPEAKER_00: That's what it means to be Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is the Son because the Father is working towards Him.
SPEAKER_00: Through Him.
SPEAKER_00: He's the agent.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Proverbs 8.
SPEAKER_00: I was next to the Father as the Father was creating, and he made through me.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, all things are made through Him.
SPEAKER_00: And the Spirit is found hovering over the water at creation.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit is always with the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: All this originates with the Father, is communicated through the Son, and is acted in or by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And we saw this with light last week.
SPEAKER_00: Light comes from the Father, but the Son is the manifestation of light, and the Spirit opens your eyes to receive the light.
SPEAKER_00: But the work itself of being light is undivided.
SPEAKER_00: Father, Son, and Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And you can go even further than that.
SPEAKER_00: The Father is the source of light, the Son is the light of the world, the Spirit opens your eyes to see the light, and then you're adopted by the Father, redeemed by the Son, regenerated by the Spirit, so that you can become a child of the light.
SPEAKER_00: Then the Spirit sanctifies you so that you walk in the light, which you see as the Son is the light from the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Your whole Christian life is wrapped up in that light motif.
SPEAKER_00: Your whole Christian life is wrapped up in that light motif, Father, Son, Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Everything is from the Father through the Son, in the Spirit, or by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And this whole work in the world is an extension of his life in the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is from the Father, the Spirit is from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And so they create the world the same way.
SPEAKER_00: From the Father through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And that's what's happening in John chapter 1.
SPEAKER_00: You can turn your eyes back to John chapter 1 again.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning was the Word.
SPEAKER_00: And the Word was with God.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Word was God.
SPEAKER_00: It's another way of proclaiming the divine identity of the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And he was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_00: Remember from Proverbs 8, the wisdom is alongside the Father while he's making the universe.
SPEAKER_00: And then notice the preposition in verse 3: all things were made through him.
SPEAKER_00: This is speaking of the Son now.
SPEAKER_00: All things are from the Father through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And nothing has been made that did not come into being through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the exhaustive phrase there.
SPEAKER_00: All things.
SPEAKER_00: And then this exclusive phrase, without him nothing was made that has been made.
SPEAKER_00: Not anything, the ESV says it this way, was not anything made that was made.
SPEAKER_00: It's kind of a clunky phrase, but it's going for this idea.
SPEAKER_00: It's a hundred percent exclusive and exhaustive.
SPEAKER_00: If anything exists, it exists from the Father through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Including light.
SPEAKER_00: Including God's own identity from the Father through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: And then as it spills into the world, creation.
SPEAKER_00: John 1, verse 1 is speaking of even God towards Himself.
SPEAKER_00: In the beginning, before creation happens, the Son is at the Father's side.
SPEAKER_00: But then in verse 3, creation does happen.
SPEAKER_00: And creation happens from the Father through the Son.
SPEAKER_00: Unless you think I'm making too much of the preposition in John chapter 1, the word through here, this is the way the New Testament consistently speaks of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Colossians 1, verse 16.
SPEAKER_00: For by him all things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, thrones or dominions or rulers.
SPEAKER_00: All things were created through him and for him.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit hovers in the water, the Father is the source, the Son is the agent through whom creation happens.
SPEAKER_00: Romans 11 says the very practically this identical verse.
SPEAKER_00: For from him, speaking of the Father, and through him, speaking of the Son, and to him, Spirit, and back to Son and Father, are all things.
SPEAKER_00: To him be the glory for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And even the passage we looked at last week, where we talked about there being one God, one Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ being that one God, 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6.
SPEAKER_00: But look at it again, this time with your prepositions in mind.
SPEAKER_00: There's one God the Father, from whom are all things, for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist.
SPEAKER_00: Notice the from the Father, one God and Father, and from him are all things.
SPEAKER_00: And notice the through, through the Son, through the Lord Jesus Christ, all things exist.
SPEAKER_00: Now, does this mean the Spirit did not create?
SPEAKER_00: No, but we're saving the Spirit for a few weeks from now.
SPEAKER_00: That was the design.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit also creates as the Spirit is God.
SPEAKER_00: You see this with everything God does: answering prayer.
SPEAKER_00: God's decree is from the Father, through the Son, applied in the world by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: So we are providentially led as the Spirit leads us.
SPEAKER_00: Then our prayers about our providence, about the world we're experiencing, we pray in the Spirit, through the Son, back to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: The Son is our intercessor.
SPEAKER_00: As the Spirit translates our prayers to the Son, the Son brings them before the Father.
SPEAKER_00: But it wouldn't be, it would be weird and wrong to say that you're not praying to all three persons of the Trinity or something like that.
SPEAKER_00: All three persons of the Trinity are hearing your prayers and answering your prayers.
SPEAKER_00: You can't divide their work.
SPEAKER_00: But it is experienced Son, I mean Spirit, Son, Father.
SPEAKER_00: God's creation, Father, Son, Spirit, redemption.
SPEAKER_00: All three persons of the Trinity choose redemption, plan redemption, bring redemption to pass.
SPEAKER_00: But it's always from the Father, through the Son, and applied by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: His works are inseparable, but they're always Trinitarian.
SPEAKER_00: Returning to John chapter 1, as I mentioned, notice the exhaustive nature of this in verse 3.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing exists that didn't come through him.
SPEAKER_00: It's exhaustive.
SPEAKER_00: It covers every galaxy and it's exclusive.
SPEAKER_00: It covers every heart.
SPEAKER_00: Nothing is too big to exist apart from God, and nothing is too small to exist apart from God.
SPEAKER_00: Your wandering thoughts, your doubts, your trials, you can bring them to God in a Trinitarian way, knowing that the Spirit directs your steps as you pray through the Son back to the Father.
SPEAKER_00: Everything made is under the Lordship of Christ, including eternal life.
SPEAKER_00: Look at verse 4 then.
SPEAKER_00: In him was life.
SPEAKER_00: The Father has life in it of himself, and he grants it to the Son to have.
SPEAKER_00: The Son has life in it of himself, and that life becomes the light of men.
SPEAKER_00: The eternal life and love of God breaks into our world in the form of light, and that light shines into the darkness, and the darkness can never overpower it.
SPEAKER_00: God, we're grateful for your light that you shine into the world.
SPEAKER_00: We're grateful for the life that you give us as a free gift.
SPEAKER_00: And we're grateful for the Trinity.
SPEAKER_00: These concepts push our mind, it seems, beyond what we can understand.
SPEAKER_00: And we know that's fine.
SPEAKER_00: If we could understand you, we probably wouldn't believe you.
SPEAKER_00: You're the infinite God over the universe who has condescended to us through your word.
SPEAKER_00: And so, Lord, help us take your word, learn from it, apply it, and live in light of it.
SPEAKER_00: With these complex thoughts, Lord, we don't ask to understand them fully, but we ask for the faith to believe them and then for the grace to help our unbelief.
SPEAKER_00: We pray that you would be at work in our hearts to help us believe you and worship you more accurately.
SPEAKER_00: We ask this in Christ's name.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now for a parting word for Pastor Jesse Johnson.
SPEAKER_00: If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website, iBC.church.
SPEAKER_00: If you want more information about the Master Seminary or our location here in Washington, D.C., please go to TMS.edu.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C.
SPEAKER_00: area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel.
SPEAKER_00: I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service.
SPEAKER_00: But no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church.
SPEAKER_00: Now may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly, serve the Lord faithfully, and share the gospel boldly.