WEBVTT 00:00:09.599 --> 00:00:11.279 First Corinthians eight. 00:00:12.400 --> 00:00:19.519 I'm gonna read verses one through seven. 00:00:20.719 --> 00:00:26.480 Now concerning food offered idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge. 00:00:26.800 --> 00:00:28.800 This knowledge puffs up. 00:00:29.440 --> 00:00:31.120 But love builds up. 00:00:31.440 --> 00:00:36.880 If anyone imagines that he knows something, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know. 00:00:37.039 --> 00:00:40.159 But if anyone loves God, he is known by God. 00:00:41.920 --> 00:00:53.039 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that an idol has no real existence, and that there is no God but one. 00:00:53.600 --> 00:01:14.319 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things, and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and through whom we exist. 00:01:16.079 --> 00:01:18.239 However, not everyone possesses this knowledge. 00:01:18.400 --> 00:01:27.120 Some, through former association with idols, eat food as if it was really offered to an idol, and their conscience being weak is defiled. 00:01:27.359 --> 00:01:32.159 This is the word of God, and I pray that he would seal it in your hearts. 00:01:32.879 --> 00:01:40.879 In the Western world, the so-called Western world, the idea of polytheism is somewhat quaint. 00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:47.280 When we think of polytheism in our world, we might think of people that live for lots of idols. 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:54.400 Somebody who lives for work, and somebody who lives for sports, and somebody who lives for family, and somebody who lives for the commanders. 00:01:54.560 --> 00:01:58.159 I'm putting them in a different category than sports, if you noticed. 00:01:59.200 --> 00:02:05.280 You know, that that's that's our form of polytheism, but that just globally is not polytheism. 00:02:06.799 --> 00:02:15.360 I remember going to my first and only Buddhist wedding that I've ever been to in Malaysia, and it was a wonderful wedding. 00:02:15.439 --> 00:02:21.520 It was a lovely time, and I learned lots about uh weddings in the Eastern worlds that I did not know. 00:02:21.680 --> 00:02:24.080 Namely, first of all, they take all day long. 00:02:24.479 --> 00:02:28.800 It started at 8 in the morning, and when I left at midnight, it was still going strong. 00:02:29.919 --> 00:02:37.439 We spent the morning, though, basically driving around town offering food to idols. 00:02:37.599 --> 00:02:42.719 I wasn't doing the actual offering of the food, but I was with part of the caravan of the wedding party. 00:02:42.800 --> 00:02:54.879 It was going kind of temple to temple, idol to idol, laying plates of food in front of the idols, and they would they would roll dice, and the dice would reveal if the idol was done eating the food or not. 00:02:55.280 --> 00:02:58.080 And then you would take the food and go to another idol, drive across town. 00:02:58.240 --> 00:03:01.439 It was all the you know, the idols of all the ancestors. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:06.639 And I was a uh snot-nosed, arrogant seminary student at the time. 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:09.759 You can imagine how well I fit in in this scene. 00:03:10.240 --> 00:03:12.159 I asked lots of questions. 00:03:12.319 --> 00:03:22.319 I I was under strict uh commands to not be belligerent, strict commands to not um be rude, which of course I needed those commands to not be rude. 00:03:22.639 --> 00:03:26.639 Um but I so I figured I'm just gonna ask questions. 00:03:26.879 --> 00:03:29.840 Like, how did the dice know if the idol is done eating? 00:03:30.000 --> 00:03:32.240 How is the idol communicating with the dice? 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:34.719 Is the idol communicating with other things that aren't the dice? 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:35.919 Why doesn't the idol just speak? 00:03:36.000 --> 00:03:41.840 Like those kind of totally non-confrontational helpful questions. 00:03:42.000 --> 00:03:44.960 It's the Socratic method, just asking questions. 00:03:45.280 --> 00:03:46.960 And as I mentioned, I learned a lot. 00:03:47.039 --> 00:03:51.520 Uh, you know, for example, I learned in in Buddhism the idols aren't directly controlling the dice. 00:03:51.680 --> 00:03:55.439 The, you know, the idols are done eating and the dice are reflecting that. 00:03:55.599 --> 00:04:00.080 It's not the idols are telling the dice, it's the dice are reflecting a world in which the idols are done eating, blah, blah, blah. 00:04:00.159 --> 00:04:01.919 There's nuances and differences. 00:04:02.159 --> 00:04:06.319 But I spent the morning, I would say, basically making fun of the idols. 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:17.360 Um then at lunch, to my surprise, we show up at a restaurant, and the food that we were all expected to eat is the food that all morning long had been offered to the idols. 00:04:17.600 --> 00:04:19.920 Which led to all kinds of other questions for me. 00:04:20.000 --> 00:04:26.079 Like, if the idols ate the food already, how is there any food left over for me? 00:04:26.399 --> 00:04:29.920 Like, I thought the idols ate the food, and yet here it is. 00:04:30.319 --> 00:04:34.399 And then I was in like the horns of a moral quandary here. 00:04:34.480 --> 00:04:37.199 Like, do I eat the food offered to idols? 00:04:37.759 --> 00:04:43.839 And you can see, this is the first time in my life where 1 Corinthians 8 like came into laser-sharp focus. 00:04:44.160 --> 00:04:52.879 You could see how having spent the morning making fun of the idols, there might be a nicer way of saying it, but that's what I was doing, making fun of the existence of the idols. 00:04:53.040 --> 00:05:06.879 If I were to then suddenly say, I can't eat this food, because the idols that I had spent all morning making fun of and questioning their existence and showing how they can't really eat the food, I mean it's wrapped in saran wrap, or you're kidding, the idol can eat through the saran wrap. 00:05:07.040 --> 00:05:07.680 Come on. 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:14.720 If after all of that, I would have said, Oh, but now I can't eat it because it's been defiled by the idols I spent the morning making fun of. 00:05:14.879 --> 00:05:18.480 You could see how that would logically undercut my whole argument. 00:05:20.000 --> 00:05:32.079 At the same time, if there were other Christians there that had been saved from that background, maybe they would be very offended by a Christian eating food offered to idols. 00:05:32.160 --> 00:05:33.519 And I'm this is my own confession. 00:05:33.600 --> 00:05:36.240 Time, like at the moment, I thought I'm a seminary student. 00:05:36.399 --> 00:05:40.240 Maybe how I act will be the pattern for some weaker believer here. 00:05:40.399 --> 00:05:42.000 They might pattern their life after me. 00:05:42.160 --> 00:05:48.720 In retrospect, I realized if there was anybody saved out of that world, they probably were a way more mature believer than I was at that time, for sure. 00:05:48.959 --> 00:05:53.920 But I didn't, I didn't have, as Paul says in chapter one, that knowledge yet. 00:05:55.839 --> 00:06:01.600 So this is the moment where monotheism and the world collide. 00:06:03.360 --> 00:06:11.360 This is why Paul roots the question of should you eat food off for diodols, which for us can be so far off. 00:06:11.839 --> 00:06:14.560 Like it's in a different world for many of us. 00:06:15.920 --> 00:06:24.079 I consider myself fairly well traveled, and I've had to make the decision that a whole chapter of the Bible addresses one time in my whole life. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:29.199 But for the Corinthians, this is called Tuesday for them. 00:06:29.519 --> 00:06:32.639 I mean, this is every day they're wrestling with this. 00:06:32.720 --> 00:06:38.240 Every day they're confronted with do I eat the food offered to idols? 00:06:38.399 --> 00:06:39.600 Every day. 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.560 They're living in a world where they're surrounded by the word. 00:06:44.959 --> 00:06:46.319 It's the Roman pantheon. 00:06:46.480 --> 00:06:48.720 There's temples to all of the gods. 00:06:51.920 --> 00:06:56.240 And of course, this is the best place to buy the food, is at the markets, because there's so much of it. 00:06:56.319 --> 00:07:00.720 The food is offered to idols, the idols are done eating it, and so then it's sold to you. 00:07:01.279 --> 00:07:03.360 It was the best food available. 00:07:04.879 --> 00:07:10.079 And so the Corinthians are constantly finding themselves in a similar dilemma. 00:07:11.279 --> 00:07:20.480 And Paul helps them in verse 4 by saying, just this basic observation: if you eat food that was offered to idols, know that an idol does not exist, verse 4. 00:07:20.639 --> 00:07:22.720 It has no real existence. 00:07:23.600 --> 00:07:26.800 That word for real is a letheon, it's the word for truth. 00:07:26.879 --> 00:07:28.879 It doesn't, like it doesn't honestly exist. 00:07:29.680 --> 00:07:41.040 And he's using a little bit of a Platonic world view here, where there's the form of something that's, you know, ethereal and not concrete, and there's the concrete presentation of something. 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:44.560 And his argument here is that yes, there's a concrete presentation of idols. 00:07:44.639 --> 00:07:48.480 There are these different idols everywhere, but there's no actual form behind them. 00:07:48.639 --> 00:07:49.680 There's nothing behind them. 00:07:49.759 --> 00:07:55.120 These idols are not representing anything with a real and true existence at all. 00:07:58.959 --> 00:08:06.160 To use a different example, every philosophy book uses dogs and trees, and I mentioned this a couple weeks ago, but they all use dogs and trees. 00:08:06.319 --> 00:08:16.480 Picture a dog, and you have the idea of a form of a dog in your mind, and you know, your dog might be like that dog, and even if your dog is a chihuahua, it still matches the form of the dog in some way. 00:08:16.800 --> 00:08:21.600 There's a form of a tree, and you know the bush is not a tree, but it has a tree-ness to it kind of thing. 00:08:21.759 --> 00:08:28.959 There's a form out there that's that's the ideal tree or the ideal dog or whatever, and it's all fun and games, and you're talking about dogs and trees. 00:08:29.040 --> 00:08:30.959 I mentioned that a couple weeks ago. 00:08:31.279 --> 00:08:37.200 But eventually you get to something that's important, like God. 00:08:38.240 --> 00:08:46.960 And so Paul's point here is that there are all these idols, but they have zero connection to God in a real form. 00:08:47.279 --> 00:08:50.159 There's no form of God behind those idols. 00:08:50.399 --> 00:08:51.519 They're nothing. 00:08:51.759 --> 00:08:53.519 They're less than nothing. 00:08:55.360 --> 00:08:58.000 They're certainly not corrupting your food. 00:08:59.200 --> 00:09:00.799 And so this is what he says in verse 4. 00:09:00.960 --> 00:09:02.559 The idols have no real existence. 00:09:02.720 --> 00:09:08.320 Of course, the idols are really there, obviously, but there's no truth or substance or form behind them. 00:09:08.799 --> 00:09:11.919 And that's because there is no God but one. 00:09:12.159 --> 00:09:17.759 And here Paul is jumping in verse 4 back to Deuteronomy 6, the passage we looked at last week. 00:09:17.919 --> 00:09:26.000 So that's the connection in my mind here that Paul in 1 Corinthians 8 is latching his everyday confrontation about idols. 00:09:26.080 --> 00:09:27.919 This happens every day in the Roman world. 00:09:28.159 --> 00:09:30.879 He's latching that on to the passage we looked at last week. 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:36.240 That here, O Israel, the Lord your God, the Lord is one. 00:09:36.559 --> 00:09:37.440 That's where he goes. 00:09:37.600 --> 00:09:38.799 There's only one God. 00:09:40.240 --> 00:09:42.240 There are so-called gods, verse 5. 00:09:42.399 --> 00:09:43.440 So-called gods. 00:09:43.600 --> 00:09:48.879 Some translations render it differently, some translations puts gods in quotes, and the Isvidas at the end of verse 5. 00:09:49.039 --> 00:09:54.639 There are many gods and many lords, and here the word God and Lord is, they're both coming from the Shema. 00:09:55.120 --> 00:09:56.720 Shmah Israel, remember? 00:09:56.879 --> 00:10:13.120 Yahweh, El Chene, or Yahweh, Adonai, Yahweh Ehad, Yahweh, Adonai, Yahweh being the Lord, in all caps in the English Bible, Adonai being Lord, with the lowercase, O-R-D, the two words for God, along with Elohim being the three words for God. 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:14.399 So that's what Paul's using. 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:20.480 There are, of course, many gods, Yahweh's, in quotes, and many lords, Adonai's, in quotes, because they're not real. 00:10:20.559 --> 00:10:22.159 They have no substance behind them. 00:10:22.320 --> 00:10:24.960 They're just shadows. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:29.759 Yet for us, there is one God. 00:10:30.639 --> 00:10:32.879 There is a true God that exists. 00:10:35.039 --> 00:10:40.080 And here's where monotheism runs headlong into the polytheistic world. 00:10:40.240 --> 00:10:42.720 There is such a thing as a true God. 00:10:42.960 --> 00:10:45.279 He is not represented by idols. 00:10:45.840 --> 00:10:47.360 This is the first two commandments. 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:48.879 There is only one God. 00:10:49.440 --> 00:10:51.600 Do not make any idols. 00:10:51.759 --> 00:10:54.639 The true God is not represented by idols. 00:10:56.159 --> 00:11:07.759 And then Paul goes on to say there's one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. 00:11:08.240 --> 00:11:16.480 And this is an awkward sentence, even more awkward in the Greek, but it comes across pretty awkward in English. 00:11:16.559 --> 00:11:20.639 If you look at the M-dashes, the long hyphens it's using in verse 5. 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:21.440 There's two of them. 00:11:21.519 --> 00:11:26.240 There's the sarcastic quote marks, and then there's this weird, yet for us there is one God. 00:11:26.399 --> 00:11:28.879 This is a very abrupt and convoluted sentence. 00:11:29.039 --> 00:11:32.240 I learned a grammatical term as I was preparing for this tonight. 00:11:32.480 --> 00:11:35.679 It's an anacoluthaon. 00:11:35.919 --> 00:11:37.279 I don't even know I'm saying that right. 00:11:37.440 --> 00:11:38.639 An anacoluthon? 00:11:38.799 --> 00:11:46.559 I looked it up in an English textbook, which defines it as a sentence that breaks away from the expected grammatical structure. 00:11:46.799 --> 00:11:50.159 An anacoluthon, a sentence that doesn't grammatically make sense. 00:11:50.559 --> 00:11:56.879 It's surprising in the English book I looked up, uh, gave this example of an anacoluthon in English. 00:11:57.120 --> 00:12:00.399 While in the garden, the wind slammed the gate. 00:12:00.799 --> 00:12:01.759 It's an odd sentence. 00:12:01.919 --> 00:12:04.320 While in the garden, the wind slammed the gate. 00:12:04.399 --> 00:12:09.200 It's a sentence that conveys meaning, but notice the subject is in the wrong place of the sentence. 00:12:09.440 --> 00:12:11.759 The opening phrase doesn't have the right subject. 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:12.879 Well, who is in the garden? 00:12:12.960 --> 00:12:15.039 It doesn't say the wind is the one doing the action. 00:12:15.360 --> 00:12:16.159 It's an odd sentence. 00:12:16.399 --> 00:12:17.440 It's an anacluthon. 00:12:17.519 --> 00:12:18.399 There's a name for that. 00:12:18.639 --> 00:12:20.240 You will be quizzed later. 00:12:22.480 --> 00:12:24.320 This is an anacluthon in Greek. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:26.240 It doesn't follow the right grammatical structure. 00:12:26.320 --> 00:12:28.080 The subject is all out of whack. 00:12:28.320 --> 00:12:29.679 For us, there is one God. 00:12:30.240 --> 00:12:31.120 And then it lists two things. 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:35.039 For us, there is one God, and then one Lord, Jesus Christ. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:44.080 One commentator calls this verse a Christological modification of the Shema, which is Deuteronomy 6.4. 00:12:44.399 --> 00:12:52.639 This is Paul taking the most well-known verse in the Old Testament and giving it a Christological twist. 00:12:52.879 --> 00:12:56.720 A Christian version of Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. 00:12:57.679 --> 00:13:00.720 And there's already echoes of the Trinity in Deuteronomy 6. 00:13:00.879 --> 00:13:02.879 We did talk about that last week. 00:13:08.480 --> 00:13:09.919 The Lord is one. 00:13:10.720 --> 00:13:13.679 And yet there's two names going on there. 00:13:13.759 --> 00:13:15.759 Why would you have to declare him to be one? 00:13:15.840 --> 00:13:20.159 Even the word for one has the kind of a plural ending on it in the Hebrew. 00:13:20.240 --> 00:13:22.159 So it is an odd thing in the Old Testament. 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.159 There's echoes of the Trinity there. 00:13:24.320 --> 00:13:28.240 But it comes into more focus in the New Testament, obviously. 00:13:28.399 --> 00:13:33.759 There are many so-called gods in heaven and earth, verse 5, that says, but verse 6, yet for us there is one God. 00:13:36.080 --> 00:13:39.600 In this passage, Paul's reaffirming Jewish monotheism. 00:13:40.240 --> 00:13:43.600 He's not saying that Christians reject monotheism or that they reject the Shema. 00:13:44.000 --> 00:13:45.519 He's reaffirming it. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:53.360 He is rooting Christianity's opposition to idols in the singularity of the true God. 00:13:55.120 --> 00:14:00.639 As I mentioned, the grammar of this is awkward, which leads many commentators to think that this was the start of an early creed. 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:06.159 This was something the Christians, it was a phrase that Paul was quoting that Christians themselves had quoted. 00:14:07.200 --> 00:14:15.600 Almost every commentary I looked at for this passage referred to this as one of the first creeds or one of the first hymns, but more common than hymn was a creed. 00:14:15.840 --> 00:14:22.159 That seems to be the consensus that Paul is giving you echoes here of some kind of maybe new believer's confession. 00:14:22.879 --> 00:14:32.559 That there is no God but the Father, from whom are all things and through and for whom we exist, in one Lord, Jesus Christ. 00:14:34.639 --> 00:14:35.919 This is his confession. 00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:42.879 He's using it in the context of idols, because if people can rally around the singularity of the true God, that'll provide unity in the church. 00:14:42.960 --> 00:14:48.960 And if people can do so while exalting Jesus Christ, that distinguishes the true church from all the idols of the world. 00:14:49.200 --> 00:14:54.000 So Paul is not saying we also believe in many gods, that would just get rid of idols and replace with Jesus. 00:14:54.159 --> 00:14:56.080 He's saying we don't have anything in common. 00:14:56.240 --> 00:15:07.039 It's so, we're so different than the idol worshippers that line the streets that the food they're offering to their so-called gods, it doesn't even affect the food at all. 00:15:07.279 --> 00:15:09.279 There's no true meaning there at all. 00:15:09.440 --> 00:15:13.840 In contrast, we believe in the crucified and resurrected Jesus Christ. 00:15:15.519 --> 00:15:17.120 But he goes even more in detail here. 00:15:17.200 --> 00:15:21.600 Remember, I said in the Shema there's two words for God, Yahweh and Adonai. 00:15:21.919 --> 00:15:31.919 Paul here swaps out the word Yahweh and replaces it with Father, and swaps out the word Adonai and replaces it with the Lord Jesus Christ. 00:15:32.639 --> 00:15:38.960 So Paul's taking Deuteronomy 6.4 and inserting two very common terms in Christian worship. 00:15:39.200 --> 00:15:46.720 There is one Yahweh, God the Father, and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ. 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:57.600 We'll look at the Jesus Christ part from other passages later on as we study through the Nicene Creed, but the Nicene Creed begins with this attitude. 00:15:57.759 --> 00:16:00.879 We believe in one God, and we looked at, we believe in our first week of the study. 00:16:01.039 --> 00:16:03.600 In one God, we looked at that last week. 00:16:04.159 --> 00:16:06.799 And so now the Father Almighty. 00:16:06.960 --> 00:16:08.320 We believe in one God. 00:16:08.559 --> 00:16:11.120 The Father Almighty will be our focus tonight. 00:16:11.440 --> 00:16:15.120 Paul refers to the one God we believe in as the Father. 00:16:16.159 --> 00:16:19.679 There's lots of reasons why God is called Father. 00:16:20.159 --> 00:16:22.559 I'll give you three of them tonight. 00:16:22.720 --> 00:16:25.120 First, it reveals God's perfections. 00:16:26.000 --> 00:16:30.639 Calling God the Father reveals his perfections or his oneness. 00:16:30.879 --> 00:16:34.639 As I mentioned, this is the ontological monotheism. 00:16:34.720 --> 00:16:41.600 Paul is saying that God truly exists in his nature, in his essence, in his being, as one. 00:16:41.919 --> 00:16:45.440 This is a reference from Deuteronomy 6.4, which again we looked at last week. 00:16:45.600 --> 00:16:51.840 I don't want to repreach last week's message, but recall from last week the main crux of that text is that there is only one God. 00:16:51.919 --> 00:16:54.000 And that's what Paul is reiterating. 00:16:54.799 --> 00:16:56.960 People can have only one father. 00:16:57.279 --> 00:16:58.720 There's only one God. 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:01.120 There's a oneness to God. 00:17:01.600 --> 00:17:07.839 And when I say God's perfections, that's not, don't hear me arguing that because human fathers are good and perfect, God must be good and perfect. 00:17:08.079 --> 00:17:09.200 No, of course not. 00:17:09.359 --> 00:17:11.039 If anything, it's the opposite way. 00:17:11.200 --> 00:17:13.920 Human fathers strive to be good because God is good. 00:17:14.000 --> 00:17:16.960 But God's certainly not patterned off of any of our existence. 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:21.680 I'm not saying that human fathers are perfect or even good at all. 00:17:23.279 --> 00:17:28.960 But I'm saying that God's perfections exist in one being. 00:17:29.680 --> 00:17:32.640 All of the attributes of God are his perfections. 00:17:32.799 --> 00:17:34.559 He's a perfect being. 00:17:35.599 --> 00:17:37.440 That's what I mean by God's perfections. 00:17:37.519 --> 00:17:39.279 They're rooted in one person. 00:17:40.319 --> 00:17:42.000 They're not multiplied. 00:17:42.559 --> 00:17:45.039 God's perfections are not multiplied, but they're singular. 00:17:45.119 --> 00:17:46.720 There's the oneness of God. 00:17:48.160 --> 00:17:56.480 Last week we talked about how that's the doctrine of divine simplicity, that all the attributes of God exist in their complete totality in a unified way. 00:17:56.640 --> 00:17:59.359 They don't collapse on each other. 00:17:59.599 --> 00:18:00.799 They're all one. 00:18:01.039 --> 00:18:03.359 God is not divided, He's not made up of parts. 00:18:03.440 --> 00:18:06.720 You don't take goodness and righteousness and mix them together, and out comes God. 00:18:06.880 --> 00:18:09.680 No, God is a singular being. 00:18:10.960 --> 00:18:12.480 That's what monotheism is. 00:18:12.640 --> 00:18:13.599 God is a singular being. 00:18:13.680 --> 00:18:19.200 All of his attributes reside in one person, and the attributes in that person cannot be really divided. 00:18:19.359 --> 00:18:27.039 And if you remember, you can think through kind of the three major attributes people think about when they talk about God is his omnipotence, his omniscience, and his omnipresence. 00:18:27.119 --> 00:18:28.799 And you see how they collapse into each other. 00:18:28.960 --> 00:18:29.920 He's omnipotent. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:33.839 He can do all things, he creates all things. 00:18:34.400 --> 00:18:37.680 He can't truly be fought because everything comes from him. 00:18:38.000 --> 00:18:41.759 People resist him, of course, but even in resisting him, they do his will. 00:18:41.920 --> 00:18:49.440 And even sinners rebel against God, they're using the air he gave and the lungs that he gave them with the life that he lends them to rebel against him. 00:18:49.759 --> 00:18:51.759 Doesn't make a whole lot of sense. 00:18:52.720 --> 00:18:54.319 But God is truly omnipotent. 00:18:54.400 --> 00:18:55.279 He created all things. 00:18:55.359 --> 00:18:59.279 And Paul says that here in verse 6, from whom are all things. 00:18:59.440 --> 00:19:00.720 That's his omnipotence. 00:19:00.799 --> 00:19:03.279 He is the creator, he makes all things. 00:19:05.680 --> 00:19:07.039 His omniscience. 00:19:07.279 --> 00:19:08.720 He knows all things. 00:19:08.960 --> 00:19:11.519 And you see how that's a form of his omnipotence. 00:19:11.680 --> 00:19:15.759 He has the power to know all things, and so he does know all things. 00:19:16.079 --> 00:19:20.880 He has the power to create all things, and so he knows everything because everything comes from him. 00:19:21.119 --> 00:19:22.960 So of course he knows it. 00:19:24.079 --> 00:19:27.680 He knows the details of all of creation because he made all of creation. 00:19:27.759 --> 00:19:32.319 So his omniscience and his omnipotence, you can see how they're really reflecting the same attributes. 00:19:32.480 --> 00:19:36.319 God is so far beyond us, we don't really have a word for all of his attributes together. 00:19:36.480 --> 00:19:42.480 We just, you know, we have to use our own words like his power and his knowledge and his holiness and his love and his goodness. 00:19:42.720 --> 00:19:47.039 We have to start throwing adjectives and nouns at him to try to get things that stick. 00:19:47.200 --> 00:19:54.559 But you recognize in God's perfections, he's so far beyond us that our own little quaint divisions don't do him justice. 00:19:54.880 --> 00:19:57.759 His omniscience just means that he knows everything that he made. 00:19:57.839 --> 00:20:00.160 It's another way of saying he's omnipotent. 00:20:00.960 --> 00:20:06.640 But think of a practical effect of God's omniscience, of all of God's knowledge and power residing in one person. 00:20:06.799 --> 00:20:09.599 That means he's knowable if he reveals himself. 00:20:10.480 --> 00:20:17.039 If God was divided, if there was more than one omniscient and omnipotent being, God could not be truly knowable. 00:20:17.119 --> 00:20:20.400 You would need knowledge from different sources and you have to cobble it together. 00:20:20.720 --> 00:20:28.880 But because all the attributes of God are singular, they reside in one place, in one essence. 00:20:29.279 --> 00:20:31.839 God is knowable if he reveals himself. 00:20:33.279 --> 00:20:35.119 You can't know him completely. 00:20:35.599 --> 00:20:37.599 Of course you can't know him completely. 00:20:38.079 --> 00:20:39.759 But you can know him as he reveals himself. 00:20:39.839 --> 00:20:40.880 And Paul says this in verse 1. 00:20:40.960 --> 00:20:41.359 Go back up. 00:20:41.519 --> 00:20:42.880 This is why I started reading in verse 1. 00:20:43.039 --> 00:20:44.240 All of us possess knowledge. 00:20:44.559 --> 00:20:46.319 We all know the idols aren't real. 00:20:46.720 --> 00:20:48.640 But we have knowledge that can puff up. 00:20:48.880 --> 00:20:51.359 Making fun of idols only goes so far. 00:20:53.119 --> 00:20:54.079 But look at verse 2. 00:20:54.240 --> 00:20:57.440 If anyone imagines he knows something, he doesn't yet know as he ought to know. 00:20:57.680 --> 00:20:59.839 You think you know a lot about God because you read a book? 00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:03.839 Ha! I mean, how far above us is God? 00:21:07.599 --> 00:21:09.119 God is omniscient. 00:21:09.359 --> 00:21:12.559 But by comparison, we know so little. 00:21:14.400 --> 00:21:21.920 You know, the analogy of you know us having a competition to try to jump to Africa from Virginia Beach, it's silly, you know. 00:21:22.000 --> 00:21:24.880 The the first and the second place, it doesn't matter who takes first and second. 00:21:24.960 --> 00:21:28.480 You all didn't, you didn't clear the coastline. 00:21:29.119 --> 00:21:35.039 That's often used as an analogy about our own righteousness trying to earn salvation by works, but it's also true about omniscience. 00:21:35.119 --> 00:21:41.599 The person who thinks he knows something, knows what Paul says here, verse 2, you think he knows something, you don't even begin to know anything. 00:21:42.480 --> 00:21:44.480 God is so far above us. 00:21:44.720 --> 00:21:47.599 But that doesn't mean he's unknowable, because look at verse 3. 00:21:47.759 --> 00:21:50.319 If anyone loves God, he's known by God. 00:21:50.799 --> 00:21:53.759 If anyone has a true love for God, where did you get that from? 00:21:53.839 --> 00:21:54.799 Remember Matthew 16? 00:21:54.960 --> 00:21:58.400 If you confess Jesus is the Christ, that's the work of the Father in you. 00:21:58.559 --> 00:22:02.000 So if you have a true love for God, That means God knows you. 00:22:03.599 --> 00:22:04.720 God is unsearchable. 00:22:04.799 --> 00:22:06.400 That's Psalm 145, verse 3. 00:22:06.559 --> 00:22:07.759 His knowledge is too high for us. 00:22:07.839 --> 00:22:09.519 That's Psalm 139, verse 6. 00:22:09.759 --> 00:22:13.920 God is unsearchable, but he is knowable. 00:22:14.079 --> 00:22:16.240 He is incomprehensible, but he is knowable. 00:22:16.319 --> 00:22:17.279 You can never understand him. 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:19.920 Through all eternity, you will never know him fully. 00:22:21.200 --> 00:22:22.559 But he is knowable. 00:22:23.519 --> 00:22:25.200 And he's omnipresent. 00:22:25.599 --> 00:22:26.880 He's everywhere. 00:22:27.200 --> 00:22:29.599 And that's another way of saying he's omniscient. 00:22:29.680 --> 00:22:30.960 He knows all things everywhere. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:34.640 He's not physically everywhere because he doesn't have a body. 00:22:34.960 --> 00:22:41.039 But his omnipresence is another way of saying his omniscience, which is another way of saying his omnipotence. 00:22:42.720 --> 00:22:45.680 Even before creation, he was present. 00:22:45.920 --> 00:22:48.319 Psalm 90, verse 2, he's the eternal God. 00:22:48.559 --> 00:22:51.839 Isaiah 44, verse 6, that he is the first and the last. 00:22:52.960 --> 00:22:54.480 Those are the attributes of God. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:59.359 Those are his perfections in one perfect essence. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:03.039 He's holy because he's separate from us. 00:23:03.200 --> 00:23:04.640 There's no moral defilement in him. 00:23:04.880 --> 00:23:10.640 God is perfectly powerful, perfectly perfect knowledge, perfectly present, and perfectly holy. 00:23:11.680 --> 00:23:15.759 This is the doctrine of a seity, that he has life in and of himself different from us. 00:23:15.920 --> 00:23:18.319 We have to borrow our life from him because we're made. 00:23:18.480 --> 00:23:20.480 He's not made, he doesn't borrow life from anyone. 00:23:20.559 --> 00:23:22.400 He exists in and of himself. 00:23:23.359 --> 00:23:26.960 That's all the perfections of God in one essence. 00:23:29.599 --> 00:23:32.400 God's essence is identical with his perfections. 00:23:32.559 --> 00:23:36.640 Who he is is perfect. 00:23:37.519 --> 00:23:42.559 And there's a way that can sound confusing when you say his essence is identical with his perfections. 00:23:42.799 --> 00:23:45.920 That can sound confusing, but think of a human being. 00:23:46.079 --> 00:23:50.240 Think of your husband or your wife or your kids or even your dog. 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:53.039 You know, you can have a good dog. 00:23:53.279 --> 00:23:55.440 The goodness is something your dog is doing. 00:23:55.519 --> 00:23:57.680 Your dog, you have your actual dog, and he's trying to be good. 00:23:57.839 --> 00:23:58.480 Good dog. 00:23:58.960 --> 00:24:03.519 You have a husband who is growing in his ability to love you and know you and care for you. 00:24:03.680 --> 00:24:05.519 So there's the standard that he's growing into. 00:24:05.599 --> 00:24:09.039 You have kids that are growing in knowledge and discipline and all those things. 00:24:09.920 --> 00:24:15.119 They have an individual existence that's different than those attributes, and they grow in those attributes. 00:24:15.759 --> 00:24:18.000 God is completely unlike that. 00:24:18.319 --> 00:24:25.680 Those attributes of goodness and knowledge and love, they don't have any significance independent of God. 00:24:25.920 --> 00:24:28.079 God's existence is his perfections. 00:24:28.160 --> 00:24:37.039 He is perfect knowledge, perfect love, perfect righteousness, perfect goodness, all of those things in one, and he doesn't grow into them, he is them. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:39.440 His existence is his perfections. 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:45.119 Our existence is just constantly trying to grow in knowledge and grow in love in verse one. 00:24:45.279 --> 00:24:46.559 We're just trying. 00:24:47.359 --> 00:24:50.960 The more we try to grow in knowledge, we end up being puffing ourselves up. 00:24:53.839 --> 00:24:55.440 How different from God. 00:24:55.920 --> 00:24:58.640 Verse 3 if anyone loves God, he is truly known by God. 00:24:58.720 --> 00:25:03.119 That's because God's perfections dwell inside of him, his knowledge is inside of him, that's all singular. 00:25:03.279 --> 00:25:07.279 His knowledge is his perfections, his righteousness is his perfections, and vice versa. 00:25:07.359 --> 00:25:09.519 All of it is in one person, secondly. 00:25:10.960 --> 00:25:12.799 We see God's perfections in his oneness. 00:25:12.960 --> 00:25:16.319 Secondly, we see God's personhood or his subsistence. 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:18.880 God's personhood. 00:25:19.039 --> 00:25:24.799 God is referred to as Father because God exists as a person. 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:28.960 God is not a nebulous force. 00:25:30.480 --> 00:25:33.119 God as Father is a person. 00:25:34.640 --> 00:25:37.039 God's attributes are not ethereal. 00:25:38.240 --> 00:25:41.440 God's attributes don't exist in a nebulous way. 00:25:41.599 --> 00:25:43.039 They're not just theory. 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:45.839 They're not just out there in the ether. 00:25:47.039 --> 00:25:54.079 God's attributes, which means God's perfections, exist in a person. 00:25:56.400 --> 00:26:00.400 That's the language of fatherhood, and that's why fatherhood is such critical language in the Bible. 00:26:00.480 --> 00:26:04.640 When the Bible refers to God as Father, it's personalizing God. 00:26:04.960 --> 00:26:07.039 It's saying he's a true person. 00:26:08.400 --> 00:26:17.759 Yes, he has a nature and a being and an essence, but that essence doesn't exist independent of a person. 00:26:18.000 --> 00:26:25.519 The essence and nature and very existence of God is in a person, God the Father. 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:29.839 God's attributes do not exist independent of Him. 00:26:30.000 --> 00:26:36.880 I have on my wall the best diagram possible of the Trinity, and yet it has one big problem in it. 00:26:37.119 --> 00:26:39.759 And it's just because diagrams can't be fixed. 00:26:40.079 --> 00:26:42.400 You can't diagram God, is the moral of the story. 00:26:42.640 --> 00:26:45.440 The best diagram still has a big problem with it. 00:26:45.599 --> 00:26:47.680 But my diagram has God is Father. 00:26:47.759 --> 00:26:57.440 It's the triangle diagram, and you see how the Father fills the Son, and the Father and Son fill the Spirit, and yet the Son is not the Father, and the Spirit is not the Father, and it's it's a it's a wonderful painting. 00:26:57.599 --> 00:27:00.559 Um, or drawing, clip art kind of thing made. 00:27:00.640 --> 00:27:07.759 But in the middle of it, it's got the little symbol for God, and it has like God and the arrow going out from God to the Father, and God to the Son, and God to the Spirit. 00:27:07.839 --> 00:27:11.279 And I understand what it means by that, but there's a big problem with that. 00:27:11.440 --> 00:27:15.759 It presents almost four things: the Father, Son, Spirit, and God. 00:27:17.200 --> 00:27:19.279 But that's a bad way of looking at it. 00:27:19.440 --> 00:27:20.880 There's not, that would be four things. 00:27:20.960 --> 00:27:23.680 That would be a quatrinity or whatever the right word would be. 00:27:24.000 --> 00:27:27.279 God does not exist as Father, Son, Spirit, and God. 00:27:28.240 --> 00:27:34.559 There's not a nature or an essence or a being of God that exists independently of the Father. 00:27:36.319 --> 00:27:45.279 It's not like there's this nature of God that is the Father sometimes and is the Son sometimes and is the Spirit sometimes, and exists independent of those three people. 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:47.200 No, that's that's modalism. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:49.680 There's probably 50 heresies come from that. 00:27:50.240 --> 00:27:57.839 All of the being and essence and nature and attributes of God subsist in the Father, as the Father. 00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:02.400 They don't exist outside of a person. 00:28:04.880 --> 00:28:08.559 They exist or subsist as Father. 00:28:08.880 --> 00:28:10.559 God is not a force. 00:28:11.119 --> 00:28:12.400 God is a person. 00:28:14.000 --> 00:28:18.240 God is not a collection of attributes, but everything he does is for attribution. 00:28:18.559 --> 00:28:20.160 He's a person who acts. 00:28:20.319 --> 00:28:22.640 It's not like the father has the knowledge of God. 00:28:22.720 --> 00:28:26.160 No, the knowledge of God resides in the Father in its perfection. 00:28:26.400 --> 00:28:28.480 There's not four things in God. 00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:30.400 God exists as a person. 00:28:30.559 --> 00:28:37.359 This is why when the Bible introduces you to God, he introduces you to God as a father, repeatedly throughout the Old Testament. 00:28:37.519 --> 00:28:39.039 God is a loving Father. 00:28:39.359 --> 00:28:41.119 He's a person, He has a name. 00:28:41.359 --> 00:28:44.000 Moses' very first question is who do I say sent me? 00:28:44.160 --> 00:28:45.440 He doesn't get a generic answer. 00:28:45.599 --> 00:28:46.880