Deity of Father, Son & Spirit

Hello, grace and peace to you all. I would like to ask you to turn to John's Gospel, chapter one. Let's turn to John, chapter one. We are continuing our series on the Holy Trinity, where we're seeking to lay out the foundational, fundamental doctrines that come from the scriptures about this crucial doctrine. Last time, we considered the biblical teaching that God is one.

There is one singular divine being. This is the first biblical truth, our first biblical foundation that underpins our doctrine of the Trinity. Today, we're going to consider the second biblical foundation of our doctrine of the Trinity, which is the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is, we find that scripture identifies the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each as the one and only God. So to demonstrate this, we will need to consult a number of different texts.

But just like last time, I want to begin with one pertinent text, which will be in John's Gospel, chapter 1. So please turn there. But first of all, we will pray to our Lord. Lord God, our Father, we give you thanks for another opportunity to come together and to reflect on who you are. Lord, we've seen that you are one God.

There is no God but one. And we believe that. We reject all other so-called gods. But Lord, now let us go deeper and consider that there are three persons who are this one God. That you, Father, are God.

That your Son is God and your Spirit is God. Lord, let us see this from the scriptures and rejoice to know something more of this glorious mystery. May we worship you together with your Son and Spirit as one God. May we adore you and be devoted to you. May we stand in awe and wonder before you.

And Lord, use this time and our reflections on these holy things to draw us ever nearer to you. I pray these things in the name of Jesus. Amen. So let's read from John's gospel, chapter one. We'll read from verse one down to verse 18.

Once again, I'll be reading from the Legacy Standard Bible today, which is just a little different from our usual ESV. So this is John's Gospel, chapter one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him.

And apart from him, nothing came into being, but has come into being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overtake it. There was a man having been sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light so that all might believe through him.

He was not the light, but he came to bear witness about the light. There was the true light, which coming into the world enlightens everyone. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and those who were his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him, and cried out, saying, This was he of whom I said, He who comes after me has been ahead of me, for he existed before me. For of his fullness we have all received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. Amen. It is the holy word of God. So once again, this will be part two of our series examining the biblical foundations of our doctrine of the Trinity.

I said in part one that this is vitally important because this is our God. This is who we worship and our understanding of everything in the Christian life, all our practice and doctrine ought to be radically shaped by this doctrine of the Trinity. It is also the case that in the wider world this is a highly controversial subject. Pretty much every cult and pseudo-Christian group denies the Trinity in some way. Every non-Christian religion denies the Trinity.

So this is a uniquely Christian and uniquely biblical doctrine. And so we should expect it, of course, to be under heavy attack. It's also a doctrine that a lot of our own people struggle with. Christians struggle with this doctrine because it is hard to get your head around it. It is difficult to see the biblical data because it is a complex subject.

There are a lot of issues for us to work through, a lot of fine distinctions to make. And it requires us to set aside many of our natural inclinations, our natural assumptions and our intuitions that can very easily lead us astray. We have to be willing to be relentlessly and consistently biblical in order to consistently confess the doctrine of the Trinity. It is my contention that the Trinity rests upon three main foundations. If we establish these foundational truths from scripture, the doctrine of the Trinity will logically follow.

The first foundation is monotheism. Scripture declares that there is only one God. There is one divine being, substance, or essence. We covered this last time and I hope you agree that Scripture very clearly teaches that there is only one God. The second foundation is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each identified with this one God.

Scripture teaches that the Father is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Son is God. This will be our topic for today. The third foundation is that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are distinct persons. While the persons are one in being, they are distinguished by their personal relations to one another. The Father is of none, neither begotten nor proceeding.

The Son is begotten of his Father. The Spirit proceeds from the Father and the Son. Thus, there are three distinct divine persons. So what I'm saying is that if we're convinced that the Scripture teaches all three of these things, be compelled to confess the doctrine of the Trinity. There's much more to be said about the Trinity, of course, but with this series we want to just do the bare-bones version, which will hopefully be accessible on a beginner's level.

So as I said, today's foundation is number two. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are each identified as God. As the Athanasian Creed says, thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God. Yet there are not three gods, there is but one God. And that's hopefully what we'll see today.

What we're going to do is begin by briefly looking at what the scripture says about the Father and the Holy Spirit. The evidence there, I think, is pretty straightforward and maybe just a little bit less controversial. But where we're going to spend most of our time will be looking at the deity of the Son, that is, our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a matter that is highly contested, but also where we have a very great abundance of biblical evidence. To keep our discussion orderly, I'm going to break down this evidence into four key categories.

The first category is just where scripture directly and explicitly calls Jesus God. There are several places where Jesus is described directly as God. The second category will be passages that are explicitly about Yahweh from the Old Testament that are directly applied to the Lord Jesus, telling us that Jesus is identified with Yahweh. Third, we have divine works like creation and redemption that are attributed to Jesus. And fourth, we have passages where Jesus is worshipped and glorified with his Father.

So all in all, I think we have an exceptionally strong case for the second foundation of the Trinity. So let's get into it. First thing we have to establish is the deity of the Father. Is it true to say that the Father is God? As far as I know, this has never really been disputed in the history of the church, though I'm sure if you dug around in the dark back alleyways of the internet, you'll find some people who disagree.

But for almost everyone, the deity of the Father is extremely plain. And I'll give you just a few examples. In John 17, it says this, starting from verse one, Jesus spoke these things, and lifting up his eyes to heaven, he said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that the Son may glorify you, even as you gave him authority over all flesh. that to all whom you have given him, he may give eternal life.

And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. So Jesus calls his father, the only true God. And I think that's very clear. We also see statements that are similar to this throughout the gospels from the Lord Jesus. The apostle Paul is also very clear about the fact that the father is God.

Most of his letters, for example, he uses what some people call the apostolic greeting, grace to you and peace from God our father and the Lord. Jesus Christ, once again identifying the Father as God. But let's now consider the deity of the Holy Spirit. This is another one that isn't actually disputed all that much. Where heretics and cults tend to get the Holy Spirit wrong, is it assuming he's just some force or just the manifestation of God's active power in the world, rather than being a distinct divine person.

And we will deal with that some more in our next sermon on this topic. But most will agree that the Holy Spirit is at least to be identified with God in some sense. And one reason for this is simply in the name. He's called the Spirit of God. God's Spirit is not other than God himself.

And indeed, we see in the Scriptures that he is attributed to what God does, and that God is attributed to what the Spirit does. That wasn't—I didn't write a word that very well, but you get the idea. What did I say here? The Scripture often attributes to God what the Spirit does, and vice versa. For example, the Holy Scripture says that The Holy Spirit is evolved in creating and sustaining life.

This is what it says in Psalm 104. You send forth your spirit, they are created. You renew the face of the ground. The presence of God's spirit is also described as equivalent to the presence of God himself. In Psalm 139, we read, where can I go from your spirit?

Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, you are there. So where God's spirit is, God is. The Holy Spirit is also clearly called God in Acts chapter five.

Actually, let's turn to Acts chapter five, where we have the story of Ananias and Sapphira. This is a husband and wife who joined the church, and were very keen to be seen as giving very generously, like many others in the church were doing. So they sold some property, and they decide to say that they are donating all the proceeds to the church, whereas in reality, they kept back some for themselves. Let's look at verse three of Acts chapter five. So Acts chapter five.

Verse 3, it says, But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back some of the price of the land? So clearly in this act, they have lied to the Holy Spirit. Let's read verse 4. Peter continues, While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not under your authority?

Why is it that you have laid this deed in your heart? You have not lied to men, but to God. So for the Apostle Peter, lying to the Holy Spirit is equivalent to lying to God himself. He clearly identifies the Holy Spirit with God. And just like Peter, the Apostle Paul also understands the Holy Spirit to be God.

In 1 Corinthians, he talks in a couple of places about believers being temples or sanctuaries of the Holy Spirit. He says this in chapter 3, Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God, that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys a sanctuary of God, God will destroy him. For a sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are. So the Holy Spirit dwelling in someone makes that person a temple or a sanctuary of God.

Indeed, the very idea of a temple or a sanctuary is that this is the place of the particular special dwelling of God. And so if the Holy Spirit dwelling in you makes you a temple, then that follows that the Holy Spirit must be the presence of God himself. We also see this written in chapter 6 of the same epistle. Paul continues and says, So Paul is comfortable saying that believers are temples of God and at the same time, temples of the Holy Spirit. For him, these are intangible statements.

And just think of what it would mean to be a temple of the Holy Spirit if the Holy Spirit was not, in fact, the true God. would make you an idolatrous temple, which I'm sure we would certainly not want to be. But of course that's not Paul's point. He identifies the Holy Spirit as God. So we left the sun till last, and that's just because the deity of the sun is the most contested, and also because the evidence is the most complex and varied.

So we're going to have a lot of text to consider, but I do hope you can follow along. But before we get to some of these examples, I have a couple of observations to make in considering this topic as a whole. Because there are a few things that we need to be aware of that will help us to avoid some common mistakes. The first thing is that when we're looking at texts about the Lord Jesus, there is going to be some complexity. Because Jesus is not only God or simply God, but he is actually God incarnate.

That is, he is also a human being. And this can really trip people up when they try to consider this question, because they see things attributed to Jesus that don't seem to fit with the proposition that he is God. He grows, he learns, he eats, grows tired, he even dies. Those things would make no sense if Jesus were only or simply God. But of course, that's not true.

Scripture leads us to say that Jesus is both God and man. man, one person in two distinct natures. So we have to keep this in mind when we read things about the Lord Jesus. In any given passage, we should ask the question, is he operating here according to his divine nature or according to his human nature? I think the Apostle Paul gives us the categories to think about this.

In Philippians chapter 2, which is a text that we'll look at soon, he gives us these categories of the form of God or the form of a servant. This is talking about the two natures of the Lord Jesus. If we confuse these two natures, I think we're going to be very confused and we'll be liable to misunderstand the scriptures. So my point is simply that when we consider any passage that's describing the Son, Let's understand whether this is referring to human nature or his divine nature. We shouldn't understand any passages that talk about his human nature as standing in conflict with the idea that he is divine.

My second point is similar. We have to also understand that the biblical writers are very keen to emphasize that we shouldn't confuse the father with the son, or assume that the son simply is the father. This is because they are distinct persons, as we'll once again consider in our next sermon on this topic. He is God, but he is not the father. So we should expect the scriptures to distinguish the father from the son, and that shouldn't be taken to deny that the son is God.

In those cases, what we're seeing is simply the scriptures giving the personal distinctions within the Trinity. So once again, you have to make sure we're taking into account first the incarnation of the Son and the fact that the Son is a different person from the Father. And this will help us as we look at some of this evidence. So you remember that I said that there are a range of different texts, different categories of texts that testify to the deity of the Son. The first kind, I think, are the most straightforward.

These are texts that just directly say that he is God. And so we're going to start with the text that we began with today, John chapter 1. And I think this is just a wonderful text. In the other Gospels, the writers let the deity of Jesus slowly dawn on you as you see how he acts and how he speaks. But the Apostle John takes a different approach.

He wants to make it crystal clear from the very beginning who this Jesus really is. So let's look at verse 1. It says, And the word was with God and the word was God. So we're introduced to the word, the logos as it is in Greek. This word was in the beginning.

This is an obvious reference to Genesis 1 verse 1, where we hear that in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. So here John is revisiting the scene, the very dawn of time and all creation and giving us just a little bit more information about what was going on there. The word was there in the beginning. And this is already very suggestive. The word was already there in the beginning.

So the word can't have had a beginning. The word can't be counted among the creatures. And we'll see more on that shortly. Let's read on. And the word was with God.

So once again, thinking of Genesis 1-1, now we know that God was in the beginning with the Word, his Word. So there is this distinction being made between God and his Word. But there is also a suggestion of connection. For God to be with his Word indicates togetherness and unity. But that's not all.

We also read, and the Word was God. So there is identity as well as distinction. The Word was God. That's just very explicit. The Word is nothing less than God himself.

Now you might be aware of one way that various groups like the Jehovah's Witnesses try to get around this text. They point out that the word God here lacks the definite article, or however that's rendered in Greek. So rather than referring to the God, they say this just refers to a God. Now I can't personally weigh into debates about the Greek, not knowing that language myself, but I can tell you that scholars who consider this argument don't find it very persuasive. There's nothing in the fact of a lack of the article here that necessitates that we should understand the word to just be a God.

In fact, you can find multiple passages that clearly refer to God the Father that also lack the definite article in front of the word God. And they don't say that the Father is also just a God. So they're being extremely inconsistent on this point. We can also think just in light of our previous study that concluded that there is only one God. Remember that Yahweh in the book of Isaiah is very clear that he doesn't even know of any other gods.

He says He created alone. So if the Word is anything less than the one true God, that is, if He is any being other than Yahweh Himself and not just some lesser God, then you end up with some very severe contradictions in Scripture. Instead, we just need to believe what the Scripture says. The Word was God. Let's look at verses two and three.

He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him. And apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. So again, verse 2 re-emphasizes the distinction of persons. The Word was God while also being with God.

Remember what I said not long ago about how the biblical writers are very keen to show that the Son is a different person from the Father. That's what is reflected here. There is an identity of being while a distinction of person. Then we have this description of the Word's role in creation. All things came into being through Him.

So the Word was somehow instrumental in creation. His instrumentality is also exhaustive in that it covers all created things. Apart from him, nothing came into being that has come into being. So all creation, absolutely everything, was created through the Word. This clearly places the Word on the God side of the creator-creature distinction.

The Word can't be a created thing, otherwise there would be at least one thing that wasn't created through the Word, namely Himself. And we'll talk a little bit more about His role in creation a little bit later. But what I want to consider also from this passage in 1 John 1, let's read the paragraph starting with verse 14. This has got some really interesting things. So John chapter one, verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out saying, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me has been ahead of me for he existed before me for of his fullness. We have all received and grace upon grace for the law was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God at any time.

The only begotten God who is in the bosom of the father, he has explained him. So here it's very clear that this word who was in the beginning and through whom all things were made is Jesus Christ himself. Jesus existed before he became flesh. And observe how his relationship to the father is described in terms of a father and a son. A son is begotten of his father.

So this is another hint at how the father and the son are distinguished in eternity. These are persons who stand in relation to one another, that somehow, in some mysterious way, mirrors that of a father and a son. But what we're also interested in here is how the Bible identifies Jesus as God explicitly. And that's what we have in verse 18. What I have in my LSB, is this.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten God, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has explained him. So the word is called the only begotten God. And that's fascinating. He is God, but specifically he is God begotten.

He's God the Son. So John is very careful to assert that yes, Jesus is God, but also once again, to maintain the personal distinction between him and his father, who begets his son in eternity. Now, I will acknowledge, like I always do, that this is a textual variant. So if you have Bibles based on so-called received text, you'll have only begotten son instead of only begotten God. But it's true that many of our earliest and most reliable copies of John's gospel, it reads only begotten God, which I think is just another remarkable testimony to the deity of the Lord Jesus.

This isn't the only place where the Son is called God directly. John chapter 20 is another key example. So let's come and have a look at John chapter 20. You remember the story of one of the apostles called Thomas, who doubted what he heard from the others, that Jesus had been seen risen from the dead. We're going to read John chapter 20, and we'll start with verse 24.

This is what it says. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger in the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. And he said to Thomas, bring your finger here and see my hands, and bring your hand here and put it into my sight, and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are those who did not see and yet believed.

So Thomas addresses Jesus as his Lord and his God. These are two important divine titles. In the Old Testament, Yahweh is called both God and Lord. It's important to note that Jesus accepts this. He accepts this as a genuine profession of faith.

If Jesus were a mere creature, even a highly exalted creature, he would be obligated to correct Thomas, which is precisely what we see angels and godly men do who are offered worship. but Jesus doesn't. He accepts being called both Lord and God. There are a few other examples in Paul's epistles. Paul believes, I think very clearly, that Jesus is God incarnate, but his usual language is to say that the Father is God and he addresses Jesus as Lord.

Again, I think to be very clear that these are distinct persons. But Paul does occasionally address Jesus as God. In Romans 9, Paul speaks about the Jewish people and his desire for their salvation. And he speaks about the fathers of the Jewish nation and says, from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.

So this is fascinating. Paul here acknowledges the two natures of Christ. He talks about Christ according to the flesh, who is from the fathers. He is a Jew, a descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. But he also acknowledges his deity, who is God over all.

And Paul is so moved by the thought that he breaks out into doxology. He's blessed forever. Amen. This is worship directed at God, the Son. Similarly, we have a passage in Titus chapter 2.

I'll read it for you. of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all lawlessness and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for good works. So Jesus is called our great God and Savior, which is pretty remarkable. Now, some might argue that this should be translated a little differently. Perhaps we should say that we are looking for the appearing of our great God and then distinctly our savior, Jesus Christ.

But experts in the Greek language have pointed out that the grammar of the text here supports how we have it in the LSB and other versions. They call it the Granville-Sharpe rule. When this particular sentence structure is found in the Greek, they say that both nouns should always have the same referent. So we're in good grounds, I think, in saying They're both titles applied to the Lord Jesus, a great God and our saviour. Both are Jesus's titles.

It's also the same in 2 Peter 1.1. Peter addresses his letter to those who have received the same kind of faith as ours by the righteousness of our God and saviour, Jesus Christ. So once again, Jesus is called God. God and Savior, both titles applying to Jesus.

Finally, I want to look at Philippians chapter two, which is a very important text. So come and turn there if you'd like to follow along. Philippians chapter two. The apostle makes an argument about humility within the church. He wants the Philippian church to be united, to be serving one another, to be regarding one another as more important than themselves.

To make this point, he turns to the supreme example of humility. which is the Lord Jesus Christ. So let's read Philippians 2 from verse 5. Have this way of thinking in yourselves, which is also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man.

He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God also highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name which is above every name so that the name of Jesus, every knee will bow of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So I think verse six is key. Paul says that Jesus Christ was existing in the form of God. The word translated form is morphe.

Its most literal use refers to something's outward shape, its physical appearance. But the word is also used to refer to something's inward form or its inner nature. And that's what Paul is using. That's how Paul is using this word here. So it's referring to something's nature or essence or being, what a thing is.

And Paul, therefore, clearly confesses the son is divine. He is by nature, God. And I think it's telling how casually he says this too. He's not saying this as though this would be a great surprise to the Philippian church, as though they might've heard it for the first time here. The fact that Paul can clearly just address the idea that Jesus is divine as part of an argument about humility for the church, I think tells us that Paul has already taught this to the Philippians.

Paul's confident that they'll be able to follow his argument. The fact that Jesus is God, therefore, would have had to be part of the ordinary apostolic teaching. As they proclaimed the gospel of Jesus Christ, they included the deity of the sun. And I don't think there's any room at all here for there to be any other interpretation of this passage. Actually, I'd say that the context necessitates the idea that Jesus is God.

Just think about it. This is an argument about humility. If Christ was truly in the form of God, then it would truly be an example of immense humility, that he would take the form of a servant, humble himself, But let's consider what it would be if a creature did this. If Jesus were not truly God, then this argument completely falls apart. Because it's not a humble thing for a creature not to grasp equality with God.

That just goes without saying. Acknowledging that you're not God is the least a creature can do. Think about what happens to Herod when he refuses to reject the idea that he is a god. He's eaten by worms. So refusing to do this is not a humble thing, it just means that you're not a complete lunatic.

The coherence, I think, of Paul's whole argument depends on this idea that Jesus is God by nature. He's in the very form of God. His form or his essence is divine. So those, I think, are the main texts that explicitly call Jesus God. And those alone, I think, should be enough for us.

Those powerful texts. The scripture gives us a wealth of other kinds of evidence that also compel us to say that Jesus is God. I want to show you that the New Testament takes several passages from the Old Testament that are clearly about the one true God, Yahweh, and applies them directly to the Son, identifying the Son as Yahweh himself. So let's start. again with Philippians chapter 2, just where we were.

And I want to read verse 9 again. So Philippians chapter 2, let's look at verse 9. So this idea that Before Jesus, every knee will bow and every tongue will confess him as Lord. This occurs a few times in the New Testament. But did you actually realize that this is a quotation from the Old Testament?

Let's come to Isaiah 45. We explored how Isaiah very clearly declares the oneness of God, that there is only one God. And that's what we're going to see here in this text as well. And that makes this application to Jesus even more astonishing. So let's go to Isaiah 45, and we'll read a few verses starting with verse 22.

Isaiah 45, verse 22. Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. I have sworn by myself the word has gone forth from my mouth in righteousness and will not turn back. That to me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. They will say of me, only in Yahweh are righteousness and strength.

Men will come to him and all who were angry at him be put to shame. In Yahweh all the seed of Israel will be justified and will boast." So that's pretty remarkable. Isaiah says that to Yahweh every knee will bow, every tongue will swear, and actually the Greek translation of the Old Testament called the Septuagint, which is often used by the apostles, is even closer to what Paul quotes. It says, every tongue shall confess.

So Paul is making a direct reference to this passage. It just happens to have the Greek version in mind. But notice this key point. This is about Yahweh, the one and only God, the only one that we are to come to and receive justification. Paul applies this straight to Jesus.

So it makes sense if Jesus is Yahweh, worthy of divine honor and worship. And this is not the only passage that does this, applying passages of Yahweh in the Old Testament to Jesus. Another example is in Romans chapter 10. Let's go there, Romans chapter 10. We want to read the passage starting verse 5.

Romans chapter 10. This is what it says, Romans chapter 10, starting with verse 5. For Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law. The man who does these things shall live by them. But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way.

Do not say in your heart, who will go up into heaven? That is, to bring Christ down. Or who will go into the abyss? That is, to bring Christ up from the dead. But what does it say?

The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. That is the word of faith which we are preaching. That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you'll be saved. For with the heart a person believes, leading to righteousness. And with the mouth he confesses, leading to salvation.

For the scripture says, whoever believes upon him will not be put to shame. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek. For the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. So follow the argument.

Whoever confesses Jesus as Lord and believes in his resurrection from the dead will be saved. Jesus is the Lord in view here. Then Paul applies to him two Old Testament quotations. The first, whoever believes upon him will not be put to shame, is alluding to a passage in Isaiah 26, which refers to the cornerstone laid by Yahweh. The second, I think, is even more powerful.

It says, whoever calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. This is a quote from Joel 2. So I want you to come and see this in context. Joel chapter 2. We'll read verse 32, which is right at the end of the chapter.

Joel chapter 2. And we want verse 32. Joel chapter 2 verse 32. So again, this is a text about Yahweh. It is His name that we are to call on for deliverance or for salvation Remember what I said last time.

By the time of the New Testament, the Jews had been substituting the title Lord in the place of the divine name. The Greek translation of the Old Testament does this. So in applying this text to the Lord Jesus, Paul is saying that Jesus is not just a Lord, not just any Lord, but in fact is the Lord, Yahweh himself. To call upon the name of the Lord Jesus simply is to call on the name of Yahweh. I want to give you one more example.

This is from Hebrews chapter one. So let's come and turn there. Hebrews chapter one. This is a rich passage, I think, for testimonies to the deity of the Lord Jesus. Sadly, we don't have time to look at all of them.

Well, I want to focus on the couple of Old Testament quotations toward the end of the chapter. So Hebrews chapter one. These come in the context of demonstrating the superiority of the sun over the angels. In verse 5 it says, And then it gives a few quotations that apply to the sun. Verse 7 then gives a quotation about angels again.

And then in verse 8 it says, And then it gives another quote, which is an interesting one. It's from Psalm 45. But we want to look at this next quote, starting with verse 10. So, Hebrews chapter 1, starting with verse 10. So do you recognize this quote?

It comes from Psalm 102. We looked at this when we considered the eternality of God from Jude 25. This is, once again, about Yahweh. The psalm begins, O Yahweh, hear my prayer, and continues to address him throughout. Yet this is applied to the sun.

To him is attributed the creation of the heavens and the earth. To him is attributed eternity and immutability. He does not change. He'll never come to an end. Applied to a creature, such things would be blasphemy, idolatry.

Yet again, the scriptures testify that Jesus is God. Next I want to show you that the Son is described as doing divine works. He's called God. Texts about Yahweh are applied to Him. He also does things that only God can do.

First, the Son is involved in creation. We've already seen this from John chapter 1. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. Once again, this is significant because we're told that God created all alone. This is from Isaiah 44.

We've read this in our last sermon. It says, Yahweh, your redeemer, the one who formed you from the womb. I, Yahweh, am maker of all things, stretching out the heavens by myself and spreading out the earth all alone. And yet, John clearly describes the father making all things through the son, his word. The only way that you don't get a contradiction as if the son is also to be identified with Yahweh.

And John is not the only one who teaches this. The apostle Paul speaks this way as well. Let's go to Colossians chapter one. I think this is another glorious text about the identity of the Lord. Some scholars think that this is a portion of an early Christian hymn because it's just so richly poetic.

So Colossians chapter one. This is something that the Colossian church may have been singing every Lord's day as they praised the Lord And so Paul, in this case, would simply be reminding them of what they already profess to believe about the Lord Jesus. So let's read from verse 13 to Colossians, verse 13, Colossians chapter one, verse 13. So this is writing about the father. who rescued us from the authority of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of the son of his love, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for in him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things have been created through him and for him.

He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. He is the head of the body, the church. He was the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he himself will come to have first place in everything. For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile all things to himself, having made peace through the blood of his cross, through him, whether things on earth or things in heaven. So there are a bunch of things here I think that deserve a much more detailed treatment than we can give But what I want to focus on is just what it says about the son as creator.

It says, all things were created in him, through him, and for him. So again, we have this idea that the father creates through his son. The son is the agent of creation, just as John describes it. All creation is also for him, giving us this idea that the creation was made to belong to the son. And I think that's what the idea of the firstborn language is also getting at.

The idea that the son is the heir of all creation. Just as a human firstborn son inherits his father's property, so the son of God the Father inherits all creation. It was all made for him. The other thing I want to emphasize is the all. It's very emphatic that all creation encompasses absolutely everything.

All things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. This is absolutely exhaustive. Nothing was created apart from the Son. And while we're here, notice verse 19. Jesus is not just part God.

He doesn't just have a fraction of the divine nature. as though the three persons were just fractions of God. No, all the fullness of God dwells in him. Paul says the same thing in chapter two, verse nine. For in him, all the fullness of deity dwells bodily.

So Jesus is the incarnation of the true God in his fullness. Put another way, everything that is God belongs to the Son. Back to our point, the Son does divine works that exclusively belong to God. The first we've just seen is creation. We can add to that providence, or how creation is then preserved and maintained.

Let's stay in Colossians 1 and just read verse 17 again. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. So all things hold together in him. It says also the same idea in Hebrews chapter 1, where it says that he upholds all things by the word of his power. So the Son not only creates all things, but he also upholds all things.

This is a divine work. Another divine work is salvation. In my previous sermon, we read this in Isaiah. I, even I, am Yahweh. There is no Savior besides me.

So the Son is repeatedly called Savior in the New Testament. And I'll give you just a few examples. Matthew chapter one says this. You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Ephesians chapter 5, for the husband is head of the wife, as Christ also is head of the church, he himself being the saviour of the body.

Titus chapter 1, grace and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our saviour. We've already heard this in Titus chapter 2, looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. So Jesus is our Savior, and being Savior also involves, we could say, forgiveness of sins. You remember the story in the Gospels? The healing of the paralytic?

Jesus declares his sins forgiven, and the scribes who hear it are outraged and scandalized. They say, he is blaspheming, for who can forgive sins but God alone? Well, they're not wrong. Jesus proves his authority to forgive sins with a miracle. So again, Jesus shows himself to be both God and save you.

Salvation also involves resurrection, and this is also attributed to Jesus. Jesus says this in John 5, for just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes. In John 6, he says, no one can come to me, to the Father, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up in the last day. And in John 11, he says this, as he's about to raise Lazarus from the dead, I am the resurrection and the life. Finally, let's hear this from Philippians chapter three.

For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly await a savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of his glory by his working, through which he is able even to subject all things to himself. So our resurrection, the finality of our salvation will be the working of the Lord Jesus. So Jesus does divine works. He creates, he sustains, and he saves. To close things out, the final argument I want to make for the deity of the son is that he is given divine glory and worship.

I will not give my glory to another, says Yahweh. And yet Jesus prays this to his father. Now, father, glorify me together with yourself, the glory that I had with you before the world was. So even in eternity, before all creation, The son shared divine glory with his father. And the son is worshiped.

We already saw Thomas worship Jesus, calling him his Lord and his God. Jesus is also worshiped with the father before the heavenly host in Revelation. Come and see this, Revelation chapter five. This will be our final text for today. Revelation chapter five.

Revelation chapter five, we're going to read from verse 11. Revelation 5, starting with verse 11. Then I looked, and I heard the voice of many angels around the throne, and the living creatures and the elders. And the number of them was myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands, saying with a loud voice, worthy is a lamb that was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. And every creative thing, which is in heaven and on earth and under the earth and on the sea and all things in them, I heard saying, to him who sits on the throne and to the lamb, be blessing and honor and the glory and the might forever and ever.

And the four living creatures kept saying, amen, and the elders fell down and worshipped." So there we have it. The lamb is glorified and worshipped with his father as only God can be worshipped. I think we've covered a lot today. I hope you've been able to follow along, at least to some extent.

There's so many more texts, even, that we could have considered, so many more arguments. I feel like we've only just scratched the surface. Regardless, I hope you've been able to see why we say that the Father is God, the Holy Spirit is God, and the Son is God. In particular, we've spent a lot of time considering how the Scripture shows us the deity of the Son. First, He is called God.

Second, passages about Yahweh from the Old Testament are applied to Him. Third, divine works are ascribed to him, including salvation, providence, and creation. And fourth, he's given glory and worship that belongs to God alone. I think our case is very clear. The evidence is absolutely overwhelming.

Now, those who reject the deity of the sun are guilty of serious heresy. One such heresy is called Arianism. It's an ancient heresy. It's a view that the sun, though he may have preexisted the incarnation, was nothing more than an exalted created being, perhaps an angel or something else. Jehovah's Witnesses are probably the largest group today that hold such a teaching.

But of course, the consequences of this is disastrous. If you believe this, you simply don't have the real Christ. If you don't have the real Christ, you don't have the Father. If you don't have the Father or the Son, you certainly don't have the Holy Spirit, and you don't have genuine salvation. That makes all your religion mere idolatry, where you blaspheme the real Christ by denying his divinity.

Suffice it to say, any doctrine that denies that the Father, the Son, or the Spirit is divine is utterly beyond, outside of the Christian faith. But if we do accept what Scripture teaches, then we'll believe in one God. And we'll believe that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are each that one God. So we can confess with the ancient church, with all Christians around the world today, what it says in the Athanasian Creed, thus the Father is God, the Son is God, the Holy Spirit is God, yet there are not three gods, there is but one. So with that, I think we've now established two out of our three biblical foundations that stand at the core of our doctrine of the Trinity.

Part three, Lord willing, we'll consider the way that the Father, Son, and Spirit are each distinguished as distinct persons, which will complete this series. But that will be a few weeks away. For now, let's just pray. Father, Lord Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you once again. for the privilege of hearing your word and contemplating you, our glorious triune God.

Father, you are our God. We praise you and we give you thanks. Lord Jesus, you are our God, our saviour and redeemer. To you also we give praise and thanksgiving and honour and glory. Holy Spirit, you are our God.

With the Father and the Son, we worship and glorify you, who speaks to us and enlightens us and dwells within us, drawing us up to the Father through the Son. Sovereign Triune Lord, make your home with us. Be close to us. May what we've heard today dwell in our hearts forever, that we would know you rightly as our only true God. Have mercy on us, Lord.

In the name of our only mediator, Christ Jesus, we pray. Amen.