The True God Series - The God of the Old Testament

(4) Ken Loucks - The True God - The God of the Old Testament - YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pREQrJ20nY

Transcript:
(00:01) This is the final message in the series I started called the true God series. So what did we cover? We covered the basic truths that we know that have been revealed to us that God is a family. That it began with him and the word before any beginning of any time before any creation ever existed. The two of them in this family together the only two beings.
(00:30) Then creation happened and there was an angelic realm created and there was a universe created and there were creation. So we went through seeing clearly the scriptures talking about God as a family and then we started addressing okay what are some of the fallacies, the heresies, the false teachings about God that can undermine the truth in in in anyone really.
(00:57) And so we looked at the fact that Jesus Christ is not a created being. That he was truly there with God before anything was created and was as we see in John 1 through John 1 1 through3 that he was the creator of everything. And so he couldn't be a created being if he were the creator of everything. Then we looked at the standard Christian teaching of the trinity and why that is not only not true but cannot be true because it closes off the family of God to just three members of one being. And if there's only one being then there's no more to that family. There is no
(01:29) family in in fact if you look at it that way. And so today, the last one I want to deal with that also undermines our understanding is that uh how shall I say this? I I'll I'll just keep it as simple and then I'll explain. I'll give some context. The the title of this message is the true God, the God of the Old Testament.
(01:53) I want to look at the fact that some think that the God of the Old Testament was the father. So I'm going to we're going to walk through how that's not true. But I want to clar I want to give some clarifying statements. Number one, the idea of a god of the Old Testament like who was the God of the Old Testament? That's not that's call speak.
(02:18) Okay? We try to frame what we see and understand between two beings who existed and one being seeming to be the one who's doing all the stuff and yet we know there are two beings there. And so to try to understand and place that in a context, especially when someone will say, well, the God of the Old Testament was the father, begs the question, well, what do we believe? What do we teach? What do we preach about that? And yet the whole idea that there is a quote unquote God singular of the Old Testament is church speak more than it's a reality. But we try to context that or we try to place
(02:52) an understanding about what we know to be true. And that's I think for most people that's the simplest way to view it. There was a God who interacted with Israel. There was a God who walked in the Garden of Eden. There was a God who created all things. There was a God who wrestled with Jacob. There was a God who talked with Moses.
(03:12) A God who gave the law. Who was that? And that's why I wanted to be clear that we might call that the God of the Old Testament, but that's really still church speak, isn't it? Because really what we're just trying to ask is who was the one that was doing all of that since we know there are two beings. There have always been two beings and those two beings do not we don't see a diminishment of one over the other.
(03:43) We don't see in that relationship any sort of a diminishment where one is superior to the other in any way except maybe authority. But the Old Testament doesn't really help us to see even that. It's not until we get to the New Testament where Christ starts to really explain things. Then we can look back and see, oh, this was what was presented to us. And now Christ explaining to us helps us to see what was going on.
(04:07) And so in that context, it's okay for us to say, well, who was that being? What we call colloquially the God of the Old Testament. So I want to walk through that understanding today. lay the foundation that it has always been Christ as the the one doing the interacting, the father as the architect, the designer, the one who created the blueprint for everything and Christ as his chief builder, as his construction manager, uh whatever words uh kind of help you to see that Christ took on a role that he was given by the father. And it is in this role that we see him interacting and doing the things that we
(04:51) see him doing. That's what I want us to walk out of this message with a clear understanding about. Okay, let's begin over in John chapter 1 well John chapter 1 verse 18. And just just a tiny bit of backdrop for John. Remember that John is writing this much later than all the other gospels.
(05:12) He has this beautiful view as the last apostle of being able to look across 60 50 60 years of being a minister of Jesus Christ, an apostle over the church that he has overseen all these things that have gone on. And he has he has this wonderful view backwards that almost no one else really truly had. And so he writes different than the other gospels.
(05:39) He teaches us things that aren't covered sometimes by the other gospels. He brings out things that are not brought out in the other gospels and he has this view through history to be able to do just exactly that. It's interesting when you think about that because of some of the things that he says. So we'll read John 1 18 first. This is this experienced apostle looking backwards where he says as a testimony, "No one has seen God at any time.
(06:10) " That's emphatic. The only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father, meaning right now. And when was John writing this? After Christ's resurrection and ascension, taking his place at the right hand of God. He is in the throne room of heaven with the father right now as John is saying in hindsight. It's beautiful.
(06:35) So he says the only begotten son who is in the bosom of the father he has declared or made known the father. Okay. Well Christ's own words in John chapter 5. This is testimony from Jesus Christ himself in John 5 and verse 37. You'll you'll want to mark this I I think because we're going to refer back to it several times.
(07:05) Just really note what it says here. He says, "And the Father himself who sent me has testified of me. You," he says, "you have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. This is the testimony of Jesus Christ, the word of the Old Testament, the son of God, the only begotten son of God, testifying of his father.
(07:37) You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form. Remember as we went through our Bible study tools and how to properly establish sound doctrine that we begin with the plain statements of scripture that can't be obuscated, that can't be viewed somehow differently, that can't be metaphorically displaced. They're plain statements.
(08:02) This is one of those. This establishes our first understanding. No one according to Jesus Christ, no one ever has seen or heard the father. Okay. Then John comes back later, last statement here as he testifies in one of his last three letters which is John 1 John excuse me 4:12. 1 John 4:12 where he once again even later says, "No one has seen God at any time.
(08:43) " Okay? Either John's a liar, in which case we don't have to listen to anything he says, or he's telling the truth. He's saying exactly what Jesus Christ said. So, we do not have an ambiguous record. We have a very clear record that no one has seen the father at any time and no one has heard the father's voice at any time.
(09:10) So if that's true and of course we believe our Bibles. So we believe that's true then we're faced with a serious question. Who was the quote I'm going to put quotes around this. Who was the God quote that so many people in the Old Testament either saw or heard or spoke with? Who was that then? Let's consider a few examples. Genesis chapter 18.
(09:44) Genesis chapter 18 verses 1 and two. It says, "Then the Lord appeared to him by the terabenth trees in memory or of memory as he was sitting in the tent door in the heat of the day. So he lifted his eyes." This is talking about Abraham. And he lifted his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing by him. And when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the ground.
(10:18) And what did he say in verse three? He said, "My Lord, if I have now found favor in your sight, do not pass on by your servant." He knew who this was. And he calls him my Lord, my Yahweh. Go to verse 22. Verse 22 here. We're still in Genesis 18. Then the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom. But Abraham still stood before the Lord.
(10:57) So whoever he was interacting with called Yahweh, he sat with, he ate with, and he spoke with. We just read that that couldn't have been the father unless Christ misleads us. This is not the father. Then it cannot be the father who he was talking with. And you'll remember that he bargained with this being, this God for the lives of those in Sodom, his family, Lot.
(11:32) So, we know that he had a conversation that went both ways. He both saw him and heard him. Okay. Genesis chapter 32. Genesis 32:30. So Jacob called the name of the place Pineal. Quote, for I have seen God face to face, and my life is pre is preserved. So he saw God. More than he saw God, he wrestled with God until God put his hip out.
(12:16) So, it's more than even just an observation. It's an interaction, a physical interaction with this being called Yahweh. Exodus 24:es 9-11. Exodus 24:es 9-11. Then Moses went up also Aaron, Naab, and Abaiu, and 70 of the elders of Israel. And these all saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet as it were a paved work of sapphire stone, and it was like the very heavens in its clarity. But on the nobles of the children of Israel, he did not lay his hand.
(13:11) So they saw God, and they ate and drank. 74 men see the God of Israel and share a meal in his presence. It obviously was not the father. Exodus 33:11. Exodus 33:11. So the Lord Yahweh spoke to Moses face to face. As a man speaks to his friend. When you speak to your friend, do you talk back and forth? Of course you do.
(13:52) And that's so there's no ambiguity. That's what was happening between Moses and Yahweh. back and forth in conversation as a man speaks to his friend. So Moses saw him and talked with him. Jacob saw him and wrestled with him. Abraham saw him, talked with him, ate with him. The 74 elders saw him and ate before him.
(14:19) So what who is Christ talking about then when he says, "No one has seen the father or heard him ever. When we put these Old Testament encounters side by side with the words of Christ, then it becomes unavoidable to draw the conclusion when he says no one has ever seen or heard him, then he's not talking about him.
(14:42) When we see people interacting with someone who is a being of the godhead. And in each of these cases, the being is called Yahweh. That is the personal covenant name of God. So if the father has never been seen or heard, then there must be another divine being who bore the name Yahweh and interacted directly with humanity. Let me pause to just say this. The scripture is clear that there are two beings.
(15:22) It is further clear that you cannot distinguish between the two beings. They are in perfect harmony of purpose. There's no conflict between them. There's no disagreements between them. You can you can hardly tell where the one starts and the other ends because there's absolute perfection in their relationship with one another.
(15:44) And so when Christ comes and he says no one has heard or seen the father, shouldn't that provoke something in us? an idea like maybe we didn't know there was a distinction between these two where one is the father and one isn't. All we know is that there's two in operation. One of them clearly is speaking on behalf of both.
(16:10) Genesis 1:1 begins within the beginning God's plural Alohim created. Two beings are there. One of them is the active agent of both. That's really all the distinction is. One of them is the active agent of both. And so we go back where we began to see that there are two beings that we've known. We've talked about this. We walked through it in the very first message. We walked through it in the last two messages.
(16:39) John 1 verse one because Christ revealed to the Apostle John the truth about the Godhead. Again, we go to Genesis 1:1 as we did last week and we see there's no distinction. There's no number. Aloim is plural. It means more than one. But there's no number with it. So we don't know how many beings there are until we get to John.
(17:00) Then John says to us in John 1:es 1-3, in the beginning, that means before there was anything created was the word and the word was with God and the word was God. He wasn't the God. It's not there's no definite article. He was God as God is God. All things were made through him and without him nothing was made that was made.
(17:32) And so here we see a distinction between the two beings where they clearly have different roles. Even here we're not told what exactly the roles are that are different in the sense of we see one being this this being that created everything. We see he has a role. So then we can go back to Genesis 1:1 and we know that that was that being saying this is the role I had. This is what we did in the beginning God's created.
(17:59) And here it says, well, which one did that? Well, clearly the word is the one who did all the creating obviously as delegated by the father to do so. The agent of the father to do so. So already scripture rules out that the father is the one who personally interacted with humanity in the Old Testament. That is not to say that he wasn't there. This isn't about presence.
(18:28) This is about who's communicating, who's interacting, who's speaking, who's covenanting. So the first one is the first point just in case you want to make sure that you have it down. The first point is no one has seen or heard the father. The second point both the father and the word are called Yahweh.
(18:59) Now this is particularly important because those who teach the father is the god of the old testament begin with a declarative statement. The father is Yahweh and only the father is Yahweh. Y h. It's really important that you understand that that's the root of their argument. And so if you read in your Old Testament Bible, you read the words Yahweh, you're supposed to conclude that in every case where you see that it is the father. And yet that word is used thousands of times.
(19:36) In the Old Testament, the Old Testament presents Yahweh as the personal covenant name of God. Let's begin with that. Go back to Exodus 3. Exodus 3:es 14 and 15. Well, we read in verse 14, and God said to Moses, I am who I am. And he said, thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent me to you.
(20:20) So Moses is to say when he's asked, who sent you? I am. I am sent me. Moreover, God said to Moses, "Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, the Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, has sent me to you. This is my name forever, and this is my memorial to all generations.
(20:50) " This name Yahweh, YHWH, is the name that's used thousands of times to represent the God of Israel. Yet careful reading is going to show us that this is applied to both beings of the Godhead. Both of them. did I went to a couple of AIS to look at and see, well, how would they process this scripture? Would they would they
(22:04) identify two beings? And I learned something interesting this morning that I can only confirm by experience. a default position of of all AIS for anybody who's beginning to do any kind of research on any subject is to give you the answer that is the most popular answer on the subject regardless of whether it's true or not. Now, I'll give you an example.
(22:27) I watched a guy do this test and he said, "Okay, so if the most popular answer to the following question, 2 + 2 = 5. If five is the most popular answer, is that the answer you would give to a new person asking you what 2 plus two is? And the AI said yes, we'd give you five.
(22:52) Now, it went on to say, but if you asked us to justify that, we'd be a we we'd logically prove that it's actually four. Understand that that's why you have to be careful with these models. They're not going to tell you the truth. They're going to tell you what the most popular answer is. That's the default. Now I asked it about this and you know what its default position is? It it does not see two people unless you press it.
(23:10) If if for example it's going to take the most popular answer, the most popular answer is mainstream Christians trinity doctrine. And so if there's only one God and three members, then this is one God. And so the second mention of the God must be some sort of a literary thing. Maybe it's the way of expressing that royal we sort of an idea or it's metaphorical or it's something other than two beings but yet if you present well what if God is a family which says well if God's a family then that's two beings they clearly can see that but it comes
(23:48) from premise we know that God is a family we've already proved that and therefore we easily can see two beings here the one who's doing the work and from whom the authority to do that work comes the father. Yahweh to Yahweh is what we see. Two Yahwehs over in Psalms 1101. Let's go over to the Psalms. Psalms 110 verse 1.
(24:24) This is a psalm of David where he says, "The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your foottool." That's really interesting. If God is a family, this makes a lot of sense. It helps us to see and to understand the two God beings that are being discussed. But if he's not, if he's something other than that, then this is pretty confusing.
(24:57) But let's note a couple things. David says, "Yahweh said to my Adonai, master or Lord is what Adonai means. Yahweh speaks to my God and says to my God." So now we see a hierarchy. The Lord Yahweh says to my God, he's distinguishing between these two beings that that this Yahweh said to his God, "Sit at my right hand." Who's sitting at the right hand of God? The Father, the Yahweh.
(25:31) Who's sitting at that right hand until I make your enemies your foottool? Notice something interesting that how Christ used this very passage to defend himself as that second being that's present in this statement over in Matthew uh 22 41-4. Matthew 22:es 41-45. So while the Pharisees, I'm in verse 41 here.
(26:15) He says, "While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, "What do you think about the Christ, the Messiah? Whose son is he?" They answered the son of David. So he says to them, "How then does David in the spirit call him the Messiah Lord, saying, quoting from Psalm 110:1, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your foottool?" If David then calls him Lord, how is he his son? And of course they could not answer that.
(27:07) Okay. Stop it. Stop it. I don't need that. I'll get it. All right. Notice Isaiah 44 and verse 6. Two Yahwehs presented to us in prophecy. Isaiah 44:6. Isaiah 44:6. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel. So that thus says Yahweh, the King of Israel, and his redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last.
(27:59) Besides me, there is no God. Here again, we've got two identified. Yahweh the King of Israel, Yahweh of Hosts, his redeemer. This is the title used of Christ in the New Testament. Let's look briefly here at Galatians 3:13. Galatians 3:13. Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.
(28:37) For it is ris written, "Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree." And Titus 2:14. Titus chapter 2:14. Again, we're just noting this title given to Christ of redeemer. I I mean, that's a whole study to go through this, but I'm just giving you a couple to reference here.
(29:08) Titus 2:14 says, "Who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed and purify for himself his own special people zealous for good works." These passages, what we've covered in Genesis, in Psalms, and Isaiah, all present two distinct divine beings. Yet both share the eternal name Yahweh. This is not two gods. This is two beings of the same divine nature, united in will, purpose, and character.
(29:39) This means that when someone says Yahweh in the Old Testament, it could refer to either the father or the son. Those who would argue no, it always must be the father fail to recognize the reality that both are called Yahweh. That is not an argument that stands on its own. Notice Matthew 11:27. Matthew 11 verse 27 because we don't see this relationship described like this in a thorough treatise.
(30:31) Instead, Christ comes to us as he does here in Matthew 11 27 where he says, "All things have been delivered to me by my father and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal him." Even we don't fully understand who God the Father and Jesus Christ are except that it has been revealed to us through the Holy Spirit.
(31:03) All truth is divinely revealed by God and it is the only way in which we understand what the truth is. It is this identity of the father which remained unrevealed until Christ came to make him known by that identity. So we now know from the Old Testament that there is more than one being who bears the name Yahweh.
(31:31) But this raises the next question. Did Jesus actually claim to be that Yahweh? Of course, the answer is yes. Notice John chapter 8 and verse 58. John 8 verse 58. I'm going to grab verse 57 here just for context. It says, "Then the Jews said to him, you are not yet 50 years old, and have you seen Abraham?" And Jesus said to them, "Most assuredly I say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
(32:27) " We don't have to wonder what he meant by that. You know what's nice about context sometimes is we know what someone means by how the people they were speaking to interpreted what they say. And we read here in verse 59, then they took up stones to throw at him. They wanted to kill him.
(32:55) He claimed to be God and they were ready to stone him to death for saying that that is his divine name. I am. We read earlier in Exodus 3:14 where God said to Moses, I am who I am. Thus you shall say to the children of Israel, I am has sent you. The Jews knew Christ was saying he is that I am the God of Israel that interacted with Israel.
(33:28) Paul also identifies Christ as ancient Israel's spiritual rock. Turn with me over to 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10 uh verses 1-4. Okay. 1 Corinthians 10:es 1-4 beginning in verse one. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that our fathers, when he says that phrase, our fathers, they were, he is referring to ancient Israel, that our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea. Well, when did they pass through the sea? Only one time, the Red Sea.
(34:20) As they fled Egypt, it says, "All were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. All ate the same spiritual food and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them." Was there a God being present that followed them? Because it says that rock was Christ.
(34:49) Again, it's a clear, unambiguous statement. Now, I've heard some say, well, this can't be talking about God because it says that this God was following Israel. But we also know that in the Greek that word can be uh translated as accompanied. But let me let me make this argument even I think a little bit better.
(35:29) I'm getting there. I'm looking it up. Yep. Too far. I went too far. Here it is. Okay. I'm in uh Exodus 14. Sorry about that. I had to find it because I left it out of my notes. Exodus 14 19. I want you to note something. Exodus 14:19. It says, "And the angel of God who went before the camp of Israel moved and went behind them.
(36:12) And the pillar of cloud went from before them and stood behind them. So now we have where this rock was. It was in front of them, had been leading them. But when the Egyptian army caught up to them and they were trapped at the border of the Red Sea, God moved between Israel and Egypt to protect them.
(36:37) And then as they moved through the Red Sea, did the cloud move back in front of them? No. It followed them. through the sea as Paul says. So this is not confusing at all and it isn't saying something that we can't clearly understand. It's pretty plain for us to see what's being said. And that being Paul says was Christ, not the father. If God was that God interacting with doing all of the things that happened with Israel, then why when Paul has a chance to tell us that, doesn't he? He says it was Christ, not the father.
(37:17) And that is in no way meant to be a slight to the father. The father is over all. He was there, but Christ was the agent of all of the actions. Notice also, we read previously in Isaiah 44:6 that it said, "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, I am the first and I am the last. Besides me, there is no God.
(37:43) " Now turn over to Revelation 1 verse 17 and 18. Revelation 1 17 and 18. where John's speaking of seeing Christ in this vision. He says, "And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead, but he laid his right hand on me, saying to me, do not be afraid, I am the first and the last." The Yahweh identified in Isaiah 44, Christ says, "That's me.
(38:23) I am the first and I am the last as identified in that prophecy. And that of course is an intentional parallel. These statements from Jesus himself, from Paul, from John, all point to the same reality. Jesus Christ is the Yahweh who interacted with humanity throughout the Old Testament.
(38:49) That means that the God that we see, the God that we hear, the God who created the world is the same one who died to redeem it. The one who gave the law is the same one who fulfilled it. The one who entered into covenant with Israel is the same one who established the new covenant with the church. So this isn't any kind of a shift in the plan of God.
(39:15) This is consistency in the one who is the acting agent of the godhead. So we now have three solid proofs. The father was not the god seen and heard in the old testament. Both the father and the word are called Yahweh. Christ directly identified himself as the Yahweh of the old testament in most cases. in most cases. Now, I want to refute last two points I'm going to make here is I I want to refute a couple of false claims that are used to say no, God must be the father, the father of the old or excuse me, God the father must be the God of the Old Testament. And that we simply need to look at those
(40:02) as we've done with other messages. If we begin with the clear truth and then we deal with what is not true or what is misused in scripture. I want to begin in Hebrews chapter 1:es 1-3. Years ago I was approached by someone that I loved and respected in the church who came to me and he said this argument.
(40:21) Did you know God is the God of the Old Testament is the father? And I said nope I cannot see that. And he said well and he quoted me part of this. He says, "Do you remember Hebrews 1 where it says, "God who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds.
(41:03) At first glance, I guess you could someone I suppose if I were try to be fair-minded, somebody might read that and deduce by some of the phrasiology that that maybe that is what that's saying. But that is not actually what it is talking about. If we look at the key phrase, spoke by the prophets, spoke means to speak, to utter, to make one's thoughts known.
(41:32) That's not about whether the speaker is personally present. It's not about them speaking through any other medium. It's simply saying that he spoke. He delivered his thoughts. How? By the prophets. By the prophets literally means in or through the prophets. It means of or through the agency of.
(42:01) So it's a means of communicating. The writer is describing one way maybe God's primary way of communicating as being through the prophets. as like his human instruments, but it doesn't identify which being in the God family delivered the message to the prophets in the first place. This isn't about who is speaking those things.
(42:29) This is about what and by how his message is getting delivered. And he's saying, well, that it was being delivered by the prophets. And of course, that's not a new idea. This is the way God primarily spoke. It's not exclusive. Does it say God who at every single time and in every single instance spoke in times past to the fathers by the prophets? Cuz that's not what my Bible says.
(43:00) It says in various times and in various ways he did that, but not exclusively that way. Notice Hosea 12:10. It is well known that God in fact did do this. But again, this is about method of delivering one's will or words, but not who. I'm going to give you a couple of examples here from the minor prophets. Let's go to Hosea and then Amos. Hosea 12:10.
(43:32) Hosea 12:10. Well, let's pick this up in verse 9. I sorry about that, you notetakers. I'm sorry. Verse 9. But I am the Lord your God ever since the land of Egypt. I will again make you dwell in tents as in the days of the appointed feast. I have also spoken by the prophets and have multiplied visions. I have given symbols through the witness of the prophets.
(44:04) Okay. Amos chapter 3 and verse 7. He goes on to say, Amos says 3:7, just a few pages over, surely the Lord God does nothing unless he reveals his secret to his servants, the prophets. Of course, your Bible's filled with the testimony of prophets who were inspired by God. And of course, commentaries all agree. Let me read a few of these here real real quick for you.
(44:34) The pulpit commentary says, "God's communications to mankind in the past were conveyed through the prophets as his instruments. They were the human media by which his will was made known." Okay, Barnes notes on the Bible. Quote, "The meaning is that in ancient times, God made known his will through inspired men, the prophets.
(45:00) It does not mean that God himself appeared in person each time, but that the message was given through these human agents. The NIV application commentary says, "The point is not to identify who the speaker was, but how the revelation came. The former revelation was fragmentaryary and mediated through many prophetic voices. The final revelation is unified and embodied in the person of the son.
(45:31) These sources all agree then that Hebrews 1 is not answering the question which member of the godhead spoke. It's contrasting two modes of revelation the prophets versus Christ. And of course, if we try to read that Hebrews 1 as saying, "The Father was the God of the Old Testament," we run into a direct contradiction with other scriptures.
(46:02) We've read them where John said, "No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten son has declared him." Where Christ in his own testimony said, "You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his form." The plain statements of Christ trump any other conclusions one might draw. Because if the father had been the one personally speaking to and through the prophets, if that's the father, then Christ is a liar because no one has ever seen or heard from the father.
(46:41) And note too that the entire first chapter of Hebrews is about the supremacy of the son as the ultimate revelation of the father. The writer's opening contrast sets the stage. In the past, God's revelation came in many fragments through many prophets. Now it comes in the fullness through the son. And you'll note as you read through there that he's going to say who is appointed heir of all things through whom also he made the worlds the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person.
(47:16) This is the description of Christ not the father. This is about the progression and completeness of God's selfdisclosure from partial prophetic revelation in the Old Testament to full personal revelation in Jesus Christ. The second thing I want to deal with, the last thing I want to deal with is a term you may have heard before called the angel of the Lord. We read that angel of the Lord one time today.
(47:45) It's commonly used to argue that the being called the angel of the Lord that communicated with and directly interacted with Israel was a created being, an angel created for that purpose. Yet, we're going to see that that's not true. In scripture, the word used for angel is melac.
(48:10) In that phrase, angel of the Lord, the word for angel is melac, which means messenger. It means messenger of Yahweh, angel of the Lord, messenger of Yahweh, which doesn't tell us anything about whether that messenger was created, existed as the word. It doesn't say. So, it's a title, not a description. It describes function, not nature.
(48:34) I want you to notice a couple things. If it's a created being, there's a big problem with that. created beings, the angelic realm, they know that worship goes to God, not to any created being. Revelation chapter 19, John in his revelation, as Christ is showing him all these incredible things, has interactions with angels a couple different times through this.
(49:03) And notice in John chapter 19 or Revelation 19:10, Revelation 19:10, where he says, "And I," this is John describing his interaction with this angel. He says, "And I fell at his feet to worship him. But he," lowercase H, the angel that is, "but he said to me, see that you do not do that.
(49:34) I am your fellow servant and of your brethren who have the testimony of Jesus. Worship God. Don't worship me. Worship God. This angel knows his boundaries. He knows his lane. He knows that worship belongs to God and not to anyone created. Also in Revelation 22:es 8-9. Revelation 228 and9 again John says now I John saw and heard these things and when I heard and saw I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel who showed me these things but then he lowerase H that is the angel then the angel said to me see that you don't do that for I am your fellow servant and your brethren and of your brethren, the prophets, and
(50:30) of those who keep the words of this book. Worship God. This is how angels know worship works. It does not ever apply to them. So this is a very very fundamental understanding that we have to take when we look at this question that it was who is this angel of the Lord Lord and how was he treated? because we're going to find something about the angel of the Lord that's very different from the behavior of the created angels.
(51:03) We're going to see that he speaks in the first person. He identifies himself as I am and the God of your fathers and he receives worship and offerings without rebuking. Let's look back at the example of the burning bush in Exodus chapter 3. Exodus chapter 3. We're just going to grab three verses because they'll make the point and I want to preserve time.
(51:29) We'll read verses 2, 4, and 6. So, Exodus 3 2 4 and 6. Verse two says, "And the angel of the Lord, Malach Yahweh, appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he, that's Moses, looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Verse four.
(51:56) So when the Lord, when Yahweh saw that he turned aside to look, he called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses." And Moses said, "Here I am." And verse six, moreover he me Yahweh said,"I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. Moses knew exactly who he was talking to. It was God as God is God.
(52:33) The word, Yahweh, Christ, the rock. You want some other examples? I'll just give these to you instead of turning to them. So, we just don't have time to cover them all. Hagar's experience in Genesis 16 7-10 and 13. So, it's Genesis 16 7-10 and 13. Just a quick read for you later, your homework, where the angel of the Lord, that is Mech Yahweh, appears and speaks in the first person to her as the pre-incarnate Christ. Abraham and Isaac, which we just heard about in the sermon at today.
(53:17) Genesis 22 11 and 12. Genesis 22 11 and 12. The angel of the Lord, Mak Yahweh, calls out to Abraham and stops him from killing Isaac. This is also the pre-incarnate Christ speaking in the first person when he says, "Now I know." Mech Yahweh says that the one who gave the test to Abraham Gideon Judges 6:es 21- 24 Judges 6 21- 24 Gideon feared for his life because he had seen God Mech Yahweh and he offered a sacrifice which was accepted by Mech Yahweh.
(54:05) That's worship. An angel knows worship God not me. And finally, Judges 13:es 3-22. Judges 13:es 3-22. Mak Yahweh speaks with divine authority and accepts Monoah's sacrifice only allowed to do so by God. The Hebrew term melac alohim does not mean created angel, which some argue it does. The Hebrew word melac means messenger.
(54:46) And the phrase melac Yahweh means messenger of Yahweh. Mechawa means messenger of gods. Aloy. Malachi 3:1. I want you to note something interesting here. Malachi 3:1. Here we're going to see that mak is used to describe both John the Baptist and Christ the Messiah where he says here in verse one behold I send my messenger my mak and he will prepare the way before me that's John the Baptist and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple even the messenger, even the melac of the covenant, both called messengers, in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts.
(55:43) The messenger of the coming of the covenant is Christ himself, yet he is eternal God, not a created angel. So when we look at all of the evidence, the only conclusion that fits is that the angel of the Lord is the pre-incarnate word, the one who later became Jesus Christ. He bears God's name. He exercises divine authority.
(56:08) He speaks in the first person as God. He accepts worship that created angels reject. And he is sometimes directly identified as Yahweh. We began this message with a simple question. Who is the God of the Old Testament? Who is the being of the Godhead that interacted with behaved as the agent of the Godhead with Israel? And the scripture gives us a clear answer. No one has seen or heard the father at any time.
(56:43) The one who spoke to Abraham, who wrestled with Jacob, who led Israel out of Egypt and gave the law, was the word, the agent of the Godhead. He is the Yahweh who created all things, sustained his people, and later came in the flesh to give his life for the salvation of the world. So this truth confirms the perfect unity of the father and the son in carrying out God's plan from the creation to the coming kingdom.
(57:18) The God who walked with the patriarchs, spoke through the prophets, and led Israel is the same one who now calls us into the new covenant with him. And with this, our study of the true God series comes full circle. We've seen that God is a family. presently the father and the son but that his purpose is to expand that family to bring us into it as do sons and daughters. We've refuted the errors that distort the truth.
(57:46) The idea that Christ was created which he was not that he was born a human being and divested himself of his glory to do so. And that God is not a trinity, a closed group of one, not a family. God is a family. We've seen that. We've gone through that. And now we've looked to see that the God of the Old Testament is not the father who interacted as his own agent, but it was the son, the word acting as the agent of the Godhead with Israel, with the patriarchs and in all of the creation.
(58:29) So now you know who the true God is and he's calling us to be part of his eternal family forever.