THE TRINITY IV The Green Eyed Monster?
10/21/12
I believe that most of you have heard jealousy defined as “The green eyed monster”. The phrase comes from the Shakespearian play Othello.
It is uttered by the nemesis of Othello, Iago (ya-go), he states to Othello, “O, beware, my lord, of jealousy; It is the green-ey’d monster, which doth mock the meat it feeds on…” From what I could find no one knows exactly what Shakespeare had in mind in calling jealousy a green eyed monster. The best guess I think is that he is referring to a cat. As many cats have green eyes, and they also have a habit of playing with their catch before they eat it.
Be it as it may, jealousy is looked at as being something that is sinful and wrong. Yet, we must understand that jealousy is not always wrong. As we will see today there is a jealousy that is holy and pure, that is the jealousy of God. The Bible recognizes two different types of jealousy, that which is sinful, that is the type of jealousy by which we think “you have what I want, and because you have it, I dislike, or wish ill will towards you.” That Jealousy is based on pride and self.
But these is also the type jealousy that J.I. Packer defines as a “zeal to protect a love-relationship, or to avenge it when broken.” That is a godly jealousy. For this jealousy is based on love. Giving love and receiving love in return. This jealousy is one that seeks to defend that giving and receiving of love.
As we have been studying the doctrine of the Trinity over the last few weeks we have been working off an illustration that I gave, that I believe helps us to understand on a human level the importance of the Trinity on a Spiritual level. It also demonstrates for us why love is at the center of our understanding of the Trinity. I believe this illustration will help us to understand not only the importance of the Trinity, but I believe it will help us to develop in ways you can clearly see, that the Trinity is about love. I am going to present the illustration again very briefly and move on to the fourth specific Scriptural truths that this illustration makes clear to us.
Before I present the illustration I wish to again remind you what we mean by the term Trinity, as Dr. James White states, “Within the one being that is God, there exists eternally three coequal and coeternal persons, namely the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
Now to our illustration. You go into Brooks restaurant to eat. There in corner you see me with a young blond haired, blued eyed women who appears to be about 5’9” tall. We are doing the kissy, kissy thing, holding hands etc. You come over to confront me, wanting to know what I thing I’m doing with this women who is not my wife. I protest and tell you that this is my wife Darleen. You object by saying, you know my wife Darleen, she is 5’ tall, has brown hair and brown eye, and this is not my wife. I continue to say, no you are wrong, this is my wife Darleen and you do not know what you are talking about.
My question was, what would be going through your mind about then. Anger, hurt. You would probably not like me very much after that, you would certainly feel sympathy for Darleen. And all those emotions would come from love that you have towards Darleen and myself.
I then asked you to consider if it were my daughter Brooke who saw me. Think of what would go through her mind if the same thing had happened. She has a more intimate love for Darleen that any of you. She knows first hand what a loving mom and wife she is. Think of how she would react if I said “This is my wife Darleen” to her. The hurt would be greater because the love is greater.
I also asked you to consider if it were my wife Darleen in that situation and I said the same thing to her. There would certainly be some emotions there. Hurt, jealousy, anger. Again, the hurt would be greater because the love towards me is greater and also of a different kind.
I will remind you that the main premise of this illustration is the fact that calling another women my wife does not in fact make her my wife, any more then calling something god, makes it the true and living God of the Bible.
Let us move now to the forth specific scripture truth that this illustration makes clear to us is that God is a jealous God. The point is if you deny the triune nature of God, deny the very way in which God reveals Himself, what you are then doing, is worshiping something other then the truth and living God. You are loving something other than God, loving something over God, you are giving adoration that belongs to God alone and that brings about the jealousy of God.
To quote the great preacher Charles Spurgeon, “Since he is the only God, the Creator of heaven and earth, he cannot endure that any creature of his own hands, or fiction of a creature’s imagination should be thrust into his throne, and be made to wear his crown.”
There are not too many folks in our culture who worship wooden or silver or gold idols. Many have traded those in for what Spurgeon calls a “fiction of a creature’s imagination”. If you deny the Trinity, that way in which God has revealed Himself in the Bible, then your god is indeed a fiction of your imagination, and you bring about God’s jealousy. That is why having an understanding of the Trinity is important because we want to worship the God of the Bible, not some god made up in our minds.
Now why is that so? We all know that when you love someone, it brings about jealousy toward that which would take that love away, that which would unjustly interfere with that love. You have a sense of wanting to defend that love.
Looking back to the illustration. I am pretty confident in saying that there would be feelings of jealousy on the part of Darleen in that scenario. Why would that be? Would it be because I am eating with another women? No I have had lunch or dinner with many women in my life. Would it be because I am talking to another women? No, I talk to women all the time. Would it be because I am hugging another women? No, again I hug women all the time, I hug many of you all the time.
What would bring about jealousy in Darleen would be the fact that this other women is receiving that which indicates a love and adoration that belongs to Darleen alone as my wife. That women would be interfering with giving and receiving that love that Darleen and I share exclusively as husband and wife.
And that is the same with God. When ANYTHING is worshipped, praise, adored, or prayed to, other then the Triune God of the Bible, that idol whatever it might be, is receiving that which indicates a love and adoration that belongs to God alone, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. That idol would be interfering with giving and receiving of the love that ought to be shared between mankind and his creator.
I looked up the word jealous and this is the first definition given by Webster’s “intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness”. That pretty much describes the jealousy of God. God is intolerant of any rivalry, of anything that as Spurgeon put it, “be thrust into his throne, and be made to wear his crown.” God is intolerant of unfaithfulness. Intolerant of that which would take away the love we ought to have for Him, for He alone is worthy of our love and adoration.
I want to take a few minutes to look at the Scriptures that teach this jealousy of God. Both in that OT and the NT.
When one looks to the Scripture there is no doubt that the God declares Himself to be a jealous God. The first time this is stated is in the 2nd commandment in Exo. 20. Let me read to the first two commandments as they certainly go together, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before me. “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.”
Here God declares we not to have any other gods before Him, that is either gods made with our hand or our minds. We are not to worship those gods, or serve them. Because God is a jealous God.
But also notice that those who do this, God equates that with hating Him. To worship or serve a god other then the God revealed in the Scripture is to hate God. But to those who worship and serve God as He has revealed Himself is the Scripture, that is said to have love for God.
So you have this element of love in the jealous of God.
We see from this why then the Trinity is so important to the Christian. Because if you deny the way in which God reveals Himself in the Bible, if you deny the Triune nature of God, you end up with another god, and fall into disobedience to the second commandment.
It is interesting to note that majority of the references to the jealousy of God have to do with idol-worship, looking back to what we see in the first two commandments.
Let’s look at a few other verse from the OT. The next passage I want to read to you has to do with the covenant God makes with Israel in regards to their entering into the Holy Land. It comes from Exo. 34:11-16; ““Observe what I command you this day. Behold, I will drive out before you the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. Take care, lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land to which you go, lest it become a snare in your midst. You shall tear down their altars and break their pillars and cut down their Asherim (for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God), lest you make a covenant with the inhabitants of the land, and when they whore after their gods and sacrifice to their gods and you are invited, you eat of his sacrifice, and you take of their daughters for your sons, and their daughters whore after their gods and make your sons whore after their gods.”
Here God tells the Israelites that He is going to drive out people of the promised land. He does this because He knows that these pagan people with led the Israelites to worship false gods.
God states that He will not have this because He is a jealous God, for His name is Jealous. Using the phrase “His name is…” is a way for God to describe Himself, who and what He is. He also state “whose name is Holy”, “whose name is Lord of Host.”
It is Scripture’s way of saying this is who or what God is. He is Holy, He is jealous, He is as we look back at the definition given by Webster’s “intolerant of rivalry or unfaithfulness”.
I also think we should make note of the picture we are presented here of a husband or wife who gets angry when the one they love goes after another and gives their love to another. In the words of this passage God was concerning that the Israelites would be led to “whore after” other god. We see the sense that since God is making a covenant with the people, for them to worship another god is commit spiritual adultery against God.
Think about that. No man or woman with any kind of moral bearing would want to share their spouse with another. There is a sacred love that is to be between ONLY a man and women as husband and wife. A love this is not to be shared with anyone else.
That is the point that this passage makes. There is a love between God and His people that cannot be shared with any things else.
Once more I want to remind you of our illustration. Calling another women my wife does not make her my wife. Think of the Amorites or the Canaanites calling their false gods “Yahweh”, would that make the worship of that god ok. No! So does some so called Christian group calling their god, God, or their Jesus, Jesus, make that the God of the Bible? If that deny the triune nature of God, deny the way in which God has revealed Himself, that answer is no!
Again, this is why believers must have some understanding of the Trinity and why it is so important for us to know the God who we worship.
Two more verses from the OT that we will deal with very briefly. The first Deut. 4:24; “For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.” , and also Nahum 1:2; “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD is avenging and wrathful; the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries and keeps wrath for his enemies.”
The reason I point those two passages out is because I believe that they demonstrate the seriousness of the jealousy of God. What these passages (along with others) do is the tie in God’s wrath with His jealousy. Understand to provoke God to jealousy, that is to worship any other being other then Him, is to be under His wrath. He is a consuming fire, in His Holiness, He is full of wrath toward those who would give that which is rightly His to another.
I pray that communicates to you the seriousness of what we are talking about. That is how God has as revealed Himself to us. To not take it lightly because God does not!
There are a couple of NT passages that I would like us to look at. There is only one passage in the NT specifically speak of the jealous of God, and that is in 2 Cor.10, let me read to you vss. 20-22; “No, I imply that what pagans sacrifice they offer to demons and not to God. I do not want you to be participants with demons. You cannot drink the cup of the Lord and the cup of demons. You cannot partake of the table of the Lord and the table of demons. Shall we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than he?”
Paul is discussing the fact that some Corinthians were partaking in pagan rituals. His point is that they were committing idolatry. In other words they were giving something to these idols that belonged to God. Which is what bring out the jealousy of God.
Where we also see this jealousy of God elsewhere in the NT, although not stated specifically it is in Romans 1. Let me read to you vss. 18-25; “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”
Here we are told that God wrath is revealed “against all ungodliness and unrighteousness.” We see that God has indeed revealed Himself in such a way that those who do not worship God are without excuse. Now notice what is stated next, “…they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”
We have seen what that really is. That is a violation of the 2nd commandment, that is idolatry. Giving to something, in this case worship and service, that belongs to God alone. According to this passage there is only two classes of beings, God, the creator, and creatures, that which is created. There are things that belong to the creator, and must never be given to that which is created, be it something material or in our minds.
I just want to throw this out there to those who say that Christ is a created being. This verse kind of does away with that does it not. How can I worship Christ and be true to what Paul states here. That it is a lie to worship a creature. Yet, we see throughout the NT Christ being worshipped. That is something we will talk about more at a later time.
I know some say, well we are not supposed to worship Christ. To that I would say should you serve Christ? Should you serve Christ as you Serve God. Here we are told that we are not to “serve” any Creature this way. Yet is it not odd that Paul begins this epistle with the words, “Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus,”. Also in Rev. 22:3, we read that same Greek word there “And there shall be no more curse, but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him.”
Here we are told that the Lamb of God, who is Christ our Lord, that His Servant shall “Serve Him.” Again, same Greek word as in Rom. 1:15. Yet how can this be if Christ is just a creature, if He is not divine, if He is just part of creation as opposed to being the creator? The answer is indeed simple. Christ is not a creature, He is the creator, He is God.
And when we offer up praise of Christ, when we offer up our worship, offer up our adoration, offer up our service, the Father is not jealous, His wrath is not provoked. Because through that worship of Christ, we are indeed worshipping God in that way in which He has revealed Himself to us.
In closing I pray that you are beginning to get a sense of why the doctrine of the Trinity is important, and why love is at the core of our understanding of the Triune nature of God.
As I did in the first message on the Trinity I want to ask you who is the God you are worshipping? Who is the Jesus you have your faith in? You see the Bible states that the “Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation”. That is the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is the Jesus Christ revealed in the Bible. The Jesus Christ who is the eternal Son of God, the Jesus who as John 1:1 states was “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” That is the Jesus you must have your faith. That is the Jesus who lived a perfect life, who died a perfect death, and rose again three days later. That is the Jesus who sits at the right hand of the Father as our Mediator. That is the Jesus you must have your faith in.
LET US PRAY
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