The Trinity 16 - The Deity Of Christ 5 Series

The Trinity 16 - The Deity of Christ 5

Christ in the OT

2/24/13

I want to begin this morning by reading to you Colossians 1:9-10; “And so, from the day we heard, we have not ceased to pray for you, asking that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God.”

I read those verses during my quiet time a couple weeks ago. Those verses made me think of you, that is those who are a part of MCCBC. For it is true that pretty much since the day I arrived here in Milford I have prayed for you almost every day. I pray for you those things that Paul mentions here. I pray that you would be in God's will. That God would indeed grant you spiritual wisdom and understanding. I pray that you will indeed walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to Him, bringing Him glory. I pray for you to bear fruit. And I pray that you would definately increase in the knowledge of God. That is indeed my prayer for each of you, and again, it is a prayer I pray almost every day.

I pray that prayer because first and foremost I want God to be glorified through each one of you. But I also pray that prayer because I do indeed love you and I know that if God is gracious in answering that prayer in the affirmative, I know that it will be what is best for you.

But I also have a call to do more than pray for you. While I pray for you to increase in the knowledge of God, I also know that I have a responsibility to help you attain that. And that is one of the reasons that I have been going through the series on the Trinity. Because through these messages, I want you to gain knowledge of God. Thus I not only pray that for you, I strive to give it to you.

I am sure that there are some of you who have grown tired of this series. But I believe we must examine these truths. Because we do not grow in the knowledge of God by trying to figure how to get stuff from God, we grow in that knowledge by striving to know who and what God is, and what He desires from us. That is knowledge of God.

Today we continue into our look at the Trinity. We have looking at the deity of Christ over the course of the last four weeks. Last week we looked at passages of Scripture that show Christ in the OT, specifically passages that show that the writers of the NT say Christ as God in the OT.

Last week we ended by comparing what is written in Isaiah 6 with what John states in his gospel in chapter 12. I want to go back to Isaiah this time let us turn to Isaiah 9:6-7 a passage many of us are familiar with.

“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will do this.”

The passage in Isaiah is obviously taking about the Messiah, of that there is no doubt. It talks of the One whose rule with be for ever. One whose peace has no end. Every Jew knew that this passage spoke of the coming Christ.

But this passage also tells us that the Messiah will be called a wonderful counselor, that is one who gives counsel, but we will also be called mighty God. In other words He will be deity. He will be God. There are some who say, well it says “mighty God” not Almighty God, therefore this is not a reference to deity. But the next name does away with that thinking. He will be called “Everlasting Father”. The word everlasting means eternal. It denotes that the Messiah is eternal. And there is only one who is eternal and that is God Himself.

We should also understand that the name “father” here is not referring to a relationship, but to headship.

So what we see is that the child who is born to us, that child would be Jesus Christ, shall be called these things Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace, those are His titles, and thus we see the teaching of the deity of Christ here in Isaiah 9:6-7.