We'll eventually get to revelation twenty one tonight. Uh, you can open there if you want the other verses until there will be on the screen, but it'll be at the end when we get to revelation twenty one. As I mentioned, this is our fourth sermon to the Nicene Creed. We began by looking at what it means to to confess. We believe. And then from there, we looked at what it means to believe in one God. And if you recall, I said, God is one in three, but he's not one in three in the same way. So that would be nonsense. And so we spent a message looking at what it means that God is one. And then lastly, we looked at how that oneness is seen in the father, that the totality of God, in that sense, is residence and subsisting as father, that God exists as father. And if you recall, I said, there's not some fourth thing in God. There's not the father, son, spirit, and then God and God is all of those things. The essence of God subsists as father. God exists as father. But the Creed, the majority of the creed is about the son. The Nicene Creed is thirty two lines long. Each line has an attestation to it. It's it's declaring something. Every line is declaring something. When you start to outline the creed, you recognize that four of the attestations, or four of the declarations are about the father, four are about the Holy Spirit, and even half of those are kind of about the son. They kind of sneak him in there on the Holy Spirit. One and four of them are about the church. So four, four, four. That leaves you with twenty lines of the creed that are about the son. The son takes up the majority of the the creed, those twenty lines, they themselves are divided in half. Half of them are about the sun, as theologians say ad intra or the sun as he is towards God. In other words, the first half of the declarations about the sun are true about God in and of himself. They don't require creation to be seen or to be revealed. And in the second half of the declaration is about the sun are all what theologians call ad extra. They are outside of God. They reveal themselves in time and we'll look at those next week. But for tonight, we look at the part of the creed that declares we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God as he is truly towards himself, begotten of the father, the only begotten that is from the substance of the father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten and not made Of one substance with the father. Now, as it's on the screen, it would make sense that this would be the longest and most complicated part of the creed, because this is, uh, the unique contribution of Christianity to theology. It is the revelation of God and the person of the son. That's why the doctrine of the sonship of the second person of the Trinity is at the heart of the Nicene Creed. In many ways, the Nicene Creed came out of a fight against Arianism. Arianism was an early, we would call it now, a cult, but an early false teaching. And there was a period of time in the second and third centuries where it seemed, even in the fourth century, where it seemed like Arianism would be the dominant theology of the day. Sometimes we describe it as a cult, and it might give you the wrong impression that it's like, you know, ten churches over here or twenty churches over there. No, it was a dominant stream of Christianity during the two hundreds and the three hundreds. It was often taught, and it was called Arianism because it followed the teachings of a man named Arius. And, you know, there's whole books and research done on Arius's theology, but you can boil it down to this. Arius taught that the Son of God was not the eternal Son of God. He was not eternal. That was the essence of his teaching that the Son of God existed. Jesus, as eternal as the Son of God existed. But he was not eternal. He was made by the father. Arius wasn't that specific about how the father made the son, but he definitely declared that there was a time when the son was not. They had their own songs. We have show us Christ that we just sang. They had. There was a time when he was not. I don't know what tune that would be too. They said he was not equal to the father. They said the son was a product of the father, but a product of the father's creative power. They exalted the son. They said he was the highest of of all of God's works. He was the capstone or the the the zenith, the summit of God's creation. That the son displays God's creative power and God's love and God's attributes and God's characteristics beyond any other part of creation. And so if you were to listen to an area and talk, they would make it sound like they were worshiping the son, and they would argue that they could worship the son better than Trinitarians, because Trinitarians are stuck on trying to kind of downplay the father, to bring the father down. But not so the Arians. They said they're always lifting the father up by showing how his power and his attributes are on display in the creative work, in making the son. The son was certainly high and exalted for the Arians. Arius taught that the sun was made of a different substance than the father, because the father is not Duplicatable you couldn't make a copy of the father, you couldn't imitate him. There's only one God Arius taught, and that God was the father. Since the son could not be God, he had to be a high part of creation. Arius taught that to say the son was God would slide into polytheism. So the son must be derived from the father and lesser than the father. Arius had no problem calling the son divine. He would say the son was divine in the same way that we are all partakers of the divine nature. There are many Arians that signed the Nicene Creed, believe it or not. And they went away and just said, what we mean by that is the son is divine. Like people are divine. We all have God's nature in us. We are all. The Creed says that the son is in the image of the father, and they would say yea. Second Corinthians says, we're all being transformed into the image of the son. It's just a way of saying the son is a person like us. Arius taught that the son's power came from the father, but that he was less than the father, and he was dependent upon the father. And here I'm going beyond the metaphysics of the third century. But as logic and philosophy developed, it's pretty fair to say that metaphysically, the Arians had this concept of the son existing by a free act of God. They wouldn't say the son's existence was essential. They would say that the father made the son by a free act of the father's will. That's not trinitarianism, though. Trinitarians have always taught that the son exists by a necessary act of God that there is no possible universe in which the sun doesn't exist. That the sun exists essentially in God. In other words, it's necessary. The father didn't choose to beget the son. The father didn't choose to make the sun. This is what the Arians taught. But the father and son exist necessarily. What we mean by that, and the easiest way to explain that I know when you hear the word metaphysics, you can tune out real quick. But let me bring you back. What we mean by that is to call God a father means he has a son. You know, he can make it more complicated if you want. But the bottom line is a father has an offspring. And so to say that God is eternally the father means that he eternally has a son and essentially has a son and necessarily has a son. And if he did not have a son, he would not be father. And so to say that the father created the son would mean that the father was not eternally the father. That's what we mean when we say the son's existence is necessary. And so the Nicene Creed, in many ways, the Nicene Council was called by Emperor Constantine to put down this rebellion, put down this fight inside of Christianity. Constantine I don't really. He might have had a preference. Maybe he even preferred Arianism over Trinitarianism. That's. That's likely. Some church historians say that that's true. Constantine was certainly eager to receive Arius and all of the bishops that followed him, and the churches that were under his leadership, back into communion with the church. After the Council of Nicaea, when he was kind of exiled, Constantine was eager to see him return. So maybe Constantine was even rooting for him. Who knows? But Constantine had called the Council of Nicaea to try to get Christians to agree on this issue, and perhaps Constantine was even surprised when the Nicene Creed was finally formalized and adopted that it seemed to exclude Arianism. But that's why the Creed, the longest section, is about the identity of the son. It's because of the historical context in which it was written. They were fighting over the eternality of the son. They were fighting over the identity of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. What that even means. And so they develop these lines. Look at the ones on the screen tonight and we'll pick up. We don't get to next week, Lord willing. The first part of this declaration I want to draw your attention to is that we believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And what they mean by that is that he's begotten of the father, the only begotten. The Creed uses this term begotten, which is a word that is used in both the Old Testament and the New Testament in the Old Testament. Psalm two, verse seven Yahweh says, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Begotten is the language of giving life. It is a word that is no longer in the English Bibles. But if you grew up in the King James, you have it all over the Bible. If you, uh, you know, some sometimes kids Sunday schools will sing the the begat song where everybody memorizes the, the begats. I know some people on church staff that have them memorized and could sing them if I called on them tonight, but though tempting, I am resisting. It's a common language throughout the Old Testament. All the begats, all the the family trees and the lineages. Everyone comes from someone. The word begat is not a word that we use in English anymore. It has fallen out of use. But it's the father's role in giving life. The mother births, the father begets. It's not only people that are said to beget in the Old Testament. Animals beget other animals. There's a cool verse in job where the winds beget storms. And becomes the expression you, you reap. The whirlwind begets is different than creates. Though a father doesn't create a child. Animals don't create other animals. They beget them. One of the most important usages of this word is in Proverbs eight twenty five. Wisdom says, before the mountains were established. Before the mountains had been shaped, before the hills I was brought forth. That's wisdom's declaration. If you remember Proverbs eight, it's this chapter where wisdom is speaking and wisdom is marveling how wisdom was the agent of Of creation. The father was in his shop, so to speak, to use the language of Proverbs eight, laboring to create the world. And everything he did, he did through wisdom. And Proverbs eight makes it clear that wisdom was alongside God. That's the language used later in Proverbs eight was alongside God. But originally it says that wisdom was begat by God. That God begets wisdom and then creates everything else through wisdom. Hebrews picks up this kind of language when it says, today I have begotten you. Hebrews quotes this twice in reference to the father speaking to Jesus. The Eternal Father says to the eternal Son, today I have begotten you. It's a quote of Psalm two. It's quoted in Hebrews thirteen as well. Hebrews thirteen even says, as the second Psalm says, today I have begotten you. I'm sorry. Acts thirteen even says, as the second Psalm says, today I have begotten you. And so it's used three times in the New Testament, one time in the old. This is not some tangential Bible doctrine, but it is repeated in the New Testament. The eternal son, begotten by the father is the Lord Jesus Christ. Aria seized on the word today and said, aha! Today I begot you. So all you Trinitarians want to talk about the begotten of the son. But the New Testament says it happened on a day. That means it happened in time. But on the contrary, if you look at the way the word today is used throughout the book of Hebrews, it always references truths that are true every day. For example, in the book of Hebrews today, If you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts. That doesn't mean that's only true the first time you read the book of Hebrews. And you can harden your heart tomorrow. Then today, as long as it is called today, don't forsake the gathering together. Today is the day of salvation. That kind of language, or the probably the most well known one, that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. It's always true. The point is that these are truths that are true today because they're true every day. That's what makes them true. So it is with the begotten of the son. Yes, today the son is begotten, but that's because he is eternally begotten. He is begotten every day. It's a necessary and essential act of God. And that's picked up in the New Testament time and time again. The New Testament refers to Jesus as the only begotten Son of God. John chapter one describes him in verse fourteen as the only begotten at the father's side or at the father's bosom. Some of the older translations say, and. And if you recall, when you're sitting around to a meal, you would often lay down on the, on the the heart or the chest of the person next to you. And it was the most exalted position to rest your head on the bosom of the the host. And that was the image of Peter or John laying on, on Jesus. And that's the image that Jesus begins. John chapter one begins the Gospel of John by describing himself through John's pen, as being eternally at the father's side in the father's bosom. That's a reference to Proverbs chapter eight, that wisdom is at the father's side in the father's heart before he creates anything. The son is there. The son is distinct from the father because he is begotten by the father. That's what generation means, not ordinary generation. Not the way people beget people or animals. Animals, but eternal generation. An act with no beginning and no ends that occurs all the time. All the time. Just the language generation means that something is coming from a source into existence. One year I was asked to preach at the Baptist Convention in Haiti. The Haiti Annual Baptist Convention. All the Haitian Baptist pastors gathered together, and the Baptist Convention invited me to speak, and they asked me to speak on the doctrine of eternal generation. And as I'm thinking about it, this is this is a complex theological topic. I knew I was going to be speaking in English, but translated into French and French Creole simultaneously with different translators. I'm thinking, I don't know how I'm going to do this. How am I going to explain generation or eternal generation to Haitian pastors? Not many of whom are even literate. And I got off the airplane in Haiti. And if you've ever flown to Haiti, you know what I'm talking about here. The plane kind of lets you off on the runway. It's not a big airport. You can see over the fence to outside the airport right there. There's a freeway that runs basically right by the airplane, and there's a big billboard right there advertising a new generator, a massive billboard advertising a generator. And I realized, you know, Haitians might be more equipped in their minds to understand the concept of generation than Americans are, because you have to explain to Americans what a generator even is. You start there. This is what a generator is. It's something everybody grows up with in Haiti. That's the that's the word for this, that the sun is generated from the father, If the fullness of deity subsists in the father, and the father brings forth eternally the son, it's not something he chooses to do. It's not something he starts to do. It's not something he didn't do yesterday and does today. It's something that is constantly happening. The son is continually generated, brought forth, begotten by the father, eternally begotten by calling it eternal generation. You mean it didn't start one day and stop? It's always happening today. Theologians sometimes referred to it as a psychological occurrence. That's obviously newer language. The third and fourth century church fathers didn't call it a psychological occurrence, but I find the language helpful. Jonathan Edwards used that that language, and to me it's very helpful. Jonathan Edwards asks us to imagine yourself, have an image of yourself. Now your image of yourself is going to be generated by you. But it's going to be flawed. Your image of yourself doesn't even look like you look. My image of myself. Oh, man, you should see it. Strong, handsome. Our images are flawed and self deceived. But not so. The father God, with his perfect knowledge and power and love and the simplicity of the divine attributes. We talked about simplicity last week that all the divine attributes are united and joined. They're not divisible in the father. And so God's image of himself will reveal himself perfectly and exactly, with no flaws, not dividable. One of God's attributes is life. He has it in and of himself. And so his image of himself will be alive. The father is a person, and so his self image will also be a person. Now, that psychological analogy might have some flaws in it, or you might not find it helpful. I find it helpful. And so I share it with you. But this is the language the New Testament uses. Colossians one fifteen speaks of the son as the image of God, the firstborn of all creation, meaning that he precedes creation. Areas, of course, seizes on this and says, see, he's created. No, it means he's the firstborn over all creation. He's the one through which the world was created. But he is the image of God. And notice it doesn't say image of father, but image of God, because all that God is, is resident in the father. And so to say image of the father, image of God is is redundant. Similarly, in two Corinthians Athens for four. In their case, the God of this world has blinded the minds of unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. Not a partial image of God, but a complete and total and perfect image of God. So all that God is, is resident in the son. This is the idea that the sun represents the father. Exactly. And if you start to wrestle with this truth, it will save you from so much bad theology. The idea that the God of the Old Testament is a vengeful God, and Jesus is the son is a merciful God. If you start to deal with eternal generation, you recognize that's impossible. You can't have the father with one disposition and the son with another disposition, position. Because where did the son get that disposition? Where did the son get his love? Where did he get his affection? Where did he get his mercy? And you can't say the father is less generous, or less forgiving or less kind than the son, because that would create a distinction between them that would imply there's two different sources for them, but there's not two different source materials. All that God is, is resident in the father, and the father gives himself completely, entirely, and every part of himself to the son. So the son truly represents the father. Exactly. I'm not saying this is easy to understand. Please don't. I'm trying to speak with confidence, but don't confuse my confidence with saying so. You don't get this dumb, dumb head. No, this is hard stuff. I understand that. So I leave you here with Gregory of Nazianzus before we keep going any further. I don't know how well you can read that, but I'll read it for you. Gregory asks, how then has he been begotten? The heavenly begetting is more incomprehensible than your own, to the same extent that God is harder to trace out than man. Drop your ideas. Drop the habit of treating the incorporeal nature as if it were a body, and you might well get a worthy notion of God's begetting. How has he been begotten? I utter the question with loathing. God's begetting ought to have the tribute of our reverent silence. The important point is for you to learn that he has been begotten. As to the way it happens, we shall not concede that even angels, much less you know that. Shall I tell you the way? It is a way known only to the begetting father and begotten son. So should we pack up and go home then? No, because Gregory didn't pack up and go home. This is one of the favorite tricks of the Church Fathers. They. would write an answer to a theological question like they're angry at you for even asking it. How dare you even ask this? We can't even imagine this. So be quiet. Chapter two. And they go on to answer it. So we'll do the same. The Nicene Creed does the same. It goes on beyond only begotten to from the same substance as the father. Hemolysis is the Greek word. Consubstantial is the Latin word. The existence of God, the being of God subsists as father. The father generates the son. The son is the same substance as the father. So God is one, and he is three. But he is not one and three in the same ways. He is one substance. There is one divine being. There is one divine essence. There is one divine nature, but that nature subsists as father and the father begets the son, and the entirety of that nature is in the son. But it is the same nature as the father's. This is not a biblical word. This is a word that the authors of the Nicene Creed really invented. They made it themselves in order to try to eliminate the Arians from signing the Creed. They they understood that the Arians were using biblical language to teach unbiblical truths, so they had to use extra biblical words to fight off that extra biblical teaching. And this is one of those words. This idea that the son is the same substance. This is a key distinction between begotten and created. When you create something, it's not the same as you like. You make a chair that doesn't make you a chair, but if you begot a chair, that would make you a chair. You make something of like nature. You create something of a different nature. Or to say it this way, this is not original with me. But ants beget other ants, but they make ant hills. God creates people. God creates a universe, but he begets himself. So when the father begets the son, it is a second person, but of the same substance in essence as himself. And this happens all the time that says the eternal part of eternal generation. The father has always begot the son. The son is eternal because the father is eternal. They're co-eternal, but the same being, the same substance, the same essence. But it subsists as father and as son. You see this a little bit in Hebrews one three? He, being the son, is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature. That word radiance is trying to communicate to you that it is the same essence. All that God is is begotten. All that God is, is generated to the son. The exact imprint. Meaning, if you were to look at the father and Son together, so to speak, you would not be able to tell them apart. It's not that one is taller and one is shorter or anything like that. And I know they're incorporeal. They don't have bodies, but the principle still stands. You can't distinguish them based upon that. The father and son are, in the true sense, identical, the exact imprint of his nature. It's just that one is father and one is a son. One is a source and one is the image. This guards the oneness of God because there's only one being. There's only one center of consciousness. There's only one simple being. There's only one divine being with the attributes of God. But that divine being subsists as father and then simultaneously as son. And this leads you to the phrase to borrow from the Creed again, God from God the Son is God from God. Do you see how the Creed is building these blocks here? He's eternally begotten of the same substance. When you get that, that means He is God from God, one God from one God. And so you can ask yourself, how is God described? The Bible describes God as God is righteous, so the son is righteous. God is full of grace and truth. So the son is full of grace and truth. God is life, and so the son is said to have life in and of himself. That's the doctrine of aseity that God exists on his own. And this is very hard to understand what the son, because you would think eternal generation would negate aseity. You would think that if somebody is eternally generated, that they don't have life in and of themselves because they're generated, but not true. Because Aseity is an attribute of God that he gives to the son. This is why John five twenty six is probably the best verse on this. As the father has life in himself, so he has granted the son to have life in himself. Well, how can you grant somebody something to have it in themselves? That doesn't make any sense. An eternal generation. That's what the father has life in and of himself on his own. And he's continually granting giving the son to also have life in himself. So the son is life. John concludes, First John five with. With this he wraps up his book. We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true, and we are in him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life. Lord Jesus says it this way eternal life is to know the father and the son whom he sent eternal. The father is life, and the father gives life to the son. So to know the son is to know eternal life. The word Yahweh means I am that I am. God is life in and of himself. And so to say that the son has eternal life is to say that the son is begotten of the father. It's not just that he's God from God with life, from life, but this phrase, he's light from light. He's light from light. And here's where we finally get to revelation twenty one, the very end of the Bible. Revelation twenty one is describing heaven. And if you're familiar with this part of scripture, most of the descriptions of heaven are negative. They're not positive descriptions. They're telling you what heaven is not. There's no sea meaning no division. There's no tears, meaning no. No mourning. There's no death. There's no suffering. John describes heaven based upon what's not there. He has some positive descriptions, too. The. The building descending. And all of that. But even when he gets to verse twenty two, I saw no temple in the city. Notice that's just in keeping with what he's been describing heaven this whole time. It's by negation. There's not this, there's not that. And now he's looking. This is different than the Millennial Kingdom when Christ is reigning on the world, on the earth, over the nations. Of course, there's a temple. But when the New Jerusalem descends, wrapping up the Kingdom Age, John notices the temple is gone. What happened to the temple? It's been replaced. It's been replaced because the Lord God the Almighty and the lamb is there. The city has no need for sun or moon to shine on it. It's more negation language. No need for the sun or moon to shine on it. Why not? How disorienting would it be if there was no sun? You get up, you wake up in the morning. Some of you maybe have this experience. Not those who work at the Pentagon, but the rest of the world. You might wake up and you can judge what time it is outside by how bright it is. Teenagers have this experience. You can walk outside any time of the day and figure out what time it is, just by how you instinctively can see the sun and and know what's happening. Not in heaven. The sun is gone. There's no need to pace yourself. But it's been replaced. Not with darkness. Of course there's no darkness there. But the glory of God gives it its light. The glory of God. That's the. The essence. The being of God gives heaven its light. And the light is coming from the lamb. God does not share his glory with anyone. God is life, and he shares life with the sun. God is light and the sun is the lamp. The sun is the sun illuminating, revealing God. This speaks of the eternal begotten of the son, that all of the divine essence and nature is resident in him. So much so that to see the sun is to say, I see the father. To see the light of the sun is to see the light of God. And light reveals. Light is showing you what's in front of you. God reveals himself to us through the sun. He is the lamp. The point is that in heaven, Jesus is no longer simply viceregent. He's not the Messiah on the throne, reigning over the nations like he was in the kingdom, like his prophesied throughout the Book of Revelation. Even Jesus is promoted beyond even that in the eternal state. He goes from being the Messiah reigning on the throne, to being the lamp of the glory of God forever and ever, co-equal with God, the exact representation of his glory. This is the crescendo of worship, not just in one book of the Bible. This is the crescendo of worship in the Bible. This is your window. This phrase right here into the eternal state where we will worship forever and ever and ever. There's no way a Jewish person would have described heaven with anyone as the light of God other than Yahweh. By the way. But that's how John ends revelation, and that's how the Bible ends. Longing for the day when all the redeemed gather around and worship at the light of God, revealed through Jesus Christ. He's light of light. He is the lamb who was slain. Of course he is. He's the lion who, though a lamb was slain, has resurrected and and rules the nations. He's worthy to open the scroll. All the imagery in the book of Revelation. That's all true. But notice that's all. Add extra. That's all towards us. He is the lamb slain towards us. Revelation wraps it up with a picture of him as he is within the Trinity. Light of light, true God of true God. And notice the next phrase just repeats it for you again, because the Nicene Creed writers knew this is tough stuff, so they just repeat it again. Begotten, not made, and of one substance with the father. We said that earlier, but we're repeating it. We meant it. Three times the word begotten is used in the Creed. Twice the word one substance is used in the Creed is driving home that God exists in simple essence. Undivided essence subsists. His father revealed entirely, completely and perfectly in the eternal Son of God. Lord, we're grateful that you. Are the Triune God, one being in three persons. This is not a fiction. This would not even be possible to be designed by men, as men cannot understand it. But we grapple with it. So, Lord, we pray that you would help us conceive of the Trinity even better and more powerfully and accurately, so that we can worship you more truly. Lord, we are weak and you are strong. We have limited knowledge. You have infinite knowledge. So we recognize we don't understand you like we ought. We see as though dimly in a mirror. We're at a distance. We just want to go up the mountain further. Get closer to you in our mind's eye, knowing that one day we will see you face to face. Until then, Lord, just help us worship you better. And we know you're not disappointed with us or frustrated with us at our lack of ability to understand you. Because we are creatures and you're the creator. And so we know that you give us grace and you show us mercy, and you fuel our best efforts and our patient with the rest. And so we're so thankful for that. We give you thanks for the study tonight. In Jesus name. Amen. And now for a parting word from Pastor Jesse Johnson. If you have any questions about what you heard today, or if you want to learn more about what it means to follow Christ, please visit our church website. If you want more information about the Master's Seminary or our location here in Washington, DC, please go to TMZ.com. Now, if you're not a member of a local church and you live in the Washington, D.C. area, we'd love to have you worship with us here at Emmanuel. I hope to personally meet you this Sunday after our service, but no matter where you live, it's our hope that everyone who uses this resource is involved in their own local church. Now, may God bless you this week as you seek Jesus constantly. Serve the Lord faithfully and share the gospel boldly.