Being One With Christ (04/18/2004)

John 5:19-23 and the Son’s Perfect Obedience to the Father

We're going to be in John chapter 5 verse 19 is where we'll start this morning. I want to speak to you this morning about what it means to be one with Christ and I wish the air conditioner were a little cooler because we could go a while with this one but The air conditioner determines how long a sermon can be sometimes.

So I Hope you're getting a little more comfortable. It's cooling off a little bit. If it gets really cool then Be here a while. No, I'm sorry. My wife's told me not to joke about that. I shouldn't do it but the truth is there's Enough here for more than one Sunday.

I know when to quit. I'll watch it. Brother Rick brother Rick starts bumping heads with his wife. I know it's time to stop. Okay Let's Pray and we'll begin father. We thank you for the beautiful music.

We thank you for the wonderful Sunday school classes We had earlier today. We thank you for your word. We thank you for that glimpse of the Garden of Eden that we saw this morning in Sunday school and how you walk there in the cool of the day and Lord, we thank you that when we fell that you Came to redeem us and Lord, we thank you that that redemption is perfect and pure and that you've given us your righteousness and that you've given us forgiveness and You've reconciled us to the Father.

Thank you for all those things and Lord as we Look into your word this morning. Some of these passages are some of the most majestic passages in the scriptures and we ask you to bless our hearts. May your spirit speak to us as we read these words for we know our Lord Jesus said these words themselves are spirit in their life.

We pray in his name. Amen. Now this is one of those where you'll have to pay a little attention so I Want you to think this morning a good Christian is a person who thinks about what he's thinking about.

But I want you to think this morning a Little bit about your identity. But before we look at us, let's look at the Lord. Let's look at the Lord Jesus himself and We know that when he was walking on this earth during his ministry that he was the God man.

You've heard preachers say that you've read it in books Commentaries you you know why they say it he was fully God. Yet he was fully man and I believe that it is to our advantage to view his humanity and To realize that he walked as a man in The fullness of the power of the Holy Spirit.

That is how he walked that's how he chose to walk and So let's look at this first few verses in John chapter 5 or starting with verse 19. And we have several other passages as we go through the book of John That give us some interesting scriptures along these lines.

Then answered Jesus and said to them verily verily I say unto you the Son Can do nothing of himself? But what he seeth the Father do for what things soever he doeth. These also doeth the Son likewise.

Now, let's read it again. Then answered Jesus and said to him verily verily truly truly I say unto you the Son can do nothing of himself. But what he seeth the Father do for what things soever the Father doeth.

These also doeth the Son likewise. So I have to ask you the question did Jesus Christ lose his identity? Because he said I can do nothing myself by myself. Whatever things I see God do. Those are the things that I do likewise.

Well, let's read on a little bit for the Father loveth the Son and Showeth him all things that himself Doeth that means the Father loves the Son and shows the Son all things that the Father does and He the Father will show him the Son Greater works than these so that you may marvel.

Now. I want you to notice that the phrase will show. Places Jesus Christ in time. He is on this planet and he is bound by time at least from our viewpoint and while God was in Christ walking on this earth Jesus Christ was bound by time because he said the Father will show that's in the future.

The future tense the Father will show the Son greater things even than these that you may all marvel but what we're looking at is are these interesting phrases where it says. The Father loves the Son and shows him all things that himself doeth.

And he will show him greater things. Why is it important that the Father shows Jesus reveals to Jesus what the Father is doing? Because Jesus cannot do anything other than that. So it must be revealed to him or he cannot act.

That's what the sense of this is verse 21. For as the Father raiseth up the dead and gives them life in other words quickens them. Even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. There is one example. He gives just one example here of something that he cannot do unless he sees the Father do it.

But as he sees the Father do it he can do it himself. Now it goes a little further look at verse 22. For the Father judges no man. But hath committed all judgment unto the Son. Now follow this sequence.

First of all Jesus says that the Son can do nothing of himself, but only what he sees the Father do. Then he says the Father must show me these things and he will show me other things. Then he says that the Father has committed all judgment to the Son that the Father will judge no man.

The Father has committed all judgment unto the Son. Now look at verse 23. That all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not the Son honoreth not the Father which hath sent him.

Verily verily I say unto you he that but heareth my word Jesus says and believeth on him that sent me that's the Father. That person has everlasting life. Isn't it interesting that he didn't say that person will get everlasting life.

Why do you think he says that person has everlasting life? It's true. It's true. And the truth is you could not believe on him unless God had given you the gift. See we get it backwards. We're so surrounded by Arminian theologians that they say you Believe and so therefore God saves you on the basis of you believing it puts the salvation in your own hands.

The problem with that is what if you stop believing? But Baptists don't like to think that can happen. Well, the Arminian Baptist is the most mixed-up theologian in the world. I really have more respect for the Church of Christ person than the Arminian Baptist.

Because you can't have it both ways you can't both have man in control and eternal security at the same time because eternal security is based on the doctrine of the sovereignty and for knowledge of God.

But the Bible says verily verily I say unto you he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me has Everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. That's your eternal security but is Past that means is already passed from death unto life.

Now Jesus is The only one who has the words of life. Now if you follow that progression Jesus says I don't do anything on my own. I do only what the Father says and Then he says however, the Father shows me all things because Jesus is the only one who has seen the father.

But the father has revealed to him all things then it says the father will judge no man he has committed all judgment to the Son of God and then it says I've done this so that all men will honor my son as they honor me and Then Jesus ends this passage by saying if you hear my word Where did he get his word from from the father?

He speaks only what he has heard from the father. He that hears my word and believes on the one who gave me that word has Everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation. If there's a passage in the Bible that more clearly states that Buddha and Muhammad and Hinduism and all of the other religions are bankrupt, then I wouldn't know where to find it.

Because this passage states so clearly that Jesus says I am the only one who has seen the father. I came forth proceeded forth from the father. No, man has seen him at any time except him who came down from the father.

He says and he says he has committed all judgment to me. And I won't speak any word that the father doesn't speak. But I have spoken his word and if you don't hear it you shall be condemned for all eternity because you don't honor the son and God is the one God the father is the one who made it be that men should honor the son.

Even as they honor the father he that honoreth not the son. Honoreth not the father that sent him. And what does that say of that person? He doesn't have a chance in the world. He is alienated from God.

So the only way is Jesus. Now I wanted you to focus in however on the truth that Jesus said I can do nothing of myself. What thing soever God the father does these also doeth the Son. Likewise now, let's go to John chapter 8 verse 28.

Then said Jesus unto them When ye have lifted up the Son of Man that means the cross. Then shall ye know that I am. Who is the I am. It was the one that spoke to Moses. What name should I call you when I go to the people of Israel?

He said tell him I am hath sent you and Jesus says when you lift me up. Then you shall know that I am and that I do nothing. Circle a little phrase in your mind. It's the same thing. We just studied. I do nothing of myself.

Did he lose his identity. Is he saying I can't function. I'm just a Pipeline through which God works. It's what it sounds like. It's not what he's saying by the way, but it is what it sounds like, isn't it?

Let me ask you this. Do you have a bit of a logical problem? Figuring out how it can be true that Jesus says in all of these places. I do nothing of myself. He says I can do nothing of myself except what the father does and what the father says.

Does that create a logical problem figuring out how he still maintains his identity? But There are passages of Scripture. They're going to shed light on that for us and the reason I think it's important.

Not only that we might understand Jesus. Better gain understanding of Jesus better for to know him is to know the father better. But it's also important because it helps us know ourselves a little bit better.

It helps us know how we are supposed to function in this world as born-again. Believers as children of God will get to us later. Let's keep looking at God here for a while. He says You will know that I am and that I do nothing of myself, but as my father hath taught me I speak these things and He that sent me is with me.

Now this word with me means one with me. The father hath not left me alone that means The father has not left me where I'm not one with him. For I do always those things that please him now brother Otis.

I'm going to give you a hint. I told you in Sunday school that you gave me some insight that I needed. It has to do with this phrase where Jesus said The father is with me in the context of this whole thing where we're talking about.

He says I can do nothing except the father does it? I will say nothing except the father gives me the words to say and now he says the father is with me. And then he says the father hath not left me alone.

And then this little word for is interesting. For I do Always those things that please him and we're gonna relate that to us later when we get to maybe next Sunday before we do that, but. But that's interesting phrase.

I want you to take that one home and think about it. Does it mean that when Jesus said he that sent me is with me and he never leaves me alone that it is conditional Upon him doing always the things that please the father.

In other words, is it conditional upon his obedience? Think about that this week. Now go to John 12 49. This lesson can give you more insight than into how. What it means to walk in the spirit? How it is that we can get in the flesh How that happens than anything I've studied in a long time now, what did I say John 12?

John 12 49 for I have not spoken by myself. The word of means by I have not spoken by myself. But the father which sent me he gave me a commandment. In other words, he commanded me what to speak. He commanded me what to do he gave me a commandment what I should say and what I should speak and I know that his commandment is life Everlasting.

Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the father said unto me that is what I speak. So I speak he says. This is the ultimate picture of obedience. Jesus Christ the man did not lose his identity. However, he absolutely refused to live in the self life.

He absolutely refused to live in the flesh. He absolutely lived every moment and every breath that he took he was connected To the father absolutely and fully Connected which is the same as being filled.

We call it filled with the spirits a little bit difficult language when we use that language filled with the spirit makes us think we're Filling up with something actually to think of it as being absolutely in God.

It's a better way to think of it to be connected. Because let me tell you if you're born again, and you're connected you will not sin. You cannot sin. You are not in the flesh. The real you is the new man.

Not the old man. The thing about Jesus was he had the Spirit of God without measure and therefore he continued in that his entire life on this earth and There was only one exception to that and that's when he was on the cross and the father withdrew himself From him and he suffered hell which is the separation from God.

But that was not his choice believe it or not. That was the father's choice. So we see here the man Jesus Christ Who will not speak one word that comes from himself? You could put it this way. He will not speak one word that comes from self.

But the father which sent me he gave me a commandment. Which I should say and what I should speak and I know that his commandment is life everlasting. So we're plugged into life. When we're connected when we're walking in the spirit, we're plugged into death.

When we move away from that and we make the choices. Whatsoever I speak therefore even as the father said unto me, so I speak now go to John 14. John 14 10. Believest thou not that I am in the father and the father in me.

The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself. He says it again. But the father that dwelleth in me he doeth the works. Now, why does Jesus keep coming back to this theme with these people? That he's addressing.

Often he's addressing the Pharisees when he says these things. Why does he keep coming back to this thing? Believe me that I am in the father and the father in me or else. Believe me for the very work's sake.

What does he mean by that? Could he have done those works if he had not been in the father and the father in him? Could he heal the blind? Could he make the lame man walk. Could he raise the dead? If he were not in the father and the father in him, of course not.

So he said if you don't believe me when I tell you I'm in the father and the father's in me. Then just believe the works that I do because they are impossible unless what I just said is true. That's the logic he's using.

Verse 23 Jesus answered and said unto him if a man loved me. I remember the verse earlier where he said If you don't honor the son you're not honoring the father. Jesus said if a man loved me, he will keep my words.

Now that is a parallel to what Jesus just said about his life. Jesus said I love my father. Therefore I keep his words. He hath given me a commandment and I speak only what he has told me to speak. I do only what he's told me to do.

Now Jesus says now on the other hand your relationship with me ought to be the same as mine is with my father. So he says now if you love me, you will keep my words and whose words are his words the father's.

So if you love Jesus you will keep Jesus words which are the father's word and he says and my father therefore will love you and We now look at this. We will come unto this person that loves Jesus and keeps Jesus Word.

We will come unto him and make our abode with him who is the we speaking of specifically the father and the son specifically. He that loveth me not. Keeps not my sayings and the word which he here is not mine.

In other words, he's saying when I say that if I'm telling you that if you don't keep my words. You don't love the one that gave me the words. It's not me that says that either he says these words aren't mine either but the father's which sent me.

Everything I just said to you is God talking to you. So you better pay attention. That's what he's saying. He might as well have said in this very place. No man can come to the father except by me. Because that's what he's saying.

Now I go to John chapter 10 verse 27. This is a long Introduction. We'll get to the sermon next Sunday. But it's worth waiting for. I think the Lord willing John chapter 10 verse 27 my sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I given to them eternal life.

Where did he say the life comes from from the father and from his word? So I given to them eternal life and they shall never perish. That's eternal security. Neither shall any and it doesn't say the word man in the Greek.

The word man is not found in the Greek there. It just says neither shall any pluck them out of my hand. That means anything no man. No thing can pluck you out of Jesus hand now if that weren't enough.

Verse 29 says my father which gave them to me is greater than all things. So nothing not no man, but nothing is able to pluck them out of my father's hand. I and my father are one. Now if you read that verse 30 in the context of John chapter 5 John chapter 8 John chapter 12 John chapter 14.

You understand it better than if you just read it by itself. Because it is talking about the oneness that comes by being absolutely Connected or you could say it this way filled with the fullness of God.

While you're in time. Think about that. That's something that you have an opportunity to feel and Live now. He has not given us the spirit without measure. However, we have the spirit by measure now. Why is that?

Because if he had given you the spirit without measure you would be Jesus Christ. You would be able to Look at the tree sycamore tree out here and fling it into the pond next to it. By just thinking it.

Now you can have that ability if he then turns the measure up. The measure is the ergs the energy that comes from God, but he doesn't choose to do that often with us. But Jesus had that without measure that fullness all the time.

So there's a slight difference between us and him. Obviously I say slight it's the enormous difference in power. But it's the same power that we're plugged into. It's the same oneness that we have with our father because of Jesus Christ Bringing us to him.

I and the father are one he says He is in me. I am in him. I Don't say anything that he hasn't said. I don't do anything that he hasn't done and he has shown me everything that he said and Done therefore, that's exactly what I do.

Now, do you see how we have it with measure? We cannot see one second into the future. We know we're here now and we sense that we're in God's will. Do we not but we don't know one second into the future.

God has to show us as we begin to take the step he shows us where the foot is supposed to land and Only as he shows us can we then do what he has shown us? Only as he reveals his will to our hearts through his word and by his spirit can we then say The words he wants us to say.

But it is possible. It works a little bit differently than it did with Jesus because he had it without measure, but it is the same process. We are supposed to be one with the father. We're supposed to be one with Jesus Christ.

Jesus Prays That His People May Be One

Now John chapter 17 verse 11 and now I am no more in the world. But these are in the world. And I come to thee Holy Father keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me that they may be one as We are see the word as.

The word as means just as in John chapter 10 verse 30 where he said I and the father are one just as that we are supposed to be one and It makes it more powerful when we understand. John chapter 17 is a prayer the whole chapter Jesus is praying.

So therefore he is asking the father to make it be so that we may be one as he and the father are one. Will his prayer be answered. All of his prayers were answered. So yes. So we are supposed to be one with the father and with the son.

Neither pray I for these alone. But for them also which shall believe on me through their word that extends through the ages all the way to us to today as each generation witnessed in the Word of God passed through the earth in God the Spirit called his own to himself one generation at a time all the way till today.

So this applies directly to us. So he prays in verse 21 that they all may be one as Thou father art in me and I in thee. That they also may be one in us. That the world may believe that thou has sent me because they will see power.

They will see power. It is impossible for you to be connected To the Father and the Son by the Holy Spirit and the world not see power. Now it manifests itself in different ways, but I will promise you if you walk past a sinner and You are one with the Father and the Son at that moment.

They will fall under conviction without you saying a word. They will look in your face and not like you one bit they will have the very same fear almost a little lesser degree that Adam and Eve had this morning in Sunday school as The voice of God was heard walking in the garden in the cool of the day and they hid themselves so it's not your Your aftershave it's offending them.

You ladies said well, I'm glad it wasn't my aftershave. I wondered if it was What it is is they are sensing The presence of God and they know that they have not been in his presence and don't want to be because they're currently in sin verse 22 and the glory which thou gavest me I have given them and They that they may be one you see this word this oneness.

Even as we are one the same Likeness as father and son are one we are one with the Father and the Son. I in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one complete mature complete in one and That the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them with the same love that you love me.

The Old Testament Picture of Oneness in the Ark of the Covenant

Now when you hear these words, it's one thing. But it would be great if we could picture. Get a picture of how this works and you've heard me say many many times that The New Testament gives us the facts, but the Old Testament if you can go back to it will give you the colors and the details.

And sometimes the minute details of the truth that you discovered in the New Testament. Because all of the Old Testament was given to those of you who live in the end times as a type or a picture. Physical pictures to teach spiritual truths that you already learned in the New Testament.

Well, you don't know the depths of them yet. So you go back to the old. So I would have you turn to Exodus chapter 25 and verse 10. How is it that Jesus has called us to be one with him and one with the Father as he and the Father are one.

And all of us to be as one and to speak only what he speaks because what he speaks is what the Father has spoken. Do you see how Jesus is our intermediary? You see how the Father does not deal directly with us the Father.

Jesus is the only one of us who has ever been in his presence. He's the only one who has seen God at any time. And he brings what he has seen and he reveals it to us he brings what he has heard from the direct presence of God and he brings that to us in exactly the form that he saw it.

And heard it and sensed it in he brings it in the same form, but he puts it in our language so that we won't be destroyed as we Experience it, but did he lose his identity when he said I cannot do anything except what the Father does.

No, he did not. Because the you see you remember the phrase Let me go back to this. I and them endowed me that they may be made perfect this word perfect. That's how a man or a woman is supposed to be.

Jesus was the perfect example of how a human being is supposed to be and part of the perfection part of the wholeness of a man or a woman or even a teenager or a young boy or girl is. That they need to be born again and have Jesus come and dwell in their hearts so that thereby they may be one with him because he brings the father with him and there is then a relationship or a oneness with the creator of all that is and You experience his oneness in your life and at that time when you are connected in that way.

You will not do other than what he says to do is as a matter of fact in first John chapter 5. It says that he that is born of God cannot sin. How can it say that? Well, so I'm born of God and I think I've sinned that wasn't the real you that was the old man.

The new man that is born and given the divine nature will not sin. It cannot sin. Why is that because it has the divine nature. Can the divine nature sin? No, it does not have a propensity to sin. It is apart from and separated from sin as pictured by what we're about to see in this Old Testament passage.

We just need another 45 minutes, man. Oh. Well doesn't hurt for you to stay curious for a little while. But let's just go into it a little bit. I'll watch Rick here. He's doing okay for the time being Exodus chapter 25.

God is going to give us a physical picture of How it is that we can say I don't do anything. But what Jesus tells me to do and yet I have not lost my identity. I'm still David Mitchell. I am NOT God. I'm not Jesus Christ.

I am David Mitchell. But I don't say anything. He hadn't told me to say and I don't do anything He hadn't told me to do when I'm filled with the Spirit during those moments. You say I remember two or three of those in the last ten years David's.

I remember that. But in that time period the function works the same way. So, how is it that I don't lose my identity because that is supposed to be my identity. Did you know that really the only me that you're supposed to see is me in Christ and That I hope you look the other way when you see the other one.

When you see the flesh come out in me I hope you'll look the other way because your love for me love cover the multitude of sins and I try to do that with you. But what we are supposed to be around when we're around each other is this perfect man that Jesus just talked about.

I End them and thou and me that they may be made perfect in One the glory which thou gave us me I have given them. That's what we're supposed to see that they may be one even as we are one. Exodus chapter 25 verse 10.

And They shall make an ark of Shittim wood two cubits and a half shall be the length thereof and a cubic and a half the breadth thereof and A cubic and a half the height thereof and now shall overlay it with pure gold.

Within and without shalt thou overlay it and shalt make upon it a crown of gold round about and now shalt cast four rings of gold for it and put them in the four corners thereof and two rings Shall be in the one side of it and two rings in the other side of it and now shalt make staves of Shittim wood.

And overlay them with gold. Now if you look in Unger's Bible Dictionary and read what the great scholar Merrill F Unger says about this or if you read what Schofield says or any Matthew Henry any number of great scholars of old They will unanimously tell you the same thing.

We're talking about the Ark of the Covenant and we're not going to go into we're going to introduce it. But next Sunday, we're going to get into this passage, but the Ark of the Covenant was in the Holy of Holies.

Inside the wilderness tabernacle later on inside the great temple of Solomon. And it was the place Where the presence of God dwelt above this object. But this object was made out of rough Wood that came from the desert from a little scraggly bush really wasn't really much of a tree and they took the wood from this and they made this box and Then they overlaid it with gold.

Both on the outside and the inside so that if you look at the box you see gold if you look down in the opening. And look inside of it. It's gold. But it's still wood. The wood pictures the humanity of Jesus Christ the gold pictures the presence of the Father within him.

Now, I don't know how they overlaid that gold. But my view of it is that it was molten when they did it and That the molecules of that gold Literally went down into the molecules of that wood and you couldn't hardly see where the two exchange places.

Where one stopped and the other started. There's another example of this given in John 15 5. He says I am the vine near the branches either divided than me and I and him the same shall bring forth much fruit.

Without Me you can do nothing. One time I did a study on the vine in the branch. With a microscope and I took a cross-section right where the branch connected to the vine. I took a cross-section thin enough where I could see through it shine light through it and see it through a microscope.

And if you ever do that, you're gonna find that the cells of the branch Come in and meet the cells of the stem and at the place where they meet you can't tell the difference anymore. You don't know where one stops and the other starts you can coming into it.

You can see it and all of a sudden you can't see it anymore. You can't tell. They are one and Yet does the branch lose its identity? Well, the same is here. The wooden box is still there. That's the humanity of Jesus.

The gold that overlays it is the deity. It is the presence of God the Father in Jesus and on Jesus. Jesus is in him and he is in Jesus. The gold is in the box and the box is in the gold. And he gives us an object lesson here now.

That's about all the time we have this morning. But as we read through this passage What we're going to find out is that there are several other objects found in this room called the holy place and There are three in particular two of those were shit them would overlaid by gold.

Further pictures of the man Jesus Christ, but the God-man and The candlestick was the only part that was was pure gold absolute pure gold. And that's the part that gives us the light and So as we study this passage We're going to see more and more about how it can be that Jesus was one with the father never said anything that weren't the father's Words never did anything that wasn't the father's works and yet he did not lose his identity just like the wood in that box was real and it was there but the gold was one with it and Once we understand that from this passage, we're going to go in and find us.

Because we are in this passage, too. And I think you'll be surprised as To see what we will find out about that the Lord willing next Sunday let's stand and have prayer together. Father we thank you for your word.

We thank you for the Old Testament scriptures that Open our eyes to my new details. Even show us sometime the how behind what you do. Sometimes it shows us the why behind what you do. We thank you for giving us the New Testament scriptures that open our eyes to truths that we could not have seen.

Only in the Old Testament, we would have overlooked them we would not have seen that they were there and so Lord Jesus, we thank you for giving us your word and Even opening the minds of the Apostles after you send it back into heaven and they more fully Recounted the words that you said and gave us the New Testament Father may we take home home today the concept That as you and the Son are one we are to be one in Christ and in you and As he spoke only your words.