Who Is Jesus Christ?: Part 1

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Who Is Jesus Christ?: Part 2

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Speak to you this morning on who is Jesus Christ, who is
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Jesus Christ. I was going to title it different. I was asking Ben about that.
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I said, Ben, you got any thoughts on this? And he said, he said a good title would be who is
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Jesus Christ. I said, wow, I'm going to use it. So I'm giving Ben, he's not here, he can't hear, but I'm giving him the credit for that.
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I appreciate his input. Seems to be simple, but I think that is really the most important question that we can ask.
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And most of the most important question, how we answer that is critical of eternal life and eternal death of the consequences of that.
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And do we believe who Jesus Christ really is? Well, the Bible is
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God's written word, right? God's revelation. And it's all about Jesus Christ. He even proved that after his resurrection on the road of Emmaus with the disciples as he took them through the word of God, the written word.
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Here is the living word taken the disciples, those two disciples through the written word, all about himself through the prophets and the
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Psalms and all the way and so forth. But it's about Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ gives us an all important question, doesn't he?
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It's about who he is. Before I continue, let's pray. Let's pray.
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Our father and our God, we thank you and we praise you. And our desire is that your son had the preeminence and everything,
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Lord, in everything. Thank you for your eternal word, the living word, your son, the
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Lord Jesus Christ, in whom you will pleased. Lord, as in these last days, he's spoken to us by your son, by your son, whom he has appointed, you have appointed heir of all things to whom he made the worlds.
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Lord, our prayer this morning is Lord, speak, Lord, speak for that servant.
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Here's give us ears to hear and eyes to see, to hear Jesus Christ and to see
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Jesus Christ. In Jesus name, I pray. Amen. Well, John, the apostle actually begins with last
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Lord's Day. We had a introduction. So, John, the apostle begins his gospel by speaking about the word, the eternal word.
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And it's all about the eternal word to our understanding. And by definition, by definition, a word is a unit of a speech by which we express ourselves to others.
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A word is a unit of speech by which we express ourselves to others. But John, the apostle, is not writing about speech, he's not writing about speech, even though Jesus Christ has spoken.
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God has spoken through Jesus Christ. But actually, it is all about the person of Jesus Christ, the personhood of Christ, who he is.
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That person is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. I love what J .C. Rowell says.
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We cannot hear enough about Jesus Christ. We cannot hear enough about Jesus Christ.
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We, I desire more and more about Jesus Christ and going through the gospels,
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Matthew, Mark, Luke. And here we are going through John. We haven't gone through the others, but all that's four eyewitnesses about this one great person.
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And God, think of this, God has fully expressed himself to us, the holy
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God and the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He has done that and he's done it by coming into the world and was made flesh, made flesh.
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Jesus Christ has perfectly revealed to us what God is like, who God is.
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He is the express image of God. Jesus Christ is. If we want to know how, how and what
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God is like, we look at Jesus Christ, don't we?
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We look at the record and I don't know about you. That's why the gospels stand out as all important, because if we really want to know what
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God is like and who God is, it's all in Jesus. It's all in Jesus for he is again, like I said, the image, the express image of the invisible
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God. He's the firstborn of over all creation. So again, this question should ring and ring.
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We should ask people this question. And who is Jesus Christ? Who is he?
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Well, before we unpack and by God's help, what John unpacks of who
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Jesus is and he does internally, Matthew's gospel chapter 16, go with me very quickly to Matthew's gospel 16.
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And that's it. Verse 16 is key, isn't it?
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We're going to verse 16, but I would like to begin with verse 13 right there of this journey when
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Jesus scripture says, and let me turn there very, very quickly. And this is critical because even though this is in Matthew, I was thinking about this in my study and devotional time as I was studying this, it's like the synoptic gospels, the synoptic gospels basically bring out the confessions.
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And here we, John, notice John does not record this. What John does record is he basically goes to the heart, the internal witness of who
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Jesus is. But here we have the the outward confession.
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And it's probably the most important confession. This is the church's greatest confession, beginning with verse 13 in chapter 16.
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Notice when Jesus came into the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, and this is a very pivotal point in the ministry of Jesus Christ, saying, and he begins by asking, who do men say that I, the son of man, am?
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Who do men say that? And they answered. They said, some say John the Baptist. John the
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Baptist was actually first and foremost of what people were saying, who
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Jesus is. Then some, Elijah. Elijah is very similar to John the Baptist, isn't he? Fiery, powerful prophet of God.
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And others, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet. So Jesus, when they say, how is
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Jesus like, say, who is he? That was the answer. That was the answer.
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Or then they said, one of the prophets. And then in verse 15, it's really personal.
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Notice what he says. He says to them, but who do you say that I am?
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He gets right to the heart of the matter, doesn't he? He gets very personal. Who do you say that I am?
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Now, you've already heard, and he begins by asking, who do men say that I am? And he did that on purpose.
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He brings it to a personal point. Simon Peter, immediately, here's the head apostle, speaks out, answered and said, and this is the revelation.
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This is the confession of the church. You are the Christ, the son of the living
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God. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. And you know what
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Jesus answered? He answered and said to them, blessed are you, Simon Bar -Jonah, for flesh and blood has not, here's a key word, not revealed this to you, but my father who is in heaven.
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Now it goes on. He speaks about your Peter and on this rock, I will build my church and so forth, which is so critical.
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But I want to stop right there because that is the critical question.
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That is the critical answer. And that's the right answer. It's not, when you think of it, the answer that was given was not something that Peter thought of.
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It wasn't. It was the revelation from the father. This is my son.
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This you are the Christ, the anointed one. You are the Christ, the son of the living
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God. Now, what does that have to do with John? Everything, because that's the confession. Now, John literally and beginning with John one, one,
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John will unpack that answer to us. He unpacks it to us.
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The great confession of the church. So the apostle
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John gives us who that answer is, who is Jesus Christ internally from heaven as an evangelist.
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And I heard MacArthur speak about this and his sermon on this. And he I love what he said. John, the apostle has given us like a evangelistic track of who
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Jesus is, who he is and how he brings salvation. That's a very good way to look at it.
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So here here God's word in chapter one verse, I want just read verse one through five, and we're going to look at this in the next several weeks.
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He says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was
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God. He was in the beginning with God. And all things were made through him and without him, nothing was made that was made.
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And him was life and the life was the light of men and the light shines in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.
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Another translation did not overpower it, did not overpower it.
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So Jesus Christ is the living, the eternal word. Is actually from the
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Apostle John and the Apostle John is the first witness to that.
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There are several witnesses and we will look at these witnesses of answering this great question and what the scripture gives to us about who
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Jesus Christ is in this great passage we have before us. And by the way, is one of the great summits of Holy Scripture.
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In fact, in fact, I would say is probably reaches to the highest of human thought.
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Of who Jesus is, and I would even be apt to say that it goes beyond the highest of human thought.
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There is something so high about the person of Jesus Christ and think of it.
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I've already mentioned this last Lord's Day as we were looking at the introduction that Jesus Christ is a one of a kind, unique person like no one else.
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No one else was ever born of a virgin birth and we know the reason for the virgin birth.
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He entered into this world without the Adamic nature. He had to enter into time.
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The one that was timeless and eternal came into time. He entered into it and he had to do it without the
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Adamic nature and how God knew exactly how to do that. And Mary was conceived this holy thing that it was that she was conceived of was that none other than the
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Son of God conceived by the Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God supernaturally did this.
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So that's the purpose of the of the virgin birth is that Jesus would come into this world without the
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Adamic nature. He did not have the Adamic nature within him. So here's another question.
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What is the very thought that reaches the highest height of human concepts?
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What is that thought? And of course, you know where the answer what the answer is. The answer is this.
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Jesus Christ is the son of the living God, son of the living
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God. He is the Christ, the anointed one, the Messiah, fully man, fully
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God, not half man, not half God, not 50 50, but he was 100 100.
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He was fully man, fully God, fully human, fully deity, fully divine.
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As the great creed said, very God, a very God, very man, a very man, unique, no one like him.
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He is the living word of God. He is the creator of all life. We will look more into that as we go through these scriptures.
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He's the creator of all life. Time, space, matter exists because of him.
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He is the very being. He is the very source. And he's the very essence of life.
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My outline today will consist of three things. And there's one we're not going to spend much time on. It's very obvious that he is this.
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But number one, he is pre -existent. Number two, he is co -existent. Number three, he's self -existent, pre -existent, co -existent, self -existent.
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Those are the three great truths that has to be the deepest, the highest of all human thought of who
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Jesus Christ is. And we must do everything we can to understand our meaning.
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But let me say this off the offset, beloved, is as hard as we try. It our brains and our thoughts will fizzle out somewhere.
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We must have the Holy Spirit of God to help us and reveal to us through the pages of Scripture. Of who
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Jesus is, I like what John Owen said, John Owen, the great Puritan theologian said, what good is the
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Bible unless we have the Holy Spirit? Without the Holy Spirit, the
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Bible will be nothing but a dead letter. But the Spirit of God gives life to it and breathes upon it.
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It's a living as Brother Keith mentioned about what Luther says. It's alive. It's quick. It's powerful.
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It comes after us. It pierces us. There's nothing like it.
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It has the power to even change the most depraved person on this earth.
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It's really awesome. So the height, the depth, the width must have the
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Spirit of the living God to illumine us to our little finite feeble minds.
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And I say that in all honesty because our minds are finite and feeble. We must have the
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Spirit of God to help us. And that's why I love 1 Corinthians 2 .10. The Apostle Paul says this, but God has, here's this word revealed again, revealed them to us through His Spirit.
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These great things of God. And he's speaking of I has not seen, heard, has entered into the heart of man those things which
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God has prepared for them that love Him. Now and then he reveals about all these things and that revelation comes to us through the
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Spirit of God. And he says, for the Spirit searches, listen to that, the
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Spirit searches all things, not some things, all things.
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Yes, the deep things of God. And I'm telling you, nothing's more deeper than the person of Jesus Christ.
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So we need the Holy Spirit to help us as we take this journey. Well, that's pretty much my introduction.
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So when it comes to the person of Jesus Christ, we are diving into the deepest of waters.
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John the Apostle doesn't begin, as we've noticed before, as we've said before, with the human birth of Jesus Christ as the other gospel writers do.
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But he begins with the beginning, the beginning. And in part one today, we will look at first at who
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Jesus Christ is from verse one and two, as I said, that He is the eternal living
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Word. So we will look today at His pre -existence,
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His co -existence, His self -existence. Lord willing, we will look next
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Lord's Day from verse three and look at Jesus Christ as the
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Creator of all things. That is a sermon in of itself, that Jesus Christ is
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Creator. And in the following, Lord willing, we will look at verses four and five.
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The life, that Jesus Christ is life, and Jesus Christ is light. He's the very source of all life.
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But today, let's begin. The first point is He is pre -existent.
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He is pre -existent, pre -existent.
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He begins by saying this, in the beginning was the Word. Now stop right there. In the beginning was the
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Word. This is the apostle John's message. This is the apostle, not
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Paul, I'm sorry, John's message. John's message is, in the beginning was the
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Word. Let's ask the question, what is the beginning? What is the beginning?
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Genesis 1 -1 gives us that answer, right? In the beginning,
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God. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, but we can stop right there, in the beginning,
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God. He is the beginning. Jesus Himself said in Revelation, I am the Alpha, the
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Greek alphabet, the Alpha and the Omega. I am the beginning,
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I am the end. He is the beginning. There is no origin within.
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He created the heavens, He created the earth, He is the creator, as we will look, Lord willing, at that.
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In the beginning was the Word. So what's so significant about that? Well, it's very significant because the answer to that is that the
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Word was already existing. He already existed before creation.
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Pre -existing, pre -existing. That is to say, in simple terms, the Word, who is none other than Jesus Christ, the living
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Word, the Son of God, was already in existence. When God created everything, when
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He created the worlds, the space, the universe, Jesus Christ was there.
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He was the Word. He is the Word. He was with God. He was God. He did not have a beginning.
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This is what John is saying. Just as God, He is proving through this text that Jesus Christ is
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God. And isn't it interesting that this is what all the cults denied?
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This doctrine here is under attack. I got this excerpt from John MacArthur and he says, quote unquote, evangelical churches of our day.
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One third says and does not believe that Jesus Christ is the
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Son of God. You know what he said? He said, that's just not a false statement.
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That's heretical. That's heresy. There is no way a person can be a
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Christian or evangelical Christian, which that term is being loosely tossed about.
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There is no way anyone can be a true Christian that denies that Jesus Christ is
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God in flesh. He is the Son of the living God. That's the confession of the church.
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And I'm telling you, this doctrine of the deity of Jesus Christ is under great attack, folks.
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And Satan is very cunning, infiltrating and blinding people and deceiving people of who
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Jesus is. It's sad, but this is very true and it's very real.
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And Satan is very real and he's deceiving millions of people about who Jesus is in religion.
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But Christianity is not religion. It's true religion, pure religion, undefiled.
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But it's not the religious denominations in which
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I'm, as Ravenhill would say, abominations that exist. But Jesus Christ himself did not have a beginning.
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He is the beginning. He existed from all eternity, past, present, future.
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He never was created. He never had a beginning.
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Now, he entered into time and had a birth, but he existed before that.
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He had no beginning, and this is what John is saying. Jesus is the pre -existent one, co -existent, self -existent.
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He's fully God. He's fully the Son of God. God has no origin. As one of the early church fathers says,
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God has no origin and Jesus Christ is God. He's the Son of God.
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He is the second person of the Godhead. And origin is a word that only can apply to created things.
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God has no origin. And it seemed like as my children were growing up, and that's one of the very first questions that they came to me about.
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Where did God come from? And that's a marvelous question. I love the way children just come at you.
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And here I was, a father, and I said, wow, what a loaded question. And all
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I could tell them, I said, He has no beginning. He has no ending. He is the beginning. He is the ending.
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Time even began with Him. He is the eternal God. And it's like children just looking at me, and I've explained that the best on their level.
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And they look at me, wow, how can that be? I don't know, but He's God, and He's none other than God, and that's why
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He's God. He's the everlasting God. Are there scriptures that speak about this?
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Oh, absolutely. I'm going to give you a few scriptures through John. Just John's gospel. And a few from others.
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But listen to the word of God as we speak about the pre -existence of God. John 17, verse 5.
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Jesus is praying here to the Father. In John 17, verse 5, He says, And now,
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O Father, glorify Me together. Listen to what He says. With Yourself, with the glory which
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I had with You before the world was. Now, can I say this?
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This passage and this scripture alone is sufficient to show that the scriptures support the pre -existence of Jesus.
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But there are many, many other scriptures. But I love that. Jesus is praying. He speaks about,
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Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
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But it was just one of many scriptures. And Jesus Himself explicitly taught His own pre -existence.
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And this is why I begin by the words of Jesus, because all authority and power is in His words.
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Listen to what He says, which gives tremendous weight and authority to this great doctrine. In John 3, verse 13,
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Jesus says to Nicodemus, No one has ascended to heaven, but He who came down from heaven, that is, the
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Son of Man who is in heaven. John 6, verse 33, For the bread of God is
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He who comes down, notice what He says, He comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.
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John 6, verse 38, For I have come down, notice that term again, comes down,
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He comes down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent
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Me, the Father, sent the Son. John 6, verse 62, and He gives a question here,
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What then if you should see the Son of Man ascend where He was before?
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Where He was before. John 8, verse 23,
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And He said to them, and He's speaking to the Jews, You are from beneath, and that doesn't mean hell, that means earth.
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You are from beneath. You're from this earth. But I'm from above. I am from above.
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You are of this world. I am not of this world. I am not of this world.
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John 16, verse 28, Again, Jesus says, I come forth from the Father.
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I have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go to the
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Father. Very, very clear of His mission. That the
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Father sent Him to do the Father's will. Jesus even said in John 8, 58 and 59,
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This is pivotal, folks, of His character. And who
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He is and His claims. Jesus even said that He existed prior to Abraham's birth.
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And notice how they react about this. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, most assuredly,
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Some translations, we know what it says, Amen and Amen, He's given an Amen and Amen before He says this statement.
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Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say to you, I say to you, before Abraham was,
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I am. Before Abraham was, I am. What was the response?
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Verse 59, Then they took up stones to throw at Him. Thought He was a lunatic. Blasphemy.
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But Jesus hid Himself And went out of the temple. He was in the temple. He went out of the temple,
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Going through the midst of them, So He passed by. It was a miracle that He escaped actually. And miraculously did so Because according to Leviticus 24, 16,
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The Jews knew exactly what to do To stone Him to death for His claim being equal with God.
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Because they thought that His claims was blasphemy. Who is a man like this
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To say He's even equal with God? He is equal with God. That's the truth.
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That was His claims. He is the Son of the Living God. They didn't know that. They were blind to it. And Paul basically brings that out in 1
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Corinthians. If they really knew who He was, They would have never crucified Him. But it was in God's plan
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That they would reject Him And put Him to death And hand Him over And put Him on the cross.
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It was in God's plan. In His sovereign plan. Isn't it amazing The sovereignty of God, folks, in this?
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Satan was doing everything he can to stop Him. But Satan played right into the hook
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And took the bait. Jesus escaped miraculously Because according to the scriptures
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Of the sovereign timetable of God His time had not really come Right on the Passover. So that was in God's sovereign timetable.
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But Jesus is truly divine. Romans 8 .3 The Apostle Paul now
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For what the law could not do And that it was weak through the flesh Notice what he says God did by sending
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His own Son In the likeness of sinful flesh In the likeness of sinful flesh
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On the account of sin That's why He condemned sin in the flesh.
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He condemned it. Powerful, powerful verse. And here's one that ties right in to John 1 .1
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And it's the same Apostle That speaks in his first epistle
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Not the gospel, but the first epistle John 1 .1 and 2 That which was from the beginning
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That which we Notice how he says we Speaking of other witnesses, other apostles Which we have heard
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Which we have seen with our own eyes Which we have looked upon And our hands have handled
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Concerning the word of life. Verse 2 The life was manifested
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The life was manifested Speaking of Jesus Christ And we have seen and bear witness
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And declare to you that That eternal life Which was with the Father Notice what he says
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With the Father And was manifested to us. Great statement, great statement.
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Paul says Galatians 1 .17 And He is before all things
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And in Him all things consist All things All things He is preexistent
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He is God in flesh The second person of the Trinity The Alpha and the
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Omega The Logos He is the word, the Logos That's the Greek word
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He was there before creation He was there before time He was there before everything
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Anything Before darkness Before light Before stars Before anything Jesus Christ was with the
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Father In the beginning In the beginning And by the way that does not mean
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From the beginning Does it? It does not mean from the beginning In the beginning
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And Genesis 1 .1 says God He is the beginning Jesus Christ was already there
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With the Father The Holy Spirit He did not become
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He was not created as the cults say He never had a beginning He is the beginning
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He is the beginning with God That's the record folks
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This is what John is beginning with The word was And the word here actually in the
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Greek Is in perfect tense It actually means which is the word Is so often used for deity
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In the Greek it literally means to be Or it means I am
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In the perfect In perfect tense I'm sorry So to mean
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Continuous existence Without beginning Without origin He just is and he was
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God How do you explain that? That's what I'm saying We need the Holy Spirit to help us here folks
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Because really it brings us to a place of worship When we see the person of Jesus Christ In his glory and who he really is
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Psalm 90 verse 2 Before the mountains Moses says this Before the mountains were brought forth
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Or ever you had formed the earth And the world Even from everlasting to everlasting
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You are God Jesus Christ is that word of God The second person of the
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Trinity That was there with the Father Here's another one I love
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And this can be actually the testimony perhaps Of the son of God himself Who is
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God and yet Divine deity As we were speaking of Turn with me very quickly to Proverbs Look at chapter 8
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Proverbs 8 This is a wonderful passage here That I'd like for us to look at And we can actually say
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This can be the testimony
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Of who Jesus is
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Notice what the Proverbs says here Beginning with verse 22 I'd like to read to verse 31
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The Lord possessed me at the beginning of his way Before his works of old
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I have been established from everlasting From the beginning Before there was ever an earth
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When there was no depths I was brought forth When there were no fountains
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Abounding with water Before the mountains were settled Before the hills I was brought forth While as yet He had not made the earth
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Or the fields Or the primal dust of the world When he prepared the heavens
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I was there Notice that When he prepared the heavens I was there
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When he drew a circle on the face of the deep When he established the clouds above When he strengthened the fountains of the deep
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When he assigned to the sea Its limit So that the waters would not transgress
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His command And when he marked out the foundations of the earth Then I was beside him
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As a master craftsman Jesus Speaks of Jesus And I was daily his delight
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Rejoicing always before him Rejoicing in his inhabited world And my delight
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Was with the sons of men I really believe That can be a commentary of Jesus Christ With the
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Father So he is preexistent There's another passage
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You can turn with me And this is a very familiar one We've heard it preached on Christmas many times
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And even at Easter But it's a great passage from Philippians chapter 2
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I don't want to read all of it But verse 6, 7, and 8 Speaks of Jesus Who Paul says
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Who Being In the form of God Did not consider it robbery
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To be equal with God But made himself of no reputation
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Taking the form of a bond slave That's so humbling As Brother Keith spoke about this morning
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About being the servant We're talking about the servant of servants here We're talking about God and flesh That kneeled down before his creatures
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And washed their feet Amazing, isn't it? He made himself of no reputation
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That was by choice In love That he did such a thing And most of all to die
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On a cruel cross On account of sin Taking the form Taking the form
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Listen to that The form of a bond slave And coming in the likeness of men
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And being found in appearance as a man He humbled himself And became obedient To the point of death
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Even the death of the cross And if you notice There's actually stages
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That Paul the apostle by the Holy Spirit Brings us to He enters into time
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He begins at his lowly birth And then goes to the deepest of humility
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Of all humility He's humiliated on the cross But yet Then it says
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God the Father has highly exalted him above all Given him a name
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Above all names And he speaks about that every knee will bow Every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is
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God Is to the glory of God the Father Now I want you to think about that That's a great, great reality that's going to happen
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Every knee Yes, every knee Every angel in heaven
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Every being that ever existed Whether they be saved or unsaved
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And all those in hell Think of this All creation And all that God created
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All angels All beings that ever existed Millions and billions And even fallen angels, folks
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Will bow the knee to Jesus Christ Will bow the knee That's how great of a person he is
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He is God in flesh So the great testimony of the Apostle John Is that Jesus Christ was the
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Word The Logos, right? And the one who had always existed Before time
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Before the foundation of the world He was and is the Son of the Living God He is and was preexistent
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Preexistent Was preexistent Next is his coexistence His coexistence
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We read again, in the beginning Was the Word And the Word was with God With God Jesus was actually face to face
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With God the Father Forever and ever The word with Again, in the original
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Greek Has the idea both of being with And acting towards That's interesting, isn't it?
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Being with And acting toward Acting toward He's with the
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Father And yet he's acting toward the Father So Jesus Christ, the
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Word, the Logos Was both with God Acting with God He was with God And is
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God The second person of the Trinity There's a great mystery within this And like I said We can't truly explain the
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Trinity But we know that the Trinity exists Because I like what Tozer said There's a mystery within it
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And he says But no one can explain a mystery Of who God is If he could be explained He would not be
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God So the element of mystery exists And it always will exist
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Even once we get to Heaven We will not have God figured out Now we will be glorified in a state
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Far greater than We will know much more than what we know now But those are the things
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That even the saints and the angels And no one knows Of the true personhood
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Of who God is And the Father, the Son, and the Spirit Three persons But one God And we're going to look at that He was with God By God's side
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He's acting by God's side He lives by God's side In the deepest In the most intimate
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Closest relationship In the closest, deepest communion Fellowship and connection With the Father He was with God And by the way
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There's a perfect bond there With the Father A perfect bond John, Jesus says this
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In John chapter 10 Verse 30 I and the Father are one One with the
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Father I and the Father are one Now let me say this There are modalists
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Out there That basically The oneness Pentecostals That believe that And I've ran across people like this
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And by the way I was listening to MacArthur On this as well And he says There's over 25 billion
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Of these people That believe this In the United States 25 million
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Think of that 25 million people That's confused and deceived
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About denying the Trinity And this basically The modalists basically
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Believe that Jesus All They believe that Just in one God That he acts like the
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Father He acts like the Son And he acts like the Spirit And they take the
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Scripture I was sharing this With Brother Keith Before our service started today That they basically believe
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That the Father I'm sorry That Jesus is the Father Jesus is the Son And Jesus is the
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Holy Ghost The second is true But he's not the Father And he's not the Holy Spirit He's the Son And they take that one
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Scripture Out of context And they even use this But when Philip comes to Jesus In John 14
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And he says Show us the Father And Jesus says Philip I've been so long with you
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You haven't seen me? So what he's saying I'm not the Father But they take that out of context
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Saying he is the Father But what he's saying He's emphasizing As John's emphasizing
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Right here Is his deity That he's God See He's one
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God He is He was with the Father He came from the Father He came down from the
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Father And he's the Son But what the modalists say Is that he's the Father The Son and the
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Spirit All in one I'm grossly confused I've talked to many of these people
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They are so And by the way Anytime you see A lot of the apostolic churches by name
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The Oneness Pentecostals They believe this They believe this They will not
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They will not pray To the Father through Jesus In Jesus name
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They basically You will hear them pray But they pray to Jesus As he is the Father The Son and the Spirit Always pointing to the baptism of Jesus Boy they get upset
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When they go there I'm telling you But it's the truth You just can't take one scripture
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And just throw it out of context And you gotta understand By God's Holy Spirit What that context is actually saying
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But there's a lot of modalists That believe this Jesus is one with the
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Father though There's one God in three persons Right? Jesus did not claim to be merely a messenger from God As the cults say
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Or did he just say His claims of a prophet of God No That was actually
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John the Baptist He was the prophet of God Last of the Old Testament But Jesus is more than a prophet
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He was in the beginning With God That's the testimony of the Apostle John That Jesus Christ was the
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Word The Logos Who had always existed with God And He is
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God He is God He's pre -existent
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He's co -existent He's self -existent Self -existent Basically I don't want to spend too much time here
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But That's obvious He needs No one to Hold him up Or Wherever he comes from He's self -existent
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And wherever he comes from That's our mind As a lot of people think He had no beginning
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He is the beginning And the beginning was the Word Notice what it says And the
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Word was with God And the Word Was God Was God This is
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Jesus Christ Now, again We know That all through the Scriptures There is one
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God The Lord is one But He is revealed in three persons The Father and the
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Godhead We believe this, folks Go through the Scriptures From Genesis to Revelation Search the
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Scriptures Especially in Genesis How many times it says Us Us Let us make man in our image
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That's the Trinity It's very obvious How can the modalists miss that?
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But they do But here in this verse Two persons of the
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Godhead are mentioned Two persons of the Godhead are mentioned God the Father and God the
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Son It's the first of many clear statements, by the way In the Gospel That Jesus Christ is
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God And that's the point Jesus Christ is
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God Jehovah Witnesses deny this The text does not say
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That the Word was The God The text does not say That A God And by the way
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In their translation That is the only translation By the way That twists that How satanic that is
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They mis They replace it And take God out
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And put a small g -o -d Such blasphemy Heretical, folks
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Heretical And I tell you That's When you go Take their own translation
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And You can You can You can go to Colossians And speak of Jesus They probably have revised that But Jesus is the beginning
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He is God John, through the
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Holy Spirit says The Word was God Now In order to demonstrate
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That Jesus is fully God In human flesh Emphasizing the deity here John tells us
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Of the pre -existence His co -existence And self -existence And that's what we're looking at All together
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Bundled up Jesus Christ is the very nature The character of God the
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Father But He's not the Father, right? He was with the Father He's not identical
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Of the person of the Father But He was with the Father He's God the Son But He says
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I and the Father are one There's perfect bonding So Jesus Christ being the
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Word The living Word The second person of the Godhead Is a distinct person From the
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God the Father And God the Holy Spirit And yet He is of the very being And essence
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That means perfection Of God the Father Now, again This is It can be complex
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And that's why people Try to figure it out In their human mind And let me give you an example
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Of this in church history Because in 325 A .D. to 381 A .D. The Nicene Creed was formulated
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And there's a purpose For this creed It defined who Jesus is
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That He is deity Does not deny
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His deity But the Christian church Because of such heresies Denying Christ being
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God This is why The Nicene Creed came about And Satan always does
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Causes confusion within the church Doesn't he? He's always done this The Nicene Creed Was carefully put together
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By our early church fathers Like I said Around 325 Roughly 381
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A .D. But the fathers had to clarify And protect the doctrine Of Jesus Christ as deity
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And I thank God For creeds like this Now, even though, beloved We preach the Bible here
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The creed does mean something The Nicene Creed means something It affirms that the
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Father As one God And as the Almighty And Jesus Christ As the
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Son of God And begotten of the Father The essence Here's the vocabulary it uses
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The essence of the Father And therefore as co -substantial With the Father Meaning Of the same substance
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The same substance As the Father So in other words
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He's very God Of very God Begotten Of the Father Before all worlds
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This is right from the Creed It's been revised But this is the original Light from light
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True God From true God Begotten Not made
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That's important He did not have a beginning Here on this earth
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He has no beginning Because he always existed He's begotten But not made
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Being of one substance One perfection With the Father By whom all things were made
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And that clarifies That Jesus is God And I thank God for that Creed So Christ Is distinct person
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When men see Jesus The Son of God One with the Father He is very substance And character
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Of God in all perfection Hebrews 1 .3 As I read this morning Who being in the brightness
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Of His glory In the express image Of His person Upholding all things By the word of His power
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When He had Himself Purged our sins Sat down at the right hand Of the
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Majesty on high The mission was accomplished The mission was done The Father was satisfied
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Through the death of Jesus On the cross He came to do To die And give Himself As a ransom for men
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For our salvation He goes back to the Father He ascends He rises again
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From the dead And one day He's going to come back again Again Jesus Christ Is the express image
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Of His person I got a gem here for you I'm going to read to you In closing And we'll come to the conclusion
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Puritan John Owen Don't you love John Owen? I got a gem here for you From his commentary
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On Hebrews I've read I've read through this I haven't read through the whole thing But I've got about half way through And it's just amazing
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Listen to what he says About Jesus being the express image Of His person Listen to this
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Quote Representing in all things The person of the Father Being typically revealed unto them
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As the brightness of His glory As is the Father So is the
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Son What the Father is Doeth half That the Son is
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And doeth half Or else the Father Could not be fully satisfied in Him Nor representative by Him And by the express image
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Or the express character We are to understand That the whole nature of God Is in Him Also that by Him God is declared
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And expressed unto us He says this Observe one
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Now he's starting to break it down Don't you love these Puritans? They'll break it down And they'll give you The nitty gritty to meet He says
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All that the glorious Perfections of the nature of God Do belong unto
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And dwell in the person of the Son Two Observe second
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That the whole manifestation Of the nature of God Unto us And all communications
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Of His grace Are immediately by And through The person of the Son He goes on to say
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There are some signals Instances Wherein God Reveals Himself And communicates
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From His own Infinite fullness Unto His creatures And all of them He doeth
51:57
Immediately By His Son He does so In the creation Of all things
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And in the providential Rule And disposal In the revelation Of His will And the institution
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Of ordinances And in the Communication Of His spirit And grace But the whole end
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The whole end Of the gospel Is to give us God's a giving
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God Isn't He? To give us The knowledge Of the glory And the glory Of God In the face
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Of Jesus Christ That is the glory Of the invisible God Whom none
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Had seen At any time And that is To be communicated To us To us
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As it is In the person Of Jesus Christ Manifested And represented
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Unto us For He is The image Of God The expressions
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Of God And all other Things Besides the Son Is the image Of the Son Christ Jesus Are all
53:00
Of them Partial Revealing Only something Of Him Not all
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That is necessary To be known That we may live Unto Him Here And enjoy
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Him hereafter Isn't that wonderful? End quote And that is a gem
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So true Jesus Christ Is the express
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Image Of the Father That's why Jesus said to Philip If you've seen me
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You've seen the Father His perfections His beauty
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Folks this is what we should When we give the gospel Yes we tell people
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Of their sin And to turn from their sin But we tell them About the beauties Of Jesus Amen The beauties
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Of Jesus J .C. Rowles says Make Jesus Christ Beautiful Before this
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Ugly dying world Give them the gospel And the gospel Gives the beauty Of Christ He's pre -existent
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Co -existent Self -existent In the beginning was the
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Word And the Word was with God And the Word was God He was in the beginning With God It expresses
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The deity of Jesus Christ And in His Inseparable oneness With God The Father But in John's first epistle
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His meaning Couldn't be more evident And I'll close with this Go with me to 1 John 5 .20
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1 John 5 .20 And this is the application Excuse me 1
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John 5 .20 Great, great verse And we know Do you know?
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And we know That the Son of God Has come
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And has given us An understanding He's given us An understanding
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That we may know Him There's the key right there That we may know
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Him Who is true And we are in Him Who is true
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And in His Son Jesus Christ This Is the true
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God And eternal life That's one verse And everything is packed Right there And that is the scope
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Of everything that John is saying In the beginning Of the gospel Of John And in closing
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Like I said The most important Thing to know Is these questions Two questions
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I set before you Number one Do you know That the
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Son of God Has come And has given us An understanding Of Himself Do you know this?
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We must know this We must know That the Son of God Has come from the Father And has given us
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An understanding Of Himself He has revealed Everything Like What God is like Everything And do you know
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That this is also A surety A certainty Number two
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Do we know Do you know Who is true
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Do you know the person Who is true That means genuine And only in the
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Son Jesus Christ This is the true Eternal life And He says this Jesus said this
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He prayed this In John 17 3 And by the way
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John 17 3 The Puritans preached More sermons From John 17 3 Than any other text
56:34
In the scriptures And I can see why It is critical folks
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This is a critical verse It's in the prayer And it's the only time Jesus mentions
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His own name And this is Eternal life Or life eternal That they may know you
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The only true God And Jesus Christ Whom you have sent Folks This is what salvation is all about Jesus Christ To know the true living
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God The one God Who is true And Jesus Christ Whom He has sent
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Do we know this And if we don't We must Nail it down And make sure we do
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And as Matthew Henry Another Puritan Said so clearly Quote The scope and the design
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Of this chapter Speaking of John chapter 1 Is to confirm Our faith
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In Christ As the eternal son of God And the true
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Messiah And the savior of the world That we may be brought
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To receive Him And rely upon Him As our prophet
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Priest and king And to give up ourselves To be ruled And taught
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And saved By Him End quote Amen And amen
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Let's pray Our father we thank you For this
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Wonderful Beginning You are the beginning We thank you for this record That's been preserved
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Down through the years We thank you for the Bible In our language And we thank you for the eternal word
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The living word Your son The Lord Jesus Christ Who is with you Even at your right hand
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Even at this moment The beginning Came Came to this earth
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And dwelt among us The word became flesh And dwelt among us And we beheld His glory
58:35
The glory of the only begotten Of the father Full of grace and truth Father we thank you For that eternal life
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That eternal life Is here and now And it's in Jesus Christ And Jesus Christ alone
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That is the gift Thank you father We worship you And we praise you
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And we thank you for sending Your one and only begotten son Into this world To save a wretch like us
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Unworthy sinners Father we thank you for Jesus Who was with you
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Before the world began Came to this earth In great love
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Sacrificial love So willingly All the way to the death To the point of death
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To the death of the cross So that we Unworthy sinners Could be saved
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And redeemed By His precious blood We praise you father We praise you son