The God Man (Part 5)

Moore's Corner Church

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The Prophet From Nazareth of Galilee - The God Man (Part 6)

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Thank you for listening to this message from the ministry of Morse Corner Church in Leverett, Massachusetts.

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Morse Corner is a non -denominational church that is committed to the preaching and teaching of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

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Our church was founded in 1896 by two students of the famous evangelist

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D .L. Moody. We seek to encourage and edify the body of Christ through the proclamation of God's Word through the ministries of the local church.

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If you'd like more information, visit our website, morsecornerchurch .com. We hope you enjoy the message.

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If you hear nothing else this morning, that's the teaching of Christ. Believe in Him.

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Now turn to Matthew 11. So based on all of that, you can just imagine the response of the people.

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Again, who does he think that he is? He believes he's

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Lord. He's declaring that he is Lord. And of course, isn't this the ultimate question today?

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Who is Jesus Christ? People say all sorts of things about Jesus, don't they?

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Everyone has some answer to this question. Who does he think he is? Who is Jesus of Nazareth?

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You know what people say? That he's a good man, a wise and moral teacher, maybe even a prophet.

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I like what C .S. Lewis said. I think C .S. Lewis had it right when he posted or posited his trilemma.

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Lewis gave three options. What were they? Jesus is either a liar, he is a lunatic, or he is

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Lord. It is one of the three. If Jesus made all these claims, then if he said them and they're not true, that would make him a liar.

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Or maybe you say he really believed it, he was just delusional, that would make him a lunatic.

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Or the third option is that everything he says is true, and that would make Jesus Lord.

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So the final option, if it's true, if it's all true, it makes Jesus Lord. And again, the

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Jews, upon hearing these claims, would have wondered, who is this man claiming to be?

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Going back to the beginning of the message, who is he? He's the God man.

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Jesus was making a claim to deity. How could any man say that it's up to him who is going to heaven or hell?

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See, that's the wonderful thing. We don't have to judge that. You don't have to come to me and don't do this, because I'm not going to answer.

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Who's going to heaven? Is this person going to heaven? Is that person going to heaven? You're not the judge of that.

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I'm not the judge of that. We can maybe determine something based on what people say and how they live, but ultimately it's not your call.

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It's not my call. You know, I'm glad it's not your call. There's some people out there that don't like me.

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I'd be in big trouble if it was their call. It's the Lord's job to judge, and we need to leave it to him.

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Look at verse 21. I already read that. Never mind. I lost my place.

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I'll edit this part out of the video after. But Jesus claimed to be the

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Son of God. Such a claim could not be ignored. So the children of Israel had to make a decision.

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Either accept Jesus as the Messiah, submit to His Lordship, or reject

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Him. And really, Israel had already made the decision when they rejected the ministry of John the

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Baptist. Remember what John the Baptist came preaching? It was his whole message. It was a message of repentance.

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And while many of the Jews did heed his message, while many of the Jews did believe the message of Jesus, look at what they say in Matthew 11.

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This is the next point of our outline. This is

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Israel's rejection of Jesus. Matthew 11, verse 12. And from the days of John the

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Baptist until now, Jesus says, the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

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You remember what happened to John the Baptist? He preached repentance. He preached the kingdom of God was at hand.

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And what happened to John? He was vilified. John was imprisoned, and eventually he was put to death.

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What did Jesus do? He picked up that same message. And then Jesus was vilified.

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He was arrested, and Jesus was put to death. So both

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John the Baptist and Jesus, because they preached a message that was unpopular, they were demonized.

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Literally, they were demonized. They were accused of being demon possessed. Look at verse 18.

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This is what the enemies of the faith said about John and Jesus. He says, for John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, he has a demon.

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The son of man came eating and drinking, and they say, look, a glutton, a wine bibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.

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So you couldn't win with these people. John fasted. He has a demon. Jesus didn't fast.

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Well, he has a demon. Well, what were you supposed to do? So obviously, this is not a fair evaluation.

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John fasted. They attacked him. Jesus didn't fast. They attacked him. And then

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Jesus says, but wisdom is justified by her children.

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What does that mean? Wisdom is personified by a woman, and her children are the ones who understand.

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Jesus would often say, he who has an ear, let him hear.

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Are you hearing the message of Jesus this morning? Are you understanding the message?

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Instead of recognizing their sin, however, and turning to God for salvation, the leaders of Israel went so far in their rejection of the

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Lord, they committed what is known as the unpardonable sin or the unforgivable sin.

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Look at Matthew 12, verse 22, Matthew 12, 22.

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Then one was brought to him who was demon possessed. So this man actually was demon possessed.

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He was blind and mute and Jesus healed him so that the blind and mute man both spoke and saw.

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And all the multitudes were amazed and said, could this be the son of David?

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Could Jesus be the Messiah? Now, when the Pharisees heard it, they said, this fellow does not cast out demons except by Beelzebub, the ruler of demons.

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Beelzebub is another name for Satan. So they're saying that Jesus is of the devil and the works that He does, these miracles performed through the

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Holy Spirit. These are the working of the working of Satan. So this is the unpardonable sin.

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They declare the power of God wrought by the Holy ghost to be the power of Satan.

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Their fate is now sealed. Verse 31, Jesus says, therefore, I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the spirit will not be forgiven men.

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Anyone who speaks a word against the son of man, it will be forgiven him. But whoever speaks against the

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Holy spirit, it will not be forgiven him either in this age or in the age to come.

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And then from this time forward, Jesus began speaking to the people in parables to kind of hide the truth from them because they rejected it.

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So Jesus now speaks to them in parables. Many of the parables were against Israel and her rulers and how the

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Lord was going to do a, a new thing through the new Testament church. Let's just look at one parable.

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We're almost done. Matthew 13, starting in verse 31. And at times they understood what

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Jesus was saying that he was speaking against the rulers of Israel, Matthew 13, 31, another parable.

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He put forth to them saying the kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds.

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But when it is grown, it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.

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What's Jesus saying here? The new Testament church began small.

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Didn't it? The church originated with one man who had a limited number of followers halfway across the world in the land of Israel.

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But then on the day of Pentecost, we know there's about 120. And then that number quickly spread to over 3000.

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And then the message and people started believing and it went throughout, not just Israel, but throughout the entire

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Roman empire to where today churches can be found in every nation on earth.

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That's amazing. Started small, like a mustard seed. And it just grows and grows and grows.

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And you know, some of you may be discouraged by what's happening in the world today. And you look around and you say the kingdom of God seems to be shrinking.

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I mean, that's kind of how it looks that the kingdom of God is shrinking and shrinking. That's not true.

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It's growing because we never lose anybody. A true believer endures.

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So we're always adding every new generation. We're just adding, adding, adding.

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It's getting bigger, bigger, and bigger. You have to look through it through spiritual eyes though, and not just what's on the surface.

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The apostle John, this idea of the gospel going throughout the world, the apostle

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John states in 1 John 2 -2 that Jesus was not just the propitiation for our sins, but also for the whole world.

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That is Jesus wasn't just the savior for Israel. He is the savior of the whole world.

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Jesus came to save a people from every nation, tribe, and tongue.

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And he's doing that. He's doing that right now. And there might be somebody listening either here this morning in the building, later on, on the radio or online.

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There'll be somebody at some point who listens who doesn't know Christ. God sent his only begotten son to die on the cross.

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You have one hope of the forgiveness of sin in everlasting life. If you are paying attention, going through the

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Sermon on the Mount, you have to acknowledge if not to anyone else, but to yourself,

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I have sinned. I've never murdered anybody. Some people have, but maybe

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I've never murdered anybody, but I've felt like it. Maybe I've never committed adultery, but I've been guilty of that in my heart.

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God has a standard of perfection. I've fallen short, but out of his great love, the

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Lord died for sin. So in conclusion,

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God didn't just love the Jews. God so loved the world. So in a sense, Israel's rejection of Jesus was the world's gain.

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It was the world's gain through Christ's disciples, the message of the gospel would be proclaimed among the

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Gentiles. And you know, there was nothing more infuriating to the unbelieving Jews than that, because they thought that God only loves us.

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And then in Matthew 21, Jesus speaks another parable. We won't read it, but he says to the

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Jewish leaders, he said, therefore, I say to you, because of their unbelief, he said, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it.

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And this, he spoke of the New Testament church. You're a part of this.

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You're a part of this thing, the New Testament church, which is what a spiritual nation.

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The New Testament church is the initial phase of the kingdom of God, which is now in our hearts, but it will be made manifest upon the earth when

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Jesus returns a second time. Hey, better days are coming. The kingdom of God right now, if you know

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Christ, it's in your heart. It's going to be established upon this earth. When Jesus comes back, the knowledge of the

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Lord will cover the earth. Like the water covers the earth even greater, really when

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Jesus comes back a second time. So this is where we will end next week. We will cover the betrayal trial, crucifixion, resurrection of Christ in the final days.

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He walked among us until he was taken up in glory. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, I thank you for this message of encouragement, how

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Christ, even though he faced great opposition and even persecution, Lord, you are doing a mighty work through him.

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And Lord, you used average, ordinary men, and you did that for a reason, that you would receive all the glory.

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But Lord, if you can use fishermen in such an amazing way, you can use us if we would give our hearts totally to you.

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And I pray that each listener would do that. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

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Thanks for listening. I'm Pastor Michael Grant from Morris Cornett Church. If you'd like to listen to the complete message, or if you'd like more information about the ministry, visit our website, morriscornettchurch .com.

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And we'd love to have you join us some Sunday morning here in Leverett. Until next time, may the grace of God be with you.