Jesus Christ is God John 1:1,2

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February 28, 2021 Morning Service Faith Bible Church, Sacramento, CA Message - Jesus is God John 1:1-2

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Well, good morning. Welcome to Faith Bible Church this morning. A couple of visitors, we're glad you're here, and we pray that you would be blessed as this is our favorite day of the week, and we just are grateful to the
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Lord that He's allowed us to, for this church, that we can be open, and we say hello to our brothers and sisters that are at home and watching this on YouTube.
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We pray the Lord have His hand upon you, and you would stay close to the Lord in this time. Being separated from the body can be a dangerous place, and it's just, we need this fellowship, we need each other.
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So, again, I encourage you, there's plenty of room here to distance, if you wish, and we can accommodate that very easily.
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So welcome, thank you for being here. We don't have any announcements this morning, we're continuing to pursue pastoral replacement, and things are progressing there according to the
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Lord's timing and will, so we just keep praying for that. We just need to wait on Him again and again, and His timing is perfect, and we have our idea of what this box ought to look like, and the
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Lord, in His timing and grace, He comes in from left field and kind of says, this is the way it's going to look, you know, so it's kind of exciting to wait on Him that way, and to see what
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He's going to do. So, anyway, welcome, glad you're here this morning. If you take your Bibles, I'd like to, we're going to read some scripture from the
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Gospel of John. We're going to read verses 1 through 18, so if you want to follow along with me, and just to ready, prepare our hearts for this morning's service.
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And that's John chapter 1, and we're going to read through verse 18.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.
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All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There was a man sent from God whose name was
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John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the light, that all through him might believe.
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He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light, which gives light to every man coming into the world.
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He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive
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Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
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And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us. And He beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
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Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness of Him, and cried out, saying,
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This was He of whom I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He was before me.
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And as of His faithfulness, we have all received. And grace for grace, for the law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.
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No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the
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Father, He has declared to Him. Amen. Let's open and join with me in prayer this morning.
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Lord God, we thank You that You have brought us together this morning, that we have been gathered together for Your purpose,
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Father. Lord, we are grateful. We ask for Your help, Lord, as well this morning, that You would guide in our thoughts and our actions, our worship and our celebration, our adoration of You, Father.
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Lord, may we be able to rid ourselves of the cares that encumber us, that drag us down, that distract us,
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Father, but that we can focus fully on Your glory and Your grace, Lord, because You are worthy of our praise.
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I pray that we might do that in a way that would honor You, Father, that would bring You glory entirely.
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You would refresh our tired and weary souls, Lord, of the difficulties that surround us every day,
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Lord, nationally, here in the state, locally, Father, and in our personal lives.
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But, Lord, You are greater. You surpass all of those, Father, and You have the answer for us, and it's in Your Son, Jesus Christ.
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So, Lord, we commit our time to You today, Father. Just go before us and prepare our hearts for Pastor John as he gives us the message this morning.
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And as we lift our voices to You, Father, we give You praise in all things in Jesus' name.
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Amen. And we have Brother David. Good morning.
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Oh, I love the name of that song, Worship the King. Let's stand and sing and worship Jesus Christ, our
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Lord, our God, our King. Sing His wonderful love, our shield and defender, the ancient of days, pavilioned in splendor and girded with praise.
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Oh, tell of His might. Oh, sing of His grace, whose robe is the light, whose canopy space.
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His chariots of wrath, the deep thunder clouds form, and dark is the path on the wings of the storm.
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Frail children of dust and feeble as frail, in Thee do we trust, nor find
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Thee to fail. Thy mercies, how tender, how firm to Thee bend, our
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Maker, Defender, Redeemer, and Friend.
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Let us continue in song, You servants of God.
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Sorry. Ye servants of God, your
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Master proclaim, and publish abroad
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His wonderful name. The name,
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O victorious, of Jesus extol.
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His kingdom is glorious. He rules over all.
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God ruleth on high, Almighty to save, and still
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He is nigh. His presence we have here.
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Great congregation, His triumph shall sing, ascribing salvation to Jesus, our
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King. Salvation to God, who sits on the throne.
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Let all cry aloud, and honor the
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Son, the praises of Jesus, the angels proclaim.
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Fall down on their faces, and worship the
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Lamb. Then let us adore, and give
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Him His right. All glory and power, all wisdom and might.
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All honor and blessing, with angels above, and thanks never ceasing, and infinite love.
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This one is a bit new, but if you would continue to sing to our Lord, our glory and my
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Redeemer. My love He owns,
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I have no longings for another.
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I'm satisfied in Him alone. I will glory in my
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Redeemer, His faithfulness, my standing place.
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The foes are mighty, and rush upon me.
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My feet are firm, held by His grace. My feet are firm, held by His grace.
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I will glory in me. You rose the grave, and death are conquered.
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You broke my bonds of sin and shame.
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You rose the grave, and death are conquered. You broke my bonds of sin and shame.
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Oh Lord, my rock and my
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Redeemer, may all my days bring glory to Your name.
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May all my days bring glory to Your name.
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Amen. Thank you all for singing.
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Please be seated at this time. I invite Pastor John here. Well, isn't that a blessing seeing
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David again up here? Amen. And hearing his beautiful voice that God gave him.
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Well, praise God. And again, if you're watching by video, we miss you.
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We love you. And there's plenty of room to be six feet from people if you want.
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Well, open your Bibles to Ephesians chapter two. I don't want to throw anybody off.
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There's an old saying in ministry, when one person has a complaint about the temperature, 10 other people have it, but they just didn't voice it.
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So more than one person has said, when are we going to go back to the Old Testament, to the jet overview?
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Well, as soon as we can. It's just been on my heart, burdened, you know, as we look forward as a church, and as we look ahead to just lay some foundational truths.
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And as you recall, we looked at the gospel. What is a biblical gospel, right?
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We spent three or four Sundays on that. And the summary is what doing versus done, right?
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A workspace salvation versus a grace through faith based salvation, all in Christ.
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Remember that? Okay. So I don't have to preach all those again. But I was looking at the calendar.
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Do you realize that we're already two months into the year? Do you realize that in four weeks, we're going to be celebrating resurrection
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Sunday? Well, five weeks. And it's typical for me for years on Palm Sunday, I preach a
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Palm Sunday message. On resurrection Sunday, I preach a resurrection Sunday message. And I'm not a prophet at all, but you can write this down if you want.
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It's not a stock tip. But plan a week or so before resurrection
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Sunday on, I don't know, we don't have TV, but I guess with cable, you can have 125 standard channels.
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Does that sound right? 130. And then with premium, you can get 230. Well, I just want to tell you right down on a piece of paper.
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It's not a stock tip, but you can bet that there's going to be a TV special about the resurrection of Jesus Christ and how it's not true.
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Every Christmas, what do we get? See, back in the old days, maybe some of you are old enough to remember we had three channels,
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NBC, ABC and CBN. I mean, it was a big deal when UHF came in.
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I mean, it was like these weird shows on UHF, Channel 40. And every
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Christmas, there is a special or two or three about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and how it really didn't happen.
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It's impossible for a virgin to give birth to a child. And every Easter you had the same deal.
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You know, he fainted. He didn't really die. When Mary came by the tomb, he had woken up.
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So on Palm Sunday, which is just three weeks away, I which we know is a historical fact.
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I mean, nobody doubts that no legitimate historian doubts the reality that a man named
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Jesus Christ rode on a donkey into the gates of Jerusalem on Palm Sunday because it's written down in history outside of the
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Bible. Right. So if we're going to question, you know, why not question that? Well, where are we going to stop questioning
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God's word? So what I want to do is over the next couple of weeks,
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I want to circle back to this passage in Ephesians that we started our gospel series on.
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And I just want to read a couple of verses. And I want you I want to get very personal and I'm going to do it from a distance.
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I want to get very personal and challenge you to ask yourself a question. OK, I'm ready for it.
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Who is Jesus to you? Just think about that for a moment.
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Who exactly is Jesus to you? If you have your sermon notes, you'll see the message title today is
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Jesus Christ is God. But I want to begin the message back here over here in Ephesians chapter two.
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As you think about that question, take a look at Ephesians chapter two, beginning at verse one.
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And you that is who he's writing to the apostle Paul to the church at Ephesus, he made alive who were dead in trespasses and sin.
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In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the signs of disobedience, among whom also we also once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others.
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But God, who is rich in mercy because of his great love, which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.
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By grace, you have been saved and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
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For by grace, you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which
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God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then he goes into a discussion about the
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Jew gentile issue. The wall has come down. I won't take the time to read that because this is what
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I really want us to focus on. Verse 19. Now, therefore, that is because of salvation, right?
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Because of justification by faith, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, so Jews and Gentiles, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God.
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Having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, remember that.
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Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone in whom the whole building being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the
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Lord, in whom you also, you believers are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the spirit.
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So the gospel two, three, four weeks on the gospel. Now, Jesus Christ, look carefully.
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Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, and I showed you a picture of a stone building.
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We are the stones. He is the cornerstone. And you might recall when we talked about the gospel in a stone building, you ask any stonemason, a journeyman stone.
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If the cornerstone is off on a stone building, if it is out of plum, even the slightest, the entire building will be out of plum.
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Now we're going to be considering today just two verses. If you want to turn there, John chapter one,
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John chapter one. And truly, what do you think of Jesus Christ?
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According to the Bible, according to the historic Christian faith, that question is the most important question you or anyone else will ever have to face.
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Your answer to this question is important because it is inescapable. Your answer to this question is important because everyone will have to answer it sooner or later in this world or the world to come.
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Hebrews 9, 27, it is appointed unto men once to die after this, the judgment.
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You don't need a prophet to tell you that all of us one day are going to die. It's an inescapable fact and truth.
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And Philippians chapter two, verse nine says, God has highly exalted him and given him the name, which is above every name.
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Listen carefully, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of those in heaven and those on earth and of those under the earth, and that every tongue, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is
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Lord to the glory of the Father. People say, how is
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God glorified through Adam and Eve's sin? You want an answer to that, right?
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The whole world is a mess because of that, right? How is God glorified? He's glorified in his son,
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Jesus Christ, and exhibiting his love in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
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Can you imagine? So your answer to this question is important because the quality of your life here and your eternal destiny depend on your answer to that question.
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Now, look at what John 1, 1 says here about Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the word.
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And the word was with God and the word was
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God. Somebody was talking earlier about the Jehovah Witnesses before church. They insert an indefinite article there.
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They say the word was with God and the word was a God. They have actually a corrupted, both a
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Greek text and a corrupted English translation to fit their theology. A is not there in the original
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Greek. The word was God. He was, look carefully, in the beginning with God.
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And see, we have the explanation for that in verse 14. The word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the father, full of grace and truth.
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So the message title today, if you saw your notes, is Jesus Christ is God. Let's pray.
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Father, we're so thankful for this day. Oh, God, it is wonderful to be together with other believers, to sing, to worship you,
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Father, to be encouraged by the fellowship of the saints.
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Lord, we pray and ask the Holy Spirit might be our teacher. God might indeed open our eyes of understanding to your word today.
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Oh, God. We need the Holy Spirit to teach us. We need our hearts to be able to receive your word that it might produce fruit in our lives.
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We pray in Jesus name. Amen. So who is Jesus Christ? If he was only a man, then people can safely forget him.
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But if he is God, as he claimed to be, and as all
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Christians believe, then we should yield our life to him. We should worship and serve him faithfully.
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You think about a person who has never answered this question personally or someone who is assumed, perhaps without investigation, that Jesus was only a man.
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In particular, for those kinds of people, God, the Holy Spirit, led the
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Apostle John, part of the inner circle of three, Peter, James, and John. He led the
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Apostle John to write this very gospel to this person who says, well, I guess he's a historic figure because history proves there was a man named
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Jesus Christ that walked the earth. He was crucified. I mean, that's indisputable. Was he really
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God? Well, John writes this entire gospel to address that question.
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Go to John chapter 20. And look what
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John says about the purpose of his writing this gospel in John chapter 20, verse 30.
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John 20, verse 30. And truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.
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Look carefully. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the
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Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name.
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So one of the main reasons that this gospel was written was for those who do not yet believe that Jesus Christ is
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God, and it was written to lead them to that conclusion. This is essentially what happened to me, as I shared with you a month or so ago at the beginning of the year.
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This gospel is inextricably connected to my own personal salvation testimony.
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So in terms of purpose, in one sense, the gospel of John has the same purpose as the other gospels,
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke, which is to present to the reader the earthly life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, a
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Jew who was born under the reign of Herod the Great, who died when Pontius Pilate was the
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Roman purcator in Judea. However, in another sense, John has a purpose that is distinctly unique.
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Each of the gospels, when you read them, has a unique purpose and presents Jesus in a different light and a different shed, like four accident witnesses at an intersection, right?
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They each have their own version. The car was red that hit the white car. No, it wasn't. It was green that hit the yellow car.
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Yellow car? I saw a yellow car yesterday, but not in that accident.
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But see, John's purpose was to show that Jesus Christ is
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God, and this is what we would call, if you remember back to your college days, for those of you that can remember back that far, remember when you wrote a paper, you had to come up with a what?
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Thesis. That's his thesis. Jesus Christ is God. John reveals
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Jesus as the eternal, pre -existing Son of God, who became man in order to reveal the
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Father and bring men access into eternal life through His historical death and literal resurrection.
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How do we know this? Well, because John says so. He testifies to it. So what
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I want to do is I want to unpack and unwrap what
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John says back in these first two verses so we can better see, or at least begin to see,
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John's thesis. So when we turn from the end of John's gospel to the beginning, we find
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John presenting there the thesis, look at verse 1, that Jesus Christ is
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God. The Word was with God. The Word was God.
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Okay? And who's the Word? Verse 14. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld
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His glory. Now, when you write a composition paper in high school or university, the best way to do it is to say in your opening paragraph what it is that you're setting out to prove.
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I remember, I still remember my freshman college English comp teacher, literally a hero.
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You have one of those teachers from high school or college that just absolutely opened up the class to you, the course.
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Dr. King at American River College just absolutely blew my mind. One of the greatest teachers
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I ever had, and we had to write a paper on the crucible. Remember the crucible? And death of a salesman?
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Did you guys write papers on that one? So you say in your opening paragraph what you're going to set out to prove, and then you prove it.
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And when you get to the end, you sum it all up and say, see, I did it. There's a, in speech, in high school speech or college speech,
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I can't remember which, they have that old saying, tell them what you're going to tell them, right? Then tell them what you told them you were going to tell them, and then the outline is tell them what you told them you were going to tell them again, right?
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So three parts to any kind of speech. So there's different ways to do this.
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You can be more subtle. They're great preachers of history. They're much more eloquent and adept at doing that than me, but that's the basic idea.
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This is exactly what John does, because it's good and effective communication. He starts out in these first two verses stating that Jesus Christ is
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God, and then he spends the next 21 chapters proving it. And then when he gets to the end, chapter 20 at the end that I just read is sort of the end, right?
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He says the things that were written in his book were written so that you and I, his readers, might know that Jesus Christ is
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God and that we might believe on Him. So he begins the whole thing with, 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.
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Now, what is John doing? He's testifying that Jesus existed from the beginning, that He was
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God in the beginning, and that He was God. In other words, the opening verses of the contain a full statement of Christ's divinity and declare
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John's purpose for writing the gospel, which is why he says, therefore, many other signs.
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Jesus also performed the presence of the disciples that were not written in this book, but these have been written.
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I love it in the Bible when you come to a verse that tells you exactly why the thing is written.
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You find that all over the place. You find it in 1 John chapter 5. Why was 1 John written?
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You go to chapter 5 verse 17. You go through 2 Peter chapter 1. He tells you why he's writing it. In 2
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Timothy chapter 1, he tells Timothy why he's writing this. I'm about to die, and I want to depart these final truths to you, my beloved
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Timothy, son of the faith. So what is the outline of this book? How can we sum up the 21 chapters of this gospel in just a few sentences?
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Simple. John begins the gospel in the first two verses, stating that Jesus Christ is
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God, and then he proves it in the 21 chapters. And then when he gets almost to the end, he says that the things that were written in this book were written so that you and I, his readers, and you and I today might know that Jesus Christ is
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God and that we might believe on him. And my personal salvation testimony is tied to this because by John chapter 3,
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God had opened my eyes to this incredible truth that this horrible alcoholic sinner in a hotel room in Rochester, New York, bawling his eyes out because of where his life had gone, that there was a
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God that loved him. And God showed me that. So this gospel works.
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Now circle back. Jesus Christ is what?
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God. But Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2 that he's what? The cornerstone.
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Not just any cornerstone, what? The chief cornerstone. Because there's more than one cornerstone in a square, right?
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You know, I teach pre -algebra, right? So I have to know how to find the area and the perimeter of a square.
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Trust me, I can do that in centimeters and inches. Don't ask me to do feet.
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So what I want to do is I want to unpack just a few of the riches of Christological and theological truth that are found in these open verses of the
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Gospel of John. I want to take, if you want, a figurative hammer and chisel to this cornerstone of Christ and our understanding, get with me, we have who is
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Jesus Christ to you, right? Let's take hammer and chisel and let's plumb each side of that cornerstone of our understanding of who
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Jesus Christ is. Let's plumb it and square it to what? Not what we think, not who we think
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Jesus is, but what? What the Bible says Jesus is.
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And he says that Jesus Christ is God to encourage us in the person and work of Jesus Christ.
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Now, to begin with, three things that these first two verses teach us about the divinity of Jesus Christ.
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Three truths about the divinity and deity of Jesus Christ. Notice he starts with, in the beginning, in the beginning was the word.
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What is he testifying to when he says in the beginning? He's testifying that the word was pre -existent.
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The word is who? Christ. Pre -existent. I don't know about anybody else, but I wasn't pre -existent.
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Not till my parents got married. Jesus was before all things.
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Like God the Father was and is pre -existence. You know, there's several ways in which the phrase in the beginning, if you take a concordance, nowadays you don't need it.
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You just go to Google, right? Type in, in the beginning, put it in quotes. You'll get about 85 million hits.
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You know what a hit is? Not a fist. Some of you, I know you're staying away from computers.
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There's some people in our church over my dead body. Okay. I don't need a computer.
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One of the elderly gentlemen in our church just got his first phone. You know, one of these things.
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He calls it a dumb phone. He doesn't even know how to use it. He doesn't want to know how to use it, but I got it with me.
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So in the beginning, how does the Bible start? Genesis 1 .1.
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Can you all quote it from memory? In the beginning, what? God. In the beginning, God was pre -existent.
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In eternity past, God was, is, and always will be. In the beginning, God. There was no beginning, because God is eternal.
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In the beginning, God. And what did God do? He created the heavens and the earth. Now, can
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I explain it scientifically? I teach science. I can't give you the hypothesis and repeat the experiment.
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I could just tell you what the book says. In the beginning, God. And I can give you as much understanding as I possibly can.
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What does that mean? In the beginning, there was no beginning, because God is eternal. I can't wrap my mind around that, but that's what the
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Bible says. In the beginning, God. That is such a rich apologetic for the existence of God.
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No debate, no question, just a statement of fact. 1
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John. John, the same writer in his first epistle, uses the exact same language.
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He says, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched, this we proclaim concerning the word of life.
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But the author, but the use of the phrase in John's gospel goes beyond these uses, because when you begin to talk about Jesus Christ, you can do so properly only when you go back beyond his earthly life.
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You go back to the beginning of creation. You go back to eternity past that has no idea what it is.
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That's where Jesus Christ was. Go over to Hebrews, Hebrews chapter one.
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Man, I can get on some rabbit trails. I'm just so full this morning, my cup overfloweth.
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This is found whenever the Bible speaks in detail about the person of Jesus Christ.
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Hebrews chapter one. God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his son, look carefully, whom he has appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the worlds or the universe.
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In the book of Revelation, it tells us that Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
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In Philippians, Paul writes that Jesus, when Jesus, before Jesus became a man, he was in very nature
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God. Philippians two, Philippians two.
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Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God while he was on earth, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant that we covered last week and coming in the likeness of men.
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These statements about Jesus Christ all point to the pre -existence of Jesus as one important aspect of his divinity.
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Go to John, back to John, and go to John 14. Second, John testifies that the word that is
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Jesus Christ was with God, right? So, the first two verses of John, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God.
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Now, look at John 14, John 14, nine.
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Have I been with you so long? And this is towards the end of his earthly ministry.
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He says to Philip, have I been with you so long? And yet you have not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the father.
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So, how can you say, show us the father? Do you not believe that I am in the father and the father in me?
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Now, go back to John one. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was
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God. Jesus is and always will be fully God, but he is separate and distinct from God the father.
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It was not God the father that came to the earth and was born of a virgin, right?
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And lived a sinless life and died a cruel death on the cross and rose again after three days.
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Now, there is a final phrase in here. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was
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God. Actually, the Greek order there is God was the word, but it doesn't flow in the
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English that way. This means that everything that can be said about God the father can be said about God the son.
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God was the word, right? God was the word.
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Everything that can be said about God the father can be said about what? The word, and who is the word?
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Jesus Christ. Everything that can be said about God the father can be said about God the son, because Jesus Christ is
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God. In Jesus dwells the wisdom, glory, power, love, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth of the father.
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In him, God the father is known. That's why he said so many times in John, when you see me, who are you seeing?
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God the father. He was in the beginning, verse two, with God.
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With these words, the highly emphatic and unequivocable statement of the full divinity of the
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Lord Jesus Christ is ended. Two verses. Oh, I'm not convinced.
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Verse three. All things were made through him, the word.
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And without him, nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
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So, three truths about the divinity of Jesus Christ. Just in the first two verses, we didn't even get to verse three.
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I just gave that to you free. Jesus is the chief cornerstone. Listen, in the days in which we live, do
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I need to tell you about how wicked the world is becoming? Do I need to give you examples from the news? Do you understand we are literally in a free fall of immorality and wickedness in this country?
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Do you understand that? So, understand Satan from the very beginning attacked
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God. He attacked the authority of his word. He mocked God. Did God really say?
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So, understand that attacks on Jesus Christ and who he is, he wasn't just a good teacher and a good man.
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He was God. We have to be right about who Jesus is, was, and always will be.
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Jesus Christ was with God in the beginning, whenever that was. Before the very creation of the earth,
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Jesus was there with God, and he is God. All right? So, that's some
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Christology. That's just a little lettuce with some... That's an appetizer.
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It's that $1 .50 extra salad you get at lunch. Would you like a salad with that? How much? $1 .50.
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You get that little thing about like that. It's a handful of iceberg lettuce, which has absolutely no nutritional value.
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You know that, right? Just... Yeah. That's a freebie. No charge.
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Romaine. You need romaine. So, we have these two verses about Jesus's deity and divinity.
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Now, second, how about some practical application, right? What does it matter to say that Jesus Christ is
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God? How does the fact that Jesus Christ is God impact our
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Christian faith today? Just a couple. So rich.
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Number one. To say that Jesus Christ is God is to say that we can now know the truth about God.
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To say that Jesus Christ is God means that we, mere humans, can know the truth about what
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God is like. Can I give you the counterpart?
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Please? Apart from Jesus Christ, we can't really know
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God. You see, if the one is true, the other has to be true. Dear friends, please ask yourself an honest question.
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Who is Jesus to me? See, apart from Jesus Christ, no one can know the one true
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God. Is God the made -up and thought -up
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God of Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher? Or is he the
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God of the other philosophers? Is he the God of the mystics? Is he the
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God of Islam? See, to answer questions like this apart from Jesus Christ, we don't know what
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God is like. But since Jesus Christ is God, then we do know, because to know the
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Lord Jesus is to know God. There is no knowledge of God apart from the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And there is no knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ apart from the knowledge of the Bible. You see, one of the saddest stories in all of God's Word concerns this theme.
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Over in chapter 14, I already read it once. Look at this.
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John 14, 9. Philip says, well,
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I want to go all the way back to Thomas. I'm actually going to go back to verse 4.
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Jesus is talking about when he goes away, he's preparing a mansion, right? Verse 3.
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I prepare a place for you. I will come again, receive you to myself that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know.
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Now watch. Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?
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Jesus said to him, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you had known me, you would have known my
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Father also. And from now on, you know him and have seen him because I was here.
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Watch this. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the
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Father and it's sufficient for us. Wait a minute. Didn't he just say, if you see me, you see the
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Father? Now watch what he says. Philip, have I been with you so long and you still have not known me?
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How many times have I told you? He who has seen me has seen the Father. I just added that by the way.
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If that's not in your translation, don't sweat it. I just added that. He who has seen me has seen the
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Father. So how can you say, show us the Father?
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See, if you want to know what God is like, study Jesus Christ. And in order to study
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Jesus Christ, because we weren't there when he was on earth, we have to read the Bible. We have to know the
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Bible. God reveals himself in the pages of this book. And the things recorded there about Jesus Christ are true.
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Dear friends. People can spend four hours watching
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TV and not give it a second thought. They can spend four or five hours watching the
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Super Bowl. They can spend three hours on their phone, checking Twitter or news.
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God's word doesn't return void. Imagine the eternal, the fruit and the eternal profit of spending the same amount of time in the word of God.
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Amen. Practical application number two, that Jesus Christ is
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God, is that it tells us God was always like Jesus. See, since the word was with God before time began, and since God's word is part of the eternal scheme of things, it means that God was always like Jesus.
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God is holy. God is just. Jesus didn't change God's anger into love.
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Jesus didn't alter God's attitude towards men. The whole New Testament tells us, and this passage of John especially, that God has always been like Jesus.
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Go back to chapter one. In the beginning was the word. The word was with God, and the word was
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God. Does Jesus Christ hate sin?
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Yes. Does he hate sinners? No. God has always hated sin, not sinners, right?
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This whole dialogue, this whole dialogue about God hating certain kinds of sin.
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Sinners? No, absolutely not. God hates sin, not the sinner. Amen. Do you understand that?
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God hates sin, but God loves the sinner. God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believed in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.
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Whether you're an alcoholic, whether you're a dope fiend, whether you're a murderer, whether you're a rapist, no matter what you are, God loves you.
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Does Christ love the sinner? Yes. Therefore, God loves the sinner too. In fact, God so hates sin, and so loves the sinner, that in eternity
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He planned the way in which He would redeem the human race. You know in the
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Old Testament God says there must be an atonement for sin. And then we read the account of Christ's life and death, and we find
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God saying, so God in the Old Testament says there must be an atonement for sin. Then in the
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New Testament He says what? There is now an atonement for sin. In the
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Old Testament there must be an atonement for sin. So if you sin, grab the Lamb, take Him to the tabernacle or the temple.
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In the New Testament it's done. Amen. I mean this is just fantastic.
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Atonement. It's God's act of dealing with the primary human problem which is sin.
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In the Old Testament and the New Testament both affirm that sin has broken the relationship between God and humankind.
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And God accomplishes the way of restoration through Christ's death. Atonement means Christ is the ransom that buys back sinners from Satan.
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And satisfaction in that Christ's death appeased the honor due God that has been robbed by human sin.
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And Jesus Christ stands in the legal place of sinners, standing before the judge, bearing the judge's punishment due.
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You know, when you get a speeding ticket and you show up in front of the judge, guilty, what does he want?
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Money. Your fine is $350. Boom. Does he care whether you pay it or your mom?
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No, the fine has to be paid. Jesus stands before God. I paid the price for his sin.
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The gospel tells us that this was the atonement for sin. So believe it and be saved.
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Jesus is the same yesterday and forever, and so is God. So some practical application of the truth that Jesus Christ is
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God. Number one, because Jesus Christ is God, we can now know the truth about God.
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Because Jesus Christ is God, we know that God will always be like Jesus. And number three, the truth that Jesus Christ is
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God means that his death on the cross was significant. God himself became the one sufficient and acceptable sacrifice for man's sin.
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No mere man can die for another man's sin because men born since the fall are all sinners.
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So if we or anyone else were to die for sin or pretend to do it, the only sin that we could die for would be for our own.
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But Jesus had no sin. Being God, he was sinless. When Jesus died, he died for the sins of others in their place, and he removed forever the burden of sin from those who believe on him.
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And then finally, a fourth practical application, because Jesus Christ is
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God, it means he is able to satisfy all the longings of our heart.
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You see, God is omniscient, right? He knows exactly what we need.
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He's infinite. Therefore, Jesus is infinite, and he is able to satisfy you out of that inexhaustible immensity.
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See, Jesus is more than able to satisfy the needs of a believer's heart.
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There's a remarkable story that illustrates this. Go to Ephesians 318.
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Look what Paul says. Is this for me? I want to make sure, you know,
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I'm not stealing somebody else's wine. Notice what
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Paul says here in Ephesians 318. Well, he starts in verse 14, for this reason
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I bow my knees. So he's telling them how he prays for them, right? I have time, I'll just read it all.
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For this reason, I bow my knees to the father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height, to know the love of Christ, which passes knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.
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Can you imagine if we all memorized that verse and started praying that for each other?
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According to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might through his spirit.
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So if you look carefully, these verses, this prayer of Paul for the
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Ephesians speak of four dimensions of God's love. The breadth, you see that?
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The breadth, the length, the depth, the height. And they say that out of that fullness,
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God is able to satisfy the ones who come to him. During the
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Napoleonic period in Europe, I told you I was going to tell you a remarkable story that illustrates this incredible truth.
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During the Napoleonic period in Europe, some of the emperor's soldiers opened a prison that had been used by the
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Spanish Inquisition, which, you know, was conducted by the Roman Catholic Church. There were many dungeons in the prison, but in one of them, the soldiers found something particularly interesting.
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They found the remains of a prisoner, the flesh and clothing all long gone, only an ankle bone in a chain to tell his story.
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On the wall, however, carved into the stone with some sharp piece of metal or something, there was a crude cross.
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And around the cross were the Spanish words for the four dimensions of Ephesians 3, 18 and 19.
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Do you see them? The width, the length, depth and height. Above the cross was the word height.
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Below was the word depth. On one side was the word breadth. On the other was the word length.
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Clearly, as his poor persecuted soul was lying in chains and dying, he comforted himself with the thought that God, who in himself contains the breadth, length, depth and height of all things, was able to satisfy him fully.
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Because Jesus is God, he is able to satisfy you fully whatever your need or your longing.
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Who is this? Who is Jesus to you?
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This is John's thesis. So really, to apply the truth that Jesus is
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God, we have to circle back. We have to raise again the question that I began with, which is the question above all questions.
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What do you think of Jesus Christ? Who is he? Do you know or do you remember that this question came up often during Jesus's earthly ministry?
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You remember when we get to Palm Sunday, should the Lord tarry his return? I'll be preaching,
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God willing, a message on Palm Sunday. Do you know when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday?
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And we know the date because of the vernal equinox.
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Did I say that right? I, for some reason, I've got this whole thing.
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I saw a license plate and I can't save feral cats. And I keep mixing up the word feral in my thinking.
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Save feral cats? Aren't those like those wild cats? Are some of you cat lovers? Yeah, it's a wild cat, right?
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Okay. I don't know. How do you save a feral cat? I guess it's like visualize visualize swirled peas.
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You've seen that one? Anyway, when Jesus rode into the city of Jerusalem on a donkey, what we call
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Palm Sunday, people turned to one another and said, who is this? The disciples asked the question after Jesus stilled the storm on the
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Lake of Galilee. They said, who is this that even the winds and the waves obey him?
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You remember when Herod beheaded John? He said,
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I beheaded John. Who is this now that I hear so much about? When Jesus forgave the sins of the paralytic, the scribes and the
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Pharisees murmuring amongst themselves, who is this fellow who speaks blasphemy?
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Who can forgive sins but God alone? See, this is the question. Is Jesus only a man?
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See, if he is, you can afford to forget him. Or is he
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God? See, if he's God, then he demands your belief and your total allegiance because he is
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God. Every believer should be able to say with Thomas, my
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Lord and my God beloved to draw back from making that confession is to perish.
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To truly believe it is to enter into eternal life.
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I close with giving you a moment or two to look at Ephesians 3 .18. Actually, verse 16, 17, 18, 19.
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And just take a moment or two to reflect on maybe something I said or a verse, and then we'll close in prayer and David will come and lead us in a closing hymn.
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But take a moment or two, just leave your Bible open, maybe your sermon notes.
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Take a moment or two to reflect on what the Lord may have said to you today. Then I'll close in prayer. Father God, we're so humbled as we think about the truth of your word.
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In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God and the word was
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God. Father, as we perhaps recognize that truth more and more, you think of Isaiah when he saw the
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Lord high and lifted up. We think of Ezekiel, we think of John and what it impacted him.
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God, may we see Christ as he truly is God. Sitting right now at your right hand, making intercession for us.
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You know our weaknesses, God. You know our needs. You know our fears.
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You know our trials. May we,
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Father God, truly comprehend, as Paul prayed, the height, the width, the breadth and the depth of your love for us.
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In Jesus name. Amen. David. And say,
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May the word of God dwell richly in my heart from hour to hour, so that,
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O may see I triumph only through his power.
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May the peace of God my Father grow my life in everything, that I may be calm to comfort sick and sorrowing.
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May the love of Jesus fill me as the waters fill the sea, him exalting, self -abasing, this is victory.
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May I run the race before me, strong and brave, to face the foe, looking only unto
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Jesus as I onward go.
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May his beauty rest upon me as I seek the lost to win, and may they forget the channel, seeing only him.