Jesus Christ (Part I)

In the last couple of weeks, I guess I kind of wanted to start with just a little bit of an intro with kind of what we've been talking about in the last couple of weeks.

This would be our fifth week. We started with the Inerrancy of Scripture. So we spent two weeks talking about the scriptures, the 66 books of the canon.

Afterwards, we spent the next two weeks talking about the Trinity of the Bible, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And we started talking about the Godhead. So all these things are important to our faith, and they're important that we have a biblical sound, spiritual truth, and grasp of these concepts.

But taken on their own, they don't work salvation.

Taken on their own, they are just interesting facts. To illustrate this, imagine a spectrum.

Imagine a spectrum on two sides where you see, on one side you see scholars, you see scholars, you see scholars, you see professors, you see historians.

You see people who study the Bible for a historical text. Bart Ehrman, for example, if you guys have ever heard of him, he's one of these guys who would fall in that category, but I guarantee he's probably not on his own.

There's probably a lot of people who would study the Bible who would claim that it is a historical document, and they look at the truths written in the

Word of God and they say that it is a historical book, and they marvel at the specificity of the

Word of God, and they marvel at the kind of the historical findings, and they look to it first as an authority, but that they would discount the other half of it, the reason for whom the book is written.

So that's on one side. So we have one side of very intelligent people who could quote Scripture back to me more than I ever could, and on that other side, you have people who sit in pews, for example, who might affirm all these doctrines and say they believe in the inerrancy of the doctrine of the

Trinitarian God of the Bible. They might believe in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, but they don't fully have an understanding of those things, and they can't truly defend their faith in this odd, sinful world that we live in.

We have these two groups of people that can exist, and unfortunately, in a very sad state, they both fall under the condemnation of the wrath of God, because they have both missed the centrality of the gospel.

They have missed the reason for the Scriptures, and as a result, they stand condemned before Holy and Righteous God.

So in light of that, it would be like missing the majesty of the forest for the trees.

They have not—although they affirm very sound doctrines of the Bible, and again, they have very vast knowledge and depths of knowledge of the

Scriptures—to undermine and to miss the point of Jesus Christ is to miss the entire purpose for the reason of the

Scriptures. So, with that in mind, let's go to Lord in prayer. Dear Father, we need your wisdom tonight,

Lord. Before us is the very truth of our salvation. Father, we cannot come to you unless we are first drawn in, and the scales fall from our eyes,

Lord, to see and behold the glory of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. In this world, Lord, there are people who believe in the

Scriptures. They believe that the Bible is good, but they have missed the reason for the Scriptures themselves,

Lord. They deny the deity of Christ. They deny the personhood and the work of Christ, and although,

Lord, they may affirm the good things of the Bible, Lord, and there might be agreement from us, even with some of the things that they might say,

Lord, ultimately, Lord, these individual facts taken by themselves, Lord, does not make a

Christian. Lord, they are not saved by those facts and that knowledge alone, Lord.

So, Father, I ask, Father, that as wicked sinners, Lord, before a holy and righteous

God, Lord, that you would guide us, Father, that your light would penetrate into our souls, Lord, and that your word would speak to us,

Father, and reveal the majesty of Jesus Christ for whom the Scriptures are written for. So, we thank you,

Lord. We thank you for this time. We also ask that you would bless those who could not be here tonight, and Lord, that you would, for those who are on their way,

Lord, we ask that you grant them safe passage. All these things, Lord, I pray in Lord Jesus' heavenly name.

So, before even—actually, if you look at your Statement of Faith, it's probably, I think, the third page in the back, and as you all well know, we're talking about the person hurt and the works of Jesus Christ.

But before we even get into any of that, before we even crack open the Statement of Faith, I wanted to frame the argument, and I wanted to have the rightful understanding of Jesus Christ, and I wanted us to go in with the right frame of mind.

So, last week, it was providential that Shane would open and speak about something that I had initially thought that I would have to address here in the beginning.

Shane did it justice much better than I could, so it was providential that the Lord put that on his heart to preach it, because he opened up the discussion of the sovereignty of God, but not just that, this notion of open theism.

We talked about open theism, and again, I encourage you to go back and listen to that if you have a chance, if any of this doesn't make any sense, but I will summarize a little bit of kind of where I want to go here.

So, just to summarize, the concept of open theism is this. Open theism is defined as the thesis that because God loves us and desires that we freely choose to precipitate his love, he has made his knowledge of and plans for the future conditional upon our actions.

Though omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future. So, hopefully you guys caught that.

I'm going to read that again, just the part I'm really going to stick to here. Though omniscient, God does not know what we will freely do in the future.

That concept of open theism, I want to put just very clearly, to me, it borders on heresy.

There is no way that our God, though omniscient, is beholden to our will. So, in other words, although God is omniscient, he's beholden to our will, and the future is in the hands of the creation, not in the creator.

That is not something as Christians that we can affirm, and it's interesting that such a notion can come out of the

Bible, and it doesn't, because the Bible does not make claim for this, and actually, the Bible is pretty emphatic against this claim.

Actually, there's—well, turn to me if you can, to Acts chapter 2, verse 22 and 24.

Again, the Bible makes no apologies about the—before the foundations of the world, it makes no apologies about the plan and the divine sovereignty of our

Lord as Jesus Christ. So, open up with me in Acts chapter 2, verse 22.

Men of Israel, hear these words. This is Peter speaking. Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—and this is a key verse here—this

Jesus delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless

God—or lawless men, my apologies. God raised him up, losing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it.

Turn over with me just one more page to chapter 4, verse 27.

Again, a very similar idea emerges in this passage as well. For truly in this city—I'm sorry, the reference is chapter 4, verse 27—for truly in this city there were gathered together against your holy servant

Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius Pilate, along with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel.

And again, verse 28, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.

Again, to look at open theism and to assert it and to affirm it would be to, quite spiritually and almost literally, to take these passages and to do away with them.

This would be no different than if you were, like, for example, Thomas Jefferson, the third president of the

United States, who quite literally took scissors to his Bible and would cut out chunks.

And obviously, that is not something that we affirm. That is not something we cannot afford to affirm.

We cannot do that. Again, God makes no apologies for the coming of Lord Jesus Christ.

To affirm open theism, again, just to state really clearly, would be to do away with passages like the ones you see in Acts chapter 2, chapter 4, the messianic prophecies, starting all the way from the beginning in chapter 3 of Genesis, the

Psalms, the Revelation, all of it. There would be literal books worth of scripture that you would have to throw out if you were to affirm that God is beholden somehow to our will and that He does not know the beginning from the end.

So again, very clearly, Jesus Christ is no accident, and He is not

God's second plan, nor will He ever will be, and the scriptures make no apologies for this. So that's the kind of framework

I want to kind of approach before we even crack open the Statement of Faith. So looking at the Statement of Faith, I've kind of summarized it into three points.

So hopefully some of them kind of gelled together, just the way that the Lord moved in terms of my preparation.

So the first point, if you're keeping notes, is this. Jesus Christ, fully God, fully man, and for those who are keen on the big terms, the hypostatic union.

To open this, I want us to keep one finger in Genesis 1 -1 and John 1 -1, again, if you're able to.

And this is actually something really quite a fun exercise if you can, especially for the little ones, if you guys ever have a chance to open up your

Bibles, if you guys ever have a chance to, which you should, you guys should open up to Genesis 1 -1 and John 1 -1 and just read alongside and see just how similar they are.

They both start in the exact same way, in the beginning. So the first thing you should ask is, what does it mean by in the beginning?

What does that mean? In the beginning, that's the beginning, before anything, before the foundations of the world, before the chaos of the cosmos, before that was ordered, before our

God put it all together and organized everything, in the beginning, continuing from John 1 -1, in the beginning was the

Word, the logos, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. John, the writer of the

Book of John, the Gospel of John, makes very clear to us that Jesus Christ is

God. There is no confusion in John, or in the Gospel of John, and John wants to make the point very clearly from, again, from the outset, the verse one, chapter one, that Jesus Christ, before anything was anything,

Jesus Christ was there. Again, to just hit the nail on the head and to drive it further, he goes down into verse 14, and he says, and the

Word, again the logos, became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as the only

Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. Again, especially at the time of writing,

John would have wanted to make this point emphatically clear, because the notion or the idea that Jesus Christ is fully

God and fully man is not seen anywhere in the world like this, and John wanted to make the point very clear that Jesus Christ, fully

God, fully man, and he wasn't the only one. It's written all over the

New Testament, but to really hit the nail on the head, if you'll turn with me to Colossians 1.

This isn't John writing, but the Apostle Paul. Again, he wrote with the same intentionality, that we would know that Jesus Christ is fully

God, fully man. That is so important to the faith. So again, just reading out of Colossians 1, verse 15,

I'll just read down to verse 20. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation, for by Him all things are created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities.

All things are created through Him and for Him, and He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together, and He is the head of the body, the church.

He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything He might be preeminent. Again, verse 19 really hits at home.

For in Him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of His cross.

Again, that's the Apostle Paul writing to the church in Colossae, but again, making the point exceptionally clear that Jesus Christ is fully

God, fully man, and that might—again, that is very important, and that plays out later on, but this we cannot get wrong.

I mean, this is something that has—it's somewhat of a difficult concept, something that our three -pound brains might truly struggle with, but we cannot in any way deny what the

Bible says. We cannot deny that, right? Although we might not have a full understanding, and ultimately the miracle of Jesus Christ, the beauty of Jesus Christ, to be revealed in our full—again, our three -pound brain would be something to marvel if you could fit that much knowledge into my brain, for example.

That would—I'm just not built that way, but we can't deny this. We cannot deny that Jesus Christ is fully

God, fully man, and that is, again, central to the faith, that we cannot deny these things.

Again, many, many Christians have been tripped up by this in the early church and continue to be tripped up by this today. So again, so that's just the first point

I want to really kind of hit kind of quickly, but so if you're, again, keeping notes, we're going to go to the second point, and again, like I said, if you're going to give this one a title, it's the virgin birth.

Again, turning to—turn with me to Luke chapter 1, if you're able, verse 30. This is something that's usually preached during the

Christmas time, but again, I think it hits the notes exactly where it is that we want to be tonight.

So again, looking at chapter 1, verse 30, the passage goes like this, and this is, by the way, this is the angel

Gabriel speaking to Mary. So again, verse 30, opening up like this, it says,

And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will—and you shall call his name

Jesus. And he will be great, and he will be called the Son of God, the Most High, or sorry, the

Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.

In verse 34, it says, And Mary said to the angel, how will this be, since I am a virgin? And the angel answered her, the

Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called

Holy, the Son of God. Looking back at this verse, it's beautiful because the question is kind of already built into this passage, and the question that kind of naturally comes out of this is, why did

Jesus have to be born this way? Why this way? Why a virgin birth? You know, why is that important?

You know, so what? I want us to think about, and to kind of illustrate the point, I want us to think about the

Garden of Eden for just a moment. When the Lord created Adam and Eve, they were perfect.

If you think about, who here likes science? Just a show of hands. You guys like, yeah, we're scientists here. I love science.

I love, if you've ever looked into a microscope, like you will maybe at some point, Noah. Maybe as you get older and you start studying the cell, that's, and the study of biology, you start to look at the cell, and you start to break down the smallest units of life, and cells are in our body, and they're something that's one of the building blocks of our bodies, and it's the, and it's truly amazing to see these little cells at work.

They do so much for our body. They have special functions. They are like little cities in our bodies, and they have so much information.

They do so much, and if you dig down even deeper to the cell, and you go right to the kind of the core unit called the nucleus, and this might be a little technical, you get to what's called

DNA. DNA is, if you guys don't know what that is, it's genetics.

It's the genes in our body. Think about it like a mechanic. It's the schematics of the car.

It's the blueprint. In our genes pertains all the information of our potential, so if you were to map my genes, my genes would look entirely different.

Well, you know, not entirely, but they would be different from, say, someone walking down the street. There would be some correlation.

You'd see some connections, but ultimately, my genes are my own. I cannot possess someone else's genes.

I am fearfully and wonderfully made, and the point I want to illustrate is that when sin entered the world in Genesis 3, there was something that happened to that blueprint, that schematic in our body.

If you want to think about the physical death, not just the spiritual reality of death entering the world through sin, but also the physical death that came alongside that, you see the death of our schematics in a very real way because there's no scientist on Earth that claims to know why cells all of a sudden die.

That's another outcome of sin. Our programmed to die. Why that is, they don't know.

They try to stop it, and they try to figure it out, but our cells die. Again, science cannot explain away why a cell might die, or, for example, that my genetics, if I were to have a child, some of the imperfections would pass right on.

I mean, that's basic biology, that my information, the strengths of my genes and the negative stuff of my genes also gets passed.

So when you think about the history of Adam, and you think about the virgin birth, hopefully you guys can understand, and you can see, that there was no way that Joseph could have been a physical father with all his imperfections and all the sin written in his body to be passed on that would be a perfect sacrifice that Jesus Christ was.

All the imperfections in Adam's body as he progressively gave, you know, he had children and, you know, those children would grow up and they would have children, and that lineage and the genealogy that follows were all flawed, and by the time you get to this present day, this is one reason you see disease and death, and we explain it with genetics and science, but truly, those of us who are

Christians fully have the understanding that this is sin at play, and this fleshly tent that we reside in cannot be used for anything worthy of the atoning wrath of God.

So hopefully that kind of helps illustrate a little bit that it needed to be a virgin birth, again, that, you know, if you are really curious, you can ask your parents about that a little more, but the

Holy Spirit came upon Mary, and Jesus was implanted in her womb, and again, he was born just like a regular baby.

He was in her body like a regular baby, you know, but different entirely, though.

So that's hopefully, again, that kind of helps summarize a little bit of the reason, the necessity for the virgin birth.

Looking to Scripture, however, as our ultimate authority, I'm just going to flip over to Romans 5 real quick, because Paul does a better job of doing this than I do, so going to verse 17 in chapter 5,

Paul says this, "...for if, because of one man's trespass, death reigned through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in Christ, reign through the one man,

Jesus Christ." Again, he's speaking about Adam, the one man's trespass.

Again, that sin that was born in Adam, we inherited that, and that comes down through the lineage.

However, there's good news. Continuing in verse 18, "...therefore as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to the justification and life for all men.

For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man's obedience the many will be made righteous."

Again, hopefully, again, just making the point really clear that it could not be just a physical error.

It could not be just, you know, it could not be a direct lineage of the same blood that came from Adam all the way down, all the way to Joseph.

Jesus came from a virgin birth, and that is important. Again, so hopefully that kind of may extend us a little, because it's true, like I said, that is so central to our faith.

We need to affirm that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin. It's miraculous, again, miraculous that such a thing would occur, but it's true, and we need to affirm that.

Looking at the statement of faith, once again, I'm going to turn here in Hebrews chapter 10, and I want us to examine the last point.

Again, if you're keeping notes, again, I've kind of melded some of these concepts together, because I think Hebrews 10 does a beautiful job of kind of expositing both points, and again, my third point is this.

Perfect offering and substitutionary sacrifice. So again, we'll address them both in this, because Hebrews 10 does such an immaculate job of doing this.

So again, if you're able to, turn with me to Hebrews chapter 10, verse 1.

Verse 1 starts like this. For since the law has but a shadow of the good things to come, instead of the true form of these realities, it can never, by the same sacrifice that were continually offered every year, make perfect those who draw near.

Otherwise, who would not, or would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshipers, having been once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins?

But in these sacrifices, there is a reminder of sins every year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

Again, opening up the text just a little bit, I want us to, again, take a mental step back into the

Old Testament and the old system, the old law, or the law in which, you know, the sacrificial system that was introduced on Mount Sinai and continued on into the

Old Testament. Do you guys remember what the, what the job of the priests were? Does anyone? The young at heart can answer first, and if the older, or the young at, you know, the young at heart can answer afterwards.

But do you guys remember what the priests were? Do you remember what their job is? Nafi? Well, yeah, part of it.

That was part of it. There was a lot of killing involved. You're right. You're not wrong about that. All right, so sacrifices, that's right.

Yeah, and goats were part of that, for sure. The sacrificial system was given as a means of love from God on Mount Sinai to Moses, but this law, again, like it says in chapter 10, verse 1, is but a shadow of the things to come, right?

Because if you guys remember, these priests, they didn't have a nation. They didn't have a land like the rest of the tribes of Judah, or the tribes, sorry, the tribes of Israel, you know, the 12 tribes, the patriarchs.

They had, they were a people for God's own possession that they would serve Him day in and day out.

And if you guys remember, if you guys remember reading about what these priests wore, imagine for today's sake that you wind up going to a job, and I ask you to wear a tuxedo, and you wear the best tuxedo you have.

It's beautifully made, and it fits perfectly, and as you walk in through the door, you get splashed with a bucket of blood, because that is essentially what was happening to these priests.

They wore, they would consecrate themselves, which means that they would atone for their own sin, that they would make themselves appropriate before God, because it was a matter of life and death to them.

God is so holy that in His preparation, you had to be so meticulous.

If not, you would die. There are many instances, there are a couple instances in the Old Testament where you see that play out, but these priests had an understanding that they needed to do this to the letter of the law, lest they be killed.

And they were, they were adorned in beautiful robes, but these robes were covered from head to toe in animal blood, in the blood of goats, lambs, doves, all manner of sacrifice for the atonement of sin.

And like it says in verse 2, otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered, since the worshippers, having been once cleansed, would no longer have any consciousness of sins.

If these sins could truly take, or these offerings could truly take away sin, would they not have ceased?

That's what the writer of Hebrews is trying to make the point of here, because these priests were constantly covered.

It was a bloody profession. It was, the amount of animal blood, and the sacrifice, and the churning of animals day in and day out was staggering, astonishing, the amount of blood that was spilled.

And yet, the consciousness, the guilt of sin remained. Like it says here, yearly, but the priests would have to consecrate themselves often, because they needed to be holy before God, because they could not atone for their own sin.

It was, it was a tragic system, and if you think, and again, going back to Romans, or sorry, back to Hebrews, these things are but a reminder of sins every year, for it's impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin.

It was truly impossible. There was, it was impossible that such a thing would ever truly take away sin. But this is where some of the most beautiful, the two most beautiful words in the

Bible that we can ever get. Sorry, I'm just finding my place here.

In verse 12, But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet.

But when such beautiful, more beautiful words have not been written. But when the atonement for sin, when

Christ, having paid the cost for us, when he went to the cross in our stead, there are no more beautiful words than those.

This is the hope. But when, again, Hebrews makes it very clear, offered for all time a single sacrifice, the perfect lamb, the spotless one.

Again, Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. He upheld the letter of the law to the

T. And the moment up until his death, perfect, that he for our sake would become sin, that we might become the righteousness in him.

I'll just quote 2 Corinthians. Truly, what an amazing passage. For our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

In that moment on that cross, imputed upon in us his righteousness, that in exchange he would receive our burden, our bear, our guilt, and he would die the sinner's death that we deserve.

Truly, that is the centrality of the gospel, that Jesus Christ, fully

God, fully human, born of a virgin, substitutionary sacrifice for sinners like me, like you.

That is the gospel. Praise God. Praise God, truly. I get shivers really thinking about it.

Just amazing. Praise God for such truth that we can look to him as our eternal hope.

So that pretty much concludes, in one sense, what I'm going to be talking about tonight. Ultimately, for the weeks and the months to come, no doubt

Jesus Christ, the centrality of our faith, will be explored. We'll continue to sit down and truly come to understand the person and the work of Christ into such a deeper level, and that we would grow in fellowship with him.

It is, again, is a privilege, and it's a staggering one, one that all the books on earth could not detail, the beauties and the riches of our

God, but that is also the eternal joy, that we will get that opportunity, extending itself into eternity.

So if I, speaking about Jesus Christ, I'd be remiss if I didn't have any kind of application, especially to those, again, in attendance, and those may be listening online, and the application is very simple.

Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, for there is no other name under heaven given unto mankind for which you must be saved.

That, it's very simple. It's the simple but most profound truth that, as Christians, we can ever grasp.

There is nothing truly deeper than the gospel, than the understanding of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, dying on the cross for us, that we might have life in him, like John 10 .10

says, that we might have life in him abundantly. That is the gospel. So to those in Christ, praise

God. Again, let us continue to delve the scriptures, to study him, and to know him intimately.

However, to those not in Christ, these, unfortunately, these will have eternal far -reaching consequences.

We were designed to live forever, whether in heaven with him or in the lake of fire. I mean, that's the reality of the

Bible. We do not shy away from this truth, because the truth is, either you stand in Christ, or you stand condemned by a holy and righteous

God, who will hold to account our sins, accountable for the white throne, and that should terrify us.

I'll end with this quote. John MacArthur said this quote in a book

I'm reading right now, and I thought it was so poignant to the message of the day, and he says this, "...churches

that start down a path of worldliness, disobedience, apostasy, and typically move further or even further from orthodoxy over time.

They almost never recover their original soundness. Rarely are they broken over their collective sins against the

Lord. Rarely do they turn aside from corruption, immorality, and false doctrine.

Rarely do they cry out from the depths of their hearts for forgiveness, cleansing, and restoration. Most never even consider it, because they have become so comfortable with their condition."

Brothers and sisters, we can have disagreement on different doctrines.

We can continue to have fellowship over, you know, like I said, over different doctrines that we might truly disagree with, but this is something that we cannot afford to get wrong.

These have consequences, and the Lord has made His consequences very clear. Either you are in Christ, and you have life in abundance, or you are—you stand condemned before a holy and righteous

God. And this is not just for the sake of this church plan, but for our very souls.

If we start down this path not fully understanding the work of Christ, the deity of Christ, and His sacrifice for us, if God is not— if Jesus Christ is not fully

God, fully man, born of a virgin, a substitutionary sacrifice, then we have no gospel.

So, brothers and sisters, let us start to view Him with spirit and truth in the right manner.

Let's pray. Heavenly Father, You, Lord, know more than anyone the bearing of sin,

Lord, the guilt of sin. Father, as Jesus Christ died on the cross for us, Lord, truly,

Lord, no man could ever truly know the weight of that sin. Father, this isn't just about a church plant.

Father, this isn't just about a godly work that You've put before us, Lord, but this is for the very sake of our souls,

Lord, that we would know Jesus Christ, know Him intimately, Lord, that we would obey

Him and be servants unto the Most High, Lord, that we would honor and esteem the

One worthy of all honor and esteem. Lord, this is the gospel, Lord. Father, I pray for those in attendance,

Father, that this would be our reality, Lord, that we would understand Jesus Christ rightly and serve

Him with all ferventness and and zeal, Lord, as is deserving of the

One who paid our price on the cross. Father, I also pray for those who play,

Lord, who meddle with this truth, Lord, who undervalue it, who do not see

Christ as the centrality of our faith. And Father, I ask that You would convict them of their sin, Father, for these decisions, this callousness towards a holy and righteous

God has far -reaching and eternal consequences, Father. Lord, I pray that You would convict us of this,

Father, and that You would continue to light the fires underneath our soul, Lord, that we would remain hot for the gospel,

Lord, preaching and exhorting one another, Lord, to good works. Father, I thank

You again, Father, for this opportunity. There is nothing greater than the centrality of Jesus Christ as our

King, as the cornerstone of our faith. Father, I thank You for this time. All these things,

I pray in His precious name, the one, the only, Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, so at this point,

I think there's time. I wanted to leave some time for questions. I don't know if we've done that the last couple weeks. So yeah,

I have it written. So this is the part where I hand out the quiz after.

So, but if there are no questions, like I said, brothers, hopefully. Oh, yeah. Oh, so the question is, what would you say to somebody who would say that the

Virgin in the Bible just means young woman? I would, again, I would point them back to the

Scriptures. Ultimately, the Bible makes very clear. Like I said, Luke chapter 1, verse 30, or like I said, the section

I looked at was just one piece of Scripture, but the reality is the

Lord makes very clear in His Word that Jesus Christ is set apart. He is holy. Actually, if you even, if you look at that verse, sorry, just flipping back to Luke, I didn't, again, this is something that,

I mean, books have been written on this, and I wouldn't be doing justice in, you know, 35 minutes, but looking at Luke chapter 1, verse 35, when it says, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, son of God.

Of no man does it call anyone holy. You know, the Virgin birth, you know, you might ascribe youth to the

Virgin, sure, but the Bible doesn't use it as a descriptor for age. Again, to really hone the point, the holiness of God, again, something that I could have spent, like I said, books have been written on the subject.

When the angel Gabriel says that He will be called holy, that should be an indication to those reading in the day, and those to us reading now, with a right view of God, of the holiness, and the

God's very essence of Him being holy, that the Virgin birth cannot just mean a descriptor for age.

If somebody read into that, that the answer is kind of obvious.

That's right, yeah. Yeah, that's right, and that's the, and actually,

I think it's in Matthew. No, it's fine. Yeah, that's right.

That's right. I think even the, the idea, I mean, this goes alongside maybe the idea of purity, but I think in the book of Matthew, it says that as Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant with Jesus, that he would quietly divorce her, right, quietly, because he did not want to be with the woman that had cheated on him, right, but that, but that idea of purity, you know, that this is the virgin birth is preserved because Gabriel shows up not long after and speaks with Joseph himself, so I think that, again, to ask that question, again, you just,

I would point back to the scriptures, but again, just with a mind for having a truthful understanding of what you're looking for, again,

I don't think there leaves any room for a descriptor for, you know, youth or, you know, or any such thing other than, you know, the very notion of virgin, yeah.

So the, in the subtext, there is the, you'll find the subscript, in my

Bible, it says, since I do not know a man, again, the same, the same idea that she has not known a man, this is a virgin birth, this is as miraculous as miraculous comes, there's no way that this can be construed as anything other than, like I said, the virgin birth.

Anyone, anybody else have questions? All right, well, thank you, brothers and sisters.

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