Very God of Very God

1:07Now, whether the situations I just mentioned are alarming or no big deal at all depends on the identity of the person who did it. As it turns out, the person who logged into my Google account was my ministry assistant who was trying to schedule a meeting for me. The person who used my credit card number to purchase something on Amazon was my wife who needed to buy some things. For our house, the person requesting my daughter's medical records was her new doctor. And the person who quietly snuck into my house was my 20-year-old daughter, who was trying not to wake everyone up after spending an evening out with some of her friends. Identity matters.

1:48Who a person is matters. If a stalker had hacked into my Google calendar, then I would be a little bit worried. If some dude in the Ukraine was making purchases with my credit card, then I would have a problem. If my adopted daughter's biological mom, who has no custody rights over her, is trying to get her medical records, then I need to know about it. And if a masked man is sneaking into my home at night, I'm going to be calling the cops.

2:18Who a person is, what their identity is, matters. And your church right now is currently going through an Easter preaching series entitled, Who is the Christ? And friends, the answer to that question matters. It is hugely important. And I feel the weight of this message today. It's a real honor to be asked to preach at your church during any time, but to preach and to come here and speak upon the divinity of Christ, that Jesus is fully God, has a certain amount of weight to it.

2:55Because that is a very important truth. Sort of just kind of preparing my heart for today's message. I was listening to some hymns in the car, and the last one that came across my phone that I was listening to was a hymn called Fairest Lord Jesus. And just listening to that hymn and who Jesus is just put new weight upon my shoulders this morning. I feel the weight of this message because who Jesus is, who his identity is, really matters. Now, if you recall, Jesus asked that very question of his closest disciples.

3:32He says, Who do you say that I am? First, he asked, Who are people saying that I am? And they threw out some answers. He says, But who do you say that I am? And that's the question he's asking each person in this room this morning. Who do you say that Jesus is? Last week, you looked at the biblical teaching that Jesus is born of a virgin. And next week, you'll examine the biblical truth that Jesus was and is fully man.

3:58But my assignment today is to preach on the biblical teaching that Jesus is fully God. And whether or not you believe that, that Jesus is fully God, has eternal consequences. Jay Oswald Sanders, in his book, The Incomparable Christ, wrote these words: If Jesus is not God, then there is no Christianity. And we who worship him are nothing more than idolaters. Conversely, if he is God, those who say he was merely a good Man or even the best of men are blasphemers. More serious still, if he is not God, then he is a blasphemer in the fullest sense of the word. If he is not God, he is not even good.

4:45Wrestling with the divinity of Christ is actually not a problem of data. We have a lot of information in the scriptures about Jesus that show us that he is God. There's plenty of biblical evidence to work with. The challenge with believing this is our weak, sinful human minds, our weak, sinful human inability to comprehend the truth that Jesus can be both fully man and fully God. The fact of the matter is, both the Old Testament and the New Testament teach us there is only one God. And the apostles and Jesus himself clearly taught that he, Jesus, is God.

5:32And the fact is that Jesus clearly maintains the distinction between him and the father. And so we have to wrestle with these truths. The early church fathers wrestled with this data and they articulated the Trinitarian Christology of the Nicene Creed. And in the portion of that Nicene Creed that speaks to the full deity of Christ, it says this. We believe in the one Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father. All worlds, light of light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made. One substance, one divine essence, very God of very God. We must believe those truths. If we get Jesus's identity wrong, we're in big trouble.

6:25If we don't embrace Christ as fully God, then we are not embracing the Christ of Scripture, and we are not embracing a Christ who can save us. Now, I do want to sort of systematically approach this topic today, but I want to ground our message this morning in a passage of Scripture, the passage we read earlier, because I think this is perhaps the most important of Jesus' self-attestations that he is God. Jesus, in several places in both the synoptic gospels and in the Gospel of John, claims divinity. But I think this one that we read today is the most striking of all of them.

7:03Now, what I'm going to do is we're going to walk through John 8. I actually want to back all the way back up to verse 12. You can kind of follow along. I'm not going to just read it word for word, but I'm going to summarize what's happening here, beginning in verse 12 and following. And what we have here is an animated exchange between Jesus and certain elements of the Jewish community. In this chapter, he makes increasingly stunning statements about himself, statements that attest to his divinity.

7:31First, he calls himself, right there in verse 12, the light of the world. And the Old Testament makes it clear that Yahweh is the one who is the light and salvation of Israel. So the Pharisees immediately deny that he's even speaking the truth. They deny that his witness was true there in verse 13. And Jesus responds to their charge, contending that his witness is true because he came from the presence of the Father. And we see him talking about that in verses 14 through 20.

7:57And this is really the second subtle claim that Jesus is making here that he is divine because he's not just saying he was sent by God, but that he came from God. And there's a big difference there. Then in verse 24, Jesus drops a third hint of divinity when he says, unless you believe that I am he, you will die in your sins. Now, I am he is intentionally vague, both in Greek, but also even in the Aramaic that Jesus would have been speaking. I am he is intentionally vague. It could actually be translated, I am, without the word he there. And this was an amazing claim. So the Pharisees demanded more clarity regarding who Jesus was claiming to be. And Jesus again affirms that he had come from the Father. And additionally, in verse 28, he subtly foretells his own death.

8:46Now, Jesus' claims at this point led many in the crowd to believe in him. We read that in verse 30. It says that there were many who believed in him. But what we soon find out is that these Jews believed some things about Jesus. Jesus, but not the right things about Jesus. So too is the case today. There's a lot of people walking around and say, oh, yeah, I love Jesus. I believe in Jesus. But they don't believe the right things about Jesus because when you press them on who he really is, that he is fully God.

9:16Oh, wait a second. And that's what happens here to these so-called believers. We find out that they weren't believing the right things about Jesus. Now, Jesus encourages these people to remain in his word, and in doing so, they would know the truth and that they would be set free. We read that in verses 31 through 32. Now, some of these Jews vigorously protested to this idea that they were enslaved in any sort of way, appealing to their own lineage from Abraham.

9:43So then, in a blistering rebuke, Christ contends that they are slaves of sin, and therefore he makes his fourth astonishing claim to deity in this passage when he tells them that he possesses the ability to free them in verse 36. He can free them from their bondage to sin. So he rebutted their claim that they were of Abraham's seed, declaring that their determination to kill him actually negated that boast. And their ambition in seeking to kill him clearly revealed who their actual father was, which was the devil. And Jesus makes a fifth divine assertion right here, and he claimed sinlessness by asking them to show him any way he sinned in verse 46.

10:30He's saying, you can't find anything wrong with me. There is no sin here to find. They could not. So he concludes by suggesting that their unwillingness to listen to him as he spoke on behalf of God was evidence of the fact that they were not truly of God. And this sends these supposed believers into a rage. And so they accuse him of being a Samaritan and a demon-possessed man in verse 48. Earlier, they had hinted in verse 41 that he was born of fornication. So Christ again affirmed an intimate relationship with his father, and then he makes a sixth stunning claim to divinity when he said that those who kept his word would never see death. Yes, Jesus is now claiming authority over death.

11:19Now, the Jews, when they hear this, they heatedly respond with the argument that we read there in those verses 51 through 59. They argue, first of all, that Abraham died. And did he somehow claim to be greater than Abraham and greater than the prophets? So what does Jesus do? He again affirms his oneness with the Father. He accuses them of not knowing the Father, and he labels them for what they were. They're liars. And then he contends that Abraham rejoiced that he would see my day. He saw it and was glad. Now, this is most likely referring to Abraham's faith that he had in the coming Messiah, but it could even be referred to. Referring to Abraham's encounter in Genesis 18 with what I believe was the pre-incarnate Christ.

12:07Now, regardless, now Jesus goes for the knockout punch in verse 58. The seventh and most stunning of his claims, he announces to them, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. Truly, truly. It's the word amen. Really, you could say amen, amen, amen. It's the double amen. Amen. If you probably know this, it means it is true. So Jesus is saying there's a double truth here. He's emphasizing what he's about to say. Jesus always does this. He always says truly, truly, right before he's going to say something that we're going to have a hard time believing. You notice that? He always says truly, truly, to get our attention because he's about to say something that's going to knock our socks off. And that's what he does right here.

12:57Now, you would expect Jesus to say, before Abraham, I was. I was, which would have been a stunning claim in and of itself. But Jesus is not communicating temporal status. He's not saying, hey, here's Abraham in the timeline. And before Abraham, I was. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, before Abraham, I am. He's saying, I'm outside of the timeline. I'm outside of created order. Before Abraham, I am. Now, it's Interesting here, when he talks about Abraham, before Abraham was, the verb was is in an Aorist tense. It's setting a point of beginning for Abraham. But the verb I am, when he's speaking about himself, is in the present tense form suggesting timeless existence. Jesus is saying, Abraham had a beginning, but I did not. Abraham has a point where he began, but not me.

13:56And of course, he's invoking the divine name that we find in Exodus chapter 3, verse 14. You know that passage, right? It's the passage where Moses is, he's been trying to get out of this assignment, right? To go and to be God's mouthpiece to the Israelites and to deliver them from slavery. And perhaps the last thing he's going to try to do to find some way out of this assignment, he said, okay, who am I going to say who sent me?

14:24And God says, tell them, I am who I am, has sent you. In that one divine name, there, what God is communicating, and now what Jesus is communicating to these so-called believers is that he is uncreated, he is pre-existent, he is eternal, he is self-sufficient, self-sustaining, self-existent. This is a claim that Jesus is making of total and absolute equality with God. Quite simply, he cannot say what he says in verse 58 if he is not God.

15:00He is either a liar or a lunatic, or he is Lord God Almighty. Those are the only options we have from John chapter 8, verse 58. Is my mic on? Okay, I just want to make sure it didn't sound like it was. And now I've got this little pause in the sermon that seems odd. Sorry. I should have just gone with it. Should have more faith. The Jews, friends, the Jews had no question about what Jesus was claiming here.

15:34This was not ambiguous. They weren't sitting here going, what do you mean? They knew what he meant because their very next action is to pick up stones to stone him for blasphemy because he was claiming to be God. Friends, we have sufficient evidence from this passage alone of Christ's divinity. From this one text, Jesus claims the honors that belong to God. He claims the attributes that belong to God. He claims the name of God. He proposes to be able to carry out the deeds of God. And he sits himself in the seat of God's authority. I want to shift now in the sermon to a more systematic understanding of the full deity of Christ. I want to look at what the Bible teaches, kind of give us a bigger picture from the scriptures regarding the divinity of Christ. So I'm going to walk through this. I can't remember if it's a cross stick or an acronym. I always get those things mixed up, but I'm going to walk through some lessons. Here that'll help us grasp from the scriptures what it is that the Bible teaches us about Jesus's divinity. But honestly, when we come to this path, when we come to this topic, friends, I feel like I'm a lawyer who has a mountain of evidence, but I've only got 23 minutes for my closing argument, all right? And it's going to be hard to do this. So I want you to see, I'm just scratching the surface. I'm going to be sharing some scriptures, but there's a lot more I could share. It was hard to go through this and just start eliminating. Well, that's a great one, but let's squeeze what we need to into this sermon today. So to help us get the bigger biblical picture, I'm going to give us an acrostic of the word hands, H-A-N-D-S. Now, I need to mention, this is not original to me at all. I first saw this on the Gospel Coalition website talking about the divinity of Christ, and I thought it was really cool. And then I realized it wasn't original to them either. They got it from a book. So then I bought the book. The book is called Putting Jesus in His Place. It's by Robert Bowman and Ed Kamazewski. I'm not even sure if I'm pronouncing that last name correctly. It's a great book, but in that book, they give us this acrostic. And here, I'm just going to go ahead and give you all five up front, and then we're going to walk through each one. The scriptures testify that Jesus shares, number one, the honors of God. Number two, the attributes of God. Number three, the names of God. Number four, the deeds of God. And finally, The seat of God. So you see, H-A-N-D-S. So let's start with the scripture clearly teaching us that the honors of God are given to Christ, that Christ clearly receives honors that are reserved exclusively for God. So the scriptures clearly teach us that God alone is to be worshipped, right? Exodus chapter 34, verse 14 teaches us that you shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is jealous, is a jealous God.

18:31So that's why in Acts chapter 10, you remember in Acts chapter 10, when Peter enters Cornelius' house, Cornelius falls to the ground and begins to worship Peter. And Peter says, No, stand up. I too am a man. And then we read in Revelation chapter 19 and chapter 22 as well that the angel sternly corrects the Apostle John when he bows down and worships the angels. He says, No, you must not do that because worship is reserved for God alone.

19:00And the scriptures make that very clear. Yet we see many people worshiping Jesus in the scriptures. At the very beginning in Matthew chapter 2, when the magi come and they're presenting those gifts, they're worshiping Jesus according to the scriptures, and no one corrects them. And then after walking on the water in Matthew chapter 14, Jesus does not correct the disciples when they subsequently begin to worship him. And then we read in other texts like Like in John chapter 9, when the blind man is healed, and after all that ordeal, and he goes to the Pharisees try to investigate it all, and he comes back, finds out who Jesus is, and he bows and worships Jesus when he finds out he's the Son of Man. And Jesus doesn't say, stop! He receives it. And then in Hebrews chapter 1, verse 6, we have this stunning statement, which is actually a quote from the Old Testament. Let all God's angels worship him. Jesus is the object of worship. Also, the Bible clearly teaches us that God alone, we talk about honor here. God alone is the one who's to receive glory. Isaiah 42, verse 8 says, where God says, my glory I give to no other.

20:15Yet, we are clearly taught in the scriptures that Jesus is ascribed glory. Speaking of Jesus, 1 Peter 4, 11 says, to him belong glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And very similarly, Peter says in 2 Peter chapter 3, to him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. Jesus is ascribed glory. And we see worship and glory come together in an amazing passage in Revelation chapter 5. Revelation chapter 5, beginning in verse 12, we have Jesus the Lamb sitting on the throne and it says this, worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. In verse 13, and I heard every creature in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the sea and all that is in them saying, To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be blessing and honor and glory and might forever and ever. And so the scriptures clearly teach Jesus is worshiped. Jesus is given glory. And not only that, Jesus, when we talk about the honors that God receives, Jesus also, we are told in the scriptures, is to have songs sung unto him. Ephesians chapter 5, verse 19, Paul tells the church to address one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord, to the Lord, and who's that? To Jesus in your heart. And the scriptures clearly teach us that Jesus is to be revered and to be feared. Ephesians 5, 21 teaches us to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. And of course, Jesus is to be prayed to as well. We see that in the New Testament. Christ taught his disciples, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. John chapter 14. And before Pentecost, before the Spirit came on that day of Pentecost, we read that the remaining disciples were up in that room praying to Jesus in Acts chapter 1. And when Stephen is lying on the ground, about to die from the stoning that he just received, he says, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit. He prays directly to the Lord Jesus. And Paul. Paul testifies to the Corinthian church in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 that three times he pleaded with the Lord Jesus to take away the thorn in his flesh. So Jesus is clearly prayed to as well. So quite simply, friends, the honors that are given to God, worship, glory, songs, reverence, fear, and prayer, are ascribed equally to the Son.

22:53John chapter 5, verse 23: that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Jesus is to receive the same honor of God because he is fully God. So Jesus shares the honors. That was H, but also He shares the attributes of God. Let's look at A. We clearly see the Bible teaches that Jesus was fully man, as you'll look at next week, and thus he possessed all the attributes that are typical of humanity. Yet the Bible also clearly attributes to Christ characteristics that are uniquely divine, which shows that he is the embodiment of God. We read earlier in Colossians 1:19. I'm so glad you guys read that text. It says, For in him the fullness of God was pleased to dwell. And then later in Colossians 2, verse 9, for in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily. And so we see in Christ the attributes of God. First of all, we see that he is eternal and uncreated. We've already talked about that some with him saying that he is, I am. But John chapter 17, verse 24 was the scripture that came to my mind where Jesus is praying. And he says, This, Father, I desire that they also whom you have given me may be with me where I am to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me, listen to this, before the foundation of the world.

24:19And then not only is Jesus eternal and uncreated, he is immutable, he's unchangeable, right? Hebrews 13:8, Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And as we've already said, he is self-existent, self-sufficient, self-sustaining. And he backs that up in John chapter 5, verse 26, where Jesus says this: For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. Jesus has life in himself, he is self-existent, and he's omnipotent. Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3. And by the way, if you want the three main texts about the divinity of Christ, let me just say this before I forget it. They're all in the first chapters of three different books: John chapter 1, okay, Colossians chapter 1, and Hebrews chapter 1. Those are the biggies. And I really was going to preach one of those, and my spirit was not at rest with that. I felt like I had to come to this statement that I am. But if you want to look deeper into this yourself, read those, meditate upon those passages. So in the Hebrews passage, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, we read this: He is the radiance of the glory of. God and the exact imprint of his nature, and he upholds the universe by the word of his power. He is omnipotent and he's omnipresent. And isn't that a good word for us when we think about missions? Because in the Great Commission, he says, and behold, I am with you always into the very end of the age. Boy, it'd be hard to be a missionary if we didn't have absolute confidence in Jesus' omnipresence. And he, of course, is omniscient. In John chapter 16, verse 30, his disciples say to him, Now we know that you know all things and do not need anyone to question you. So Jesus shares the honors of God, H, and He shares the attributes of God, A. And now we must also see that He shares the names of God. And of course, we've already talked about that. The greatest example is John chapter 8, verse 58. But there are other times that Jesus takes the names of God. First of all, he simply called God in more than one place. John chapter 1, verse 1 is a great example. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. But we also see in Titus 2:13, and in 2 Peter 1:1, that Jesus is called our God and Savior. And then in Romans 9:5, the Apostle Paul is speaking to the Jews, and he says that to them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen. And then, of course, we have Thomas, oh, doubting Thomas, who famously, upon seeing the risen Lord and seeing the nail marks and seeing the scars, fell on his feet and said in John chapter 20, verse 28, My Lord and my God.

27:18But beyond that, Jesus is identified in many places as Lord, Kyrios, which is equivalent with Yahweh in the Old Testament. And I'm not going to read all these passages, but you could go to Romans 10, verses 9 through 13, 1 Corinthians 8, verse 6, Philippians 2, 9 through 11, 1 Peter 3, 13 through 15. And there are many Old Testament passages where Jesus is the subject, I'm sorry, where God, Yahweh, is a clear Old Testament subject, but in the New Testament, it's applied to Jesus. One of the most striking ones is in Hebrews 1, verse 8. Matter of fact, this is my go-to passage with the Jehovah's Witness. Because Jehovah's Witness has their own translation of the scriptures, right? And so they'll take the John 1 passage and they'll manipulate it. But if you go to Hebrews chapter 1, verse 8, the author of Hebrews is taking Psalm 45 that says, Your throne, O God, Yahweh, is forever and ever. The scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom. But he applies it to the Son in Hebrews 1:8. He says that Psalm is about Jesus. So if your Jehovah's Witness friend comes up to you and says, well, what evidence do you have? Go to that one. He said, listen. The New Testament writers looked at these Psalms and said, hey, that's talking about Jesus. And in the Psalm, it says Yahweh. And right here in Hebrews, it's applying it to Jesus. And that happens in many, many other places. And of course, Jesus is called King of kings and Lord of Lords in Revelation. He is also called the divine Savior, as we mentioned earlier in Titus 2 and 2 Peter 1. He is the Alpha and Omega, which is mentioned four different times in Revelation. And of course, I mentioned the I am passage of today, but do you realize Jesus does that quite often in the book of John? There are six other places where Jesus applies this title of I am to himself, sometimes quite subtly, sometimes much more overtly. Quite simply, the New Testament tells us that Jesus has the name above all names. Philippians 2:9. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of the Father. So the honors of God, the attributes of God, the names of God. And next, I want us to see letter D, the deeds of God. We see that he does things that only God can do. First of all, he created all things. Hebrews 1:2. But in these last days, he has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

30:00John 1, 3, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made. I love that passage of scripture. Here's the deal. I mean, someone could look at the Hebrews passage and say, through whom also he created the world. And someone could say, like the Jehovah's Witnesses do, and say, well, Jesus was the first created being, and then Jesus created everything else. Now, that's not what John doesn't leave any room for that. Because when you read John 1, verse 3, it says, all things were made through him, and without him was not anything made. You can expect a period to be right there. But John wants us to understand that there's a category of made things, and Jesus doesn't fit into that category. That's why he says, without him was not anything made that was made. So Jesus doesn't fit into the category of created being. Therefore, he's outside of creation. He is God.

30:53He sustains all things. Hebrews 1, 3, he upholds the universe by the word of his power. And as we read earlier in Colossians 1, 16, that in him all things hold together. He is the absolute sovereign over all things. Matthew 8, 26 says, Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was great calm. And the men marveled, saying, what sort of man is this that even the winds and the sea obey him? That's our Jesus. That's our God, sovereign over all things.

31:26And he forgives sin, which is only a prerogative of God's, right? You remember the great passage where Jesus heals the paralytic? I'm just going to refer to the Mark passage in Mark chapter 2. Okay, when they break through the ceiling, I just love this story. They break through the ceiling, and then they lower the paralytic, and Jesus looks at their faith, not only the paralytics, but the faith of these men. And he says, get up and walk. No. First thing he says is, your sins are forgiven. That riles the Jewish leaders who happen to be in the front row blocking. They were the reason the man couldn't get to Jesus. You do realize that. It's the most religious folks that sit on the front row sometimes that are blocking those who need it.

32:10All right, nothing saying about you guys here. I'm not trying to condemn or anything. I'm just saying. And so they get upset because they're thinking in their mind, who is this man? Only God can forgive sins. They had right theology, but they didn't have the right eyes to see that God was right in front of them. And so Jesus, to prove that he had the authority to forgive sins, tells the paralytic to get up, take his mat, and go home. What a great passage that is. It shows us the divine prerogative that Jesus has to forgive sin. And he gives life to whomever he chooses. John 5:21. For as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, so also the Son gives life to whom he will.

32:55I mean, there's another statement there of Jesus' divine freedom, but we're Not going to go there this morning. Let's just focus on the fact that he can give life to whomever he chooses. And he judges. Jesus is the divine judge over all people. 2 Corinthians 5, 10 says that we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil. So Jesus shares the honors of God. He shares the attributes of God. He shares the names of God, the deeds of God, and finally, the seat of God.

33:29Jesus claims to have all authority. We see that in Matthew 28, 18. And we've already seen that his name is the name that's exalted above all other names. And so we must understand that when he claims to sit at the right hand of the Father, this was not a claim to be second in command, but a claim of being co-equal with the Father. That is why they share the throne in Revelation 22. I love that. The Father and the Son share the throne, the Lamb. In Mark chapter 14, verse 61, we know that the Jews interpreted Jesus' words of being at the right hand of the Father. We know they interpreted that as him claiming divinity because we read this, Mark chapter 14, the high priest, this is during his trial. The high priest asked him, Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming with the clouds of heaven. And the high priest responded with, hey, can you clarify that? Do you mean like you're kind of like God? No, no. What do they do? They tore their robes because they knew exactly what Jesus was saying. And they said, we don't need any more evidence. He's blasphemed.

34:40They marched him off to Pilate. Jesus shares the honors, the attributes, the names, the deeds, and the seat of God. And friends, we are just merely scratching the surface. Just merely scratching the surface. So, why does all this matter? Why does it matter? Well, friends, if I don't know who's using my credit card, it may cost me a lot of money. If I don't know who's coming in my door at 1 a.m., it could have some devastating consequences. Someone might get shot.

35:16I don't know who's accessing my adopted daughter's medical records. She may be in danger. Friends, if you don't get the identity of Jesus Christ right, it will cost you infinitely more, and the consequences will be eternal. What you believe about Jesus determines if you are genuinely a follower of his. Remember, this John 8 passage, there were many who believed in him, but they didn't believe the right things about him. So, too, you may believe that Jesus was a great man, a great philosopher, a miracle worker, a political revolutionary, a compassionate humanitarian. But if you do not believe Jesus' words that before A. Abraham was, I am, then you are not saved.

36:05You must believe what the scriptures say about Jesus. The great C.H. Spurgeon says, This, it is not possible that the man who denies the deity of Christ can be a Christian. He deliberately refuses the only way of escape from wrath to come. But I cannot understand, nor do I believe that any man will ever enter those pearly gates who, in doubting or discrediting the deity of our blessed Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, renounces the sweet anchor of our most holy faith and dares to face his Maker without a counselor, without an advocate, without a plea for mercy.

36:45So, friends, if you do not believe that Christ is fully God, then you have not embraced the light of the world and you remain in darkness. You have rejected the word who came from the Father to save sinners. You have rejected the one who has the power to break your bondage to sin, and you remain a slave. You have rejected the one who lived the sinless life you could not live and who died the death you deserved. And so you remain in death's clutches. You have denied your creator who exists outside of time and space, and you remain in rebellion against him.

37:28For only A Christ who is fully God can do all of these things for you. So quit denying. Start believing. And for the first time, come to know the one who says, before you were born, I am. Let's pray. Lord Jesus, thank you, Lord, that we can come and pray directly to you. You are our intercessor. You are the intermediary between us and the Father. We deserve the wrath of God, but you stood in our place, and only divine blood could be spilled in my place. Only a sinless body could be broken from me.

38:20And so thank you, Lord Jesus, for who you are. Thank you, Father, that you didn't send us a mere prophet, a mere guru or sage. You sent us very God, a very God. Holy Spirit, we pray to you as well and ask that you'd move in this room. Father, if there be any in here who have never professed faith in Jesus Christ, maybe they believe some things about Jesus, but not the right things. Lord, I pray that you give them ears to hear, and more importantly, give them a heart. To respond this morning. And for those in here who are believers, Holy Spirit, I pray that you would just stoke our passion for Jesus as we just meditate upon these great things.

39:14So, Lord Jesus, we pray that you'd have your way in this room today and have your way in this church. And Father, if there be anything, because of the weightiness of this subject, if there be anything I said that was in error, then Father, strike it from the memory of everyone in this room. But if there be truth, then Lord, implant it deep in our hearts and help us to go from this place, proclaiming that we serve the one true God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen.

39:51Thank you for listening to the sermon audio from New Life Baptist Church in College Station, Texas. For more information or to support our ministry, visit us online at newlifecs.net.