The apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia that God sent His Son to rescue us, so that we’d no longer be slaves to this world but sons and daughters of the King—so that we’d be heirs of His everlasting kingdom (Gal. 4:4-7).
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Dr. Charles Stanley:
When you hear the name Jesus,
what comes to mind?
Well, I can tell you what’ll
come to mind.
Depends upon what
you think about Him, how
much you know
about Him, and what kind of
relationship you have with Him.
Now, many people
have a wonderful
relationship with Jesus.
He’s their Savior,
Lord, and Master.
Many other people,
when they hear His
name, they’re turned off.
I wonder why anybody would turn
off the name of Jesus when He’s
the Son of God, when He
never made a mistake.
He never sinned.
And even the people who
just hate His name do not say,
“I hate Him because He
did this or He did that.”
But it’s something deep down
inside of them that would cause
them not to appreciate and to
love the Lord Jesus Christ.
So I’d ask you this.
What do you think about?
What place does He
have in your life?
If somebody should ask
you, “Who is this Jesus?”
what would you say?
Would you say, “Well, He’s the
Savior of the world,
He’s the Lord.
I trust in Him as
my personal Savior.
I have eternal life, and
He’s with me every day.
He heals me in my
sickness and answers my
prayers and He’s in heaven,
and that’s who I think He is.”
If that’s all you can say,
you have a lot to learn.
This morning, the primary
purpose of this message is
simply this: to give
you an understanding
of who is this Jesus?
So when somebody confronts
you or when somebody says,
you know, “I don’t
believe in Him and–“
usually they can’t tell you why.
I want to give you some reasons
why you can tell them why you
believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God, the only
Savior there is, unlike any and
all other religious figures.
And He is the King of all kings,
and one day we’ll all stand
before Him as our judge.
Why do we believe that?
So I want to ask you
to get your Bible out.
And if you’re at home, get
yourself a pencil and a piece of
paper or a pen, and I want to
encourage you to write down the
headings of this message,
and also the scriptures.
Now, I’m not going to tell you
to write down everything we’re
going to say
about the scriptures,
but just jot them down.
And then be honest enough to ask
yourself the question: Who is
this Jesus that I believe in?
Or who is this Jesus I
have rejected all of my life?
And first of all, I want to say
that Jesus lived before He was
conceived in His mother’s womb.
He lived before He was
conceived in His mother’s womb.
He was pre-existent.
That is, before His
birth, He existed.
So, let’s go back to the
very first Book of the Bible,
and let’s go back to the very
first chapter in the Bible,
and listen to what he says
in the twenty-sixth verse,
“Then God said,” having
described this creation,
“‘Let Us make man in Our image,
according to Our likeness;
and let them rule over
the fish of the sea,
the birds of the sky, over the
cattle and over all the earth,
and over every living thing that
creeps on the earth.”‘
Well, let me ask you a question.
Who is “Us”?
Somebody says, “Well, angels.”
No, angels don’t
create anything.
When God said, “Let Us,” He
could not mean but one thing:
God the Father, God the
Son, God the Holy Spirit,
the three persons that make up
the Trinity that is one God.
“Let Us make man in Our image.”
So, if you will turn to
John chapter one for a moment,
and let’s look at what
John says about Jesus.
And notice, and I want to
explain a couple of words or so
here, he says, verse
one of chapter one,
“In the beginning was the Word.”
And the way John said this, he
said it in a very perfect way.
When he uses the
term “word” here,
it means when he says, “In
the beginning was the Word.”
It doesn’t mean…
something happened back there.
But in the beginning of
time, Jesus was there.
He’d been there
in eternity past.
He didn’t just start there.
Listen to what he says, “In
the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God.”
Jesus is referred
to here as the Word,
and He was with
God and He was God.
So the claim here, as John says,
that He and the Father were one.
And we’ll come to that later.
“He was in the
beginning with God.
And all things came
into being through Him,
and apart from Him
nothing came into being
that has come into being.
In Him was life, and the
life was the Light of men.
The Light shines
in the darkness,
and the darkness did
not comprehend it.”
Listen, when you
start with Genesis one, one
right here, Jesus was back
there in eternity past with Him.
What other religious leader
in the world has existed
before time ever began?
None whatsoever.
That puts Jesus in a whole
different position than any
other religious
leader who has ever lived,
“In the beginning was the Word.”
Not a dot, but a present tense,
an imperfect tense in the Greek.
He was going on before that.
So, the scripture says
also in Luke chapter one,
the thirty-first verse, when
Gabriel came to speak to Mary.
The Bible says that Jesus
was named by the Father,
given to them by
the angel, Gabriel.
He named Jesus, says, “This
Son that’s going to be
born to you is named Jesus.”
Then he says not only that, “His
kingdom would have no end.”
And so Jesus was
not your normal baby.
And many people still
have Jesus in a crib.
Listen, that’s the Living God.
His entrance into the world
was in the form of a baby.
He never ceased to
be God even though
He was in the form of a baby.
Now, one of the things that
would stir up the Pharisees and
Sadducees and make them hate
Him is something like this.
Look in John chapter
eight for a moment,
and when Jesus is speaking
here, and this eighth chapter.
And notice, if
you will, in this,
oh, let’s start with
verse fifty-eight.
Listen to what’s happening.
He’s talking to the
Jewish rabbis and so forth.
Verse fifty-six, “‘Your father
Abraham rejoiced to see My day,
and he saw it and was glad.’
So the Jews said to Him, ‘You
are not yet fifty years old,
how have You seen Abraham?'”
Listen to this, “Jesus said to
them, ‘Truly, truly,
I say to you, before Abraham
was born, I am.'”
Not I was, but I
am, because He’s always been.
And listen to what they did,
“Therefore they picked up stones
to throw at Him, but
Jesus hid Himself
and went out of the temple.”
They could not stand the thought
that He said that He lived
before Abraham did,
but of course, He did.
And then in the
seventeenth chapter of John,
look there for just a moment,
seventeenth chapter of John
and the twenty-fourth verse.
Listen to what He says,
“Father,” this is Jesus praying,
“I desire that they also,
whom You have given Me,
be with Me where I am, so that
they see–may see My glory which
You have given Me, for
You loved Me before the
foundation of the world.”
You either have to believe
that Jesus Christ is who
He says He is or He’s not.
So if He’s ever
lied about one thing,
you could
absolutely discredit Him.
He says, “Before Abraham was,”
way back yonder thousands of
years ago, He said, “I am.”
And He says, “You loved
Me,” He says the Father,
“loved Me before the
foundation of the world.”
So when somebody says,
“Who is this Jesus?”
Well, He’s not just a baby.
So Abraham was back
yonder thousands of years ago.
Jesus was back beyond
him in eternity past.
So, when somebody says,
“Well, when did Jesus begin?”
He had no beginning.
“Well, how do you
understand that?”
I don’t claim to
understand that,
for the simple reason the Bible
says that God has reserved some
things for Himself
that He will not reveal.
And so therefore,
I–put it this way,
the Bible is very clear
that Jesus existed back before
Abraham, and He, listen, He and
the Father and the Holy Spirit
created all of this, all the
constellations and everything up
yonder that go in
such perfect order.
So somebody says, “Well, I don’t
believe that God created us.”
Well, sir, tell me who
do you think created it?
“Well, I don’t think
anybody created it,
because you can’t exceed God.”
Well, then how do you
think it got there?
“It just happened.”
My friend, it takes more faith
to believe that all of this just
happened than to
believe that God created it.
Let me tell you why:
because it has such
absolute perfect design.
Everything is perfect
about what God created.
And if you study
science and the skies,
you think, “How in the
world–” in other words,
there’s no way all of this
could have just happened.
Because everything is perfectly
designed and in order by God.
So, we say He was born into
a world that He created.
And he said, “Apart from
Him nothing came into being.”
Look, if you will,
in Colossians one,
and what Paul said about Him.
Colossians one, and just
past Philippians there,
and notice what he says in this
first chapter of Colossians.
He says, speaking of
Jesus in verse fourteen,
“In whom we have redemption,”
that’s our salvation,
“the forgiveness of sins.”
Now, watch this, “He is the
image of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.”
I’m coming back to that, “For
by Him all things were created,
both in the heavens and
on earth, visible and invisible,
whether thrones or dominions
or rulers or authorities,
all things have been created
through Him and for Him.”
Now, what does He mean
when he says He was
the firstborn of all creation.
The first–what he’s referring
to here is simply this.
In the Hebrew family, the
firstborn son, he managed.
He was the one who
received the most.
And so he–when He says, “the
firstborn of all creation,”
Jesus is the
manager of this creation.
He is head of it all.
And if you’ll notice also,
all the way over to Hebrews,
go to Hebrews for a moment,
and just that first chapter,
I want you to look at
a verse or two here.
Verse one of
Hebrews chapter one,
“God, after He spoke long ago in
the fathers in the prophets in
many portions and in many ways,
in these last days He has spoken
to us in His Son,”
that is, in Jesus,
“whom He appointed
heir of all things,
through whom also
He made the world.”
If you believe the Word of God,
you have to believe that Jesus
Christ was in the process
with God the Father and the Holy
Spirit, making this world,
creating this world which
has such absolute design.
To believe that all of that
was by chance has
absolutely no
validity whatsoever.
So you have to decide whether
you’re going to believe what men
say and cannot prove,
or what the Bible says.
And all through the scriptures,
listen, there are no errors.
This is the Living Word of God.
And so, when we say that He was
born into a world He created,
that’s the way He did it.
And this is a world which
expresses the wisdom of God,
the power of God, the beauty
of God and the presence of God.
The third statement I want to
make is this: Jesus was born of
an earthly mother
and a Heavenly Father,
earthly mother and
a Heavenly Father.
The scripture says in Luke, that
first chapter when Gabriel and
Mary were talking,
because she said,
“Well, how can these things
happen since I am a virgin?”
Have not been with man.
Because it was the work of the
Heavenly Father through the Holy
Spirit, which meant that
Jesus was born of a virgin.
And some people say,
“Well, I don’t think
that’s all that important.”
Let me tell you why
it’s all important.
Jesus came into this world in
order to forgive us of our sins,
to cleanse us of our sins,
and, watch this carefully,
all those sacrifices in the Old
Testament were foreshadows of
the ultimate
sacrifice that would come.
So, all that killing of
goats and bulls and so forth,
that didn’t make anybody saved.
But it was a foreshadowing,
and theirs was a faith
in the coming Messiah.
And so, when you
ask the question,
“Well, why did
Jesus have to die?”
Because when Adam
and Eve sinned,
every single person born after
them had an old sin nature.
Every single one of
us has a sin nature.
That is, every single one of us
is possessed with a little bit
of a–or a very strong desire
for things that are not right,
things that don’t fit with
God’s plan for our life,
things that are sinful and
idolatrous and all the rest.
Everybody was born with it.
This is why your little
two-year-old that you think,
“God sent you just straight from
heaven,” sometimes he can be as
obnoxious as he can
be because you say,
“Do not touch that vase.”
You turn your head, crash!
So what would make a
two-year-old child who doesn’t
even know what sin’s all about?
Because he has a sinful nature.
Now, watch this.
Watch this carefully.
This is why Jesus had
to be born of a virgin.
Had to be born of a virgin
because in being born without
man seed, He had no sin nature.
If Jesus had been born
naturally and normally,
He would have had a sin nature.
And therefore, He couldn’t
die for your sins and mine.
He’d-a had to die
for His own sin.
The fact that He was virgin-born
and absolutely sinless–and
somebody says, “Well, how
do you know He was sinless?”
Well, let me ask you a
question: What did He do wrong?
What sin did He commit?
What mistake did He make?
His life was perfect because
it was God in human flesh.
That’s how God came to
this earth: in human flesh.
Jesus had to be the
perfect Son of God,
sinless in order to die
for your sins and mine.
God sent Him for that purpose.
He was the ultimate, final
divine sacrifice that would be
taking place at the
cross, on the cross.
And when He died, He paid
your sin debt and mine
and the sins of the whole world.
He was the only acceptable
sacrifice because He was the
only sinless sacrifice.
Animals didn’t do it.
It was the life
of the Lord Jesus.
And remember, Jesus is
God in the human flesh,
so He was absolutely perfect.
He was absolutely sinless.
And therefore, that made Him
an acceptable sacrifice
in the eyes of the Father.
And He died,
crucified, and we think,
well, the Romans did it.
No, God did it.
God sent Him to die.
The Romans were simply the ones
who nailed Him and who were the
tools to–for crucifying Him,
but it was God the Father who
crucified Him because
he came into this world
for that specific reason.
So when somebody
says, “Well, I
don’t believe in
the virgin birth.”
Well, you don’t believe
in the real Jesus then.
And secondly, you don’t believe
in the virgin birth because you
don’t believe the Word of God.
You don’t believe in the virgin
birth, listen, if there were
no virgin birth, you
wouldn’t be saved.
The Son of God came in
order to save us from our sins,
and the virgin birth
was a part of that.
Now, unbelief in
the virgin birth,
somebody says, “Is
that important?”
And you know, you can go to
colleges and seminaries and
schools, “Well, the
virgin birth’s not important.”
You remember this.
If Jesus Christ was not sinless,
He would have had to die for His
own sin, and He
couldn’t die for your sin,
my sin, and His sin.
He, listen, that would have been
like sacrificing a sheep that
was sick, had been
sick for six months.
They would never do that.
Had to be a perfect animal
in those days with a–
spotless, as the Bible says.
And Jesus had to be the
perfect sacrifice for us.
Very important that
He was virgin born.
Now, another thing I want you to
notice here is this: Jesus was
both God and the Son of God.
Now, people say, “Well,
how could that possibly be?”
Well, I want you to turn to
John chapter ten for a moment.
Look in John chapter ten.
Let’s go to
twenty–verse twenty-seven,
Jesus speaking to
those who were with Him,
“My sheep hear My
voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me; I
give eternal life to them,
and they will never perish; and
no one will be able to snatch
them out of My Father’s hand.”
Once you’re a child of God,
eternally a child of God,
the devil can’t
get–take you out of God’s hand,
nothing and nobody can.
Then He says, “My Father,
who has given them to Me,
is greater than all; and no
one is able to snatch them
out of My Father’s hand.”
Look at this next verse,
“I and the Father are one.”
Did you get that?
“I and the Father are one.”
Jesus is the
visible, living God.
And notice what happened.
The Jews picked up
stones again to stone Him.
They could not stand
the idea that Jesus
would claim to be God.
It was beyond
their comprehension.
Then, move on over to the
twelfth chapter of John for a
moment, and I want you
to look, if you will,
in verse forty-two,
“Nevertheless many even of the
rulers believed in Him, but
because of the Pharisees they
were not confessing Him,
for fear that they
would be put out
of the synagogue.”
Now, let me just
say this to you.
You should never be
ashamed of Jesus Christ,
never, under any condition,
be ashamed of Him or deny Him.
Listen, “For they loved the
approval of men rather
than the approval of God.”
Watch this, you go
to work tomorrow;
you start talking about
Jesus or you would like to,
but you don’t because
you’re afraid of being rejected.
What you–watch this.
Are you listening?
Say amen.
You join up with those who
love approval of others
than the approval of God.
That’s exactly what they did.
And, “Jesus cried out and
said, ‘He who believes in Me,
does not believe in Me but
in Him who sent Me.'”
That is, I’m representing God,
“He who sees Me sees
the One who sent Me.”
“He who sees Me sees
the One who sent Me.”
And if you go on over to, let’s
see, the fourteenth chapter,
look at the fourteenth
chapter for a moment.
And this is a wonderful chapter
about Jesus coming and heaven
and so forth, and then, when you
come down to this seventh verse,
He says, “If you had known
Me, you would have
known My Father also.”
And now He says, “From
now on, you know
Him, and have seen Him.
Philip said to Him,
‘Lord, show us the Father,
and it is enough for us.’
And Jesus said to him, ‘Have I
been so long with you, and yet
you have not come to
know Me, Philip?
He who has seen Me
has seen the Father;
how can you say, “Show
us the Father”?'”
Because listen to this.
Jesus is the living God, the
living Person of the invisible
Father, the Lord God Almighty,
whom He sent for that reason.
Then if you’ll move all the
way over to Colossians again,
and I want you to just notice
a verse here, very important.
We’re talking about who He is
and why you ought to believe in
Him without any
question in your mind.
In this first
chapter, look, if you will,
in the fifteenth verse
because here it says it clearly.
Listen to this, “He,”
Jesus, “is the image,” physical,
living, male image,
“of the invisible God,
the firstborn of all creation.”
Now, why does he say
firstborn of all creation.
Here’s the reason.
Because in the Hebrew
family, the firstborn son,
for example, he was
sort of the maintainer.
And so, that’s the image
that He’s speaking of here,
that Jesus is
supreme in this life.
He’s–He manages this
world and He’s the one
to whom we pay allegiance.
And so, “He is the image
of the invisible God.”
So when you–when
people say, “Well,
I don’t believe in that Jesus.”
Then you don’t believe in
Almighty God because
He and the Father are one.
If you’ve seen Him,
you’ve seen the Father.
And if you believe in Him,
you believe in the Father.
And so he says, “He’s the
image of the invisible God.”
Now, think for just a
moment how blessed we are,
that you and I, we
could have been born
three thousand years ago.
And all of those saints of God
who believed in God and trusted
God and they sacrificed animals
and the shedding of their blood,
all of that was a foreshadowing
of what was to come.
But suppose you took your
Bible and you turned to Malachi,
the last chapter and
the last verse, sliced your
Bible at that point and
threw away the New Testament.
Think about how
foreign God would be to you.
But, listen, the fact that Jesus
came in the living, visible
presence of a man, He was
still God, but He was man.
He was the God-man.
God sent Him in order to give
us a view of the Heavenly Father
like we would never
have known before.
As wise and as good and as godly
and as natural in many ways as
those Old Testament
prophets and saints,
they were always
looking forward to something,
looking forward to the
coming of the Messiah.
You and I have been–had the
privilege of living in the time
when Jesus Christ was
born, crucified, resurrected.
And now for these
two thousand years,
we’ve been sharing the gospel
of Jesus Christ that has been
transforming lives everywhere.
It’s all wrapped up in the
coming of the Lord Jesus
Christ and His Personhood.
He is not just another man.
He is God, the living God
in visible form, so we
could have even a better
relationship with Him.
Now, Jesus’s teaching
oftentimes was perplexing.
People couldn’t
figure out, “Well,
what in the world
does that mean?”
So let me just give
you a few examples.
In the fifth chapter, which
is the Sermon on the Mount,
of Matthew, turn
there for just a moment,
and I want us to look
at a couple of things.
He says something right here
that even we oftentimes
probably have to wrestle with.
Matthew chapter
five, eleven and twelve.
And you know, once in a
while I’ll hear somebody say,
“Well, I don’t believe the Bible
except I do believe the Sermon
on the Mount, it’s so
beautiful, and I believe
the Ten Commandments.”
Well, listen.
Are you listening carefully?
Watch this.
There are no two passages of
scripture in the whole Bible
that demand the most
of us than these two.
So look at this fifth chapter
and eleventh and twelfth verse.
So these are things that were
difficult for those folks to
accept, and us today.
Verse eleven, “Blessed are
you when people insult you,
persecute you, falsely say
all kinds of evil against
you because of Me.
Rejoice and be glad, for
your reward in heaven is great;
for in the same way they
persecuted the prophets
who were before you.”
Now, let me ask you a question.
How many of you are
just tickled pink when
somebody persecutes you?
You just love it.
You just can’t wait to
get some more of it.
Or do you pout and want to
go home from your job because
you’ve had your feelings hurt
and they don’t appreciate
you and they’ve insulted you
and they’ve hurt your feelings?
Do you know why
you’re to rejoice?
This is what he says.
He says, “Rejoice, be glad when
they do these things to you.”
So, why would you want
to rejoice and be glad?
Do you know why?
I’ll tell you why.
Because listen to what he says.
Paul said, listen, he said,
“God causes all things to work
together for good to
those who love Him,
and to–called
according to His purpose.”
And somebody says,
“Well, how could it be good that
somebody’s insulted me?”
I’m going to tell you why.
Do you want to know why?
Some of you do.
Do you want to know why you
should rejoice when people
abuse you, misuse you?
Do you really want to know why?
All right, this side
wants to know why this time.
Come on, tell me.
Would you–do you
want to know or not?
Here’s a reason.
Because when you respond in
a joyful way or a forgiving
way, here’s what happens.
The Bible says first
of all, God’s going
to reward you greatly for it.
And secondly,
here’s the other reason.
More than likely you’re going
to be in the presence
of more than one person.
And–or other people
will hear about it.
And when somebody sees you
very, very highly insulted,
hurt your feelings and just
demeans you in all kind of ways,
and you said, “Well, I
appreciate you expressing your
opinion, thank you very much.”
Here’s what the
lost person says.
“Well, wait a minute, that can’t
be true ’cause if they’d-a
done that to me,
I’d-a wanted to sock them one.”
And so what happens?
He says we’re to rejoice, why?
Because God has given us the
opportunity to be in a position
to be a wonderful testimony.
And I can look back at some
times in my life, I have to
admit as a pastor, folks have
done certain things to me.
I didn’t rejoice at the moment.
I’ll admit that.
But I got over it, I got
on my knees when I got home,
I said, “Okay, Lord, you
know what I’m thinking
and I don’t want
that in my life.
I’m asking You to forgive me for
that and let’s just move on.”
So I like to think I’ve gotten
over all of that in my life.
But I think those are the kind
of things we have to deal with.
Now, look, if you will,
in verse forty-three
of this fifth chapter also.
He says, “You have
heard that it was said,
‘You shall love your neighbor
and hate your enemy.’
But I say to you, love
your enemies and pray
for those who persecute you.”
You say, “Now, wait a minute.
God doesn’t expect me
to love my enemies.”
Well, let me tell
you how He does.
That doesn’t mean I’m
to like my enemies.
I don’t like
anything about them.
I don’t like what they do.
I don’t like what they believe.
I don’t like what
they stand for.
And I would not like
that in my life at all.
I can separate everything they
represent from them as a lost
person who needs to be saved.
That’s what I love.
I don’t love the–maybe the way
they dress, I don’t love what
they drink, I don’t
love any of that kind of stuff,
or their religion or
whatever it might be.
I can love the person because
here’s somebody who needs
Jesus Christ as their Savior.
Otherwise, what did He mean?
And I’m sure Jesus was dealing
with them in a way because the
Sadducees and the Pharisees,
they were just obnoxious,
putting burdens on people.
And so they had
to deal with that,
and so that’s why He said it.
Now, He says something else here
that people have a hard time
with, in Matthew chapter
twenty, and that is He says,
“You really want to be great?”
Look in the twentieth
chapter of Matthew,
and look, if you will, in
the twenty-seventh verse.
He says, twenty-seventh verse,
“Whoever wishes to be first
among you shall be your slave.”
Now, it’s interesting, the
word He for–used for slave is
doulos, which means the
most humble of the slaves,
he is the slave who met you at
the door and washed your feet.
He says, “He that’s greatest
among you will be your slave.”
And you think
about people today,
got to be first,
got to be first,
got to have high priority, they
have got to have recognition,
got to have this,
got to have that.
Jesus said, “Whoever
wishes to be first among
you shall be your slave.”
He says it’s the attitude,
listen, those who conquer have
the attitude of humility and
wanting, desiring to be
used in a way that
pleases and honors God.
And you may have a
job, for example,
in your industry,
whatever that may be,
and you think, “Well, I will
never be a superintendent.
I’ll never be the boss, I’ll
never be this,
that, or the other.”
Well, you don’t know
whether you will or not.
It may be you change your
attitude and change your spirit,
no telling what God may be with
you, but it’s the attitude.
That is, I’m
willing to be a servant.
And when we think
about servants,
we all have negative attitudes.
Jesus was the
servant of all servants.
And He said from
His perspective,
“He who ever wishes to be first
among you shall be your slave.”
God is honored when you and I
submit ourselves to serving
other people, whatever
that may require of us.
Then, if you will turn to
Mark chapter eight for a moment.
And here is another
passage that’s demanding of us,
and this is why I say passages
of scripture that were very
difficult for them to accept.
Mark chapter eight,
verse thirty-five.
And verse thirty-four says,
“He summoned the crowd with His
disciples, and said to them, ‘If
anyone wishes to come after Me,
he must deny himself, take up
his cross and follow Me.'”
What does He mean
by deny himself?
That simply means this.
I deny myself of anything and
everything that keeps me from
being what God wants me to be.
It doesn’t work in my life.
And He says, “For,” listen, “For
whoever wishes to save his life
will lose it, but whoever loses
his life for My sake and the
gospel’s will save it.
For what does it profit a
man to gain the whole world,
and forfeit his soul?
Or what will a man give
in exchange for his soul?”
And you see, they
didn’t understand all that.
And people today
say, “Well, you know
what, that’s
just gibberish.”
No, it’s not.
It’s a sense of humility, a
sense of giving ourselves away
to the Lord Jesus Christ to use
us any way He sees fit to do so.
And let’s go back to Matthew,
the Sermon on the Mount again,
that fifth chapter, because
here is something that had to be
very, very difficult for
them to accept in those days,
when He says in Matthew chapter
five, verse five, “Blessed are
the gentle, for
they shall inherit the earth.”
Gentle in a Roman Empire?
Where swords was what life
was all about and warfare
and slavery and poverty.
And this thing of being
gentle, “For they
shall inherit the earth.”
A gentle heart is
a humble heart.
A gentle heart is an easy heart.
A gentle heart is
looking out for someone else.
A gentle heart is not
rash and defensive.
A gentle heart.
And so they didn’t
understand that in those days,
and I think a lot of
people don’t today either.
“Blessed are the
gentle,” He says,
“for they shall
inherit the earth.”
And you see, we think, “Well,
you never get anywhere in life
unless you get tough
and just, you know,
be it–over someone else
and lord it over them.”
That’s what the world thinks.
That’s not what God thinks.
That’s not the way He operates.
Then He says, for example,
in Matthew ten, thirty-four.
Watch this carefully.
“Do–” listen, this is Jesus
now, “Do not think that I
came to bring peace.”
Oops!
What?
“Do not think that I
came to bring peace.”
Don’t we call Him
the Prince of Peace?
Yes.
“Do not think that I came
to bring peace on the earth;
I did not come to
bring peace, but a sword.”
Now, what in the
world could that mean?
That He’s going to bring a sword
when He’s a Prince of Peace?
Here’s what it means.
For example, whenever there’s
group, and that group is
unsaved, and somebody
gets saved, He says it’s like
a sword in their
relationship, shut them out.
He says, “I came to
bring a sword, not peace.”
The peace that comes, comes to
all of us who trust Him as our
Savior and walk in His Spirit.
It does not mean we will not be
a weapon or a sword, as He says,
in somebody else’s life that
changes their way of living.
And so, He gets the wife
saved and the sword comes in.
And she lives a godly
life, next thing
you know, the
husband gets saved.
Then the kids get saved, and I
could just tell you a lot of
stories of people,
that’s exactly what happened.
The sword came, but listen, it
was a sword of the Word of God
dipped in the love of God
in the heart of that
person who received Christ.
Makes all the
difference in the world.
So then, let’s look at a
couple of other things.
Jesus’s name is
like no other name.
There’s no name like His.
And if you’ll look in
Philippians two for a moment,
and let’s start with verse nine.
“For this reason also, God
highly exalted Him,”
that’s Jesus, “and,” look,
“bestowed on Him the
name which is above every name.”
That is, God the
Father gave Jesus His name.
God the Father, “bestowed
on Him the name” Jesus.
Gabriel told Mary
that’s to be His name.
Look at this, “Bestowed on
Him the name,” of Jesus,
“which is above every name, So
that at the name of Jesus every
knee,” not might,
every knee, “will bow,
of those who are in
heaven, on earth,
and under the earth, and that
every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God.”
Now, what does that say?
You may not like Him.
But I’m going to tell you this.
You can mark this down
because God said it.
One of these days, you’re going
to confess that Jesus Christ is
the Lord no matter what you’ve
said about Him here and now.
One of these days, you will bow
your knees before the Lord Jesus
Christ as your judge.
How foolish to live without Him.
You will confess Him.
You say, “Well, I’ll die
before I confess Him.”
You’ll die before you
confess Him and go to hell
on your own choice.
It’ll only be
because you chose to deny.
You chose to
reject the Son of God,
who is God in the flesh, who
came in visible form so you and
I could understand better
who God is and what He’s
like and all the rest.
“Every knee will bow, every
tongue will confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord, to
the glory of God.”
He says it will happen,
and indeed it will happen.
And, for example, He says
when He sent the disciples out
preaching the gospel,
made it very clear
what that gospel was about.
And here’s what He said in that
twenty-fourth chapter of Luke,
He said, “And that repentance
for the forgiveness of sins
would be proclaimed
in His name,” Jesus,
“to all the nations,
beginning from Jerusalem.”
And let’s think about this.
For example, when
you were baptized,
how were you baptized?
They baptized you in
the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
You were baptized
in the Trinity,
baptized in the
name of the Father,
the Son, the Holy Spirit.
Listen, the name of
Jesus isn’t just a name,
it is the name of
the Living God.
It is the name of the
visible God here on earth
when He walked this earth.
And so, when you
think about, for example,
when you pray in this
fourteenth chapter of John,
and He says, “Whatever you
ask in My name,” that is,
you’re asking according
to His will, according to His
purpose, according to what
pleases and honors Him.
He says He’s going to answer it.
So, when we pray, He’s there.
We give thanks in His name.
We’re baptized in His name.
And then in the
eighteenth chapter of Matthew,
something that’s going on
right now in this service.
He–listen to what He says.
In verse twenty of
Matthew eighteen,
“For where two or three have
gathered together in My name,
I am there in their midst.”
So you and I could
say, “Good morning,
Jesus,” because He’s here.
How many times is He’s here?
He’s here in every single
one of our hearts who’s saved.
This is why we
give an invitation.
We give an invitation to invite
you to accept Jesus Christ as
your personal Savior, so when
you step out of this place,
Christ is in your heart to be
everything He is and will be in
the life of a believer.
Now, to some people,
He’s just a figure.
What I want you to see is this.
Everything we’ve
said up to this point.
He’s not just a
figure, He’s God.
He is God in the flesh, who
died on the cross for our sins,
who died and was
buried and resurrected.
And I would say to all these
other religions who claim this
and claim that and claim the
other: Where is your leader?
Dead, in the grave.
Where is Jesus?
Resurrected, seated at
the Father’s right hand,
making intercession for us.
That is the testimony
of the Word of God.
Now, He reminds us and warns
us in this tenth chapter of
Matthew, He warns us of
what’s–what people’s
attitudes are going to be.
He says we will be hated
by all men for His sake.
So, everything that’s
going on these days,
it’s just exactly
what He said would do.
These things will happen, but
you and I are to take a stand.
Listen, if you
believe the Son of God,
you believe in Jesus
Christ as your personal Savior,
you and I should
never be ashamed of Him.
And when somebody uses Jesus’s
name as a curse word or a
phrase, I’m here to tell
you, they’re in for it.
“Oh, that’s not who God is.”
Yes, He is.
He says He bestowed
on Him the name Jesus.
That makes it the
number-one name,
with all the high priorities
that could be given to Jesus,
He gave it to Him.
And then He says,
when His disciples,
you will recall in this
fourth chapter of Acts,
His disciples had been preaching
the gospel and they healed this
man at the temple gate.
And the scripture says–and he
began to ask them about money,
and in this third chapter of
Acts, in the fourth, fifth
verse, Peter along with
John, fixed his gaze on him
and said, “Look at us.”
“And he began to give
them his attention,”
expecting to receive
some money.
“But Peter said, ‘I do not
possess silver and gold,
but what I have I give to you:
In the name of Jesus
Christ the Nazarene–walk!”
And seizing him
by the right hand,
he raised him up.”
He began to walk.
Went into the synagogue and
praising the Lord, and Sadducees
and Pharisees about to have a
fit because they could not do
anything about it whatsoever.
And they finally
had them arrested,
which was a good thing in
a way because what it did,
it gave them an
audience with the leadership.
They wouldn’t have
had that otherwise.
And so here’s what happens.
They imprison them, and they
all get together to hear
what they’ve got to say.
So they at least gave
Peter a moment to speak,
and here’s what he said, “Let
it be known to all of you and to
all the people of Israel, that
by the name of Jesus Christ the
Nazarene, whom you crucified,
whom God raised up from the
dead, by His name
this man stands here
before you in good health.”
He, listen, “He,” Jesus, “is the
stone which was rejected by you,
the builders, but which
became the chief corner stone.
And there is
salvation in no one else;
for there is,” only one name,
“no other name under heaven that
has been given among men by
which we must be saved,” but the
name of Jesus Christ.
No other name
that’ll bring salvation,
but the name of
Jesus Christ, Himself.
Then I’d say the
last thing is this,
and that is Jesus came into the
world the first time as a baby.
He will return as reigning
king and judge of all mankind.
And you can look in the
twenty-fifth chapter of Matthew,
that long passage there about
Jesus coming and separating the
sheep from the goats,
and the fact that He is
the judge of all mankind.
Now, who is this Jesus?
This Jesus is everything we’ve
said this morning because I’ve
given you a text of scripture
about every single one of them.
The next time somebody
challenges you about Jesus and
says, “Who do you think He is?”
Pull out your notes.
Now, what you ought to do is
take these notes home this
afternoon, write them in the
back of your Bible and sort of
abbreviate whatever
you want to abbreviate.
Get them in your mind, and every
one of these points is very
important because it
says this is who Jesus is.
This is the person you accepted.
This is the Savior
who is your Savior.
He is the only Savior, and it’s
by His name and His name
alone we get to heaven.
And here’s what He said.
“No one comes to the
Father but by Me.”
And listen, the same thing
that stirred up the Sadducees in
those days and made it–them
wanted to stone Him to death.
That very statement
stirs up people today.
You mean to tell me
there’s only one way?
Only one way.
Well, that’s selfish.
That’s a greedy god or
that’s a prejudiced god.
No, it’s not.
He sent His Son, the Lord
Jesus, to die on the cross
to save you from your sins.
There is no other
way, no other place,
and no other person.
You say, “Well, I’m not so bad.”
You need to get another look.
You have an old sin nature, and
that old sin nature’s going to
take you straight down
and away, separated
from God for all eternity.
You have no other choice.
You say, “But
I’m a good person.”
That’s good in your eyes.
But the Bible says, “All
have sinned and come
short of the glory of God.”
“The soul that
sinneth, it shall die.”
“The wages of sin is death.”
“Every knee shall bow, every
tongue shall confess that
Jesus Christ is the Lord.”
He is God.
“It is appointed
unto man once to die,
and after this the judgment.”
Think!
If you don’t trust Jesus
as your Savior, think!
What is your
alternative when you face death?
If you’re wise, you’ll ask
the Lord to forgive you of your
sins, forgive you for
demeaning His name
and put your life
into His hands.
And you can do that
right where you are.
You ask Him to
forgive you of your sins,
and maybe the things
you’ve said about Him,
sins that you’ve
committed in your life.
Tell Him that today you’re
trusting His death at Calvary as
full payment for your sin.
You’re surrendering your
life to Jesus, who is God
in the flesh, who came for
the purpose of saving you.
Putting your life in His
hands, and from this point on,
by His help and His guidance and
His strength through the Holy
Spirit, you choose to live
a godly life through
the last moment of your life.
I pray that you’ll be
wise enough to do just that.
And Father, how
grateful we are today,
You sent us the Savior, and You
have made it crystal clear in
the Word who He is, why He
came, and why He deserves our
allegiance, our
submission, our total surrender.
We bless You today,
Father, and we bless
Jesus, Your Son.
Amen.
♪♪♪