John's gospel. And I think we'll have to begin
this back in John chapter... John chapter... Hold on. Lost my place. John chapter 10. And verse 30, let's read verse
28. Verse 27, My sheep hear My voice,
and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them
out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, And no man is able to pluck them out of
my Father's hand. Listen, I and my Father are one. The title of the message is The
Deity of Christ Revealed. The Deity of Christ Revealed. Our Lord Jesus Christ declared
in this word to these Jews none other than this, I am God manifest
in the flesh. I am God. That's what he was
saying. I and my Father are one. Not one person, for we know the
Trinity of God are three persons, yet one God. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, they are not the same
person. But what Christ was telling us is that He is one with God
in will, in purpose. What was God's will? God's will
is to save His people from their sins. God's will is to make His
people, His elect people, appear before Him holy and without blame. That's God's will. And you know
what the will of Christ is? The same as the will of the Father.
They're one in will. All that the Father giveth me,
what did Christ say? All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me. This was the will of Christ as
it was the will of God. Their will, they're one in power. Look what Jesus said. He said,
no man shall pluck them out of my hand. It was my will to give
them eternal life. It was the Father's will to give
them eternal life. It is my power that keeps them. And you know what? Neither my
Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man
shall ever pluck them out of my Father's hand. You see, he
is saying that my hand and my Father's hand are equal in power,
in keeping these sheep. I am God. And he's not only one in will
and in power and one in purpose, but he is one in glory and honor with the Father. He said in John 17, He said,
Father, give me the glory that I had with Thee from the beginning.
He's one in glory. He is worthy of all praise and
honor as God the Father is. I and the Father are one. And
what was the response to this? When Jesus said, I am God, what
was the response? The Jews picked up stones to
kill Him, to stone Him to death. They said, because. He said,
why are you killing me? Why would you kill me? And He
said, not for a good work we kill you, but because thou makest
thyself God. Thou being a man, makest thyself
God. And Jesus, what did He do? He
pointed them to the Word of God. He said, you know this, the Word
of God can't be broken. The Word of God is true. Let's
go to the Word of God and see what He says. He says, Say ye of him whom the
Father has sanctified and sent into the world, thou blasphemous,
because I said, I am the Son of God. If I do not the works
of my Father, believe me not. But if I do, though you believe
me not, believe the works, that you may know and believe that
the Father is in me and I in Him. Jesus pointed them to the
Word of God that cannot be broken. He said, I am sanctified of God. I'm sin of God, and therefore
I declare myself to be the Son of God, and that's not blasphemy.
Jesus was not making Himself God. He was declaring the truth
to them. He was only telling them how
it really is. I am God. manifest in the flesh. Jesus didn't make Himself God,
He just declared it. And not only did He declare it,
listen, He says, if you don't believe My words, what about
My works? What about the things that I
have done? Do they not declare to you that I am God manifest
in the flesh, that the Father is in Me, and I am the Father,
that we're one? Don't these works prove it? He said, if you don't believe
my word, look at the works that I've done. Jesus was pointing
them to his healing of the sick, his casting out of devils, his
giving sight to the blind, his causing the lame to walk again. Who else but one sent of God
could do this? Who else but God could do this?
You remember that Nicodemus confessed that they knew he was sent of
God. Nicodemus said, we know thou art a teacher sent from
God. And yet it was clearly manifest
by the great works that he performed that no man could do these but
God. You remember in chapter 9, he
healed this blind man. Healed this man that was born
blind. And this man was not of training. He didn't go to their
schools. He didn't go to their synagogues. He didn't go to their seminaries.
He didn't know much. He was a pretty ignorant man. But he knew something about the
Word of God. He knew this, that this had never
happened in the history of man. He said, nowhere has it ever
been recorded that one who was born blind received their sight. Nowhere. Surely the Jews knew this to
be true, that this was a public and notable miracle, and yet
they did not believe Him. He told them that He was the
Christ, but they believed Him not, not His words, nor did they
believe His miracles. And so we go on now, and Jesus,
after declaring His deity, what does He do? He goes on to prove
it one more time. He goes on to prove it by this
resurrection of Lazarus from the dead. That's the whole of
chapter 11, is that Christ allowed His friend, the friend He loved
to die, to be sick and die, and suffer death. But this was
meant, once again, to display the truth of His deity, that
He would raise Him from the dead. Jesus said to Martha, I am the
resurrection and the life. If you were to go to Deuteronomy,
I believe it's 32, 36, God says this. He said, I'm God and there's
none else. I kill and I make a life. So who is the resurrection? God
is. Who makes a life? Only God can
make a life. Only God can raise from the dead.
And Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. I am deity. I am God, manifest in the flesh. And he that believeth on me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. So Jesus now in our,
go over to verse 30, verse 34. And Jesus is approaching the
tomb. He said, Where did you lay Him? And they came. He said,
Come and see. And now Jesus is here. He's declared
His deity. They've rejected Him. He showed
His deity. They rejected Him. And now He's
come to prove it one more time by the resurrection of Lazarus
from the dead. And there He is at the tomb.
And what is He doing? He is weeping. He's weeping. Surely, not because Lazarus was
dead. Lazarus was just fine. There
was nothing wrong with Lazarus. He was in Abraham's bosom. He
was in glory. He was perfect. He was good. And yet, why was Christ weeping? He was weeping for two things. The unbelief of these people.
The fact that he had to raise Lazarus from the dead. Those
two things. That he actually had to bring
Lazarus back. You not consider that caused
him great conflict and a pain being a man? Jesus was truly
a man. And so he calls the men. And what does he do? He tells
them to take away that stone. He said, you take away the stone
from the tomb. And with a loud voice of authority,
the Lord Jesus Christ calls forth His friend from the dead. He
said, Lazarus, come forth. And you know what Lazarus did?
He actually came forth. He came forth. The voice of the
Son of God said, come forth. The voice that is equal with
the Father and the Spirit said, Come forth. And Lazarus was raised
to life. Now one would think, surely if
a miracle of such great proportions were performed, many would believe. Isn't that so? Isn't that popular
opinion that everybody just said, well, if you can just show me
a miracle, then I'll believe. Surely you would have thought
that many would have believed on Christ. It would cause men
to see that Jesus is God manifest in the flesh. Surely this would
cause men to come and bow down at His feet and confess Him to
be the Christ. But what did it do? What did
this miracle that proved His deity actually do to the Pharisees? Look what it did in verse 53.
And from that day forth they took counsel together to put
Him to death. They wanted to kill Him. They
wanted to kill Him. It actually moved them to further
hatred and defiance. They sought the more to put Him
to death. And I want us to see this. May
God the Holy Spirit teach us this. That no man will ever believe
on Jesus Christ by witnessing miracles. But faith in Christ itself is
a miracle. Faith itself is a resurrection
from the dead. It is a work of God. Jesus said,
this is the work of God, that you believe on Him whom He has
sent. What is the work of God? That
you should believe. That's the work of God. Faith
is the work of God. It's not of miracles. Faith in
Christ is actually a miracle itself. Now some say this, well,
if I could just see one, then I'll believe. You know what,
one who's sick and dying, he says, well, you know what, if
Jesus heals me, then I'll believe. Then I'll believe. Well, if he'll
just do this for me, then I'll believe. But we know this not to be true
because the Word of God bears it out. Go over to Luke chapter
16. The Lord Jesus Christ tells us this
history here of the rich man and Lazarus. And the rich man lifting up his
eyes being in torments. asked to send Lazarus to dip
his finger in some water to cool his tongue, and he said, no,
he can't come here, he can't cross over to you, and you can't
cross over to him. And so, he says to Abraham in verse 27,
then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send
him to my father's house, send Lazarus, for I have five brethren,
that he may testify unto them, lest they should come unto this
place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They
have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said,
No, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead,
they will repent. And he said unto him, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, Neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead." You see that faith doesn't come
by observation. It doesn't come by something
carnal or physical, not by witnessing some miracle. That's not how
faith comes. My brother said it on Wednesday,
that which begins in the storm will die in the calm. That's
just so. People are all troubled and then
they want to see something big and God actually may give it
to them. He may heal their body. He may actually perform a miracle
before their eyes. But this is not how faith comes.
Faith cometh by what? Hearing. And hearing by what? The Word of God. Not just anything.
I don't just stand up and preach anything. I preach to you the
Word of God. Why? Because faith cometh by
hearing Moses and the prophets, which spoke of who? deity of
Christ. They spoke of Him who would come
and redeem His people from their sins. He who would rise again
from the dead in triumph, in victory over our sin and death
and hell. That's who they spoke of. That's
who I speak of. That's who I point you to right
now. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. This is the message of the gospel
of Christ. My authority comes from Him who
is God, manifest in the flesh. This is His message, His gospel. And so when men believe, it is
only through the hearing of the Word of God. The Law and the
Prophets, what did they testify of? They testified of Christ. They testified of Jesus Christ.
That He who was to come and save all Israel. all Israel. Go back and see this in Isaiah
45. Isaiah 45, in verse 16, Let's read verse 15, Verily thou
art a God that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior.
I'll tell you what, nobody's going to know the deity of Jesus
Christ except He reveal Himself to you. Man, I could stand up
here and preach and preach until all eternity passes, but unless
He opens your eyes, you will never see Him. But those who see him, they shall
be ashamed, and also confounded all of them. They shall go to
confusion together, the makers of idols. But Israel shall be
saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end." Who? Israel. That's who. Not that little nation
in Palestine. I'm talking about spiritual Israel. Paul said, not all those that
are of Abraham's seed are children of Israel. Spiritual Israel,
the elect of God. This is the promise of God. All
Israel shall be saved. In who? In the Savior, Jesus
Christ. That's how they'll be saved.
In the Savior. This King. that God promises
is Jesus Christ. He will come. The prophets testified
that He should be the seed of the woman born of the virgin's
womb. They testified that He would
be the seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They testified that
He would be the seed of David. They said that He who is God
should be made flesh. And they said that he who should
be the servant of God would magnify the law and make it honorable.
The law and the prophets testified that he should by his blood offering
forever put away the sin of his people. The prophets and law
testified that he would die under the wrath of God and that he
should be risen from the dead and ascend to the throne of God.
Who alone fits all of these prophecies? Only one man in all the history
of the world fits these prophecies. It is this man, Jesus Christ,
who is himself God. The God-man, Jesus Christ. And we who believe on Him. Have
you seen Him? Did you see Him with your physical
eyes? No. We've not seen Him in the
flesh. We did not see His hands and
His feet. We have not thrust our hand into
His side. Nor did we believe because of
any earthly miracle. But we believe because we have
heard His voice. We have heard His voice. And
listen, as He raised Lazarus from the dead, that is exactly
what has happened to you and I who believe. We have been raised
from the dead. This is the miracle of grace. And so as Lazarus was, in a carnal
sense, a beacon of His deity, even so am I. a beacon of his
deity. Not because I act like Christ
or because I look like Christ, but because I'm raised by Christ. I am an object of his grace. I am myself a miracle. I'm evidence that Jesus Christ
is God because he raised me from the dead. And He raised you from
the dead, if you know Him. We were dead in sins and without
life, without hope. We could by no means please God,
nor did we desire to, even because we were by nature spiritually
depraved, spiritually condemned and judged. Now it's morning. I want to give
you a visual in your mind's eye. Lay out a corpse on this place
here. You lay out a corpse. Someone you know. Lay out their
dead body there. Speak ever so gently to it. Plead with it. Stroke the hair of the dead corpse. Kiss it on its forehead. Will that give it life? Can you
by your endearing heart give life to the dead? Can you by
your pleading give life to the dead? What if you beat it? What if you beat the corpse?
What if you beat the body? Will that give it life? No. No. What if you talk to it about
heaven and hell? What if you plead with it and
say, Oh, if you don't get off, if you don't live, you'll die
in your sins. Will that help? No. No. It won't give life. Neither are we able to give life
to dead sinners. Therefore, we, like Ezekiel,
are commanded to preach to dead corpses. But we have no power
to give life. What did he say? He said, God
said, Ezekiel, what do you see? He said, dry bones, very dry
bones. And he said, can these bones
live? And he said, thou knowest, Lord.
In other words, if you're gonna give them life, then they can.
If you're not, they won't. And what did God say? You preach
to them anyway. You preach to them. You prophesy
to them. That's what I'm doing this morning.
Some of you are dead. And you know what? I'm just preaching
to you. I'm declaring the gospel to you.
But only God can give you life. That's it. Only God can do it.
Only Christ can give you life. I'm like one of these men that
Christ said, roll away the stone. And what'd Martha say? She said,
Lord, no. He stinks. Don't do that. This is all preachers are able
to do is roll away the stone and expose the stench of man's
guilt and sin. That's all we do. We roll away
the stone of your heart and what is exposed is only guilt, sin,
filth, But that doesn't give life. And
I'll tell you, we are a saver of life unto life to some. But
we are a saver of death unto death to others. And as we expose
sin, you know what the natural man does? If he's not given life,
he will hate us. He'll hate us for exposing it. So then, how do men have life? only if Christ speaks and says,
come forth. Jesus said, the hour is coming
and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God. And listen, they that hear, what? His voice, shall live. Have you heard the voice of the
Son of God? Are you alive from the dead? Have you believed on
the Lord Jesus Christ? It's not because of the preacher,
it's not because of my pleading, not because of the pleading of
your loved ones, but because of a miracle of the sovereign
grace of Jesus Christ. If you have faith, listen, if
your faith comes from any man or any power of man or any of
man's will, then surely your faith is dead faith and it won't
last. Have you not seen that time and
time again? Some men just determined within themselves to believe.
They get up the unction and the power and the zeal all from themselves,
and they run really fast and strong. And then pretty soon,
they wither and fall by the wayside. Why? Because their faith was
of them. Their faith was of their own
making. Some of this seed lands on thorny and stony
ground, hearers, that either because of the love of the world,
the love of their family, or the pleasure of this world, or
because of tribulation, they by and by are tempted away and
turn from Christ. But true living faith looks to
Jesus Christ, who is both the author and finisher of our faith. And all who truly believe will
bear the fruit of faith. that is rooted in the eternal
covenant and grace of God. You see, our faith is living
faith, and living faith only looks to the blood and righteousness
of Jesus Christ alone. And we confess that we know very
little about our Lord and His salvation, but what we know is
this, all of it's of God. I don't know much. The more I
study, I tell you, the less I really I know. I don't know much. But
I know this. All my salvations of God. Lazarus,
when he came out of that tomb, you know what he knew? That Christ
raised him from the dead. He knew that. Because he heard
Christ's voice. And it was Christ's voice that
he obeyed. And I tell you, if you're a believer
in Christ, it's because you heard His voice and the Son of God
raised you from the dead. This is proof of His deity. Salvation
is of the Lord. The Father purposed it, the Son
accomplished it, the Holy Spirit applies it and keeps it. And we who are quickened from
the dead need no convincing. that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God. Do you need somebody to argue
that point with you? I've explained it to you. I've
just declared it so you can remember it. That's it. I'm just bringing
these things to your remembrance. If you're a believer, this is
not a point of contention with you when I say that Jesus Christ
is God manifest in the flesh. I remember a story about this
Unitarian preacher who did not believe in the deity of Christ,
and his brother was a Baptist preacher. And the Unitarian preacher
had to go away, and he called his brother to preach for him.
And his brother, the Unitarian, said, Now, listen, I don't want
you to preach anything controversial. And his brother said, All right,
I won't preach anything controversial. He preached from 1 Timothy 3,
verse 16, without controversy. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That's without controversy. That's
without argument. We don't need somebody to try
to argue this point, but rather we just need somebody to remind
us. And that's what I'm doing. I'm just bringing it to your
remembrance. That Jesus Christ is God manifest in the flesh.
That we cannot live and we will not be content to live without
His presence and His Word. If you are alive, you are not
content to live without breath. Try to hold your breath. Try
to hold it for as long as you can. I promise you won't be content. And I tell you, those who are
alive in Christ are not content with anything else. The Apostle John says, we will
not be satisfied until we awake in his likeness. Nothing in this
world is contenting, is it? Everything is fleeting, everything
is passing. But to me, the only thing of
importance is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And you know what
these men were commanded to do with Lazarus after he came forth? Look at what Jesus said, Loose
him and let him go. Loose him and let him go. This is the command to every
gospel preacher to you who believe in Jesus Christ. Listen, all
I'm to do with you is loose you and let you go. You who believe
in Christ, listen, you are free. Free from the law, oh happy condition. Jesus is bled, there's remission. Cursed by the law and bruised
by the fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. You're free. You're free. Go. Listen to me. You believe. Go
and do what you want to. Go on. Do what you want to. You're free. Well, man, preacher, if you do
that, then everybody's just gonna go out and live in sin. Not God's
people. When they lose Lazarus and let
him go, where was he found? Where was Lazarus? Look at it. They made a supper and Martha
served, but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table. With
who? Christ. Where was Lazarus when
they loosed him and let him go? He went with Christ. When I loose you and let you
go, where will you go? Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast the words of eternal life. I ain't going anywhere. Lazarus was one that sat at the
table. Lazarus, who had been dead, raised
from the dead, he was found with Christ. Remember that Jesus caved
this man that rolled away, loosened him and let him go. Surely this
is meant for preachers of the gospel, to set you free, for
you are free indeed. If the Son shall set you free,
you are free, truly free, really free. Free indeed. We are meant to expose sin by
rolling away the stone, but after Christ gives life, we are to
loose them and let them go. And where will they go? I'll
tell you this, they will not return to the vomit of their
sin. A dog returning to his vomit. God's people don't do that. I
like this illustration. You have a bunch of sheep mixed
with pigs. And they're all running down
a hill and they all fall into a big pit of mud. What's the
nature of the sheep? To get out. To clean himself. What's the
nature of the pig? To wallow in the mud. You see,
when God gives life, He also gives faith and a new heart,
a new nature that longs to be with Christ. There is therefore
now no condemnation to those who are in Christ. Are we to
go back to the law? No. No, I don't... Christ didn't give you life to
bind you by the law. Now we are under the law of faith
and love. But we are not under the law
of Moses. And I dare not point you back. You know, it would
be kind of strange if Lazarus was raised from the dead and
tried to get back in the tomb. Wouldn't it? What if you saw
Lazarus over there trying to bind his feet back up and hop
back into the tomb? That's what it is, it seems like,
with people trying to get back under the law. No, we're free,
free from the law. The only law we have is faith
in Christ and love for Christ. He's just not the heart of every
believer then to be found where Lazarus was. feasting at the
feet of Jesus Christ. Feeding on His Word. And what is His Word? What is
this feast that we are to partake of at His table? Jesus said, I am God manifest
in the flesh. I came to seek and to save that
which was lost. I came to raise the dead to life. and you that are raised, it is
the will of God that you be loosed and let go. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem. Why? Her warfare is accomplished. For the Lord hath received double
for all her sins. Because he is God manifest in
the flesh because he accomplished everything that he said sent
him to do listen. He's right where God placed him
on the throne Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God then
you know this everything is moving according to his will everything What is it for us to do but to
trust him To believe Him. And He will deliver us safe into
His loving arms. There's no doubt about this.
There's no question. Why? Because He's God. It's His
will to give you eternal life. It's His power to keep you. And He will not lose one. Not
lose one of us. Is that not give us cause to
thank God, to glorify his name? May God help us to remember this
as we go away from this place today. Remember the deity of
your savior. Remember his sacrifice. Remember
what he has done for you. Remember how he loves you. And
how he keeps you. And by this you'll find comfort.
May God bless this day. I stand will be dismissed in
prayer.