Surprisingly, there are not that
many, there are very few hymns in our book that speak of the
Son of God. And it's disappointing that there
are many in the Gatsby hymnal. If you don't have a copy of that,
you need to get one. It's just outstanding. Every
hymn in it, you can just turn to any page, put your finger
down. It's fabulous, wonderful. God honoring Christ's exalting
hymn. John chapter 1, the title, the
subject is the Son of God. After studying this, this Word,
and our Lord, I'm like Job. When Job said, I've heard of
you, and I see you, something of your glory, the disciples
said, we beheld his glory. And I say with Job, I will utter
things I understand not, things too wonderful for me. Son of
God, I want you with me to see the fact of it, that He is indeed
God manifest in the flesh, and then I hope we'll see something
of the wonder of it, the amazement of it. and then the comfort and
the glory and the salvation of it. John didn't know him, although
he was with the spirit from his mother's womb. And when Christ
came in the belly of Mary, remember? Well, Mary came. Christ wasn't
in her conceit yet. Yes, he was. But John was about
nine months before him, wasn't he? But when they met, Elizabeth
and Mary, remember John? leaped in his mother's womb when
Mary came. So he was the forerunner of Christ. In chapter 1, John had been preaching
Christ, and then Christ came walking. And he said in verse
31, I knew him not. that I bear record, I saw the
Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and it abode upon
him." Meaning that Christ was a man and he had no form or comeless,
nothing to distinguish him from other men at the time, but the
one who distinguished him was the Spirit of God. And everyone,
no one sees any beauty in Christ. No one knows Him as the Son of
God unless the Spirit of God revealed Him to them. Right?
So John was the same. And then he knew that this is
the one. And then he began to preach it.
This is the Lamb of God. He said, Behold, the Lamb of
God. And then down in verse 34, he said, I saw and bear record
that this is the Son of God. And then John keeps talking about
the Son until they cut his head off. Keeps talking about the Son.
So let's consider this. First of all, the fact of it,
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. It began this way in
chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with
God and the Word was God. What other scripture do we need?
What further proof do we need from God's Word that Jesus of
Nazareth is God manifested to play? And many people don't believe
that. As you know, they pervert this
by saying He was a God. I wonder if it's a capital G.
It's only one capital G. It can't be a God. It's just one. I wonder if their
Bible reads that way. But this is beyond shadow without
it, without controversy. He is God, the Son of God. Verse
14 says the Word was made flesh. This is why it's called the Son
of God. The only reason, this is the
reason he's called the Son of God, not that he's less than
God. He thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Right? And he let his disciples
call him God. God called him God. And He was
wanted, verse 8. Unto the Son, He saith, Thy throne,
O God, is for ever. What further proof do we need?
The fact of it, all right? Down in verse 34 of this chapter,
he said, I saw on bare record that this is Thee, like the Lamb,
Thee, Son of God. Some people are confused, you
know. Well, I thought we were sons of God. He says he's the
Son of God, the only begotten Son of God. Well, I thought we
were begotten of God. Are you confused? Surely not. This means he's the only bodily
manifestation or image of God. God is Spirit. You remember when
God said in the Garden, in the beginning, Like John 1, in the
beginning, the Word of God, the Father, and the Word and Spirit.
God said, let us, chapter 2, make man in our own image. Okay? So Christ, the Son, the
second person of the Trinity, had an image. He's the eternal
Son. When did He take that image?
Let me ask you this. We're talking about things too
marvelous, too wonderful. God is Spirit, the Father, right?
The Holy Spirit is Spirit. What's the difference between
the two of them? Somebody want to tell me? I don't know either. It's a mystery, isn't it? Christ took a body at some point,
didn't He? He's the first begotten, the
first born of every creature. He said, a body hast thou prepared
me. When did he take that body? Well,
when he came to earth, but he assumed he came down in the flesh
many times, didn't he? So at some point, before anything
was, the Son was, Son of God. This is what John says in his,
and I didn't even mean to deal with this, but John said in 1
John 4, He that believeth that Jesus
Christ is come in the flesh. Now, if you come somewhere, it
means you were somewhere before you got there. It means he existed
before he came. And he came. He became flesh
and dwelt among us. That's what it says. The Word
was made flesh. But the Word, the Son, second
person, always was, has no beginning and no end. No father. Explain that. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek who has no father or mother. Nobody actually gave
him life. He had the life in himself. That's
what John keeps on saying. Do you want to explain that for
me? We can't. You see, we believe a God that you can't explain. We must have a God that's far
beyond our understanding. But we do understand Him. John
wrote, we know the Son of God has come. God was manifest in
the flesh and given us an understanding that we may know Him as true.
Because no man knoweth the Son but the Father, neither knoweth
any man the Father but the Son, he to whom the Son will reveal,
the Father will reveal, and vice versa. All right, so the fact
of it, look at verse 49. Nathanael, when he found out
that Jesus of Nazareth knew who he was before he even met him,
he said, Rabbi, you're the Son of God, you're the King of Israel. I can't help but think the Lord
smiled and said, do you believe because I saw you under the fig
tree? He just waits. You just wait and what all you're
going to hear and see out of me. And then chapter 5, I want you
to turn over there. Chapter 5. I won't have you turn
to too many scriptures, I know it's difficult. But chapter 5, this whole chapter
Christ keeps talking about Himself as the Son. The Son. Chapter 5, verse 18, the Jews
sought to kill him because he said God was his father. It made
him equal with God. You see, my dad, Henry Mahan,
you knew him. He was a man. Well, I am too.
Right? Am I less a man than he was? Equal. All right. He birthed
me, but the father Do you understand? Christ existed before. There
never was a time he didn't exist. So they said, you make yourself
equal with God, and another time they said, you're just a man,
you make yourself God. You see, judgment's back for
them. He was God, and he made himself a man. And man can't
conceive that. He can't be God. He's just a
man. Well, yes he is. We read that. He made all things. Look, keep reading. Verse 19,
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son
can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do,
and what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
The father loveth the son, showeth him all things that he himself
doeth. He will show him greater works than he. As the father
raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them, even so the son quickeneth
whom he will. The father judges no man, and
committeth all judgment unto the son. All men should honor
the son, even as they honor the father. Call him God, because
he is. See, that's what we're saying.
We believe Jesus Christ is God. Why? Because He is. I believe that's Karen Anderson. You know why? Because she is.
And the Word says it. And He's revealed Himself to
us. Oh my. 1 Timothy 3. This needs to be a memory verse
if you haven't already. 1 Timothy 3, verse 16. People know John 3, 16. Well,
you need to know 1 Timothy 3, 16. By heart. Without controversy. Although
it is a controversy among people in the world. Not with us, is
it? No controversy. Hard to understand, but we believe.
It's a mystery, a mystery of godliness, that is, God being
a man. God was manifest in the flesh.
How clear could you get that? It doesn't even say the Son of
God. It says God. All right, how do we know? He
was justified in the Spirit. The Holy Spirit came down on
Him, said, John, this is He. The Spirit of God comes in our
midst, takes the things of Christ and shows them unto us too. Scene
of angels. Angels, actual angels, and then
worshiped of angels. Didn't that say in Hebrews, let
all the angels of God worship Him? You're not supposed to worship
anybody but God. What are you? Well, God said,
let them worship the Son like they worship Me, because He's
equal. So He's the one that God sent
to deal with man. Because God can't be seen, never
has been seen, but we have seen God. And we will see God. The
Son of Man. He's preached unto the Gentiles.
To us. Believed on. Now here's the marvel
of it. That's a fact of it. Here's the
marvel of it. I believe. He asked the disciples one time,
who do men say that I am? And they said all sorts of things.
And if you'd ask people today, who do you think Jesus is? And
they'd give you all sorts of answers. You ask His people,
every one of them will say with silent fear, we believe and are
sure thou art the Christ, the Son of the Most High God. Like
Thomas, you're my Lord and my God. And whom I live and may
even have my being. Yes, we do. Only begotten. Isaiah 7 says
this, verse 14. A virgin, behold, behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son, bear a child, a son. Call his
name Immanuel. What does that mean? God with
us. Right? Isaiah 9 verse 6 says
this, that a child is born, but the son is given. He always existed. Call His name,
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father. You remember in John, John's
Gospel, Philip said, Show us the Father. He said, He that hath seen me
hath seen the Father. That's the fact of it. It's beyond
controversy. Let the potsherd strive. Amen. He is God. That's the fact of
it. We believe because He is. We believe because Scripture
says so. God says so. Spirit says so.
We believe because no man could do, say and do what He did and
what He does but God. Now, create. While he was here
on earth, he created. We're going to look, I think
it's in the next chapter, when he turned the water to wine. Yes, his first miracle. And the
only ones that saw that were the servants and his disciples.
And it says the disciples, they saw this and believed on it.
Nobody else saw it. Where'd you get this good wine?
He made it. I like that. Only a creator can
do that, isn't it? The way he controlled everything
while here. The winds and the waves obeyed
him. He controlled the elements. That's what the disciples said.
He kept proving himself to them, didn't he? Who he was. I don't
let go. Walked out on the bow of that
ship, storm raging. Peace, be still. Wind, stop. Waves, settle down. Like we'd
call a dog, sit. Lie down. Hush. Disciples, what manner of man
is this? Not just a man. We believe control
the winds, the waves, the elements, the creatures. Creatures. He commanded fish to get in the
net. He commanded an ass to ride him
into town. It had never been ridden. Couldn't
be ridden. He rode him. And on and on it goes. That dove
landed on his shoulder. I love thinking about him being
out there when he was tempted of Satan. He was in the wilderness
a long time. Forty days. And it says He's
with the wild beasts. You remember that? They weren't
wild when they were around Him. He was with them. You can't dwell
with wild beasts. He did. I believe they all came
to Him. It's a picture of us, a lion
laying down with a bullock and a wolf with a lamb. That's us.
Christ comes, like in the ark. One time they all got along.
And He said so, like Noah. He commanded the creatures. He
commanded the hearts and the minds of people, men. He commanded their hearts and
minds, the king's hearts and the hands of the Lord. He turned
it with us wherever He will. He could change people, like
Matthew, whose money was his life. He could make him drop
it right now. Right now, drop all that money he'd ever made.
Just drop it and never look back. Simon, and Andrew, and James,
and John, and Miss Fishing, and the boats, and their dad, and
their business was their life. They didn't have life. He that
hath not the Son of God hath not life. They didn't have life.
But that was their life, they thought. And when the Son of
God came by, just with the Word, follow me, they dropped their
boats, their nets. Aren't you going to sell that
boat? You could get a pretty penny out of it. What boat? Oh, that boat.
I don't need that boat. Have Him. Who could do that but
God? Control. The devils. Devils, they came down and had
to ask Him what they could do. Remember? He said, We know who
you are, Jesus, the Son of God. Are you come to torment us for
it's time? Please, let us go into those pigs. Get. Commanded the devils. He told
God what he willed. He said, Father, I will. Now, when Satan said that, God
cast it down. When Adam said that, God cast
it down. When Jesus Christ said, I will,
God said, OK. This is God. He said, Son of
God. He's the only one that lived
a sinless life. Romans 1 says he's declared to
be the Son of God by the Spirit of holiness and the resurrection
from the dead. Spirit of holiness. Only, holy,
truly, in and of himself, holy man who ever lived without sin.
No sin. Think of this. Only God can be
without sin. He never thought sin. He never
lusted. Never thought an evil thought,
never spoke an evil word. Psalm 24 says, Who shall ascend
to the holy hill of the Lord? He that hath clean hands. Never
did anything sin or wrong with his hands. Everything he did
was right, righteous. Every path, his feet walked in
paths of righteousness. His words, his heart was pure. His mind was pure. His thoughts
were pure. Think about that. We can't even
think about that. Can't fathom that, can we? Who could be like
that but God? This is God. and the resurrection
from the dead. He said, I have power to lay
down my life. We don't lay down our lives.
God takes it. God kills us. He takes our life. Christ said, I lay down my life.
He said, please the Father to bruise him. He did. But Christ
willingly bowed his head and gave up the guts. I love that
thought, don't you? Don't you love that scene where
he's hanging on that cross? And he said, it's finished. And
like a man who's done it all, he bowed his head and gave up
the ghost, killed himself. That's amazing. I always thought
the angel surely gave a standing ovation as he patted his head.
Saints in heaven, they knew I was there. Who can do that but God? He said,
I have the power to lay it down and have this power to take it
up again. Now the resurrection from the
dead, three days later, He took his body back, glorified body,
walked out of that, spoke the stone to roll away, and walked
out of that tomb. And he walked on into glory. That's amazing. This is God.
I said that's the fact of it, but that's the wonder of it too.
Thousand other scriptures, 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of
scriptures and reasons why we believe He's the Son of the Most
High God, the wonder of it. And His name is called Wonderful
in Isaiah 9. See, call His name Wonderful.
First thing, call His name Wonderful because He's full of wonder.
You know who it is, Sister Tammy. Every time I ask her after a
message, she says, That was wonderful. Every time. That's because it's
speaking of Christ. That's His name, full of wonder. We always wonder at Him, don't
we? We're always in amazement of
Him. If the Lord blesses us, we never
cease to wonder and be amazed at our Lord. What mere man could
you speak of for 30 or 40 years and not get tired of it? What could you tell about Him?
Our lives are short stories, aren't they? Sum it up in five
minutes. We don't want to hear any more.
But we want to keep hearing about Him whose name is wonderful. The wonder of it. Facts don't
save us, you see. Christ saves. Spirit saves. And
He takes the things of Christ and He reveals the Son. in you. He that hath the Son
hath life. It's more than just a knowledge.
Hey, I believe He's the Son of God. Hold on. It's to know Him. It's to come in contact with
Him. It's Him to reveal Himself not
only to you. See, I grew up under the truth.
And I believe this fact that He is the Son of God. I believe
it in my head. I could argue these facts. I
could argue these facts. My seventh grade teacher said,
you're either going to be a preacher or a lawyer. Well, she was right. I didn't want to be either one. But anyway, I could argue these
facts. I was taught well. I had a good
teacher as a boy, and I could argue these things, and did sometimes. But then I didn't believe in
my heart. I didn't know Him. He had not
yet revealed Himself in me. It's like Saul of Tarsus. And
that's where this came from, Galatians 1. Saul of Tarsus knew
Jesus of Nazareth. He'd heard about it. Heard about
His miracles. He'd heard what all this said about Him. He didn't
like it. He thought, this is what I'm going to do with this
Jesus of Nazareth. This man named Jesus, I'm going to put an end
to this. And then the Lord Jesus came
and suddenly a light shone round about him. This is when Paul
said, I was apprehended like a fish in a net. You're not getting
out. The Lord God came to him, who
is light, who is life. He was born again right there. Christ saw him, the light, and
surrounded him, put him in the dust, humbled him, put him on
his face before the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, Lord, Who art
thou? He said, I'm Jesus. Oh my, I
thought you were just a man. Nope. And then here's what Paul
said. Paul before that said, here's
what I'm going to do. Here's what I will do. And when he met
the Lord Jesus, he said, what will thou have me to do? What are you going to do with
me, Lord? And he called him that from then
on, didn't he? And so did we. So you met Him.
Salvation is a confrontation with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
for Him to come to you in the Gospel. You know this. You've
experienced it. For Him to come to you in the
Gospel and open your blind eye. Wasn't there a time, John, when
you heard the Gospel and it was like your eyes were open. Your ears were open. You'd heard
about Jesus. You'd heard about God. You believed
in a God. You believed in a Jesus. But
then you met Christ. Really? Really. And Paul said this, when it pleased
God who separated me from my mother's womb and called me by
His grace to reveal His Son in me. In me. Like Peter, like Thomas, like
my Lord, my God. All the disciples heard His voice.
They saw His glory. They beheld His glory. as of
the only begotten, the only image of God the Father. His word,
here's the wonder of it. This is how he reveals himself,
through his word. It's the word of his power. It's
the word of his power. And his word has power over men.
This is just, these are just words on paper, printed paper. But, if God, and he uses preacher,
this is amazing. That's amazing. And I want to
deal more with it Sunday. God calls men through preaching.
But there came a time when you read it, and you read it, and
you heard it, and you read it, and all of a sudden one day,
God was speaking to you. Remember? The Lord was speaking
to you. It was the voice of the Lord.
He said, My sheep hear My voice. Well, not one of them have ever
heard an audible voice except the apostles. Right? None of
us have heard an audible voice of the Lord Jesus Christ, but
we've heard His voice. Right? Yes, we have. He said,
my sheep hear my voice. Every one of them. To the preacher
of the gospel. Truly. And I don't know how many
times many of you, if not most, have said to me after a message
at some point, you've said, you were speaking right to me this
morning. It's like you listened to our
conversation last night. No, it's not me at all. It's
the Word of God. It's the eyes of the Lord. Seven
eyes of the Lord run to and fro in the earth. The omniscience,
the omnipotence, the omnipotence of our Lord. All power. It's
a powerful Word. The power of His Word, His Gospels,
the power of God unto salvation. Oh my, the Word of His power. Recreate. Create a new creature. in Christ. All things pass away. All things become dead. You begin
to love what you once hated and hate what you once loved. How? And this doesn't... It ceases
to become the Bible and it becomes words of life. Right? That's what Simon Peter said.
These are words of life. We hang on it, your Word. We
must have it. It becomes like bread and meat
and milk and water, doesn't it? Gotta have it. And Christ is
all of that. They beheld and we beheld His
person, His majesty, His holiness, His dignity, His grace, His love,
His mercy, His strength. Oh my. That's the wonder of it. Part of it. You know, David said this in
the psalm, he said, When I consider man, when I consider the heavens,
the works of thy fingers, the moon and the stars which thou
hast ordained, what is man that thou art mindful of him? Why
would He even create Him? Why would He create man? What's
He do with man? He said, well, let's make man
in our own way. And He made man for His glory,
the glory of His Son. And someday there are going to
be innumerable people by men singing the praise of the Son. That's going to be... I can't
rightly speak on that after 30 minutes of silence. But what
is man that you would visit him? Here's the wonder of it. He would
come down here and visit us. My, my. Now go with me back to
1 John and I'm going to close. This is the comfort. the peace,
the assurance, salvation, and knowing and believing that God
the Son came. We read it. We know the Son of
God has come. And it says that we believe that
Jesus Christ is born of God. Everyone that believes that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. I believe. Do you? Like Peter said, we believe and
are sure. We're just certain of the Christ.
That's the Messiah. 1 John 5. We believe He's the
Christ, Son of God. And everyone that loveth Him
that begat... Do you love God? I know you're
ashamed of your love of God. But do you not love God as God? I mean the God of the Bible.
The God who reveals Himself in Scripture. Holy, just, righteous
God. Sovereign. Saving whom He will. God of sovereign election, predestination,
reprobation. God who kills, God is God. Do
you love that God? You're born of God. There's only
one way you can love that God. It's that He loves you. And gave
you an understanding to know Him. And you love His people. You love His people. You love
doing this. A dear sister wrote me a text
and said she'd never been happier in her life than she is now,
hearing the Word of God preached and worshiping with God's people,
beholding the Lamb. Never been happier in her life. I believe that person has life. By this we know we love the children
of God and we love God, and vice versa. This is the love of God. We keep His commandments. What
commandment? Do you not want to keep and desire to keep and
endeavor to keep whatever He tells you to keep? Yes, you do. Of course you do. Of course we're
disobedient at times, but He's made us willing and obedient
children to follow Him and keep His command. And they're not
grievous. He doesn't tell us to climb Mount Sinai. Just follow
Him and do what He says. Do what He says. Well, are we going to make it? Are
we going to make it to glory? What's your hope? If you make
it to glory, how are you going to make it? Just tell me. Give
me one reason. Christ. Really? Is that what
you believe? You're born of God. Everyone that believes in that
has this hope in Him and will overcome the world. This is what
overcomes the world. What? Knowing Him. Believing
Him that He overcame the world. And He overcame you. has and
doth and shall overcome everything concerning you, and keep you,
and take you to glory. See, He's the Son of God with
power. He's going to be able to take
us all the way to glory. The only one that can. The only one
that can. He will. He's promised to. And
it goes on to say, in closing, in chapter 5, verse 20, and I
love this, we know the Son of God has come. He has. He has
come. And He's given us an understanding.
I do understand something of who He is and what He's done
and where He is now and why He did it. I do understand. He's given us an understanding.
That we may know Him that is true, and we are in Him that
is true. I have a little bit of understanding of what it means
to be in Christ. I keep bringing up the ark, because
that's a good illustration. And I want to be found in Him. Don't you? In that day? Covered
by Him, in Him. Pitched. Well, we are. We understand
that. We understand that. And we're
in Him. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ.
We get back to the fact of it, the wonder of it, and the glory
of it, and the assurance of it, the peace of it, the salvation
of it. This One that we believe in, He's the true God and eternal
life. He is. Yes, He is. Isn't that what He said? This
is life eternal that they may know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ whom He sent. Well, who's God? The Father or
the Son? Yes. That's right. We believe. Very God of very God. Little
children, keep yourselves from idols. How do you do that? Keep
looking to Christ. You see Him, everything else,
like old Ephraim said, what have I to do anymore with idols? I've
seen Him. That's how you keep yourself
from idols. Keep looking to Him. Amen. You're dismissed.