I ask you to turn in your Bibles
to John chapter 8. John chapter 8. You'll be praying for me as I
attempt to preach this morning. any attempt at this thing of
preaching is above a mere man. My subject this morning is very
special. Is it all that important that
someone believe that Jesus Christ is God Almighty? Is it really that important? Is it really necessary that we
believe that Jesus Christ of Nazareth and God the Creator
are one and the same person, or can we just believe that he's
the Son of God? Is it really necessary to believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Is it? Well, this has been, is right
now, and always will be, the question of questions, of all
questions. It has been argued and debated
since the very beginning, but I contend, based upon our text
this morning, I contend that the deity, or that is, the Godhood,
the fact that Jesus Christ is God Almighty, The deity of Jesus
Christ is the very foundation of true saving faith, the very
foundation of saving faith, the very fundamental issue, the very
starting point which ultimately decides the eternal destiny of
every human being. It's that important. It's that
important. And based upon our text this
morning, if you believe that Jesus Christ is anything less
than the absolute creator, sovereign controller, ruler, Lord of the
universe, the God who made us, if you believe that he is anything
less than God himself, then you are on your road to hell. And
it's very serious, very serious. Now, I know that that statement
puts a lot of people in jeopardy. a lot of people. There are denominations,
there are myriads, thousands, millions of people who fight,
who contend against this. Myriads of people who do not
believe that Jesus Christ is actually God. And I say, I wish
that I could say it with a tear in my eye. But I say it emphatically,
based upon God's Word, that those people are on their road to hell
that do not believe that Jesus Christ is God. Well, someone
may say, how can he make such a statement? I didn't make it. Christ himself did. How can you
make such a statement? Where do you get your information?
Why is it necessary? Why is it so necessary? Didn't he just say, didn't Christ
just say he was the Son of God? Didn't he just call himself the
Son of Man? No. No, he didn't. He didn't
just call himself that. If he had, if Christ would have
just contended that he was the Son of God and not God himself,
they wouldn't have killed him. left him alone, because they
felt like they were sons of God. If he would just have contended
for that, they wouldn't have objected too much on that. He
said that one day, for which good work do you stone me? I
said, we're not stoning you for good works or even fair speeches. But we're stoning you because
you, being a man, have made yourself to be son of God? No, God. God. You're just a man, you're
not God. And that's exactly what they
still say today, isn't it? They'll let him be the son of
God. I asked a so-called Jehovah Witness that question, about
the son of whether he believed Christ was God or just the son
of God. Well, they'll let him be the son of God, but not God.
Because him being a son, he'd be subject just like the rest
of them, no different than the rest of them. And that's my point. That is my point. Either Jesus
Christ is God Almighty or he's the greatest imposter who ever
lived. Either he is God Almighty or
he's the greatest blasphemer who ever lived. And all who claim
to believe in him and follow him and believe in him, they're
following a fake. They're following a forger. They're
following a failure is who they're following. And if Jesus Christ
is not God, then he cannot do anything. anything more than
you and I can do if he's not God. Some of those blasphemous
statements that Hagin and some of them made concerning the godhood
of man, you just wouldn't believe the thoughts of present-day man.
But if Jesus Christ is not God himself, I mean perfect God,
this holy God, then he cannot do anything for anybody including
himself, certainly not you and me. He cannot do anything for
us. Because the Scriptures say that
only God can forgive sin. That's what they said to Christ
one time when he told that man, your sins be forgiven you. They
said, this is blasphemy. Who can forgive sins but God?
Right. Nobody can but God. But that
you may know that I have power, that I am God, is what he was
saying in so many words. That you may know that I'm God,
your sins are forgiven you. He sends it. Nobody can forgive
sins but God. Nobody can give life but God.
God is life. Nobody can give life but God.
Nobody can save but God. The Scriptures call him God our
Savior, don't they? Nobody can save but God. Nobody
can keep and protect except God, because all things are in his
hands, right? All things are in his hands.
Nobody can raise the dead. but God who gave life. Nobody
can claim all power and authority over all flesh. Nobody but God
can claim that. Christ did, didn't he? And all these things are attributed
in the scriptures to the Lord Jesus Christ. All of them. So he must either be God or he's
the world's greatest imposter. And you're following? We're doing
this in vain. We might as well quit and go
home. if Jesus Christ is not God Almighty. It's that important. It's that important. Well, look,
here's my scripture proof. Look at John chapter 8, verse
23 with me. Christ was speaking to some of
these Jews, these Pharisees, and he said unto them, You are
from beneath. am from above. You are of this world. I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins. For, look at this, write her
down, if you believe not that I He's that same name that Moses
received on Mount Horeb. The word he is not there. The
word is I am. That's the name God gave to Moses
when Moses asked him, whom shall I say has sent me? Whom shall
I am? And Christ says here, he never
said he was God? Oh, yeah, he did. Right here.
And he says, if you don't believe that I am, You shall die in your
sins. You see how serious it is? If
you believe not that Jesus Christ is God, then you don't believe
the record. Throw this book away. Throw it
away and take up whatever notion, and that's what they're doing.
Take up whatever imaginary God you want to. But that's not the
God of the Bible, because the Scriptures say that Christ is
God. If you don't believe that Jesus Christ is God, you do not
believe the record. This vast store of infinite,
eternal knowledge, throw it away because you don't believe the
record. Because all the scriptures, all the scriptures glorify Christ. All the scriptures speak of him. This book testifies that Jesus
Christ is God from start to finish. Start to finish. Listen to this
scripture. All things were made by him, and without him was not
anything made which was made. Listen to this. He was in the
world, and the world was made by him. Who made the world? Everybody
will admit it. God made it. Scriptures say Christ
did. Without Christ was not anything
made. It was man. He was in the world, and the
world was made by him, but didn't know him. Didn't know him as
who? They knew him as Jesus of Nazareth. They didn't know him
as God, he said. And they don't know him today
as God. Therefore, they're not bowing to him as God, calling
upon him as God. Scriptures say Jesus Christ made
all things. That means that Jesus Christ
made the Blue Ridge Mountains. Jesus Christ made the state of
Virginia. He made the United States of
America. You believe that? This man that walked upon the
earth, this mere man, like someone said in a plain brown wrapper,
made the world, the globe, he fashioned it, the universe. Do you believe that? You're either
a fool or a believer. You're either a fool or the Spirit
of God has worked upon you. No man can call him Lord except
by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God revealing this to him.
The scriptures say he made the universe, and he must be God.
If he made it, he's got to be God, right? Scriptures say, at
the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow, every knee. All prophets,
all apostles, all martyrs, all saints, all people, all rulers,
all kings, every knee, and throughout the universe, from time in the
beginning to the end of time. Everybody is going to bow at
the feet of this person, Jesus Christ of Nazareth. He must be
God. Only God is to be bowed to, right?
He must be God. Scriptures say that Jesus Christ
is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Now, it's characteristic
of everything in this world, and humanity especially, that
it changes. Change and decay in all around
our city. Everything changes. The world
changes, doesn't it? Everything changes. They say
our bodies change every seven years. Our bodies change, everything
about us changes, our minds change. We change our minds daily. Scriptures
say He never changes. Scripture says that I am the
Lord, I change not. Then Christ must be God, mustn't
he? He said he's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Jesus Christ
must be God. He must. Science says that gravity,
that centripetal and centrifugal—I didn't think I was going to get
that out when I wrote it down—that these forces hold this universe
together, that mere forces hold everything together. that he
upholds all things by the word of his power. That the same Jesus
of Nazareth, in the same way that God spoke the universe into
existence, in the same way everything is being held together at the
word of this man, this man must be more than a man. He must be
God. Jesus Christ. He must be God. If I ask you to tell me in all
honesty and sincerity about yourself, if I ask you some questions,
and you're a person of integrity, I ought to believe you, shouldn't
I? Say I ask someone in here these
questions. Where were you born? And you
say, Rocky Mount, Virginia. I was born in Rocky Mount, Virginia.
Well, we ask Christ this question. Where were you born? He had no
beginning of days. He was not born. He's a priest
after the order of Melchizedek, having no beginning or end, no
father, no mother. He wasn't born. He must be God
then. Well, wait a minute. How old
are you? And somebody will say, well,
I'm 35, I'm 45. Somebody will lie about their age. I'm 59. How old are you? We asked Christ
this question. They asked him this question. How old are you? Who are you? Where are you from?
How old are you? He said, Before Abraham was,
I am. Now, Abraham had been dead 2,028
years when he answered that. And he's older than that. Yeah,
he is. He's a lot older than that. He's
older than the universe itself. He must be God, then, mustn't
he? Yeah, he must. He must be God. And he said,
don't you listen to this. Now, he's a man of integrity.
He's God. God cannot lie. Ask these questions,
he gives these answers. But he said himself, if you don't
believe me because of my word's sake, I've told you the truth
and you don't believe me. If you don't believe me because
of my word, if you believe not me, then believe the works that
I do, that you may know and believe that the Father is in me and
I in the Father. If we don't believe his word, and men don't. They just don't believe this
to be the inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God. Really,
they say they do, don't they? But they take what they want
and leave the rest. But Christ said, if you believe not me for
my word, for what I say, for who I am, for the integrity of
my person, the truth of my speech, if you don't believe that, believe
the works. Listen to this. Show me the mere mortal man of
medicine who did what Christ did, the physician. He's called
the great physician in Scripture. Show me the mere mortal man who
did what he did. He carried no doctor's bag. He
carried no bandages, no compresses, no medicines, nothing. He didn't carry anything, no
surgical instruments. A man had his ear cut off one
day. He reached down on the ground, picked it up, and stuck it back
on the side of his head. See what a robber it's driving
at. A man with a withered hand one day, born with cerebral palsy
or something, polio, whatever, I don't know what it was, but
it was withered. Scripture said it was withered. Now, it was
withered, no strength at all, no movement at all in it. Christ
came by one day and said, He must be God. He must be. He must be. He told a man who'd
been lame 38 years, get up off that bed. Now pick your bed up.
Clean your mess up. Go home. And the man not only
walked, he carried his bed home. That's how strong he was. He
must be God. He must be God. Only God can
do these sort of things. You show me the cook. You show
me the cook who can feed 5,000 with just a few loaves and fishies.
He did. He did. He did it twice in succession,
back to back, so that the first time wouldn't appear to be a
fluke. He did it again. He did it again. He must be God.
He must be who he says he is. You show me the winemaker who
can make vintage chardonnay in one day. Oh, it takes years. He did. He turned in 130 or 150
gallons of the best wine that those fellows had ever tasted.
He must be God. He must be God. One day, one
day he was sleeping in the back of a boat, and the disciples were rowing
the boat, and he was asleep. And a storm arose, and the waves
began to crash over the bow of that boat, both began to heal
to and fro, and the disciples feared for their lives. And they
ran back to get the Master, and they were all worried and nervous.
They said, Master, don't you care that we perish? Wake up!
Do something! Well, he got up, wiped the sleep
out of his eyes, and he put on his robe calmly,
and walked out. A big wave hit him in the face,
and he Wiped the water off. Walked out to the front of that
boat and said, be still. And turned into a farm pond. He must be God. Do you remember
that scripture we read there in Nahum? The oceans, he rebukes
the weather. He rebukes the way. He must be
God. And that's what the disciples said. What manner of man is this
that even the ocean, the waves obey you? God, that's who. God,
that's who he is. He must be God. One day, the
ultimate show of who he is. One day, a funeral procession
went by. Now you can fake a lot of miracles. You can fake a lot of healings
and so forth. That's what the kicksters are
doing today. They get some fella who's a little hard of hearing,
you know, and they whack him on the ear real hard. He hears
something. His ears start ringing, you know.
Get somebody who's in a wheelchair. He's been probably planted in
the audience. But get somebody in a wheelchair and roll him
up there and say, get up out of that wheelchair. And he gets
up and walks around. Now you can fake a lot of things.
Like Pharaoh's magicians faked some of those trips. But one
day, there was a funeral position going by. And in an open casket,
an open pine box or whatever, there was a little girl. A little
12-year-old girl. Her face was pale, white with
death. She'd been dead a while. Cold
as ice. Twelve years old. Her mama and
daddy were weeping, real tears, real tears, uncontrollably. The
neighbors were weeping. Everybody was weeping but one. Everybody was crying but one.
And the Lord Jesus Christ came up and said, stop this. And he walked up to that casket
where that little girl lay in that box and grabbed her by the
hand. I said, now wake up. He must be God. He must be God. Who could do that? Who could do that but God? Right? Nobody but God. Nobody. Well, why is it necessary
then to believe this? If I convince you, you would
convince me. Well, why is it necessary? Why is it so necessary
that Jesus Christ that you believe that Jesus Christ is God. Why?
Because he says so. First and foremost, primarily
because he said so. That's why. Because this book
says so. Because his works say so. And
you'd be making God a liar for not believing that. And because,
most importantly, or as important, only God can justify you. Only
God can save your eternal soul. You cannot do it yourself. We
cannot save ourselves. That's the reason His name should
be called Jesus, Savior, God our Savior. The old Christmas
scripture says, Our God will come and He'll save us. He did
and He will and He does. Only God can do it. You can't
save yourself. It's humanly impossible, naturally
impossible. Only God can save. Only God can
allow. someone into his presence. Only
God has the power and the authority and the say-so in this matter.
Only God can do it. Jesus Christ must be God. He
said, All authority is given unto me. All authority. He said, No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. Why? Because I and the Father
are one and the same person. You come to the Father, Philip,
ever been so long with you? You don't know me? He that seen
me has seen God. I am God. I am God. Only God can justify our soul. Only God can live a righteous
life that God demands of us. God will only accept what he
provides, right? We're altogether sinful, ungodly,
unrighteous, full of iniquity. God can't have anything to do
with us, in and of ourselves. So God had to come down. live
a holy and righteous life as a man. Only God could do that. And God looked at himself in
his servant, in Christ, in his body, and said, now that's the
way it's supposed to be. I'll accept that. I'll accept
that. And everybody in him, I'll accept
that. So only God can justify us, enabling
God to be just and holy, and yet justify our ungodly and wretched
sinners that we are. And only God can forgive sins.
Only God can up and just say, I forgive you. You see, our sins
are against this holy and righteous and this good God. Every little
sin, no sin's a little sin, but every seemingly little sin is
against this holy and righteous God. David said, against thee
and thee only have I sinned. I haven't sinned against No,
I have sinned against Bathsheba and Uriah and myself, but principally
I've sinned against God. And that's every sin that we
commit is against God. So only God, so it's up to God
to forgive, right? It's only in His power to say,
it's all right, I forgive you. Right? Only God can do that.
And that's what Christ said, go thy way, thy sins be forgiven. He must be God. He forgave sins
when he was here. He forgave sins, and only God
can declare someone holy. Holy. Do you remember the parable
about the two men who went up into the temple? One a Pharisee
and one a publican? And Christ went up and said,
now this Pharisee, he appears very good as a natural man. He
appears very righteous and very upright and so forth. And this
publican, he appears to be such a rotten evil and wicked fellow
he is. But I say unto you, he's righteous,
the other one's not. Who can say such a thing? Who
can make such a claim but God? But Christ says, I say unto you,
the Republican, he's holy, he's wicked. How can you know who
I am? Who art thou, old man, that I
should reply against God? Right? He and he only has that
right. Because there's none other name
given under heaven among men, whereby we must be saved. That
at the name of Jesus Christ, because he said, I'm the way,
there's no other way to be saved but by me. Because he said, I'm
the truth. This is true in eternal life. This is life eternal, that
they may know thee, the only true and living God. And Jesus
Christ, one and the same person. He said, I'm the life. In him
was life. Life. Why is it necessary that we believe
that Jesus Christ is God? Because ultimately, ultimately,
everyone is going to stand someday before that awful tribunal of
God's justice and judgment. Everybody is going to stand before
a throne in heaven. It's going to be a throne, and
people make fun of it. They make a lot of this great
white throne, don't they? But there is a great white throne,
and there is somebody sitting on that throne. And we're all
going to stand. Believers have been judged, but
every man is going to stand before that great white throne someday.
And there's somebody sitting on that throne. And he ain't
an old man with gray beard and white hair with a silly grin
on his face. You read over there in Revelation 1, the description
of who sits on that throne. But I'll tell it to you. It describes
it. It says, sitting on that throne
is one like unto the Son of Man. There's a man sitting on that
throne. The same man who stood on this
earth. It's sitting on that throne.
The man that people spit in his face, the man that people pierced,
and the Scripture says that they're going to look upon him whom they
pierced. When? At the judgment day. They're
going to see it's the same one. The one that they judged is now
going to be their judge. And they're going to cry out,
the rocks and the hills will fall. This man is going to be
sitting on that great throne. the throne of God. He must be
God, Jesus Christ. And that's the reason he says,
if you believe not that I am He, you're going to die. More than just physically, we're
all going to die physically, but spiritually. We're going
to be cast from His presence. Those that didn't want anything
to do with Him and His person upon this earth, He won't have
anything to do with them in His heaven. Those that don't bow
to Him now sovereignly, bow to Him as this sovereign, mastering
Lord, and bow before Him in tribute of glory and honor and praise,
their salvation, everything, into the hands of this sovereign
Lord, someday He's going to judge and cast from His face. That's
how important it is. If you believe not that I am
He, you shall die in your sins. And nowhere in the scriptures
does it call the gospel an invitation. No, no, no, it doesn't. Look
it up. It doesn't say that anywhere, does it? Nowhere. I think it only uses the word
three times, and I think all of them are in the Old Testament.
And it is in reference to inviting people to some thing. The gospel
is not an invitation. It's not a request. Kings don't
make requests. Kings don't give advice. Do it. God certainly doesn't. God never
does anything but command. Right? God commands. And I tell you, based upon the
authority of God's Word, if you have not yet bowed to and believed
in and trusted in following this Lord and this Christ, you will
damn yourself. And I tell you right now, do it. Do it. Bow to Him. You say, I can't.
Yeah, you can. With the command comes the ability
and the strength and the power. He gives. He gives what he demands,
and he'll accept what he demands, what he gives. And I say, based
upon the authority of his Word, you bow to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I don't care how old you are or who you are. You bow to him. He's your God. You believe him.
You trust him. You come to him. You follow him.
You depend upon him. And he'll save your soul. Don't
do it. Laugh and scoff. Don't have any interest. You're
a goner. That's very simple, isn't it?
Very simple. Well, let's stand and sing a
song we normally sing at the opening of a service. And sing this with Christ in
mind. Holy, holy, holy. Number 70,
M number 70, Lord God Almighty. This is talking about the Lord
Jesus Christ who is seated upon that throne. All saints adore
thee, our Lord and our God. Stand with
me and let's sing a couple of verses. Holy, holy... Fourth verse. Holy, holy, holy Lord God Almighty. In earth and sky and sea, holy, holy. I'm. I'm. I don't know.