Welcome to the Reign of Grace
radio broadcast. My name is Bill Parker. I'm the
pastor of the 13th Street Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky.
This program is sponsored by the members of Eager Avenue Grace
Church in Albany, Georgia, located at 1102 Eager Drive, Albany,
Georgia. I'll be bringing you a gospel
message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the Lord
Jesus Christ from God's holy word. And now, the message. Welcome to our program. Now today
I want to talk to you about the subject, the deity of Christ. I'll be preaching from the book
of John chapter 10 on the deity of Christ. Now this obviously
is one of the most important truths of the Bible, of the gospel
itself, and vital in the salvation of sinners. Who is Jesus Christ? The gospel concerns mainly, it
concerns a lot of things, but mainly we could summarize it
in the person and in the work of Christ. The person and in
the finished work of Christ. The Apostle Paul said that. He
said we preach Christ and him crucified. The term Christ is
the title that identifies him as the Messiah, the one who was
sent of the Father to be the Savior of his people. Well, who
is he? What is the constitution or the
makeup of his person? And then that shows the value
and the worth and the power of his finished work to save his
people from their sins. And that's exactly what he's
talking about here in John chapter 10. He was speaking of himself
as the shepherd of the sheep. The good shepherd laid down his
life for the sheep. And the sheep hear his voice
and they come to him. Now, how do we know that this
shepherd has the power to save his sheep from their sins? Well,
he speaks here in verse 28. He says, and I give unto them
eternal life. He has the power to give eternal
life. Now, let me tell you something.
Only God has the power to give eternal life. Man doesn't have
that kind of power. Man cannot give life and man
cannot sustain life. So whoever gives and sustains
life must be God. And Christ says here, and I give
unto them eternal life. Now he says, and they shall never
perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. One
who makes such a claim must be God. And he says here in verse
29, my Father, speaking of God the Father, which
gave them Me, God the Father, gave these sheep to God the Son
before the foundation of the world in the eternal election
of grace. God chose them, the Father chose
them, and the Son, the second person of the Trinity, agreed
to be their Savior. And He says, My Father which
gave them Me is greater than all, And he says, and no man
is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. And then in
verse 30 he says this, now listen, I and my Father are one. Now that's a claim that only
a person who is God could make. You see, we who are saved are
redeemed of the Father. We are the Father's children.
But we cannot say that we and the Father are one in the essence
of our nature and being and our power. We can say that we're
united to the Father through the Son in a relationship of
grace and redemption being justified by the Father through the finished
work of Christ on the cross. The Father forgives us and cleanses
us from all of our sins by the blood of Christ. the Father accepts
us based on the righteousness of Christ freely imputed and
charged to us, we can say that. We can say the Father sends His
Spirit and the Son sends His Spirit, the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Trinity, to give us life, to apply it
to us, but we could not say that we and the Father are one in
essence of nature. Only one who is God can make
that claim. And that's what Christ is saying
here, I and the Father are one. Now in the Trinity, listen, the
Trinity is not three different gods. We believe in one God who
subsists in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Each person of the Trinity has a distinct office and duty in
the salvation of the elect, the sheep, the church. And yet they
are one in the essence of nature and will and power. So he says,
I and the Father are one. And look at verse 31. It says,
Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Now, this
wasn't the first time they sought to kill him, to stone him. But
after they heard him make this claim of deity, that's what he's
doing, you see. These Jews, these unbelieving
Jews who wanted to kill him, believe more than some do today
when they call themselves Christian. Some say that Christ didn't even
claim to be God. Well, yes, he did. We see it
right here. Some say, well, he's the son
of God, as if that means he's a lesser God. Oh, no. He is very
God, a very God. 100% God and 100% man without
sin. He's God-man. And I cannot explain that to
you. I don't understand that because that is a truth that
is so high above our puny minds. The angel, when Christ, when
God the Son became incarnate, he united with his deity a perfect,
sinless humanity created for him in the womb of the Virgin
Mary by the Holy Spirit. He was not born by aid of man.
His birth was by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin. He
wasn't born of Adam in sin like you and me. He was born without
sin. And the angel described him to
Mary as that holy thing. That wasn't a term of derision.
That was describing his uniqueness. He's one of a kind. That's why
the Bible says there's one God and one mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. He's God-man. And we can't analyze
that, we can't delve into the mysteries of that because we're
inadequate to do so and God has not revealed all the issues of
that. But he has told us the truth
of it. That Christ is both God and man in one person. So that
when he claimed deity for himself, the Jews took up stones again
to stone him because they said that's blasphemy. Well now let
me tell you something. If Christ were a mere man, even
a perfect man, it would have been blasphemy for him to claim
to be God if he were not God. Now let me show you this. In
the book of Philippians, chapter 2, it's speaking of Christ and
the humiliation that he suffered to save his people from their
sins. And in verse 5, it says, let this mind be in you. which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God." Now that term, the King
James Version here, may mislead some of you as to the actual
usage of the term. For example, when it says, Christ
who being in the form of God, that's not speaking of some shape
or some form that you can see as an outline, because God is
spirit. That phrase means that he is
God. He is the exact likeness of God
because he is the very nature of God. And it says, "...thought
it not robbery to be equal with God." In other words, when he
claimed deity for himself, he was not robbing God or committing
blasphemy or like he was stealing from the glory of God. Now, if
I were to claim deity for myself, Or if I were to claim to have
even a nature of deity within myself, that would be blasphemy. That would be robbery. You see,
I'm a redeemed, justified, regenerated sinner, human, saved by the grace
of God. I have the nature of humanity
within me. I do not have a nature of deity
within me. When God saved me, he didn't
turn me into a little god. That's blasphemy. But Christ,
when he made that claim of deity, it wasn't robbery. He was just
speaking the truth. Now, somebody says, well, how
could he be both God and man in one person? The only thing
I can tell you in answer to that is that it's true. But back over
in Matthew chapter 22, when he was being questioned by those
who were trying to trap him, He turned the tides on them and
he asked them a question. And the question that he asked
was this. It says in Matthew 22 and verse 41. It says, While
the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What
think ye of Christ? My friend, there's a great question. That is a full question. That's
a vital question. What think ye of Christ? It says,
Our Lord said, Whose son is he? Now, here's their answer. They
say unto him, he's the son of David. Well, was that true? Was he the son of David? Well,
the Bible says that Christ was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. Now, that's referring to his
sinlessly perfect humanity. He wasn't actually from the seed
of any man, but Mary, his mother, was of the lineage of the household
of David, of the tribe of Judah. The seed by which he was conceived
was of the Holy Spirit, not of David. But he did come through
the womb of the Virgin Mary, which links him in the flesh,
in his humanity, with David. So he was the son of David according
to his humanity. Look at verse 43. In Matthew
22, the Lord said unto them, How then doth David in spirit
call him Lord? saying, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy
footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son?" Now he's quoting from David in the Psalms,
Psalm 110. And he said, well now, if the
Messiah, if Christ is the son of David, according to the flesh,
How in the world could David, by the Holy Spirit in the Psalms,
call him Lord? Because you see, you're not to
call any man Lord in this way. This word Lord here refers to
Jehovah, God, the Lord who saves. And though there might be men
who are called Lord because they're noblemen, Lord of a manner, this
Lord is a reference only to God. So if he's David's son, how could
David call him God and worship him? No man is to be worshipped. If any man allows you to worship
and follow him, then he's robbing God. That's robbery. But how
did David call him Lord? Well, it says in verse 46, it
says, No man was able to answer him a word. They didn't know.
Neither durst any man from that day forth ask him any more questions.
They didn't know the answer. Well, my friend, what is the
answer to that question? How, if he's David's son, how
could he be both David's Lord? How could he be David's God?
Well, the answer is this. He's both. He is God, man in
one person. He is God in every attribute
of deity. He is man in every attribute
of humanity without sin. He's the perfect God-man. You
say, well, why did he have to be God-man? That's what it takes
to save sinners from their sins. We need one who can give and
who can sustain life. And we need one who can take
our place under the law of God and shed blood as payment for
our sins. He must be both. And what a Savior
we have. You see, this is, no other religion
teaches this doctrine of the person of their Savior or their
God. You see, He's God-man, and that's who Christ is. Now go
back to John 10. Well, look at this. Now, they
looked upon that as blasphemy. They looked upon Him as a mere
man claiming to be God, and they wanted to stone Him. Well, verse
32 of John 10. Jesus answered them, many good
works have I showed you from my Father, for which of those
works do you stone me? Now Christ had done nothing but
good throughout his whole life. He was the perfect God-man. And
I'll tell you something, any man, even the best of men, even
saved men, they are not perfect in themselves. No, sir. They're always flawed, always
sinful. Even the best of preachers, Paul
the Apostle, some would say the greatest preacher of all time
other than our Lord himself, he made this statement about
the gospel. He said, we have this treasure
in earthen vessels. My friend, when you look at men
and you see them to be more than just men, even redeemed, justified,
saved men, Then you're doing yourself a disservice and you're
not dealing honestly with the scriptures, with them, or with
yourself. There is no man at his best who could say that within
himself he is sinlessly perfect. The only way, now hold on there,
I can stand before you and before God and say that I am sinlessly
perfect, not in myself, but in Christ. In Him I am perfect. Because He's perfect. I am not
yet perfect in myself. One day I will be. And that'll
be by the grace of God when I go to be with the Lord. When I shed
this old body of death and go to be with the Lord. That's when
I'll be perfect, not only in Him, but in myself. And those
who claim sinless perfection in themselves are just fooling
themselves and fooling others around them. But Christ said
this. He said, I've done many good
works. He's the perfect God-man. He
never thought sin, never did sin, never knew sin. Sin did
not contaminate him within. He came into contact with sin
by proximity. He ate with publicans and sinners.
He walked within this sinful world, but he remained the perfect
God-man. So what he's showing them there
is, you want to stone me, but I've been perfect. He's always
done the will of his Father. So for which of those works do
you stone me, he said. Well, verse 33, the Jews answered
him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy,
and because that thou being a man, make us thyself God. Well, first
of all, They said, well, it's not for your works, it's your
words, your doctrine, your blasphemy. You're just a man and you claim
to be, you made yourself God. Well, first of all, he did not
make himself to be God. You cannot make yourself to be
God. No one can. Any person who is
God, has been God from all eternity, is God and will be God into eternity. That's why Christ called himself
I Am. That's why he identified himself
to Moses, to the children of Israel in Egypt, as I Am. That's the God who was, who is,
and whoever will be. You see, deity cannot be created. I hear people talk about when
they're born again that they're created with a divine nature. You cannot create a divine nature. Divinity cannot be created. Divinity,
God. has always been, is, and always
will be. That's why Christ is called the
Alpha and the Omega, having no beginning and no end. The Bible
speaks in Hebrews chapter 13 of Jesus Christ, the same yesterday,
today, and forever. Deity has no change. God says,
for I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons of Jacob are
not consumed. So this thing about making himself
God, he couldn't make himself God, he is God. Now humanity
changed, his humanity has a beginning, it will have no end because it's
in union with his deity. But his humanity was created
in the womb of the virgin, but his deity was never created.
Now let me prove that to you. In Isaiah chapter 9, in verse
6, in that great prophecy of the birth of the Messiah, Isaiah
prophesied it this way. He said, For unto us a child
is born. Whatever is born has to be of
change. You see, that's Christ's humanity.
But he went on to say, Unto us a son is given. That son speaks of his deity,
the Son of God. And it was not born. It was not
created. The son was given. Paul wrote
in Romans chapter 1 that he was made of the seed of David according
to the flesh. But he was declared to be the
Son of God with power. Him being the Son of God, he
wasn't made the Son of God, he was declared to be. So he didn't
make himself God, he is God. And if he isn't God, then he's
an imposter. If he is not God, then there
is no salvation for us. It took one who is God and man
and one person to bring forth an everlasting righteousness
of infinite value that would justify us and enable God to
be justifier of the ungodly. Well, the Jews said that, and
in verse 34, Jesus answered them, Is it not written in your law,
I said, you are gods? If he called them gods unto whom
the word of God came, and the scripture cannot be broken, say
ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into the
world, thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son of God?"
Now, what he's doing there, he's quoting from one of the Psalms,
this is back in Psalm, I think it's 82, and he's talking in
comparison here. And here's what he's saying.
Back under the Old Covenant, the Old Testament, It was then
that God set up civil magistrates in Israel, and they were representatives
of God to do right, to deal justly. They weren't called gods in their
very nature and essence, but they were doing the work of God,
and they took the place, in essence, of official government as representatives
of God. Now here's what Christ is saying
there. Now, if sinful men could be called representatives of
God, to do God's work in an official way, and that not be blasphemy,
then why is it that the very one whom God sent into the world
to do his work, who by very nature is God, why would you call that
blasphemy? You see what he's saying? God
can take a sinful human being put him in a position of authority,
and call him the representative of God. But now here's the Son
of God Himself standing before you, deity incarnate, and He
does the work of the Father. He has the witness of the Father.
The Father said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,
hear ye Him. He does the works of the Father.
He's a sinlessly perfect man. Any accusation that was brought
against Him was a false accusation. So how in the world could you
say it's blasphemy for such a person as he is to claim to be God? It's certainly not blasphemy.
He says in verse 37, he said, if I do not the works of my Father,
believe me not. Now that's simple as that. Christ
put it right there on the line. Well, if I'm not doing the works
of my Father, then you don't have to believe me. Well, what
were the works of the Father? Well, the works of the Father,
what did God the Father send Christ into the world to do?
Well, he sent him into the world to do his will, to keep the law
perfectly. Well, did he keep the law perfectly?
Yes, he did. Do you keep it perfectly? No.
Do I keep it perfectly? No. We fall short in every way,
but Christ kept it perfectly. And then he's on his way here,
it's not going to be long now, he'll be going to the cross of
Calvary to die for the sins of his sheep, to lay down his life,
as he said before in John chapter 10, to voluntarily give his life
up to redeem his sheep and enable the Father to be a just God and
a Savior. That's the work of the Father.
And he's going to die and be buried and raised again the third
day, which is the testimony of the Father and the Spirit to
the perfect work of the Son. He just, listen, he redeemed
his people on the cross, he justified them by his righteousness, and
he was raised from the dead because of their justification. And he
ascended unto the Father where he now lives. Now, if all of
that's false, then you don't have to believe him. But my friend,
it's true. He did the work of his Father.
He says in verse 38, "...but if I do, though you believe not
me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the
Father is in me, and I in him." In other words, the works prove
his claim. And if you're not going to just
hear him for his words, look at what he did. You see, salvation
is in both the person and the finished work of Christ. So he
said, believe me for the works sake, and he said, believe this,
that I am in the Father, and the Father is in thee. He says
in verse 39, or it says in verse 39, Therefore they sought again
to take him, but he escaped out of their hand, and went away
again beyond Jordan into the place where John at first baptized,
and there he abode. Well, this crowd, and I want
you to think about this, this crowd sought to take him, but
he escaped. Now how did he escape? We're
not told here, but I'll tell you what, I guarantee it was
the power of God. There was a time when our Lord
went back to his hometown in Nazareth, got up in the synagogue
and he preached the gospel from the book of Isaiah, told them
the truth, and when he declared that he himself was the fulfillment
of that prophecy, His own hometown people wanted to take him outside
and throw him over a cliff. You know what happened? He just
walked among them, walked out of there by the power of God. Oh, that's another proof of his
deity. Men and women could not lay a hand on him or hurt a hair
of his head, but by divine permission. And you remember we talked about
that last week when he said, I lay down my life, I lay it
down of myself. No man taketh it from me." Well,
verse 41 says, "...and many resorted unto him, many came to him, and
said, John did no miracle, but all things that John spake of
this man were true." John himself didn't perform miracles, that
was not his mission. He merely preached the gospel,
pointed sinners to Christ, and baptized them. And they said,
everything John said of you is true. That's the combined testimony. of all the prophets of the Old
Testament, and it says in verse 42, and many believed on him
there. Now, you know why they believed
on him? They were his sheep. They looked to him, Christ, the
God-man mediator, the one who is both God and man in one person,
the one who finished the work. They looked upon him as the one
who would stand in their place and die for their sins. and drink
damnation dry, paying their debt to law and justice, the one who
would secure their salvation by all his work as God and man."
I hope that's been helpful to your understanding of the Scriptures. If you'd like to get a copy of
this message on an audio cassette tape or on a CD or on a DVD,
listen to the announcer. He'll give you the details. The
title of the message is, The Deity of Christ. And I hope you'll
join us next week for another message from God's Word. We're glad you could join us
for today's message. If you would like to receive
a copy of this message, or if you would like more information
about Eager Avenue Grace Church, remember we are located at 1102
Eager Drive in Albany, Georgia. You can call us at 229-432-6969. or visit our Reign of Grace website
at www.rofgrace.com. Thank you, and may the Lord be
with you.