That one verse there, with man
it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things
are possible. And that's such a statement there. You know, talk about me being
nervous up here. Got to think about who we're
talking about. God, the creator, he created
everything with just a few words and just a few days. He created
the whole earth. He created the universe, the
stars, the moon, everything. And he just has so much power
there that all things are possible with God. But, you know, just
the idea that he created everything with just a few words and that
we have to appreciate that. You know, just look around at
everything that we see. God has created the seasons.
You know, right now we're changing into fall right now and all the
beautiful colors that we have. But that's all part of God's
plan. He ordained this. And I'm sure that he has this
planned from the beginning, just like he chose us before the foundation
of the world. He has everything pre-planned
so that the world goes around the sun, and we're not too close
to the sun or too far away from it. If we were just a few thousand
miles closer to the sun or further away from the sun, we'd either
freeze to death or we'd burn up, one of the two. But God has
taken this world and put it exactly where it needs to be. So he takes
care of us. And it's just mind boggling that
out of all creation that he takes care of this particular world
and us in it. And that he looks at us as individuals. There's six or eight billion
people on this planet. And why he chose us out of all
these people to be taken up with him into heaven. It was by his
grace and by his good pleasure that we are picked out. I'm not worthy by any means.
I've never done anything great. I'm just a sinner like everyone
else, but he chose us before the foundation of the world.
We had nothing to do with our salvation. Why he chose us? Like I say, I'm not worthy of
anything, but it was his good pleasure. He did not look down
through the ages and say, yeah, this person's going to be good.
I think I'll take him or take her or whatever. This was all
pre-planned, and it's predestined. A lot of people may not believe
in predestination, but God pre-plans everything from the foundation
of the world. It was part of his original plan. So the title of my message today,
who is Jesus? And I started to call it, who
was Jesus? And I kept thinking back to going to school and my
grammar classes, and was is a past tense. And that would mean that
Christ no longer exists or is dead or something like that.
So he is very much alive. So I had to change it to, who
is Jesus? Christ himself tells us in Luke
22, 16, in his own words, where he is right now. Hereafter shall
the Son of Man sit on the right hand of the power of God. So
he is sitting beside God on his right hand in heaven. So he is
very much alive. Some people say that God has
gone away and ignores the world, and that's just not the case.
Christ and God are very much in control of everything. But
before we get into who Christ is, I want to tell you who he
is not. And much of the world does not
want to recognize Christ or God. And they never have, never will. And that's because it's never
been revealed to them by the Holy Spirit. One thing I hear
about on weather reports, that the weathermen always want to
say, oh, man, winter is going to bring us snow tonight. There
is no such thing as old man winter. That goes back to the pagan gods
of the past. Greek had a god of winter, and
he was referred to as old man winter and stuff. So that has
been around for centuries. Norse people had an old man winter.
And these are just ancient gods that are not gods at all. They have no power. They can't
do anything. Native Indians had their gods
that were of winter. So it's been throughout history
that people attribute what God has actually done to these false
gods. And it's just not the case. God
is the only one who is in control. God knows when it's going to
snow. He knows every snowflake. Every
snowflake is different. And that's in God's control,
just like God knows every hair on our head. You know, and every
leaf on these trees out here, and he knows that they've changed
color. It's all under his control. Jack
Frost is another term that sometimes gets thrown around in place of
old man winter. But like I say, these imaginary
gods or whatever do not have any power or control. Mother
nature is another term that you hear. Mother nature is, in Webster's
dictionary is defined as nature as personified and the guiding
force of creation. And that's saying that Mother
Nature created all this. And there is no way. Only God
is the guiding force. God created this. It wasn't Mother
Nature or anything. And that's such a blasphemy thing
to God. And the term blasphemy, if I
can pronounce it right, means to insult the honor of
God. And when people use these terms,
it is an insult to God, because God is the one who is controlling
all this stuff. It is in the pilot itself. So
do you want to think that you are more powerful than God, that
you are in control? And that's just not the case. there is no man that is more
powerful than God, so God is definitely not your co-pilot.
In fact, later on, there is a, in Hebrews 2.10, it says, Captain
of Salvation is one of the names of Christ, and the The plane's
pilot is also called the captain. Any time you fly any place, the
captain always comes on board. This is the captain speaking.
He's the pilot. And he's the one in control.
So God is the one who's in control. He is definitely not a co-pilot. These are just some of the names
that are used by people that don't want to acknowledge that
God is in control. And it's just, like I say, it's
blasphemy. God does have, or Christ has,
a lot of different names in the Bible. There's like 150 different
names for Jesus in the Bible. And I'm going to go through two
or three dozen of them here just to give you an idea of what he
is called. But he is not definitely called
Old Man Winter or anything. Emmanuel means God with us. That's in Matthew 123. He is
the Lamb of God. He is the Alpha Nu Omega. the
King of the Jews, wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace. That's in Isaiah 9-6. He is the
Bread of Life. He is the Redeemer, the Living
Stone, the Son of God, the New Adam, Light of the World, Lord,
the Word. That's in John 1-1. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
And that shows that God and Christ are one, and the Holy Spirit,
you know, we have a triune God. And the three of them have been
there from the beginning, and they are still here. The Good
Shepherd, the Advocate and the Righteous, the Beloved Son, the
Captain of Salvation, like I say, He is the captain. He is not
a co-pilot or anything. He is the deliverer, the head
of the church, the Holy One. He is the I Am, or sometimes
called the Great I Am. He is the image of God. He is
Jesus of Nazareth, Lord of Glory, the Messiah, the Mighty One. He's a Nazarene, the Prince of
Life, rock, the son of David, the true vine, and the chief
cornerstone. Those are just some of the names
that he is known by. And there are many more that
when you read through the Bible that you find. But he is definitely
not called Old Man Winter or Jack Frost or Mother Nature. That just does not fit. Now we
know who Jesus is not and some of his names and titles in the
Bible. Let's look at his purpose. To do that, I want to look at
Ephesians. That's where I'm going to be
in today. Ephesians is one of my favorite books in the Bible,
and it lays out stuff so clearly. Right off in chapter 1, verse
3, it clearly states who Christ is. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. So right there, it establishes
who Christ is, that he is the Son of God. and that he is here
for our good. He's just not another prophet
like the Old Testament's and some would have you believe.
Christ had so much power that regular man do not have. He was
able to make the blind see. He make the lame to walk. He
raised Lazarus from the dead. All he had to do was speak and
say, Lazarus, come forth. And Lazarus was dead. He'd been
there for like three days. But Lazarus got up and walked
out. And that is the power of Christ that he has. It is not
something the man has. Man cannot do that. I know we
have some of these television preachers that seem to think
they have power and stuff. They heal people and stuff like
that. And that is all just TV as far as I can see. It's just
false witness that they do for TV ratings and to get money and
stuff like that. But that is not how our God works. God also has so much power. He parted the Red Sea, like I
say, Christ healed the blind and all that. But the Bible tells
us that our God is a triune God. It means he is three, three in
one, God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit. And Christ himself even
tells us in John 14, 19, he that hath seen me hath seen the Father,
meaning that if you've seen me, you've also seen God. And it says in John 1, 1, in
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the
Word was God. So that means that Christ is
the Word, but Christ is also God, too. So we know that he
is the Son of God and that he and the Father are one. But that
still does not tell us why he was here or what he has done
for us. His purpose of coming to earth was to save his people for our salvation. He had a chosen people that was
picked before the foundation of the world. And verses four
and five shows that, if you check there. According as he has chosen
us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will." He predestinated us. He chose
us before, like it says, before the foundation of the world.
We had nothing to do with it. We weren't even born yet, thought
of by our parents or anything else. But we are here at this
time because this is where we were supposed to be at this particular
time. We are here on Sunday morning. hearing the words that he's given
me to help us to understand that who he is. And I know I'm not
doing a great job by any means, but it is such a tremendous responsibility
to even talk about him. But it was according to his good
pleasure that we are here. And it is also not, you know,
People talk about free will, man's free will. We have no free
will. Only God has free will, that
he chose us. We were chosen for salvation
before we were even born, so how could we have done anything
to save ourselves? There's nothing that we can do.
It doesn't matter whether you go to a particular church or
donate so much money or, you know, whatever you think you
can do, you cannot work your way into heaven. Um, it is not
possible. There's nothing that, um, that
we can do. It's only through the blood of
Christ that washes away our sins. So his whole purpose being here
is to bring his Children to heaven. And that is done by his blood
on the cross. Because, you know, our problem
is sin and has been always will be. And we're sinners from the
start. the time we're born until the
time we die we're still sinners. But you know the blood of Christ
will wash those sins away. That blood will take those sins
away from us. They talk about as far as the
east is from the west and that blood also washes as white as
snow as it tells us in the Bible. But a lot of people don't want
to believe that type of stuff especially where it's predestination,
where we were chosen before time. And something I can think about
is if a person is planning a trip of their own, you might get onto
Google and say, I want to go from here to St. Louis. And so
you punch in St. Louis, and it'll pop up on your
phone and tells you how many miles it is, how far it is, and
tells you how to get there. Well, that's preplanning or predestination. You've planned to go there. So
if we can pre-plan that type of stuff, what is to say that
God can't pre-plan so much more that we are here at this time?
This was all pre-planned. He brought all our parents together,
grandparents together, great-grandparents and stuff like that. You know,
through the centuries, my brother has gotten into tracing our family
ancestry. And he's taken it back for centuries.
I mean, he's got it back to 1500, 1600s. And all those generations
of people that were brought together so that one generation, you know,
comes up with the next and the next went all the way up to where
we are here today. And we're here today because
God brought all these other people together. They had nothing, no
idea that we would be born, you know, 400 years later, but it
was all part of God's plan. We are here at this time because
God chose us. And like I say, he chose us before
the foundation of the world. And it was for his good pleasure,
pleasure, not anything, not our will. but that's part of predestination. And, you know, I mentioned sin
here a minute ago, and we're all sinners and have been since
the beginning of time. And that got introduced by Adam
in the Garden of Eden and when man fell. And the price of sin
is death. And the only way, you know, that
can be paid for is through the blood of Christ, the blood of
Christ on the cross. And that is the only way that
sin is paid for. And Christ chose to go to the
cross. The people there at the crucifixion,
they were not in charge. They may have thought they were
in charge, but that was already predetermined by God that he
would go to the cross and Christ went to the cross willingly because
he knew that was what he was here for. Um, he was there to,
uh, save us from our sins to wash
away our sins. And that was the only way to
go. So he willingly went there and knew that was, uh, would
be happen. And then that he also knew that
he told people ahead of time that in three days I will, will
rise again. And three days later, after the
crucifixion, he was taken up to heaven. Um, he appeared to
a lot of people right before he went up, but then he ascended
up into heaven. And that's where he is now. Um, you know, it just kind of mind
boggling that, you know, he'd done all that for us. We are
undeserving sinners. And, you know, we have never
done anything to make us acceptable. You know, there's nothing that
we can do to make us acceptable, but he made us acceptable to
be in heaven. God cannot look upon sin, so
we have to be made acceptable to be in heaven, and Christ done
that for us. We have redemption through the
blood and the forgiveness of sin, according to the riches
of his grace. Christ's blood and grace is what
has made us acceptable in the beloved, and that's in verse
six there. And it's the blood of Christ that washes away all
of our sins. And like I say, they are never
to be seen again. People say they may forgive you
for one thing or another, but in the back of their mind, there's
always something there. But that is not the case with
Christ. Once he takes away the sin, they
are never to be talked of again, where we may say we forgive somebody,
and 10 years later, we may bring that particular thing up to them
and start an argument or something. So something like that, for us,
is always there. But for God and Christ, it's
not. Over in chapter 2, verses 8 and
9, it tells us, for by grace are we saved through faith, not
of yourselves. It is a gift of God, not of works,
least any man can boast. God has so much grace and love
for us and that we do not deserve it. And it is, like I say, a gift. Excuse
me. And like I say, it's not of works.
That means that we can't do anything to save ourselves. It is a gift
of God. It is given to us undeserving
and that Uh, it's just all of his grace and love towards us.
We cannot work our way into heaven. There's nothing that we can do
to gain favor by church attendance or what particular church you
go to or how much money you put in the offering plate. Um, or
if you're, you know, do so many good things, you know, helping
the poor or whatever, you know, nothing that that actually counts
towards our salvation. The only thing that counts towards
our salvation is the blood of Christ. It tells us in chapter 2 of Ephesians
verses 1 and 5 that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. We
are quickened together by the grace of Christ. If we are dead
in our sins, there is nothing that we can do. to save ourselves.
We cannot be like Lazarus and get up from the dead. But Lazarus
was not able to get up himself. It was only by Christ. He was
the one who made Lazarus get up. If you're dead, you're dead. There's nothing you can do. If
somebody's laying in a casket, they cannot stand up and walk
out of there. It's just not something that
happens. But with God, Tom just read, with God, all things are
possible. Lazarus is just one example of
the power. In chapter 1 verse 19 it says,
and what is the exceeding greatness of his power towards us who believe
according to the working of his mighty power. And then verse
21 tells us that Christ is far above all principalities and
power and might and domain. Christ has all the power. Man
has may think he has power. There's people, you know, think
they're going to take over the world and stuff like that. There's
a good example right now of somebody that wants to take over the world
and thinks he's got more power, but Christ has the power. God
and Christ are in control. He has the power to save his
chosen people, and he will not lose a single person. You know,
there was examples of Christ going to a particular village.
And there was one person in that village that he had to see. And he was there for that particular
reason. And that was because that was
one of his children. And he was able to communicate
with him and save him right there. So there was examples of that
throughout the Bible. In chapter 2, verses 12 and 13,
it tells us that before we are saved, we were having no hope
and without God in the world. But now, with Christ Jesus, ye
are sometimes, were far off, are made nigh by the blood of
Christ. It's the blood of Christ that saves us. We were without
hope without Christ, so it is the blood of Christ that saves
us. So what have we learned? We know
that Christ is not Old Man Winter. He had dozens of names and titles,
and we touched on a few of those, but he is definitely not Old
Man Winter, Mother Nature, or Jack Frost, or any of the other
names that they've come up with. But the most important thing
is that he is the son of God and that he came down to heaven
to redeem his chosen people from their sins with his love and
grace. But by the only way that that is acceptable and that is
through the with his blood that he redeemed us on the cross,
a cavalry. And that is the only way that
we are made acceptable in the eyes of God. So when God looks
at us, he is seeing Christ. He doesn't see us, he doesn't
see our sins or anything else. He sees his own son in which
he is, his beloved son in whom he is well pleased. So that's
about all I have. So I know it was short, but I
tried to bring things out to glorify God. It is such mind
boggling that, you know, like I say, There are so many people
in this world that he chose us, and why he chose us, you know,
like I say, I'm not worthy by any means, but he thought, or
he knows that we are worthy to be accepted, and because he thinks
we're worthy, we are made acceptable, and like I say, by the blood
of Christ, and we will be in heaven one of these days with
him, and I can't begin to, think what heaven is going to be like.
We can conjure up things in our mind. There's TV shows that talk
about heaven and you're up in the clouds or whatever. We can't
begin to imagine what heaven could be like. They talk about
streets of gold and stuff like that. I have no idea. Whatever
our imagination is, can conjure up is going to pale in comparison
to what it truly will be when we get there. You know, we will
be there with no pains, no worrying about COVID, no aches and pains. We'll be able to, you know, it'll
be heaven. So I don't know what it's going
to be like, but I know that one of these days we will be there.
And the only reason we're going to be there is because of Christ,
what Christ done for us. So, okay, let us pray.