We're having a baptismal service
at the close of the message today, so I'll try to, you know, I will
try to be brief but tell you an eternal truth. I want to return to what I said
last week. I discussed with you last week
a most fitting subject for we're only seven days from Christmas
Eve, a day when the religious world is proclaiming a savior
was born. And although we know to some
degree that Jesus was probably born in the spring, not in the
month of December, but we have a religious holiday in which
we celebrate the birth of Christ. And, well, we should celebrate
his glorious birth. Without controversy, great is
the mystery of godliness. God was born in the flesh. And if you contemplate that,
and I trust that you have all week thought about that, God
manifests in the flesh. What are all the implications?
What does that mean? to you, to me, God, it must have
been a very important mission. It must have been God taking
on a body. There must have been a great
purpose. It must have been something that
no one else could do for God to become flesh and tabernacle
among us. And who is God? Well, we found
out last week, God is a spirit. How are you going to know this
God? And I said to you last week and several times over the past
30 years, the only God that you're going to see when you get to
heaven is going to be nail scarred and a riven side with a spear,
because God is spirit. I know we're in deep waters here.
I don't say that I completely understand this, but I know that
it's true. It's a great mystery. And to
many of you here, it has been revealed that Jesus Christ is
the great I am. He said to those Pharisees who
had so many rituals and were so religious before the guy that
you look to, Abraham, I am. Before Abraham, I am. I want to read a passage that's
always been wonderful to me. It's found in the book of Proverbs
chapter eight. And here's what it says in the
beginning with the 22nd verse. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of his way before his works of old. I was set up from
everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When there were no depths, I
was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I brought forth. While as yet he had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass upon the
face of the depth, when he established the clouds above, when he strengthened
the fountains of the deep, when he gave to the sea his decree
that the water should not pass his commandments, when he appointed
the foundations of the earth. Then was I by him, as one brought
up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always
before him." Who do you think that's talking about? God became
flesh, the eternal Son of God, before Abraham was. I am. You say, Pastor, I've never heard
that before. Well, you're hearing it today.
And it's very, very true that God became flesh and tabernacled
among us. When you get that in your head,
and if it moves about eight inches to your heart, you will see that
salvation is totally of the Lord. You will have no brag or boast
about what you have done to contribute to being righteous before God. You will see that salvation is
of the Lord from first to last. And not only that, but you will
rejoice in this, that God so loved me. Oh, what a marvel it
is. What a wonder it is that you
have been chosen, predestinated, and brought to faith in Jesus
Christ. Somebody ought to say amen to
that. So without controversy, I mean you can think about it
and contemplate it all you want and it'll still be a great mystery
that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting
life. The Bible is made up of 66 books.
39 Old Testament books and 27 New
Testament books. And the Old Testament is constantly
telling us this, someone is coming. Someone is coming. You can leave
here a theologian today if you get this 15 minute sermon that
I'm going to try to pack into 15 minutes. The Old Testament
says someone's coming. How about you say that? Someone
is coming. So it kind of gets you, someone
is coming. Say it a little more earnest.
Someone is coming. That's what the Old Testament
says. Someone is coming. And the New Testament says, he
has come. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. If you know that for sure, you
know God. If you know that in your heart
and are trusting that today, you have been saved by the grace
of God. That you believe that God took
on a body and lived a sinless life here in this world and wove
a robe of righteousness out for you in His doing and dying. This is what the Bible is all
about. I was watching some TV programs this morning and I said,
how do people go to church there? How do they go through that same
ritual Sunday after Sunday? And then most of you can't even
understand or have any idea what they're doing. You know, to me,
it's just how amazing it is for God to take the scales off of
your eyes where you can simply see this, which is a great controversy. God made manifest, became flesh,
and dwelt among us. Jesus said to the Pharisees on
one occasion, you search the scriptures. You've got scriptures
written all over your robes. You're memorizing scriptures
and in them you think you have eternal life, but those scriptures
are they which testify of me. That's what Jesus said. I am
the great I am. That's what Jesus said. to the
Pharisees, and you will not come to me that you might have life. That's in John chapter five,
verses 39 through 47. You search the scriptures. You can have a Bible in your
hand and go to hell. You must know the God of the
Bible, the Christ of the Bible. You can be sprinkled, ducked,
and poured, and perish. It's not in the water, it's in
a person. This God who came to earth. And this is the way you
give Him glory. I believe on Him. I believe what
He said. He is my hope. He is my righteousness. He is my propitiation. He is
the atonement. He is my Christ. He is my God. The God who is I am. Dear friends, this is eternal
life, that you know God. That's what John 17 says. Jesus said, this is eternal life,
that they may know thee, the only true God, and Jesus whom
you have sent. And I ask you today, I ask you
today, do you know him? Is he your God? Is your God your
Savior? Is your God your Lord? Is your
God Jesus Christ? Do you worship Him? Say, Pastor,
you're totally confusing me. Well, let me try to make it a
little clearer. During this most religious holiday,
if you're feeling empty, down, and depressed, and you know there
are many people are feeling just that way. One of the probably
the saddest things is over at Grace Centers is the Christmas
season. And we try to make Christmas
Day and Christmas Eve and the whole month of December a happy
day and a joyous day. But I'm gonna tell you this.
Even with all the gifts, if you had all the money in the world
without God in Jesus Christ, without knowing Him, you'd be
empty. I know a lot of very, very wealthy people who are just
absolutely empty. And I see them struggling, and
even with some depression. But boy, if this great mystery
is ever revealed to you, in the power of the Holy Spirit, if
you're ever quickened and made alive, and you see Jesus Christ
as Lord and Savior, He's the one that can fill that emptiness.
And I hope that you come to know Him today. There's some interesting
passages in scripture about this matter of I Am. Let's go over
to Exodus 3, Exodus chapter 3. The children of Israel have been
in bondage for 400 years, and they've been pouring out their
hearts to God for deliverance. And we have a beautiful type
and picture here, I think, of God becoming flesh. And you know,
the Old Testament is all types and shadows about this one who
is coming. Verse 2 of chapter 3 of the book
of Exodus. Well, verse one says, Moses kept
the flock of Jethro, his father-in-law. And verse two says this, and
the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out
of the midst of a bush. And he looked and behold, the
bush burned with fire and the bush was not consumed. Now, you
remember that story from Sunday school, those of you who've been
in Sunday school. The angel of the Lord in the
Old Testament is Jesus Christ. You will find him appearing several
times, and he's called the angel of the Lord, and probably some
of you are thinking about wings and halo, but angel means messenger. He was the messenger of the Lord,
and he appeared to Moses as the children of Israel were about
to come out of Egyptian bondage. And here's what the Lord said
to him. The Lord called his name. How wonderful is that, that the
Lord knows your name? How wonderful is it that your
name is written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation
of the world? You are no surprise to God. It's
no shock to God that you're converted, that you're heaven bound. It's
probably a shock to you. It may be a shock to mom and
dad, but it's not a shock to God. And so here's what verse
5 says, and he said, draw not nigh hither put off thy shoes
from off thy feet for the place wherein thou standeth is holy
ground. Oh, you're on holy ground. When God is revealing himself
in redemption, it indeed is holy ground. You're on holy ground
here today. Some of you are not paying much attention, but some
of you are. It's because you know you're
on holy ground. There's a sense that this matter of God becoming
flesh is really holy ground. That God coming to save you,
that God taking on human flesh is really a wondrous, wondrous
Story put off your shoes. You're on holy ground Moreover,
he said I am the God of thy father the God of Abraham the God of
Isaac and the God of Jacob and Moses hid his face for he was
afraid to look upon God Now who was it appeared? It was the angel
of the Lord now. He's called God Because he is
And the Lord said, I have surely seen the afflictions of my people,
which are in Egypt and have heard their cry by reason of their
taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. And I think this is
one of the greatest passages in the Bible. And I am come down
to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians. You know, back
in Egyptian bondage, the children of Israel were. praying for many,
many years to be delivered, and God was the only one that could
deliver them. And God says, I've come down
to deliver them. And look who he is, verse 14. And God said unto Moses, I am
that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou
say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you. The
great I Am has come down to save you. So many people, when I preach
the message that salvation is by grace, so many people try
to find fault with that, that God in His sovereignty has chose
a people. His name shall be called Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sins. God has come
down to earth. He is the great I Am. In Genesis 3.15, the first book
of the Bible, you see the great I Am is going to crush the serpent's
head. In Genesis 22.28, Abraham said,
you remember Abraham and Isaac went up on Mount Moriah and they
were up there, and you remember the wood was put on? the Sun's
back and they went up there and found the altar and the fire
was lit and Isaac's getting a bit nervous here and and he said
Well, here's the wood. Here's the altar Where's the
sacrifice? I'd be sweating it two of my
hands were tied and I was being placed. Where's the sacrifice
and here I It took me nearly 20 years to see this, but I believe
this is true. Abraham said, my son, God will
provide himself the burnt offering. And I was
reading that one day, and I said, thank you, Lord. God himself
is the sacrifice. And I wasn't worth it, were you?
Nah, you weren't worth it. Only to God. God, in his grace,
became the sacrificial lamb to take away your sins. The great
I Am saved you. How marvelous. How hard is that
to say? Hallelujah to the Lamb of God
that took my sin away at Calvary. The great God of heaven. In John, there are seven great
I am's and Jesus said all of them. He said this in John 6
35, I am the bread of life. Are you hungry today? I mean,
are you spiritually hungry? In John 8 12, he said, I am the
light of the world. Are you in darkness today? Do
you need light? In John 10, he said, I am the
door. In John 10 again, he said, I
am the good shepherd. In John 11, he said, I am the
resurrection and the life. In John 14, he said, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. In John 15, he said, I am the
true vine. In the Revelation, he said, I
am Alpha and Omega. I am the beginning. The end my
friend Salvation begins with God and ends with God and what
he does with you in between is is a marvel in his Holy Spirit
quickening power where he gives you life, but Salvation you've
been saved by the great I am Do you know him? Do you know
Him as the great I Am? Those of you who last Sunday
came forward and said that you wanted to confess faith in Christ,
have you seen Him as the great and mighty God and the complete
Savior and Deliverer? Have you seen Him that way? Do
you know Him that way? Do you? You know, one of the
great tragedies, I think, of the church today is not many
people experiencing God. When we're, you know, every day,
one of the great thing about my life here at the closing years
of my life is I experience them every day. I experience God. I know He lives. He walks with
me and talks with me along life's narrow way. And He's my great
God. He's the great I am God. He's the great creator God. He's
the great reconciling God. He's the great quickening God.
He's the great Jehovah. He is great Yahweh. He's my God
and my Savior. Do you feel that way about it? I want to just ask you, did anybody
here go home last Sunday knowing Jesus Christ and that you should
have confessed him as your Lord and Savior, that you should publicly
confess him? Somebody said, well, why does
pastor call us out that way? Why wouldn't you want to publicly
confess Jesus Christ? I'm not ashamed of the gospel.
He's the power of God unto salvation. I wonder if there's just anybody,
without any prompting on my part, just in the power of the Holy
Spirit, you were converted, and you left here, and you went wherever
you went, and you were burdened and heavy laden because you knew
you were to come forward and confess Jesus Christ. Anybody? You know, I really believe this. There's a day coming when we
won't have to coax people. Wouldn't it be a great thing
if the Holy Spirit were here in such power that people got
saved while I was preaching? I mean, they got converted. I
mean, they just hopped up and said, he did it. rather than 29 stanzas of just
as I am. But the power of the Holy Spirit
is there in such a way that you cannot help but to confess him
as Lord and Savior. Think about this. Just think
about this. He took all your sins away. Your chains are gone. There's
no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus. Will you? Can you? right now, without anything. Right there. God bless you, hon. Thank you for that. God bless
you. Right there. God bless you. Right
there. God bless you. Amen. That's a good thing. All right. Thank God. All right. Let's stand
and sing.