Father, we want to thank you for what we have already experienced so far in our time together. And we pray, Father, now as we open up the bread of life, your precious word that you will speak to every heart in here. And we pray all that in Jesus' name. Amen. The Bible says in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 23, Behold, the virgin shall be with child. and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel." Which translated means, God with us. That quotation is from Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14 and also Isaiah chapter 8 and verse 8. And in this passage, Jesus is called Immanuel. which means God with us. And this is not the only title for Jesus. You'd be surprised or even amazed to find that there are over 200 names and titles given in the Bible for Jesus. Some identify His nature, others identify His position in the Trinity, while others identify His works. For example, Ephesians 2 and verse 20, he's called the chief cornerstone. Colossians 1.15, the firstborn over all creation. Ephesians 1.22, he's called the head of the church. Acts 3.14, he's called holy and righteous one. Acts 10.42, he's called judge. 1 Timothy 6.15, he's called king of kings and lord of lords. John 8-12, he's called Light of the World. Isaiah 9-6, the Prince of Peace. Luke 1-35, the Son of God. John 5-27, the Son of Man. John 1-1, the Word. And 1 John 1-1, the Word of Life. I know you were thinking when I started reading, is he going to quote all 200 of them? These talk about His nature. As I said, there are others that talk about His position in the Trinity. For example, He's called in Revelation 1.8, the Alpha and the Omega. Or John 8.58, the I Am. Acts 10.36, the Lord of all. Or 1 John 5.20, the true God. And then, of course, there are those that talk about His work on earth. In Hebrews 12.2, he's called the author and perfecter of our faith. John 6.35, the bread of life. Romans 11.36, deliverer. John 10.11, the good shepherd. Hebrews 2.17, the high priest. John 1.29, the Lamb of God. 1 Timothy 2.5, the mediator. 1 Corinthians 10.4, the rock. John 11.25, the resurrection and the life. Matthew 1.21, the Savior. John 15.1, the true vine. And John 14.6, the way, the truth, and the life. All of these titles tell us who Jesus is. And with having over 200 of them, it shouldn't be difficult for anyone to hear this. But there are two types of hearing that take place, just like there are two types of calls that go out. There's a general call that goes out to everyone, and then there's an effectual call that goes out to those whom had been chosen before the foundation of the world, those who are going to believe. We just don't know when it's gonna take place, but it's gonna happen and be activated, their faith's gonna be activated by the gospel. Not only that, by the Holy Spirit. But as we see here in Matthew 1.23, and if you haven't turned there already, I'd like to invite you to turn to Matthew chapter 1, it clearly states that Jesus is Emmanuel, God with us. All of these titles point to Jesus being God in the flesh. The Bible teaches the Trinity. It might not use that term, Trinity, but the Bible does teach the concept. In fact, it begins in the very first verse of the Bible, Genesis 1-1, when it says, In the beginning, God. And that's the word Elohim. Elohim has an I-M ending, which is plural, but the word itself, or the name itself, is singular. So it's saying that this singular God exists in some form of plurality. In fact, you get in chapter 1 in verse 26, it says, let us make man in our image. And then you hear the plurality there in that verse. Jesus is God. The Father is God. The Holy Spirit is God. And we're not talking about three gods. We're talking about one God. Deuteronomy 6-5, here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. There's one God. But not everybody sees it that way. In fact, if you look over in John 1-1, and this is what we sang just a few moments ago, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What did the cults do? And the Word was a God. Well, that's problematic because you can't do that in Greek. Herbert Lockyer says, See, this verse is identifying John's theme in the Gospel of John. Jesus is the God-man. He is God-manifest. We see that in John 1, 14. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. Glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. The Word became flesh. But look at that verse again, John 1, 1. And there's some things that are taking place in that verse that's very interesting in Greek. First of all, when it says in the beginning, this is not talking about Genesis 1-1, this is talking about before Genesis 1-1. In fact, this is using human terms for our human ears to understand, because we can't understand when we hear phrases like this, when little kids ask, well, where did God come from? Well, honey, he's always been. God has always been. Psalm 90 says he's from eternity. There is no beginning, there is no end. That's what Jesus said in Revelation chapter 1. I am the first, I am the last, I am the beginning, I am the end. I am the Alpha, I am the Omega. So in the beginning, whenever there was a beginning, John says, there was the Word. And the term was is in the imperfect tense, which talks about always existing the Word. The Word has always existed. And who is that Word? Who is that Word that became flesh? That's Jesus. And then he says, and the Word was with God. Imperfect verb again on the Word was, and it means He's always been with God. In other words, that phrase there, proston theon in Greek means that He was always face to face with God until He became flesh and took on a body. Hebrews tells us that God prepared a body for Him. We read about this, or we will be reading about this in just a few moments. But He has had a continual existence. He's always existed. He did not come into existence when He took on a body and was born as a baby. He's always existed. One writer says that perhaps the clearest and most direct declaration for the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ can be found anywhere in Scripture. Yet many heretical groups have twisted their meaning to support their false doctrines concerning the nature of Christ. If you'll notice that verse again, and the word was God. The word has always been God. And again, this is where the cults come in and they put in an indefinite article, the word or the letter A, and say, A God. because they say that there is no definite article in the passage. Well, the Greek word theos, which is translated God, is in Greek what is called the inarthorous construction, meaning that it's not preceded by the definite article, and some argue again and mistranslate by putting in the letter A. And they say that the absence of the article before theos makes it indefinite, but that's not true. Logos, which is the Greek word for word, has the definite article, and it shows us that that is the subject of the sentence. So it's not, God was the word, because the word, not God, is the subject, and it would be theologically incorrect, since it would equate God with the word, thus denying that they are two separate persons. See, there are cults that come around, and they don't differentiate in the Trinity. And you have these celebrities that are on TBN, like T.D. Jakes, that totally denies the Trinity. He takes the modalist view. And he should not even be, quote, on Christian TV, if you want to call it that. And I'm not even sure I want to call TBN Christian TV. They may have a Christian terminology, but there's a lot of things that are pagan. There are a lot of things on there that propagate false teaching. And all it many times is, is just an opportunity for confusion to the body of Christ. And it says things and represents things about the body of Christ that should never be represented and it should not be true. Now as I said in verse 14, He calls him the Word again. And the Word became flesh. What a verse. This is the incarnation of Christ. Verse 14, the Word became flesh, dwelt among us, we saw His glory, glories of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. But you know what? These are not the only two places that the term Word is applied to Jesus. It occurs again in Revelation chapter 19. And it says, beginning at verse 11, And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, And if you remember in Revelation chapter 6 when we went through that, the rider on the white horse was the Antichrist. This is not the Antichrist here, this is Jesus. And it says, Behold a white horse, and he who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. His eyes are like a flame of fire, and on his head are many diadems, and he has a name written on him which no one knows except himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood and His name is called what? The Word of God. See, to the readers in John's day, for which he wrote the Gospel of John, the Jewish audience would understand that terminology because they kept hearing all throughout the Old Testament, and the Word said, and the Word said over and over and over. And then as far as Greek, As far as the Greek-speaking people, they would understand that the word was, in fact, this is the way they would define it, as some kind of intelligence, some kind of ethereal wisdom or knowledge. And if you know anything about some of the heresies in the New Testament, like the Gnostics, they were really big on knowledge and superior knowledge. And they had some really interesting views. But all of these passages, as well as these three that I've just mentioned to you that give the names and titles, they clearly reveal to us who Jesus is. And if you're sitting here this morning and you're not sure who He is, we've shared enough with you that for you to reject Jesus Christ would consign you to the worst punishment in hell. And if you don't understand this, take my word for it. In fact, go into the book of Hebrews and understand that there are degrees of punishment in hell. And it's based upon what you know. And so that person who has heard everything about Christ and still rejected Christ, how worse do you think their punishment will be? Now a while ago I read from Matthew 1.23 and I want to back up to verse 18. And I want to take a few moments for us to look through verses 18 through 25. It says, beginning at verse 18, Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows. When His mother Mary had been betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit. And Joseph, her husband, being a righteous man and not wanting to disgrace her, planned to send her away secretly. But when he had considered this, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. She will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. And Joseph awoke from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. This text gives us Matthew's version of the events of the birth of Christ. It begins in verse 18, now the birth of Christ was as follows. It doesn't give us the angelic visit to Mary, but it does mention two times her being with child of the Holy Spirit. You find that in verses 18 and verse 20. And it states that this occurred, in verse 18, before they came together. The entire text is about Joseph, her betrothed husband, and his response to Mary's pregnancy. Well, you're introduced to a term that we don't really talk about much today, at least that specific term. It's the term betrothed. But we do understand, as it's translated in chapter 1 of Luke, verse 27, and chapter 2 of 5, as the term engaged. Engagement. An engagement to be married. But the interesting thing about our engagement versus their engagement, their engagement was very binding. Meaning this, that though they were not married, and though they were betrothed or engaged, their engagement was just like marriage. Except they hadn't come together yet. In fact, it's very interesting that in a betrothal, many times it occurs in early childhood and their marriage is arranged by the parents. What do you think about that? We don't hear anything about that today, do we? Marriage is being arranged by the parents. But that's what would take place. In fact, the time period between a betrothal and the celebrating of the nuptials could be somewhere between 10 to 12 months. And of course, if they were betrothed much earlier, it could be years. But as I said, this engagement, this betrothal was as binding as marriage. In fact, if you look down at verse 20, Mary is called Joseph's what? Wife. The only way that that engagement could be broken was if there was infidelity. And such infidelity was deadly. For example, In Deuteronomy chapter 22 and 23, it says, if there is a girl who is a virgin engaged to a man or betrothed to a man and another man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city and you shall stone them to death. The girl because she did not cry out in the city, like rape, and the man because he has violated his neighbor's what? Wife, thus you shall purge the evil from among you." This was a betrothal. This was an engagement. They weren't married. But if there was some kind of sexual union, it was deadly. Verse 19 of Matthew 1 tells us that Joseph was a righteous man. As such, he knew the law. And he knew the punishment for adultery. So it's very interesting that in this infidelity it would be treated as adultery. Not as fornication. Fornication is a sexual relationship between two people not married. Adultery is a sexual relationship between two people that are married but not to each other. And so we hear like Exodus 20 and verse 14, in the law you shall not commit adultery. Or we hear like Leviticus 20 and verse 10, if there is a man who commits adultery with another man's wife, one who commits adultery with his friend's wife, the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to what? Death. And of course, the Jews used this as a test for our Savior. You remember that in John 8? When they brought before Him a woman caught in adultery? And they wanted to find out what he would do? He didn't say a word. Do you know what he did do? He stooped down and he started writing in the sand. And some theologians believe that he was writing the names of the people that were right there. And then he says, he who is without sin cast the first stone. And one by one, they dropped their stones and walked away. Then he turned to the woman and said, woman, where are your accusers? She said, there aren't any. He said, neither do I accuse you. but go out and sin no more, or something worse will come upon you." Adultery is a sin. Fornication is sin. Sex outside of marriage is sin. And you can see how the Bible treats this. Homosexuality is a sin. That's dealt with in the Old and the New Testament. But I find very interesting there in verse 18, we really see the heart of Joseph as a righteous man. I mean, he could have been a stern, righteous man and just said, OK, Mary. Public humiliation and death. He could have been angry. He was perplexed. You know why he was perplexed? Because he knew Mary was a righteous woman. Am I saying the righteous never fall? No. He knew he hadn't been with her. I believe in verse 19 that he loved Mary so much that he didn't want to disgrace her. And so he made a plan to send her away privately. Send her away, not have her go through the public humiliation and the shame Linsky says two courses were open to Joseph. One, harsher, to charge Mary with adultery and thus to make her a public example. Letting such Jewish law as was enforced at that time take its course. The other course, far more gentle, was to make use of the lax divorce laws of the Jews and without charging her with any crime, give Mary a letter of divorcement stating the cause in a veiled way or stating none at all. Joseph resolved on the milder course. So he was going to send her away, not disgrace her, but divorce her. But before he could take any action, look at verse 20. It says, Behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife. for the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit." An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream. We don't put stock on dreams today, though I know that some do. But you know, in the millennium, men will dream dreams, and these will be prophetical dreams. I know that people today on the other side do say that they do that. They're the same people that say that they've seen Jesus. They're the same people that say that the Lord Himself commissioned them with all kinds of different things. And every one of them, by the way, has been proven to be false. Dreams were one of the ways that God communicated to His people. He also communicated to the prophets. He communicated through His written Word. That's how He communicates today, through His written Word. We know that God communicated to Daniel in Daniel 7-1 by a dream. And so here an angel communicates to Joseph in this same way. After Jesus was born, there were actually two other occasions where He communicated to Joseph in a dream. If you look down in chapter 2 and verse 13, it says, and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. And the second place we find it is in verse 19. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, and said, Get up, and take the child and his mother, and go into the land of Israel, for those who have sought the child's life are dead. So these are the only three instances that we find in Scripture. You know, the Bible tells us that in Hebrews 1 and verse 14 that angels are ministering spirits sent out to render service for the sake of those who will inherit salvation. They're ministering spirits. And the Bible tells us in Hebrews 13 that some have entertained angels unaware. And if you want to know more about angels, I would encourage you to go on our website and pull up the series that is on there about angels. It's about a five, six week series. In verses 20 to 23, the angel explains, in this dream, Mary's pregnancy to Joseph. First he tells him not to be afraid to take Mary as your wife. and explains why. For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. See, Mary had not been with any man and the angel is confirming this. Luke 1.34 says she was a virgin. We see in chapter 1 verse 18 that she was found with child before they came together. We also see in verse 25 that Joseph kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son. She was a virgin. Never been with a man. The child conceived in her, it says in verse 20, is of the Holy Spirit. And that's an interesting prepositional phrase right there. The preposition of is ek in Greek and it is the preposition of causation. That means that He caused the pregnancy. And you know Joseph wasn't giving any other explanation than this. He didn't even know what the angel Gabriel said to Mary. But we know Luke 135 says, the angels answered and said to her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, and for that reason the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And you know in the New Testament, Jesus is never called, or Joseph is never called the father of Jesus. The angel continues in verse 21, and he says there, we're talking about this child, this special child, she will bear a son, tells the sex of the child, tells the name of the child, you shall call his name Jesus, tells us the purpose of the child, that he will save his people from their sins. Now the His people could be referring to the Jewish people or ultimately could be referring to the elect. And then it tells us, of course, in verses 24 and 25 that Joseph believed the words of the angel. Now, that's a lot different than Zacharias. Zacharias, in Luke chapter 1, he goes in to offer incense because it was his time to serve in that capacity in the priesthood. And as he's standing there at the altar, guess who appears right there next to him? An angel. You know, when I see these kind of angelic visits, and I see and compare them to what we hear today, in much contrast. Because when you hear about it today, you don't hear or see the same kind of response that those who had an angelic visit had. In fact, what you see today is they will talk about this, they will go online, they will write a book, they will go on TV, they will talk about this. In fact, Jesse Duplantis He had talked about seeing Jesus and later on, about 30 years later, rehashed his story again and actually couldn't keep consistent with the details he shared 30 years before. Listen, if God appeared to you, I don't think you'd forget that. I don't think you'd forget anything about that. The very words that he said, you wouldn't forget any of it. But we see Zacharias, when he didn't believe what the angel said about Elizabeth conceiving a child in her old age and bearing a son who would be the forerunner to Christ and naming him John, his tongue was tied. He could not speak during the entire pregnancy. Now, ladies, don't take fun at that. Because you might have thought when you were pregnant with your child, you wished that your husband's tongue was tied during those nine months. In fact, it was even further than the nine months because it was at the circumcision. At the circumcision of the child is when they would name the child. And all the relatives are saying that his name should be called Zacharias. That's how they named him, after family members. And Elizabeth said, John. And they looked to Zacharias to find out what his name's going to be and all of a sudden his tongue was loosed and he spoke and said, John. And they were amazed and wondered what kind of child this was going to be because at that point he began to prophesy. As I said, in verse 21 we hear the purpose of the birth of Christ. And he says, it is to save his people from their sins. Now His name, Jesus, that we find there in verse 21, that name occurs 700 times in the Gospels. 100 times in the Epistles and Revelation. It's the Greek equivalent of Yeshua or Jehoshua. And it means Jehovah or Yahweh saves. And so again, you hear the whole purpose. But first, as we Look back at verse 22. We find that Jesus fulfilled prophecy. Notice this. It says in Matthew 1.22, Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. What was spoken by the Lord through the prophet? What is the prophecy? Well, verse 23, Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. That was the prophecy. In Matthew 1.23, the last part of that, where He translates God with us, is added to it to give us the definition of Immanuel. But this is actually a quotation of Isaiah 7.14. And here's the interesting thing about this prophecy. This prophecy was given 700 years before the birth of Christ. 700 years. It was originally given to a child born in the time of Ahaz as a sign to the king that Judah would receive relief from attacks by Israel and Syria. The name itself symbolized the fact that God would demonstrate His presence with His people in His deliverance. Now, the larger application is that this is a prophecy of the birth of the incarnate God, Jesus the Messiah. If you were to take your Bible and chase this down, you would find out of all the prophecies about Jesus numbered 333 in both Old and New Testament. Guess how many were fulfilled at His first coming? 109, which leaves 224 which will be fulfilled at His second coming. Isn't that amazing? Someone said one time that the chances of one prophecy being fulfilled would be like taking the state of Texas and covering it with silver dollars, taking one, putting an X on it, blindfolding you, and saying, go find the one with the X on it. What's the probability you'd find it? Most likely you're not going to find it. But Jesus fulfilled 109 at His first coming? I mean, all the movement that's taking place even in chapter 2 of Matthew, is all part of the prophecies. It says in verse 14 of chapter 2, this was to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. Bethlehem was in the prophecy. Nazareth was in the prophecy. The death of the children two years and younger was in the prophecy. which is a quotation of Jeremiah 31.15 which says in verse 18 of chapter 2, a voice was heard in Ramah weeping in great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and she refused to be comforted because they were no more. So this name, Emmanuel, is applied and fulfilled in Jesus 700 years later. This is what you would call a prophecy, just like many prophecies, that would be fulfilled right then, but it would have a far future ramification to it like this one has. But Jesus is Emmanuel. He is Emmanuel. See, Matthew sees the bigger picture and applies it to Jesus. Interesting thing, there's no record of Christ ever being called Emmanuel. He was always called Jesus. But the meaning of the name Jesus implies the presence of God with us. But what is revealed about this prophecy and what I want you really to hear this morning is this. Jesus Christ is God. He is God. Again, Matthew defines what the name Emmanuel means, God with us. Scripture refers to Him as being God. Romans 9, verses 1 to 5, Paul says, I'm telling the truth in Christ, I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were a curse separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh, who are Israelites, to whom belong the adoption as sons and the glory and the covenants and the giving of the law and the temple services and the promises, whose are the fathers and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. You say, well, that's kind of veiled. Okay, you want something more specific. 2 Peter 1.1, Peter, a bondservant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. See, in my mind, I only have to hear this once for it to be true. I don't have to hear it a number of times. But we hear it right here, don't we? Look at that. By the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. It doesn't stop there. 1 John 5, 20. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding so that we may know Him who is true. And we are in Him who is true, in His Son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. Are you hearing it this morning? This is who Jesus is. Jesus is God. Over in Hebrews 1.8, it says, But of the Son, He says, And this is God speaking, Your throne, O God, is forever and ever. And the righteous scepter is the scepter of His kingdom. Here is God the Father speaking to God the Son and calling Him what? God. You remember in John 20 and verse 28 when Jesus appears to the disciples a second time and Thomas is now present with them? What does Thomas say? my Lord and my God." Or what about Titus chapter 2? It says in verse 11, for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men, instructing us to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously, and godly in the present age, looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Christ Jesus. You can't get any more specific than this. Jesus is God. And when we call on people to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what we're calling them to believe. And as we heard in one of our evangelism challenges, at some point, you need to declare this. Because you're calling on people to believe in Jesus, but if you're not willing to explain who he is, how are they gonna believe in Jesus? They believing in a name? They believing in a little bit of information they know about Him? That He died on the cross for their sins and rose on the third day? That's important information. But you need to understand who He is. He is the God-man. He is God-made flesh. Over in Titus 2, in verse 10, when it's giving the qualifications of elders in the church, it says that they're not pilfering, but showing all good faith so that they will adorn the doctrine of God our Savior in every respect. In the context, speaking about Jesus. In Romans 10, 13, we hear this, whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Now let me tell you something that the translators have done in your Bible. And it's helpful to you and hopefully you have one that's doing this. When there's a quotation in the New Testament from the Old Testament, they usually bracket it off and they'll use different fonts and things like that to help you know that this is actually a quotation. Mine has it. Yours should have it. But something else they'll do too is they'll carry over the same way that they would make the English appear when it comes to the term LORD. In other words, they put it in all capital letters when it's referring to Yahweh or Jehovah. When it's not referring to Yahweh or Jehovah, they will use capital L, lowercase O-R-D. Many times that's reflecting of the Hebrew word Adonai, which means sovereign. In this case, this is a quotation from Joel 2.32. And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of Yahweh, Jehovah, will be saved or delivered. And that's what salvation is. It is a deliverance. And so, again, when you're talking to people and sharing the gospel with them, and you're talking about Jesus and calling them to repent and believe in Jesus, Not only do you need to talk about His death and burial and resurrection, not only do you need to talk about sin for which the Savior went to the cross to conquer and to pay for, you need to talk about who He is and why He was the only one that could satisfy the Father when it came to the forgiveness of sin. See, throughout history, there's been a lot of people that have been crucified on crosses. In fact, in Jesus' day, the Roman general, Varius, had crucified over 2,000 Jews and lined the streets with them. And when Jesus said, whoever desires to come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me, they understood what he meant when he talked about the cross. Because he said that in the context of what went on in the culture where the Roman general had crucified 2,000 Jews. They understood that the cross was an instrument of death. We don't see it like that today. The cross today is more like a pendant hanging around your neck. but it was an instrument of death. And that's why in Luke 9, 23, in that quotation of that verse, it says that we have to take up our cross, how often? Daily. And that's why even Paul said in 1 Corinthians, I die daily. Beloved, you have to die every day to your flesh. And you have to reckon yourself as dead unto sin, but alive unto God. That's a reckoning, that's a considering, that is something that you need to grasp in your mind. That in Christ, you are no longer dead in trespasses and sins. You have been made alive by God. This again, as I said, is a hallelujah, right? This is something that we should be shouting. Over in 1 Timothy 3.16, some believe that this was actually a hymn in the early church, but it says, by common confession, great is the mystery of godliness He who was revealed in the flesh was vindicated in the spirit seen by angels. If you have an authorized version, which is the King James or a New King James, that pronoun he has been rendered God was revealed in the flesh or manifested in the flesh. See, we find here that He was revealed in the flesh, He was vindicated in the Spirit, He was seen by angels, He was proclaimed among the nations, He was believed on in the world, and then He was taken up into glory. This is our Savior. This is Jesus. This is the Jesus of the Bible. And as I said, it just goes on and on and on. It just goes on and on. And it gives it to us in so many different contexts. that Jesus Christ is God. And when you say, Yesus Christos est in Kurios, Kurios is Lord, and that's from Joel 2.32, so you would be saying, Yesus Christos est in Kurios, and Kurios being God. Jesus is God. I had to translate that so you'd think I was speaking in tongues. John 5.18, for this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself what? Equal with God. They wanted to kill him for that, just like they did in John 8.58, when he said, truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Ego Aimee, He is the Ego Aimee. He is the I Am of Exodus 3.14. He is the voice that was crying out to Moses when that voice told Moses to take your sandals off for the place where you're standing is holy ground. You see, beloved, the Father and the Son are one. Not one and the same. Not like T.G. Jakes would say that God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are just one person, meaning there are no three individual persons. He denies any three individualities of the person of the Godhead. But as I said, the Scripture is very clear. I mean, what are you going to do with Elohim in Genesis 1-1? What are you going to do in the next verse when it talks about the Spirit of God hovering over the face of the waters? What are you going to do in verse 27 when it talks about, let us make man in our image? What are you going to do with those phrases if there's no Trinity? What are you going to do with John 1-1? See, even in Genesis 18, right before God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, it says three men appeared to Abraham. We find out later two of them were angels, and Abraham is still talking with one of them, and he identifies him as God. So that would be a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus. Because the Bible tells us about the Father that He is Spirit. Jesus says the Spirit does not have flesh and bones. So He's invisible. Jesus was the only person in the Godhead who took on a body. So in the Old Testament, this is what we would call pre-incarnate, pre-flesh appearances. Incarnate meaning God made flesh. Some say, that Jesus was a good teacher. But you know what? Good teachers don't claim to be God. Some say He was merely a good example. But good examples don't mingle with prostitutes and sinners like Jesus did. Some say He was a madman. But madmen do not speak the way He spoke. Just as one of the guards who came to arrest him said, when he came back without him, they said, why didn't you bring him? He said, no one has ever spoken like such a man. Some say he was a crazed fanatic. But crazed fanatics don't draw children to themselves or attract men of intellect like Paul or Luke or any of the followers. Some say he was a religious phony, but guess what, folks? Phonies don't rise from the dead. Some say He was only a phantom, and phantoms can't give their flesh and blood to be crucified. Some say He was only a myth, but myths don't set the calendar for history. This writer says, Jesus has been called the ideal man, an example of love, the highest model of religion, the foremost pattern of virtue, the greatest of all men, and the finest teacher who ever lived. All of those descriptions captures elements of His character, but they all fall short of the full truth. The Apostle Thomas expressed it perfectly when he saw Jesus after His resurrection and exclaimed, My Lord and my God. See, there's no doubt, as far as the Scripture is concerned, that Jesus is God. No doubt. His birth reveals it, His name reveals it, His titles reveal it. Others referred to Him as God, He referred to Himself as God. All of this you find in the Word of God. And this is who we are calling people to believe in and to call on. Romans 10, 9, that if you confess with your mouth, Jesus says, Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed, for there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved. Have you believed in him? Is he your Lord? Do you recognize the Scripture and confess what the Scripture says? See, the word hamalageo, which is the word translated confess, it means to say the same thing. So if I'm confessing my sin, then I'm saying the same thing Scripture says about my sin, that this is sin. Let's take adultery that we mentioned earlier. The Scripture says it's sin, punishable by death. And if you're an adulterer and you confess your adultery, then you would be saying the same thing Scripture says, that this is sin and this is worthy of death. And you know what, folks? All sin is worthy of death. All sin. But calling on Him and affirming Him as Lord, that's what the Scripture is saying for you to confess. Go back to Romans 10 9. That if you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord. And believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead. You will be saved. You are agreeing with scripture, which says Jesus is Lord. That he is God. You heard it this morning. Is that what you affirm? Because, beloved, if you don't affirm Jesus is God, you can't be saved. I don't care how long you've been in the church. I don't care how many hours you've walked and how many times you've been baptized. If you don't believe Jesus is God, you are still lost in your sins. And you need to repent and come to Jesus right now. And ask Him to forgive you and to save you. And call upon His name. But if this is the first time you're hearing this and you're not saved, same thing. You have to turn from your sin and turn to Christ. You say, well, I'm not a sinner. Well, I'll just ask you a simple question. Have you ever lied in your life? Have you ever stolen anything in your life? Have you ever taken the Lord's name in vain in your life? That's three of the Ten Commandments. And the answer is yes to all three, right? So I would urge you with the greatest urgency to come to Him now. And beloved, if you know and love the Lord Jesus Christ and He has saved you from your sins, then all of this is a glorious hallelujah. And you can praise God this morning that He has revealed this to you from the Word of God. And this wasn't when He revealed it, He revealed this a long time ago. Or you wouldn't be sitting here this morning. Let's thank Him now, and let's worship Him now. Thank You, Father, for this time we've had in Your Word, and thank You for Your truth. I pray, Heavenly Father, that every person in here embraces what has been taught today. that you are Lord, that you are God. You are Emmanuel, God with us. And I pray this morning that for those who have not embraced this, that today would be the day of salvation. Today would be the day that you would grant repentance and grant faith and draw them to yourself, Lord God. And we pray all this in Jesus' name. Amen.