Trinitas is we're headed into a new year. The concept of newness is before our minds. Many people perhaps making resolutions of various kinds, looking forward to what lies ahead, perhaps politically or on the international stage. And yet it's our job to remember that the newest thing, the most startling news has been around for the last 2,000 years. Christ made all things new. He is in himself something radically new. And I'll point you to just one radical difference. In ages past, the tendency of human society to exalt their highest potentates and kings to a position of deity was normal. Typically, in the ancient world and in all tribal societies, the divide between God and man was actually very small. The things that polytheistic societies called gods were really more like supermen who fell prey to all of the same sorts of sins and crimes that we do. Ambition, infidelity, murder, strife. It's not surprising, therefore, that they also exalted the most powerful people. from Pharaohs to Caesars to a position of one of the lower deities in their pantheon. We see this in the New Testament. We read in Acts chapter 12 that Herod on one occasion went speaking in front of the people he ruled. In Acts chapter 12, 22 says the people kept crying out, the voice of a God and not of a man. And yet on this occasion we read, that immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God glory and he was eaten by worms and died. This is one of the first expressions of the reign and rule of Jesus Christ. See, the fact is that the incarnation put to death forevermore the tendency to exalt human kings as if gods. Do you know why? Because the incarnation declares that there is no gradation or scale between God and man such that you could go up the rungs of the ladder to be closer to deity, or deity could come down and be somewhat more like you. The mystery of the incarnation declared that one person was fully God and fully man in the same exact individual. Not by gradations, not on a scale. And once this message has been preached in any society, the tendency to exalt kings as gods ceases forevermore. This death to Herod is the fruit of Jesus' current reign in heaven. Psalm 2 tells us all about it. It says, now therefore, O king, show discernment, do homage to the Son, that's Jesus, that he not become angry and you perish in the way. for his wrath may soon be kindled. How blessed are all who take refuge in him. If you're living in a society right now where your president isn't a God, you can thank Jesus Christ for that. This is a new thing. With this point in mind, we must today meditate on the reality that Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. Over the last several weeks, we have seen that Jesus has a human birth. He also is the eternal son of God. We saw that he has two distinct natures. And on the 24th, we saw some of Jesus' human works. Today, we will look at Jesus' divine work throughout his ministry on earth. Because these truths are challenging, we must go to God before we read the word and ask him to enlighten our minds. Bow your heads with me. Living God, you have taught us in the scriptures that the divide between God and man is as vast as that between creator and creature. You've taught us that no creature by any degree or gradation can approach being deity at all. As you are infinite and we are finite. Yet you have also told us that God became man in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. And we pray, Lord, that you would enlighten our minds to this truth, that you would strike us anew with what a radical teaching this is. Strike us anew with the truth that the gospel is the most important news. that any one of us will hear in 2026. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. You've got your Bibles, we're going to read the prologue of the Gospel of John, John chapter one, verses one to five. When we're finished, I will say, this is God's word. You can respond and say, thanks be to God. We'll sing a short verse, classic verse, the glory of pottery, acknowledging that this is God's word and not the mere word of man. John chapter one, verse one. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. In verse 14, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is God's word. Trinitas, we go to our text. We read in this grand prologue of John that Jesus is the eternal word of God. He's been with God the Father for all of eternity, and he is one of the agents of creation with his Father. Jesus, we are told in many passages like this prologue, is God. But today we're going to look at the works of Christ in the flesh that convey his deity again and again. As noted earlier, we saw on the 24th that Jesus did certain things that are proper to humanity. He grew from infancy to adulthood. God doesn't grow, but man does. We saw that Jesus could suffer as all men do. We saw in a mysterious fashion how Jesus could experience ignorance even as he was the omniscient God. We also saw that Jesus could enjoy the comforts of a warm blanket and frankly even a steak dinner being as he was a man nourished by the elements and also guarded from them with the use of clothing. Today, however, we must consider two types of works of Christ. There are certain works that Jesus does that are proper to his deity. These works we will consider first, and then we will consider the works of Christ that are proper to his deity and his humanity at once. They necessarily imply that he is both God and man in performing them. See, we have to deal with this confession we encounter again and again in the New Testament, on the mouths of demons, on the mouths of those exercised of demons, in the mouths of the disciples and even Jesus' human enemies. Again and again, they conclude this man is God. You consider when Jesus encounters demons, whom he exercises or casts out. These are actually the first beings to confess who Jesus really is. They say to him, what business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are, the Holy One of God. They ascribe to him powers and prerogatives that belong only to God. They not only ask what business do we have with each other, but it says this, they were imploring him not to command them to go away into the abyss. They acknowledge his power as infinite judge to send them to hell. These beings know who Jesus is. Just the same, those who have been relieved from such afflictions, listen to what they say. In Luke 8, 39, one man exorcised from demon possession is told by Jesus, return to your house and describe what great things God has done for you. The next verse tells us, so he went away, proclaiming throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. He understands that the work done by Jesus Christ is the work of God. Just the same, the very disciples who often doubted Christ as Savior, in Jesus' very last discourse about God the Holy Spirit at the Last Supper, they conclude this discourse that goes on for three chapters with Jesus telling them what lies ahead. They conclude saying, now we know that you know all things. Now we know your omniscient, an attribute of God. Thomas, who doubted that Jesus really rose from the dead and insisted that unless he saw the risen body of Jesus Christ, he would not believe. You read that he did see the risen Lord in John 20, 28. And the moment he touched his hands, Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Why do demons, why do men, why do disciples speak this way about Jesus Christ? Even Jesus' enemies understood what he was getting at throughout his ministry. The Jewish authorities on one occasion saw Jesus doing things on the Sabbath that they believed he ought not to be. And it says, for this reason, therefore, the Jews were seeking all the more to kill him because he was not only breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God his own father, making himself equal with God. What compelled men to conclude that this Jesus was more than a man? In fact, the apostle Paul, in his epistle to the Galatians, one of his earliest letters, he opens the book saying this. Opens the letter saying this. Paul, he's introducing himself, an apostle, not sent from men, nor through the agency of man. but through Jesus Christ and God the Father. Did you hear that? Jesus is not a mere man who gave me this office and sent me out to preach. I didn't get this calling from mere men, he says. I got it from God. I got it from Christ and the Father. Those who understood what Jesus was saying and doing conclude again and again that he is no mere man. What sorts of works, therefore, could we be speaking of that express the deity and not the mere humanity of Christ? Well, to begin, as we discuss the works of Christ expressive of his deity, I set before you his omniscience. Jesus again and again displays an ability to know things that cannot be inferred by any natural motion of the human brain or intellect. Jesus often encounters men and knows details of their lives that cannot be naturally concluded from anything that they have said. Jesus, after his baptism by the Jordan, he returns to his home country of Galilee through the land of Samaria, there he encounters a woman. and he's able to tell that woman that she is currently living in a relationship with a man who is not her husband, that she has previously had five husbands, and her conclusion is, when she goes back to her people to report what he said, he told me all the things that I have done. Jesus has a knowledge that is superhuman. In the calling of Nathaniel, one of the disciples, on that same trip, returning from his baptism to his land. He encounters Nathanael, wherein the man says, how do you know me? And Jesus answered and said to him, before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you. And Nathanael answered him, rabbi, you are the son of God, you are the king of Israel. How did you see me when I was all alone? Again and again, Jesus conveys this ability to know things that cannot naturally be concluded. Now, many people might look at this and say, but Brant, there were other prophets in the Bible, mere men who were given understanding of the future by a special disclosure from God. Well, it's noteworthy that these other prophets, all throughout the Old Testament, will frequently testify that the word of the Lord came to me, that's where I got this message, and I'm gonna share it with all of you. In fact, prophets will often convey in the Old Testament, they're not speaking on their own behalf, they're speaking on behalf of the Lord, and the common phrase is, thus saith the Lord. I'm a courier for someone else. In stark contrast, you will never read in the Gospels, the word of the Lord came to Jesus. You will never find Jesus saying, thus saith the Lord. And in fact, to the contrary, nearly a hundred times, Jesus introduces his messages saying, truly, truly, I say to you. Jesus speaks not as the recipient of the word of God, but in John 1,1 as the very eternal word of God himself. When people hear Jesus, therefore, they say he is speaking with an authority that is mesmerizingly different than any other sort of teaching we have heard. But Jesus doesn't just know events. He knows the thoughts of men's hearts. on various occasions when religious authorities, Pharisees, Sadducees, those sent from the temple show up. We're told that Jesus, knowing their thoughts in Matthew 9, 4 says, why are you thinking evil in your hearts? We're told, but he knew what they were thinking and knowing their thoughts in Matthew 12, 25 and Luke 6, 8. Some might conclude Jesus is just engaging in a natural inference. He can see on their faces that they're not quite pleased with him. And so he inferred that their thoughts were evil. But in fact, this doesn't quite make sense because some of the religious authorities did believe in Jesus. Their thoughts weren't evil. There were men like Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea who sat on the high council or Sanhedrin of Israel. And they received his message. Moreover, most of the times Jesus performed miracles, people were largely in awe. And it wouldn't have been easy to distinguish. It would not have necessarily been easy to distinguish those who were enemies. But it goes beyond this. Jesus also knows, from the very beginning we are told, who his true disciples are. Friends, in any group of people, in any government, in any large body, some are present who are not really on board with what's going on and they leak information, they're spies for others. This is the reality in which we live. In and among Jesus' disciples, there was one, Judas, who was to betray him. After one of Jesus' hardest sermons where he says, I am bred, come down from heaven to give eternal life, Jesus says to his disciples in private, but there are some of you who do not believe for Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who it was that would betray him. Jesus has a knowledge even as he walks this earth as to who has a genuine, authentic, saving faith in the depths of their souls and who are simply professing faith. with no genuine devotion to him, he knows. This is why, by the way, the New Testament tells us that Jesus carried on with a confident distrust of others. Jesus not only knew who were his true disciples and who were not, but he also knew the very depths of human sin itself. And that is a testimony to his deity. In John chapter two, early on in his ministry, people were getting real excited about the things he was saying and doing. But it says in John 2.24 that Jesus on his part was not entrusting himself to them, for he knew all men. He himself knew what was in men. The prophets told us in the Old Testament that there's only one being who searches the depths of the human heart and it's evil. Jeremiah 17, chapter 17, verse nine says, the heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick. Who can understand it? I, the Lord, search the heart. I test the mind even to give to each man according to his ways, according to the results of his deeds. Who searches the depths of the heart? The Lord does. Oh, and Jesus does. And that makes him the almighty Lord. Jesus' omniscience is the most evident in what he says himself about the final judgment. There will be a final judgment, friends, where everything we have ever done, everything we have ever said, everything we have ever thought will be brought in to judgment. And Jesus says, that prerogative to judge the whole of you belongs to me. Matthew 16, 27, he says, for the son of man is going to come in the glory of his father with his angels and will repay every man according to his deeds. How can anyone but the omniscient God judge every single one of us for everything we have ever said, done, or been? It's these very sorts of things that led people to conclude that Jesus was not a mere man, but God in human flesh. And there's a lesson for every one of us in this room. Jesus in Revelation is described as one with eyes of fire, and the picture is clear. He has a burning gaze that can see into the depth of your soul, can judge the very thoughts of your hearts. And frankly, he is to be supremely feared by any unbeliever. That judgment in that gaze is awaiting you. But he is the greatest shield to anyone who has exercised faith in Jesus Christ. Because that judge's gaze turns away from you toward your accusers and your enemies in the flesh, and even demons, Satan, the accuser himself, and he is your defender. But there's another act of Christ that conveys his deity again and again. And this one is rather startling. Jesus was a man who walked this earth, and what he teaches is that he has the sovereign power and rights to be the one who determines who is saved and who is not. This is the great biblical doctrine of predestination, in and of itself a challenging concept, and one that we could and have spent many sermons expounding. The Bible tells us this again and again, that ultimately in eternity past, those who are saved have been elected and chosen by God in an inscrutable act of the divine will. Ephesians 1 lays this out clearly in verses 3 through 6. Blessed be God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who chose us in him before the foundations of the world. He predestined us to adoption as sons. The statement is so clear. And the doctrine yet is so contrary to human reason, so perplexing and challenging to us. It's hard to imagine any man could ever invent it. But what's even more startling is that there was a man who walked this earth and then said, the power of election actually belongs to me. How could any human person exercise such a prerogative from eternity past, much less know all of the elect of God by name? And yet, this is what Jesus himself says. I'm reminded of a time when I drove home, and a Jehovah's Witness, I can recognize them a mile away. They were approaching my door, and I happened to have my Bible with me, happened to have my Greek Bible with me. They had visited several times before, and so they knew what they were getting into. They sent a few today. Someone wanted to prove to me that Jesus surely wasn't God, but distinguished from God as a mere creature. And so he pointed to me this passage in Matthew 16, 17. This is where Jesus asked the disciples, who's everybody saying that I am? And Peter steps up first and says, you are the Christ, the son of God, that's who you are. And Jesus says in verse 17, Simon, blessed are you. Because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my father in heaven." What he's saying is, you didn't come to that conclusion by virtue of any mere outward benefit. Because a lot of people have heard what you heard, don't believe. A lot of people have learned what you learned, don't believe. They've seen the signs and they don't believe. He goes, therefore, your profession, it is actually a gift of election from my Father. Flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but the Father did. So the Jehovah's Witness said, look, Jesus says it right there. God the Father is God. I'm mere flesh and blood. I'm not the one who taught you this. The Father taught you this. So I took him to a passage in the same gospel of Matthew. where Jesus says in chapter 11 verse 27, no one knows the Father except the Son, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. See what that says? The only people who get to know who Jesus really is are those who are given that revelation by God the Father, and the only people who get to know who the Father is are those who have been adopted, predestined, and drawn by God the Son. The Jehovah's Witness admittedly laughed and said, wow, you're good, that's all he said. That's it. Didn't seem to shake his protest at all. Friends, I want you to think about how audacious it is for any man to say, your election is in my hands. John 1, verse 12, we could have read this in that prologue we read earlier, therefore says, as many as received him, To them, he gave the right or the power to become children of God. That is to say, if you have received Jesus, it is because he gave you the power to do so. And the verse goes on. He gave them the power to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who are born not of blood, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Wait a second. If the power to believe in Jesus comes from Jesus and that's given to you not by the will of the flesh nor of the power of man, what does that make Jesus? He's God in human flesh. What mere man can claim exclusive holistic knowledge of God the Father? What mere man has the prerogative to choose which depraved sinners throughout all time will be reborn as saints? What mere man has the power to impart the right to become sons of God. There's a lesson in all of this and you need to know it, you need to chew on it. If you have trusted in Jesus Christ for salvation, I just need to ask you, have you praised him for imparting to you eyes to see? You and I would be hopelessly and helplessly hell bound, but for the most mighty act of God in human flesh through Jesus Christ. It's important to understand you were not just teetering on the edge of death and destruction, and that you made a wise choice all of a sudden to deviate from that path. You were racing, racing toward eternal destruction. And Jesus, with his almighty sovereign hand, brought you into saving relationship with the Father. These sorts of things made men conclude that Jesus is God. We've been doing it ever since. But there are certain works that are simultaneously expressive of Jesus' deity and humanity. These are incredible. We'll consider these now. The miracles that Jesus worked often involved employing a human body in one fashion or another. Jesus would use his audible words just like yours and mine. to affect healing, he would use his hands and he would lay them on people, his feet to go to those who were far off. Even use his saliva on a man's eyes that could not see. All of those things require human flesh. And yet with those hands, he would sometimes multiply bread beyond its natural size and capacity. He would just the same alter substances by his command from water into wine. He would even command physical elements with those audible human words. And so as it were, all at once, you see the God-man in action. This distinguishes Jesus utterly from other prophets. It is true, other prophets were involved in miracles. But I'll let you know a few things. When prophets in the Old Testament would be engaged in miracles, they would announce what God would do, as often Moses did in the 10 plagues of Egypt, but Jesus you will find commanding. Occasionally in the New Testament, you'll find those apostles commanding healing and the like, but they'll do so in the name of Jesus, invoking his name, and you will note, Jesus invokes no one else's name. Jesus just as well has unlimited authority in his performance of miracles where Jesus will say to the disciples, certain especially powerful demons can only come out with prolonged prayer. Jesus cast them out immediately. I want you to consider some of these miracles of Christ. Jesus calms the sea according to the gospels. And I want you to put yourself in the shoes of a Jewish people who were raised in church singing the biblical Psalms. Many of you know that we sing the biblical Psalms in this church. We're working on the whole Psalter. Get them into worship. I want you to think about someone who spent their life singing Psalm 65, verse five. And praise to God, the people of Israel saying, by awesome deeds you answer us in righteousness, O God of our salvation, who stills the roaring of the seas the roaring of the waves. Think about you knowing that song, you've been singing it perhaps from youth. Now put yourselves in the boat on the crashing sea where we read in Mark chapter four, there arose a fierce gale of wind and the waves were breaking over the boat. So much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus is merely sleeping, disciples get him up, say we're gonna die. And it says, he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the seas, hush, be still. And the wind died down and became perfectly calm. Imagine you know those words, you know that song and you see that event. What could you conclude? But that the one whom you had praised as the mighty God who has power over the most chaotic things in creation, was standing there with you on the boat. This, on reflection for the disciples, is the sort of event that led them to profess Jesus not merely as a great man, savior, prophet, miracle worker, but as God in human flesh. All throughout the Bible, the C from Genesis 1-2 is representative of the chaotic part of creation. And chaos in its natural form is not necessarily evil. It surely is a good image for evil in the form of sin. But Jesus shows his sovereignty over the most radical, untameable things in nature. Just the same, there's another event. where Jesus meets his disciples again on the sea, but this time, he's walking on the water, but not sinking. Now, to walk is a human deed. God has not a body like men, such that any sort of walking goes on, so we see his humanity, but to walk on water without sinking, that is expressive of his deity. And in fact, Jesus has this sovereignty to impart this same ability to his disciples when they have faith in him. And so in that classic episode in Matthew 14, Peter walks out onto the sea. I'm gonna point out a few things in that passage. This is what it says. When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified. That's appropriate. And said, it is a ghost. And they cried out in fear, but immediately Jesus spoke to them saying, take courage. And the Greek actually says, take courage, I am. Ego emi. He uses that self-description that God did from the burning bush when he disclosed his name, I am. It says, Peter said to him, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water. But seeing the wind, he became frightened and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me. And immediately Jesus stretched out his hand and took hold of him and said to him, you of little faith, why did you doubt? And those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, you are certainly the son of God. Why do you suppose they concluded that? What was a remarkable event in and of itself, but if these men knew their Bibles, they would know verses like those in Job, where Job himself says, it is God who alone tramples down the waves of the sea. They would know that God himself, when he met Job, said this, have you entered the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? It was God who has this prerogative. and Jesus exercises it. I would ask you as a reflection on this passage, if when you find yourself amidst chaos, you find yourself in seasons where everything seems out of control, whether you call on Christ who calms the seas, maybe you felt that way in the last couple of weeks and you're treating Jesus as a distant Lord, Jesus made it clear, whatsoever you ask me in my name, it shall be done for you, if it is according to my will. Jesus exercises sovereignty over death. This especially points us to his deity. Death is an affliction that man earned for himself in the fall. Genesis two through three is so clear about this. And all men experience the pains of this death directly and indirectly. Sometimes experiencing other people's death is actually even more painful a thought in your mind than experiencing your own. And Jesus wept when Lazarus had died and had to be raised again. But Jesus exercises the prerogative to raise the dead, and the Old Testament was so clear that this is the power and prerogative of God. In Deuteronomy 32, in the great song of Moses to be memorized by Israel, God says, see now that I, I am, and there is no God besides me. It is I who put to death and give life. This is my prerogative. Now indeed, there were a couple of prophets in the Bible who performed miracles of resurrection from the dead, but I want to point something out to you. When Elijah goes and raises the widow's son from the dead, he does so only by prayer to the God who has the prerogative to raise the dead. He says, oh Lord my God, I pray to you, let this child's life return to him. Likewise, Elisha, he also is called upon by a woman who has lost her son. It says, so he entered and shut the door behind them and both prayed to the Lord. And then God answers the prayer with a resurrection. Jesus is not seen asking his father to raise people from the dead. Jesus commands it and even claims to be the power of resurrection in himself. We see this when a synagogue official named Jairus sent for Jesus because his daughter had died. This synagogue official was like the equivalent of a ruling elder. You can imagine if one of our ruling elders from Scott to Tim to Ben called on someone to come to their home when their child had died. And if that someone came to the home and simply said, little girl, I say to you, get up. No prayer, no intercession, just an authoritative command. What a startling thing that would be and how natural it would be to conclude that man is the word of God who called the creation into being with his voice. Jesus does it again. There's a widow in the City of Nine. It says he goes up to a coffin this time. And he touched the coffin and said, young man, I say to you, arise. And he rises. The most remarkable of these, of course, though, is when Jesus raises his own friend, Lazarus. Lazarus has been dead for a while. He's been entombed. And when Jesus is speaking to the sister of Lazarus, he says to her, I am the resurrection and the life. What an incredible claim for some man whom you encounter. It says that he cried out with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And the man who had died came forth bound hand and foot with wrappings. He's embalmed at that point and he's come to life. Well, shocking as it is for a man to exercise the power to raise the dead, we must be triply shocked at the man who claims to raise himself from the dead. There are some incredible things that you could imagine a prophet doing at the behest of the Lord who sent them to do them, but no man can claim to be the very agent of their own resurrection, but a man who is God. Jesus early in his ministry, outside of the temple in Jerusalem said, destroy this temple and in three days, I will raise it up. And the Jews then said, it took 40 and six years to build this temple and will you raise it up in three days? But he was speaking of the temple of his body. For a man to build the temple in three days, perhaps with modern marvels of machinery, we could imagine. but to raise oneself from death is the prerogative of the Almighty. Jesus says it again in John chapter 10, I lay down my life so that I may take it up again. I have authority to lay it down and I have authority to take it up again. We're told in Acts 2.24 it was impossible for Jesus to be held in the power of death because he's life in himself. Now, of course, it's worth noting, many other Bible verses say that the Father raised Jesus from the dead, and the Spirit of God raised Jesus from the dead, and none of those contradict the verses that say Jesus rose himself from the dead, because this, my friends, is the entire point of the doctrine of the Trinity. We have three persons, one God, acting in all the mighty works of God from creation to election to resurrection. But the most remarkable work of Christ that speaks to his deity and humanity at once is his vicarious atonement, his payment for all human sin, which isn't even finished yet, by the way, we're still at it, still at it, atonement. Every single sinner chosen by God, every single member of his church requires a sacrifice that is both man and God. Frankly, to be a sacrifice, to undergo death, Christ had to be a man. But to be a sacrifice of infinite worth, Christ had to be God. Friends, I don't think you get it. Even if Jesus lived a perfect human life, doing everything that his father had ever asked of him, The weight and value of that perfection would be merely human. In Jesus' own parable, he says this, when you do all the things which are commanded of you, you need to say we are unworthy slaves. We have only done that which we ought to have done. If Jesus lived a perfect life as a mere man, friends, he would just be one man who merited for himself eternal life in the presence of the Father. But what Jesus did was different. Jesus was God, who took on human flesh and humbled himself in a fashion that was not required of him, so that from the very beginning, his sacrifice, his deed, was of infinite value. In fact, Paul, when laying upon the officers of the church, the responsibility of their duties to these Ephesian elders, he says in Acts 20, be on your guard for yourselves and all the flock, among which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the flock of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Did you hear that? shepherd the flock of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Well, God deity being pure spirit, absolute infinite being, doesn't have blood, men do, and yet it was God's blood that was shed for you and me. In its weight, its value, its efficacy, its capacity. to satisfy God's just judgment, not just against you, but every single sinner who calls on his name is evident. This is why John the Apostle can say in 1 John 2, the blood of Jesus his son cleanses us from all sin. He himself is the propitiation, the satisfaction of God's just judgment of sinners. For our sins, and not only for ours, but also for those of the whole world. What this means, and this is the imperative I lay on you friends, saving faith is not just directed into Jesus as a great man, a mere human savior, but to Jesus as God. And not just to Jesus as God, but to Jesus as God made flesh, who accomplished what only God could, only man had the responsibility such that he should, to obey and to suffer. And this makes the weight of Jesus' words all that much more heavy in John 7, 24. Jesus says to his critics, I say to you that you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am. You will die in your sins. He makes it clear. unless you direct your faith to me as the great self-existent I am in human flesh, unless you have that highest regard for me, you don't have eternal life. We can't settle for friends, family, coworkers who have a high regard for Jesus. We can't settle for the portrait of Jesus that, say, Jordan Peterson, the great psychologist, has for this man as a great teacher. We can't settle for that. Jesus himself said, you must regard me as the resurrection and the life, the way, the truth and the light. You must regard me as more valuable than the whole world. But you know what? The hardest thing for the first The first generation of those who encountered Jesus, the hardest thing to believe wasn't that he was God. In fact, the earliest heresy was that these remarkable deeds of Jesus are so incredible, he must only be God. And so it says in 1 John 4, beloved, do not believe every spirit. By this you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh is from God. You've also got to believe in the full, genuine reality of Jesus' humanity. I hope that you are challenged today by Jesus' claims, by the sheer grandeur of his claims, by the newness of his claims, even today, for so many of those whom you love and care about, I hope that you will leave this place cowering not to speak of him. Bow your heads with me. Jesus, right on the surface of the New Testament so many times, your inspired apostles, they tell us exactly who you are, God in human flesh. But just the same Lord Jesus, the deeds of yours that they record, they're the deeds of no mere man, but of the Almighty walking among us, and we praise you as such, the eternal Son of the Father. Fully God, the light of the world, We praise you and we thank you for this knowledge of you. We do regard it as that pearl of great price that was worth more than every other human possession. We pray, Lord God, we pray that we would have this same tenor of conviction all of our days, all throughout our day, that we would be witnesses of you. In Jesus' name we pray, by your spirit, amen.