Would you complete this verse? Rejoice in the Lord always and again I say. Just a few minutes ago we recited together these words that we believe in the incarnation and virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His identification as the Son of God. his identification as the Son of God. Dr. Jones has requested that we give our attention to that article of the Creed this morning. One Saturday afternoon in a small country town in North Carolina where I was pastoring as a young seminary student, I knocked on the door of a white-framed house, and the door was opened by a man of about my age. We sat in his living room, he on the couch, right next to his bookcase in which there were many reference volumes that I myself was being taught here in the seminary to be able to use. And we discussed our doctrinal beliefs. I asked him that afternoon, among other things, if he believed that Jesus is the Son of God. And his immediate response was, of course. And when I probed more deeply, He responded that Jesus was the Son of God, just as we all are sons of God. It's just that Jesus was more advanced in it than any of us have ever been. It's a really critical question as to whether people like that are right, for there are very many of them, and they occupy influential positions. I had knocked on that man's door because I knew him to be the pastor of one of the large denominational churches in that area. And I want to raise that question this morning as to what the Scripture is actually teaching when it says that Jesus is the Son of God. Is it merely that he is more advanced as a human being than you and I are? And what I'd like to ask us all to do this morning is to turn to five passages of Scripture. The first one we're going to be in for just a little bit and then four later on. Three of them are in the same book of our New Testament. I'd like to ask you to open your Bibles to the 20th chapter of the Gospel of John. And there are two verses here that I would like for us to read together. John chapter 20 and the verses I'm referring to are the 30th and the 31st. These verses are a summary, and they also state the purpose for the writing of this gospel. Let's read them, verse 30. And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. and that believing ye might have life through his name." These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. What are these signs that John is calling our attention to that are confirmatory that Jesus is the Son of God? I'm going to run through those rather quickly, and I would like to just raise the question as to how many of these you also from memory could run through if you were giving someone the gospel. These signs are miracles, and to this point in the book there are seven of them. What was the first? What was the first public miracle which our Lord performed? Well, we won't turn to these passages, but let's just go through them from memory. The first of them is recorded in the second chapter, and it was our Lord transforming a very simple substance, water, into the complexity of wine. He did it without ushering or uttering a word of command, without even praying a prayer, without moving His hands. He did it with nothing but the movement of His will. and he made a lot of it. Six water pots containing 20 to 30 gallons apiece, 120 to 180, somewhere in there, 120 to 180 gallons of fine wine. Great wedding present. But the most important thing is, the scripture then says, he manifested forth his glory when he did that, and his disciples believed on him. The second of these signs is in the fourth chapter. The Lord removed a fever from a dying boy, and he did so at a great distance. He was not only not at the boy's bedside, he wasn't even in the boy's town. And the scripture says that his father and his whole household believed after the Lord did that. The third of these miracles in John's gospel is in the fifth chapter. And we're introduced there to this man at the pool of Bethesda. This is a familiar miracle to most of us. And the man is introduced as being impotent. That means he is without power. And specifically we're told that his impotency lay in his legs. And he had been in this condition for 38 years. If you're 19 this morning, that's two times your present lifetime. Imagine having a problem that long. And we're in a little different category of things here than a fever in a child. A fever in a child falls into the category of what you would call a functional illness. That is the temporary malfunctioning of a normal organ. Nothing wrong with the organ, it just has a fever. But if you're talking someone who's had a malady for 38 years, inability to walk, some of you can relate to this because you've had a broken bone that's been in a cast for weeks or perhaps longer than that. What happens to the tissue? When that cast comes off, were you able to resume your running or resume your use of your hand, your limb, just as you had before? Physicians refer to this as the atrophizing, the atrophy of that member. The tissue itself is affected. In a man who's had a malady like this that long, you can be sure that his legs look like little matchsticks. This is called organic disease, when the organ itself is now malformed, defective, or the tissue is destroyed. And the Lord said to this man, rise. Don't just stand up. Keep your balance, bend over, pick up your pallet, and walk off. and immediately the man was made whole. That whole process of nearly four decades was reversed like that. The fourth of the miracles in John's gospel affected more people than any other that our Lord performedâ€"5,000 hungry men and women and children, too, and a boy with a lunch. Five barley loaves. You don't need to think loaves of big Italian bread. Five cakes. You might think of these as just little sandwich style. Two small fish. The Lord multiplied all of that so that it could be distributed to 12 men who distributed it to all of these thousands and thousands of people. And the scripture says they didn't all just get a morsel. They ate until they were all filled. I heard a radio preacher one time explain that miracle. He said it was a miracle, but not the kind that you think. Actually, what happened was this, that most of those Jewish people were well prepared. They'd brought food. They just kept it hidden under their robes because they didn't want to have to share it with anyone. And when they saw that little boy share his lunch with Jesus, it shamed them, and they all pulled out their food. Now there was enough for everyone, even the people who hadn't thought to prepare anything to bring. You know, that miracle is recorded in all four Gospels, and it's this Gospel, John, that gives the lie to that interpretation. Because John says that when the Lord directed that they pick up the fragments that remained, they picked up twelve baskets full of the five barley loaves. feed thousands of people with it, and when it's all done, you got 12 baskets of the fragments of the same loaves remaining. It's no wonder that when that was finished, the people said of a truth, this is that prophet who should come into the world. And they tried to make him king. Our Lord was not prepared for that at that point in his ministry. He put the disciples in a boat. The miracle was evidently performed on the northern end of the Sea of Galilee, over on the eastern side. He sent them to go back to Capernaum on the western side. They got caught in a storm in the night. It evidently blew them far down south into the sea, about three or four miles out into it. They couldn't make headway against the wind, and the Lord appears to them walking on water. And he found that boat in the night. He overtook that boat in the night. He got into that boat and the scripture says, immediately the boat was at the land. And Matthew's gospel says, and when they saw that, they worshipped him and they said, truly you are the son of God. The next miracle in John's gospel is in the ninth chapter. It's remarkable because we're introduced to a man there who had had his malady since birth. What do we call a malady like that? That's not functional illness. That's even beyond organic illness. If somebody's born with a problem, we call that what? That's congenital. And the Lord didn't restore that man's sight. He never had it. The Lord gave him sight. And finally, two chapters later, you have the marvel of a man who is laying in a tomb for days. But Jews themselves know that by that point, his flesh is already decomposing. This was a terminal case. And with a command, the Lord raised him from the dead. Now, if you'll stop and think about that sequence, the Holy Spirit has designed that succession of signs for us in John's Gospel because they lead you from what you might conceive to be the least difficult. to the most impossible. They do it in the realms both of material things and of physical illnesses. Transformation of quality. to multiplication of quantity in the case of the barley loaves and the fish. And finally, the transcendence of many, many of the laws that are out there in nature for the Lord to walk on that water and calm that storm and transport that boat instantly several miles across that lake. And right through those miracles, the functional malady, the organic malady of the man 38 years unable to walk, the congenital illness, and the terminal case. It's like God comes and says to you, can you believe that Jesus could do this with water? You say, well, okay. All right, now let me try you out on this. Do you think that someone who could do that could remove a fever from a boy? You find yourself nodding your head. The Lord presents you with, all right, now let me ask you about a man with a problem 38 years. Let's try you out on 5,000 people, thousands more than that, women and children too, five loaves, two fish. You think Jesus could feed all of those people with that little limited quantity? You're nodding your head. And God takes you along all the way finally to this one, folks. Okay, now do you believe He could give life to dead people? Because if He can't, you're all goners. But these are written so that you might believe that this person is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through his name." So the question again, folks, is, was my acquaintance that day correct when he said, Jesus is the Son of God in the same sense that all of us are. He just was more advanced in that category than we are. And the signs of John's gospel are intended to answer that question conclusively with a, no, that is not the correct thing to believe or to preach and teach. Now that brings me to this secondly. What is the significance of Jesus being the Son of God like that? This is where I want to ask us to turn to four more passages. I'd like to ask you first of all to turn In this same gospel, back to the fifth chapter, we're going to look at one passage in chapter 5 and a second one in this gospel in chapter 8. Would you go back to chapter 5, where we have a discussion about the relationship of Jesus to God the Father. And this follows that miracle of His healing that impotent man. And if you'll notice please, verse 16, the Jews reacted negatively to that because he did it on the Sabbath day. And when they accused him of having broken the law, our Lord's response, verse 17, Jesus answered them, my father worketh hitherto and I work. Now, would you notice verse 18? This is the verse we want to look at. Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his father. Making himself equal with God. When we raise this question, what is the significance of Him being the Son of God? He's not the Son in the same sense that we can be children of God, but what exactly is the significance? The conclusion of the Jews in the first century was when he says, God is my father and I am his son, he's making himself equal with God. One day I encountered a man on the street that runs out behind our church properties here in town. Conservatively dressed man, very polite. And we stood in the middle of that street, obviously not a busy street, and we talked. And I began to try to give him the gospel. And initially, there was a great deal of agreement between us until we came to this matter of Jesus being the Son of God. At that point, we had sharp disagreement. The man informed me that Jesus was actually the first created being. that he was godlike, but not the same as God. And it turned out that this man was a Jehovah's Witness. And I called his attention to this very passage, and his response was, the Jews got it wrong. It's true that they thought he was making himself equal with God, but Jesus wasn't doing that. They misunderstood him. Well, what I'd like to do at this point is just stake this down, that when we ask about the matter of, all right, what is the significance of this title? It's clear from the signs that he's not an ordinary human being. But what exactly is the significance? Is it this kind of an advancement on that? Yes, he's not an ordinary human being, but he still falls short of being God. I'd like to stake this down. The Jews disagreed. They thought he was making himself equal with God. So that brings us to this issue, and this is where we need to go to the next passage I want us to turn to in John's Gospel. What did Jesus conceive about this? Did the Jews misinterpret his own self-conception? So I'm going to ask you to turn to the eighth chapter. It's three chapters later. And again, the context here is one of these discussions, these controversies about this very matter. Would you look at the 53rd verse? I'm going to have to get just a little context here. The Jews ask him, are you greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead. Whom makest thou thyself? Now that's the same issue. You're making yourself equal with God. That was John 5. Now, they're asking him, what is your own conception of yourself? Who do you make yourself out to be? And they refer to Abraham. And later on in this passage, verse 56, our Lord says, you know, let me talk with you a minute about Abraham. Did you know that Abraham rejoiced to see my day? And their response was, what? You're not even 50 years old. Have you seen Abraham? And the Lord's answer, before Abraham was, I am. There are two different words in that text. Before Abraham came into being, I am. Well, Abraham came into being over two millennia earlier. You ever looked at anybody about your same height, about your same look and age, and he claims to have been there over 2,000 years ago? A 2,000 year old being? What is Jesus' self-conception? You've got the Jews' conclusion. What is our Lord's own conception and claim about this? Before Abraham came into being, I am. You know, he uses the same exact Greek expression that you have in the Greek translation of the Old Testament when God said to Moses, I am. Jesus was claiming that same self-existence. And that brings me to this. What is God the Father's viewpoint of all of this? I want to ask you now to turn out of the book of John. This is the fourth of the passages we're looking at this morning. Would you go with me please to the book of Hebrews? The book of Hebrews in the first chapter And the thing that is so good about this particular chapter, and I hope you're keeping track of at least some of these references because it'll give you what you need when you're talking to people who are questioning this very issue. The thing that's so helpful about this is that it's written This book is written to that same group of people in that controversy with Jesus. It's written to Hebrews, to Jewish people. And look at the way the book begins. Look at the first verse. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time passed unto the fathers by the prophets, that's the whole Old Testament period, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son. Okay? So there I've got the Father and the Son in the same passage. That just connects me right back in to the whole succession of thought that I'm having, and that is, what is Jesus' relationship to God the Father? The Jews said, when you say, He's your Father, you're making yourself equal with Him. When they questioned Him more fully, what do you say about yourself? What's your own conception of yourself? Before Abraham came into existence, I am. Well, what's God the Father's viewpoint of the Son? I want to take you down to the seventh verse. There are people who say that Jesus, you're right, was no ordinary human being. He was more like an angel. In fact, folks, the man that I was talking to in the street, the Jehovah's Witness, believes, as Jehovah's Witnesses and teaches, that Jesus is the incarnate form of Michael the archangel. Well, look at verse seven. Of the angels, God the Father says, who maketh his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But verse 8, when it comes to the Son, that's not what he says about him. In the 45th Psalm, under the sun he saith, now this is staggering language. God the Father says to the sun, thy throne. And folks, I would like all of us please to say these next two words together. Would you do this? Thy throne, say it with me. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of thy kingdom. God the Father's confirmation is the deity, the full deity of the Son. And that is why if you turn with me now to the fifth and last passage, you'll just turn back in your Bible, not forward in your Bible, but back in your Bible about five or six pages to the third chapter of 1 Timothy. Would you do that? Would you just flip back to 1 Timothy chapter 3 and look at the 16th verse? That is why some thirty and more years after Jesus has ascended back to heaven, that is why the apostles are going everywhere preaching a creed. Like the creed that we quoted this morning, the first century church had creeds. They had come to understand the truth, systematize it, and compress it into small, compact statements, really portable, the kinds of things that people could carry around in their vest pocket and pull out immediately from their memories. And if you'll look please at the 15th verse of 1 Timothy chapter 3, Paul says to Timothy that the church, I'm reading at the end of the verse, is the pillar and ground of the truth. The church is the thing upholding the truth in the world. And then your 16th verse is one of the earliest Christian creeds. Now look really carefully at this wording. Without controversy, all right, this means there is no question about this. It's undeniable and beyond debate. This creed, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. Justified in the spirit, that means vindicated by the spirit of God. seen of angels, seen of messengers, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory. You can see all those statements concern the same member of the Godhead. God was manifest in the flesh and in the end he was received up into glory. Now follow this. What is the significance of that title? The Jews concluded that he was using that title to make himself equal with God. When they really pressed him, Jesus claimed that they had it right. When the book of our Bible that is completely addressed to those people is written, it says that God the Father confirmed that a long time ago, all the way back in the Psalms. And Paul in his first pastoral letter says this is beyond debate. And folks, what we've done is come full circle because the gospel of John opens with these words, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. So there are two persons there, but the Word was God. And you drop down to the 14th verse and it says, and the Word was made flesh. Let me show you seven signs. These are written so you would believe this about Him. And the Bible tells us wonderfully when John writes his first letter. It says this, he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, do you believe that? He that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him. and He in God. And that brings us to this creed that we recite in chapel. And when you cite that believingly, His identification as the Son of God, when you cite that believingly, that is an evidence that God dwells in you and you in God. Let's bow for prayer. Gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you for giving this testimony to your son. And we pray that every soul in this room would be one that is regenerated by the acceptance of this testimony. And we thank you for revealing to us that those of us who have believed this are truly your children. We give you our praise in Christ's precious name. Amen.