We turn to John chapter 1, John chapter 1 for Bible reading today. We've been speaking about the Trinity and today we want to speak about the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. For quite some number of months we have been speaking on the doctrine of God. Can I say that in the will of God I want to park that subject matter for the summer months, and so this will be the last message in this part of the series. We've got plenty more to speak about and plenty more to preach about on the attributes of God. And so we want to do that, God willing, as we move into September. But over the summer period, we just want to park it and give us a little bit of a rest with respect to the great truths that we've been thinking about and maybe preach some messages. The Lord has been directing me to a particular Person that I want to think about maybe over the next couple of weeks But we'll see as the Lord will lead and guide and so we just want to say that this will be the final Message in this part of the as we speak about the doctrine of God But let's read John chapter 1 and we'll read from the opening verse In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God The same was in the beginning with God all things were made by him and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of man. And the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. It was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light. that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came on to his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, To them give ye power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Amen. And we'll end our reading there. Let's unite in prayer. Father in heaven, we come before the Word again, and we submit, dear God, ourselves to the teaching of Scripture. We pray, O God, that all of our doctrine might be biblically based. And so we pray that all of our false notions and all of our prejudices and all of those things that are unbiblical might be banished, dear God, from our minds and from our convictions, we pray. And we pray that we would Father, submit to the teaching of thy word. Bless every heart. Give us an understanding, a heart, dear God, a tender heart, an open heart, that we might receive that which is contained within the scriptures of truth. And so answer prayer. Grant thy servant the power of God, the unfilling of the Holy Spirit with wisdom and power. We pray that this message will be a benefit and will be of profit to everyone who sits and listens to thy word today. For we pray this, our prayer, in and through Jesus' precious and wondrous name. Amen. Well, last Lord's Day, we did consider together the biblical evidence that points us to the personality and to the deity of God, the Holy Spirit. It is my desire today to present to you the biblical evidence that points us to the deity of the second person of the Trinity, none other than God the Son. Now you may have asked yourself the question, what benefit is such a message going to be for me? Well, in the first place, I believe that we need to understand that the one who saves us from our sin is truly God. Without Him being God, He has no right to claim that He is able to deliver sinners from their sin. Not only can God save, But Jesus Christ being God, He also sees, because only God can see. And if Jesus Christ is not God, then we are yet in our sins. This message will also help us when cults like the Jehovah Witnesses, the Russellites, or the Mormons will come and knock on your door, because every false religion that exists in the world diverges on this fundamental issue, on the deity of Jesus Christ. Such groupings deny that Jesus Christ was and is the Son of God. For example, the JWs, the Russellites, state that Jesus Christ is the only directly created one by God. Jesus is the only one directly created by God. And that God the Father is greater than the Son. Now the scriptures certainly contradict those teachings and those aforementioned thoughts. The deity of Jesus Christ It's not only a doctrine that is attacked from those outside the church, but it has at times been denied by those within the church of Jesus Christ. An example of that is seen in the Arian controversy that embroiled the Irish Presbyterian Church in the days of Henry Cook. Henry Montgomery was a great proponent, a great advocate for the teaching of Arianism. And Arianism taught, among other things, that the Word that was with God and was God was a mere created being and not the eternal Son of God. Such a doctrine was allowed to infiltrate the Irish Presbyterian Church until Dr. Henry Cook came and debated Montgomery. And as a result of those debates within those presbytery meetings, he was able to remove and to sever from the denomination those men who preached such heresy concerning the person and the work of Jesus Christ. By the way, PCI would need another Dr. Henry Cook among them today. You know that in recent weeks, in their annual general presbytery, they made this statement, and I quote from PCI's own webpage. They have decided to enter into discussions with the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland around the contemporary understanding of the doctrine of justification. They have entered into discussions with the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland around the contemporary understanding of the doctrine of justification. Now I would hope that those discussions would be to show the Roman Catholic Church the error of their ways with respect to the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, in Christ alone, by grace alone, and not to cozy up to those who preach another gospel. But I'll leave that with them. What a person, what a denomination, what a religion believes about the person of Jesus Christ is fundamental. What think ye of Christ is the test. To try both your state and your scheme, you cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of Him. And so when such cults come to your door, you and I need to be armed with the biblical evidence that proves that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Son of God. Not for the sake of winning an argument, but rather for the sake of winning men. winning them from the error of their ways, and winning them to place their faith and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. So today I want to very quickly, and it is lengthy today, I want to preach on the biblical evidence that proves that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is the Son of God. He is the Son of God. The deity of Jesus Christ is proved firstly by the names of God that are attributed to him. If Jesus Christ is the Son of God and God the Son, then the names attributed to God will also be attributed to Him. And this we find to be true as we make our way through the Scriptures. On at least 40 different occasions, Jesus Christ is referred to as the Son of God. On other occasions, he is referred to as his son, God's son. And God refers to him audibly as my son. This is my beloved son. Five times in the biblical record, the Lord Jesus Christ is referred to as the only begotten son of God. But let me give you a number of other examples where the divine titles are attributed to Jesus Christ. And as I said last week, if you want a copy of these notes, I'll print you out a copy. If you want them sent to you by email, I'll send you out by email. Just give me your email address because there's quite a number here today. Can I say in Hebrews chapter 1, first of all, the verse number 8, that the Son is addressed as God. Let me read the portion. But unto the Son, he saith, thy throne, O God. is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is the scepter of his kingdom. Deity here is ascribed to the Son of God. He is expressly called God in Hebrews 1 and the verse number 8. Now these words are taken out of Psalm 46 or 45 and the verse number 6. They refer to the King that is being spoken of within that particular Psalm. He is the subject of the psalm, but he is distinguished within the psalm as being different from God the Father. He is the one who is blessed. He is the one who has been anointed by the Father. Who is the anointed one? The Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. And this is put beyond all doubt by the apostle who has said here that the one being addressed is the Son, but unto the Son He, the Father, said, Thy throne, O God, is forever and forever. The Son of God. Jesus Christ is declared to be, and he is declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead. Romans 1 verse 14, the resurrection proves that Jesus Christ is none other than the Son of God. I think of another Bible reference, Matthew 1 verse 23. There the one who came forth from the virgin is described as being Immanuel. Behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. The sense of the verse is that when Christ came into the world, God came into the world, because the virgin-born child was God. Emmanuel, God with us. I think of Thomas's great declaration of faith. He beholds the hands, the wounded hands, the wounded feet, the wounded side of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Thomas makes this great confession of faith in John chapter 20 in the verse 28. He says about the one standing before him, he says, my Lord and my God. You notice there in John chapter 28 or 20 in the verse 28 that the Lord Jesus Christ did not reprimand Thomas for saying such words because he was God. He didn't oppose Thomas's declaration. He left it standing there to prove his own deity. The Apostle Paul is an individual who refers to the Lord Jesus Christ as God throughout his epistles. I point you just to two references, there are many, many others, but Romans 9 and the verse number 5. Who are the fathers of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, God, blessed forever, amen. This one Christ who comes in the flesh, Paul says that he is God-blessed forever. In Titus 2, in the verse 13, we read these words, looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. Our young people will know what I'm about to say. They should know. There is a rule in Greek. It's called the Granville Sharp Rule. It simply states that if there are two nouns that exist side by side together, along with a conjunction, and the conjunction is the word and in that particular verse, the great God and our savior Jesus Christ. If one of those nouns does not possess the definite article, the letter or the word the, Then the previous noun we have here, our great God, refers to the one who is spoken of as the one Jesus Christ, our Savior, our Savior Jesus Christ. And that is the case within this particular phrase. The Savior Jesus Christ does not contain the definite article, the word God does, and that means, that the word God refers to the one Savior Jesus Christ. You can look up a Greek book if you desire to look at it, but you'll find there that they are synonymous terms. They are the same person that is being spoken of here. And this is what we have in Titus 2 verse 13, looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God, and then the same one is being spoken of, and our Savior Jesus Christ. And so Jesus Christ is God. And then there are scriptures in the Old Testament that are said to refer to Jehovah, that then are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament. And from that, we conclude that Jesus Christ is God. An example of that is found in Psalm 102, and the verse 26 there. The psalmist speaking of Jehovah says about the heavens and the earth, they shall perish, but thou shalt endure. Ye, all of them, shall wax old like a garment, as a vesture shalt thou change them, they shall be changed. But if you go to Hebrews in the chapter 1, the verse 10 and 11, you'll find that these words from Psalm 102, verse 26, are applied to none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son that's spoken of in Hebrews 1 and the verse number 8, referring to Him. These words are applied to Him. Therefore, the Old Testament Scriptures, speaking of Jehovah, being applied to none other than Jesus Christ, we automatically then but can only conclude that Jesus Christ is God, Jehovah God. The absolute proof of Christ a deity is found, I believe, in John chapter 1 and the verse number 1. We read that portion today. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Verse 1 clearly states that the Word, the Logos, was God. The literal rendering of the phrase, the word was with God, that word with simply means was face-to-face with God. Before time began, there was one who was face-to-face with God. Panem, the Greek word, face-to-face with God, and this one who was face-to-face with God was God. God himself. God existing in the Trinity of His persons before time ever commenced. And we read later on in this chapter, the verse number 14, that the Word, His identity is brought to us because we find that this Word was made flesh. It reminds us of the incarnation when God became a man. Now, Muslims think that to be very strange. They think it to be very strange. They deny that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. They believe that a man became God. When we speak about Jesus Christ being God, they believe that a man became God. But folks, we believe that God became man. We believe God became a man. That's the mystery of it all. The great doctrine of the Incarnation, God becoming flesh, Paul would speak about that in 1st Timothy when he said, great is the mystery of godliness. God, God was manifest in the flesh. Speaking of God himself, the personal God. You see, with Islam, their God is an impersonal God. They cannot know him. They cannot communicate with him. But our God is a personal God. He has come to us in the person of His own dear Son. The greatest revelation of God to mankind, not in creation, not even in the book, but in Christ Himself. Christ is the great revelation of God to mankind. And thus we find here the One who is the Word becomes God. And He was God, a definite statement within Scripture that affirms the deity of Jesus Christ. And so the divine names that are given to Jesus Christ affirm that He is truly God. But in the second instance, and the second way by which the Scriptures can prove that Jesus Christ is truly God, is that the attributes of God are ascribed to Jesus Christ. As we read through the Word of God, Those attributes which belong to God are ascribed to this man, Jesus of Nazareth. They prove that he is co-equal, he is co-eternal, and he is co-essential with the Father. I give you just a number of them, point out such divine attributes that are ascribed to Jesus Christ. I think of the divine attribute of eternity. In our studies on the doctrine of God, we have already considered the eternity of God. And I reminded you back then that the word eternal, it simply means in front of time or that which is before. As a word, it is suggestive of God being before time, one who existed before even the creation of time. And that is simply what we mean when we speak about God being eternal, that he exists outside the remit, outside the realm of time. Now, does Jesus Christ possess the attribute of eternity? Well, in Micah chapter 5 in the verse 2, it's an Old Testament prophecy concerning the Messiah. It was a prophecy that was used by the scribes and by the chief priests to determine the locality of the newborn Messiah in Matthew chapter 2. Well, that particular verse, speaking of the coming Messiah, indicates that Jesus Christ possesses the attribute of eternity. But thou Bethlehem Ephrath, thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me, that is to be ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from old, from everlasting, from eternity." This one who's going to come, his goings forth have been from everlasting, from eternity past. Other passages you could refer to With respect to the eternity of God, Proverbs chapter 8, verses 22 and 23. Isaiah 9, in the verse 6. John 8, verse 58. Let's turn there. You're in John. You should be. John 8, and the verse number 58. Speaking of Abraham, I believe, this great portion. John chapter 8, verse 58. Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Abraham was, before Abraham existed, I am, I was there. You could look at all the great I am statements again that Christ took to himself. Another verse, Colossians 1 verse 17, we read there that he existed before all things and he created all things. Jesus Christ possesses the attribute of eternity. But Jesus Christ is also said to possess the attributes of immensity and of omnipresence. However numerous and however scattered the gatherings of God's people are in this world today, Jesus Christ is said to be present with them all, and yet at the same time occupying heaven's throne. Proof of that is found in the words of Matthew 18 verse 20, For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I, Christ is the speaker, there am I in the midst of them. And in John 3 verse 13, And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And we thought about that verse and the great mystery that there is, that the Son, God the Son, is equally present in an entirety of His being, both heaven and earth at the same time, being omnipresent. Christ, therefore, is with us in this service. Do you think of that today? Whenever you got up this morning and dressed yourself to go to the house of God, did you think in your mind that I'm going to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ? I'm going to be in His presence. I'm going to hear His Word. I'm going to hear Him being spoken of. And because He is present in each worship service where men and women are gathered together in His name, though they only be two or three in number, He is present then to behold our engagement in every part of the worship service. He viewed you today. He views you as you sing or you fail to sing. He observes whether you bow your head and heart before God in prayer. He watches how and what you give financially to His cause. He surveys your attitude and your willingness to obey the Word of God as it's being preached. He looks at your attention. Whether you're giving full attention to the Word of God in His house, He is ever-present. And though He be the high and lofty One that inhabited eternity, yet thank God He is with us. He's Emmanuel. He's God with us. He's with us in our sorrows, brethren and sisters. He's present with us in our troubles. He's near us in our days of loneliness. He's at hand when we stumble and fall. He's in attendance when others leave and when others forsake us. He's there when we face the surgeon's knife. He's with us to the end of the world, though I am with you always, even on to the end of the world or the end of the age. He's ever present. His immensity, His immensity is on my presence. Jesus Christ is on my presence. Jesus Christ possesses the divine attribute of omnipotence. Revelation 1 and the verse 8, the Lord Jesus Christ is the speaker. I am Alpha and Omega. The beginning and the ending sayeth the Lord, that which is and which was and that which is to come, there's his eternity, the Almighty. That's how he refers to himself, that word Almighty. It simply means to hold all. He holds all. The word is only ever used of God. And you'll find that reference in 2 Corinthians 6, in the verse number 18. And it is used nine times. This phrase, the Almighty, it's used nine times in the book of the Revelation and is translated in Revelation 19, verse 6, as omnipotent. The omnipotent one. In John 5, in the verse number 19, the omnipotent power that is possessed by God the Father is also ascribed to God the Son. Then answered Jesus and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do. For what things whoever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. And so what the Father can do, so the Son can do. And the Father can do all things, For with God nothing shall be impossible. Is there anything too hard for God? If it's not hard for the Father, it cannot be hard for the Son. Jesus Christ, thank God, possesses the divine attribute of omnipotence. And brethren and sisters, at times our hold of God is feeble. But thank God Christ's hold of us is the grasp of divine omnipotence. He holds us. He holds us by his power. Jesus Christ possesses the divine attribute of omniscience. The theme of John's gospel is the all-knowing Christ. That's the theme. And two verses that affirm his omniscience, that he knows all things, are found in John 2, verse 24 and 25. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them. Because he knew all men. And need it not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. He knows what's in you today. He knows all about you, the Christ of God. What did Peter say about the Lord Jesus Christ there in John 21 in the verse 17? That important phrase of Peter as he said unto Christ, Lord, thou knowest all things, all things. Because he knows all things, brethren and sisters, I believe it would be wisdom on our part to pray at times. Thou who knowest all things, search me. Know my heart and try me. Know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting. Let no one in this place be under the false illusion that God the Son is not informed about your life. to be under the false solution here today that God the Son is uninformed about what you did this week, where you were this week, what you listened to this week, what you viewed this week. God the Son knows all things, all things, all things about you, your family. He knows all things. He will bring you to account concerning that. Jesus Christ possesses the divine attribute of immutability, this thought of being unchangeable. It is another attribute that belongs exclusively to God. They are part of the incommunicable attributes of God. God is a spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable. And we thought about how those attributes, those incommunicable attributes, cannot be possessed by any other being, no angel, no demon, no devil, no man. No creature can possess these attributes but God alone. Now, does Jesus Christ possess this attribute of an unchangeable mess? Is he immutable? Well, I read in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He changes not. Jesus Christ. And then, to sum them all up, If I've missed any of the attributes of God, I believe that Colossians 2 verse 9 brings them all together in this great statement, for in Him, speaking of Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. In Jesus Christ. was all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, that unique fullness, that divine essence is possessed by Christ, proving that he is a Trinitarian person. He is God the Son. Alongside the divine names and the attributes that belong to God, there is something else that proves the deity of Jesus Christ. The works of God are ascribed to him. I think of the work of creation. Speaking of the Word who was God, John declares in John 1 verse 3 that all things were made by Him. And without Him was not anything made that was made. The Apostle Paul spoke of Christ as being the expressed image of the invisible God in Colossians 1 and the verse 15, but he goes on to say in the next verse these words about Jesus Christ, for by Him all things were created. that in heaven, that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by him and for him. If by creation the Father is to be shown to be God, then I believe we also establish the deity of Jesus Christ. He is our creator. Also, we think of the work of preservation. Hebrews 1 verse 3, we're told that Jesus Christ, again, is the expressed image of his person and upholding all things by the word of his power. Only a divine person can uphold all things by his word. Christ is continually in this world upholding all things by His spoken word and power. Colossians 1.17 carries similar sentiments and He is before all things and by Him all things consist. And so we have in that particular verse His existence, His pre-existence, He is before all things and also that He preserves all things and by Him all things consist. Think about miracles. Miracles prove that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Raising of the dead, touching of blinded eyes, the healing of the lepers, all of these miracles performed by Jesus Christ were to prove, were to ratify that He was who He said He was. He declared Himself to be the Son of God, but He not only said it, He proved it to be so. by the creation of bread and fish and the feeding of the 5,000, by the touching of leprous limbs and making them whole again, by the raising of the dead son, of neighing her son back to life again, and His own resurrection proves Him to be the Son of God. What about the work of salvation? Jonah cried from the depths And from the belly of the great fish there in Jonah chapter 2 verse 9, the great word salvation is off the Lord. Salvation is off the Lord. And so salvation is ascribed to none other than Jehovah. It is Jehovah who saves the Lord Almighty, the self-existent one. Salvation is ascribed to none other than Jehovah himself. But what about the Savior? Are we not told that He shall save them from their sin? Are we not told that the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which is lost? Are we not told that there's neither salvation in any other? There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Salvation is attributed, is ascribed to the Son. And so we affirm that He is God. What about the work of sanctification? We often think of the work of sanctification as a work of the Holy Spirit, but this verse was quoted in our time of prayer this morning. Ephesians 5 and the verse 26, it reveals to us that Jesus Christ also sanctifies. That he might sanctify and cleanse it, speaking of the church, with the washing of the water by the word. Christ sanctifies. The Spirit sanctifies, the Father sanctifies. It is a Trinitarian work, this work of sanctification, this conforming us to the image of God's dear Son. Fourthly, religious worship and its various forms are given to Christ, therefore and thereby affirming his deity. In the days of his flesh, Jesus Christ received worship, the worship of man, setting him apart from the greatest of men, even within the church by Paul and John. And Peter rejected any attempt to worship them. Christ naturally accepted the worship and the adoration of men, manifesting His deity. Prior to the cross, Jesus Christ accepted but did not demand such worship. But after His resurrection, He required the worship of men. Matthew 28, verse 9, And as they went to tell His disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, All heal! And they came and held Him by the feet, and they worshiped Him. Did Jesus Christ say, no, I'm not God, worship only God as the angel did? Remember whenever there in the Isle of Patmos, John was given the vision and he fell down before the angel and the angel rebuked him and he said, worship God. Jesus Christ did not do that because he was God, fully God, fully man. Various aspects of worship are to be rendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. Think of faith. Faith. John 14 verse 1, let not your heart be troubled. Do you believe in God? Believe also in me, Jesus said. Trust. Another aspect of worship, Psalm 2, verse 12. Kiss the son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way. Bless her all they that put their trust in him. Adoration, another aspect of worship. Hebrews 1, verse 6. And again, when he bringeth in the first begotten into the world, he said, let all the angels of God worship him. Honor is another aspect of worship. John 5, 23, that all men should honor who? the Son, even as they honor the Father. There is a fifth way in which the deity of Jesus Christ can be affirmed. Christ's own claims to his relationship with the Father. Christ made two claims. He first of all claimed equality with the Father. John 5, 17 and 18, but Christ answered them, my Father worketh hitherto and I work Therefore the Jews sought the Moor to kill him because he had not only broken the Sabbath, but he had said that God was his father, making himself equal with God. And for Christ to be equal with God, he must be God. But he also claims something else, unity with the Father. In John 10, verse 30, the Savior said, I and my Father are one, one. A statement from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ led the Jews, who heard that statement, to lift up stones, to stone him to death. Because those Jews understand Christ's claim to be a claim of identity, a claim of unity with God the Father, and as a result they termed it as blasphemy. Because they said, thou being a man, make us thyself God. His own claims. Just a few more. The deity of Jesus Christ is established when we consider the office of the mediator, which he discharges. You see, a mediator must be equal of both parties, must be the equal of both parties between whom he mediates. Therefore, if Jesus Christ is to be the mediator between God and man, he must be both God and Galatians 3 verse 20, we read now, a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one. In other words, for a mediator required, there needs to be two parties. And Christ must be related to them. And a mediator must stand between those two parties, and he must be related to those two parties. And in Christ's case, he is both God and man. Thus the Apostle Paul, he was able to declare there in 1 Timothy 2 verse 5, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus. His role as our mediator proves that he is divine. He is God the Son. But in the final way, Can I say that the divine nature of the Lord Jesus Christ can be affirmed by the fact that Jesus Christ is spoken of in the Bible as being manifested. A created being is never said to be manifested or to be revealed. They are only said to be created. But the Savior, the Son of God, being an uncreated being, has been manifested and that manifestation is an evidence of His deity. 1 John 3 verse 8, for this purpose was the Son of God manifest. that he might destroy the works of the devil. I've already quoted the other, verse 1, Timothy 3, verse 16, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. We read about John the Baptist. He was revealed. But Christ is the only one of whom it is said that he was manifested. He was manifested to the world. From all that I've said today, and there's been quite a lot that I've said, a lot of verses that I've said today, I trust that we've come to appreciate. And we've come to conclude that Jesus Christ is God the Son, and that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And as such, he has been chosen, he has been called, and he has been ordained of God. to the work of saving lost men and women who seek a refuge in Him. He is a suitable Savior, an able and a willing Savior. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I wonder this Lord's Day, can you say with Thomas, my Lord, my God, He's not just God to the Christian. He's Lord. Lord of all. Every part of my life, I own Him as Lord. He is Lordship, governance over every area of my life. As a believer, can you say that today? He's my Lord and He's my God. You need to know Him savingly. If you're not a Christian, He is the only one who can save, because salvation is a work that is exclusively God's. Jesus Christ is God, and He can save you from your sin. May today you become acquainted with the Christ of God, and may we ever worship him, who is God-blessed forever, and is coming again in clouds of power and great glory. This is my beloved. This is my friend. May you be able to say that today. Let's bow our heads in prayer. Loving Father, thou hast said in thy word concerning thy son, that if he is lifted up, then he will draw men unto himself. And we pray that as our Lord and Savior has been lifted high, O God, that thou wilt come and draw men unto thee. draw the hearts of Thy people to Thee, draw the hearts of backsliders to Thee, draw the hearts of sinners unto Thee, we pray. Be pleased, O God, that each individual in this house would be able to say, He is my Lord and He is my God. We pray, Father, that Thou wilt ever preserve this church in proclaiming Christ to be the Messiah, to be the Son of God. We pray, Father, that he would ever be given his proper and rightful place. We know that the attack of the modernist and the liberal always comes upon the person and work of Jesus Christ. We ask of thee that we might defend him, that we might honor him, that we might love him and serve him gladly. in light of all that He did for us on the cross of Calvary. And so answer prayer. We pray that this message will have honored the Son. We pray that we would be instructed and equipped so that whenever individuals come and knock on our doors, that we're not left flummoxed and we're not standing, dear God, with our mouths wide open and nothing to say to them. God equip thy church. Help us, dear Father, to speak for thee and to stand up for thee. And we pray that thou wilt convert such individuals from the error of their ways, and that they too would become savingly acquainted with the Son of God. Answer prayer, and be with us the rest of this day. Bring us safely back to this house to worship thee again this evening. For we pray this in and through Jesus, precious and holy name. Amen and amen. It's okay.