We are going to be starting this series
in the life and times of Jesus Christ.
And we hope for you that it is
going to be an eye-opening experience.
We can do better every day if we
know Jesus more and better every day.
Amen?
He is the one who in the world
today is under attack because of his deity,
because of his work, because of his mission,
because of his call.
He is the one, as the Bible says,
there is no other name given among men
or mankind whereby we must be saved.
That is the name Jesus Christ.
The Bible says, at the name of Jesus
Christ.
And when we say Jesus Christ, we are
actually talking about Jesus, you know, Christ or
the Christ, that is his title, Christ Messiah.
But when we talk about Jesus Christ, we
are speaking of Jesus of Nazareth.
Paul the Apostle warned us that there are
many other Jesuses, but we are speaking of
Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Christ.
And so we want to be looking clearly
and carefully at him.
We are going to be learning this morning
about Christ in eternity, and that is specifically
about the pre-existence of Jesus Christ.
What brought on this study, and I must
tell you up front, what caused us to
go rather to a book at this time,
we diverted and went to this series, is
because a couple months ago a woman came
up to me after service and said, you
know, you referred to Jesus Christ today as
God, and I want to know why you
did that.
And I was dumbfounded.
I was shocked.
I assumed all of you knew what the
Bible has to say, that the Bible says
that Jesus Christ is God, the second person
of the Holy Trinity, that God came among
us in the form, in the person of
Jesus Christ, and that he bore flesh, that
we might know him.
And so when we say Christ in eternity,
we are going to be speaking many times
of his deity.
The Bible says that he is God.
When we say Christ in eternity, or Christ
is from eternity, it is so vitally important
that we define what we mean by that.
It is so, so very important.
As humans, we begin to pride ourselves that
we know everything.
I mean, my goodness, we can log on
the internet and you can get more information
in 20 minutes than what used to take
maybe a week or a month to get
in the comfort of your own home.
You can get everything you need on how
to build a soapbox derby car, to a
race car, to a cake, to, sad to
say, a bomb.
You can get it on the internet.
You can find out too much on the
internet, as many people are finding out.
But we are a generation that prides itself
on knowing more and more.
And yet, I believe personally, I have to
agree with Vance Havner.
If you ever want to buy any great
reading, buy any book by Vance Havner.
Vance Havner said, we are a generation with
more illumination than any other generation before us,
but with less light.
Think about it.
We have Las Vegas, but it only speaks
of the little amount of light that we
have in our hearts and lives.
Oh, we have skyrockets and great firework displays,
but we have very little light.
We have TVs illuminating our living rooms 24
hours a day almost, but we increasingly have
little light.
The only light that we can really have
that's going to account for anything is as
many of the collegiate and universities of the
nation of America display in their icons.
They have the Bible open wide, and it
speaks about the light.
Let the light of knowledge be upon us.
It's a cry to God.
You go to UCLA, and their original logo
was not that little fat bear that's on
the hat or the pennant, but it is
the Bible open, and it says in the
original UCLA logo, let there be light.
And many of the universities, Harvard included, had
this thing about knowledge.
Let there be light.
And yet, the technological advancements that we have
have led, I think, to more superficial knowledge
than true knowledge.
Well, in this series we're going to be
going through, we're going to be talking about
the light of knowing Jesus Christ.
Very, very important.
The world today, listen, this is so bizarre
to say.
The world today, we can understand, is ignorant
about who Jesus is, but the church is
predominantly ignorant about who Jesus Christ is.
Isn't it strange?
But let me tell you something.
I don't know if you've gone outside this
area.
You know, you and I live in an
incredibly blessed area.
Do you know that?
Yes, I know it's Babylon.
I mean, we really live in Babylon.
We can fulfill any pleasure we want here.
But have you noticed there are an incredible
great plethora of churches in Southern California unlike
any place else on the face of the
earth?
Did you know that?
If this place gets too big for you,
you can go somewhere else.
It's wonderful.
We can turn on Christian radio here and
listen to excellent Christian broadcasting 24 hours a
day.
That is rare.
Have you been east of the San Bernardino
mountain range?
Just go east of those mountains that are
just a few moments from here.
And there is a wilderness and a dearth
for God's word and God's teaching in sporadic
cities.
Yes, you get to the east coast and
it's a little bit more, but you have
to drive so many miles for a church
that is committed to the word of God.
We have churches today in the world that
do not exalt the Lord Jesus Christ.
You would think that that'd be an impossible
thing, but it's very true.
Regarding the person, the mission, the life of
Jesus, the world today is by and large
uninformed and willfully ignorant about who he really
is.
And to me, that's amazing to even consider.
And so for the next, listen to this,
16 weeks.
Yeah, 16 weeks, we're going to be going
through a very detailed study concerning the life
and times of Jesus Christ.
So we're going to be looking, looking at
some of those things.
Even now this morning, as we go through
our study together, I'm going to ask you
to make note of these things.
The first week today, we're going to be
looking at the wonderful news about Christ and
eternity.
And the second week we'll be looking at
Christ and his first coming.
That is him to Jerusalem, to Israel.
The third week, Christ, the word made flesh.
We're going to study the very person of
Jesus's incarnation.
That's going to be great, great knowledge to
have.
The fourth week, we'll see Christ and his
mission.
Why did Jesus come?
Why did he have to come?
And then we'll see Christ and his earthly
work.
What did he accomplish when he came?
The sixth week, we'll see that Christ and
his creation is something that is a wonderful
study and that he is responsible for creation.
We'll talk a little bit about that this
morning.
And the seventh week, we'll see that Christ
and his place in the Godhead.
That is, the Bible teaches that the Lord
is one, but the Bible also teaches that
there's the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Spirit, and that these three are God.
And we'll see a little bit on that
this morning as well.
We'll see Christ and his redemptive work.
We'll see also in the ninth week, Christ
and the sinners.
That's us.
His relationship to the lost and sinful world,
very important.
The tenth week, we'll see Christ, the Son
of God.
We'll touch again a little bit on that
this morning because this is kind of an
introductory morning.
The eleventh week, we'll see Christ and the
church, Christ and the angels.
The twelfth week, the thirteenth week, Christ and
the rapture.
You guys are probably one of the most
knowledgeable Calvary chapels anyway on the rapture.
And maybe you'll come up and teach us
about that, but you guys know a lot.
And we hope around this time frame of
this study, we don't know if we'll make
it there in time, but we're going to
interrupt it for a month-long study by
some experts, some of them the greatest experts
alive today on prophecy.
We have coerced, what can I say, done
everything we can, begged, pleaded, cried, wept to
get John Wolvert, who has now ceased from
guest speaking.
He's retired in that manner.
He's coming out of retirement for three services
at Calvary Chapel, Chino Hills, and then is
going back to Dallas to retirement later that
afternoon.
So we're very blessed to have Dr. John
Wolvert coming on prophecy, and he'll be speaking
more about that.
And we'll have some great men coming during
that month.
The fourteenth week, we'll be talking about Christ
and the tribulation period.
The fifteenth week, Christ and his second coming.
And then finally, we'll wrap it up with
Christ and the millennium age.
And so that is something that we're going
to be very, very excited to look to.
But right now, why don't we look at
our first, very first point this morning, and
that is Christ and eternity.
And the theme, and I want you to
jot this down, the theme of our study
through all of these weeks is going to
be Colossians chapter 2 verse 9.
This is one of the most fun and
exciting verses in the Bible.
Colossians chapter 2 verse 9, where it says
right there, for in him dwells all the
fullness of the Godhead in bodily form, speaking
about Jesus Christ.
That's a great statement.
So we're talking about Christ and eternity.
And Paul speaks to the church at Colossae,
for in Christ, all the fullness of the
Godhead dwells in bodily form.
What a great, great declaration that is.
So if you have your notes, let's get
ready.
And we're going to start off right now.
We're going to look at three points this
morning, but we're going to look at them
carefully and slowly.
So the first one we're going to ask
you to look at, and that is this.
We're going to be looking at Christ, and
that he was before time.
So look at that, if you would.
Christ was before all things.
And so if you jot that down, we're
going to look at that.
Christ was before all things.
That's our first point this morning.
When we say before time, we're meaning this,
that Jesus Christ existed before the physical creation,
that before the observable universe was ever brought
into being, the Bible teaches Jesus was.
In John chapter 1, verse 1.
I know you know this verse.
Don't say, well, you know, I know.
I'm not going to write it down.
Write it down.
This is great stuff, because you know what?
You're going to be prepared for every occultic
and cultic and lunatic person that knocks at
your door.
Or maybe, you know, it's summer's about halfway
done.
We're going to be heading into the holidays.
Get your homework ready.
And you're going to be learning some things
that's really going to help you.
Listen, Christ was before all things.
And when we say that, we talk about
John chapter 1, verse 1.
Very, very important.
He says there, in the beginning, that is,
at the moment of physical creation.
In the beginning, John 1, verse 1, in
the beginning, that is, at the moment of
physical creation, was the Word.
And the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.
So we know right away that Jesus Christ,
from John chapter 1, verse 14, jot that
down now, where it says there, and the
Word became flesh and dwelt among us.
Listen, friend, if you're a skeptic, if you're
a doubter, listen to what the Bible says.
The Bible says that the Word was with
God.
You got that, everybody?
You're going to need to respond and keep
me awake this morning.
You're going to need to help me.
I could fall asleep right in midstream here.
That the Word was with God, and the
Word was God.
And that Word, which was what?
God, became flesh and dwelt among us.
Who in all history has dwelt among mankind,
whose title is the Word, who is claimed
to be God?
Jesus.
Absolutely, Jesus Christ.
Before anything was physically, there was the Word
of God, who's Jesus, who John chapter 1
says is God.
The doctrine of preexistence is what we're talking
about, that Jesus Christ existed before the physical
universe was ever created.
We're going to see how much so a
little bit later from now, but not only
was He present before the physical creation, but
we're going to argue this morning, listen carefully,
it's going to cause an eyebrow to go
up.
He even existed before the spiritual realm was
created.
Oh yeah, we'll talk about that in a
minute.
But this doctrine of preexistence, it is something
that the Bible teaches that is solely, solely
attributed to God and God alone.
The Bible says in the book of Isaiah
chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, and 44, that
God is specifically the one who has dwelt
from all eternity, that is timelessness.
He has preexisted before anything ever was, that
is God.
But the Bible also says in no uncertain
terms that Jesus Christ also has existed before
all things and has existed from eternity, that
is from the eons or the eternal moment
where God dwells in what is called the
eternal now.
Sounds funny how to say that.
But see, right now our clocks are ticking.
It's about 28 minutes after the hour where
you and I live.
And it's funny, as you travel around the
world in every hour time zone, it's 28
minutes after the hour in each time zone,
24 hour time zones around the world.
But interesting, God begins to play with us
a little bit.
If you begin to launch a rocket out
into space, we have found out that when
you strap somebody in a rocket with a
wristwatch, an atomic clock, and they go and
come back, that the atomic clock that that
astronaut had on his wrist is different from
the atomic clock at Houston Space Center.
Isn't that interesting?
God begins to flirt with us.
That as you go away from earth, time
changes.
Now that's in the physical realm.
But in the spiritual realm, there is no
time.
We think of God as somebody being one
who has a lot of time.
Now, I told you before, I love big
watches.
I love the bigger the better.
I think they're fun, and I collect them.
So we think, you know, God's a man,
or God is God, and he's got a
huge watch.
No, he doesn't have a huge watch.
He doesn't have a watch.
He doesn't live where time exists.
You cannot have time unless you have physical
matter.
Where there is no physical matter, there you
have no time.
Time is a physical attribute of this created
universe, and it is also, as we've said,
this timelessness unique to Jesus.
In John chapter 17, verse 5, John 17,
5, Jesus says, Oh now, oh Father, glorify
me together with yourself, with the glory which
I had with you before the world ever
was.
John 17, 5.
In Micah chapter 5, verse 2, the Bible
says, But you, oh Bethlehem, though you are
little among the thousands of Judah, yet out
of you shall come forth to me the
one who is to be ruler in Israel,
whose goings forth are from of old, even
from everlasting.
Well, whoever was born in Bethlehem by Mary,
stepfather Joseph, his goings forth have been eternal.
That's the great incarnation of Christ.
More next week on that.
John chapter 8, verse 56.
This is all introductory, so hang on to
your seats, okay?
Do you think I'm going to miss it?
I'm not going to miss it.
This is all introductory.
John 8, 56.
Jesus responded to the Pharisees and he said,
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.
What a radical statement.
Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day,
and he saw it and was glad.
And then the Jews said to him, You're
not yet even 50 years old.
How is it that you said you've seen
Abraham?
And Jesus said to them most assuredly, I
say to you, before Abraham was, I am.
Oh, listen.
Abraham rejoiced to see his day.
Come on, think for a moment.
When did Abraham see the day of Jesus
Christ?
How did Abraham see Jesus?
Well, at least on one occasion, remember when
Abraham was sitting on the side of the
hill and his nephew Lot was living down
in Sodom and Gomorrah down there near the
end of the Dead Sea?
And Abraham was there and two angels and
the Lord came walking up.
And Abraham perceived that this one was the
Lord.
And as the two angels, it's kind of
eerie, the two angels peeled off and went
down into Sodom and Gomorrah because they had
work to do.
You know the story.
And it says that the Lord sat there
with Abraham and Abraham, you know, had Sarah
make them dinner and all.
And as they're talking, Abraham says, Lord, will
you destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if there's 50
people?
And the Lord says, no, I'm not going
to destroy it if there's 50 people.
Righteous?
No, I won't do it.
So Abraham, being the good father of the
Jews that he is, he says, how about
45?
How about 45?
And the Lord says, no, I won't destroy
the city and the place for 45 righteous
people that are there.
Lord, don't be angry with me, but how
about 30?
No, I won't destroy the place even if
there's 30 righteous.
And Abraham says, well, how about 20?
And he just begins to whittle the Lord
down, trying to figure out where.
And it's interesting, if you read the story
carefully there in Genesis, it stops at 10.
Will you destroy the city for 10?
Now, 10 is the number for a synagogue,
for a place of worship.
10 is also the amount of people, if
you count them, who made the exit with
Lot.
Interesting.
Abraham must have known that Lot had 10
relatives in that city, and he was interceding
for them.
Very, very important.
And so, Jesus says to the Pharisees, Abraham
saw my day and he was glad.
It could also make or be a reference
to Abraham's encounter with Melchizedek, which is a
theophany, is a pre-incarnate appearance of Jesus
Christ.
But Jesus is the one in that portion
of John chapter 8 that says, I am.
Listen, you and I don't get what that
means.
It would be equivalent today for someone to
stand up and say, I am God.
Now, I saw a man on TV utter
a heretical declaration.
I thought God was going to kill him
on the spot.
And I am not kidding.
This man, very well known.
I hope none of you watch him, but
he's very well known on TV.
He has a ministry that's titled by his
name, the Blankety Blank Ministries, with the big
logo behind his head.
He's about five feet tall, little tiny guy,
real squinty little eyes together.
He's got perfectly combed hair.
His wife is often on the program.
He has a daily teaching program.
His initials are K.C. And he stood
up there and he said, I am God,
just as Jesus is.
I am.
And I thought my TV was going to
blow up.
That's blasphemy.
He invoked the word, the name Ego Emi
in Greek, which is a title reserved for
God alone.
Only God is the Ego Emi.
Jesus says, I am Ego Emi, which is
this.
I am the only one.
I am the self-existing one.
I am the cause.
I am the originator.
I have, when he says, I am, no
beginning.
I have no end.
I am preexistent.
I am before all things.
When somebody spouts off, I am, like Shirley
MacLaine says, I am, people better know what
they're talking about because that is the ultimate
form of blasphemy.
I am the self-contained existing one.
Before anything was, I was there and I
have been.
I am the creator, sustainer, orchestrator of it
all.
Jesus said that.
People say, well, Jesus never claimed to be
God.
He certainly did.
People who don't know their Bible just don't
know that when he says, I am.
He invoked the name that was found in
Exodus chapter three, verse 14, when Moses said,
when I go back to the children of
Israel, whom shall I say sent me?
And God said to Moses, you go back
and tell them that I am sent you.
You tell them I am has sent you.
And in Hebrew, it is not the Greek
word Ego Emi.
Of course not.
It's in Hebrew.
It's the word Hayah.
And it means to always have been existing,
to be the one who orchestrates, the one
who supplies all of your needs, the beacon,
the source, the truth, the strength, the one.
You go back, Moses, and you tell them
the I am sent you.
Jesus in Israel nearly 2000 years ago told
those religious hierarchies, he said, listen, I am.
And if you doubt if they understood what
he said, it said there that they picked
up stones to kill him.
They knew exactly what he was saying.
And it was for that reason, by the
way, that they got their gears going to
plan his death.
Remember?
Do you remember why those people wanted to
kill Jesus?
It's because they believed he committed blasphemy.
That's why they killed him.
Did you know that?
That's why Rome said we don't even see
any reason why we should kill him.
And Israel said, for blasphemy, he's claimed to
be God.
That's why Jesus was killed.
Jesus couldn't say, I'm sorry.
He couldn't say, please forgive me.
It's truth.
We'll see more on this this morning.
As we look, Jesus announced his own origins
when he said, I am the pre-existence
of Jesus Christ.
He appears in the Bible and the Old
Testament as the angel of the Lord.
He appears to Joshua in chapter five, verse
13, as the captain of the Lord's host.
And he appears in the Bible as the
Lord himself.
Very, very important.
In Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, am I
going too fast?
I'm so excited about this series.
In Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, the Bible
says, therefore unto us a child is born
and a son is given and the government
will be upon his shoulders and his name
will be called Wonderful.
Listen, everybody.
His name shall be called Counselor.
Go to him first.
Mighty God, that's rather clear.
Everlasting Father, that's not so clear in English.
In the Hebrew, it's father or governor of
time.
Interesting.
And then finally, Isaiah nine, six, the Prince
of Peace.
That's very clear and we understand who he
is.
So let's look at this point that we're
talking about this morning in that Jesus was
before all things.
And look with me as we consider this,
that he's before the spiritual creation.
This is a wild concept.
Listen to this, that he's before the spiritual
creation.
What do we mean by that?
Well, the Bible teaches, first of all, that
God is spirit.
Jesus Christ in his eternalness was spirit until
Mary had a little lamb.
Until Mary gave birth to Jesus, he was
spirit.
God is spirit.
When Christ became human flesh, he was to
be that way for that moment on forevermore.
Do you know right now that Jesus Christ
is 100% God and 100% man
right now in the throne room of heaven?
Isn't that wild?
It's wild.
So look at this.
Before the spiritual creation ever was, Jesus was
before that.
And it means this, that he orchestrated and
created the spiritual realm.
Now I'm not saying that God created God.
God can't be created.
I'm not talking about that.
I'm talking about what has come out from
him Jesus has created.
Example, it's going to click right now when
I say this.
Jesus, the Bible says, has created all principalities
and powers, whether they be thrones or dominions
above the earth or under the earth.
That is spiritual world.
Jesus has created it.
Angels.
Jesus has created them.
Jot it down if you would.
Colossians chapter 1 verse 14, Colossians 1 14,
in whom we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of his sins.
Does anybody wonder who that is?
It's reading verse 15.
He is the image of the invisible God.
By the way, the word image means the
exact copy of God in flesh.
He is the image of the invisible God.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God
now made public.
The firstborn over all creation.
This doesn't mean that Jesus was the firstborn.
It means that Jesus is the preeminent one.
He's the number one like a son in
the Jewish culture.
Culture has the birthright order.
The firstborn son has everything.
Jesus has everything.
For by him were all things created that
are in heaven and that are on earth.
Visible things.
We have no problem with that.
We understand that.
And invisible things, atoms, protons, electrons, the invisible
world, spirit things, whether they be thrones, dominions,
principalities or powers, all things were created through
him and for him.
Now this is elementary Christianity.
Jesus Christ is the creator.
Not only did he create everything, quite frankly,
he created them for himself.
He liked it.
Jack, are you suggesting then that Genesis 1
.1 is about Jesus Christ?
Absolutely.
In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth.
According to Colossians chapter 1 verses 14 through
16, who is that God who created the
heavens and the earth?
Jesus Christ.
Let's put it this way.
In the Trinity of God, in the Godhead,
as our theme verse is in Colossians 2
.9, Jesus Christ is the general contractor.
He's the carpenter.
He builds worlds and all that is in
them.
Isn't that fun?
Isn't that exciting?
That's Jesus, the one and only.
In Nehemiah chapter 9 verse 6, an often
hidden verse, Nehemiah 9.6, the scripture says,
And the host of heaven worships you.
The host of heaven is a reference to
the angels of God.
Jesus Christ created them.
Very, very important.
Jesus created them.
The second thing that we see here is
that Jesus is before the spiritual purpose of
all things.
He's before the spiritual purpose of things.
Not only did he create the spiritual realm,
the angelic host and all, but also the
spiritual purpose for their very existence, meaning this,
that in God's foreknowledge, in Christ has foreknowledge.
We'll talk more about his limitations when we
talk about his incarnation, which, by the way,
were willful.
That's to follow later on.
But concerning the spiritual purpose of his work,
the Lord knew all things.
He knew, and this blows my mind, he
knew exactly how not only the spiritual realm
that he had created would go, but also
the physical realm that he had created.
He knew where they would go.
Example, what I mean by that is, he
created even this wonderful, his most precious created
angel in the universe.
You know his name?
His name's Lucifer, son of the morning, the
most awesome angel ever created.
But in God's creation, he instilled within the
angelic host a free will.
And Lucifer exercised that free will, the Bible
says, and said in Isaiah chapter 14 and
Ezekiel chapter 28, I will be like God.
I will have a throne like his.
I will have a universe like his.
I will have servants like his.
I will have my position just like God
has his.
I will be as God.
You ever hear that?
Sounds a little familiar to the Garden of
Eden doctrine, doesn't it?
I will be as God.
And God says, you will not be as
me.
He says you will be cast down.
Why?
For it says in the day that pride
was found in your heart, you sinned.
You anointed cherub who covereth.
That means he had the top dog if
I can put it that way, position.
Lucifer was number one, the big kahuna of
heaven when it came to leading all service
and worship to God.
Every angel had to go through Lucifer.
But because of his pride, he sinned.
In that spiritual creation, the Bible tells us
in the book of Revelation, one third of
the angelic host was deceived by Satan and
judged.
But concerning the spiritual creation, consider this, that
we as human beings, the Bible says in
1 Thessalonians 5, 23, that we are both,
or I should say, in all body, soul,
and spirit.
We are a trichotomy as a human.
We have a body, that's obvious.
We have a soul, that's our thinking and
our emotions.
And we have our spirit, and that's who
we really are.
And by the way, that's the portion that
needs to be born again.
Everything else needs to be redeemed, but the
spirit needs to be born.
So in God's foreknowledge, he knew that before
he ever created the world, listen to this,
he knew that we were going to have
a very, very bad beginning in the Garden
of Eden.
Did you know that?
He knew that before he ever created the
garden.
So you might say, well, why did he
just not create it?
Because, jot it down, here's your answer.
Somebody knocks on your door, or maybe you're
witnessing to some friends, and oh yeah, well,
if your God is so loving, then why
did he let the Garden of Eden thing
happen anyway?
Well, the Bible tells you in Ephesians chapter
2, verses 7 through 9, it says there
that in the ages to come, he might
show the exceeding riches of his grace.
That's what's on display, his grace in his
kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.
For by grace you have been saved through
faith, and that is not of yourselves, it
is a gift of God, not of works,
so that no man can boast.
Listen, you're going to go to heaven because
Jesus did it all, and all to him
you owe, and by nothing else.
It's grace.
Grace and a gift is synonymous, same thing.
It's not earned, it's given freely.
If you earn, if you attach any workmanship
to what Christ has done, you have to
cut the word grace right out of your
Bible.
There are a lot of people who shun
the word grace today because it's so ill
-represented in the Christian witness, and it's true.
It is ill-represented.
There are uninformed people who are either not
Christians or Christians who are very, very uninformed
and ignorant, where they'll say, well, I can
sin, God's grace will cover me.
You can't think that way as a true
Christian.
You can't think that way at all, but
there'll be people who will say that.
Well, the fact is God's grace is so
wonderful, it's so free, it's so powerful that
it causes us to be converted as we
come to him and we say, Lord, I'm
going to put my faith in your wonderful
greatness.
And even that faith that he gives us
is not of ourselves.
And we cannot work our way into heaven.
If anyone ever attaches anything to God's grace
and acceptance of the sinner before God, it
is blasphemous.
It is an affront to God's work of
salvation on the cross.
You cannot be saved only after you have
done all that you can.
It is by grace or it's not at
all.
Do you understand that?
That's why we can't wait to sing him
praise songs.
You know what I mean?
That's why we can't wait to lift our
hands.
Think about the wonderful truth of God's grace
in our lives.
In 1 John 3, 8, the Bible says,
for this purpose, the son of God has
been revealed to mankind that he might destroy
the works of the devil.
Hey, that's the spiritual creation and the spiritual
purpose all in one verse right there, the
spiritual creation and the spiritual purpose.
In Revelation 19, 10, I want to give
you this verse because God knows all things.
Jesus knows all things.
It says, worship God, says the angel to
John, for the testimony of Jesus, the declaration,
the message of Jesus is this, is the
spirit of prophecy.
God knows all.
Jesus knows all.
So it's so very, very important.
Let's look at our second point this morning.
We go from this to Jesus is over
all things.
He governs or is over all things.
Our second point, what we want to see
right here is very important.
We see that that he's over the physical
creation.
In Hebrews chapter one, verse one through three,
it says, God, who at various times and
in various ways spoken times past to the
fathers by the prophets has in these last
days spoken to us by his son, whom
he has appointed heir of all things through
whom also he made the worlds.
It's pretty clear who being the brightness of
his glory and the express image of his
person and upholding got to circle that word,
all things by the word of his power.
When he had by himself purged our sins,
by the way, it's past tense in the
Greek sins have been taken care of all
done for all time.
He sat down at the right hand of
the majesty on high.
Jesus is overseer of the physical creation.
He made it and it says here that
it's held together by him, that he holds
it.
This is wild.
Creation is accredited to Jesus.
We saw that in Genesis one, one, but
in Colossians one 17, the Bible says, and
in him, all things consist.
This is Jesus is literally the atomic glue
that has never been found in the study
of astronomy or astrophysics or the study of
physics itself.
How is it that all things be at
microscopic or just universal are held together?
Did you know it's a mystery to this
hour right now to this hour?
We don't know why in an atom there
is the orbiting and the holding together with
there as the orbits are taking place around
that nucleus.
No one on earth, no one has ever
been able to determine how is it that
those little things keep their orbit at a
certain distance and don't collide into each other
and are so wonderfully ordered and they don't
fly apart.
It's a mystery that they don't fly apart.
Did you know that if we were to
reduce this pulpit, it would be a little
speck of dirt on the platform here.
If we were to remove all the space
between the physical matter that's here, you are
looking at it, your eyeballs see wood, but
there is more space between the wood than
there is wood.
That's a scientific fact.
Well, you look and you go, I don't
believe what you just said because all I
see is wood.
I know that's all you see, but there
is more what you can't see than what
you can see.
Isn't that weird?
And if you were to remove the space
of what's between these wood molecules, this pulpit
would be about a quarter of an inch
tall and I would be very small.
Isn't that a wild thing?
He is over all of these little atoms.
He holds them together.
Who does?
Jesus.
He's the atomic glue.
Who says?
Bible says.
God says.
He's over the physical creation.
He watches over it.
He's orchestrated.
He put it into motion.
It's us, man, that tampers with things.
You know, I had this weird thought and
I don't know.
It's just one of those weird thoughts.
I recently was in New York City and
I went up on top of the World
Trade Center.
You know, if you've ever been up there,
you go up there and you go outside.
You go up top and look over the
edge and you're over 1,200 feet up
from the bottom there.
You're up on top of the world.
I mean, it looks like you're on top
of the world.
And it's kind of weird.
And there's planes flying below you.
It's a weird thing.
You're up there.
And you look at all the cement that's
on Manhattan, the island, what you and I
visually would say is New York.
It's just a little island.
All the concrete rises, if you put it
together, miles and miles and miles into the
sky.
And I was thinking, gosh, all this weight,
all this stuff was taken from some other
place and it was stacked on one island
and lifted up all of these buildings.
And you would think, wouldn't it kind of
throw the world off on its rotation?
I mean, everything is so perfect that if
we move the sun five miles closer, just
five miles, you know, the sun is 93
,000.
Is it a thousand or a million?
I'm losing my mind.
Ninety-three million miles from here.
And if we move the sun five miles,
just five miles closer, we would all melt
right now.
In eight minutes, we would melt.
If you move the sun five miles further
away, in eight minutes, we would freeze to
death.
Isn't that weird?
So if we build all that stuff in
New York, doesn't it kind of like throw
the earth off and it's very specific rotation?
No, Jesus is holding it together.
And by the way, if you read 1
Peter, he's going to tell you what's going
to happen.
Peter says in the end, Jesus is going
to let go.
He's going to say, all right, I'm going
to relax.
And it says that the elements will bombard,
collide one to another.
And it says that the universe will begin
to melt with a fervent heat.
Why?
Because Jesus is going to relax his grip.
That's how much control he has.
Don't you just want to sing him a
song?
Don't you want to say, thank you, Lord,
for holding things together?
Did you notice how beautiful yesterday was?
It looks like today's starting out just like
it.
It was perfect outside.
And because I was preparing this message, I
went out there and I said, thank you,
Lord.
Thank you.
I love what the Bible does to my
heart and your heart.
It caused you to think different.
Last night, as I think it was Saturn
was setting as you, it's the big bright
star in the summer sky this and these
evenings.
As it begins to set the beauty of
that, thank you, Lord.
You're so great.
Exciting.
It's so wonderful.
Jesus is holding it all together.
Let's keep going.
It also says in Colossians chapter one, verse
15, that he's the first born over all
creation.
And that word simply means the preeminent one,
the architect, the orchestrator.
He's the one.
It doesn't mean that he was born and
had a beginning.
He's preexistent, as we saw.
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 26, tells us, lift
up your eyes on high and see who
has created these things, who brings out their
host by number.
That is the stars of the sky.
He calls them all by name.
Isn't that great?
By the greatness of his might and the
strength of his power, not one of them
is missing.
The Bible says that Christ in Isaiah 40,
verse 26, has named the stars.
He calls them out by name.
He orchestrates them.
He's the architect.
Pluto, come out.
Pleiades, come out.
Orion.
Job tells us that he calls Orion, Orion.
Isn't that great?
We caught up to the fact.
Job, the oldest book.
By the way, Job is the oldest book
in the world.
Did you know that?
It's in your Bible.
Oldest book ever to have been written in
the world.
Oldest book in your Bible is the book
of Job.
Job says that he calls out Orion, the
constellation, and that God alone has orchestrated the
Mazaroth, Job tells us, the Mazaroth.
Yeah, that's the Hebrew word for what Nebuchadnezzar
polluted.
When Nebuchadnezzar took Jerusalem captive, he took the
Mazaroth because it had 12 constellations in it,
and it described the deliverance of mankind in
the Mazaroth.
Nebuchadnezzar, who was pagan, didn't like it, and
he changed it, and in its meaning, put
the Babylonian name to it, called Zodiac.
That's Babylonian.
So you know one Babylonian word, Zodiac.
It means the 12 constellations.
That's why there's a Virgo.
It's not Virgo.
It's the maiden.
It's the virgin that gives birth to the
son.
Leo.
It's not Leo.
It's Judah.
The lion from the tribe of Judah is
Jesus Christ.
That's why the Bible says in Galatians that
God preached the gospel to Abraham.
How did he give it to Abraham?
In the heavens, the Mazaroth.
That 12 wonderful announcements in the sky to
early Abraham, God's redemptive work.
That's why Satan would love to get people
to look at the Zodiac, because it's been
redefined and polluted, and it can lead you
terribly astray.
The Bible says stay away from it now,
completely.
Isaiah chapter 40, verse 26.
The next thing that we see right here
in our study is this, and that is
that Jesus is over all things, over the
physical purpose as well.
This is something that we're going to have
to take by faith, people, very carefully, because
this is where you and I can relate.
That Jesus is over the physical purpose of
things.
If that's true, Jack, then why is the
world falling apart?
Well, because that's true.
What?
Jesus is over the physical purpose of all
things in this world, and yes, they are
falling apart.
Why are they falling apart?
It's because Jesus is over them all.
Listen.
Man has usurped authority and has violently treated
this earth.
Now, don't be afraid.
I'm not going the way of Al Gore,
but I will say that mankind has not
taken care of what God has given.
I think, personally, the Christian should be the
greatest custodian of the environment, because our dad
made it.
But the Christian's not to worship the environment,
because there's only one that we worship, and
why would you worship the work of his
hands when you can worship his hands and
kiss his feet?
Well, Jack, are you saying that we should
not protect the animals?
Well, we can protect the animals, but let's
not make them gods.
You know what I mean?
Sorry, you can't build a house here.
There's a kangaroo rat.
Well, excuse me, but my Bible says that
God has given this earth over to our
dominion and to our power.
Let's pack up the little rat and move
him somewhere else.
But see, when you begin to divorce God
in your thinking, you begin to worship creation,
and you begin to make the kangaroo rat
your god.
Oh, that's ridiculous.
Oh, no.
Read Romans chapter one.
That says when we reject the concept of
God in our minds, we begin to worship
the creation, creeping things, things of animals and
fowls and birds of the air.
We begin to worship them instead.
Men will worship something.
Don't you worry about him.
He'll build an altar to anything.
These people, oh, have you seen this guy
that's on TV?
This wacko crazy nut from Australia?
Now, I'm going to show you three of
the most deadliest snakes in the universe.
Whatever you do, don't get near them.
So he walks right up to him and
he's going, if this thing bites my lips,
I'll die in three minutes.
And he's kissing it, and he's out in
the middle of the woods.
What a lunatic.
It's nuts.
I just had to insert that.
It came, I gave it, there it is.
But this world's falling apart.
If we divorce God from our thinking, we
begin to worship and serve the creation rather
than the creator who's blessed forever.
And we begin to say things like we
have to save this animal at all costs.
Listen, what I find interesting is how intellectually
dishonest all that logic is.
If you are an evolutionist, don't raise your
hand because I don't want to indict you
right now because I'm going to.
If you're an evolutionist, why don't you get
honest?
If you're an evolutionist, stop trying to say
the California condor.
If you're an evolutionist, stop trying to save
the kangaroo rat.
If you're an evolutionist, stop trying to save
the dolphins.
Because if you're an evolutionist, you believe that
this is the survival of the fittest.
So pluck the feathers off the condor and
make a hat out of them and go
over there and eat dolphins because you preach
the survival of the fittest.
Why try to preserve something if evolution's marching
onward and upward?
It's because it's not.
It's intellectually dishonest.
Yes, we should take care of the California
condor.
God made it.
We don't worship the thing.
And boy, was that a digression.
The physical purpose, Psalm 96 verse 11, that
Jesus is governor over the physical purpose.
Psalm 96 11 says, Let the heavens rejoice
and let the earth be glad.
Let the sea roar and all of its
fullness.
Let the field be joyful and all that
is in it.
Then all the trees of the woods will
rejoice before the Lord for he is coming.
Don't you love this?
He is coming.
He is coming to judge the earth.
He shall judge the world with righteousness.
Isn't that needed today?
And the peoples with his truth.
The earth seems to be rejoicing at the
fact that Jesus is governor.
The Bible says in Isaiah again that the
heavens are going to, or the book of
Psalms says the heavens are going to rejoice
and the trees of the field are going
to what?
Clap their hands.
Well, that's silly.
Trees don't have hands.
Well, maybe God considers the leaves on trees
as hands.
But when he comes, the trees are...
Can you imagine all the leaves clapping?
And I'm not talking about like a gopher's
clap.
Oh, John, that's a great putt from 49
feet.
And there's this little token thing.
Oh, Tiger, that was just...
Oh, man, they're just going to...
Yes, God.
Hallelujah.
They're going to clap.
They're going to rejoice.
Boy, we ought to do that.
I think we should be doing that.
Jesus is governor over all things, even the
physical purpose.
He's got a plan.
It's all marching to a very, very specific
conclusion.
Jesus is orchestrating it.
Psalm 148.
That's one of my favorite Psalms.
What a great Psalm.
If you're ever depressed, read Psalm 148.
Let them praise the name of the Lord,
for his name alone is exalted.
His glory is above the earth and heavens.
Look around at what God has done.
The next and final point that we'll see
this morning is this, and that is Jesus
is the Son of God.
We'll study more about this as we go
through these weeks together.
We'll touch on it a little bit right
now this morning, but we need to understand
something.
We need to really, really clear up our
thinking on something when it comes to Jesus
being the Son of God.
Everyone, listen carefully.
Don't you ever think that Jesus, the Son
of God, means that he's less than God
the Father or less than God the Holy
Spirit.
You and I, in our culture, we have
been robbed.
In our western culture that we live in,
we think that the Son is less than
the Father, don't we?
In fact, if we go to a place
and it says, Joe and Sons Building Company
or whatever, and you walk in and you
say, I want to talk to Joe and
Sons Building Company, and this guy says, Hi,
I'm Joe Jr. You say, listen, I don't
want to talk to Joe Jr. I want
to talk to Joe Sr. I want to
talk to the big guy.
Now, in our culture, we understand that.
I don't want to talk to you.
I want to talk to your dad.
You see how we think?
In the Jewish culture, in the Middle East,
they don't think like we do.
This is tough for us to grip.
They don't think like we do.
When you, and they have such a wonderful
depth of understanding and posterity, the continuing on
of life.
If you're talking to Joe's son, if somebody
says, I need to talk to Joe and
Sons Builder.
Yeah, I'm Joe's son.
I'm Joe Jr. This is how they do
it in the East.
Oh, great.
Great.
Then you have all the power and the
authority to do what I need to have
done.
On what grounds?
You're his son.
Whatever the father owns, you own.
Whatever the father says, you say.
Whatever the father believes, you believe.
Whatever you are is your father.
Like father, like son.
We have this saying in America, but we
don't believe it.
Like father, like son is only true of
Jesus Christ.
And this is exciting.
When the Bible says he's the son of
God, we blow it off in our Gentile
reading.
The Jews who in Jesus's time, when they
heard that he was the son of God,
they picked up stones to kill him because
they understood exactly what he meant when he
said, I'm the son of God.
Or when they said, do you, do you,
or are you the son of God?
He says, it's true.
They went berserk because what they were saying
is, or what they believed was, Jesus was
saying, and he was, that God has now
come in human form among mankind.
See, you and I lose that because of
our Gentile-ness.
We need to be careful as we study
the Bible.
It's very important news.
All right, let's look at this now.
Very, very important.
His unique purpose.
Jesus has a very, very unique purpose.
In John chapter 19, we can see here
a witness of the people.
In John 19 verse 6, the Bible says,
Therefore, when the chief priests and the officers
saw Jesus, they cried out, saying, Crucify him,
crucify him.
And Pilate said to them, You take him
and crucify him, for I find no fault
in him.
And the Jews answered and said to him,
We have our law, and according to our
law, he ought to die because he made
himself the Son of God.
You got that?
That's John 19 verses 6 through 7.
Very important.
I'm going to give you a lot of
verses, and we'll be done.
Luke chapter 8 verse 26.
Luke 8, 26.
Then they sailed to the country of the
Gadarenes, which is opposite Galilee.
And when they stepped out on the land,
there they met him, a certain man from
the city who had demons for a long
time, who wore no clothes, nor did he
live in a house but in the tombs.
And when he saw Jesus, he cried out
and fell down before him.
And with a loud voice said, this is
the voice of the demon, What have we
or what have I to do with you,
Jesus, Son of the Most High God?
I beg you, do not torment me.
Interesting, the demon was scared to death about
Jesus and the fact that Jesus was the
Son of the Most High.
Listen, it's admitted by Jesus himself in Matthew
chapter 26 verse 63.
But Jesus kept silent and the high priest
answered and said to him, I put you
under oath by the living God.
Oh, now Jesus must speak.
Tell us if you are the Christ, the
Son of God.
And Jesus said to him, it is as
you have said.
It's confessed by Rome as well in Matthew
chapter 27 verse 50.
And Jesus cried out again with a loud
voice and yielded up his spirit.
And then behold, the veil of the temple
was torn in two from top to bottom.
And the earth did quake and the rocks
were split open and the graves were opened.
And many bodies of the saints who had
died were raised from the dead and coming
out of their graves after his resurrection.
They went into the holy city and appeared
to many.
So when the centurion and those with him
or with the centurion were gathered around guarding
Jesus, guarding Jesus saw the earthquake and the
things that happened, they feared greatly saying truly
this was the son of God.
John chapter 10 verse 30 says, I and
my father are one.
Then the Jews picked up stones to stone
him.
And Jesus answered and said to them, many
good works have I done of my father.
For which of these do you stone me?
Then the Jews answered and said to him
for a good work, we do not stone
you, but for blasphemy, because you being a
man declare yourself to be God.
That's very clear.
Don't you think in your Bible?
It's very clear.
Acts 13 33.
God has fulfilled this for us, his children
in that he has raised Jesus Christ as
it is also written in the second Psalm.
You are my son today.
Have I begotten you?
That's Psalm chapter two, verses five through seven.
And then finally this verse here, and we'll
go to the next point.
We need to wrap this up quickly.
Proverbs 30 verse four.
Who has ascended into heaven?
God's asking you and I this question.
Who has ascended into heaven or who descended?
Who has gathered the wind in his fist?
Who has bound the waters in a garment?
Who has established all the ends of the
earth?
What is his name?
And what is the name of his son?
Can you tell me?
Is that awesome?
That's Psalm chapter 30 beginning at verse four.
The next thing that we need to see
here very important quickly is this.
He has a union calling.
Jesus is calling is altogether unique and you
know it very quickly for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten
glorified unique one and only son that whoever
believes in him should not perish but have
everlasting life.
I have a string of verses but no
time to give them to you.
Isaiah chapter 41 verse 4.
Jot it down if you would.
Next to your notes research them later.
Jesus is unique.
It says there that he's the first and
the last.
Isaiah 44 verse 6.
He is again the first and the last
and besides me there is no God.
Isaiah chapter 48 verse 12.
He is again the first and the last
and when he says the last that is
the word there will be no other gods
after me the one and only for all
eternity of all realms the one and only.
Hosea chapter 13 verse 4.
I'll say it.
I'll quote it to you quickly because it's
important.
Yet I am the Lord your God ever
since the land of Egypt and you shall
know no other God but me and you
shall bow down to no other God but
me for there is no Savior but me.
Revelation chapter 1 verses 17 and 18.
It says there that the great first and
the last the I am the Alpha and
the Omega the beginning the end was he
who was alive and became dead and behold
he's alive forevermore.
That's Jesus Christ.
In Revelations chapter 2 verse 8 he says
these things say at the first and the
last who was dead and came back to
life.
That's Jesus Christ the unique call of God
his precious son.
Very very important and John says to us
this morning John chapter 20 verse 31 John
says but these things have been written that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ
the Son of God and that believing you
might have life in his name.
Very very important and finally here people I
know we're over time his unique authority and
this is what I want you to focus
on as we close.
He has an altogether unique authority.
There's nobody else in the Bible where the
Bible says that you must bow and confess
his name.
Not Sun Young Moon, not Rajneesh, not Joseph
Smith, not Chuck Smith, not Greg Laurie, not
Billy Graham, not John Paul.
Jesus Christ for the Bible says it is
at the name of Jesus Christ that every
knee will bow both angelic and human and
confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord and
the Bible says there's only one Lord.
Amen?
Amen.
I want to leave this with you as
we close you can rest and relax.
I want you to consider Christ's invitation this
morning.
The Bible says that he has loved you
with an everlasting love.
Even though you're a little stinker.
God knows you're a stinker.
You've been such a brat.
We all have been.
God says I've loved you and that's before
eternity.
The scripture also tells us that all those
who will come to him he will not
cast out.
Life is brutal.
People are brutal.
Life and people will cast us out.
God will never cast us out.
And the final thing that I want you
to consider Jesus said that he's the way
the truth and the life and no man
comes to the father but through him.
Paul said if you confess that truth with
your mouth that Jesus died for your sins
and that he rose again from the grave
you'll be saved.
It's that it's that that free and that
available.