John's Gospel, Chapter 1.
The Gospel according to John was written by
the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John.
And the Apostle John ultimately became known as
the Apostle of Love.
He wasn't always that.
He was a part of the wrestling tag
team known as the Sons of Thunder.
But the Holy Spirit used John in the
writing of the Gospel, the writing of 1st,
2nd, and 3rd John, and then the writing
of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, the final
book in the Bible.
The Apostle Paul, just in terms of sheer
numbers of books that the Lord used to
write, he certainly the largest number in that
way.
But Luke, the author of the Gospel according
to Luke, and then the Acts of the
Apostle John, with all that the Lord wrote
and spoke through him, in terms of just
the quantity of revelation that is there in
verses and sentences, they top even what it
is that the Lord spoke through Paul.
The Gospel of John is unique among all
four of the Gospels.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke are known as the
synoptic Gospels, synoptic meaning seeing together.
They cover much the same territory.
They're all necessary.
You never have a complete picture of Jesus
by just reading one of the Gospels.
We need all of them.
But they cover largely the same territory, his
birth and the parables and the miracles and
these different events.
The genealogy, two of them cover the genealogies
and all.
And so because they cover much the same
material, they're known as the synoptic Gospels.
Each one of the Gospels has a little
bit of a different emphasis concerning Jesus.
You look at the Gospels and say, why
would God not do four?
Why wouldn't he just, why would he do
four?
Why wouldn't he just have like the super
-duper new improved Gospel, you know, if it
contains all of it?
And the reason is because each one of
them gives a little different view of Jesus,
a needed view.
The person can take a look at another
person's face from four different angles and they'll
see the face a little differently for the
perspective.
And if the face that the four angles,
the picture is taken of in the four
angles is a face that you love, Jesus
is a face that we love, and someone
were to come to you and say, listen,
which one of, you know, the four or
which three of the four should we throw
away?
You see, you're not throwing away any of
them.
I mean, this is what the people that
take pictures, cool pictures understand.
They take all these pictures of your kids
and then they have you come in and
look at it and you're, you're set upon
only buying $22 worth of pictures.
They bring in the $400 set and they
lay it out, $400, I'm at $400 to
buy this and all.
Well, I guess we'll throw them away.
Throw away the pictures of my little baby,
you know, kind of thing.
And it's worse if you're a grandparent.
They're all precious to us.
So they all look at things a little
bit differently and they show the beauty of
the face, the beauty of the life for
our purposes, a little bit differently.
Matthew was written principally with the Jew in
mind and it emphasizes Jesus as the King,
as the Messiah.
That's why Matthew repeats over and over again
by the spirit of God that it might
be fulfilled, that it might be fulfilled, that
it might be fulfilled.
The gospel according to Mark was written with
a Roman in mind.
The great emphasis of the gospel according to
Mark is of a servant.
Jesus is a servant.
And Mark, he doesn't deal with genealogies.
He doesn't deal with births.
He doesn't, he, when he starts that gospel,
it's right to John the Baptist in the
wilderness, the temptation, the baptism out there at
the Jordan River, and on we go.
He's a man of action.
The Romans were people of action.
They were people who understood servanthood.
They highly esteemed servanthood.
And so the Lord provides them with a
gospel, that kind of person with a gospel
that says, you admire servanthood?
Well, let me show you the greatest servant
who ever lived.
And then Luke's gospel, the emphasis upon the
humanity of Jesus.
Probably written with the Greek in mind, who
if they did not worship the human body,
they certainly highly esteemed it.
The Greek could never understand Jewish circumcision.
It was the mutilation of the human body.
They could never get over it.
And if a Jewish boy was circumcised on
the eighth day and later became a great
athlete and was to, to participate in the
Grecian games, they would reverse the circumcision.
So that it would, that mutilation to them
would not appear.
So when Paul writes and says, you know,
if you've been circumcised and come to Christ
and stay circumcised and, and, and, and don't
be uncircumcised, you think how in the world
could you, you know, undo the, the thing
they did?
And so they, they worship the human body.
They worship essentially deified the, the emotions of,
of man, the body of man.
And so what does heaven do?
Provides the Greek in that kind of mind
with the greatest life that they'd ever seen.
Here's a life to study.
Here's a human life, all God, all man,
all at the same time.
Study this one.
Tell me what you think and see if
you don't conclude that he is the only
man, the God man to be sure, that
is worthy of your worship.
And then the gospel according to John is
written and its great emphasis is upon Jesus
as God, God, the son, the son of
God, the deity of Jesus Christ.
So you put the four gospels together and
you have heaven communicating to man, Matthew's gospel,
behold your King, Mark's gospel, behold your servant,
Luke's gospel, behold the man, John's gospel, behold
your God.
All of them communicate in this beautiful message
concerning Jesus Christ to us.
Now the purpose of the Holy Spirit and
the writing of the gospel according to John
is found almost at the end of the
book and I'd like you to turn with
me to it in John chapter 20, verse
30.
The purpose clearly stated at the conclusion of
the book and John declares by the Spirit
of God and truly Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of his disciples which
are not written in this book.
John later writes and says listen if we
if we included everything the world couldn't contain
the books.
But he said these are written, these signs
are written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the promised Messiah, the son
of God that is in his deity and
that believing you may have life in his
name.
And we're going to see in just a
couple of minutes that this word believe he
repeats it twice in verse 31 or some
version of it all the way through there
is this concern on the part of the
apostle John that every single person would believe
in Jesus as the Messiah that is as
the Christ and that he is the son
of God.
That's what he's concerned about.
Why?
He states it there because in believing this
about Jesus that's where it is that we
find life in his name.
That's where everlasting life is going to be
found and so continually he brings up this
word believing, believe, believe, believe all the way
through through the book because he's concerned that
everyone would believe in him and have the
everlasting life that's found there.
His method, he stated his purpose there in
chapter 20, but the method by which he
has chosen by the spirit of God to
get people to believe this about Jesus is
all built around seven miracles of Jesus and
seven great I am statements of Jesus.
The whole gospel is built around seven miracles.
He could have put a hundred miracles in
there, a thousand miracles, ten thousand miracles, but
he doesn't do it.
He chooses seven by the spirit.
They're carefully chosen so that as a person
looks at those miracles, realizes Jesus did those
miracles, that you can only come to one
conclusion about him.
He is the promised Messiah and he is
God the son.
And also with the seven I am statements,
I am was a name for God in
the old testament.
God would come, remember when Moses, the Lord
met with him in the burning bush and
Moses and he commissions him to go to
the children of Israel and Moses said, uh,
what's your name?
Uh, who should I say sent me?
And the Lord said, I am that I
am.
I am.
I have always been.
I am now.
I always will be.
In fact, there is no past tense present
tense with me.
I am the self-existent one.
I always live in the present tense.
That's who sent you.
Have fun explaining it to them, but it's
the name for God in Jesus.
Seven times through this gospel, he says, I
am, I am the way, the truth, and
the life.
I am the good shepherd.
I am the door over and over again.
What is he communicating?
He is communicating clearly understood by the Jewish
mind that he's divine, that he's to be
understood as being divine.
So chapter one, verse one, in the beginning
was the word and the word was with
God and the word was God.
Great.
Whoever, whatever this word is, they're pretty important.
I want to know who, who is this?
I remember when I read this for the
first time as a Christian, I saw it
in capitalization.
So I knew from the Bible I had
that this had something to do with God.
Then you keep reading down in the verse
24 and notice, and the word, see here's
where the word is identified and the word
became flesh.
And he dwelt among us and we beheld
his glory.
The glory is of the only begotten of
the father, full of grace and truth.
And Jesus bore witness of this word of
him and cried out saying, and who is
this speaking of?
It's all speaking of Jesus.
Jesus is the word.
And so verse one, very important to John
is a declaration of the deity of Jesus.
And so he begins by saying, in the
beginning was the word.
When the beginning began, Jesus was already there.
This is known as the pre-existence of
God, the pre-existence of Jesus.
Whenever the beginning of everything that has a
beginning began, he did not begin at that
time.
He already existed at that time.
So it's a way of saying that Jesus
is eternal.
In other words, when he came into that
manger on that Christmas morning, he didn't begin
to exist at that point in time.
He's always existed, the pre-existence of Jesus,
the fact that he's eternal.
And so the Holy Spirit declares concerning him
in the beginning was the word and the
word was with God.
The second thing that John reveals about Jesus
and about God and revealing this about Jesus
is that the word was with God.
And then in just one, the rest of
the sentence, and the word was God.
In other words, Jesus, we'll see just a
moment, Jesus is God.
And so you have Jesus as God with
God, Jesus as God with the Father.
Well, the only way you can have Jesus
being God and at the same time with
the Father who is also God, what that
requires or necessitates is a plurality in the
Godhead.
You must have more than one person within
the Godhead.
And when it speaks here of the fact
that the word was with God, the word
with there literally means face-to-face, the
face-to-face to one another.
Now concerning God, the Bible teaches that there
is one God manifested in three persons, God,
the Father, God, the Son, and God, the
Holy Spirit.
One God, three persons.
When Jesus gave the great commission and he
spoke to the disciples and he told them
to go out and make disciples, baptizing them
in the name singular in the name of
the Father and of the Son and of
the Holy Spirit.
One name, one God, but three persons within
the Godhead.
Now the person says, Elizabeth, you know, doesn't
one plus one plus one equal three?
You can't use addition in dealing with the
Godhead.
You have to use multiplication.
One times one times one equals one.
Then the next thing the person does is
start to twitch just slightly on that.
Smoke starts to come out of there.
And the person says, I don't understand how
there can be one God and three persons.
Welcome to the club.
And it's a club that has some very
highly esteemed members, including the apostle Paul, who
wrote to Timothy and said, great is the
mystery of godliness that God was manifested in
the flesh.
And then he goes on in that verse
to speak of Jesus.
It's a mystery.
And this is one of the things that
everyone must accept.
If you're going to have, or we're going
to have a personal relationship with God, is
that whenever you have the finite you and
I in relationship with the infinite, that is
God, then there is going to be a
point in that relationship where there's going to
be mystery.
You can only track with God so far.
And then you have what is known as
the vanishing point where your mind goes out
across the flat, you know, um, Bonneville salt
flats out there.
And as far as you can see out
there, they plant the flag.
That's as far as you can see, as
far as you can understand.
And yet it goes on way beyond that.
And that's the way that it is.
So if a person is going to have
a relationship with God, there just has to
be this acceptance of the fact that there's
going to be mystery involved.
I can only track with him so far.
Otherwise you'll become a Jehovah witness, or you'll
become some other kind of group who cannot
and will not accept mystery concerning God.
They want to solve every kind of mystery,
even if it means error in doing so.
And so here you have this without controversy.
Great is the mystery of God.
Now the foundation for the plurality of the
Godhead began very, very early in the Bible.
In fact, the foundation for the plurality of
the Godhead was laid as early as Genesis
chapter one, verse one.
You can't get earlier than that.
Where God declares in the beginning, and notice
the similarities here with the start of John
here, in the beginning, God created the heavens
and the earth.
Now the interesting thing about that word God
in Genesis 1.1 is the word that's
used there is the word Elohim.
And in the Hebrew, that is, Elohim is
Hebrew for God.
Now in the Hebrew, the word in the
singular for God is El.
The word for dual as it relates to
God is Ella.
And then the God, the word that's used,
the Hebrew word for three or more as
it relates to God is the word Elohim.
That's the word that's used here.
Now, don't let me leave you there.
In Genesis chapter one, verses 26 and 27,
the Lord speaks and says, let us make
man in our image, according to our likeness,
plural pronouns.
You have a conversation going on as it
relates to the creation of man.
And, and they, and then this, as God
is saying this and notice it's God saying,
let us.
So whoever saying this is, is God and
let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the
air and over the cattle, over all the
earth and over every creeping thing that creeps
on the earth.
Some people say, well, listen, that is speaking
of a triune God or some kind of
a conversation there among the father, son, and
the Holy spirit there.
That's, that's, that's the father talking to angels.
It can't be because then in verse 27,
it says, and so God created man in
his own image, in the image of God.
If he was talking to angels, then we
would be in created in the image of
God and angels.
The only people that are talking in this
conversation are God, is God, the plurality there
in the conversation.
Then you go to Deuteronomy chapter six.
And then Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, you
have what is known as the great command,
the great command of the Jews or the
great Shema.
And then that Deuteronomy chapter four, verse six,
it declares hero, Israel, the Lord, our God,
the Lord is one.
The Bible teaches clearly that there is one
God that verse alone wipes Mormonism off of
the map in terms of something to be
considered seriously.
That's why with Mormonism, you have this pearl
of great price, doctrine and covenants.
You have the book of Mormon, uh, every
effort made to keep you out of the
Bible.
The problem is, is that anytime you have
subsequent revelation that you claim has come from
God, it must always be tested by prior
revelation.
And if it violates the prior revelation, then
you hold to the prior revelation and you
reject the subsequent revelation.
And so when you head into these books,
is it of Mormonism and all they, they
completely fail the previous, previous revelation.
Well, that's another study.
The Hebrew word that is used in Deuteronomy
chapter six, verse four, for one is an
interesting one hero is through the Lord.
Our God, the Lord is one teaches one
God, but the word that's used for one
is interesting.
It is in the Hebrew, the word and
it means one, it absolutely means one, but
it refers to a compound unity.
There is another word in the Hebrew language
for one, and it is the Hebrew word.
Yeah.
And yeah, he refers to an absolute indivisible
one.
If the Lord had given in Deuteronomy chapter
six, verse four here, Oh Israel, the Lord,
our God, the Lord is an indivisible one.
Then we would come to John's gospel and
we would close up our Bibles and we
would go home because this revelation would violate
the prior revelation.
But yeah, he does not, the word that's
used is the word that is used.
And in using that word, God is quietly,
even in the book of Genesis.
And then in the book of Deuteronomy, making
room for the truth that he knew that
he would yet reveal through Jesus.
Now this in John chapter one, verse one,
and we will get out of it.
When it says in the beginning was the
word and the word was with God.
Here you have God, the son facing God,
the father.
I think of a religious system that is
very, very big in the valley and that
portion of Pentecostalism known as oneness, oneness theology,
or God can only manifest himself in one
person of the Godhead or that he only
does in one person of the Godhead at
a time.
And yet here you have the son face
to face with the father in John chapter
one, verse one.
And so in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the
word was God.
And so not only was Jesus with God,
but then we're told that he was and
is God.
The word was God.
You cannot make a stronger statement for the
deity of Jesus Christ than the one that
John does here.
The word was God.
In fact, it is so clear and the
statement is so strong that those that don't
want to believe in the deity of Jesus
Christ, as is the case with the Jehovah
witnesses, they must resort to horrible things to
try and distort the verse or to confuse
the verse, to confuse the clear teaching of
the verse.
And so what they have done in their
new world translation is they have inserted in
violation of all manuscripts that in the beginning
was the word and the word was with
God and the word was, and they insert
the word a, a God.
So they say Jesus was a God in
the same way that the judges of the
old Testament were gods in that they took
a position in which they represented God.
And so they insert an A.
That is a deliberate, willful, known act on
the part of the leadership of Jehovah witnesses
to deliberately distort and come against the clear
teaching of John chapter one, verse one.
Most of the people that come to your
door, they don't have the slightest idea that
this has been done.
John chapter one, verse one alone completely dismantles
the entire religious system known as Jehovah witnesses.
You cannot believe John chapter one, verse one,
and remain a Jehovah witness because the two
things are absolutely contrary to themselves.
I know that sometimes when we're taught to
witness to the Jehovah witnesses, and I'm spending
time here in this area because um, these
folks are very, very active.
And part of my responsibility as a pastor
is to make sure that all of us
are equipped to be able to stand our
own biblically as it relates to these things,
not be pulled in into this stuff.
You know, the, the, in terms of Mormonism,
the greatest number of their converts into Mormonism
are with a Christian background.
The Christians are untaught concerning the word.
Now, sometimes when they say, well, listen, they
have so muddied John chapter one, verse one,
that you can't even use it in a
discussion with them on your doorstep.
I refuse to give them the verse.
It may be rebellion on my part, but
I refuse to lose so clear statement.
And so when they're on my doorstep, I
take and they come and they, and the
opening statement is, isn't the world terrible and
stuff.
It certainly is.
I'm tracking with you so far and I'm
not fishing for a quarter, but, but you
do this.
It is, it's a mess and all, and
they say the things and they have the
little opening lines and stuff and you know,
and people do all that stuff.
And somewhere in the course of that, I
will say, listen, I am a born again
believer in Jesus Christ.
The Bible has a position of authority within
my life.
Let's not go all around and all of
the tangents and all you and I disagree
in, in the place that is most important
as it relates to Jesus Christ and the
fact that he is God in human flesh.
So let's go there.
And I go to this verse here and
I read it there for them.
And they say, well, there's an A here
in our translation.
I say, go to any translation other than
yours or any manuscripts that you can find
in the world.
And you will find nothing that supports the
insertion of an A there because you have
done it and you alone have done it.
This verse teaches by the spirit of God,
the deity of Jesus Christ.
And so I hold on to the verse
and I go there.
And then the second place I go, I'll
just tell you how I witnessed the witnesses.
And I love them.
They're both on my doorstep and I know
who the discipler is and the disciple is,
and I'm after both of them, but I'm
really after that disciple.
I'm really after that person.
I want to plant things in their heart
in a loving way and in a biblical
way that by the time they leave my
doorstep, go down the street, get in the
car, and that older person tries to talk
them out of the things that I have
said before they even leave the neighborhood, that
that will not be able to leave their
heart because they're a true seeker after God.
So the second place I always take them
is to Hebrews chapter one.
I don't know where I heard it initially,
but I've adopted it as my own.
And I say to them, I say, if
I could show you in the Bible where
the father calls Jesus God, would you believe
that Jesus is God?
And without variation, they say, well, that's not
in the Bible.
Is it?
If I could show you in the Bible
where the father calls the son, God, would
you believe that Jesus is God?
Well, it's, it's not, it's not in there.
It's nowhere.
Let me show you in a Psalm.
You know, they try and pull you off.
If I could show you in the Bible,
if I could show you in the Bible,
where the father calls the son, God, would
you believe me?
I believe you.
If you showed me where the father called
him called the son God, but it isn't
in the Bible.
So we go to Hebrews chapter one and
then Hebrews chapter one, we read God who
at various times and in different ways spoken
time 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 who being the brightness of his
glory and the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of
his power, when he had by himself purged
our sin sat down at the right hand
of the majesty on high, having become so
much better than the angels, speaking of Jesus
and the Jehovah witnesses teach that Jesus is
an angel.
And so having become so much better than
the angels, you can't be better than the
angels and an angel.
But I don't really bog down there.
I could, I do that with you, but
I don't do that with others as he
has by inheritance obtained a more excellent name
than they for, to which of the angels
did he, that is the father ever say,
you are my son today, I have begotten
you.
And again, I will be to him a
father and he will be to me a
son.
Well, the father never said that concerning an
angel.
He said it concerning his son.
And when verse six, he again brings the
firstborn into the world, he said, law, let
all of the angels of God worship him.
Jesus superior to the angels in that the
angels worship Jesus.
It is birth and the end of the
angels.
The father says, who makes his angels spirits
and his ministers of flame of fire, but
to the son.
And here we are, but to the son,
he, that is the father says your throne.
Oh God, you have the father calling the
son.
God is for ever and ever a scepter
of righteousness is the scepter of your kingdom.
You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness.
Therefore, God, your God has anointed you with
the oil of gladness more than your companions.
Now the really sharp
folks on the doorstep there, they'll look and
they'll say, well, you know, the term God
that is used there.
I mean, didn't the father call by the
spirit of God in the Psalms, the judges
of the old Testament gods, didn't he call
them that again, in that sense that they
were representing God in their judgments.
And so this is just speaking of Jesus
in that capacity.
And when they say that to me, I
know I've got a sharp one that I'm
talking about.
And I don't say that I love sharp
ones because then I'm able to say, all
right, I don't need to build my case.
Even on the strength of that argument, notice
in verse 10, and the father says to
the son, you Lord and Lord is in
all capital letters, which is a name for
Jehovah or Yahweh in the old Testament.
And you Lord, in the beginning laid the
foundation of the earth and the heavens are
the work of your hands.
Everything gets quiet right there.
And there is then at that point, an
attempt to go to another passage someplace.
And I stop here and I look and
I say, here, you have the father telling
us, calling the son, God, you have to
believe what the father says.
And in fact, Hebrews chapter one versus eight
and 10 is so damaging to the false
position of the Jehovah witnesses that I am
told that when they are prepped to go
door to door, they're never shown that passage
because if they saw it on their own,
it would stumble them out of their faith.
And so when you speak it on your
doorstep to them, most often through the years,
the 20 some years that I have done
that I am speaking to someone who is
seeing that passage in that light for the
first time.
That's a time to pray, time to pray
for them.
And then I go to revelation chapter one,
final book of the Bible, where you have
Jesus ascribing deity to himself.
And John one, one, you have the Holy
spirit ascribing deity to Jesus.
And Jenna in Hebrews chapter one, you have
the father ascribing deity to Jesus.
And then in revelation chapter one, you have
Jesus ascribing deity to himself in chapter one,
verse 10, where John writes and says, and
I was in the spirit on the Lord's
day.
And I heard behind me a loud voice
as of a trumpet.
And here's what he heard the voice saying,
I am Alpha and Omega, the first and
the last.
For those of you who are note takers,
you write in your margin, Isaiah 41 chapter
41 verse four, because that's where the term
Alpha and Omega is something that Jehovah uses
to describe himself.
It's a name for Jehovah in the old
Testament.
So here you have someone who is ascribing
deity to themselves.
I am Alpha and Omega the first and
the last, they are calling themselves God.
And then declaring to John, what you see
right in a book and send it to
the seven churches, which are in Asia to
Ephesus, to Smyrna, to Pergamos, to Thyatira, to
Sardis, to Philadelphia and to Laodicea.
And then John verse 12, he turns to
see the voice that spoke with him.
And when he turned, he saw seven golden
lampstands.
And in the midst of the seven lampstands,
there was one like the son of God
clothed with a garment down to his feet
and girded about the chest with a golden
band.
His head and his hair were white like
wool as white as snow.
And his eyes were a flame of fire.
His feet were like fine brass as if
refined in a furnace and his voice as
the sound of many waters.
Here you have one of the two physical
descriptions of Jesus in all of the Bible.
One in the Old Testament, one in the
New Testament.
And he had in his right hand seven
stars and out of his mouth went a
sharp two edged sword.
And his countenance was like the sun shining
in its strength.
And when I saw him, I fell at
his feet as dead.
But he laid his right hand on me
saying to me, do not be afraid.
I am the first and the last.
I am he who lives, was dead, and
behold, I am alive forevermore.
Amen.
And I have the keys of Hades and
of death.
Now, Walter Martin tells a story about this.
How many of you, just a show of
hands, heard or saw Walter Martin before he
went to be with the Lord?
All the way up.
Was he something?
Man, talk about this.
In Napa, where Karen's parents, my wife's parents
live, they live out in the country.
And there's a walk that I take when
I go there once in a while.
And one of the ranches on that walk,
it has in these big, you know, poles
up and then this title across the ranch
as you enter in.
And the name of the ranch is Never
Give an Inch Ranch.
You could use a few more Christians that
didn't give up an inch, let alone the
miles that are being given up today in
some circles in terms of doctrine.
But Walter Martin wouldn't give up an inch.
He knew that by, I mean, he would
quote this Bible by the chapter, and then
all of their books.
I know he had a reputation.
They called him casually, you know, because I
mean, when you would not face facts, I
mean, when he made it as clear as
clear could be, I mean, he could make
it clear still.
For everyone's embarrassment.
I mean, you're listening in the car, you
know, oh man, I feel bad and I'm
not even there.
I didn't make the phone call.
Anybody else?
You're looking at the other traffic.
Oh man, I'm glad I'm not that guy.
But I mean, he could really, really do
it.
And I don't, I don't think to this
day, we have people who are different than
Walter Martin, but I don't think we have
anyone quite like him at this point on
these issues.
Walter Martin, when he was a young man,
just coming out of Bible college and Bible
school, he went to visit the Watchtower organization
in Brooklyn, New York.
And he knew he was going to head
into apologetics.
So he, I guess he began to visit
all of these headquarters while he could anonymously.
So he goes in there and he just
asked for kind of a tour of the
place and they show him where everything's being
printed and all this.
They gave him a fabulous tour and he's
heading out and there's a man that's sitting
at the desk there in the reception area.
And as he walks out, he says to
the man that's sitting at the desk, he
said, if I could show you, that's where
I got it.
There we go.
I told you I like this guy.
Where Jesus declared himself to be, it's very
adaptable as you, as you can, as I
testified through now.
But if I could show you where Jesus
called himself divine in the scriptures, would you
believe it?
And, and so that whole conversation went on
back and forth and all of that.
And then, and then he sits in, as
will happen with you as you go there.
And, and the guy said, well, if you
could show me then fine, but it's not
there in the Bible.
And Walter Martin, and those of you who
knew him, I mean, you can picture it.
He, the desk is right there.
The guy's down there, the Bible's opened up
and Walter Martin, not content to just read
the verse.
He pounds the desk.
I am alpha and omega, the first and
the last.
And with every word kaboom, kaboom, kaboom, you
know, you know, and he just lays the
thing out and then he walks out of
the place.
Many years later, true story.
Many years later, he's at a place speaking
at a church and he always had these
strict rules.
Nobody could take over a meeting that Walter
Martin was bad at.
You could ask questions, but you didn't, it
wasn't, they didn't come to hear whoever, they
came to hear what he had to say
and he maintained control of a room.
And so a guy stood up and he
said, he started to say something and, and
it was obviously going to be something other
than like a direct question to Walter Martin.
And he said, he said, I think you'll
want to hear this and Walter Martin, perhaps
by the spirit of God, let him go.
And he said, years ago, I sat at
a receptionist desk at the Watchtower organization and
you came in and he went through the
whole thing and you pounded on that desk.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end.
He said that night I went home and
I laid down on my bed and I
tried to go to sleep and it was
like thunder in my ears.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end.
And he got down on his knees and
he gave his life to the Lord on
that.
And so I always tell the folks that
come to my doorstep from the Jehovah Witnesses
that I can only explain to you why
I believe in the deity of Jesus Christ.
And I believe it because the Holy Spirit
has declared it in John chapter one, verse
one, and the Father has declared it in
Hebrews chapter one, and Jesus himself has declared
it in Revelation chapter one.
The entirety of the Godhead declares.
Now, who am I supposed to believe on
this?
I believe the Word of God and that's
what I stick with.
And then we leave it there and then
I pray as they leave them that this
will have its needed work within their lives,
always with love.
You know, knowledge passa, but love edifies.
Lord, may they see the love in all
of this too.
And then usually they say, where do you
go to church?
I don't really tell them that I'm a
pastor or anything like that.
Because there's a whole trip that they go
into on that and I don't want to
muddy the waters.
We've usually had a successful time by then.
And then notice in verse two that he
was in the beginning with God.
And so here you have this declaration again
where the Holy Spirit is reiterating that Jesus
did not exist or did not come to
exist at the beginning, but when there was
the beginning that he was there with the
Father, the eternal, that Jesus is eternal.
And so in John chapter one, verse one,
the pre-existence of God, plurality of the
Godhead, and then the deity of Jesus Christ.
And I see that I'm at 45 minutes
with that.
And it's kind of self-contained really.
So we'll stop there tonight and we'll move
on.
This is the slowest we've ever probably gone
on.
We have set a record of some kind.
But there's so much more in here that's
just fascinating.
And I love the chapter.
Those of you who are familiar with the
chapter, to me in my relationship with the
Lord, I have a very, I have a
very emotional relationship with the Lord.
I love him with all of my heart.
I love him with my mind and my
soul and my strength.
But for me, the emotion can never come
before the understanding.
What causes the worship to just explode forth
in my life is when my mind understands
the revelation of the scriptures concerning him.
And then I meditate upon those truths.
And then all of a sudden, it's just
like too much.
This is the one that came in human
flesh and was concerned about a relationship with
me.
And so for me, always the one has
followed the other.
And that's why John, who was different, he
was younger as it relates to the apostles.
And he was the more, you know, he
had that close personal relationship with Jesus, always
sitting near him at the tables when there
was the meals and all of that.
And really, he's kind of the mystic of
the New Testament.
The relationship with the Lord is so important
to him.
But you know, when you go through the
gospel and then you go into the epistles
and then you go into the revelation, there's
no deeper thought that goes on in the
New Testament.
I mean, to just sit down and go,
what is this guy saying here?
And yet, because he understood those things and
brought them forward and had an appreciation on
some level of those things, that's where all
of that worship and all of that awe
and all of that relationship came out of
it.
And so here he is, this mystic.
And it's always nice when the mystics in
the body of Christ are firmly grounded upon
the truth of God's word.