[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|
Status: Not Logged In; Sign In
Bible Study Title: Declaring and Defending the Deity of Christ We come now to the gospel of John. Tonight we’re going to look at James, the brother of our Lord, and have a wonderful time looking at that unlikely hero. But for this morning, we’re going to begin the gospel of John, and we’re going to do that for a while to come. And just to kind of get a running start and sort of set-up the importance of this study that we’re about to embark upon, I remind you of something that you well know, that the Lord Jesus Christ is the theme of all Scripture, not just the New Testament, but the Old Testament as well. We all understand that the New Testament is about Him, the four gospels that give us the focus on the Lord Jesus Christ. The first three gospels tell the narrative of His life and death and resurrection. Then the book of Acts tells us about His ascension into glory, and His sending the Holy Spirit and the work of the Holy Spirit in the church. Then the epistles are written to explain the meaning of His death and resurrection. And then the culminating book, the book of Revelation, about His Second Coming, return in glory. So that the New Testament focuses on Jesus Christ widely and deeply. But it is also the theme of the Old Testament, to look at Christ. It was the Lord Himself who said in John 5 that you could search the Scriptures for they are they which speak of Me, and He was talking about the Old Testament. He said bluntly, “Scripture testifies about Me. And if you search the Scriptures, you will find Me, you will see My glory, you will discern the truth that leads to eternal life.” All that recorded in John chapter 5. In John chapter 1, later in the chapter, when Philip found Nathaniel, he said to Nathaniel that “I have met Christ.” And this is how he referred to it. He said, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote. Come and see.” The Lord Jesus is not only the theme of the New Testament, but He is the theme of the Old Testament. We had a glimpse of that, a profound glimpse of it, in Isaiah 53, and on Sunday nights we’re going to take a look at Christ in the Old Testament coming up and seeing some of those revelations concerning Him. So, according to Revelation 19:10, Jesus is the theme of prophecy. That is He is the theme of Old Testament prophecy and clearly the theme of New Testament preaching. That is why the apostle Paul said, “We preach Christ, Christ only, Christ alone, and Christ crucified.” Every preacher and every teacher who is faithful, every church, every ministry that is faithful presents the full and accurate truth concerning the Lord Jesus Christ. That is a benchmark; that is a litmus test of integrity in a preacher and in a ministry. That is the validation. I would say it this way, devotion to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ is the benchmark of legitimacy in any preacher and in any ministry. If there is any diminishing of Christ, or deviation from the true Christ, there is a serious violation of the purpose of God in revealing Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament. Any and every legitimate preacher, legitimate church, legitimate ministry must be committed to the truth about Christ, to the glory and exaltation of the Lord Jesus Christ, being relentlessly biblical to understand the full revelation concerning Christ. The single source of the truth about Christ is the Bible. And if the theme of the Bible is Christ, and the purpose of revealing Christ is so that we may see the fullness of His glory, then legitimacy is tied inextricably to a consuming pre-occupation with knowing all that has been revealed about Christ, to understand His full glory with a view to worshiping Him, honoring Him, and loving Him. In fact, you can tie the two together. The degree of emphasis on the Bible in any preacher’s ministry in any church, in any organization, the degree of emphasis on the Bible is equal to the commitment to the glory of the Son of God. If there is a diminished interest in the Bible, there is a diminished interest in the One the Bible reveals. If there is, on the other hand, an elevated preoccupation with the Bible, there will be an elevated pre-occupation with Christ who is the theme. Those two are in direct proportion to one another. A preacher’s love for Christ will show up in His commitment to the Word of God which reveals Christ. A church’s love for Christ will show up in their devotion to the revelation concerning Christ. They are, again I say, in direct proportion. Where there is a consuming love for Christ, there will be a concurrent consuming love for Scripture. Poster Comment: Now, all false religions—listen--all false religions reject the true Jesus Christ of the Bible. They all do. That’s what constitutes them as false religions to start with. From Islam to Mormonism, if you want to go from something that is non-Christian to something that calls itself Christian, they all reject the true Christ. But, they all honor a false Christ. Let me show you by contrast what I mean. We tell the truth about false teachers. We say Muhammad was a demon-possessed man, an agent of hell to unleash lies, perversion, and slaughter on the world. We give no credence, no credibility, no honor to Muhammad. But, the Muslims honor Jesus. They call Him a prophet, a true prophet. Why is that? Because that’s the subtlety of Satan. That’s the subtlety of Satan, to go against Christ by misrepresentation. For example, the Christ of Mormonism, the Jesus of Mormonism, is a created being who is the spirit brother of Adam and Lucifer. Created by a god who was created by another god. And we say that Jesus of Mormonism is not the true Jesus, a false Jesus, while Mormons affirm that they believe in the Jesus that we believe in. It has always been Satan’s antichrist strategy to affirm the wrong Christ, the wrong Jesus, and thus to subtly deceive people, redefining Jesus. It’s been very effective. It is the spirit of antichrist then to give honor to a false Jesus. And that is deadly. It has found its way, amazingly, into evangelicalism. You know, I’m always shocked by what people believe who call themselves Christians. But I continue to realize that they are under the sway of the great deceiver, Satan himself, and the spirit of antichrist that he projects into the world, when they are satisfied to believe in a false Jesus. Turn to 2 John, that’s that epistle that focuses on this danger of having a false Jesus, verses 7 to 11, 2 John. Let me read in verse 7, “For many deceivers have gone out into the world.” Not a few--many. They are deceivers who have gone out into the world, “Those who do not acknowledge Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh.” They don’t acknowledge the truth concerning Jesus Christ. This is the deceiver and the Antichrist. It’s not that they attack Christ; it’s not that they deny Christ--they create a false Christ. So watch yourselves, watch yourselves--your reward, your eternal reward is at stake, verse 8. Then verse 9, “Anyone who goes too far doesn’t abide in the true teaching concerning Christ...doesn’t have God.”---(from posted piece John MacArthur)
Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest
#1. To: GarySpFc, TooConservative, Don, BobCeleste, liberator, *Bible Study Ping* (#0)
Set up a "Bible Ping" list. Please join if you are so inclined.
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)
PING
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)
It's very IMPORTANT to note that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, both at the same time from the point of conception into eternity
“Let no one mourn that he has fallen again and again; for forgiveness has risen, from the grave.” John Chrysostom www.evidenceforJesusChrist.org
What a great quote from John MacArthur! My Pastor once said in a message what separates Christianity from all other religions in the world is we have a Savior who paid for our sins. Our GOD came and saved us.
JM does not pull punches. Probably why he gets invited to the shepherd's conference every year.
"It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." (Matthew 4:4)
|
|
[Home] [Headlines] [Latest Articles] [Latest Comments] [Post] [Mail] [Sign-in] [Setup] [Help] [Register]
|