When God has a son, his son is God.
But not another God.
We're not polytheistic.
There's only one God.
In our Western way of thinking, maybe this
is difficult to understand, but in the ancient world
and in the world of the nation of Israel,
this was something that was understood.
You're there in John 5.
Look at verse 18.
Notice when Jesus comes on the scene
and he starts teaching and preaching and declaring himself
The Bible says in John 5.18,
Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him.
The Jews want to kill Jesus.
Why?
Because he not only had broken the Sabbath, notice,
but said also that God was his father,
making himself equal with God.
See, the Jews understood that if Jesus said
he was the son of God or that God was his father,
he was equating himself or making himself equal to God.
Because the phrase the son of the highest or the son of God,
which is used all throughout the New Testament,
is a reference to the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He was 100% God.
The Bible says that in him dwells
all the fullness of the Godhead bodily.
So we understand that the deity of Jesus Christ
is something that's emphasized.
And I understand that we're talking about doctrine
right now, and you might think like, whoa,
these are not necessarily things that we have to talk about.
Doesn't everybody know this?
But here's what I've learned over the last 11
years of ministry is that a lot of people
don't know a lot of things.
And there are some silly things that you think,
should I really teach and preach
a whole sermon about this?
And then you just realize that there's lots of things
that people don't know, especially
once heresies come out and people
start arguing about stupid things,
and you're just like, you don't know that?
But I think sometimes we as pastors
fail to teach and reteach and reteach and reteach
some of these basic things.
So let's go over some of these basic things.
Jesus is God.
He's the son of the highest.
He's the son of God.
Therefore, the Jews sought the more to kill him
because he not only had broken the Sabbath,
but said also that God was his father,
making himself equal with God.
The book of Philippians says that he thought it not
robbery to make himself equal with God.
Jesus is God in the flesh.
First Timothy chapter three, if you would.
Look at verse 16.
I'm not sure if I asked you,
I meant to ask you to keep your place there.
First Timothy chapter three,
if you find those T-books again.
First Timothy chapter three and verse 16.
Notice what the Bible says.
First Timothy 3, 16.
And without controversy, by the way,
especially our young kids,
because we have a lot of kids
that are born in this church, praise God for him.
A lot of kids that the only church
they've ever known is this church.
So I need to make sure that I'm teaching
some of these doctrines to the kids in this church
to make sure they know and they're biblically sound.
Hey, kids, listen up.
Jesus is God.
He's the son of God,
which is a testament to his deity.
Jesus is God.
You should know that.
First Timothy 3, 16.
The Bible says this.
And without controversy,
meaning without dispute, without debate,
without contention, without controversy,
great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels,
preached unto the Gentiles,
believed on in the world, received up into glory.
These are all references to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The word was made flesh, the Bible tells us,
and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory
as of the only begotten of the Father
full of grace and truth.
So notice that the angel Gabriel tells
Mary of this supernatural conception,
and he begins by emphasizing the deity of Jesus Christ.
And he shall be great, Luke 1, 32,
and shall be called the son of the highest.
But I want you to notice, secondly,
not only does he emphasize to her the deity of Christ,
he also emphasizes to her the humanity of Christ.
Listen to me.
Jesus was 100% God, and he was 100% man.
You say, how can that be?
Great is the mystery of godliness,
that God was manifest in the flesh.
I don't know.
I can't explain it to you,
but I can tell you that's what the Bible says.
In fact, Jesus, you say,
well, why did he have to be a human?
Because in order to mediate,
remember, he is the mediator,
for there is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.
See, the Bible says that our sin
had separated us from God.
You have God on one side,
you have human beings, mankind on another side,
and we were at enmity with God.
We were at odds with God.
We separated our sins and separated us from God.
But the Bible says that in order to mediate,
in order to reconcile, God became man,
and that 100% God, that 100% man, Jesus Christ,
was able to reconcile both God and man.
Which is why the Bible says that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself.
I want you to know, kids,
Jesus was God, but Jesus was a human being as well.
Luke chapter one, verse 32, notice,
he shall be great and shall be called
the son of the highest,
and the Lord God shall give unto him,
notice these words, the throne of his father David.
See, Mary had a lineage.
Joseph had a lineage.
When Jesus was born to Mary,
he was given a human descendancy.
He descended from David, and he is given here,
we're told, that he will be given the throne
of his father David, and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever,
and of his kingdom there shall be no end.
Now, of course, when Jesus was born,
the kingdom of Israel was non-existent.
There was no king.
This is a reference to the fact
that during the millennial reign,
Jesus Christ will rule and reign from Jerusalem,
and he will sit on the throne of David,
because he physically is a descendant of David.
Remember, he's the fruit and the offspring of David.
So we see the deity of Christ.
We see the humanity of Christ.
And all of this, all of this is brought together
by what we see in verses 34 and 35,
and it is the virgin conception,
and the virgin birth of Christ.
Notice verse 34.
Then said Mary unto the angel,
how shall these be?
Saying, I know not a man.
We're gonna come back to that verse here in a minute,
but notice verse five.
And the angel answered and said unto her.
You know, what's interesting
is that I was preparing the sermon this week,
and I was thinking to myself,
you know, I'm preaching through the book of Luke,
and this is the passage we're dealing with.
And I was thinking to myself, as a human being,
I was thinking to myself, like,
is this something I really need to preach
to our church people?
You know, you would think they would know
about the virgin birth, the deity of Christ, you know.
Doesn't everybody know this
is kind of what I was thinking to myself?
This was interesting.
Just yesterday, just yesterday, we're out soul winning,
and I talked to this man,
talked to him for maybe 20 minutes.
He didn't get saved.
He heard, very nice man, heard out the entire gospel.
He heard the whole gospel,
and he was agreeing with me,
and saying, yeah, I believe that.
Yeah, I understand I'm a sinner, and yeah, all that.
And we get to the end,
and I'm asking him some follow-up questions,
making sure he understands, and he says to me,
you know, I believe everything you said,
but I don't believe in the virgin birth.
And I thought to myself, like, that's funny.
I've been studying about the virgin birth all week,
and I've been kind of debating in my mind,
like, I wonder if people even really need this,
and then it's almost like God just took me to a door
where there's a guy that says,
I don't believe the virgin birth,
just to kind of show me that,
hey, this is something we need to understand
and be able to explain to people
and try to help them understand.
And he asked me almost verbatim
the exact same question that Mary asked,
because look at verse 34.
Then said Mary unto the angel,
how shall this be?
Seeing I know not a man.
She says, I'm a virgin, I know not a man.
The word know there is a reference
to the physical relationship of a husband and wife,
the same word that's used when the Bible says
that Adam knew his wife Eve and she conceived.
Mary says, how shall this be?
It's interesting because this guy,
he says to me, you know, I explained to,
I said, well, you know,
the Bible teaches the virgin birth.
I took him to verses about the virgin birth in Matthew,
where it says, behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and his name should be called Emmanuel.
And you know, I took him to those verses.
And he said to me, he said,
how can it be?
You know, and I was thinking to myself like,
that's exactly, you know, what Mary asked.
She said, how shall this be?
And I took him to Luke 1 35.
Cause notice here, the Bible tells us
how this shall be.
In verse 35, the Bible says this,
and the angel answered and said unto her,
the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee.
Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee
shall be called the Son of God.