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The word deity simply means the fact that he is God. So when we talk about Christ's divinity or his deity, we are talking about the fact that he actually is God in the flesh. Now, if you would turn back to Mark chapter number one. And the reason I'm starting out in the book of Mark is that there's so much scripture teaching us that Jesus Christ is God. Yes, there is. There's so much scripture teaching us that Jesus Christ is God. You'd really just have to deny the Bible and just be completely blind to be able to read the Bible and walk away thinking, oh, Jesus is just a man. Well, he's not quite God or he's not quite deity. He's the Messiah, but folks, Christ's divinity is clearly spelled out. There's no question about it. And then there are these scholars and theologians who come along and say, well, you know, there's a later development in Christianity. And I've heard people say that, you know, the Gospel of John talks so much about the deity of Christ because, you know, that's a later book. That's showing some later developments. Now, first of all, there's no evidence of the fact that it's a later book. Okay. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were all written around the same time. Okay. They're all written in the first century AD by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Okay. And of course, we know that the Book of John is written by the Apostle John and he could have only gotten so old before he wrote that book. Okay. But here's the thing. They'll point to a book like Mark and say, well, Mark is the earliest Gospel. So we don't really see Christ in the Book of Mark claiming to be God. But I'm going to show you actually that even in the Gospel of Mark, which is the book that these so-called experts would maybe point to as emphasizing the divinity of Christ the least, even the Gospel that supposedly represents the divinity of Christ the least actually makes it clear from the get-go. So let's go ahead and look in the Book of Mark how the deity of Christ is proven. Look at verse number 1 of chapter 1. It says, the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his path straight. John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. Now, I want to point out that right away in the Gospel of Mark, he starts out by quoting the Book of Malachi. Now, if you would, keep your finger on Mark, but go back to Malachi chapter 3. It's just two books back toward the left. The last book of the Old Testament is the Book of Malachi. When the Bible says, as it is written in the prophets, behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, he immediately quotes Malachi. And if we look up this Malachi quote, we will see that right away, literally, in the first two verses of Mark, the deity of Christ is being taught. The fact that Jesus Christ is God is taught in the first two verses. Go back, if you would, to Malachi chapter 2, verse 17, and I'll prove it to you. It says in Malachi chapter 2, verse 17, you have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye say, Wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, Every one that doeth evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in them? Or, look at the final question, or, Where is the God of judgment? Where is the God of judgment? Remember that question. Now, look at the next verse. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. Who's speaking here? This is the Lord God himself speaking, and he says, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me. And the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. So we have in chapter 2, verse 17, the question, Where is the God of judgment? And then in chapter 3, verse 1, we have, Hey, the Lord whom you seek is going to suddenly come to his temple and bring what? Judgment. Okay? And of course, we know that in Mark chapter 11, Jesus Christ goes into the temple. He suddenly goes into the temple. He flips over the tables. He chases them out. Jesus fulfilled this prophecy. John the Baptist fulfilled this prophecy to prepare the way before the Lord and to make his past trait. And so right here, we see that it's God who is being prophesied. And then Jesus comes and fulfills a prophecy of God coming, of the Lord himself coming. Now, the other half of the quote is from Isaiah chapter 40. Go back to Isaiah 40. So Mark 1, 1 starts out the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it is written in the prophets. And then we're going to quote two prophets. The first prophet that we quote is Malachi. The second prophet that we quote is Isaiah. Okay? So we saw the Malachi quote pointing to the divinity of Jesus Christ. And then if we look at the Isaiah quote, look at Isaiah 40, verse 3. The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord. And look at the Lord there is in all capital letters, capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. No mistake about it, we're talking about Jehovah God here is who the way is being prepared for. And then the gospel of Mark is telling us it's Jesus for whom the way of the Lord is prepared. So we're three verses in, folks, and we already have two powerful proofs of the deity of Christ, one in Isaiah 40, verse 3, and one in Malachi chapter 3, verse 1. So flip back over to the book of Mark. And here's what's funny, the modern Bible versions, the NIV, the ESV, the HIV, the SUV, the MICKEYMOUSE, these new versions are not based on the same Greek text that the King James is based on. They're not based on the traditional received text. They're based on these other supposedly newer discoveries of older, more reliable manuscripts. And so if you have an NIV, it'll often have notes at the bottom of the page telling you, oh, well, you know, the oldest, most reliable manuscripts leave this out. Hey, just so you know, the oldest, most reliable manuscripts leave this out. Now, the NIV removes 16 entire verses in the New Testament, just gone, where you'll literally be reading along and it's like 34, 35, 36, 38, just gone. But not only do they remove 16 verses, there are a multitude of other verses, phrases, whole sentences where it says in the footnote, oh, by the way, the oldest, most reliable manuscripts don't have this verse. So just putting all this doubt and shade on these verses. Then you get to the end of Mark and Mark 16, 9 through 20 has a note right in the column. They don't even want you to have to go to the footnote, folks. In the text between verses 8 and 9, it says the oldest, most reliable manuscripts don't have this. Now, folks, that is a bold-faced lie to say that because when they say the oldest, most reliable manuscripts don't have Mark 16, 9 and 20, they're talking about two manuscripts, Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. Folks, how can these be considered the most reliable when they're filled with error, disagree with each other, have all kinds of garbage in them that even the modern versions would blush to put in the text? So the modern versions don't translate from Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. They translate from a whole bunch of different things. They just kind of take a smorgasbord of a whole bunch of different things. But when they say the oldest and reliable, that's what they're talking about, folks. They're talking about Sinaiticus and Vaticanus, two totally corrupt manuscripts that should have been just thrown in the trash. It should be complete garbage, okay? But here's what I want to point out about these manuscripts, okay? In Mark 1, 1, here's what they say. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, period. So right away, they take out the Son of God. Then in verse 2, here's what the new versions do. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet. And then they quote Malachi. Which makes no sense, right? That's a quote from Malachi chapter 3 verse 1. Now the King James is accurate here when it says it's written in the prophets. And then he quotes two prophets. First Malachi, then Isaiah. So the new versions are out to obscure the deity of Christ. First of all, by taking out verse 1 saying that he's the Son of God. Then in verse 2, by trying to kind of hide that Malachi quote that's so powerful on the deity of Christ. Oh, it's in Isaiah, just keep looking, you'll find it somewhere. And then by chopping off the end of the book of Mark, verses 9 through 20. Which would make no sense because of the fact that all four gospels have certain things in common, don't they? All four gospels portray the life of Christ and he's got his disciples and he's doing miracles and he's preaching the word of God. But what's the key thing that they all include? They all include his death, his burial, his resurrection. Oh, but not only that, you know what else they all include? They all include the witnesses of his resurrection. The witnesses of his resurrection, right? There's an account of people witnessing the resurrected Christ. And some go so far as to have him eating and drinking with the disciples and, you know, they're handling him and all these proofs of Christ. And not only that, you know what else they all contain? They all contain the Great Commission. They all contain Christ at the very end of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John in some way telling us that we need to go preach the gospel to every creature. Go into all the world, teach all nations, right? That these things are going to be taught as the Father has sent me, so send I you. Look, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are consistent with that. But if you go with these corrupt documents that the new versions are based on, you lose the Great Commission from Mark and you lose the witnesses to the resurrection in Mark. And then you have all these little subtle removals and changes to weaken the deity of Christ. And then you have these scholars that come along and you say, well, it says in verse 1 he's the Son of God. Well, that's a later addition, you know. Folks, these people are atheists and agnostics that are out to corrupt the Bible and destroy people's faith in the Bible. Don't listen to them for one second, folks. They're liars. And you know what? It's a shame that people would claim today to be a Bible-believing Christian and then they'll take the NIV. They'll take the ESV. Now, look, a lot of people just do it because they don't know better. If they knew the people that are behind it actually are against our Lord Jesus Christ and against his bodily resurrection and against his deity, then they'd think twice before they went with these modern garbage verses. So don't ever be shy or ashamed to be King James only. What are you one of these King James only? Yes, I am a King James onlyist. Why would I go with the Bible of the month club when it's constantly changing and when it's constantly corrupt on key doctrines? I got a little off course there, so let's get back to the deity of Christ in the Gospel of Mark. So right away in the first three verses we saw the deity of Christ affirmed by referencing Old Testament passages and putting Jesus in the place of God because he is God. Now go if you would to Mark chapter 2 and we can see further how the Gospel of Mark teaches us about Jesus Christ's divinity. Mark chapter 2 verse 7. It's not us as King James onlyist that should be ashamed. It's the Bible of the month club that should be ashamed. You know, the NIV users should be ashamed that their Bible completely changed in 2011 to become gender neutral and that the ESV is now headed toward a gender neutral version. You know, that's what ought to be embarrassing. It ought to be an embarrassment that the modern versions are constantly changing and they're teaching heresy and they're contradicting themselves, whereas the King James is like the Rock of Gibraltar here, what, 408 years later, okay? But look if you would at Mark chapter 2 verse 7. Why does this man speak blasphemies, they say of Christ, because Christ has just said unto a man, thy sins be forgiven thee. Why does this man speak blasphemies? Who can forgive sins but God only? And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, well, that's not true. Other people can forgive sins besides God. Is that what Jesus said? See, Jesus knew exactly what they were thinking. And what exactly were they thinking? The exact thing they were thinking was who can forgive sins but God only. Well, that's just what they thought. Yeah, but that's what the Bible's recording, that they had this thought that said who can forgive sins but God only. And when he, read this carefully, don't miss this, folks, verse 8. When Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned, meaning that they reasoned along these lines, that they reasoned in this way, that's what so means. He said unto them, why reason ye these things in your hearts? Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, thy sins be forgiven thee, or to say arise and take up thy bed and walk. And what's his point in verse 10? But that you may know that the Son of Man hath power on earth to forgive sins, he saith to the sick of the palsy, I say unto thee, arise, take up thy bed, and go thy way into thy house. The purpose of this healing, he says, is to show that I have the power to forgive sins. That you may know that the Son of Man, and by the way, the Son of Man is a title that Jesus refers to himself as, in fact, it's the most common way that Jesus refers to himself. And what it is is it's pointing to the book of Daniel where it talks about the Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven and it describes the Messiah in Daniel chapter 7 as the Son of Man, okay? Jesus is that prophetic Son of Man of Daniel chapter 7 that's going to come with the clouds and he's going to rule and reign and so forth. And so we see here that when he sees that they think, oh, well, who can forgive sins but God only? He's like, oh, wait, let me show you that I have the power to forgive sins. Why? Because he's showing them that he's God. He's showing his divinity even in chapter 2 of Mark. Flip over to chapter 3 of Mark. Verse 11, the Bible reads, and unclean spirits, when they saw him, fell down before him and cried saying, thou art the Son of God. Now all throughout the four gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke especially, you have demon-possessed people falling on their faces before Christ and worshiping him and they're saying, you're the Son of God. You're the Holy One of God. But notice, they worship him. And all throughout the gospels, we have Jesus Christ receiving that worship. Whereas when we get in the book of Acts, we have men like Peter and John, when somebody bows down and worships them or when they worship Paul, they tell them, hey, stand up. I'm also a man. Don't worship me. You know, Cornelius tries to worship Peter. He stops him. People try to worship Paul and Barnabas in the Greek culture and he said, hey, don't worship but we're men. We're trying to get you to turn away from this false doctrine. In the book of Revelation, when the apostle John is confronted by this mighty angel that's showing him all the things in Revelation, he falls down to worship the angel that showed him these things. He said, see thou, do it not. But who do we see consistently receiving worship throughout scripture and never rebuking anyone? Say, whoa, whoa, don't worship me. No, Jesus Christ is worthy of all worship and glory and praise because he is divine. Hey, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve. And yet we never see Jesus correcting anyone when they worship him. We don't see him correct Thomas in John when he says, my Lord and my God. And he says, blessed are you, Thomas, because you've believed. He doesn't say, well, let's not go that far. But again, we're in the book of Mark. Go to Mark chapter 5 verse 6 and we see the same thing in Mark chapter 5 verse 6. But when Jesus, when he saw Jesus afar off, it says he ran and worshiped him. So we, we have Christ being worshiped multiple times in the book of Mark. And of course it is acceptable. And I'll look at Mark chapter 10. I love this one. And this is the one that I love to pull out with the Jehovah's witnesses. You know, when the Jehovah's false witnesses come at me and, and they don't believe that Jesus is God, I love to pull this one out because this is one that they've been taught and they've been taught it the wrong way. If you pull out Isaiah 9, 6, they kind of see you coming a mile away. You pull out Revelation chapter 1 to prove the deity of Christ, they see you coming a mile away. If you pull out John chapter 1, they see it coming. They never see this one coming. I've never had a Jehovah's witness be able to answer me. Every Jehovah's witness I've ever shown this to from Mark chapter 10 was just dumbfounded because whenever I show this to them in verse 17, it says, and when he was gone forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? And Jesus said unto him, why call us thou me good? There's none good, but one that is God. And whenever I show it to him, they say, well, exactly, see, you know, exactly what you know, why cost me good? There's no, there's one good. And that's God. And I always say, okay, is Jesus good? You believe Jesus is good? Well, well, well, yeah. Well then he must be God because there's only one that's good. Jesus did not say, hey, don't call me good because I'm not God. Is that what he said? No, he's asking a question. This is thought provoking. He's saying, why are you calling me good? There's only one that's good and that's God. You see, Jesus spoke in dark sayings. Jesus spoke in parables. And so Jesus didn't just go around like the Muslims want him to say, you know, I'm God, everybody. Hey everybody, I'm God. Even when the people who were demon possessed were falling on their knees and saying, you're the Christ, you're the son of God, he rebuked them and said, hey, stop saying that. Don't say that. Why did he say that? Because he said he didn't want them to make him known. He said, don't say that because my time has not yet come. It's true, but hold that back, okay? And what we see is that when Jesus talks about being the Messiah and being the Christ, he takes his disciples apart privately and tells them, who do men say that I am? And they say, you're the Christ, okay, blessed are you because you know that. And then he says, look, here's what's going to happen. I'm going to be rejected. I'm going to be crucified. The third day I'm going to rise again. He didn't broadcast that stuff because he said my hour has not yet come. And that's why the Jews are getting frustrated with him in the book of John saying, you know, if you're the Christ, tell us plainly, tell us, you know, but he spoke in parables. He spoke in dark sayings. He spoke in a cryptic way because he wanted basically the timing to be right when that would be understood and announced that he was the Messiah, that he's the son of God and so forth. He didn't just walk on the scene and just say all those things explicitly all the time. And so we see here that he's doing these thought provoking things like when they say who can forgive sins but God only, he forgives sins and shows them that he has the power to do that. And then this man, when he calls him good master, he explains, well, there's really only one who's good and that's God. Now you only have two options with this verse folks in Mark chapter 10 verse 18. You either have to say that Jesus is not good, that Jesus is a sinful man and he's not good, or you have to acknowledge the fact that he's God. Otherwise this verse makes no sense. Otherwise you have Jesus saying I'm a bad person. Now I don't think that the Jehovah's Witnesses would admit and say, hey, we think Jesus is a bad guy. I don't think the Mormons would say, hey, we think Jesus is a bad guy. I don't think that the Unitarians are going to say, hey, Jesus is a bad person. Folks, the Bible is saying there's only one that's good. We're not good. There's none that do with good. No, not one. There's none righteous. No, not one. I'm a sinner. Jesus Christ is sinless and if you're going to believe that he's sinless, he has to be divine. He has to be deity. He must be God. Every single Jehovah's Witness I showed that to just said, well, I've never thought of it that way. Well, think about it now and I've never had them be able to give me an answer on that because there is no answer because Jesus is God. Look at Mark chapter 12. This is where we started and this is a very important scripture in Mark 12. I feel like this is kind of an underrated scripture, meaning I haven't really heard a lot of preaching on it and I think it's such a profound truth that Jesus delivers here in Mark chapter 12. One of the things that these so-called scholars will say, there are so many proofs of the divinity of Christ in the book of Mark that they'll say, oh, well, okay, yeah, I definitely believe that the author of Mark portrays Jesus as God. The famous atheistic skeptical scholar, Bart Ehrman, who his books are all over Barnes and Noble. You go to the religion section, it's all his books and this is the garbage that the world wants you to buy into. He said, well, okay, so the gospel of Mark portrays Jesus as divine. Okay, because you have to admit that. We're looking at the evidence right now. But he said, but where did Jesus say? Where did Jesus say anything in Mark to indicate that? Here's the quote from Jesus that he's divine in Mark. Well, here we go. How about this? Look at Mark chapter 12 verse 35. Tell me if this is compatible with Jesus Christ just being human or a good teacher or mortal man or whatever. Look at Mark chapter 12 verse 35, and Jesus answered and said while he taught in the temple, how say the scribes that Christ is the son of David? For David himself said by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. David therefore calleth him Lord and whence is he then his son? And the common people heard him gladly. So you see how Jesus is getting people to think. He wants people to come to the realization that he is the Christ. He wants people to come to the realization that he's the son of God. But he doesn't go out and just publicly say that. Why? Because then they're just going to take him and by force make him a king. And his kingdom is not of this world. He didn't want to have some kind of a military coup d'etat over the Romans. And when they start to understand that in their carnal minds, they just want to grab him and make him a king and let's go fight the Romans. So he wants only his sheep to understand that. You know, only the people who are saved or people who get saved. So he preaches the word of God and those who have the faith and those whose eyes are opened by the Holy Spirit, they see it. They see that he's the Christ. They see that he's God. What is he saying here? He's saying, look, how can the Messiah, how can the Christ, because Christ just means Messiah, right? How can the Christ be the son of David if David calls him Lord? How is he his son then? Now look, if Jesus Christ were just a man, that verse would make no sense. You'd say, well, he's the son of David because David's his great, great, great, great grandfather. So yeah, it makes perfect sense to call him the son of David. But he says, wait a minute, then why is David calling him Lord? You don't call your son Lord. And look, David back there is saying the Lord said to my Lord. Why? Because Jesus already existed. He didn't come into it. He's not some descendant of David. David comes from him. He created David. Do you see what I'm saying? And by the way, this is the problem that I have too with the statement that the Catholics will use and that even Orthodox or even some Protestants would use this statement, the mother of God. Now look, if the Bible wanted us to use the term mother of God, if the Lord wanted us to use the term mother of God, wouldn't he have put it somewhere in the Bible? You know, if that's a term that we need to use and there have been big fights throughout history about this term mother of God. Well, you know what? If mother of God is something that we should be using, it would be in scripture. It's not in scripture. Why? Because it's a foolish statement to make. Jesus is the mother or it's saying Mary's the mother of God is a, is a foolish statement to make and it's based on faulty logic. Now this is the faulty logic that it's based on. Well, Jesus is God and since Mary's the mother of Jesus, that makes Mary the mother of God. That's a wrong logic. This is the same. This is like say, well, you know, you know, a dog is a mammal and a cat's a mammal. So a dog's a cat. You know, the father is God and the son is God. So Jesus is the father. The father is Jesus. This is wrong logic. Okay. To sit there and say, oh, well, because she's the mother of Jesus, because she's the mother of Jesus in his incarnation, okay, but, but does anybody actually believe that Mary is somehow above Jesus in any way, shape or form or above God in any way, shape or form? Like, like that Mary is superior to God. That's foolish. But here's the thing. Mother implies that, okay, so you could say, okay. The mother of Jesus, it's like, okay, we understand that. She gave birth to Jesus. She's his physical mother. Okay. We get that. But to change that to mother of God, now all of a sudden you are giving her like a deified status or something. It's a stupid way to talk. It's that simple and it's not in the Bible. Okay. And if God intended us to worship Mary, how come the one person in the Bible who worshiped Mary was rebuked by Jesus? You know, Jesus is teaching and this woman just yells out, blessed is the womb that bear thee and the paps which thou has sucked. And what did Jesus say to that? Amen. No, he didn't say. Jesus said, rather blessed is he that hear at the word of God and do with it. He said, you know, you can be more blessed than Mary. That's what he's saying. What does rather mean? Rather blessed. More blessed or in place of that, hey, let's rather say that the people who are obeying God are blessed. So to say, oh, blessed be the womb of Mary. Blessed be Mary's breast. He's saying, no, no, no, blessed rather is he that hear at the word of God and does it. So he's taking the emphasis off of Mary and putting the emphasis on the word of God. And he puts the emphasis on himself. He's the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We don't, and by the way, there's one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Not the mediatrix Mary. And that's what they call her, the mediatrix. There's one mediator. Okay. So this term mother of God is very misguided and foolish. And I'll even go so far as to say that it's blasphemous. And then they'll try to turn around when you, when you say, hey, that's a bad term. Don't use it. Oh, you're denying the deity of Christ. You're saying Jesus isn't God. I'm not saying Jesus isn't God. I'm saying referring to him as God in that context is giving a false impression and misguided because it makes it sound like Mary is the mother of God. That's what they are saying. It's stupid. Okay. Mary is created by God. Okay. Mary was created by Jesus. Okay. Jesus only as a human being is the son of Mary. And then they want to get into, oh, you're an historian or shut up and quit making crap up and believe what the Bible says. All this theological mumbo jumbo, throw it in the trash and get the, what does the Bible say? The Bible says in one sense, Jesus is the son of David and in another sense he's not. Does everybody get that? Let's read it again. David himself says by the Holy Ghost, the Lord said to my Lord, sit down on my right hand till I make that enemies that foot so David therefore calls him Lord. Verse 37, whences he then his son? How can he be the son of David if David calls him Lord? You know what he's basically saying is that in a certain sense, he's not the son of David because he's the creator of David. He's the Lord of David. He's superior to him. Well, guess what? In the exact same sense, he's not the son of Mary. He's the Lord of Mary. Why? Because he is God. Okay. And anybody who could read these three verses and walk away saying that Jesus is not claiming divinity here in Mark 12, 35 through 37 is blind. He's claiming divinity here by claiming to be the Lord of David. I'm David's Lord. I'm not just the son of David. I'm not a man that my later followers are going to declare to be God. No, I'm God right now. I'm the Lord. When David talked about the Lord, he's talking about me. That's what he's saying. So if you would, flip over to Philippians chapter two, Philippians chapter two. So we've talked about the deity of Christ in the book of Mark. Okay. And again, the book of Mark is a book that's under attack today. Why is it under attack? Because the scholars will say, oh, this is the oldest gospel. And so they hadn't really developed Christ's deity yet, bologna. Even if it is the oldest gospel, okay, fine. Let's say it's the oldest. Christ's deity comes through loud and clear, but you see why they love to tamper with Mark. Why do they want to chop 12 verses off the end? Why do they want to tamper with verse number one? Why do they want to tamper with verse number two? Why are there all these removals of verses from Mark chapter nine? You can see this gospel is under attack more than any other gospel because they're saying it's the earliest and they want to build this case that somehow it doesn't teach what the rest of the Bible teaches when in fact it does. But what's so dumb about this, what's so foolish about this argument that says, well, you know, Mark's the oldest gospel and so, you know, it's not as strong on the deity of Christ. Well, how about this? We already showed that it was strong on the deity of Christ, but how about the fact that the epistles of Paul were written before any of the gospels are written? The first scriptures that were written in the New Testament are Paul's epistles, which were written around 50, 60 AD. Look at Philippians chapter two and watch how Christ's deity comes through loud and clear in Paul's epistles, which are the oldest part of the New Testament, humanly speaking, the part that was written down first. Look at Philippians chapter two, verse five, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. So we see that Christ Jesus, it says in verse six, was in the form of God. Does everybody see that? And he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. Now what is robbery? Robbery is when I take something that doesn't belong to me, right? So if I steal something, if I take something that doesn't belong to me, that's robbery. So when Jesus makes himself equal with God, is he stealing? Is he committing robbery? Why? Because he's not taking something that isn't his. He's taking something that is his. Does everybody see that? So he's saying he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He was in the form of God, and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. Folks, this proves that Jesus Christ already existed before he took upon himself the form of a servant. He was already there. He was already in existence in the form of God, but then he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant. So what do we have? We have Jesus in the form of God taking on himself the form of a servant, showing that he existed before he was in the form of a servant, before he became that baby that was born in Bethlehem's manger. He already existed. And by the way, before he existed, he did not count it robbery to be equal with God. So there goes your oneness Pentecostal view that Jesus is God the Father. He was equal with God the Father. Now in some ways, Jesus is equal with God in the sense that they're both deity. They're both God. God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit are all equally divine, equally deity. But in another sense, Jesus said, my Father is greater than I. Why? Because he's talking about authority. It's sort of like when Joseph said, no man is greater in this house than I. He wasn't saying, hey, I'm the greatest. You think that's what Joseph was saying? You think he's being arrogant like, I'm the greatest. I'm the greatest artist the world has ever seen. Is that what Joseph was saying when he said, you know, no man is greater than I in this house? No, what he's saying is I have the authority in this house. There's only one person higher in authority and that's Potiphar. Okay. You know, there was no one greater in authority in Egypt than Pharaoh. Pharaoh was greater and then Joseph was second. You know, Nebuchadnezzar and then Daniel is second, right? So the greatness there has to do with authority. So when Jesus said, my Father is greater than I, why? Because the Father is the head of Christ, the Bible says. He's the head. He is the authority there. But in the sense of deity, he is equal, he is in the form of God, equal with God, okay? But he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. So look, we have the Trinity right here in Philippians 2, 5 through 11. It's crystal clear that Jesus is not God the Father but that Jesus is God. There's the Father and there's Jesus and they are both God because God consists of Father, Son and Holy Ghost and it's right here in Philippians, one of Paul's epistles. Go to Colossians chapter 1, let's look at another one of Paul's epistles and show how Paul taught the deity of Christ. Mark is teaching us the deity of Christ. This is all through the Bible. Now obviously the Gospel of John is the one that just hammers this but what I'm showing you is that even without the Gospel of John, there's so much evidence for Christ's deity. Even in books like Mark, even in the epistles of Paul, it comes through loud and clear, doesn't it? Look at Colossians chapter 1 verse 12, giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son in whom we have redemption through his blood, if you're reading a King James, modern versions will leave that out, through his blood even the forgiveness of sins, watch this, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature for by him were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible whether they be thrones or I mean, can he make it any clearer that he created everything? He even created stuff that's invisible, folks. I mean, it's just telling you, look, there's nothing that he didn't create, even invisible things are created by him, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things were created by him and for him and he is before all things and by him, all things consist and he is the head of the body, the church who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead that in all things, he might have the preeminence for it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell. What do we see again? Crystal clear. We see that Jesus is not the father, we see there's the father and there's Jesus but we see that Jesus Christ is God, okay? This is what the Trinity teaches, Father, Son and Holy Ghost, all divine, all deity, one God, three persons. That's what's being clearly taught here. How could you get any more clearer than this? Everything on this planet, everything in earth, every animal, every plant, every molecule, every piece of dirt, every rock is created by Jesus specifically. That's what the Bible says, doesn't it? Hey, he created all things and not only that, even invisible things. Things like spirits and angels and things in heaven, things in earth. He goes on and on to explain that every single thing is created, Jesus Christ is the creator and that's why the Bible says God created all things by Jesus Christ. What's it saying? The father created all things by the son. The son was the one who actually did the literal creating. That's what the Bible, so how did he come into existence in Bethlehem's manger? No, he was in the beginning with God and he was God, all right? But then there I go using the book of John again, which I was trying to show other scripture, but all John's saying is the same thing that Colossians is saying, right? That he's with God. Philippians 2 is telling us that he's with God and that he was God. Same teaching in Philippians 2, Colossians 1, same thing you're going to find over in John, folks. John isn't some new revelation of, hey, let me show you a totally different view on Christ. No, folks, all four gospels are all showing us the same thing. They're all showing us the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now if you would flip over to chapter two of Colossians, so that's Colossians chapter one. Isn't that a powerful passage in Colossians 1? Wow. I mean, you know, I could just spend an hour on that because there's so many great things here. I love how it says he's before all things, all things he has the preeminence. I mean, he is just, no matter how you look at it, why? Because it pleased the father that in him should all fullness dwell. So you never want to downgrade Jesus because Jesus Christ is fully divine. He's fully deity. The only one who is an exception is the father. That's the only one that has any kind of a higher status than Jesus and it's only in the area of authority. In one sense, they're equal. In another sense, there is an authority structure where Christ is the head or the head of Christ is God and so forth. In fact, this is such an important point. Stay there in Colossians two, but I want to just read something to you. This wasn't in my notes, but this just popped into my head and I think this is important to point this out and because it's not in my notes, I'm going to have to pull out the smartphone and do a little search here to make sure I find it. So everybody just kind of digest what we've heard so far and look at Colossians one there. Meditate on that for a moment. All right, so Hebrews chapter, I knew it was in Hebrews. Hebrews chapter two, verse eight, okay, you don't have to turn there, but it says, thou has put all things, no, this is not what I was looking for. Okay, it's first Corinthians 15, hang on, I mean, it's just great that I even have this technology to even get to the verse I'm looking for when my brain's not working right. Okay, listen to this, this is the key. That thing in Hebrews is great too, but listen to this, okay. Verse 27 of first Corinthians 15, for he had put all things under his feet, but when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. Does everybody hear that? He's saying, look, duh, when I say all things are under Jesus, duh, there's an exception, the one who put all things under him. Does everybody hear that? Sorry oneness Pentecostals, sorry modalists, it's false, because listen, sorry Tyler Baker, listen to what it says, when he saith all things are put under him, it's manifest, you know what manifest means? It's obvious, it's apparent, we see it, it's kind of a duh, self-evident, thank you. It's just kind of a self-evident, like, do I really have to say this, okay. That's why in many scriptures it doesn't say that, because it's something that's self-evident, but you know, God made sure we have one place in the Bible where he spells it out so that even those who are slow can understand it. He says, when he saith all things are put under him, it's manifest or obvious that he is accepted, E-X-C-E-P-T-E-D, that he is accepted, which did put all things under him. And then it says, and when all things shall be subdued under him, then shall the son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all. So we see that the only exception, as far as things that are not put under Jesus, and things that are not under his power and authority, God the Father is the only exception, okay, because there is that chain of command between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. That's important. Okay, you're in Colossians chapter 2, that was worth wasting a little time for. All right, Colossians chapter 2 verse 8 says this, beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power. Now, this is one of the most misunderstood and misused verses right here, now that we're kind of on the oneness crowd a little bit. Verse 9, in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, because people have a wrong definition of what the word Godhead means. They think that Godhead collectively means the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, like the Godhead. Well, I mean, that's how the Mormons believe that it means, that it's like a panel called the Godhead, or something like that. But that's actually not what the word Godhead means. The word Godhead simply means Godhood. That's what it means. We've got all the proof right here, and I'm going to prove this to you. It's used three times in the New Testament, and it consistently means deity, or divinity, or Godhood, or Godness. So what the Bible is saying here is, in him dwelleth all the fullness of divinity bodily, or all the fullness of Godhood bodily, meaning that he's not partially divine, he has fullness of divinity. He's 100% God. That's why we say Christ is 100% God, 100% man. Let me prove this to you. First of all, if you look up Godhood in the dictionary, it says divinity or Godhood. It actually says Godhood. If you look up Godhead, it says Godhood. If you go to the origin of the word, it comes from the 13th century suffix, head, H-E-D, which is a variant of hood, okay? Another word that is in our semi-modern vernacular is maidenhead, which if you look up maidenhead in a modern dictionary, it will say maidenhood. Maidenhead is maidenhood that is virginity, okay? If you look up in a special dictionary that shows you prefixes and suffixes, if you look up the suffix head, it has two definitions. One of them is a definition where you'd make things like jarhead, meathead, whatever, like something head like a ... Say what? A pothead. Thank you. That's what I was thinking of. Actually, it's not, but it works. You have those type of things where you're talking about the head, like the thing that's sitting on my neck right now is my head, right? There are words in English like pothead or whatever that are coming from the word for head. That's what people think is going on in this word, godhead, and they're wrong. It's not a different opinion. They're wrong. That's not what this means. This is not cabeza, okay? You know what I'm saying? When we see this word head here in godhead, if you think it's cabeza, you're 100% wrong. It's not like a difference of opinion. It's actually just someone who doesn't understand the etymology of this word, okay? If you read this in any other language, you're not going to find any cabeza or culp for any other languages for the word head, okay? It's a suffix that means hood. If you look it up in a suffix dictionary, it shows two definitions. It shows definition number one is a variant of hood, and then definition number two is the thing that's sitting on your neck, pothead, jarhead, meathead, whatever. Then it lists, it says see also hood or ness, so it's like his godness, and him dwells all the fullness of the godness bodily, the godhood, the godhead bodily. Then it lists a list of Middle English words that use this head, so this isn't just maidenhead and godhead. Listen to the other list. There's the beastly head, and it's not talking about this thing. It's beastly head means animal likeness. Man, we need to bring that word back because I can't really think of a good word for that. Beastly head, bold head. So in Middle English, 13th century, you would talk about someone's bold head. He preached the word of God with bold head, boldhood, boldness, does everybody understand? There's bounty head, busy head, and busy head isn't somebody who's a busy head. Busy head is busyness, dreary head, drowsy head. I'm not making these up. These are real ancient English words from Middle English, drowsy head. And we're not talking about the sleepy head so you can rest medicine or something. It's drunken head is drunkenness. Broken head, even head, friendly head, frighty head, full head, godhead, goodly head, humble head, idle head. These are not names that you call people, folks. You don't call someone humble head. It's saying he has humble head. He has humbleness. You say, we don't talk that way anymore. Yeah, no kidding because we're not living in the 12th century AD, but this is where our English language used to be. These are all words that are attested from the English language. Humble head, idle head, jolly head, lowly head, lusty head, maiden head, meek head, noteful head, one head. That's what these bunch of one head believers are. These one head Pentecostals, I tell you. Great head, seemly head, wanton head, widow head, woman head, wretched head, and youth head. Those are all real words that have existed in the English language in the past that have gone out of use, but those are all real words proving beyond any shadow of a doubt what the suffix head means. Don't get this wrong definition of godhead where it's like, oh, well, in him, all the fullness of the god, so the god, the father was completely crammed into Jesus and the Holy Spirit. No, because God, the father was sitting up in heaven and Jesus ascended to the right hand of the father and Jesus right now is at the right hand of the father. Well, no, he had the whole, all the fullness of the godhead means 100% of divinity or godness or godhood was in Christ. That means he's not 99% divine. He's 100% divine. He's 100% God. He is fully divine. And let's just close with Hebrews chapter number three, Hebrews chapter number three, if you would. And I believe that the epistle to the Hebrews is written by Paul, although some people debate that. I think it's clear that it's written by Paul. In fact, in our 1611 King James replica back there, you can flip over to it, it says the epistle of Paul, the apostle of the Hebrews, by the way. But anyway, 1 Timothy 3.16, you're going to Hebrews three, 1 Timothy 3.16 says, without controversy great is the mystery of godliness, this is Paul writing to Timothy, God was manifest in the flesh. Now you can say, well, you know, God was manifested through Jesus, but is Jesus God? Hold on a minute. God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. The subject isn't changing. Does everybody understand this? So we're stacking up all these different verbs after Jesus, or after God. God was manifest in the flesh, God was justified in the spirit, God was seen of angels, God was preached unto the Gentiles, God was believed on in the world, and God was received up into glory. See, if you apply that subject to all those verbs. So it's clearly talking about Jesus on this earth being received up into glory. It's that that's God. Why? Because Jesus is God. Jesus is divine. Jesus is deity. Of course, Hebrews chapter 1, verse 8, unto the son he saith, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. But look at chapter 3, verse 1, I'll close here. Wherefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to him that appointed him, as also Moses was faithful in all his house, for this man was counted worthy of more glory than Moses. How much more glory does Jesus have than Moses? Inasmuch as he who has builded the house hath more honor than the house. So notice the comparison that's being made. Jesus is to Moses as the guy who builds the house is to the house. And then just to make it crystal clear what he's saying, he says in the next verse, for every house is builded by some man, but he that builds all things is God. He's saying Jesus is God, because he's the builder of the house. He's the creator of Moses, and we know that Moses was created by God. Who built all things, God. Jesus is God. So what we need to understand is that yes, Jesus is the son of God, of course. Jesus Christ, the son of God, because we believe in the Trinity. And look, if you don't believe in the Trinity, you can never make sense of any of this. And you're a heretic into the bargain, okay? But you can't make any sense. You say, well, where's the Trinity in the Bible? The Trinity is the only way to reconcile what the Bible clearly teaches, because the clear teaching of the Bible is that Jesus was with God, that he's the son of God, okay? The clear teaching is that Jesus and God the Father are not the same person. Oh, I didn't come to do my own will, I came to do the will of him that sent me. I didn't glorify myself, yeah, I'm not bearing record of myself. God's bearing record of me. Or my God, my God, why has thou forsaken me? That can't be the same person. Myself, myself, why have I forsaken myself? That makes no sense. So it's clear in the Bible that Jesus and God the Father are not the same person. But then it's also very clear in the Bible that there's only one God. And then it's just as clear in the Bible that Jesus is God. So if the Father and Jesus aren't the same person, if there's only one God, and if Jesus is for sure God, and we know the Father's God, and we know the Holy Spirit is God, but they're not each other, there's only one way to reconcile this is that God exists as three persons. And you say, I don't know, that's pretty radical. Oh, really? You open Genesis chapter 1, you have God using a plural, personal pronoun about himself. How can you say God's not three persons when you use a plural, personal pronoun to say let us make man in our image after our likeness? How could God refer to himself as us in Genesis chapter 3 verse 22 if he does not consist of more than one person? So when I consider I think of God, I think of God as just one person. Maybe you could go make an idol of the God that you envision since you've dreamed up this God that's one person. Maybe you should carve it or something. Maybe you could start a new religion. Maybe you could make an idol that you bow down and pray to because I don't get these visions in my imagination of what I think God is like. I actually read the Bible to figure out what God's like. And you know what I find is that God is consistent of three persons. Starting in Genesis 1 and ending in Revelation chapter 22. That's who God is. And guess what? There's only one God so there's no other God to compare him to. That's not what God's are like. There's only one. And that's what he's like. There's no such thing as a oneness God. It doesn't even exist. The only God that exists is the three persons God. There's nothing to compare him to. He's without compare. He's incomparable. Okay. Jesus Christ is divine. That's why we said the deity of Jesus Christ is the title of the sermon. Jesus is not a man that's just a good teacher. He's the God man. He's God in the flesh. He is the image of the invisible God which is talking about God the Father whom no man has seen nor can see. And he is the one who is preeminent above all things and all people. There's no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. But obviously there's that exception that everybody knows that, you know, there's God the Father and then there's the Son and then there's the Holy Ghost. So Christ divinity is clearly taught even in the so-called earliest gospel which is impossible to prove. It's in Mark crystal clear. It's in the earliest New Testament writings. The epistles of Paul couldn't be any clearer. Amen. It's my words and I have a word of prayer. We thank you so much for giving us your word, Lord. We believe that your word is totally without error and that it is God-breathed and that every word of it is true, Lord. Please just sanctify us through your word. Sanctify us through the truth because your word is truth. And Lord, help us not to be deceived by all the false teachers out there, the false Bibles, the so-called scholars and theologians, Lord. Help us to have that childlike faith that can just open the word of God and read it and just believe what we read and Lord, I pray that you would just allow the Holy Spirit to guide us as we read and study your word and as we preach the gospel to the lost and in Jesus' name we pray.