His Undiminished Deity

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated.

Thanks for joining us for this message. Here's Adrian Rogers. Then we talked about his unblemished life. Nobody, nobody ever lived the life that the Lord Jesus Christ lived. Today, we're going to be talking about his undiminished deity. We're going to be talking about the fact that this baby, this baby born so long ago, was God in human flesh. I remember some years ago, some of you are old enough to remember, back in the 60s, there was a movement among young people. Many of them had come out of the drug culture and the hippie culture, but it was called the Jesus movement. And there were kids, many of them barefooted, many of them holding Bibles about this big, going around doing what they call Jesus yells. And they were cheering the Lord Jesus Christ, and they call themselves the Jesus movement.

Do you know the strange thing about that is this, that these kids, I'll call them kids, and I love them, I thank God. I never opposed the Jesus movement. I had much rather have a young man or woman giving a cheer for Jesus than smoking pot. Now, I had never fought that.

I was glad for it. Many of them were unguided, untutored. But why did they call themselves the Jesus movement in contra distinction to the churches? You talk about stolen thunder, that anyone would come along and call themselves a Jesus movement as over against the organized church separated outside of the organized church.

Let me say this, friend, that is an indictment to any church. Brother Whitmire asked me a long time ago, Pastor, it would help me if you would tell me before you preach the subject so I could line the music up with it. But folks, sometimes I don't know far enough ahead of time what I'm going to preach to let him know. It's an honest confession, but it's good for the soul. And so I just say, Jim, listen, if you're in doubt, you don't know what I'm going to preach, just sing about Jesus.

Just sing about Jesus and it will fit, it will match because listen to me. The Jesus kids missed it a tad because any so-called Jesus movement that is not church centered is not a Jesus movement. The Bible says to him be glory in the church. Amen. But let's turn that around. Any so-called church that is not Jesus centered is not a true church.

Amen. Any church that is not Jesus centered is not a true church. With that in mind, let's look at the Christmas story here. And we're going to look in Matthew chapter one, beginning in verse 20. It speaks about Joseph and it says, while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from the sins. Now, all this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying, behold, a virgin shall be with child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us.

I love that passage of scripture. Now, who was this child born that day? Who is this one that we call Jesus? There's one right answer.

There are many wrong answers. For example, there are those who say that Jesus was a great man. Well, beyond any fair adventure, any shadow of a doubt, he was a great man. But if you just tip the hat to Jesus Christ, you've missed it all.

H.G. Wells made a list of the 10 greatest men in history. And Jesus Christ was number one on that list. He talked about Charlemagne the Great and Peter the Great and Alexander the Great. But Jesus is more than Jesus the Great. He's Jesus, the one and only. Dr. Criswell, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas, said this, to compare the greatest men on earth like Alexander or Caesar or Shakespeare with Jesus is like comparing a grain of dust to the whole universe, like comparing a molehill to Mount Everest in the Himalayas.

And I say amen to that. Now, some say he was a great man. Others speak of him as a moral teacher. But as C.S. Lewis said, we don't have the option of just simply calling him a moral teacher and moving on.

Let me tell you what C.S. Lewis said in one of his greatest passages. I'm trying here to prevent anyone from saying the really foolish thing that people say about him. I'm ready to accept Jesus Christ as a great teacher, but I don't accept his claim to be God.

That is the one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things that Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would be either a lunatic on the level of a man who says he's a poached egg, or else he would be the devil of hell.

You must make your choice. Either this man was and is the Son of God or else a madman or something worse. You can show him up for a fool, you can spit at him, you can kill him as a demon, or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let none of us come away with any patronizing nonsense about his being a great human teacher. He's not left that open to us.

Those are good words, aren't they? Now, others say, well, you know, he's more than a moral teacher. He's a prophet, a messenger of God. The Quran of Islam says that about the Lord Jesus Christ. The Quran teaches, and I quote, Jesus was only a messenger of Allah.

No, he was more than a messenger of Allah. He is God in human flesh. Others, New Agers, say he's some sort of a mystic medium, that Jesus is a channel to know God, and so they do what they think is concourse with the Almighty through their mystic Jesus, their crystal Christ, who is but a demon imitating the Lord Jesus Christ.

There are demons who call themselves Jesus. We'd better understand just who this Jesus is. Let me tell you, Jesus is God in human flesh. That's who the Lord Jesus is, God manifest in the flesh.

Not only is he the Son of God, he is God the Son. That brings us to a doctrine that we need to emphasize more these days than ever before, and that is the doctrine of the Trinity. I want you to see in this passage that we've read the Holy Trinity. For example, if you look here in Matthew chapter 1 and verse 20, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of, now underscore this if you don't mind marking your Bibles, the Holy Ghost. Underscore that, the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, underscore that, a son. Thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.

Now all this was done that might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, underscore the Lord. And there you have the Trinity. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. God in three persons. The doctrine of the Trinity is the great Christian distinctive. The great Christian distinctive. One God in three persons.

Now, to misunderstand this is to lead to heresy. If you miss the Trinity, you have missed the meaning, the message of the Bible, that God is a God of three in one and one in three. Now let me show you how God the Father is described in the Bible. What is the most holy name for God in the Old Testament? It is the great I Am.

If you don't mind putting something in your margin, put Exodus chapter 3 and verse 14. And God said unto Moses, now Moses is saying, Lord, if I've got to introduce you to these people, who shall I say that you are? Who are you? And God said unto Moses, I Am that I Am. I Am that I Am. Not I was, not I will be. I am the great I Am that never was a time when I was not.

I Am that I Am. And that is the holy, mystical, wonderful name of Jehovah God. Now remember, that's how God showed himself to Moses.

Have you got it? Now, the Pharisees had Jesus on the grill. These Pharisees in whom the milk of human kindness had curdled, these Pharisees who were envious of the Lord Jesus Christ actually sneered at Jesus.

It insinuated that he was born of fornication. Jesus had spoken of Abraham, and here's what they said and put this down in John chapter 8, verses 56 and following. Jesus is speaking to those Jewish Pharisees, and here's what he said to them. Your father, Abraham, rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad that said to choose unto him. Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

Now, listen to this and don't miss it. Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I Am. Did you catch that? What is the great holy name of God in the Old Testament? He is the great I Am. They said, have you seen Abraham? He said before Abraham ever got here, I Am.

There was never a time when he was not. Jesus, the Son of God. After this, the Bible says, they took up stones to stone him, because why?

They didn't miss the message. It was blasphemous to them that he would so identify himself with the great I Am. God the Father is God, God the Son is God, and God the Holy Spirit is God. Now, in this Christmas story, we see the Holy Spirit who overshadows Mary. He was the one who caused the pregnancy in Mary. He also is God because Jesus is the Son of God according to the flesh. Pastor Rogers, don't you agree with others that the Holy Spirit is just an influence emanating from God?

No. The Holy Spirit is a person. Never speak of the Holy Spirit as it.

Don't talk about me and say it wore a dark suit this morning. The Holy Spirit is a person who feels, who wills, who acts, who lives, who can be abused. The Bible says, grieve not the Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed unto the day of redemption. You can't grieve an influence. You can only grieve a person, and you can only grieve a person who loves you. The neighbor's kids will vex you. Your own children will grieve you, amen?

You can only grieve somebody who loves you. Let me give you a Scripture proof text here speaking of the deity of the Holy Spirit. Acts chapter 5, verses 3 and 4, there were some people named Ananias and Sapphira who had lied to the apostles and to the early church. And here's the Scripture, but Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own?

And after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Now, notice this. Listen carefully. He's already said you've lied to the Holy Ghost, and then listen. Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God.

Did you catch it? Why did you lie to the Holy Ghost? You lied to God. The Father is God. The Son is God.

The Holy Ghost is God. One in three, three in one, holy, holy, holy, merciful and mighty God in three persons bless Trinity. You've sung it so many times.

Do you know what you're singing? Three things we're going to notice this morning. First of all, I want us to think about the unfathomable mystery, the unfathomable mystery of the Trinity. Now, we've already shown you the Trinity in the Christmas story.

God was manifested in the flesh. You say, Pastor Rogers, I don't understand it. I'm glad you don't understand it.

I'm glad I don't understand it. I'm glad nobody understands it because it cannot be understood it must be believed. I wouldn't have any confidence in a God that I could understand. John Wesley said, How can a worm understand a man? How can we understand God?

How can the finite know the infinite? How can we unpick the mysteries of the Holy Trinity? It's not given to us to understand.

It is given to us to believe. It's a mystery. It goes beyond logic. It goes beyond philosophy. It goes beyond science. It goes beyond mathematics. Don't think that you're going to have to cram God into the little suitcase of your intellect in order to understand him. There are many things in the natural realm you don't understand.

You don't understand how out of the muck and the mire of dirt a beautiful flower can grow. But there are other things that you don't even begin to understand. Which of you understands infinity? Something that never ends like space. Who can understand eternity? Something that never begins and never ends. Our minds just stop because everything we know has a beginning and an ending. Everything we know has a starting place and an ending place. But there's infinity. There is eternity.

These things, very frankly, are beyond us. Don't try to prove the Trinity. You will never prove the Trinity. Throw away your test tubes.

Put away your computer and your slide rules. Bow down in the dust. Open the Bible and say, I believe it because God settles it in his Word. No, this is an unfathomable mystery. But it is nonetheless true. We don't have to understand everything. You know, people race their theological motors to try to illustrate the Trinity.

And they say it's like this, it's like that. We try to compare God to something. Well, there's only one God so there's nothing to compare him to. A girl had a boyfriend but she went out with another boy one night and she confessed to her boyfriend, I went out with Henry and Henry kissed me. He said he did. I'll teach him.

She said, you couldn't teach Henry anything. You can compare one kiss with another kiss but you can't compare God with anything because there is no other God. Let me give you a verse.

Put it down, Isaiah 40 verse 18. To whom then will ye liken God? Don't ever make the mistake of saying God is like this. To whom will you liken God? One kiss may be different or like another kiss but there's only one God, one God. Now we see reflections of his Trinity in everything.

Reflections but not proofs. Time and space. That makes our universe. Time is what?

Past, present and future. Space is height, width and depth. All belong together. Each is distinguishable but all are inseparable.

You can't have a past without a present and you can't have a present without a future and you can't have a future without a past. Each are distinguishable. All are part of one and yet they are distinguishable and yet they are inseparable.

Not a proof of the Trinity, only a reflection. Space, height, width and depth. You can't have height without width. You can't have width without depth. You can't have depth without height. Each is distinguishable.

All are inseparable. Why? Because they're reflections of the great God who made everything God in three persons and this is the unfathomable mystery. Now, sometimes we use false analogies.

Someone may say, well, oh, it's easy to understand. It's like Pastor Rogers. He is Joyce's husband. He is my pastor and he is Angela's grandfather.

No. That's called modalism. It's not God acting in three ways. It is God in three persons. Well, you say, Pastor Rogers, I don't understand that.

Yes, that's true. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9, for my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord, for as the heavens are higher than the earth.

By the way, how high is that? As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. A wise man said, don't try to explain the Trinity. You'll lose your mind. Don't deny it.

You'll lose your soul. How do we know it? By divine revelation as we open the Word of God. Now, here's the second thing I want you to see. I want you to see not only the unfathomable mystery, but I want you to see the unfolded manifestation of the Trinity. If God is a triune God, then you would expect him to manifest himself, which indeed he has done. You see, again in our scripture, Matthew 1 verses 22 and 23, now all of this was done that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet. Now, God has given us the Old Testament prophecies, and there he unfolds these things. We see them. Why don't we go to the Old Testament and see if we can find the Trinity there?

Well, we do. On the front door in the first verse, Genesis 1, 1. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. You say, Pastor, I see no Trinity there.

Well, stay with me. The Hebrew word for God there is Elohim, Elohim, and it is a plural noun. El is the singular appellative for God, the singular name for God, El. And then if you add the I-M to it and make it Elohim, then that pluralizes it. For a seraph is one angel, seraphim, angels.

A cherub is one angel, cherubim, more angels. It is the plural noun. But this plural noun could be translated in the beginning, gods. Well, we know there's only one God, but yet the Holy Spirit inspired Moses to write down Elohim, gods, plural. But then, almost in bad grammar, except for divine inspiration, he uses a singular verb. Gods, Elohim, created the heavens and the earth.

Now, what is this? God acting as a unity, the triune God. With that in mind, remember that the baby of Bethlehem was the one who created the manger and the very stable in which he was born. John 1, verses 1 through 3. Remember it said now, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth, gods? Now, listen to this, John 1, 1 through 3. In the beginning was the Word. That's the Bible name or description of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.

Okay, now wait a minute. And the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. And without him, without whom, without Jesus, was not anything made that was made. Do you see it? What I'm trying to say is this, that the babe of Bethlehem is the mighty God of Genesis 1.

Nothing was made without him. Do you see it in the creation of the world? Do you see it in the great commandment that God gave to Israel? There is a commandment that God gave to Israel. Every orthodox Jew knows it by heart.

It's called a Shema. Here it is, Deuteronomy 6, verses 4 and 5. Here, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. The Jews use this as the prime proof text for the unity of God. The Lord our God is one Lord, and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy might. The word Lord is a translation of the word Yahweh or Jehovah. Jehovah is one Lord. The Lord our Elohim is one Lord. Jehovah our God is one Lord. Yahweh our Elohim.

Don't drop out on me now. What I'm trying to show you is this, that even in this great confession of Israel, we have reflections of the Trinity here. Now, when he says, Jehovah our Elohim is one Lord, he uses a word for one, echad, E-C-H-A-D, if we would anglicize it, which means one, not a singular one, but a plural one. You say, how can you have a plural one?

Well, let me give you other places where this word is used. This is chapter two, verse 24. When the Bible speaks of husband and wife coming together, the Bible says they too shall be, echad, one flesh. Now, are they two or one? The answer is yes.

All right, let me give it to you again. In Genesis 11 and verse six at the Tower of Babel, God says the people is one. All of these, yes, but one. The same word that's used here, the Lord our God is one Lord. Look at it here in Numbers chapter 13 and verse 23. One cluster of grapes.

Many grapes, yet one cluster. What it is is a plural unity. And when, hero Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord. Jehovah our Elohim is one Jehovah. Has that got you scratching your head? Good, I'm happy. Now, you say, but we don't learn about God's Son till we get to the New Testament.

No, you're wrong. You learn about God's Son in the Old Testament. Look in Daniel chapter three, verse 25. Nebuchadnezzar looked into the fiery furnace and he answered and said, Lo, I see four men loose walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the name of the fourth is like the Son of God.

Who walked with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego through that fiery furnace? Jesus did. Look in Proverbs chapter 30 and verse 4. Here's a question for the ancients. Who hath ascended up into heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his fists? Who hath bound the waters in a garment?

Who hath established all the ends of the earth? What is his name and what is his son's name? If thou canst tell, his name is Jehovah and his son's name is Jesus.

That's the answer. God has a son. And what is God's purpose with his son? Read in the Old Testament in Psalm chapter 2, verses 6 and 7. Here's what the Almighty says. Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion.

I will declare the decree. The Lord hath said unto me, Jesus is speaking, thou art my son. This day have I begotten thee. Now, folks, I'm talking Old Testament here. And then what about our Christmas verse? Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 6, unto us a child is born and unto us a son is given. The child born is the babe of Bethlehem. The son given is the everlasting Jesus and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor.

Now, hold this right now. His name shall be called the mighty God. Whose name? The baby. You're calling that baby the mighty God? Isaiah the prophet did. El Gabor, that's the name. El Gabor, the mighty God.

Do you know what El Gabor literally means? The God man. That's Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6, 700 years before Jesus Christ is born.

The God man. Now, the Jehovah's Witnesses will tell you, well, that's not Jehovah God. Well, then turn over to the next chapter and look in Isaiah chapter 10, verse 21.

The remnant shall return even the remnant of Jacob unto the mighty God. And there beyond the shadow of any doubt it's talking about Jehovah. And yet Jesus is called Jehovah. Therefore, in the New Testament, when we come to the miracle story of the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, there's no amazement to us that we see God the Spirit and God the Father and God the Son coming together in this wonderful Christmas story. And the same gospel of Matthew that begins in Matthew chapter 1, speaking of the Holy Trinity, concludes in Matthew chapter 28, giving the Great Commission to the church. And listen, beginning in verse 19, Matthew 28, verse 19. Jesus is speaking, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them into or in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. When we baptize people, we baptize them with a Trinitarian formula, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, that would be blasphemous if Jesus Christ is not God. To put himself on the same plane, to include the Holy Spirit, and to say baptize them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost if Jesus is not co-equal and co-eternal with God the Father.

Let's move to the third and final thing. I want you to see the unchanging ministry of the Trinity. Now, it is a mystery, a mystery manifested.

But why all of this fuss about it? Pastor, what difference does it make? Well, your destiny rides on it. Your destiny rides on it.

Listen again. Matthew chapter 1, verses 20 and 23. But while he thought on these things, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. The Holy Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, works together in your salvation. You are selected by the Father.

He loved you before you were ever born. You were saved by the Son. You are sealed by the Spirit. Altogether, this is the way you're saved. That's the reason the apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians 13, verse 14, the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all. God loves you. Jesus saved you.

The Holy Spirit empowers you. That was the blessed benediction that Paul gave to that church. George Duncan of England told a story to a friend who passed it on to me. He said back in the Second World War there was a man, a Britisher, very wealthy, who had a son. That son got in the Royal Air Force, the RAF. He was shot down in flames and died, left this man whose wife had previously died, immensely wealthy with no relatives, no other descendants.

This boy was lost in the battle for Britain. There came a time when the man himself died and he wrote a will. And his will said that his estate was to be sold and given to various charities. And he said, my art collection is to be auctioned off.

He had an incredible art collection. Sotheby's was going to do the auctioning. The people came from all over, art collectors, because it was a valuable collection. They were salivating with the opportunity to bid on it. And the auctioneer, the executor said, first of all, we're going to auction one painting. It was there on the tripod.

They unveiled it. And it was a painting of a man. It was the wealthy man's son, the one who died. Few, if any, out there knew the boy. It was not a well-known artist.

To them, it was more or less valueless. And nobody did. But one man who was an old friend of the family who knew the boy and had seen him grow up thought it would be nice to have a painting of that lad. I knew him. I watched him.

I loved him. And he bid on it. There was no other bid. The auctioneer said, do I hear any other bids?

Very well. It is sold to this individual. And then he said, the auction is over. They said, no, the other painting.

He said, no. Said, I was forbidden to tell you this, but it has been written in the will that whoever buys this picture gets with the picture the entire collection. Whoever gets the son gets all the rest. Friend, I want to tell you, God has a son. And when you get Jesus, you get it all.

Get it all. When you receive Jesus, I've tried in vain a thousand ways, my fears to quell, my hopes to raise. When all I need, the Bible says, is Jesus. My soul is night. My heart is steel. I cannot see.

I cannot feel. For light and life I must appeal to Jesus. He dies. He lives.

He reigns. He pleads. There's love in all His words and deeds. All the guilty sinner needs is Jesus.

Though some will mock and some will blame. In spite of sin, in spite of shame, how go to Him? Because His name is what? Jesus. Thou shall call His name Jesus. Jesus. For He shall save His people from their sins.

The God-man, El Gabor. Don't you love Him? What a Savior. I want to invite you to invite Him into your heart. I want to lead you in a prayer. And in this prayer you can say an everlasting yes to Jesus Christ.

And today you can receive Him. Would you pray this prayer? Lord Jesus, I believe you're the Son of God and God the Son. I believe you paid my sin debt with your blood on that cross. Thank you for your precious shed blood. I believe that God the Father raised you from the dead. You died to save me and promised to save me if I would trust in you.

I do trust you. This moment, right now by faith, I open my heart and I receive you into my life as my Lord and Savior. Forgive my sin. Cleanse me. Save me.

Did you ask Him? Were you sincere? Then pray this way. Thank you for saving me, Lord Jesus. I receive it by faith and that settles it. You're now my Lord and Savior.

I don't look for sign or ask for feeling. I stand on your word. You cannot lie. Now I will live for you because you died for me and help me never ever to be ashamed of you. Give me the courage to make it public. In your name I pray. Amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with Him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.