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Voddie Baucham - IS Your Jesus Real? · Voddie Baucham Sermons

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
• 0:01
  Speaker 1: over all creation. For by him all things were made
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: in heaven and on earth, whether rulers or dominions or
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: thrones or powers. All things have been made by him
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: and for him.
• 0:19
  Speaker 2: Not only do we see.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: Jesus existing in eternity, but we also see Jesus creating
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: in power. Listen to this from the Nicene Creed. We
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, begotten of
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  Speaker 1: the Father before all worlds, God of God, light of light,
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  Speaker 1: very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: one substance with the Father, by whom all things were made.
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is the creator of all things. He's not
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: just co-eternal with the Father. He is co-creator with the Father.
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ is the creator.
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  Speaker 2: Of all things.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: He's the ruler of all things. There is nothing outside
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: of the realm of his sovereignty or his power. That's
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: who we're talking about. Not just a good teacher. Not
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: just a good man. but we're talking about the one
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: who spoke the world into existence. That's this Jesus. If
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: we're not proclaiming that, we're not proclaiming the gospel. If
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that's not the Jesus about whom we speak, we are
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: not proclaiming the gospel. It's not just this man-centered picture
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: of what I need to be satisfied, what I need
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: to be fulfilled. Jesus is who he is. regardless of
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: what I feel like I need. And he is what
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: I need, whether I know it or not.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Amen?
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: I mean, after all, who am I to think that
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I'm wise enough to even know what I need? I
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: don't know about you, but that's not me. I'm not
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: wise enough to know what I need, but God knows
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: what I need. So in this proclamation of the gospel,
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: we see Jesus having existed from eternity. We see Jesus
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: having created in power. But then look at what else
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: he says. Which we have heard, which we have seen
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: touched with our hands concerning the word of life. By
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: the way, these phrases are very important. Because if you remember,
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: the heresy that he's dealing with is a heresy, this
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: Arian heresy, this idea that Jesus did not come in
• 2:54
  Speaker 1: the flesh. This idea that Jesus was just sort of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: this spirit being. Sometimes it was this sort of docetic heresy.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Other times it was Corinthian Gnosticism. Now the difference between
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: the two is one says that he was a spirit
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: being upon whom deity came. Others says he was a
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: spirit being who never actually had anything other than this
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: spiritual manifestation. But the idea is that matter is evil. Therefore,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: God would never sort of inhabit matter. So Jesus could
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: not have been God unless he didn't really inhabit matter.
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: It just looked like he did. John deals with this heresy.
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: So what does he say?
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  Speaker 2: What we've heard.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: Matter.
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: What we've seen with our eyes. Matter. What we've looked
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: upon and touched with our hands. Matter. Concerning the word
• 3:53
  Speaker 2: of life. Verse 2.
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: The life was made manifest and we have seen it
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: life which was with the Father and was made manifest
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: to us. That which we've seen and heard we proclaim
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to you also. The gospel is about Christ's who existed
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: before all things. The gospel is about Christ who created
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: the world and all things in the world and therefore
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: has a claim on all things in the world. And
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: the gospel is about Christ who revealed himself in time
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: and in history.
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: That's what the gospel is about. You know, there are those,
• 4:38
  Speaker 2: for example.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: I don't know how many of you are familiar with
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: the emerging church movement or certain books within the emerging
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  Speaker 1: church movement, but one of the most popular books among
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  Speaker 1: the emerging church movement is a book called Blue Like Jazz.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And in Blue Like Jazz, the author basically makes this proclamation.
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  Speaker 1: Whether this stuff was really true historically or not, that's
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: not ultimately the question. The question is just whether or
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  Speaker 1: not we believe it.
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  Speaker 2: How about that?
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  Speaker 1: That doesn't sound like John's attitude. John's attitude is not, hey,
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  Speaker 1: you know what? These Gnostics, they're wrong on the nature
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  Speaker 1: and the essence of Jesus, but they're calling on his name.
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  Speaker 2: They can't be that bad.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, they believe he was just a spirit being, but
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  Speaker 1: certainly they can't be that bad.
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  Speaker 2: I mean, can't we all just get along? I mean,
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  Speaker 2: after all, They're believers. We're believers.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: We just differ on a few little things here. Like
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: the nature of the Son of God. You know what
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: John's attitude was toward that? Turn with me to the
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: right and look at chapter 4 for just a minute.
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  Speaker 1: These first three verses in chapter 4. Beloved, do not
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  Speaker 1: believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether
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  Speaker 1: they are from God. For many false prophets have gone
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: out into the world. Now, we got him calling people
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: false prophets. Verse 2. By this you know the Spirit
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: come in the flesh.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: It's from God. Isn't that interesting?
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: He's talking directly about the Gnostics and directly to the Gnostics.
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  Speaker 2: And what does he say?
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: He says, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: come in the flesh, that's the spirit that's from God. Now,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: is he saying that if that's all somebody's got, that
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that's enough? No, he's addressing a specific heresy here. And
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: what he's saying is Jesus revealed himself in space and
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: time and in history. And the historical facts matter. And
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: if people are wrong on the historical facts, they're wrong
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: on the gospel.
• 7:04
  Speaker 2: Look at the next verse.
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: Every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: This is the spirit of the Antichrist. Now they're not
• 7:12
  Speaker 1: just false prophets. They're not from God and they're Antichrist.
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: which you heard was coming and now is in the
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: world already. That's John's attitude. John's attitude is this is
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  Speaker 1: too important for us not to stand up. This is
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: too important for us not to face off. This is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: too important for us not to point out every time
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: we see it. And he says... We're proclaiming to you
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: the gospel. Number one, we're proclaiming this Jesus who is eternal.
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: We're proclaiming this Jesus who created the world. We're proclaiming
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: this Jesus who revealed himself in history, in human flesh.
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: God wrapped himself in flesh and he came as a man.
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  Speaker 1: By the way, that's incredibly important.
• 7:59
  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because that's the way he died for us, as a man.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: That's the way he represented us, as a man. That's
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: the way he expressed his obedience to God. Remember, we've
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: talked about this before, but let me put it in
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: a different context for you. We've talked about Jesus Christ
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: and his sacrifice and his passive obedience and his active obedience.
• 8:23
  Speaker 2: Sound familiar? We've talked about this several times.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: The active obedience of Christ is how Christ fulfilled the law.
• 8:33
  Speaker 2: Christ was obedient to the law.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: He fulfilled the law and he was righteous under the law.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: That was the active obedience of Christ. Now the active
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: obedience of Christ was accompanied by the passive obedience of Christ.
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: The passive obedience of Christ is that obedience whereby he
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: allowed himself to be crucified as a penal substitutionary atonement
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: for those he came to redeem. Now why is the
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: active obedience of Christ important? Because it's the active obedience
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: of Christ that's imputed to us as righteousness. God looks
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: at you and me as a complete law keeper.
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: Why?
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  Speaker 1: Because Christ in his active obedience kept the law on
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: behalf of those he came to redeem. God made him
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  Speaker 1: who knew no sin to become sin for us in
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  Speaker 1: order that we might become the righteousness of God in him.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: Imputed righteousness. You're not righteous because you die. That's not
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: where we get imputed righteousness from Christ. We get imputed
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: righteousness from Christ because as a man he obeyed where
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  Speaker 1: Adam did not. Therefore he was righteous. Therefore he can
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  Speaker 1: impute his righteousness to those whom he came to redeem.
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: Now here's the context. If Jesus was not righteous a
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: man we have no imputed righteousness you can't get there
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: from here because the law only applies to those of
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: us who are man the descendants of Adam We got
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: a problem because of our federal head, Adam. Well, how
• 10:25
  Speaker 1: do we come under our federal head, Adam? Through physical birth.
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: Into this world.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Well, if Jesus never experienced physical birth into this world,
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  Speaker 1: then he cannot undo what Adam did. He had to
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: be a man. If he doesn't become a man, he
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: can't impute righteousness to us. That's why John makes a
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: big deal out of this. John makes a big deal
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  Speaker 1: out of this because he says, number one, these individuals
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: are outside the camp, not inside the camp. And number two,
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: if you begin to accept, even to the smallest degree,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: what they are teaching, you will begin to undermine the
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  Speaker 1: very doctrines upon which the gospel are built.
• 11:14
  Speaker 2: And if you don't have imputed righteousness, you don't.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: Have the gospel. That's why this is a big deal.
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: That's why he uses this language. That's why he talks
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: about this. Not just a good teacher, not just a
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: good man, but we're talking about the one who spoke
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: the world into existence.
• 11:40
  Speaker 2: That's this Jesus.
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: If we're not proclaiming that, we're not proclaiming the gospel.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: If that's not the Jesus about whom we speak, we
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: are not proclaiming the gospel. It's not just this man-centered
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: picture of what I need to be satisfied, what I
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: need to be fulfilled. Jesus is who he is, regardless
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: of what I feel like I need. And he is
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: what I need, whether I know it or not.
• 12:10
  Speaker 2: Amen?
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: I mean, after all, who am I to think that
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: I'm wise enough to even know what I need? I
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: don't know about you. But that's not me. I'm not
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: wise enough to know what I need. But God knows
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: what I need. So in this proclamation of the gospel,
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: we see Jesus having existed from eternity. We see Jesus
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: having created in power. But then look at what else
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: he says. Which we have heard, which we have seen
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: touched with our hands concerning the word of life. By
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: the way, this phrase, these phrases are very important. Because
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: if you remember... The heresy that he's dealing with is
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: a heresy, this Arian heresy, this idea that Jesus did
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: not come in the flesh. This idea that Jesus was
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: just sort of this spirit being. Sometimes it was this
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: sort of docetic heresy. Other times it was Corinthian Gnosticism.
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: Now the difference between the two is one says that
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: he was a spirit being upon whom deity came. Others
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: says he was a spirit being who never actually had
• 13:22
  Speaker 1: anything other than this spiritual manifestation. But the idea is
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that matter is evil. Therefore, God would never sort of
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: inhabit matter. So Jesus could not have been God unless
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: he didn't really inhabit matter. It just looked like he did.
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: John deals with this heresy. So what does he say?
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: What we've heard.
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Matter.
• 13:51
  Speaker 2: What we've seen with our eyes. Matter. What we've looked
• 13:54
  Speaker 2: upon and touched with our hands. Matter. Concerning the word
• 13:58
  Speaker 2: of life. Verse 2.
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: The life was made manifest and we have seen it
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: and testified to it and proclaimed to you the eternal
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: life which was with the Father and was made manifest
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: to us. That which we've seen and heard we proclaim.
• 14:13
  Speaker 2: To you also.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: The gospel is about Christ's who existed before all things.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: The gospel is about Christ who created the world and
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: all things in the world and therefore has a claim.
• 14:30
  Speaker 2: On all things in the world.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: And the gospel is about Christ who revealed himself in
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: time and in history.
• 14:38
  Speaker 2: That's what the gospel is about.