Understanding Jesus as the Unique Savior

Thank you. The last two or three weeks I've been covering some basic doctrines trying to remind us of the proofs and evidence for why we believe what we believe. We dealt with proofs that the Bible is the Word of God a few weeks back. We dealt last week with proof that we're all sinners, proof that everyone is a sinner. And we went through a lot of the laws and a lot of the biblical description of sin to show that no one can escape the identification of being a sinner because we've all sinned. And so we dealt with that last week. And that left us somewhat discouraged and depressed. depressed and hopeless. Of course, the gospel at the end is what we're all trusting, that Christ died for us, and He died for us while we're yet sinners. And it's His work on the cross, His death and resurrection, that is offered for salvation to all those sinners that need to be saved. He justifies the ungodly. So we covered that last week. And so there's hope for sinners. This week, I'd like to talk about why Jesus is the only Savior. A look at why none else can save. This being a subject important for you to know regarding your salvation. biblical truth, but also it's a question people have in the culture. When they see that historically America has had a predominance of Christianity in it, they start to get exposed to other cultures with the internet and travel and things like that. And they meet nice people and neighbors and marriages and things like that. They start to wonder, why is it that Jesus is the only Savior? Can't people come to God different ways? Can't people be saved by some else or someone else? Why is he the only Savior? Why are you so strict about Jesus? And so I want to talk today about why we know and how we know Jesus is the only Savior. Why is it that no one else can save? And of course, this requires us to know what we taught last week, what we learned last week, that we are all under sin. Romans 3, 9, and 10, Paul proves in Romans 1, 2, and 3 that we're all under sin. Jew, Gentile, no matter what your nationality, where you come from, what religious backgrounds you have, we are all sinners, and we're all under sin. He says, there's none righteous, no, not one. So this is the conclusion Paul makes after three chapters of explaining. the history of humanity, even through religious Israel. Just because there are those who are in churches that don't believe, and just because there are those in churches who preach what God has said, does not mean they're exempt from sin. That's what Paul says in Romans 3, there is none righteous, no not one. So then why did God leave humanity here with this problem? Why didn't God just fix the problem and get it over with, remove sin, so that we can all go about lives living in peace and joy and harmony and things like that? Why? Why did God leave us here with this problem? This is another question I won't be dealing with in detail today, but the simple answer is in Acts 17, 27, where Paul says he put us here on the earth. He left us here on the earth after sin entered. Verse 27 says that they should seek the Lord, seek the Lord, because a proper response to knowing your sin should be guilt and then turning to God for salvation. God, I need help with this. I need your help with this. And you know what people tend to do is not turn to God. Romans 3.11 says, right after he says, we before proved all under sin, there's none righteous. He says, there's none that understandeth, there's none that seeks after God. And so Paul's quoting the Old Testament, but after God left us here in our sins, that we might turn to him for salvation, which he has offered throughout history. Paul says he's left us here to seek the Lord. People don't seek him. So the whole idea of a seeker-friendly church, it's contrary to Romans 3.11 in that no one's seeking the Lord. They don't know that they need Him. The idea of a seeker-friendly church is not to talk about people's sin, but to minister to them where they're at when they're trying to seek the Lord. But no one's seeking Him because they don't know their sin. That's the problem. So what do we do with a world that's not looking for truth? I mean, we have a building here. We have doors that are open. Why don't people come in to the, just flock in? Why don't they do that? You know, we had the fair a few weeks ago at the Howard County. And people were, there was no parking space a couple days. Like, people are flocking over there to enter the fair. They're seeking entertainment and fried foods and elephant ears. Like, that's what they're seeking. But we have right here, we can teach God's truth, eternal God and his word. And people aren't flocking in because they seek other things. They don't know that they need him. to be saved, right? And so this is why we preach the lesson like we did last week, that we're all sinners. You have to know the reality of sin before you feel the problem, before you seek after God. Now every now and then the tragedy of this world of people's personal corruption and sin or those afflicting them will cause them to see evil in their face and wickedness in their face. And even then they'll blame God for their own actions or other people's actions instead of seeking him, instead of seeking their help. So some people are just crooked inside. We're broken. But what we tend to do is explain away sin. We don't think it exists. Sin itself is a biblical concept because sin implies there's one you're sinning against, God. And so you know sin by knowing God, and you know God by knowing what is not sin. And that's what the scripture describes. But we explain away sin. It's not sin anymore. You go to a psychiatrist or something, and they'll try to get rid of the idea of guilt and sin from your mind. You shouldn't be guilty. There's no such thing as sin. People told you that in church or something. It's an old-fashioned idea. You know, just get rid of that. Just lay down the baggage. You know, you're not guilty of it. You're not guilty. Right? Well, what's the scripture say? You are guilty. Right? And so these are at odds with each other. People explain away sin, and they seek salvation elsewhere, because there's still a problem. Even if they don't use the word sin. Even today, one of the gotcha questions that the world will ask you, or ask Christians, is do you think such a thing is a sin? And if you say, yes, gotcha! Because nobody believes in sin anymore, and you're saying people are bad. Because that's the assumption we all have. Not everyone's bad. People are pretty decent. Our neighbors are okay. At least we're okay. What if we're all sinners? Then we're not all okay. And we need God. But people seek salvation elsewhere. What saves them from their predicament? People lie to themselves and say, I have no problem. Go a day and think about your frustrations. There's issues that you have with the world, with yourself. And where do we seek salvation? We say, well, our country's not going in the right direction. So we seek salvation from there. We need to change it. We need to fix it. It's broken. We try to find hope in politics. Or gurus or wise men. Well, I don't know how to do such and so. I don't know how to think about my own life. I don't know how to go about getting successful in life. So I'm going to seek people who have success, who have wisdom, or have profound wisdom. profound insights into living, right? So we're seeking that. Why? Why do you need these things? So I can live with inner peace. I can live more joyful experience, right? You're looking for salvation is what you're looking for. That's what that is. Like you're not feeling joy and peace and love and you want that. And so you're looking for advice how to get it. Looking for a savior is what you're looking for. Self-help. I don't need a savior. The truth is within yourself. You're looking for salvation because you don't like where you're at right now and who you think you are right now. So look within yourself and change what you think of yourself and then improve yourself and you can be better and you can be the success that you never thought you could be. Just help yourself. People even say God helps those who help themselves. It's not in the Bible. But that's what they say. People are seeking salvation in lots of places. When we try to correct the problem without God, we're doing it wrong. In Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about this idea. He talks about the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God to salvation. And Romans 1.22 says that men were not thankful to God. They became vain in their imaginations. They professed themselves to be wise. We can solve our own problem. We're wise enough to do it. And they became fools. That's how it all began. So men thought they could do something that God couldn't. When they didn't think their problem was so big that they couldn't solve it. Right? And they don't seek God anymore. They became fools. In verse 23, they changed the glory of the uncraftable God into what? Things that were created. An image like the craftable man. Because every guru, wahaguru, or any other guru, is a man, right? And every self-improvement, self-motivation speaker is a man, right? Every ruler on the planet, even the one you think should be elected, is a man, right? They're all corruptible and corrupted men, sinners, us all. That's what the Bible describes. There's no salvation in that. But there's people that are stronger and wiser, and sure, they can help me with these things, and that's not salvation, folks. It's a deception. And so they changed the glory of God into an image like a corruptible man. We've got to realize we can't save ourselves. Humanity, man, people, we can't save ourselves from the real problem. There are small problems that we fix. Week go by, there's more problems in my life that I'm fixing. I'm trying to fix them. My car breaks down and I fix it. You know, that thing broke. The light bulb broke. You know, I'm fixing and fixing. Fixing problems. We start getting the complex. I can't fix anything. No, you can't. Right? You can't. God gave us hands and brains and minds to fix things and gave us even the conscious to want to. Because when things degrade, as second law says, you know, who's there to fix them? Well, God put people on the planet to do that. But the biggest problem that causes the biggest problem for humanity, death, sin, we can't solve. Okay? People deny it even exists. But God is where salvation lies. God is where life is at. You want to know how to live life abundantly? Like, God is the one who gave life. He invented life. The things you like about life itself, like God gave life. You should thank the author of that. He's love. God is love. Like you like love? You think love is what makes the world go around? Like God is love. He invented it once again, right? That's a good thing that he did. It doesn't come from man. It doesn't come from artist's depiction. It doesn't come from your heart. It came from God, right? God gave you a conscience and ability to love, but the love comes from him. Peace, joy, these are all attributes of God, folks. Goodness? You say, well, we've just got to be good. We need more human good. There is no human good. There's God, and then there's man made in his image who corrupted himself, and so God is all that remains that is good. And anything that we see that is good is a reflection of his goodness. God is the standard of goodness. Justice. We're fighting for justice in society. You're looking for salvation, aren't you? Salvation from oppression. Well, guess what? God is the judge, the only righteous judge. He's where the truth is found. I'm looking for truth, something that can actually speak to me about reality. God is that. So even though people don't want him, they're seeking the things that he is. Because God made us to seek him. But in our sin, we reject him. But God's where that's at. This should prove to us, just knowing who God is, he is where life, love, and joy, and goodness, justice is found, truth is found, that we cannot save ourselves. What man in history can produce the things that God has? Like none can. In ourselves, in humanity, corrupted with sin as we are, there's death. Every man dies. You get the wisest, most noble, even most righteous man that you can find, and he's dead. Men die. They have no power for life. Hate fills humanity. So yes, the evil parts of humanity, but not me. You ever been angry without a cause? Well, I always got a good cause for being angry. Yeah, it's usually selfish, right? Hate, anger, misery, malice, that describes what comes from you. What comes from God is love, joy, peace, goodness. What comes from you is anger, misery, and malice. This can help you discern when you respond and act and think about which is you and which is God, right? Now, be careful here because I said you can discern yourself in God by looking at these, the differences, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Right? I'm not here talking about your emotions or your circumstances. People will say, well, if you have good circumstances, God did that. If you have bad circumstances, God didn't do that. Well, that's not, it doesn't follow, folks. That's another issue for another day, but... Misery, malice, deceit, ignorance, that's what you bring to the table. You don't know. You bring the seeking. Even though you're not seeking the right place. You need direction. You need guidance. You need salvation. All right. You can't save yourself. You say, well, maybe my neighbor can. He's been around longer than me. He's wiser than me. He's done more noble things than me. He's not God, right? Unless he points you to God, he doesn't know either. People talk of personal redemption. Like, I used to be this and that, or I did this or that, but I've redeemed myself, or he's redeemed himself. She's redeemed herself, right? She's come back. What does that mean? People say that. Well, they were doing a bad thing, but now they've done so much good things that they've redeemed themselves, right? They've paid off of their bad. But that's only in your eyes, crippled humanity. This is not in God's eyes, because they still face God in judgment, who sees every evil thought and deed, right, and sin. People talk about finding yourself. We're all lost, speakers say in the world, right? We need to find ourselves. We're going to find ourselves. If we can know about the universe, we can know about us. We can find ourselves. Well, God tells you who you are because he made humanity. He made you, right? Inner peace. We're going to look for inner peace. But all of this, inner peace, finding yourself, personal redemption is without hope, folks. It's without hope. It might try to assuage your own guilt. But it's only in your own eyes because there's no hope that this lasts forever or hope that you can even keep it up. Because all this is your own effort. Personal redemption. What if you fail? You've done it before. Don't cause me to doubt. There's just no hope in yourself. You're trusting yourself. You're trusting the peace you find within yourself. That's not true peace, is it? Sometimes you make that up, especially when all the world around you is chaotic. What if you yourself are chaotic inside? Then you're just naming something that doesn't exist. It's without hope. You see, sin, as the Bible describes it, is not just a problem for you. Self-help, inner peace, finding yourself, personal redemption, these are all problems that you're trying to solve within yourself, right? Well, isn't that sin? Well, sin is a problem within yourself. But it's not just a problem within yourself. That's why you have a problem with sin. Sin is also a problem for others. I don't mean they also have their own sins. I mean, your sins are a problem for others. You get it? Like, yeah, everyone has their own sins. And we try to personally redeem ourselves and try to reconcile the problems within ourselves. And we try to do that in various degrees of success. But then there's other people whom your sins affected. So even if you hurt someone else with your sin, and then later, because of your good actions, you think that you personally redeemed yourself, or even someone else thinks you have, your sin was still performed upon someone else. How do you fix that? How do you fix them? And how does the part of you get fixed when other people have sinned against you, right? You see, sin is bigger than just you. You're living in it. You're contributing to it. You contributed to it before and you will again. And beyond that, it's not just a problem for other people, your sins, but your sins are against God. That's why it's a sin. Is this or that a sin? You know a good question to ask people when they ask you that? They say, is this or that a sin? Talk about an unbeliever when they ask you that, right? You should ask them, well, do you know God? You only answer the question if it's a sin if you know God. If they don't know God, then you can't answer the question for them. Because you only know sin if you know God. Sin is what's contrary to God. Is this nothing a sin? You know God? I don't believe in God. I can't tell you if it's a sin. I can only tell you what's a sin by the knowledge of God. And if we're going to agree that there's a God and he's the righteous ruler and he's the source of life and love and justice and truth, then I can tell you what is sin because that's contrary to him. And that's what that is. So when you sin, you sin against God. Psalm 51.4, David says, against you only have I sinned. Now, he's not saying that David committed adultery and murder. I mean, he killed someone's husband. Right, like he actually, that was a big harm against someone else. Twofold, like his wife and the guy. But he says against the only have I sinned because David was the king of Israel. To whom do people appeal in Israel when the king of Israel commits a sin? This is a question our own country has been talking about lately. Who do you appeal to when the highest authority breaks the law or not? Who determines this? Who's the higher authority? Who's the authority over that authority? Who's the highest authority? Romans 13 says, the powers that be are ordained of God. The powers, not the people, folks. The power, the authority, the righteous rule, the final authority is God. He has established principalities and powers that they may also adjudicate and rule in righteousness according to him. And when they don't, they're not operating according to him. But they're supposed to. And here's King David. God actually chose him personally. And he's not doing right. Where do people go for justice? Answer? God. And David admits this. It's against the only have I sinned. What law did the king break? Doesn't the king set the laws? No, God set the law, and David broke his law. That was the point. It's the same for us, folks. How do we know right and wrong from the highest authority? Because there's a higher authority. There's God. We're all held to that standard. And so sin's a problem against God. This is why we can't save ourselves. Because the problem with sin isn't just you being frustrated in the way you live or you lacking peace. It affects other people. You've got to solve that problem. And then it affects God in that you're sinning against Him. If you're sinning against God, then how do you reconcile yourself with Him? He has to be in on that. He has to accept that. So you can't just say, well, I'm good with what I did now. I've accepted myself. That doesn't solve your problem. Sin is why we cannot save ourselves. That God is where life, love, and truth and all that belongs, and death and malice and envy and sin is where it belongs in us, is why we need God to save. Whatever is going to save you from your sin has to be true and just and right and loving. And God is all that is. That's why we need God to save. Isaiah chapter 12 and verse 2. Look what Isaiah says about God being the Savior. Isaiah 12, verse 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. Why is he singing that song about God being salvation? Because in Isaiah 12, he's talking about God bringing joy, God bringing peace. Because that's who God is, what he does. People don't do that. Think of the greatest human saviors, or the people who have changed the course of history for the better in humanity, and they've all got their flaws and failures, or dropped the ball in the end, or become frail and die. Right? But God, who's everlasting, and brings peace and joy, and is the source of that, who tells us what that is, He is salvation. Isaiah 43, verse 11. God says so much. Isaiah 12 is Isaiah singing the song, but Isaiah 43, look what God says. Thus saith the Lord, verse 10 says, well, let's go to verse 9 even. It says, let all the nations be gathered together. This is talking about everybody, right? Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified. We covered a few weeks back how we know the Bible is the word of God. One major reason that we know that is prophecy, fulfilled prophecy. Half of the reasons why we know the Bible is the word of God is because of prophecy being fulfilled. Different types of prophecy. And he's saying that. He's saying, let the nations gather together and let them prove that they're like God. But they're not. No one is. He says in verse 9, he says, let them hear and say it is truth. Remember what Pilate said? What is truth? That's what humanity leads. You know, human trying to save themselves because they always end up saying there is no truth. It's the only way to reconcile the fact that we're all sinners and have a problem and we can't judge each other. Because there's no truth. Verse 10 says, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. The Lord God is the Savior. That's what Isaiah 43 says. Isaiah 45 verse 2. Or 22, excuse me. 45 verse 22. It says, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. There is no other God. There is no other Savior. That's what God himself says. And we've already shown that to be true because he's the only one that it's possible to save sinful, corrupt humanity. There's no man that can do it. You can't save yourself. If there's any hope of salvation, it must come from God. And thus, you should seek God for salvation. You should say, God, you need to save me. I need to save from you. You need to do something. With your power, with your knowledge, with your love, you've got to do something to save me. Now, the Bible tells us what God has done. But none else can save you. You've got to realize that. Your pastor can't save you. Well, he's a man of God. He's not God. And he's got sins too. Your pastor can't save you. Philosophers can't save you. Well, there's a lot of guys smarter than me. Intelligence doesn't save you. The rich can't save you. People really tend to rely on those with money to make decisions in their life. Be very careful of that. People don't all come to wealth the same way. Sometimes they come to wealth because of wicked means. You ever heard of Filthy Luker? That's a thing. Sometimes it's by accident. Sometimes it's just by inheritance. But hey, that guy's rich. He must know what he's talking about. About your salvation? Like, did he get rich saving people? Like, no, he may not at all. Elon Musk said he'd be happy to be in hell. Right? So it's like, not good advice. He has no hope for your salvation. That's why he works so hard to save the planet. Don't get scared. That's why he's doing it. This is all there is. And he's getting involved doing that. Rulers can't save you. But if we just had a better ruler, a better president, a better congressman, a better... That's not where salvation's at. Love from another sinner can't save you. We'll say love is all you need. Love lasts forever. Love transcends everything. Well, when you speak about God, that's correct. God transcends everything. But love doesn't exist outside of God. Amen. Okay? It's not a thing. People try to worship love and love from another. another person. He said, my wife loved me so much. My husband loved me so much. My father, my mother loved me so much. My grandmother loved me so much. They loved me into heaven. I still remember the middle school kid that I had to correct when I asked him how he knew he was saved. He said, my grandmother prays for me. I said, phew. The grandma salvation plan, I had not heard up to that point. I had since heard more silly things than that. But people count on another person's love of them, just love of them, to save them. Okay. And it's a hard reality because, especially to mothers, because, and people who love so much, is they want their love so much to save other people. They glorify love itself and to save love must save. Nope. It can't. You can love something more than anything else has loved it in the world. Ever. And they'll still be lost. Sinner. Love itself doesn't save. God alone is the Savior. Okay. And he's not only loving. He's holy. He's just. He's good. He's all of it. God must save. And he's a person, by the way. Not an idea. That's an idea like love. He's a being. So how do we get saved on the day of God's judgment? If we're all sinners, and Hebrews 9 says we're destined to die and face judgment, and God is the judge, and he's the righteous judge, the loving judge, and the merciful judge, and the life giver, and we stand before him in judgment, how do we get saved on the day of judgment? There's only a few logical options here. Number one is you can avoid the avenger. You can try to avoid being judged. The problem with this is you can't escape God. Like in the Bible, there's situations where people commit sins, and God has cities of refuge, right? In our country, if you commit an egregious sin at one point, there's no hope you might flee the country, right? You avoid the avenger. It's like, let's get out of here. Let's escape. I won't get caught. Well, you can't escape God. Not only does he see everything and know everything and not only does he know where you're at at all times, but he is also a righteous judge. And when you die, there you are. You're with him. Like, you can't escape. Like, the biggest escape you have against God is being here on earth. Which God is seeing everything. There's nothing that's not naked and open to his eyes. And so being here on earth is the greatest escape of judgment because when you die, you will face God in judgment. And do you have control? I won't ask the cliche question, do you know where you're going when you die? But the question of, do you know how to go somewhere when you die? You don't even know how. Like when you're dead, you drop dead and you don't even know how to go anywhere. Like you're totally in God's hands at that point. Amen. You cannot escape God. You may be able to make choices now. Resist them with your feet and your mouth and your hands. You can't when you die. So avoiding the avenger is not an option. All right, what number two? Well, we're all going to face God, so I'm just going to apologize. I mean, I'm really sorry for what I did. I really am. I want to do good. I try to do good. I'm going to apologize profusely and plead at the mercy of the court. Right? People have this idea and it's something people do. And sometimes people are lenient. They hear the cry of compassion. And if they discern that it's genuine, they might say, well, you're sincere. You're not just doing it because you got caught or something. I mean, you really wanted to do good. You really wanted to try that. People think that works. But here's the problem with that is it does not satisfy justice. When we give people mercy, it's on the basis of another form of justice, folks. True justice cannot give mercy to everyone without a proper satisfaction. That is the definition of unjust. If every sinner who walked up to the courtroom said, please, I'm sorry, let me go, and the judge says, I'll be merciful to your request, I won't give you punishment, and that happened every time, what would you start thinking about that judge? That guy is not judging right. Like, why is he dealing with sin? And the judge might respond with, well, everybody's really sincere. They come in here, and they really mean it. I mean, it's not just an act. They all mean it. But where's the justice? Like we said, sin isn't simply people not reconciling their own problem. It's affecting other people. And so when someone sins and it affects someone else, then you say, oh, I'm going to let that guy go for mercy. What about that person? He's the victim. And that judge isn't doing him any favors by giving him mercy. Do you see? An unjust judge. So, apologizing and pleading for mercy does not satisfy justice. That might be a right thing in your heart to do. I tell my son that. He says, Dad, I'm sorry. I say, good. You should be sorry. And he's learning the principle now that he thinks that if he says I'm sorry and he really sincerely means it, you know, that the punishment needs to be foregone. It's like, those are unrelated. Like, you should feel guilty and sorry. I'm glad you do that. Punishment has to be exacted. Right? These are different things. You repenting and the punishment being exacted are not one and the same. Both have to happen for justice. Because if you don't repent, then you definitely deserve it. You deserve it no matter what because you committed it. But punishment has to be exacted. Right. So there's a thing of forgiveness and reconciliation that must happen. There's option number three, which is to take the consequences. Some people say, well, that's it. You know, I know I sinned. I didn't want to, but I did. And I'm man enough to take the consequences. Well, you're honest, I suppose, and you recognize that. But the issue with that, people say, well, if I died and that's it, I die and I paid my own price and I'll just be dead. People resign themselves to that. They realize that they can't get mercy from God. God, or they can't get forgiven from God, or they don't think they can be saved by God, they realize they've done wrong, they recognize that, and they say, well, I'm just going to, if that's what it is, that's what it is. So be it, right? The problem with this idea, of course, is that sin is not rectified by the death of the sinner. Some Christians even go through this process with flawed logic. They say, well, if people die, that means they pay for the sin, right? They should be in heaven. No, because death doesn't rectify the sin. Death's the punishment. You died. That's the punishment. But what about sin? Let me give you an example. Someone commits mass murder. They deserve to die. Yes. So they put the death, they die. Right. Does that solve the sin problem? No. They deserve to die. They died. That was part of it. But it's like there's still this big problem they caused that didn't get reconciled. Death does not rectify the sinner. That's just the consequence of your sin. One of them. There's many more. And the wages of sin is death. Which leaves the only option for salvation, of course. You can't avoid the avenger. You're apologizing and pleading for mercy at the court. Can't get you saved. You're taking the consequence. It's not going to solve anything. You just get what you deserve, and so you die. There's still a sin problem in the world. There has to be a way to save from sin. And the only way is from God, or else there is no way to be saved. But to the glory of God, there is a way in the Bible to be saved, and that's what God has explained through the scriptures and through Jesus Christ, which is to satisfy the avenger. If the avenger who is seeking justice and punishment for sin and judgment for sin is satisfied by a payment, by a restitution, a rectification of sin, then possibly you could avoid some consequences of it. But this requires an atonement. To satisfy the avenger requires an atonement, a reconciliation. And since you've sinned against God, it requires an atonement reconciliation with God. Which is why man-made religions and some others who are not have tried to offer sacrifices to God to atone. And it's not just animals, by the way. I mean, that was a major source of sacrifice. The reason why animals, by the way, were a major source of sacrifice in time past was because that was people's livelihood. You may not appreciate it so much anymore. We don't have family farms. But like the cow where you get your milk from, like that was a very valuable thing. And when you kill the cow, it's like, how are we going to live, right? It was a major thing to sacrifice your crops and your animals to God or God, right? So people would offer up what is valuable to them. Right? So it wasn't simply the cost of a cow. You see this corruption in modern society where people are a lot wealthier generally often, at least where we're at, and they say, well, you know, the price of a cow is about $1,000 or something like that, so I'll pay $1,000 to the church and God's good. Like, yeah, how much money do you have? A lot more than that. Good. You don't get the point, do you? But the idea of sacrifice is to sacrifice. And if you're not, you heard preachers preach this, right, about tithing or something. If you don't feel the pain, you're not given enough. You know, you've heard that type of thing. But that's what sacrifice is. That's the definition of sacrifice is that you actually, you know, sacrifice something that's valuable to you, that you feel the pain for God to be appeased. Right. Again, praise God, it's God's grace and his work that satisfies his atonement, but I know the end of the story. It's hard for me not to preach the cross. But to satisfy the avenger requires an atonement, right? Reconciliation is sacrifice. People do this. And there's criteria for this atonement to be met. So if this is our hope, and some salvation that only God can accept that requires an atonement, then there's certain qualifications necessary for that atonement. Remember, the subject today is describing why Jesus is the only Savior. To do that, you have to explain what is needed to save. It's not simply people identifying a Savior. My Savior is that guy over there. You can't just pick one. They have to meet qualifications. Just like in our lesson about the Word of God. You can't just claim any book to be the Word of God. There are certain qualifications that it has to meet even to be considered to be the Word of God. Then there's qualifications that have to meet when you try to contend that it's the Word of God. The same with salvation and the Savior. You can't just claim anyone. They have to meet qualifications. You can't claim anything. They have to meet certain qualifications if it's going to atone with God. But what are these things? Well, there's a list here for you. Requirements for salvation. The satisfaction, the atonement, the reconciliation, the satisfaction must be without sin. It can't be a corrupted. sacrifice, which is why in the Old Testament law, when God told and prescribed to Israel to offer sacrifices, it had to be a lamb without blemish. It couldn't be the one with the broken leg. We don't like that one anyway. It came down. It had to be the one without blemish, most likely the best one that you had. And thus the preaching is, God wants your best. Yeah, that's true, but satisfaction must be without sin. It must be able to acquit of sin. The thing you offer has to actually acquit sin. Now that's a hard requirement right there. Like, what if I bribe God with ice cream? You know, it's like, not able to do it. Like, apart from the silliness of it, it's like, it's not able to do that. The wages of sin is death. Life is in the blood. The sacrifice, that's why the blood sacrifice was required. And why Cain's crop sacrifice was not accepted, because the crop testified to the works of men's hands. There's no blood in the plants, right? There's life in the animals. There's life in the blood. And thus the idea, if your life is on the line, the sin breeds death in you. The only thing that's able to acquit must be a sacrifice of life. Right? That's what we're required to acquit sin. The satisfaction must also, requirement number two, must satisfy the righteous judgment against sin. So sin brings death. Death comes by sin. The wages of sin is death, the Bible says. Sin is why we all die. It's why we corrupt and head to death. Like, things don't get fixed when they're sin. They get broken. They degrade constantly. The righteous judgment against sin is death. And so the satisfaction for your sin must meet that righteous standard of judgment. So it must be a sacrifice of life that leads to death. Like, it's dead. Life is taken away. Okay. The satisfaction must be for all. For all of your sins. Because what help is it if you say, well, this one's for the sin yesterday. What about last week? What about two years ago? You're still lost. You're still not saved. If you still got unpaid parking tickets, you still got something due, right? And so the satisfaction, if we're going to be talking about salvation here and a Savior, you've got to be saved from all, from all sins. And to add to that, if we're all going to have any hope, it has to be sufficient for all of our sins, yes? Not just some of our sins. So if God is the only Savior and He offers salvation, it has to be of all, satisfaction for all sins. Else, it's insufficient to save. The satisfaction, whatever is offered here for satisfaction of God's vengeance towards sin in you, it has to be forever. If whatever is offered to God to assuage his wrath only works for, say, a year, then what happens next year? You've got to do it again. And again, and again, and one year you die because it wasn't sufficient, right? So the satisfaction, the atonement has to be an eternal thing. Like it has to last forever. Already we're eliminating anyone on this planet being able to offer atonement and satisfaction. Do you understand? Because we live temporary lives. We have our own life, but it's already corrupted with sin, so it's not without corruption. And even then, if we gave ourselves to die, that's just what we deserve. We can't offer as a sacrifice. Like we owe our life, and so we can't take our debt and use it as a payment. That's not going to work. So this already precludes anyone from saving themselves. Or, for that matter, any sinner trying to save another sinner. Can't work. Well, then who else? Who can be saved? If the rich can't be saved, if the wealthy can't be saved, the wise can't be saved, anyone can't be saved by someone else, then how in the world is Jesus saved? People object. Well, let's get in a moment. He's not a sinner. But. We're talking about requirements for salvation here. To make atonement and reconciliation to God. It has to be forever. God's eternal. If you're going to have life forever, you're going to be with God. Reconciled forever. It has to last forever. Or else one day God says, well, that's it. Time's up. And you're done. The satisfaction must promise life and guarantee life after death. Because death is the issue, right? The way you just sin is death, and the settlement wants to die, and you're going to die. And if you die, and then God satisfies justice such that you're atoned and then saved from that, and then you're just dead. Good for God, doesn't help you, right? So if part of your salvation for you is like having life from God, then it has to guarantee life after death, since death is required as part of the atonement, right? Else, there's no hope. It's just a satisfaction. action to offer the legal restitution, but there's just no hope in it. So don't worry, all of your sins will be reconciled when you die and you will not be there. There's just no hope in that at all. It's good for God's justice. So it can't be a temporary reprieve or temporary solution. It has to be a promise of life, a guarantee of life. The sufficient work, whatever it is, must change men. Because if you're a sinner and then there's atonement offered for your sins, but you're left the same and then given life as the same before, then it's just going to happen again. Right? Like there's still this impending problem of God atoning now for people who continually sin. How is that righteous? How can God justify sinners? Pretty old question. And so it must change men. And inside this work and satisfaction somehow must change people and from the inside out. Because you can pretend to do good works, but your heart's still corrupt. So it has to change you thoroughly from the inside out. This is a hard work, folks. This seems right near impossible. And it is for you. It is for any of us. Whoever provides this, forget the actual work and the actual atoning sacrifice, whoever provides this thing himself can't be corrupted with sin. This is why in the Old Testament, God required the high priest to be cleansed himself, to even walk into the Holy of Holies, or else he drops dead. So the provider of the sacrifice... Must represent man and be accepted by God. So it's not enough that you even have the sacrifice. If you say, okay, this is the work. We've got the atoning work. We're going to provide it as humanity. We're going to do it to save ourselves. Okay, we're going to do it. Then the one who provides it has to be representative of man. Well, that's the easy part. We just pick the best of us, right? Pick the best of us if they're not dead already. So whoever's left among us. But they have to also be accepted by God. That's a little harder. Because we're all sinners and we're already not accepted by God. So he would take the best of us and say, well, that guy is going to do something representing all of us to satisfy God's. He's the priest. He's the holiest of us all. Is he accepted by God? And if God doesn't accept that priest. and the sacrifice he offers, then the whole thing is destroyed. Because remember, reconciliation here is with God. It's not simply you trying. It's God needing to be assuaged in his righteous holiness and purity, saying there's a bunch of sin here and sinners that don't deserve to live past the short life I've granted them of my grace. Why should I grant you another moment? You don't deserve it in yourselves. It has to be accepted above God. The provider must know the problem. You can't have an ignorant provider. He can't be like, what am I doing? I'm just like a sacrificial lamb here. I don't know where I'm going. It can't be that. He's got to know what's going on. He has to willingly provide the satisfaction, and yet he can't be part of the problem. Because if he is part of the problem, then him being before God's presence is like, well, you're a problem. That's not a satisfaction, that's like invoking his wrath, right? So he has to know the problem without being a part of the problem, else it comes short of solving the problem. And on top of all this, because we've already read in Isaiah, in Isaiah 43, because of just the fact that God alone gives life and love, the provider must be God. If he's not God, then God's a liar. Because he says he's alone the Savior. If he's not God, that means he's man, and man's all sinners. There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that's a gift for God or corrupt. So the only one that can actually provide, if it's even possible, a satisfactory atonement is God himself. The problem is, of course, is that God is not one of us. And he cannot die, as Muslims like to say over and over again. He can't. The conclusion is that there is no atonement we can provide. Sinners cannot make good. We can't. And thus, again, we have a lesson here leaving us in a hopeless condition. But this is the point of recognizing sin and the reasons why we need saved, but why we also can't find it anywhere. Except for God. Isaiah 64. You've heard one of these verses quoted quite often in churches. Isaiah 64, verse 5 says, Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness. God, you meet him that rejoices in and works in righteousness. That's true. He does. So if we're going to offer and provide a satisfactory atonement, it has to be with someone who rejoices and works righteousness. Okay, who is that? Good. Who here is working righteousness? Anyone? Oh, I forgot. We proved that we're all sinners. So, he's saying a truth that no man can fulfill. He says, Those that remember thee in thy ways, behold, thou art wroth. You're filled with wrath. For we have sinned. And those, we continue to sin. And those as continuance. And yet, he says here, we shall be saved. He only says we shall be saved because God made a promise to Israel to save them even before he explained to them how he would do it. Imagine this. God promised Israel that he would save them. And didn't explain how he would do it. So all that we've talked about so far are things that go through Israel's head. We're all sinners. God requires satisfactory atonement and one provided righteously. And none of us are. You're missing something here, God. How are you going to fulfill your promise? Like, how's this going to work? And of course, it points to Christ and Jesus. But Isaiah 64, verse 6 says, We are as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all do fade as a leaf. We're dying. and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There is no hope in humanity to save. You can't save yourself. You can't plead mercy to the court. You can't try to do good with yourself. Make good. You can't redeem yourself. You can't do it. The Bible declares, of course, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior. Look at 1 Timothy 2. This is what we're trying to explain is why Jesus is the only Savior. And I'm trying to get you to think a little bit past, even though it's just as true, that it's not just that here the Bible says it, it's got to be. Well, that is true. The Bible says it, it's got to be. But do you understand why Jesus is the only Savior? 1 Timothy 2, in verse 3, says, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, that you pray for all men. All men. What about that unrighteous ruler? We don't like that guy. You know what he's doing? He says, pray for all men. For it's good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Savior of who? Sinners. So if you're talking about a sinner that you don't like because of their sin, then that's the one you're praying for because they need the Savior. In verse 4, who will have all men to be saved. It doesn't say some men, the best men, those who work righteousness, but all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, the truth of who God is and what he's done to save you. For there is one God. And one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Now that is what we're looking for. We need the mediator between God and man. We need the one who can atone and reconcile humanity to God, who gave himself a ransom for all. That's the work that he did. To be testified in due time, that's when we can know about it. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and apostle. I speak the truth in Christ. I lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. This is who we learn it from, Paul. John 14, 6, Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man can come unto the Father but by me. What's interesting is God himself said, I, the Lord, and the only Savior. I, the Lord. I am God. There's no salvation in none else but him. And here it says salvation comes through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Acts 4, verse 12, Peter says, There's no other name under heaven by which man can be saved but Jesus Christ. No other name. What about Lord Jehovah? Because Isaiah 12 verse 2 says that. There's no other Savior but Him. You start learning in the Scripture that Jesus is Jehovah. He is the Lord God. But 1 Timothy 2 said He's a man. There's one God and the man Christ Jesus. So it must be that there's one God and Jesus is just a man. Well, He is a man. But there's also the verses that talk about Him being God manifest in the flesh. He's both God and man. Why is Jesus the only Savior? Because he meets all the requirements. He's the only one that meets all the requirements necessary for satisfaction. Without Jesus Christ, there is literally no hope. Because the requirements needed for salvation before a holy God with a world full of sinners cannot be met by anybody else. That's why. You say, well, I'm a man of faith. I try to do good in my religion. Without Jesus Christ, there is no proper satisfaction and atonement for sin. God cannot be reconciled any other way. That's why many of these false religions actually deny sin in the first place. I know how to solve the problem. There's no sin. Yeah, I guess that would do it. Deny reality. We've already talked about sin and what that is. Let's go through the requirements here to see how Jesus meets them. Number one, the satisfaction must be without sin. Must be able to acquit sin. Well, Jesus was without sin. The only man in existence that lived without sin, Jesus Christ. And he died an innocent death. You see, if Jesus died a death as a result of his own sins, like it's death for a man who wants to die, and for wages of sin is death, and every man, they live and then they die, right? If Jesus just died, cancer, heart attack, falling off a roof, right? He could not acquit sin. He died an innocent death. That was a requirement for him to be a satisfactory atonement. Hebrews 4.15 says he was touched with our infirmities. He became man. He put on flesh and yet without sin. Isaiah 53, verse 4 through 6 says, We laid upon him the iniquities of us all. We deemed him stricken, but it wasn't because of his sin. We laid on him the iniquities of us all, Israel says. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, Paul says, He made him to be sin who knew no sin. That's Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a sinner. He could not sin. Now, I have to stress that point because 50% of Christians today think that Jesus could sin and probably did. They don't do it with any sort of theological malice, I don't think, but they do it out of their ignorance and denies the scripture and unknowingly denies the means of their salvation. If Jesus was a sinner and sinned, he could not save you. You make him like any other man, and no man can save themselves or any other man. One sinner can't die for another sinner's sins. Can't happen. But if Jesus dies an innocent death, there's a problem here. There's an injustice. An injustice. That that man died and didn't deserve it because he died an innocent death. He died a false death. People owe him something. What do they owe him? Life. God owes him life. God the righteous judge, he deserves to live because he died an innocent death without sin. Now what if instead of claiming his right to say, you know what, I want to take what I'm owed, give justice to those people who put me to death. Well instead of doing that, Jesus says, you know what, I'm owed life, give it to them. Can he do that? He's within his rights to do that. It's a legal satisfaction that an innocent death of Jesus who dies without sin says, I'm not going to hold that claim to them. I'm going to forgive them. I'm going to give them what I'm owed. Life, human life, from God, forever. That's what he says. None else, by the way, has died only because of taking other sins upon himself. Other people have died without their fault. Like people have died being wrongly accused, things like that, right? But they're also sinners that ultimately deserve death. Jesus died falsely accused and innocent and didn't deserve death at all, being without sin. Number two criteria is the satisfaction must satisfy the righteous judgment against sin, which is death. So he was without sin, he died an innocent death, and he, of course, died on the cross, which is something I have to stress because Muslims don't think he died at all on the cross. Each one of these criteria, it's amazing how the religion of the world will deny these criteria that Jesus fulfilled them. They'll say, well, Jesus didn't do this or that, and the other thing. And what ultimately that's doing is the devilish lie of denying Jesus as the capable candidate to be your savior. He did die on the cross. Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. Hebrews 2.14 says he tasted death for every man. He died. And not for himself, but for others. Galatians 3.13 says he was made a curse by dying on the tree. He made a curse for us. He took away the curse from us by dying on the cross. None else takes this judgment without deserving it. Number three, the satisfaction must be for all. Or else it's insufficient. Well, 1 John 2, 2 says, See, the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but the whole world. Propitiation, the atonement. He died for all. Hebrews 2, 9 says a similar thing. He became man to die. Hebrews 2, verse 9. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. See that? Every man there, the whole world. None else can satisfy for another man's sins. People ask this question a lot. They say, well, how can one man satisfy another man's sins? Well, he can if he deserves sins. One sinner, Romans 5 says that. People might die for a good man, but who dies for sinners? Nobody. And even if they could, a sinner dying for another sinner can't atone for another person's sins. They're dying for their own sins. But one without sin can die for another person's sins. another sin, but what they deserve. They can't die for all sins, however, unless they have another attribute, which is their existing beyond human life. If they're eternal and omnipresent, then it's a greater judgment. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12, the sacrifice must be forever. Doesn't Hebrews spend at least two or three chapters just talking about this? Hebrews 10. By the way, you see a lot of these verses here in Hebrews because Hebrews is explaining how Jesus is the sacrifice that the law spoke about and required. And so it's good to learn these things. Hebrews 10, verse 12. This man... He's talking about priests and how they go in every year, multiple times, with the same sacrifice. They can never take away sin with the same sacrifices. But this man, Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. He was done. One sacrifice forever. Okay? That's contrary to the continual re-sacrificing of Jesus in the Mass every week in Roman Catholicism. Whose text, the Vaticanus, the Greek text, removes this portion of Hebrews. You say, coincidence? Conspiratorial? I don't know. Make with what you want. The verse says, one sacrifice, first sentence, forever. You don't need any more. And none else can perform a work sufficient forever without being eternal. That's why the priests, the high priests, even in Israel, they could not offer an eternal sacrifice. They had to go on it again and again and again. And why even religions of this world, even Christian religions of the world, have to continually offer sacrifices because it can't be forever. Because people keep sinning and the one they gave last week doesn't atone for the next week. Jesus, however, wants forever. So none can perform a work sufficient forever without being an eternal one. The Holy One. But what did God say about himself in Isaiah 43? Before me there is no God and after me there is no God. He is eternal. Jesus is the eternal God. Or else you can't be saved. And so any teaching that corrupts Jesus'eternality can't save you. You say, well God's my Savior. Yes, but he has to become man in Jesus Christ to save you. And Jesus has to be eternal to save you. Or if he's not eternal, then his sacrifice is not eternal. It's temporary. Right? It has to be a sacrifice made for eternity, forever. Okay? So those teachings float around like that. Either one that says Jesus was just a man, or Jesus was a created being and not eternal, or saying that Jesus himself is just a chronological mode of the Father, and he began his existence in his conception. And you say, what kind of? That's confusing. Well, I get it. But they deny the eternality of the Son. Right? The oneness heresy. And it's heresy because it denies Jesus'eternality, which means he can't save you. Right? That's just one of the problems with it. The satisfaction must be forever, and the satisfaction must promise and guarantee life after death. But what did Jesus do? He died on the cross for your sins, being God, manifest in the flesh, and then he rose from the dead. Romans 4.25 says, He died for your offenses and rose again for your justification. If he doesn't raise from the dead, you can't be saved. Okay? That was a necessary requirement for him to be the Savior, to raise from the dead. Romans 6.23 says, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Well, how do you get eternal life? Through Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead and offers it to you freely. So either Jesus Christ is alive today and you can be saved, or Jesus is dead today and you can't. Nobody can. You see, the only reason anyone could be saved today is because Jesus Christ is still alive because he rose from the dead after he died on the cross, which is also necessary for your salvation. You see, all the requirements that were needed to reconcile you with God, Jesus met. And only Jesus met. That's why there's no hope in anyone else. No one else was risen from the dead, never to die again. See, well, the scriptures talk about people risen from the dead. Lazarus was risen from the dead before Jesus even died. Yep, and he died. Jesus rose from the dead and never died again. That's eternal life. That resurrection, no one's ever done. This is where the world comes and says, no one's ever resurrected from the dead. That's against science. That's what a miracle is called, a little bit, where God intervenes to do something. But secondly, you don't know if it's impossible for man to rise from the dead. You say, well, show me one instance. Jesus. You deny it. But historically, it's provable. The Bible, it's provable. And the fact that the scripture testifies to it and the people died for the account of it, he rose from the dead, folks. People saw him alive after his death. Paul talks about that 500 men even. He says without resurrection, you're still in your sins. And Jesus did that. He rose from the dead. Whatever satisfaction was made has to also work to change man. It has to be sufficient to change man from the inside out. Jesus'death and resurrection wasn't just an act performed behind closed doors. It was an act done commending the love of God. And it says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus Christ, unlike the first Adam, was not just made a living soul, but a quickening spirit. Quickening, which means to make alive again. And so Jesus Christ, by his resurrection, he says in Ephesians, you trust what he's done, and he gives you his spirit, which regenerates you, changes you from the inside out. And you know what begins that process of change from the inside out? Something that is manifest from the inside out, which is faith. It's nothing you do, which is an outside-in thing. What do I have to do to receive Jesus Christ? Well, go over here and take three steps. Go over there and do five jumps and a skip, you know, and give half your money. No, it has to be from the inside. That's where this change has to start. And the inside is faith. You believe. Well, how do you know that? I get a paper or something? Only God knows that. It's in you. Well, how do I know if I believe? Do you trust it? Do you believe it? That's what faith is. You hear the word of God, you believe it, and you hear what God said, that he saves you through Christ's word. You walk by faith, not by sight. And Jesus is that quickening spirit because it requires faith. Since he did the work, there's nothing left for you to do, which means you have to believe. But that's good because that means it starts to change you from the inside out, which is a requirement for reconciliation with God, right? Or else you're a perpetual sinner. You know, Christians have been quickened by the Spirit, have been regenerated by God. There's still sin present in our mortal flesh, but we have the hope of salvation because of faith. Right? We're quickened. None else has made a quickening spirit. What other man, what other means can give life from the dead but God himself? God made life. He can make it again. And he did. Ephesians 3.17, Paul talks about Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. Well, what sense is that even real? How can another man dwell in your heart? Well, I know. I'd make cards to him. He's in my heart. You're in my heart, brother. You're in my heart. No, he's talking about you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in your heart by faith because he's God. And he can do that when you believe. Jesus has to be representative of man. He has to be accepted of God as a sacrifice. And guess what? He was. Look at Acts chapter 2, verse 22. What's most clear about Jesus is that he was a man. That's the thing most clear that most people agree on. Some wackos, and I know that's a name calling, but it's simply denying of accepted historical reality that Jesus ever existed. By the way, those are some wackos in the West, but other people in the world don't know Jesus existed. They think it was a fairy tale. They don't do that out of some sort of malice. They thought he was like Pinocchio or something. It's just a story people told. They don't know that Jesus, the idea of Jesus, and the person who came from historical documents from the Scripture in a time frame that is validated. It's like Jesus existed as a man. Like at the very least, you've got to say Jesus was a man. Most atheists, 99% of atheists in America, Jesus was a man. It wasn't God. He was a man. Yep, he was a man. Acts 2, verse 22, he was a man. Before that, he was God. While he was a man, he was God. He's still God. He's always God. He became man in John 1, 14. Acts 2, 22, look what Peter says about Jesus. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God. Show me another. There is not another. Right? This man was approved of God. It was approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know. They already knew that. He was going to preach to them that he was the Messiah. They knew that it was a man approved of God. In 1 Peter 2, verse 4, Peter says God chose him. He said he was chosen of God. Talk about Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, when Paul says, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in him. That very first part, it says God made him. Why did God make him? Because God chose him. He was the anointed one. That's what Christ means. Christ means anointed one, chosen one. We call him Jesus Christ because Jesus is like the name given to him by Mary from the angel. Everyone in town knew that he was Jesus, but not everyone knew he was Christ. When you believe that Jesus, that man that was born of Mary, is Christ, Lord and Christ, you're saying he's the one chosen of God to be the Savior. That's what you're saying. And the scriptures testify to that. Look at Matthew 1. Matthew 1, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, even though she's pregnant, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, right? You say, well, what kind of import does that have? Here's what import it has. If Jesus, the only way that Jesus could be of God and of man is that he's born of a virgin. And what other way do men come into this world? Women is how they come into the world. Through mothers. Like what if he had an earthly father, but no earthly mother? Like how in the world does that happen? Does he grow out of the ground like a plant? Like you need a woman to bring him into the world. But his father is God, because God is the father. And so you have the father, and then you have a woman. You have a God and man. The virgin birth is necessary for him to meet the criteria to be your savior, or else he's not your savior at all. Oh, it's a small thing that Joseph is actually his biological father. No, it's a huge thing, because that means he's only man, and there's no proof that he's God from his origin. Hmm. He was a man. Accepted by God, conceived by God, being God, manifests in the flesh. None else can be the mediator between God and man, being both with Jesus. What other religion, what other savior claims this? Meets this satisfaction. They're either demigods or God completely or just a man himself and not God at all. But show me where God becomes man and is both man and God at the same time and offers a satisfactory atonement for humanity's sins. Now, it kind of sounds like I'm just preaching Christian doctrine, but that's why I went through the first list without quoting any verses because that's just what's necessary to atone for sins. And then I started showing you truth about Jesus, and you're going, it sounds the same. It seems like Jesus meets the whole list. Yes. The list came first. Jesus came and met them. The list wasn't created from Jesus. The list is to satisfy justice generally. I'm showing you why Jesus is the only Savior. He's the only one that can bring salvation. And it'd be a just salvation. It'd be a righteous salvation. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. In John 3, verse 16. God's love of the world that he gave is the only begotten sign. Whose son? Who gave him? From where? Like, wasn't he born from Mary? Conceived of the Holy Ghost. Sent from heaven. John 3, that's what he's saying. Jesus says, I came from heaven. Well, what man says this? Who has been to heaven? Like, it comes back to talk to you about it. People talk about visions and revelations. Jesus came from heaven. That's the claim. And proves it by testimony of knowledge of things in the future and in the past. And about God. that no man could know. 1 Timothy 3.16, it says God was manifest in the flesh. Matthew 19.17, when asked, Good Master, what shall I do to have eternal life? What's Jesus'response? Who's good but one? There's none good but one. You're calling me good? What are you saying? We saw that earlier in the outline, right? Men aren't good. Who's the good one? God. If you're going to get eternal life, it's going to be through God. That's what Jesus was saying. And if you trust me, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no man gets saved without believing in me, the only Savior. That's what Jesus would say. Jesus is the Savior. He's God, man of the flesh. In Colossians 2.9, Paul says that very clearly that in him is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God in flesh. That's necessary for him to be your savior. If not, then God's a liar and he couldn't actually provide for your sins. He had to be man to die. He had to be God to die for your sins. Because he could not acquit your sins or provide the eternal sacrifice or actually accept the atonement unless he was God. Okay? No one else has ever held up the claim of being God visiting us. We talk about people, different saviors, different religions, and can't people come to God different ways. None else meets the requirements. Show me another one that meets it. There's only five competitors here. There's only one. Like you would think if you were creative to have another religion, you'd make it just like Christianity. But they don't. Like there's a lot of Christian heresies. They distort it. But the only way in the truth is coming through Christ. That's what the Bible depicts. Jesus did everything necessary to save sinners. He did it all. The provider must know the problem without being a part of it. The provider must be God. He is. He was part of humanity. He is still a man. And yet he wasn't part of the problem. He didn't bring sin into the world. He brought life into the world. He brought salvation. He brought immortality and life and light. He did everything to save sinners. Romans 4, 5 says that, Tithot worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith in Jesus Christ is kind of a righteousness, because Jesus Christ is righteous. None else came close to doing what was necessary to save humanity. We sure can't, but Jesus Christ did. He manifested perfectly God's wisdom and judgment and grace and love. That's why Paul says God committed his love toward us, and while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. The world knows that sometimes, can know the love that Jesus talked about. What greater love hath a man than he would die for his friends, right? Like that's a great love. What greater love has than that? Well, to die for your sinners and enemies. To die for your enemies. Who in the world would die for your enemies? Well, if the whole world is your enemy. And God is offering salvation to the world. God does. That's the answer. Okay. God's love is greater. And Jesus did that. There's none else that can save except the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just a savior, folks. He is the only. Savior. And so you either trust him for your salvation or you don't. And he's yours when you believe, which is why Paul says that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. He says he saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. His work, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, he purposed to die on that cross before the world began to show his love to humanity. But it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. See the Savior, see the Christ there. He's the chosen one who hath abolished death. And hath brought life and mortality to life through the gospel. You start reading these verses in a new light when you see the requirements for salvation. Because Paul's not just rambling off here. In all these verses, he's giving you the details of why he is the Savior. He's Christ, the chosen one. He abolished death. That was required for salvation. He gives life. That's required for salvation. He gives immortality. It's forever. That's required for salvation. Do you see all those things there? So he's not just rambling. He's giving you the details through the gospel. That's by faith. Changes you to be a man, right? Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher of the Gentiles. Paul was given the gospel of salvation. He revealed from Christ what salvation was, where it comes from, and how you get it freely. And so he is the only Savior. And we are his ministers. Amen. Any questions, any comments? Yeah.

We dealt last week with proof that we're all sinners, proof that everyone is a sinner. And we went through a lot of the laws and a lot of the biblical description of sin to show that no one can escape the identification of being a sinner because we've all sinned. And so we dealt with that last week.

And that left us somewhat discouraged and depressed. depressed and hopeless. Of course, the gospel at the end is what we're all trusting, that Christ died for us, and He died for us while we're yet sinners. And it's His work on the cross, His death and resurrection, that is offered for salvation to all those sinners that need to be saved.

He justifies the ungodly. So we covered that last week. And so there's hope for sinners.

This week, I'd like to talk about why Jesus is the only Savior. A look at why none else can save. This being a subject important for you to know regarding your salvation.

biblical truth, but also it's a question people have in the culture. When they see that historically America has had a predominance of Christianity in it, they start to get exposed to other cultures with the internet and travel and things like that. And they meet nice people and neighbors and marriages and things like that. They start to wonder, why is it that Jesus is the only Savior? Can't people come to God different ways?

Can't people be saved by some else or someone else? Why is he the only Savior? Why are you so strict about Jesus?

And so I want to talk today about why we know and how we know Jesus is the only Savior. Why is it that no one else can save? And of course, this requires us to know what we taught last week, what we learned last week, that we are all under sin. Romans 3, 9, and 10, Paul proves in Romans 1, 2, and 3 that we're all under sin.

Jew, Gentile, no matter what your nationality, where you come from, what religious backgrounds you have, we are all sinners, and we're all under sin. He says, there's none righteous, no, not one. So this is the conclusion Paul makes after three chapters of explaining. the history of humanity, even through religious Israel.

Just because there are those who are in churches that don't believe, and just because there are those in churches who preach what God has said, does not mean they're exempt from sin. That's what Paul says in Romans 3, there is none righteous, no not one. So then why did God leave humanity here with this problem? Why didn't God just fix the problem and get it over with, remove sin, so that we can all go about lives living in peace and joy and harmony and things like that?

Why? Why did God leave us here with this problem? This is another question I won't be dealing with in detail today, but the simple answer is in Acts 17, 27, where Paul says he put us here on the earth. He left us here on the earth after sin entered. Verse 27 says that they should seek the Lord, seek the Lord, because a proper response to knowing your sin should be guilt and then turning to God for salvation.

God, I need help with this. I need your help with this. And you know what people tend to do is not turn to God. Romans 3.11 says, right after he says, we before proved all under sin, there's none righteous. He says, there's none that understandeth, there's none that seeks after God.

And so Paul's quoting the Old Testament, but after God left us here in our sins, that we might turn to him for salvation, which he has offered throughout history. Paul says he's left us here to seek the Lord. People don't seek him.

So the whole idea of a seeker-friendly church, it's contrary to Romans 3.11 in that no one's seeking the Lord. They don't know that they need Him. The idea of a seeker-friendly church is not to talk about people's sin, but to minister to them where they're at when they're trying to seek the Lord.

But no one's seeking Him because they don't know their sin. That's the problem. So what do we do with a world that's not looking for truth?

I mean, we have a building here. We have doors that are open. Why don't people come in to the, just flock in?

Why don't they do that? You know, we had the fair a few weeks ago at the Howard County. And people were, there was no parking space a couple days.

Like, people are flocking over there to enter the fair. They're seeking entertainment and fried foods and elephant ears. Like, that's what they're seeking.

But we have right here, we can teach God's truth, eternal God and his word. And people aren't flocking in because they seek other things. They don't know that they need him.

to be saved, right? And so this is why we preach the lesson like we did last week, that we're all sinners. You have to know the reality of sin before you feel the problem, before you seek after God. Now every now and then the tragedy of this world of people's personal corruption and sin or those afflicting them will cause them to see evil in their face and wickedness in their face.

And even then they'll blame God for their own actions or other people's actions instead of seeking him, instead of seeking their help. So some people are just crooked inside. We're broken.

But what we tend to do is explain away sin. We don't think it exists. Sin itself is a biblical concept because sin implies there's one you're sinning against, God. And so you know sin by knowing God, and you know God by knowing what is not sin. And that's what the scripture describes.

But we explain away sin. It's not sin anymore. You go to a psychiatrist or something, and they'll try to get rid of the idea of guilt and sin from your mind. You shouldn't be guilty. There's no such thing as sin.

People told you that in church or something. It's an old-fashioned idea. You know, just get rid of that.

Just lay down the baggage. You know, you're not guilty of it. You're not guilty.

Right? Well, what's the scripture say? You are guilty.

Right? And so these are at odds with each other. People explain away sin, and they seek salvation elsewhere, because there's still a problem. Even if they don't use the word sin.

Even today, one of the gotcha questions that the world will ask you, or ask Christians, is do you think such a thing is a sin? And if you say, yes, gotcha! Because nobody believes in sin anymore, and you're saying people are bad.

Because that's the assumption we all have. Not everyone's bad. People are pretty decent. Our neighbors are okay. At least we're okay.

What if we're all sinners? Then we're not all okay. And we need God.

But people seek salvation elsewhere. What saves them from their predicament? People lie to themselves and say, I have no problem. Go a day and think about your frustrations. There's issues that you have with the world, with yourself.

And where do we seek salvation? We say, well, our country's not going in the right direction. So we seek salvation from there. We need to change it.

We need to fix it. It's broken. We try to find hope in politics.

Or gurus or wise men. Well, I don't know how to do such and so. I don't know how to think about my own life.

I don't know how to go about getting successful in life. So I'm going to seek people who have success, who have wisdom, or have profound wisdom. profound insights into living, right?

So we're seeking that. Why? Why do you need these things? So I can live with inner peace.

I can live more joyful experience, right? You're looking for salvation is what you're looking for. That's what that is.

Like you're not feeling joy and peace and love and you want that. And so you're looking for advice how to get it. Looking for a savior is what you're looking for.

Self-help. I don't need a savior. The truth is within yourself. You're looking for salvation because you don't like where you're at right now and who you think you are right now. So look within yourself and change what you think of yourself and then improve yourself and you can be better and you can be the success that you never thought you could be.

Just help yourself. People even say God helps those who help themselves. It's not in the Bible. But that's what they say. People are seeking salvation in lots of places.

When we try to correct the problem without God, we're doing it wrong. In Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about this idea. He talks about the gospel of Christ, which is the power of God to salvation. And Romans 1.22 says that men were not thankful to God.

They became vain in their imaginations. They professed themselves to be wise. We can solve our own problem.

We're wise enough to do it. And they became fools. That's how it all began.

So men thought they could do something that God couldn't. When they didn't think their problem was so big that they couldn't solve it. Right?

And they don't seek God anymore. They became fools. In verse 23, they changed the glory of the uncraftable God into what? Things that were created. An image like the craftable man.

Because every guru, wahaguru, or any other guru, is a man, right? And every self-improvement, self-motivation speaker is a man, right? Every ruler on the planet, even the one you think should be elected, is a man, right?

They're all corruptible and corrupted men, sinners, us all. That's what the Bible describes. There's no salvation in that. But there's people that are stronger and wiser, and sure, they can help me with these things, and that's not salvation, folks. It's a deception.

And so they changed the glory of God into an image like a corruptible man. We've got to realize we can't save ourselves. Humanity, man, people, we can't save ourselves from the real problem.

There are small problems that we fix. Week go by, there's more problems in my life that I'm fixing. I'm trying to fix them. My car breaks down and I fix it.

You know, that thing broke. The light bulb broke. You know, I'm fixing and fixing. Fixing problems. We start getting the complex.

I can't fix anything. No, you can't. Right? You can't.

God gave us hands and brains and minds to fix things and gave us even the conscious to want to. Because when things degrade, as second law says, you know, who's there to fix them? Well, God put people on the planet to do that. But the biggest problem that causes the biggest problem for humanity, death, sin, we can't solve. Okay?

People deny it even exists. But God is where salvation lies. God is where life is at.

You want to know how to live life abundantly? Like, God is the one who gave life. He invented life.

The things you like about life itself, like God gave life. You should thank the author of that. He's love. God is love. Like you like love?

You think love is what makes the world go around? Like God is love. He invented it once again, right? That's a good thing that he did. It doesn't come from man.

It doesn't come from artist's depiction. It doesn't come from your heart. It came from God, right?

God gave you a conscience and ability to love, but the love comes from him. Peace, joy, these are all attributes of God, folks. Goodness? You say, well, we've just got to be good.

We need more human good. There is no human good. There's God, and then there's man made in his image who corrupted himself, and so God is all that remains that is good. And anything that we see that is good is a reflection of his goodness.

God is the standard of goodness. Justice. We're fighting for justice in society.

You're looking for salvation, aren't you? Salvation from oppression. Well, guess what? God is the judge, the only righteous judge. He's where the truth is found.

I'm looking for truth, something that can actually speak to me about reality. God is that. So even though people don't want him, they're seeking the things that he is. Because God made us to seek him. But in our sin, we reject him.

But God's where that's at. This should prove to us, just knowing who God is, he is where life, love, and joy, and goodness, justice is found, truth is found, that we cannot save ourselves. What man in history can produce the things that God has?

Like none can. In ourselves, in humanity, corrupted with sin as we are, there's death. Every man dies.

You get the wisest, most noble, even most righteous man that you can find, and he's dead. Men die. They have no power for life.

Hate fills humanity. So yes, the evil parts of humanity, but not me. You ever been angry without a cause?

Well, I always got a good cause for being angry. Yeah, it's usually selfish, right? Hate, anger, misery, malice, that describes what comes from you. What comes from God is love, joy, peace, goodness. What comes from you is anger, misery, and malice.

This can help you discern when you respond and act and think about which is you and which is God, right? Now, be careful here because I said you can discern yourself in God by looking at these, the differences, the works of the flesh and the fruit of the spirit. Right? I'm not here talking about your emotions or your circumstances.

People will say, well, if you have good circumstances, God did that. If you have bad circumstances, God didn't do that. Well, that's not, it doesn't follow, folks. That's another issue for another day, but...

Misery, malice, deceit, ignorance, that's what you bring to the table. You don't know. You bring the seeking.

Even though you're not seeking the right place. You need direction. You need guidance.

You need salvation. All right. You can't save yourself.

You say, well, maybe my neighbor can. He's been around longer than me. He's wiser than me.

He's done more noble things than me. He's not God, right? Unless he points you to God, he doesn't know either.

People talk of personal redemption. Like, I used to be this and that, or I did this or that, but I've redeemed myself, or he's redeemed himself. She's redeemed herself, right? She's come back. What does that mean?

People say that. Well, they were doing a bad thing, but now they've done so much good things that they've redeemed themselves, right? They've paid off of their bad.

But that's only in your eyes, crippled humanity. This is not in God's eyes, because they still face God in judgment, who sees every evil thought and deed, right, and sin. People talk about finding yourself. We're all lost, speakers say in the world, right?

We need to find ourselves. We're going to find ourselves. If we can know about the universe, we can know about us.

We can find ourselves. Well, God tells you who you are because he made humanity. He made you, right? Inner peace.

We're going to look for inner peace. But all of this, inner peace, finding yourself, personal redemption is without hope, folks. It's without hope.

It might try to assuage your own guilt. But it's only in your own eyes because there's no hope that this lasts forever or hope that you can even keep it up. Because all this is your own effort. Personal redemption. What if you fail?

You've done it before. Don't cause me to doubt. There's just no hope in yourself.

You're trusting yourself. You're trusting the peace you find within yourself. That's not true peace, is it? Sometimes you make that up, especially when all the world around you is chaotic. What if you yourself are chaotic inside?

Then you're just naming something that doesn't exist. It's without hope. You see, sin, as the Bible describes it, is not just a problem for you.

Self-help, inner peace, finding yourself, personal redemption, these are all problems that you're trying to solve within yourself, right? Well, isn't that sin? Well, sin is a problem within yourself.

But it's not just a problem within yourself. That's why you have a problem with sin. Sin is also a problem for others. I don't mean they also have their own sins. I mean, your sins are a problem for others.

You get it? Like, yeah, everyone has their own sins. And we try to personally redeem ourselves and try to reconcile the problems within ourselves.

And we try to do that in various degrees of success. But then there's other people whom your sins affected. So even if you hurt someone else with your sin, and then later, because of your good actions, you think that you personally redeemed yourself, or even someone else thinks you have, your sin was still performed upon someone else.

How do you fix that? How do you fix them? And how does the part of you get fixed when other people have sinned against you, right?

You see, sin is bigger than just you. You're living in it. You're contributing to it. You contributed to it before and you will again.

And beyond that, it's not just a problem for other people, your sins, but your sins are against God. That's why it's a sin. Is this or that a sin? You know a good question to ask people when they ask you that? They say, is this or that a sin?

Talk about an unbeliever when they ask you that, right? You should ask them, well, do you know God? You only answer the question if it's a sin if you know God. If they don't know God, then you can't answer the question for them. Because you only know sin if you know God.

Sin is what's contrary to God. Is this nothing a sin? You know God? I don't believe in God.

I can't tell you if it's a sin. I can only tell you what's a sin by the knowledge of God. And if we're going to agree that there's a God and he's the righteous ruler and he's the source of life and love and justice and truth, then I can tell you what is sin because that's contrary to him.

And that's what that is. So when you sin, you sin against God. Psalm 51.4, David says, against you only have I sinned.

Now, he's not saying that David committed adultery and murder. I mean, he killed someone's husband. Right, like he actually, that was a big harm against someone else.

Twofold, like his wife and the guy. But he says against the only have I sinned because David was the king of Israel. To whom do people appeal in Israel when the king of Israel commits a sin?

This is a question our own country has been talking about lately. Who do you appeal to when the highest authority breaks the law or not? Who determines this?

Who's the higher authority? Who's the authority over that authority? Who's the highest authority?

Romans 13 says, the powers that be are ordained of God. The powers, not the people, folks. The power, the authority, the righteous rule, the final authority is God.

He has established principalities and powers that they may also adjudicate and rule in righteousness according to him. And when they don't, they're not operating according to him. But they're supposed to.

And here's King David. God actually chose him personally. And he's not doing right.

Where do people go for justice? Answer? God. And David admits this. It's against the only have I sinned.

What law did the king break? Doesn't the king set the laws? No, God set the law, and David broke his law. That was the point. It's the same for us, folks.

How do we know right and wrong from the highest authority? Because there's a higher authority. There's God. We're all held to that standard. And so sin's a problem against God.

This is why we can't save ourselves. Because the problem with sin isn't just you being frustrated in the way you live or you lacking peace. It affects other people. You've got to solve that problem.

And then it affects God in that you're sinning against Him. If you're sinning against God, then how do you reconcile yourself with Him? He has to be in on that.

He has to accept that. So you can't just say, well, I'm good with what I did now. I've accepted myself. That doesn't solve your problem. Sin is why we cannot save ourselves.

That God is where life, love, and truth and all that belongs, and death and malice and envy and sin is where it belongs in us, is why we need God to save. Whatever is going to save you from your sin has to be true and just and right and loving. And God is all that is. That's why we need God to save. Isaiah chapter 12 and verse 2. Look what Isaiah says about God being the Savior.

Isaiah 12, verse 2. Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song. He also has become my salvation. Why is he singing that song about God being salvation? Because in Isaiah 12, he's talking about God bringing joy, God bringing peace.

Because that's who God is, what he does. People don't do that. Think of the greatest human saviors, or the people who have changed the course of history for the better in humanity, and they've all got their flaws and failures, or dropped the ball in the end, or become frail and die.

Right? But God, who's everlasting, and brings peace and joy, and is the source of that, who tells us what that is, He is salvation. Isaiah 43, verse 11. God says so much. Isaiah 12 is Isaiah singing the song, but Isaiah 43, look what God says.

Thus saith the Lord, verse 10 says, well, let's go to verse 9 even. It says, let all the nations be gathered together. This is talking about everybody, right? Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the people be assembled.

Who among them can declare this and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified. We covered a few weeks back how we know the Bible is the word of God. One major reason that we know that is prophecy, fulfilled prophecy. Half of the reasons why we know the Bible is the word of God is because of prophecy being fulfilled.

Different types of prophecy. And he's saying that. He's saying, let the nations gather together and let them prove that they're like God. But they're not. No one is.

He says in verse 9, he says, let them hear and say it is truth. Remember what Pilate said? What is truth? That's what humanity leads.

You know, human trying to save themselves because they always end up saying there is no truth. It's the only way to reconcile the fact that we're all sinners and have a problem and we can't judge each other. Because there's no truth.

Verse 10 says, Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior.

The Lord God is the Savior. That's what Isaiah 43 says. Isaiah 45 verse 2. Or 22, excuse me. 45 verse 22. It says, Look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else.

There is no other God. There is no other Savior. That's what God himself says. And we've already shown that to be true because he's the only one that it's possible to save sinful, corrupt humanity. There's no man that can do it.

You can't save yourself. If there's any hope of salvation, it must come from God. And thus, you should seek God for salvation.

You should say, God, you need to save me. I need to save from you. You need to do something.

With your power, with your knowledge, with your love, you've got to do something to save me. Now, the Bible tells us what God has done. But none else can save you.

You've got to realize that. Your pastor can't save you. Well, he's a man of God.

He's not God. And he's got sins too. Your pastor can't save you. Philosophers can't save you. Well, there's a lot of guys smarter than me.

Intelligence doesn't save you. The rich can't save you. People really tend to rely on those with money to make decisions in their life.

Be very careful of that. People don't all come to wealth the same way. Sometimes they come to wealth because of wicked means. You ever heard of Filthy Luker?

That's a thing. Sometimes it's by accident. Sometimes it's just by inheritance. But hey, that guy's rich.

He must know what he's talking about. About your salvation? Like, did he get rich saving people? Like, no, he may not at all. Elon Musk said he'd be happy to be in hell.

Right? So it's like, not good advice. He has no hope for your salvation.

That's why he works so hard to save the planet. Don't get scared. That's why he's doing it. This is all there is. And he's getting involved doing that.

Rulers can't save you. But if we just had a better ruler, a better president, a better congressman, a better... That's not where salvation's at. Love from another sinner can't save you.

We'll say love is all you need. Love lasts forever. Love transcends everything. Well, when you speak about God, that's correct. God transcends everything.

But love doesn't exist outside of God. Amen. Okay? It's not a thing. People try to worship love and love from another.

another person. He said, my wife loved me so much. My husband loved me so much.

My father, my mother loved me so much. My grandmother loved me so much. They loved me into heaven.

I still remember the middle school kid that I had to correct when I asked him how he knew he was saved. He said, my grandmother prays for me. I said, phew. The grandma salvation plan, I had not heard up to that point.

I had since heard more silly things than that. But people count on another person's love of them, just love of them, to save them. Okay.

And it's a hard reality because, especially to mothers, because, and people who love so much, is they want their love so much to save other people. They glorify love itself and to save love must save. Nope.

It can't. You can love something more than anything else has loved it in the world. Ever. And they'll still be lost. Sinner.

Love itself doesn't save. God alone is the Savior. Okay.

And he's not only loving. He's holy. He's just.

He's good. He's all of it. God must save.

And he's a person, by the way. Not an idea. That's an idea like love.

He's a being. So how do we get saved on the day of God's judgment? If we're all sinners, and Hebrews 9 says we're destined to die and face judgment, and God is the judge, and he's the righteous judge, the loving judge, and the merciful judge, and the life giver, and we stand before him in judgment, how do we get saved on the day of judgment?

There's only a few logical options here. Number one is you can avoid the avenger. You can try to avoid being judged. The problem with this is you can't escape God.

Like in the Bible, there's situations where people commit sins, and God has cities of refuge, right? In our country, if you commit an egregious sin at one point, there's no hope you might flee the country, right? You avoid the avenger.

It's like, let's get out of here. Let's escape. I won't get caught. Well, you can't escape God.

Not only does he see everything and know everything and not only does he know where you're at at all times, but he is also a righteous judge. And when you die, there you are. You're with him.

Like, you can't escape. Like, the biggest escape you have against God is being here on earth. Which God is seeing everything. There's nothing that's not naked and open to his eyes. And so being here on earth is the greatest escape of judgment because when you die, you will face God in judgment.

And do you have control? I won't ask the cliche question, do you know where you're going when you die? But the question of, do you know how to go somewhere when you die?

You don't even know how. Like when you're dead, you drop dead and you don't even know how to go anywhere. Like you're totally in God's hands at that point. Amen.

You cannot escape God. You may be able to make choices now. Resist them with your feet and your mouth and your hands.

You can't when you die. So avoiding the avenger is not an option. All right, what number two?

Well, we're all going to face God, so I'm just going to apologize. I mean, I'm really sorry for what I did. I really am.

I want to do good. I try to do good. I'm going to apologize profusely and plead at the mercy of the court. Right? People have this idea and it's something people do.

And sometimes people are lenient. They hear the cry of compassion. And if they discern that it's genuine, they might say, well, you're sincere. You're not just doing it because you got caught or something. I mean, you really wanted to do good.

You really wanted to try that. People think that works. But here's the problem with that is it does not satisfy justice.

When we give people mercy, it's on the basis of another form of justice, folks. True justice cannot give mercy to everyone without a proper satisfaction. That is the definition of unjust.

If every sinner who walked up to the courtroom said, please, I'm sorry, let me go, and the judge says, I'll be merciful to your request, I won't give you punishment, and that happened every time, what would you start thinking about that judge? That guy is not judging right. Like, why is he dealing with sin?

And the judge might respond with, well, everybody's really sincere. They come in here, and they really mean it. I mean, it's not just an act. They all mean it. But where's the justice?

Like we said, sin isn't simply people not reconciling their own problem. It's affecting other people. And so when someone sins and it affects someone else, then you say, oh, I'm going to let that guy go for mercy.

What about that person? He's the victim. And that judge isn't doing him any favors by giving him mercy. Do you see?

An unjust judge. So, apologizing and pleading for mercy does not satisfy justice. That might be a right thing in your heart to do. I tell my son that.

He says, Dad, I'm sorry. I say, good. You should be sorry.

And he's learning the principle now that he thinks that if he says I'm sorry and he really sincerely means it, you know, that the punishment needs to be foregone. It's like, those are unrelated. Like, you should feel guilty and sorry.

I'm glad you do that. Punishment has to be exacted. Right? These are different things.

You repenting and the punishment being exacted are not one and the same. Both have to happen for justice. Because if you don't repent, then you definitely deserve it.

You deserve it no matter what because you committed it. But punishment has to be exacted. Right. So there's a thing of forgiveness and reconciliation that must happen.

There's option number three, which is to take the consequences. Some people say, well, that's it. You know, I know I sinned. I didn't want to, but I did.

And I'm man enough to take the consequences. Well, you're honest, I suppose, and you recognize that. But the issue with that, people say, well, if I died and that's it, I die and I paid my own price and I'll just be dead. People resign themselves to that.

They realize that they can't get mercy from God. God, or they can't get forgiven from God, or they don't think they can be saved by God, they realize they've done wrong, they recognize that, and they say, well, I'm just going to, if that's what it is, that's what it is. So be it, right? The problem with this idea, of course, is that sin is not rectified by the death of the sinner.

Some Christians even go through this process with flawed logic. They say, well, if people die, that means they pay for the sin, right? They should be in heaven. No, because death doesn't rectify the sin. Death's the punishment.

You died. That's the punishment. But what about sin?

Let me give you an example. Someone commits mass murder. They deserve to die. Yes. So they put the death, they die.

Right. Does that solve the sin problem? No. They deserve to die. They died.

That was part of it. But it's like there's still this big problem they caused that didn't get reconciled. Death does not rectify the sinner. That's just the consequence of your sin.

One of them. There's many more. And the wages of sin is death.

Which leaves the only option for salvation, of course. You can't avoid the avenger. You're apologizing and pleading for mercy at the court.

Can't get you saved. You're taking the consequence. It's not going to solve anything. You just get what you deserve, and so you die. There's still a sin problem in the world.

There has to be a way to save from sin. And the only way is from God, or else there is no way to be saved. But to the glory of God, there is a way in the Bible to be saved, and that's what God has explained through the scriptures and through Jesus Christ, which is to satisfy the avenger.

If the avenger who is seeking justice and punishment for sin and judgment for sin is satisfied by a payment, by a restitution, a rectification of sin, then possibly you could avoid some consequences of it. But this requires an atonement. To satisfy the avenger requires an atonement, a reconciliation.

And since you've sinned against God, it requires an atonement reconciliation with God. Which is why man-made religions and some others who are not have tried to offer sacrifices to God to atone. And it's not just animals, by the way. I mean, that was a major source of sacrifice. The reason why animals, by the way, were a major source of sacrifice in time past was because that was people's livelihood.

You may not appreciate it so much anymore. We don't have family farms. But like the cow where you get your milk from, like that was a very valuable thing.

And when you kill the cow, it's like, how are we going to live, right? It was a major thing to sacrifice your crops and your animals to God or God, right? So people would offer up what is valuable to them.

Right? So it wasn't simply the cost of a cow. You see this corruption in modern society where people are a lot wealthier generally often, at least where we're at, and they say, well, you know, the price of a cow is about $1,000 or something like that, so I'll pay $1,000 to the church and God's good.

Like, yeah, how much money do you have? A lot more than that. Good.

You don't get the point, do you? But the idea of sacrifice is to sacrifice. And if you're not, you heard preachers preach this, right, about tithing or something. If you don't feel the pain, you're not given enough. You know, you've heard that type of thing.

But that's what sacrifice is. That's the definition of sacrifice is that you actually, you know, sacrifice something that's valuable to you, that you feel the pain for God to be appeased. Right. Again, praise God, it's God's grace and his work that satisfies his atonement, but I know the end of the story.

It's hard for me not to preach the cross. But to satisfy the avenger requires an atonement, right? Reconciliation is sacrifice.

People do this. And there's criteria for this atonement to be met. So if this is our hope, and some salvation that only God can accept that requires an atonement, then there's certain qualifications necessary for that atonement. Remember, the subject today is describing why Jesus is the only Savior. To do that, you have to explain what is needed to save.

It's not simply people identifying a Savior. My Savior is that guy over there. You can't just pick one.

They have to meet qualifications. Just like in our lesson about the Word of God. You can't just claim any book to be the Word of God.

There are certain qualifications that it has to meet even to be considered to be the Word of God. Then there's qualifications that have to meet when you try to contend that it's the Word of God. The same with salvation and the Savior. You can't just claim anyone. They have to meet qualifications.

You can't claim anything. They have to meet certain qualifications if it's going to atone with God. But what are these things?

Well, there's a list here for you. Requirements for salvation. The satisfaction, the atonement, the reconciliation, the satisfaction must be without sin. It can't be a corrupted.

sacrifice, which is why in the Old Testament law, when God told and prescribed to Israel to offer sacrifices, it had to be a lamb without blemish. It couldn't be the one with the broken leg. We don't like that one anyway.

It came down. It had to be the one without blemish, most likely the best one that you had. And thus the preaching is, God wants your best. Yeah, that's true, but satisfaction must be without sin. It must be able to acquit of sin.

The thing you offer has to actually acquit sin. Now that's a hard requirement right there. Like, what if I bribe God with ice cream? You know, it's like, not able to do it.

Like, apart from the silliness of it, it's like, it's not able to do that. The wages of sin is death. Life is in the blood.

The sacrifice, that's why the blood sacrifice was required. And why Cain's crop sacrifice was not accepted, because the crop testified to the works of men's hands. There's no blood in the plants, right? There's life in the animals. There's life in the blood.

And thus the idea, if your life is on the line, the sin breeds death in you. The only thing that's able to acquit must be a sacrifice of life. Right? That's what we're required to acquit sin. The satisfaction must also, requirement number two, must satisfy the righteous judgment against sin.

So sin brings death. Death comes by sin. The wages of sin is death, the Bible says.

Sin is why we all die. It's why we corrupt and head to death. Like, things don't get fixed when they're sin.

They get broken. They degrade constantly. The righteous judgment against sin is death. And so the satisfaction for your sin must meet that righteous standard of judgment.

So it must be a sacrifice of life that leads to death. Like, it's dead. Life is taken away. Okay. The satisfaction must be for all.

For all of your sins. Because what help is it if you say, well, this one's for the sin yesterday. What about last week?

What about two years ago? You're still lost. You're still not saved.

If you still got unpaid parking tickets, you still got something due, right? And so the satisfaction, if we're going to be talking about salvation here and a Savior, you've got to be saved from all, from all sins. And to add to that, if we're all going to have any hope, it has to be sufficient for all of our sins, yes?

Not just some of our sins. So if God is the only Savior and He offers salvation, it has to be of all, satisfaction for all sins. Else, it's insufficient to save.

The satisfaction, whatever is offered here for satisfaction of God's vengeance towards sin in you, it has to be forever. If whatever is offered to God to assuage his wrath only works for, say, a year, then what happens next year? You've got to do it again.

And again, and again, and one year you die because it wasn't sufficient, right? So the satisfaction, the atonement has to be an eternal thing. Like it has to last forever. Already we're eliminating anyone on this planet being able to offer atonement and satisfaction.

Do you understand? Because we live temporary lives. We have our own life, but it's already corrupted with sin, so it's not without corruption. And even then, if we gave ourselves to die, that's just what we deserve.

We can't offer as a sacrifice. Like we owe our life, and so we can't take our debt and use it as a payment. That's not going to work.

So this already precludes anyone from saving themselves. Or, for that matter, any sinner trying to save another sinner. Can't work.

Well, then who else? Who can be saved? If the rich can't be saved, if the wealthy can't be saved, the wise can't be saved, anyone can't be saved by someone else, then how in the world is Jesus saved?

People object. Well, let's get in a moment. He's not a sinner.

But. We're talking about requirements for salvation here. To make atonement and reconciliation to God.

It has to be forever. God's eternal. If you're going to have life forever, you're going to be with God. Reconciled forever. It has to last forever.

Or else one day God says, well, that's it. Time's up. And you're done.

The satisfaction must promise life and guarantee life after death. Because death is the issue, right? The way you just sin is death, and the settlement wants to die, and you're going to die. And if you die, and then God satisfies justice such that you're atoned and then saved from that, and then you're just dead.

Good for God, doesn't help you, right? So if part of your salvation for you is like having life from God, then it has to guarantee life after death, since death is required as part of the atonement, right? Else, there's no hope. It's just a satisfaction. action to offer the legal restitution, but there's just no hope in it.

So don't worry, all of your sins will be reconciled when you die and you will not be there. There's just no hope in that at all. It's good for God's justice.

So it can't be a temporary reprieve or temporary solution. It has to be a promise of life, a guarantee of life. The sufficient work, whatever it is, must change men. Because if you're a sinner and then there's atonement offered for your sins, but you're left the same and then given life as the same before, then it's just going to happen again. Right?

Like there's still this impending problem of God atoning now for people who continually sin. How is that righteous? How can God justify sinners?

Pretty old question. And so it must change men. And inside this work and satisfaction somehow must change people and from the inside out. Because you can pretend to do good works, but your heart's still corrupt. So it has to change you thoroughly from the inside out.

This is a hard work, folks. This seems right near impossible. And it is for you. It is for any of us. Whoever provides this, forget the actual work and the actual atoning sacrifice, whoever provides this thing himself can't be corrupted with sin.

This is why in the Old Testament, God required the high priest to be cleansed himself, to even walk into the Holy of Holies, or else he drops dead. So the provider of the sacrifice... Must represent man and be accepted by God.

So it's not enough that you even have the sacrifice. If you say, okay, this is the work. We've got the atoning work. We're going to provide it as humanity. We're going to do it to save ourselves.

Okay, we're going to do it. Then the one who provides it has to be representative of man. Well, that's the easy part. We just pick the best of us, right? Pick the best of us if they're not dead already.

So whoever's left among us. But they have to also be accepted by God. That's a little harder.

Because we're all sinners and we're already not accepted by God. So he would take the best of us and say, well, that guy is going to do something representing all of us to satisfy God's. He's the priest.

He's the holiest of us all. Is he accepted by God? And if God doesn't accept that priest.

and the sacrifice he offers, then the whole thing is destroyed. Because remember, reconciliation here is with God. It's not simply you trying. It's God needing to be assuaged in his righteous holiness and purity, saying there's a bunch of sin here and sinners that don't deserve to live past the short life I've granted them of my grace. Why should I grant you another moment?

You don't deserve it in yourselves. It has to be accepted above God. The provider must know the problem. You can't have an ignorant provider. He can't be like, what am I doing?

I'm just like a sacrificial lamb here. I don't know where I'm going. It can't be that. He's got to know what's going on. He has to willingly provide the satisfaction, and yet he can't be part of the problem.

Because if he is part of the problem, then him being before God's presence is like, well, you're a problem. That's not a satisfaction, that's like invoking his wrath, right? So he has to know the problem without being a part of the problem, else it comes short of solving the problem.

And on top of all this, because we've already read in Isaiah, in Isaiah 43, because of just the fact that God alone gives life and love, the provider must be God. If he's not God, then God's a liar. Because he says he's alone the Savior.

If he's not God, that means he's man, and man's all sinners. There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that's a gift for God or corrupt. So the only one that can actually provide, if it's even possible, a satisfactory atonement is God himself. The problem is, of course, is that God is not one of us.

And he cannot die, as Muslims like to say over and over again. He can't. The conclusion is that there is no atonement we can provide.

Sinners cannot make good. We can't. And thus, again, we have a lesson here leaving us in a hopeless condition. But this is the point of recognizing sin and the reasons why we need saved, but why we also can't find it anywhere. Except for God.

Isaiah 64. You've heard one of these verses quoted quite often in churches. Isaiah 64, verse 5 says, Thou meetest him that rejoiceth and worketh righteousness. God, you meet him that rejoices in and works in righteousness.

That's true. He does. So if we're going to offer and provide a satisfactory atonement, it has to be with someone who rejoices and works righteousness. Okay, who is that?

Good. Who here is working righteousness? Anyone?

Oh, I forgot. We proved that we're all sinners. So, he's saying a truth that no man can fulfill.

He says, Those that remember thee in thy ways, behold, thou art wroth. You're filled with wrath. For we have sinned. And those, we continue to sin. And those as continuance.

And yet, he says here, we shall be saved. He only says we shall be saved because God made a promise to Israel to save them even before he explained to them how he would do it. Imagine this. God promised Israel that he would save them. And didn't explain how he would do it.

So all that we've talked about so far are things that go through Israel's head. We're all sinners. God requires satisfactory atonement and one provided righteously.

And none of us are. You're missing something here, God. How are you going to fulfill your promise?

Like, how's this going to work? And of course, it points to Christ and Jesus. But Isaiah 64, verse 6 says, We are as an unclean thing. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags.

We all do fade as a leaf. We're dying. and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. There is no hope in humanity to save.

You can't save yourself. You can't plead mercy to the court. You can't try to do good with yourself. Make good.

You can't redeem yourself. You can't do it. The Bible declares, of course, that Jesus Christ is the only Savior.

Look at 1 Timothy 2. This is what we're trying to explain is why Jesus is the only Savior. And I'm trying to get you to think a little bit past, even though it's just as true, that it's not just that here the Bible says it, it's got to be. Well, that is true. The Bible says it, it's got to be. But do you understand why Jesus is the only Savior?

1 Timothy 2, in verse 3, says, This is good and acceptable in the sight of God, that you pray for all men. All men. What about that unrighteous ruler?

We don't like that guy. You know what he's doing? He says, pray for all men. For it's good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior. Savior of who?

Sinners. So if you're talking about a sinner that you don't like because of their sin, then that's the one you're praying for because they need the Savior. In verse 4, who will have all men to be saved.

It doesn't say some men, the best men, those who work righteousness, but all men be saved and come to a knowledge of the truth, the truth of who God is and what he's done to save you. For there is one God. And one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Now that is what we're looking for. We need the mediator between God and man. We need the one who can atone and reconcile humanity to God, who gave himself a ransom for all.

That's the work that he did. To be testified in due time, that's when we can know about it. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher and apostle. I speak the truth in Christ.

I lie not a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity. This is who we learn it from, Paul. John 14, 6, Jesus himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No man can come unto the Father but by me. What's interesting is God himself said, I, the Lord, and the only Savior. I, the Lord. I am God.

There's no salvation in none else but him. And here it says salvation comes through the mediation of Jesus Christ. Acts 4, verse 12, Peter says, There's no other name under heaven by which man can be saved but Jesus Christ.

No other name. What about Lord Jehovah? Because Isaiah 12 verse 2 says that.

There's no other Savior but Him. You start learning in the Scripture that Jesus is Jehovah. He is the Lord God. But 1 Timothy 2 said He's a man.

There's one God and the man Christ Jesus. So it must be that there's one God and Jesus is just a man. Well, He is a man. But there's also the verses that talk about Him being God manifest in the flesh.

He's both God and man. Why is Jesus the only Savior? Because he meets all the requirements. He's the only one that meets all the requirements necessary for satisfaction.

Without Jesus Christ, there is literally no hope. Because the requirements needed for salvation before a holy God with a world full of sinners cannot be met by anybody else. That's why. You say, well, I'm a man of faith.

I try to do good in my religion. Without Jesus Christ, there is no proper satisfaction and atonement for sin. God cannot be reconciled any other way.

That's why many of these false religions actually deny sin in the first place. I know how to solve the problem. There's no sin. Yeah, I guess that would do it.

Deny reality. We've already talked about sin and what that is. Let's go through the requirements here to see how Jesus meets them.

Number one, the satisfaction must be without sin. Must be able to acquit sin. Well, Jesus was without sin. The only man in existence that lived without sin, Jesus Christ.

And he died an innocent death. You see, if Jesus died a death as a result of his own sins, like it's death for a man who wants to die, and for wages of sin is death, and every man, they live and then they die, right? If Jesus just died, cancer, heart attack, falling off a roof, right?

He could not acquit sin. He died an innocent death. That was a requirement for him to be a satisfactory atonement. Hebrews 4.15 says he was touched with our infirmities. He became man.

He put on flesh and yet without sin. Isaiah 53, verse 4 through 6 says, We laid upon him the iniquities of us all. We deemed him stricken, but it wasn't because of his sin. We laid on him the iniquities of us all, Israel says. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, Paul says, He made him to be sin who knew no sin.

That's Jesus Christ. Jesus was not a sinner. He could not sin.

Now, I have to stress that point because 50% of Christians today think that Jesus could sin and probably did. They don't do it with any sort of theological malice, I don't think, but they do it out of their ignorance and denies the scripture and unknowingly denies the means of their salvation. If Jesus was a sinner and sinned, he could not save you. You make him like any other man, and no man can save themselves or any other man.

One sinner can't die for another sinner's sins. Can't happen. But if Jesus dies an innocent death, there's a problem here.

There's an injustice. An injustice. That that man died and didn't deserve it because he died an innocent death.

He died a false death. People owe him something. What do they owe him? Life. God owes him life.

God the righteous judge, he deserves to live because he died an innocent death without sin. Now what if instead of claiming his right to say, you know what, I want to take what I'm owed, give justice to those people who put me to death. Well instead of doing that, Jesus says, you know what, I'm owed life, give it to them. Can he do that?

He's within his rights to do that. It's a legal satisfaction that an innocent death of Jesus who dies without sin says, I'm not going to hold that claim to them. I'm going to forgive them. I'm going to give them what I'm owed.

Life, human life, from God, forever. That's what he says. None else, by the way, has died only because of taking other sins upon himself. Other people have died without their fault.

Like people have died being wrongly accused, things like that, right? But they're also sinners that ultimately deserve death. Jesus died falsely accused and innocent and didn't deserve death at all, being without sin.

Number two criteria is the satisfaction must satisfy the righteous judgment against sin, which is death. So he was without sin, he died an innocent death, and he, of course, died on the cross, which is something I have to stress because Muslims don't think he died at all on the cross. Each one of these criteria, it's amazing how the religion of the world will deny these criteria that Jesus fulfilled them. They'll say, well, Jesus didn't do this or that, and the other thing.

And what ultimately that's doing is the devilish lie of denying Jesus as the capable candidate to be your savior. He did die on the cross. Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is death. Hebrews 2.14 says he tasted death for every man. He died.

And not for himself, but for others. Galatians 3.13 says he was made a curse by dying on the tree. He made a curse for us.

He took away the curse from us by dying on the cross. None else takes this judgment without deserving it. Number three, the satisfaction must be for all. Or else it's insufficient. Well, 1 John 2, 2 says, See, the propitiation for our sins, and not ours only, but the whole world.

Propitiation, the atonement. He died for all. Hebrews 2, 9 says a similar thing. He became man to die.

Hebrews 2, verse 9. We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man. See that? Every man there, the whole world.

None else can satisfy for another man's sins. People ask this question a lot. They say, well, how can one man satisfy another man's sins?

Well, he can if he deserves sins. One sinner, Romans 5 says that. People might die for a good man, but who dies for sinners?

Nobody. And even if they could, a sinner dying for another sinner can't atone for another person's sins. They're dying for their own sins.

But one without sin can die for another person's sins. another sin, but what they deserve. They can't die for all sins, however, unless they have another attribute, which is their existing beyond human life.

If they're eternal and omnipresent, then it's a greater judgment. In Hebrews chapter 10, verse 12, the sacrifice must be forever. Doesn't Hebrews spend at least two or three chapters just talking about this?

Hebrews 10. By the way, you see a lot of these verses here in Hebrews because Hebrews is explaining how Jesus is the sacrifice that the law spoke about and required. And so it's good to learn these things. Hebrews 10, verse 12. This man... He's talking about priests and how they go in every year, multiple times, with the same sacrifice.

They can never take away sin with the same sacrifices. But this man, Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins, forever sat down on the right hand of God. He was done. One sacrifice forever. Okay?

That's contrary to the continual re-sacrificing of Jesus in the Mass every week in Roman Catholicism. Whose text, the Vaticanus, the Greek text, removes this portion of Hebrews. You say, coincidence? Conspiratorial? I don't know.

Make with what you want. The verse says, one sacrifice, first sentence, forever. You don't need any more. And none else can perform a work sufficient forever without being eternal. That's why the priests, the high priests, even in Israel, they could not offer an eternal sacrifice.

They had to go on it again and again and again. And why even religions of this world, even Christian religions of the world, have to continually offer sacrifices because it can't be forever. Because people keep sinning and the one they gave last week doesn't atone for the next week. Jesus, however, wants forever.

So none can perform a work sufficient forever without being an eternal one. The Holy One. But what did God say about himself in Isaiah 43? Before me there is no God and after me there is no God.

He is eternal. Jesus is the eternal God. Or else you can't be saved. And so any teaching that corrupts Jesus'eternality can't save you. You say, well God's my Savior.

Yes, but he has to become man in Jesus Christ to save you. And Jesus has to be eternal to save you. Or if he's not eternal, then his sacrifice is not eternal. It's temporary.

Right? It has to be a sacrifice made for eternity, forever. Okay?

So those teachings float around like that. Either one that says Jesus was just a man, or Jesus was a created being and not eternal, or saying that Jesus himself is just a chronological mode of the Father, and he began his existence in his conception. And you say, what kind of?

That's confusing. Well, I get it. But they deny the eternality of the Son.

Right? The oneness heresy. And it's heresy because it denies Jesus'eternality, which means he can't save you.

Right? That's just one of the problems with it. The satisfaction must be forever, and the satisfaction must promise and guarantee life after death. But what did Jesus do?

He died on the cross for your sins, being God, manifest in the flesh, and then he rose from the dead. Romans 4.25 says, He died for your offenses and rose again for your justification. If he doesn't raise from the dead, you can't be saved.

Okay? That was a necessary requirement for him to be the Savior, to raise from the dead. Romans 6.23 says, The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Well, how do you get eternal life?

Through Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead and offers it to you freely. So either Jesus Christ is alive today and you can be saved, or Jesus is dead today and you can't. Nobody can. You see, the only reason anyone could be saved today is because Jesus Christ is still alive because he rose from the dead after he died on the cross, which is also necessary for your salvation.

You see, all the requirements that were needed to reconcile you with God, Jesus met. And only Jesus met. That's why there's no hope in anyone else. No one else was risen from the dead, never to die again. See, well, the scriptures talk about people risen from the dead.

Lazarus was risen from the dead before Jesus even died. Yep, and he died. Jesus rose from the dead and never died again. That's eternal life. That resurrection, no one's ever done.

This is where the world comes and says, no one's ever resurrected from the dead. That's against science. That's what a miracle is called, a little bit, where God intervenes to do something. But secondly, you don't know if it's impossible for man to rise from the dead. You say, well, show me one instance.

Jesus. You deny it. But historically, it's provable.

The Bible, it's provable. And the fact that the scripture testifies to it and the people died for the account of it, he rose from the dead, folks. People saw him alive after his death.

Paul talks about that 500 men even. He says without resurrection, you're still in your sins. And Jesus did that.

He rose from the dead. Whatever satisfaction was made has to also work to change man. It has to be sufficient to change man from the inside out. Jesus'death and resurrection wasn't just an act performed behind closed doors.

It was an act done commending the love of God. And it says in 1 Corinthians 15 that Jesus Christ, unlike the first Adam, was not just made a living soul, but a quickening spirit. Quickening, which means to make alive again. And so Jesus Christ, by his resurrection, he says in Ephesians, you trust what he's done, and he gives you his spirit, which regenerates you, changes you from the inside out. And you know what begins that process of change from the inside out?

Something that is manifest from the inside out, which is faith. It's nothing you do, which is an outside-in thing. What do I have to do to receive Jesus Christ? Well, go over here and take three steps. Go over there and do five jumps and a skip, you know, and give half your money.

No, it has to be from the inside. That's where this change has to start. And the inside is faith.

You believe. Well, how do you know that? I get a paper or something? Only God knows that.

It's in you. Well, how do I know if I believe? Do you trust it?

Do you believe it? That's what faith is. You hear the word of God, you believe it, and you hear what God said, that he saves you through Christ's word. You walk by faith, not by sight. And Jesus is that quickening spirit because it requires faith.

Since he did the work, there's nothing left for you to do, which means you have to believe. But that's good because that means it starts to change you from the inside out, which is a requirement for reconciliation with God, right? Or else you're a perpetual sinner.

You know, Christians have been quickened by the Spirit, have been regenerated by God. There's still sin present in our mortal flesh, but we have the hope of salvation because of faith. Right? We're quickened. None else has made a quickening spirit.

What other man, what other means can give life from the dead but God himself? God made life. He can make it again.

And he did. Ephesians 3.17, Paul talks about Christ dwelling in your heart by faith. Well, what sense is that even real? How can another man dwell in your heart?

Well, I know. I'd make cards to him. He's in my heart. You're in my heart, brother. You're in my heart.

No, he's talking about you're the temple of the Holy Spirit. He dwells in your heart by faith because he's God. And he can do that when you believe.

Jesus has to be representative of man. He has to be accepted of God as a sacrifice. And guess what? He was. Look at Acts chapter 2, verse 22. What's most clear about Jesus is that he was a man.

That's the thing most clear that most people agree on. Some wackos, and I know that's a name calling, but it's simply denying of accepted historical reality that Jesus ever existed. By the way, those are some wackos in the West, but other people in the world don't know Jesus existed. They think it was a fairy tale. They don't do that out of some sort of malice.

They thought he was like Pinocchio or something. It's just a story people told. They don't know that Jesus, the idea of Jesus, and the person who came from historical documents from the Scripture in a time frame that is validated.

It's like Jesus existed as a man. Like at the very least, you've got to say Jesus was a man. Most atheists, 99% of atheists in America, Jesus was a man. It wasn't God. He was a man.

Yep, he was a man. Acts 2, verse 22, he was a man. Before that, he was God. While he was a man, he was God.

He's still God. He's always God. He became man in John 1, 14. Acts 2, 22, look what Peter says about Jesus. Ye men of Israel, hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God.

Show me another. There is not another. Right? This man was approved of God. It was approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves know.

They already knew that. He was going to preach to them that he was the Messiah. They knew that it was a man approved of God.

In 1 Peter 2, verse 4, Peter says God chose him. He said he was chosen of God. Talk about Jesus. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, when Paul says, God made him to be sin who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteous of God in him.

That very first part, it says God made him. Why did God make him? Because God chose him. He was the anointed one.

That's what Christ means. Christ means anointed one, chosen one. We call him Jesus Christ because Jesus is like the name given to him by Mary from the angel.

Everyone in town knew that he was Jesus, but not everyone knew he was Christ. When you believe that Jesus, that man that was born of Mary, is Christ, Lord and Christ, you're saying he's the one chosen of God to be the Savior. That's what you're saying.

And the scriptures testify to that. Look at Matthew 1. Matthew 1, verse 18. Now the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise, when as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily.

But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, even though she's pregnant, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. So the doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus, right? You say, well, what kind of import does that have?

Here's what import it has. If Jesus, the only way that Jesus could be of God and of man is that he's born of a virgin. And what other way do men come into this world?

Women is how they come into the world. Through mothers. Like what if he had an earthly father, but no earthly mother? Like how in the world does that happen? Does he grow out of the ground like a plant?

Like you need a woman to bring him into the world. But his father is God, because God is the father. And so you have the father, and then you have a woman.

You have a God and man. The virgin birth is necessary for him to meet the criteria to be your savior, or else he's not your savior at all. Oh, it's a small thing that Joseph is actually his biological father.

No, it's a huge thing, because that means he's only man, and there's no proof that he's God from his origin. Hmm. He was a man.

Accepted by God, conceived by God, being God, manifests in the flesh. None else can be the mediator between God and man, being both with Jesus. What other religion, what other savior claims this? Meets this satisfaction.

They're either demigods or God completely or just a man himself and not God at all. But show me where God becomes man and is both man and God at the same time and offers a satisfactory atonement for humanity's sins. Now, it kind of sounds like I'm just preaching Christian doctrine, but that's why I went through the first list without quoting any verses because that's just what's necessary to atone for sins. And then I started showing you truth about Jesus, and you're going, it sounds the same. It seems like Jesus meets the whole list.

Yes. The list came first. Jesus came and met them. The list wasn't created from Jesus.

The list is to satisfy justice generally. I'm showing you why Jesus is the only Savior. He's the only one that can bring salvation. And it'd be a just salvation.

It'd be a righteous salvation. Jesus was God manifest in the flesh. In John 3, verse 16. God's love of the world that he gave is the only begotten sign. Whose son? Who gave him?

From where? Like, wasn't he born from Mary? Conceived of the Holy Ghost.

Sent from heaven. John 3, that's what he's saying. Jesus says, I came from heaven.

Well, what man says this? Who has been to heaven? Like, it comes back to talk to you about it. People talk about visions and revelations.

Jesus came from heaven. That's the claim. And proves it by testimony of knowledge of things in the future and in the past.

And about God. that no man could know. 1 Timothy 3.16, it says God was manifest in the flesh.

Matthew 19.17, when asked, Good Master, what shall I do to have eternal life? What's Jesus'response? Who's good but one? There's none good but one. You're calling me good?

What are you saying? We saw that earlier in the outline, right? Men aren't good. Who's the good one? God.

If you're going to get eternal life, it's going to be through God. That's what Jesus was saying. And if you trust me, I am the way and the truth and the life. And no man gets saved without believing in me, the only Savior. That's what Jesus would say.

Jesus is the Savior. He's God, man of the flesh. In Colossians 2.9, Paul says that very clearly that in him is all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God in flesh.

That's necessary for him to be your savior. If not, then God's a liar and he couldn't actually provide for your sins. He had to be man to die. He had to be God to die for your sins. Because he could not acquit your sins or provide the eternal sacrifice or actually accept the atonement unless he was God.

Okay? No one else has ever held up the claim of being God visiting us. We talk about people, different saviors, different religions, and can't people come to God different ways. None else meets the requirements. Show me another one that meets it.

There's only five competitors here. There's only one. Like you would think if you were creative to have another religion, you'd make it just like Christianity. But they don't. Like there's a lot of Christian heresies.

They distort it. But the only way in the truth is coming through Christ. That's what the Bible depicts. Jesus did everything necessary to save sinners.

He did it all. The provider must know the problem without being a part of it. The provider must be God. He is. He was part of humanity.

He is still a man. And yet he wasn't part of the problem. He didn't bring sin into the world.

He brought life into the world. He brought salvation. He brought immortality and life and light.

He did everything to save sinners. Romans 4, 5 says that, Tithot worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. His faith in Jesus Christ is kind of a righteousness, because Jesus Christ is righteous.

None else came close to doing what was necessary to save humanity. We sure can't, but Jesus Christ did. He manifested perfectly God's wisdom and judgment and grace and love. That's why Paul says God committed his love toward us, and while we're yet sinners, Christ died for us. The world knows that sometimes, can know the love that Jesus talked about.

What greater love hath a man than he would die for his friends, right? Like that's a great love. What greater love has than that?

Well, to die for your sinners and enemies. To die for your enemies. Who in the world would die for your enemies? Well, if the whole world is your enemy. And God is offering salvation to the world.

God does. That's the answer. Okay. God's love is greater. And Jesus did that.

There's none else that can save except the Lord Jesus Christ. He's not just a savior, folks. He is the only.

Savior. And so you either trust him for your salvation or you don't. And he's yours when you believe, which is why Paul says that Jesus Christ brought life and immortality to life through the gospel. He says he saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace. His work, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, he purposed to die on that cross before the world began to show his love to humanity.

But it is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ. See the Savior, see the Christ there. He's the chosen one who hath abolished death.

And hath brought life and mortality to life through the gospel. You start reading these verses in a new light when you see the requirements for salvation. Because Paul's not just rambling off here. In all these verses, he's giving you the details of why he is the Savior. He's Christ, the chosen one.

He abolished death. That was required for salvation. He gives life. That's required for salvation. He gives immortality.

It's forever. That's required for salvation. Do you see all those things there? So he's not just rambling. He's giving you the details through the gospel.

That's by faith. Changes you to be a man, right? Whereunto I am appointed a preacher and apostle and teacher of the Gentiles. Paul was given the gospel of salvation. He revealed from Christ what salvation was, where it comes from, and how you get it freely.

And so he is the only Savior. And we are his ministers. Amen. Any questions, any comments? Yeah.

Transcript for:Understanding Jesus as the Unique Savior

Transcript for:
Understanding Jesus as the Unique Savior