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Amazing Facts

Joe Crews

Christ is the Answer

The most influential man who ever lived made extravagant claims for himself.

He was hated by many and loved just as deeply by millions more.

I'll be back in a moment to talk about history's most controversial figure.

Hello, this is Joe Cruz on the Amazing Facts broadcast, fact which affects you.

I want to talk today about some things that should appeal to every single listener.

I always try to visualize those who are listening to these daily broadcasts.

I know the majority of you are meeting the normal course of human problems and reverses.

You have an average amount of temptations, no doubt, certain failures, living up to your own expectations and those of others.

You're the people that have to fight traffic every day.

You're the folks that face a competitive world.

You have to take care of your family, and you wrestle with problems in the home.

These things you have to face every day that you live.

You contend with doubts and fears, perhaps doubts about yourself or doubts about the Bible.

At times you experience inexpressible longings for righteousness and for holiness of life.

There may be some young people who are standing at the crossroads, not just sure which way you want to go.

You're not sure whether you ought to kick the traces, to go down broad way, or make a decision for Christ and walk the straight and narrow way.

Our approach in these daily broadcasts is not designed as an answer or an argument to atheists and infidels.

I'm not here primarily to convince skeptics or to prove Christianity.

There may be some who are agnostics listening right now.

Many of you are Christian people, of course.

And there are others who have a Christian orientation.

You may have been brought up with Christianity.

It may be that as a child you accepted Christianity uncritically.

You may not have done a lot of thinking about it, and dad and mother were Christian, you sort of grew up in that way of life, and you accepted what your parents believed and what they taught just because they taught it, just because they believed it.

Now sometimes in that transition from believing what our parents tell us to the point where we really believe for ourselves, there comes a sneaking suspicion that Christianity isn't all that's said to be.

We may feel it doesn't always hold up, it doesn't always ring true.

There may be that lingering suggestion that it isn't intellectually respectable.

Some, when they come to that point of transition, or after they've gone on for a number of years without giving much thought to Christianity, have a tendency to discard it rather than to investigate its credentials.

There may be some listening or having problems with their faith.

It's our purpose to help all to a better understanding of the Word of God.

We'll endeavor to preach on things that will help you as Christians every day that you live.

Christianity begins with Jesus Christ, and I want to begin with him today.

The question was asked repeatedly during the ministry of Jesus, who is Christ?

People are still asking that question today.

There are people who have had a Christian orientation who really haven't taken their religion seriously and who are pondering just who is this man and what does he mean personally.

The Bible says God became man and was manifest in the person of Jesus Christ.

And Jesus Himself claims that He is divine, that He was God, that He became flesh.

If Christ is God in human flesh, then that means that some way we are involved with Him.

If it's true that He is God, then our loyalties really belong to Him in the face of what He has done for us.

If Jesus' claim is true, we face a serious crisis in our own lives?

On the other hand, if it's not true that Jesus was God, then we can just dismiss the whole thing and there's no need to let Him trouble our conscience again.

Is Jesus really what He claimed to be or is he not?

I want us to consider that question seriously.

I want to present Jesus as He claims to be, the Son of God, and I want to give some reason, some logical reasons why I believe Jesus Christ's claims were true.

First of all, let's consider his moral character.

Even his enemies had to admit that there was no fault in him.

In fact, no other life ever lived that can match the matchless Jesus.

When Jesus accused his enemies and wrote their sins in the sand, they slipped away as fast as they could go.

But when Jesus invited them to accuse him, he stayed around to face their scrutiny.

They couldn't find 1 thing wrong in him to accuse.

And he asked them, who convicts me of sin?

And not a single person raised his voice in condemnation of anything Jesus Christ had ever done.

Now, whatever else may be said against the point of view that Christ was God, we're forced to agree that when Jesus came here and lived His life, He behaved like a visitor from another world.

In John 10, verse 27, Jesus says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.

And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.

My Father which gave them Me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand.

And then notice in verse 30, he says, I and my Father are 1.

And verse 31, Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from my Father.

For which of those works do you stone me?

And then verse 33, the Jews answered, saying, For a good work we stoned thee not, but for blasphemy, and because of thou being a man makest thyself God.

Now, friends, Jesus claimed to be 1 with the Father.

And The Jews understood exactly what he meant.

They understood it and took up stones to stone him.

Why, they said, because you are a man and you are making yourself out to be God.

In John 8, verse 56, we read these words, Verse 56, John 8, verse 56, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, and was glad.

Then said the Jews unto him, Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?

And Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Before Abraham was, I am.

Now Jesus took upon His lips the name of the self-existent 1.

This is the name by which God was known to the children of Israel during the Exodus.

And then verse 59, "...then took they up stones to cast at him.

But Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.

Now here again, Jesus Christ claimed to be God.

He took a title that alone belongs to God.

Now, if we refuse to accept the claims of Jesus to be God in human flesh, we find ourselves on the horns of a dilemma.

There are great many today who say, I believe in Jesus Christ, I believe He was the founder of the purest ethical system this world has ever known, but I don't believe Jesus is God.

Now they think this is the intelligent, sophisticated point of view to take concerning Jesus.

I'd like to examine that argument for just a moment, friends.

These individuals say they believe that Jesus was truthful.

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Christ is the Answer

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