Last month we talked about some of the Old Testament prophecies, and I want to continue with that for a moment. Look in your Bible, because there are two verses that I want you to compare. First of all, go to Isaiah 43:10. Now, in Isaiah 43:10 and other places, God gives prophecy. In doing so, He says, "I’m the only God out here and I’m going to prove it to you. I’m going to give you these statements and they’re going to come true about a man in the future." The science of probability says if you have eight of those statements that come true in one man in the future, it’s proof. It came from God. If you have 43, it’s beyond proof. It couldn’t be anything else. If you have 453, don’t even ask me the question. It’s a solid case for the existence of God.

In Isaiah 43:10, God says to Israel, "‘You are my witnesses,’ declares the Lord, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am He’" (Hebrew: ani hu). "I am He" is a formula of a name that God uses to refer to Himself. You can find the ani hu used in Deuteronomy 32:39; Isaiah 43:10, 13; Isaiah 48:12; and Jesus applied this title to Himself in Mark 13:6 and John 13:19. It’s just like the "I Am" (‘Ehyeh of Exodus 3:14. Jesus applied this name of God to Himself in John 8:24, 28 and 56). God said, "I’m going to give prophecy. It will come true. And when you see it come true, you’ll know that I am God. I am He." You can find this same phrase (I am He–ani hu) throughout Isaiah in reference to God.

Now, knowing that, turn over to John 13:19. In John, Chapter 13, Jesus picks up on this and He says, "I’m telling you now"—He has just given some information about prophetic events—"I’m telling you now before it happens so that when it does happen, you will believe that I am" who? "that I am He." Who do you think the Jews thought Jesus was saying He was? There is no other way that you can get around that statement but to say that Jesus was saying, "I am the I Am, I am He." I’m the God who spoke to your forefathers in the Old Testament." Let me give you another one like that.

Go to the book of John, Chapter 8. Sometimes I think you know these and many of you do, but for those of you that don’t, when I first saw this, this was a mind blower. If you ever have any doubt of who Jesus is claiming to be, this will clear it up in a heartbeat right here.

In this context, Jesus is disputing with the Jewish leaders. In John 8:56 He says, "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day." That was a mind-blowing statement all by itself. Who was Abraham? He was the father of the Jewish nation. When did he live? Oh, at least 1,400 years before Jesus lived. "Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day," He said. "He saw me. He saw my day coming." And not only that, he was glad. "Then said the Jews unto him, ‘Now, hold on, Jesus. Thou art not yet 50 years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? Have you had contact with Abraham? How could you do that?’" They didn’t understand. "Jesus said unto them, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am.’ Then they took up stones to cast at him." Now, whenever I say a statement and the audience goes for the rocks to kill me, I always want to know, "What did I say?" Were they mad at Jesus because His grammar was bad? What did He mean when He said, "I am the I AM?" Okay? Here’s how you find out.

Go back in the Old Testament to Exodus 3:14-15. Moses is standing at the burning bush. He’s out in the desert and God has just called him and said, "I want you to be the leader that’s going to take Israel out of Egypt." Moses is letting all this sink into his head and he gets a question. He says, "You know, when I get over there to the children of Israel and when I get over there to Pharaoh, they’re going to have a key question: Who sent you, Moses? And, God, I’d like to have a little idea of who you are and especially they’re going to say, ‘What is God’s name?’ So that’s the question Moses asked of God and the answer comes back, "And God said to Moses, ‘I Am who I Am and thus you shall say to the sons of Israel,’ "I Am has sent me to you."’" Who sent Moses? The I Am sent him. Furthermore, God said to Moses, "This is my name forever and this is my memorial name to all generations."

So the Jews all down through the centuries, they realized that the memorial name of God was the "I Am" and Jesus said before Abraham was, I’m the "I Am." And they said, "That’s enough! Go for the rocks! He is claiming to be God!" Jesus claimed to be God in the absolute certain terms of the Old Testament that they knew.

One day Jesus was talking to a whole group of people and He said, "Listen up. Someday I’m coming back at the end of the world and I will gather all the nations before me, and then I am going to judge and I am going to determine the eternal destiny of every man, woman and child that has ever lived." Think about what those words mean. Matthew 25:31-32 is where He said that.

And then in Matthew 7:23 He added these mind-boggling words: When He judges the world, what will be the criteria for whether you go to heaven or whether you are sent to hell, according to Jesus? You know what it was? Jesus said, "I will determine that on this basis: Those that’ll go into hell, I will look at them and say, "I, Jesus, never knew you. Depart from me." Now, you might have missed that. Jesus didn’t say, "It will be okay if you know something about Him." Jesus said the criteria would be, "Does He know you?"

Let me give you an example of what I’m talking about here. If I was to say, "How many of you know the President?" Well, everybody would raise their hand. Yeah, I know the president. If I said the same thing about a well-known sports figure or a movie star, you would probably respond, "Yeah, I know about them." But do you really know them? Have you ever shaken hands with them? Well, maybe you went through a receiving line with them one time and you shook hands, okay? But the fact is, what if I went to the President, or if I went to Shirley Temple or Tiger Woods, and I said, "Listen, Mr. President, Ms. Temple, Mr. Woods, do you know Harry over here?" See, that puts it in a different light altogether. Does the President know you personally?

Jesus didn’t say, "What’s important is for you guys to go to church and know a few facts about me." He didn’t say that. What He said was, your eternal destiny depends on His knowing you. Now that is a different problem altogether. If that’s true, I want to know, How is it that Jesus is going to get to know me personally? I certainly don’t want Jesus saying about me, "Hey, I don’t know you. Depart from me. Go to hell forever." Do you? So the question is, how can you know that Jesus knows you personally and won’t say that when Judgment Day comes?

Here is how. Jesus said He had come to give His life as a ransom for many. I have a friend who’s a banker in Minneapolis. Somebody kidnapped his wife and demanded $250,000 from him to get her back. They wanted a ransom. Now, usually you are advised not to pay ransoms because they kill the person either way. But he got together the money and paid them $250,000. He paid the price that they required and he got his wife back. He paid the ransom. Jesus said, "I have come to give my life as a ransom for the many." How did He do that? He went to a cross. He said He was God but at the end of His life He went to a cross and He went there for a reason. He had come to give His life as a ransom for the many, for you and me. He went to that cross, all the sins of our life, every one of the Ten Commandments that you have broken, every one of the laws He gave in the Sermon on the Mount, every law of God that we have ever broken, not just in act but in motive as well, all of that, the sins of our life, they were picked up and laid right on Jesus Christ while He was on that cross. He said, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Why? Because in that moment God turned His back on Jesus Christ because when He saw Him, He saw our sin and He turned away. And God’s wrath fell upon Jesus as if we were there. He became the atoning One, our substitute. He took our place and the wrath of God, our hell, was placed on Jesus Christ.

I can’t explain it all. That’s God’s business. All I know is He says that’s what happened. And when Jesus was on that cross, He paid the entire penalty and the price that needed to be paid for our sins. He paid it in full. And then He died and was placed into the grave. Three days later He arose. He’s living right now and He sent the disciples out and instructed them, "Go and tell everyone that you can be forgiven." What do you have to do to know the God of the universe, to get into paradise, to be with Him forever, to gain His favor? Jesus said, "It’s free. I love you. I gave my life for you. You don’t have to do anything." You have to admit that you’re a sinner because that’s why Jesus died. It would be a shame to say, "Lord, I’m sorry for my sin and I want to try to work my way out of sin." No. He is the Savior, not you. You accept a gift from Jesus. What is that gift? It’s eternal life. It’s forgiveness of all your sins. It’s a relationship with God. He comes into your life and you become His child and you start to walk with Him. The Bible says put your faith in Jesus Christ.

How do you put your faith in Him? Right now, you’ve got your faith somewhere. If I was to say, "How are you going to get to heaven?" You’ve either put your faith in putting money into the offering plate, going to church, being a good person, something. Growing up in the right family, being an American, something. You’ve got your faith in that. Jesus said, "Switch it from that to me, because I’m the Savior. Those things will let you down. I’m the only one out here that can save you." How much faith do you need? Not a lot.

If you’re in a three story building and a fire breaks out on the first two floors and you go up to the top of the roof and the fire’s coming to get you, the firemen all come out and they’ve got the net and they look up at you and say, "Jump." And you say, "It’s three stories up here. I’m afraid to jump." The firemen say, "Look, don’t you have faith?" "Oh, yeah, I’ve got faith." "Well, jump." But you say, "But I don’t have a lot of faith." Listen, buddy, it’s not your faith that’s going to save you, it’s how many guys are holding the net.