The God-Man

, why don't you open your Bibles to, 2 Corinthians. We're actually going to spend most of our time in Matthew, but I wanted to start here in 2 Corinthians, and as you're turning there, 2 Corinthians 11. Let me just get one of our announcements, taken care of right now, just a reminder that September, oh no, I'm sorry, August 19th is our missions day and we will have, Steve and Jenny McCauley here to share in the morning, about their ministry and also about some of the work that's going on in the Middle East with training of pastors.

In the afternoon, we'll have a luncheon that you can sign up for online and there's an opportunity here from Team Philippines and Team Mexico and also about future trips that are coming up.

And then in the evening, the McCullough's are going to be presenting the movie they actually received, it was one of the finalists for a Christian Film Festival and it's on church planning in Utah. It's an excellent, excellent film. We'd encourage you guys to come out for that, for our evening service. Speaking of the Philippines, when we were In the Philippines, one of the The churches that we came across there is called the Church of Christ, and it's not the Church of Christ that you would hear up here.

Iglesia ni Cristo is a cult that started in the Philippines, in 1914. its leader, Felix Manalo is said or thought that he was restoring the Church of Christ and that he was God's final messenger. In these last days. Sounds very familiar to other cults that we hear about.

One of the things about this cult is it denies the Trinity, as many cults do, denies the deity of Jesus Christ. And, and yet claims that what we believe about the Trinity, what we believe about Christ being God and man, is actually part of the apostasy of the last days. this particular cult is not just in the Philippines, it's actually spread to 98 countries around the world, including the United States. There's 5600 congregations throughout the world.

And, and yet these people preach Jesus. there's many people throughout our country, in, in different quasi-Christian groups that would preach Jesus. I have people come to me all the time and say, don't you think that this group is a Christian group because they love Jesus? Don't you think that that group is a Christian group because they believe in Christ?

Well, let's see what Paul has to say about that in 2 Corinthians, chapter 11. We'll start in verse 3, where he says, but I fear lest somehow as the serpent deceived Eve, by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he who comes, preaches another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if we receive a different spirit, which you have not received a different gospel, which you have not accepted, are you going to put up with that? Paul realizes that the Corinthians are being tempted to believe in another Jesus.

Paul and, and his cohorts came through and preached Christ, the Christ that we're going to talk about this morning, but others came through and preached Jesus, they use the name Jesus, they use the name Christ, but they pack those names with totally different meaning. And this has been going on since the time of the apostle Paul. It goes on today, where people will take terms that we have in the scripture. They'll take names like Jesus, and pack it with their own meaning.

And even we ourselves, if we are honest, we can take things that are biblical and pack it with our own personal meaning. we might pack meaning into terms because we just don't know any better, maybe we don't want to do the work, or maybe we really know the implications of certain doctrines and scripture. We don't want to believe those doctrines and so we'll invent, reinvent Christianity or reinvent The faith, this morning, we sang a lot about Jesus, and we sing to Jesus. And it begs the question, to whom were we singing?

were we, who was, when you said the name Jesus this morning in song? What were you understanding about that name? And how are we relating to this Christ? My name is Mike, but if you described me as Latino, black hair, brown eyes and tried to relate to me as you still called me Michael Scott Berry, but you tried to relate to me as a Latino who only spoke Spanish, you'd be dealing with the wrong person unless you wanted to go out and have some Mexican food or a taco or something like that.

I am Mike, and I have this color hair and these color eyes, and this is who I am. And you can pack my name with the totally wrong meaning and a totally different person. And we can come and worship someone that we call Jesus. And yet, if we have the wrong stuff packed in that name, who are we worshiping?

We can actually commit idolatry. In our worship by having the wrong Jesus. And so this morning, we're going to talk about who Jesus is, we're going to talk about the God man, what we see on the pages of Scripture. And we want to, there's a couple of reasons why we want to talk about this.

One, we want to make sure that we're growing in our knowledge of the true God. None of us has a completed knowledge of our God, right? When you came to know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, those of you that are truly believers in this room, there was a certain amount of knowledge that you had of God, and that knowledge through the Holy Spirit was converted into love for God. And so you have a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And yet, that relationship has deepened over the years and hopefully you've grown in knowledge and grown in relationship and grown in worship. Just like in any relationship, in a marriage, you knew your wife or your wife or your husband on the day that you are married, and then you get to know them over the course of many years, and hopefully you grow in knowledge and grow in relationship. This morning, we want to grow in knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that we may grow in relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's one of the reasons why we're going to talk about the subject just as fire needs oxygen, love needs knowledge, you can have oxygen in this room and yet no fire, we can have knowledge in this room and yet no love, but yet you cannot have true love for the Lord Jesus Christ, without proper knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so we want to grow in that knowledge that we may grow in love. And then finally, we also want to learn more about Christ and who he really is, so that we can present the gospel with greater accuracy and greater effectiveness. As you are engaging people in our culture about Jesus Christ, it's very important that how to describe the Christ that you worship. There are many, many people in the United States that say they believe in Jesus, and that they believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

But yet when you begin to inquire, what do you mean by Christ? What do you mean by Jesus? Many people have a less than biblical, albeit idolatrous view. of Jesus Christ.

And so let's look at Matthew chapter one. There's a passage In Matthew that I use frequently when I'm talking to people about Jesus Christ. I've actually begun to use this passage more and more, recently. And we'll start in Matthew chapter 1, verse 18.

Now, the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows, after his mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. So Jesus or Mary conceives, before Joseph and Mary come together sexually, she's found with child, and we're told that this child has come from the Holy Spirit. It's miraculous. Joseph, her husband, being a just man, not wanting to make a public example was mine to put away secretly.

But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream saying, Joseph, son of David. So now Joseph is going to get direct divine revelation about this pregnancy. Do not be afraid to take Mary, your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And here's our verse, and she will bring forth a son.

You shall call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So in this passage, Joseph gets direct divine revelation. from an angel who is speaking on behalf of God Almighty, about the baby that is to be born within Mary. And I believe from this one verse, we actually can develop a, a crystallized or simplified form.

of the doctrine of Christ. This explains who Christ is in a nutshell. And so there's basically this sermon is very simple. There's 3 points.

And here's the first point, Jesus is God. I believe that from this one verse, that we can demonstrate that Jesus is God. And I think we can demonstrate it from this part of the verse, you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save. You say, Pastor Mike, how does that prove that Jesus is God?

It doesn't say Jesus is God. Well, yes, it does. First of all, just think about what does the name Jesus mean? What is the literal meaning of Jesus?

Jesus was named. A name in Hebrew would be Yeshua, which means Jehovah saves or Yahweh saves. My son is named Joshua and his name literally means Yahweh saves. This was the name of the prophet or the leader that took over for Moses in the book of Joshua.

We see that Joshua is used to take the people of Israel and the Canaan and to defeat the enemies of God's armies. And Joshua's name was a constant reminder that they were not being delivered by sword, or by shield, but they were being delivered by Yahweh, Yahweh saves. And so Joshua's very name was a reminder to the people of Israel that salvation comes from Yahweh. And yet it is never stated that salvation came from Joshua, the prophet himself.

His name was a pointer to Yahweh. And yet here in this verse, we have Jesus, who is being given the name Yahweh saves. And yet it says, who will save? He will save, and you shall call his name Yahweh saves, for he will save.

This is a clear testimony from the angel, from this is direct divine revelation saying that Jesus is Yahweh. His name means Yahweh saves for why is his name Yahweh saves? Because he will save. And so Jesus is called Jesus, because he will save His people from their sins.

Therefore, Jesus is Yahweh, Jesus is Jehovah. Also, just consider the name Yahweh itself. we, we look on the pages of the Old Testament, We see times where the word Yahweh arises, and then many times the Jewish writers and the Jewish readers would substitute the word Adonai in place of Yahweh. You guys familiar with this concept?

You see it on the pages of the Old Testament, sometimes God's called Yahweh, sometimes he's called Adonai. Sometimes, when Jewish readers would actually read through their Old Testament, they would say the word Adonai instead of Yahweh, even though Yahweh would be written down in the text, they would say Adonai so that they would not, mistakenly mispronounce Yahweh's name or out of deference to Yahweh's name that many times they would say Adonai. So all that to say that Adonai is synonymous for Yahweh.

And when we come over to the New Testament, whenever the New Testament translates these Old Testament terms, when the New Testament translates Adonai, it translates it into the Greek form, curios, which is our word, Lord.

And so whenever you see Jesus Christ on the pages of Scripture being called Lord, The Greek word behind that is kurios, which is the Greek translation of Adonai, which is a synonym for Yahweh, Jesus is Lord equals Jesus is Yahweh. And so for the angel to come to Joseph and say, you shall call his name Yahweh saves, for he will save is a very clear reference to the deity of Christ. And this is the God we worship. This is Jesus Christ.

If someone comes to you and preaches to another Jesus, if the Iglesia ni Cristo comes along and says, Jesus is not Yahweh, if the Jehovah Witness traveler comes along and knocks on and says, Jesus is not Yahweh, are you going to put up with that? Paul says, No, this is false teaching. This is false worship. And yet, this is just one aspect of the Christ that we worship.

We know that Jesus is God. But secondly, we see from this passage that Jesus became a man. And we see this right in the text, and she will bring forth A son, not she will bring forth a spirit God, not she will bring forth an alien, not she will bring, it's, she will bring forth a man in baby form. A baby man.

So Jesus became man. And I really think that this is the point, as Christians, as evangelicals that really needs to be emphasized, when you're sharing the gospel with people that deny the deity of Christ. A lot of times when we're talking to a a Jehovah Witness, or a modern day Aryan or whatever, what have you, our tendency is, is we need, we try to go to all those passages that prove that Jesus is God. And I think that's appropriate.

However, where Jehovah Witnesses really misunderstand the true teaching of Christ, is they misunderstand what we believe about the manhood of Christ, that we fully and entirely embrace the full humanity of Jesus Christ. And so when I'm talking to somebody that stops by my house, Jehovah Witness Variety or whatever, I spend most of my attention on the humanity of Christ. Because they don't really understand that we believe that, and we embrace that. So let's, let's talk about that for a moment.

This passage says, and she will bring forth. I want you to think about this. Jesus Christ, God, from all of eternity, has always had relationship with Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And then at a moment in time, she conceives, Mary conceives of the Holy Spirit.

And now God lowers himself and becomes an, an, an embryo in the womb of a woman. And after a gestation period of 9 months or so, he has birthed into this world. This is an incredible mystery. In the early church, one of the phrases that was used is this remaining what he was, he became what he was not.

Jesus was still God, he remained God, but then he becomes something that he had never been before. And that is a human being. When the fullness of time came, Jesus Christ was born of a woman. And we see many pointers to his real humanity.

This isn't just an imagined humanity. Jesus wasn't just pretending to be human. This wasn't just a trick. We see the prediction of human birth in Isaiah 7:14.

Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign, behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son. Jesus had a real human pedigree. He's the son of David, the son of Abraham, and Luke 3, we see his lineage traced all the way back to Adam. So we can see his father and his grandfather and his great, great grandfather and his great great grandfather.

He has what we call a quasi-human conception. in the sense that Mary really did conceive, but we see from Matthew chapter 1 and Luke chapter one, that there was no, husband involved, there was no man involved. This, this is the miraculous aspect of the conception. And yet, this conception is so human, that Luke can say in verse 36 that Elizabeth has also conceived using the exact same Greek word.

So Mary's conception is not some alien conception. It's not some super spiritual conception. The same word can be used a few verses later to describe Elizabeth's conception. This is a real human conception.

And, Jesus, was in the womb of Mary for a real human pregnancy. In Luke chapter 2, verse 6, we see these terms being used. You can go ahead and turn there if you wish, Luke 2. 6, it says, so it was that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.

and she brought forth her firstborn son. It seems to be that Mary went full term. Jesus was not premature. And so Mary would have experienced, and Joseph as her husband would have experienced all the human aspects of a real human pregnancy.

those of you who have been pregnant and husbands who have gone through this experience with your wives, you probably just remember times where you can actually see the movement of your wife's womb and you feel the kicks. I can remember just Joshua just pinning up and I could just reach out and grab his little bottom. He's just right there, that, that's it. There's his little bottom.

And you can even detect, at least it seems like you can detect personalities. I I just remember just Josh when we, we went into the sonogram, I think it's what they call it, and we saw him as just a little, little tiny guy and he's just spinning like crazy inside the womb. And then when Ana was developing in the womb, it just seemed like she just, we wondered if she was alive. She just rolled over.

And just there wasn't a whole lot of movement. And then with Sam, it just seemed like he was on a roller coaster. It was just kinda Just crazy. He decided 5 weeks before the official birthday he's like, I'm out of here and so he comes 5 weeks early, but just imagine Mary.

is experiencing this. I have no doubt that Joseph at times will be able to reach over and feel Christ, feel Jesus, just moving inside of the womb, and the kicks of Jesus as a real human baby. And the movement and that he as a human being was utterly dependent upon the nourishment from his mother. Whatever his mother ate, he ate whatever she drank, the air, very air that Mary breathed was the sustaining oxygen for his life.

This was a real human being, in the womb. And then you have a real human delivery. It wasn't like Jesus was inside the womb, and he just said, beam me up, Scotty. And he just landed outside of the womb.

There was a real human delivery. Jesus was birthed. You have the placenta, you have the umbilical cord and all the things that would go on in an ancient delivery, including the cultural elements of being swaddled and so on., you see some of these pictures of Christ that were put together in medieval times, these medieval portraits of the baby Jesus, and he looks like this little adult sitting there with a halo on his head, and you're just expecting him to break out in Latin, summa cum laude, something like that, and.

And that's just biblically not the picture.

Biblically, the picture is a baby who comes out, who does not know one word of Aramaic, no Hebrew, no Greek, and has to learn his olive, his olive and his bait and his garment and his dale and everything. He has to learn that, he has to learn basic things from his parents as he's developing. He is dependent upon his mother's nourishment, through nursing. And this is the real human Christ.

Raise your hand, dads, if you've been in the delivery room with your wives. OK, that's just an amazing experience, isn't it? I think before when, when we were having Joshua for the first several hours that my wife went through labor, I was kinda like, man, I wish this was the 1950s and I could be out there in the waiting room like smoking with the other dads and just waiting for the, waiting for the baby to be, because everybody smoked back in the 1950s. And so, but then the baby comes, and with, in our case, it was C-section.

And so I got to look down and actually see Joshua taken out of the womb physically and then to hear that first cry, it's just absolutely amazing. I, I think all three burst, Katie and I are just bawling and and just to see this little person come out and just the surprise of what they look like and to be able to cut the umbilical cord and things like that. it's just an amazing experience. And just imagine that Joseph and Mary and Jesus, they went through that.

Christ is a real human baby. He's not just some, alien being. And so we have Jesus becoming man. He's brought forth and he's brought forth as a, a son.

And he develops as a young man in the home learning his ABC's as it were learning how to to be a carpenter like his dad learning many many things that you learn as you grow up. The early church tried to summarize and capture some of these mysteries. Augustine, penned these words that the early church began to recite. he through whom time was made was made in time.

He who made men was made man. He was given existence by a mother whom he brought into existence. He was carried in hands which he formed. It's just an amazing mystery to think that here Jesus Christ is the one who sustains all things by the word of his power.

He's the one that created Mary. And yet, as a human child, he was totally unable to move from one place to the other without the assistance of his mother. His mother had to pick him up and carry him from one place to another. And this is when we say the term Jesus, when we say Christ, we need to pack those terms with this meaning.

That Jesus is God, He is Jehovah, and yet he is 100% man. That brings us to our, our third point, and that is Jesus is the savior. We see from this passage, the angel says, and he will save his people. Jesus, Jehovah saves, will save His people from their sins.

Now, what is not said here is the how he will save. How will he save? We read the rest of the book, and we read on through the gospels, and we see how he saves. He lives a perfect life.

He fulfills the law, he develops as a man, subjects himself to his parents, obeys his parents. fulfills all righteousness, endures temptation from the devil, not using the prerogatives of deity, but answering or, or resisting the devil, resisting temptation as a man. Many would argue that even his miracles he was performing, being filled with the Spirit as a man. And so Jesus Christ comes and fulfills all righteousness.

And then he dies on the cross in our place where we should have died. He takes in drinks in the wrath of Almighty God, and then he goes into the grave and he is raised because of our justification. He's ascended and sits at the right hand of the Father, where he enters. seeds for us and he's coming again to take us to be with Himself where we will forever be.

How does he save? He saves through the gospel, he saves through the atonement, both in its active and passive forms, both in his living and in his dying. He saves through his ascension, he saves through his return. That's how he saves.

And whom will he save? This verse answers whom he will save, he will save his people. Notice that the angel does not say he will save all people. It does not say that he will save everybody who's ever lived.

He will come and save his people, who are his people. Well at the very least in this context, his people are those that are of true Israel. But as we read the rest of the gospel story, we see that Gentiles get included in this promise. We get included in the Abrahamic promise.

By the time we get to the Book of Acts, we see Jews. and Gentiles being saved shoulder to shoulder within the body of Christ. So his people make up, are made up of all of those who have believed in him and have come to follow him, both Jew and Gentile. Are you one of his people this morning?

This Jesus Christ, this Jehovah saves, who has come as a man, is coming to save his people. Are you one of his people? And to understand or to know if you're one of his people, it's important for us to know from what he is saving. He has come to save his people, not from poverty, poverty is a terrible thing.

But that's not why Jesus came to save his people. He hasn't come to save his people merely from social injustice. Christians have endured social injustice for 2000 years. Christians were kicked out of Jerusalem.

They are about ready. And as we look at the pages of Scripture, and as the scriptures close, we're gonna have about 10 different Roman emperors, they're going to beat up on the church for about 3 centuries. you're gonna have all kinds of injustice throughout the centuries, even people doing things in the name of Christ. They're doing terrible deeds and injustices, and And that is not why Christ has come to die and to save his people.

So why is it? He has come to save them from their sins? The angels very clear what is, what is the disease? What is the one thing that his people need to be saved from, they need to be saved from sin.

This is the disease that has wrecked the world. This is the disease that has thrown the world into chaos. What is sin? Sin is the violation in word or deed or action of the holy law of God, which represents his holy character.

Any, any violation, whether it's an action or withholding, I can commit a sin of omission, or I can commit a sin of commission, I can have sin in attitude, or in my heart, or my actions, or my very being, anything that would violate the holy law of God, which represents his character is sin. And God calls it sin, because it's bad, and it's bad for us. He doesn't call good things sin. He calls bad things sin, right?

I don't put strawberries and vegetables before my children and say, don't eat that. That's sin. No, if there was poison in our area, I would say don't eat that. That's sin.

That's what God calls sin, things that are bad for us. We might think it's good for us, but it's bad, and it's bad for us. And God calls it sin, because it violates his holy character, and it will be bad for us. And so he's come to save His people from their sins.

And so if you want to know this morning, if you're one of his people, then try to figure out what is sin, and how have I been saved from my sin. And we can see what sin is as we look at the holy law of God. I think the 10 Commandments is one example that we see in the pages of Scripture as we look into the mirror. Of the 10 Commandments, it can help us as we look at it, reflect upon ourselves and see where we stand and cause us to gaze at the cross.

So think about this, as we just worked through the commandments, the Bible is clear that we should worship only one God and worship no other gods, and we should not make any idols, anything that's a false God. Have you ever worshiped something other than God? Have you ever created a God in your own image? And we, when we say it that way, you might say, no, I, I always worship God, but reality is, is we're always creating God's in our own image.

Every time we, we say, I want to do what I want to do, or we make decisions to reflect that we want to do our plan instead of God's plan, we are engaging in idol worship. Anytime we pack different meaning into the word Christ or Jesus, anytime we pack different meaning into different doctrines other than the true meaning, we're, we're committing idolatry. God calls us to worship Him and to love him alone. And yet throughout the world, we see people worshiping false gods, false ideas, false Jesus.

We have people that are naming Christ all over the world. In the United States, we have many, I think the last statistics I saw is like 80% of Americans say that they are Christian and they believe in Jesus. What are they packing into that name? Jesus?

The Bible indicates that we are to not take the name of the Lord in vain. And that's, that goes beyond, well beyond just using God's name as a cuss word. The idea is, is do we take an oath upon our lips, and promise to do something before Almighty God, and then declare and then, and then move away from that oath. The biggest example in our culture would be marriage.

We stand on on our wedding day, and we say, I will be faithful to this wife, I will stay with this husband, and I am taking an oath before Almighty God, I'm taking the name of God and the name of the Lord Jesus Christ on my lips before these witnesses that I will remain with this woman till death do us part. And every time somebody divorces a husband or divorces a wife, they're violating that oath. That's the third commandment. Do we keep the Sabbath holy?

in this particular dispensation, are we resting in the finished work of Christ? Are we trying to do our own works? Are we, are we honoring the Lord's day in the Old Testament, the people of Israel would worship on Saturday and they would come and that would be a day of Offering sacrifice and, and sweat and blood and all this stuff to come before. And ever since the early church, they've been worshiping on Sundays.

Do we make Sun do we make a big deal about Sundays? Or is Sunday just another day off? Do we just say, no, that's, that's my day to do this, or that's my day to do that. the Lord has given us a day to come and worship him and to be with his people.

Do we take that seriously? Obviously, you're here. do we, do we honor our father and our mother? The Bible calls all of us to honor mom and dad, those of us that are older, to honor our mother and father and the way that we speak about them, to take care of them in their old age.

If you're younger this morning, are you honoring your father and your mother? Are you obeying them? Is it your heart to obey them? those that do not obey their mother and father, look at this command, look into this, this mirror, and let it have its effect.

The main reason that God has given you the law, the main reason that God has given you this command, honor, Mother and Father, is to remind you that you cannot do it on your own. If you as a young person are sitting here and you find yourself bucking against your parents' commands, in your heart of hearts, you don't want to do what they're telling you to do, you want to rebel against your mom and dad, look at this command and gain from it on your father and mother. The Bible says, honor your father and mother, the Bible hits you on the head, and says, honor your father and mother, and you say, I can't.

Once you say I can't, now you're beginning to benefit from that command.

What do you do? I can't do it. I'm not honoring my father and mother. I don't want to obey them.

Turn to Christ. Christ honored his father and mother perfectly on your behalf. He died on the cross and was raised from the dead, so that he could save you and send you His Holy Spirit, so that now you would have a desire to do these things, not for salvation, but because that he has finished salvation. That's why Paul can say in Ephesians 5, do not be drunk with wine, but be filled with the Spirit.

He's talking to both young and old, I should say, young and old. And then you get to Ephesians 6. And what does Paul say? Children?

Obey your parents. This is from an outflow of being filled with the Spirit that's in the context there. He's, I think he's arguing children obey your parents because you can obey your parents, because you can be filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're a Christian young person this morning, while it may be hard, If you have the Holy Spirit, you now have power to obey your mom and dad, not for salvation, but because you are saved, and as a testimony of the work of Christ in you.

If you have absolutely no desire to obey your mom and dad, if your heart is filled up with rebellion in your, in your, in your innermost being, when your mom and dad give you commands or say you can't do this, or you must do this, if your heart rises up within you, and you don't want to do what God wants you to do, And there's nothing in you that aches to obey this command. Run to Christ, run to Christ, and repent of your rebellion so that you may be saved. This is the purpose of the law.

Jesus has come to save his people from their sins.

We must know what those sins are, the sins like, do not commit adultery, do not even look at a woman to lust after her. do not murder or have hatred in your heart. Do you have bitterness against somebody in this congregation that you've been storing up for years, repent of that, turn away from that, change your mind about that. Do you lie?

Do you cheat? Do you covet things that aren't yours? Are you stealing things? These, all of these commands God gives us, because he loves us.

And he wants good for us, and he wants, he doesn't want us just to grow up to be good little Pharisees that have outward conformity. What do we, why are we reciting these sins? Why are we reciting the law? Why does God give us the law?

And why does he remind us of sins even on the page of the New Testament? Is it so we can all outwardly conform and be good little Pharisees? No, we're told about sin, so that we see that it is humanly impossible for us to reckon with this disease on our own. We have this deadly disease called cancer that we cannot solve on our own.

And we see it by looking into the law, we're diagnosed as we look at the law of God, and then we run to Christ, the physician, who can heal us of that sin. Amen. When I, my, my little guy, Samuel, he's been doing a great job, over the past year, year and a half, about not going into the street. We're out, we're playing, playing basketball, we're playing football, and he'll run right up to the edge of the street and he'll stop.

And there's a reason why he'll run up to the edge of the street and he'll stop now. It's because there was a day when he was young and didn't know better yet that he didn't know the danger of going in the street, and he ran up and went into the street. I informed him of the danger of that. I made an impression on him by spanking his behind so that he would know this is a very, very dangerous place to be.

And we worked on him. And now he understands, at least in concept, that that's a place that Dad doesn't want me to be because Dad loves me and he cares about me. He doesn't want me to get hurt. God gives us his law.

He brings situations into our lives where we begin to experience, I can't obey your law. I can't do this. He says, that's the point. Here's my son, Jesus Christ did do it.

Jesus Christ did obey his parents. Jesus Christ never murdered, he never was angry. Jesus Christ never lusted, he was tempted of the devil, and yet he resisted the devil, and yet he died on your behalf. Jesus Christ came to save his people from their sins.

Will you be one of his people? So Jesus Christ is God, Jesus Christ is man, Jesus Christ is Savior, what should be our response? I want to offer three responses in closing. And the first response is believe, simply believe, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved.

That's the wonderful thing about Christianity. This Iglesia de Cristo, all of these other false cults, these groups that try to pack Jesus with their own meaning. what always comes along with these new Jesus? It's something that you have to do in order to be saved.

Yeah, Jesus isn't really God. And by the way, you have to do this, this, this and this to be saved. If you don't join the Iglesia ni Cristo, you're damned. What does the Bible come along and say it says, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

You can't obey your mother and father on your own. You can't resist lust on your own. You can't do these things on your own, but Jesus, guess what? Jesus did it all for you.

He died on the cross. He was raised from the dead because you were justified. He's now praying for you constantly at the right hand of the Father, and he's coming back to take all of his kids home. Believe, and you will be one of those kids brought home.

The flip side of the coin is not, does not contradict this point. And that is repent. Belief is not something that is opposed, repentance is not opposed to belief. It's the, it's the flip side of the coin.

Acts 13 says, repent, therefore return that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Christ comes to give you times of refreshing. He wants you to have the presence of His Spirit. So believe and repent, repent simply means change your mind.

That's the literal meaning. Change your mind about who God is. Change your mind about who Jesus is. He's God and man and savior.

Change your mind about your own sin. I'm sick, I'm diseased, I need help. Change your mind about calling upon Jesus Christ and believe that's the basis. basic concept, none of us are ever able on our own strength to completely put away every single sin that you ever commit.

The Bible's not saying, stop sinning from now until you die. The Bible saying, change your mind about your orientation. And that comes by the Holy Spirit. And then thirdly, worship, this is really the bottom line is believe, repent, and begin to worship the true Christ, not a Jesus that you've created in your own image.

Not a Jesus that you pack that name with, with all kinds of meaning that is nowhere in the Bible, worship the true Christ, the Christ who is God from all eternity, the Christ who has come to save his people, the Christ who will come back in a second coming, and pour his wrath out on his enemies, and on those who have dared to hurt his kids. The Christ who will be exalted in His name will be above every name. Every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord to the glory of the Father.

There is some certain realities about everyone in this room.

Everyone in this room will either be raptured at the return of Christ. If Christ doesn't come back in our lifetime, everybody in this room will die. And everybody in this room will face Jesus Christ as your judge. And Jesus Christ will judge everyone in this room.

Not on the basis of whether you outwardly conform to the law, not on the basis of whether you look good in church, but on the basis of faith, did you believe in the true Christ? Did the true Christ? Do you worship the true Christ? And those of you in this room that know the true Christ, While it may feel terrible at your entrance from death into heaven, and when we initially gaze the judge of the universe and the eyes, we may tremble with fear, you will be overwhelmed with love, as Christ reaches out to you and says, well done, good and faithful servant enter into your rest.

But know this, you will all stand alone before Christ. I will not, I can talk to my Christ, my, my children about Jesus, but I will not, Daddy will not be there for them when they die. Mommy will not be there for them when they die. My wife will not be standing by my side to plead my case.

It will be me and my judge. What have you done with Christ today? And I want to particularly just call out to young people this morning, that you are, you are not too young to know the Lord Jesus Christ. If you can understand the words that are coming out of my mouth, you are not too young to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, you can believe today.

You can believe today, and the Holy Spirit can move upon you. But this is an appointment that you have with God. You may buck at what your parents say, you may say, I don't like going to church. You might despise devotions that your parents are trying to lead you in, or maybe you don't like the fact that your parents won't let you listen to this music, or they're making you wear those types of clothes, or what have you.

You have an appointment with God Almighty. And that's between you and him. So set your parents aside for a second and just ask yourself, Have I come to know Jesus Christ? Do I have a relationship with Jesus Christ so that when I die, I will be rescued from the wrath to come?

That's the ultimate question that every one of us has to answer in this room. And if Jesus Christ, you will be one of his people. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you so much for your word and how clear it is.

About your son. We thank you, Lord, that we can worship him this morning, because he is Yahweh, He is God. And we thank you, Lord Jesus, that we can relate to you and have this relationship with you as a man, for you are still a man, while you sit even in heaven at the right hand of your Father, we thank you for the prayers that you constantly offer up for us. We thank you that you are coming to get Your kids, and we long for that day when you will return and take us to be with you forever, where we will be with you, for all of eternity.

We pray, Lord, for those that don't know you in this room, young people, old people, we pray, Father, your Spirit would move among us. We know that salvation is only a work of our sovereign Almighty God in Christ's name we pray. Amen.