Turn, if you would, please, to Matthew's Gospel,
chapter 3.
Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verses 13, we're
going to read down to verses 17.
Matthew 3, verses 13 to 17, as we
continue on in the life and times of
Jesus Christ in this series, and we are
looking at, this morning, Jesus Christ, the Son
of God.
Christ, the Son of God.
Our text for this morning is Matthew chapter
3, verses 13 to 17.
There the Bible says, Then Jesus came from
Galilee to John at the Jordan to be
baptized by him.
And John tried to prevent him, saying, I
need to be baptized by you.
Why are you coming to me?
But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit
it to be so for now, for thus
it is fitting for us to fulfill all
righteousness.
Then he allowed him.
Then Jesus, when he had been baptized, came
up immediately out of the water.
And behold, the heavens were opened to him,
and he saw the Spirit of God descending
like a dove and lighting upon him.
And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying,
This is my beloved Son, in whom I
am well pleased.
This morning, we're going to be looking at
Jesus Christ in the context as we go
through our theme and series on Christ, the
Son of God.
And of course, we've been using Colossians chapter
2, verse 9, as our really hallmark, our
touchstone of the whole series.
And that is for in Christ, all the
fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form.
So I'm going to ask you, of course,
and I always ask you, it's almost like
a little routine of mine, I guess, that
you take notes this morning, because we're going
to hit on some things that are extremely
important.
Who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
Can you answer that question?
When we get together, I was speaking to
a woman last night who reminded me how
important it is that I describe to you
by way of introduction just exactly what we're
doing.
Normally at Calvary Chapel, you know that we
go verse by verse, book by book, chapter
by chapter through the Bible, exegetical teaching, through
the Bible.
And we have broken off from that for
a moment to go through this 16-week
series.
And we are in part 10 today.
But what we are doing is not so
much a topical series, but a doctrinal series.
And this doctrinal series is that of Christ.
And the reason why this was born here
at this fellowship is because quite a while
back, someone came up to me and said,
in a message you mentioned that Jesus is
God.
And I would like to know where you
get that idea.
And I was shocked.
My first thing, quite honestly, was a little
bit of carnality.
I thought inside, what?
You go to this church and you don't
know such an essential thing of Christianity?
I was offended.
And then I had to step back and
think, Lord, have I neglected you?
Lord, have I semi-betrayed you?
Have I not made the issue clear that
Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God,
that the Father is God?
And as I began to pray and pray,
I believe the Lord laid out on my
heart that we should go through this doctrinal
teaching of Christ and...
And we've covered many topics.
And this morning, of course, being number 10,
Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
What does it mean?
Well, we'll touch on some things this morning.
And as we do, you need to be
very careful that you do not think of
Jesus, listen, the Son of God as being
someone less than the Father or less than
the Son.
Don't you dare look at Jesus in our
Western culture of viewing.
It's wrong.
That is, we in our Western culture view
sonship wrong or in a wrong manner.
In America, in Canada, in the West, we
have a very low view of sonship.
And when I say sonship, I mean the
relation between the Son and the Father.
We perceive that the Son is something much
more less than the Father.
And we've mentioned this in our earlier studies,
but we need to repeat it because we
learn by that, that Jesus Christ being the
Son of God, the Bible makes clear is
that as He has come in His humanity,
He is both God and man at the
same time.
It's a miracle.
It's exclusively possessed by Jesus alone, not by
anyone and not by any one of us
who are Christians.
You might say, well, Jack, doesn't my Bible
say that we are all sons of God
now?
Yes, but in a totally different way.
Jesus is the Son of God.
And we're going to see exactly what that
means.
But the concept to us as father-son
relationship is very different.
We need to be very careful.
And so we often are ripped off by
the culture that you and I live in
because we have this void between the Father
and Son in way of authority or relationship.
Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 tells
us, God who at various times and in
various ways spoke in times past by the
fathers or to the fathers by the prophets
has in these last days spoken to us
by His Son, whom He has appointed heir
of all things through whom also He made
the worlds.
Who being in the brightness of His glory,
that is Jesus being in the brightness of
the glory of God and the power when
He had by Himself, that is without any
external assistance whatsoever, purged our sins and sat
down at the right hand of the majesty
on high.
This is exclusively the performance of the Son
of God, Christ the Son of God.
So the first thing that we come to
this morning in our note-taking is the
very, very powerful declaration.
We'll look at four of them today.
And that is we must come to the
Son of God.
You might say, well, for crying out loud,
I already know that.
We must come to the Son of God.
Let me explain a little bit about what
this should mean to us.
When we come to the Son of God,
it's going to demand of us several things.
Now, I believe that we are living in
the last days.
I believe that the gospel is being watered
down like never before worldwide.
We must come to the Son of God.
It doesn't mean that we somehow get Him
as being a Democrat.
Oh, we certainly know that can't happen as
a Democrat.
Oh, I find that highly offensive.
Are you a Republican?
I'm a monarchist.
Don't you dare label me as a Republican
or a Democrat or an independent.
I got in a lot of trouble.
You did being an independent, haven't we?
Get that?
Independent from God.
It's OK.
It's early for service.
No, I'm a monarchist like most of you
are here this morning.
I believe in a ruling reigning king.
And I'm waiting for him to come back
any moment to take possession of his rightly
purchased property, i.e., yours truly.
We must come to God.
But how do we do this?
And what are the important things that we
need to consider about that?
What does it mean to come to God?
This is probably a question that we need
to ask for the friends and family members
that we witness to.
They don't know to ask that question.
Did you know that?
Very rarely someone will say, what does it
mean to come to God?
What do I need to do?
I am so happy.
I'm so happy.
Anything can happen today.
I don't care because I'm so happy because
last week in third service, my heart's joy
was fulfilled.
I was preaching with you together regarding the
necessity of the cross and coming to the
cross as we went through that particular topic
in our series.
And in one of the services, I don't
remember which, I had mentioned that it would
be awesome for once to preach a message
that would cause someone, as it was in
the early chapters of Acts, for someone to
just come running in desperate conviction of the
spirit of God, knowing that they're hell bound,
for them to come and say, what must
I do to be saved?
I got the message.
What do I do?
I don't want to live another moment outside
of Jesus.
Man, third service last week, a young man,
28 years of age came.
In fact, I stepped right off the podium.
He made a beeline from the back, right
in the middle while you are all singing.
And he says, I've got to talk to
you.
And he looked totally normal.
He was of normal mind.
He wasn't nuts.
He wasn't emotional.
He was urgent though.
And we went right into the prayer room
and went in there and sat down.
I said, what is it?
And I was feeling rather spunky after last
week's message.
And he says, I don't know what to
do.
I said, about what?
He said, about my sin.
I said, well, what do you want to
do about it?
I don't know.
And I sat there and I didn't give
him anything.
I sat there and I listened to him.
Well, what's your problem?
I'm a sinner.
How do you know that?
And I was really sarcastic with him, but
with love.
No, no, I do mean that.
You can only do that in God, you
know.
I didn't want to, you know, remember we
talked about the rich young ruler.
So here's this young guy.
I didn't know if he had any money.
I didn't know if he had any authority,
but he was young.
And so I was really laying it or
not laying it on him.
And at the end, I told him, I
said, well, this is what you got to
do.
Boom, boom, boom, you know.
And I said, you know, the Bible says
that today's the day, now's the time.
But if you want to go think about
it, that's your business.
But I got a second service, or I
got a service to prepare for tonight.
And I got to get moving.
And he says, I want to accept Jesus
now.
And it was like, hooking on to Marlon.
I mean, it was like, yes.
And I began to reel him in.
It was incredible.
We must come to the Son of God.
But how do we come?
What must I do to come?
By the way, this very, very concept.
Put your little yarmulkes on, get real Jewish
with me for a moment.
Kick off your shoes and put on some
sandals.
It was very confusing and difficult regarding the
religious person of Jesus' day to grasp this
concept of coming to the Son of God.
In fact, even today, honestly, look in your
Bible.
Somehow we think, and I'm not against them,
that's how I came to Christ.
But we think that somehow people get saved
by getting up and coming forward at an
altar call.
That's not, I repeat, not how people get
saved.
If that's how people get saved, then why
did Jesus go to a cross?
If that's how people get saved, then why
don't you all just come forward?
You see, we begin to put trust in
the movement and the activity.
Well, I went forward.
That is not coming to Christ.
As much as I love it, that's not
it.
Coming to Christ is to realize a few
things.
And in the ancient world, when Jesus walked
the earth, the whole concept was radical.
To come to Christ, what does that mean?
You'll never exactly find a verse in the
Bible that would match our modern day actions
of altar call or whatever.
Or I often hear say, raise your hand.
We can find scriptures that would substantiate, possibly
backing that request up.
But you're not going to find a verse,
come forward and receive Jesus Christ.
It's accepting Him.
We'll talk about that in a moment.
What does it mean to come to Him?
In Jesus' time, that was a weird concept.
If you're Jewish, you're kind of born into
the deal.
If you're Gentile, it's believed that you're not
in the deal.
Then Christ comes along, which carries the prophetic
fulfillment of Judaism.
And the fulfillment of Judaism is called, very
few people in the world know this, so
you're ready to write it down?
You'll be the smartest people in the world
with this one.
You ready?
And you get it for free.
The fulfillment of Judaism, when Messiah comes and
He came, and He's coming again, is called
Messiah-anity.
Or we call it in our Greek tongue,
our world western tongue, Christi-anity.
The fulfillment of Judaism is coming to Messiah.
To come to Messiah is to become a
Christian.
What does it mean?
Well, to do that, it's the touchstone of
worship, for one thing.
Not the physical temple that was in Jerusalem.
That was the thing that the Jew believed
in.
We go to the temple to worship.
Do you know anybody today that would say,
I can't pray unless I go to the
church.
I can't worship unless I go into the
sanctuary.
That's wrong.
It's wrong now, because we can do that
anywhere.
But during the time of Christ, when Christ
came, what did it mean to say you
must accept Christ?
Well, to that concept, to that mindset back
then, everything that was religious and of God
was connected to the temple in Jerusalem.
And yet Jesus came, really, frankly, to fulfill
and then take down the material.
The way into the temple was via a
priest back then, a priest who would represent
you and your case to God with a
sacrifice, and never without a sacrifice.
There had to be a sacrifice.
It was a very liturgical protocol and exact.
The things that you did had to be
exact.
There was a very strict and stringent protocol
laid out by Moses how someone came into
the temple.
Very, very important.
When John the Baptist came on the scene,
who, remember, John the Baptist was the last
of the Old Testament prophets.
He was the last of the Old Testament
prophets.
John the Baptist appears on the scene and
introduces into the minds of the people a
whole new way of thinking, a radical way
of thinking.
And John argued this.
He says, Jesus is the Lamb of God.
I want you to mark that in your
mind.
Jesus is the Lamb of God.
If you're Jewish right now, and you're all
Jewish, remember the first church was predominantly Jewish.
Very few Gentiles in the first church.
They even met in synagogues.
When John the Baptist, who everyone honored, when
he said, Jesus is the Lamb of God,
what in the world did he mean by
that?
That's a bizarre concept.
Listen, it's radical regarding that announcement.
What we say concerning this is extremely important.
We must come to the Son of God
because He is the only Son announced.
God sent John the Baptist to announce Jesus
Christ.
Matthew 3.13. We just got done reading
it.
Jesus comes on the scene and Jesus says
to John, paraphrasing this, Suffer to be so
to baptize me that all righteousness might be
fulfilled.
The sonship is such an important thing.
And it was at that moment that God
opened up the heavens and He came down
by voice and said, This is my beloved
Son in whom I'm well pleased.
But we need to understand something.
He is the only announced Messiah.
It's not Buddha.
It's not Mohammed.
It's not Joseph Smith.
It's not Sai Baba.
It's not Sun Young Moon.
It's not Rajneesh.
It's not Shree's Bambi.
It's not...
and on and on you go.
The scriptures announced Christ and His coming.
But to come to Christ is to first
of all realize something.
Before you make that decision, you must realize
He's the only Son announced.
And He still is the only Son announced
at this hour.
And I got good news for you.
As we read in Hebrews chapter 1 a
moment ago, He's the only one that's ever
going to be announced.
Aren't you glad that you're on His side?
A lot of people say, Well, I'm glad
God's on my side.
God ain't on your side.
You're on His side.
There's a big difference.
We have come to believe in Him.
But you've got to come first.
The sonship, He's the only one announced.
You know, as I mentioned earlier, that culture
is very, very passionate about that.
And you might meet someone, maybe you have
a precious Jewish friend, and they're so into
that precious culture.
There's about the son.
By the way, if you are a lawyer
this morning, an attorney at, say, family law,
or if you're an estate attorney, chances are
you will never move your practice to Israel
or where there's a strong Jewish presence.
Because they don't believe in that garbage.
You say, What?
When the son reaches the age of 30
in the house, all that the father has
is transferred to the son, even though the
father is the patriarch.
The son runs it all.
There's no dealing in court about estate inheritance.
No, no.
That would put a lot of people out
of business, you know, in America.
Nope.
The father says, Nope, now that you're 30...
By the way, they consider that youth.
Amen, huh?
Hallelujah.
If that's true, then I'm just a little,
you know, no, I'm kidding.
The father would say, Now all that I
have is transferred to you.
The father had governorship over it all.
Remember the old man whose son had gone
wayward with his inheritance?
That young man we know in that prodigal
son proverb, in that prodigal son scenario, every
Jew would have realized that that boy who
took off with his inheritance was about 30
years of age.
You see how stupid that boy was?
30 years of age.
Yeah, give me my inheritance, dad.
And he hands it to him, and he
goes out and squanders it.
Sonship.
But you would hear a Jewish woman, I
heard, and maybe you have too, and just
things and traveling or whatever.
Oh, this is my son, the lawyer.
Or this is my son, the doctor.
They're very proud to announce to you what
their son does.
It's important to them.
God says, this is my son.
He's the son of God.
Jesus Christ was announced by God.
Note that.
Well, how do you know that Jesus is
the son of God?
God said so.
Matthew chapter 3.
God says so.
This is my beloved son.
We're going to look at a few things,
and I'm going to give you this verse.
If you're paying attention, this is about the
third time I've given this verse in four
weeks.
I'm hot on this verse.
I love this one.
Proverbs 30 verse 4.
You probably have it memorized by now.
Proverbs 30 verse 1 says, Who has ascended
into heaven or descended?
And who has gathered the winds in his
fists?
And who has bound up the waters in
his garment?
Who has established all the ends of the
earth?
Gee, who do you think he's talking about?
Amen.
He says, what is his name?
And what is his son's name, if you
know?
And in the Hebrew, the word or title
son is capitalized speaking of deity.
That's a great verse.
Jesus, the son of God.
I'm going to run through some verses real
quick.
If I'm going too fast, get the tape
or rewind something.
I don't know.
The son of God.
Psalm chapter 2 verse 7.
Powerful message.
Psalm 2 verse 7.
And we declare and decree the Lord, He
has sent me.
You are my son.
Today I have begotten or glorified you or
established you in the minds of men as
my only one.
You know, there's going to be people who
knock on your door that represent a cult
who say, oh, this word begotten means he's
lesser than God.
Not true.
Don't be duped by that.
Acts chapter 13 verse 33.
God has fulfilled this for us, his children,
and that he has raised up Jesus as
it is also written in the second Psalm.
You are my son.
Today I have begotten you.
You see the uniqueness.
You can take that word begotten and even
put it as unique.
Unique.
Because again, there are people knocking on your
doors who will absolutely attack you on this
word begotten.
They'll tell you it means that Jesus is
less than.
And they're going to pull some verses out
of context and deceive you.
You're going to call the church and you're
going to be all upset because now you
have a bunch of doubts in your mind
and you're confused.
Know your Bible.
He's the only one announced.
Not only is he the son of God,
he's referred to as the son of David.
This is extremely important.
This all makes sense, I hope.
If it doesn't, I quit and I'll go
back to my old job.
Son of David, Matthew chapter 1 verse 1.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ
or Jesus the Messiah.
The son of David.
According to the flesh, Jesus is the son
of David.
Jesus was born through Mary, the lineage that
came through David.
God came to earth in the form of
his son, Jesus Christ, the son of God.
Not Jesus Christ, something less than God.
Jesus Christ, fully God, yet he's a son.
He acquired, I can put it that way,
or he assumed, I don't mean in a
self-assigning way, he stepped into the right
of sonship.
By the way, it was very humbling.
So much so that this morning at the
right hand of God the Father sits his
son.
Jesus is the son of God now and
forever.
And that has a lot to say regarding
our redemption and our eternal security in Christ.
The son of David.
He's also the son of Abraham.
The same verse goes on to say in
Matthew 1.1, he's the son of Abraham.
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ,
the son of David, you know that, and
the son of Abraham.
He's referred to as the son of God,
the son of David, the son of Abraham.
All this has deep significance that we don't
have time to go into now.
But if you were a Jew, you want
to hear the fact that Jesus is the
son of David.
If you are witnessing to a Muslim or
non-believer, you want to be able to
hear that Jesus is the son of Abraham.
That's important to a Muslim.
You mean to tell me Jesus is the
son of Abraham?
Yes.
Then I want to hear more about this,
a Muslim would say.
Jesus, in Luke 3, verse 23, is referred
to as the son of Joseph.
This is an interesting concept because he's not
exactly the son of Joseph genetically.
We know that DNA-wise.
But he's the son of David in his
airship.
Jesus had to come from Mary, who was
married to Joseph.
Which gave him right to the throne.
Luke 3, 23.
Now, Jesus himself began his ministry at about
30 years of age, being, listen to what
your Bible says, as was supposed, the son
of Joseph.
Don't you love that?
I love that.
Jesus began his ministry at about the age
of 30, who, as it was supposed, the
son of Joseph.
I love that.
Well, he was and he wasn't.
If anything, he was adopted by Joseph.
How about that?
He's also referred to in the Bible as
the son of Mary.
In a very, and one and only, interesting
context.
Those of you who come from a Catholic
background, hang on to your seats.
I didn't write the Bible.
You have to deal with this.
The son of Mary.
I thought Mary was the mother of God.
You're not going to find that in your
Bible.
Listen carefully.
Mark 6, 3.
And Matthew 13, 55.
Is this not the carpenter, the son of
Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and
Judas and Simon?
He had four brothers.
Did you know that?
And are not his sisters here with us?
Jesus had at least two.
This always generates mail.
Jesus had at least two sisters, according to
the Greek original scripture.
And he had four brothers.
By the way, a couple of them went
on to be some of the authors of
their epistles in the New Testament.
The word is siblings, literally ones born into
the family.
Jesus was birthed by the Holy Spirit coming
upon him.
Mary outside of Joseph.
The Bible says that Mary and Joseph did
not have any sexual relationships until Jesus was
born.
And afterwards they must have had some activity
because at least six kids were generated.
Four sons and at least two girls.
Bible says so.
Spare the mail.
That's what the Bible says.
Son of Mary.
Also, son of man.
Luke tells us over and over again.
He is the son of man.
Luke 9, 21.
And he strictly warned and commanded the people,
telling them to tell this to no one,
saying the son of man must suffer many
things and be rejected by the elders and
the chief priests and the scribes and be
killed and be raised up again on the
third day.
The son of man.
Jesus said this concerning himself, which is an
act of God.
This is what's going to happen to me.
And by the way, after it happens to
me, on the third day, I'm going to
rise from the dead.
Isn't that awesome?
I can't tell you what tomorrow is going
to be like with even all the help
from the weathermen.
Jesus says, I'm going to tell you exactly
what's going to happen.
By the way, John tells us these things
were written in advance that you might know
that it's him.
That's wonderful.
My only son.
John 3, 18.
He who believes in him is not condemned.
Do you believe in him?
We'll talk about that more in a moment.
But he who does not believe is condemned
already.
Or you're walking in a state...
I'm sorry I'm laughing, but this is kind
of funny to me in my cartoon mind.
The word is condemned already means most of
the poor duped world, they're walking.
They're doing their thing.
And whatever they're doing, suspended over them is
a massive, massive axe ready to be laid
at the root of their life.
It's just hanging off their neck spiritually.
He who does not believe in the Son
of God is condemned already.
The axe is coming down on the head
of everyone who rejects him.
Isn't that radical?
People are like, Oh, yeah.
Do you know who you're talking to?
I own this whole thing.
Do you realize, Mr. that there's an axe
suspended right over the back of your neck?
Well, look at me.
I'm the most beautiful beauty queen in the
world.
I don't need anybody but me.
Lady, do you realize if there's an axe
suspended over the back of your neck, the
world just toodles along.
My only son.
John 13, 8 goes on to say, he
is condemned already because he has not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son
of God.
In Greek, listen to what God is saying.
He says this, in the original language, you're
condemned because you do not believe in the
Son of Me.
That's what it means.
That's what the original word is.
The Son of Me.
The Son of who?
God, the Father.
You're condemned if you do not believe in
the Son of Me, says God.
By the way, the word is monogenous and
it appears in another place.
In Luke 9, verse 37, the scripture says,
and it came to pass on the next
day when they were come down from the
hill, much people met Jesus and behold, a
man of the company cried out saying, Master,
I beseech you, look upon my son for
he is my only son.
Same word.
He is the Son of Me.
Here's Jesus who knows a little bit about
being the Son of Me, God, the Father.
In front of him is a man with
a child that has gone, perished there.
And this earthly father says, this is the
Son of Me.
And in that culture, that was a very
touching thing.
This is my heir.
This is my...
Do you see?
That father, come on dads, grandpas, that father's
heart is, this is my son.
Jesus, I heard great things about you.
Take my life and let him live.
You know, have you ever felt like that?
Isn't that funny about being a parent?
I think, unless God tells you otherwise, I
think everybody should be a parent, either through
adoption or through giving birth, unless God says
don't have kids.
There's something about learning more about scripture and
Christianity.
When you've got a son or a daughter,
when they're burning up with their fever and
they're sicker than a dog, you just say,
God, give it to me.
Just give it to me.
Jesus said concerning sin, give it to me.
I'll take it.
He's the only one announced.
The second thing that we see this morning
is this.
He is the only son related.
He's the only son related, both listen to
God and to us.
He's the only son related.
Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15.
For we do not have a high priest
who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses.
Do you have any weaknesses, anybody?
Raise your hand.
I am standing up here today by virtue
of Advil.
I can't believe how pathetically weak, of course,
this is talking about all types of weakness,
but I'm just sitting here.
My body is aching so badly because I
was playing around too much, goofing off.
And have I yet turned to Jesus and
say, Lord, my body aches.
No, I haven't done that.
He's convicted me right now.
You're looking at a man under conviction right
now.
The scripture says in all points, he was
tempted as we are yet without sin.
The scripture says here in Hebrews 4 verse
15 that he sympathizes with our weaknesses.
Of course, it's spiritual weakness that we have.
He's not spiritually weak, but he knows that
our flesh is so weak.
Our spirit's willing, but our flesh is weak.
And even in our spiritual life, we are
weak.
And the Lord says, I know how weak
you are.
I know that you're but dust and that
you are being sanctified in this life.
We must come to the Son of God
also because of this third announcement to us.
And that he is the only son in
place.
And what I mean by that, simply this
and off we go.
He's the only son in place.
Who are you going to pray to?
Mark that down.
He's the only son in place.
You say, what does that have to do
with it?
Who are we going to pray to?
He's the only son in place, meaning he's
enthroned in a position to intercede for you
and I right now.
That means pray for us.
Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24.
For Christ has not entered the holy place
made with human hands, which are copies of
the true, but into heaven itself, now appearing
in the presence of God for us.
Jesus is in place right now.
Jesus, the Son of God, he is there.
He's representing us to God and God to
us.
He's in place.
When you pray, let me ask you, do
you pray?
Tomorrow I'll be at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church
in Brooklyn, New York.
And that's a church known for prayer.
The book written, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire.
I encourage everyone to buy that book.
You say, oh, I'm not into reading books.
If you can't read this book, then you
probably can't read because it's only about that
big.
And a book on prayer.
Do you pray?
Well, I pray when something really heavy is
going on.
What about all the other time?
Now think about it.
If I were, and praise the Lord, I'm
not.
But if I were your God and you
only talked to me when you were in
trouble, guess what I would do to you?
Because I loved you, I would keep you
in trouble.
Why?
Because I want to hear from you.
It's early.
I want to hear from you.
Isn't it an awesome thing when children crawl
into the lap of daddy or papa or
grandpa and say, my kids used to do
this.
Now they just, they could care less.
My kids used to say, tell me about
you being a little boy.
They loved to hear that for years up
until they got like 13, 14.
Tell me, tell me how it was.
And they always loved.
I would tell them about Saturday mornings, how
we would at home.
I would tell them about Christmas.
I would tell them about when I would
play with G.I. Joes or Matchbox cars
or Tonka trucks.
And they would like this.
We could go on all day.
They would never say, you know, can you
stop telling me about this?
I really need to go.
They would never.
I would say, I need to stop now.
I need to go.
They loved it because there was this relatability
and the fact that we connected because I,
like you at one time, was a child.
God, Jesus Christ, is in heaven in place.
Who knows everything about you and me?
And you can come to him and say,
Lord, I stubbed my toe.
Look at little children when they do get
hurt.
They come up, they're not, they're not, you
watch them.
They fall down.
It's so cool.
You're watching them.
They don't know you're watching them.
They fall down, they get hurt.
They get up.
They look around.
They look and they look again.
There's a little bit of red showing.
And then all of a sudden, and then
they see you and it's, Have you ever
seen a kid fall down when there's no
parent around?
They dust it off.
They're having too much fun.
Oh, but mama may could have possibly seen.
And boy, do they milk it.
Man, I need to be more like that
with God.
Lord, he's being mean to me.
You know, we need to come to him.
We don't come to him.
He's in place for us.
We so often tool about all what's the
old, Oh, what needless pain we bear all
because we fail to take it to God
in prayer or something along those lines.
How silly and how terrible it is of
us.
The second thing that we see this morning
and I need to be done in five
minutes.
We've got three more points to go here.
Here we go.
Ready?
We'll just fly now.
Christ, the son of God, we must believe
in the son, believe in the son of
God.
Well, you might say, well, I certainly do
believe in him.
Listen, I don't mean believe in him in
historic sense.
Well, all that is important.
I mean, believe in him as an absolute
trusting sense.
Why?
Because Jesus was presented by God.
He said early in our text, he said,
this is my beloved son in whom I'm
well pleased.
Listen, he is, can I put it this
way?
And it's certainly accurate.
This is my only approved, authentic, genuine, completely
authorized version of me.
There is no other.
And this one that I'm showing you is
the standard of what I will accept into
heaven, nothing less.
Listen, my friend, you've got to be just
like Jesus to get to heaven.
Did you know that?
Well, you know, I've walked to grandma across
the street today, so I get my brownie
point.
You don't get nothing.
You've got to be just like Jesus to
get to heaven.
Well, how do we get there?
Then in 2nd Corinthians 521, the Bible says
that he, Jesus, who knew no sin became
sin for us, that we might become the
righteousness of God in him.
Are you ready for this?
This is shocking what I'm going to give
you.
Even though Jesus never sinned, never did he
sin.
In 2nd Corinthians 521, that message is this,
that Jesus received from the Father the brunt,
read Isaiah chapters 52 and 53, the scourge,
the beating, the judgment, the pain, the isolation,
the treatment, as though he himself had committed
every one of your sins and mind multiplied.
Listen, look at who you are.
Look at who I am.
Statistically, I'm in the middle of my life.
He paid all of my sins debt from
this moment past, all of it.
So stop bringing up the future Jack, or
the past Jack and look to the future.
Stop bringing up the past Mike, or Karen,
or Bill, or whoever, and look to the
future.
All the past he's paid for, this current
day he's paid for, and until I go
to heaven, he's paid for it.
This is outrageous.
The Father heaped upon him all my judgment.
In return, the doctrine that Paul teaches us,
that God imputed to us his righteousness.
There's only one way to get to heaven.
That's to be just like Jesus Christ.
How does that happen?
To be imparted by God or with the
holiness of Jesus Christ, or else we're not
getting in.
You see now how human works is ridiculous
in the mind of God.
Boy, do we need to meditate on that.
Jesus was presented to us by God.
He's the only one acceptable.
Secondly, Jesus revealed the will of God to
us.
He revealed the very will of God to
us.
Jesus exposed God's heart to us.
Jot it down.
I have no time to read it.
2 Peter 3, 9 and 10.
Simply, God is not willing that any should
perish.
Jesus came to preach the good news.
Matthew 7, 21, Jesus warned, not everyone who's
associated on an outward basis with me shall
enter the kingdom of heaven.
He says, many, many people call me Lord,
but not all of them will enter into
the kingdom of heaven.
Why?
Because you need to make sure that you've
experienced the revelation of Jesus Christ that comes
through God.
Secondly, Luke 22.
It says in Luke 22, verse 40, and
when he came to the place, he said
to them, pray that you may not enter
into temptation.
And he was withdrawn from them about a
stone's throw away there in the garden of
Gethsemane.
And he knelt down and he prayed and
he said, Father, if it be your will,
take this cup from me.
Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be
done.
What was the will of the Father?
Jesus performed it.
It was not that man could be saved
any other way.
That was not God's will.
Jesus even said, Father, if there's any other
way, let this cup be removed from me.
If man could get saved by good works,
if he could be saved by moralitizing his
world, then let's go for it.
If man can be delivered from hell into
heaven any other way, then let's do it.
And Jesus finally said, but not my will,
thy will be done.
Every bit of his human core was crying
out, I don't want to go to the
cross.
And yet every bit of his spirit was
saying, the cross we must go to if
we're to save mankind.
He had flesh just like you and I
did.
If a beast stung him, it hurts.
We somehow make him something other than a
human.
But remember, he was the God-man.
He was revealing to us the very will
of God.
And that will, by the way, right now
is gentle, kind, merciful, and forgiving.
Don't wait because that same will would be
judgment, wrathful, and vengeful in the end.
Receive him now.
Also, Jesus is the pinnacle to God.
Simply, I'll just say this, he is the
only way.
Thirdly, we see that we must accept the
Son.
We must accept him.
Charles Spurgeon, this is a radical quote of
100 plus years ago.
So listen to the English because it's well
written.
We just don't get it these days.
Charles Spurgeon says, the sinner's reception of Christ
results in this primarily.
First, fellowship between God and man is restored.
And second, that divine intercourse hallmarks the Christian
life.
That's beautiful.
That divine intercourse hallmarks the Christian life.
If you've accepted Jesus Christ, you will have
fellowship restored with God.
You will.
You'll be experiencing it now.
And you will forever be hearing the wooing,
the flirtation, if I can put it that
way, of Jesus saying, come with me and
let's sit aside and let's talk in fellowship.
As Spurgeon calls it, holy intercourse.
If that word ever meant anything, it means
the relationship between the Christian and their God.
But we must accept him.
We so trivialize these words these days.
Well, you know, believe in God, come to
Christ, accept him.
It's much deeper than that.
Am I boring you?
Thanks, because I got to hurry.
I'm excited about this.
The second thing that we see, or I
should say the first thing that we see
here is accepting him means receiving him.
That we receive him.
This is so important.
It's important to us.
It's important to you.
Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 2.
It was so important Jesus said this.
Now at vintage time, he sent a servant
to the vinedressers that he might receive some
of the fruit of the vineyard from the
vinedressers that they took and they beat him
and sent him away empty handed.
And again, he, the owner of the vineyard,
sent yet another servant.
And at that time they threw stones at
him, wounded him in the head and sent
him away shamefully treated.
And again, the owner sent another.
But they killed him and many others, beating
them and killing some.
Therefore, still having one only son, the owner
sent his beloved at last saying, they will
respect my son.
But those vinedressers said among themselves, hey, look,
this is the heir.
Come, let us kill him and inherit the
vineyard for ourselves.
So they took him and killed him and
cast him out of the vineyard.
Therefore, what will the owner of that vineyard
do when he comes?
He will destroy those vinedressers and give the
vineyard to others.
Jesus is telling the story about himself.
If you reject the reception of Jesus Christ,
then judgment is hanging over your head.
You might say, well, it's a fire and
brimstone message.
It's a fire and brimstone message if you
want it to be.
Well, I don't appreciate what he said this
morning.
If it leads you to say, Jesus, have
pity on my soul and forgive me of
my sin and be the son of God
to me, then this would be the greatest
day of your life.
You must accept the son.
Accepting means receiving.
Accepting means dedication.
Man, I wish we had another hour.
We need to dedicate our lives to God.
Don't raise your hand.
But does your marriage stink?
It's because someone in that marriage unit is
not dedicated to God.
Does your relationship with your kids stink?
Someone's not dedicated to God.
Don't look to your kids to be the
ones.
They probably are dedicated to God.
It's probably your problem.
We hear much more from you saying, I
wish my parents would get right with God
than we hear from parents saying, I wish
my kids would get right with God.
Is your home dedicated?
At night when you pray, do you pray
for the parameter of your home?
I do every night.
I pray for the property line of our
home.
Then I pray for the neighborhood.
And then I pray for, even though I
may not know some of you, I pray
for your home.
Lord, and my kids hear this.
We pray together.
I'm not saying that we're something.
Most of the time we fall asleep while
we're praying.
I'd rather fall asleep while we're praying than
watching Seinfeld.
I think God's happy when we fall asleep
praying to him.
Did you hear what I said?
I think God's happy when we fall asleep
praying to him.
It's better doing that than some other stupid
thing.
Be praying, Lord Jesus, and you pray.
Also this, accepting means assent.
Accepting means assent.
In Matthew 16 verse 13, this is a
wild portion of scripture.
It's awesome.
And when Jesus came to the region of
Caesarea Philippi, many of you have been there
on our tours.
He asked his disciples, listen, here's the question,
who do men say that I, the son
of man am?
So they said, some say that you're John
the Baptist.
Some say that you're Elijah.
Some say that you're Jeremiah.
Notice, all guys who had been dead now,
they're all dead.
John the Baptist, these two other guys are
dead.
Some say you're come back from the dead.
You're so powerful.
Or you're even one of the ancient prophets.
And he said to them, but who do
you say that I am?
And Simon Peter piped up and said, you
are the Christ, the son of the living
God.
And Jesus answered and said to them, blessed
are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon, the son
of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not
revealed the son to you, but my father,
which is in heaven.
And I also say to you that you
are Peter.
You're a little, his name Peter, little stone.
You're a little pebble.
I say to you, pebble, on this rock,
I will build my church and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it.
There's two thoughts of belief.
One's right and one's wrong.
The wrong one is this, that it was
the declaration that the church was going to
be built on Peter.
Believe me, you don't want Peter as a
foundation for your church.
I can't believe you said that.
Well, read your Bible.
Secondly, which is the right view, is upon
the declaration that Peter made.
You are the Christ, the son of the
living God.
On this rock, I will build my church.
I want to introduce to you a third
view, which is just as right, I believe,
as the second.
Jesus, it says, went to Caesarea Philippi.
If you know anything about that place, that's
where Pan was worshiped.
It was the central place of pagan worship.
It's the headwaters of the Jordan River.
It comes out of the ground.
There's a big cave right there.
They believed that it was the descent.
It's a gigantic rock.
And in that rock was carved out and
idols were placed.
And people would worship their idols in front
of this gigantic rock.
I mean, it's like to us, we'd say
it's a small mountain or a very large
hill, a big rock.
And the Jordan waters come out.
There's a big cave.
And they would throw their virgin children into
there, their firstborns into there.
They would throw animals into there in the
worship of Pan.
You know who Pan is.
You ever watch the little cartoon Hercules?
Pan is that little kind of geeky thing
with goat body and a human head.
Jesus was there.
It's the center place of pagan worship in
the world.
When it came vacation time, Jesus took His
disciples to the darkest place on earth.
Can you imagine?
Hey, let's pack up and vacation in Amsterdam.
If you've been there, you know what I'm
talking about.
Let's pack up and vacation in Vegas.
Atlantic City.
Bourbon Street, New Orleans.
Oh yeah, I want to parade my kid
around while there's naked women and men on
display in the storefront window.
Oh yeah, sure.
That was Caesarea Philippi.
Jesus takes the boys on a vacation to
take a break, takes them right into the
darkest place in the world.
And He says, who do you guys say
that I am?
Why did He say that?
Because all of these gods were there and
people were worshiping.
And in front of the guy that you're
worshiping, you would declare that God's name and
then do their worship, often sexual activity.
Jesus, looking at all this that's going on,
turns to the disciples in Caesarea Philippi and
says, who do you say that I am?
Isn't that cool?
They would shout up and say, great is
Artemis, great is Diana, great is whoever.
And then they would do those sexual acts
or those pagan worship scenes.
And Jesus simply turns to the disciples and
say, who do you say that I am?
Peter makes his declaration and I think it
can be said and argued that Jesus, when
He says, upon this rock, I will build
my church.
Upon this rock.
See this big rock here.
I'm going to build my church on paganism,
worldliness, carnality, because it's just going to crush
it.
Because all this is just a lie.
It's not true.
Look at that.
Oh, come on, go ahead and say it
again.
That's exactly, exactly the result or the action
we're supposed to have.
Because the scripture says regarding our ascent to
Him is that we're to see Him.
John says, behold, the Lamb of God who
takes away the sins of the world.
What?
The Lamb of God?
The Jewish mind would say, what?
The Lamb of God?
That's the Lamb of God.
Moses told us to take that little lamb
into our house for five days.
Five days and five nights.
We select him.
He's without spot.
He's without blemish.
He's cute as a button.
Look at him.
Don't you want to take him home right
now?
Look how cute he is.
You want to take him home?
That's exactly what God said to Moses.
Moses, get a little lamb.
Have the people select their lamb.
They take it home and they play with
it.
They would feed it and sleep on the
bed with them.
And they would become very attached.
And then at the end of that five
-day period, which is the 14th of Nisan,
that little lamb would be taken by the
head of the house down to the temple.
And the father would be petting that little
lamb and stroking that little lamb and then
get a brazen bowl, a brass bowl, and
put a bowl underneath the little chin of
that little cute thing and slit that thing's
neck from ear to ear.
And the blood would flow in.
And everybody, just like you said, oh, how
cute.
That's exactly when John says, behold the Lamb
of God who takes away the sins of
the world.
People said, what in the world is John
talking about?
Lambs die.
Lambs spill their blood.
How can Jesus be the Lamb of God?
He is the Lamb of God.
In the book of Revelation chapter 5, it
says that I saw a lamb as though
it had been slain.
Jesus, the Lamb of God.
There in Leviticus 23 verse 5, as you
see, that's projected for you on the 14th
day of the first month at twilight is
the Lord's Passover.
Passover what, people?
Can you see?
Maybe you can't.
Maybe you can.
See just above the ears of that little
guy?
I apologize for you guys over here.
We have a camera projector burned out.
See the marks of the blood right there?
That's blood.
It's supposed to be up on the top
too.
We had to cut it off.
Wouldn't fit.
That blood there back in Egypt formed the
shape of a cross.
With whose blood does it form the shape
of a cross on the doorpost and the
lintel of that house?
The blood of the Lamb of God.
Jesus Christ.
It was all a model.
It was all a type.
And then finally, we're gonna have to end
with this.
We must abide in the Son.
We must abide in the Son of God.
Can you write fast?
I'm gonna go through this and we'll be
done.
Abiding produces fruit in your life.
If you're fruitless, you're not abiding.
Abiding means start hanging out with God.
Start doing the things that hang out with
God.
Abide in God.
Abide in Christ Jesus.
It's the only way you're gonna produce spiritual
fruit.
Abiding enables us to live life really truly.
Jesus says, I've come to give you life
and that more abundantly.
You're not living until you've had Jesus.
And thirdly, abiding displaces all doubt.
Oh, I wish we could go into this.
But the more that you abide in Jesus,
fill your life with Him.
You're gonna be a fanatic, you know.
You're gonna be what the word originally means.
Thank God to Noah Webster and all of
his hard work.
Enthusiastic.
Only a Jew or a Christian can use
the word enthusiastic.
Anyone else?
If you're not a Christian, if you're not
Jewish, you're not allowed to use the word
enthusiastic.
Did you know that?
Can't use the word enthusiasm.
I should be a hypocrite.
In is internal indwelling.
Theos, God.
Asim, astic activity.
Internal dwelling of God produces activity, excitement.
The word can also be translated fanaticism.
Oh, there he goes.
That's right.
I'm fanatic about Jesus.
He's my lamb.
It displaces all doubt too.
The more you abide in Jesus Christ, the
less doubt you will have.
If you have not made Jesus Christ the
Son of God in your life, you're in
trouble.
Put in it mildly.
And I'll leave you with this.
You might be saying, Jack, I have so
much doubt.
How can you know if Jesus is real?
You can know.
I want to ask you a couple questions
if this is in your heart.
Just a few.
If you don't believe in Jesus this morning,
what do you believe in?
I'm curious to hear.
And I'm sure it's going to be something
wild.
What do you believe in?
Let me ask you a question.
Is it real?
How do you know it's real?
Can you answer these questions?
What evidence do you have?
Fifth question I wasn't really going to ask,
but I feel rather honoree.
Fifth question is how stupid can you be?
There's overwhelming evidence.
It's a sure thing.
Jesus is the Son of God.
You can bow your knee now or you
can bow your knee later.
It's better to bow now.
Father, in your name we pray.
We thank you for Jesus, the author and
the finisher of our faith.
And we ask you, Lord, that you would
possess us with an ever deepening appreciation and
knowledge.
And Lord, may we embrace the Son of
God, who is altogether lovely, who has given
his life for us.
Father, we thank you so much and praise
you in Jesus name.
Amen.