We're looking at the basic doctrines of the Bible. We're following along our dear brother, Don Fortner, as he has written much on the basic doctrines of the Bible. And we're in chapter 10, where Don titles this chapter, The Son of God, Our Savior.

Christ, our Savior, is one of the most basic doctrines, Scripture. It talks about his saving works all the way back to the beginning of creation. When Adam and Eve were in the garden and they had sinned, their nakedness was revealed. They knew they were naked. They tried to cover themselves by putting together fig leaves or whatever they were. killed an animal and used the skins of that animal to clothe Adam and Eve. Now that's exactly what he has done for all of his people. All of them. Everyone for whom Christ has loved from before the beginning of the world, as it speaks about in Ephesians chapter 1, not might, but shall. And the reason they shall is that God Almighty, the Lord Jesus, our Savior, laid down His life as our substitute. Everyone for whom He shed His blood shall be with Him in glory.

Don takes his thoughts from Matthew 1 verse 21 where we read, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Different scriptures here in a moment. What Don has here for an introduction, he says, there is one word in the Bible which in itself forms an entire library. An entire library. and substance of the entire Bible. One word, which comprises all truth. And that word is this, Christ. Plain and simple. He is the uncreated, living, eternal word, whom to know is eternal life. To know him is to have eternal life.

You can't know the Lord Jesus. I know there's a lot of people who say they do. There's a lot of people who don't believe in the real and true Jesus of scriptures. They made up a Jesus of their own imagination. They were doing it back then. The Lord inspired Paul and Peter and all of the apostles that did any writing at all to write of that very thing. Warnings. Warning us. Warnings of us of another Jesus.

The Lord Jesus Christ. He is the uncreated, living, eternal word for whom to know his eternal life. When chosen, redeemed sinners are brought out of darkness into light by the irresistible, regenerating grace and power of God the Holy Spirit, when Christ is revealed in the chosen vessels of mercy, when they become savingly acquainted with the divine word of truth, they are made wise unto the salvation through faith which is in Titus 3, chapter 3, verse 15. We are made wise unto salvation through faith, through belief, which is in Christ Jesus.

John 3, 16 says, for God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten Son into the world, that whosoever believeth on him. And that's the whole key to that verse. The world has turned it around to say, well, see, he's talking about the whole world. But that's not what he's talking about. He's talking about the whosoever, those who have been given the gift of faith, as we read in Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 and 9, the gift of faith. We're saved by grace, folks. We're not saved by our faith. We're saved by God's grace, his mercy to vessels that were chosen unto salvation before the world began.

We are led by the Spirit in the life of faith. enabled by His grace to live upon and walk with and rejoice in the glorious person and finished salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ. We are brought into what the Apostle Paul describes over in Colossians 2, verse 2 through 3. We are brought into all the riches of the full assurance of understanding to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father and of Christ in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge."

Our Lord's own statements with regard to this mystery of God, the mystery of the perfect unity, the oneness, and the personhood of the Godhead are crystal clear. And let me show you that over in John chapter 10. Turn over to John chapter 10. It's perfectly clear that all of this is in Christ. Look here at John chapter 10 for just a moment. One verse, if you would. Verse 30. This statement is more than just Christ declaring Himself to be one as God. It's also Christ one with God in all things. He's in His purpose, He's in His commitments, in His agreements. Everything about Christ is one with the Father. Here it says, and I and my Father are one.

Here, let me, look at another one with me. Look over John chapter 14, if you would. Turn to the right over to John chapter 14. Let's look at a couple verses over there. Look at verse, beginning at verse seven. If he had known me, it says in verse 7, you should have known my father also. Now look at what it says next. And from henceforth ye know him and have seen him. He's speaking to Philip. He said, say unto him, Lord, show us the father, and it will suffice us. And Jesus said, have I been? Have I been so long a time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the father. That's God's word, folks. That's not something I'm trying to interpret, trying to get you to, well, this is what this word means. It's plain and simple. If we've seen Christ, we've seen the Father. When we worship the Lord Jesus, we are worshiping God the Father and God the Spirit all at one time.

Have I been so long with you that you do not know me, Philip? He that seen me hath seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Believest thou? Believest thou that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. And he doth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works sake. And Christ did plenty of works, we know that. When the unbelieving Jews came to him and said to him, how are you make us to doubt? He said to them, I told you who I am. The works that I do prove of who I am. Yet you don't believe, because you're not my sheep. My sheep hear my voice. And unto them I give eternal life. No man can pluck them out of my Father's hand.

Back there, John chapter 10, where we were just reading a moment ago. It is stated concisely, writes Don, But emphatically, in 1 John 5, verse 7, there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost. So he mentions all three of them right there. We know that the Word is talking about Christ because of John 1, verse 1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then over in verse 14, it says, and the Word was made manifest in the flesh. So we know that this word they're talking about here is the Lord Jesus. These three bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these three are one.

So again, we read where the scriptures state very clearly these facts. The revelation of the Holy Trinity is found in Christ alone. And Christ alone is the visible Jehovah. The visible God is seen and known only in Him who is the image of the invisible God, as we read in John 1, verse 18, and again in Colossians 2, verse 9.

Robert Hawker wrote this. He said, our most glorious Christ, being the only visible Jehovah, is the sole executor, administrator, and efficient source. of all the works and ways of God, as revealed to the church in all departments of nature, providence, grace, and glory. And as His person is the only visible Jehovah, so His obedience of recovery from Adam's fall and transgression.

Look over at Acts chapter 4, if you would. Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Don goes on, he said, it is never written in scriptures that if a person believes in God or if he believes in the Holy Spirit, he is saved. It is written throughout the Word of God on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. That's in Acts 16, verse 31.

The fact is, no one believes God, and no one has the Spirit of God except those sinners who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scriptures, as the Savior of His people. That's why this is very important. again, the fact is no one believes God and no one has the Spirit of God except those sinners who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture, as the Savior of His people.

As the all-glorious Christ is alone the embodiment and revelation of God, He is also the only Savior of sinners. In Matthew 1.21, we have the words of an angel, the angel of the Lord to Joseph concerning the incarnation, the birth, the work of the Son of God, our Lord. He says this, and she, speaking of Mary, shall bring forth a son.

What a wonderful thing the Lord has done here today. I just realized this, we're four days away from Christmas, aren't we? And look how the Lord has brought us through time. We believe in a sovereign God who rules over everything. One of the things you might find different here at Rescue than you hear at other places is man's will does not have power over God. God's power is over everything. Everything we have done, everything that has come to this very moment in time is exactly where we are supposed to be. You're not here by any accident. You were brought here by God. as he brings his people everywhere. And not just his people, but everything, including the wicked, are under his supreme authority.

Our Lord has brought us here this morning to hear this word, and she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Oh, that's so important. Why did Christ come, writes Don? It's reasonable for anyone who reads or hears that the Son of God assumed human flesh and came into the world as a man to want to know why. Why did He do that? Why would God humble Himself, come down out of His majesty, set His majesty aside for a moment to walk among the fallen men?

Why? Because He's loved some from before the world was ever created. He's known as the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world, as we read in Revelation. That means before the world was ever created, God looked upon His Son and knew what was going to happen. The covenant is the covenant of old. It's the covenant between the great three and one. God the Father has loved the people, God the Son has saved those people, and God the Spirit has given those people life that they may come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. We know Him because of Him. We say we love Him because He first loved us.

Why did the Son of God come into this world? The angel's revelation to Joseph is unmistakable. God the Son came into this world for a specific purpose, to do a specific thing on a specific mission. He came to save His people from their sins. This was the Father's will which He came to perform.

Look over at Hebrews chapter 10 for just a moment. If you would, go over to Hebrews chapter 10. I read these verses often. I just flip the pages and it opened right up to Hebrews chapter 10. Look at verse 5. Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, this is that One who came into the world to save His people from their sins. Wherefore, when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice an offering thou wouldest not, speaking of those things of the flesh, of the animal sacrifices that they do, but a body hast thou prepared me."

Folks, the Son of God is the everlasting Son of God. He's always been and always will be the Son of God, but yet He needed a body. You can't kill the Son of God. You can't kill the Spirit of God. You can't kill God the Father. They can't die. They're eternal.

A body that Thou hast prepared in burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin, Thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book. Did you catch that? This whole book is about Him. It's a hymn book. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ and what He has come to this world to do. I come to do Thy will, O Father. I come to do thy will, O God.

Verse 8, above, when he said, sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin, thou wouldst not neither have pleasure therein which are offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified, set apart, made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

And every priest standeth daily ministering and offering, oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take away sin. But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God. God the Father accepted his son's sacrifice because it was perfect. And that's the only sacrifice that God would accept, is his son. We offer sacrifices that are full of tainted sin. Everything about us.

We're not like the religious people of the world who think, oh, I'm a better person today because I go to church. Back to that question again. What's the difference? What's the difference between me now and then? I see my sin now more than I ever did before. I see what I deserve of God. And because of that, God has shown me the grace, just as he does to all of his people. Not just me, but to you as well if you belong to Him. He shows you the grace of the Lord Jesus coming in the flesh, laying down His life, paying for that. God has accepted it and raised His Son up to sit at His right hand.

Verse 13, from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool for by one offering. Now get this, grab a hold of this, wrap yourselves in this, this is not a perfection in you, it is a perfection in Christ Jesus, for by one offering he hath perfected, completed forever them that are sanctified. That was the Father's will. that Christ would come and do that very thing. This was the stipulation of the covenant which He came to fulfill. Look over chapter 13, Hebrews 13. One verse over there with me if you would. Hebrews 13 verse 20. This is the covenant. This is the stipulation. This is what God the Father said, if you'll do this, and He knew He would. He knew He would. Because they're one in purpose and cause and everything.

Now the God of peace that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that very one who by one offering has perfected his people, that great shepherd of the sheep through the blood of the everlasting covenant. This was the commandment of God which he came to obey.

Turn over to the book of John chapter 10. Again, John chapter 10. We were there just a moment ago. This time look at verse 16 and 18. Our Lord says, Another sheep I have which are not of this fold, speaking of those who were standing there before Him, them also I must bring. And they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one foal and one shepherd.

Don says his mind is lost. I get up every morning and go to bed every night wondering how could God love a sinner such as I. His mind is lost in wonder and admiration when he thinks of the fact that Christ coming into this world. Is it not astonishing to you that the Son of God would become the Son of Man? that he who is the Lord of all would take upon himself the form of a servant, as we read in Philippians 2, verse 3, to be despised and rejected of men, the very ones that he created, the very ones whom he put in their mother's womb, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, that in the fullest time he might die the painful, shameful death of the cross in the place of guilty sinners.

These things that utterly astonish me, writes Don. He says, I agree with Paul when Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 8 verse 9, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.

We'll spend a couple of moments on these last points. Who is this Jesus?