Well, y'all know that I've been
preaching a series of messages on the Lord is known by the judgment
which he executes, and this is not going to be a continuation
in that, but it is going to tie in with it quite well. It's a
message that we can never hear enough of. The title is Identifying
the Son. You know, if you never heard
the gospel, if you've never been under this message, you might
think, well, wait a minute now, everybody knows Christ. I mean,
we don't need to identify him. But as I will stress throughout
this message, it's important that we identify the Christ we
serve, the God we worship in one place, in one place only.
And that's in the word of God, where he has revealed himself.
So I'll be stressing that. They can't be a more important
subject to cover than identifying the Son. It's the key to understanding
everything we know in the spiritual sense. The Son. Knowing Him. Who He is. What He did. Why He did it. Where He is now. What He's certain to do. These
are things critical to understanding what this Bible is all about.
Because as one preacher we hold dear said once, the Bible is
a history book. It's his story, Christ's story,
his history. So I want us to look in Matthew
chapter 11. If you want to turn in your Bible,
this will be my text, just three verses here. Matthew chapter
11, starting in verse 25. It says, Matthew 11, 25, at that
time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord
of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. Now, just prior to this, Christ
had been upbraiding the cities where most of His miracles were
done. He was admonishing them for their unbelief and their
lack of repentance. I mean, He had performed miracles
before them, raising the dead, healing the sick, feeding all
manner of people, and He had performed the kind of miracles
that only one that God was with. could do. And he had preached
the gospel to them. He had told them about himself,
about his own work. So he was upbraiding these cities. And then let's go on to verse
27. This is where I'm going to concentrate.
Matthew 11, 27. He said, All things are delivered
unto me of my father. And no man knoweth the son but
the father, neither knoweth any man the father, save or except
the son, and he to whomsoever the son will reveal him. So we see here, why must the
son be identified? Because no man by nature knows
the son. Only the father knows the son. So if any would know the son,
the father has to make him known. That's the only way he'll be
known. The father has to send him a preacher. It says there
in Romans 10, starting at verse 13, Whosoever call on the name
of the Lord to be saved, but he goes on to say, but how will
they call on him in whom they've not believed and how will they
believe except God send them a preacher? Somebody to tell
them, somebody God has taught, somebody to teach them about
Christ. The son has always needed to be identified. I mean, no
man by nature knows the son. He's never been known to any
of us by nature, and we can take this need all the way back to
right after the fall. Really, before the fall, because
Adam didn't know Him as a just God and Savior, but this has
been a need all the way back to the fall. Adam and Eve saw
some things after they fell. After they rebelled against God,
they saw some things. They saw that they now had a
need they didn't have before. They saw their exposure to and
their deservedness of the eternal wrath of God, but they didn't
see. They didn't know how to overcome
that need. They didn't see how to be delivered
from their exposure to God's wrath. They sought deliverance
in their fig leaves. In other words, they sought deliverance
in the work of their hands. You say, well, that was a foolish
thing to do, wasn't it? Yes, it was a very foolish thing
to do, and that's exactly what every one of us was doing until
God brought us and sat us down under the gospel and showed us
His way of salvation. We were sowing our fig leaves
together, going about to establish a righteousness of our own, trying
to work ourselves into the favor of God. God had to show Adam
and Eve the only solution to their problems. He had to reveal
the woman's seed. He had to identify the son to
them. And he began this identification
when he slew an animal and made them coats of skins and clothed
them. And the son is seen in that sacrifice,
in that blood, in that death, in that innocent victim dying
in the place of those who were guilty. The sacrifice identified
the son in picture and type, and God taught him what all that
meant. He taught Adam and Eve more than just the sacrifice.
He taught them what it meant. How do I know God taught them
what all that meant? I know because Abel came to worship
God. And God accepted him, and he
accepted his person. Now, where did Abel learn how
to come to worship God and be accepted by God? I'll tell you
where. He learned from his parents. He learned from Adam and Eve.
God taught them, and they taught Abel. Abel was taught the right
way to approach unto God and be accepted. He was taught everything
necessary for him to find fellowship with a holy and just God, and
Abel's sacrifice revealed his knowledge of Christ. Now that's
the way the Son was identified throughout the Old Testament,
in picture and type, just like that God slew that animal and
showed them everything about the work of his son. The priesthood,
the ceremonies, the sacrifices, all set Christ continually before
the nation Israel in picture and type. Moses was the lawgiver. And he was the mediator between
God and Israel. He wrote the law. But Christ
said, Moses wrote of me. He taught them of a prophet like
unto him that God would raise up. And he said, you listen to
him. You learn of him. So Moses wrote of Christ. He
taught of Christ. He identified Christ in his generation.
And all the prophets taught of Christ. Listen to Romans 3 in
verse 22. It says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. And then Acts 10 and verse 43,
to him, to Christ, give all the prophets witness that through
his name, whoever believeth in him shall receive remission of
sin. The word witness there means
they testified of. It's like a witness in a courtroom.
He tells the truth. He tells what he knows. He doesn't
bring speculation. He only testified what he knows.
All the prophets testified what they knew to be true, and they
testified of the righteousness of God. So the prophets identified
Christ. It was necessary for the Son
to be identified in the Old Testament. The Law of Moses bore witness
to the righteousness of God in picture and type, and the prophets
testified they witnessed the righteousness of God in the Gospel. and it was also necessary for
the son to be identified in the New Testament. Some in the New
Testament were given a divine revelation of Christ. You remember
Simeon was one of those men. Simeon, you remember when Christ
was brought to the temple to be circumcised on the eighth
day of his life. He came to be circumcised according
to the tradition of Israel. And Simeon was the priest there.
And when Simeon saw this Babe, he took him in his arms and he
said, now, Lord, let thy servant depart in peace. Mine eyes have
seen thy salvation. Simeon was one to whom God had
revealed, you won't die, Simeon, until you see the Christ child,
until you see the salvation of God. So Simeon was given a direct
revelation of God. John the Baptist, the forerunner
of Christ, knew him. Again, apparently by divine revelation. I say that because when Christ
came to John for baptism, John protested. In other words, he
already knew who Jesus was when Jesus came to him. Listen to
Matthew 3.13. It says, Then cometh Jesus from
Galilee to Jordan unto John the Baptist to be baptized of him. But John forbade him, saying,
I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?
I mean, you need to be baptizing me instead of me baptizing you.
That's what John was saying. But although John had a divine
revelation of Christ, he still needed to have him identified.
Now this might seem a little weird right here, I don't think
it is. The Spirit of God identified the Son at Christ's baptism. Listen to John 1, 29 through
34 here. It says, The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto
him, and said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the
sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me, and I knew him not. But that he should be made manifest,
made known to Israel, therefore I am come baptizing with water. And John bare record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
upon him. And I knew him not. John saying,
I didn't know him, except that he that sent me to baptize with
water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the
Spirit descending and remaining on him. the same is he which
baptizes with the Holy Ghost. And I saw and bear record that
this is the Son of God." Now this identification of the Son
at his baptism was designed to, and it did, confirm John's revelation
of Christ. And the Word of God confirms
John's revelation of the Son to us. We know who the Son is
partly by John the Baptist's revelation of him in the scriptures.
Also, not only did these have a divine revelation, and to John
it was confirmed by the word, the disciples knew and believed
Christ to be the Son, the Messiah, promised in the scriptures. Matthew
16 and verse 13 says, When Jesus came into the coast of Caesarea
Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that
I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some say Elias, Elijah, and others
say Jeremias, or one of the prophets. He saith to them, But whom say
ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Now Christ
told Peter that this knowledge that he had, it was true, he
knew it, but the knowledge that he had was by divine revelation. Matthew 16 and 17, And Jesus
answered and said unto Simon Peter, Blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee,
but my Father which is in heaven. Peter was acting as a spokesperson
expressing the belief of all the disciples when he said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. But although they
believed on Christ this way, it was still necessary for the
Son to be identified to them in His fullness as the one the
scriptures are concerned with, the one the scriptures are written
about. Remember, it's His story, all
about Him. It was necessary for the disciples'
unbelief to be confirmed by the Word of God, and Christ did that
after His resurrection from the dead. Listen to Luke 24 and verse
44. And Christ said unto them, He's
talking to His disciples here, These are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the
Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding,
that they might understand the Scriptures. Although the disciples
knew the Son by divine revelation, it was vitally necessary for
the revelation to be confirmed by the Scriptures. The Word is
where we learn of Christ, the Scriptures. The Son must be identified
to us all, and we can't take this identification from tradition.
We can't take it from our understanding of Christ by nature. We can't
even take it from this world's religion. It's imperative that
we take this distinction from the scriptures that identify
Christ. The Son is identified generally
in the Gospel that is set forth in this place week in and week
out, the Gospel that declares Him. And He's identified not
just as Him who died, who was buried and rose again, but He's
identified as the God-Man who accomplished the salvation of
every sinner He was given, every sinner He died for. The Son is
the one who fulfilled the prophecies. The prophets all wrote of Christ,
and the Son is the one who fulfilled those prophecies concerning Him. He first fulfilled the prophecies
of His person. Listen to Isaiah 9. For unto
us a child is born. And unto us a son is given. You
see, the child is born, the son not born. He's given. He's God
and man in one person. It's vital that we understand
the son of God, the son to be God and man in one person. It's
vital for us to know that. We have to know that he's the
God-man. He's the Savior. He's to be worshipped. But no mere man is to be worshipped. That would be idolatry. To worship
one you don't know to be God is to worship, like Christ told
the woman at the well, is to worship you know not what. Also,
to not know Christ to be God and man is to attribute work
to him which a mere man could not have accomplished. Sin against
God demands infinite payment. It demands infinite punishment.
Only one who is God could render such punishment. Without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. Only one who
is man could shed his blood, and only one who is God could
satisfy the demands of infinite justice. The prophets declared,
in other words, they identified the son to their generation to
be God and man in one person. They identified his person. Also,
the son is the one who fulfilled the prophecies of his work, not
only the prophecies of his person, but the prophecies of his work.
Listen to Isaiah 53, verse 4. This is Isaiah writing now prophetically
about Christ, the Christ yet to come. Surely he hath borne
our griefs and carried our sorrows, yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. He was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed." Now this is just
another way of saying that by his death alone Christ accomplished
the salvation of every sinner whose sins he bore. If he bore
your griefs or my griefs, if he bore and carried your sorrows,
if he was wounded for your transgressions, bruised for your iniquities,
then by his stripes you've been healed. There's no question about
it. He has healed those that he suffered
and died for. Listen to Daniel 9 and 24. This
is another identification of prophecy of Christ and what he
would accomplish when he came. Seventy weeks are determined
upon thy people and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression
and to make an end of sins and to make reconciliation for iniquity
and to bring in everlasting righteousness and to seal up the vision and
prophecy and to anoint the most holy. The everlasting righteousness
revealed here in this context is called in the scriptures the
righteousness of God. It's the righteousness that's
always revealed in the gospel. In fact, it is what makes the
gospel the power of God and the salvation. It's the righteousness
God imputes to his elect. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputes righteousness without works and will not at any time,
for any reason, imputes sin, because he imputed his sin to
Christ, and Christ put him away on the cross. And this righteousness
is the one based upon which God declares otherwise ungodly sinners
forever, unchangeably righteous in his sight. God justifies the
ungodly based on the imputed righteousness of Christ. Listen
to this familiar New Testament prophecy of Christ's work in
Matthew 1 and verse 21. This is the angel talking to
Joseph. He says, of Mary, and she shall bring forth a son,
and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins. The prophecy to Joseph is he
shall. It's not he might. It's not he
will if sinners cooperate. It's not that he could make a
way to save sinners if they'll just do their part. He shall
save his people from their sins. Now since Christ has come and
gone, the only question to be answered is, did he do it? Did
he do what the angel said he would do? Did he save his people? Or is their salvation still in
question? Is their salvation still dependent
upon their cooperation or their contribution? Well, he saved
his people. He saved them legally at the
cross, dying in their place as their substitute in purity and
bearing their sins in his person on that tree and putting those
sins away by a just satisfaction. So he saved them legally at the
cross. And now in this generation, when
the gospel goes out, he is saving his people from their bondage
to sin. You see, we don't know this,
and I'm not going to have time to get into it a lot, but we're
under the bondage of a sin we don't even recognize as sin.
We're trying to work out a righteousness of our own when the only righteousness
that will save us is the one Christ had already worked out
and God had already imputed. to his people. So he's saving in this generation
right now at this time and up to the end of his this age when
he comes again, he is calling his people out of darkness under
the preaching of the gospel and he's sending the spirit to his
elect to regenerate them and to give them life and to bring
them to faith and godly repentance. And he will save all of his people
from sin's presence and influence at his second coming. He will
come again that second time without sin, without even the presence
or influence of sin to those that look for him. The gospel
is a declaration of the Son. The doctrine it set forth identifies
Him. The gospel distinguishes Christ
from all counterfeits. Now Christ is identified generally
in this gospel message. I mean, people sit under this
message. They come in here and sit under it. They hear it by
television. They read books that have it
written in there. They hear this gospel generally.
But more is needed than just a general understanding, just
a general identification of Christ. There has to be a work in the
heart of a sinner for Christ to be identified in a saving
way. It says, God has withheld these things. This is my text
again. He's withheld these things from
the wise and the prudent, but he's revealed them. He's revealed
them unto babes. Listen to John 6, 45. It is written
in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man,
therefore, that hath heard and hath learned of the Father comes
to me, Christ said. The Father who alone knows the
Son has to teach his elect of the Son. That's the only way
you'll hear about him. You've got to sit down under
the gospel. He identifies Christ to his elect individually by
the Spirit in regeneration under the preaching of the gospel.
And he identifies Christ not just generally, but specifically. He identifies Christ specifically
as the one who glorified his Father in the full, free salvation
of those he was given. Listen to this familiar passage
in 2 Corinthians 4, starting at verse 3. It says, For if our
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not,
lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the
image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. For God, who commanded the light
to shine out of darkness, has shined in our hearts to give
the light of the knowledge of his glory in the face of Jesus
Christ. It says if our gospel be hid,
what's hid for men? Well, it says it's the gospel.
What's the gospel? It's the declaration, the identification
of Christ and what he's done to make it right for God to be
doing right when he shows mercy to a sinner like you and me.
In other words, what's hid is the knowledge of the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. How God can be just and justify
a sinner like you or me based on Christ's work alone. If the
declaration of Christ is hid, if a just God and Savior is hid,
if a perfect righteousness of infinite value is hid, and it
is, it's hid all by nature. Now, who's it hid to? Well, it
says in this context, 2 Corinthians 4, 3 through 6, it said it's
hid to the lost. Who are the lost? They're those
who don't know the way. See, we don't start out knowing
the way, the way of God, the way of his salvation, the way
of justification through Christ alone. The lost are those who are on
a way that seems right, but it's a way that ends in death. The
lost are those who are on the broad way that is leading to
destruction. The lost are those to whom the
Son has not yet been identified. Either they hadn't heard the
gospel or God hadn't given them eyes to see the gospel, see it,
spiritually speaking. Now, just like all others, God's
chosen people start out among the lost. See, that's us by nature.
That's all of us by nature. We start out among the lost.
We are, by nature, children of wrath, even as others, doing
the same things all others are doing until God is pleased to
show us mercy and grace and delivers. But unlike all others, God's
chosen are not left among the lost. The Father identifies Christ
to his people specifically as the one who obtained eternal
redemption, it says, for us. for every sinner he was given.
And God identifies Christ that way to his people. We read that
in Hebrews chapter 9 in verse 11. It says, but Christ, being
common high priest of good things to come, by a greater and more
perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not
of this building, not that earthly tabernacle, neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. You
see, God shows his people that the Son didn't come and try to
do a work. No, He came and brought redemption
to every sinner He represented, every sinner He died for. Also,
the Father identifies Christ specifically to His elect as
the one who sacrifices, put away the sin of every sinner He died
for. Hebrews 9 further on, verse 24, For Christ is not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the true, but Christ is entered into heaven itself, now to appear
in the presence of God for us. Nor yet that he should offer
himself often as the high priest entered into the holy place every
year with the blood of others. That was a continuing sacrifice
because it never satisfied the justice of God. But Christ's
sacrifice is not like that. For then, if it was like that,
then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world.
But now, once in the end of the world, has Christ appeared to
put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. Christ needed to
make one sacrifice, and by that sacrifice, he put away forever
the sin of every sinner he was given, every sinner he died for. Christ is identified specifically
to his elect. That's what I'm talking about.
Not generally, but specifically. He's identified as the one person
who is God and man. He's identified in his work of
satisfying the law and justice of God. He's identified in establishing
the righteousness of God. He's identified in accomplishing
the full salvation of every sinner he was given. Now this is not
the Christ you and I started out worshiping in our salvation,
trusting for our salvation. This is not him. But it's the
Christ God's people begin to trust when He brings us to the
gospel, when we're taught of God, when we learn of Christ,
when we see salvation conditioned on Christ and Christ alone. And
when the Father identifies the Son, the Son in turn reveals
the true and living God, a just God and a Savior. If we look
back in our text at Matthew 11 and verse 27 again, Christ said,
All things are delivered unto me and my Father, and no man
knoweth the Son, but the Father. Father has to reveal him. Neither
knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. It's the Son who reveals the
true and living God. It's the son who reveals the
God who justifies the ungodly based on the righteousness he
established by his obedience unto death. And in turn, it's
the son who exposes the idol of our imagination, the God we
worshiped before God brought us to the gospel and we were
submitted to Christ's righteousness as our only hope. The father
must reveal the son and he reveals him through the gospel. The Son
identifies the Father as the God who justifies the ungodly
based on the righteousness He established by His obedience
unto death. And those who come to the Father,
a just God and Savior through the Son, through His righteousness
imputed alone, are those who identified in each generation
as the adopted sons of God. Listen to John 1 and verse 11. It says, Christ came unto His
own, and His own received Him not. But not all of them, as
many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will
of man, but of God. As many as received him, to them
gave he power." That's privilege. To those who receive Christ in
every generation, He gives them the privilege of being known,
of being identified as the sons of God, because they're born
of God. Not because of anything in them,
not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but because
God has given them life and brought them to Christ. Those born of
God are those in each generation who are led by the Spirit of
God. Listen to Romans 8 and verse 12. Therefore brethren, he's
talking to regenerate sinners here, we're debtors, not to the
flesh, to live after the flesh. For if you live after the flesh,
you shall die. But if you through the Spirit
do mortify the deeds of the body, you shall live. For as many as
are led by the Spirit of God, They, and they alone, are the
sons of God. If you live after the flesh,
in other words, if you go on trying to work out your own righteousness,
if you go on trying to make yourself acceptable to God, that's what
living after the flesh is all about. And if you do that, you'll
die. But if you, through the Spirit,
mortify the deeds of the body, in other words, you see that
no amount or degree of obedience can recommend you to God. And
you see that no sin you commit can cause you to fall under the
wrath of God, because you're looking to the Son to save you,
to keep you even unto final glory. Now those that are delivered
from walking after the flesh and begin to walk after the Spirit,
as many as are led by the Spirit of God. These are the adopted
sons of God. Christ said, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. And in another place he said,
every man that hath heard and hath learned of the Father comes
to me. Sons of adoption are those led
by the Spirit of God. They are those who hear the Son
identified in the Gospel and come to Him for all of salvation.
They are led by the Spirit to rest their whole salvation in
Christ alone, and they are led by the Spirit to worship the
God who justifies the ungodly based on the imputed righteousness
of Christ alone. As I said starting out this message,
identifying the Son is a vitally important subject. And this is
an ongoing identification. Every time we look at a portion
of scripture, our prayer is, Lord, show us Christ in this
word, show us his person, show us his work, show us that accomplished
salvation. It's an ongoing identification. And every time we preach the
gospel, our prayer is that God will identify the son in the
hearts of sinners as the Lord, our righteousness. In other words,
as the one they need to save them and to keep them under final
glory. As you can see, I didn't say
this in the beginning, but I wasn't going to exhaust this subject
of identifying the son. But I hope I've given you some
inspiration to identify the son. Confirm the son you're trusting
by the word of God, by the scriptures, because the son identified in
the scriptures, the son identified in the gospel alone is worthy
of our worship. Identifying the son.