Yeah, good morning. What a joy
to be with God's people, he said, were two or three gathered in
my name. I'm in the midst, I think of what David said. I was glad,
glad, glad, glad when they said unto me, let us go, let us go
to the house of the Lord. We come here to hear of him.
We come here to worship. the true and living God, for
God seeketh such to worship him in spirit and in truth. And I know there is no spiritual
worship. There is no real worship apart
from God's truth. Worshipping him in truth. Now, I appreciate you having
this conference and for fellowship and And all that we've enjoyed,
I thank God for the privilege of being here and for your pastor
asking me to come. Now, turn again to that passage
that we just read, that Brother Marvin just read for us, Matthew
22. Matthew chapter 22. I want to ask you a question. I
want to be real, real frank and real honest. Brutally honest. What think ye
of Christ? What do you really think of the
Lord Jesus Christ? Wasn't that the question of the
day? Wasn't and isn't that the question of all questions when
these religious self-righteous God haters peppered the Lord
Jesus Christ with these many, many questions about the law,
about the resurrection, about the tribute money. He put all
of his critics to silence, shut the mouth of all those self-righteous
Jews with this one question found here in our text, Matthew 22.
I want you to get it and look at it now. Verse 41. while the
Pharisees were gathered together. Now, their design was not to
come together to learn anything. The Lord Jesus Christ had been
teaching in the temple, and they came to entangle him. They came
to trap him. They came, really, they came
there to do him harm. They took counsel how they might
destroy him. They came there to embarrass
him. publicly and to put him to shame. But, oh, didn't he
turn the tables on them? It says here in our text, verse
46, Matthew 22, verse 46, And no man was able to answer him
a word, neither did any man dare from that day forth ask him any
more questions. He shut their mouth. He silenced
them, silenced all of his critics. I tell you this. I trust I've
learned this, and I pray God will teach all of us this. Before
God ever is pleased to teach us something, he's going to do
this one thing. He's going to stop our mouth.
He's going to shut our mouth and sit us down and make us to
bow before his sovereign throne as a mercy beggar and cry out
unto him, Lord, teach me, teach me, teach me all for a quiet
spirit. to sit quietly and to learn of
him. All those who have heard and
have learned of the father, you know what they do. That's right. I like those questions being
answered. They say, I just ask them, you
answer them. They come to Christ. They come
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, a thirsty man, he goes
to When he's thirsty, you ever been really thirsty? I mean,
just so thirsty that you would. I'm embarrassed to say this,
but I've done this. Drink dirty water. I mean, muddy water. Been so thirsty that you would
just drink water regardless what's in it. Thirsty. Those who are
thirsty and those who are in need of salvation, they come
to the water of life. who is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is that drink of everlasting
life. He is salvation. That Lord of
glory has an all important and vital heart searching question
for these self-righteous Jews. These who are going about to
establish their own righteousness. Our Lord said of them, you are
they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your
heart. That which is highly esteemed among men, God says is abomination
in my sight. He had a heart searching question
for them and it stopped their mouths. What thinking of Christ? Now, this is a question for all
of us to consider. I want all of you to personally
in your heart. To answer this question in your
heart before God, honestly, what do you really think? and believe about the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's the most serious question,
what do you really believe about about his person? What is he
to you? What do you think or who do you
believe that he really is? What do you think that he accomplished
in his death? Is he everything to you? Why are you here this morning?
Did you come just to be seen of men? Did you come just because
today is Sunday morning? I pray that we're all here because
we have a desire to be here. We have an eagerness in our hearts
to be here. Oh, to hear a word from God,
spoken through His servant, sent by God the Holy Spirit to feed
our needy soul. Oh, for a word from God, blessed
with the power of God. Is he everything to you? It's sad, but true. Many religious
people entertain low thoughts, small thoughts, ungodly thoughts,
false thoughts, incorrect thoughts about the Lord Jesus Christ,
about his person, who he is, about his work. What did he do? Why did he come? Did he come
just to make an effort? Did He come just to make a down
payment? Did He come just to put us in a savable state that
we might do certain things and therefore accomplish salvation?
Did He make just a down payment or a full payment? Many, many
religious people entertain wrong thoughts about the Lord Jesus
Christ because by nature we don't know Him. We're born in sin,
shapen in iniquity. To some, the Lord Jesus Christ
is nothing at all. Oh, they might use his name as
a curse word when they smashed their finger on the job. You've
all heard that. To some, the Lord Jesus Christ
is nothing at all. Many of the Jews in that day
said vile, wretched things about him. You remember, they said,
behold, a gluttonous man. He's a wine divver. They said
in mockery to him, he's a friend of publicans and sinners. You
know, that's good news. They thought they were mocking
him. Well, you know, we won't have anything to do with that
sinful crowd. And the Lord Jesus Christ, they said of him, he's
a friend of sinners. Thank God. Thank God he is that
friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Oh, they said mean,
ugly things about the Lord Jesus Christ. Some even said of him
that he was an ally of the devil. Some said that he had to be Elzebub
and by the prince of devils, he cast out devils only by the
devil himself. Is he nothing to you, all ye
that are passing by this morning? Is the Lord Jesus Christ in him
crucified? Is he nothing to you, to many? That's the sum of what they think
of. Now, he's nothing. He's nothing. He's just a historical, the historical
Jesus, the man from Nazareth, the poor, weak superstar Jesus
who doesn't know why he came, doesn't know why he's here. Is
he the confused Christ? To many, he is absolutely nothing. To some, however, the Lord Jesus
Christ is something. Perhaps a good man. Many say
that he's a good man. Some say that he was a prophet
and a teacher. Many say that he's something,
but not everything. Not everything in salvation.
You remember what Nicodemus said of him? We know that thou art
a teacher come from God, for no man can do these things that
thou doest, do these miracles, except God. be with him, God
be with him. Nicodemus recognized he was a
teacher, but he didn't know that he is God the teacher, that he
is God among his people. Call his name Immanuel, God with
us. Nicodemus recognized him to be
something, but not everything. He recognized him as a teacher
come from God, But he didn't know and realize that he is God
in the flesh come to teach his people. It takes, my friend,
as I said to someone earlier this morning, it takes God to
reveal God. It takes God, the Holy Spirit,
to quicken and call and to enlighten. But to every believer, to every
believer born again by the Spirit of God, taught of God, The Lord
Jesus Christ is not something. He's everything. The Lord Jesus
Christ is everything. He's our life. He is the very
reason that we exist. He is our being. The Lord Jesus
Christ to the believer is everything. He's all our salvation. He's my life, my light, my water. He's everything to the believer. In the book of Colossians, the
apostle writes this. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, when Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then
shall you also appear with him in glory. Christ, our life. The Lord Jesus Christ is called
in that same chapter, Colossians 3. Christ is all. Christ is all and he's in all. He's in all of our salvation.
He's in on all of it. From the beginning of God's elective
grace to that final, ultimate glory, salvation's all of Him. He's in on all of it. He purchased us with His own
blood. Listen to some of these blessed
testimonies recorded in the Word of God. believers in the past
and see if you can find agreement with them, harmony with them,
and see if you can enter into what they're saying. See if you
can identify with these believers of the past and be of the same
mind as these who give testimony, true testimony, to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Job said of him, I know that
my Redeemer liveth. And that he shall stand at the
latter day upon this earth. I know he is my living redeemer. Our Lord said in that revelation,
I'm he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I'm alive. I'm alive forevermore. He is life. He is the resurrection
and the life. Abraham said of him, to his son
Isaac, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. And he did, and he is the lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. God will
provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. David said of him,
Although my house be not so with God, He hath made with me an
everlasting covenant, ordered in all things, and it's sure,
this is all my salvation and all my desire." That's a good
testimony. He's all my salvation. He's all
my desire. Simeon of old said of him, Now,
Lord, let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word,
according to thy commandment. For my eyes have seen thy salvation. Thy salvation. Can you say that
in your heart? By faith we see the Lord Jesus
Christ through this written word. Faith comes by hearing and hearing
by the word of God and saving faith has one object and it's
a person. Saving faith doesn't look in
here. Saving faith looks out of self unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Says that Hebrews 12 too, looking
unto Jesus. the Lord Jesus, who is the author
and finisher of our faith. Mary said of him, My soul doth
magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Saviour. He is God my Saviour. Peter said of him, you remember,
Peter, whom do you say that I am? I hear what these other fellows
say. Whom do you say that I am? You
remember his answer? Thou art the Christ. Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord said, You're
a blessed man. Your flesh and blood did not
reveal that to you, but my Father has revealed that to you. One day, a crowd of people who
were following him for the loaves and the bread and for the miracles
and When the Lord declared to them that no man can truly come
to me except the Father which sent me, draw him, and a multitude
of that crowd turned and left him. And the Lord turned to his
twelve and said, Will you also go away? Remember the words of
Peter, To whom shall we go? You're everything. To whom shall
we go? We believe and we are sure that you are that Christ. That one, not another. That one. Not the counterfeit, not this
Christ who wants to and can't. You're the Christ, the one sin
of God. I love this testimony of Thomas.
I guess we call him Doubting Thomas, don't we? He said, I won't believe until
I see those nail prints and I stick my finger in them scars. He heard
the Lord Jesus had Come forth from the dead. The third day,
just as he said, he said, I won't believe until I take my hand
and put it in his side where that spear caused that scar. And when the Lord came on the
scene and appeared to them and he said, peace, be still, Thomas
said, oh, you're my Lord and you're my God. The Lord said,
behold my hand, behold my hand. He said, you're mine. You're
my Lord. You're my God. He sees everything. to Thomas, Mary, Simon, or Simeon,
David, Abraham, Peter. John, the prophet of God, said,
Behold, the Lamb of God. Behold, that Lamb that was typified,
that Lamb that was prophesied, all those lambs. Now, you think
about John for a minute. John's father, his name was Zacharias,
is that right? His father was a priest. Which
makes me to believe, I've got, it's not recorded in scripture
that I can call to mind, but John had to go up around the
temple. He saw all those lambs, the morning
offering, the evening offering. He saw all those lambs, lamb
after lamb on the day of atonement, that special offering that was
given, the burn offering, the peace offering, the sin offering,
all those different offerings. He knew all about the lamb. But
when the Lord Jesus Christ came on the scene, he dismissed all
those lambs and said, there he is. Behold, the Lamb of God. And you know what's interesting
about that? You read that sometimes from John chapter 1 down through
verse 29. And you read on down to the end
of the chapter. And it said that the next day,
you know what? He preached the same message.
He said, Behold the Lamb of God. And some of those that were following
him became followers. Somebody actually listened. And
God blessed that word. And they followed the Lord Jesus
Christ. So, Behold the Lamb. Behold the Lamb of God. All the redeemed in glory sing
unto Him this song. Don't they? You know, we've learned
it here by His grace. Unto him who loved us and washed
us from our sin in his own blood, to him be all the honor, glory,
blessing, and power, both now and forever." And the redeemed
said, Amen. Amen. Now here's a question for
you. Do you think so highly of him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, that you tell others about him? Do you think so highly of him
that you dare to tell others about him? You remember the wild
gathering? The Lord met him. No one could
tame him except the Lord. When he met the Lord, the Lord
conquered him, cast out the demon spirit. clothed him in that blessed
righteousness of Christ. And of course, that wild demoniac
wanted to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what saving faith
does. It follows Christ. Remember what the Lord said to
him? Go home to your family and tell how great things the Lord
has done for you. And you know what he did? He
went home to his family in Decapolis and he began to publish how great
things God had done for him. Why did he do that? He loved
the Lord. He was not ashamed to tell others
about him. Here's the thought. Do you so
love the Lord Jesus Christ that you want everyone to hear about
the Christ of God? I see you older folks. I can say this now. I see you
older folks, you pull out your wallet, or you ladies, you take
your purses and you pull out those pictures of your grandbaby,
don't you? And you tell everybody about
your grandbaby, don't you? I do. I've got one now. I'm a
grandpa. You tell everybody about your
grandchild, the advances he's making, how he's starting to
crawl, and you know, he just giggles so cute. Why do you talk
about him? You love him. You want everybody
to know about your grandchildren because you love them. Isn't
that the same way it is with the believer? He's so in love
with the Lord Jesus Christ. He's so endeared to the Lord
Jesus Christ that he dares to tell others he doesn't really
care what they think. He's determined in his heart
to tell out the glories of the one who saved him. Oh, may God
give us that boldness. May God give us that love. I
believe he put that love of God that shed abroad in the heart.
When God puts that love in your heart, I don't think you're ashamed
to declare the gospel. And tell others, yea, even among
your own family, do you so love the Lord Jesus Christ that your
service to him is a great joy? I see you ladies working about
the kitchen and serving the food, just smiling, just happy to serve
the Lord. It's a blessed, blessed thing
to serve the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know how we do that?
How do we do that as believers? We serve the Lord Jesus Christ,
and believers do with joy in their hearts by serving one another. You see, we are members of His
body. That's how we serve Him. And
the believer so loves the Lord Jesus Christ that service to
Him is a great joy. You know, the early believers,
the early church thought so in Acts 5. When they were beaten,
Peter and John and others, beaten for preaching the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ, it said they departed from the presence of
the council rejoicing, rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. They were beaten and told and
commanded not to mention this despised Nazarene again. And they took to beating joyfully
went out and declared, they went to all the world declaring the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. I wonder what we would do. Marvin,
if they came today and got you and tied you outside and whipped
you and told you never mention Jesus Christ again, what would
we do? Would we hush? I tell you, this
religious world would muzzle. With most of every God-sent God-called
preacher, if they could, I tell you, by His grace, your dear
wife would clean your back off, sew up the wounds, and you'd
keep right on preaching Christ. You see, we're not sidetracked
by different things. Our message in our whole life
and the ministry that God gives unto His servants, We were determined
to preach Christ and Him crucified. We preached on ourselves, but
the Lord Jesus Christ Himself and ourselves, His servant, your
servant for His sake. Oh, I tell you, may we serve
Him with that kind of joy, joy in our heart. Are you so sold
out and committed to the Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel?
Are you so determined to continue in the faith and remain steadfast,
faithful unto the end? Are you sold out and committed,
so sold out and committed that you're not ashamed to own him?
Can you say with the Apostle Paul, I'm not ashamed of the
gospel of Christ, for it is a power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believes? Or as Paul, when he writes to
young Timothy and says, be not ashamed of me, nor the gospel. Timothy, it's God who saved us. God who has called us. with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to God's
own purpose and grace. And then down in that same chapter,
he said this, I know whom I have believed. That's the reason I'm
not ashamed. I know whom I have believed.
I'm persuaded that he's able to keep that which I've committed
unto him against that day. You see, believers are so in
love with him, they're not ashamed to tell others. The believers
are so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ that serving him
is a joy. It's a joy to serve him. Believers
are so in love with the Lord Jesus Christ that they're not
ashamed to own him. To identify with his people in
believers baptism, to identify with him in believers baptism,
and identify with his people where the gospel is preached.
Are you ashamed to come here? Are you ashamed to speak out
when someone says, well, where do you go to church? You say,
Katie Baptist Church. Or do you say, oh, I go where
the gospel is preached. I go where God called his servant.
I go out there to Katie where the gospel is preached. Is that
your testimony? I trusted it is. Not ashamed
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. To you who by faith look
to the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, he's altogether lovely.
He is altogether lovely. To you who trust Him alone for
all your salvation, He is precious. To you who believe, to you who
believe, He's precious. We have been redeemed with His
precious blood. We have obtained like precious
faith. There's not many things in the
Word of God that's called precious. He is precious to you who believe. He is precious. What do you think
of Christ? What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ? To you who need forgiveness from
all sin, the Lord Jesus Christ alone is all our cleansing. For
by one offering hath he perfected forever them that are sanctified. To you who need forgiveness from
your sin, all your sin, the Lord alone is our cleansing. The blood
of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all our sin. The man who doesn't
have Christ doesn't have forgiveness of sin. To you who need to be
justified, cleared from all guilt, made righteous before God, The
Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, is all our righteousness. He's
all our redemption, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's all our redemption. He is called the Lord, our righteousness. But of Him, are you in Christ
Jesus? I had a knock on my door one
day at the study. A man actually came in the front
door when my study was downstairs and I heard the door slam and
he was knocking, anybody home? And I went upstairs to see who
it was there in the church building and it was one of these, I call
them Church of Crud, water and works preacher. He was a church
of crud preacher, a water and works preacher. And he came and
he invited himself to preach in my pulpit. He told me who
he was. He said, I need to come over
here and tell the people the truth. He said, you're lying on God.
Well, you know about hitting him in the nose. But one of the things I said
to him, I said, have you ever read that scripture? Where it
says, But of him are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto
us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, redemption, that as according
as is written, he that with glory, let him glory in the Lord. Said,
you know, I never thought about that. I said, what? You ever
thought about having a blessed righteousness in the Lord Jesus
Christ? He doesn't know the Christ of God. He's trusting a counterfeit. He's trusting a wannabe Savior. He's not trusting the Christ
of God, is he? Oh, I tell you, we trust the
true and living Christ of God, not a counterfeit, not a wannabe. This is the Christ of God, the
Christ Son of God. You can trust him with all Your
salvation to you who need to be raised from the grave of spiritual
death and made new creatures in the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ
is all in a new birth. He's all in redemption. He is
all in the new birth. The new birth is by his will.
By his will, it's not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth, but it's God that shows mercy. You remember there in
John chapter one, where it says he came into his own and his
own received him not. But to as many as received him,
to them gave he right, the power, the privilege to become sons
of God, even to them that believe on his name. But there's not a period there. Which were born, not of blood,
not of blood, not of The new birth doesn't run in bloodlines,
fleshly heritage. My dad died a heretic. My dad
died in his sin. God had mercy on me. It's not
of bloods. It's not of your family inheritance,
heritage, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of
man, but we're born of God. And the reason we receive Him,
and the only reason we believe Him, is because we're born of
God, begotten of God. You see, faith, faith is not
the cause of a new birth. The new birth is the cause of
faith. We believe according to the work of His mighty power. What's that scripture over in
1 John 5.1? Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, that man is born of God. Born of God. To you who need to be raised
from the grave of spiritual death, The Lord Jesus Christ is everything
in salvation. It's by His will, it's by His
grace, and it's by His power. By His power. To you who need
an ever-present, ever-living Mediator, there's just one. I need a Mediator. One who represents
me before God Almighty. And that one Mediator, the one
that's designated, sent and appointed of God, the only one that has
the ear of God, the one who speaks for His covenant people, has
the high priest of God. That one sent of God, appointed
of God, recognized of God, is none other than the Lord Jesus
Christ. Is He your Mediator? Just one. There's one God and
one Mediator between God and men, and that is a God-man, the
Lord Jesus Christ. You see, as the high priest and
mediator, as the intercessor, as the advocate before his throne,
the Lord Jesus Christ ever lives to intercede for us. Now, look back to the text again.
What thinking of Christ? What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his person? Is he God Almighty? Yes, he is. God manifested in the flesh and
his work, he did indeed save his covenant people from their
sin. The Lord Jesus Christ made full
atonement. He didn't make an attemptment.
We don't say he made an attemptment. He made an atonement. He died
for all of the sins of His covenant people, death and atonement,
particular redemption. That's the only redemption and
atonement that this book knows anything about. He laid down
His life for the sheep. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sin. And my friend, His person, He
is God Almighty, manifest in the flesh. His work, sum it up
this way. Can you sum it up in one word?
I can think of a couple of words. His work? Perfect. His priestly work, seeing we
have such a great high priest, the priest of God who represents
us unto God. His priestly work is perfect.
His priestly work is finished. His priestly work is accepted.
Preacher, how do you know it's accepted? He walked out of that
grave the third day. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. When he by himself purged our
sin, he sat down. He sat down. Down he sat down. The work was done. But pay particular
attention to where he sat down. At the right hand of the throne
of God Almighty. What does that mean? It's a place
of acceptance, a place of honor. A place of love. And we are accepted
in the beloved. My friend, what think you of
Christ? That's the question. That's the issue. That's the
issue. What do you think of the Lord
Jesus Christ, his person and his work? And I pray God would
bless our hearts to see him as altogether lovely and to fall
in love with Christ. That's as old brother Montgomery
used to say. I've heard you say this. I'm
going to quote you. Hug up to Christ. Hug up to him. All right.