Let us pray together. Loving Father, we thank You for the privilege
and opportunity, for the grace of God and the mercy of God that
You will permit us to gather together here this morning to
read from Your Word and to be blessed by Your Spirit. We pray
Thee, Father, that You will be a blessing to our souls. Help us, we pray in His name. Amen. I want to read to you from the
book of Ephesians, chapter 1. or chapter 2, rather, of the
book of Ephesians. And I'll read a few verses here,
beginning at verse number 5. It says, Even when we were dead
in sins hath quickened us to be together
with Christ By grace are you saved, and hath raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come He, that's the Lord Jesus, might show the
exceeding riches of His grace and His kindness towards us through
Christ Jesus. For by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk therein. Wherefore remember that ye being
in times past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision
by that which ye are called the circumcision in the flesh made
by hands, that at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens
from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenant
of promise. having no hope and without God in the world. But now, in Christ Jesus, ye
sometimes were far off or made nigh by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I want to talk to you for a few
minutes here this morning concerning who this person is that dominates
the Scriptures, the Lord Jesus Christ, from Genesis to Revelation,
and every verse between Genesis and Revelation. pertains to Him
who loved us and gave Himself for us, even the Lord Jesus Christ
Himself, who lived for us, died for us, and will keep us throughout
the end. I want to talk about Him for
just a little bit. Who is this man, this person,
who we call the Christ. Who is He? It's imperative that
we find out who He is. Now, the first thing that I want
to call your attention to was His birth. This man, the Lord
Jesus Christ, was born in poverty. and raised in obscurity. He was the son of an unmarried
young woman. His foster father was a carpenter, inconspicuous and uninfluential. He had no formal training. He didn't go to college. He didn't
go to high school. And he didn't go to the first
and second grade. He had no formal training whatsoever
and no education. He never traveled more than 90
miles from the place where he was born. His friends, Excuse
me. We're all poor and hopeless and
helpless and unknown. He never owned a piece of ground
or a house. He never held a public office. And his only possessions was
the robe on his back. I'm telling you here this morning,
Who this man is? The Lord Jesus Christ. It's Christ
only. And that's the whole theme of
the Bible. All of the Old Testament and
as well as the New is speaking about this one person. It's all
about him. It's not all about you. And it's
not all about me. It's not all about our relationships. It's all about him. He did it
all, all to him we owe, the Lord Jesus. I said he never held a public
office. His only possession was the robe
on his back. He was sentenced to be hanged
on a tree. He only had 12 faithful followers
at that particular time who would follow him, and they sold him
for a $10 bill. Another one of them denied that
he knew him, and the rest of them forsook him and fled in
the darkness of the night. He was nailed to a cross between
two thieves. And during his dying hour, according
to his own testimony, even his heavenly Father, even God Almighty
turned away from him. And he cried with a loud voice. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Oh, what a pitiful whale that
came from the mouth of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who He is. He's the Son
of God. And He's the Son of Man. He's the God-Man. He's God and man in one person. I don't understand that, but
I know it to be true. God helped us to know him, whom
to life, who knows his life eternal. During his dying hour, according
to his own testimony, God himself turned his back on
him. He was taken down from the cross
and buried in a barred tomb. Had no mourners at his grave. Went into the earth by himself. Never lived long enough to write
a book. Yet all the libraries in the
United States of America could not contain the books written
and printed by him. He never wrote a song. Yet he has been the theme of
more songs than all other objects continued. He never founded a
college. As a matter of fact, he never
even went to college. As a matter of fact, he never
went to grade school or junior high school or high school. Yet all the colleges together
can't boast of as many students as those who study his life. He never studied any medicine. He was no doctor. Yet he healed
more broken bodies and hearts than all the doctors that ever
lived and will live. I'm telling you about who he
is, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one like him, and
that's the Christ of God. As much God as if he was never
man, and as much man as if he was never God, Oh, for understanding
that the Lord Jesus is all we have. All we have and all we
ever will have to keep us and take us where He is. I'm sure and certain that I'll not be here much longer
and most of you will follow me or I will follow you. But we're all going to die, all
of us. Every single soul sitting on
this side and this side and those underneath, we're all going either
to where he is or where he is not. I want to be in that number,
to be where he is, to live with him throughout the dateless ages
of eternity. Oh, think of this man, Christ
Jesus, the only man that was ever born of woman that
was not a sinner. He was made a sinner. He was
made sin that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He took our place. He bore all
the guilt and shame that we have manifested In our
short lifetime, he went to the cross and paid the penalty. The penalty for the broken law
was death. And all of us here this morning,
either now or then, were so far away from God, we'd never come
back to him. But he went where we was. and
stood in our place. And he satisfied the holy justice
of God. The holy justice of God demands
perfection. Every one of us here has got
to be perfect in order to get to heaven. And if that was all
that was said, we'd be We'd be poor, hopeless, helpless,
doomed, damned people. But that's not all that is said. All that is said is that He took
our place. The Bible says, blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Who is that man? to whom the Lord will not charge
with sin? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He had no sin. He was made sin,
but in Himself, He had no sin. The law of God says that if you're
guilty of one sin, You're guilty of them all. We were all born
in sin and conceived in iniquity. We're born without hope. And
we live without hope. And our only hope is within Him,
the Lord Jesus, who stood in our stead and bore our shame
and bore the full penalty of the demands of the law. It's
him. And I never get tired of talking
about him. I think I can talk about some
other things if I wanted to. But it's too late in the game
for you and too late in the game for me to be talking about anything
else but Him. Because He and He only is the
Savior. You can only be saved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And it is a pity and a shame that many or the multitude of
people on earth today have no understanding of what this
is all about. Here we are, 25 or 30 of us, people going up and down
the road, people going here and there, but we By the grace of
God, just a handful of us can meet together and talk about
whom? Talk about what we've done or
what we will do? No, we come here to hear about
Him who loved us and gave Himself for us. Everything else doesn't matter. It's to know Him. Well, let me tell you just a
thing or two about the law of God. God's law, holy law, is the manifesting
of His justice. God's law is the spiritual law.
And it requires, this is what the law requires out of you and
me. It requires not only outward
obedience, but inward perfection. That's what the law demands.
Demands outward obedience and inward perfection. Obedience
to the law, the Ten Commandments, and perfection in ourselves. There is no loophole and there's
no compromise in it. It's either Christ or nothing. It's either Christ or hell, one
of the two. The Bible says here in Galatians
chapter 3 and verse number 10, it says, Cursed is everyone that
continueth not in all things written in the book of the law
to do them. Who can come to the earth in
flesh and blood and never leave the bosom of his father. Who can do that? None other than the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Christ of God. Who can die and be buried and
walk out of the grave in three days? Did you ever hear tell
of anyone that they put in the grave and in three days or three
weeks or three years or 300 years got up and walked out? No soul
has ever done that except Him whom to know is life eternal. Only the Lord Jesus. can satisfy
the demands of a holy God and impute His righteousness to us,
only Him and Him alone. Victorious is He under His own
power, and no wonder because He's God and He's man in one
person. Now who can be holy and harmless
and undefiled and separate from sinners and yet be numbered with
sinners? Who can be tempted in all points
of the law and yet be without sin? It's him who is in Christ. He's without sin. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Over there in the book of 1 Corinthians
it says that he was made sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. So he is undefiled, separate
from sinners, and numbered yet with them. Who can be tempted
in all points of the law and yet be without sin? None but
the Lord Jesus Christ. Who can die and be married and
walk out of the tomb in victory under his own power? The Lord
Jesus. Who can ascend to heaven? and
be commanded to sit at the right hand of mercy." Who? The God-man himself, the Lord
Jesus Christ. He and he only is the gospel
of substitution. He lived in our place and he
died in our place. I know this in my heart and my
soul. that a man must know Him. We
can know about Him and not know Him. I'm talking about knowing
Christ. I'm talking about having a heart
to love the Lord Jesus. Not just talk about the Lord
Jesus, but actually love Him because God has given you a heart
to love Him. I suspect the majority of those
here this morning That you know Him. That you're in Christ. That when the time comes for
you to depart from this world, you'll fall into the hands of
a loving Savior. And I'm so glad that that's true. I'm glad that that's true. I'm
glad that you've got a good hope in Him. That you're not tangled
up with works Things of that nature. And you understand that
if you're ever saved, it'll be by the grace of God and the mercy
of God. It won't be because of who you
are or where you are and what you do and what you don't do. It'll be by the grace of God. The grace and the mercy of God. Now you say, what is grace? The
Bible says that Noah found grace. Where'd he find it? In the eyes
of God. And that's where it's at. It's
in the grace of God. And God will give you grace if
you believe who the Lord Jesus Christ is and trust Him. He only is the Savior. There's no substitute for Him. Everything that I've read and
said and all in the Bible is all about this one man. Without
this one man, there was nothing. It's about one man, about the
Son of God, who was all God and all man in one person. Who are you trusting today? Who
do you believe in? He said, come unto me. Just come to me. I didn't talk
about coming to the church. I didn't say you better quit
going to the movies. Like that little boy said, he said, I'm ready to go. He
said, I don't chew, and I don't go to picture shows, and I don't
run around with people. No, that's not it. It's not what
you do. It's what he's already done.
Trust him. Come to me. All ye that labor
and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Rest for what? Rest for your soul. Rest for
your soul. And when you die, you'll cross
over into that land of God himself. Oh, my soul. Help us, help us,
help us. One thing more here I want to
call your attention to, that the Lord Jesus Christ, what I'm
about to say is only said about Him. And God Himself said this about
His Son. God the Father said this. about his son. He said, He, that's
the Lord Jesus Christ, God speaking, He only is altogether lovely. Altogether lovely. The Lord Jesus Christ, who was
made sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. God said about him, he said he's
altogether lovely. He didn't just say he's lovely.
He said he's altogether lovely. Everything about him is lovely. Every move that he makes is lovely. Every word that he thought is
lovely. He's altogether lovely. And I'll tell you this, Closing
here. If He's altogether lovely, you
and me who are in Christ, we're altogether lovely too. Because
He put us in Him. He put us in Christ, and He'll
keep us in Christ. And what Christ is, we are. We're altogether lovely. That
may not be so outwardly at times with us, but in the eyes of God,
we're altogether lovely because we're in him. And he's completely
lovely. He's the only man that ever lived,
the only person that ever lived and walked the face of the earth.
that God could say he's all together lovely. Everything about him
was lovely. The Lord Jesus, who had such compassion and love
for us, that he suffered for us, died
for us, was buried for us, rose again for us, and said one of
these days I'll come back and you can go where I am. God bless
you this morning and God help us to love him. Robin, you lead us in him and
we'll go home.