All right, brethren, I apologize if you did not get a bulletin. I set my sermon notes to go out today at 1 p.m., and I think I set the bulletins to go out today at 1 p.m. as well. So check it when you get home. You'll probably have them sometime this afternoon. Turn with me. in your Bibles to Luke chapter two, Luke chapter two. I wanna speak on the subject of the only truly perfect child, one perfect child. Babies are perfect. Emily had her baby, and I'm sure y'all have held that little boy, and you just look at him and think, oh, this is just perfect. And they get to be toddlers, and five, six, seven, and we think, oh, it's a perfect child. Then they get to be teenagers. But there's only one perfect child, and that is the Lord Jesus. Verse 39, he was, verse 39, When they had performed all things according to the law of the Lord, they returned into Galilee to their own city Nazareth. Now here's our focus. And the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Look down at verse 52. And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. I wanna show you three things here. Just take this a section at a time. I wanna show you, first off, that our Savior really did become a man. He really did. The Son of God really took flesh, became a man. Secondly, what does this mean that he grew, that the grace of God was upon him and he grew? And then lastly, how this is good news for his people. Now first of all, the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, really became a man. He came down and became a man. He's truly God. There's folks in the world in some religions that don't believe he's God. He's God. He told his disciples, if you had known me, you should have known my father also. And he said, from henceforth you know him and have seen him. He said, he that seeth me seeth the Father. He is the image of the invisible God. He's the image of the invisible God. He's the brightness of his glory. He's the express image of his person. He is God. But he really became a man. Go with me over to Hebrews 2. He really did become a man. like those he came to save, like his brethren, like the elect, the seed of Abraham. It says in Hebrews 2.10, it became him, it was becoming to God for whom are all things and by whom are all things and bringing many sons unto glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering. For both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. Look at verse 14. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them. who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. For verily, he took not on him the nature of angels. He was made lower than the angels. He took on him the seed of Abraham, the nature of his elect. Wherefore, in all things, in all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. And for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he's able to succor, to strengthen and comfort them that are tempted. So the son of God, all God, really became a man. He's the God-man. The one mediator able to bring God and his people together. One with his people, one with the Father, and he makes us one in him. Now, what do these verses mean? Back in our text, it says the child grew. The child grew. You know, you held your grandson. Just imagine, Joseph and Mary, when they held the Lord Jesus, knowing he's their savior and that he truly was perfect. He was truly perfect. You want to talk about raising a child and having just a perfect child. He was a perfect child. The Lord Jesus really grew up from an infant to a toddler to a teenager, to adulthood, he really grew in all those stages. And we needed him to do that because he couldn't come forth and just be perfect like Adam was made because when Adam sinned, All his people became guilty, and when we were born of him, we were conceived in sin in the womb. So Christ is holy in the womb, he's holy at birth, he's holy as an infant, he's holy as a toddler, all the way through his life, because he's representing his people. The law that says, honor thy father and thy mother. The only way any chosen, saved, child of God has fulfilled that law is because Christ honored his father and his mother perfectly. And that's how we've done it perfectly is only in Christ. Every law he fulfilled perfectly. That's the only righteousness we have is our Lord Jesus. And then it says he waxed strong in spirit. Our Lord had a, he had a spirit, a soul just like his people have. He's, and all poets made like his brethren. He had a spirit, a soul like his people have. You know, people try to imagine that when you die, that's it. It's over, that's just it. Just this life. But we have a soul that is going to live eternally, either in heaven or in hell. And the Lord Jesus had a, he had a soul. His was perfect. His was perfect. He was not conceived in sin like we are. It says there in verse 40, he waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him. Our Lord Jesus, in some respects, he did not need the grace of God like we need it. We need the grace of God unmerited favor. We need God to choose us and continue to show us grace but without any merit in us. We didn't do anything to earn it. Our Lord was perfect. He's the only one who walked before God and earned God's favor. I mean, he was perfect. He deserved God's favor. But the grace of God was upon him in that he really took the form of a servant and submitted to the Father to provide all for him. You know, like I pointed this out before, I believe it's in John 6, where he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Our Lord, as a man, he went to where the Father directed him to his people, and he trusted the Father to draw his people to him. He's God that could do all of that, but he took the form of a servant. He really depended on the Father for all things. He, and this grace of God being on him, he was in union with the Father, in union with the Father, and everything he did pleased the Father. His favor was upon Christ because he was pleasing, Christ was pleasing to the Father. He is grace. We talk about grace, and grace is, it is grace. What is that, an attribute of God? It is something God gives to us, but the Lord Jesus himself is grace. He is grace. Grace, the grace of God was upon him. In this sense, too, he was full of the graces that God gives to his people, that God creates in us when we're born again. Our Lord was full of those graces. perfectly faithful, perfectly merciful, perfectly long-suffering, perfectly forbearing of himself. They were in him from the womb. Look at John 1. I think this bears this out in this light. John 1 in verse 14. The word was made flesh Christ the Word, the Incarnate Word, the Eternal Word became the Incarnate Word, was made flesh, dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That's who He is. Psalm 45 speaks of Him, and it says, Psalm 45, two, thou art fairer than the children of men. Grace is poured into thy lips, therefore God hath blessed thee forever. He was fairer than all the other children of men, the perfect child. And our Lord's wisdom, wisdom, he grew in wisdom, but he is wisdom. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge have always been in the Lord Jesus. He is the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Go with me to Isaiah 11. The Holy Spirit came upon the Savior at His baptism, but that was to visibly show us God's approval of Him, but the Spirit was upon Him from the beginning. Look here, Isaiah 11. He's one with the third person in the Trinity. He is the Son of God, one with God the Father and God the Spirit. So the spirit was always upon him. Look here, Isaiah 11 one. There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. The spirit, now look how it's a small s. This is the spirit that he had in him because he's He's a perfect man. It says, the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord, and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth, and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked, and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. You see, that's the spirit he had from birth, being the perfect man. But he did grow. Our Savior grew. Our Savior increased in those graces. In the spirit of wisdom, in the spirit of holiness, he grew. Now listen, he didn't grow more holy, did he? But he grew in that state of being one who was holy. He increased in wisdom and stature. He became taller. He became more mature. He was in favor with God and man. Now as a child, as a child growing up to a man, He increased in wisdom and stature, just like we do. He grew. In other words, he was a real man. And when he came forth, all those infirmities that we experience because of sin, though he knew no sin, he was spotless, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, but he experienced all those same infirmities we do. He sweat, he earned his living by the sweat of his brow. He faced all the same troubles that we face, hunger, thirst, all the things that we face. He had to experience all that. He had to be tempted in all points like his people are, brought into every trial his people are brought into in order that he knows how to comfort us and strengthen us He experienced it. This is how God's making him the perfect captain of our salvation, consecrating him. And he's experiencing everything we suffer. And he's doing it in perfect righteousness before the law, perfect wholeness of heart so that he can be our righteousness and our holiness. I just think this is so comforting to see, something that you might just read over and not really get into it much, but when you really start thinking about that our Savior went through every phase of life that we go through, somebody might say, what about old age and death? That came upon him quickly when he bore the sin of his people. He experienced all that you experience when you age. when he ate sin and bore the curse for us. That was a living death he bore. He didn't become here, when it says he increased in favor of God, it doesn't mean he became more liked by God. He perfectly pleased the Father. It means that all those graces that were in him, to the Father, it was joy, pleasure, delight to behold his son. well-pleasing in God's sight. He grew in charm and loveliness and all the things that come with the graces that God gives. He's the only one the father ever looked to and said, I'm well-pleased. Everything he did, he said, I'll always please the father. And he grew in favor with man. Joseph and Mary, I'm sure, became more delighted with him the more each stage of life that he grew. They just became more delighted with him, just like you do. As you learn more of him, you become more delighted with him, more pleased with him, growing in favor with man. Verse 46 and 47 illustrate this. We're gonna look at this another time, but for now we see an illustration of men favoring him. Here's partly what that means. In verse 42, he was 12 years old now, 12. Look down at verse 46. They had left him at Jerusalem unknowingly, by mistake, but when they found him, verse 46 says, they found him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions. Doctors of divinity. And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, they were amazed. And they continued to be, as long as he was a child, and he was a novelty to them. He was like this boy genius, you know, that knows all this about scripture. They said, how does he know these things, having never learned? But when he entered his public ministry, and he began to preach in Eclair, just right out of the gate, I've heard preachers say, you want to wait to preach on deep doctrine, you don't want to come out with that up front with me. And our Lord started his ministry declaring that the Lord passed by a lot of widows in Israel and lepers in Israel and he went to Gentiles and he was declaring election. He was declaring it's not where you're born that makes you a child of God, it's divine election. And when he preached that, when he stood up and read from Isaiah and said this is about me, today is this scripture fulfilled in your ears, They hated him, and they wanted to take him up to a cliff and throw him off a cliff. Loved him when he was just a kid, and it was just sort of novel to him to hear all what he knew. But when he grew up and told them, I'm God, and I'm the savior, and there's no coming of God but by me, and God saves whom he will, passes by whom he will, oh, they weren't in favor with him then. He wasn't in favor with them then. Our Savior though, and too, something you see here, here's an example of what it is to grow in holiness. He's holy, he's holy. Everybody will acknowledge he's holy from the womb. And here he is, he grew, he grew, but he didn't grow more holy. You either are holy or you're not holy. He was holy, but in that state of being holy, he grew up as holy. And that's how he grows his people, brethren. When we're born of incorruptible seed, he is the incorruptible seed, he's the word. And when he's formed in you, there's a new man created, incorruptible. Peter said, that hidden man of the heart, which is not corruptible, John said, He that's born of God, in that new man, we sin not because his seed remains in us. There's a holy man there. And you know, there's folks who say we're false preachers because we say that and we believe that. But I just don't understand why they would say it because that's something the Lord worked. That's a work of the Lord. to create a new man in his people. If he didn't do that in his people, what part of us is believing? Are we believing in our sin nature? Our sin nature can't do anything. It's dead. But this new man is created of God. And when you get to glory, you're gonna be perfectly holy and righteous through and through, body, soul, and spirit. Will we in that day, will we say, Don't, don't, that's taking glory to yourself. No, you'll be what the Lord made you. So we give him glory now for what he's done in his people. We didn't do it. No part of this is of us. It's all of the Lord. And the good news, when he does create a new man in you, that's when you stop seeing or looking at yourself and trusting in your works because that's the first time you behold that in my flesh dwells no good thing. That's when you begin to see that when I would do good, evil's present. And so you look from you to him and trust him alone. And he grows you in that state of holiness by showing you more of him, giving you more light to behold him. We'll look a little more at that in the next hour. But this is our Lord, this is what he works, this is what, when Christ entered the temple, or the tabernacle, in the wilderness, when he entered, the priests could do no work. They couldn't enter in, they couldn't do any work because of the Shekinah glory. And when he enters in, his child can't keep trying to do vain works to make himself righteous, because the glory of Christ is revealed. You see him, and you see he's your all. He's your all. God has, in Christ, he's made us fit to enter glory, just like the thief on the cross. We have what that thief had. You know, folks would say, well, he didn't know anything. Do you and me really know much? We don't know anything. What we know, compared to what there is to know about our glorious God, is like a thimble of the ocean, is what it is. So we're not boasting and do you want to stand before God based on what you know? I don't. And that's putting something between a sinner and Christ to say you have to know this certain amount of doctrine. We have what the thief on the cross had. Christ, that's all he had. I think that is one of the very best illustrations of a believer brought to Christ and what we have when we're brought to Christ. We have just what that thief had. That thief couldn't do anything himself. His hands and his feet are nailed to a cross. He's not working. He's not doing anything. Christ was his wisdom. Christ was his righteousness. Christ was his holiness. Christ was his redemption. Christ was all to him. Brethren, that's what the Lord is teaching you and me. That's how he's growing us, teaching us more and more. that Christ is all, he is all, he is all. This is, and I'll tell you this, you know, somebody might think it's not important to say that Christ is our holiness, we're not growing more holy, but here's why it's so important. Because Christ came to make his people one, one with God, one with one another, one in him. He came to make us one. And this doctrine that speaks of one believer getting more holy by his works, that doesn't create unity between brethren. That creates a haughty spirit and makes one feel better than another. One esteems himself better than another. And that puffs a man up. And that's not what Christ works. The way Christ grows is he brings you down. I'm gonna mess around and preach my second message if I'm not careful, but he's growing us down at his feet. And when you're truly sanctified inwardly, that's when you trust him for all. And you just grow in that. You don't grow more holy. Christ is our oneness of holiness. He's our oneness of righteousness. He's our oneness of acceptance with God. Every believer saved by Christ has the exact same oneness Everything's of Christ, all of him. In ourselves, Ephesians 4 said, he gives you the measure of grace according as he will. When children are born in a house, they're not all the same age and have the same understanding all at once. There's different ones, that's so. But because he makes us know it's all of the Lord, we don't glory that we did anything. We don't exalt one over the other. We know it's all of Him. Everything's of Him. Lastly, so how is this good news for the Lord's people? Well, I've been saying it, but everything our Lord accomplished for us is eternal. It's all eternal. He's God, so it's all eternal. He's man, so He really represented His people. Everything He did, He did for His people. He's perfect, we're perfect in Him. And so, because he's perfect, he's the only one that could take our place. He's the only one that could go to the cross. He's the only one that could be made sin for his people, because he's the only one that was perfect. And he did that, and he accomplished salvation. By his blood, our sins have been remitted, put away by him. We're righteous in him. Go to Hebrews 9. Hebrews 9. I'll point out to you here some words. Eternal redemption, eternal spirit. These are all why he had to be God and man. He's shedding blood as a man. He's accomplishing these things eternally because he's God. Verse 12, neither by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood because he was a real man. He entered in once to the holy place having obtained eternal redemption for us. Everything he did is eternal. If the blood of bulls and goats and ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean sanctify to the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal spirit, eternal spirit, he's God and man, he offered himself without spot to God, without spot as a man, he purges your conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Now, hold your place right here. read the rest of this, but you consider a man's last will and testament. You know, that's what the gospel is. It's God the father's will, his testament concerning his children. Now the child doesn't choose for the father to give him an inheritance. The father chooses who he'll give the inheritance to and what he'll give. That's the father. Well, that's so with our God. but Christ had to come forth, and he's the everlasting father of his people, and he's the testator, and for him to, for this to be in force, he had to die, and that's what he did for us. Now look here, verse 15. For this cause, he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. See, all our sins under that first testament, he put those away, and it's eternal redemption. He purchased eternal redemption. For where a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of the testator. For a testament is a force after men are dead, otherwise it's of no strength at all while the testator liveth. That's what Christ's one offering did. justified and sanctified his people, both. And the Lord pictured that when he put that First Testament in force, the Old Testament, he pictured this with Moses and with blood. Look here, verse 18, whereupon neither the First Testament was dedicated without blood, for when Moses had spoken every precept to all the people according to the law, That's like the reading of the will. Moses read every precept of the law. This is the Father's will right here. What does this blood represent? It teaches us that God knew from the beginning none of us would ever fulfill that will by us. Somebody's gonna have to die. And he said when he read all that according to the law, he took the blood of calves and goats with water and scarlet wool and hyssop. He dipped that hyssop in there and he sprinkled the book and all the people saying, this is the blood of the testament which God hath enjoined to you. God is the only one that can enjoin a testament to his people. He's the father. Only God and Christ is the only one that fulfilled that testament and then joins the New Testament to his people, where verse 21, Moreover, Moses sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things are by the law purged with blood. Purged. You have to be justified and you have to be sanctified. It's all by the blood. Without shedding of bloods, no remission, no sins put away without Christ's blood. It was necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with thee, but the heavenly things themselves were better sacrifices than these. For Christ is knotted into the holy place made with hands, which are figures of the truth. All that Old Testament was picture. but into heaven, he entered into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us. There's the good news of him being the God-man. He shed his blood for us. He purged us, he justified and sanctified us, and he through the eternal spirit offered himself without spot to God because he had attained eternal redemption 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. For then he must have often suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. That's what the true Lord Jesus did. One sacrifice. He put away the sin of his people. That sin will never again be charged to the people for whom he put it away. It's put away. Justice is satisfied. They'll never be charged with no sin. And as it's appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment, there's just one death, one judgment. Christ suffered that for his people. So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. That's the good news of our Savior being the God-man. By his blood as a man, offered himself through the eternal spirit as God, and accomplished eternal redemption. And he's the mediator of this New Testament. When you hear this gospel, and the Lord gives you ears to hear it, you're hearing the reading of the will. You're hearing the reading of God's will. And it's declaring, you're my child, and my will is, I'm giving you an eternal inheritance. and it's all, it's all given you because the testator is the Lord Jesus. He died, the death his people deserved, he died it, he finished it, he's the redemption. And the good news is too, he's our portion, he is our inheritance. It's so good to know Christ and it's so good to see what he did for you that when he reveals this to you, You turn from that vain, wicked work of wanting some better reward than another sinner in glory. You want the one who did it all. He's the only one we want. We want him. We want him. And the good news is all his people shall have him because we're his portion. He wants nothing but us. Isn't that wonderful? That's the good news of this one perfect child. the Lord Jesus. He's now risen, our perfect savior, our perfect ancestor. Let's go to him, brethren. God, our Father, we thank you for choosing your son. Lord, thank you that you're holy and righteous, sovereign. Thank you, Lord, for choosing us in him. Thank you for working this redemption and our savior laying down his life and shedding his blood for us. What a wise God you are. What a all-knowing, all-wise Savior. Lord, we thank you for leaving nothing in our hands. We ask you to give a heart to one of your lost sheep, Lord. Give them a new heart and read this will and testament in their heart. Make them hear this good news and make us, Lord, look only to Christ our Savior. Make us trust him alone. Lord, don't leave us to ourselves. Don't let us ever start leaning to our own understanding. We need you. We need you every hour. Keep us, Lord. And Lord, we thank you. How we thank you for grace so free and salvation so full and complete. Lord, we long for that day we'll be with our Redeemer. be with you and behold you as you are. Lord, forgive us now our sins. Keep us and hedge us about. Do it all for Christ's sake. In his name we pray, amen.