In the book of Matthew, chapter
22, there's several different groups. You might look at them
like denominations. We have denominations today.
People all who claim to be Christian but who believe different things,
even different Gospels. In Matthew 22 there were various
groups of Jewish people. You had what they called the
Herodians. They were followers of Herod.
They wanted the Greek culture to infiltrate the Jewish culture.
And then you had others. You had the Pharisees. Of course
you had the Sadducees. You had Zealots. You had Essenes.
All kinds of different views. And they came together to ask
Jesus of Nazareth some questions having this in mind that they
wanted to trip him up They wanted to catch him and that's that's
never a good way to approach anybody if you want to discuss
issues of eternal life and salvation I often, when I talk to people,
I try to ask them questions that forces them to think about what
they claim to believe. I'm not trying to trap them,
I just want them, you know, most people today who claim to be
saved, claim to be Christian, they don't think a whole lot
about what they believe. Most that I run into. And so
I try to ask them questions, do this, but they ask the Lord
these questions, trying to trip him up, and finally, and they
couldn't, obviously they couldn't Achieve their their goal with
the Lord of Glory So finally he asked them a question. He
said let me ask you a question and In Matthew 22 and verse verse
42. He says what thank ye of Christ
Whose son is he now the word Christ is a title and When Romans
here in chapter 1 and verse 1 Paul a servant of Jesus Christ All
right, what think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? What think you
of Messiah? Now today, if you go around this
town especially and most other places, well, somebody might
say, well, everybody knows Jesus Christ. Everybody knows Jesus. And if you consider what the
scripture teaches, what the Bible says, which many people ignore
or many people confuse. One of the things that it tells
us that we need to be wary of is the fact that there are counterfeit
Christ, false messiahs. In fact, the Bible tells us that
that will be the greatest sign of the last days. People will
claim to believe in Christ, Jesus Christ, but it's a false Christ. It's not the Christ of the Bible.
Paul dealt with that in passages such as Galatians 1, when he
talked about those who come preaching another gospel. He dealt with
it in 2 Corinthians 11, when he dealt with those who, he said,
they preach another Jesus. And you know, in the Greek, there's
two words for another. There's another of the same kind,
and then there's another of a different kind. And the word he used there,
another Jesus, is another of a different kind, a counterfeit. Christ himself said in Matthew
24 and in Mark 13, talking about the last days that they'll come,
they'll say, now here's Jesus. We preach Jesus. But he said,
don't listen to them. Because they're preaching another
Christ, another Jesus. So when the question is asked,
who is, what think ye of Christ? What are your thoughts? When
you think of Jesus, and you know what the name Jesus means, we're
gonna talk about that. When you think of Jesus, what
are your thoughts? What think ye of him? Because
what you think of him may be a lie. May not be, but how can you know? Well, what saith the scripture? That's the only way we can know
now. You say, well, that's a Christian church over there. Well, is it?
You say, well, I'm gonna take that for granted. That is one
of the most dangerous things that any, I'm talking about even
this church. We claim to be a Christian. Don't take it for granted. I'm
preaching Christ to you. Don't take that for granted.
You say, well, you want everybody to be suspicious. No, I want
you to be a noble Berean. That's what God called them,
the noble Bereans. I want you to make sure, I want
you to climb into the word of God. Today in the message, I'm
going to talk about the record that God has given. How do I
know what I believe is true? How do I know that what somebody
else believes that's different is false? It's because of the
record. You say, well, I'd rather not
delve into that. I just want to accept everybody. Well, go
ahead. God will separate the sheep from
the goats in the end, won't he? If that's the way you want to
be, that's not wise. That's foolish. So what think
ye of Christ? Well, you know what their answer
was in Matthew 22. They said, well, Christ said, whose son
is he? Well, they said he's David's
son, King David's son. He's a descendant of the, they
knew from the Old Testament scriptures that the Messiah was going to
be, the Christ, the anointed one, was going to be a descendant
of David, the tribe of Judah. And that's true. All right? Look at it in verse 1. Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated unto
the gospel of God, which he had promised afore before by his
prophets in the Holy Scriptures. And you know, that's the Old
Testament Scriptures that promised Jesus Christ, the Anointed One,
Verse three, concerning his son, Jesus Christ our Lord, which
was made of the seed of David according to the flesh. So they,
they answered correctly in Matthew 22 there. He's David's son. Well, yes, his, his sinless humanity,
his sinless human nature. came through the human lineage
of David without the aid of man because you know somebody said
well Joseph was a descendant of David but Mary wasn't Mary
was too Mary was his human mother she was a descendant of David
he was made of the flesh not sinful flesh but of the flesh
of the seed of David so they answer correctly but then he
posed another question to him Now, talking about Messiah now,
think of it in terms of the Old Testament view of it, Messiah,
the anointed one, the Christ who would come. And they said,
well, he's of the seed of David. That's true. You can find all
kinds of scripture to back that up, the record that God has given
to know who Christ is. In his holy, sinless humanity,
he was made of the seed of David, conceived in the womb of the
virgin by the Holy Spirit without the aid of man. That holy thing,
remember the angel said? So he was made of the seed of
David. Well, Christ said, well, but David called him Lord. Now I love my sons, but I've never
called him Lord. You don't call your children
Lord. Do you? What that was when David said,
Lord, it was a term of worship. So here's the question. If he's
David's son, how can he be David's God? You don't worship anyone
but God. The Hebrews knew that. You don't worship anyone but
God and David worshiped him. David wrote praises to him. David
acknowledged him as God. So how could he be both David's
God and David's offspring? And it says there, no man was
able to answer him. And they didn't ask him any more
questions. They said, we don't fool this fella anymore. He asked
us a question we can't answer. You know, I find that's all too
common among people. They take this, they take a position
on something concerning salvation, concerning the gospel. And you
might have some questions, you know, which if what they're claiming
to be true is true, shouldn't be a problem. All you got to
do is go to the scriptures. Here it is. And so they don't
want to talk anymore. Just go along their merry way.
Well, how can he be both David's God and David's offspring? Well, Paul answers that. Look
at verse three. concerning his son, Jesus Christ
our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the
flesh, that's his humanity, his sinless humanity, and then verse
four, and declared to be the son of God. He wasn't made to
be the son of God like he was made to be the seed of David.
See, his humanity had to be created, and it was created in the womb
of the virgin by the Holy Spirit. His humanity had a beginning,
but He was only declared. It was revealed, it was manifested
who He already was in His deity. He's declared to be the Son of
God, the second person of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit. The Alpha and the Omega having
no beginning and no end, the Word that was before. By which all things were made
and by whom all things consist. He was declared to be the son
of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by
the resurrection from the dead. Now, why did the resurrection
from the dead declare him to be God? Well, because only God
can raise from the dead. Only God, now somebody said,
well, didn't the apostles raise the dead only by the power of
God, not by their own power. This false prophet named Benny
Hinn, he claims to have raised people from the dead. He's lying.
He is a liar. You see, Christ, the Messiah,
Jesus Christ, is both God and man, sinless man, in one person. Now, why did he have to be both
God and man in one person? Well, now we come to the doctrine,
that's the doctrine of his person. Now we come to the doctrine of
his redemptive work and jump over to verse 16, okay, of Romans
1. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, the good news of Messiah. For this gospel is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. Now you've got
to keep it in the context of the gospel now, the good news
of Messiah, who he is, but not just who he is, but what he accomplished.
That's the gospel that's the power of God and salvation. If
I stand up here and tell you a lie about who Jesus Christ
is and about what he accomplished on Calvary, if I'm lying to you
on that and I can't back it up with scripture, then what I'm
telling you, it can never be the power of God unto salvation.
That word power there, we get our English word dynamite from
that Greek word power. The dynamite of God. And it's
such to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first and also to
the Greek. Now the Greek was a way of referring to Gentiles
generally because the Greek influences had began to permeate the culture there. But look at
verse 17. Now here's why he had to be both
God and man in one person. For therein is the righteousness
of God. revealed from faith to faith
and is written the just or the justified shall live by faith
the reason he had to be both God and man is because he had
to work righteousness as God-man as the surety and substitute
of his people you see the good news of the gospel is the establishment
the working out of the righteousness of God not the righteousness
of man You say, well, Jesus Christ was a man. Yes, but he wasn't
man only. He's the God-man. And only God
can work the kind of righteousness that you and I need in order
to be saved and justified before God. Now, in order to do that,
he had to meet all the conditions. Before the foundation of the
world, all the conditions of the salvation of his people were
laid upon him. put upon his shoulders in the
covenant of grace. So who is Jesus Christ? Well,
the Bible says this in Romans 10, 13. It says, whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now calling upon
the name of the Lord is something very unique. For example, If
you were in a crowd of people, let's say 100 people or 200 or
whatever, and you stood up with a microphone and you hollered
out, hey Bill! How many people you think would
turn around? That's a pretty common name. When Debbie was teaching out
at Lee County, there was a teacher out there named Bill Parker,
William Parker. I used to tease him all the time.
I said, just send your check to me, and I'll sign it. We'd
tease each other. I know when I was up in Ashland,
there was a Methodist preacher up there named Bill Parker. And
we used the same dry cleaner, and I got his laundry one time.
I went and put on a coat, and it came up to here on me. So
that Bill Parker was a little short fella. But that's a common name. Or
hey, John. How many people? Going to turn
around. But now calling upon the name
of the Lord is not like that. Calling upon the name of the
Lord is calling upon someone who is specific that there's
none other name, Peter said there's none other name given among men
whereby we must be saved. If you call upon this name, there's
not two or three fellows who are gonna look around. This is
a specific name that is only held by one unique glorious person. who did one unique, glorious
thing. And He is God in human flesh. He is God with us. Emmanuel,
His name shall be called Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. If you call upon the Savior,
there's only one person. who's identified and distinguished.
And he is the righteousness of God. The righteousness, that
phrase, the righteousness of God, is another way of referring
to Christ in the glory of his person and in the success and
power of his finished work to do what? To save his people from
their sins. That's his name. Now, if in your
mind, now remember what Christ, when he asked the question, he
said, what think ye of Christ? He didn't even say, what do you
say about him? Even though that is important.
It's important what I say about Christ this morning, isn't it?
But what I say to you about Christ begins right here in my mind,
in my heart. What do you think of him? What
are your thoughts? What are your assessments? What
are your distinctions in your mind? You see what I'm saying? When you say the name Jesus,
what does that mean to you in your thoughts? And are your thoughts
consistent with God's thoughts? Well, how am I going to know
God's thoughts? In a dream? In a vision? No! In his word. These are God's thoughts. God
says, this person is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
This morning I'm going to preach on witnesses, the witness of
God. What did God say about him? Whatever
God says about him, that better be my thoughts of him. Isn't
that right? That better be what I say about him. Now here comes
a Jehovah's Witness. What does he say? What is his
thoughts? Well, he's not God. He was made
the son of God because he was so obedient or he did so many
miracles. He's not calling upon the same
Jesus I'm calling upon. Here comes somebody, you know,
preachers today say, God loves everybody. Christ died for everybody.
The rest is up to you. Is that what God says? God says he's the righteousness
of God. And that's the justice of God
in his surety ship, in his substitutionary work to work out righteousness. God says that everyone for whom
he died shall be saved. And that's what he said. John
wrote of Jesus as the word who was with God, the word who was
God, the word who was made flesh. And it said he shall save his
people from their sins. Is he able to do so? His name
shall be called Emmanuel, God with us. Jesus means savior,
salvation. God our salvation. It's not identifying
or distinguishing anyone who's making a stab at it or trying
to save you if you'll let him. That's not what the Bible teaches.
That's not the record that God has given. Christ said, all that the father
giveth me shall come to me and him that cometh to me I will
in no wise cast out. He prayed in his high priestly
prayer, he said, Father, glorify thou me with the glory which
I had with thee before the world began. That's who he is. And he said that I may give eternal
life to as many as thou hast given me. His name is Jesus. The title,
the Christ is a title. that identifies him as the anointed
one, the Messiah. Now I want you to turn to Hebrews
chapter 2. I picked out a scripture. It's
kind of like what I did last week when I introduced the apostle
Paul and went to Philippians 3. That's his spiritual autobiography. Now Paul begins the book of Romans
by identifying Jesus Christ as God in human flesh, descended
from David according to the flesh, and declared to be the Son of
God with power by the resurrection from the dead, and as the one
who accomplished the salvation, secured the salvation of all
for whom he died, all for whom he stood as surety, and all for
whom he substituted himself, all for whom he lived, died,
was buried, and arose the third day. as the righteousness of
God, and that's Christ's righteousness imputed, that's what that's talking
about. That's the justice of God satisfied by Christ for his
people so that God can not charge them with sin. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It is Christ that died. You see,
the whole realm of justification Uh, as based on redemption, the
redemption that Christ accomplished that brings centers to salvation
and gives them life from God. You say is that is the death
of Christ, which works out into righteousness. And that's why
he arose from the dead. Sin demands death. Righteousness
demands life. But look here in verse 14 of
Hebrews chapter two. There's a lot of passages you
could go to that would describe the specifics of the person and
work of Christ, but this is one of my favorites because it goes
into every aspect of it. Look at verse 14. It says, for
as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood.
Now, who are the children? Well, they're God's elect, chosen
people, children of God. He mentions them back up here
earlier when he talks about the church, you know. He talks about
his brethren. But they're partakers of flesh
and blood. That's what, you know, we all
share in that, don't we? We're all made of flesh and blood.
With all of our differences, every one of us, flesh and blood.
Well, it says he, that is talking about Christ, And here's what
I was trying to look at, in verse 13 up there, before it says,
behold I and the children which God hath given me. See, that's
the elect, given to Christ before the foundation of the world.
And then, for as much then as the children are sharers or partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise in the same way took
part of the same. Now, how can it be said that
Christ, in the same way, took part of flesh and blood? Well,
He had a human body just like we have, a soul just like we
have, that was created for Him in the womb of the Virgin by
the Holy Spirit. And it was real flesh, real blood,
physical. Now there is a major, major,
major difference between our human flesh and Christ's human
flesh. And that major, major, major
difference is the fact that we are sinful human flesh. He is
perfect, holy, undefiled, separate from sinners human flesh. And
he stayed that way, even on the cross. His humanity was not corrupted
or contaminated by the flesh, by sin, but sin had been imputed
to him by God. In the everlasting covenant,
the sins of his sheep, the sins of his people, the sins of his
elect, the sins of his church. The legal debt of sin had been
imputed, charged, accounted to Christ. He took responsibility
to pay that debt. That's the imputation of sin
to Christ. That's how he was made sin, as per 2 Corinthians
5, 21. And that's the only way he was
made sin. There's no other way. These preachers are telling people,
well, there was some mysterious way that he either became contaminated
or imparted with it or imbued with it or whatever they say.
That's not true. That's heresy. Sin was charged
to him. He said, he told the father,
put it on my account. I'll be responsible to pay the
debt. Now, what did it take to pay
the debt? Well, look at verse 14 again.
That through death, through death, he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the death. That's what it took, his
death. He had to have a sinless human body body and soul, blood,
flesh and blood, in order to die. God cannot die. You can't kill God. But this
person who is God, he did die. And that's to be attributed to
his humanity. That's why he had to do it. Now
he speaks here about the devil. having the power of death. Look
at it. That through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. Well, it's
through Christ's death that the devil was cast down. You can
read about that in several passages of scripture. John 12 is one
of them. But the devil is said to have the power of death here.
Now how is that? How does the devil have any power
in the realm of death? It's not because the devil can
kill people and make them alive. The devil doesn't have that power.
That's not to say that the devil, like people, can be instruments
in death. Just like you pick up a knife,
you kill somebody, or pick up a gun, you shoot somebody. And
people today are saying, that gun killed, no, that gun didn't
kill anybody. That's the person who's behind
that gun killed them. That's the problem. It's not the gun. You can pick up a club and kill
somebody. You can run somebody over with
a car. The car didn't do it, the person
driving did it. And that's the issue. The devil doesn't have
the power of death and life. Only God has that power. Remember what Job said when all
his children were killed? He said, the Lord killeth, the
Lord maketh alive. Blessed be the name of the Lord. So when we talk about the power
of death of the devil, you're not talking about the power to
give life or to take it. God alone has that power. But
here's the point. The devil first introduced sin
into the world, and sin brought death. He was a murderer from the beginning,
God said. Christ said to the Pharisees,
John 8, 44. And how did he murder people? He told a lie. And he
still tempts people to sin, and he deceives them with legal fear
of death that motivates them to seek ways of salvation that
are false and lead to death. 2 Corinthians 4.3, if our gospel
be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of
this world has blinded the minds of them which believe not. And then he also accuses the
brethren. Now, who are the brethren? Well,
they're sinners saved by grace. They're sinners for whom Christ
died. And so he accuses, what does
the devil, he's called in Revelation 12, he's called the accuser of
the brethren, accuses them day and night. What does he accuse
them of? Of sin, being sinners. And sin brings death, the wages
of sin. But here's the point. By His
obedience unto death on the cross as the surety and substitute
of His people, Christ has destroyed the devil and his power of death. Christ took the full measure
of God's wrath for our sins imputed to Him. He paid that debt in
full. He redeemed us from our sins. We're washed in his blood, and
he established righteousness for us that's imputed, that God
has imputed to us, charged to us, whereby we stand before God
justified, and when the devil accuses, his charges do not stick. Now look at verse 15. He said, and deliver them who
through the fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. That legal, that fear of death there is that legal
fear that the devil promotes to stir up people in false religion
seeking ways of salvation that will lead to death, the broad
road that leads to destruction. And how are we delivered from
that? When God the Holy Spirit in the
new birth gives us eyes to see, shines within our hearts to let
us see the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And it's verse 16, for barely
he took not on him the nature of angels. He didn't come to
save angels. The fallen angels have no savior. Are there fallen
angels? The Bible says there are. Satan's
one of them. And he led a great company out.
They have no savior. You know, people today who get
upset about the fact, they say, well, God's not trying to save
everybody. They get upset about it. They never get upset about
the angels who fell. What about them? There's no savior
according to the Bible now. I had a fellow tell me one time,
he said, well, there's a mysterious book that some swami found, you
know, that where God, enough said. He took on him the seed
of Abraham. Now who's the seed of Abraham
in the Bible? Well, that's the Jews. No. Regulations three,
it's believers. God's elect out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. Chosen of God, redeemed by the
blood of Christ, justified based on His righteousness imputed,
and brought to faith in Christ. The Israel of God. And verse
17, wherefore for this reason and all things it behooved Him.
That word behooved is the Greek word for debt. He was obligated. He obligated Him. Because God
chose him and he agreed to it, to save his people as surety,
it obligated him to be made like unto his brethren. He had to
be made flesh and blood without sin. And that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest. Remember the high priest represented
the people, brought the blood of the lamb into the holiest
of all, presented it before God. That's what Christ did. He's
the high priest of his people. the great high priest, he's the
lamb slain, it's his blood, the very holiest, in things pertaining
to God. This is how God sees it, how
God views it. This is for the glory of God.
This is so that God can be just and justifier to make reconciliation,
that's the same word as propitiation, which means justice satisfied
for the sins of the people. In other words, justice is satisfied
for the sins of these people. And they shall be saved. That's
who Jesus Christ is. He shall save his people from
their sins. All right, we'll close there.