The HIM Book

Q: What does the Bible say about the authority of Christ?

The Bible teaches that Christ's authority comes from God as He is God the Son, fully submissive to the Father's will. The Bible illustrates Christ's divine authority extensively, particularly in the interactions He had with the Pharisees. In John 5:39, Jesus instructs the Pharisees to search the Scriptures, asserting that they testify of Him. This emphasizes that His authority is not derived from human approval or law adherence, but is rooted in His divine nature as God the Son. His obedience and fulfillment of the law highlight His unique position in redemptive history and affirm that He embodies God's authority on earth.

Q: Why is the doctrine of Christ's sufficiency important for Christians?

Christ's sufficiency is vital as it teaches that salvation and eternal life are found only in Him, not in our works. The doctrine of Christ's sufficiency is central to sovereign grace theology, highlighting that through His perfect life, death, and resurrection, Christ has fulfilled all the requirements of the law on behalf of His people. As indicated in John 5:39, the Scriptures testify that eternal life is found in Him alone, revealing that efforts to attain righteousness through personal merit or adherence to the law ultimately fail. This freedom from the law's demands reassures believers that their standing before God is secure solely through the blood and righteousness of Christ, fostering not only security but also gratitude in the hearts of the redeemed.

Q: How do we know the Bible is about Christ?

The Bible reveals Christ as the central figure from Genesis to Revelation, testifying through both Old and New Testaments. The assertion that the Bible is fundamentally about Christ is supported by numerous scriptural references that point to Him as the fulfillment of God's promise of redemption. In Luke 24:27, Jesus expounds the Scriptures concerning Himself to the disciples on the road to Emmaus, demonstrating that all narratives and prophecies ultimately converge on His person and work. Whether it is the foreshadowing in the Old Testament or the proclamations in the New Testament, every passage is interwoven with themes that highlight Christ as the Messiah. Thus, readers are encouraged to view the Scriptures through the lens of Christ, recognizing Him as the key to unlocking the divine truths contained within the entire biblical narrative.

Q: What does it mean to preach Christ crucified?

To preach Christ crucified is to proclaim the entirety of God's counsel focused on Christ's redemptive work. Preaching Christ crucified encapsulates the essence of the gospel message, which asserts that salvation comes solely through faith in the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross. In 1 Corinthians 2:2, the Apostle Paul articulates his commitment to know nothing but Christ and Him crucified, emphasizing that true power in preaching comes not from human eloquence but from the Spirit of God. This approach to preaching acknowledges the necessity of Christ's sacrifice and affirms that every believer’s faith rests upon His completed work rather than on individual merit or worldly wisdom. Therefore, preaching that centers on Christ crucified is not merely about presenting facts, but about revealing the transformative power of Christ's sacrifice for sinners.

And this next book is called the hymn book. H-I-M book. Hymn book. It's all about Christ. That's what this book is right here. This book right here is all about Christ. Old Testament and new. It all testifies of our great King. It's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Okay. Open your Bibles, if you would, to the book of John, chapter 5. We'll read verse 39 of this wonderful book, this wonderful chapter here.

Our Lord has been dealing with the Pharisees, questioning where he gets his authority from. And we've been taught by the Holy Spirit that his authority comes from God Himself, and He is God. He's God the Son, fully submissive to God the Father's will. And His authority comes from God. God the Father, and God the Holy Spirit, and from Himself too, right?

Oh my. So we're gonna read one verse in this beautiful chapter. Our Lord says this, Now we cannot see this unless we have spiritual eyes. Unless we're born again and given faith to believe, and then the Holy Spirit teaches us the things of Christ. That's who the Holy Spirit's gonna teach us. He's gonna teach us about Christ and Christ alone. Now look what it says here, verse 39. This is the words of the Master.

Search the scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life, And they are they which testify of me. So man thinks by doing all this stuff, following all these laws, that they can be saved, or they're gonna get better standing with God. No, those laws point to our inability to save ourselves, right? And then we see that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness. He fulfilled the law on our room and place. Isn't that wonderful?

You know, we're free, beloved. We're free from our sin. Although we still have the presence of it, but one day we'll be totally free of it. We're free from the guilt of our sin. We're free from the penalty of our sin. And we're free from the power of our sin. It doesn't have the same hold it once had upon us. We're free from the law of God. We're free from the justice of God. We're free from the condemnation of God. My, why? Because of the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man.

The very one who says, search the scriptures for them. You think you have eternal life. Well, man thinks they have eternal life by doing certain things, don't they? But look what he says. And they are they which testify of me. Eternal life's in a person. Eternal life is in the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone. It's not found in a bunch of rules and regulations that you got to do. Now, we love the law of God. We love it, but we know we can't fulfill it.

God's taught us that, hasn't he? But he also has taught us that Christ, as the representative of his people, as a substitute of his people, fulfilled the law of God perfectly in our room and place. So we've been, and then we learn in Galatians, we've been redeemed out from under the law. The law had a claim on us. We were under the law. We're not under the law anymore, beloved.

Praise his mighty name. So he's telling them here, search the scriptures. Because they are they which testify of me. They testify of the Messiah. And who's standing right in front of them? The Messiah in the flesh. The Lord Jesus Christ. God incarnate in the flesh. And it's through his blood and righteousness. that sinners are saved only through his blood and righteousness. We cast ourselves upon him, don't we? Oh, yes, we do. Oh my, by the grace of God.

Now, beloved God, all the inspired books of the Old Testament and the New, all the books which make up the Bible speak of Christ. It's a hymn book, it's a H-I-M book. This book is all about Christ. from Genesis to the very end. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all about him. Oh, my.

He is the long-expected Messiah that the Old Testament saints were looking to. He's our substitute and our Savior and our Messiah, the Savior that we look to. Both looking to the same person, aren't they? Absolutely, there's only one Savior, one God, one Savior, one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. That's it.

I pray that men and women would learn this fact from the Bible, beloved, that this Bible is a book about Christ. It's a book about Christ. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. Every part of the inspired volume of God is all about Christ. All about him. As one writer said, it speaks of Christ, only of Christ, always of Christ. And that's true, isn't it? That's true. Oh my. Christ is the message of the Bible.

Do you know he's the key to the scriptures? Some doors, the old doors, sometimes they used to have an old door. You could not open that door without a key. Well, Christ is the door of the Father. And the only key that opens that door is Christ himself. So he's both the door and the key, isn't he? He's the key to the scriptures, beloved. He's the key to the scriptures.

My. You know, Christ is a message all through the Bible, all through the book of God. His blood is the scarlet cord all the way through the scriptures. It runs through every page, the blood of Christ. And it binds them all together. His glory is the light that shines from every text in this scripture, the glory of Christ. His person and work is the key that opens the treasure chest of divine revelation. This is a divine record, beloved, and He's the key that opens it, the Lord Jesus Christ, in Him alone. My. My, oh my.

Some people complain, they don't, they read the Bible, they say, well I read the Bible, and I'm talking about unsaved people. They read the Bible and they reason, well, it's very simple. I should be able to understand it, but they don't have the key. They don't use the key. And the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ is the key that opens this divine treasure chest.

To some, I remember when I read the scriptures before I was saved, and I heard a commentator say this, he said, to some, the Bible's like hieroglyphics in Egypt. Where we still can't even read some of them. You have to have special linguists to read those. But the Bible is a mystery if you don't have the key.

And the Holy Spirit teaches us who is the key, doesn't he? the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Holy Spirit has to give us an understanding of these words, or we'll never know them. That's why you must be born again. You must be. If you're not born again, you will not understand this book.

And God starts to reveal to us. You know, I like what Donny Bell said, a lot of times when people are coming to Christ and they're being, stuff is lighting up for them in the scriptures, they're already born again. Because how would they understand the scriptures without the Holy Spirit? Isn't that wonderful? So we have grace before grace, beloved.

God gives us faith to believe the message. There's a whole message of the Bibles about the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the object of our faith, isn't he? He's the object of our faith. He's our Redeemer. From beginning to end, the Old Testament says this, someone's coming. Christ the Redeemer is coming. And then the four gospels in the book of Acts say, Christ the Redeemer has come. And then the epistles in the book of Revelation say, Christ the Redeemer is coming again.

He's coming again. And these are not just words. These are not just sentimental phrases. God tells us exactly what's going to happen in His Word. He is the victor. He's already the victor. He's seated at the right hand of the Father right now. My, listen to this in Luke.

The Lord's on the road to Arimaeus with these two disciples and they're so discouraged Because Christ has died upon the cross He's been buried and they said the Lord Jesus said this to them ought not Christ to have suffered These things and to enter into his glory He had told them he said I'm gonna die, right? He told them on the third day I'll be rose again. And then listen to what the Lord said to these two on the road to Arimaeus. In beginning that Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the scriptures of things concerning himself.

From this book, he expounded things concerning himself. This is a hymn book, H-I-M. It's all about the Lord Jesus Christ. All about him. Beloved of God and sinner friend, I want to be perfectly clear here. I want to be perfectly clear so that no one can possibly misunderstand my meaning. The Lord Jesus Christ is the whole counsel of God. It's all about him. It's all about him.

To preach Christ crucified is to, do you know to preach Christ crucified is to preach the whole counsel of God? Someone say, you guys, all you do is preach Christ. Yep, we preach the whole counsel of God. We go through the epistles and we see Christ. We go through the Old Testament and we see Christ. We preach Christ. We go through the New Testament and we preach Christ. Because that's what this book's about. He said, again, he said, the law and the prophets, they testify of me to those two on the road to Ermaus.

In Acts chapter 20, verse 27, Paul says this, for I've not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God. Well, what did Paul declare? Well, let's turn over to 1 Corinthians and see what Paul declared. Whenever he went somewhere, let's see what he declared.

He says, I preached unto you the whole counsel of God. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. This is wonderful. This is wonderful. Paul's writing to the saints of God. And look what he says. Verse 1 to 5. And I, brethren, When I came to you, I came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom.

Now, there's some people out there, they can talk circles around us. They've been to theologic places, they can talk all this lofty language, and they love to talk about that. They love to show people how much they know. But that can't save a soul, can it? You ever think of that?

Preaching of Christ. The preaching of the gospel is what saves. The preaching of salvation through Christ alone, through his blood and righteousness, is what saves. Oh my. So Paul, and I believe Paul was a highly intelligent man. Look what he says, look it.

I didn't come to you with excellence of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God. So he's saying, I didn't come speaking lofty terms that would make your head spin. or make you scratch and go, I don't even know what he's saying. I've sat under preachers like that. I've sat under preachers that I walked out and I didn't understand half of what they even said. Give me a preacher who just declares Christ. Give me a preacher who just declares, because I'm a sinner, saved by grace, I need to hear about my savior. I don't need to scratch my head going, what in the world did that fellow say? Just tell me about Christ.

Now look at this. For I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. Wow. Look what Paul said. This is Paul the apostle. He could have went toe to toe with anybody in Corinth. Philosophers, all these other folks. Even his fellow countrymen, the Jews. He could have went toe to toe with them all. Look what he says. Look at this, this is remarkable.

He already tells us, I didn't come with excellency of speech. I didn't come to wow you by my knowledge. He says this, for I'm determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and him crucified. So when he said, I have not shunned to declare unto you the counsel of God, who did he preach? He preached Christ, beloved.

And then he goes on to say this. And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling." Paul being persecuted a lot. Look, he's human. He's not a super Christian, is he? Look at this. Paul says he was weak. Well, in our weakness, God's strong, isn't he? He says, and in fear. He feared. Our king says, fear not, my little sheep. And then, in much trembling, he was afraid. He was afraid of the situations he was in. He trembled at the word of God. He's just like you and I, beloved.

And he says this, in my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words. He wasn't looking for money. No. He was pointing them to Christ. This is what's, I'll tell you what, if I ever talk to a young preacher who's just starting out, this is what I'd say. Preach Christ. Don't get caught up in all, you can learn stuff, but don't, when you get in the pulpit, don't use lofty words, just preach Christ. He must get the preeminence. He must be number one. Not only in the pulpit, but in our lives. Look at this. And my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. Oh, he didn't spin man's heads. Letting them know how much he knew. No. Look at this.

This is where the power comes from. This is where the power comes from. but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power. God makes the preacher. God gives the preacher a message. And God takes that message with power and converts sinners. And all the preacher is is a mouthpiece.

It doesn't matter how much I know and how much I don't know. I got a message. I got the message. Salvation's in Christ and Him alone, plus nothing by us. It's all in Him! Hallelujah, beloved! Isn't that wonderful? In this book, the hymn book, tells us about Him. Tells us about Christ, doesn't it? Tells us all about Christ.

And look at this, that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of man, that you not be a man's convert. Oh, there are a lot of people out there that are man's converts. Bow your head and repeat this prayer. Now you're part of the church of God. Now they just repeated a prayer you told them to. Where's the Holy Spirit regeneration in that? Where's the demonstration of the Spirit and power? It must be born again. Look at this. As your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Hallelujah. Isn't that wonderful? In the power of God. Oh my beloved God, any sermon that does not have for its motive, its substance, and its conclusion the glory of Christ, the work of Christ, the faith in the person of Christ, ought never to have been preached.

My The Bible is like an alabaster box. Remember that lady who bought that precious alabaster box? Remember that? Remember she broke it and it contained precious perfumes and spikener? You know what it is? preacher's commission to bring the alabaster box before our hearers. The alabaster box of Christ. Oh my. Bring it into the assembly of the saints and break it open. Oh my. And fill the room with the precious fragrance of Christ and him crucified for sinners.

Blessed Blessed is the man who does this and blessed are the people who hear that man And we're not blessed because anything we do in ourselves. We're blessed to know Christ We're blessed to know Christ And you know why you know why it's such a blessing to have Christ preached to us Because we're going to rejoice in our wonderful merciful Savior and we're going to give him all the glory and honor and praise. Oh my Amen, and amen

The HIM Book

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the authority of Christ?

Why is the doctrine of Christ's sufficiency important for Christians?

How do we know the Bible is about Christ?

What does it mean to preach Christ crucified?

Sermon Transcript

About Wayne Boyd

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The HIM Book

Key Quotes

What does the Bible say about the authority of Christ?

Why is the doctrine of Christ's sufficiency important for Christians?

How do we know the Bible is about Christ?

What does it mean to preach Christ crucified?

Sermon Transcript

About Wayne Boyd

Comments

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