Luke 2. We'll begin reading in
verse 41 through the end of the chapter. Luke 2. I came across a phrase. I thought,
well, I'll start asking questions. Luke 2, and we'll begin in verse
41. Now this is Mary and Joseph taking
the Christ child to the temple. Now his parents, Christ's parents,
went to Jerusalem every year at the Feast of the Passover.
And when Christ was 12 years old, they went up to Jerusalem
after the custom of the Feast. And when they had fulfilled the
days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem,
and Joseph and Mary, his mother, knew it not. But they, supposing
Christ to have been in the company, went a day's journey, and they
sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance. And when they
found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, seeking him.
It came to pass that after three days, they found Christ in the
temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing
them and asking them questions. And all that heard him were astonished
at his understanding and answers. And when they saw him, that is,
his mother and father, they were amazed. And his mother said unto
him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us? Behold, thy father
and I have sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is
it that you sought me? Wished you not that I must be
about my father's business. And they understood not the saying
which he spake unto them. And he went down to them, and
came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them. But his mother kept
all these sayings in her heart. And Jesus increased in wisdom,
and stature, and in favor with God and man." Now, the thought
that I had in verse 49 the last phrase, wished you not, how did
you not know that I must be about my Father's business? So the
main thought I had after reading that was, what is the Father's
business? Would that be a legitimate thought
or question? That Christ was so eager to accomplish. What was the Father's business
that Christ was so eager to accomplish? Now, other readings the Arabic
and the Ptolemaic, the different versions of the Scripture. The
other readings of verse 49 are, instead of, my father's business,
it could read, my father's concern, or my father's affair. I like those as well. I would be about my father's
business, or my father's concern, one, my father's, it doesn't say businesses,
it says business. And we know there's only one
gospel. It's called the everlasting gospel, it's called the ancient
gospel, and it's concerning his son. It's concerning his son. My father's affair. So I ask
us today, what affair and what concern makes up the father's
business, makes up the father's purpose. If you can answer this
from the heart, not just the head, I think the Lord's done
something for us. The short answer, the short answer
is this. What is the father's affair?
What is his business? What is his concern? It is to
glorify himself by the redemption wrought by and in Christ Jesus
and only Christ Jesus, God's dear Son. That's the Father's
business. First and utmost is His glory,
and secondly, that glory was seen full out historically, you
know, 2,000 years ago when Christ, God's only Son, went to the cross,
suffered, bled and died on His folks' behalf, on His people's
behalf, and rose the third day. John chapter 17. Turn with me
to John chapter 17. And this is just a short answer
to that thought. The short answer, what is the
affair and what concern makes up the Father's business or His
purpose of grace? to glorify Himself by redemption. That's what the whole book is
about. We're looking at Deuteronomy on Wednesday. Deuteronomy, the
Hebrew would be called the second law. But Christ is all over that
and how He saves His people. John 17. Now this word glorified
is used seven times in 26 verses. These words spake
Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said father the
hour is come the hour is come glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee as thou has given him power over all
flesh that he the son should give eternal life to as many
as you have given him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
thou hast sent, I have glorified thee on the earth, I have finished
the work which you gave us me to do, and now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with
thee before the world was. So, what's His business? It's to glorify Himself in the
redemption of His people by His Son. It was His Father's business
that the Son would save His people from their sins, Matthew 1.21. It was the Father's business
to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself, Hebrews 9, for those
the Father had given Him in electing grace before the world began."
Ephesians 1 verse 4. Thirdly, and I could go on, I've
just got several here, but we could spend eternity on what
the Father's business was. Thirdly, it was the sole affair
of God the Father to prepare a body for His Son, Hebrews 10,
and thereby fulfill all things written against us, and to satisfy
the law and all that the prophets spoke regarding the Christ child,
Colossians 2. It was the father's business,
his concern, that dying, dead, vile, corrupt sinners, like we
are, the worst of the lot, would be able to stand before God the
Father in His holiness and His pure character, justified, clean,
and sanctified. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 and
31. He ushered in. Christ ushered
in righteousness on our behalf. Daniel 9. Doing for us what the
law said we must do, but couldn't do. were born in sin. Adam sinned. When he partook
of that forbidden fruit, he plummeted the whole human race in sin. The law says be perfect, for
I am perfect. You can't do it. Now religion
will try. They'll get you to walk an aisle,
or to shake a preacher's hand, or to get dunked in the baptism.
They'll do things to merit righteousness, but that's Actually, we'll be
like the woman with the issue of blood. We'll grow further
from God. We try to save ourselves. We
can't do it. This law is perfect. It's holy. It's righteous. That's what we
have to be. The more we try, we're like that woman, the worse
we get. The worse we get. It was the
Father's business that those whom He enabled to see their
need of Christ, enabled to understand the corruption that is in them,
Romans 3, enabled to cry, woe is me, I am undone, and a person
of unclean lips, Isaiah chapter 6, enabled to mourn and weep
and be graced to repent of ourselves for what we are, not just what
we've done, Romans 8, and thereby give God All the glory. And none
to man, none to self, but giving all glory to God. That's the
Father's business. Turn with me to Isaiah chapter 6. This
is what the prophet saw. Isaiah chapter 6. This is what
the prophet saw. Now he first saw, in the first couple of chapters,
Isaiah sees the people and he says, woe is you, woe is you.
He's pointing a finger. He says, you're doing this wrong,
you're doing that wrong. Woe is you, woe is you. And then,
in chapter 6, the Lord reveals Himself to him and he stops pointing
the finger. He starts saying, woe is me.
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up. And his train filled the
temple, and above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings,
and with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered
his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another
and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. The whole
earth is full of His glory. And the post of the door moved
at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! For I am undone, because I am
a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean
lips. For mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts."
That's what happens. That's God's business, is to
reveal His glory. And what's His glory? It's His
Son, and what He's done for His people. That's what we do when
we see what we are and who God is we say woe is me and he graces
us with repentance and we'll follow him in baptism and we'll
follow him in newness of life because we desire to be like
him but before that we've got many issues but this is our blessed
father's business this is his business Secondly, this business
of our fathers, Christ was eager to do, desired to do, He must
do. How did He do it? Again, I'm
pretty simple minded, so I keep it short. Two ways, by the preaching
of the truth, preaching of the gospel. The scripture says, never
a man spake like Christ, because the religion of the day, just
like this country, Lovely, wonderful country. Beautiful that it is.
It's so steeped in false religion, you could choke on it. There's
a church at every corner. I looked it up one time, I don't
think I had that paper. How many churches are in this
country? Denominations are in this country. It's staggering. And I don't
think we hold a candle to Russia. But this is how God will fulfill
the Father's business. He's sent to preach the Gospel. He's sent to preach the Gospel.
And secondly, by the sacrifice of Himself on Calvary's tree.
Turn with me for the first point to preach the Gospel, Romans
chapter 10. Romans chapter 10. We are all,
I say we are all those who believe Christ and trust Him and understand
His Gospel and what they are and what He's done for them.
You're a mouthpiece. Now yes, to preach the Gospel.
There's pastors and elders and deacons and stuff like that.
We gather together. But when you go to your various places
of work, or you go shopping or whatever, you're a mouthpiece.
If you believe Christ, you're a mouthpiece for Him. You say,
well, I can't say anything. If you can't say anything, just
invite them to come and hear the Gospel. Romans chapter 10 starting in
verse 11. For the Scripture saith, whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." On Christ. For there
is no difference between the Jew and the Greek. The same Lord
over all is rich unto all them that call upon Him. For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now I know
a lot of preachers, a lot of religious people, they'll just
quote that and they'll say, call on the name. You've got to know
who you're calling on. Is your God trying to save people?
Is your God twisting people's arms to try to come to Him? Or
is your God sovereign? That means, is your God, like
the Scripture says, none can stay His hand or say unto Him,
what are you doing? See, this is the God of the Bible.
This is not the God that's preached. It has been preached. I put articles
in the bulletin by preachers that we know. Tim James is coming. We know quite a few preachers
that do this. But it's in the way minority. Is your God on the throne? Is
He in control? Or is He just hoping somebody
will choose Him? Somebody will do something for
Him? No. No. How then, Shall they, these
sinners, call on Christ in whom they have not believed? How shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall
they hear without a preacher?" Well, I'm packing my own office. I'm promoting my own office.
No, the Lord can take me out tonight and raise somebody else
up. The preacher is nothing. The
message is everything. I'm nothing. I'm clay, just like
you. I'm a dead, dying sinner preaching
to dead, dying sinners. And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad things. glad tidings of good things,
but they have not all obeyed the gospel, for Isaiah said,
who have believed our report? That's Isaiah 53, who have believed
our report? So then faith cometh by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God. How does he fulfill God's business? He's going to declare who he
is, what he's done, and thereby glorify God the Father. And in
the meantime, through the preaching of the gospel, if it's effectual,
and he says that no word will come back void, so you either
love what you hear or you hate what you hear. There's no middle
road. You either say, I agree with that or I don't agree. And
you know whether you agree or don't agree with it right now. The preaching of the gospel or
the preaching of the truth. Not in error, I love Bruce's
comment years and years ago. If I tell you to go look for
Matt Workman, and I tell you he's 6'9", he's got red hair,
and you're going to look for this person and you're not going
to find him, because I didn't accurately describe him. And
that's what's going on behind the pulpit in most churches.
I've been a pastor for over 30 years. I've seen a lot and heard
a lot. People are just saying, oh, God's
trying to save you. Oh, He's doing this, He's trying
this. No, God doesn't try. He doesn't try to do anything.
He secured salvation, says Hebrews, by the sacrifice of Himself.
He came to seek and to save, to save His people. Not try to
save. If you'll agree, if you're cooperation,
It's not checkers. God makes a move, I make a move.
No. He will show you the truth. He'll
humble us. And we can't help. We can't resist
the Spirit, even though the scripture says you do resist the Spirit.
Humanly, we do. But once the Holy Spirit, the
third person of the Trinity, is just as sovereign as the second,
it's just as sovereign as the first. Who hath resisted His
will? That's why we pray, Thy will
be done, not our will be done. And it's not a question, it's
not a, well, His will is being accomplished. His will is being
accomplished. So you will be, by and by, brought
to hear, acknowledge, and believe this report. Who hath believed
our report? Isaiah 53. That's why it's called
good news. And God does it all. And we cannot
credit our intellect, our scriptural knowledge, our position in society
or position in church, we can't credit any of that for His salvation. It's His salvation. God will
get all the glory, all of it. And I like this, and I've never
really seen this before, but the scripture says, talks about
broken vessels, that's what we are. We're born into this world,
We're born broken vessels. Now what does the Scripture say
about broken vessels and holding water? It can't be done. And I've got to think, what's
water? That's the Word of God. We are but broken vessels, unable
to hold any water of His Word. We must hear the truth. And He'll
make it lodge. It's up to Him. The Holy Spirit
goes wherever He wants to. We can't grab it like wind. We
just preach it. We just proclaim it. And we don't
make up new doctrines. The book is done. The book is complete. It's all
written. The author's finished it. And what I have to do, or
what I need to do, or what I must do, is find this Christ and preach
it. That's why the hymn writer, Copper. Redeeming love. Redeeming love. We keep going back to that. We
keep going back to who He is, what He's done, what we are.
Most religions go about patching the old vessel. And that's what
Christ said about new bottles and new wine. You don't patch
the old. It's not an assembly where we're
just clapping and standing and hooplaing and feeling good. You may feel good and then you
walk out that door and God meets you face to face and you're like,
you know, I'm still a sinner needing the grace of God. So
that's why we gather here to worship, not to put on a show. Second thing, what did Christ
do? He sacrificed. Not only did He preach, He became
what He preached. 1 Peter 2. And verses 24 and 25, Christ,
who His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness
by whose stripes you are healed. For we were as sheep going astray,
but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls."
Thus He did specifically for His sheep, elsewhere called in
the Bible this unerring book, elect, remnant, chosen, the church. And I ask you, why else would
He come? Christ Himself was perfect. He didn't have to sacrifice for
Himself. That's what the Old Testament priests had to do.
They had to sacrifice for themselves, then they would go into the Holy
Holies. They didn't do that. They'd crawl underneath that
veil and they wouldn't come out. That's why they had a rope tied
to their ankle. And then they had the bells on the bottom of
their garments so they could hear them. The people outside
the tent, okay, he's still alive, I hear the bells. But if he went
in and did something that he wasn't supposed to do, he would
die and then they'd have to pull him out. No. Why else would Christ
come? He was perfect. He never sinned.
He always went about, says the Scripture, doing good. He healed
the sick. He fed the hungry. Yet often
He was misunderstood, mocked, beat, laughed at, found guilty
in a fixed, stacked trial. We talk about trials being stacked
nowadays. This one was worse. Stripped
naked and hung on a piece of wood. Not for Himself. He had to bleed and suffer for
us. For this He came, He came unto
His own, and the Scripture says His own mankind didn't receive
Him. That's how vile we are. But He
had His Father's business to attend to. And nothing could
alter His fixation or His Father's purpose. He was busy doing His
Father's concern, His Father's affair. Now, we have salvation. It's not possible. Christ didn't
come to make salvation possible. He didn't come to offer salvation.
Nowhere in the Bible does it say offer. He offered Himself
unto God. But nowhere does it say He offered
and then you decide whether... there's nowhere in the Scripture
that says that. He didn't make salvation possible,
but sure. Romans 4, sure to all the seed,
sure to all the seed. Sure, that's positive, that's
concrete, that's foundational. That's why that man that built
his hope on sand, That's Himself. That's His works. That's He's
trusting in His denomination. He's trusting in His giving.
He's trusting in something He's done. No, the man who built on
the rock, solid foundation, sure, steadfast, unmovable, I know we get tossed two and
four. We get sick like everybody else. We got to pay bills like
everybody else. We have trials, tribulations.
It's hard to live. And the older you get, it gets
harder. But we'll never be moved because
our foundation is Christ. We'll never be moved. That's
our hope. That's our hope. Now we have, the Scripture says,
the sure mercies of David, Isaiah 55. Sure because God is totally
sovereign. And we go back, keep going back
to that. Why do I keep going back to that? Because you go
out in the world, this country, that country, Mexico, it doesn't
matter where you go, the governments come and go, taxes come and go,
this comes and goes, there's nothing sure about this world
and how it operates. But our God is sure. He's steadfast. And He's not up in heaven wishing
and hoping that people... No. He rules and reigns, Scripture
says, in righteousness. He is who He is. It's sure because God is totally
sovereign and always in control. It's sure because God has promised
them these things to us All the promises in Christ are yes and
amen. Romans 8. Romans 8, verse 28 through the
end. This is how sure, we're not sure
about a lot of things, but that's why we need to be in the Scriptures
more. We need to see, you know, when this stuff goes on, and
then you say, That's okay. This is my confidence. This is
my hope. Because this Word, it's like
I've said the last couple of weeks, this Word is unlike any
other book ever written. Okay, it's written under inspiration
of God, and it's alive. It's a living book. And this
written Word is about the living Word, Christ. And if you're a
believer, you know what I mean. You'll be reading something that
you've read a hundred times, and you read it and something
pops out. And you're like, I've never saw that before. That's
because this book's alive. No other book's alive. No matter
Pilgrim's Progress, no matter how accurate and how good they
are. So we need to be spending time
right here. Romans 8. And we know, not assume,
but we know based on the Word of God that all things work together
for good to them that love God. Incidentally, them who are the
called according to His purpose, not our purpose. For whom He
did foreknow, that's forelove, He also did predestinate. Oh,
there's that word. Don't be afraid of it. It's always
in a positive context. Look at it. For whom He did foreknow,
He predestinated. To what? To be conformed to the
image of His Son. Don't you want to be? Don't I
want to be? That He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
And whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And them
He called, them He justified. And whom He justified, He glorified.
What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who
could be against us? If this is the only portion of
the Bible that you had, this would be enough to live for the
rest of your life. Go to your work, your boss chews you out.
If God be for me, who can be against me? This must be for
my good. I'll leave it with the Lord. He that spared not his
own son, now the action of the Son, but delivered him up for
us all, how shall he not with him? Also freely give us all
things. Do you have all things? You have
all things necessary. You don't have everything you
want. That's our problem. That's our flesh. That's the
old nature. I want, I want. No. A lot of
times he withholds stuff because it's not for our best interest. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? That's the context he's talking
about. The elect, the sheep, not the goats. It's God that
justifies. Who is he that condemns? It's
Christ that died, yea rather is risen again. Who is even at
the right hand of God who also makes intercession for us? Who
shall separate us from the love of Christ? Tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are counted
as sheep to the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded
that death, life, angels, principalities, powers, nor things present nor
things to come, nor height, depth, or any other creature shall be
able to separate us from the love of God. Where's the love
of God? This is what I wish this country
and these churches would understand. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus. It's in nowhere else. It's not
in the church. It's not in your doctrine. It's
not in denominations. It's not in mom and dad. They
don't pass it down. What mom and dad passed down
is sin. Nothing can separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. Are you, am I in Christ
Jesus? Come to Him and no one else. But lastly, I thought, well,
that should be good enough. No, we've got one more. Those who believe this morning,
are we not desirous to be more like Christ? Yes. I ask you, I ask myself, are
we about our Father's business? Are we about our Father's affairs? Are we about His concern? Now,
you go to work, you pay taxes, you submit to the authorities,
you go and buy and sell and get gains, says James, but remember,
if you are a believer, You are to seek Him first and
His righteousness. And that may be, that's painful
because we're of this world. We're in this world, I should
say. We're not of the world. Are we about the business of
our Father? As He says in Proverbs, in all
you're getting, get wisdom. And we know wisdom is Christ.
So it will not do you good. It may do your family good if
you're successful in business. But if you fail at this one point,
if you're not seeking Him, if you're not like Mary, sitting
at His feet, and Martha was serving, and that's what we need to serve.
We're servants. But she served, she was competing. No, we can serve Him and listen
to us. That's what we're doing. You
serve, you're paying, you're doing what you're supposed to
do. You're feeding your family. But even work, play, record, it doesn't
matter. Don't let it interfere with being
about your father's business. This is me too. Same thing. May the Lord bless the preaching
of His Word. Bruce, would you close this please?