Now, if you have your Bible open
to the Gospel of Matthew chapter 22, follow with me, if you will,
as I read, beginning with verse 41 down through verse 46. While
the Pharisees were gathered together before they got away, before
they got off of the hook, Jesus asked them, saying, What think
ye of Christ, whose Son is he? They say unto him, The Son of
David. He saith unto them, How then doth David in spirit call
him Lord, say? How does David, when he is in
the Spirit, being led by the Spirit, understanding the truth
by the Spirit, call him Lord? The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit
thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
If David then call him Lord, how Is he his son? He must be more than that. How
can he be his son if David called him his Lord? And no man was
able to answer him a word. They were not able to give an
answer. They were not able to tell him
whose son Jesus Christ is. Neither does any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. Our subject this morning is what
think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? Now the Lord Jesus during the
days which preceded his being offered up for us on Calvary's
cross was examined and questioned both by friends and foes. He
was questioned by the Pharisees, you remember. He was questioned
by the Herodians and the Sadducees and the lawyers. They tested
him and tried him, yet they could not trip him up. Yet they were
not able to tangle up his speech. They were not able to compound
the Lord Jesus Christ. If we read this chapter, if we
have read this chapter in that light, I think it's very interesting
as it exhibits the unassailable perfection of our divine Redeemer. Certainly He was perfect in every
way, and certainly He understood the hearts of men perfectly,
and He understood these different ones that was questioning Him. Now when the gospel is preached,
Men do not tell us to our face that there is no truth to our
message. But generally, instead, they bring up questions, they
present difficulties, frivolous inquiries, or less important
topics, they bring up these things to, as it were, to evade the
truth of the gospel because they would debate with us irreverent
subjects rather than face the invitations and the plain declarations
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. They're kind of like
a fish I read about that was called the cuttlefish. which
escapes its enemies by clouding the waters all around it. So
they avoided the serious questions of the Word of God. They avoided
those things which were important, as it were, by just avoiding
what was said, by bringing up frivolous things, and by talking
about irrelevant things, talking about things that didn't matter
one way or another, and therefore they were able to put off or
push off out of the way those serious questions that need to
be answered by the souls of men. So it was so in Christ's day.
And it's plain to see as we read this chapter and as we think
about it, and it certainly is so now. Human nature has not
changed. It is so now. If you pin somebody
up and begin to press them, there's various questions that they will
raise. various difficulties that they
will present, various problems with the truth, both historical
and scripturally, that they will present to throw you off and
to entangle you and to fix it so you will not be able to pin
them down with the truth about their soul. So, Jesus would not
let them off the hook here. He would not let these Pharisees
and these Sadducees And these Herodians, off of the hook, he
would pin them down before it was over, before they were able
to slip away, and he asked them, in verse 42, this important question,
this inquiry about himself, this question of the day, he said,
What thank ye of Christ, whose son is he? Now, beloved, there
is something here that we need to pick up on, I believe, immediately. Now, what think ye of Christ?
This is the most important question that you will ever be faced with
in your life. You say, it sounds like a very
easy question to answer. But my friend, have you ever
answered it in the very depth of your soul? Have you been able? Do you know who Jesus Christ
is? Do you know more about Him than
what the world knows about Him? Do you know more about the Lord
Jesus Christ than what those around you know about Him that
claim to be what we might call orthodox Christians? Well, this
is an important question. Is He the Wonderful, the Counselor,
the Mighty God in your esteem? Are you saved by Him? When a man is at the point of
death, the question is not where we can find him a better suit
of clothes, but the question is how can we restore that individual
to life. That's the main point, is how
do we get him back to a state of health? He's sick and he's
desperately ill, how can we get him back to the place where that
he feels well again and where he's in robust health? When the
ship is going down, the one thing needful is where is the lifeboat? Where is the live ghost? My friend,
there are issues that we must deal with, issues that we must
face. Ere we go into eternity, we must
deal with this. Well, who is Jesus Christ? Who is this Jesus, this Son of
God? What thinking of Christ? Suppose you were to die tonight,
what difference would it make whether your stocks went up or
down in this world tomorrow? What difference would it make?
What difference would it make? Get real, my friend. Now let
us take a look at the questions that these various ones ask.
the Lord Jesus Christ. And as we do that, then I think
that we'll be able to see exactly what it was they were asking,
and even though some of these things were very, very important
and they were intelligent questions, they were not the most important
question, the question of the day, the question of the hour.
And we're going to impress that upon your mind as we go along
this morning. Now if you look from verses 15
through 22, you have the first question that was asked of the
Lord Jesus Christ. verses 15 through 22. And the
Pharisees, you take note, they took counsel, they talked together,
they kind of worked this thing out among themselves, how they
might entangle the Lord Jesus Christ. And they sent out unto
him their disciples with the Herodians, saying, Master, we
know that you're true and you teach the way of God in truth.
Neither carest thou for any man, for thou regardest not the person
of men. Tell us, therefore, what thinkest
thou? We got this question and we want
you to give us an answer to it. Is it lawful to give tribute
unto Caesar or not? Is it lawful that we should give
tribute, pay taxes to Caesar? Or how far does Caesar's rule,
how far does his rule go? How far are we to go in this
business of being loyal to an earthly monarch, to an earthly
king? How far are we to go with this?
And where does it end? What thinkest thou, Master? But
Jesus perceived their wickedness. He knew what they were up to.
He knew exactly what they were trying to do. And so he said,
Why do you tempt me, ye hypocrites? Show me the tribute money. Show
me the tax money. Show me the coin. And they brought
unto him a penny, and he said unto them, Whose is this image
and superscription? They say unto him, Caesars. Then
saith he unto them, Then ye render therefore unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's. Now, beloved, we must recognize
the fact that this is a legitimate question. We know that it is. We recognize that in this world
there are those that have ruled over men, who not only ruled
over their bodies, but ruled over their very souls, ruled
over their very hearts, ruled over their consciences, and we
know that that's going too far with Caesar's rule. We know that
our hearts, our souls, and our consciences belong to God. Our conscience is under law to
God alone. Man's conscience is under law.
You render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto
God the things that are God's. Caesar is to stay out of those
areas that belong to God and God alone. Caesar is not to teach
us our religion. He has tried to do so many, many
years ago. You remember how that many, many
people were under persecution back in the days of the Dark
Ages? Under persecution simply because
Caesar, as it were, the government, was dictating the religion to
the people. And so therefore we need to be
aware of the fact, and we do believe in liberty of conscience
towards God. We do believe that our conscience
is free to serve God. We are bound towards Him to believe
what He tells us and to do what He bids us. Liberty of conscience
in respect to men It's a natural right, I believe, of every man
and every woman, and it ought to be tenderly respected. It truly ought to be. Because
that which belongs to Caesar needs to be rendered to him in
order that Caesar might keep order, in order that we might
live peaceably in the world, in order that our bodies may
be kept in a state of safety, the world. If you read the 13th
chapter of Romans, You see, it there exhorts us to pay our taxes
and to be subject unto the powers that rule over us to that extent,
to that end, that we might lead that quiet and peaceable life
after the flesh. But when it comes to God and
when it comes to His Word, when it comes to our souls, our consciences,
then, my friend, We're to be at liberty to exercise our obedience
unto God as unto God with all liberty. And so this is a legitimate
question. However, it's not the most serious
question that these men ought to have asked themselves and
ought to have asked Christ. They should have said, who are
you? We want to know who you are. We want to know whose son
you really are. Because that, my friend, is the
great question of the day. And then the second question
we find from verse 23 down through the 33rd verse. When they had heard these words,
they marveled and left him and went their way. I mean, they
couldn't handle this. I mean, it was the truth, but
they didn't get what they wanted. You see, they wanted to, as it
were, to confuse him and to entangle him. Now, the same day came to
him the Sadducees, which say, their doctrine is that there's
no resurrection. And they ask him, saying, Master,
Moses said, if a man die having no children, His brother shall
marry his wife and raise up seed unto his brother. Seems like
there were seven brethren and there was one woman involved.
They all lived and had this one woman and then the woman also
died. Now then, therefore, in verse
28, in the resurrection, whose wife shall she be of the seven? You see, they were trying to
confuse the issue, and they said, well, in the resurrection, who's
going to have this woman a wife? There's been seven brethren here,
and all of them have had her. Jesus answered and said in verse
29, you do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of
God. You people are ignorant of the word of God, he says.
You're ignorant of the power of God, for in the resurrection
they won't marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels
of God in heaven. And Mike mentioned this this
morning in his prayer, concerning where we're going as the people
of God, there will be no more death. And where death's ravages
are unknown, there's no need for reproduction. There's no
need for anybody to be born in heaven, there ain't nobody gonna
die. So there's no need, you see, to replenish and to be fruitful
as it was so here in this world. And so the Lord Jesus said, and
they didn't believe in angels either, the Sadducees didn't.
So he said, but as the angels of God in heaven. We do believe
in angels. We believe that they're ministering
spirits sent forth to minister to them who are the heirs of
salvation. We most certainly do believe
in angels, and Jesus did too. But as touching the resurrection
of the dead, have you not read in the Pentateuch, you know,
as far as these Sadducees were concerned, That was one of the
most respected portions of Scripture in all of the Scripture. And
have you not read that which was spoken unto you by God in
the book of Exodus saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God
of Isaac, and the God of Jacob? God is not the God of the dead,
but He is the God of the living. Now then, what did He mean by
this statement? God is not the God of the dead,
but the God of the living. Now we know that Abraham and
Isaac and Jacob, these patriarchs, that their bodies had been dead
for some generations when the Lord spoke these words. Their
bodies had been dead, yet God called himself their God. And that which was most truly,
hear me now, that which was most truly Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob
was not in the grave, but was somewhere else. That is to say
they were living in the possession of God. Though their bodies had
been consumed by the worm, they were with the Lord. They were
in the possession of God. We say that which was truly.
And I say to you that when one dies, when a believer dies and
goes to heaven, that which is most them is there. Their body is in the grave and
will pass through the sieve of the worm to come out in the resurrection
being fully restored by the power of God. But we now are with the
Lord, those that have died in this life and have went on to
be with the Lord. And so the Lord says to these
Sadducees that believe not in the resurrection, I am the God
of Abraham. I am the God of Isaac and the
God of Jacob. And I'm not the God of the dead,
but I'm the God of the living. And how do you reconcile that?
The truth is that God, when He says to a man, I am thy God,
What an infinite blessing that is! He bestows. How much does
these words imply when God says, I am the God of? If God says,
I'm the God of Glenn Hodge, the God of Kevin Gepicke, if God
says, I am your God, then what does that imply? Well, I believe
that it implies this, that as long as God exists, He belongs
to that man. as long, listen, and therefore
the man himself must exist as long as God does. Now that's
a very important statement. Now I don't know whether you
fully believe or not in life after death. I don't know whether
you really believe in heaven or not. I don't know whether
you really believe in the resurrection or not. I don't know. You see
we have a lot of people that are always bringing up issues
concerning the resurrection and how could it possibly be after
a body is laid and went back to the dust of the earth. How's
the body of one who has been buried at sea? How is God ever
going to resurrect that body? How's he going to do it? Well
my friend, as far as I'm concerned, if God says I am their God, as
long as God lives, they live! And as long as they belong to
God, they must eternally exist, because that's how long God is
going to exist, eternally. The saints are living still,
or else God could not say, I am their God. The saints are still
living. So then, I believe this is very
important that we see that this is a legitimate question. It
really is, and it's an important question too. But all this does
is magnify tenfold the importance of this question, what think
ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Whose
son is he? You see, that's the major, that's
the question of the hour, is what think ye of Christ? Okay,
now the third question that I see here is found in the verses following,
verse 34 through 40, and take note of this. Then one of them,
which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him and
saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
And Jesus said to him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind. This is
the first and great commandment, and the second is likened to
it. Thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. On these two commandments
hang all the law and the prophets. Now then, we have here this question
by the Pharisees, which is the great commandment. Now the Pharisees
believed that the Lord had given They believed that Moses had
given unto them 365 commandments, one for each day of the year. They believed that. And they
believed that in these 365 commandments that there were 248 prohibitions
where they were instructed not to do certain things. Now then,
we see where the Lord Jesus, He narrows it all down. Now these
Pharisees, these Jews, they were always arguing among themselves
about which one of these 365 commandments was the most important. And they'd break it down between
the ceremonial law and the moral law, and they would argue or
debate as to what was the penalty or which one of the breaking
of these laws would bring on a person the most harsh a penalty,
and they were always talking about these things. You see,
taken up with things which was not major at all. So the Lord
Jesus, he brings them right down to two. Narrows it right down. He said, first of all, the great
commandment, the first great commandment is, I shall love
the Lord by God with all your heart. Now this, of course, put
them out of business immediately. It put them out of business.
It'll put anybody out of business. It will put you out of business.
This is the law and the prophets. Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. That's what God demands. This
is the first, this is the great commandment. And second is likened
to it, thou shalt love thy neighbors thyself. This will put you out
of business too. Now we believe that all men are
under the law of nature. They're all under the law. And
when the law finds a sinner, it seizes and arrests him! And
that sinner will be punished with that penalty of the broken
law. The Bible says, "...so whatever
the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that all
the world may become guilty, every mouth may be stopped, and
all the world may become guilty before God." We know that sin
is a transgression of the law. And when one breaks the law of
God, then the law seizes him and holds him until the penalty
is paid, which is death. And the only way a sinner can
be released from the penalty of the broken law is to die the
eternal death. And that death never dies, so
the sinner never escapes the penalty of the broken law. How
serious, my friend, is that? But these wanted to know what
was the most important, you see? They wanted to know what was
the most important. Well, do you love the Lord your
God with all your heart? Absolutely you do not. You do
not. Nobody does. No man in a natural
state loves the Lord like he ought to. He does not love the
Lord perfectly. The Lord Jesus, the God-man did.
And the Lord Jesus, when he became sin for me, the law seized him.
Seized him immediately. And what did he do? Took him
to Calvary. And there he died. The death
the death that was due me. He suffered the death that I
should have died. He died in my room instead, in
place, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is
very important that we see here that this is an important question.
It is indeed an important question. But the real question that needs
to be dealt with is in verse 42. This is the major question.
So while the Pharisees were still there, Jesus asked them, what
think ye of Christ, whose son is he? As long as we're alive in this
body, we must deal with the more vital questions. We must. We cannot. My friend, we must
be right on this. Who Jesus is, we must be right
on this, or we cannot be right on anything else. You cannot
be right on anything else unless you're right on this. Now, if
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners, Certainly
we ought to be concerned about giving the right answer to this
question. We ought to be in earnest about giving the right answer
to verse, the questions asked, the inquiry asked, in verse 42.
Now then, observe that this is an inquiry which concerns the
Savior himself, concerns the Lord Jesus. Now, you take note
that really all these that were speaking in this 22nd, the Herodians,
the Pharisees, the Sadducees, that they could not answer this
question. They could not answer this question. Whose son is he?
What think ye of Christ? Now the only person and one of
the people that I would point out to you immediately which
gave the right answer to this was one who was divinely taught
and that was Peter. Ask in the 16th chapter of Matthew
when Jesus said, whom do you say that I am? And he said, Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Blessed art thou,
Simon, son of Barjona, for flesh and blood did not reveal that
unto you, but my Father which is in heaven. He had the right
answer. And that was because he was divinely
taught. Now we learn something from that,
and that is that the only people who really know who Jesus is
are the people whom the Spirit of God has tutored. The Spirit
of God has taught and instructed. And if you know today, And if
you know rightly, you say, well, I think I know who he is. Well,
maybe you know in your head who he is. Maybe you do. Do you know, do you really know
this morning who the Lord Jesus Christ is? You say, well, I think
I know in my head. You know, preacher, this is December.
And you know, everybody's talking about Jesus during the month
of December. Everybody's talking about him.
And so we all know who he is. But my friend, I'm here to say
to you this morning that if you don't know anything more about
Jesus than the world knows about Him, then you're not a Christian. You're not a Christian. Now,
we know and believe that the Lord Jesus Christ, when He meets
a man, He never leaves him like He is in a state of nature. He doesn't leave him that way.
We know that man's heart is hard and impenitent. We know that
man must have a new heart. And when the Lord Jesus meets
a man, He gives him a new heart. He gives him a new heart. And
I believe that stamped on that heart, there are three words.
The word love, the word wonder, and the word praise. when you,
if you really know Him. Now my friend, if you just know
Him in your head, you're nothing better than an educated heathen,
if you only know Him in your head. But if you know Him in
your heart, those three words have been stamped on your heart.
Love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Love for Him who justified you. that He should justify you or
me. Wonder, great wonder in our hearts
that God should have had anything to do with me. And then thirdly,
praise. Praise for His love. Praise for
that love that made Him to come down and made Him willing to
come down and to stand in our place, suffer our hell in our
room. Instead, wonder and love, my
friend, and praise is in the hearts of those that really know
who the Lord Jesus Christ is, and you're a changed person if
you truly know Him. Now if you're unmoved by what
you know about this one Jesus, you don't know Him. You don't
know Him in your heart if you're unmoved, unchanged. I mean, if
you haven't become a new creature in Christ, if the love of God
is not shed abroad in your heart by the Holy Spirit, if things
are not different in your life, you're just like, as we said,
the uneducated or the educated heathen. Now, there's another
thing that I wanted to mention here is that Jesus is the Son
of God. He is God's Son. Now we have
no, and we want to be charitable. We would be as charitable as
we could possibly be. But I'd like to say to you this
morning that I believe that anyone who rejects Jesus, rejects the
divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, is lost. I do not know how anybody
could be saved and not believe that Jesus is God. God Almighty
manifested in the flesh, incarnate in human flesh. I don't know
how anybody could be a Christian and not believe that. Now, and
anyone who does not believe that Jesus is the Son of God is worse
than an infidel because the devil himself said that he was the
Holy One of God. He's worse than the devil if
he doesn't believe it. Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He is God's eternal Son. Now, why did he come down here?
Well, my friend, thank you for why he came down here. Why did
he come? Well, he came down here, took
upon himself, not the nature of angels, took upon himself
the nature of man, sin excepted. Well, why would he do that? He
did that because man has fallen. Man is a sinner. Man is lost. Man is undone. Man cannot come
to God. He is not able to approach God
on his own. He cannot. He must have a mediator. He must have one to stand in
his place. So then what think ye of Christ coming? Did he need
to come? Listen to some of these questions.
This is an inquiry, as we said, about the Lord Jesus. What think
you of God's Messiah? What think you of God's sent
one? The Christos, the anointed one of God. The commissioned
one of God. What do you think of Him? Do
you think His coming was necessary? Do you believe it was? Do you
think, my friend, was there a need for such a God-man to come down
here into this world? Was there a need for that? Was
there any need for it? Was the Savior necessary in your
case? In your case? You say, well,
now, I know some people are real lost. Some people are in desperate
need, but I don't necessarily never did feel really that necessary
for somebody to come all the way from heaven down here to
earth and die in my place because I didn't really feel like I was
that bad. My friend, you go to hell as sure as I'm preaching
to you. You don't know who you are. You
don't know what you are. You don't know your true state.
And neither do you know this man. Do you think God would send
his only begotten well-beloved son out of heaven down here to
this world of woe and sorrow if it was not necessary, if it
was not desperately needed? Oh, my friend, it was desperately
needed. Was the Savior necessary in your
case? That's what you need to ask this
morning. Was it necessary? Now then, he came to save his
people from their sins. Have you any sins to be saved
from? Have you any sin laid upon you? I mean, are you guilty before
God? Examine yourself. Ask yourself. What think ye of
Christ coming? Of Him coming into this world? Have you sins from which you
cannot deliver yourself? From which you cannot make an
atonement yourself? You say, well, I tried to make
a little down payment on my debt that I owed the Lord. I tried
to be good. I mean, I did turn down this
one opportunity to sin. I did do this. I did do that.
My friend, I'm here to tell you this morning that sin must receive
a full payment. It will be paid for, and the
payment to sin is death. It's death. And the only way
you can escape the judgment of God is to have another die in
your place. Have you felt this? Have you
felt this? Do you feel it now? Do you feel
it now? That you need a Savior, that
you must have one. Are you thankful for the Savior
that God sent? Are you grateful every day that
God in His amazing love and grace sent down the Lord Jesus Christ
to die in your place? If you say you have no sin, Your
thoughts of Christ will be that he needed not to come. Your thoughts
of Christ will be it was a wasted mission. Your thoughts of Christ
will be why would he come down here and oh, why would he suffer
like a foolish man? Why would he do that? It was
not necessary. And that's because you don't
know your state. That's because you don't know what you owe.
That's because you don't know how big a debt you got. That's
because you're not conscious. of your true state before our
living God. And therefore, you need to own
it and feel it, and may the Spirit of God enable you this morning
to know it and feel it. He came not to call the righteous,
you know, but sinners to repentance, the whole need not a physician,
but the sick. Have you felt your sin? Have
you ever confessed your sin? Have you ever confessed it to
God? Have you ever lamented your sin? Do you believe, therefore,
that God, in sending Christ to save His people from their sin,
had done a very gracious, merciful act toward His people? Do you
believe that? Well, could you say amen to that?
That God has done a merciful thing in that He sent His Son
to die for me in my place. What think ye of Christ's coming,
my friend? Was it a merciful act or not?
Amen, it was. Do you accept Him and come to
the person that He has sent? Have you confessed with your
mouth the person that God sent into this world to die for our
sins? Have you done so? Have you been
made willing to be saved by Him? Have you been made willing to
be saved on His terms, that He might be your only Savior, that
He shall have all the glory of your salvation? Has that been
made true in your life? My friend, if it has not been,
then what thank you of Christ's coming, what thank you of all
of His work, what thank you of His laying down of his life. Now, if you do not know these
things, and if they're not true about you, then you do not think
rightly of him. That you be saved, not by any
merit of your own, but be pardoned through his blood and righteousness.
Do you agree to that? Well, thank you, my friend, of
God's justifying us without the deeds of the law, without works.
What do you think of that? Well, thank you of Christ doing
that. Turn to Romans chapter 4 quickly if you will. Romans
chapter 4. And I want you to look at a couple
of verses here. Romans chapter 4. Now it says
here, what saith the scripture in verse 3, Abraham believed
God, it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him
that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt,
but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David
described the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. Now then, what thinketh ye of
the fact that Christ justifies sinners without any works? What
do you think about that? What do you think about that?
Hallelujah, what do you think? Well, praise the Lord, because
that lets us in, doesn't it? It lets us in without any works.
This one, this man, this God-man, the Son of God, He justifies
without works. He justifies through faith in
Him. So if you believed on Him, then
you're justified. You see, these things are so
important. They're so important because We're going to face God
one of these days. The Lord Jesus is coming back.
He's coming back, you see. And you know, when we leave this
world, when we leave this world, that's Christ coming for us.
The next word you're going to hear after you die is, the next
thing you're going to hear is the trumpet blowing on resurrection
morning. That's the next thing you're
going to hear. Next thing you're going to hear is, Come up, Hither!
That's the next word. If you die, I tell you the Lord
Jesus is coming. He's coming for you. He's coming
for me. He's coming! And the day we die
is His coming for us. And this is very important that
we settle this issue. What? Thank ye of Christ, whose
Son is He, and settle it, settle it, settle it in our hearts now
in Revelation chapter 22. Listen to these words. Revelation chapter 22 and verse
7, Jesus said, Behold, I come quickly. You say, what's the
urgency, preacher? I mean, settling this issue and
answering this question correctly. What's the urgency? Behold, I
come quickly. I come quickly. And then look
down in verse 12. He says it again. And behold,
I come quickly. I come quickly, he that shall
come will come and will not tarry. This same Jesus that you saw
taken up into heaven will come again. In like manners you've
seen him taken into heaven. He's coming! Behold, he comes
quickly, quickly! Oh, be thou ready, for in an
hour that you think not, the Son of Man cometh! He comes,
he comes, he's coming to your house. You say, well, I don't
know about it. I don't know about this urgency
business. Well, my friend, listen, we're not suffering from being
too urgent about this. No, we're not. I read in the
paper yesterday, in the obituary column, no less than four people
under the age of 50, between 40 and 50, who had left this
world in yesterday's newspaper. And I just heard this morning
about another fellow, one of our acquaintances in the past,
who died yesterday, 42 years old, or a day or two ago. 42
years old. Say, what's the urgency? Well,
the urgency is, He's coming. He's coming. He's coming. Be
thou ready. Be thou ready. For in such an
hour as you thank not the Son of Man coming. Verse 17 of Revelation
22, And the Spirit and the Bride say, Come. And let him that is
here say, Come. And let him that is athirst come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely. Then
notice in verse 20, He which testifieth these things say,
Surely I come quickly, Amen, even so come Lord Jesus. Now,
I tell you, Jesus said, Surely I come quickly, Amen, so let
it be. Jesus said, Surely I come quickly. The writer said, Let it be. And
then he said, Even so. Then he prays about it. And the
Church, notice over in verse 17, the Church, the Spirit and
the Bride say, Come. The Spirit of God in the Church
is moving the Church to pray, Come! Come, Lord Jesus! And then John says, Even so,
come, Lord Jesus! So we're praying all the time
the Lord will come back, that He'll come, He'll come, that
we'll hear His voice, that He'll come and receive us unto Himself. That's the urgency. That's the
urgency of it. Well, what think ye of Christ? What think ye of Him? Seeing
that you're fallen as all other sons of Adam, seeing that you
have no hope, seeing that you have no merit, seeing that you
have no righteousness, well, you say, Preacher, one of the
questions that I wanted to ask you this morning is, is it true that people cannot be
saved without trusting Christ? Well, that's one of the questions
I hear people asking nowadays. You mean to tell me that nobody's
going to heaven except people who trust Christ? That's right.
That's exactly right. That's what the Word of God says.
Now you see, the big issue is, what do we accept as our authority?
What is the authority? Is where the Word of the King
is, is that where the authority is? Amen? It's where the word
of the King is. And he said, no man comes to
the Father except for me. I believe that. He said, nobody's
going to see the kingdom of God except to be born again. I believe
that. I believe that. Now then, this is very important. Now, hear me out. Nobody can
go to heaven and does not believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and
confess Him with their mouth and life. You're ashamed of Him? Then He'll be ashamed of you.
when you stand before him. Well, another question I'm hearing
is, where is the true church? Somebody wants to know where
that is. Now that's irrelevant. That's irrelevant. I believe
I can show them where one is, where it is to be found, and
that may be an important question in some people's book, but that's
not the important question. What think ye of Christ is the
important question. Well, why can't I save myself
or make a contribution to it? Is another question I hear sometimes.
Why can't I have something to do with this? Well, let me tell
you why. God demands perfection and you
cannot produce it and God will never accept less. He demands
perfection. You say, well, where on earth
will he find that? He won't find it in this bunch
here. It's true! But he will find it in our substitute.
Divided in the Lord Jesus. I'm telling you He loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. I'm telling you that He was spotless. I'm telling you He was perfect.
I'm telling you the Lamb of God, He is. Now take it the way the
sins of the world. He is God manifest in flesh and
you're going to be as perfect as He is or you will not go to
heaven. You cannot make any contribution
to your salvation. You don't have anything to put
in the pot. Nothing to put in it. And so
I'm answering that question. And if you're here this morning,
you say, well, that's my question. That's a question on my mind,
Preacher. Well, I've answered it. But now what think ye of
Christ? He's the one. He's the only one
that can meet the need of your soul. Well, the next question
would be, I hear it, I hear it. Why isn't infant baptism as good
as adult baptism? It is. It is. Just as good. Infant baptism is just as good
as adult baptism. There isn't even one of them
any good. None of them. I'll tell you the only baptism
that's good is believer's baptism. Whether it's a child or whether
it's an adult, believer's baptism is good. Somebody say it's a
good question. It is a good question. It is a good question. You baptize
a lost person, whether he's a baby or whether he's an adult, he's
still lost, lost, Lost! He's still on his way to eternal
judgment. But oh, when he becomes a believer,
I mean when that gospel comes to his heart, and when he believes
on Jesus, and when he can answer the question truthfully, I think
Jesus is the Son of God, and I believe He came to represent
me, and I believe when He died, I was in Him, and when He rose,
I was in Him, and He's seated at the right hand of God, and
I'm in Him there! And when you believe that, then
my friend, I believe that you're in the Kingdom. I believe you're
already saved. I believe you're already right
with God and already have these issues correct in your mind. And then another question I hear
asked is, well, how are you really supposed to celebrate the Lord's
Supper? Well, these are issues that are important, but these
questions, my friend, are irreverent. You're going to die and go to
hell, and you want to know how you celebrate the Lord's Supper?
Well, of course we celebrate them. Somebody said you could
use grape juice or do you use wine? That's been a debate. So
people debate over that. The modern Pharisees debate over
that. They do. Well, we believe in
using wine for the Lord's Supper, but there's some of our people
that believe in using grape juice, so we just put some of both on
there. We don't have any problem with that. We're not going to
make an issue of that. It's irrelevant as far as I'm
concerned. But I will say this to you this
morning, that that's one of the questions you often hear by people
that are trying to avoid the real issue, and that is, well,
thank you, Christ. What about Him? What about Him? Do you truly know who He is? Well, I could bring up one more
question that I hear asked this time of the year of me, and that
is, why is it that you, being a Baptist, a Protestant, which
I'm not. I am not a Protestant. True Baptists
are not Protestants. Why is it that you will not celebrate
Christmas in your church? Why won't you do that? Well,
of course, we do not. Now, I'm no ascetic. I believe
that it's a wonderful thing to have a day when families can
get together. It's a wonderful thing. I think
there ought to be more of it. I'd be in favor of having 10
or 12 more holidays during the year, as far as I'm concerned,
especially if you get together with family, and to have time
for children to come home, and you can have a good time. But
my friend, if you want to get the book on two Babylons and
read it, you'll find out that Christmas is a pagan holiday. It has been, always has been,
it will always be. It is a mass of the Roman Catholic
Church and we do not celebrate any of the masses of the Roman
Catholic Church. Now, whatever you choose to do
as an individual, as a private citizen, that's your business.
That's between you and the Lord. You know, I told you a while
ago, your conscience, that belongs to you and God. If you feel at
peace in your heart and your conscience says to you that this
is alright, I know what I'm doing, I know who this man Jesus is,
and I am celebrating his birth just as it ought to be done,
well, but I think you can do that in April the same as you
can do it in December. Because the truth of the matter
is, he was probably born in April instead of December. And you
can do it anytime. You say, well, I just believe
that you ought to think about, you know, I do too. It's wonderful
that Jesus has been born. I praise God that He was born,
that He came and was born of a virgin, came into this world.
I praise the Lord for it. I really do. I'm grateful to
God that the Son of Man has come, that He was incarnate, that He
was given a body in the womb of the Virgin Mary. I praise
the Lord for that. But my friend, He's not a baby
anymore. No, no, no, no. He's not a baby anymore. I'm
telling you He's the Lamb on the throne, and I'm telling you
that His countenance, when His countenance is looked upon by
a sinner, a lost sinner, a lost sinner cannot stand his gaze,
but will cry for the rocks and the mountains to fall on them
because of the fierceness of the Lamb. The Lamb of God, He's
the Man Christ Jesus now, and these people go around worshiping
Him as a baby. Because they can manage a baby,
you see. But he's a sovereign on a throne.
Let's not be ridiculous. If you want to have a holiday,
have a holiday. If you want to give your children
something, give your children something. But let's not in any
way, shape, or form be not a partaker of her sins. That's the sins
of the whole church of Rome. Be not a partaker of her sin.
That you be not a partaker of her plague. Therefore, we would
not have it in the church. We would not have it because
we believe that it is a pagan holiday adopted from Babylon
and brought into the religion so that the Catholics would have
something to celebrate at the time of the winter solstice.
like the Babylonian people did. And so, if you ask that question,
it's a legitimate question, but I'll give you an answer. But
that's not the important, the most important question. What
think you of Christ? What think you of Him? Whose
son is He? Have you believed on Him? Have you trusted Him?
Is He your Redeemer? Are you dependent entirely upon
Him? Well, my time is gone, and then
some. But I just wanted to get these
things in and answer a few questions that may be up on your mind,
may be up on your heart this morning. But go out of here with
that question which is revelant, that question which is the most
important, that question of the day, that question of all days
until days end, that question, what thank you Christ, whose
son is he?