Okay. Good morning. Let's take just a minute and
review some of the things that have been said out here. Y'all
know the first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to ask you, what's that?
One. That's great. You guys got it.
Now, what's this? Three. Three and one. That's
great. You've learned something this
week. This is one, but it's God the Father, it's God the Son,
and it's God the Holy Spirit. That's great. Y'all have learned
that this week. Now, what I want to do is go
back over what we said very briefly. God is three in one. There's
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And
God the Father, He is a Father. He's a perfect Father. And God
the Son, He is a Son. He's the Son of God, and He's
the perfect Son. And we learn that God the Father's
business, He said, I must be about my Father's business, His
predetermined purpose, is to glorify His Son, God the Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ. His other predetermined purpose
is to have many sons and many daughters, many children. And
God the Holy Spirit makes His purpose, His determined purpose,
the same as the purpose of God the Father and the purpose of
God the Son. And everything God the Holy Spirit
does glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. And what
God the Holy Spirit does is He calls God's children one by one
by one or sometimes many. There were 5,000 in one day at
Pentecost that God the Holy Spirit revealed God to. He calls God's
children. And then he teaches God's children.
And do you all remember how he does that? He uses men. He gives men the word of God,
the living word of God, and he gives that word to men, like
Pastor Todd. And they teach God's children
who God the Father is, who God the Son is, and who God the Holy
Spirit is. And God, the Holy Spirit, uses
men that he calls to teach. And these teachers are called
preachers of the gospel. The good news. There's good news. If we know God, that's good news.
And the Holy Spirit, he calls and he teaches, and then he convinces. He convinces God's children of
their sin. You know, all men and women are
sinners. Your children are, and your parents
are. Everybody who ever lived after Adam fell was born a sinner. The problem is not a lot of people
know that. There are many people who've
lived their whole life and never know that they're a sinner. And
God, the Holy Spirit, comes to God's children, and He reveals
to them. He convinces them that they're
sinners. But that's not all. What He also
does is He comes and He reveals who God the Son is, who the Lord
Jesus Christ is. Now let me tell you a little
bit about God the Son here this morning. Who is He? Who is He? Well, He's everything that's
good. He's everything that's true. He's everything that's pure. He's everything That's wonderful. I know you kids think a lot of
things are neat. Disney World and your new iPod
or whatever it is. You think a lot of things are
important and neat. Let me tell you, there's nothing
in the whole world like the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son. He's perfect in everything. In fact, there's nothing you
can think of or even imagine that compares to the Lord Jesus
Christ, God the Son. And that's because of what he's
done that he's so spectacular. It's because he's God, but it's
because what he's done as the one who's called the God-man.
Now, he became a man, and I wish I knew how to tell you what that
means, but I'm going to try a little bit to give you a comparison.
You know you're boys and girls. Now, if I took somebody and said,
okay, Zach, bird, you can be any animal
you want to. Zach might think, okay, what's
a cool animal? And he might decide to be Zach
the zebra. And he'd think, I got all these
stripes and I'm a big, sturdy, strong, prancing, running horse. And that might be cool until
the lions came along. Now Zach's not so sure that Zach
the zebra was a good choice. But if Zach became, he wouldn't
trade to be a zebra, would he? Emily, you wouldn't, you might
think egrets are beautiful with feathers and they fly and, you
want to be an egret? Of course not, you wouldn't trade
to be an egret. And Jake, how'd you like to be
a jackrabbit? You think they run fast, that's
great till the coyotes come, right? Samuel, you might decide that
a snake is neat. You can do all this, go fast,
slit, that's great, till the mongooses come. You know what
they do? They kill snakes. And how about,
Rebecca, would you trade and become Rebecca the rat? You say,
that's ridiculous. Then you'd have little brother
Ryan the rat. Would you guys make that trade?
You'd say, that's ridiculous, who'd wanna be a rat? And worst of all, what if, Molly,
would you want to be a maggot? Oh, you all know what maggots
are? They're those little wiggly white things that fly eggs turn
into, and they eat dead things, and they bother people. You wouldn't
trade to be a maggot, would you? You all say, no, no, no, no. But you know what? When God looks
at us after Adam ate of the fruit and sinned, Now, we're not lions
or zebras or pretty egrets. We're all wiggling maggots. But now, as bad as that sounds,
let me tell you, when God the Son, God, decided to become a
man, because that was God's business, that was God's determined purpose,
and he willingly did it, that's worse than Molly becoming a maggot.
or Bob becoming a bug. It is, it's way worse. God the
Son condescended to become a man, just like a wiggling maggot.
And therefore he's worthy of great respect and honor We need
to bow at His feet for what He's done. That's what He's done.
He became a man. But why did He become a man?
Did He just decide to become? No, no. It was God's determined
purpose that Christ, God, would become a man for this reason.
If God's going to have children, they've got to be perfect, just
like His Son, Jesus Christ. Just like His Son, Jesus Christ. And when he came down here, he
did just that. He lived 33 years, perfect, as
a perfect son. And then, you know what happened? A bunch of men, wiggling maggots,
took him, marched him up a hill, nailed him to a tree, and watched
him die. God the Son, nobody could make
God die. But God the Son, because it was
His Father's purpose, He let men kill Him. Now, what's all
that about? What's that mean? Why did He
do that? For two reasons. God chose the children, and if
God's gonna have children, they gotta be perfect. So God the
Son came down here and lived 33 years perfect. And you know
what He did with that perfect life? Every one of God's elect,
every child that God chose, the Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son
said, here's my life, it's yours. When God looks at you, this is
what you are. Then, why did he have to die
then? Well, you know, if you and I,
the little maggots we are, all we do is live on death and bother
people, We sin constantly. Something's gotta be done about
that. If we're gonna be God's perfect children, we can't carry
that sin with us. That's why Christ's blood was
shed at Calvary. His blood flowed down and covered
all the sin of all God's children. He became a twofold substitute.
He lived for God's children and he died for the men and women
who would be God's children, put away their sin. In order
for us to become the sons of God, hear this. You guys right
in here, listen real close now. In order for God to become this,
in order for us to become the sons of God, the son of God had
to become a man and die in our place and live for us. So he
lived a perfect life in every way and he died. Why? He became
a substitute. He died. for God's children and
live for them. That makes the Lord Jesus Christ
the perfect Son of God and the perfect man. That is justice
satisfied. God's not gonna hold his children
responsible or accountable for what we did, even though we acted
like maggots. He's not gonna view you as a
maggot because Jesus Christ became a maggot in our place. That's
justice satisfied. That's righteousness, perfect
righteousness. That's mercy, perfect mercy. That's wisdom. Who could have
thought that up? God did. That's perfect wisdom. That's love, perfect love. That's power, almighty power. God could live and die and yet
rise again to reign. God the Son has done all this
for God's children. That's why it's the business
of God the Father, it's the determined purpose of God the Father that
is fulfilled by God the Son and is revealed by God the Spirit. If God the Holy Spirit ever shows
us who the Lord Jesus Christ is and what He's done and why
He did it, here's what you'll know and believe. You will be
like the man who went up to the temple. And he got there and
down front was this Pharisee. You know what that Pharisee was
doing? He had his hands up, he had his eyes raised to heaven
and he said, oh God, I thank you that I'm not like other men. I thank you that I'm not like
Rebecca the rat. I thank you that I'm not like
Ryan the rat. I'm thankful I'm not like Molly
the maggot. or Sam the snake. I'm grateful I'm not like that.
You know what? That man thought he knew who
God was, and he didn't. He didn't have a clue who God
was. But there was another man way
in the back, and that man had had a visit from the Holy Spirit
of God, God the Holy Spirit. And you know what? He not only
wouldn't raise his hands, he had them down He wouldn't look
up, he wouldn't even raise his eyes to heaven, and he said,
Oh God, Oh God the Father, Oh God the Son, Oh God the Holy
Spirit, have mercy on me. And you know what? The Holy Spirit showed him who
Jesus Christ the Son of God was, and that man went down to his
house justified. He went down to his house happy.
rejoicing in what he found out. Now you say, this all just sounds
too wonderful to me. Well, it is too wonderful. That's
why your parents come back here Sunday morning for Sunday school,
Sunday morning for church, Sunday night, Wednesday night again.
You know why? It's the most wonderful thing
they've ever heard. They want to hear it again. Let me try to illustrate for you
how this can be. You know, we've got here, we've
got here One, right? Oh, three in one? Okay, good. This is God the Father. This is God the Holy Spirit. And this is God the Son. Right? Now, I'm just gonna set these
down. They're still part of this, okay? But here's what God the
Son has done in the purpose of God. He chose children, made
them just like himself. Would it surprise you to find
out that Moses is one with the Son of God? He's one with Christ. He's just like Christ. He's in
glory with Christ. He's just like him. And would
it surprise you, help me out here, Miss Pam, would it surprise
you that, wouldn't surprise you, don't think, to find out that
Henry Mahan, is one with the Lord Jesus Christ. Would it surprise
you that Mary who sat at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ
is one with Him? Would it surprise you that Pastor
Todd is one with the Lord Jesus Christ? Would it surprise you
that Miss Carla is one with the Lord Jesus Christ? Would it surprise
you that Miss Sherry is one with the Lord Jesus Christ? Well,
you know what? If God the Holy Spirit has come
and revealed Well, we are by nature, and who Christ is, and
they believe, and they're one with Christ, one with Christ. Now, you say, what are these
others? I don't know. God in heaven has a book, and
in that book are written names, names of those who are one with
the Lamb of God, one with the Lord Jesus Christ. And you say,
well, how do I get my name written? You can't get your name written
there. But if God wrote it there, you can do this. You can say,
Lord, show me your glory. Show me the sun. Make me one
with the Lord Jesus. I promise you, on the authority
of God's word, if you ask, he'll show you. He'll show you. Now
that's the best I know how to tell you. who God is, who God
the Father is, who God the Son is, and who God the Holy Spirit
is. He's wonderful. Is there any
wonder in the scripture that says he's wonderful? He's wonderful. All right, thank you, you all
paid good attention.