In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of coming to God and trusting in Him. He uses the example of Jesus being presented by God as His beloved Son. The speaker urges the audience to not just believe in Jesus in a historic sense, but to trust in Him completely. He also highlights the significance of accepting and receiving Jesus, using the parable of the vineyard workers who mistreated the owner's servants. The sermon concludes with the speaker challenging those who doubt Jesus' existence and urging them to consider the overwhelming evidence of His divinity.

Turn, if you would, please, to Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3. Matthew chapter 3, beginning at verses 13, we're going to read down to verses 17. Matthew 3, verses 13 to 17, as we continue on in the life and times of Jesus Christ in this series, and we are looking at, this morning, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Christ, the Son of God. Our text for this morning is Matthew chapter 3, verses 13 to 17. There the Bible says, Then Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan to be baptized by him. And John tried to prevent him, saying, I need to be baptized by you. Why are you coming to me? But Jesus answered and said to him, Permit it to be so for now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness. Then he allowed him. Then Jesus, when he had been baptized, came up immediately out of the water. And behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This morning, we're going to be looking at Jesus Christ in the context as we go through our theme and series on Christ, the Son of God. And of course, we've been using Colossians chapter 2, verse 9, as our really hallmark, our touchstone of the whole series. And that is for in Christ, all the fullness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form. So I'm going to ask you, of course, and I always ask you, it's almost like a little routine of mine, I guess, that you take notes this morning, because we're going to hit on some things that are extremely important. Who is Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Can you answer that question? When we get together, I was speaking to a woman last night who reminded me how important it is that I describe to you by way of introduction just exactly what we're doing. Normally at Calvary Chapel, you know that we go verse by verse, book by book, chapter by chapter through the Bible, exegetical teaching, through the Bible. And we have broken off from that for a moment to go through this 16-week series. And we are in part 10 today. But what we are doing is not so much a topical series, but a doctrinal series. And this doctrinal series is that of Christ. And the reason why this was born here at this fellowship is because quite a while back, someone came up to me and said, in a message you mentioned that Jesus is God. And I would like to know where you get that idea. And I was shocked. My first thing, quite honestly, was a little bit of carnality. I thought inside, what? You go to this church and you don't know such an essential thing of Christianity? I was offended. And then I had to step back and think, Lord, have I neglected you? Lord, have I semi-betrayed you? Have I not made the issue clear that Jesus is God, the Holy Spirit is God, that the Father is God? And as I began to pray and pray, I believe the Lord laid out on my heart that we should go through this doctrinal teaching of Christ and... And we've covered many topics. And this morning, of course, being number 10, Jesus Christ, the Son of God. What does it mean? Well, we'll touch on some things this morning. And as we do, you need to be very careful that you do not think of Jesus, listen, the Son of God as being someone less than the Father or less than the Son. Don't you dare look at Jesus in our Western culture of viewing. It's wrong. That is, we in our Western culture view sonship wrong or in a wrong manner. In America, in Canada, in the West, we have a very low view of sonship. And when I say sonship, I mean the relation between the Son and the Father. We perceive that the Son is something much more less than the Father. And we've mentioned this in our earlier studies, but we need to repeat it because we learn by that, that Jesus Christ being the Son of God, the Bible makes clear is that as He has come in His humanity, He is both God and man at the same time. It's a miracle. It's exclusively possessed by Jesus alone, not by anyone and not by any one of us who are Christians. You might say, well, Jack, doesn't my Bible say that we are all sons of God now? Yes, but in a totally different way. Jesus is the Son of God. And we're going to see exactly what that means. But the concept to us as father-son relationship is very different. We need to be very careful. And so we often are ripped off by the culture that you and I live in because we have this void between the Father and Son in way of authority or relationship. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 1 through 3 tells us, God who at various times and in various ways spoke in times past by the fathers or to the fathers by the prophets has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things through whom also He made the worlds. Who being in the brightness of His glory, that is Jesus being in the brightness of the glory of God and the power when He had by Himself, that is without any external assistance whatsoever, purged our sins and sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. This is exclusively the performance of the Son of God, Christ the Son of God. So the first thing that we come to this morning in our note-taking is the very, very powerful declaration. We'll look at four of them today. And that is we must come to the Son of God. You might say, well, for crying out loud, I already know that. We must come to the Son of God. Let me explain a little bit about what this should mean to us. When we come to the Son of God, it's going to demand of us several things. Now, I believe that we are living in the last days. I believe that the gospel is being watered down like never before worldwide. We must come to the Son of God. It doesn't mean that we somehow get Him as being a Democrat. Oh, we certainly know that can't happen as a Democrat. Oh, I find that highly offensive. Are you a Republican? I'm a monarchist. Don't you dare label me as a Republican or a Democrat or an independent. I got in a lot of trouble. You did being an independent, haven't we? Get that? Independent from God. It's OK. It's early for service. No, I'm a monarchist like most of you are here this morning. I believe in a ruling reigning king. And I'm waiting for him to come back any moment to take possession of his rightly purchased property, i.e., yours truly. We must come to God. But how do we do this? And what are the important things that we need to consider about that? What does it mean to come to God? This is probably a question that we need to ask for the friends and family members that we witness to. They don't know to ask that question. Did you know that? Very rarely someone will say, what does it mean to come to God? What do I need to do? I am so happy. I'm so happy. Anything can happen today. I don't care because I'm so happy because last week in third service, my heart's joy was fulfilled. I was preaching with you together regarding the necessity of the cross and coming to the cross as we went through that particular topic in our series. And in one of the services, I don't remember which, I had mentioned that it would be awesome for once to preach a message that would cause someone, as it was in the early chapters of Acts, for someone to just come running in desperate conviction of the spirit of God, knowing that they're hell bound, for them to come and say, what must I do to be saved? I got the message. What do I do? I don't want to live another moment outside of Jesus. Man, third service last week, a young man, 28 years of age came. In fact, I stepped right off the podium. He made a beeline from the back, right in the middle while you are all singing. And he says, I've got to talk to you. And he looked totally normal. He was of normal mind. He wasn't nuts. He wasn't emotional. He was urgent though. And we went right into the prayer room and went in there and sat down. I said, what is it? And I was feeling rather spunky after last week's message. And he says, I don't know what to do. I said, about what? He said, about my sin. I said, well, what do you want to do about it? I don't know. And I sat there and I didn't give him anything. I sat there and I listened to him. Well, what's your problem? I'm a sinner. How do you know that? And I was really sarcastic with him, but with love. No, no, I do mean that. You can only do that in God, you know. I didn't want to, you know, remember we talked about the rich young ruler. So here's this young guy. I didn't know if he had any money. I didn't know if he had any authority, but he was young. And so I was really laying it or not laying it on him. And at the end, I told him, I said, well, this is what you got to do. Boom, boom, boom, you know. And I said, you know, the Bible says that today's the day, now's the time. But if you want to go think about it, that's your business. But I got a second service, or I got a service to prepare for tonight. And I got to get moving. And he says, I want to accept Jesus now. And it was like, hooking on to Marlon. I mean, it was like, yes. And I began to reel him in. It was incredible. We must come to the Son of God. But how do we come? What must I do to come? By the way, this very, very concept. Put your little yarmulkes on, get real Jewish with me for a moment. Kick off your shoes and put on some sandals. It was very confusing and difficult regarding the religious person of Jesus' day to grasp this concept of coming to the Son of God. In fact, even today, honestly, look in your Bible. Somehow we think, and I'm not against them, that's how I came to Christ. But we think that somehow people get saved by getting up and coming forward at an altar call. That's not, I repeat, not how people get saved. If that's how people get saved, then why did Jesus go to a cross? If that's how people get saved, then why don't you all just come forward? You see, we begin to put trust in the movement and the activity. Well, I went forward. That is not coming to Christ. As much as I love it, that's not it. Coming to Christ is to realize a few things. And in the ancient world, when Jesus walked the earth, the whole concept was radical. To come to Christ, what does that mean? You'll never exactly find a verse in the Bible that would match our modern day actions of altar call or whatever. Or I often hear say, raise your hand. We can find scriptures that would substantiate, possibly backing that request up. But you're not going to find a verse, come forward and receive Jesus Christ. It's accepting Him. We'll talk about that in a moment. What does it mean to come to Him? In Jesus' time, that was a weird concept. If you're Jewish, you're kind of born into the deal. If you're Gentile, it's believed that you're not in the deal. Then Christ comes along, which carries the prophetic fulfillment of Judaism. And the fulfillment of Judaism is called, very few people in the world know this, so you're ready to write it down? You'll be the smartest people in the world with this one. You ready? And you get it for free. The fulfillment of Judaism, when Messiah comes and He came, and He's coming again, is called Messiah-anity. Or we call it in our Greek tongue, our world western tongue, Christi-anity. The fulfillment of Judaism is coming to Messiah. To come to Messiah is to become a Christian. What does it mean? Well, to do that, it's the touchstone of worship, for one thing. Not the physical temple that was in Jerusalem. That was the thing that the Jew believed in. We go to the temple to worship. Do you know anybody today that would say, I can't pray unless I go to the church. I can't worship unless I go into the sanctuary. That's wrong. It's wrong now, because we can do that anywhere. But during the time of Christ, when Christ came, what did it mean to say you must accept Christ? Well, to that concept, to that mindset back then, everything that was religious and of God was connected to the temple in Jerusalem. And yet Jesus came, really, frankly, to fulfill and then take down the material. The way into the temple was via a priest back then, a priest who would represent you and your case to God with a sacrifice, and never without a sacrifice. There had to be a sacrifice. It was a very liturgical protocol and exact. The things that you did had to be exact. There was a very strict and stringent protocol laid out by Moses how someone came into the temple. Very, very important. When John the Baptist came on the scene, who, remember, John the Baptist was the last of the Old Testament prophets. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets. John the Baptist appears on the scene and introduces into the minds of the people a whole new way of thinking, a radical way of thinking. And John argued this. He says, Jesus is the Lamb of God. I want you to mark that in your mind. Jesus is the Lamb of God. If you're Jewish right now, and you're all Jewish, remember the first church was predominantly Jewish. Very few Gentiles in the first church. They even met in synagogues. When John the Baptist, who everyone honored, when he said, Jesus is the Lamb of God, what in the world did he mean by that? That's a bizarre concept. Listen, it's radical regarding that announcement. What we say concerning this is extremely important. We must come to the Son of God because He is the only Son announced. God sent John the Baptist to announce Jesus Christ. Matthew 3.13. We just got done reading it. Jesus comes on the scene and Jesus says to John, paraphrasing this, Suffer to be so to baptize me that all righteousness might be fulfilled. The sonship is such an important thing. And it was at that moment that God opened up the heavens and He came down by voice and said, This is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. But we need to understand something. He is the only announced Messiah. It's not Buddha. It's not Mohammed. It's not Joseph Smith. It's not Sai Baba. It's not Sun Young Moon. It's not Rajneesh. It's not Shree's Bambi. It's not... and on and on you go. The scriptures announced Christ and His coming. But to come to Christ is to first of all realize something. Before you make that decision, you must realize He's the only Son announced. And He still is the only Son announced at this hour. And I got good news for you. As we read in Hebrews chapter 1 a moment ago, He's the only one that's ever going to be announced. Aren't you glad that you're on His side? A lot of people say, Well, I'm glad God's on my side. God ain't on your side. You're on His side. There's a big difference. We have come to believe in Him. But you've got to come first. The sonship, He's the only one announced. You know, as I mentioned earlier, that culture is very, very passionate about that. And you might meet someone, maybe you have a precious Jewish friend, and they're so into that precious culture. There's about the son. By the way, if you are a lawyer this morning, an attorney at, say, family law, or if you're an estate attorney, chances are you will never move your practice to Israel or where there's a strong Jewish presence. Because they don't believe in that garbage. You say, What? When the son reaches the age of 30 in the house, all that the father has is transferred to the son, even though the father is the patriarch. The son runs it all. There's no dealing in court about estate inheritance. No, no. That would put a lot of people out of business, you know, in America. Nope. The father says, Nope, now that you're 30... By the way, they consider that youth. Amen, huh? Hallelujah. If that's true, then I'm just a little, you know, no, I'm kidding. The father would say, Now all that I have is transferred to you. The father had governorship over it all. Remember the old man whose son had gone wayward with his inheritance? That young man we know in that prodigal son proverb, in that prodigal son scenario, every Jew would have realized that that boy who took off with his inheritance was about 30 years of age. You see how stupid that boy was? 30 years of age. Yeah, give me my inheritance, dad. And he hands it to him, and he goes out and squanders it. Sonship. But you would hear a Jewish woman, I heard, and maybe you have too, and just things and traveling or whatever. Oh, this is my son, the lawyer. Or this is my son, the doctor. They're very proud to announce to you what their son does. It's important to them. God says, this is my son. He's the son of God. Jesus Christ was announced by God. Note that. Well, how do you know that Jesus is the son of God? God said so. Matthew chapter 3. God says so. This is my beloved son. We're going to look at a few things, and I'm going to give you this verse. If you're paying attention, this is about the third time I've given this verse in four weeks. I'm hot on this verse. I love this one. Proverbs 30 verse 4. You probably have it memorized by now. Proverbs 30 verse 1 says, Who has ascended into heaven or descended? And who has gathered the winds in his fists? And who has bound up the waters in his garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? Gee, who do you think he's talking about? Amen. He says, what is his name? And what is his son's name, if you know? And in the Hebrew, the word or title son is capitalized speaking of deity. That's a great verse. Jesus, the son of God. I'm going to run through some verses real quick. If I'm going too fast, get the tape or rewind something. I don't know. The son of God. Psalm chapter 2 verse 7. Powerful message. Psalm 2 verse 7. And we declare and decree the Lord, He has sent me. You are my son. Today I have begotten or glorified you or established you in the minds of men as my only one. You know, there's going to be people who knock on your door that represent a cult who say, oh, this word begotten means he's lesser than God. Not true. Don't be duped by that. Acts chapter 13 verse 33. God has fulfilled this for us, his children, and that he has raised up Jesus as it is also written in the second Psalm. You are my son. Today I have begotten you. You see the uniqueness. You can take that word begotten and even put it as unique. Unique. Because again, there are people knocking on your doors who will absolutely attack you on this word begotten. They'll tell you it means that Jesus is less than. And they're going to pull some verses out of context and deceive you. You're going to call the church and you're going to be all upset because now you have a bunch of doubts in your mind and you're confused. Know your Bible. He's the only one announced. Not only is he the son of God, he's referred to as the son of David. This is extremely important. This all makes sense, I hope. If it doesn't, I quit and I'll go back to my old job. Son of David, Matthew chapter 1 verse 1. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ or Jesus the Messiah. The son of David. According to the flesh, Jesus is the son of David. Jesus was born through Mary, the lineage that came through David. God came to earth in the form of his son, Jesus Christ, the son of God. Not Jesus Christ, something less than God. Jesus Christ, fully God, yet he's a son. He acquired, I can put it that way, or he assumed, I don't mean in a self-assigning way, he stepped into the right of sonship. By the way, it was very humbling. So much so that this morning at the right hand of God the Father sits his son. Jesus is the son of God now and forever. And that has a lot to say regarding our redemption and our eternal security in Christ. The son of David. He's also the son of Abraham. The same verse goes on to say in Matthew 1.1, he's the son of Abraham. The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, you know that, and the son of Abraham. He's referred to as the son of God, the son of David, the son of Abraham. All this has deep significance that we don't have time to go into now. But if you were a Jew, you want to hear the fact that Jesus is the son of David. If you are witnessing to a Muslim or non-believer, you want to be able to hear that Jesus is the son of Abraham. That's important to a Muslim. You mean to tell me Jesus is the son of Abraham? Yes. Then I want to hear more about this, a Muslim would say. Jesus, in Luke 3, verse 23, is referred to as the son of Joseph. This is an interesting concept because he's not exactly the son of Joseph genetically. We know that DNA-wise. But he's the son of David in his airship. Jesus had to come from Mary, who was married to Joseph. Which gave him right to the throne. Luke 3, 23. Now, Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being, listen to what your Bible says, as was supposed, the son of Joseph. Don't you love that? I love that. Jesus began his ministry at about the age of 30, who, as it was supposed, the son of Joseph. I love that. Well, he was and he wasn't. If anything, he was adopted by Joseph. How about that? He's also referred to in the Bible as the son of Mary. In a very, and one and only, interesting context. Those of you who come from a Catholic background, hang on to your seats. I didn't write the Bible. You have to deal with this. The son of Mary. I thought Mary was the mother of God. You're not going to find that in your Bible. Listen carefully. Mark 6, 3. And Matthew 13, 55. Is this not the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and Joseph and Judas and Simon? He had four brothers. Did you know that? And are not his sisters here with us? Jesus had at least two. This always generates mail. Jesus had at least two sisters, according to the Greek original scripture. And he had four brothers. By the way, a couple of them went on to be some of the authors of their epistles in the New Testament. The word is siblings, literally ones born into the family. Jesus was birthed by the Holy Spirit coming upon him. Mary outside of Joseph. The Bible says that Mary and Joseph did not have any sexual relationships until Jesus was born. And afterwards they must have had some activity because at least six kids were generated. Four sons and at least two girls. Bible says so. Spare the mail. That's what the Bible says. Son of Mary. Also, son of man. Luke tells us over and over again. He is the son of man. Luke 9, 21. And he strictly warned and commanded the people, telling them to tell this to no one, saying the son of man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed and be raised up again on the third day. The son of man. Jesus said this concerning himself, which is an act of God. This is what's going to happen to me. And by the way, after it happens to me, on the third day, I'm going to rise from the dead. Isn't that awesome? I can't tell you what tomorrow is going to be like with even all the help from the weathermen. Jesus says, I'm going to tell you exactly what's going to happen. By the way, John tells us these things were written in advance that you might know that it's him. That's wonderful. My only son. John 3, 18. He who believes in him is not condemned. Do you believe in him? We'll talk about that more in a moment. But he who does not believe is condemned already. Or you're walking in a state... I'm sorry I'm laughing, but this is kind of funny to me in my cartoon mind. The word is condemned already means most of the poor duped world, they're walking. They're doing their thing. And whatever they're doing, suspended over them is a massive, massive axe ready to be laid at the root of their life. It's just hanging off their neck spiritually. He who does not believe in the Son of God is condemned already. The axe is coming down on the head of everyone who rejects him. Isn't that radical? People are like, Oh, yeah. Do you know who you're talking to? I own this whole thing. Do you realize, Mr. that there's an axe suspended right over the back of your neck? Well, look at me. I'm the most beautiful beauty queen in the world. I don't need anybody but me. Lady, do you realize if there's an axe suspended over the back of your neck, the world just toodles along. My only son. John 13, 8 goes on to say, he is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. In Greek, listen to what God is saying. He says this, in the original language, you're condemned because you do not believe in the Son of Me. That's what it means. That's what the original word is. The Son of Me. The Son of who? God, the Father. You're condemned if you do not believe in the Son of Me, says God. By the way, the word is monogenous and it appears in another place. In Luke 9, verse 37, the scripture says, and it came to pass on the next day when they were come down from the hill, much people met Jesus and behold, a man of the company cried out saying, Master, I beseech you, look upon my son for he is my only son. Same word. He is the Son of Me. Here's Jesus who knows a little bit about being the Son of Me, God, the Father. In front of him is a man with a child that has gone, perished there. And this earthly father says, this is the Son of Me. And in that culture, that was a very touching thing. This is my heir. This is my... Do you see? That father, come on dads, grandpas, that father's heart is, this is my son. Jesus, I heard great things about you. Take my life and let him live. You know, have you ever felt like that? Isn't that funny about being a parent? I think, unless God tells you otherwise, I think everybody should be a parent, either through adoption or through giving birth, unless God says don't have kids. There's something about learning more about scripture and Christianity. When you've got a son or a daughter, when they're burning up with their fever and they're sicker than a dog, you just say, God, give it to me. Just give it to me. Jesus said concerning sin, give it to me. I'll take it. He's the only one announced. The second thing that we see this morning is this. He is the only son related. He's the only son related, both listen to God and to us. He's the only son related. Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15. For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses. Do you have any weaknesses, anybody? Raise your hand. I am standing up here today by virtue of Advil. I can't believe how pathetically weak, of course, this is talking about all types of weakness, but I'm just sitting here. My body is aching so badly because I was playing around too much, goofing off. And have I yet turned to Jesus and say, Lord, my body aches. No, I haven't done that. He's convicted me right now. You're looking at a man under conviction right now. The scripture says in all points, he was tempted as we are yet without sin. The scripture says here in Hebrews 4 verse 15 that he sympathizes with our weaknesses. Of course, it's spiritual weakness that we have. He's not spiritually weak, but he knows that our flesh is so weak. Our spirit's willing, but our flesh is weak. And even in our spiritual life, we are weak. And the Lord says, I know how weak you are. I know that you're but dust and that you are being sanctified in this life. We must come to the Son of God also because of this third announcement to us. And that he is the only son in place. And what I mean by that, simply this and off we go. He's the only son in place. Who are you going to pray to? Mark that down. He's the only son in place. You say, what does that have to do with it? Who are we going to pray to? He's the only son in place, meaning he's enthroned in a position to intercede for you and I right now. That means pray for us. Hebrews chapter 9 verse 24. For Christ has not entered the holy place made with human hands, which are copies of the true, but into heaven itself, now appearing in the presence of God for us. Jesus is in place right now. Jesus, the Son of God, he is there. He's representing us to God and God to us. He's in place. When you pray, let me ask you, do you pray? Tomorrow I'll be at the Brooklyn Tabernacle Church in Brooklyn, New York. And that's a church known for prayer. The book written, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire. I encourage everyone to buy that book. You say, oh, I'm not into reading books. If you can't read this book, then you probably can't read because it's only about that big. And a book on prayer. Do you pray? Well, I pray when something really heavy is going on. What about all the other time? Now think about it. If I were, and praise the Lord, I'm not. But if I were your God and you only talked to me when you were in trouble, guess what I would do to you? Because I loved you, I would keep you in trouble. Why? Because I want to hear from you. It's early. I want to hear from you. Isn't it an awesome thing when children crawl into the lap of daddy or papa or grandpa and say, my kids used to do this. Now they just, they could care less. My kids used to say, tell me about you being a little boy. They loved to hear that for years up until they got like 13, 14. Tell me, tell me how it was. And they always loved. I would tell them about Saturday mornings, how we would at home. I would tell them about Christmas. I would tell them about when I would play with G.I. Joes or Matchbox cars or Tonka trucks. And they would like this. We could go on all day. They would never say, you know, can you stop telling me about this? I really need to go. They would never. I would say, I need to stop now. I need to go. They loved it because there was this relatability and the fact that we connected because I, like you at one time, was a child. God, Jesus Christ, is in heaven in place. Who knows everything about you and me? And you can come to him and say, Lord, I stubbed my toe. Look at little children when they do get hurt. They come up, they're not, they're not, you watch them. They fall down. It's so cool. You're watching them. They don't know you're watching them. They fall down, they get hurt. They get up. They look around. They look and they look again. There's a little bit of red showing. And then all of a sudden, and then they see you and it's, Have you ever seen a kid fall down when there's no parent around? They dust it off. They're having too much fun. Oh, but mama may could have possibly seen. And boy, do they milk it. Man, I need to be more like that with God. Lord, he's being mean to me. You know, we need to come to him. We don't come to him. He's in place for us. We so often tool about all what's the old, Oh, what needless pain we bear all because we fail to take it to God in prayer or something along those lines. How silly and how terrible it is of us. The second thing that we see this morning and I need to be done in five minutes. We've got three more points to go here. Here we go. Ready? We'll just fly now. Christ, the son of God, we must believe in the son, believe in the son of God. Well, you might say, well, I certainly do believe in him. Listen, I don't mean believe in him in historic sense. Well, all that is important. I mean, believe in him as an absolute trusting sense. Why? Because Jesus was presented by God. He said early in our text, he said, this is my beloved son in whom I'm well pleased. Listen, he is, can I put it this way? And it's certainly accurate. This is my only approved, authentic, genuine, completely authorized version of me. There is no other. And this one that I'm showing you is the standard of what I will accept into heaven, nothing less. Listen, my friend, you've got to be just like Jesus to get to heaven. Did you know that? Well, you know, I've walked to grandma across the street today, so I get my brownie point. You don't get nothing. You've got to be just like Jesus to get to heaven. Well, how do we get there? Then in 2nd Corinthians 521, the Bible says that he, Jesus, who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Are you ready for this? This is shocking what I'm going to give you. Even though Jesus never sinned, never did he sin. In 2nd Corinthians 521, that message is this, that Jesus received from the Father the brunt, read Isaiah chapters 52 and 53, the scourge, the beating, the judgment, the pain, the isolation, the treatment, as though he himself had committed every one of your sins and mind multiplied. Listen, look at who you are. Look at who I am. Statistically, I'm in the middle of my life. He paid all of my sins debt from this moment past, all of it. So stop bringing up the future Jack, or the past Jack and look to the future. Stop bringing up the past Mike, or Karen, or Bill, or whoever, and look to the future. All the past he's paid for, this current day he's paid for, and until I go to heaven, he's paid for it. This is outrageous. The Father heaped upon him all my judgment. In return, the doctrine that Paul teaches us, that God imputed to us his righteousness. There's only one way to get to heaven. That's to be just like Jesus Christ. How does that happen? To be imparted by God or with the holiness of Jesus Christ, or else we're not getting in. You see now how human works is ridiculous in the mind of God. Boy, do we need to meditate on that. Jesus was presented to us by God. He's the only one acceptable. Secondly, Jesus revealed the will of God to us. He revealed the very will of God to us. Jesus exposed God's heart to us. Jot it down. I have no time to read it. 2 Peter 3, 9 and 10. Simply, God is not willing that any should perish. Jesus came to preach the good news. Matthew 7, 21, Jesus warned, not everyone who's associated on an outward basis with me shall enter the kingdom of heaven. He says, many, many people call me Lord, but not all of them will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Why? Because you need to make sure that you've experienced the revelation of Jesus Christ that comes through God. Secondly, Luke 22. It says in Luke 22, verse 40, and when he came to the place, he said to them, pray that you may not enter into temptation. And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's throw away there in the garden of Gethsemane. And he knelt down and he prayed and he said, Father, if it be your will, take this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. What was the will of the Father? Jesus performed it. It was not that man could be saved any other way. That was not God's will. Jesus even said, Father, if there's any other way, let this cup be removed from me. If man could get saved by good works, if he could be saved by moralitizing his world, then let's go for it. If man can be delivered from hell into heaven any other way, then let's do it. And Jesus finally said, but not my will, thy will be done. Every bit of his human core was crying out, I don't want to go to the cross. And yet every bit of his spirit was saying, the cross we must go to if we're to save mankind. He had flesh just like you and I did. If a beast stung him, it hurts. We somehow make him something other than a human. But remember, he was the God-man. He was revealing to us the very will of God. And that will, by the way, right now is gentle, kind, merciful, and forgiving. Don't wait because that same will would be judgment, wrathful, and vengeful in the end. Receive him now. Also, Jesus is the pinnacle to God. Simply, I'll just say this, he is the only way. Thirdly, we see that we must accept the Son. We must accept him. Charles Spurgeon, this is a radical quote of 100 plus years ago. So listen to the English because it's well written. We just don't get it these days. Charles Spurgeon says, the sinner's reception of Christ results in this primarily. First, fellowship between God and man is restored. And second, that divine intercourse hallmarks the Christian life. That's beautiful. That divine intercourse hallmarks the Christian life. If you've accepted Jesus Christ, you will have fellowship restored with God. You will. You'll be experiencing it now. And you will forever be hearing the wooing, the flirtation, if I can put it that way, of Jesus saying, come with me and let's sit aside and let's talk in fellowship. As Spurgeon calls it, holy intercourse. If that word ever meant anything, it means the relationship between the Christian and their God. But we must accept him. We so trivialize these words these days. Well, you know, believe in God, come to Christ, accept him. It's much deeper than that. Am I boring you? Thanks, because I got to hurry. I'm excited about this. The second thing that we see, or I should say the first thing that we see here is accepting him means receiving him. That we receive him. This is so important. It's important to us. It's important to you. Mark chapter 12, beginning at verse 2. It was so important Jesus said this. Now at vintage time, he sent a servant to the vinedressers that he might receive some of the fruit of the vineyard from the vinedressers that they took and they beat him and sent him away empty handed. And again, he, the owner of the vineyard, sent yet another servant. And at that time they threw stones at him, wounded him in the head and sent him away shamefully treated. And again, the owner sent another. But they killed him and many others, beating them and killing some. Therefore, still having one only son, the owner sent his beloved at last saying, they will respect my son. But those vinedressers said among themselves, hey, look, this is the heir. Come, let us kill him and inherit the vineyard for ourselves. So they took him and killed him and cast him out of the vineyard. Therefore, what will the owner of that vineyard do when he comes? He will destroy those vinedressers and give the vineyard to others. Jesus is telling the story about himself. If you reject the reception of Jesus Christ, then judgment is hanging over your head. You might say, well, it's a fire and brimstone message. It's a fire and brimstone message if you want it to be. Well, I don't appreciate what he said this morning. If it leads you to say, Jesus, have pity on my soul and forgive me of my sin and be the son of God to me, then this would be the greatest day of your life. You must accept the son. Accepting means receiving. Accepting means dedication. Man, I wish we had another hour. We need to dedicate our lives to God. Don't raise your hand. But does your marriage stink? It's because someone in that marriage unit is not dedicated to God. Does your relationship with your kids stink? Someone's not dedicated to God. Don't look to your kids to be the ones. They probably are dedicated to God. It's probably your problem. We hear much more from you saying, I wish my parents would get right with God than we hear from parents saying, I wish my kids would get right with God. Is your home dedicated? At night when you pray, do you pray for the parameter of your home? I do every night. I pray for the property line of our home. Then I pray for the neighborhood. And then I pray for, even though I may not know some of you, I pray for your home. Lord, and my kids hear this. We pray together. I'm not saying that we're something. Most of the time we fall asleep while we're praying. I'd rather fall asleep while we're praying than watching Seinfeld. I think God's happy when we fall asleep praying to him. Did you hear what I said? I think God's happy when we fall asleep praying to him. It's better doing that than some other stupid thing. Be praying, Lord Jesus, and you pray. Also this, accepting means assent. Accepting means assent. In Matthew 16 verse 13, this is a wild portion of scripture. It's awesome. And when Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, many of you have been there on our tours. He asked his disciples, listen, here's the question, who do men say that I, the son of man am? So they said, some say that you're John the Baptist. Some say that you're Elijah. Some say that you're Jeremiah. Notice, all guys who had been dead now, they're all dead. John the Baptist, these two other guys are dead. Some say you're come back from the dead. You're so powerful. Or you're even one of the ancient prophets. And he said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter piped up and said, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said to them, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, Simon, the son of Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed the son to you, but my father, which is in heaven. And I also say to you that you are Peter. You're a little, his name Peter, little stone. You're a little pebble. I say to you, pebble, on this rock, I will build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There's two thoughts of belief. One's right and one's wrong. The wrong one is this, that it was the declaration that the church was going to be built on Peter. Believe me, you don't want Peter as a foundation for your church. I can't believe you said that. Well, read your Bible. Secondly, which is the right view, is upon the declaration that Peter made. You are the Christ, the son of the living God. On this rock, I will build my church. I want to introduce to you a third view, which is just as right, I believe, as the second. Jesus, it says, went to Caesarea Philippi. If you know anything about that place, that's where Pan was worshiped. It was the central place of pagan worship. It's the headwaters of the Jordan River. It comes out of the ground. There's a big cave right there. They believed that it was the descent. It's a gigantic rock. And in that rock was carved out and idols were placed. And people would worship their idols in front of this gigantic rock. I mean, it's like to us, we'd say it's a small mountain or a very large hill, a big rock. And the Jordan waters come out. There's a big cave. And they would throw their virgin children into there, their firstborns into there. They would throw animals into there in the worship of Pan. You know who Pan is. You ever watch the little cartoon Hercules? Pan is that little kind of geeky thing with goat body and a human head. Jesus was there. It's the center place of pagan worship in the world. When it came vacation time, Jesus took His disciples to the darkest place on earth. Can you imagine? Hey, let's pack up and vacation in Amsterdam. If you've been there, you know what I'm talking about. Let's pack up and vacation in Vegas. Atlantic City. Bourbon Street, New Orleans. Oh yeah, I want to parade my kid around while there's naked women and men on display in the storefront window. Oh yeah, sure. That was Caesarea Philippi. Jesus takes the boys on a vacation to take a break, takes them right into the darkest place in the world. And He says, who do you guys say that I am? Why did He say that? Because all of these gods were there and people were worshiping. And in front of the guy that you're worshiping, you would declare that God's name and then do their worship, often sexual activity. Jesus, looking at all this that's going on, turns to the disciples in Caesarea Philippi and says, who do you say that I am? Isn't that cool? They would shout up and say, great is Artemis, great is Diana, great is whoever. And then they would do those sexual acts or those pagan worship scenes. And Jesus simply turns to the disciples and say, who do you say that I am? Peter makes his declaration and I think it can be said and argued that Jesus, when He says, upon this rock, I will build my church. Upon this rock. See this big rock here. I'm going to build my church on paganism, worldliness, carnality, because it's just going to crush it. Because all this is just a lie. It's not true. Look at that. Oh, come on, go ahead and say it again. That's exactly, exactly the result or the action we're supposed to have. Because the scripture says regarding our ascent to Him is that we're to see Him. John says, behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. What? The Lamb of God? The Jewish mind would say, what? The Lamb of God? That's the Lamb of God. Moses told us to take that little lamb into our house for five days. Five days and five nights. We select him. He's without spot. He's without blemish. He's cute as a button. Look at him. Don't you want to take him home right now? Look how cute he is. You want to take him home? That's exactly what God said to Moses. Moses, get a little lamb. Have the people select their lamb. They take it home and they play with it. They would feed it and sleep on the bed with them. And they would become very attached. And then at the end of that five-day period, which is the 14th of Nisan, that little lamb would be taken by the head of the house down to the temple. And the father would be petting that little lamb and stroking that little lamb and then get a brazen bowl, a brass bowl, and put a bowl underneath the little chin of that little cute thing and slit that thing's neck from ear to ear. And the blood would flow in. And everybody, just like you said, oh, how cute. That's exactly when John says, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. People said, what in the world is John talking about? Lambs die. Lambs spill their blood. How can Jesus be the Lamb of God? He is the Lamb of God. In the book of Revelation chapter 5, it says that I saw a lamb as though it had been slain. Jesus, the Lamb of God. There in Leviticus 23 verse 5, as you see, that's projected for you on the 14th day of the first month at twilight is the Lord's Passover. Passover what, people? Can you see? Maybe you can't. Maybe you can. See just above the ears of that little guy? I apologize for you guys over here. We have a camera projector burned out. See the marks of the blood right there? That's blood. It's supposed to be up on the top too. We had to cut it off. Wouldn't fit. That blood there back in Egypt formed the shape of a cross. With whose blood does it form the shape of a cross on the doorpost and the lintel of that house? The blood of the Lamb of God. Jesus Christ. It was all a model. It was all a type. And then finally, we're gonna have to end with this. We must abide in the Son. We must abide in the Son of God. Can you write fast? I'm gonna go through this and we'll be done. Abiding produces fruit in your life. If you're fruitless, you're not abiding. Abiding means start hanging out with God. Start doing the things that hang out with God. Abide in God. Abide in Christ Jesus. It's the only way you're gonna produce spiritual fruit. Abiding enables us to live life really truly. Jesus says, I've come to give you life and that more abundantly. You're not living until you've had Jesus. And thirdly, abiding displaces all doubt. Oh, I wish we could go into this. But the more that you abide in Jesus, fill your life with Him. You're gonna be a fanatic, you know. You're gonna be what the word originally means. Thank God to Noah Webster and all of his hard work. Enthusiastic. Enthusiastic. Only a Jew or a Christian can use the word enthusiastic. Anyone else? If you're not a Christian, if you're not Jewish, you're not allowed to use the word enthusiastic. Did you know that? Can't use the word enthusiasm. I should be a hypocrite. In is internal indwelling. Theos, God. Asim, astic activity. Internal dwelling of God produces activity, excitement. The word can also be translated fanaticism. Oh, there he goes. That's right. I'm fanatic about Jesus. He's my lamb. It displaces all doubt too. The more you abide in Jesus Christ, the less doubt you will have. If you have not made Jesus Christ the Son of God in your life, you're in trouble. Put in it mildly. And I'll leave you with this. You might be saying, Jack, I have so much doubt. How can you know if Jesus is real? You can know. I want to ask you a couple questions if this is in your heart. Just a few. If you don't believe in Jesus this morning, what do you believe in? I'm curious to hear. And I'm sure it's going to be something wild. What do you believe in? Let me ask you a question. Is it real? How do you know it's real? Can you answer these questions? What evidence do you have? Fifth question I wasn't really going to ask, but I feel rather honoree. Fifth question is how stupid can you be? There's overwhelming evidence. It's a sure thing. Jesus is the Son of God. You can bow your knee now or you can bow your knee later. It's better to bow now. Father, in your name we pray. We thank you for Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. And we ask you, Lord, that you would possess us with an ever deepening appreciation and knowledge. And Lord, may we embrace the Son of God, who is altogether lovely, who has given his life for us. Father, we thank you so much and praise you in Jesus name. Amen.