How is God speaking to man?
Roger Henderson · Dec 25, 2016
Specials
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926544181430

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Well, Vern's out of town, so you have me for Christmas this year, which is unusual. Actually, Vern has been with us over 10 years, actually more than that. And this is the first time he's not been here at Christmas. So it's great that he can get a chance to get off, and we're very happy for him.

All right, so as I was thinking about what to talk about, I kind of wanted to, and Vanya and I talked about this a fair amount, You know, what would be an appropriate message with Christ's birth? How does that fit in? How does Christ's birth fit in to God's overall program? So that's kind of my thinking here. So see if you, if you stay with this. So how is, how is God speaking to man? He certainly spoke to man at Christ's birth. So how does that fit into his overall program?

And I actually, as I found that I went through this, that, that God is interested. He's interested in every man, every woman, whether they're a believer, unbeliever, His approach is to show them that they'll understand what who he is and and what he desires of us So let's start with Let's see here. There we go. So a couple questions come up.

How has God spoken to man in time past? How did he speak to man at Christ's birth? And how is God speaking to man today? so if you have a long telephone cord, that's a little bit old-school, but I If you have a long telephone cord, you might be able to get direct communication there. But actually, we have a much better communication, we're going to find out. A superior communication to that.

So as Wayne read, God after he spoke long ago to the fathers, in the prophets, in many portions, and in many ways. So that's the first part of this verse 1. So God spoke long ago, literally it's in the past. Having spoken, it's a past point fact. It's a fact. God has spoken to man. That's undeniable. People will try to refute that, but scripture undeniably shows that over and over, God has spoken to man. So man can't say God hasn't taken the first step, if you will. God has spoken to man.

You may say, well, he didn't speak that I could understand him. You know, you could argue that. But God's going to show us, I think, systematically how he's spoken to man, and God wants us to respond to that. Just like if you speak to your child, you want a response back.

We have grandchildren now. It's really great. It's great to have grandkids. So I would highly recommend that. It's nice to have kids first, and then you have grandkids. But it's really great. So these little kids are just learning to talk. They're wonderful. He's almost three years old now. He's just going like a... His mouth just can't stop. And he just wants to tell us all this stuff. And it's really neat.

But God has spoken to man long ago or in times past. He spoke to Abraham, Noah, and Moses and so on. And through the prophets. Actually, there's a verse in Numbers. So you can kind of follow along with me if you have your Bibles. In Numbers, starting in chapter 12 it says and this is the occurrence where Moses was Aaron and Miriam they were doubting that God was speaking through Moses so God's going to answer that and the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the door of the tent and he called Aaron and Moses I'm sorry calling Aaron and Miriam when they had both come forward he said hear now my words If there's a prophet among you, I, the Lord, shall make known to him in a vision. So he'll speak in visions. He's saying, if there's a prophet there, he'll speak in a vision. I shall speak with him, a prophet, in a dream.

He says, not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. With him I will speak mouth to mouth, even openly, not in dark sayings. And as he beholds the form of the Lord, why then are you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? So God is saying that I'm speaking through Moses, and you should be listening to him. And I think God's rather emphatic there. He's saying, well, I presented my word, but you're questioning the messenger, so to speak. And they're questioning the messenger. So he says, no, I speak with him face to face, mouth to mouth. So that's going to be part of our thought process here.

So another verse that's helpful is in Hebrews 2.2.2, the A part. And this is going to talk about angels a little bit. Assume to be true, for in view of the fact that the words spoken by angels would steadfast. And that idea is authentic, prove sure.

So at the birth of Christ, we're going to see here, I'm going to go through eight different Messages that were given at the Christ's birth. They were given to men and to women and That was God's message to proclaim his son's birth and he did some face-to-face He did some in dreams and then he had like he did an angel in the dream in some cases he did actually just talking to a person in a dream was another situation and actually last night we watched the nativity story and with our family.

That's a really cool movie. You know, there's some parts you could argue with, but it's pretty good overall. And so that shows a lot. Actually, some of the overheads I have, this is actually one right there from that movie. I recommend it. It's very good. But you have to, you know, if you know scripture, you can kind of weed out the parts that aren't so good. Okay, so let's go on.

So how did God speak to man at Christ's birth? He spoke to Zacharias. He spoke to Mary, to Joseph, to the shepherds, to the magi. Joseph got a quadruple hit here. He was told to flee to Egypt. He was told to return He was told to go to Nazareth if you know the story is that's where he started from so he started in Nazareth He went to Bethlehem. They had the child they went to Egypt and then back to back to Nazareth So that's it all at God's direction. This is all messages of So God is speaking to man, so we need to listen, is the bottom line here.

Okay, Zacharias. An angel of the Lord appeared to him. He was the approved person. He was the selected person at that time. So an angel appeared at the right of the altar, and fear gripped him. And the angel of the Lord said, don't be afraid, Zacharias. Your petition has been heard.

And your wife, and you will bear a son, and you will give him the name John. They had been praying for a son, sort of similar to Abraham and Sarah. They were older in age. They were praying for a son, which they never had. And then the Lord is going to answer their prayer. And he says, you will have joy and gladness at the rejoice of his birth. For he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He will drink no wine or liquor. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit while yet in his mother's womb.

And then he goes on and he talks about how he's going to actually be a forerunner, if you will, to the Lord Jesus. He's going to turn Israel back. He's going to get them focused again on God's message, prepare a people for the Lord. Then Zacharias, unfortunately, we're going to see here with Zacharias, you know, he He'd been praying, essentially he'd been praying for a son. And then all of a sudden, it happens. He gets his answer and he says, well, wait a minute here. I don't know. How's this? We're old. We can't do this. We can't have children anymore. So he doubts the angel. And the angel says, hey, I'm Gabriel, right? I stand in the presence of God. He identifies who he is.

I've been sent to speak to you and to bring you good news. And he says, Because you didn't believe me, you shall be silent, unable to speak until the day when these things take place." Basically, he'll be unable to speak until the birth of his son. And actually, I put in Elizabeth here, his wife, she rejoiced at the fact that she was going to have a child, and she says, He looked with favor upon me to take away my disgrace among men.

So she was excited. And so this is going to factor in. Mary's going to be told about her. It's a relative of hers. Elizabeth is a relative. So we're going to see this. And this is all very familiar passages. So now to Mary. So we've had an angel speak face to face with Zacharias. Now the same angel, Gabriel, was sent to Mary in the city of Galilee in Nazareth. to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, descendant of David, and the virgin's name was Mary. So Gabriel comes to her and he says, greetings favored one. And Mary was very perplexed. She pondered what this salutation meant.

And he said, as most angels do, don't be afraid. You know, they try to kind of quiet you down. Mary, you have found favor with God. Behold you will conceive in your womb and bear a son and you shall name him Jesus well, he'll be great and will be called the son of the Most High and it continues on and the Lord will give him the throne of his father David and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever and his kingdom will have no end So Mary it seems like you know in reading this you think well Mary objected to why didn't she get rebuked and But apparently she would, and it's not really, we don't see, she just says, how can this be since I'm a virgin? It seems like she was, you know, not her, she still trusted in what was happening, but it wasn't as serious. And I, you know, it's one thing, maybe we can ask when we get there, we can talk to Zacharias and talk to Mary and say, how come it says in scripture, you said that, and we'll find out maybe. But Mary wasn't rebuked. Mary got an explanation, if you will. She got an explanation of how this is going to happen. The Holy Spirit will come upon you.

The power of the Most High will overshadow you. And for that reason, the Holy Child shall be called the Son of God. And then basically the angel relates to her about Elizabeth. And behold, your relative Elizabeth has conceived in her old age. She's in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God. And so basically Mary says, wow. Behold the bondservant of the Lord may it be done to me according to your word So she she says hey, this is wonderful.

I agree with this So that's uh, so so so far we've had we've had Zacharias We have Elizabeth both face-to-face meetings with with God's messenger angels angel Gabriel but now we're going to go to Joseph and God's going to employ a little different different method here and we're not actually told why but he talks to Joseph in the dream and so it says now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows basically Mary was found to be pregnant with with child and Joseph he was a righteous man he didn't want to shame her I mean he thought he didn't know what I mean we're not told that so he said I'll just put her away privately no big deal but then in a dream but he but in the dream the angel said Joseph son of David do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife For the child who has been conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit.

She will bear a son, and you will call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins." So isn't it neat, in telling about what's happened to Mary, he also tells the purpose of Christ's coming. And we see that in many places, he will save his people from their sins. And it just took place to fulfill a prophecy. Prophecy was told in the past about the fact that his name should be called Emmanuel which translated means God with us So Joseph awoke From his sleep and did as the angel the Lord commanded him. He took Mary of his wife.

So they got married basically It's interesting in the in the movie presentation of this. They they kind of show that there's there's some shame and they're in a small village and Nazareth and they portrayed as being some shame. We don't really know but you can kind of imagine if someone shows up pregnant and it's not obvious what happened. That's not a good thing. Probably people have suspicions. But Joseph was totally satisfied because he had a direct explanation of what happened. So he was good with that. They got married and he kept her as a virgin until the birth of the Lord Jesus.

Okay, so now we go to the shepherds. I'm going to take just a, excuse me for a second here. Think about the shepherds. What's going to happen to the shepherds? They're going to get a face-to-face, right? Not in a dream. They're going to get a face-to-face.

So it's kind of interesting how it kind of goes somewhat back and forth. So the shepherds, you know, they're out in the fields, you know, watching their flocks by night. The angel of the Lord suddenly appears. It seems like when I say suddenly, I didn't actually look the word up, but it seems like it's rather boom. It's just like, you know, that's going to be kind of startling. And they were terribly frightened. And once again, the angel, typically they always say, do not be afraid.

I bring you good news of great joy for all people. For today in the city of David, there has been born for you a savior who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you. So this is kind of interesting, this word sign. It's a testing miracle. You know, the Jews, that's something they always, you know, because they had, because of their background, their history, a sign was kind of required, if you will, to validate that God was interacting with them. So that word for sign, some have rendered it an unusual and distinguishing token and an identification for you. So it's something out of the ordinary.

So basically, the baby's going to be wrapped in cloth. I believe that's actually cloth strips. We don't really know. If you look at some of the original words and some of the translations, cloth strips are used. And then also, he'll be lying in a manger. That's kind of a nice word for a feeding trough. I assume that was pretty unusual. You didn't see your normal baby, even in that time. in that situation, you know, probably, you know, these strips of cloth, maybe then that would be highly unusual. So they could find this baby pretty easily, it seemed like.

So the shepherds, and then, of course, after the angel explains that, there was a multitude of heavenly hosts praising God and saying, glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace with whom he is pleased. And the shepherds, Let's get going here. Let's go straight to Bethlehem and see what's happened basically Okay, so so they go out they go off to Bethlehem And so all this kind of happens in the you know, we had Zacharias that was before the Lord birth and then we have the things right around the birth Mary and and Joseph and now the shepherds and now we're going to get to the Magi's and the Magi's are If you look at some of the word and phrasing, people show it in the movies, even in the movie we saw last night, the Timothy story. They show it kind of coincidental with the shepherds.

But if you look at the phraseology, it's not clear. It's probably at least a year later, conceivably, maybe even two years later. Because Herod's going to get very angry. And he's going to slay all the children two years of age, two years of old and under.

And that happens very quickly with the Magi's visit to the Lord Jesus. And it also says in the house. So we kind of get the flavor that... Let me read through this. So, why the Magi's right when the shepherds come probably is not the best timing. So basically, when the shepherds arrive in Jerusalem... Shepherds. When the Magi arrive in Jerusalem. And also, how many Magi? Everybody says three, because there's three gifts. Well, it doesn't say that. You think Herod would be excited about three showing up? How about 30? If 30 showed up, he might be a little bit unnerved because something's happening, so it's not clear.

So basically, he meets with the Magi, and he says, go search carefully for the child, and when you have found him, report to me, so that I too may come and worship him. And I don't think he was telling the truth there. So the Magi heard this, and they made their way, they followed the star, and it's through the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced exceedingly with great joy. And here's a phraseology in verse 11, and coming into the house, not the stable or not by the, you know, with the animals, coming into the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother. And they fell down on the ground and worshiped him.

It was challenging trying to find good pictures. You go out there on the internet, you start typing in, trying to find good pictures. I tried to find one in a house. This is the best I could do. I couldn't find one in a house. I looked and looked. I'm sure Vern could do a better job than I did. This was the best I could do as a house.

They opened their treasures, gave them gold, frankincense, and myrrh. And then, okay, here comes the angel. Actually, in this case, not an angel. It says, and having been warned by God in a dream not to return to Herod, the Magi left for their own country by another way. So they left and went a different way. And as a result of this, as I mentioned, Herod is infuriated and he sends, and I don't have that passage on here, but if you look in your Bibles in that section, that's in in Matthew, I'm sorry, Matthew chapter 2. Okay, so now, almost coincidental, very shortly, it seems like, now when they, the Magi, had gone, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream.

He said, get up, take the child and his mother and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you. For Herod is going to search for the child to destroy him. So he's warned in a dream by an angel of the Lord this time. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother while it was still night and left for Egypt. He remained there until the death of Herod. And that fulfilled a prophecy that said, out of Egypt I called my son. So we continue on with Joseph. Now he's down in Egypt.

So think about this. The child, maybe he's up to two. He's possibly approaching three years of age. So I like this picture because they had the Lord Jesus, you know, maybe a three-year-old child, something like that. So again, in a dream. But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream. to Joseph in Egypt and said, get up, take the child with his mother and go into the land of Israel for those who sought the child's life are dead. So Joseph got up, took the child and his mother and came into the land of Israel. And then lastly, the Lord is specific.

He just doesn't, don't go live anywhere. And actually it was probably a good idea because this man Archelaus was reigning in Judea. And he apparently wasn't a good person. I didn't actually trace out Archelaus. But so God in a dream, after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the region of Galilee and came and lived in a city called Nazareth.

This was to fulfill what was spoken through the Lord, through the prophet. He shall be called a Nazarene. So we've had eight different Messages to man, different people, different ways. So now, how is God speaking to man today? So I felt that we had God spoke to man in times past. He spoke to man at Christ's birth. So how is God speaking to man today? So we go to our Hebrews passage again.

The Hebrews passage kind of nicely condenses, if you will, It didn't really speak about Christ's birth, but it spoke about in times past and in today's time, what are called the last days. And these last days have spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom He also made the world. So now, what are the last days? The last days, if you look through Scripture, the last days seem to be this period, it's a long period, from Christ's birth to the end of the present heavens and earth. So it's basically Christ's birth until the end of the present heavens and earth.

So it says, God has spoken to us in his Son, and it's literally in Son, And with the definite article not being there, it more focuses on the character or essence of the subject. In this case, it's the Lord Jesus, God's Son. The character or his essence.

So the bottom part of this verse says, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom also he made the world. So Christ's glory, starting in the B part of this verse, and on into verse 3, we're going to see the characteristics of Christ kind of described. Who is he? What has he accomplished? Whom he appointed heir of all things, all things that fall under his authority, through whom also he made the world. All things came into being by him, or through him.

And then actually, it reminded me of a verse in John 1, 3. All things came into being through him, and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being. So he's the creator God. And then verse 3 goes on. He is the radiance of his glory. He is the exact representation of his nature. And we see a parallel passage to that in John 14. Jesus said to him, have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me, Philip? He who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, show us the Father?

He upholds all things by the word of his power. Another parallel verse to that is in Colossians. He is before all things. And in him all things hold together. So we're kind of seeing a resume, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ. And then here's his accomplishments on the cross. He made purifications for sin. And he sat down as a result of that. He sat down at the right hand of the majesty on high. So at this point, it seemed appropriate.

You know, the Lord Jesus, at some point in his ministry, he starts talking to his disciples and he says, you know, I'm going to be leaving. I'm going to be going away. And actually says, I'm going to die. And they say, that can't be. You can't die. You need to stay here.

But he's going to tell them it's to their advantage that he goes away. It will be advantageous that he goes away. And that's kind of contrary. So he's talking with these people. God in the flesh is talking to man face to face. And he's telling them that that scenario is going to change. He's going to leave. He'll no longer talk with them face to face. There's going to be a new paradigm, a new structure, if you will, And that structure will be advantageous to them. So let's see how that kind of works out. So while Christ was here, he spoke to man face to face. But now he says, it's to your advantage I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. So let's just kind of think here quickly.

Most of you know about the Helper. And there's a verse that basically defines, if you ever... Scripture is wonderful. You know, given some time and some effort, You can find a passage of many times that explain words that you don't understand. So here, Helper shows up and you say, well, who's the Helper? And in John 14, 26, it says, But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to remembrance all that I said to you.

So basically, the Holy Spirit is a person that's going to focus on Christ. He's going to focus on what Christ said and what He did. He's going to illumine the minds of man on the ministry of the Holy Spirit. But He says, if I don't go away, He says, but if I go, I will send unto you. So, things are going to change. The Holy Spirit's going to come. He's going to be, He's going to show me, He's going to show you the things of Christ.

I won't be face-to-face with you anymore, but you're going to be shown who Christ is and what he's done. So now, let's think about this. The Holy Spirit's ministry is really two-fold. I was kind of thinking about that. The Lord Jesus' ministry was kind of two-fold as well. And let's just look at that. The Holy Spirit's ministry will be to believers, or to the saved, and Christ's ministry was primarily, his disciples walked with him all the time, and he explained to them exactly what was going on.

He spoke in parables. Remember, he told them, they said, Master, you're speaking in parables, and they're hard to understand. And he would take them aside to explain the parables to them. And so he focused largely on the disciples, but he also, Christ also focused on on unbelieving people as well, the Jews, the Jewish leaders.

And we see that in John chapter 3, where he talked to Nicodemus. You know, it came to him by night, and now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you've come from God as a teacher, for no one can do the signs that you are doing unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

So Christ not only ministered to unbelievers, but he ministered to believers as well, both. So we see both there. And the Holy Spirit will have the same kind of ministry. So we see a parallel between Christ's ministry here on earth and the ministry the Holy Spirit will have in the lives of man today. He'll be ministering to the saved and to the unsaved. the believer or men of the world, as I show here. So I want to look at these two situations. So first, let's look at the believer. The believer's ministry of the Holy Spirit is in John 16, 13.

He will guide you into all the truth. That's what it says in the first part of this verse. But when He, the Spirit, comes, He will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on His own initiative. But whatever he hears, he will speak. And this is a truth that we kind of have heard on and off for a long time. But what's interesting is there is a direct parallel between what Christ said and what he says about the Holy Spirit. He says the Holy Spirit will not speak in his own initiative. And Christ said he didn't speak in his own initiative either. So you think, wow, this is interesting. Christ said, I do nothing except what I see the Father doing. Not one single thing.

And he says the Holy Spirit is going to speak about me. So what we see is the triune God. We see the triunity of God because they're all together. It's not like Christ, well I have an extra word to add here that nobody else has thought of. That never happens. And the Holy Spirit doesn't say, well I've got another thought here. No. They are totally in union. They're one God. And that actually kind of should settle us down. We don't have three gods. We have one God. And they're in total agreement. They never disagree.

So when Christ says, I'm going away, and the Holy Spirit's coming, he's only going to keep focused on what the triune God has in mind. And that's the person of the Lord Jesus. He is God in the flesh, who we can see and touch maybe at some point. Will we touch him in heaven?

I think we will. Think about that for a little bit. He'll have his body. I don't see why we couldn't. I mean, it seems pretty wild, but... So, the triune God is in total agreement. And the verses at the end there, I won't take, you know, interest of time, won't take time to read all those, but they talk about, basically, I'll just read one of them, maybe.

In John 8, 28, it talks about... So, Jesus said, When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He. This is Christ speaking. For I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak the things as the Father has taught me. There's this wonderful unity. So that's part of what we're going to see in the ministry of the Holy Spirit. He's going to continue on with what Christ has said. And it will disclose to you what is to come.

And I have three additional things here. These are really neat. The ministry of the Holy Spirit, our brother Mike has a study for over a year on the ministry of the Holy Spirit, and our brother Hal in times past has done that. I liked some of the phraseology and some of the lists that Hal developed, so I kind of borrowed some of those. The next couple of charts I want to show you is the ministry of the Holy Spirit in terms of his What do you how he how the Holy Spirit is share Christ's glory? He reveals Christ's glory and he glorifies the Father and the Son in and through you so this is these are pretty impressive list So the Holy Spirit Completed ministry, and this is our position in Christ.

This is our wonderful resume We have as a believer that we didn't earn this we don't try to achieve this we already have this we were called up the Holy Spirit called you and He chose you. He regenerated you. He baptized you. He justified you. And then the rest of them, He sanctified you. He co-enlifed you. And that one is kind of a neat one.

That's where we have Christ's life. That's kind of a phrase that I hadn't heard before. But it's actually, think about it. If you think about the passage, it says in Colossians 3 in verse 4, it says, when Christ, who is our life, so that's the in life part, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory. And if you think about what it says in Galatians, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

So we're co-in-life. We have Christ's life. He lives His life through us. He freed you. He indwells you. He sealed you. So that's our wonderful position. And then there's a complimentary section on our walk by faith. He fills you. He empowers you. He gifts you. He frees you. Each one of these we could take in the course of a year. You go through those one by one. There's actually just marvelous truths in each one of these. So this is just a list to show you the depth of what God wants to show us that he's done for us.

He has a desire for you. That's the flesh versus the spirit. The Spirit of God is working in your life, combating the works of the flesh. He gives you access to the Father. He leads you. He fellowships with you. He transforms you. That's that wonderful passage that 2 Corinthians 3.18. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory. So that's that transforming justice from the Lord the Spirit. So we're being transformed, conforms you. And then there's the last part here. I apologize, these lists are long.

He comforts you. He teaches you. I guess what I want to show you here is that He is not leaving anything out. His plans and His purposes are to live the Christian life through the Lord Jesus and He is providing this for you. Guides you. Sanctifies you. Testifies to you encourages you, you know, you might stop and think wow all these things. Why why isn't life going better for me?

You might think that well, he says all these things are true of you. All these things are right But he says you're going to have trials. So we have to accept both But at the same now we accept both parts of that we accept that there'll be trials in our life And yes, all these wonderful blessings will have from the Holy Spirit will give us he assures you he equips you and That completes the part on the ministry of the Holy Spirit to the believer. So now let's talk about His ministry to the unbeliever, or the world, as it's called sometimes.

Okay, so we see this truth in this verse. So the verse is John 16, 8. And He, the Holy Spirit, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment. You know that word convict, you know, when I first, you know, Was reading this passage in scripture that word convict kind of bothered me. It sounded kind of harsh But actually the word is better translated convince The holy spirit wants to convince the world the unbelieving world of who he is And he also want in terms of righteousness and judgment.

I just want to kind of focus on on sin and the following verse says concerning sin Because they do not believe in me so what So we look here and we say, well what sin are we talking about here? And the sin is defined for us. This sin that God is interested in is the sin of unbelief. Unbelief in me.

And so he's not trying to, to the unbelieving world, he's not trying to make them better people. I think that's partially where believers kind of get off course. We're not here to make people better, necessarily. We're here to save them, to make them better, to make them better citizens, to make them better parents, better husbands and wives.

He's here, the Holy Spirit's here, and his ministry here is to convince them of their need to believe in the Lord Jesus. That's in his ministry. So what do we need to believe? So I like the approach here where you have a two-phase approach here. The summary is 1 Corinthians 15. We're going to get there. But in getting there, I want to show you this path here to that.

We need to believe in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus. Think about this. The person is critical, right? You can believe in all kinds of people. There are all kinds of people out there that say, believe in me, trust me. But the Lord Jesus said, you know, I am the way, the truth, and the life. He is the one that we need to believe in.

So his resume we've already kind of looked at. Christ is God. He's with God, with the Father. He's a radiance of His glory. This whole resume we read earlier. He's the exact representation of His nature. For by Him all things were created. In Him is life. And life was the life of man. So that's a person.

That's who we're putting all our, you know, if you're in the stock market, it says you should diversify. Christianity is the absolute opposite of that. You never diversify. You totally focus all your hopes, all your aspirations. in the person of our Savior. That's you putting everything into what he said, that he is absolutely true in what he said. And he is. So you're putting all our eggs in one basket.

What happened there? Okay. So what is the work of Christ? The work of Christ is pretty straightforward. His work on the cross, right? His work on the cross on our behalf. He himself is the propitiation or satisfaction for sins. Notice it's sins plural. All the sins in the entire world were paid by Christ on the cross. So the sin issue is no longer the issue. It's belief in the person and work of Christ. And it says he didn't wait for us to become better. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. And then another part that's left out sometimes, but fortunately we teach it here very well. Our sin nature is in view. You can't have, you have to have something producing the sins, right? Well, God not only took care of the sins, plural, he took care of the nature. So he died on the sin, the sin nature. He condemned sin in the flesh.

And he was buried. And in proof of that, he was buried and he was resurrected. that's some so that's kind of a long way to get there if you will or which I think it is helpful because it shows you you need to it needs to be the person and the work of Christ and So that's kind of summarized in first Corinthians 15 verses 3 & 4 and that says I should be able to just quote it, but For I delivered to you of first importance what I also received that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures That he was buried And then he was raised according to the scriptures. Raised on the third day according to the scriptures. So kind of in summary, you know, we've kind of considered the triune God and how he cares for us.

He started in times past with Abraham and Isaac and with Adam. He spoke through them. He spoke with them face to face and through dreams and through visions and so on. And then at Christ's birth, he spoke to us those multitude of times that we saw. And now and today, he's speaking to us in his son. He's not speaking to us and His Son directly face-to-face when Christ was here on the earth. He's speaking to us through the Holy Spirit, showing us the things of Christ.

And He's speaking to the believer. He's showing them all the riches they have, all their wonderful resume in Christ, what the blessings they have. And that's just to totally overwhelm us and to convince us that He knows what He's doing. And to the unbeliever, He's inviting them that there's only one issue that the unbeliever has.

With with God, there's only one issue that that God has with man and it is who is my son And what has he done? Who is the person Lord Jesus and what he's done if you believe That he's God and he died on your behalf and was buried and rose in the third day Then you're born again. So that's that's the message of Christmas morning. Hopefully that's helpful to you folks and let's pray We thank you father so much Lord. We thank you for the Wonderful time we have this time of year to remember your birth Lord We thought we're thankful that you're a God you're at the triune God that cares for us so much that doesn't leave anything to The question more that you're providing for for all of mankind. We thank you for that in Christ's name. Amen