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My Father's Business Luke 2 By John McCallum

Grinsell Street, Baptist Church

Let me, first of all, express my appreciation to your pastor and the officers of the church for the invitation to speak to you this day and I trust that whilst there may be certain
things which would divide our practice in our Christian faith, I'm sure from my knowledge of Mr. McMurry and those of the men whom I have met thus far that there is far more that binds us together in the faith of the Gospel.
I wish to draw our attention this morning to the second chapter of Luke's Gospel and
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ that we find in verse 49 where he addresses his mother
and Joseph in these words and he said unto them, how is it that you sought me?
Wist ye not, as it is in our authorized version, but it is, do you not know that I must be
about my Father's business?
And I want especially to consider this question that our Lord poses to his parents, do you
not know that I must be about my Father's business?
And these words are of particular interest not only because they are from the lips of
our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ but because they are recorded whilst he was a child of
about 12 years of age and so there is a particular interest from that perspective.
But there is another particular about these words which should intrigue us and instruct
us and that is that they are the first recorded words in the Gospels of our Lord Jesus Christ.
There is a great deal of the Christian Gospels, the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke which
are taken up with the actual words of Christ himself, the spoken word by Christ.
And our interest in these words is that here are the first spoken words of Christ that
we have recorded and they are words which are full of instruction and full of teaching.
They are words which in a few short statements summarize for us the ministry of our Lord
Jesus Christ and the meaning of his coming into the world.
And if you and I were to try to analyze the meaning of Christ, here is one of the passages
of Scripture to which we could turn because our Lord is telling us a great deal about
himself and about his work and by implication he is telling us a great deal about ourselves
also in these words that we have before us.
And so I wish us to consider these words together and to try to draw out some of the main themes
or lessons that we have contained in these words.
I do not try to exhaust the meaning of these words this morning.
I suppose that there are many sermons that one could preach from the words of our text
but I do wish to highlight some of the main and some of the more obvious things that spring
to mind as our Lord Jesus Christ asked this question as a boy of twelve to his parents,
do you not know that I must be about my father's business?
And the first thing I want us to observe as we consider these words is this, that our
Lord Jesus Christ is reminding us in these words of who he actually is.
He is reminding us that he has a particular and a peculiar relationship to God.
He says I must be about my father's business and here is our Lord Jesus Christ as a young
lad of about twelve years of age and he has a tremendous consciousness of who he actually
is.
He is conscious that he is the Son of God and I'm emphasizing that because there are
many scholars and preachers today and they will try to tell us that Jesus Christ never
claimed to be the Son of God.
This is one of the new ideas that one finds in those who would criticize the historic
Gospel and the authentic Christianity that we find recorded in the Scriptures and there
are those who say that Jesus never claimed to have a divine relationship to God.
And of course a superficial reading of the Gospels will soon remind us that our Lord
again and again drew attention to his uniqueness.
He drew attention to the reality that he was no ordinary man as he dwelt amongst men and
throughout his ministry there is a constant consciousness that he was one who came from
above, that he was not one who was off the earth as other men are off the earth.
In the Gospels we are presented with one who is not just the Son of God but who is the
Son of God in a particular and in a unique sense and our Lord Jesus Christ is reminding
us of that when he says here, I must be about my Father's business.
He is speaking about God the Father in a way that no one else can speak about God the Father.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was aware that the relationship between him and God the Father
was a unique thing shared by none other.
There is no one else in the whole of God's creation who can speak in precisely the way
in which our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking of God the Father as my Father.
Now I'm emphasizing that because we, if we are Christians this morning, we all have God
as our Father and indeed our Lord Jesus Christ encourages us, he commands us that when we
pray we are to address God as our Father who is in heaven and there is a sense in which
all the children of God can say my Father and there is a sense in which all who believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ according to the plain teaching of Scripture, every one of
them without exception, without any qualification, every one is a child of God, a Son of God.
We are told for example in the Gospel of John in the first chapter of how the Lord
Jesus Christ, he came into the world, he came unto his own things, he came to his own land,
he came to his own people, he came to his own temple, he came to his own religion and
we are told his own, they received him not but as many as received him to them God gave
the power or God gave the authority to be called the children of God and the Apostle
John reminds us again, you may recall in the first epistle of John in chapter 3, behold
he says the amazing love of God, the Father that he has for us that we should be called
the children of God and so we are and the Apostle John is amazed that we who are sinners
by nature and by practice that even we can enter into this glorious standing and this
glorious privilege of being in reality the children of God and there are those scholars
who would say that when Christ speaks of himself as the Son of God and that when Christ speaks
of God as his Father, my Father, that he is speaking just as a believer in God, that he
is speaking as one who has a particular assurance or a particular sensitivity that amongst all
the people of God he too can call God my Father, a who is in heaven but that is not the way
that our Lord Jesus Christ is speaking here when he says I must be about my Father's business,
he is speaking of something different in the relationship that exists between himself and
God, something different essentially and eternally from that relationship that exists between
you and God and me and God, you and I become the children of God by regeneration, we are
born of God, we become those who become the children of God because God begets us by his
Holy Spirit and God gives us that new nature that we in fact become a partakers of the divine
nature as the Apostle Peter speaks of it, you and I we become the children of God by adoption,
we receive the adoption of sons as says the Apostle but when our Lord speaks of his sonship
he is speaking of something that is eternal, something that doesn't begin in time, something
that is not dependent upon some new birth because he never experienced the new birth, our Lord Jesus
Christ never needed to be born again, his nature never needed to be changed from that of a sinful
disposition to that of a sinless disposition, our Lord Jesus Christ never needed that new birth by
which you and I enter into the kingdom, he always had the nature that had a place and a right into
the kingdom of God, he never needed to experience the adoption of sons because there was never a
time when he was not the Son of God, from the time of his incarnation this holy thing that was to be
born of the Virgin Mary, we're told in Luke chapter 1 at verse 35, the holy child is to be called the
Son of God, from the incarnation he is the eternal Son of God because before the incarnation he was
the Son of God, you remember how it is in Psalm number 2 for example, this day says God of the
Messiah, this day have I begotten thee, what day, that day that is the eternal day God has always
begotten his Son and the theologians speak of the eternal begottenness of the second
person of the glorious Godhead, the Son of God and when Jesus is understanding his relationship
to God he is speaking of his divine nature, he's not speaking simply as a man, he is speaking as
the God-man, he is speaking as the second person who has become man and he is aware of that,
this isn't something that came upon him gradually or suddenly at some mature stage of his life when
he reached manhood or when he was in distress and cried to God with loud cries and tears and
realized that God was for him, this is something that he always had and you and I if we are
Christians we must understand that about our Lord Jesus Christ because to be a Christian it's not
just a to believe in Christ, it is to believe specific things about Christ that makes us a
Christian, we must be clear that if you and I are to be Christians according to the biblical
understanding of what a Christian is, it's not just vague things that constitute our Christianity,
it is specific things which constitute our Christianity, there are heretics and there
are sects and they would give Jesus Christ the title of the Son of God, they would acknowledge
it because the scripture teaches it but their understanding of what that means is different
to what this scripture means, they say that he became the Son of God at some stage when the
Divine Sonship was bestowed upon him, the Divine Sonship was never bestowed upon him because he
was never without this Divine Sonship of which he speaks here my Father's business and so our Lord
Jesus Christ if he is to be our Savior and if he is to be our Lord is to be understood and he is
to be appreciated in the divine glory that belongs to him from all eternity and I'm emphasizing that
not only because that's what the Bible teaches but because there is a practical outcome of our
understanding of the Lord Jesus Christ that is very important and it is this, it is our worship
of Christ. When you and I worship, we worship Christ with the same unhindered and undivided
devotion with which we worship God. Now I'm emphasizing that again because I know of sincere
Christians and they have a reluctance or a reservation to worship Christ as God, they
receive him as Savior, they do in a measure obey him as Lord but somehow there is a barrier in their
mind, in their understanding of him, they find that they cannot worship him in the way that they
give worship to God and I'm suggesting to you that if you're a Christian it's not just that you
believe in Christ or trust in Christ or love him or obey him, it is that you worship him, the mark
of the Christian, the heart of the Christian, the peculiar activity of the Christian, it's not just
that he worships God but that he worships Christ as God because he recognizes in Christ a divine
person, the Son of God is not someone inferior to God the Father, the Father has always been the
Father because he has always from eternity had the Son to whom he has always been the Father,
he could not be the eternal Father if he did not have the eternal Son to whom he stood in the
relationship of the Father and it is this eternal relationship that our Lord Jesus Christ is
referring to my Father in a way in which he is no one else's father, he is my Father and throughout
the gospel when our Lord speaks of his relationship to God it is with this eternal dimension and it is
with this divine implication for himself that he speaks throughout the gospels of his relationship
to God, he has come from God, his place is belonging with God where God dwells, that is
where he belongs, he is not of the world as you and I are of the world, he belongs to another realm,
he belongs to the realm to which God belongs, the realm of eternity, the realm of those high and
holy places where God tells us in Isaiah 57 I dwell there, that's where Christ really dwells
in the essence of his being and I'm emphasizing these things not to be theological or to be smart,
I'm emphasizing these things to be practical and to be pastoral because they have an effect upon
our lives, I am convinced beyond all shadow of doubt that the low standing of so many Christian
lives has to do with a low understanding of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, the most holy
Christians, the most obedient Christians, the most consistent Christians, those Christians who learn
to walk humbly with their God are Christians who have had a vision of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ, they have seen him not just as the good man, as the Savior from their sins but
they have seen God in Christ and it is this that the Apostle John surely is reminding us of when in
the first chapter of his gospel he speaks of the word he became flesh and he tabernacled amongst
us and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace,
full of the grace of God and full of truth, full of the truth of God and the glory for our salvation
is that when we receive grace for grace it is the grace of God and the glory of God's grace given
to us to help us in our poor daily living that we should live for his glory and that is what it
means to be a Christian, not just believing vague things, believing in Jesus. What do we believe
about Jesus? Who is Jesus? And this is what our Lord is saying, the first words that he ever spoke
record in the Gospels, he is telling us of who he is and it is our most interesting thing that Father
is his usual name for God. There is one place in the Gospels where our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to
God, cried to God without reference to the word Father and that is on the cross of Calvary where
he cried you remember in the darkness my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And that is the
only place where he does not address God as Father, my Father, Holy Father, whatever it be that is the
one place but it is still a cry of faith my God but there is a cloud and he cannot say with the
same certainty my Father but as we read the Gospels his lips are full of my Father, Holy
Father, my Father who sent me. I have come to do the will of my Father. I and my Father are one
again and again the Gospels. He is drawing our attention to his unique relationship to God the
Father and if you are a Christian this is where your faith begins. This is step number one. This
isn't further on. This isn't for the mature saints. This is where we begin. We begin our
Christian faith by understanding the identity of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the
Son of God not by adoption, not by his birth, not by his faith. He is the Son of adoption. He is the
Son of God by eternal generation. He belongs to the Godhead as the second person of the glorious
Trinity and it is this that he speaks about here as a boy of twelve. He knows that he is a divine
being and that he has a relationship to God shared by none. He uniquely can speak of my Father.
That's the first thing that I want to speak about this morning from the lips of our Lord Jesus
Christ and then there's a second thing that I would like to draw your attention to and it is
that he not only tells us who he is but he tells us why he has come into the world. Why has the Son
of God come into the world? Well he tells us I must be about my Father's business or some of you
might have a translation which puts it slightly differently and perhaps you've got a Bible which
says I must be in my Father's house. I must be about my Father's business. The main implication
is the same. He has come to be about the business of God his Father. Now there is something that he
is drawing our attention to concerning the purpose of his coming into the world and it is that he is
reminding us that this being about his Father's business is the supreme and the most important
thing in his life. This takes precedence and priority over every other consideration. It takes
precedence over his responsibility to his earthly parents. It takes precedence over all earthly
relationships and our Lord Jesus Christ reminds us of this concerning himself but he also reminds
us of this most important truth concerning those who would be his disciples. Do you remember that
occasion for example when his mother and his brothers and his sisters and they came to where
he was teaching and preaching and they desired to see him and our Lord said something that at first
could appear to be rather cruel and indifferent to his earthly family. He said who is my mother?
Who are my brothers? Who are my sisters? Who is my family? And he pointed to his disciples we're
told and he said on that occasion everyone who does the will of God, everyone who does the will
of my father, that's my mother, that's my brother, that is my sister. In other words our Lord is
saying that spiritual things, the things that belong to God, the things that belong to the
kingdom of God are to take precedent over all other things and he reminds us of the same thing
again you remember in the Gospel of Matthew in chapter 6 in the Sermon on the Mount where he
reminds us to seek first the kingdom of God and then all other things shall be added unto us. Now
why am I emphasizing that? I'm emphasizing it for a very simple reason. There are those of us who
profess to be Christians and we're interested in the kingdom. We desire the kingdom. We have
activities connected with the kingdom but the kingdom does not take precedence over everything
else. We are seeking the kingdom of God but not first. We're putting it second. We're putting it
third. We're putting it tenth. We're interested in going to heaven but it's not the most interesting
thing to us. It's not the great priority and our Lord Jesus Christ is saying to us that if we're
going to be saved then we've got to have the things of God as the very pinnacle of our ambitions.
Someone who puts this world before the kingdom of God has got no reason to believe that he or
she is a Christian. Someone who is putting the things of God to the back while they get on with
their career or their family or just the busyness and the striving of life, that individual has got
no biblical grounds to assume that they are according to the Scriptures the disciples of
our Lord Jesus Christ. And in these words our Lord is reminding us that the things of his
father's house they must take precedence and have the priority over all other things. He was not
insulting his earthly parents when he remained behind in the temple. He was not seeking to cause
a disruption in the family but he was putting first things first and God's will and God's
kingdom are first. And they were first in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ and if you and I
are going to be followers of Christ they must they must be first in our life. Now it is very
easy for us to slide into a frame of mind where our wife becomes first and our husband becomes
first and our job becomes first where perhaps even the church becomes first or where ourself
becomes first or all the innumerable complexities that make up our life. These are the things that
come first and God is saying to us put God first and all other things they shall be added unto you.
And when our Lord Jesus Christ preaches that he preaches it because he himself practiced it. This
is what he did. My meat, my food and drink in this world he said is to do the will of him that sent
me. And it is an amazing thing as we read the Gospels we find how on many occasions there were
very subtle temptations not just the 40 days in the desert of which we read at the beginning of
the Gospels but there were throughout his ministry many subtle temptations to deviate his footsteps
to detract him and we are reminded of how he steadfastly set his face towards Jerusalem to
go to the cross to suffer the many things to die to be raised again because he knew that that was
the purpose for which he had come into the world and there was nothing no temptation no subtle
appeal even by his very disciples themselves that would deviate his mind or his footsteps from doing
the will of God. He understood what the will of God was just as he understood what he was and his
heart and his mind were committed to that one great task he must be about his father's business.
Now our Lord Jesus Christ because he was committed to being about his father's business he was
misunderstood and he was rebuked and he was criticized his mother said unto them unto him
son why hast thou thus dealt with us behold thy father and I have sought the sorrowing and there
is a motherly human rebuke do you not have respect for us as your parents do you not understand that
for three days we've been anxious and concerned over you and quite right but they aren't they
were misunderstanding why hast thou dealt thus with us they misunderstood you see and I tell you
this if you seek first the kingdom of God you will be misunderstood too if you put the kingdom of God
first people will think that you're a fanatic people will think that you're cruel people will
think that you don't care for your wife or your husband as you ought to because you're always
engaged in the things of the church people will think that somehow or other you're not fulfilling
your obligations to your fellow men because your great priority is to fulfill your ambition a to
fulfill your obligations to God and we find again and again even in the gospel record we find that
when men and women seek the kingdom of God they're criticized for it and we have to face that grim
reality that the moment that we step out enough in faith and in obedience to Christ we are going
to be resisted not only by the world and the flesh and the devil but our bit by perhaps by our very
families themselves you remember that episode when our Lord Jesus Christ was in the house of Mary and
Martha within Luke chapter 10 and how Mary sat at Jesus feet listening to his word but Martha we're
told she was cumbered she was concerned about the kitchen she was concerned to put on a good feed
for the guests and that was a noble thing there's nothing wrong with preparing a good repast for
those in our homes it's courtesy and it's something that is good but not if we're neglecting spiritual
opportunities and privileges and our Lord rebuked Martha in a gentle way Martha you're troubled
about many things Mary has chosen the good part and that good part will not be taken from her
it would appear to Martha that her sister Mary was lazy why doesn't she come and help me in the
kitchen and our Lord says no she's got other things to do things that are good because they
belong to the kingdom and that's the kind of principle that we find in the scriptures I've
been criticized for the simple reason that men have misunderstood when I've tried to be faithful
to God and so will you be our Lord was being misunderstood here and he came into the world
in the knowledge that men were going to misunderstand him and misrepresent him and
simply because his heart and his life was taken up with doing the father's business that's what
he was about and the earthly mind can't understand that it never has it never will and you will be
up against it and men will speak to you and criticize your frequency at the churches worship
services they will criticize your pernicatiness of conscience they will criticize you because
of your do's and your don'ts if you're a Christian and all you're trying to do is to be about your
father's business and I would ask you if you're a Christian don't you be dissuaded don't you
let your feet be deviated away from the kingdom of God because of chastising words even of your
nearest and dearest poor Mary his mother a godly woman we we believe but of limited spiritual
understanding in this particular situation chastising her son when in reality he was
being and doing his father's business and our Lord understood that in a way that his nearest
could never understand it do you not know that I must be about my father's business he knew who he
was they perhaps didn't he knew why he came into the world they perhaps didn't and then there's a
third thing that I want to draw our attention to this morning from this text and it is that you
notice in the third place of when it was that he began or was being about his father's business
Jesus in this episode recorded by Luke is 12 years of age now that is rather a significant
statement it might appear to us on a superficial reading that well that just happened to be the
time there is a significance about being 12 years of age our Lord Jesus Christ was brought up in a
Jewish godly home and every year his earthly parents Mary and Joseph they went to Jerusalem
at the time of the Passover to worship according to the commandment of the Lord they were godly
pious Jews God does not entrust his children into the hands of ungodly and it is one of the
encouragements that we should have as parents that if we have children and we pray for them
we have a good hope from the Word of God that they are amongst God's people because God puts
his elect people into the places and homes where they will be nurtured in the faith not always but
in the main that is so he doesn't entrust his children for their nurture into the hands of
those who would do them harm but here our Lord is at Jerusalem at the Feast of the Passover and this
is his last year as an ordinary boy that's the point that I make a Jewish boy when he reached
the age of 13 and still today he becomes what is called a son of the law and a Jewish boy when he
becomes a son of the law at the age of 13 he is entitled to take his place amongst the men in the
congregations of the law he is given a place where he at times is encouraged to read the
scriptures he is given some responsibilities in the administration of the synagogue worship
he becomes one of the men in the administration of God and our Lord Jesus Christ is a 12 year
old boy he has not become yet a son of the law and the great thing for us to bear in mind is
this therefore that our Lord's ministry as the Savior of sinners it's not something that began
in his manhood it's not something that we must limit to his experience of suffering on the cross
or at the age of about 30 when he began to preach publicly it's not something that began when he
became a son of the law he was our Savior he was working to save his people from their sins even
as a child now I think that's very important for us to understand because so often when we think
of our Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior we think of the cross or we think of the mighty words that
he spoke or we think of the miracles and we say that is the saving work of Christ and so it is
but that is not the only saving work of Christ as a boy of 12 our Lord was working out for you and
for me a great salvation he was doing what the God who sent him would have him do from the time
of his earliest consciousness he is the Savior and he is the Lord do you remember how the angels put
it in the opening verses of this a chapter at verse 11 unto you is born this day in the city
of David a Savior who is Christ the Lord not one who is going to be the Savior or one who is going
to be the Christ but the one who was the babe in the manger even then he is the Savior and what he
does as a baby is saving what he is as a baby he does as Christ who is the law do you remember what
was said at our Lord's baptism when there came the voice from heaven we read of it in the third
chapter in Luke for example at verse 22 we're told of how the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape
like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said thou art my beloved son in thee I am
well pleased now our Lord was about 30 years of age when that event took place but the very
tense of the verb that is used is a tense that means in thee I was well pleased not just that
I'm well pleased with you now I have always been well pleased with you my dear beloved son as a
child God was well pleased with him as I used as a child of the law as a young man those 18
silent years of which we know nothing except this one thing God was well pleased that's all we know
about and that is reminding us that the whole of the life of our Lord Jesus Christ dares upon our
salvation it's not just that what he did on the cross of Calvary that leads to our salvation as
we trust in him it's what he did as a baby what he did as a young boy what he did as a youth what
he did as a young man before he was ever publicly baptized as the Christ what he was doing always
was pleasing to God fulfilling the law of God satisfying the precepts of God loving God with
all his heart which you and I have failed to do loving his neighbor as he loves himself which you
and I have failed to do when did he begin he never did anything else but be about his father's
business that's what he's telling us here I must always be about my father's business and he wants
his mother and his earthly father by repute and his family to understand that however strange to
them his conduct might be he wants them to understand that at all times he is about his
father's business and it takes a priority over everything else and if you and I are going to
have him as our Savior and have him as our Lord we must see him not just as the crucified one for
us but as the one who obeyed at every stage of his own manhood sanctifying our infancy sanctifying
our youth and our boyhood and our young manhood sanctifying the totality of our being and of our
need because that is the significance of the word becoming flesh and tabernacling amongst us full
of grace and full of truth I must always everything I do is about my father's business now we find him
here in the temple asking questions they were surprised verses 46 and 47 amongst the doctors
the professors of theology it was the time of the Passover and here is this young boy and he's
asking the these professors of theology he's asking them questions and he's answering their
questions concerning the Passover it was part of the Jewish ritual that at the time of the Passover
questions would be asked we are told explicitly for example in the book of Exodus chapter 12 at
verse say 36 you may remember of how when your children will ask you what do you mean by the
service there is no doubt in my mind that it was a conversation question and answer concerning the
Passover Jesus would be saying to these professors of theology what do you understand by the Passover
because he understood the Passover he knew that there was the Lamb of God which must be sacrificed
and its blood sprinkled he knew that there was one who would come and that he was the one
who would take away the sin of the world he knew that it was written concerning the Passover Lamb
not a bone of him shall be broken it's the only sacrifice in the Old Testament of which it is said
specifically a bone shall not be broken to break his bones they saw that he was dead already and
that was to fulfill the Passover lamb it was written not a bone of him shall be broken Jesus
knew more about the meaning of the Passover than these Jewish doctors of the law and they were
amazed at his understanding and at his answers and as a young boy he understood divine things
with his divine mind because he was then doing his father's business he was teaching the doctors
of the law the meaning of the Passover as a prophecy concerning the Messiah who was to come
and who was to be the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world there's a final point
I want to make and I see that time is going very quickly and the final point I want to make is this
not only who he was and why he came and when he began but why must he be about why must our Lord
says here I must this isn't an option this isn't something that is secondary or superficial I must
there is a necessity have you ever wondered why you and I as are saved from our sins by the
suffering of another have you ever wondered why it is that when we speak of salvation we speak of
suffering intimately connected with our salvation and that's an important consideration because
there are those who say well perhaps he didn't have to suffer perhaps he didn't have to become
flesh and dwell amongst us perhaps there was some other way professor John Murray of whom I know
some of you at least have heard has commented on this idea of the necessity of Christ coming into
the world living his life as the man as the servant dying on the cross and his comments
are worthy of note he says if there was any other way if there was any other way for God to save
his people from their sins if there was any other way then God has chosen the worst way in the
suffering of his son the very fact that Christ suffered what he did suffer shows us clearly that
from the divine perspective there is no other way and if you and I are to be saved from the
sufferings of hell to which we are destined and which we deserve by our sin if we're to be
delivered it is necessary it is fundamental it is an absolute necessity that someone stand in our
place and take our guilt and bear the accrued condemnation and guilt of our sins and that is
why in the scriptures we find the emphasis upon the reality that the wages of sin is death Christ
must endure he must suffer the fulfillment of the Passover lamb he must be about his father's
business because if you and I are to be saved there must be one who does it for us and if he
did not come and if he was never about his father's business and if Christ never lived the life that
he lived and if he never walked that narrow road of righteousness that alone leads into the kingdom
then none of us would be saved we would all be consigned justly and properly by a God who is
love and who is righteousness we would be consigned to that place of which we're hearing this morning
where the worm dies not and if you and I are to appreciate what salvation is let us think upon
Christ from his infancy from his cradle to his cross at all times living the perfect life before
God never breaking any of God's commandments thinking God's thoughts doing God's will and at
the last bearing God's curse he who knew no sin he was made sin for us that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him don't you for one moment believe that your efforts can bring you
into the kingdom and don't you for one moment believe that any contribution that we may even
make sincerely to the work of the gospel in the world and its extension in the world don't ever
believe that that can contribute to mercy or to grace if you and I are to be saved at all it is
not because we do things for God it is because of what God has done for us in giving his son to be
about his father's business and he must do it because we have all sinned and God chooses to
save sinners and God chooses to save sinners this way because there is no other way it's this or
nothing and this is why we as Christians must be clear that there is no other name given under
heaven amongst men by which we must be saved we must be clear that Christ is the way we must be
clear that our Muslim neighbors are not going to heaven that our is that our Buddhist and our
free-thinking neighbors are not going to heaven and I'm saying that because there's a tremendous
temptation in all our hearts to look at the good life of the religious man and to have an idea
that somehow rather God will be merciful to him whether he believes in Christ or not it cannot be
I must do it because there's no other way to do it and the gravity of our sin should draw us to
this great fact that there is one hope only for us and that is in Jesus blood and righteousness
the one who became flesh lived the life of holiness in which there was no sin in him who
died the sinner's death and who today is alive forevermore still being about the Father's
business and the Father's business for him today is the same as it was in the days of his flesh
and ever has been saving all who come unto God by him is this your understanding of the gospel is
this your conception of Christ do you understand this this is what makes Christians Christians
we believe it we understand it we love it we are committed to it and may God grant that would have
the boldness to defend it and to speak about it and the conviction to live by it all our days
and to follow in the footsteps of him who all the days of his life put God first and who was
always about the Father's business may God help us to be followers of him indeed and not to be
sidetracked into trying to work out for ourselves a salvation which can never bring us to God may
God bless us more this recording is brought to you by the Christian library.org.au