Twice in this passage of Scripture that I read to you from Acts chapter 4, there's a statement made that says, The name of thy holy child Jesus. You know the world's opposition is often times a blessing to God's people and God's churches. In our flesh, we'd always like to have good things. Plenty of money. Plenty of food. Dry bed. Recognition of those around us. But sometimes that's not good for us. Sometimes pressure from outside promotes love. It stirs our zeal as it did these two men. And it forms unity among the believers. And I want to focus on this title that's given to Jesus here in our text and also in verse 27. By Holy Child Jesus. We must And I can't say that strongly enough. We must be weaned from any other comfort. The Lord Jesus Christ is our only rock. If you're going to build your life on something, make sure you build it on Him. He's our only refuge. If we endure adversity, normal things, or the adversity of enemies, whether we deal with tribulation or we deal with distresses, we must turn to Christ. These things that God allows in our life are ordered to compel us to look to the Lamb. Our most painful and difficult decisions in life direct us to Him who is our surety. He stands in our place. He represents us. He's also called our mediator. He's our lawyer that never lost a case. And I want to preach to you, if the Lord will help me for a few minutes today, a message that I have entitled, Wondrous Jesus, the Holy Child. There are two or three things that I want to try to get out of this text that will be of help to us. The first thing that I want to emphasize is that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ was really a man. He was as human as he could be. It's a marvelous thing to me when I read the Bible to see the perfect unity of manhood and deity in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's as much God as is Jehovah. He has all the attributes and all the strengths of God Almighty. I hear foolish preachers and ignorant Christians talk all the time about why didn't Jesus It's a shame he couldn't get down off that cross. He could have got off that cross. But the price of him getting off the cross was that you'd go to hell. He loves his people too much for that. He's also human. He was as human as Adam. Innocent. But he was perfect. He had no sin in his nature. He had no sin in his conduct. He was perfectly righteous before God. His birth and his growth were as normal as any other mortal. His mother gave birth to him the way all humans are born. When he was a baby, he needed human intervention. He needed someone to care for him. He had to learn to walk and talk. He had to learn to feed himself. He had to learn a trade. He had to learn to deal with people. When he got older he had to learn to deal with religious folks and that's really a pain. His perfect humanity ought to be reflected on carefully. His condescension is the greatest miracle that's ever been seen. People talk about miracles. They talk about miracles. A mountain disappeared, or a mountain appeared, or somebody was dead and they came alive, and this, that, and the other. Dinosaurs went away just before we got here. I'm telling you the greatest miracle that's ever been performed was when God Almighty became man. John said in John 1.14, the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The greatest miracle you've ever seen. The greatest miracle you've ever read about. The greatest miracle you've ever heard about was that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, became a man. You ought to meditate upon His fitness for the work which He has been given to perform. It's not like foolish preachers talk about that God got Jesus in a corner and twisted His arm and talked Him into coming down here and dying for us. No, the Lord of glory, He was prepared from before the foundation of the world to come and be our substitute and our Savior. His perfections enabled Him to perfectly deal with temptation and without sin. The writer of Hebrews said this, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin. I'll tell you why that's a glorious truth. I've dealt with preachers all my life. Of all kinds, all shapes, all varieties, and all opinions. And the worst preachers that I ever had to deal with. are those men that have always been preachers. They've never done anything else. Half the preachers in this county have never worked a day in their life. They don't know what you feel like when you come to church on Wednesday night and you're so tired you can't hold your head up. They don't know what it's like when you get up on Sunday morning and you're exhausted from a week of hard work and you just like to turn it over and go back to bed. They don't know what that's like. Our Lord Jesus Christ knew that. He had a perfect union and a close relationship with His people. Jesus loved His sheep. He told Peter, do you love me? Peter said, Lord, you know everything. You know I love you. He said, well, then feed my sheep. We have a foretaste of heaven in our union with Him. That's what heaven's going to be. Heaven's going to be the fulfillment and the reality of the union that His people have with Christ. It's not going to be, I know there are people, I've heard every story in the world you can hear about heaven. That for people that like to fish, the lakes are all full of bass that long. All you got to do is just stand there and look at them and they'll jump right in your hand. I've heard every kind of story in the world. Guys that like to play golf, they hit a hole in one on every hole. I'm telling you, heaven is going to be a place where the union between Christ and His people is fulfilled. We ought to rejoice in the glory of manhood fully restored. Mankind lost everything in this flesh when Adam fell. Adam did not sprain his ankle. He did not twist his thumb. He did not hyperextend his knee. Adam fell. Spiritually, he died. And when he died, you died with him. But Christ gives us life. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ, this holy child will judge the world in righteousness and He will exercise pure justice. If He did not atone for you, then justice must be dealt with. He's an open channel through which grace flows to every believer. He's our representative. He blesses us and He forgives us and He cleanses us constantly. He is the pipeline through which God's grace must flow down to the redeemed. He's the open door of access between us and Almighty God. I get sick and tired of hearing these people talk about Jesus knocking on the door and begging you to come in. Let me tell you something. When the Lord of Glory gets ready to come through a door, He comes through it. You can latch it. You can bar it. You can put stuff over it. It doesn't make any difference. He comes right through it. You know, I'm a man. Fallen man. Imperfect man. But Christ is the perfect man in whom I exist. He brings down men to take them off the thrones of their life, but He also brings them up. He raises them up in His righteousness and sits them before His Father as His children. Because of Christ, we're safe. That's why I sleep through storms. My Father is watching over me. Somebody asked me one time, he said, what if a tornado comes? If it does, my Father is in it. What if a hurricane comes? If it does, my Father is in it. He is up watching over me all night, since both of us stayed up. Because Christ can never sin. He can never fail. Our union with Him is fixed. And we have this joy of perfect security in this all-powerful union. He's our assurance of certain adoption. We became children of God because the sons became a lamb. Our acceptance is in Him. I have a good friend who's adopted and he told me He said, I can't remember too much, but when I was a child, he said, I always wondered if I'd ever get out of the orphanage. And he said, I just, I wondered, you know, am I ever going to have a home? And he said, you can't imagine what joy it was to my heart when a man and woman came and adopted me, took me into their home, treated me like I was their own flesh and blood. And he said, I thought that was the greatest thing that anybody could ever do for me. until I met Christ. We're accepted of God in Him. The second thing I see in this verse of Scripture is we find humanity described here in a different tone of voice. He says, The name of thy holy child Christ's humanity was perfectly holy. The word holiness is a negative word. It means to be missing something. It means to be missing all sin, all corruption, all impurity. It means to be perfectly righteous. As our physician, he came into the world to mingle with the infected. As I've read history through the years, there have been times when I've read stories about doctors just ignored plagues and various things and just went out and took care of the sick even though it killed them. They might get the plague and it might kill them. Still, they just could not help but to offer aid to those who were needed. He's our representative. And as our representative, he's tempted as no other has ever been. As the imputation of sin, He's as close as you can get to sin, and yet He's holy. God has withdrawn from the deep sorrows of humanity, but Christ has prevailed. I want you to notice this rather peculiar title that's given to Him here. He's called Him a Holy Child. Now, I've seen a lot of children I've seen some that are pretty good and I've seen some that are real bad. But I've never seen a holy one. They're all rascals. Of varying degrees. Little or big. Good or bad. Plain or indifferent. But here God by the Holy Spirit pens down that His child Jesus is a holy child. In His child-likeness there is simplicity. There's an absence of all cunning. He was what he was. One of the reasons Jesus was in this world, He was so plain in this world, was that He just was what He was. He didn't try to be anything else. I know a few people like that. I like them. In His childlikeness, He's perfectly innocent. Now, I'm going to tell you a little secret. don't tell anybody else i've known most of you for some time there is an innocent one in this crowd we're all guilty of something you might be the only one that knows it but i'll tell you god knows it too but this holy child he has no guile he has no guilt he's innocent In His childlikeness, there is absolute and infinite simplicity. Jesus was such a simple man. In Christ, there's the humility of God by association. You know, children don't have a lot of pretense. They really don't. One of the things that makes children interesting is they're just what they are. They don't put on a show. They're just what they are. I was at somebody's house the other day and their little granddaughter was there. She was three years old, I think. Anyway, she said something that was quite embarrassing to her grandmother. And I told her, I said, why does it embarrass you? She's just being honest. I said, but I do have hope for you. When she gets older, she'll learn to lie like the rest of us. In children, there's no pretense. Children don't have any prejudices until somebody teaches it to them. There's no racial prejudice, no cultural prejudice. You can put two children that don't know each other. They can be of different races, different cultures. You can put them in a room by themselves, give them a few toys to play with, and they'll sit there and play with each other. They get older and we teach them things or they watch us and they learn things and they become prejudiced and they become bigoted in their mind. But the Lord Jesus Christ had no prejudice. He was as simple as he could be. One of the greatest things in Jesus' life to me was that time when they got that donkey, the young donkey, and put him on it and he rode through the streets. Now I tell you what, it isn't fun to ride a donkey's coat. They'll usually throw you off. But it was like a little child. riding on that donkey's coat through the city. You see this holy child who is utterly submissive in obedience. He was always doing the Father's will without question. His entire life was lived constantly in obedience and regard to the Father's will. He told those people. He told his mother and father. In Luke 2.49, he said unto them, How is it that you sought me? Don't you know that I must be about my Father's business? Twelve-year-old boy. That's profound. We also look at him and we see a spirit that's full of forgiveness. You know what he said when he was dying? You can tell a lot about people when they're dying. You know what he said? Father, forgive them for they know not what they do. You ever notice that people are not afraid to approach a child? They're not afraid of them. There are people that folks are hesitant about. Now, I'm bigger than the average bear. And I've noticed that people are careful around me. They think I'm going to follow them, I guess, and they don't know how right they are. That's the first thing. But they just kind of keep a breath back. They kind of keep some room there where they can get away. Children, people just come right up to them. And they come right up to you. I have to tell you, children are a little bit hesitant about me, but they finally get used to me. Our Lord was that way. You can come to Him. I encourage you this morning. Come to Him and tell Him all of your troubles. Tell Him all of your despair. Tell Him all of your heartaches. He'll hear. And He'll do what's right. The third thing that I see in this verse of Scripture is the glory of His humanity. The glory of His humanity. When I was a child, we didn't have much. And I don't know how they did it, but every year my mother and father would somehow, we'd have Christmas. We might not have had anything all year, but we'd get an orange and an apple. My sister can remember this. When we were children, The one thing my dad always got us at Christmas every year was a coconut. He'd knock the eyes out of that coconut, and we'd drink that milk. And he'd bust that coconut open. You know how long you can chew on a coconut? I tell you, it'll last you till New Year's. It will. It isn't bad, but it'll last you for a while. We'd put a Christmas tree up. We'd go down the road to them and get an old cedar tree and stick it up. And I can remember as a little child there was something special about it. We'd have that festivities scene there. There was something special about that baby. The Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly human. He was as human as you are. But I tell you, nature bowed at his feet. He could command the seas and they'd do what he told them. When he told them to be still, believe it, they were still. When he raised up a storm, it was a mighty storm. Professional fishermen would be scared to death. When he called on the wind, the wind would blow fiercely and he would tell it to be still and it would be calm. After the resurrection, He gave the same power to His disciples. He said in John 14, 12, Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also, and greater works than these shall he do, because I go unto my Father. He said, you're going to do everything I did and more than they did. The name of Jesus was declared by feeble men to cast out demons. Now, can you cast out demons? I can't. that our Lord could. Dumb lips sang to His glory. Lame men that had ever walked leaped like a young deer when He told them to walk. Blind men like Bartimaeus who had never seen anybody or anything, they saw His power and rejoiced. The miracles of God are cradles that rock natural men and women. Jesus, I want you to know this, has no less power today than He had then. We don't see many miracles in our day and time. God does one every once in a while. God lets us see something. We call it miraculous, but we see very few miracles. And most of the ones that people profess to do are just shams. But I'm telling you, it's not because he doesn't have the power to do it. In this late hour, dead souls still hear God's voice and they live. God asked old Ezekiel, can these bones live? Ezekiel said, Lord, you know. He had it right. Spiritual eyesight and healthy hearts are restored to men and women that are dead in trespasses and sins. Spiritual miracles are far greater than natural miracles. I have no doubt if I could just speak and I could say, let there be a mountain there. And suddenly a mountain went up through the ceiling and out the roof of the building. Next week we'd have a bigger crowd. I guarantee you. People would come to see if there was going to be another miracle. I tell you, those miracles are nothing to when God speaks to the heart of a man or woman and says, live. The name of Jesus is still powerful on the preacher's lips. We're all trophies of grace and we're wrapped up in the power of His name. When His name is declared, our hearts are set free and they're made tender in the hand of God. The gloom of our spirits is scattered by the Son of Righteousness. I love that statement in the book of Malachi. He's the Son of Righteousness with healing in His wings. The wonder of His name is seen in our desire to walk a holy walk. I fail at it mightily, I tell you. But I have a desire to walk pleasing to God. He still makes. those souls that are troubled with the demons of sin, to be free in His abundant mercy. Wherever His sacrifice is exalted, as in Ezekiel's valley of dry bones, dry bones are made to live. The believers defy the world to tell of His incomparable power. Remember Moses? God called Moses, told him to go down and tell Pharaoh to let my people go. He said, how am I going to let them know who you are? Just tell them I am sent you. Moses still doubted. He said, why don't you sit there and send somebody that can talk. I can't talk good. And he told Moses, he said, throw your staff down on the ground. He threw it down and it became a serpent. He said, now reach down and grab it by the tail. He picked it back up and it was a rod again. That magic rod, he raised that rod, he moved it across the Red Sea and it parted east to west. I tell you, there's more magic in the name of Jesus than there is in Moses' rod. We ought to declare his magnificent glory. If we do, we'll see his kingdom come. I was talking to a lady earlier this week and she asked me a question, a very plain question. She said, somebody told me that you were one of those Calvinists. And I said, I've been told worse things. She said, are you really one of them? Well, I'm a Calvinist, but I don't know if you know what a Calvinist is. And she went on and told me what she thought it was. I said, well, you're quite a bit off base. I said, I'm not the worst person in the world, but I believe God's sitting on the throne, and Jesus is sitting at His right hand, and He's interceding for me and all His people every moment. We look at Him one time. We cast our souls on Him. were saved by his redeeming power. The changes he makes in our soul give us an internal evidence of his majesty. He's the king of kings and the lord of lords and angels bow before his throne. All the arguments of men's philosophies will never knock you off that rock. People have strange ideas. They really do. They think strange things. They come up with strange ideas. If I didn't rejoice to believe in Jesus Christ for any other reason, it would be because I can't be shaken if I'm in here. by stretching forth thy hand to heal, and that signs and wonders may be done by the name of thy holy child Jesus." You know, it's pretty unimaginable, but Christ really stooped to become a man that He might be our surety. I don't know anybody else that would do that. We are blessed that God would send this Holy Child to convict and waken sinners and give them life. Have glories is our blessed Redeemer in all His workings for all His people. That signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy Holy Child, Jesus. I was looking through an old hymn book a couple of days ago. And I found these words and I thought they just fit this message. Let me share them with you. It didn't give me an author so I don't know who wrote it. But the hymn was entitled Safety in God. And here's what it said. Well, that's part of what he said. Actually, there were 12 verses to this. I thought I might not read it all. When overwhelmed with grief, my heart within me dies. Helpless and far from all relief, to heaven I lift mine eyes. Oh, lead me to the rock that is high above my head, and make the covert of thy wings my shelter and my shade. Within thy presence, Lord, forever I'll abide. Thou art the tower of my defense, the refuge where I hide. That signs and wonders may be done by the name of Thy holy child, Jesus. Amen.