I'll open up in prayer and then we'll get into our study. Our Heavenly Father, we are very grateful for this best of all days, the Lord's Day. What a privilege we have as your people to gather in this sacred assembly and to do so very publicly before a watching world to make much of you, to make our boast in you yet again, Lord. And we thank you for the joy that that is for the saints of God. Father, we pray that as we take advantage of the means of grace which you have provided for us today in worship, that we will gain much from all that is taught to us from your word today, that we will be built up more and more in our most holy faith in Christ Jesus on this day. And we pray, Lord, that even in our communion together as your people in our fellowship, that it will be true Christian fellowship where we are seeking and striving, Father, to edify one another more in the faith and to press each other on further in our pursuit of holiness and godliness and righteousness and peace. And Father, as we turn at this time to your word and even to our confession that confesses the truth of your word, Lord, we pray that the Holy Spirit would graciously and mercifully accompany these moments we have to consider yet again the the mediatorship of Christ Jesus our Lord and why it is so necessary that in this office of mediator, then we must have Jesus as our prophet, priest, and king. Father, we pray that the Holy Spirit will open our eyes to see and behold the wondrous things of this truth from your word and as it is confessed in the Second Lunden. We trust in you, Father, for these things, for the sake and the honor of Christ Jesus our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen. Well, let's begin by opening up the Second London Baptist Confession. We will be reading the very last paragraph in chapter eight, paragraph 10. And this paragraph reads as follows. This number and order of offices is necessary. For in respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical office. And in respect of our alienation from God and imperfection of the best of our services, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God. And in respect of our averseness and utter inability to return to God and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need his kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom. And then turning to God's word, the gospel according to John chapter one, We'll begin reading at verse 1 and reading to verse 18, reading the prologue to the first chapter of John's Gospel. and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory. Glory is of the only son from the Father, full of grace and truth. John bore witness about him and cried out, this was he of whom I said, he who comes after me ranks before me because he was before me. For from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, the only God, who is at the Father's side. He has made him known. And so reads God's infallible and inerrant word. We return this morning to our present studies in the Second London Baptist Confession, where we've been working through Chapter 8 concerning the great biblical doctrine of Christ the Mediator. After 11 weeks in this chapter, we now come to conclude it in its last paragraph, which is paragraph 10. As we learned last week, this paragraph along with paragraph 9 are original to the Second London Confession in comparison to the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration. That while what we read in chapter 8 of the Second London Confession can be found in the aforementioned confessions, Yet these last two paragraphs do not appear in either of these confessions. The truth is these last two paragraphs in Chapter 8 are derived from the First London Baptist Confession of 1644 along with its revision in 1646 in what is identified as Articles 13 and 14. This tells us that while this later generation of particular Baptist churches believed it necessary to forge a new confession, yet it was not so new that it left out altogether what had been written some 30 plus years before. They were confessing the same doctrines in substance from their former standard, though they believed it critical to add new chapters to bring forth greater doctrinal clarification to address certain pressing needs. But here in chapter eight, the last two paragraphs is harking back to the First London Confession to obviously stress what these brethren believed important to retain concerning Christ our Mediator. Clearly in the minds of those men who forged the Second Lenten Confession, the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration didn't quite say enough about the Mediatorship of Christ our Lord. So, what then do these final two paragraphs address in chapter 8? Well, they emphasize with greater clarity the fact of Christ as our only exclusive mediator between God and man and the immensity of our need for Christ as our mediator in His triplex office of prophet, priest, and king. Last week, our focus was paragraph nine, where we understood this brief paragraph from two different perspectives, which said the following. First, the work of mediation between God and man is limited strictly to Jesus Christ, the Lord. Second, no one else in the church can take the office of mediator. but Christ alone. This morning, as already stated, we turn our attention to paragraph 10, where the subject here is, as James Renahan states, the magnitude of our need. That is to say, why is it so necessary that in the meteorship of Jesus Christ, we need Him? as our prophet, priest, and king? Why this triplex office of Christ as our mediator? That's the point of paragraph 10. So in answer to this question, we address it from three different positions. First, why do we need Christ as our prophet? We'll spend more time answering this than the next two. Reading the opening portion of paragraph 10, this number in order of offices is necessary for, In respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of His prophetical office. To begin with, we must observe what is said concerning this triplex office of Christ our mediator in the first clause of this paragraph. We're told that this number and order of offices is necessary. How many offices make up the mediatorship of Christ is necessary and the order in which they are revealed is equally necessary. We'll see the necessity as to the number of them as we proceed with this exposition. But the actual order in which they are presented may not be so obvious. Why is this triplex office always stated as prophet, priest, and king? Why not king, priest, and prophet? I mean, does it really matter? Well, actually, it does matter. This is not just randomly thrown together. To answer this question, we have to go back to the original source material for paragraph 10, which is not the First London Baptist Confession, but the Marrow of Theology by William Ames. You see, when the First London Confession was written, One of their theological sources was the Marrow of Theology, which was first published in 1623 and saw several more reprints in both the 17th and 18th centuries. It was considered the golden standard for Puritan theology in brief lucid, comprehensive words. And for the framers of the First Lenten Confession, they relied quite heavily on this work by William Ames to aid them for what became Articles 14 through 16 on the Triplex Office of Christ as prophet, priest, and king. Now, to answer the question as to why these three offices of Christ as mediator are spelled out in the order, prophet, priest, and king, William Ames writes this. The number is shown by the order in which salvation is brought, since it must first be preached, then obtained, and afterward applied. The first is the role of the prophet, the second of the priest, and the third of the king. The order also appears in the appointed way of carrying it out. Christ first taught others, declaring the will of God to them, then he offered himself, and afterward, he entered into his kingdom. So it should be clear then from this explanation that there is a definitive and conclusive theological reason why the order of this triplex office always reads as prophet, priest, and king. But moving forward to answer our leading question, why do we need Christ as our prophet? Paragraph nine reads as follows. For in respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of his prophetical office. The Lord Jesus Christ is the prophet because of our ignorance. The ignorance which is spoken of here is obviously spiritual ignorance due to the consequences of our sinfulness as sinners. Left to our own natural intelligence marred by sin, knowing God in a saving way is impossible. God has left all of mankind with a witness of himself by way of creation so that no one can honestly deny his existence. Romans chapter 1 clearly teaches that. But the general revelation of God's eternal power and divine nature as creator does not lead sinners to salvation. It only confirms their condemnation as sinners since they exchange the glory of God as creator for a lie that leads them to worship and serve the creature. Again, Romans 1 bespeaks of this. So this is why Romans 3.11 testifies of all sinners that no one understands. No one seeks for God. Under the power of sin, men and women as sinners have no spiritual understanding to the truth of redemption in Christ and their natural proclivity in bondage to sin is never to seek after God in a saving way. But it is this spiritual ignorance which our confession is highlighting for our need of Christ as prophet. To begin understanding our need for Christ as prophet, we might first ask the most basic question, what does a prophet do in the biblical understanding of that term? In the Old Testament, the prophet for the most part was a spokesman, an agent of revelation by which God, instead of speaking directly from heaven to the congregation of Israel, put his words into the mouths of men. As the prophet stood facing the people, God stood behind him, as it were, a posture that indicated the prophet was speaking on God's behalf. This is why the prophet's message was often prefaced by Thus says the Lord. The prophet's most basic function then was declaring the word of God to humanity. But when we come to the New Testament, we see a greater prophet exceeding all that had come before. The Lord Jesus Christ is the prophet par excellence. In fact, unlike all the prophets under the Old Covenant, Christ is not just the subject of prophecy, He is the chief object of prophecy. He did not just teach about the future or declare the Word of God, but He is the Word of God. With the coming of Christ, we have the culmination of all that God has revealed beforehand by His previous prophets and the perfection of that revelation in the person of His Son, who brings everything God has to say to us for our redemption to a dramatic conclusion, which is what Hebrews chapter one, verses one and two so clearly teach. So in Christ, all that the Father has to say to us, is said with nothing held back for a later time. No greater revelation then can be imagined which has come by way of Christ and thus we have no greater prophet sent from God than His eternal Son made flesh. As Walter Chantry said of this fact, Apostolic writings are echoes of what was heard from the lips of our Holy Lord. When the Holy Spirit of inspiration came upon them, it was to bring back to their memories what Jesus had taught beforehand and to illumine them concerning the significance of His sayings. The Son of Revelation shone in Jesus Christ. The apostles' writings were not new beams of light, but reflections of the glory that shone in the Son of God. So then when it comes to our spiritual ignorance of who God is, what He is like, and the way sinners can be redeemed and put right with God, it is in Jesus Christ, the Lord, where such ignorance is taken away. This is why here in paragraph 10 concerning our need for Christ as our prophet, the biblical reference is John 1.18. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known. John's point in this verse is that only Jesus Christ can reveal God to us. Only Jesus Christ can reveal God to us. In other words, only in the person of Christ do we see and behold the perfect revelation of who God is because he is the image of the invisible God since he is God by nature. And John proves this in two ways. In the first place, notice Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God since no one has ever seen God preceding the incarnation. John states this as a matter of fact. No one has ever seen God. It's significant that in this statement from the original Greek, God, theos, is written in the emphatic position. This is underlining the fact that God as God in his essential being cannot be seen by men. Men can see men, but they cannot see God. Remember when Moses requested such a vision from the Lord? And the divine reply he received back was this, you cannot see my face for man shall not see me and live. Exodus 33 20. 1 Timothy 6, 16 bespeaks to the why of this reality when it says of God that He dwells in unapproachable light, adding then, whom no one has ever seen or can see. God, in the essence and glory of His intrinsic nature, is absolutely inaccessible to man. Inaccessible. Not only because he is spirit and thereby not of material form, but as the Second Lenten Confession rightly asserts in chapter two, paragraph one, the Lord our God is a most pure spirit. God dwells in absolute purity because he is holy in all that he is in and of himself. Or as 1 John 1 5 states, God is light, and in him is no darkness. So to see God and approach God in the essence of his perfect being is utterly impossible for any mortal fallen man. This is why prior to the incarnation of Christ, God revealed himself in many different ways, but listen, never in his essential nature, never. Since, as the scripture says, God dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. But in the second place, John goes on to prove why Jesus is the perfect revelation of God by the fact of his deity as God, and thus, When he came into the world, he thereby expounded God perfectly to man. Reading the second clause of verse 18, the only God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known. When John writes the only God, a better translation of this descriptive would be the unique and beloved one who is God. John is describing here the Lord Jesus Christ and His deity as God, but then immediately follows this descriptive with the words, who is at the Father's side. This could be better rendered, who is in the bosom of the Father. This terminology is conveying the deepest intimacy, knowledge, and mutual love between persons. So then John is giving us just a glimpse of the eternal Godhead, wherein the divine persons of the Father and the Son, who in their essence are both the eternal God, dwell together in union, which is beyond our capacity to understand, since it is a union of perfect knowledge and love. But John's point in the unveiling of this truth concerning Christ as God's eternal Son in perfect union with the Father is to assure us there is no one better qualified to reveal God to man than God's only begotten Son, Jesus Christ the Lord. And so John closes, verse 18, by saying of Jesus, he has made him known. He has made him known. The verb translated made known is from a Greek term out of which is derived the word exegete. A word used to describe when someone gives a full account of what God's word means. And so here in application to Christ, this is what he does for us by revealing God. He exposits or he exegetes for us a perfect revelation of who God is. This is why Jesus could say to his disciples, John 14 verse nine, whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Have you ever taken the time to think about that? Friend, those are astounding words. You can't say that, I can't say that, but Jesus did. Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. Those are astonishing words. Those are mind-blowing words. This one who is himself truly God from all eternity, of the same essence with the Father in perfect union, knowing the Father with perfect knowledge. He has therefore made known, given us a flawless exegete, a perfect revelation by His words and deeds and his very life of who God is. No one, listen to me beloved, no one can make that claim but Jesus Christ. Nobody, nobody but Christ. This is why then in respect of our ignorance, the confession says we stand in need of his prophetical office. This is why. But in the next place, we must consider why do we need Christ as our priest? Why do we need Christ as our priest? Well, reading from paragraph 10, this number in order of offices is necessary in respect of our alienation from God and imperfection of the best of our services, we need His priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God. This portion of paragraph 10 exposes two different aspects of our sinful depravity. First, there is our alienation from God. The biblical reference for this truth is Colossians 121. where Paul the Apostle reminds the Colossian believers what they were before God saved them. who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds. These words follow the truth. Paul sets forth in Colossians 1 verse 20, where he reminds us that through Christ, we were reconciled to himself by the blood of the cross. But why do we need reconciliation with God? It's because we were alienated and hostile in mind. The term alienated means to be estranged. It means to be separated, to be cut off. In our sinfulness as sinners, we were separated from God. There was no favorable standing before Him or acceptable union with Him. We were cut off completely from Him. In addition, however, to our alienation from God, Colossians 121 says, we were also hostile in mind. This term could be translated as hateful. In our unbelief as sinners, we hated everything about God and His holy standard, which is why Colossians 121 describes the pattern of our lives in sin as doing evil deeds. Preceding our salvation in Christ, we lived the whole of our lives in rebellion against God. Before your conversion, before my conversion to Jesus Christ, we were lawbreakers. Every day we broke God's law. Every day. In our thoughts, in every motion of our hearts, in every motive, in our words, our deeds, we were lawbreakers. Lawbreakers. There was never a moment in time in our unregenerate state where we had any love for God, never, never. You never loved God with the whole of your being. And furthermore, when did you ever really love your neighbor as you loved yourself? Have you perfectly treated others the way you want them to treat you? And that's everybody, even your enemies. Oh, well, you put it that way. We fell short of God's glory. All have sinned. This is where we were. In rebellion against God. So this then is the first aspect which paragraph 10 highlights in this clause concerning our sinful depravity. Why do we need Christ as our priest? Because of our alienation. our alienation from God. But the second aspect of our sinful depravity, which is described, is not our pre-conversion state, but our post-conversion. It reads, an imperfection of the best of our services. These words underscore the fact that even in the best of our services, as believers in Christ, there is still imperfection. even in the very best of our services, there is still imperfection. Thus the biblical reference which the confession cites here is, no surprise, Galatians 5.17. For the desires of the flesh are against the spirit, and the desires of the spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other to keep you from doing the things you want to do. What's being magnified here from Galatians 5, 17 is the daily internal war which every Christian faces between the flesh and the indwelling Holy Spirit. Preceding our glorification in Christ, we struggle every day with remaining sin in the flesh. Romans 7, 14-25. speaks to that in the plainness of terms. Paul the Apostle writing in spiritual autobiographical language and writing as a very mature Christian, not a brand new Christian, but one who had been walking with Christ for years and years. And Paul says of himself at that present time and place in his life, the good I will to do I do not, but the evil I hate that I do. That sounds like my life every day. That's the normal Christian life before glory. every day. So preceding our glorification, we struggle every day with remaining sin in the flesh. And that remaining sin in the flesh, listen, it is set in a constant opposition to the Spirit of God and His will for us to live in obedience to God's Word. And while We as believers have the real desire to obey God because of our new nature in Christ, yet even in our best efforts, now listen to this, even in our best efforts to serve the Lord, we fall short because the flesh taints everything we do. The flesh taints everything we do. That's the reason Charles Spurgeon once famously said that even our tears of repentance we need to ask forgiveness for. Tainted with sin. Tainted with sin. Understand that, brothers and sisters. There is nothing you or I as Christians, I'm talking to Christians now, there's nothing you and I can do preceding our glorification in Christ, there is nothing we will ever be able to do that is not without sin. It's not without sin. Your faithful obedience to the Lord is still not perfect. Still not perfect. Now, I know that for, you know, those believers whose natural temperaments is being perfectionist, it's hard for them to hear that. But there's nothing you or I can do as Christians with remaining sin. that is not tainted with corruption. Nothing. We're not perfect. None of us are perfect. To be perfect is to be without sin. And I don't see anybody in here who fits that description. None of us can say, I have no sin. Of course, I will say as a side note that I have met some Christians None here thank the Lord, but there have been other idiots in other churches where I've pastored who've had the audacity to say to me that they never sin. If only I had the boldness of C.H. Spurgeon, who, when a man said that to him, Spurgeon said, really, you don't sin at all? He said, no, I've reached perfection. And Spurgeon, you've heard me tell the story, but Spurgeon immediately lifted up the heel of his boot and came down with full force on that man's foot. Spurgeon said, suddenly, we found out how imperfect that man was. If only I had that boldness. I was like, only Spurgeon can get away with that. But I even remember there was a woman at a previous church where I pastored, and she just said very boldly in front of other fellow Christians in that church, she never struggles with sin, ever. I don't struggle. It's like, you're blind as a bat. I mean, you just, you're a clueless. How clueless, and not only that, how arrogant. No. No, there is nothing but imperfection, nothing but imperfection in the best of our services. So, before and after our conversion to Christ, we need We need Christ's priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God. Now, what exactly does Christ do as our great high priest? What does he do? What is emphasized here in paragraph 10 concerning our Lord's priestly office is the way in which his work as our priest both reconciles us to God and thereby makes us acceptable to him. This is therefore turning our attention to the work of atonement Christ made by his death on the cross, the very thing we'll be celebrating this morning as we take the Lord's Supper. Unlike the priests under the old covenant, as we know, who had to make sin offerings year after year, not just for the people of Israel, but even their own sins, their work, therefore, the scripture tells us, was never done. And it never actually achieved real redemption since it was all a shadow of what was to come in Christ. But with the coming of Christ, by His priestly work as the sinless Son of God, He made a perfect atonement for all our sins, propitiating God's wrath, and thereby reconciling us to God, making peace with Him. And this work of atonement Christ accomplished stands forever in our behalf, so that even on our worst spiritual days as Christians, we never need fear that God's acceptance, peace, forgiveness, and favor will be taken away from us. Did you hear what I just said, what I just communicated? And it's right there in your notes, so look at it again, because as Christians, we need to hear this. that even on our worst spiritual days as Christians, we never need fear that God's acceptance, peace, forgiveness, and favor will be taken away from us. Why should we never fear that? It's because the sacrifice Christ made in our place on the cross is sufficient. It is enough, enough to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God. Yet this is why we need Christ as our priest. This is why we need him as our priest. But in the final place, we must consider why do we need Christ as our king? In answer to our question, paragraph 10 reads thus, and in respect to our averseness and utter inability to return to God, and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need his kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom. What should be obvious and clear from this confession of our need for Christ as King is that His kingly office is exercised by divine, sovereign, omnipotent power. On the one hand, the kingly power of our Lord Jesus Christ convinces, subdues, and draws us to God despite our averseness, which means our hostility, and our utter inability to return to God. And this is encouraging. No matter how opposed we are to God by nature and how morally incapable we are to turn to the Lord for salvation, that's true of all sinners, yet our sinful nature is no match for the kingly power of Christ to save. Thank God. Thank God. Or otherwise, we'd all be going to hell. And listen, that needs to be an encouragement to you, brothers and sisters, for those in your life you're praying that God will save. You need to remember this, the kingly power of Christ will not be overmatched by the sinful nature of the sinner. No, never, never. Christ is able to save the worst, the hardest, the most prideful, the most stubborn of all sinners. No sinner and their sinfulness can match or overpower the redeeming power of Christ. That should encourage you to pray more consistently, to pray harder, and to pray with faith. Well, Lord, you saved me. Surely you can save them. On the other hand, the kingly power of our Lord Jesus Christ upholds, delivers, and preserves us from all our spiritual adversaries that we may be eternally sustained to His heavenly kingdom. So then the world, the flesh, and the devil will not succeed in all their endeavors to undo and overthrow the salvation Christ has won for His people. While we will suffer much on this side of glory at the hands of our spiritual adversaries, yet God's word promises we will never be consumed. We will never be consumed. What's the great question Paul raises in this context in Romans 8.31? What shall we say then to these things? If God be for us, who then can be against us? You go back and you read the context of that question. It's all about salvation. It's all about the preservation of our salvation. If God is for us, and obviously what's implied there is he is for you, so since he is for you, then no one and nothing can rob you, can take from you the redemption he has brought to you. Nothing. Sounds like the same promise of our Lord Jesus in John chapter 10. When Jesus speaks of his sheep, hear his voice, they know him, he gives them eternal life, they shall never perish. And then I love these words, our Lord says, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand. No one shall snatch you, Christian, out of the hand of Christ. He holds you, he keeps you, he sustains you, he preserves you forever. Forever. And this is because King Jesus, King Jesus, will bring us to his heavenly kingdom. Well, what a wonderful high note to finish 12 weeks in Chapter 8 of the Second London Baptist Confession of Christ the Mediator. Glory be to God for the sufficient mediator that we do have in Jesus Christ the Lord. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father, we are most grateful Indeed, we will forever be grateful for the sufficiency of our mediator in your eternal son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Father, we thank you for the sufficient prophet, the sufficient priest, the sufficient king that the Lord Jesus is to us, his people. We thank you for everything we need In Him, to save us and keep us saved, to rescue us from the condemnation our sins deserve, to reconcile us to you, Father, and make peace with you forever and ever, and to thereby justify us before you, and to propitiate all of your wrath against every sin we have or will ever commit, we thank you that in Christ, There is no condemnation for those who are united to Him by faith. And Father, for all of these great and glorious truths, we just humbly ask, Lord, let us not lose sight of these great things that are ours in Christ forever. Let us not lose sight of these things, especially when we are not having a very good day, spiritually speaking, that we are not as faithful to you, Lord, as we should be, as we ought to be, that we are falling behind in so many ways in our thoughts and words and deeds. Lord, we pray the Holy Spirit will bring to our minds, recall to our hearts the great truth of Jesus Christ as our sufficient mediator, as our one and our only prophet, priest, and king. These things we ask in his name, for his sake, amen.