Our scripture reading for this afternoon you can find in the first epistle of John, chapter four, 1 John chapter four. We'll read the entire chapter and a few verses into chapter five as well. 1 John chapter four. Hear now the word of the Lord. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of antichrist whereof ye have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world, and therefore speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God, he that knoweth God heareth us, and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. No man hath seen God at any time, And if we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us, because he hath given us of his Spirit. And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. And whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. And herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casteth out fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If a man say I love God and hateth his brother, he is a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen? This commandment have we from him, that he who loveth God love his brother also. And whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And everyone that loveth him also that is begotten of him. And by this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not grievous. For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world? But he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. This far the scripture reading for this afternoon. Let us now also read in connection with the sermon this evening from Lord's Day 13 out of the Heidelberg Catechism, Lord's Day 13. You'll find on page 41 in the back of your Psalter. And here we read in question 33, why is Christ called the only begotten Son of God, since we are also the children of God? The answer is because Christ alone is the eternal and natural Son of God, but we are our children adopted of God by grace for his sake. Question 34 asks, wherefore callest thou him our Lord? The answer is because he hath redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins, not with gold or silver, but with his precious blood, and hath delivered us from all the power of the devil, and thus hath made us his own property. Dear congregation, when Peter finished his sermon on the day of Pentecost, he ended with the words It's saying, let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God hath made this same Jesus, both whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. And then Saul, on the way to Damascus, he encountered this same Jesus. And when he was going to persecute the church of Christ, there he heard his voice from heaven saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And here, this God made Saul fall and ask, Lord, who art thou? And then we read, and the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Saul, he was taught to know who Jesus is, and he was taught to surrender to him as Lord. Saul, who was once the fiercest persecutor of the church, was then surrendered and submitted to this Lord to become the most zealous servant of the Lord. And so we all also need to know the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord. Who art thou, Lord? Who is the Lord of our own life? See, Jesus also warned when he was on this world that many think that they know the Lord. But a day will come when they stand knocking at the door of heaven and saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But then the master of the house, the Lord himself, will say, I know you not, whence you are. We confess today with the 12 Articles of our Faith, I believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son, our Lord. We confess each one of his names. What does he mean to us? So in the past weeks as we have been looking at the catechism, we have looked at the name of Jesus relating to his work. We've looked at the name Christ relating to his offices. But today we also want to focus on the person of Christ with the names of Son of God and Lord. And with the help of the Lord we wish to do so under the theme Christ, the Son of God, Our Lord. And with two points. The first one being Christ's unique sonship to the Father. Christ's unique sonship to the Father. And secondly, Christ's unique lordship to his people. Christ's unique lordship to his people. So then in the first place, Christ's unique sonship to the Father. The Christ possesses the unique status as the only begotten Son of God the Father. There's only one Christ, only one divine Son of God. And as a catechism asks us, why is Christ called the only begotten Son of God? Since we also are the children of God. And it is true that Believers are called the children of God. That is evident from scripture, from what we've read, and also John 1 verse 12, it says, as many as received him, to them gave he the power or the authority to become the sons of God. And in 1 John 3, it says, beloved, now are we the sons of God? And he goes on in that epistle to describe the children of God. But there is an essential difference between Christ as the Son of God and believers as the children of God. And to those of us who've heard this teaching all our life, that may seem obvious. Christ is God, in the person of the Son, within the Trinity. And we are just his creatures, his created beings. But this has also been a point of contention in history, a point of much controversy and heresy. And today you can meet many people on the streets, and if this topic comes up, they'll deny either that Christ is God, and they'll say that he is the son of God, but not that he is God. Or they might say that he is God, but he was still created before the world was. or that there's some subordination between the father to the son, that the son is not the same as the father. But God has given us his word and he has sent Christ also to reveal himself to us. We've briefly seen that last week, that he is the great prophet coming to reveal God to us. And there he declared the only true God and that only salvation, the only way of salvation through him. And he came not only to reveal this salvation, to teach this salvation, but also to open the eyes of the blind and to make the dead to live and the deaf to hear this message. And we need that because we're all born spiritually blind and spiritually dead. With all our human wisdom, we cannot reach God, we cannot understand God or find him out. It says, no man knoweth who the son is but the father, and who the father is but the son, and he to whom the son will reveal him, in Luke 10. And so Christ was sent and he came as that light to lighten the nations and to reveal the salvation to the people. And no man has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. He has revealed who God is to us. And so now God, He speaks to us through His Son, for everything that we know about God comes to us through His Son. And this in itself is a great mystery, a great wonder that God has ordained that means to reconcile sinners to himself, to show a way of salvation, to teach us fallen creatures that there is a God who so loves this world that he would send his only begotten son. but it's also such a mystery and a wonder that he comes even to open our blind eyes, to quicken us spiritually, make us alive spiritually to understand that message and see and to know this very God. Our little finite minds cannot comprehend or grasp what eternity is. We cannot comprehend these great truths that God is communicating to us. We need the Son to open our understanding, to open our eyes to see and to believe what He has revealed. And even though we cannot explain it fully, it is revealed to us in His Word. And in these things, we also need the grace to rest in it by faith, to believe and to behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, to seek our salvation with this God. And so in scripture he reveals that Christ alone is the eternal and the natural son of God. God declares Christ to be his own son. We sang of that in Psalm 2, thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. You remember at the baptism as well. When the Lord Jesus came up out of the water, that voice came from heaven and it said, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. God has revealed that this is his son. But scripture also reveals that he's a natural son of God and particularly the only begotten son. In John one it says, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And so he came into this world clothed in flesh so that we could see him. God is a spirit, but he came clothed in flesh so that we could see him. He spoke in a language that we could understand him, even though our dead nature did not receive him. But Christ also reveals that he is not only the natural son, but he is the eternal son of God. Not just a created son, but an eternal son. Not a son who had a beginning, but a son that existed from eternity with the Father. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Jesus refers to himself as the I Am. He didn't consider that robbery to be called equal with God, because He is God in the fullest sense. We consider that in the Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are all co-equal, co-essential, co-eternal, one God in three persons. And the Nicene Creed also states that Christ is very God, of one substance as the Father. He's of one essence with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. There's no distinction as far as essence in the Godhead. And so here again, our finite minds cannot reach back into eternity to understand this. But God exists from eternity and the Son exists from eternity. They are one. And yet they are father and son in persons. And there's a term that they use to describe this, and it's called eternal generation. The word begotten, only begotten, means to beget, or to give life to. When a natural father begets a child, he gives life to that child, and the life of the child begins, and it grows, and he lives his own life. And so God, he refers to Christ as his only begotten son. God the Father gives life to God the Son, even as John 5 says, for as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And this eternal generation is exactly what it says, it's eternal with no beginning and no end. A natural father gives life to his child initially, and then the child has its own life. But God is unchangeable God. God's giving life to the Lord Jesus Christ is eternal, not just momentary. And if it was only something that happened in the past, then God would have had to have changed. But God cannot change, so this eternal generation is giving life to the Lord Jesus, to his Son, is eternal. And so the person of the Son exists and has life in himself by the eternal and unceasing generation of the Father. And so they both exist from eternity. And so Christ is the natural, the eternal, the only begotten Son of the unchangeable God. That's why he's called the only begotten Son of God. And that is how Christ is essentially different from believers. Believers are called the children of God, but they're not eternal, they have a beginning. Christ was begotten in the house of his father. Christ possesses the attributes and the divine properties of God. Christ is eternal and we are temporal, we're created. Christ is no beginning, we have a beginning. And we are begotten from our parents. And we possess the properties and the attributes of our parents. We're born in sin, we're conceived in iniquity. And because of that, we are also alienated from God by nature. We are under the wrath of God by nature. We were begotten outside of the house of the Father. And the way that we are born, We can never enter into the Father's house. We can never enter into the glory of the Father. Revelation 21 says that there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth, neither whatsoever works abomination or maketh a lie. but only they which are written in the Lamb's book of life. No one can enter into the Father's house except his own children. And those who think they can, as we heard earlier, they will not be admitted when they begin to knock at that door of heaven. Then a master will have to say to them, I do not know you. It's too late to enter at that time. But Christ, the only begotten Son, has come to reveal that there is an entrance into the Father's house, that to those who knock on the door today, it shall be opened unto them. Christ says, I am the door, and by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved. We're in God's house today. Is this what we need to hear? As many as received him into them and gave him power or the authority to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, there is a way to enter into the Father's house as the children of God, There is a way, by the way of adoption, that is by faith in the Son of God, to receive Him as the way, as the truth, and as the life, as the only way to the Father. And so as unique Son, Christ exists for that unique purpose, so that sinners can be saved, so that sinners can be adopted as children into the family of God, So as the catechism summarizes, we are adopted of God by grace for his sake. By grace are you saved and through faith and not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. The gift of God that God has sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him. Do we need to hear that today? Or why do we come to God's house if we don't need to hear that? The gift of God is that he sent his only son to reveal salvation. The gift of God that he sent his son To open the eyes of the blind, that we may see, that we may believe that dead sinners can be saved. The gift of God, not that we loved God, not that we had the interest in God, but that He loved us, that He sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Not for any merit in us, but only by free grace. only for his sake, for the sake of Christ. Ephesians 1 says, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Do you fear that you stand outside the family of God today? That is where we all begin, outside the Father's house. Do you fear that you cannot be adopted? It's according to the good pleasure of His will. It's by grace, not of works. It is by grace, not of our merit. Do you fear that you have no beauty today? No beauty to be desired by God? There is nothing desirable in us. And if we think there is, then we have to look again. There's nothing desirable in us to be accepted by God. It is by Jesus Christ, of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved Ephesians 1.6. There's nothing desirable in us, but it is of His grace alone. And that's why it's possible for the greatest of sinners to be saved today. It's not because we loved Him first, but because He loved us. That the eternal and only begotten Son of God can make us acceptable, can make us acceptable sinners by His grace, only through the merits of Christ. For his sake, God adopts sinners into his family to become partakers, to become co-heirs with Christ in God's house. He takes unacceptable sinners and makes them accepted in the Beloved. There's no firmer ground to be accepted by God in than for the sake of Christ, in whom the Father is well pleased. Christ is the only Beloved Son of the Father. And when you are found in Him by faith, you are made accepted in the Beloved for His sake and nothing in us. And so Christ is a unique relationship as the eternal and the only begotten Son to the Father. It's only by grace and it's only for His sake that sinners like you and me can be adopted into the family of God as the children of God. But Christ is more than just an elder brother. There's an essential difference between the eternal Son of God and the adopted children of God. And that difference is also revealed in our second place where he speaks of the lordship over his people. Christ's unique lordship to his people. Christ has a unique lordship over his people. He is lord of his people because he has uniquely acquired it by his work. by the work which he has accomplished for them. Why do we call Christ our Lord? That's what the catechism asks. What does the name Lord mean? If you read in the Bible, sometimes you can see with all capital letters and that mostly in the Old Testament refers to the name as translated from Yahweh or Jehovah. It refers to his God, that he is God, he is Jehovah. But the name Lord with the mostly lowercase letters can sometimes also just be used as a polite address, just like saying sir, but in Scripture, The word name Lord especially refers to the Lord Jesus, and particularly after his resurrection, and it has a special meaning. It means ruler and owner. Lord, when it's referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, means owner and ruler. Peter said to the people at Pentecost in Acts 2, know assuredly that Christ has made the same Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ, and all power and authority was given unto him in heaven and on earth. And because Christ is eternal, he's part of the Trinity, he is Lord of creation, All the world was created by Him. He is said to be the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and by that very fact, He is the Lord of all creation, and so He rules. And one day, even as we sang, every knee shall bow before Him, and every tongue shall confess that Christ is Lord. But more so in a very special way, Christ is the Lord of His own people. of the elect who are and who will be adopted into the family of God to become the children of God. They are the ones who truly can call Jesus Lord. And so Christ has that unique relationship to his people as their Lord and Savior. The Catechism explains it by saying that it is because he has redeemed us, both soul and body, from all our sins, not with gold or silver, but with the precious blood, and hath delivered us from all the power of the devil, and thus hath made us his own property. Christ has redeemed and delivered his people. The people who were born outside of the Father's house. The people who were born under the curse of death and who are awaiting the penalty of death because of our sin. The people who was in bondage to sin and to Satan. The people who were born in the kingdom and under the dominion of Satan in darkness and in misery. And so, first Christ, he redeemed us, both body and soul, because both body and soul were subject to death because of our sins. Both body and soul were corrupted due to sin. Both body and soul were subjected to that eternal punishment in the wrath of God. And both body and soul were driven away from God when we sinned in paradise, separated from the Father, And so by ourselves we have no way back to God. God had barred that way off. There's no way back to bring ourselves back into the house of God. And so Christ came to deliver, not with a temporal payment, not with silver or gold, but with that eternal payment. For as much as you know that you are not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold, Peter says, But with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, we have sinned against an infinitely holy God. And it requires an infinite payment, eternal punishment. what we can never pay. But God sends his eternal and his only begotten son into this world that we might live through him. And here then is love, John says. Not that we loved God because we cannot, but that God loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Christ came to give his life a ransom for many, to redeem his people, to redeem his church, which he has purchased with his own blood, Acts 20 says. Christ paying that penalty of our sin to satisfy the justice of God. And so Christ bought us with that price of his own blood to reconcile us to God. And thus Christ makes us his own property. And secondly, then Christ, he also delivers us from all the power of the devil, it says. We're all born under that dominion and the power of Satan, under his rule and under his authority. We're in bondage to Satan through sin. Servants obey their masters. And John says, whosoever commit a sin is the servant of sin. And we're by nature born dead in sin, not able to free ourselves from it. Who is our master? Whose servants are we today? But it says that Christ has come to deliver from the power of the devil For the purpose of the Son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil, 1 John 3. And as Hebrews 2 says, God made him Lord, putting all things in subjection under his feet, giving him all power. And he came to deliver his people by destroying the devil and the power that he had over those people. And just like God delivered Israel from slavery in Egypt so that they could leave where they used to be slaves, Christ delivers his people from the slavery to sin and Satan so that they can leave his service and follow Christ. And so Christ redeems his people, reconciling them to God. Christ delivers his people from the power of sin and Satan. And Christ does this to make us his own. Christ, He sets up His throne in our heart to rule and to govern us then with His own Word and Spirit. Christ does not redeem us and deliver us so that we can go and live our own life as we want to, to continue on in the way that we want to, but that we might become His special people, His church. His bride. So we need Christ as Lord in our hearts and in our life. And the question that we need to ask ourselves today is, whose servant are we? Do we know this work of Christ in our life? Have we been acquired by Christ to become His possession? Have we learned to call Jesus by His name of Lord? To acknowledge that we belong to Him? Paul says, no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. We cannot do this in our own strength. And many might claim to know Him as Lord, Many, Jesus says, will come knocking on the door of the Father's house on that day, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us. But Christ then, as that master of the house, will stand there behind that door closed and answer and say, I don't know you. You have not been adopted as a child of God. You're not written here in the book of life. Because Christ knows who he has redeemed. He knows whose names are written there. And this is what Paul had to learn. And he cried out, Lord, who art thou? Teach me to know thee. He knew his power in his life of stopping him on the way. And so how then do we know if he is our Lord and master? Well, Jesus said in Luke 6, why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? And Paul says, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. If Christ is our Savior today, then he is also our Lord. If Christ redeems and delivers us from sin, then he also owns and governs us by his word and spirit. And if Christ delivers us from the path of sin, he will also teach us to walk in the paths of righteousness. And when Christ delivers from the power of sin in our life, he also gives that liberty, that freedom to walk in obedience to his perfect law. Then you will turn from serving sin to serve the living God. He will give you that freedom to walk out, away from your sins, just like Israel walked out of the land of Egypt. Have you had to ask Him, Lord, who art thou? My heart has been conquered by someone I do not know. I know I cannot continue in my sin. I know my sins have been broken, that these bonds have been broken, I know that I can no longer continue in that direction. That power and that attraction of my old sins are no longer what they used to be. There's a new desire to know and to serve this Lord. Have you already begun to ask, Lord, who art thou? Teach me to know thee. But if you do not want to leave your sin, that has to raise a lot of questions, a lot of red flags in your mind. Christ must be our Lord or else he is not our savior. If we can continue living contrary to the will of God, how can we say that Christ then has delivered us from the power and life of sin? What has he saved us from if we can just continue living in sin, contrary to the law of God? If we confess Christ to be our Savior, then we must also walk in His ways, for He saves the people to redeem them, to make them holy, to purify them. So then, who owns our hearts today? Who rules our thoughts and our affections, even right now? Even this moment, who are we serving in our hearts, in our affections, in our thoughts? But it's not always so black and white, is it? When we try to examine ourselves within, so often all that we see is sin and rebellion, filled with doubts and filled with fears. So many temptations and snares, and we can wonder, really, who does rule in my heart? Why am I this way? Does that trouble you? Does that bother you? Is there that war within that Paul was speaking of? That when Christ comes to set up throne in your heart, then there's that battle between the new and the old, between Christ and the remaining sin that lives in us. But do you see, do you see your need for Christ to be Lord of your heart? Do we see our need for Christ, the Son of God, to open our eyes to see what is happening in our hearts? That even though we can know so much about the gospel and about God and about the truth, and yet we can never seem to do it and obey it. Rather, we see so much sin and so much rebellion. Do we see the need for Christ to discern His grace in our hearts? that we need Christ as Lord to subdue this indwelling sin, that we cannot overcome one single remaining sin in our own strength, but that we need the grace of Christ our Lord to deliver and overcome all our sin. We need Christ as Lord in our hearts to submit to his will and to obey him. that he would make us willing in the day of his power. We can still have so much rebellion within us. We can still resist the paths that he sends us on when we fear and we do not want to face the pain of the situation. We need that grace to follow him as our Lord and wherever he will lead us in the path of life. Yes, we need this Christ and Lord in our heart to be able to make that confession that Thomas did, when he could say, my Lord and my God, is that your prayer and your desire today? And when we see all these sinful inclinations and desires of our hearts, do we see that we need the eternal Son of God to be our Lord? What else can conquer these sins and these doubts and this wickedness? We need Him to rule our heart. You desire Christ to be the Lord of your life. You pray, Lord, teach me. Lord, lead me. Lord, guide me and preserve me. And so Christ has uniquely acquired a people to himself. He's become their Lord, he's become their Savior. He has made us his property. And as Lord and Master, Christ also cares for his own. He so dearly cares for his own property. He's Christ the Good Shepherd. He laid down his life for his sheep. He's not like the hireling that fled when dangers came. See, when we own something precious or special, we tend to take good care of it, do we not? Sometimes you see these people who have collector cars or expensive cars, and they build an extra garage for it, and they take such special care of it, and they don't let anything come close to it that might damage it. And that's a car. We look at our children. How precious they are. We can't put a value on them. We protect them in every way we can. And how much more is this true for the children of God? The children of God have an eternal and an infinite value in His sight. Christ has given His children that infinite value through His own blood, which He has shed to purchase them. and they are accepted in the beloved. They are a peculiar people, a unique people, uniquely acquired by Christ. They are his church that he is building through his Holy Spirit. In Ephesians 5, Paul exhorts husbands to love their wives, even as Christ also loved the church and gave himself for it. that he might sanctify and cleanse it, that he might present it to himself, a glorious church, that it should be holy and without blemish. The church is Christ's prized possession. He rules over it. He is Lord to protect his possession. Saul was persecuting the church, and Jesus said, Saul, Saul, why art thou persecuting me? Christ so identifies himself with his people that persecuting the church is persecuting Christ. So what comfort is that for you and me today? To know that even as we start gathering together again that Christ is Lord. That he loves his church with that everlasting love. That he is the Lord with all power in heaven and on earth. That He will build His church. That nothing can withstand His church. Nothing can prevail against it. And how about you today? Do you fear and do you hate that sin that you must battle every day? Do you grow weary and tired? Christ is sanctifying and cleansing His church today. See, we have to clean this church extra good between services and because it is virus. But Christ cleanses this church extra good to rid us of all sin. This is but a building. But the church of Christ is made up of living stones, of souls that never die. It's His bride. It's His possession. It's his glory. And Christ is the one who prepares his people. He prepares them that so one day he'll present you faultless before the presence of his glory. Then he will be the one to open that door for you and say, enter into the joy of thy Lord. Enter into my Father's house. Enter in, because you are written in the book of life. Christ is the eternal and the only begotten Son of God. He is our Lord. So what's the response of our heart today when we hear that? Is it rebellion? I will not have this man to reign over me. I don't want to hear, I don't want to listen to Him. Or is it with the confession that I am not mine own, but belong, both body and soul, both in life and death to my faithful Savior, who has redeemed me with His own precious blood, who has delivered me from all the power of the devil, and who makes me hands forth sincerely willing and ready and able to live unto him. It all comes from him. It's all through him. And it's all to him. And he's a willing lord. He's the king of kings and the lord of lords. He's able to make you willing in the day of his power. And he will finish the work that he has begun. He will take His people home into His Father's house, where He has prepared many mansions for every one of His children. And here He prepares His children to enter the Father's house, to be presented faultless, perfect, to enter a perfect rest. with his Father. Amen.