You might be wondering why I chose a Christmas song. Because a lot of you have only seen Christmas songs during Christmas. Well, not in this church. If it's appropriate to sing a Christmas song, we will sing it. And it was. Why was it appropriate today? Let me tell you. There are a lot of our Christmas songs, I'm struck by this almost every time I sing any of them, that sing to us about Jesus as the Son of God. who fights a war against the devil. So let me remind you of the words that you just sang. O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel that mourns in lonely exile here until the Son of God appear. We're gonna be thinking about Jesus as the Son of God today. That song goes on to say, O come, thou rod of Jesse, free thine own from Satan's tyranny from depth of hell thy people save and give them victory over the grave. Think about this one. God rest you merry gentlemen, let nothing you dismay. Remember Christ our Savior was born on Christmas Day to save us all from Satan's power when we were gone astray. But then it goes on to say, from God our Heavenly Father, a blessed angel came and unto certain shepherds, how that in Bethlehem was born the Son of God by name. So they're connecting the Son to his work against the devil. Now, on a similar note, I've heard it said that the title for Jesus most often on the lips of demons in the Gospels is Son of God. And this is confirmed by the data. It appears several times in the Gospels. Now, of course, these are all stories of exorcisms, and an exorcism is literally a battle of God versus the devil. So what in the world is going on with this title, Son of God, and its relationship to Satan? And that question leads to an amazing biblical theological truth. And to help prepare you for it, for what we entered into last week, this week, and next week, and that we also even began in our first week, I want you to picture an hourglass, a common hourglass in your head. That's that ancient timekeeping device that consists of two bulbs made of glass connected by a narrow neck in the middle, allowing sand to flow from the upper bulb to the lower one. The sand takes a fixed amount of time. Typically, they put enough in it for it to go an hour, which is why it's called an hourglass. It passes through. It measures the flow of time. Now, let's allow each part of the hourglass to represent something. So the sand's movement will still depict time. The top of the glass will represent the heavenly realm, and its bulb will represent the heavenly beings that we called the gods in week two, and especially last week, we called the sons of God. The bottom of the glass will represent the earth, and its bulb will represent the earthly sons of God, which we will discuss next week. And next week, we're gonna flip the hourglass over, all right? For this week, in the middle, we have this funnel. This is the narrowing of the tube. The section will represent the Son of God, Jesus, through whom the two realms, the movement of time, the two distinct classes of sons of God must travel. He is the center. He's the neck through which all the sands must pass. And that is what we will discuss today. Now beyond the hourglass, behind it, under it, around it, over it, this is God, the one who stands outside of the entire thing, the one who's utterly distinct and the creator of all the realms and those who inhabit them in the hourglass. He was the focus of our discussion in week one, and we must not forget that, especially today, because an incredible thing happens when you consider everything that I've said so far, because this God is triune. One all-powerful being who exists in three distinct persons. One of those persons, the second person, therefore exists outside of the hourglass. And yet this very same person is somehow inside the glass and becomes the very focal point of the entire thing. How in the world can this be? Well, today we're going to look at the Son of God, focusing especially on this title and how it relates to the cosmic war that I've been addressing in this series. Now, the idea that Jesus is the Son of God is not something that the New Testament made up. In fact, this has a deep and profoundly important Old Testament root that we must grasp before looking at what the New Testament says. So I think a good place to begin is in Psalm 2. This is why our whole service has been saturated with that psalm this morning. Psalm 2 is a royal psalm. It's tied directly to Psalm 1 as the opening two songs of the entire Psalter. It's basically like a prelude to this great musical score. Psalm 1 begins and Psalm 2 ends the same way. Did you know that? Psalm 1 begins, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Psalm 2 ends, blessed are all who take refuge in him. Now, the hymn at the end of Psalm 2 is specifically said to be the sun. It says, kiss the sun, lest he be angry and you perish in the way. And similarly, Psalm 1 ends, the way of the wicked will perish. So who is this son in Psalm 2? Psalm 2 famously begins in a war. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? So it's a war that earthly peoples are waging, nations. However, Psalm 2 adds to it. It says, the kings of the earth, verse 2, set themselves and the rulers take counsel together. So it says the kings, and they're specifically said to be of the earth, right? And so it stands to reason that the rulers may not be of the earth. In fact, the Septuagint uses the word archon here, and we've seen how this is a word that often refers to heavenly rulers or princes, such as the archons of Persia and Greece, or the archon of this world that John calls Satan. So who are these people's standing against, the psalm continues, against Yahweh and against his Messiah. Who is this Messiah? Well, verse 4 says, he who sits in the heavens laughs and Adonai holds them in derision. And this clearly shows the first two persons of the Holy Trinity. In Psalm 2, one is in heaven and the other Lord is Adonai. Origin, the church fathers said it long ago, not only by their appearance have they moved the crowds against Christ, but whatever has been done by them is counted as if they had assailed the father. So it is said that these had turned against the Lord and his anointed. Now the fact that this is the father and son is confirmed in verse 6, where one talks to the other. As for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. And then he gives a prophecy. The prophecy says, I will tell of the decree, the Lord, Yahweh, said to me, you are my son, today I have begotten you. So there we have the son language for the first time in the Old Testament. clearly articulated. Now, you might think, well, that's talking about David. Well, kind of. In fact, this verse is alluded to and perhaps directly quoted at least a dozen times in the New Testament. Each time it's not talking about David, but David's greater son, Jesus. And then what comes next in verse eight is absolutely vital for you to grasp. Ask of me and I will make the nations your inheritance. I don't like the word heritage from the ESV. I like inheritance better. That's the King James. It says, and I'll make the ends of the earth your possession. So what in the world is that talking about? This is the question I want to now dig into more deeply. Where does this idea about the sun-inheriting nations originate? Well, that's a question that not a lot of people ask. I guess they just assume it just begins right here. But it doesn't. So to answer that, we need to go back to a passage we looked at last week. This is one of those passages that the rabbis of the second century deliberately changed. It's Deuteronomy 32, verses 7 and 8. It says, remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God. So there's our sons of God language that we looked at. But now I want to look at verse nine. But Yahweh's portion is his people, Jacob, his allotted inheritance. And there's your inheritance language. But now you need to think about something. We have the Lord or Yahweh being the one who's inheriting Israel. So ask yourself a question. What kind of people inherit things? Do fathers inherit things? No, not usually. Sons inherit, don't they? Think about the prodigal's son story in the New Testament. The guy squandered the inheritance given to him by his father. Daddy didn't inherit anything in that story. This is why Elyon, this is the word the most high in verse seven, gives the inheritance to the sons of God. This title, Most High, is equivalent to El among the Canaanites, the father God who had 70 sons of God. In fact, Elyon is always related to the nations and or the divine council in the Old Testament. Now, I believe the very reason why the rabbis changed the text from sons of God to sons of Israel is precisely to obscure this truth about verse nine. In fact, this is so obscure that even my friend Michael Heiser didn't get it. If sons of God inherit the nations from the Heavenly Father in verse 8, then it must be the Son of God who inherits Israel, doesn't it? But if it's the sons of God rather than the sons of, or if it's the sons of Israel, for the rabbis, rather than the sons of God, then no one is the wiser and everyone keeps reading verse nine just like you probably have your entire life. Well, it's just God inheriting, or whatever that means. Move along, right? But now, if you read verse nine with Psalm 2.8, things begin to fall into place. Originally, the son inherited and took possession of Israel. But in Psalm 2, the promise is that if he just asks a father, he will inherit all the nations, not just one of them. Do you see the connection? Now you might be having problems with this being Yahweh inheriting because he's not called the son in Deuteronomy 32, 9. After all, didn't we just read that Yahweh in Psalm 2 is the father? So how can Yahweh be the son in Deuteronomy? Well, for this, you simply need to know that the Old Testament speaks about Israel worshiping only one God. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. That's always been true, and yet several texts identify two Yahwehs. For example, Genesis 19-24, then Yahweh rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of heaven. The rabbis in the days of Jesus, and even before we are talking about here, said that there were two Yahwehs, one in heaven and one on earth. And yet all Jews believed in only one God, and therefore they referred to this second Yahweh as what they called a second power in heaven. Now, the church was very aware of this interpretation, and when Jesus came along, this became one of the most popular verses to use of the Father and the Son by Christians. Justin Martyr uses it. Irenaeus does. Tertullian does. Cyprian does. Athanasius uses it. Basil uses it. Chrysostom uses it. Augustine uses it. They all used it to talk about the Father and the Son. It even made its way into a creed. Here's what it says, whoever shall explain the Lord rained fire from the Lord, not of the father and son, and says he rained it from himself, let him be anathema. For the Lord, for the son Lord rained from the father Lord. Isn't that amazing? Now in the context, this second Lord, the one on earth, that's the angel of the Lord. The one who showed up at the tent of Abraham with the other two angels in the previous chapter, who then went on with the two angels going on to Sodom while the Lord stayed behind to give a great promise of a son to Abraham. The angel is simply called Yahweh in many places, especially at the burning bush, where he tells Moses to say to the people, the Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has sent me to you. This is my name forever. As he himself says, this angel simply is the God of the patriarchs, Jacob says. The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked. The God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day. The angel who has redeemed me from all evil, bless the boys. Why would Jacob say that? Remember when he wrestled with a man all night long? Hosea says, in his manhood he strove with God, he strove with the angel and prevailed. Yahweh, the God of hosts, the Lord is his memorial name. John Owen says of this, in the first place, he is called a man because a man wrestled with him. In the second, Jacob calls him an angel, the angel which redeemed me. And in the third, he's expressly said to be God, Yahweh Sabaoth, the Lord God of hosts. So you need to remember something that we saw last time. These sons of God are themselves often translated for us as angels. of God. Remember that? These princes of the nations, like the prince of Persia and Greece, they are angels. And thus, the Son of God, who inherits Israel, is the angel of the Lord, just like the other angels inherit the nations. So also the angel of the Lord inherits Israel. Sons to sons, angels to angels, an angel to angels, and God to gods. That's the parallel. And yet the angel of the Lord is not a created angel. Jehovah's Witnesses and ancient Aryans are very wrong about this. Rather, he is himself the God of Israel. He is the one who compares to no one. He's the creator of all the angels. He is, to use the language of the Psalm, the only begotten of God, very God of very God, of one substance with the Father. Again, that's why our first sermon was so vital, so that you do not make heretical mistakes when you hear about the Son of God or the angel of the Lord in the Old Testament. Now, I want to look at this idea of begotten again. Take a look at the language of Psalm 2 again. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Okay. There's a parallel to this in Psalm 110. If you think about that short Psalm, you may be like, what's the parallel? Okay. Psalm 110 is probably the other most quoted Old Testament text in the New Testament other than Psalm 2. It begins this way, Yahweh says to my Lord, Adonai, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. So who's the speaker? It's David. And David says, the Lord says to his Lord, well, that's wild. The verse is quoted or alluded to nearly 20 times in the New Testament, the most of any passage, and it is always cited of Jesus. Now notice how in the verse again there's these two lords, but this time one is Yahweh and the other is not Yahweh, he's Adonai. This is exactly like Psalm 2. Both are David's Lord. One is the Father, the other is the Son. And what's so interesting is that just like Psalm 82.1 or Deuteronomy 32.8, we see a radical change in the text in verse 3 of Psalm 110. Listen to what it says in the Hebrew. Your people will offer themselves freely on the day of your power. In holy garments from the womb of the morning, the dew of your youth will be yours. Now here's the Greek. With you as dominion in the day of your power and the splendors of your saints, I have begotten you from the womb before the morning star. The do of your youth is very different from I have begotten you before the morning star. Again, we have evidence that very early fathers like Justin, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Cyprian, and Augustine, and many others were quoting this from the Greek. Melito of Sardis even says that this verse teaches the beginning of the son from, quote, the womb of the Lord, the hidden recess of deity out of which he brought forth his son before Lucifer was even created. The creeds are predominantly getting this theology of the only begotten before all things in eternity past, they get it from this verse. And this verse was changed. This was being used to prove that Jesus is the eternally begotten son, a truly mind-blowing doctrine. How can something be begetting eternally, right? Think about that. That's crazy. But there's something else that should be said. The next verse directly compares the Son to Melchizedek, verse 4. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. And of course this verse is cited several times in Hebrews. And the language it uses of Melchizedek is totally bizarre. I can remember reading this as a kid, thinking, well, that's wild, and then being told, well, it doesn't really mean what it says, Doug. Well, what does it say? Remember, it says he's without father or mother or genealogy? Melchizedek. He has neither beginning of days nor end of life? Melchizedek. He's literally made like to the Son of God? He was greater than Abraham. He appears not to be a mortal man. He has an indestructible life. That's all said about Melchizedek. Now, amazingly, there were speculations circulating in the first century that Melchizedek was himself just a proper name for the angel of the Lord. Some said he was a supernatural entity. The scrolls actually substitute Yahweh in Isaiah 61 verse 2 for Melchizedek, where Isaiah says the year of the Lord's favor, that Jesus actually reads that in the temple, remember that? The Dead Sea Scroll says the year of Melchizedek's favor. And in fact, in Psalm 82 in the Dead Sea Scrolls, Psalm 82.1 is Melchizedek. Therefore Melchizedek's the one who will inherit the nations. Now this theology was actually converting many rabbis to Christianity, and it was obviously vitally important to Hebrews, which spends nearly three chapters talking about it. And the rabbis of the second century knew it. Therefore, they devised a plan to halt the speculation that the Christians were using to identify Jesus as Melchizedek. They would instead tell the world that Melchizedek was Shem, the son of Noah. However, there was a great problem with this. According to the Greek, Shem died hundreds of years prior to Abraham's birth. So it's not possible for him to be that because Abraham met Melchizedek. But if he's dead, he couldn't meet him if he's Shem. You see the problem? So what did they do? Well, they subtracted 650 years out of the genealogy of the Hebrew text. No more supernatural interpretation. Melchizedek is Shem. Problem solved. And lest you doubt me, listen to the words of Ephraim the Syrian, who said the Jews are subtracted 600 years from the generations of Adam, Seth, et cetera, in order that their own books might not convict them concerning the coming of Christ. He having been predicted to appear for the deliverance of mankind after 5,500 years. So that's the genealogy before the flood. Doesn't it make sense that they would also tamper with Genesis 11's genealogy after the flood with Psalm 110 verse 3, given that it has such a vital prediction about Jesus being begotten before the world began? Of course it does. And it's really the only explanation that makes any sense, especially given the war we're discussing. It was positively diabolical. At any rate, I've just mentioned how Psalm 82 was read by the Jews at the Dead Sea as referring to Melchizedek, whom Hebrews identifies with Jesus. We saw last week that verse one was also deliberately tampered with by the rabbis of the second century because of its profound Christological implications. But now we're ready to see even more. So go to Psalm 82. And I want you to recall that verse 6 is where it mentions the sons of God that we looked at last week. Those are the gods of verse 1. So verse 1 says the gods, verse 6 says the sons of God. The gods are being judged for ruling the nations in unrighteousness. Therefore, vitally, Psalm 2.8's great question, that if the son will just ask, the father will give him all the nations as an inheritance, becomes a prophecy that's now codified in Psalm 82, verse 8. Arise, O God, judge the earth, for you shall inherit the nations. See, Psalm 2 says, if you ask me, you will inherit the nations. Psalm 82 says, you will inherit the nations because the judgment has come on these other beings. So this is what we've done. We've taken three texts. We've moved from Deuteronomy 32 and the Son inheriting Israel to Psalm 2 and the promise that the Son would inherit all the nations to Psalm 82 and now the prophecy is going to come true. The Son will inherit all the nations. This is all directly tied to Jesus being the Son of God. Now I wanna move to the New Testament in order to see how this works itself out in the life of Jesus. Now since we're in Psalm 82, I want us to first go to John 10, verse 34, and keep your finger in Psalm 82 if you've got it there. In John 10, Jesus is being confronted by the Pharisees. They're about to stone him in verse 31. It's exactly like we read in John 5. It's exactly like that. Jesus relates that all he's been doing are good works, a theme that's directly linked to Psalm 82, right in the middle, and the evil works that the gods of verse one were doing. The Pharisees respond that they're not going to stone him for good works, but for blasphemy, in verse 33. Because you being a man, make yourself God. Now, this is critical. Their complaint is that Jesus is calling himself God, the God of the Old Testament. How is he doing that? Well, this is where so many get deeply confused, not realizing that they are unwittingly promulgating an anti-Christian Jewish myth, the very thing Paul warned the first century church about in Titus. Verse 34 gives us Jesus' answer. So they're getting ready to stone him, because he's acquitting himself with God, and Jesus says, is it not written in your law, I said you are gods? Now let's stop right here. To what does Jesus refer? Well, because it talks about your law, later Jews said that this took place at Sinai. Of course, that is later Jews, such as we find in the second century and afterwards. Almost all Christian commentators realize that Jesus is actually citing Psalm 82, verse 6, which uses the exact same language. I said, you are gods, sons of the Most High, all of you. So I'm in total agreement with the Christian interpretation up to this point. Where I disagree is when the commentators say things like this. In the Old Testament, human judges could be called, quote, gods. because they were viewed as acting in God's place and dispensing justice. Now friends, let me just say this unequivocally. This is not true. It's simply not true. It was actually debunked over almost a hundred years ago by a scholarly article. Of course, many people cite Psalm 82.1 as proof. But that's precisely why we looked at this verse last week, to show that this was a deliberate tampering with the text by the rabbis because of Jesus. So what is Jesus actually doing? Following the excellent article by Michael Heiser on this against Mormonism, Jesus is not claiming that human rulers are gods, and therefore saying something like, hey, look, I'm a god, you're a god, and in those immoral words of Jack Nicholson's President Dale in Mars Attacks, little people, why can't we all just get along? That was more like probably Spock, or Captain Kirk probably. Guys, people don't stop to think about how ludicrous this is. especially after Jesus finishes talking and it has hardly helped his cause. Citing this psalm has only made them want to stone him all the more for blasphemy. Instead, follow his train of thought. After quoting Psalm 82.6, if he called them gods to whom the word of God came, that's verse 35 in John. Let's stop there. If he called them gods to whom the word of God came, So who are the gods? Well, that refers to the heavenly beings of verse one. Meanwhile, the word of God that came is actually the divine Logos. In other words, it's Jesus himself. He's the God of verse one who judges the gods. This is clear because in the next phrase, he talks about the scripture and scripture cannot be broken. Scripture is distinct from the word of God, you see that? Scripture refers to the judgment against the gods that Jesus gave them that they would die like men. Jesus continues, do you say of him whom the father consecrated and sent into the world, that is himself that they're presently confronting, do you say of him, you're blaspheming because I said I am the son of God? Do you follow what he's doing here? He cites the sons of God precisely because he is the divine son of God, the one who inherits the nations in the last verse of Psalm 82. He's distinct from the wickedly heavenly sons of God. He's the son of God who came from heaven. Where are the usurpers? Not the Pharisees, but guys like Zeus or Apollo. Jesus then goes on to talk yet again about his good works. He says, if I'm not doing the works of my father, then do not believe me. Why would he say that? Well, it's because it was doing good works to the nations that you were over that was the prerequisite for inheriting the nations. The gods failed at this. Because of it, they were being judged, but not Jesus. He obeys God exactly as commanded as God's son. But Jesus takes this one step further because Jesus now separates himself even from the other sons as he proclaims, believe the works that you may know and understand that the father is in me and I am in the father. Jesus equates himself with the Father. He is no mere son of God, even as an angel. He is the second Yahweh. He is Melchizedek of the scrolls of Psalm 82.1. He is the God who stands in the midst of the gods and the divine counsel judging them. He is the God who was sent to do good works so that he might inherit the nations. Do you see how actually blasphemous it is to deny this and say that human judges are actually gods? This is fundamentally a denial of Jesus' divine status as the Son of God. It is also, as we will see next time, putting the human cart of the human sons before the horse of the heavenly sons. People get this wrong. in part because they do not understand the Bible story of the sons of God in total. They also don't realize that they've been duped by textual manipulations made by Jesus-hating rabbis 1900 years ago. As Paul said, they've been bewitched. Now, I can't linger here. Instead, let's move to the life of the Son of God in the New Testament. Let's start at Jesus' birth. How does Jesus as Son of God at his birth relate to the cosmic war? Well, I think it's worth noting in Mark's gospel that it begins in verse 1, saying, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Curiously, he immediately begins the quotation from Isaiah. Behold, I send my angel before your face who will prepare your way. Remember, after the war of Psalm 2, it says, kiss the sun lest he be angry and you perish in the way. At his birth, Luke tells us that the angel answered Mary and said, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. As our songs said, simply coming here as God's Son was an act of war against Satan's kingdom. He had come to retrieve what Adam had abdicated as a prophet, priest, and king. In John's gospel, we have something very important. John says that whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. So there's your Son of God reference yet again, but now it gets attached to what the ESV translates rather bizarrely, in my opinion, as only. Not a good translation. The word is monogenes. You probably know it more famously as only begotten, right? That's much better. The difference in translations has to do with basically the etymology of the word, and scholars are not in total agreement, so they go with different ways of talking about it these days. But I believe that the word is actually a triple entendre. It includes three meanings. It means unique, it means only begotten, and it means beloved. Now, of course, we've seen the begotten idea in Psalm 2, in Psalm 110, and here it is again. Jesus is the eternally begotten of the Father. Those two words are put together on purpose to create a paradox. Jesus is not created, and yet he is always the Son. The point is to distinguish the Son from the Father, but also to identify the Son as one with the Father, of the same substance with the Father, God of God. So the warfare idea attached to the sun is present in John chapter 3, in that Jesus becomes the judge of the world. But he also, as the only begotten, loves the world and dies for it in John 3, 16. And this is also an act of war, as we will see. We see next the cosmic war, and after his birth, the son of God at Jesus's baptism, where the father cries out from heaven, you are my beloved son, and with you I am well pleased. See the good works stuff there that we saw earlier in John 10, John 5? We are saved by works. You're all supposed to gasp when a pastor says you're saved by works. We're saved by Jesus's works. I just mentioned how beloved is related to only begotten, and this is a prime example. And even in John's gospel, it's at the point, it's at the point of the baptism that John the Baptist confesses after seeing the spirit descend and remain on him that I have seen and bore witness that this is the son of God. So Jesus's baptism, we're going to have one of these here in a few moments, is a declaration of war. The reason why for Christians this is the case, as Dr. Heiser puts it, is because it reflects a public pledge of loyalty to Jesus, the risen savior in the cosmic war against evil. In 1 Peter 3, Peter connects the flood to baptism in the fallen angels of Genesis 6 that are imprisoned in the underworld. Baptism is then a pledge of a good conscience. It's like a loyalty oath, like a soldier takes, declaring allegiance to Christ, who, as we will see, has already conquered as the Son of God. As such, it follows that Jesus' own baptism was an act of war, where the father's declaration goes along with the son's pledge that he will do all as the prophet and king, and especially the priest, to conquer Satan through his ministry, all according to the priest-king language of Psalm 110. Okay, right after Jesus' baptism is the temptation in the wilderness. Jesus is baptized at age 30, ordaining him into the priesthood, in water according to law, and Jesus is taken into the wilderness to be tempted, remember? There's actually a fascinating parallel in Matthew that says this. Then immediately after the baptism, Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. So what's the parallel? Well, you go back to Exodus 15, and it says, then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. Now, Paul calls the Red Sea a baptism, so there's one parallel. But the thing is, just a handful of verses later, we learn that the people of Israel stop at a place called Elim. And the thing is, Elim is a wordplay on Elim. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? And that's why there's 70 palm trees here. Remember how many sons of God there are? Seventy. Furthermore, Moses immediately leads Israel into the wilderness where God tests them. Same word as Matthew uses. So when Jesus gets into the heart of his temptation, he's taken to a high mountain, Matthew tells us. This location is almost certainly the Bashan wilderness north of the Sea of Galilee, and thus the high mountain is almost certainly Mount Hermon. Twice the devil has said to him, if you are the son of God, and then he tempts him to do something. And now he offers the son of God all the kingdoms of the world if he will just bow down to him on Bales Mountain. The son of God title is thus used again right here at the point of the temptation in the great battle of Jesus versus Satan. But Jesus overcame and the angels attended to him. As we've seen, often when Jesus is casting out demons during his ministry, they declare that he's the son of God. Exorcisms are a direct assault on the kingdom of Satan. Matthew 8, what have you to do with us, O son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time? The whole thing began to make the Pharisees furious, and so as he's casting out A spirit of a blind, mute, demon-possessed man, they accuse him of casting out demons by the power of Beelzebul, the prince of demons. This is that passage we looked at two weeks ago where Jesus identifies Baal with Satan, and Jesus' words to them were words of warfare. If I cast out demons by Beelzebul, by whom do your sons cast them out? But if by the spirit of God I cast out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. How can someone enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first binds the strong man? Jesus was waging the war as the son of God and the demons knew it. And the Pharisees, however, were acting like their father, the devil. As Jesus is called the beloved son at his baptism, so then the father repeats this at the transfiguration. As I just said, with the high mountain and the temptation, this was surely the same high mountain as the transfiguration. The thing is, the transfiguration is a fulfillment of all these prophecies from Psalm 89, from its location on Mount Hermon, to its Davidic king conquering evil forces. The transfiguration was a declaration of war that could not be missed by the devil, right here on the ancient mountain of the divine council of El and Baal themselves. Jesus confirms this because he tells the 70 returning disciples that he saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. This was said immediately after the transfiguration in response to their amazement that the spiritual forces of evil were suddenly no match for them. We're going to take a much deeper look at all that next week. Cruising along, we come to Jesus's trial, and you may recall that the high priest put Jesus under oath. He says, I adjure you by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Now, I believe that he gets this from Psalm 2, where Christ or Messiah and Son of God are mentioned together. He's trying to say, tell us if you think you're the one who's fulfilling Psalm 2. He knew the implications and he wanted to know if Jesus would admit that he's waging war to inherit the nations. But the high priest had a twisted and perverted view of this prophecy and its fulfillment. Like others, he wanted a Messiah who would overthrow Rome and make Israel the top dog among the nations. So Jesus only says, you have said so. It's a classic Jesus non-answer that actually answers the question without answering the question. But Jesus then throws a twist on it. We could do an entire series on the parallel phrase, son of man that Jesus responds with. He says, I tell you from now on, you will see the son of man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. And for this, they claim that he blaspheme. because people don't realize that Son of Man is as heavenly a title as the Son of God is. It's the parallel in that it comes from Daniel 7, where one like a Son of Man comes to the Father in the divine council to receive his kingdom. And yet he comes as a man, not as an angelic being. At any rate, once he is put on the cross, there's one more temptation for the Son of God. The people are fulfilling now Psalm 22, Matthew says they wag their heads straight out of Psalm 22. And they say, if you're the son of God, come down from the cross, then we will believe in you. They say, let God deliver him now if he desires him. Straight out of Psalm 22 again, for he said, I am the son of God. What's the point? They're trying to say, don't fulfill your mission. Don't suffer as you must. Come down, show your power. This is Satan's last bid. At that moment, Jesus died. The curtain was torn in two. Darkness covered the land. And for one singular moment, the hounds of hell believed they had won. But when the centurion and those who were with him kept keeping watch over Jesus saw the earthquake and what took place, they were filled with awe and said, truly, this was the son of God. And at that moment, Jesus descended into the realms of Sheol. And as Psalm 24 says, He stormed the gates of hell. Lift up your heads, O gates, and be lifted up, O ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is the King of glory? Friends, we're talking about a war. The Lord, strong and mighty, the Lord, mighty in battle. Jesus, the Son of God, had come. And here, Jesus, in the dark underworld, after his crucifixion, proclaimed victory over the spirits in prison, the fallen watchers long ago imprisoned with their demonic host. The Son of God, who has eyes like a flame of fire and whose feet are like burnished bronze, said, I am here, and hell can no longer keep its captives. Death and hell shall no longer have power over those who have faith in me, for I am the conqueror, the rider on the white horse. The one who's sitting on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. The very first album from Genesis, the rock band, is called From Genesis to Revelation. It sold like 5,000 copies originally. It says in a song called The Conqueror, the heads are a-rollin' cause the conqueror's on his way and the justice day is coming for the conqueror is on his way. This is all assured this victory at Christ's resurrection. Jesus's resurrection is his vindication by God to everyone. Of what? That he's the son of God. Paul begins the letter to Romans saying he was declared to be the son of God in power according to the spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. The resurrection means that Jesus is alive. Death no longer has power over him. And once alive, he lives forever in the glorified body as the son. And finally, there's the ascension. Paul tells us that when God raised him from the dead, that he, quote, seated him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, above every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him his head over all things to the church. Who is this? Well, in verse six, he's called God's beloved. That's the language of the son. Hebrews starts this way. In the last days, God has spoken to us by his son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom he also created the world. He's the radiance of the glory of God, the exact imprint of his nature. He upholds the universe by the word of his power. After making purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of majesty on high. having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs. These show you that Jesus has, in fact, not only conquered death, but he is now powerful over all spiritual forces in the cosmic battle of the sons of God. There's one more thing to tell you about Jesus, the son of God. That is, all of this work was not merely to destroy the works of the devil, although that's exactly why John says he came as the son of God. For his work as the Son of God was for you, that you may be freed from the tyranny and kingdom and domain of Satan and have peace and hope and life forevermore through and in God's Son. Listen to this good news. It is for you who do not believe. It's also for those of you who do. 1 Corinthians 15, but in fact Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep. For he must reign until he's put all his enemies under his feet. And when all things are subjected to him, then the son himself will also be subjected to him who put all things and subjected under him, that God may be all in all. His resurrection guaranteed that there would be others, even those who have faith in the Son. In fact, it tells us in Colossians, He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He's the invisible image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. In Him, all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, and through Him to reconcile to Himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. His kingdom is our kingdom. And not only this, but listen to your hope as you await his return. For we wait for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us from the wrath to come. All this Jesus did for you as a son of God, but you must believe it. Galatians 2 says, I've been crucified with Christ. It's no longer I who live. It's Christ who lives in me. And the life I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Is that your confession? Can you say that with the apostle? Turn to Him in faith and don't wait. Keep trusting to the end for who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? What a powerful God the Son is. He is God. He's your creator. He's also the judge. Because the Son rules over all powers, we can trust Him with our daily fears and struggles. No spiritual force, not Satan, not temptation, not despair, can overcome the exalted Son. He is the Son of God, our faithful High Priest, and He knows your temptations and your weaknesses, and He has endured them before you as the Son. With John, I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life. And so until he returns, let us all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him, all creatures here below. Praise him above ye heavenly hosts. Praise the Father, praise the Son, praise the Holy Ghost. Lord, these are deep, deep things we're thinking about today. Tremendously important, so beautiful, so powerful, such a grand story. Please take the veil off our eyes, help us to see the glories of Christ, what he's done, who he is as your son. We thank you for sending him. He is our only hope. and our only comfort in life and in death. Praise be to the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost. We all cry, amen.