I want to begin by thanking Cosmosdale Baptist Church for this opportunity to bring the Word of God to you this evening. It has been my treasure and my delight to regularly, Lord's Day after Lord's Day, to worship among you. And now my prayer has been that the Lord would bless the reading and the proclamation of His Word. If you have a copy of the Word of God, I invite you to turn with me to 1 Timothy chapter 2. 1 Timothy chapter 2, we'll begin by looking at the first seven verses. When I woke up this morning, I didn't realize exactly what Nick would be preaching on, and I'm very thankful that he preached on the topic that he addressed, because the sermon that I've prepared today is a little bit more polemic than I'm used to. I will talk quite a bit about the Catholic Church, some of the errors that they have, in particular in positing that there are other mediators besides the Lord Jesus Christ. When Nick began the sermon this morning, before he dove into the text, he addressed historical concerns. He brought us back in time through history 500 years ago to look at the life of Martin Luther and to look at the pope that he opposed. The pope was arguing that justification is not by faith alone. And Martin Luther, having his conscience bound by the word of God, bravely asserted that justification is by faith alone. And in approaching today's text, I would like us to do something very similar. I would like us to go back in time. But I'd like us to, instead of visiting Martin Luther's pope, Pope Leo X, I'd like us to visit a different Pope Leo. And instead of going back 500 years ago, I would like us to go back five days ago. Last Tuesday, very important day in history. Not really, but five days ago. The Roman Catholic Church from the Vatican, which is kind of like their headquarters, they had released an official statement commentating on whether or not Mary, the mother of our Lord, whether or not she can rightly be called co-redeemer alongside Jesus, and whether or not she can rightly be called the mediator of all graces. Now, there were some previous popes, like John Paul II, who have been in favor of such titles for Mary. But there have been other popes, such as the late Pope Francis, who have said that these are inappropriate titles to give to Mary. So even at the highest level of Roman Catholicism, different popes have different opinions on whether or not these are appropriate titles for Mary. Despite these different positions, none have gone so far as to dogmatically define what is the official teaching of the Catholic Church and what you have to be in order to be a good Catholic. Now, in their view, doctrine matters. And we would say we agree. All doctrine matters. And therefore, the difference here is important. But in Rome, they decided to make these titles for Mary a matter of indifference. Look, whether or not Mary is the co-redeemer, whether she is or isn't, it's not a gospel issue. And for us as good Protestants, we would say, what are you talking about? Whether or not Jesus Christ and Him alone saves, of course that's a gospel issue. That's the heart of the gospel right there. What do you mean that's not a gospel issue? To posit another Savior, another Redeemer, another mediator besides Jesus Christ, this is another gospel. I want to remind us of what our confession as a church says regarding this issue. It says the office of mediator. between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the Church of God, and may not be either in whole or in any part thereof transferred from him to another." No one else has the title of mediator or redeemer besides the Lord Jesus Christ. But this past Tuesday, with the approval of the current pope, Pope Leo XIV, A certain cardinal, acting through official channels in the Roman Catholic government, issued a non-binding doctrinal clarification on these titles for Mary. All right, so that's like a whole bunch of mumbo-jumbo to basically say, hey, this is like reflecting the will of the Catholic Church. It's not binding, but it's also sort of kind of official. So maybe the closest parallel we have would be It's not binding upon all Southern Baptists. You don't have to believe it in order to be a faithful Southern Baptist. But at the same time, it kind of officially states this is the will of what the Convention is thinking. And so maybe you can think of this document in the same way. This expresses the current will of the Catholic Church. And so when they issued this doctrinal clarification, it was actually a cautious rejection of these titles. It was saying that because these titles are not very precise and are prone to confusion from outsiders, we should not regularly call Mary the co-redeemer or the co-mediator. This does not reflect established Catholic doctrine. And so the online response from Protestants has been that of celebration. Hooray, they've backed down from heresy. They've backed down from saying there's another redeemer and there's another mediator. That's been the general, not entirely, but that was the general immediate online reaction. As if to say that this is an official doctrinal change, and as if to say that they are backing down upon what they've been saying about Mary for hundreds of years. But when we have a statement like this, we need to read it closely. This is not a giant step for them towards evangelicalism. perhaps in form, but not in substance. In fact, they say as part of the purpose behind this doctrinal statement is to bring about more ecumenical unity. So when the Protestants are responding, they're saying, this is great. Maybe they're not as far away from us as we thought. Materially, that's not true. Formally, they're really glad you consider them to be a more reasonable option now. It's a sly change, and it's something that we ought not to be deceived about. The rejection of these titles in this document is not a rejection of calling Mary a mediator. It's not a rejection of calling her a redeemer. But it's rather a rejection of the prefix co. She's not a redeemer in the same sense of Jesus. She's not a mediator in the same sense of Jesus. They don't have the exact role. Nevertheless, they do put their foot down and say, she is a redeemer, she is a mediator, and we ought to recognize her as such. So all this to say, as kind of a preface for today's sermon, this presents us as Protestants, as Bible-believing Christians, to consider the question, what do we believe from the word of God about the role of Christ as mediator? Because we can look at statements like this and say, well, there is no mediator besides Christ. There is no redeemer. But even though we use that word mediator, what does that mean? What does that entail? What are the effects and benefits of that? And so I'd like for us to dive into the word of God and discuss these things today. So I'll read it in a second. But the three main points I want to get at is looking at mediation in the context of prayer. So in this text, we're talking about the content of prayer, the benefits of prayer, and how mediation, thirdly, makes prayer effective. So 1 Timothy 2, beginning at verse 1, the Word of God says, First of all then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people. for kings, and for all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way. This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. For this, I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth. So let's go to the Lord, our God, in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask that you would be with us this evening and that you would open our eyes, open our hearts to receive these words that are set before us. Lord, we understand that your word is A living word is sharper than a two-edged sword, and we ask, Lord, that it would have its work upon us. Lord, as we consider the great mystery, which is the union we have in Christ and the reconciliation that we have through his blood, Lord, we ask that you would cause us to love you more, cause us to more eagerly pursue your face in prayer, and cause us to say, what a wonderful, wonderful Savior that we have. So please be with us. Bless the hearing and the proclamation of your word. And we pray all these things in the name of the mediator Jesus. Amen. So Paul begins this letter to Timothy, warning him, first of all, not to follow any doctrine which differs from that which has been given by the Lord Jesus. He cautions Timothy to avoid false teachers. And this isn't just, hey, by the way, Timothy, there's going to be false teachers, just thought you should know, maybe don't talk to them. He doesn't present it as simply informative, but as a true threat to solid believers. And so considering the things I said earlier, the reason I gave you all this information about Mary and what Catholics say about her and how that's different from our evangelical faith is not to say, hey, isn't this kind of silly? Shouldn't we laugh at them? But it's rather as a threat. It's a threat that we need to take seriously. Because Protestants do convert to Roman Catholicism, their devotional life does change, and they begin to consider not only Mary, but they begin to consider Christ differently. And the reason that people convert is because they haven't begun to take these threats seriously. This can happen to you. Beware, watch yourself, stick to Jesus Christ. Do not forget your first love. After warning about false teachers and false teaching, Paul then charges Timothy to preach the gospel. And the principal way that Paul urges Timothy to spread the gospel is through prayer. Now, the ministry of the word is the first thing talked about. Prayer is then the second thing talked about. And Paul, writing to Timothy, writing to a fellow pastor, these are the roles which a pastor is not to delegate to one another. When we see in the book of Acts, the office of the deacon is created, we see that they are given various responsibilities in order to free up some of the pastor's time, Specifically, the two things are set aside in order that he may have time for the ministry of the word and for prayer. A pastor can never say, you know, I've been so busy preaching and evangelizing and counseling and meeting with people and having people over to my home. I just haven't had time to pray. No, that's absolutely ridiculous. All Christians, not just pastors, all Christians must be engaged in prayer. It is the heartbeat of the Christian devotional life. And so our text begins by Paul listing particular items or particular categories of prayer. And he will later tie this in to the concept of mediation. And so as we read the first verse and a half, We need to keep in mind that Christ mediates for these things, for supplications, prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, for all people, for kings, for all who are in high positions, in order that he might fulfill these requests, which is godly and dignified lives. So, firstly, let's examine these things, the content of prayer. So he gives us three categories. The first category is different types of petitions, things we might say in the context of prayer. So he says supplications. So we can kind of hear within this word, the root word of supplication is the word supply. So in the Lord's Prayer, Jesus says, give us this day our daily bread. In the same way, we ought to ask God in prayer, Lord, would you give me basic daily necessities? Would you give me breath in my lungs? Would you give me shelter? Would you give me health? Would you give me another day to live that I might glorify you and worship you in this body? So it's our needs. Going on to the next one, prayers. Now, typically prayer is used in a very general sense and it can really subsume all these other categories. Different commentators have had different opinions on why exactly prayer is listed in a list of other things that seem like they're also kinds of prayers. So one, for example, has suggested that this is the category of worship. And it's, well, yes, we absolutely should worship in prayer. That's how Jesus opens the Lord's Prayer. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. And it should be something we constantly repeat as we approach the throne of grace. God, you are worthy. You are excellent in all of your ways. Your attributes are wonderful. However, I don't think that worship is exactly what's getting at here. Because when we compare the other categories, these are things that we do for other people. Now, I can ask the Lord that he would supply the needs of other people. Or I can thank the Lord for how he's dealt with other people in their life. And I can say different intercessions for other people. Lord, would you help this person achieve this? Or would you heal so-and-so? I can't conceive of a way I'm saying, well, I'm going to worship on behalf of somebody else. That doesn't seem to really make sense. given that these things are made for other people on the behalf of others. What other commentators have suggested, and I think that this more so fits, is that this is a category of not just asking for our needs, but asking for things that we want. And I think a lot of times when we hear that, hey, you can go to God not just for things He's done and not just for your absolute necessities, but you can go to him with your heart's desires. I think that sometimes people push back from that as if that's selfish, as if that's asking God to be just a wish-granting God. I don't think God withholds from us everything except for the bare necessities of life. He's given you so many great things to be thankful for in this life beyond simple survival elements. He's given us friends. He's given us fun things to watch on our phone, cat videos. He's given us just all manner of things. But an analogy that came to my head was... Fathers delight to give their sons gifts. And if it's your son's birthday, you might be thinking, oh boy, when am I going to get my son for his birthday to make him happy, to make him excited? And you do this not because you're trying to appease your son because he has an expectation about his birthday, but because you simply love him. And it's as simple as that. And if the son said to the father, father, all I need is I just want a roof over my head, and I just want food on my plate. That's all I need. I need nothing else. The father would be, come on, what do you really want? You want birthday cake? You want a new bicycle? What is it that you want? God desires the same for us, that we would have a freedom in prayer. And when we approach him in prayer, we have to recognize God's not overly scrutinizing every word that we said. He sees us in Christ and he wants to bless us abundantly. And the phrase that we have in scripture that you do not have because you do not ask, I don't think that needs to be limited strictly to the benefits of salvation. but for all of life. God has given us all of life. He's blessed us in every single meticulous detail. We ought to thank him for these things, not be afraid to approach him for these things. The next thing Paul mentions is intercessions. Intercessions is when we pray for the goodwill of others. I already mentioned it's when somebody's sick. If you come to our prayer meeting, we are constantly praying, Lord, help so and so get better. Help us. And sometimes we pray for others because they are unable to pray for themselves. And this could be for reasons that maybe they're an unbeliever. Maybe you have to intercede for their salvation. Lord, will you not just help this person with difficult time, but will you save their soul? Because you alone have the power to do so. Or perhaps the intercession comes in the form of your interceding for a true Christian. but he's in such a state of spiritual depression and darkness that he needs his Christian friends to come alongside him and say, brother, I'm praying for you. I know maybe you feel like God isn't with you. Maybe you're lacking his comfort and his presence. We pray for that person. We intercede for one another. If we can't so easily bring ourselves to the third of grace, Well, as fellow members of the body of Christ, we need to do that for one another. And the last category offered, the last kind of petition, would be thanksgivings. And this is perhaps the most obvious out of all of them. We thank God. We praise him for his mercies and his blessings. His mercies are new every morning, and so therefore every day we have new reasons to bless his holy name. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And for as many things that happen to us, that's how many things that we have to be thankful for. But moving on from types of petitions, he also lists different categories of people. Now, he begins with the general, which is we pray for all people. Quite literally everybody, everybody that comes to mind. Now, we are finite and there are billions of people on this earth. This is not a call to pray for every single individual person by name. You simply can't keep up with the birth rate if you were to attempt that. However, all people means everyone that comes to mind. This should first of all probably include your church and your fellow church members. So we engage with this regularly on Wednesday nights, but outside of once a week, are we praying for one another? Are we interceding for one another? Are we thanking the Lord for the influence that each other has been in our lives? Are we praying for our pastor, for our elders, for our deacons? All people would include your family members, for those who know the Lord and for those who don't know the Lord. So all people extends not just to Christians, not just that we would be experiencing blessing upon blessing, but also that we pray for non-Christians. And I think that this non-Christian category is what Paul is getting at here when he says all people. For his immediate audience, this would have been, hey, we're going to offer prayer, not just for Jews, but we're also going to offer prayer for the Gentiles. And so our equivalent to that would be, hey, we're not just gonna pray for Christians, we're gonna pray for non-Christians. We're not just gonna pray for our friends, but we're going to pray likewise for our enemies. This is what Jesus calls us to on the Sermon on the Mount. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Well, that basically gets to about everyone. Those who love you, those who hate you, and everyone in the middle. They all need God, and they all need our intercession. And then it goes from all people, which is everybody, and it restricts it now. It says, okay, all people generally we're gonna pray for, but he also singles out kings and for those in high positions. We are especially reminded to pray for those who rule over us politically. Now, back then is a little bit different from now, but it's not that different in the sense that this is a call to pray for those who are not Christians and yet have power to govern over us. We are to pray for non-Christians who have power over us. And so there's a couple names that I have that are, some of them are obvious, some of them we may never have heard of. So President Trump and President Vance. Whether we're Republican, whether we're Democrat, whoever our president is, we pray for them. Why? Because God specifically asks us to. He asks us to intercede for them, to be thankful for them, and to ask that God would grant their everyday needs. So we don't just have Trump and Dance, but we've also got our governor, Andy Beshear. And I think most of us have heard all those names. But question, do you know the name of the mayor of Louisville? Do we know his name? I didn't know his name. I had to Google it. It is Craig Greenberg. He especially, I think out of all the names I just listed, I think he especially needs prayer right now. And the reason I say that is because of the recent UPS crash. He's dealing with these things. He's probably not a Christian. So he has to deal with comforting people saying, hey, our airport is still safe. He needs to comfort the fear of the people. He needs to comfort grieving families. And he needs to do so by giving a message of hope. But outside of the gospel, if he's not giving a message of eternal hope, then he's really only giving a message of temporary hope. Well, I hope our security is a bit better next time. I hope our engineering team is a bit more consistent next time. But that's not really that much hope when it comes to a grieving family. We need to pray for Craig Greenberg that God will give him wisdom to govern and to govern well. and that God would work in his life in such a way that a disaster such as this might be the means of his salvation. And that brings us to our last category, the category of graces. I want to divide this into common graces and special graces. So we're to pray for these things, and according to the text, in order that we may lead a peaceful and a quiet life. So these are the common graces that we may live a life that's peaceful and quiet. This is the end that we should want those who rule over us to rule. They should rule in such a way that we don't have to worry, hey, can I worship freely? We shouldn't have to worry about, well, what's the stock market going to look like? What's our financial ability? But we should pray however they're going to govern. Let it be in a way that I can just live my life without anxiety, without worry, and that I can just pursue God in my career or through my family or through my church or whatever that may be. And the second category is gonna be special graces. And this is, as our text says, to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And this is the highest and noblest end that we can pray for others about. that they might be saved and come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ. People who are not Christians sometimes pray, especially people in other religions, and they can pray for a lot of the same items. But out of this entire list, yeah, they might be praying for the president. Yeah, they might be praying for their daily needs. Yeah, they might be praying for their neighbor. But the one thing they're not gonna pray for is a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ. If for no other reason, that is especially important that we are the ones to take up that responsibility and pray for the salvation of our neighbors. So having gone over the content of the list set before us, let us now move to our second point, and that is the benefit of prayer. Our text says that we may live lives in a godly and dignified way. So it means from peaceful and quiet to godly and dignified. So what does it mean to live a godly life? To live a life where we can keep the commandments. That is the end of the law, that we would fear God and keep his commandments. And we want to live a life that's quiet and peaceful, that way it's easy to do so. When it's easy to keep God's commandments, when people rule in such a way that they create a culture where it's easy to follow the will of God, guess what? People are going to do that. Not just difficult because you have the flesh warring against the spirit, but difficult because you've put in laws in place or different statutes or ordinance to make it maybe financially more difficult to follow the Lord. This is opposed to living in a godly and dignified way. We must follow the Lord and we must pray that God will make it easy to do so. You know, Jesus does command us to keep on the straight and the narrow path. That doesn't mean that we should hope that the Christian life is full of difficulties. We should pray, Lord, help me to keep your commandments and help it be not so difficult for me. Ease me with your spirit, ease me through the things that I need. Godly and dignified in every way. This would also be a life that's not marked by controversy. Especially with being distracted and overly concerned with wars and rumors of wars. We would like whatever we see on TV to be rather mellow. And sometimes there are people who are busybodies where if there's not something to be concerned with, there's not some controversy going on, guess what? I'm going to find it. If there's not something I need to address because it's a pressing issue, well, I will find something to occupy myself with. And so this happens, I think, a lot of times with Christians, chasing the next theological debate online. What's the thing everybody's buzzing about? Well, guess what? I have an opinion. I have a conviction. I feel very strongly. And I'm going to post on Facebook in the most provocative way. And if you don't agree, you're the one who's unfaithful. You can kind of think of it almost like some of these storm chasers. These storm chasers, they might see a tornado on the news and they say to themselves, you know what? I want to get close to that. I want to get a good picture of it. And I think I know what I'm doing so I shouldn't get too hurt. Well, guess what? A lot of people get destroyed because of it. The tornado sucks up their car and destroys sometimes their lives. We can't be theological tornado chasers. It is bad for the soul. Controversy stirs up something within us that never puts us at rest, the kind of rest that God wants us to have in his son, Jesus Christ. Tell me, do the fruits of the Spirit that you read about, do they produce a countenance that is better equipped to serve God? Or are you a better servant of the Lord when you're constantly angry or stressed or worried about what people think? Fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Don't these things seem commensurate with what we've been saying so far, that to live a godly and dignified life, the life that God has designed for us to live, it's a life that is marked, ideally, not by controversy, but it's peaceful and quiet. And it says that these things in verse three, that they are good and they are pleasing in the sight of God. It is pleasing in the sight of God that we would pray for these issues, that we would lift people up in prayer and present them before the throne of grace. It is pleasing in the sight of God, not only in a creational sense, not only because it's just a good and nice thing to do, but it's also good because it calls the Lord God our Savior. There is a sense in which the fruits of the gospel are manifested in the answered prayers of Christian. God has saved us unto good works, and these good works are going to manifest themselves in prayer. Our prayers are going to contain the content of help us to live peaceful lives. And God takes those because they are mediated through Christ, and he answers those prayers. So if we follow the chain, salvation in Jesus Christ should ideally eventually lead to a life that is marked by more peace, more quiet, more godliness, and more dignification. Prayer is God's ordinary means of grace. And our text says that he desires all people to be saved. Sometimes when people hear this, God desires all people to be saved, people take this sometimes, I think, in all sorts of weird directions. Well, He desires all people to be saved, and not all people have been saved, and therefore God has failed. And it's like, no, that's not what the text is getting at. You know, even if you don't know exactly what the text is getting at, it's not saying God has failed. And yet there are some who Again, they just do weird things with the word of God. This text is not speaking as to the omnipotence of God. The Bible elsewhere tells us that God always accomplishes his will down to exact detail. Rather, this text is revealing to us something of the heart of God. The gospel is for all, and we have a duty. And I say we, not just as Christians, but all of humanity has a duty to believe it. And this is not my own personal bias, as if I'm just saying, you know, wouldn't it be nice if we were all just Christians? It's not just me, but God is telling us that it would be good and well-pleasing if all people would be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. It is God's heart towards you that you would hear about his son, Jesus Christ, and that you would place your faith in him. The Word of God elsewhere says, how will they be saved without a preacher? And so when we pray, we pray for people's salvation, we ought to pray that God would use someone, perhaps even you if you have a personal relationship, to use you or someone to share the gospel with them. For this is the only way of salvation, to hear the gospel and to believe the gospel. So going on from the content of prayer and the benefit of prayer, let's now turn to the third and final point, the grounds of mediation or how mediation makes prayer effective. Now there was one time when I was doing evangelism back when I was at the University of Maryland, I had the opportunity to share Christ with a Muslim. And the Muslim said something very interesting. He said, you know, there's a couple of things I don't like about Christianity. But one of the big things that I don't like is y'all don't pray straight to God. Y'all involve some kind of man in the process, whether that's Mary or one of the saints or Jesus. But in Islam, we go to God directly. Doesn't that seem better to you? Doesn't that seem more straightforward? Doesn't that seem more of a godly and God-centered religion? And so my response was, well, some of that you've confused my religion for the religion of Catholicism and their prayer and devotional life. We would agree with you. You can't go through a mere man. Why would you add steps to the process? That is not God-centered religion. However, you do need Jesus in prayer to mediate for you. And he is absolutely necessary because your sin puts you at enmity with God. We need a mediator for our prayers because as we commune with God on any level, if we do not have someone to mediate our sin, we are standing before the throne of grace, filthy in our unrighteousness. And so this idea that this Muslim had of, you know, I don't really need a mediator, it's not just a Muslim thing. It's very, very common in our culture. I remember when Duck Dynasty was on TV, they wanted to lop off the end of their prayers because he concluded his prayers by saying, in Jesus' name, amen. And they thought it was a small ask. Hey, can you still say your prayers exactly the same way, but just don't say that in Jesus' name part? And the Robertsons were like, that's a huge deal to us. No, absolutely not. But I do think that reflects the idea of this culture of, why do you need a mediator? Why can't you just pray to God like a normal person? Well, because sin isn't normal. There is something wrong with us. We are not naturally on good terms with God. I can't pray fine just on my own. The reality is, if you don't have a mediator, if there's not somebody who presents you faultless before the throne, and that you can approach God in prayer with bold confidence, knowing that my righteousness is not my own, but everything I am that's good has been given to me through Jesus, somebody who doesn't have a mediator, a lot of times they just don't pray. And it's not just that they don't pray. If they do pray, it's not with a heart towards godliness. And the fact is, we don't pray right on our own. In fact, we weren't born right. Jesus's command is we must be born again. And everything that you do apart from faith is sin. Everything that we do that does not have the end in mind of the glory of God and the exaltation of his holy name, that is sin. Sin has separated us from communion with God. It's a problem, and it's a problem that cannot be fixed from us. Because when the law of God has been broken, and the covenant has been defiled, God must act in accordance with His attributes. He's holy, He's righteous, and the great judge of the world will act as a good judge. He can't just wipe away sin as if it never happened. he must act in accordance with his holiness. And so the good news is that God did not give us what we have earned, that he did not abandon our soul in hell, but that he sent one to act as a mediator. So our next verse says, for there is one God. Now when it says one God, our mind immediately jumps to, okay, monotheism, got it. There's only one God that exists, check. But that seems almost like a random thing to say. In the middle of this passage, oh yeah, that's right, we're monotheists. Okay, well, it's not theologically wrong, of course, but I think what it's getting at is when we pray, there is only one that we address. When you pray to someone or something, you are treating that thing as God. And so in prayer, we are only to have one direct one that we are praying to. And that is to be God Almighty. It's not to be any of the departed. It's not to be any of the godly ones that came before us. We as good Protestants, we think very high things of Martin Luther or John Calvin. It doesn't cross our mind that we would pray to them. They're good men, but they're men. We need not just a good man, we need something more than that. And so given that there is one God, and we are sinful fallen men, we need a mediator. And it says in this text rather clearly, there is one mediator between God and men. There is one mediator. And Jesus Christ alone is that one mediator. And if you're bad at math, It's good news today. You don't have to count any higher than one when it comes to counting how many mediators are valid between you and God. It is Christ and Christ alone. When we consider the solos of the Reformation, the words that the Catholic Church rejected, they weren't rejecting faith, they weren't rejecting grace, they weren't rejecting Christ. They were rejecting over and over that it's Christ alone, that it's faith alone, that it's grace alone. Christ alone is this one Redeemer. And He alone is fit to be our one Redeemer because of who He is. He is between God and man, as to His very being. He is one person. He is truly God, truly man. We don't confuse the natures, but we also don't radically separate them. united in the person of Jesus Christ. And he is fit to be the mediator because he is consubstantial with the Father and he is also one with us in having a common human nature. And then it moves on from there and says, the man Jesus Christ, the man. And this is to say that he is of the same nature as us. He takes on our humanity in order to redeem our humanity and presents us to God. So what we have in common with Jesus is a shared humanity, and it's that humanity which he represents for us on the cross and in his passion. Now, if you're familiar a little bit with Roman Catholic theology, they would actually agree with us on who Jesus Christ is. He's one person, he's got two distinct natures, truly God, truly man. So great, we've got that in common. However, there's an important disagreement in that they only see that Christ acts as a mediator according to his humanity. In fact, in Tuesday's statement, where they talk about how Christ is a mediator and how it's a bit different from Mary. They say that he is a mediator only according to his humanity. And they use this verse as their proof text. I think that they're not reading very carefully. I think they're engaging in just picking from here, picking from there. This sounds like it could support us, but not really engaging in proper exegesis. If Christ is a mediator only according to his humanity, the question immediately becomes, well, what other mere humans might we take as mediators? Because there have been other humans who have achieved perfection because they have gone to heaven, they've had their sins cleaned, they've had the perfect righteousness of Christ applied to them, and they are standing in the presence of the Lord. Could not we call on them as intercessors? to which the Catholic church would say, yes, now you get it. No, they are not the God man. They cannot stand in the place of mediator because according to this verse, the reason that Christ is fit to be so is because he is the eternally begotten son of God and he has incarnated himself and taken upon himself a human nature. We cannot say that He is mediator alone with respect to His humanity, because that opens us up to having mere men as being additional mediators. As man, Jesus Christ suffered, He obeyed, He died, and He ultimately offered satisfaction for humanity on the cross. But as God, he also acts as mediator according to his divine nature. Because as God, only God is able to forgive transgressions against God. As God, he is able to satisfy infinite justice. As God, he was able to procure our pardon. And as God, he was able to intercede and mediate for Old Testament saints. is this mediator, this Christ Jesus, who ransomed us. According to this text, he ransomed us. And what did he ransom us from? He ransomed us from sin. He ransomed us from the devil. He ransomed us for the wrath, the righteous wrath of God that was coming for us. The testimony of the work of the mediator, both in his earthly ministry and in his ascended ministry, is the gospel. John 14, 6, Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. And no one comes to the Father except through me. Jesus takes us, He takes our person, He takes our good works, He takes our nature, He takes our prayers, and He presents it as mediator faultlessly before the Father. And this is good and well-pleasing in the sight of God, that He can look upon His Son, Jesus Christ, And just as he says to him, you are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased, so too he looks to us. If you're united to Christ in faith, he looks upon us despite our sin, he looks upon us and says, you likewise are my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Because when he looks at you, he sees not your sin because Jesus paid that. But instead he looks at Jesus's righteousness, the love he has for his son. is the love he now has for you in the gospel. And Paul concludes this by stating very clearly in the form of an oath that this is the gospel. He says, for this I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. And then he goes off on this tangent saying, I am telling the truth in Christ. I am not lying. Well, of course he's not lying for anything else as well. Nobody would accuse him for doing so. But because he's talking about something that touches the very heart of the gospel, and because he would have received such pushback for it, he goes out of his way to say, I 100,000% mean what I'm saying. This is the gospel, that there is only one mediator. And if you do not approach the Father through the Son, by the power of the Spirit, then you have no life. Paul uses this exact language at the beginning of Romans 9. He swears the same thing when arguing that although Jewish people, he says of them, they are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship, and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. He says all these wonderful things about the Jewish people, how they were, in many ways, the center of God's redemptive plan in the Old Testament. Nevertheless, Paul concludes that without the Messiah, they are nevertheless without salvation. We can have all the forms of godliness, but if we miss Jesus, it's all for naught. It means nothing. We've received nothing other than temporal common graces. We need not just the form of Jesus Christ, we need him in substance. Paul's point in Romans 9 is the same as it is in 1 Timothy 2. Jews and Gentiles need the same mediator to be reconciled with God. And as much as it pains Paul to admit that his own people according to the flesh, his own people according to the flesh are without a mediator, this is nevertheless the gospel that is commissioned to him. It's the reason that he was appointed a preacher. It's the reason that he was sent out. So an apostle means a sent out one. to proclaim this understanding of the mediator that Christ alone saves. And there's no wiggle room to say, well, is there a special exception? Well, can there be like a little Christ that can sneak in there as well? No. One, exactly one. Christ is not just necessary, but he is absolutely sufficient. So we've talked quite a bit today about Roman Catholicism. We've talked about their errors with understanding what do they say about a mediator, mediators, or a co-mediator. And I absolutely do mean it as a warning. Part of me wanted to maybe dial it back a little bit and say, well, I'm not saying it's No, it's as bad as it sounds. It is a different gospel and we need to be warned and we need to be careful of our own souls that we do not fall into these errors. I do mean it as a warning. God will not be mocked by our inventions of other mediators. So please consider this as a real threat and pray for those who you know that perhaps are bewitched by this doctrine. perhaps even our greatest threat. I think it's a very big threat, very real threat, but it's not the only error which presents itself as a threat. Satan has found other things and other mediators, well, mediators so-called, to tempt us with as Bible-believing congregations. And I think the main one that's a threat as a possible other mediator we might sort of kind of sometimes hold to as Protestants, as Bible-believing Christians, are going to be parents, and especially the head of a household. So let me give one example. When you baptize a baby, you bring it into the household of God. And we're a good Baptist church, so I feel like I have some freedom to just speak my mind on this. When you baptize a baby in Presbyterian or Lutheran churches, you typically have sponsor parents. And it's saying, look. We recognize that this infant is not approaching baptism with faith, but we hope that faith will either be happening at the same time as his baptism or maybe further down the line in their life. But we're going to nevertheless bring them into the family of God, say that they are in covenant with God, even though they haven't come to Christ directly, but rather they're part of my household and I've come to Christ directly. Well, you've just added the parental element as another mediator. I want to be clear, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, I don't think that's a different gospel, but I do think because of the way that infant baptism relies upon the faith of the parents, as a necessary condition in order to approach Christ and therefore the Father, I don't think it's a different gospel. But I do think it's absolutely a different picture of the gospel. All right, so now let's maybe talk about something that's a little bit closer to home, pun intended. So what about Baptist children? So I think most of us don't maybe do the whole covenant household thing that a Presbyterian might do. Sometimes when we consider the question, well, what about those who die in infancy? And when we address that question, a lot of times I think that another mediator, or a mediator's not even necessary, is brought into the equation. You know, I've heard some people argue, well, before a certain age, sins are placed upon the mother, and as long as the mother's being mediated by Christ, everything's good. I've had others say, well, when you're so young, You can't be held accountable for your sin, and therefore Jesus doesn't have to wash you of that and cleanse you of that, and you can go straight to the Father. There are some problems with that. There is no other gospel, and Jesus Christ is absolutely necessary as a mediator, because we need not just that our sins would be cleansed. That'd be enough to not go to hell, but in order to get to heaven, we need to have Christ's positive righteousness. And so the same way that God deals with us by sending his son, by having him be our mediator, every single human is the same way. Christ deals with them directly. And that should give us greater hope, that it's not just, eh, you get to go to heaven by some other way, but how much greater is it to know they've gone to heaven the same way that I have, through Jesus Christ. And the last category I want to talk about with parents would be there are certain forms of patriarchy that I think offer fathers or heads of households as a sort of mediator. So patriarchy basically sees all of life, including church life, as mediated through the head of the household. You have the head of the household and he kind of – we do understand that fathers are the head of the household. But we recognize that doesn't apply to all spheres of life. We restrict it just to the household. And so some churches, for example, would say that if you're going to add somebody as a member, you're either going to accept the whole household into membership, or you're going to reject the whole household membership. Why? Because their membership, they want to be mediated through the head of the household. Cases of church discipline might be the same. Or the father believes he has the right to determine where his family member's consciousness stands. But our confession says that Christ alone is Lord of the conscience. We do not submit that to another because Christ alone mediates for that. Again, if the local church is to be a picture of the church in heaven, then Christ must have direct dealings with his bride. Not mediated through a father, but direct dealings. Now, some of us here today, you need to consider your own life. You need to consider your own soul. You need to consider where you stand in relationship to the Lord. How will you stand before him on judgment day? If you do not have a mediator, then let me answer that question for you. Without Jesus, you will be alone. You will be dressed in your own sin. You will be left without an excuse to answer for how you have lived your life of disobedience. But the hope that you have, the only hope that you have, is that Jesus now stands ready to save you. So will you believe on him? Or are you gonna say on judgment day, you know, I think I'm willing to accept that, you know, God's gonna judge me and I just need to just answer. Well, God's verdict is he does not let the guilty go unpunished. You need the advocate, Jesus Christ. Jesus is willing and he is ready. He stands ready to offer his grace to you as a savior for all. The question is simply, will you trust him and his finished work? So I'm just about done, but before we pray, I do have one final thought. I'm going to very intentionally in my prayer, how I almost always do by saying in Jesus name, amen. But I'd like for us to give it a little bit more thought as we do at this time, because I think sometimes we have certain religious rituals that we do that just come across as empty words and. We shouldn't have to give an account on the last day for empty words where we've taken Jesus's name as a vain thing. But we should self-consciously recognize that when we say in prayer, in Jesus's name, that Christ is present with us. And he's carrying these petitions that we make to him in prayer. He's carrying them to the throne of God in heaven. And whatever fault we may have in them, It is cleansed by His blood. And it's also a recognition, when we say in Jesus' name, that I do not pray in my own power, but I pray by the power of the Spirit of Christ, which is praying with me. He is the Lord and the giver of life, and He gives spiritual life to my prayers. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, Lord, we ask that you would bless the reading and the proclamation and the teaching from your Holy Word. We thank you for how kind you've been to us, and we thank you for the knowledge of your Son, Jesus Christ. We are thankful, Lord, that there is only one mediator between God and man, and Lord, you have made that one mediator so clear to us. We thank you for Jesus Christ. He is precious in our eyes and worthy of all of our praise and all of our worship and all of our songs. Lord, we ask that he would continue to be beautiful in our heart, that we would not ever grow tired of seeking him and looking for him. And Lord, that we would never ever be tempted to follow out, to follow after another redeemer or another mediator, for there is no other name under heaven by which we must be saved. We thank you for Jesus, that he is so kind. And Lord, we thank you that his arms are open wide to all who stand ready to call upon his name. So I ask, Lord, that for those who are here that are not Christians, Lord, that today would be the day of their salvation. Lord, add to your kingdom, add to your fold. We ask that your will would be done and that your kingdom would come on earth as it is in heaven. So please bless the rest of our Lord's day. Be with us throughout the week and prepare our hearts even now as we pray to you. We pray all these things in the name of Jesus. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.