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The Word of Truth is sponsored
in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for party
and equipment rentals. Welcome to the Word of Truth,
a ministry of Pastor Lars Larson and the First Baptist Church
of Leominster, Massachusetts. It is our desire that our Lord
use this broadcast to instruct, encourage, and strengthen both
Christians and local churches in the New England region. Pastor
Lars is always available to assist you. You may reach him at 978-660-8869. May today's message from our
pastor be blessed by our Lord to instruct and encourage you
through the Holy Scriptures, the Word of Truth. Greetings, and thank you for
tuning in today. Last time we began to introduce
a new topic in our effort to set before you the faith that
was once for all delivered to the Saints, as described in Jude
3. which is Jesus Christ the mediator
of salvation. We began to address the context
of the passage in which the mediatorial role of our Lord Jesus is stated
forthrightly and this is 1st Timothy 2 verses 1-7 and we will
continue here today after we pray. Thank you, Heavenly Father,
for so loving us, although we are sinners deserving of your
everlasting wrath, that you should send your Son to do for us that
which we could in no way do for ourselves. Thank you for sending
your Son to be the mediator between yourself and us, that we may
be redeemed and may stand in your favor, we who believe in
Jesus. We may stand in a state of peace
before you. Help us to understand better
the nature and glory of Christ and His mediatorial role as Prophet,
Priest, and King who has brought South Asian to us. May you illuminate
our minds that we may see more clearly His glory. And then may
you enlarge our hearts so that we might better value all that
you have done for us and promised to us through Him. We commit
this time and ourselves to you, for I pray in Jesus' name, Amen. The Apostle Paul wrote these
inspired words of Holy Scripture when he wrote this letter to
Timothy, instructing him in the nature and performance of the
Gospel ministry. He wrote these words in 1 Timothy
2, verse 1 and following. Therefore I exhort first of all
that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of
thanks be made for all men, for kings and all who are in authority,
that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness
and reverence. For this is good and acceptable
in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved
and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time,
for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle. I am speaking
the truth in Christ and not lying, a teacher of the Gentiles in
faith and truth." Now that's one single paragraph, 1 Timothy
2, 1-7, and this paragraph contains three sentences, The first sentence
is verses 1 and 2, in which we are exhorted to pray for all
men. The second sentence in verses 3 and 4, we are told why we are
to pray for all men. And then the third sentence in
verses 5 through 7, We are informed about the design and desire of
God to bring salvation through the preaching of the gospel of
Jesus Christ. Last time we covered the verses
leading up to our text, which is verse 5, for there is one
God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Before us in verse 5 is a claim
to the exclusive nature of Christianity. It is a message that would not
be popular in the town square in a community gathering. It
would not even be welcomed in many so-called churches, this
exclusive claim for the reality and truth of Christianity as
the only true religion. It is a declaration that there
is only one God and there's only one way to know God and that
is through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the declaration. for
there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus." Now in this third sentence we are told that God
has purposed to save his people through the preaching of the
exclusive gospel of Jesus Christ. And we have before us essential
statements about the need and nature of salvation through Jesus
Christ alone. In order to know the true God,
you must come to Him who is true, and you may only come to Him
in the manner that He has prescribed. Now let us consider these essential
elements of the Christian faith. First we see that there is but
one God, for there is one God and one Mediator between God
and men, the man Christ Jesus. There are not many gods, there
is but one God over all creation. And this one true God had revealed
Himself in a special manner to the nation of Israel. The Bible
tells us this. This truth is reflected in the
great creedal statement of Israel found in Deuteronomy 6.4 which
reads, Here, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, and with all your strength. Now this statement
in the Hebrew Bible is referred to by Jews as the Shema. which
is the initial Hebrew word translated here. Devout Jews every morning
and every evening recite this verse. The Lord Jesus himself
spoke of the Shema when the question was posed to him by a Jewish
scribe, which is the first commandment of all, and Jesus responded,
quoting Deuteronomy 6.4. The first of all the commandments
is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and
you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with
all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.
This is the first commandment. This one God is the God that
revealed Himself to Israel and through His Son Jesus Christ.
All other gods are no gods, they do not exist. When the Lord Jesus
engaged in conversation with the Samaritan woman at Jacob's
well, He stressed the uniqueness and exclusive truthfulness of
the God of Israel, stating very plainly that she did not know
Him. And we read of that account beginning
in John 4.20 The woman said to Jesus, Sir, I perceive that you
are our prophet. Our fathers worshipped on this
mountain, and you Jews say that in Jerusalem is the place where
one ought to worship. Jesus said to her, Woman, believe
me, the hour is coming when you will neither on this mountain
nor in Jerusalem worship the Father. You worship what you
do not know. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour is coming, and now
is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit
and truth, for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.
God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit
and truth." And so here our Lord told the woman, though she was
a religious person, she was an ignorant person. She was ignorant
to the one true God and how to know and worship Him. You worship
what you do not know. as if he were saying, all your
religion is false and futile because the God whom you worship
does not exist. The Apostle Paul before a group
of worshipers in Athens said virtually the same thing. We
read in Acts 17.22 and following the account, Then Paul stood
in the midst of the Oropagus, and that would have been the
high hill in Athens, and said, Man of Athens, I perceive that
in all things you are very religious. For as I was passing through
and considering the objects of your worship, I found an altar
with this inscription, To the Unknown God. Therefore the one
whom you worship without knowing, him I proclaim to you, God who
made the world and everything in it, since he is Lord of heaven
and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands, nor
is he worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed anything,
since he gives life to all breath and all things. And He has made
from one blood every nation of men to dwell on the face of the
earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries
of their habitation, so that they should seek the Lord in
the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though
He is not far from each one of us. For in Him we live and move
and have our being, as also some of your own prophets have said,
for we are all His offsprings. And therefore, since we are the
offspring of God, we ought not to think that the divine nature
is like gold or silver or stone, something shaped by art and man's
devising. Truly these times of ignorance
God overlooked, but now God commands all men everywhere to repent."
That's Acts 17, 22-30. Note the Athenians were very
religious. They were worshippers of many gods. They were not sure
that they knew them all, so they erected a statue to a God that
they knew they did not know. And Paul declared to them that
all their other gods were no gods. The one true God was the
God they did not know. But their times of ignorance
were no longer. Paul was proclaiming in the Gospel to them the true
God, and therefore they were to repent of their idolatry,
their ignorance, and their error. The God or gods of cults of other
religions do not exist. And we do not say that they worship
the same God as we do, but under different names. Their worship
is rendered to a God or gods that do not exist. They are in
ignorance. They worship that which they
do not know, as the Lord Jesus told that woman. Although we
acknowledge and affirm their right to believe as they do,
and we desire the same for ourselves, we must not affirm them in what
it is they believe. We should not value their opinion
of who God is, lest we find ourselves denying the one true God, who
alone is. There is one God, and this is
the God who revealed himself to Israel. This is the God that
Christians know and acknowledge. All other gods are no-gods. Now this is an essential tenet
to the Christian faith, and it may seem needless to say, but
frankly we cannot assume anything these days. One who comes to
the one and true God must believe that He is the one true God.
Hebrews 11.6 reads, But without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and
that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. We
are to affirm that the God of Christianity is alone the God
of the universe. All other gods are no-gods. Now in the light of what we have
seen, let me make this important point. In bringing people to
salvation, the first matter that needs to be understood and embraced
as true is that there is but one God and that He is the God
as He has revealed Himself to Israel. Now what does this mean? Or rather, how has God revealed
Himself to Israel? Well, first of all, understand
the one true God is the creator of all things. Genesis 1 and
2 that describes creation was written for and preserved by
the Jews. At the heart of Israel's understanding
of God was the understanding that God has made all that is. This has many implications, of
which we do not have time to deal with in detail today, but
at the heart of the matter are these points. First, that God
is our Creator and reveals that He is the sovereign ruler of
all the works of His hands. Second, that God as our Creator
suggests that He has a purpose for us, His creatures. Third,
the fact that God is our Creator means that He has a right to
rule over us, and we have a responsibility to know Him and serve Him. Israel's
commandment to observe the Sabbath day was based on the fact, and
to proclaim the fact, that God is the Creator of all that is. We read in Exodus 20, 9-11, 6
days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work, but the seventh
day is the Sabbath of the Lord thy God, In it thou shalt not
do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant,
nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that
is within thy gates. And then here is the reason that
Moses gives. For in six days the Lord made
heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested
the seventh day. Wherefore the Lord blessed the
Sabbath day and hallowed it. Well, not only is the One True
God the Creator of all things, but secondly, the One True God
is One who enters into covenant relationship with His people. And we've been emphasizing this
for several broadcasts now. God revealed to Israel that He
can be known and that His creatures can and should walk with Him.
Of God it is said in Deuteronomy 7.9, Know therefore that the
Lord thy God, he is God, the faithful God, which keeps covenant
and mercy with them that love him. And related to this is the
understanding that, third, the one true God is the one who sets
the terms upon which a covenant relationship with him may be
experienced and maintained. There is more to Deuteronomy
7.9 than we read a moment ago. The verse reads further, Know
therefore the Lord thy God, he is God the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keep
his commandments to a thousand generations. God has not given
people the right to worship him as they see fit. All worship
that has not been prescribed by God is false worship. The
priests of Israel could not come before God in a manner that they
saw as proper or suitable. They were only permitted to approach
God in the manner that He prescribed, and any deviation from that prescription
incurred God's wrath. Idolatry was expressly forbidden
in Israel. And what is idolatry but an attempt
to worship as God, that which is no God, or to worship God
in a manner that He is not prescribed? The second commandment, of course,
reveals this prohibition, and it speaks of God's wrath upon
violators. You shall not make for yourself
a carved image, any likeness of anything that is in heaven
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water
under the earth. You shall not bow down to them,
nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God and
a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children
unto the third and fourth generations of them who hate me, with showing
mercy to thousands to those who love me, and keep my commandments."
That's Exodus 20, verses 4 through 6. Fourthly, The one true God is a holy and
just God who judges all of His creatures according to His laws
that He has established over His creatures. We now read the
full sentence that begins in Deuteronomy 7.9 Know therefore
that the Lord thy God, He is God, the faithful God, which
keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him, and keepeth
commandments to a thousand generations, and then it concludes, and repays
them that hate him to their face to destroy them. He will not
be slack to him that hates him. He will repay him face to face.
Deuteronomy 32.4 reads, God is the Rock, His work is perfect,
for all His ways are justice. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He. The fact is there is only one
God and He has revealed Himself, and we are responsible to know
Him, love Him, and serve Him, and He holds us accountable that
we do so. Now let's look at this second
statement of our text in 1 Timothy 2.5. Not only is there one God,
but there is one mediator between God and men. The second statement
of 1 Timothy 2.5 declares that there is only one way that the
one God can be known, and that is through a mediator. What is
a mediator? A mediator is one who brings
about a connection or a reconciliation between two persons or two parties. When a Mediator mediates, he
takes up an intermediate position between the warring factions
and through his efforts an agreement or settlement is achieved and
then a state of peace and cooperation may exist. A Mediator settles
the differences between the two parties so that a relationship
may be established and maintained. John Gill, the Baptist pastor
and theologian of the 18th century, described the Lord Jesus as our
Mediator. A mediator is more than one and
has to do with two parties, and these at variance among themselves,
between whom he stands as a middle person. His business is to bring
them together and make peace between them, and such an one
is Christ. The two parties are God and His
elect, who in their natural state are at a distance from God and
at enmity to God, and who have broken His law, affronted His
justice. Christ stands as a middle person,
a daysman between them, and lays His hands upon them both. and
has to do things pertaining to the glory of God, and makes reconciliation
for the sins of the people, brings them that were afar off nigh
to God, and makes peace for them by the blood of His cross, by
fulfilling the law, satisfying justice for them, and in consequence
of this he appears for them in the court of heaven, intercedes
and pleads for them, is their advocate, and sees that all covenant
blessings of which he is the Mediator are applied unto them,
and preserves their persons which are committed to his care and
charge, safe to everlasting happiness." Now there is a good, all-encompassing
statement of Jesus Christ as the one Mediator. Now consider
these matters. First, the fact that there is
the need of a mediator suggests that apart from the Lord Jesus
Christ, a state of hostility exists between God and His creatures. God and the human race are opposed
to one another. We are enemies to one another
outside of Christ. Romans 5.10 reveals this truth.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Outside of Jesus Christ, people
are God's enemies. They do not acknowledge Him.
They break His laws. They are opposed to His rule
over them. And it is not only that fallen
man is an enemy toward God, but God is an enemy toward sinful
man. James 4.4 reads, You adulterers
and adulteresses, know you not that the friendship of the world
is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a
friend of the world is the enemy of God. Unless one can be found
to represent us as sinners before the One Holy God, we will not
be able to stand before Him, yet alone be the recipient of
God's favor and blessing. Secondly, the fact that there
is one Mediator reinforces what we asserted earlier, the exclusive
nature of true Christianity. Biblical Christianity is the
only true legitimate religion. All other religions are false
religions. And I know fully well how narrow
and bigoted this sounds in today's multicultural world. But to say
otherwise would be to deny what the Scriptures claim and what
the Lord Jesus and his apostles declared. No other religion than
Christianity has a legitimate mediator to represent their people
before the one true God. Thirdly, the fact that there
is one mediator repudiates any and all efforts to put forward
other mediators. And this has been an error that
has existed down through church history. In the first several
centuries there were those who corrupted the church by making
angels mediators. These heretics taught that the
Lord Jesus was too far removed from sinners in his character
to represent them to the Father. And so angels were seen to be
mediators between men and Jesus as well as God the Father. There
is but one legitimate mediator, Jesus Christ. And then later
in church history, godly Christians who died were set up as mediators
between sinners and God. Saints, as they are called, will
represent us, it was said. They are more holy than we, and
because they are now in the presence of the Father, they can be our
mediators. No, the Scriptures say there
is only one mediator between God and men, and that is Jesus
Christ. The one mediator is not the holy
angels, is not Jesus' apostles or other godly men or women,
it's certainly not Jesus' mother, that is heresy. God has established
there is only one to whom He will show regard when He comes
to the Father to represent sinners, and that is His Son Jesus Christ
only. There is one mediator between
God and man, and it's not Mary. It's Jesus Christ, Mary's Son.
And so we have the one mediator is the man Christ Jesus as declared
by Paul. Only one person in history has
been qualified to bring reconciliation between God and sinners and this
is the man Christ Jesus. Now the description by Paul of
Jesus Christ as man does not in any way denigrate Jesus. Rather
it speaks to his qualifications to represent us. He is not a
mere man, he is the Son of God, but he is fully a man, he is
fully like us, except without sin. As such, he himself was
one of us who could properly represent us before the Father.
Had He not been the Son of God, He could not have represented
God to us. Had He not been man, He could
not have represented us before His Heavenly Father. He is a
man so that He might be able to represent us. He was, as we
are capable of, as one put it, obeying suffering and dying,
and so of making satisfaction in the nature that had sinned.
But then, had he not been God, he could not have drawn nigh
to God on behalf of men, and undertook for them, and much
lesser performed, nor would his blood, righteousness, and sacrifice
have been available to cleanse from sin, to procure the pardon
of it, justify from it, make atonement for it, or make peace
with God," wrote John Gill. In conclusion, we affirm what
we stated in the beginning we have set before us in these few
verses in 1 Timothy 2, the fact that Jesus Christ is the only
way to the Father. He alone could pay the debt that
we owe to God's justice for having broken His laws. He alone is
the Savior of the world. Now folks, we all know intuitively
how the world reacts to the things that I have said today. But that
is what we are called to proclaim. This is the truth, and we will
not shrink from declaring it. And may He give us grace to be
able to stand strong and proclaim faithfully His gospel. We trust that God has blessed
you from listening to Dr. Lars Larsen. Today's program,
as well as previously recorded messages, are available through
our website. We invite you to visit the word
of truth dot net. The First Baptist Church of Leominster
and Concerned Friends have sponsored this broadcast of the word of
truth. If we may assist you by directing you to a sound, reformed
church near you, please contact us. If Pastor Larson can assist
you further or answer a question that you may have about today's
subject, he would be pleased to speak with you. You may reach
him at 978-660-8869. Until our next time together,
may our God bless you richly through our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's The Word of Truth program
was sponsored in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for
party and equipment rentals.
Jesus Christ, the Mediator of Salvation (2)
| Sermon ID | 125141512231 |
| Duration | 26:28 |
| Date | |
| Category | Radio Broadcast |
| Bible Text | 1 Timothy 1 |
| Language | English |
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