Father, we thank you for this day that you've given to us, a day that you have made and that you have given to us. Set it aside for our good and your glory. And we do pray, oh Lord, that you would be with us by your spirit, that you would show us great things from your word and you might enlighten our minds and our hearts that we might love you and serve you better. And help us this day, Lord, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, well, we're looking at chapter eight in your confession of faith. If you don't have a copy that you take with you, if you didn't bring your books to class, but there's a, the confession is in the back of our, Trinity hymnal, so there should be one around. And I wanted to, first of all, I made a comment, I think, two weeks ago that I think, this is a personal opinion, that chapter eight in our confession, Christ the Mediator, is really the center of the confession. We think that Christ is the center of the Bible, and the writers of the Confession really, I think, achieved a high point in chapter 8. And I wanted to just kind of put on the board the movement of the chapter. I don't want this to be simply an intellectual exercise. It can actually be worshipful for us to think about what all has been accomplished on our behalf by our great mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and to remember a friend years ago that told me that he did his personal devotions in the confession. And I think that actually chapter 8 would be wonderful for that, to look up the passages. We're not going to be able to read all of the passages but to look them up and just many things our Lord has done for us. But I wanted to put this up just to kind of give us a sense of the movement of the confession that I think is just perfect. Well, it's not perfect. It was written by men, so it's not perfect. But it's pretty doggone good, that's what I wanted to say. Okay, so chapter one, which we've already done, is really the intro paragraph for not only the chapter itself, but for some things that are gonna pertain later on, like a chapter on calling, a chapter on justification, what do these things mean. And they're introduced there in that very first paragraph, and also the concept of a mediator that we talked about last week and how important that was that Christ was able to sort of put his hand, so to speak, on God and put his hand so to speak, upon us, and that that was absolutely necessary for us to be the one mediator. So the whole chapter then focuses on that truth about Jesus bringing God and man together, okay, which is the very, you know, in the garden there was this great separation, and cast out of the garden, And man, in some sense, has been sort of trying to climb the ladder to get to God and all the utopias that he invents to, there's something missing, right? When Jesus Christ has brought God and man together as the mediator, okay? And then last week in chapter two, it really speaks of who Christ is, that is God and man. The glory of God that he set aside, humbled himself, and became obedient unto death. Philippians two, I think, is the centerpiece there in chapter two. glory, glory, glory, and humiliation, okay? And today, when we celebrate communion, that's what we need to think about, our glorious Lord who humbled himself and became, and so that's the second paragraph. Today, we're gonna look at, okay, how did it happen, his equipment, so to speak, thoroughly furnished by the Holy Spirit to do this work, that he had been called to do. And then chapter four, again, quite logically, okay, he was furnished for it, and then he did it, okay, and that's chapter four. He's fully accomplished. He's taken care of every single detail in order for us to be saved. He is fully accomplished. And going along with that, and we'll probably take these two, hopefully, together, He's fully satisfied because God's the one who's offended. God has been offended. Sin is an offense to him. And he's not only accomplished the work for us, but he's also satisfied God's justice, God's wrath, and we'll talk about that. So these two really go together. He's accomplished the work and fully satisfied before the Father. And then these paragraphs really are covering particular problems that people might have, okay? And again, the writers wanted to make sure that we were all clear about everything that our Lord has done. And so this chapter, and we can take some of these together, okay? This one has to do with, that Christ's work not only reaches forward, but it reaches back as well. It covers Old Testament believers. And that's sometimes a sticking point to people. How were they saved in the Old Testament? By keeping God's law? No. They were saved by looking forward. So that's what that chapter's about. The next one has to do with, sometimes in the scripture, it's hard for us to say, okay, was this, is this the God, or is this man? You know, the things that happen. How does it, how do we separate? And really, we don't. And sometimes the scripture speaks as, well, The two natures of Christ are at work in what is common to each of them. I'll try to figure that out for us. This is a very important chapter, obviously, is how the Lord applies this work to us, to our hearts, okay? So chapter eight, in a sense, it moves from what Christ has done, and then, okay, what difference does it make? How has it applied to me? You see how the movement here is just quite logical and fulsome as well. Chapter 9 is Solus Christus, he's the only mediator, the only possible one that eliminates all other false religions. That there's no salvation in Allah, there's no salvation, that he had to be the God-man and that he and he alone for our salvation. And then the last paragraph is really sweet. It's a very sweet paragraph that talks about how much we need this mediator and how much we need Him to be our prophet and our priest and our king. It's really very sweet ending to the whole chapter, okay? So that's kind of where we're going. That's the big picture. And today we're looking at this third paragraph, thoroughly furnished. So if you have your confession with you, you can turn there at the end of, John hasn't memorized, so John, you want to go ahead and say it? Paragraph three, the Lord Jesus in His human nature thus united to divine, it plays back to the second paragraph, in the person of the Son was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure. Okay, we'll talk about that. having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, He might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator and surety. We'll talk about that. Which office He took not upon Himself, but was there unto by His Father, who also put all power and judgment in His hand and gave Him commandment to execute the same." Okay? We're going to spend most of our time in that second, well, the first and the second statements there. If you notice the semicolons, they kind of divide the statements. So sanctified, what does it mean? What does sanctified mean? Exactly, exactly, to be set apart. We normally or sometimes think of the sanctification process of God's making us holy, and that's true, but that's actually a secondary meaning of sanctify in the And as Rebecca said, the central meaning is that He's set apart. That's a good thing for us to think about when we're, you know, living our Christian lives, is that we are to be set apart people. We're set apart for God's use, okay? And that's the Lord was set apart for a particular use. What about that? What does that make you think about? Pardon me? Pouring out of the Holy Spirit. Okay. What else? Kings, priests, and prophets in the Old Testament. All of them were anointed. There was a particular priest ceremony, particularly with priests and kings. I'm thinking about prophets. But anyway, it's the idea of the Spirit of God. In the Old Testament, there's this pushing forward Okay, to the one who would be the true priest, the true king, the true prophet. Okay, so the anointing of the Holy Spirit pointed to that. And what it says then about the Lord is that he's sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure. Okay, above measure, which really, that language sets him apart. from Old Testament prophets, priests, and kings, and also sets him apart, in a sense, from us. Because what is the commandment in Ephesians 5? Be filled with the Spirit. And the emphasis there is upon this desiring more, more of the Spirit. I want to be filled with the Spirit. Well the Lord was, had the Holy Spirit sanctified and anointed above measure. There was no measuring out. We kind of sense sometimes that we want more of the Holy Spirit. He had the Holy Spirit above measure. All the treasures of wisdom and knowledge there. Let's look just at two places. Isaiah 11 is the first. If you could go to Isaiah 11. I'm just going to comment briefly, Psalm 45 is that where it talks about that God has anointed him with the oil of gladness above his companions. That's a reference to the Lord Jesus. And then John 3.34 is that he had the Holy Spirit without measure, okay. Colossians 2.3, I think, particularly focuses on the wisdom and knowledge. But look at Isaiah 11. And this, again, was, hundreds of years before the Lord ever came, and Isaiah's picture of him really is perfect. There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. It puts him into the line. the king the kingly line and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the spirit of wisdom and understanding the spirit of counsel and might the spirit of knowledge and and the fear of the Lord. That really does kind of describe, doesn't it, this without measure, the fullness of the Spirit. Wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, power, knowledge, and the fear of the Lord, that this one who would come. And I love verse three, and his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. His delight, he delighted in being under the authority of his father and the power and the glory of who his father was. He delighted in that. And again, relates to us. Do you find yourself delighting in the fear of the Lord? Being under him, so to speak, under his care and comfort, but also his power, his word, his commandment, delighting in the commandments of God. Well, that was the Lord Jesus. And then another place is Acts 10. Acts 10, describing... This is Peter again. He's just talking, let's go back to verse... 34, verse 34, Acts 10. So Peter opened his mouth and said, truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ, he is Lord of all, by the way. You yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed, how God anointed, there's that word, how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil for God was with Him and we are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. And then he goes on to speak about the death and then the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So that's the first point really to be made, is the sanctification and anointing of the Lord Jesus with the Holy Spirit. And then the second aspect, he goes on, he says, in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be thoroughly furnished to execute the office of a mediator and surety. We've talked about a mediator, we handle one, handle the other. bringing the two together. What is a surety? It's like a guarantee. If you cosign for a loan for someone, And what you're saying when you sign that is that if they can't pay, I'll pay, right? I'll guarantee this loan. That's basically what a surety is. And Jesus performed that. If you look at Hebrews chapter seven, we're gonna go back to Hebrews again in a few minutes, but Hebrews chapter seven and verse 22 makes that point. Verse 29, the entire argument here is speaking about the priestly work of the Lord Jesus and one of the words that's repeated again and again in the book of Hebrews is better, better, better. He's contrasting the old covenant with the new, and he's the better covenant. And then verse 22, where the Lord has made him a priest after the order of Melchizedek. Okay, this is a Godward orientation. The Lord has sworn, will not change his mind, you are a priest forever. This makes Jesus the guarantor, that's a surety, of a better covenant. Okay, that he has done all that needs to be done, and he himself has performed the office of priest, in that he has, he's the one who offers the sacrifice, but he himself is the sacrifice. And that way, he has guaranteed the better covenant. And then this statement of holy, isn't that sweet? That in whom the pleas the Father to all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth. It just kind of brings together these different aspects of the complete furnishing of the Lord Jesus for the work that he was to do. I love that word, harmless. It really means, it could have said blameless, but it really carries a broad meaning, it seems to me, of the, you know, Jesus is described with this you know, great power and authority that we will see. He has authority, as we will see, to judge with awesome power and authority. And yet, he came as one who was easy to approach. Harmless really has to do with his character, blameless. But it also speaks, doesn't it, to his outward you know, what did people think of him? When they saw Jesus, they were attracted to him, and particularly the needy were attracted to him. There was nothing about him that was off-putting, we might say, okay? Isn't that true of us? You know, sometimes there are aspects of our character that might be off-putting to people. There was nothing off-putting about Jesus. Except if you had designs to keep something for yourself and here was this person intruding upon your station, then he might have been a bit off-putting to you. But there was nothing in his character. that would have been off-putting. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, that is, no sin, the defiling nature of sin, and full of grace, full of grace, full of truth, right? That'd be a good little phrase there to kind of, when you get up in the morning, say, Lord, help me to be holy. Help me to be harmless, undefiled, full of grace and truth today. In our union with the Lord Jesus Christ, those characteristics are, they're possible, right? They're possible for us. Mike, you had a comment? There was nothing, you know, in his character. We turn him back to Hebrews 7. It really gets at this. He says in verse 23, The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, right? But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever, okay? He's offered the sacrifice, but he continues that work of the priesthood. How? He doesn't say it here necessarily, but in the confession, but how? How does he? further execute the office of a priest. Right, he's forever the mediator between God and man. I remember Jeff Thomas' little, and I've said this before, I'm getting old so you've probably heard this, but I remember his speaking about the intercession of the Lord Jesus. And he gave the example of a little boy that wants to do something nice for his mom, he goes out and he pulls He pulls a bunch of flowers, but he's got not only the flowers, he pulls the weeds as well. So he's got this mixed thing here. Brings them in. He's going to give them to his mom, and the dad's there, and he goes, oh, honey, that's so sweet. That's so good of you. And he takes the bundle. He kind of turns around, and what does he do? He pulls the weeds out and shapes it up, and then He gives it back and says, now take this to your mom. God's a really pretty picture of the intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we pray, he sometimes gives us words, and our words are weak, and they, we feel like, I'm sure you're not like this, but sometimes prayer can be frustrating. But to know that the Lord Jesus is interceding for us. He is interceding. He is our great priest. And so, He holds His priesthood permanently because He continues forever. Consequently, He is able to save to the uttermost. Don't you love that language? To the uttermost, those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. For it was indeed fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, innocent, unstained, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. That's where the confession gets the language to describe him. Holy, harmless, undefiled, so forth. Okay, and then the third point that's made is that he was called, he was appointed to this office. He says, which office he took not upon himself, but was there unto called by his father. And the passage there is Hebrews 5.5. Turn back just one page. It says, so also Christ did not exalt himself to be made a high priest. but was appointed by him who said to him, you are my son, today I have begotten you." He was appointed by the Father. A couple of things. One is that our confession labors to portray It seems to me the Trinitarian aspect of our salvation, that Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, this paragraph particularly, focuses in on the work of the Holy Spirit. But here, he's called and appointed to that. Christianity is a Trinitarian religion and the work of Christ. And I want to point out one other thing, though, is this idea of office. What does that mean? How does that describe? That's probably not a great question, but think of this. An office is something that you might be called to in the scriptures. that it was not something you necessarily qualified for or whatever, but your call to that, and by the Spirit of God and the Father, the Lord was particularly furnished. But the idea of an office is that there is a higher authority, there's a calling to a particular task or a particular work, And you do that work with the authority of that particular office. Think of the president or prime minister or senator. Those are offices, right? But there's an authority over that is given to that particular office. Eldership is an office. Okay, the diaconate is an office, but there is a higher authority. You don't claim those offices, necessarily. They are given, they are called to that. And so it's the idea, then, that Christ is under, in a sense, the authority of his Father. See, Dean there, and then... I didn't explain that very well, but you get it. It stands out to me that the dignity and the authority that resides in the office doesn't come, it's not provided by the person showing up to fill the office. It's provided by the one who has first established the office. So before you get into arguments about whether or not a person who's in an office has dignity or authority, et cetera, or what their character is on all that minutia, First, whoever established the office established the dignity and authority of the office. Yeah, if you think about the Old Testament, that's good, Dean. If you think about these offices, for example, in the Old Testament, the prophet, priest, and king, who started those? Who came up with that idea, right? It was God, okay? And God determined what the prophet would say, right? They were always very careful to say, what? Thus saith the Lord, right? They weren't speaking in their own wisdom and authority, okay? It was thus saith the Lord. Same with the priests and the kings. And when you look in the Old Testament, you see a whole lot of failure there, right? But still, the office itself, called by God, determined by God, with his authority. Jesus fulfilled those offices perfectly. But the confession is quick to say that he didn't exalt himself to that office, but that God the Father exalted him, put him into that office. That's why I say that there's such a Trinitarian flavor that runs through everything when we think of the Christian life. See, that make sense? And then the execution of power and judgment at very last, it says, who also put all power and judgment in his hand and gave him commandment to execute the same. Again, he's taken the office and the power and authority is given to him. John 5, we'll go ahead and look at all of these. John 5, somebody, if you would, look that up and read John 5, 22 to 27. For the Father judges no one that has given all judgment to his Son, that all may honor the Son just as they honor the Father. Whoever does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent him. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever hears my words and believes it, who sent me has eternal life. He does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Keep going? Yeah, to include 27. Okay. Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and is now here when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son also to have life in Himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment because he is the son of man. Yeah, the authority of the Father. And again, we say in the essence of the Godhead, equality, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And yet in operation, the operation of the Trinity, there is an order, OK? Father. It's simply Father planning, Son executing, Spirit applying. There's an order in the operation of the Trinity, though there is this absolute equality. Father is God, Jesus is God, Holy Spirit is God. It's a mystery in that, isn't it? Mike? Even though the Father is planning, Would it also be true to say that the Son and the Holy Spirit have always been in harmony? with whatever he's playing. There's never been a time when they're like, that's a bad idea. I get what you're saying, yeah, yeah. And that's why, too, in the scriptures, when it talks about the creation of the world, that sometimes the Father is denoted, sometimes the Son, and often the Spirit. So the three in one. Yep, yep. Matthew 28, 18. Somebody read that, unless you have it memorized. It's the Great Commission, 18 to 20. Okay, John. Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age. Amen, amen. All authority has been given to me, heaven and earth. That's wonderful. You think about those disciples that after Jesus was crucified and there for those three days in just agony. Think of the mindset of the of the two that were on their way to the road to Emmaus and they're laying where we thought he was the one. You can kind of hear there, we thought He was the one, you know. But then when the Spirit came upon them, they saw the resurrected Christ and spirits were lifted and Christ exalted, ascended into heaven, pouring out of the Spirit. All authority, all authority is given to Him and it's Christ who pours out the Spirit among His people. And then, Acts 2, 36. And this might actually kind of... from our understanding. So I want to draw it out a little bit. This comes at the end of Peter's sermon on the Day of Pentecost describing what has happened, the Spirit coming down, tongues of fire, referring back to Joel. This was in keeping with the prophecy. And then he begins to talk about the Lord Jesus and how He came, and what He did. And And let's see, he talks about the crucifixion and quotes David's psalm and says he's really talking about Lord. And then come down to verse 33, being therefore exalted at the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He, Christ, has poured out this that you yourselves are seeing and hearing." That was an act of authority there, the authority given to Him. For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he himself says, the Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstools. He was in the process of doing. Let all the house of Israel therefore know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom you crucified. Now, verse 37 says, now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart. What did they hear? I mean, obviously they heard the whole thing, right? They heard the whole story. But that verse, that statement that he made was the coup de grace. It was the knife in the chest, so to speak, that he's made him both Lord and Christ. What do those two words mean? Christ, Messiah, the long-promised one, that the Jews had looked forward to for centuries, here He is, and you rejected Him. You rejected your Messiah. But also He is Lord. What does that mean? He's the sovereign king. This is the one you put to death. See how that was the coup de grace, was the authority and power and glory of Jesus Christ. And this is what you did. And I think that is why next verse, now when they heard this, I think he's particularly focused on those very last words that Peter said to them, they were cut to the heart. It was the whole thing certainly, it was the whole thing. But that was the, that verse there, you've let all the house of Israel therefore know, all of you that God has made Him, Jesus, both Lord and Christ, all authority given to him, this Jesus whom you crucify. And then the response to that, at least among the 3,000, they were cut to the heart. They were cut to the heart. We did it. We did it. And then what shall we do? Throw their hands up, what shall we do? That's great. Don? In listening to all of this, I'm impressed by, as humans, we want and desire often to be anointed or sanctified or put into an office, as you talked about, and to have that power and authority. that accompanies it, whereas Jesus Christ, our Lord, accepted that responsibility, determined himself to go to Jerusalem for it. How thankful I am that he assumed that responsibility and provided Salvation and sanctification, amen. One of my favorite verses is, I think it's in Luke 9, I'm not sure, I'll have to look it up, but where it says, he set his face to Jerusalem. He set his face to Jerusalem, knowing exactly what was gonna happen, knowing what was awaiting him. Because of that office that the Father had given to him, he set his face on the obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ, and then on our behalf. And then Acts 17, this is the last one. You remember this, this is Paul's address in Athens there. He's walking around. This was one of those unplanned sermons. Probably had it in his mind, but as he was walking around and he saw all the idols, he preached to them about Christ. And then at the end, at the conclusion, again, the coup de grace, verse 29, being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man. The times of ignorance, now that's them. That's them. The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now He commands. all people everywhere to repent. We often think of the Christian message as an invitation, an invitation to come to Christ. And it is that. He says, come to me, right? But he also commands. As Lord and King, all authority given to Him, He commands repentance, right? Of every creature, He commands, and that's what He says, isn't it? He commands all people everywhere to repent, right? So not only do we have our, do people have their sins from the time they were old enough to sin, but the great sin of rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ, refusing to repent, right? And we know, you know, the Lord gives grace, right? And we need grace, but it highlights the need of grace, doesn't it? Now He commands all people everywhere to repent because He has fixed a day. on which He will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom He has appointed." Who is it? That's the Lord Jesus. And of this, that is of this fact, He has given assurance to all by raising Him from the dead, right? So the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is a resurrection to glory. It's the seal of the fact that He is Lord and that He commands all people everywhere to repent. The glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, okay? the furnishing of the Lord Jesus Christ for the work that he's done. Mike. Christianity is not a blind faith. It's tied to reality in that Christ's resurrection is evidentiary, material, real, demonstrating not only his power but destroying the last death. Exactly. And that's really what this verse particularly is focused upon, is the assurance that He is Lord and Christ is the resurrection. Apart from the resurrection, there is no Christianity, right? But it all fits together because of the resurrection. He's given assurance of this by raising him from the dead, right? It means he's Lord of all. Yes, ma'am? I was thinking about what, you know, what Don has said about our responsibility, but sometimes I think what's really hard for us, I don't know if you can speak for yourself, is kind of comprehending the necessity of his mediation, you know, that, I think that is great love for people who are family. Wrapping your mind around all that. It's a truth that's there. And then I want to say this, that He took joy, for the joy set before Him. What was the joy set before Him? Well in one sense it's what's going on right here today. This was the joy that was set before him. He takes joy in his people believing him, trusting him, obeying him, taking on the responsibilities that he's given to them. That brings him joy. It's a delight to him. He's not a sort of reluctant, Okay, here they come, you know. No, there's a joy in the accomplishment of the work and to see the fruit of it in our lives. And our, you know, feeble worship, it is, it brings him joy. For the joy said the Lord, that's a great, yeah. Anything? Yes, sir. and that he would be our example so that we could follow after him is that we're focusing here on an office. It's an office that he took not on himself, but he was called to it and given also power and judgment. He was given commandments in this office. It's not just an office, but it's an office in relation to an office. It's an office of the son in relation to the office of the father in the economy of subordination of the trinity. There's the beauty of Christ that he exemplifies for us that although he's God in fullness, he beautifully submits. And we, the creature, are so often so far above Him. For we are, in our arrogance, in our pride, in our sin, will not allow ourselves to do, to follow after Christ and to do what He does. We walk in our authorities and our powers and our knowledge and he received his office, his power, his authority from another office. And I'm put to shame daily in my life that I find myself not wanting to follow after Christ. You know, one aspect of the glory of God is his love of self-sacrifice. Think about that. One of the glories of God is his loving self-sacrifice. Samuel, just a second. Okay, well, let's pray. The bell is rung. Father, we thank you for your love for us. That's really unfathomable. And we thank you that the Lord Jesus took upon himself our frame, the weird dust. humbled himself and became obedient unto death. We thank you for this complete and total furnishing of him for the work, his submission to the Father's authority, and that the Father has given him now all authority in heaven and earth. Help us, Lord, to humble ourselves before him, and we pray in Jesus' name, amen.