Father, we thank You for the grace that You have poured out upon Your people through Your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are amazed as we consider those words in Him, in Christ. We have been chosen in Christ, redeemed in Christ, justified, sanctified, preserved, glorified. All of Your salvific blessings come to us through Your Son. And we thank You for that. And it is our joy and privilege to be together this afternoon and to consider this portion of the confession which fixes our minds on the glory of our Savior and His work as mediator, His mediatorial work for us. And I pray that as we consider this part of the confession, you would help us to understand what is being articulated. Help us to search the scriptures, help us to grasp the meaning of these great truths, and may we live our lives in light of them for your glory. And we pray these things in Christ's name. Amen. All right, well, we're coming this morning, or this afternoon, to our study of the 1689, continuing our study. And specifically, we're studying a section, as you know, that deals with soteriology, which is the doctrine of salvation. And more specifically, we come to chapter 8, which is focused on Christ the Mediator. Christ the Mediator. Now, if you weren't here last time, basically what I did is I kind of gave you an introduction. We considered the major kinds of theology. I also walked you through the major categories of systematic theology. I gave you an outline of the entire confession. And finally, I set forth before you an outline of chapter 8 of the confession. Well now, with that introduction kind of out of the way, we can get into the paragraphs themselves and begin to study the actual confession. So we're going to begin looking at paragraph 1, chapter 8. The theme here is Christology. It's the doctrine of Christ. And specifically, Christ as mediator. Christ as mediator. What is a mediator? Who knows what the word mediator means? A go-between, right? Someone who goes in between two parties for the purpose of restoring peace, right? For the purpose of reconciliation. The Greek word is mesites. It's used six times in the New Testament, and four times it's used in reference to Jesus. For example, 1 Timothy 2.5 refers to Jesus as the only mediator between God and men. There's not two mediators, there's not ten mediators, there's not multiple choice. It's not every road leads to Rome. There is only one, and it is the God-man Jesus Christ. Hebrews 8.6 refers to Christ as the mediator of a better covenant. Hebrews 9.15 and 12.24 refers to him as the mediator of a new covenant. So just put all that together. Jesus is the only mediator. He is the mediator of a better covenant, and he is the mediator of a new covenant, the covenant of grace. Now, we know that we have Catholic friends. who would apparently disagree with us on that because they think that there's not just Christ as the mediator, even Mary serves to some extent as a mediator. In fact, the other day I was listening to a video of this Catholic priest trying to explain their reasoning for praying to Mary. Here's what his reasoning was. He said, sometimes people call my phone and I'm busy and so I couldn't get around to answering it. So what they do is they call my mother. And then my mother calls me, and if my mother calls me, sure enough, I'm going to call them. The easiest way to a son's heart is through his mother. Now, I don't know if you understand the problem with that reasoning, but let me give it to you. That man's mother is a living person that can be communicated with. Mary is dead. Like all the saints before her, Mary cannot hear your prayers. She is not omniscient. God is omniscient. There's only one who has died, been raised again, who is seated in heaven, and who is the true effectual mediator between God and man. It is Jesus Christ. And that's what chapter 8 of the Confession sets before us. Christ as mediator. Right. Yeah, nonsense, isn't it? That's a very good point. We miss phone calls because we're not omniscient. We're unavailable sometimes. To attribute our infirmities to Christ is blasphemy. Blasphemy. So, picking up with that theme, this chapter considers Jesus Christ as the mediator, the one who comes between God and man, reconciling them together again. Now, I've outlined chapter 8 for you. If you didn't get a handout from last week, you can do that over there on the baptistry. And by the way, I don't know, Daryl, if you got one of the handouts today. Let me give that to you, brother. But last time I gave you a handout, and in that I outlined the confession. I'll just briefly remind you of that outline really quickly. Paragraph 1 deals with the choice of the mediator. Paragraph 2 deals with the person of the mediator. Paragraph 3, the qualifications of the mediator. Paragraphs 4 through 8, the work of the mediator. Paragraph 9, the exclusivity of the mediator. And paragraph 10, the offices of the mediator. So obviously we're going to begin in paragraph one. That's the most logical place to start. And that deals with the choice of the mediator. And you can see in that one-page outline you have there that I've identified four points of consideration in this paragraph, A, B, C, and D. And we're going to look at them one by one. But let's first begin by reading the paragraph together. And I've printed that for you on that handout. The paragraph reads like this. It pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man, the prophet, priest, and king, head and savior of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world. Unto whom He did from all eternity give a people to be His seed, and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified." This paragraph is really foundational because many of the themes that are introduced here will be more fully developed throughout the rest of the chapter and even some of them throughout the rest of the confession. But again, there are four points of consideration here with regard to the choice of the mediator. A, the agent of this choice, which answers the question, who chose the mediator? B, the object of this choice, which answers the question, who was chosen to be the mediator? C, the basis of this choice. which considers on what basis was this one chosen to be the mediator, and then finally, the purpose of this choice, which answers the question, under what purpose, for what goal, under what end was this one chosen to be the mediator? So we're going to begin by looking at the first consideration, and that is the agent of this choice. Who chose the mediator? And the answer to that is very obvious, isn't it? The answer, of course, is God. The paragraph begins by saying, It pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man. The one who chose the mediator is God. It pleased Him. You and I don't get to choose who the mediator is, right? You and I don't get to choose which religion is the right religion. You and I don't get to determine which is the right way to heaven. God has determined that. That is his sovereign prerogative. And so I know that when we think about the doctrine of election, what we normally think about is God choosing us, right? But R.C. Sproul says the first elect one was Christ himself. God chose the mediator and he chose us in the mediator. Another way to put it is we understand that there is an eternal plan of redemption. That plan of redemption not only includes the choice of a people to be redeemed, but also the mediator through whom they will be redeemed. And God is the one who made that choice. This is just our way of affirming that God is sovereign over everything. He has ordained whatsoever comes to pass. He has sovereignly determined all the affairs of human history. And He is sovereign over creation. He is sovereign over providence. He is sovereign over His judgments. And He is sovereign over redemption. And it is He who sovereignly chose the mediator. In Isaiah 42, 1, we read the words of God the Father concerning the Messiah. And there we read this. Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom my soul delights. The Messiah there is referred to as the servant of God, as well as the chosen one of God, the one chosen by God to be. the Savior. In 1 Peter 1.20, Peter, speaking of the Messiah, says, he was foreknown before the foundation of the world. That is to say, he was chosen by God before the creation of the universe. In 1 Peter 2.4, Peter says, in coming to the Messiah, we come to him as to a living stone which has been rejected by men, but is choice and precious in the sight of God." So the Jews of Jesus' day rejected Him, but He was the one that the Father had chosen. He was the choice one. In Psalm 2.6, we read the words of the Father again in response to the rebellion of the nations. And there it says this, But as for me, I have installed my king upon Zion, my holy mountain." Again, that is to say, God is the one who has selected the king. He is the one who has chosen who is to be the king, the son of David, who will reign forever. That choice is made by God. So again, we don't get to choose which religion is the right religion. We don't get to choose who the mediator is. That is God's prerogative. God does that. The agent of this choice is God. But that brings us in the second place to the object of this choice, which answers the question, who was chosen to be the mediator? Who was chosen to be the mediator? And what is the answer to that question? Jesus Christ, right? The confession says here, that it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man." There is only one who qualifies to be the mediator. You see, the problem is this. The problem is there is friction in the relationship between God and man. We need a savior, we need a mediator who is fully God and fully man if he is to reconcile God and man together again. And dear friends, there is only one who qualifies. That is the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. Here, Jesus is said to be God's only begotten son. And we're going to talk about that more in detail when we come to paragraph two. But briefly, I want us to think about that. What does it mean that Jesus is the only begotten Son? And before you answer that, think about it this way. People say to us sometimes, when we say Jesus is God, they say, wait a minute, I thought Jesus was the Son of God. And our answer to that is yes, both are true, right? So in what sense then is Jesus the only begotten Son of God? Any thoughts on that? He was born of a woman. He was born of a woman. That's true. So there's a unique way in which He became the Son in the Incarnation. But He's also the Eternal Son, right? He predates that. He eternally is the Son. So you've got to somehow generate it from God's nature somehow. It's not created. It doesn't have a beginning. It's something that was eternally there. In a way that I don't understand. I don't understand what came before creation, but He was there at creation. He was already there. Amen. It's a complex doctrine, isn't it? We call it eternal generation. That sounds pretty strange to us because there's no such thing as an eternal generation in time among creatures, right? But think about it this way. The creeds say He was begotten, made, right? Begotten, not made. So eternal generation is the idea that the son is eternally generated by the father. Another way to put it is the father has eternally communicated the divine essence to the son. That's why we call it the first person of the Trinity, the second person of the Trinity, right? But there was a false teacher in the early church named Arius who was infamous for asserting that there was a time when the son was not. There was a time when the Son was not. That is a Christological heresy. Christ is eternal. Has God eternally been the Father? Well then he's eternally had a son, right? And the son has eternally been the son. This is an eternal generation far beyond our comprehension, but this is in some way what makes the son distinct from the father is that he's generated eternally by the father, from the father. And so Jesus, put it this way, Jesus is not the son of God by creation, okay? That is the way angels and men are said to be the son, sons of God. Often in the scriptures we read things like, you know, the sons of God sang together. Or in the book of Job, the sons of God came to appear before God. That's a reference to angels. They are created beings. They are sons of God by creation. Believers become sons of God by grace, by adoption. But Jesus is the Son of God by nature. being the radiance of the Father's glory and the exact representation of His essence, so that to say that He is the Son of God is to assert that He is equal with God, because He is God. Okay? John 5.18, in fact, when Jesus called Himself the Son of God, the Pharisees picked up stones to stone Him because He was blaspheming, they said, by making Himself equal with God. So that's what it means that He's the Son. So this Mediator then is the only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is the one and only Mediator. We're going to talk more about the exclusivity of the Mediator when we come to paragraph 9, but suffice it to say that there is only one qualified to be the Savior and Mediator, and that is Jesus. So the object of the choice is God the Son. The agent is God the Father. He chose the mediator. The object of the choice is God the Son. He was chosen to be the mediator. But thirdly, we notice the basis of this choice. The basis. On what basis did God the Father choose God the Son to be the mediator? Well, the confession answers. It pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus as only begotten Son according to the covenant made between them both to be the mediator between God and man. The basis on which the Father chose the Son was His eternal purpose. Or the covenant based on the covenant made between them both from before time began. That is a reference to the covenant of redemption. We talked about that in chapter 7. There is an eternal covenant transaction that took place before the creation of the universe within the council of the Trinity. And in that eternal intra-Trinitarian covenant, the Father chose the Son to be the mediator. So the basis, then, of this choice is God's eternal plan, God's eternal purpose, God's eternal covenant. And if you want kind of a proof text for the eternal covenant of redemption, because there are some people who say, no, wait a minute. The Bible doesn't talk about some eternal covenant. I've never read about that. Where's that at in the Bible? Well, let me give you a couple of references. The first one I would give you is Titus chapter 1, verse 2. Titus 1, verse 2. There, Paul speaks of the hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised long ages ago. Literally, in the Greek, it says, before time eternal. So God promised eternal life before time eternal. Here's the question. Who did He promise it to? Were you there? Before time eternal? No. So who did He promise eternal life to before time eternal? Within the Council of Eternity, right? He promised it, listen, He promised it to Christ and representatively to those in Christ. He was the representative of the covenant people of God. And so the agreement within the Council of Eternity is that if the Son will assume our nature and suffer in our place, the Father will give eternal life to the people of God in Him. In Him. Is it okay to ask a question? Yeah, of course. You said one time that some say that the purpose of creation was the cross of Jesus. And if God is creating people who are sinners, and He knows there are going to be sinners, The only way to be reconciled to any of them is to have a reconciler. That's right. That has to be planned from the very foundation of things. That Jesus Christ is going to go to the cross. He's going to take their sins. He's going to suffer God's wrath for them. Amen. And redeem a people for himself. Amen. We get it completely around the other way. He was gracious for us. And now God figured out a plan to save us when it turned out we were sour. That's right, yeah. But he knew we were wretched. Amen. It elevates Christ at such a higher level if you look at it that way. The cross was the purpose of creation. So this is an eternal plan. We call it the Pactum Salutis. I told you that last time. Pactum means covenant, salutis, salvation, the covenant of salvation. Others have referred to it as the eternal covenant, the covenant of peace, covenant of redemption. But it is this eternal covenant transaction within the Trinity. Now some would say, hold on, there's no mention of the word covenant in Titus 1-2. And certainly that's true. But to assert that because the word covenant is not there, that the concept is not there, is a fallacy. We call it the word-concept fallacy. Just because a word isn't there doesn't mean the concept isn't. That's the same way we formulate the doctrine of the Trinity. It's not through a single direct statement in the Bible, but it's through bringing the Bible's teachings together in a cohesive unit, coherent unit, that we understand the doctrine of the Trinity. And another example of this would be 2 Samuel 7. Does anyone know what we have recorded for us in 2 Samuel 7? This is an important chapter to remember, the theme of this. What is 2 Samuel 7 about? Close. But the next king, right? David. 2 Samuel 7 records for us what we call the Davidic covenant. God's promised to David that he'll sit one of his descendants on the throne forever. Now, all theologians agree that's the Davidic covenant. There's no disagreement there. Is the word covenant in 2 Samuel 7? Nope. It appears later in the Bible, but it's not there. What we have in 2 Samuel 7 is a sworn promise by God that one of David's descendants will sit on the throne forever. That's a covenant. What we have in Titus 1-2 is a sworn promise by the Father of eternal life before time began. That is the covenant of redemption, right? I'll give you another verse, Psalm 1-10. Psalm 1-10, verse 4. Again, this is the words of the Father to the Son. The Lord has sworn and will not change His mind, you are a priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek." Again, a sworn promise from the Father to the Son that He will be priest forever. So you just put Titus 1.2 and Psalm 110 together. God has made a sworn promise to His Son that He will give eternal life to the people of God in Him and He will be their priest forever. That is the covenant of redemption. So, the basis then of this choice, Father's choice of the Son to be the mediator, the basis of that choice is God's eternal purpose, God's eternal covenant. Now before we move on, are there any thoughts, comments, or questions on anything we've discussed so far? On the agent of the choice, the object of the choice, and the basis of the choice? talk about mother being, Mary being the mother of God. Sometimes Protestants don't want to take that, because they see God as eternal, so how can mother be a mother of something that's eternal and divine? What's the correct response, because I've seen some theologians say, well technically Mary was the mother of God, but she was the mother of Jesus. Is there a right answer to that? I don't love the language, personally. What even many faithful theologians throughout history mean by that is that Mary is the mother of the human nature of the God man, right? And we're going to talk about this later in the confession, but sometimes, so we're going to talk about how there's one person, Jesus, who possesses two distinct natures, the hypostatic union, right? Divinity and humanity in one person. And sometimes something is said of the son, that's only true of one nature but it's seemingly attributed to the other nature. Let me give you an example. In 1 Corinthians somewhere it says they crucified the Lord of glory. How do you crucify God? Well you can according to his divine nature. They did according to his human nature, but the Lord of Glory is a title that's appropriate to the divine nature, and yet it says they crucified the Lord of Glory, right? And so you get those kinds of things sometimes. Sometimes it says the Son of Man came out of heaven, right? The Son of Man came from heaven. Well, the one who came from heaven was the eternal Son of God, who by coming from heaven to earth became the Son of Man, right? But because the one person possesses both natures, sometimes there's kind of an attribution of something that really belongs to the other nature to the person of Jesus who possesses both natures. Does that make sense? So I don't personally like the language, but if what we mean by that is that Mary is the mother of the human nature of the God-man, that's biblical. And then they'll say, well, that's Nestorianism, or the heresy of Nestorianism, which means that there's two separate natures. Or two separate... persons. One of the, yeah, so I think the historianism would be two separate persons. And then there's, uh, what was the other one? So, so you had two different heresies. You had one that divided Christ into two persons, and then you had another one that kind of confused the natures so that it became one nature. It was a divine human nature or a human divine nature. But those are both heretical. Jesus is one person. but two natures. It's kind of the exact opposite of when we talk about the Trinity. The Trinity is one nature but three persons. In Jesus, there's one person but two natures, right? So it's kind of the difference, the reversal of that. One other thing you said, Pastor Williams, when you talk about the eternal covenant of redemption, it seems to hint at that in Ephesians chapter 1, verses 4 and 5, it says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed with every spiritual blessing and heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us and him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him, in love, having predestined us to the adoption of sons by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he made us accepted in the beloved. It sounds like that's back there before creation. Yeah, same thing, right? Revelation says that our names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world, right? That's all the covenant of redemption. That's an eternal... And I think Ephesians 3.11 goes on to say that this is according to God's eternal purpose of the ages that He carried about in Christ Jesus. So this is an eternal covenant plan. Again, some people don't like the language of covenant, but I think it's biblical. There's a sense in which you could view... Because as theologians, we often distinguish between what we call the covenant of redemption, and the covenant of grace. There's a sense in which you could view that as one covenant, one from the perspective of eternity, the other from the perspective of time. God enters into a covenant relationship within the council of eternity concerning the redemption of the elect, which is why we call it the covenant of redemption. That covenant then is revealed in Genesis 3.15, the promise that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. It's progressively revealed throughout the Old Testament and finds its historical inauguration in the New Covenant. So the New Covenant is the covenant of grace. It's almost the same covenant just from one perspective of eternity, one from the perspective of time. And so, think about it this way. If Adam represented us in covenant before God, then surely the second Adam represents us in covenant before God, right? And we know that Adam represented us in a covenant because Hosea 6-7 says Adam transgressed the covenant. We know from Romans 5 that in transgressing that covenant, he brought condemnation on the whole human race. So the first Adam represents the human race in covenant. The second Adam represents his redeemed elect in covenant. That's the covenant of grace. But that covenant of grace is rooted in this eternal intra-trinitarian covenant that we call the covenant of redemption. Any other thoughts, comments, or questions on any of that? All right. Well, that brings us to the fourth and final place, to the purpose of this choice. Okay, so we have the father choosing the son on the basis of his eternal purpose, his eternal covenant. Now the question is, why did he choose him? For what purpose? What was the goal of this choice of a mediator? Well the confession goes on to say, "...it pleased God in His eternal purpose to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus as only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man." Now stop there for a minute. That already begins to indicate to us the purpose for which the Father chose the Son. The idea of a mediator, as we've said, is one coming in between two parties for the purpose of reconciliation. You can't separate a mediator from the theme of reconciliation. That is the goal here. That is the purpose. So we might say then that the purpose for which the Father chose the Son was to save the people of God. Because there is enmity. There is enmity on both sides. There is enmity on God's side toward us, And there's enmity on our side toward God. God is angry with us because of our sin. Psalm 711, right? God is angry with the wicked every day. And we, by nature, hate God because we love our sin. And so we need a mediator to take away the enmity. And Jesus does that. The enmity on our part is taken away when our hearts are renewed in regeneration, the new birth. God gives us new hearts that love him. The enmity on God's part is removed through the substitutionary death of the Savior when he stood before the fierce wrath of God for his people. And so God then chose Jesus to be the one who would make this satisfaction and therefore this reconciliation. In 2 Corinthians 5 verses 18-19, very well known passage to us I'm sure, Paul says this, Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, And He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. You know, the great dilemma that the Gospel message answers is simply this. How can God be in fellowship with guilty sinners? How can you do that, God? God Himself declares in Exodus 34 7 that He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. In the book of Proverbs it says that he who justifies the wicked is an abomination. How can God do the very thing He says is abominable? Namely, justify the ungodly. How can He do that? How can we be reconciled to Him? Well, the only way He can reconcile us to Himself is if He doesn't count our trespasses against us. The only way He can justly not count our trespasses against us is if He counts them to Christ. He credits them to Christ. Jesus bears the wrath we deserve and then He credits His righteousness to us so that we get the reward that He deserves. We call that the great exchange, right? Double imputation. Our sin for His righteousness. Well, reconciled to God, reconciled through Christ, that is what the mediator has been chosen for. Now the confession goes on to say that as the mediator, Jesus is the prophet, priest, and king. And we're going to talk more about that when we come to a later paragraph. in this chapter, chapter 8, where the confession will elaborate on what it means that Jesus is prophet, priest, and king. But for now, just suffice it to say that as mediator, that is who Jesus is. In the Old Testament, you had men who were prophets. You had men who were priests. You had men who were kings. They were anointed ones. In Jesus, all three of those offices come together in one person, in the Messiah. And we'll talk more about that later on. But the confession then goes on to say, That Jesus is head and savior of the church. He's the head of the church. What does that mean that Jesus is the head of the church? He has authority over the church. That's one, I think, connotation from the word head. He's the one in supreme authority over his church. What are some other? The church is the bride of Christ. Church is the bride of Christ. The bride and a wife is to submit to her husband's authority, because the church submits to the authority of her husband, the Lord Jesus. He guides the church. What guides our human bodies? What do we think with? Our brain. Every decision we make, we ultimately make it with our brain. That's the guide of the human body. He's the brain. He should be. When we're acting rightly, we're following our brain, right? So he's the guide of the church, the head of the church, the leader of the church, the lord of the church. We might even say he's the representative of the church in the covenant of grace, right? Just as Adam was our head in the covenant of works, Jesus is our head in the covenant of grace. So Jesus is the head of the church. And as such, he's the savior of the church. Now, I'm not going to belabor this, but this comes to us in a couple of places. Ephesians 1. Jesus is referred to as the head of the church. Ephesians 5, which we have already alluded to, just as the husband is head of the wife, so also Christ is head of the church. Him, He Himself being the Savior of the body. So, as the head, He leads the church. And as the Savior, He saves the church. He redeems the church, right? So, the confession then goes on and adds, He is the heir of all things. He is the heir of all things. That comes to us from Hebrews 1.2, which says, In these last days God has spoken to us in His Son, whom He pointed heir of all things. Jesus is going to receive everything. Everything. Everything is His. And here's an encouraging thought. Romans 8.17 says we are co-heirs with God and co-heirs with Christ. Do you know what that means? Do you know what you're going to receive? If He's the heir of all things, and you are co-heir with Him, what do you receive? Everything. Everything in Him, right? I'll give you a scripture to write down if you want to jot this one down. Romans chapter 4, verse 13. Paul says, the promise to Abraham or to his descendants, the word there could be translated seed, the promise to Abraham and to his seed is that he would be heir of the world. Notice that. The promise is not simply the land of Canaan. That was a promise that God made to the nation of Israel and the fathers of Israel. But that promise was a type of a greater promise. And that is that Abraham's seed would inherit the whole world. Now, who is the seed of Abraham? Does anyone know who Galatians 3 identifies as the seed of Abraham? The singular seed? Christ. Paul says, he didn't say seeds, he's referring to many, but seed is referring to one, Christ. Jesus is the singular seed of Abraham, who blesses the nations of the earth with salvation. And then Galatians says, if you belong to Christ, you are Abraham's descendants, heirs according to promise. Which means the promise of Canaan finds its ultimate fulfillment of the promise of the entire world given to Christ and to those in Christ. Everything, dear friends, is to be given to you. The meek shall inherit the what? It's all going to be ours, right? In Christ. We might add that a part of the inheritance that Christ is to receive is a kingdom. A people who will be redeemed by His work and who will forever serve Him as the subjects of His eternal kingdom. In fact, if you really want to know what the theme of the Bible is, I can put it to you in one sentence. One sentence. This is what the whole Bible is about. The redemption of man. through the person and work of Jesus Christ for the glory of the triune God in the establishment of his eternal kingdom." That's a mouthful, right? It's a pregnant sentence and it needs to be because we're talking about a summation of the whole Bible. So there's a sense in which the theme of kingdom is really the major theme of the Bible. Because God, the King, creates Adam and Eve to be the subjects of His kingdom. He places them in the garden. They rebel against the King. He expels them from His presence. But He sends His Son into the world to redeem a people who would then become loyal subjects in His kingdom. That's what the whole point of redemptive history is. Jesus redeeming a people to be His subjects, His seed. That is to say then, you and I, are fruits of Christ's labor. We are trophies of His grace. We are the product of His suffering. He suffered effectually for us, and the result is our salvation and us becoming His loyal subjects. Isaiah 53.8 puts it this way. It says, He was cut off out of the land of the living. Listen to that again. So He was cut off out of the land of the living. What does that mean? What does that mean? He's dead. Cut off. Out of the land of the living. That's Isaiah 53a. You know, some 700 years before Jesus was even born. Cut off from the land of the living for the transgression of my people. Why did he die? For his sins? For the people's sins, right? And then Isaiah 5310 adds, I want you to keep this in mind. He's going to be cut off. He's going to die. And yet, it says, He will see His offspring. He will prolong His days. How is He going to prolong His days? Resurrection. Right there in Isaiah 53.10. And having been raised, He will see His offspring. He will see the fruit of His labor. Contrary to Arminian theology, Jesus had no chance to fail. Because there was a people the Father gave to Him that He would die for, that He would redeem, that would be trophies of His grace, and here we are, right? We are those trophies. We are those who constitute the seed of Christ. So He will inherit all things, including a seed. That's why the confession goes on to say, right after asserting that Jesus is the judge of the world, and we've talked about that before, We don't need to comment on that one too much, but he's the judge of the nations. Acts 17.31, Romans 2.16, John 5 says, all judgments given by the Father to the Son, Jesus Christ is the judge. But then it says, unto whom Christ, he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed. One part of the inheritance that Christ is to receive is a seed of people, a people who constitute a seed. whom He has redeemed. We know that the Gospels often speak about a people the Father has given to the Son, right? And we believe in what we might call Trinitarian harmony, don't we? The Father chose a people, the Spirit applies that work to a people, and the Son died for that very same people, and He effectually redeems them. But then the confession says, telling us why they were given to Him. They were given to Him to be by Him in time, redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified. We might refer to this as five blessings of Christ's mediation. Five blessings of His mediation. First, we've been given to Christ that we might be redeemed. What does that word redeemed mean? We talked about it Friday night. Those are definitely ideas that are attached to it. So the word means to buy back, right? It's a word used in the ancient slave market. If you wanted to release a slave, you paid a ransom. And the ransom was paid to who? to the owner, which is God, right? I told you Friday night, there is a theory called the ransom theory, the idea that God, that Christ paid the ransom to the devil. No, that the ransom was paid to the father because it's his law that we've broken, his justice that we've offended, his anger that we've aroused, and therefore the son had to die and pay the price to the father. And that's why Colossians 1.14 says, in Christ we have redemption, the forgiveness of sin. He paid the penalty, He bore the wrath, and since He paid the penalty, you don't have to. There's no double jeopardy here. God's not going to punish the Savior and the sinner. The Savior suffered sufficiently, we are off the hook through faith in Christ. But not only are we redeemed by Him, the Confession adds, we are called by Him. We are called by Him. Galatians 1.6 says, we are called by the grace of Christ. According to 1 Corinthians 1.9, we're called into fellowship with God's Son. So we have been called. When the Bible uses that language, called, what do you think it's talking about? Let me put it this way. There are two kinds of calling. Does anyone know what they are? There's the effectual call, and then there's another one. General call, open invitation, yeah? So there's a general call and there's an effectual call, okay? The general call is Matthew 22, 14. Many are called, few are chosen. Every time you and I share the gospel with someone, we call them to Christ, that is the general call. That is to be differentiated from the effectual call, because that is a call that is effectual. That is the internal call of God's sovereign grace, whereby He sovereignly summons the sinner and effectually draws him to Christ. If you're called in this sense, you will be saved. If you're called in this sense, you will come to Christ. That reminds us of John 6, right? All whom the Father gives to me will what? Come to me. It's a matter of fact. Amen. You come, you will not be cast out. And then John 6, 44 says, no one can come unless what? You know, that was radical for me, because I was not a Calvinist at the time. I was reading John 6. I had started to hear about Calvinism. The only introduction I had to Calvinism at that point was some dude knocking on my door, and he tried to convince my mom that she was prideful for thinking she could know she was elect. I don't know what that guy believed, but it wasn't biblical Calvinism. That was my only real understanding of election. And so I slightly got introduced to it by Paul Washer after that, and I thought, man, I didn't know he believed this crazy stuff, too. So I opened my Bible, I was reading one night, John 6, and I had always heard that God draws everybody. You ever heard that? God draws everybody. But then I read, and Jesus says, all whom the Father gives to me will come to me. And no one will come unless they're drawn. And I thought, wait a minute. If God drew everybody, everybody would come. because everybody whom the Father draws to the Son comes to the Son. And that's why my wife made a shirt that says, I'm a Calvinist, not because of John Calvin, but because of John 6. That is the chapter that made me a Calvinist. And so we're talking about the effectual call. Let me give you some more verses on this. 1 Corinthians 1.24, after saying that the gospel is a stumbling block to the Jew, it is foolishness to the Gentile, Then it says, "...but to those who are the called, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God." So you can see then there is a distinction made between unbelieving Jews and Greeks, to whom the gospel is folly, and the called to whom the gospel is powerful to say. The called there is a nickname for the elect. That's the same thing. Those chosen by God and effectually called to salvation. Romans 8.30 says this. Romans 8.30, there's another one you want to write down, you want to memorize this one. Does anyone know what we call this? The golden chain of redemption, right? Front row Baptist, right? Getting an A+. The golden chain of redemption. Daryl's a good back row Baptist. He's holding the fort down for us. I told him before you came in, there's two characteristics of a true Baptist. They love to eat and they sit in the back. Daryl's living up to the name. And so is my wife back there. So, Romans 8.30, the golden chain of redemption. These whom He called, He also justified." Who does He justify? Everyone He calls. This is an effectual call. If you're called in this sense, you will be converted, you will be justified. And everyone in this room knows what that is. Right? Some of us were called really young. Maybe you don't have a great memory of before you were saved. Some of us do. Some of us understand the difference between living in the darkness and having the light come on. That was the moment that God called you. Now, if you don't remember that moment, praise God, you don't have to. Maybe you were raised in a Christian home and taught the truth from such a young age. The Lord did that work and you don't have to live with a memory of your past unconverted state. That's a good thing, but many of us know what it is to have the light come on. So this is an effectual call that leads to justification. Speaking of justification, the confession then adds, justified. We've been given by the Father to the Son that we might be justified. We talked about this Friday night. What does it mean to be justified? Declared righteous. No one would know better than Jim about a judicial term, since he served as a judge, right? You were in a courtroom setting. This is a forensic word, a legal word, a judicial word. Declared righteous. Not guilty. Innocent. Justified is the opposite of what? What's the opposite? Condemned. What is condemned? Right. Declared guilty and punished for it. Right? Justified is the opposite. It's declared righteous and rewarded or let off the hook. Right? You don't receive the punishment. We read Romans 3 Friday night that in Him, Christ, we have redemption through His blood. We've been justified as a gift by His grace. We're guilty, we deserve to be condemned, but by God's grace, through the death of Christ, because He bore the wrath, we're declared righteous. And we're going to talk more about justification in chapter 11 of the Confession. And then the Confession adds sanctified. We've been given to Him that we might be sanctified. We talked about that word a couple of weeks ago. What does it mean to be sanctified? I like Sunday school, I get to put you to the test. Becoming holy, growing in holiness, right? And the root of the word is separation, right? So it's to grow in separation from sin to God. There is what we call, by the way, a positional sanctification. A positional sanctification. Let me show you what I mean by that. Hebrews 10.10 says, We have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. We've been sanctified once for all. That is what we call positional sanctification. We call it positional because it has to do with your position before God. In your position before God, He doesn't see you as a sinner anymore. He sees you as a saint, as a holy one. Because you've been robed in the garments of Christ's righteousness, Christ's perfect purity, so that you are now set apart from sin to God in righteousness. Okay? You're a saint. But then there is what we call a progressive sanctification. Hebrews 12.14 commands us, "...pursue the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4.3 says, "...this is the will of God, your sanctification." That is, that you abstain from sexual immorality. So there is a sanctification that is once and for all at salvation. And then there's a sanctification that we must progressively pursue and grow in. We have to practically grow in separation from sin and separation into God and obedience. Yeah, and this is where you've got to be careful not to confuse justification with sanctification, right? That's what they do. In fact, in the Roman Catholic system, you are not justified until you are perfectly righteous. That's when you're justified. So it's a combination of infused righteousness and God's grace and your own effort, your own merit to pursue perfection, which is why many die not perfect, no duh, all of us do, and which is why almost every Roman Catholic thinks when he dies he's going where? So you can be purged and become perfect. But that's not what the Bible teaches about justification. They're conflating sanctification with justification. Or they're conflating positional sanctification with progressive sanctification and perfect sanctification. The Bible teaches we're made positionally perfect in Christ at salvation. We're being made progressively perfect in this life in what we call sanctification. One day we're going to be perfectly sanctified in our glorification. Which brings us then in the last place to what the Confession says last, glorified by Him. Glorified by Him. That is the end. That is the great hope of salvation. Those whom He justified, He glorified. If we suffer with Him, we will be glorified with Him. That is our hope. The day that we're resurrected, the body of our humble condition is brought into perfect conformity with the body of His glory, and we rest and rule and reign with Christ forever in the new heavens and the new earth. This is all planned out. In fact, in Romans 8, when Paul says that, when he says, these whom he justified he also glorified, what tense is that? Is that future tense? Past tense. Now wait a minute. Have we been glorified yet? No. But, listen, it has been promised and determined by a sovereign God who works all things out according to the counsel of His will, whose purposes cannot be thwarted, whose promises cannot fail, who cannot lie, and therefore your glorification can be spoken of in the past tense as though it's already done. Because it's as good as done. Because it's promised by a God who cannot lie. Right? Those who may be justified, He, as a matter of fact, will glorify. He will bring you into Emmanuel's land. where only righteousness dwells. That's our hope. All right, well, so we might say then that the purpose of salvation or the purpose of this choice is salvation. Salvation. Salvation in its fullest sense from predestination to glorification, from what we call the pactum salutis, the plan of salvation, what we call the historia salutis, the history of salvation being accomplished, to what we call the ordo salutis, the application of salvation in time, all the way to the culmination of that salvation in the new heavens and the new earth. Friends, this is a certain plan, and you ought to take heart in that. Well, that was the choice of the mediator. Next time we're going to pick up with paragraph 2, we'll talk about the person of the mediator, and that'll be a rich study for us. Well, any final questions, thoughts, or comments on anything we talked about this afternoon? All righty, well, if you think of anything, feel free to text or email or call. Make sure... I appreciate your teaching and the covenant redemption. That's helpful. Thank you for taking the time to string some of those verses together. Alright, well make sure if you haven't grabbed one, there's a handout in the back from last week, or last time, to kind of give you an overview of the whole confession. If you haven't grabbed one of these, you can take one of these home as a reminder of the outline from today, and the next time will be in paragraph 2. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for another wonderful day of attending the means of grace. We thank you for this certain eternal plan of salvation that has been ratified in the form of an eternal covenant that has been revealed to us in time and that will be culminated in glory. We long for the day when our salvation is complete, but in the meantime, we long to pursue greater degrees of holiness that we might show our love for and appreciation for our Savior. We pray that you would give us grace to do just that for our good and for your glory. Amen.