I want to look at question 29 and 30 today, moving from God proper to the theology of Christ. We've seen the last couple weeks that God is almighty, and God is the creator, and he is the sovereign provider through his providences. Now we look at Christ. The first question is why is the Son of God called Jesus, that is Savior? Answer, because he saves us and deliver us from our sins, and likewise, because we ought not to seek, neither find salvation in any other. And then in question 30, which builds upon that last part of question 29, do you believe, do such then believe in Jesus, the only Savior who seek their salvation and happiness of saints of themselves or anywhere else? And the answer, they do not. Though they boast of him in his words, yet in deeds they deny Jesus the only Deliverer and Savior. For one of these two things must be true, that either Jesus is not a complete Savior, or that they who by a true faith receive this Savior must find all things in him necessary to their salvation. This might, in fact, seem rather obvious to us, but it's not as obvious as you might think. In many ways, the majority report of the American church is that Jesus is not a sufficient Savior. They would never say it that way. I think would dare say that. But again, the way the third, the end of the 29 and the way the 30th question is asked is, essentially, has Jesus done everything necessary to save us? And the vast majority of the people would say, no. He's done everything to make me savable, as we've said in other occasions, but there's something left for me to do. And again, it was Spurgeon who said, in terms of the atonement, did Jesus actually save anybody? And the Arminian would say, no, he's made them savable if, if something else is added to it. And the answers to what is added are as numerous as those who deny Christ is the perfect savior. And some might put works, they might put, you know, like certain groups say like the Roman Catholics, you'd have to do good works. And again, I cite their catechism. Their official catechism says that while we are the initial stages of salvation is by grace, that we, through good works, do what is necessary to earn both temporal and eternal life, and go so far as to say not only for ourselves, but for others. That is the actual statement of the catechism, which I love showing that to my Catholic friends, and they are oftentimes, to be honest, unfamiliar with that that's what the catechism says. And I said, but do you believe that? And of course they have to hem and haw and say yes. I said, well, that is true, that if I can do works that can merit for me and for others, both temporal and eternal blessings, could not Jesus do that for us? And usually that's where the conversation ends. But none of them have changed, but we don't talk any further. But there's those who would then say amongst the Pentecostals that the evidence of salvation is an experience. Do you speak in tongues? Have you been baptized with the Holy Spirit, not in a theological spiritual sense, but in some type of dramatic experiential sense? I know I've told you I was While in seminary, I was at the park across the street from Biola University, and I was approached by somebody who came from Calvary Chapel. And they were evangelizing, and usually when I'm approached by somebody evangelizing, I play along a little bit, because I want to encourage them. And so he was asking me about the things of the gospel and everything, and eventually I revealed to him that I was a believer, and he was all excited. Oh, you're a believer. Do you have a prayer language? That's the way he asked the question. I said, yes, I do. I didn't tell him it was English, but as soon as I affirmed I had a prayer language, we were brothers. And then amongst our Arminian friends and brothers, there is, They have turned faith into a work, and they come by that honestly, whether they realize it or not. That was Arminius' view. And you can read this. I have the complete works of Arminius in my library if you'd like to read them. A lot of what he wrote was published posthumously because a lot of what he had to write did not fit with the school and the doctrine and tradition in which he was a part. But in there, essentially what Arminius taught is that under the old covenant, you had 10 commandments and you had to keep them perfectly. Remember, do these and you shall live. The new covenant, Arminius would argue, God was much more gracious and he reduced the 10 to one, believe, and you don't have to do it perfectly. But for him, it was a work and the catechism When we get to the questions on faith, you'll hear that language, I'll try to remember to bring that back up, because it was faith, is that we're saved by faith, and then it clearly adds language, not on the basis of any merits of my own. Faith is not a work, it is in itself a gift. If we remember Ephesians 2, eight and nine, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast." The very faith that we have, why it's a real faith, it's a personal faith, where you actually do act to believe and to trust on Christ, that faith itself is even something that has been purchased for us by Christ. And so that brings us down to this question, which is most evident in the 30th question of the Catechism. If there's anything, no matter what it is or how small it is, you know where I'm going because I've said this many times, if there's anything left that has to be done in order that you might be saved. If Christ has not done all that needs to be done in order that you might be saved, there's something left, no matter what it is or how small, that you must do, then Jesus is not your savior at all. You are. Jesus has done 99.99%. So there's a 0.001% that you must do. If that is left undone, you will not be saved. If you do that, 0.001%, you will be saved. Who is the savior? Self. So in question 29, why is the son of God called Jesus that is savior? because he is the Savior. As our text says, there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved. Moses' name wasn't given, David's name wasn't given, and most assuredly, your name was not given as a name by which we must be saved. It's Christ alone. The very Christ whom, in Psalm 118, is, as in the words of the psalmist and the words of Peter and John, you, the leadership and rulers and elders and scribes of Jerusalem, rejected. Jesus is the cornerstone by which salvation is to be had. and him alone. And he does this through two primary ways. When you think about the life of Christ, you can think about it both in terms of his humiliation and in his effectiveness. In his humiliation, He comes into the world, he comes down, he's sent down into the world, takes on the form of a servant, a bondservant, born under the law, as Paul will say in Galatians 4, and he lives under the law, fulfills the obligations of the law, and dies under the law. As Paul will also say in Philippians, he became obedient even to the point of death. But notice the descending order. He sits at the right hand, He empties himself and comes to be a bondservant. As a bondservant, he obeys. He obeys to the point of death, and he descends into the grave. But then he comes out of the grave, and the order is reversed. He first comes out, he then ascends, and then he sits on the right hand of the father. Humiliation, he is our mediator. He takes upon himself our sin and clothes us with his merit. In his glorification, he becomes affectious. He is the one who's able to sit at the right hand of the father and send his spirit. He sends forth his spirit to quicken us, to heal us, teach us to open our minds and hearts, to hear and to believe, to unite us to Christ, to indwell in us, and to apply to us all the redeeming grace that Christ has purchased for us. In his humiliation, he suffered, was crucified, dead, and buried. In his glorification, he ascends and is glorified, sits at the right hand of the Father, and fulfills all of what he has to say. As the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, verse 2, he is the author and the perfecter of our faith. He's the author in that he is the one from whom the origin of it begins. and he is the perfecter in that he is the one who comes and perfects it. Jesus is our Savior, and as Paul will say, for example, in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 and verse 30 and 31, It says, by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that just as it was written, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Now again, I think with this crowd, you probably are going, well, that's obvious, Pastor, but it's not that obvious. And I have, I've had people say to me, when I talk this way, they'll say to me, Pastor, you scare me. Why? Because I always believed I was a Christian because, and then they give me something that they've done. I've told you on other occasions about a young woman, young, and that I was young, she was young, we were both about the same age, probably in our mid-30s, and she had come to faith at some revivalistic church or campsite, evangelist, And she always would say to me, when you preach this way, it scares me because I always believed I was a Christian because I came forward and prayed a prayer. That's her hope. That's that 0.001%. Jesus did this all, but now I need to walk the aisle and pray the prayer, sign the card, do whatever it is. And it's very easy to slip that in. It goes all the way back to the earliest parts of the church. I've told you this also in the past, that the Pelagius was a monk, a righteous monk from England. He was a very righteous man, and though I have never read it, I did find a copy of his book on the deacon, which I was tempted to buy because R.C. Sproul said it was the finest book ever written on the ministry of a deacon. The only problem was the book was for sale for about a thousand dollars and I thought better of buying it. But Pelagius argued that the only grace that you need to be saved is that of the law and a good example. We have the law for Moses and we have the good example in Jesus. He actually argued that way. Of course, that was, he earned, that teaching earned him the privilege of being the most condemned man in the history of the church, condemned by more councils and more continents. But not long after that, another 100, 200 years comes the Council of Orange. And the Council of Orange condemned not Pelagianism, but what would be called Semi-Pelagianism. And semi-Pelagianism is the kissing cousin to Arminianism. And when Luther is going through his transformation and he's arguing against the, what he will call the Pelagius of his day, he actually is arguing against the semi-Pelagians. That's just not a term he would have had in his vocabulary. But in the Council of Orange, which for some quirky thing in church history, Luther was not aware of but would have agreed with, it sounds almost like it totally anticipated the modern evangelical movement of Campus Crusade for Christ. Because in one of their canons that they deny, and it's called to be, you know, error, It says, if anyone believes that on the basis of a prayer that the grace of salvation is extended to you, that must be condemned. Isn't that kind of the majority report? If I pray this prayer, then God is obligated to save me. That's the very thing Luther argued against. You see it on TV when one very famous son of an evangelist comes on and gives you a prayer to pray. I'm sure you've seen it. You pray this prayer, then call this number. Jesus both descends and ascends. He descends in humility, ascends in glory. In his humiliation, he merits for us salvation, and in his exaltation, he effectively applies it. And is that the illustration that Luther used and I've used with you and I I think it's the best. I use this so many times when I'm talking with people about justification. Marriage, the marriage, like Ephesians 5, when the husband and wife come together, all that belongs to the groom becomes the brides, and everything that belongs to the bride becomes the grooms. This is Luther's favorite illustration of justification. What does the bride of Christ bring to the marriage? Sin. guilt, death. And Jesus says, those are mine. I will take them. I know what to do with them. And what does Jesus bring to the marriage? Righteousness, obedience, life. And he gives them to us. So they're now ours. And this is what trips people up. There is every legitimate reason for a Christian to claim all of the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ as their own. Try saying that to yourself. Stand in the bathroom, look in the mirror, and say that to yourself. And see if you don't feel uncomfortable. You shouldn't. So you die and you go to heaven and God says, why should you be allowed into heaven? Because of all the righteous obedience of Christ is mine and all of my sin and guilt and shame is his. You've promised this in the gospel. I've received it by faith. My hope is Christ, the perfect Savior. I think you're probably a lot like me. From time to time you think, oh, it's going to be a bummer going to heaven. And then there's going to be, and it won't be 4K, it won't be 8K, it'll be like, you know, one Google K, high video definition with surround sound, everybody watching the life of you and all of your sin. Right? When we get to heaven, We will be clothed in perfect righteousness because we already are if you put your faith in Christ. And the moment we see Christ, we will be perfectly conformed to him, 1 John chapter 3. It's the promise of the gospel, Romans 8, 28, 29, and 30. And from the beginning, he is the author to the end. He's the perfecter of our faith. Christ and Christ alone is our hope of salvation. You see this in his name, the name Jesus, as you should all know, simply is the putting together of two words, Jehovah and salvation. Whether you read it in the Englishized version of Jesus or the Old Testament, Joshua or Yahshua, he is the Savior. We're reminded that this is why he's called Jesus in Matthew 121, for you shall call his name Jesus. Why? Because he himself will save his people from their sins. It does not say he himself will do everything necessary to save his people if they will, Fill in the blank. He himself, you will call him Jesus, Jehovah saves because he saves. Isn't that great news? It should be. All of our sin, all of our guilt, all of our shame and the The more you grow in Christ, the more mature in Christ you become, the deeper that guilt and that shame will seem to you. You will start to behold things. I've told you before, I will never tire of telling you, the older you get in Christ, the more you will see your younger self that you thought was so righteous and so on fire for Jesus and so insightful, you'll look upon that younger version of you and go, oh, have mercy. And thankfully, the mercy of Christ is enough. Where sin abounds, grace much more abounds, right? Romans 5. His name means God saves. You shall call his name Jesus, for he himself will save his people from their sins. Ursinus writes, the Son of God is therefore called Jesus the Savior in respect to his office because he is our mediator and saves and delivers us from the evil, both of guilt and punishment. And that truly because he is an only and perfect Savior. He saves us from the guilt and the punishment. I can't think of anything more wonderful than the knowledge of that. He saves us, as Ursinus will go on to say, because he saves us from the double evil of guilt and punishment. He saves us from the evil of guilt, as testified by the angel, he shall save his people from their sins, that he frees us from the evil of punishment may be inferred from the fact that if sin has been taken away, Punishment, which is the effect of sin, must also be taken away. For if the cause be removed, the effect must also be removed. I sometimes, when I develop this little way of sharing the gospel that I can do on a napkin, I've done it on whiteboards and chalkboards. And if you can imagine, in the middle of the piece of paper, if you will, or a napkin or a whiteboard, is a cross. And on one side there is a box, and I fill in all these sins. Because the book of Revelation tells us that we will be judged according to the book of our life. Not the book of life, the book of your life. So there's a book in heaven that has your name, my name embossed on it. Everything you said, everything you've done, everything you intended, both public and private, those secret thoughts, intentions you've had, you've never expressed to anyone, everything's in there. And the books will be opened, and they will be read, and you'll be judged according to what's in the book. How far will God have to read in the life story of you before you are condemned? For most of us, the first sentence. You are so good, maybe you get to the second sentence, but I'm quite certain none of you get to the second paragraph. But the beauty of it is, Colossians chapter 2, verse 13, that all the sins in that book have been nailed to the cross. At the cross, God nailed all of our transgressions. All of them. Remember, we've rehearsed this, and then I always have this little game we play. What do we mean by all, right? Do you mean all your past sins? Oh, yes. Do you mean all your present sins? Yes. You mean all of your future sins? Well, maybe a little more hesitation, you'll eventually say yes. But aren't all of your sins future to the cross of Christ? We should have no problem with understanding that our future sins were nailed to the cross of Christ because every sin you've ever committed was in the future from the cross of Christ. So if somehow the future creates a problem for your sins to be covered by the death of Christ, then all of your sins have a problem. So he nails all of those sins. So now this box over here, the cross is in the middle, this box over here is wiped clean. There are no sins in there. But that doesn't make you fit for heaven, does it? What has to be in that box? Which I then draw on the other side, because this one's all marked up. I don't want to use an eraser, scratch them all out. What goes in that book? And that's where I ask you the trick question. There was a man who was mentioned in the Bible, but it's not Jesus, who was absolutely and perfectly holy and righteous, but was not fit for heaven, right? You know the answer. The name is Adam, right? Prior to the eating of the fruit, he was created in holiness and righteousness. He was not lacking in either one of them. But he was not fit for heaven because he lacked good works. Very early on in my life here as pastor, I preached a message Where my opening sentence was, might have been the very first one, I don't remember. I said, it is true that we are saved by works. I'll give the pause, let everybody go. Who's this new guy? The question is not whether we're saved by works, the question is by whose works are we saved? We're saved by the works of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this box that had all my sin in it, the sins are removed, having been nailed to the cross, but what now fills my book is all of the righteous merits of Christ as if I have done them, not just outwardly in conformity, but with all of the love and all of the joy and all of the commitment of Jesus himself. So when we were preaching through the book of Leviticus, it was so fun to uncover and unpack the zeal offering there was actual a zeal offering amongst the sacrifices of Israel, because you and I are not zealous enough to satisfy the zeal that God deserves. And so there was a sacrifice to even cover the zeal. And yet, what are we told in the Gospels? Jesus was consumed by zeal for his Father's house. He had all the zeal he needed. And you get credit for that in the perfect obedience of Christ. And so some days you come to church or come to get up to maybe read your Bible and pray or whatever, and there's just not much zeal to do that. That's just part of the frailty of our ongoing sinfulness. Sometimes it's just hard to be excited about these things. And to be honest with you, that is evidence of our sinfulness. And isn't it wonderful that we have one for which there was an Old Testament sacrifice foreshadowing Christ, one who will be sufficient in his zeal, and in that box of your life, the book of your life, is credited with all the zeal for heavenly things that Christ himself had. That's part of the imputation of his righteousness. That's why the double imputation is such an important part preaching the gospel. It's not just that my sins have been imputed to Christ. Oh, that is a precious truth. May we never forsake it. May we never lose our charm with it. Our sins have been laid on Christ. But that's only half the gospel. The righteousness of Christ has been laid on us or imputed to us. He became sin, as Paul will say in 2 Corinthians 5.21, he who knew no sin, Christ, who knew no sin became sin on our behalf in order that we might become the righteousness of God in him. So tonight you have an assignment, go in the bathroom all by yourself, the light on, look square in the mirror and say, I have all the righteousness of Christ as if his good works were mine. And ask yourself, do I feel comfortable with that? And I'm saying you should. Not in arrogance, not in pride, but in gratitude and humility that the wonderful promise of God is in his son Jesus. He would take away all your guilt, shame, and punishment and clothe you with all of his perfect righteous merits. Not so that you could be saved if you would do something. He's done it all. He's done it all. And where faith is the funnel by which we receive that, faith is not a work. Arminius was wrong. It's not the one thing you have to do. It's simply the funnel. Remember the funnel station? I haven't used that in a long time. Maybe because I haven't put oil in my engine for a while. But when I go to put oil into my car, my car's engine, I'm a terrible shot. It usually ends up on the manifold. It takes days to burn off. But if you use a little funnel, You can get the oil into that little tiny hole quite easily, right? But do you want any funnel in your engine? You want the riches of the can of oil in your engine, but you do not want the funnel in your engine. The funnel is simply the means by which the riches of the oil is transferred from one container to another. And that's all faith is for us. It's the funnel by which the riches of Christ is transferred from him to us. The funnel doesn't contribute to it. Thank you, Arminius. Not one whit. Jesus is the only Savior. As it says in our text, there's no other name under heaven by which a man must be saved. Our text, Peter and John, are telling the leadership of Israel that there is only one Savior, Jesus. There is no other name. Now, I know you're all English readers and don't know Greek or Hebrew, so I did an extensive word study on the word no in Greek, and sure enough, the word no means no. I know that probably shocks you, Probably didn't know such a wonderful truth, but there it is. There is no other name. No, I wonder what it means in the Greek. It means no other name under heaven by which you must be saved. There's no one, no other name. As it says in the scripture, he who believes is not condemned. He who has not believed has already been condemned. 1 John 5, 13, these things I've written to you, who believed in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, that you might know that you have everlasting life in Christ. The efficacy of our salvation is therefore grounded in Christ In the will of the Father and in the work of the Holy Spirit, there is no way other than absolute accomplishment that the work of God and salvation of sinful men is not realized completely and perfectly. The last few minutes that we have, I just want to focus briefly on question 30. I want to, again, the question is, do such then believe in Jesus, the only Savior, who seek their salvation, and happiness of saints, of themselves, or anywhere else? Answer, they do not. I hope now you understand a little bit more why this question is so important. It is so easy to want to slip a little thing in. Luther says to Erasmus in the closing section of his book on the bondage of the will, Erasmus, you of all people have understood that the debate is not over the pope or indulgences, The issue is over who saves whom. Do you save yourself, no matter how you define it, or does God save you? Or Sinus will write, this question is proposed on account of those who glory in the name of Jesus, and yet at the same time seek their salvation, whether wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, or in part, in some other place without him. In the merits of the saints, in the indulgences of the Pope, in their own offerings, works, fastings, prayers, alms, as do the Papists, the Jesuits, and other hypocrites of a similar caste, we must therefore inquire whether these persons believe in Jesus as the only Savior or not, and the answer is that they do not believe in him, but that in the very deed that they deny him, however, much they may boast of him and in his works. They may boast of Jesus. They may talk a lot about Jesus. They may magnify him as Lord and Savior. but there is some part of their salvation that is left to them. And to the degree that there's anything left to do, Jesus is not the perfect savior. Now, I don't mean to be crass or silly, but just imagine, if you can, being in heaven and saying something like this to Jesus. Thank you for all that you did for my salvation. But it wasn't quite enough, was it? I had to contribute something. Just imagine saying that to Christ. Of course, no one would. No one would. Jesus is a complete and only Savior, and that's our hope. It's only Christ. And that becomes the basis of any assurance. And he will talk about assurance later. But the only reason why I can have assurance is because I am convinced that Jesus is the perfect savior and it is only him and his name by which anyone will ever be saved. That's where assurance comes from. So why does somebody lack assurance? Think about it for a moment. Most people who would say they believe the gospel of Christ, so we're gonna put, you know, your conservative evangelical reform Christians in this room, some of them will have no assurance. Why? Why do they have no assurance? Well, for a variety of reasons, but it will all come back to, Jesus not being the perfect Savior. They might say, yes, I believe, but I'm not sure that when I accepted Christ, if I was sincere enough. Right? So now what's salvation? Your level of sincerity. Well, you might feel at the moment very sincere, but a year later, five years later, you might not feel so sincere. So were you or weren't you? Were you or weren't you not? Or you may lack assurance because you have fallen in deep and grievous sin. Now on the one hand, God can take and withdraw our assurance when we fall into deep and grievous sin in order to lead us to repentance. And you may lack assurance for a moment because of your greed great and grievous sins because, in fact, they're so wicked. But how many sins did Jesus die for? All of them, right? Any of you been a persecutor of the church? Any of you gone around to see that other people would be arrested tortured, maybe killed for being a Christian? And have you actively sought to blaspheme Christ? The Apostle Paul says, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor, yet I was shown mercy. because I acted ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was more than abundant. The grace of our Lord was more than abundant with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. It is a trustworthy statement deserving full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners among whom I am foremost. Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate his perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in him for eternal life. Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. You can't out-sin Paul. You can't out send some of the other saints of the Old Testament like David, Abraham, others. Jesus is a wonderful Savior. He's a perfect Savior. And those who believe on Christ, we have to learn to think about Christ in terms of that perfection. Whatever you need deliverance from, Christ has provided that. Whatever you need to stand in the presence of God and fear no condemnation, Christ has provided that. And the gospel is simply the proclamation of that promise. That not only are we delivered in the past tense from all of our sin and guilt and punishment, but that we will be conformed perfectly to his image. The gospel promises that. Remember all those whom he foreknew, he predestined, those he predestined, he justified, and those he justified, these he also what? Glorified. It's the gospel. And as hard as it sometimes to see yourself one day conformed to the image of Christ, you know your sin, you know your insecurities, you know your your inconsistencies, you know that the secret thoughts, the secret intentions that rattle around inside you that you would never share with anybody because they're so wicked, they're there, you know them, and you think, how can I be saved? Because that's exactly the kind of person Jesus saves. I'll close with a verse that I know I've told you before is one of my favorite verses in the book of Romans. Romans 4, 5, but the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the really, really good Christians, right? That's what it says, right? He justifies the really good Christians. No. He who believes in him who justifies the ungodly. But the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited. as righteousness, just as David also speaks of the blessings on the man for whom God credits righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven, Psalm 32, whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. Jesus is a perfect savior. Hard stop, or I guess you're supposed to say mic drop. It's who he is. The question is, do we believe him? And may God grant us to grow in that faith and the assurance that faith like that has to offer. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you that our hope is never of ourselves, even in the smallest way. Our hope is Christ, that he appeared at the right time to save ungodly people. And we thank you, Father, that your love is being demonstrated and that while we were yet enemies, you reconciled us to yourself through the death of Jesus. and having been reconciled by his death, how much more shall we be saved by his life? Whoever lives to intercede on our behalf, grant us the grace to hear and to believe. In Christ we pray, amen.