talk here for a moment as we begin the sermon about the Trinity, which will lead into a question I want to ask as we continue in this short little series about Jesus. Christianity believes that the Bible teaches that there is one God in three persons. Very basic doctrine that so many people get wrong, but it's the doctrine of the Trinity. And it's at one time very difficult to describe, and some of you, I think it was last week after church, we're having this great talk about the Trinity, and how do you talk about the Trinity? It's almost impossible in some ways, and yet it's vital for all the true knowledge that we have as Christians. Every formulation of the Trinity begins with the Father, okay? For example, in the Apostles' Creed, you start this way, I believe in God, the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. Or in the Nicene Creed that we read today, we believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible. And this really follows the Bible's own example about thinking about the three persons. For example, Paul writes this, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all things and for whom we exist. So in this way, we speak of the Father as the first person of the Holy Trinity. But why? So in this little book that I wrote on the unseen realm, I explain it in a question. The question asks, why is the first person called the Father? And the answer that I give is, the Father is the personal source of all things, the King of His creation, and from Him proceed the Son and the Spirit. And the key for the question I'm asking is this last part, from him proceed the Son and the Spirit. Now, as I've thought about that again this week, I think my language is probably not quite precise enough. It isn't that they don't both proceed, it's that they do so in different ways. Technically speaking, the Son is eternally begotten, and we looked at that even last week. But the Spirit proceeds, or the word they use is spirates, which means to be breathed out from the Father. But what I was after in the question is simply the fact that in the mystery of the Trinity, and though both fully God, the Son and the Spirit somehow originate in the Father, even though it's eternally so. They are not created. To put it in another way, the scripture never says that the son begets the father, or that the father proceeds from the spirit, okay? There's an order to the Trinity. And hence we call the father the first person, the son the second person, and the spirit the third person. Now given this simple fact that the father's the first person, I wanna ask a question. Today we're entering into the second week of this short series on Jesus. And so my question is, and I think I can ask this in multiple ways, why is it that Christians focus so much on Jesus? Why do we say, for example, Solus Christus, Christ alone? You might think from the order that the one we would focus on the most would be the Father, but we don't. We aren't called Fatherites or Spiritinians or something like this, right? We're called Christians. And so why is that? Well, it isn't because we do not worship the Father or the Spirit, and it's not because we wish to diminish their persons in any way. In fact, as we just saw, we confess the Father first. We know that he's the one who predestines all things and sovereignly orchestrates all things, and we could talk about that for an entire sermon if we wanted. We also believe that it's the Holy Spirit who now lives with us and in us as Christians, doing so much work to sanctify us and bring us to glory. And as such, he's the crowning work of our lives. So why would we focus on the second person? What makes him so important to us? The way to answer this question is not by asking the who question as we did last time when we were thinking about who is Jesus. Because as it regards who, the Father, Son, and Spirit are simply the one true God. I think the best answer comes from the what question. And therefore, if you want to know why he is so important to us, you have to ask what. And that's what we're doing, this who, what, where, when, and why. And we're looking at the what question today, the what of Jesus. So as it regards this question, I wanna focus on the works of Christ as the what, okay? To put it another way, what did he do? What does he do? And what will he do? And this is the threefold way that I want to talk about this this morning. Most of the time we'll be taking up with what did he do? Well, it isn't that these works of Christ are somehow greater than those of the Fathers or the Spirits, who each do their own works, and in fact, sometimes the works of the very same works, as we will see. Rather, it's that without the works of the second person doing the things that he did and will do, there isn't a human being on planet Earth that would have even the slightest opportunity to be saved, to have forgiveness of their sins, to understand and to know peace, or to have eternal life. That's true of the works of the father, but it is how the son carried out his works that is most remarkable. If those things don't matter to you, then surely the works that he will do in the future will be. And we'll talk about it at the very end. So let me begin with Jesus as the creator. There's a slogan that was made popular many decades ago that has gone through different phases of faddishness. I'm sure you remember it if you're anywhere older than even 20. Most recently, it created a lot of money for its marketers who made these little bracelets and other trinkets asking the question, what did Jesus do, right? Or sorry, what would Jesus do? While I understand the sentiment, we want to know how Jesus would react in any given situation. And because he was the perfect law keeper, his actions are a perfect model for us. It seems to me that the more basic question is what did Jesus do? Not what would Jesus do? So we're going to look at this for quite a bit of time here this morning. When the Bible introduces us to the works of the Son, it often does so by describing him as the Creator. In other words, what did Jesus do? He created all things. For example, I just quoted this text earlier about the Father. But the very next thing that it says is this. So it says, yet for us there's one God, the Father, and from whom are all things and for whom we exist. And then it goes on right away to say, and one Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist. It's interesting to me that the creeds kind of skip past this in their discussion of Jesus. They don't talk about Him as the Creator. They kind of move right into His incarnation and go to Him being born of the Virgin. But this is very common in the New Testament. When his work is introduced in Colossians, this is what it says, for by him all things were created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities. All things were created through him and for him, and he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. That's how his works begin in Colossians. After introducing the who of the second person in John at the very beginning of John's gospel, it immediately gives us the first what. And what is it? All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made. And then Hebrews does the very same thing at the very beginning of Hebrews. It's first what is this? Through whom also That is the son, he, the father, created the world. So Jesus is seen as the creator in Colossians and John and Hebrews at the very beginning of what they're talking about. And by the way, the Old Testament does the very same thing. As the father is working on creation, it says, of wisdom, who is Christ, I was beside him like a master workman, creating all things. In Psalm 136, it is the Lord of Lords, which is a title given directly to Jesus in the New Testament, who made the heavens and other things. In one instance, this even includes the second and third persons together when it says in Psalm 33, by the word of the Lord, the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth, all their hosts. So you have the word and the spirit right there together. But as it regards Christ especially, I think scripture does this because it wants to root the who of Christ, that is his deity, in that which is impossible for any creature. Only the creator can create, and since Jesus creates all things, he is the creator and he is God. So the what tells you about the who. Now this creating in Genesis 1, which is where most of us think of creation, kind of the epicenter of it, has a couple of very important functions. Genesis 1 does two things which are related to each other as it regards this, okay? The first is that it sets us up to understand that the creator God is creating in such a way that in all of chapter one and the beginning of chapter two, he's setting himself up to be king. Now, you might not see that clearly in the way you read chapter one. You go, where does it talk about God as king in Genesis one? Perhaps it's because you have other things on your mind that you don't know it, or maybe you don't know the ancient context of how Genesis one is written. So I want you to listen for just a moment to this story of Baal as he ascends to the throne of the sons of El. This is what it says, quickly his house they built, quickly they constructed his palace. They went to Lebanon and its trees, to Sirion and its choices cedars. Yes, Lebanon and its trees, Sirion and its choices cedars. Fire was placed in the house, flames in the palace, lo, a day. And a second day, fire burn in the house, flames in the palace. A third day and a fourth day, fire burn in the house, flames in the palace. A fifth and a sixth day, fire burn in the house, flames in the midst of the palace. Look, on the seventh day, the fire was removed from the palace, the flames from the palace. The silver has turned into ingots, the gold has been changed into bricks. Valiant Baal rejoiced, my house I have built of silver, my palace of gold. How long did it take him to do that? Six days, and what did he do on the seventh day? He ascended to become the king. Now, there's all kinds of ancient Near Eastern literature that talks about this exact same thing in seven days of the God's building. I want you to notice that it's the house that's built here in seven days, in six days, and it's completed on the seventh. The house is Baal's temple, and in scripture, the universe is God's temple. And the first part of that Genesis, the first part is that Genesis is setting up to you to understand that the Lord is displaying himself as king then, okay? That's what he's doing when he ascends to his rest on the seventh day. The second part that it's doing is that he's creating for himself a servant Lord who will rule over his kingdom, that is the earth, in his stead, and they call him a vassal king. So this is the function that Adam bears in Genesis 1 through 3, when in Genesis 1 he's given dominion, remember that? And then he's put into the garden to keep it and to work it in chapter 2. And then putting things in front of him to see what he would say about it, like the serpent in chapter 3, or the woman, or the animals. But there's an easier, more memorable way of putting these things. When the man speaks about a thing, what's he doing? He's taking on the function of a prophet. Or when he keeps silent, he's refusing to do that office. When the man works and keeps the garden, he's doing the job of a priest. The very same words are used of the Levites, and they're translated to serve and to guard the tabernacle. And finally, when he carries out his dominion, what's he doing? He's acting as a king. So he's the prophet, the priest, and the king. This is his threefold duty that God gave to Adam in the garden. And in giving man and his helpmate Eve these responsibilities, he created mankind in his image. And he gave every single one of us this intrinsic dignity and worth and task. Now as I hinted at a moment ago, there was a huge problem because almost immediately Adam went astray. Rather than speak truth to the father of lies, Adam remained silent and he let the serpent deceive Eve. Rather than guard the holy sanctuary of Eden from the wiles of the wicked one, Adam is nowhere to be found in the early part of the temptation story. And rather than kick the Nahash out of the garden, thereby protecting it as a king should do, he let the devil tempt his wife to the point that he even ate the fruit with her. A friend of mine, a pastor's wife, posted a picture that I saw this morning of her picking an apple. And she posted and she said, I'm picking an apple to give it to my husband. This probably isn't going to turn out very well. Okay. Adam was totally negligent of his threefold official duties and thereby he failed the Lord who made him and gave him these responsibilities. So it's vitally important for understanding what Adam was to do when we look internally at what Christ did. So this can actually be seen immediately, what Christ did. What Christ did is actually there in the garden of Eden. And you go, what am I talking about? Okay, this is something that's often lost in the episode of the curse, which usually takes up all of our attention. There's a serpent there, there's a man and a woman, but there's somebody else who's in the garden. Somebody else enters the picture in chapter three. That someone seems to have been there physically. He was walking in the garden, do you remember? He was somehow able to kill an animal and put the skins of the creature on our first parents. His name is Yahweh. Now listen to what some in the church have said about this person. First one is from Theophilus of Antioch, early church father. He says, the God and father indeed cannot be contained and is not found in a place for there is no place of his rest but his word through whom he made all things being his power and his wisdom went to the garden and conversed with Adam. Augustine said, and first, in that which is written in Genesis, that God spoke with man, whom he had formed out of the dust. God then spoke with man in the appearance of a man. I do not see how such a walking and conversation of God can be understood literally, except he appeared as a man. Who then was he? Possibly, it indicates the son as speaking to the first man. And then there's this little quote. It is generally agreed among the divines that Adam, in the state of perfection, knew God in Trinity and unity. Jerome Zanke, who was a major Italian reformer, contemporary with Calvin, asserts that Jehovah the Son exhibited himself visibly to Adam, and talked with him, and made himself known to him, and as his God and governor, before he gave him the precepts of obedience, as he did to the Jews, before he gave the law to Moses. And he tells us that several of the ancients, Justin, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and others, were of the mind that it was Jehovah the Son who created Adam, placed him in paradise, appeared visibly to him, discoursed with him, and whose voice he heard, and at which he trembled when he had transgressed." The idea here is that this is the very first appearance of the angel of the Lord, whom we saw last week as the second person of the Trinity. But importantly, it's what does the angel do here that I want us to think about? So he does three things. He speaks to the serpent, to the woman, and to the man. And the words that he speaks are judgment from the Lord himself. He also tells us something much, much greater is coming. Not through judgment only, but through grace. Genesis 3.15, I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. What he's doing here is carrying out the duties of a prophet. He casts all three out of the Garden of Eden and placed cherubim at the door to guard its entrance. He also mediates between God and man by killing a sacrificial animal which becomes the skins that they may use to cover themselves and receive forgiveness of their sins. Those are the duties of a priest. And finally he does all of this on the authority that he established when he took his rest on day seven when he became the king. He acted as king and he did what any king should have done and what Adam didn't do. Now this is the Lord doing these three things. Now we could spend hours looking at how the Son does these things throughout the Old Testament. For example, prophecy is so voluminous in the Old Testament that it probably takes up about a quarter of the entire Bible. All of these words came to the prophets by the word of God and therefore they prophesied what the Son was telling them to say because he was the prophet. From the divine intercession of the angel at the flood, in judgment and in grace, to his interceding on behalf of Abraham, whom he told to sacrifice his only son, to the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai, there's much priestly work that he does in the Old Testament. And then there is the continual unbroken grace in taking rebellious people out of sin to be his own treasured possession from Adam to Noah and Abraham and Jacob to David, and to the very nation itself. And he sat down in that nation in his Ark of the Covenant. And the whole Old Testament is about his work as a king. But it has to be his work in the New Testament that's really the reason why we're called Christians. As glorious as his works of old were, it is his new works that are even greater than these. So to help you see how amazing that work is, I think it can be really helpful to understand that this New Testament work, which is the same kind of work that we've just described, is actually predicted in prophecy. But I wondered, as I was thinking about this, maybe you've forgotten how amazing biblical prophecy actually is. So I want to impress upon you what we're about to see by looking at a couple of quote-unquote famous predictions of Nostradamus, all right? Here's one thing that he predicts. From the depths of the West of Europe, a young child will be born of poor people. He who by his tongue will seduce a great troop, his fame will increase towards the realm of the East. So who is this mystery man of the future? Is it Robespierre? Maybe it's Napoleon. Or maybe it's Lenin. Or Mussolini. No, it's Hitler. Yes, Hitler is the obvious choice. Just go look it up on Google. Everybody says this is about Hitler. The problem is Hitler wasn't born to a middle class family. He was born to a middle class family, not a poor one. But other than that, it's reasonable that he's talking about Hitler or actually about a whole bunch of different people. But wait, see, there's another one that he said that proves it. Here's a different one. Beasts ferocious with hunger will cross the rivers. The greater part of the battlefield will be against hister. Into a cage of iron will the great one be drawn when the child of Germany observes nothing. And so you find this little prophecy and they go, Hister, see it sounds just like Hitler. See how specific he was? And I thought, well, that's great. Desert almost looks the same as desert when you spell them. The fact that Hister is actually Latin for the Danube River, is a yummy fact that should leave believers in a hot, arid place. It's ridiculous. The prophecies of Messiah are not like the prophecies of Nostradamus. Some explain that he would be born of a virgin. Pretty specific and exactly fulfilled. Others, that he would come from the city of Bethlehem. Again, totally specific. There are so many more of these that we could take the rest of our time and not exhaust them. The odds of one person fulfilling them all are statistically impossible unless it's a preordained plan. Three of these are the offices of prophet, priest, and king. The Messiah would be the prophet to the world, the one who would speak God's truth to the ends of the earth, Deuteronomy 18. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. Jesus directly fulfills this in Acts 3 and Acts 7. The Messiah would be the high priest over a royal priesthood. It says, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. This one is shown to be fulfilled in Hebrews 5 and 6 and 7. This promise incredibly is made to the Lord of King David by his Lord. But who could that possibly be except the eternal son of God? And Jesus himself says that very thing. Finally, Messiah would be the king and have a kingdom. This is found, for instance, in that same exact verse in Psalm 110. The Lord says to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. And in Psalm 2, this same promise is decreed. As for me, I have set my king in Zion, my holy hill. I will tell of the decree. The Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, the end of the earth your possession. And those two are probably the two most quoted Old Testament passages in the New Testament. Both of them are about Jesus. The fact that these prophecies were made by various men over the course of 1,000 years all pointing to one future individual sometime over a millennium before he would be born is stunning. But only if the prophecies actually came true. So I'm gonna ask, how did they come true? This is where the work of Christ sets him apart and shows the glories of God in ways that the world had never known before. We saw the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18, I will raise up for you a prophet like you from among your brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak all that I command him. And these words are quoted by Peter in Acts as he gives a sermon about Jesus. And after recounting the last few days of the trial of Jesus and his death and his resurrection, Peter then tells the people this. Moses said, the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your brothers. You shall listen to him in whatever he tells you. And it shall be that every soul who does not listen to that prophet shall be destroyed from the people. And we saw last time that the father said near the end of Jesus's life at the transfiguration, he said, this is my son. But he goes on to say, listen to him. And Peter was there. Peter's the one giving the sermon in action. Peter heard those words at the transfiguration. So listen to him what? Listen to him prophesy. For example, immediately after this event, as they were still walking down the slopes of Hermon at the Transfiguration, Jesus tells them for the umpteenth time, he says, I tell you that Elijah had already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased, so also the Son of Man will certainly suffer at their hands. But Peter knew that even after all this, He did not listen. Jesus told Peter a little later on that before the cock would crow, he would deny the Lord three times, but he didn't listen. He never listened to Jesus until the events finally came true and he finally saw Jesus as a prophet. Throughout his life, Jesus was not only predicting, but he was teaching. Particularly, he was teaching about life in the kingdom of heaven. Through as many parables he taught them. He taught them often as the prophets did in their parables. In fact, he even quoted one of the prophets in one of his parables when he said, you will indeed hear but never understand and you will indeed see but never perceive. Listen to him. They didn't listen until it was proven true. And then the masses of them finally did through the proclamation of these very things after Pentecost. On one great occasion near the beginning of his ministry, Jesus was reenacting the life of Moses when he's born and a king seeks to kill him when he's two years old and he goes down into Egypt and he comes back out through the water and he goes up into the wilderness for 40 and then he comes to the top of a mountain where the law would be given. That's exactly what happens in Moses' life. But Jesus didn't rise to a trembling mountain of smoke and fear and terror, but to a beautiful mountain from this pristine paradise that overlooks the tranquil Sea of Galilee. He gave the people a sermon of grace and law. He gave them the Beatitudes, which are all grace. And then he gave them law in the form of teaching the people all that was already there, that he himself had put there when he gave it to Moses in the first place. And he made it clearer now than it ever had been before. And he spoke as one with authority, telling them of the righteousness of God." See, this is what prophets do, especially the great prophet who, through these many different events of speaking throughout his ministry, was cutting a new covenant with a new covenant people on tablets that would be made of flesh rather than stone. So Jesus is the great prophet. And that's his work, is to act as a prophet. While the prophetic work of Christ tells you how to live and where to find life, it's the priestly work of Jesus that's responsible for making both of those things possible. And frankly, this is the work that more than the other two of prophet and king, it's the priestly work that really is the reason, I think, why we are Christians. Because the prophetic work seals up that he's divine and the kingly work makes that all possible. But it's the priestly work itself that is so precious to the Christian. So what is his priestly work? The prophecy again was, the Lord has sworn and will not change his mind, you are a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews cites this verse many times, all of them in the context of Jesus's earthly priestly ministry. And it does this because there was a great problem of his ministry, which is, how could he even carry out a ministry when he's not from the tribe of Levi? The answer is, Levi paid tithes to the priest king Melchizedek and the loins of Abraham. In other words, Melchizedek and his priesthood are greater than Levi and his. And Jesus is a priest after that order. It says, in the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications with loud cries and tears to him who was able to save him from death. And that comes immediately after it quotes the Melchizedek verse. This verse shows two priestly works. First one is his prayers. Jesus acted as an intercessor, but here he's interceding for himself. And terribly, because it's a burden to the Christian and because it lessens the glory of Christ and because it does not understand the paganism involved in the behavior. Terribly, some teach that saints or Mary make intercession for us. But Paul says there's only one mediator between God and men, the man Jesus Christ. And it is Jesus, not the saints, who always lives to make intercession for the saints, in Hebrews. See intercession is priestly work. It is a standing in the gap between man and God as a mediator. Second thing it does after the intercessory work is it talks about Jesus dying. Specifically it says Jesus did this in the days of his flesh. Now this is vital on so many levels. You see, men need mediation because they're sinners. But God owes something to man for their sin. Namely, he owes them justice. Our death is that justice. In fact, it's called the wages that we earn that God pays us back with. And so this is the relationship between humans and God that needs reconciliation if hope of salvation is to be had. And so in one person, in his perfect substitution and atonement, he made this. Jesus became a man to receive the payment of death that was due to men. But Jesus is God in order that he might be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in him. Jesus had to be both man and God to at one time pay that which man owes and at the other to accept that which is paid. And this becomes his sin-atoning sacrifice for sin. It becomes a substitute, like the sacrifices of old in accordance with so much Old Testament law and typology and prophecy. This is why he's called the Lamb of God, because he's the intercessor in sacrifice. It's so he can do the work of his sacrifice. But this time, a perfect human sacrifice that can actually pay off the debt and bring reconciliation between God and man. Now last week my keyword verse was, I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ. And the second half verse says, and him crucified. And I looked at the first part last week. This is the second part that we're talking about today. Beloved, the cross is literally everything that we have as Christians. We stake everything here, even as He was literally staked there. Colossians says, by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, this He set aside, nailing it to the cross. See, without it, there is no hope. Without it, justice is not given out by God. Without it, man has not paid the debt of sin. Without it, there's no sacrifice that takes away sin. Without it, there's no glory and resurrection and newness of life. Like the phoenix, it is only after death that new life can begin. It's only after the sacrifice that a new covenant can be cut in the blood. It's only after the foolishness of God dying that the wisdom of God and salvation and grace is revealed. I feel like I should probably say something here at this point. Something that was very much on the mind of Martin Luther like all the time. Because he saw in his day the churches. wanting the glory of God. And they talked about these ways that men would go up to heaven. You would ascend up through mysticism, or you would ascend up through merit, or you would ascend up through radical speculation. And it was always about the glory. And I'm telling you, in the church today, it's about the glory. We want the glory. We want God to bring down the fire. We sing about wanting to see the fire and so on. Luther was about one thing and one thing only, and it's why we have Protestant Reformation. It's because of this. Because he cared about the cross. The foolishness of the cross. People don't want to hear about the cross. They want to wear it on their neck, but they don't want to hear about it. Because it doesn't make any sense. Okay? It's not exciting, but it's the only thing that gives us hope in this world. Another great work of Christ as mediator is his destruction of the works of Satan. This is his mediatorial work as a priest. Now this is actually said in the very next breath of the apostle when he quotes Colossians 2. By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands, he set aside, nailing to the cross, he disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. Very next words. Long ago, Ambrose wrote, for that dread Leviathan, that is the devil, and wait for Sunday school for talk about more about that, okay? He smote and struck down and laid low in the last times by the adorable passion of his own body. See, what you have to understand is that from as many miracles of casting out demons, to his descending to the place of the dead, to proclaim liberty to the captives in hell, to leading a host of captives on his train to heaven, Jesus was destroying the works of the devil by dying to set us free from the evil one, to being raised to new life and proclaimed as the Son of God in the world. This is the fulfillment of the first part of Genesis 3.15. That's his work, it's priestly work. It's a cleansing of that which is unclean, even as Jesus' other miracles of healing the sick and raising the dead were priestly things as well. This is typified in the law, in not being allowed to touch a dead body, okay? Why couldn't you do that? Or needing a priest to pronounce someone with a skin disease clean or unclean. Why would you do that? Unclean is bad, clean is good. It's the priest's work to do this. See, his entire ministry is a priestly intercession from his baptism in the water that ordained him into the priesthood to his death on the cross as a sacrifice. And he becomes the perfect mediator, the only one who has or ever will exist who stands between man and God. It's why you must come to him and him alone. It's because of the glorious works of Christ as high priest. People don't understand. Why is it that Jesus is the only way to God? It's because he's the only mediator between God and man. There is no one else who's done this. Let's look at the last one, Jesus is king. The scripture says, as for me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill. You are my son, today I have begotten you. Ask of me and I'll make the nations your inheritance, the end of the earth your possession. So from his very first moments on earth, Jesus Christ was known even by the foreign pagan wise men to be the king of the Jews. Remember? Where is the one born king of the Jews, they said to Herod? We'll also look at that this morning. How did they know about this? His genealogy goes straight back to David through the kings of Israel. He's the king. Herod, the king of the region, knew it and he tried to kill the baby Jesus, thereby causing him to flee to Egypt. All of this is done in fulfillment of specific prophecy of a king that is coming. Herod knew it. At the culmination of his earthly ministry, Jesus Christ came to Jerusalem to enter what would be his final week in the flesh. He did so to the fanfare of the celebrations of the kings of old. You go, what are you talking about? Palm Sunday, celebration of the kings of old. Yes, he rode in on a donkey just like his father Solomon before him. To the shouts of Hosanna to the son of David, who's David, he's the king. More fulfillment of kingly prophecy. At his trial, the very man responsible for his eventual death, Pontius Pilate, said to him, so you are a king? And Jesus answered, you say that I am? It's a great answer. In other words, Pilate knew he was king, and he proved it later, that day, when he had a plaque made that said the very same thing, king of the Jews, and it got all these chief priests angry at him. Don't write king of the Jews, right? He said he was the king of the Jews, and Pilate was like, what I have written, I have written. During the trial, when a prisoner was to be released, like the great scapegoat of old, Pilate presented Jesus as the king to the people. Do you want me to release for you the king of the Jews? The people and the soldiers were stirred up by the priests and they said, no. The same soldiers, during the trial, Jesus mocked him with the language, hail, king of the Jews. And another batch did the same thing at the crossing. King of the Jews, come down from there. And it was at this moment when Christ was staked down to Mount Calvary with a hammer and nails piercing through his flesh that the Lord set his son on that holy hill as king for all the waiting eyes of the world to witness, declaring, this is the king, this is my son. That's the foolishness of the cross. What are you talking about, this is my king? He's dying on a cross. The dumbest thing anyone's ever thought of. The only thing that can save your life. The culmination of a life of perfect obedience, perfect teaching, perfect sacrifice. The culmination of all the what's Jesus did. He's the prophet, the priest, the king. That's what he is. It's what he did. So that's past tense. Move shortly to the present tense and even shorter to the future tense. Present tense. Now that you know what he did, you should know what he does. First thing you need to know is that Jesus saves. Jesus is a beautiful savior, a savior of any and all who turn to him. The way he does this is by justifying you in a court of heaven. The accuser of the brothers has been thrown down and the advocate stands at your right hand as your defense. This is such an offensive doctrine that the infamous Charles Finney calls it a legal fiction, impossible and absurd, false and nonsensical, and a different gospel. But it's rooted in the perfect obedience of Christ, his perfect work of law keeping, his substitutionary death on your behalf. And if you will not have this, then you cannot have life, for there is no other life outside of the life of the work of Jesus Christ. But for all who trust him, he will justify and he will save you. This means he will forgive you of your sins. While he canceled the debt that men owe him at the cross, sins are forgiven, Only when a person comes to faith in Christ. You're not forgiven before that. Not even the elect are. They're born under God's wrath. Beloved, when you turn to Christ, though, all of your sins, once and for all, no matter how many they are, are forgiven by Jesus Christ. And they will not be held against you because Christ died for them. As John says, I am writing to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven for his name's sake. And Paul says, in him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Presently, Jesus also intercedes for us. He does so through his Holy Spirit, whom he gives to all who call upon him in faith. And I wish we had time to talk about the Spirit's present work in your life. But just so you understand, it is the Spirit of Jesus who does this. And therefore, because they're one, the work of the Spirit is also the work of Christ inasmuch as he's the one who gives the Spirit to you. All of this is his present work that he's doing right now. And then finally, as you think about your own response to these things, I want to ask about the future. What will he do? One of the things Jesus told us is that he was leaving so that he might go to his father to prepare a place for his people. Now that work began 2,000 years ago when he ascended, but it continues today and on into the future until the moment when the Lord Jesus Christ will descend with the clouds of heaven in a glorious second coming. At that coming, two things will happen. First, Jesus will save his people to the uttermost. There will be a final vindication for the elect that is rooted in the perfect, accomplished work of Christ. He will tell them, well done, my good and faithful servant. He will give them new, eternal, sinless bodies that will be like His own resurrected body, and they will rule with Him for eternity. But Jesus is also coming to judge the living and the dead. To those who have received Him and believe in His name, He will give them crowns based on their faithful obedience to Him in life. They will be judged in Christ for the things done in the body, and their sins will not be held against them. but because they stubbornly refuse to believe in him or simply because they just persist in their rebellion and sin against God. The Lord Jesus will cast into outer darkness those who do not love the son in this life. There they will weep and gnash their teeth. The worm will not die and the fire will not be quenched. Make no mistake, as it was in the days of Noah and Sodom, when Yahweh called upon Yahweh to send fire to devour, it is the Son's judgment of the world that will be final and just and true. Make no mistake, it is the Son of God who is the judge. The Father has given Him authority to execute judgment because He is the Son of Man, John says. And I could give you 50 scriptures that say that Jesus is the judge in the world to come. But this is the judgment. The light has come into the world and people love darkness rather than the light because their works are evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come into the light lest his work should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes into the light so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God. And so therefore, as you think about the things that we're talking about this morning, Jesus and the what question, I implore you, having heard of these marvelous past, present, and future works of Jesus Christ, having learned now the what of Jesus, do not let another moment pass without having gone to him in prayer to forgive you of your sins and to justify you before the Father. And continue to do so all the days of your life. Don't stop going to him when you sin. Repent of your sin, trust in him, believe in him and don't stop it. He will do these things for today is not the day of judgment, it is the day of salvation. These are the great works of Jesus for sinners. Father, I ask you bless the hearing of your word this morning. Thank you that we get to think about the Lord Jesus Christ in a really intense, intensive sort of a way in these weeks. Thank you that we get to think about what his works have been today. His works are supreme in all things and there isn't anyone that has ever lived that can come even a fraction close to the things that he did. He changed the world and turned it upside down because of his works and it's why we're Christians. So we thank you for his works. Without them we have no hope of salvation. His works are amazing and I would pray that you would help us to think about them for the rest of this week when we go off into our own areas of work or Whatever it is that we do, cause us to think on the works of Christ. And Father, if there is somebody here who does not know you, cause them to turn to Christ, cause them to pray to Him, to beg for mercy, to ask Him to forgive them of their sins and to save them, for this is exactly what He will do. That's what the gospel tells us. And I would ask, Lord, for all your people who have done this, keep us close to the sun by your word. Help us to remember these things and wash us with them as you sanctify us with them. The gospel is how you change us, and that's what we've talked about this morning. So I pray that you would use that gospel for the salvation and sanctification of your people in Christ's name, amen.