Well, dear congregation, the catechism passage that we hope to study this Lord's Day Six, in many ways, it fits well with this time of year, this time of Advent. Often in these weeks that we spend time considering some of the prophecies of the Old Testament, and we're pointing ahead to the coming Christ. We're looking at some of the promises in which Christ is promised. One of these Old Testament promises that we might think of was that the Savior would be born to a son of David. And yet as we look at the Old Testament to the sons that were born to David, to other kings who came and sat on the throne after him, whether it's the wise and rich Solomon, whether it's the stubborn Rehoboam, whether it's the wicked Manasseh, or the godly Josiah, All of these were clearly not the long-awaited Messiah, the Redeemer, the one who would come as a descendant of David. All of these, while they at times may have had some godly characteristics, they may at times have had seasons of obedience, even Manasseh when he repented, When we look at their lives, we come to a conclusion. These are flawed, fallen, sinful men, just like we are. They too, like us, need a savior. And after the Jewish exiles came back to the land of Israel from Babylon, we don't read much of this line of David anymore. And in the days of Jesus, it seems like most of the descendants of David are living in relative obscurity. And as we look at Jesus Christ, the son of David, the one who has revealed himself so gloriously in his word, we see that now finally, here is the promised son of David. As we've been going through the catechism, we've progressively been moving to this catechism, Lord, or the section that we're at today, when now finally the identity of Christ will be set before us. The identity of the mediator will be revealed. In Lord's days two through four, we focus on our need for a mediator. We learn that we are sinners as we stand exposed before the law of God. We learn that we are guilty sinners who have even the sin of Adam and Eve because they were our representatives there in paradise. Well, Lord's Day 5 is the first Lord's Day in a section of deliverance. But instead of saying, here's the way of deliverance, here's the mediator, it begins by saying that, it begins reminding us by teaching us that our salvation will never happen at the expense of God's justice. God will not push his justice aside and somehow receive us in mercy. at that expense. Neither can we save ourselves. We are sinners who daily increase our guilt before God. And the third thing we learn from Lord's Day 5 is that no mere creature is able to suffer the wrath of God. God is not going to punish a creature who has not sinned, that they cannot endure this punishment. And Lord's Day 5 ended by setting before us two important qualifications, that this mediator who was coming, he had to be a real man, but he also had to be very God. As you come to Lord's Day 6 in this afternoon, it comes back again to these two key qualities. Then it's gonna go on to show us the Savior, and then it's gonna end by showing us how we can know that this is true. But our theme last time was looking for a mediator. But today as we come to this section, it's finding the mediator. Here the mediator is going to be set before us. And with the Lord's help, we're going to consider who this mediator is. How that first of all, he is uniquely qualified. And then secondly, how he is perfectly sufficient. And then thirdly, how he is gloriously revealed. The main idea this afternoon is that Jesus Christ, He is both a righteous man and very God. This Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator as shown to us throughout Scripture. I'll begin then by seeing how He is uniquely qualified. Question 16 asks us, why must He be very man and also perfectly righteous? The answer given is because the justice of God requires that the same human nature which has sin should likewise make satisfaction for sin. And one who is himself a sinner cannot satisfy for others. This comes back to the principle that God is not going to punish some other creature, whether it's an angel or an animal, for our sin. It is man that has sinned. It is man that has rebelled against God. It is we as people who keep on sinning against God. And it is man that has to bear the punishment for sin. This is why the Son of God, in order to be able to suffer in our place, had to become a person like us. And the verse I had written down here that shows it so strongly is 1 Timothy 2, verses five and six. I think our brother Dom was looking at my notes this week as we keep going back to the same text. And in this verse, it so clearly emphasizes Christ's saving work by pointing to his human nature. We're told that there's one God and one mediator between God and man. the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time. We also know that our Savior needs to be more than just an ordinary man. He had to be a special kind of man. And the qualification that we see here in the Catechism and throughout Scripture is that He has to be a righteous man. Now in our sermon this morning, we mentioned that Joseph was a just man, that he was a upright man. We can think back to the Old Testament, we can think of Noah and the description of Noah we have in Genesis 6 verse 9 that says, Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. Now, what's the difference here between Joseph or Noah, who are described as being just or being upright, and this mediator? If they were so just, if they were upright, why could they not be the Savior? And when the Bible uses these descriptions of other men or even women, it never means that they were without sin. The Bible does not tell us that Joseph was sinless or that Noah was sinless. Ultimately, they were upright, they were righteous, because they had received the redeeming work of God. And because of God's work in their life, they sought to live a life of obedience, a life of uprightness before God. Well, Jesus did not have perfect righteousness given to him from someone else, but he had this in himself. Now, Joseph could be just, Noah could be just, because they looked by faith to the coming Savior, and by faith they were saved, by faith they were made righteous. But with Jesus Christ, if He had sinned just once, He'd be disqualified as a Savior for others. If Jesus sinned even just once, then He would have to suffer and to die to pay for His own sin. He cannot then be a sacrifice or a savior of others. One pastor puts it this way, Jesus was the only human in all of history who did not need redemption. And therefore, he was the only human in all of history who could bring about redemption. And again, I already said this, that Jesus meets this righteous requirement. We can see that throughout scripture. And one very prominent example is Hebrews 7 verse 26, which says this, for such a high priest was fitting for us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. So in Jesus Christ, we find here someone, someone who is a real man, as we're seeing throughout these weeks of Advent, one who also is perfectly righteous, and therefore he could be a savior for others. But it's not enough for Jesus just to have been a perfectly righteous man. He needs to be more than this. Do you remember the punishment for sin? The Bible here is very clear. The wages of sin is death. And when we think of this death, this result that comes from sin, we can think of death in three ways. There's a spiritual death, and even for Adam and Eve, as soon as they sinned, they had this spiritual death. They lost the uprightness, this perfection that they had before God. And this is how we come into this world, spiritually dead. We are spiritually dead with the guilt of original sin, And God's word tells us that we're inclined to hate God and to hate our neighbor. There's also physical death. Unless Christ comes back, all of us are going to die. This again is the result of sin, physical death. And the third aspect of this death that is a consequence of sin is eternal death. Eternal death, which is spending eternity in hell. This is what faces all those who refuse to repent, all those who refuse to come to Christ. This is what's waiting for them at the end of the road. So this is the punishment that we deserve is this eternal death. And how then can a ordinary person stand before God and face his wrath? Nahum 1 verse 6, it asks this, who can stand before his indignation and who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. No ordinary person can stand before God. No ordinary person can face the full wrath, the justice of God. This is what question 17 is getting at in our catechism when it asks this, why must he in one person be also a very God? And the answer given is that he might by the power of his Godhead sustain in his human nature the burden of God's wrath and might obtain for us and restore to us righteousness and life. When we think of Christ being a mediator, of Christ suffering in our place, this divine nature is extremely important, not just because the Son of God cannot stop being God as He came into this world, He doesn't lay aside His divinity when He became a man, but also because in this divine nature, He has the infinite power of God that He needs to uphold Him as He faces the wrath of God. Do you think of His divine nature here, this infinite power of God that Christ had? This did not make His suffering on the cross more comfortable. It's not as though here Christ, when He's suffering, He gets relief of pain because He's also divine. No, the opposite is true. Christ, the divine nature of Christ enabled him to suffer in ways far beyond any ordinary person can suffer. It was this power, this divine power that he had in his divine nature that enabled him to suffer the full weight of God's wrath pressing down upon him. This made him able to experience the eternal suffering of hell, everlasting hell, on the behalf of all of his people in a number of hours. We confess that, don't we, in the Apostles' Creed, that he descended into hell. We believe this is referring to the suffering of Christ on the cross. And he was able to endure an eternity of hell because he was divine. In a book I have on the Catechism, I came across this example. And there it's pointing back to the altar of burnt offering, which was to be built and to be used with the tabernacle. It's describing the altar there, this altar that was made out of wood, but then covered with bronze. And it's saying there, or the pastor there is making the connection that, in a way, this is like Christ. The wood is like His human nature, but this covering of metal over top of it is like His divine nature. And just like the bronze covering on the altar kept the wood from being consumed as the sacrifice is being burned, in the same way, the divine nature of Christ is keeping the human nature of Christ from being consumed under God's wrath. He's pointing back there saying this is a way in which we can picture this human and divine nature working together on the cross. The last point I want to make here in this first thought is that Jesus is a real man. That is, he has a real human nature. He's also very God at the same time. While Jesus has these two distinct natures, they are together in one person. So when we think and we speak of Christ, we don't speak of, well, here is Jesus, the person, and here is Jesus, the divine being. And when Christ came into this world, He took to Himself this human nature. Now we have in one person these two distinct natures. Now there are times in the Bible when we might read something of Christ that is true particularly of His human nature. You could think, for example, of what's written in Luke chapter two, when it says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man. This here is speaking specifically of his human nature. Even during that time when Jesus was a child, when he was growing up, when he was growing in his wisdom and favor, during all this time, he still was also very God. and how exactly Christ can have these two different natures together in one person. This is one of the mysteries that we find in God's Word that we can understand to a limited degree, but can never fully comprehend. What we see in Christ is a Savior who is uniquely qualified. He is perfect man, a righteous man. That's why He can suffer in our place. He's also very God. And it's this divine nature that also gives him the power, the ability to suffer in our place. Let's go on on our second thought to see how this mediator is not just uniquely qualified, but also perfectly sufficient. He's perfectly sufficient. Question 18, it asks this, who then is that mediator who is in one person both very God and a real righteous man? So this is what we've been building up for now for the last weeks. And the catechism wants to impress on us our need of salvation. Through these weeks, it's reminding us we cannot save ourselves, other things around us can't save you, And the point is that when we come to this answer, that we would be, by God's grace, be willing and ready to receive this Savior. So this is why the catechism leads us in this way, that we know that we can't save ourselves, that we need a Savior. And now, as we are told, this is the Savior, that by God's grace, we would receive Him, that we would rejoice in Him. Well, the answer given there is our Lord Jesus Christ, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. Here in Jesus Christ, there's a full and complete salvation. There's a salvation that we as sinners need. In Christ, there's a restoration of what was lost back in paradise. We had wisdom. We had righteousness. We had a holiness before God, but we lost all of that. But now, through this mediator, we can be redeemed from sin and evil. Christ coming to us as this mediator, He is rescuing us from this highway that is leading us to hell and to destruction. and because we have fallen in sin, because we have gone through this world and as we have seen that we have no holiness, as we see that we have no wisdom, we come to appreciate all the more this wisdom that Christ gives us. We often hear the saying, you don't realize how much something meant to you until you lose it. That's true, isn't it? We so often take things for granted. And once those things disappear, it's like, I really miss that. I wish I still had that. If you can somehow get it back, then you then value it more than ever before. Now, we never personally experience the righteousness and holiness that Adam and Eve had in paradise. We certainly know what it is to live without it, don't we? As you look around the world around us, We see that there's such a lack of true wisdom. We see there's so much unrighteousness, so much wickedness, so much brokenness. Well, this afternoon, I do not want to spend too much time on the names of Christ. We'll come back to that in a few weeks. When the Catechism says, our Lord Jesus Christ, there should be no question in our mind who this is. There is only one Lord Jesus Christ. There's only one Jesus Christ who has been revealed to us in God's Word as the Savior of sinners. This is who the catechism is pointing us to. As we look again at the answer from question 18, much of it is a direct quotation from 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30 says this, If you compare the catechism to the text in our Bibles, it's a bit different. The catechism is using the King James translation. As we consider now the benefits that we have in Christ, We see how wide-ranging the work of Christ is on the behalf of His people. Christ in His work both takes away and He gives. When we come to faith in Christ, when we come to rest in Christ's finished work, He takes away our sin. He takes away our guilt. And in its place, He gives us spiritual life. spiritual life that is described here in this verse in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. When we believe in Christ, we receive Christ. And when we receive Christ, we receive all of the benefits that come with Christ. So we begin then with wisdom. Several times in the Old Testament, we were told this, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And a mark of being a child of God is that we have a reverence, a awe for God. So when God begins to work, when we have received Christ, when we have received the wisdom of Christ, we're gonna show that wisdom by fearing the Lord. In Job 28, Job adds to this. Job writes there, behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding. As you look at the Lord Jesus Christ, throughout His life, He exemplifies this. He shows this wisdom. He had a perfect godly fear for His Father. And He was always departing from evil. He always never gave in to evil. And when we receive Christ, we begin to show something of this wisdom of God, this godly fear and avoiding of evil. Well, next we have righteousness. To be righteous means to be right in God's sight. Again, it's only possible through Christ. We need both that taking away of our sin and guilt and to receive His righteousness. It's what Christ has done, isn't it, in His life, in His death. On the cross, He has died for the sins of His people. He has taken their sin and their guilt and taken it upon Himself. but also through His obedience. He has given us His righteousness. Next, we have sanctification. And sanctification deals with holiness. And here again, when we receive Christ, Christ has given to us His holiness. And He also, in sanctification, continues to work in us through His Word and Spirit, so we begin to reflect His holiness in our lives. What does that look like? The Catechism says later on, that we begin more and more to hate and to flee from sin, and with love and delight to live according to the will of God in all good works. So in sanctification, when we receive Christ, we receive His holiness. But also then there's that lifelong process of becoming, being made more like Christ. The last benefit that we have listed here in 1 Corinthians 1 is redemption. Christ is made unto us redemption. And redemption means to be redeemed, to be bought back, to be set free. In and through Christ we have a complete deliverance from sin and Satan. We're brought from this world of darkness and this world of brokenness. We become members of His glorious kingdom, His kingdom of light. Revelation 5, verse 9, we can read of the 24 elders around the throne of God. And they're there and they sing a new song saying, you are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals for you are slain and have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation. So in and through Christ, this mediator, we have wisdom, we have righteousness, we have sanctification, We have redemption. There's one more thing I want to point out here before we go on, and that's that the answer to question 18 does not say that this mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ, but our Lord Jesus Christ. It's not just telling us about some mediator over there that has this to offer. It's reminding us of this personal relationship that we need to have with Christ in order to receive these benefits. We need to come to belong to Him. He needs to become our Savior, our Lord, our Messiah, our Christ. Have we come to Him for that? Can we say this evening, this is our Lord Jesus Christ. Not just the Lord Jesus Christ, but my Lord Jesus Christ. As long as we're going through this life without Christ becoming my personal Savior and your personal Savior, you're still living without all these benefits. You're still living without this wisdom, without this righteousness, without this holiness. You're still living without being redeemed, without being made right with God. Have you come to see your lack of wisdom? If you come to see that in yourself you have no righteousness, as God showed you through your word that you have no holiness, no sanctification in yourself, as He showed you your need of redemption, as He led you to cry out to God, Lord, save me from my foolishness. Save me from going on in my own way. Lord, deliver me from sin. Lord, take away my guilt, my unrighteousness. If you cried out to God, Lord, redeem me. Redeem me both in body and soul and bring me back to this fellowship, this communion, this perfect union that we can find in Christ with the Father. There needs to be this personal response to Christ. So far this afternoon we've seen that Christ is uniquely qualified. You see how He's perfectly sufficient as He meets our spiritual needs in all four of these different ways. But how or from where can we know this? This is what question nine is asking. You want to see this in our third thoughts. Finding the mediator who has been gloriously revealed. earlier in the service, we read together from Luke 24, verses 13 through 32. We have here this account of the two travelers going to Emmaus. They had had high hopes of Christ. They say in verse 21, but we were hoping that it was he who was going to redeem Israel. They call him a great prophet who had much respect among the people. But now, He had died, and he was buried, and they're not sure what's happening now. He reports that he is gone, that perhaps he was risen. But these two travelers, they're going down the road, and Jesus says, what are you talking about? Why are you so sad? They were devastated. They were confused here in these days after Christ's death and burial. All their hopes and dreams seemed to have fallen apart. In verses 25 through 27, Jesus corrects their wrong thinking. He says to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken, ought not the Christ to have suffered these things and to enter into his glory? And beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. And the answer to question 19 is drawing from this passage. Jesus Himself, as He's teaching these followers of Himself, these confused and bewildered followers, He's saying, let's go back to the Old Testament. What did they say about me? What did they say about Christ? About the way He was going to come and the purpose for which He was going to come? Well, the answer to question 19 is drawn from this, and we read there, that we know this mediator from the Holy Gospel, which God Himself first revealed in paradise, and afterwards published by the patriarchs and prophets, and represented by the sacrifices and other ceremonies of the law, and lastly has fulfilled it by His only begotten Son. to see this mediator and how he has been revealed. Jesus goes back to the beginning, goes back to Moses. He points them back to the first promises that were given. We too need to go back to the beginning, back to the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were created upright, but they fell into sin. When they sinned, death and brokenness entered into this world. Man rebelled against God and they brought all of humanity into sin and destruction. They only deserved God's punishment. What God does next is amazing. It's shocking. God comes to the people who had just rebelled against Him. He comes to Adam and Eve who had embraced the lies of Satan, who had questioned His goodness. And instead of punishing them like they deserve, He comes with a promise. He comes with good news for them. As God is addressing Satan and the serpent in front of Adam and Eve, He says, and I will put enmity between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel. This verse is sometimes called the mother promise. Because every other promise in the Bible comes from this promise. It's building on to this promise. It's showing us more details. Yet here already in Genesis 3 verse 15, in the Garden of Eden, before those who had just rebelled, we have the core of the gospel. The good news that there was still hope for sinners like them. We're told here in this verse, that a Savior would come. He would come, born of a woman. We're told in this verse of that this promised seed would come. He would come and fight against Satan. In the course of this battle, his heel would be bruised, pointing to his suffering, the suffering that the Savior would go through. And yet, while he is going to suffer, the outcome is going to be that he will bruise the head of Satan. Satan and all the forces of evil that he represents, these will be defeated. Already here in Genesis 3 verse 15, we're told of one who is going to come, of the struggle, of the suffering that had to happen. Already told the outcome. Christ is going to win. There's going to be salvation. There's going to be deliverance. As we go on through the Old Testament, we can think of how God spoke to Abraham, a man who he had chosen, a man who he had set apart and given the promises, who had received the sign of God's covenant of grace and circumcision. In Genesis 28, verse 14, we can read God saying this to Abraham, "'Also, your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth. "'You shall spread abroad to the west and to the east, "'to the north and to the south. "'And in you and in your seed, "'all the families of the earth shall be blessed.'" See, we see more detail here. The Savior, the seed of the woman is going to come through the line of Abraham. But this blessing that is going to come through this family, it's not going to be limited to Abraham's family. All the nations of the earth are going to experience blessing because of this promised child who would come. We want to consider the law that was given to Israel. The law with its also its different sacrifices and ceremonies which were types and shadows of Christ. So one example I want to give you is the Passover lamb. This lamb that had to be killed, its blood had to be applied to the doorframe, and then safety was found by taking refuge in the house behind the blood. And here again, we have a picture of this, the work of Christ, that He was going to die, His blood was going to be shed, but there is life, there is salvation found by taking refuge behind the blood. We have the prophets, don't we? Again, there's many passages we can turn to, but think of Isaiah. Isaiah, especially the last chapters, they are full of this coming Savior and His work. Last week Sunday, I read with you Isaiah 53. One of those beautiful revelations in the Old Testament that speak of the Savior who was coming, the Redeemer, how He was going to suffer. And yet it was through His suffering that we would have life, that we would be saved. Well, the gospel is gradually unfolded in the law and the prophets, at times with surprising clarity, with surprising detail. But it all comes together, doesn't it, in the glorious brightness and in the full clarity that we find in the person and the work of Jesus Christ. In His conception and birth, we learn that He was not just the seed of the woman. Here is Emmanuel, God with us. In His suffering and death on the cross, we see both the wickedness of sin and the severity of Christ, but also mercy and hope and forgiveness. For Christ there on the cross, when He cries out, it is finished. He is telling us that He has done this. He has bruised the head of the serpents, that He has accomplished the work for which He came into this world. When Christ is laid in the grave for three days, we know that He truly died, the just for the unjust. And in His resurrection and ascension back to heaven, we see that Christ's work is completed and that His sacrifice is accepted by God as He's received back into heaven. Dear congregation, the Bible is very clear. that Jesus Christ is the perfect mediator. He's a real righteous man and very God. Through Him, all the families of the earth can be blessed when they come to Him, when they hear the invitation, when they repent and believe. The Bible is very clear that in Christ, all of our spiritual needs can be met. that we'll be satisfied in mind and body and soul. Here is the great physician for sin sick men and women. Here is living water for those who are thirsty. Here's that heavenly bread that endures to everlasting life. Our theme this afternoon is finding the mediator. Have you found him? Have you come to rest in this glorious God-man? On our second point, we spent some time on 1 Corinthians 1 verse 30. But the next verse says this, He who glories, let him glory in the Lord. I want to end with this. If we have found this mediator, if he has become our Lord and Savior, then we have nothing to brag about. This is not due to something, it's not because of something that we have done. It's only by God's grace and God's mercy that we hear the gospel. It's by God's grace that when we hear the gospel that we don't reject it, that we by faith receive it. It's God's grace and work that our eyes are opened to see the beauty and the necessity of Christ. To God be the glory when we find and believe in this glorious Mediator. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father who is in heaven, we come to you again in this afternoon, and we thank you for the Mediator, your beloved Son, Lord, that He perfectly meets all our needs. That in Him we can have all our spiritual needs met. And Lord, that You have revealed Him in and through Your Word. Lord, help us to not only hear about Him, but that we would long for Him. Lord, that we would come to trust Him and to know Him as our Lord and our Savior. We ask that everyone who is here and those who are listening along online, that we would come to find this mediator, that he would be our only hope and comfort in this life and for the life to come. We thank you for your Word, and we thank you for the preaching of the Gospel. What a privilege you have given us, unlike so many others in this world, that we can have in our hands the living Word of God, that You continue to show Yourself to us through it. Lord, we pray that we would have so much more love for Your Word. Help us to see in it how You reveal Yourself, how You make Yourself known to us, and how You guide us as we face this life and the life to come. Lord, we ask that You'd forgive all that was sinful and amiss, that You'd keep us safe in this day and in the rest of this week. Lord, help us to glorify you and to praise you. Help us to love you and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we ask all these things for Christ's sake alone. Amen.