It is not that I did choose thee,
Lord, O Lord, that could not be. Yuba-Sutter Grace Church
would like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Rick
Warda. We currently meet at the Yuba
County Library located at 303 2nd Street in downtown Marysville,
California, on the corner of 2nd and C Street. Weekly services
are held on Sunday at 11 a.m. at the library. For more information,
visit our website at ysgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Rick Warda. The question that Jesus asked
his disciples in Matthew 16, verses 13 through 16, is the
title of our sermon today. In those verses we read, Whom
do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some
say that thou art John the Baptist, some Elijah, and others Jeremiah,
or one of the prophets. And he saith to them, But whom
say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Who Jesus
is, is the all-important question we must answer. To believe rightly
concerning the person of Christ is evidence of spiritual life.
In 1 John 5.1 we read, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ
is born of God. This is the all-important question.
Faith in Jesus Christ as He is revealed in Scripture is the
mark of being born of God. What we think about everything
depends on what we think about Christ. You can't know God without
knowing Christ. You can't know God's holiness,
His righteousness, His grace, or His love, and you can't repent
and trust Him unto eternal life unless you believe what God says
about His Son. Peter answered correctly. He
answered what every believer answers from their heart. Thou
art the Christ, the Son of the living God. If we are to answer
this question with any satisfaction, we must answer in two ways. First,
we must answer according to Scripture. Who does God say Jesus is? And
second, we must answer from our heart. Who do I believe Jesus
is? I want God to write His answer
on my heart. Jesus said to Peter, Flesh and
blood have not revealed this to you, but my Father which is
in heaven. May God the Father reveal the Lord Jesus Christ
to you and to me even now. True faith is believing Christ. Faith is a heart conviction of
the very truth of God concerning His Son. To understand who Christ
is, let us consider the titles by which Jesus spoke of Himself
and by which God speaks of Him in Scripture, as the Son of Man,
as Christ, and as Son of God. First, the Son of Man. What does
the Bible mean by the term Son of Man? This is the most common
title by which our Lord referred to himself while he was on earth.
In Mark chapter 14, the high priest was interrogating Jesus
to accuse him and put him to death. He asked, Art thou the
Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am. And you
shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of power, and
coming in the clouds of heaven." The high priest asked Jesus if
he was the Christ, the Son of God. He correctly understood
that God's Christ is the Son of God. Jesus answered, I am. This is the name God gave Moses
in Exodus 3.14 to give to the people. Moses said, when I come
to Israel and tell them the God of your fathers has sent me to
you, and they ask me what is his name, what shall I say to
them? And the Lord Jehovah said, I
am that I am. Tell them, I am has sent me to
you. I AM is the name of Jehovah God. He is eternal and He is immutable. What He is now is what He always
has been from eternity and what He always will be. He is the
self-sufficient, sovereign God of glory. When the high priest
asked Jesus if he was the Son of God, Jesus answered, I am. I am Jehovah, the eternal, immutable,
self-subsisting Son of God. And he added more. He said, Hereafter
you shall see the Son of Man sitting on the right hand of
power and coming in the clouds of heaven. Jesus told him that
not only is He the Son of God, but He is also the Son of Man.
He said that as the Son of Man, He would take His place on the
throne of His Father, and with all the glory of His Father,
and He would return at the end of time to judge the world in
righteousness. This is the most offensive truth
Jesus could possibly have said to this unbelieving high priest.
In John 6, the Jews were offended because Jesus taught that those
only live to God for whom He broke His body and poured out
His lifeblood in sacrifice for their sins, who believe on Him
as the bread of life. This greatly offended the Jews.
Jesus responded to their offense. He said, Does this offend you?
What if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was
before? If you are offended by my humiliation,
by which God required I save my people from their sins, and
which is for every believing sinner the greatest source of
peace and joy, then how much more will you be offended when
you see the Son of Man sitting on heaven's throne in the glory
of His Father and coming to judge the world in righteousness? In
the book of Esther, Haman was offended by Mordecai, a Jew.
Mordecai would not bow to Haman. But Haman was much more offended
when King Ahasuerus required him to put Mordecai on the king's
own horse, to put the king's own robe on Mordecai, to put
the king's ring on his finger, and to put the king's crown on
his head, and then to lead him through the city, proclaiming,
Thus shall it be done to the man whom the king delights to
honor. in the end of the world every
knee shall bow, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is
Lord to the glory of God the Father." From these and many
other verses we learn that the Son of Man is the title of the
person who existed eternally as Son of God, but who came in
the fullness of time, was born of a woman, was made under the
law, and who fulfilled the eternal will of God the Father by redeeming
his people from their sins and the curse of God's law upon them.
Upon completion of this mission, he ascended back to heaven. He
was exalted to the right hand of God, and he sat down on his
father's throne and was given the glory that he had with his
father before the world began. Only now, His rule and glory
is not as the Son of God only, but as both God and man. There
is one who rules in eternity. He is God and man. And that man
is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. He accomplished
the everlasting will of God to redeem his people from their
sins. Galatians 4, 4-5 says, When the fullness of time was
come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the
law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might
receive the adoption of sons. Incredibly, the thief on the
cross understood this when he said, Lord, remember me when
you come into your kingdom. Christ is the title that was
given to the Son of Man to indicate that he was the one chosen of
God, the one appointed of God, and the one anointed by God the
Father to fulfill his eternal purpose to redeem his people
from all of the consequences of their sin. The word Christ
in the New Testament is often translated, anointed, in the
Old Testament. There were three positions, or
offices, which God in the Old Testament chose and assigned
men to, prophet, priest, and king. And to show his approval
of these men, and to enable them to fulfill their office, they
were to be anointed. Elijah anointed Elisha with oil
in 1 Kings 19.16, Moses anointed Aaron and his sons with oil,
Samuel anointed David with oil, and God the Father anointed our
Lord Jesus Christ, not with oil, but with His own Holy Spirit.
He put His Holy Spirit upon Him without measure, and His Spirit
remained upon Him. Jesus began his ministry immediately
after his baptism. John the Baptist saw the Spirit
of God descend and remain upon him in the form of a dove. It
was by the eternal Spirit of God that Christ offered himself
to God and obtained our eternal redemption. Hebrews 9 verses
12-14 And so our Lord Jesus Christ is a prophet, a priest, and a
king. What is a prophet? A prophet speaks God's words
to men. I need a prophet. I want to hear
from God, don't you? And a prophet also lives God's
message. Remember Hosea? God gave him
words, but he also required him to marry a harlot. Hosea's words
and life made up the message God gave him to give to men.
And remember King David? He was a king, but he was also
a prophet. His message was that God would
save his people and rule over them as Savior and King in the
person of his Son. David lived out that message.
He killed Goliath. He delivered his people from
their enemies. He provided for them. He ruled over them in wisdom
and truth. He judged them in righteousness.
David foreshadowed Christ in his words and life. And Moses
said, The Lord shall raise up a prophet like unto me. That
prophet is Christ. God, who spoke in times past
to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken
unto us by His Son. Hebrews 1 verse 1. Christ not
only spoke God's words, But He Himself is the eternal, living
Word of God. All that God has to say to men,
He says in His Son. I need a prophet because I am
so ignorant. I cannot know God unless he makes
himself known. In Matthew 11, Jesus said, All
things are delivered unto me of my Father, and no man knows
the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is so infinite in His being that none can know
Him except God the Father, and He is so infinite in His being
that He is able to penetrate the infinite mind of God the
Father in full in an intimate understanding and communion with
Him. Moreover, as God the Father sovereignly reveals His Son at
His will and pleasure, so also the Son of God sovereignly reveals
the Father at His will and His pleasure. Therefore, the Son
of God is equal with God the Father. Now, we have such a prophet
who knows the mind and heart of God the Father and is able
to make Him known to us according to His sovereign will. And how
does he do that? When we see Christ with eyes
of faith, we see the Father. Jesus said, He that seeth me,
seeth him that sent me, John 12, 45. And in John 14, he said,
He that hath seen me, hath seen the Father. Only the only begotten
Son of God could say this of himself, because he is all that
makes God, God. Truly in Him dwelleth all the
fullness of the Godhead bodily." Colossians 2.9. and our Lord
Jesus Christ is a priest. While a prophet represents God
to men, a priest represents men to God. I need a prophet because
I'm ignorant, and I need a priest because I am sinful and because
I cannot please God by my own obedience. I cannot remove my
sins. I cannot bring a righteousness
to God that He will accept. I cannot come to God. I need
a priest. God cannot accept sinners. Therefore, I need a high priest
to cleanse me of my sin, to make me holy, to bring me to God,
to advocate on my behalf, and to intercede for me. What is
a high priest? A high priest stands before God
for his people to make atonement for their sins. Leviticus 16.30
says that on the Day of Atonement, the priest shall make an atonement
for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins
before the Lord. Does that sound good to you?
I love that word all. Christ's offering of himself
to God for the sins of his people satisfied God for all their sins. He took away God's wrath. God's law was violated. God will
not let sin go unpunished. His justice must receive its
due. He will find justice in His Son,
or He will bring it on me. By His sacrifice, Christ satisfied
God and completely put away all of the sins of all of His people. When He died, they were then
and there cleansed from all their sins before the Lord. God's wrath
was removed from them. His justice declared them to
be just. This is what Christ did by His
death on the cross. The Son of God, in our nature,
as our High Priest, purged our sins by Himself. on a hill outside
the walls of Jerusalem, on one day in the history of this earth,
once, Christ was sacrificed for us. 1 Corinthians 5, 7. He made
full atonement for all the sins of all of his people. Hebrews
1, 3 says, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down
on the right hand of the majesty on high. and the high priest
prays for God's people. Our Lord Jesus prayed for all
whom the Father gave to Him. He says in John 17, 9, I pray
for them. I pray not for the world, but
for them which thou hast given me, for they are thine. Jesus
Christ is the eternal Son of God. Therefore He is able to
save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, because
He ever liveth to make intercession for them." Hebrews 7.25. He lives
forever. He makes intercession for all
who come to God by Him. He saves them to the uttermost. His prayers are always holy,
always what I need, and they are always answered. Do you see
that your only acceptance before God is the offering of your high
priest? That his appearing in the presence
of God is your appearing there? That his prayers are accepted
on your behalf because of who he is and what he offered? As
one preacher said, if you have a high priest in heaven, you
do not need a priest on earth. But if you need a priest on earth,
you do not have a priest in heaven. Not only did Christ make atonement,
and not only does He pray for us, but our Heavenly High Priest
advocates for us. The Apostle John said, My little
children, these things write I unto you that you sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. 1 John 2.1 Make it your aim to
look to Christ and never sin again. Yet when we sin, our Lord
Jesus Christ advocates for us with the Father. He is a righteous
advocate. How does he advocate? First,
he tells us to plead guilty. 1 John 1.9, if we confess our
sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Second,
he pleads himself as our answer of satisfaction, our propitiation
to God. He does not try to hide the truth.
He is Jesus Christ the righteous. He loves righteousness and he
hates iniquity. He pleads for God's truth and
God's justice to be upheld and magnified in our justification
by His own obedience unto righteousness. He pleads for God's grace and
mercy to be magnified in harmony with His holiness in honor of
His word and His righteousness. But how can God justify the ungodly? Because our advocate is the Son
of God, the Son of Man, Christ Jesus the Lord, who pleads Himself.
Romans 8.34 says, Who is he that condemneth? And then it answers,
It is Christ that died. There is no higher argument in
favor of the sinner than that Christ died for him. Nothing
more honors God's holiness, His love, His grace, His mercy, His
justice and truth, and His righteousness than the dignity and the merit
of our high priest who offered himself to God. It is Christ
that died. In Hebrews 9.24 it says that
Christ entered heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. It was once in the end of the
world that he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself. Hebrews 9.26 These verses say
that he appears for me now. He put away my sins by the sacrifice
of himself. He is the Christ of God. Not
only do I need a prophet and a priest, but I need a king,
because I am poor and weak and have many powerful enemies. I
need a king to provide all for me out of the riches of his grace.
I need a king to save me from the enemies that threaten my
soul. I need a king to subdue my iniquities. I need a king
to redeem me from the curse of God's own law. I need a king
to justify me because of his own obedience. I need a king
to command my salvation. I need a king to make me willing
in the day of his power, Psalm 110. I need a king to make me
go in the path of God's commandments. I need a king to keep and protect
me from all enemies, both internal and external, physical and spiritual. Now we see that our Lord Jesus
Christ is the Son of Man, that He is the Lord's Christ, the
Anointed Prophet, Priest, and King, and we see that He is the
Eternal Son of God. But we must consider the significance
of what these things mean to us. Why did God require our Savior
to be the Son of God and the Son of Man? First, because salvation
requires satisfaction for sin. Hebrews 9.22 says, without the
shedding of blood there is no remission. Man sinned. Man must die. God's justice must
be satisfied. But man cannot satisfy. Hell
is eternal because man can never satisfy God's justice by his
own personal sufferings. Eternity is too short for a man
to satisfy the justice of God against his sin. But the Lord
Jesus Christ is the Son of Man and the Son of God. The dignity
of his person adds such merit to his willing offering of himself
to God that he can endure all that God's justice demands in
satisfaction for sin within the finite period of his life and
death. Because he is the Son of God,
he can make satisfaction to God for all of the sins of all of
his people by his one offering of himself in our place. Only
the Son of God and the Son of Man can do this. Man cannot satisfy. God cannot die. But Christ, as
the Son of God and sinless man, can both suffer and die in the
place of His people in full satisfaction to God. Isaiah 53, 11. When scripture
speaks of the work of our Savior, it joins his two natures together
in one person. Acts 20.28 says, Feed the church
of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. God does
not have a body. He does not have a human soul.
He does not have blood to shed. But the Son of God in our nature
has blood and a body and a real human soul. He shed his life's
blood when he offered himself to God as a ransom, as the purchase
price of our redemption. The blood of Christ is the blood
of the Son of the Highest, the Holy Son of God. The blood of
Christ is the blood of the perfect, sinless Son of Man, and the blood
that belongs to the Son of God, because His human nature is as
much a part of Him as His divine nature. Therefore, the blood
of Christ is the blood of God. And second, because our salvation
requires a righteousness that God can accept. God requires
perfect obedience to His law in every part, continuously,
for all time and eternity. But among men there is none righteous,
Romans 3.10. Even if it were possible, and
it is not, for man to perfectly obey God's law, that man could
at most save himself by his obedience. Ezekiel 14 verses 14 and 20 says
that when God determines to destroy a land because of the sins of
the people that live there, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were
in that place, they could at most save their own lives by
their righteousness. But our Lord Jesus Christ is
both God and man. He is the eternal, infinite,
only begotten Son of God. And He is a spotless, holy Son
of Man. Therefore, His obedience and
sufferings throughout His life, which reached their climax and
culminated in His death, were from the heart and mind and soul
and strength of Him who is both the Son of Man and Son of God. His obedience, therefore, established
everlasting righteousness in a finite duration of time for
all of the people in whose place he stood." Daniel 9.24 As Adam
disobeyed, and all for whom he stood sinned in him, even so
our Lord Jesus Christ obeyed His Father in all things to fulfill
all conditions of His everlasting covenant. He is the last Adam. Romans 5.19 says, As by one man's
disobedience, Adam's, many were made sinners, so by the obedience
of one, Christ, shall the many be made righteous. Our Redeemer
must be our near kinsman in our election, in our nature, and
under God's law. Yet the Lord who is Jehovah,
says He is our Redeemer, Isaiah 49.7. Therefore Christ must be
both Son of Man and Jehovah, God the Son. And the third reason
why it was necessary that our Savior be both God and Man is
because salvation is a work that must be complete, perfect, and
eternal. Ecclesiastes 3.14 says, I know
that whatsoever God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can
be put to it, nor anything taken from it. The Lord Jesus Christ
accomplished a real, perfect, complete salvation. He answered
so fully that God himself can find no sin in his people. Numbers
23.21 says, He hath not beheld iniquity in Jacob, neither hath
he seen perverseness in Israel. And finally, our Savior must
be both God and man, because God alone will receive all glory
in our salvation. If our Lord Jesus is both God
and man, then we know that God alone gets all the glory in salvation. Where God must act, He acts alone. Where God works, He does all
of the work, and He gets all of the glory. This is what our
Lord did in His life and death. He saved us by Himself. When
He had by Himself purged our sins, He sat down on the right
hand of the Majesty on High. Christ is the brightness of God's
glory because by purging our sins, He made known God's perfections
in total and to the highest possible extent. If we can show from scripture
that Jesus is called Jehovah, then we have undeniable proof
that Jesus is Jehovah God. Now this is exactly what scripture
does. Throughout scripture our Lord Jesus is called Jehovah.
Isaiah 12.3 says Jehovah is become my salvation. In Psalm 23.1,
Jehovah is my shepherd I shall not want. And we know that Jesus
is the Good Shepherd. John the Baptist prepared the
way of Jehovah. Isaiah 40 verse 3 and Matthew
3. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord Jehovah
shall be saved, Joel 2.32, and Romans 10.13 says the name of
the Lord is the Lord Jesus Christ. Peter said in Acts 4.12 there
is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must
be saved. The name Jesus means Jehovah
is salvation, Matthew 1.21. And in Isaiah 46, the Lord Jehovah
says, Who hath declared this from ancient time? Have not I,
Jehovah the Lord? There is no God else beside me,
a just God, and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto
me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear." This is
exactly quoted in Romans chapter 14 verses 10 through 12, speaking
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this is the name by which
He, our Lord Jesus Christ, David's Son, and David's Lord will be
called. the Lord Jehovah our righteousness. Jeremiah 23 verses 5-6. Not only
is our Lord called Jehovah, but Jesus is also called God in scripture. In Matthew 1.23 it says they
shall call his name Emmanuel, which is being interpreted God
with us. Titus 2.13 says looking for the
blessed hope and appearance of the glory of our great God and
Savior Jesus Christ. And in Hebrews 1.8, quoting from
Psalm 45, it says, Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God,
is for ever and ever. And then in Isaiah 9.6, it says,
Unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is given, and his
name shall be called the Mighty God. Scripture is clear. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the
Christ of God, the Son of the Living God. I need the Lord to
reveal Christ to me. I need Him to write upon my heart
the truth from Scripture of who Christ is to make Christ precious
to me. Now, in my heart, I find that
I need the Lord Jesus to be all that God has said of him in his
word. When Simeon looked on the Lord's Christ, he said, Mine
eyes have seen thy salvation. Every believer says this from
his heart. Jesus is the Christ of God, Jehovah
God, the only begotten of the Father. He is the Son of Man,
and He who is God has become my salvation as man and is now
exalted as God and man. He is the glory of God on God's
throne. Who do you say that Jesus Christ,
the Son of Man, is? He is the friend of sinners.
When we were without strength, Christ died for the ungodly. Is all of your hope and desire
wrapped up in Him? It is Christ that died. You've just heard a sermon by
our pastor, Rick Warda. You may contact us by email or
by phone, or download a copy of this sermon by visiting our
website at ysgracechurch.com.