Well, good morning, everyone. If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter 15. And as your attorney, let me apologize for the temperature. The remote thermostat has batteries in it, and the batteries apparently went dead and shut down the whole system. So what I got here is 55. It's 57 now, like you needed a weather report. But the is it I overrode the system. It's running wide open So it'll probably start getting comfortable about time. We're ready to leave, but I'll get some batteries to make sure that thing's running properly next time Mark chapter 15 before we begin let's bow together in prayer Our father I Beg of you that the this morning you might be pleased to send your spirit upon us and And Father, enable us to worship you in spirit and in truth this morning. Father, through the preaching of your word, enable us to see the glory of Christ. Enable his name to be lifted up and glorified this morning so that all of us here see him by faith and are just overcome at his glory and his beauty and his sufficiency so that we I can't think of anything else except Christ alone. Father, I thank you for this place that you've given to us to meet together and to worship, to preach your gospel, to sing your hymns, to gather together with your saints. And I thank you for this morning. You've given us another opportunity to hear your gospel preached, to worship the matchless name of your son. Father, we thank you for his obedience. It's our only claim to righteousness. We thank you for his precious blood. It's the only hope we have of the forgiveness of our sins. We only dare come before you in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I ask that you would hear our prayers and accept our praise and our thanksgiving through him. And Father, as we head into this new year, Father, I pray that you would continue to go with us. Go with us in the future as you have in the past. And Father, if you don't go with us, don't let us go. But how we pray that you would keep your hand of mercy and grace and protection and guidance upon us. Now, Father, all these things we ask and we give thanks in that name which is above every name. the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. For his sake and his glory we pray, amen. Now I'm gonna cover a verse that we looked at last week, but look at it in a little bit different way. Our text is Mark 15, verse 39. And when the centurion which stood over against him saw that he so cried out and gave up the ghost, he said, truly, this man, was the son of God. Now, as I told you last week, was this man a believer? I don't know. I sure hope so. I don't know for sure. He could have been, couldn't he? He could have been saved by what he saw and heard the same way that the one dying thief was. But if you look over at Luke chapter 23, there's something that kind of gives us good hope that what this man said, he said in faith. Luke 23, This is Luke's account of this, verse 47. Now when the centurion saw what was done, he glorified God, saying, certainly this was a righteous man. What this man said, he said, glorifying God. And I know the only way that we can glorify God is through faith in Christ. So I feel like that this man, Probably is a brother and he had the same confession that the eunuch had I Believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God and we know the Lord saved that man So I kind of believe that this man was a believer when he glorified God saying certainly surely This is is a righteous man. This is the Son of God and Whether or not the Lord saved that man, I can't say for certain, but I think I got a pretty good idea But here's what I do know Every person God saves believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.

The Lord Jesus is called the Son of God 47 times in scripture. And it seems like that's something that the scripture is stressing, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. 47 times, and that doesn't count the times he's just called the Son. This is the Son of God.

And I tell you why this is so important for us, to believe, not just to know the fact now, but to believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, because there's no salvation for our souls until we believe that. Let me show you 1 John, 1 John chapter four. 1 John four, verse one. Beloved, believe not every spirit, and what he's talking about there is preachers. Don't just believe every preacher, but try the spirits, and you see whether they're of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world.

Hereby know ye the spirit of God. Now here's how you know if a man is preaching the gospel. Here's how you know if someone believes Christ. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God. Now if Jesus Christ came in the flesh, he came from somewhere before he's here, didn't he? He came from heaven. He came as the son of God. And everybody that believes that, believes that because the Lord saved him.

There's no salvation until we believe Jesus Christ is the son of God. And there's no repentance. until we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. The only way we'll turn to Christ from our idols is if we're turning to someone better. And the only one better is the Son of God. There's no repentance until we believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I want us to believe this. I want God to give us faith to believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God. Because if we really believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God, we'll have rest and peace and comfort for our souls.

But I thought of this this week, and this is why I wanted to bring this lesson. What does it mean to believe Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God? What does that mean? What is that? Let me give you five or six things quickly.

First of all, if I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth has the very nature of God. You know, the Son of God is not conceived like we conceived our children. The Son of God is eternal. He was never conceived in the way that our children are conceived. He's one with the Father. He's eternally one with the Father so that they have the same nature. Jesus of Nazareth has the nature of God, but he's a man in the flesh. He's the God-man.

This man who's in the flesh, he's the only one able to save. He must be God so that he is righteous, so that he's holy, so he has the power to put away sin, so that he has the power to save, but he must also be a man so he can be our representative. And the only way we have a savior is if God appeared in the flesh, and that's who Jesus Christ is.

The apostle John began his gospel. In the beginning was the word, capital W. He's talking about a person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the word of God. In the beginning was the word, the word was with God, and the word was God. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus of Nazareth is God. He's fully God. And a little while later, down in verse 14, John said, and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Jesus of Nazareth is God who appeared in human flesh. And if we believe that, that's the Savior. We'll honor him, we'll worship him, and we won't worship him until we believe Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God. If Jesus of Nazareth is just this pitiful reformer and he's trying to get you to do something and believe on him because you gotta feel sorry for him, That's pathetic. I'm not going to believe somebody like that. But if Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, I'm going to bow to him. I'm going to believe him. He has the nature of God.

And the old Jews knew a whole lot better, apparently, than what we do when we say Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God. In John 5, when our Lord called God his father, they took up stones to stone him. because he made himself equal with God. If he's the son of God, he's equal with God. That's exactly what those Jews understood him to say, and that is what he was saying, and they wanted to kill him for it. I want to trust him for it, because I can only rest my salvation on the son of God who's come into flesh. He's the only one who's able to save a sinner like me.

Number two, if I believe Believe on the Son of God. I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is part of the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He's the Son. In John 17, verse five, as our Lord prayed, he asked the Father to glorify him with the glory, which I had with thee before the world was. He's talking there about His eternality, the glory that belongs to Him, because He is God. He's the Son of God.

Now, like I said a minute ago, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they're one. They're eternally one. They've never been separate. They've got the same nature. They've got the same holiness. They've got the same righteousness. They've got the same eternality. And they have the same purpose. They have the same purpose, and their purpose is the redemption of God's elect through the obedience and through the sacrifice of the son.

We say there was a day or there was a moment, but you know, there really wasn't a moment that the covenant of grace began, was there? There wasn't really a moment that the father and the son struck hands and said, okay, now that we have this covenant before we didn't, everything God does is eternal. That's his nature. It's eternal. But in the eternal covenant of grace, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, they have different jobs, different jobs, I guess, for lack of a better term, you know what I mean, different roles, different things that they will accomplish in this covenant of grace, but they have the same purpose. They're one in purpose.

The Father elected a people to redeem. He chose those people, and He gave those people to His Son, and the Son agreed, I'll redeem them. I'll make them righteous. I'll come into flesh. I'll obey the law for them. I'll make them righteous. As their representative, they're going to do what I do. I'll make them righteous. And then I'll go to the cross. I'll be made sin for those people. I'll take their sin. I'll make it mine. And I'll put it away by my pure, sinless, spotless blood. The Son agreed to do that. And the Spirit agreed to give all of those people eternal life and faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're gonna trust him as all of their salvation.

Now that's the eternal covenant of grace. That covenant existed long before God ever created this world. And in the fullness of time, the son came. He came incarnate. He was born in Bethlehem of the virgin. He came as the surety of the covenant. And he came to carry it out. He came from The moment he was conceived in the womb, he never didn't know he's the son of God. He never had to learn, oh, I'm the son of God.

I was reading someone a while ago saying that the child, Jesus, kind of learned, he kind of stumbled on this fact, oh, he's the son of God because he could work miracles. He was playing in a sandbox and he made a a bird, you know how kids do, you know, they make an animal and suddenly the bird, you know, became a real bird and flew away.

Our Savior always knew who he is. He's the Son of God. That's why when he was just a child, he told his mother and his foster father, don't you know, I must be about my father's business.

He came as the Son of God to fulfill his promise in the covenant of grace to save his people, and that's exactly what he did.

Look at Hebrews chapter one. Hebrews one, verse one. God, who at sundry times and in diverse, different manners, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by a son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the worlds, who being the brightness of his glory, and the express, the exact image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high.

Now remember the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, they're one. They are one in purpose. And Christ came, and what does the writer say? When he had by himself purged our sins.

When did he do that? On Calvary Street. When his blood was shed, he purged his people of all of their sin. And when he suffered, when he died, He was raised again. He was raised again because he had purged his people of all their sin. There's no sin left to demand his death. And then he ascended back on high and he sat down.

You know why he sat down? There's no more work to do. The work was finished.

And I love to think about this. From eternity, the Godhead had one purpose, this purpose, to redeem a fallen people from their sin. Now that purpose, that was their purpose for God created anything. When it came time for God to say, let there be light, let the firmament appear, let the grasses and the trees appear, let the animals appear.

You know why he did all that? So that he would create Adam in the garden, knowing full well Adam would rebel against him and fall. But that was God's purpose. It was in the purpose of God that Adam sinned and fall so that there would be a fallen sinful people for the son to get the glory in redeeming them. That's why God created the world.

Now, do we need to despair today of those that we know and love who don't know Christ? God hadn't changed. He's still in the business of saving sinners. God keeps this world spinning around for the exact same purpose he created it in the first place, to save a people out of it. And it very well could be it's those we know and love. It could be, could be.

Good idea for us to pray and ask God to save them, wouldn't it? Because that's why he's keeping this world spinning around. It's to save his people.

And the son came and he got the job done. Well, of course he did, of course he did. Can the Son of God fail to do anything he came to do? No, of course he's the successful Savior. That's the Savior I can trust. That's the Savior, and that's the Savior I can, with such confidence, preach to you, because if you believe him, God saved you. That's absolutely right. Number three, if I believe on the Son of God, I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the long promised Messiah. He's the king savior, the sovereign savior.

In the Old Testament, when those old Jews would talk about the son of God, what they meant was the son of David. They frequently were talking about the son of God as the son of David. This is the king who's coming to save his people from their sin. Now here it is again, it's the God-man. Those old believers, and certainly those who wrote the scriptures, I know they understood. I know full well David understood it. The one who's coming is the God-man. He's David's son, absolutely true, he's David's son. But he's also David's Lord. He's also the son of God, and that means he's the king, come to save his people.

Let me show you that in Psalm 89. There's many, many references to this, but this is so clear. Psalm 89. Verse three. I've made a covenant with my chosen. I've sworn unto David, my servant, thy seed will I establish forever and build up thy throne to all generations. Verse 27, also I will make him my firstborn higher than the kings of the earth. My mercy will I keep for him for evermore. And my covenant shall stand fast with him. His seed also will I make to endure for his forever and his throne as the days of heaven, it's eternal. Verse 34, my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that has gone out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David, his seed shall endure forever, and his throne as the sun before me.

Now I know that the Lord had promised David he's gonna raise up a son after him, Solomon, to reign after him, But that's not talking about Solomon, is it? No, Solomon's throne's long gone. Solomon himself is long gone. His throne, his rule, his kingdom is long gone. That can only be talking about the son of God, who's also the son of David, the Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord made that promise to David, that he's gonna have a son to reign after him, whose reign is eternal, David understood what he was talking about. David understood he's talking about more than Solomon. And David sat before the Lord for a long time. And you know what he said when he spoke? Who am I? And what is my people that you can make such a promise to me? Who are we that God would make such a promise and fulfill such a promise that he sent his son as the king? the sovereign king come to save his people from their sin.

Isaiah also talked about him. Let's look at that. Isaiah chapter nine. This is a verse we've heard frequently in the past month as we led up to Christmas when people are talking about thinking about the birth of Christ. Isaiah prophesied of him, verse six. For unto us, a child is born. Unto us, a son is given. The child was born. Jesus of Nazareth, he never existed before. He was born, but the son was given. The son's eternal and the son was given as the savior of his people, and the government should be upon his shoulder, and his name should be called Wonderful. Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting father, the prince of peace.

Now there is no doubt who he's talking about there. Even an unbeliever knows who he's talking about there. He's talking about the savior. This is the one who's come to save his people from their sin. And look what he says about him in verse seven. Of the increase of his government and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom to order it and to establish it with judgment. and with justice from henceforth even forever. His throne is eternal. So when Jesus of Nazareth says he's the son of God, one of the things he's saying is this, I'm the eternal king. I'm the king who is the savior.

Then you know what I can say about that? That he's able to save me. You know, we come begging God for mercy, begging him for grace. We beg God to save us. Will he? I don't know. I don't know. He doesn't have to. Now, I know that. He doesn't have to. God delights to show mercy to sinners, and that gives me a lot of confidence to come and beg him for mercy because I'm a sinner. But is he obligated to save me? No, sir, he's not. He's not. But I do know this. He's able. he's able to save me, then I'm gonna keep begging him as long as it takes until he saves me because he's able and he's the only one.

And since Jesus of Nazareth, he's the promised king, the eternal king, let's forever get done with this over familiarity and talking about Jesus like he's my buddy or he's somebody beneath me that I have to decide if I'm gonna accept him or reject him. This is the king. Let's bow to him. Let's surrender to him. David said, you kiss the son, lest he be angry when his wrath is kindled but a little. We bow before this king.

Fourth, if I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the son of God, I believe he's got the authority to save me. He's got God's authority because he is God. When our Lord came incarnate, everything he did, absolutely everything he did, was done with the authority of the Father. And he stated it so plainly. One of the things I love the way he states his authority as God. He would talk to those Pharisees and scribes and all those people, and he'd say, now you say, This is what this scripture means. You say this is what we should do. You say, but I say unto you. Oh, now I know what these scriptures mean. Because I say, he has the authority to tell us, this is what the scripture means. This is the commandment of God. I say unto you.

He said in one place, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. All power. There's no power that can rival him. I always think it's, I won't say funny because it's blasphemous, to think about Christ and Satan battling it out and we don't know who's going to prevail. All power, he said, is given unto me. The father loveth the son and hath given all things into his hands. So when Christ speaks, when he speaks to us from his word, when he speaks to us through the gospel, he speaks with the authority of God. When he forgives sin, he does it with the authority of God. So that sin is forgiven. When he condemns, he condemns with the power of God. If he condemns, we're condemned. He's got all authority and there's no higher power we can appeal to. There's no circuit court we can take this thing to and try to override his decision. He has all authority so that when he saves, this is the thing that gives the heart of a believer so much confidence and assurance and rest. If he saves, we're saved and nothing can change it. Nothing can change it.

And here's one more thing he said. You know, someone might be like I was when I was a boy and hear the gospel and think, I mean, I fully, fully, fully, at least in my head, believe that God is God. He chose a people to save and those people shall be saved. I mean, you just, you don't have to have a whole lot of spiritual light to read the scripture and see that's what the scripture says. But then this is what fallen man thinks. Well, nothing I can do about it. I mean, I'll just wait and see if God strikes me from lightning, you know, from heaven. If I'm gonna be saved, I'll be saved.

Now, wait a minute. That's not so. Because here's one more thing the Savior said. He said, come unto me. Are you thirsty? Come to me and drink. Are you weary? Come to me. I'll give you rest. My burden, my yoke is easy. My burden is light. He said, come. Now remember, everything he says, he says with the authority of God. That's a commandment.

Now, it's a good idea to come to Christ. It sounds like an awful sweet invitation, doesn't it? It is a sweet invitation, I guess if you use that word to a sinner. I'm coming, you know. I'm a sinner. He says, come, I'm coming. Thank God he said, come, I'm coming. But don't ever be mistaken about this. It's a commandment. And we think, well, I don't know if I should come to Christ. Maybe I should clean up my act a little bit first. Maybe I should start doing better first. I don't know. Did he really mean it? Yeah, I don't know. Stop it. My permission to come to Christ for his salvation is his commandment to come.

Now, you think you come to Christ on his terms, obeying his commandment to come to Christ and beg him for salvation. Do you think for a moment he's going to turn you away? Again, what did the Savior say? With all authority, all who come to me, I'll let no wise cast out. Now come, come to Christ.

Then fifthly, If I believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God, I believe he's the only sight of God I'll ever have. Even in glory, the only sight of God we'll have is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord told Thomas, Thomas, he has seen me, has seen the Father. Haven't been so long time with you, you don't understand that. He that has seen me, hath seen the Father. Now I know we don't see him bodily, but we see him by faith, by God's grace, we see him by faith.

Now, how important is that? There is no salvation without it. Look at John chapter one. John chapter one, verse 18. No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten son, which is in the bosom of the father, he hath declared him. The only way we're going to know the father is if the son speaks to us so that we hear him by faith. He declares the father. That's the only way we will ever know the father. And how important is that? Look at John 17. How important is it now to know the Father? The only way we can know Him is by seeing His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. How important is that? John 17, verse three. And this is life eternal, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. If we know the Son, we know the Father, and the Savior says, that's life eternal. We have eternal life by knowing and believing Christ.

And the only way salvation can come to sinners like us is through the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Romans 8.32 says, God spared not his own son. When Christ was made sin for his people, the Father didn't spare him any wrath. any justice, he didn't hold anything back, he poured it all out upon his son. He poured out his fury and his wrath and his hatred of sin until God said, there's no fury left in me. He poured it all out on Christ our sacrifice, and that's the only way our redemption could be purchased. That's the only way justice could be satisfied, is if Christ our substitute bore all of the wrath our sin deserves, and the only one who could bear that wrath and still exist is the Son of God. By his precious blood, he put all of that sin away, and that's why he was raised from the dead three days later. Only the Son of God could pay that awesome price. It's only the Son of God.

Now, salvation comes by believing Christ. by believing who he is, the son of God. Now believing, quit your rebellion and believing. Trust your soul to him.

And I'm gonna end with this scripture, John 20 verse 31. These things are written. Why is this Bible written? Why is it that we preach these scriptures? Why is this written? That you might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name.

That's what we wanted. I want that for me, I want that for you, I want that for our loved ones. So by God's grace, this is what I'm determined to do. We're gonna keep preaching Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

All right, I hope that'll be a blessing to you.