Keep your Bibles open there,
Matthew chapter 16, that'll be our text this morning. I don't know exactly if I should
say it this way, but in our series of messages on questions, they're
asking the scriptures. This is probably the most important
message in this series. Who do you say Jesus is? That's the question our Lord
asked in verse 15 of Matthew 16. And Brother Dan was reading
it to us. He read it just the way that
I've been reading it this week. He saith unto them, but whom
say ye that I am? Now this is the most important
question that can be asked to you and me. Our eternal soul
hangs upon the answer to this question. Who do you say Jesus
is? Because the issue between us
and God is not our knowledge of the scripture. The issue between
us and God is not our doctrinal position or our morality out
in society. The issue between you and God
is the Lord Jesus Christ. So the question is, who do you
say that Jesus is? If the Lord is not asking, find
out what other theologians say. The question is not what does
Calvin say Christ is? Or what does Luther or Gil or
Spurgeon or Mahan say? The question is, who do you say
that the Lord Jesus is? The question is not what does
our society think? Let's take a vote and see if
we come up with a consensus in society. who people think Jesus
is, because there's a whole lot of crazy answers to that question.
The question is, who do you say Christ is? See what our Lord
says, beginning in verse 13, Matthew 16. When Jesus came into
the coast of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying,
whom do men say that I, the son of man, am? See, here's what
men say. And they said, some say thou
art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremiah's, or one
of the prophets, And he saith unto them, but who do you say
that I am? Now when I asked that question,
every mind here came up with an answer. Every one of us have
an answer to this question. My prayer is that our answer
matches the scriptures. The scriptures tell us who the
Lord Jesus Christ is. I want my answer to match Peter's
answer to this question, because I know Peter's answer is right
because the Lord said so. Look at verse 17. Or verse 16,
and Simon Peter answered and said, thou art the Christ, the
son of the living God. I want my answer to match that,
don't you? Now the short answer to the question,
who do you say Jesus is, is Christ is all. Christ is everything. Christ is everything to the Father.
Christ is everything in the covenant of grace. Christ is everything
in creation. Christ is everything in providence.
Christ is everything in salvation. Christ is everything in righteousness
and holiness. Christ is everything in the preservation
of his people. From eternity to eternity, Christ
is everything. Throughout eternity in heaven,
Christ will be all. He's the theme, the subject,
the glory of heaven. Christ is all. Now, I can't talk
about everything in 35 or 40 minutes, so I'm gonna give you
four things that scripture says that Christ is to his people. These things are vitally important
to our souls. Number one is the person of Christ. Who is Jesus? He's God incarnate. He's God, almighty, eternal God,
God whom the heavens cannot contain, contained in a body, in a human
body of flesh. Peter says, we believe and we're
sure thou art the son of the living God. Now when Peter made
that statement, we're sure, we believe this, you're the son
of God. He said that to a man, a man in the flesh, a man who
got hungry, a man who got tired, a man in the flesh. Look back
at Luke chapter one. or over Luke chapter one, excuse
me. The Lord Jesus is the son of God. We know that because
that's who the scriptures say he is. Luke one verse 30. This is when the angel appeared
unto Mary and told her she was pregnant with the Christ child.
And the angel said unto her, fear not Mary, for thou has found
favor with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive
in thy womb and bring forth a son and shall call his name Jesus.
He shall be great and he shall be called the son of the highest. He's going to be called the son
of the highest because that's who he is. And the Lord God shall
give unto him the throne of his father, David, and he shall reign
over the house of Jacob forever. Now of his kingdom, there should
be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, how shall this be?
Seeing I know not a man, And the angel answered and said unto
her, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that Holy thing
which shall be born of thee shall be called the son of God. Mary's
firstborn child is going to be called the son of God because
that's who he is. Now this angel, you know, this
angel was absolutely astonished at this, that God, was gonna
become a man. But the angel knew Mary's child
is the son of God. The eternal father became an
embryo in the womb of the virgin. I mean, you think of that. He
became an embryo in the womb of the virgin. And that was such
a miracle. The only way the angel knew to
describe this, he said, that holy thing. He didn't even know
what to call it. That holy thing is such a miracle. Now the angel, when he said that
holy thing, you know he can only be referring to God, right? Because
only God is holy. What did Isaiah say that the
angels flying around the throne of God cry? Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. God is the only holy one who
exists. And he became a man, a man. Now that's a truth. that has
to be revealed to us. Because the human mind can never
understand this, can't comprehend this, that the Lord Jesus Christ
is both God and man. He's not 50-50. He's not God
50%, man 50%. He's 100% God and 100% man. Now
Becky, you can't teach that math in your class. That's heavenly
arithmetic, isn't it? The Apostle Paul, who's smarter
than all of us put together, wrote this, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh.
That's a great mystery. And a mystery, something that's
truly a mystery has to be revealed to us, doesn't it? So this thing
of God becoming a man has to be revealed to us. Look at Matthew
chapter one. But it's all through scripture.
I mean, if we don't believe it, it's not because there's not
plenty of witnesses, it's all through scripture. In verse 23, behold, a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son and they shall call his name
Emmanuel, which being interpreted is God with us. What a miracle
of power and grace, condescending grace, that Almighty God would
dwell with men as a man. And that's what he did, he became
a man. Look back at Isaiah chapter nine. This is not just a New Testament
thing, something that just came up in the New Testament, Christ
was born. This is what the scriptures prophesied
would happen. Isaiah nine, verse six. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given. That child was born, he was born
a real man, but the son, he's eternal. The son wasn't born,
the son was given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
This baby is the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the
Prince of Peace. The Lord Jesus Christ is God
so that he can satisfy God, so that he can be holy and righteous
as God. He's got to be God to satisfy
God's holy character, but he also has to be a man so that
he can be the representative of sinful men and women like
us. This is the God man. That's his person. That's who
he is. And in him, in the Lord Jesus Christ dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead. Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
All the fullness of the Godhead dwells in a human body. Jesus of Nazareth is everything
that God is. Because He is God. He is God. I want to stress that to you.
I want to stress that to me. I love to think about this. I
love to think about the marvel of this. The man, Jesus of Nazareth,
is God. It's not like he's God. He's
not God decaffeinated. He is God. He is God. And here's why I'd love to think
about this. God came in human flesh to accomplish the salvation
of his people. God did that. Now, since he's
God, he can't fail to do what he came to do. He cannot fail
to save his people from their sins. He cannot fail to make
them righteous. He cannot fail to make them holy. He cannot fail to give them eternal
life. It's very important who the person
of Jesus is. He's God. All right, number two,
there's the offices of the Lord Jesus. Now his offices, that
tells us what he came to do. You know, if someone has a office
or a position, you know, there's responsibilities that go along
with that. Well, there's responsibilities that Christ has based upon the
offices that the Father gave him. Well, Peter tells us his
office is the Christ. We believe, we know this, you're
the Christ. The Christ. Now, you know, I've
been preaching for how many years, Sonny? 32, 33 years? And you
know, I don't think I've ever looked up the word Christ. I
don't think I ever looked it up in Strong's Concordance the
lexicon there, but I did this week and it means the anointed
of God. It means the Messiah. This man,
Jesus of Nazareth is the anointed of God. The father anointed him
to be the savior of his people. The father anointed him to make
God's elect righteous and to bring them back to God. They
fell away from God in Adam. and the father anointed his son
to become a man to grab those people down there at the bottom
of the barrel and bring them back to God. The father anointed
him, he gave him that job, that's his office. Peter preaching in Acts 2 verse
36 said, therefore, let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God had made this same Jesus, the Romans, Jews, the Pharisees,
they all had an opinion about who Jesus is. Peter said, but
let me tell you who he is. God hath made that same Jesus
whom you crucified, that one you counted as a criminal, that
one you said we got to get rid of him. God hath made him both
Lord and Christ, the anointed savior of his people. Now anybody
that reads the four gospels, Just reads about the life of
Jesus of Nazareth, the things that he did, the things that
he said. There can be no doubt, this man is the savior of sinners. There can't be any doubt about
it. Then why don't you trust him?
Why don't you trust him to save you? You're sorry, soul. Look
at Luke chapter four. Luke chapter 4. This really tells
you something about our nature in Adam. How dead, how blind
it is. Luke 4 verse 41. And devils also came out of many,
crying out and saying, Thou art the Christ, the Son of God. And he rebuking them, suffered
them not to speak, For they knew he was Christ. Now those demons
knew this is Christ, the anointed of God. This is the one that
the father has anointed to be the savior of his people. They
knew it. Now they didn't trust him, did
they? They just came out when he cast him out screaming and
yelling and throwing a fit. But they didn't beg him for mercy.
It's something else. This is how dead we are by nature.
The demons know something we don't. This is the Christ, the
son of God. That's his office. The Lord Jesus
has another office. He's the prophet. That prophet. Remember the Lord told Moses,
I'm gonna raise up a prophet like unto you. My people hear
him. Christ is that prophet. Now what's
the job of a prophet? Somebody's got this office of
prophet. What's their job? It's to tell people what God
said. That's what the prophets all did in the Old Testament.
They came and God told them, and they turned around and told
the people. The Lord Jesus isn't that prophet. He came to tell
people how God saves sinners. It's through Him. It's through
His obedience. It's not our works. It's by His
grace. Oh, Moses told the truth. Now
Moses was a prophet. Moses told the truth. But grace
and truth came by Jesus. Jesus Christ, isn't it? Grace
and truth came by Him. He's the one that told us salvation
is by grace. Oh, it's in Him. Grace dripped
from His lips. Those soldiers that came to take
Him or whoever they were from the chief priests, they came
to take Him and they came back and said, why didn't you bring
Him? You're supposed to arrest this fellow and be bringing Him with
you. They said, never made a spake like this man. I've heard you
guys, you know, on the Sabbath day, drone on and on and on and
on. Never got anything from it. This man, nobody ever spoke like
him. He spoke of grace. He spoke of
mercy. There's power in what he said.
Not like you fellas. Power. He's that prophet. And oh, if he speaks to your
heart, if he speaks to my heart, we're going to know him and trust
him. We surely will. This preacher, can just reach
your ears. That prophet speaks to the heart
of the people. Then he has another office. He's the great high priest. The eternal priest after the
order of Melchizedek. Not after the order of Aaron,
after the order of Melchizedek. Right, the priest, he's got the
office of a priest. What's the priest's job? What's
his responsibility? Well, the priest represents the
people to God. And he does it by offering a
sacrifice, offering sacrifices to God. Here's why it's important
that Christ is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek,
not Aaron. Priests after the order of Aaron,
they offered animal sacrifices, didn't they? Animal sacrifices,
which the writer of the Hebrews told us can never take away sin. But Christ came, the great high
priest after the order of Melchizedek, and he offered the sacrifice. The sacrifice for sin forever. And he didn't offer an animal,
did he? He sacrificed himself. And his sacrifice atoned for,
put away, paid for all of the sin of all of his people. Aaron
and all his sons and grandsons never put away one sin by their
sacrifices. Christ by his one sacrifice put
away all the sin of his people forever. He's the great high
priest. Then the Lord Jesus has another
office. King. He's the king. He's the eternal king of kings. He's the ruler over all authority
and over all power. Now what's the job of a king?
It's to rule their kingdom. To rule over all of their subjects. and the Lord Jesus Christ rules
over all of his subjects. Whether we know it or not, he
rules over all of his subjects. Well, who are his subjects? Everyone
and everything. Everyone, he is the ruler of
them all. I'll tell you what that means.
Salvation is up to his royal prerogative. It's up to the king. It's His crown rights to save
whom He will. It's His crown rights. It's His
crown rights to pass by whom He will because He's King. He's
King. He has the power to save and
He has the power to keep His people saved because He's King. He rules over everything. Now that's His office. He's the
Christ. Why don't we beg Him to save
me? He's the prophet. Why don't we
find out what it is He's got to say? And listen, pray that
God give us the faith to believe it. He's the great high priest. Why aren't we begging Him to
wash us in His blood? Huh? Offer a sacrifice for me.
Oh, He's the king. Why aren't we bowing and begging
Him for mercy? Begging Him, Lord, you'll have
mercy on whom you will. You'll be gracious to him. You
will be gracious. Lord, would you be gracious to me? I'm not
going to fight that. I'm not begging for mercy because that's
his office. That's who he is. That's what
he came to do. Well, here's the third thing.
Who is Jesus of Nazareth? Here's his relationship to his
people. He's the object of our faith. Peter said in verse 16,
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. That's pretty good preaching.
It's succinct and to the point and simple to understand. You're
the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's a definitive statement.
There's no room for doubt in what Peter said, is there? There's
no wiggle room there at all. Look over at John chapter 6.
Telling you old Peter, he believed this. He said it again in John
chapter 6. Verse 66. From that time, many of his disciples
went back and walked no more with him. Then said Jesus unto
the twelve, will you also go away? Then Simon Peter answered
him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And we believe this is our faith. We believe and are sure that
thou art that Christ, the son of the living God. Peter didn't
talk about what we believe, did he? He talked about who. Who
we believe and are sure thou art that Christ, the son of the
living God. That's the relationship of Christ
to his people. He's the object of our faith.
He's everything that we believe. Christ is not first, and then
there are things after him. Christ is all. He's the list. Christ is the object of our faith.
We believe that the Lord Jesus is everything that God requires
of us. Now, if God saved you, he gave
you faith, that's what you believe. Jesus Christ is everything God
requires of you. We believe and we're sure that
the Lord Jesus is the only thing that we need. He's the only thing
we need. Anyone who trusts Christ has
put all of their eggs in one basket. He's our all. He's everything that we need.
He's our wisdom. our righteousness, our sanctification,
and our redemption. Christ is our wisdom. We need
wisdom, don't we? I mean, we're just dumb as a
box of rocks because we've got a mind that's spiritually dead.
When we died in Adam, we need wisdom. Christ is our wisdom. The only way that we can know
God and see how God saves sinners is by seeing the Lord Jesus.
I'll tell you how I know I'm a sinner. and I'm undone, I'm
dead, and I'm hopeless. You know how I know that? It's
by seeing Christ in his holiness. Seeing Christ in his fullness.
Somebody preached Christ to me, and now I see, oh, now I see
I'm a sinner because I see myself in light of who he is. Everybody's
got some idea about how God saves sinners, but now I know how God
saves sinners. God's given me the wisdom to
know. I mean, I might not know much, but Gary, I know this.
I know how God saves sinners. because by God's grace, I've
seen Christ. See, he's our wisdom. I trust Christ to be my wisdom.
Anything that I need to know spiritually, I look to Christ
for. It's all in him. Then Christ
is my righteousness. I know that I'm unrighteous when
I see Christ in his perfection. I know the only way that I can
be righteous is if Christ obeyed the law for me. I can't do it.
He had to obey the law for me. Christ had to take my sin away
from me and put it away by His sacrifice on the tree and make
me the righteousness of God in Him. That is the only way I can
be righteous. It's just so obvious if I see
Christ. I trust Christ to be my righteousness. And you know how you can tell
if you trust Christ to be your righteousness? You don't feel
it necessary to add any of your works to make yourself more righteous.
Because Christ is your righteousness. He's all of it. And if you try
to add to it, not only will you not add to it, make it better,
you'll ruin it. That's trusting Christ. He is
my righteousness. Christ is my sanctification.
That's my holiness. I tell you, when I found out
that I was unholy, when I saw Christ and His holiness, Same
way Isaiah found out, wasn't it? Oh, the only way I can be
holy is if the Holy Spirit is pleased to give me a new nature.
He's got to apply the blood of Christ to my heart and give me
a new nature. Because the nature I received
from Adam, the nature I received from my father is a nature that's
sin. I was conceived in sin. I'm nothing
but sin. The only way I can be made holy
is that the Holy Spirit gives me a new nature. I trust Christ
to be my holiness. Scripture says without that holiness,
no man shall see the Lord. More than anything else in this
world, I wanna see the Lord. And the only way that can happen
is if he makes me like him, gives me his holiness. I trust Christ
to be that holiness. I'm just quite satisfied Thinking
about one day laying down in death, trusting Christ to be
my holiness and gain me entrance into the very throne room of
God. Then Christ is my redemption. When I see Christ, I know the
only way I could be redeemed is by the blood of the Son of
God. I'm so vile, I'm so guilty, I'm
so corrupt with sin, The only way that I could be saved is
if the Son of God becomes a man and dies in my place as my substitute. The price of my redemption is
so high it takes the very blood of God to pay for it. Now that's
how vile my sin is. And let's say it better than
that. That's how vile I am. That's how vile you are. But
I trust the blood of Christ is all it takes to pay my sin debt
before God and cleanse me white as snow. He's my redemption. I'm telling you, redemption is
not just some idea that somehow Christ, you know, paid a price
for me and made God not angry with me more. Redemption is a
person. Christ is my redemption. It's
all in Him. Christ is my representative.
Now this is relationship to His people. What is He to you? Christ
is my representative. Now this is so important because
God's gospel, man's gospel is not this, but God's gospel is
the gospel of representation. God sees the whole human race
in one of two representative men. And we have all done what
our representative did. All men, the whole human race
became lost and dead in sin when Adam sinned because we were in
him when he sinned. When Adam sinned, I sinned. It's
not like I sinned, God didn't just charge me with sin even
though I wasn't there. No, when Adam sinned, I was there. I did sin, just as surely as
I took that fruit and ate it in open rebellion against God,
my own self, when Adam sinned, I sinned because I was in it.
That's how I became a sinner. That's when I became under the
guilt and condemnation of sin. That's how all of us got in the
mess that we're in. We were in Adam when Adam sinned.
All of God's elect became holy and righteous when this man,
Jesus of Nazareth, obeyed God's law perfectly. He obeyed every,
every jot and tittle, the most minute, most unknown, if that's
what you want to call them, laws of God, Christ obeyed them all. And when Christ obeyed the law,
I did too if I was in. Christ is my representative.
I was truly in Christ when He obeyed the law. And I obeyed
it in Him. Just as surely as I disobeyed
God in Adam, I obeyed God in Christ. And I'm righteous. And that's the only righteousness
that I want. It's the obedience of Christ.
It's the righteousness that I receive by faith in Christ, not my works. I don't want anything to do with
my works. The gospel of representation takes care of that problem, doesn't
it? I don't want anything to do with my works. I want to be
found in Christ. He's my representative. He's
the one that makes me righteous. He's the one that justifies me.
He's the one that presents me to the Father. He is my representative. So right now, I am where he is,
seated in heavenly places in Christ. In Christ, our representative. All of God's elect were justified. They're set free from the curse
of the law when Christ died. I'm free from the curse of the
law because I died. I died to satisfy the law in
Christ, my representative. Let me show you that, Galatians
chapter two. Galatians chapter two. The law, in trying to condemn
me, because I've already been condemned in Christ, when I died
in Christ. Galatians 2 verse 19. For I, through the law, am dead
to the law, that I might live unto God. I'm crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me. And the life which I now live
in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. Paul says, Christ saved me through
the law. By satisfying the law. Dying
in my place. And when he died, I died in him.
That's Christ my representative. Then Christ is my surety. This
is my relationship with Jesus of Nazareth. He's my surety.
Now surety is someone who takes responsibility for somebody else.
We read about a surety first time in scripture when Judah
told his father Jacob, Genesis 43, verse nine, speaking of Benjamin,
I'll be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him, and if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee,
let me bear the blame forever. He was surety for Benjamin. It
was up to Judah to bring Benjamin back, take him down to Egypt
so Joseph could see him, bring him back to his father. That
is exactly what the son said to the father in the covenant
of grace. Before anything was created,
he said to the father, Father, you've chosen these people. I'll
be surety for them. They're gonna fall on Adam and
I'll bring them back to you. The responsibility's on me. And
if I don't bring them back to you, let me bear the blame forever.
Let me lose all my glory. I will bring them back to you.
Oh, I love to think about that. I love to think about that. If
Christ is my surety, I am not responsible to save myself. I'm
not responsible to make myself righteous. I'm not responsible
to get myself from here to glory safely. The Lord Jesus Christ,
the Son of God, is responsible for me. Oh, I love that. I just can't tell you how much
I love that. That just gives you confidence. The only way
we can have any confidence in this thing of salvation is that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is responsible for us.
You know, under the covenant of the law, I'm responsible for
my own self. And I'm telling you, I'll surely
fall and be damned if I'm responsible for my own self. But look at
Hebrews chapter eight. The gospel tells us something
a whole lot better than that. Under the covenant of grace,
Christ is responsible for me. This man, Jesus, Jesus of Nazareth,
he's responsible for me. And if he's responsible for me,
I will surely be saved and glorified. Hebrews 8 verse 6. But now hath he obtained a more
excellent ministry, by how much also he is the mediator of a
better covenant, which was established upon better promises. Now the
law, that was a covenant, and that law really can't promise
us anything good. It can only promise us death.
But the covenant of grace, now it has better promises. Has a
better surety, a better mediator, and has better promises. God
promises eternal life to sinners because of his grace in Christ
Jesus. And that grace is all in the
hands of Christ our surety. Well now, if it's all in his
hands, God's grace will never fail. And we can trust Christ
to bring us all the way to glory, can't we? And Christ is my mediator. This
is my relationship with him. He's my mediator. Now a mediator
is one who pleads, pleads with someone for us. Christ is the
mediator of his people who pleads with God for his people. Hebrews
7 verse 25 says, he is able also to save them to the uttermost,
to come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession
for them. Our mediator ever liveth making
intercession for his people, and here's how he does it. By
sitting in the presence of his Father. at his father's right
hand with the scars that he received on Calvary's tree in full view. That's all it takes for Christ
to make intercession for his people. Because those scars tell
the father, I've already been crucified, I've already suffered
and died, I've already bore the curse of the law for those sins. The scars in his body are the
evidence he's already redeemed his people from all of their
sins. Again, I just love to think about
that. I love it. You know, you hear
people talk about, you know, the son making intercession for
his people. Oh, Father, forgive that one. Oh, Father, forgive
that one. Oh, forgive that one, and that one, and that one, and
that one, and that. Oh, he sits there at complete ease with the
scars of his sacrifice in full view of the Father. And everything's
calm. Everything's at peace. Atonement's
been made. to mediate the scars in his body,
show it. Think Christ as my shepherd.
I don't know about you, but I need a shepherd. Sheep need a shepherd. I trust Christ to find me, the
lost sheep. I mean, wandering and trying,
doing everything I can do to get further and further and further
away from God, and I trust Christ the shepherd to come find me
and put me on his shoulder and carry me all the way back to
glory. I trust Him to use His rod and His staff to keep me
from falling off the cliff and wandering away from Him. I trust
Him to be my shepherd, to bring me to the green grass of His
Word, to bring me to those cool, still waters, to drink from the
waters of life. I trust Him to protect me from
the lion and the bear and the devil. I trust He's my shepherd. The sheep can just rest at ease
when the shepherd's there taking care of them. He said, you're
my sheep, you're my sheep. Then I got nothing to worry about
because he's responsible for it all. That's the believer's
relationship to Christ, isn't it? He's everything to us, he's
everything. And then last, the relationship
of the Lord Jesus to the Father. Now like I said in the opening,
he's all, he's all to the Father. The father looks to the Lord
Jesus to be everything that he requires for his people. And
he got the job done. The Lord Jesus is the delight
of his father, because as a man, he glorified every attribute
of God. Christ honored the law and magnified
it by obeying it perfectly and saving his people through the
law. That's what Paul said, and it's
through the law, not by going around the law. But by going
through it, he went through the law. He obeyed the law for his
people, and then he suffered the curse of the law. He suffered
the penalty of the law when he died on Calvary's tree, when
he was made sin for his people. Now that Christ has died, the
law is satisfied. The law is honored and magnified
because Christ satisfied it. And God's justice is satisfied
too, isn't it? God's justice is satisfied. The sin of his people has been
fully punished. And God's mercy is satisfied. God's mercy is glorified and
magnified. This is what magnifies God's
mercy most of all. It's not just that he says, okay,
you sinned, but I'll ignore it. God's mercy is much more glorious
than that. In order for God to show mercy
to his people, he slaughtered his son. He slaughtered his son
for their sin so that in justice he could show mercy to his people.
Now that magnifies God's mercy. That God would slaughter his
son to save the likes of me. Oh,
that glorifies his mercy, doesn't it? Christ honored God's wisdom. In Christ we see God found a
way to be both just and justifier. God found a way to be just, right,
and still justify the ungodly like you and me. And that way,
that ransom is His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Christ
is to the Father. The Father looks to Christ to
be everything. And by God's grace, the believer
does too. Is that who Christ is to you?
Do you trust Him like that? Do you know if your answer to
that question is yes, do you know you're blessed of God? Look
back in our text, verse 17, I'll quit. And Jesus answered and
said unto him, blessed art thou Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and
blood hath revealed that unto thee, but my Father which is
in heaven. The Father revealed that to you,
and you're blessed. And it is my earnest prayer that
that's who the Lord Jesus is to you and me too, to all of
us. All right, let's bow together. Father, how we thank you for
your word. How we thank you that you haven't left it up to our
imagination to try to figure out who you are, but you told
us plainly in your word who you are. You're the son of God. You're
the Christ, you're the savior of sinners, you're everything
that we need. That can't be more plainly stated
in the word of God. Father, I beg of you that you'd
be pleased to give each one of us here this morning faith in
the heart to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to believe who
you say you are, and that believing him, we might have life eternal.
Father, it's for the glory. of Christ our Savior that we
ask this great blessing. It's in his name, for his glory
we pray. Amen. All right, Sean.