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- you like steak and lobster? Neither one of those are on the menu for Wednesday night, just to be very clear.
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- As I was making my coffee tonight I was pouring some sugar in and it just went so the whole bottom of the cup is just nothing but one.
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- Well I'm gonna waste it and honestly I don't like the taste of coffee I just like the sugar taste anyway just as a truth is truth coffee I have to kill coffee with cream and sugar and all kinds of stuff and I do want to again shameless plug here you know brother Andy talking about the authority of the Word of God he mentioned about the King James today's podcast and I do a podcast every week today's podcast is about the question of the King James Version should that be the only version we use so if you're interested in and that particular subject there's a 30 minute lesson that went live today so you can look it up and find it we are on article 9 and this begins a section of the confession that is going to focus us in on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the next several weeks brother Andy and I are going to be going through the articles tonight we will have article 9 but next week and he's going to do 10 11 and 12 as it looks at Christ as the mediator and I'm going to do 13 and 14 because it continues on with Christ as mediator so just just so you know we're going to be we're going to be combining a few as we look at the person and work of Jesus Christ and before we read the confession can I say that when we talk about the person of Jesus Christ that tends to be unfortunately one of the most debated and confused subjects in modern history when you hear people talk about Jesus it's almost never that you know exactly who they're talking about until you start digging into it with them if somebody comes to your door can we talk about Jesus aren't you just afraid because you have no idea what's going to come flying out of their mouth you know if somebody came to your door and said can we talk about Jesus do you expect that you're going to have a good Christological conversation honestly that could happen you know I've had a few churches that went door-to-door and had a great conversation about Jesus but ordinarily the people that come to your door wrap wrap wrapping upon your chamber door are the people who want to give you the false view of Jesus whether it be the Aryan view of Jesus which is proposed by the Jehovah Witnesses or whether it is the false view of Jesus as the son of Elohim a man who once lived on another planet that is the view of the Mormons Mormonism is science fiction bro if you don't sorry bro like I'm sorry Mormonism is odd well let me just say this Islam is closer to biblical Christianity than Mormonism as far as their view what's that it is it's very confusing their view of Jesus is is very contrived and not biblical in any way shape or form and yet they look very you know they're clean-cut nice you know boys on 10 speeds nice t-shirt or church ties you know they they would they would present themselves as very Christian and yet they're polytheistic they believe in many gods they believe you can become a God you know they believe their God was once a man therefore you're a man you can become a God so there's a lot of there's a lot of things when you just say Jesus there's a lot of confusion and so I'm thankful that our ancestors the men who wrote this confession four hundred years ago took the time to enunciate the things that are most essential for us to believe about the person of Jesus and like I said it's not just tonight's article but the articles in the weeks to come but tonight's article gives us somewhat of an overview so we're going to look at tonight and I have 12 points I got a lot of sugar in me but what I'm saying there are 12 there are 12 truths that are affirmed in this in this article of the confession so we're gonna look at 12 truths that this confesses we're gonna read it first so we'll read it as it's written the Lord Jesus Christ of whom Moses and the prophets wrote the Apostles preached he is the Son of God the brightness of his glory etc by whom he made the world who upholdeth and governeth all things that he hath made who also when the fullness of time was come was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah of the seed of Abraham and David to wit of the Virgin Mary the Holy Spirit coming down upon her the power of the Most High overshadowing her and he was also tempted as we are yet without sin now if you're familiar with the scriptures you'll note as I mentioned last week all the article is is just a restatement of many passages it's just basically taking and you'll see at the bottom there how it gives us passages from Genesis and Daniel and Proverbs and and the New Testament as well John Hebrews and Galatians it's it's basically taking bits and pieces of these passages and putting them together for us into what I would say is a 12-part basic Christology and here are the 12 parts I don't know if you want to try to write them down you don't have to by the way if you ever want just photocopy my notes then you know that's it there and try to break your hands writing just come get it when we're done make a photocopy or take a picture of it with your phone but here are the twelve truths that are affirmed in this article number one Jesus is Lord now that may seem simple but I met a lot of people who don't believe Jesus is Lord I met a lot of people who believe Jesus is a good teacher I met a lot of people who believe Jesus was some form of prophet but there are people who believe as you said Confucius is a prophet there's some people who believe Nostradamus was a prophet and so to say Jesus is a prophet unless you define what you mean by that there's really no meaning to it so the first thing that we see is they indicate the Lord Jesus Christ identifying him as Lord this is only the second time the name Jesus has come up in the confession we are now nine articles in but he was mentioned one time in a few articles before as the one who saves us but now we are getting to his person and work Jesus is Lord that's number one number two Jesus was written of in the law of Moses and the prophets let me ask you a question don't know how you guys are on your biblical history as far as dates but approximately and again approximately Jackie I'm gonna look to you because you've been in all my classes she's the she's my Academy superstar it's been to all the classes so far except for grief didn't take grief so if we put Jesus as 2,000 years ago you know 2,000 years ago from us and then we go backward in time to the what we would call the BC before Christ era where would we put Moses and his writings how long before the cross okay approximately fourteen hundred and fifty years so right around 1,500 years is the time of Moses so we have about 1,500 years before Jesus now just to go back for a second I want to show you something kind of cool if you go back another 500 years you get to Abraham right so in the reason why this is kind of neat is because from Abraham to Adam there's about a 2,000 year spread this is how we start coming up with the age of the earth based on genealogies and things we have 2,000 years before the law and we have 2,000 years of the law then we have 2,000 years post the law or in the New Covenant era and so 1,500 years about the time of Moses when Moses wrote so when this passage says or when this confession says Moses wrote about Jesus they're saying Jesus was talked about 1,500 years before he came on the scene open up your Bibles open up I can't help but at least look at one passage now this is not Moses this we're at Isaiah but this Isaiah comes in around 700 BC all right so Isaiah 700 years before Jesus and just listen to this and what it says beginning at verse 3 Isaiah 53 beginning at verse 3 this is this is one of the one of the ones the confession actually sites he was despised and rejected by men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised and we esteemed him not surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet we esteemed him stricken smitten by God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was crushed for our iniquities upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace and by his stripes we are healed all we like sheep have gone astray we have turned everyone to his own way and the Lord has laid upon him the iniquity of us all that's about Jesus that was written 700 years prior to his birth and so I remember a lady came to my office I think I've told this story before but it's a good story so I'll tell it again lady came to my office one time and she said you know I she was new she visited the church never seen her before after church she said can I talk to you yes we walked into my office and she says you know I just don't know if I believe in Jesus I said okay and we began to talk about why not she had questions about the integrity of the Bible as brother Andy was just referring to and I said well let me just share something with you I said I want to read the passage and I read what I just read to you I said who is this about that's about Jesus I said this was written 700 years before Jesus was born her eyes were very like wide open okay now I understand this book is a book that is from God by God and for God's people and so we have Jesus written about by Moses and the prophets and this is obviously the prophets Moses talks about Christ in fact this Sunday I'm preaching Genesis 12 verses 1 to 3 where the Bible says Abraham received the gospel Paul says that in Galatians chapter 3 says God preached the gospel to Abraham imagine God preached the gospel to Abraham this is an amazing reality and what's the gospel through you all the nations of the world will be blessed how would they be blessed through your seed who is the seed Jesus Christ he is the seed of the woman Genesis 315 he is the promised seed of Abraham Isaac Jacob and Judah in fact that's one of the things that's mentioned here let's move on because I have ten more I'll run out of time if I do this with everyone so it says Jesus was written of in Moses and the prophets it goes on to say Jesus was preached by the Apostles one of the great things that we have that confirm our faith is the preaching of the Apostles because they signed their sermons in their own blood those men went to their deaths not for what they believed but for what they had seen and beheld with their own eyes and their own hands they saw the risen Jesus they held his hands his nail scarred hands and they proclaimed Jesus to the world Paul going all the way to Rome and Greece with the gospel Thomas going to Asia with the gospel amazing that's actually not in the the book of Acts but the Thomas Ian Church is found it through Asia that's where he went and so we have we have history these men went and died for the truth so not only is he written of by Moses and the prophets but he is preached by the Apostles then it goes on says Jesus is the Son of God the brightness of his glory and I love that they write etc and I gotta just imagine and again this is a little sanctified imagination let's imagine they're sitting around going we could put so much here Jesus is the brightness of his glory the radiance of his majesty and and so on and so so we just put etc because he's so much and and and that little etc there is to indicate there's more not less he is God's Son this is an amazing thing to even consider Jesus as the Son of God you know that was the that was the cause of Jesus's issues with most of the religious teachers because he identified God as father go through the Old Covenant scriptures you do not find God being referenced as father in the same way Jesus referenced God as father because in the Old Covenant the fatherhood of God was more on like a creator perspective God was the father in the sense that he made us Abraham was the father in the familial sense God was the father in the creative sense but Jesus puts God in the familial God is our father and how do you teach us to pray our father this is my father sent me to do his will and I have come to do my father's will and Jesus spoke of the father as relational and imminent and Jesus declared himself the Son of God and the brightness of God's glory now from a Trinitarian perspective just to not that this is in the confession but it's important to note we talk about the Sonship of God the Sonship of God is not something that happened in time the Sonship of God is something we reference is something that is eternal we call Christ the eternal Son of God therefore he is both Son of God and God the Son so we affirm both number four was that one so number five sorry Jesus is the agent of creation notice it says he is the Son of God the brightness of his glory etc by whom he that being God the father made the world Christ is the agent of creation we see this in John chapter 1 turn with me to John 1 again the guys who are the men who wrote this confession are not simply pulling things out of thin air they're they're affirming what the scripture says and in the Gospel of John it tells us this very thing it says in the beginning was the word the word there is referring to Jesus of course it says in the beginning was the word the word was with God and the word was God he was in the beginning with God all things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made the hands that Mary held in the in the first day of his birth in a sense were the hands that created all things you know there's the song Mary did you know you know that this child that you've delivered will soon deliver you this is the agent of creation honestly that that should cause us to it should cause us to be in awe number six he's also not only the agent of creation but he's the one who upholds and governs all things notice it says that it says he upholdeth throwing that nice Elizabethan English he upholdeth and governeth that's right that's the way it should be right brother should be upholded and governeth all things that he hath made how many things did Christ make all things therefore he upholds how much all things and he governs how much all things I mean yell it out when you know yeah it's all because it says he upholds and governs all things that he made well what did he make all things and therefore it is the promise or the truth rather of Christ that he he upholds our life I've over the years have been moments that were really meaningful in my life and one of the most meaningful was just the day I realized that apart from Christ holding my life together I would cease to exist he not only keeps my heart beating in my chest he keeps my very life in his hand he ensures that I continue to be you know Descartes said I think therefore I am what he meant was I don't know if I exist but I think and my thoughts prove to me that I exist because if I didn't exist I wouldn't think and therefore thought proves existence we've talked about that in apologetics right it's actually not the case it's not true your thoughts don't prove anything because you can't trust your thoughts if unless there's some reason to trust your thoughts but why do we trust our thoughts because God made us to think C.S.
