We're back in Benjamin Keech's catechism this morning. Question 24 asks the question, what is the, who is the redeemer of God's elect? You might remember that this question comes immediately after our study of the fall of man into the estate of sin. And I'd like to bring us back and remind us also that this entire section is in the context of God's decrees. So the question about the Redeemer of God's elect is still part of our study of God's decrees. Question 10 started us off in our study of the decrees of God, and it teaches that the decrees of God are His eternal purpose according to the counsel of His will, whereby for His own glory He has foreordained whatsoever comes to pass. And question 11 asked, how does God execute his decrees? It's one thing to understand that God has desires and purposes in everything he does. It's another thing to know how he will accomplish his will. And before we begin, let me remind ourselves, what is God's will? What is the purpose for everything God does? Ephesians 1 and verse 10 was the focus of much of our attention because it really summarizes God's decrees and shows us His will in everything He does. It says His will is that He might gather together in all in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth in Him. Okay, so God's desire is to gather all things together in one in Christ. Meaning he wants to glorify himself in a wonderful creation where the creature and the earth and heaven all dwell in the presence of God in perfect harmony for all of eternity. Think about that. It's utopia, right? And now with that in mind, once again, How does he accomplish his will? We saw in our study that he creates and then he provides for that creation. The answer of question 11 was God executes his decrees in the works of creation and providence. The works of creation and providence. So what exactly does that teach us? It teaches us that God has chosen to accomplish his decrees, to accomplish his will, by creating things and then providing for those things. As we moved along, questions 12 and 13 teach us about his works of creation, first in creating the world and heaven and then man. And as I mentioned, I think we can say with certainty that God created the world and then put man into it so that he could gather all things together in one in Christ. Creation is the foundation upon which redemption sets. That's literally the whole point of creation. God wants us to see his glory. He wants us to know his glory and experience his glory and love his glory. And the only way for us to know and enjoy him is for Him to create us and put us into His creation and then into His own presence. We saw that in the Garden of Eden, right? It was a perfect paradise without any sin or evil or suffering and God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. Adam got up in the morning and took a walk with the Lord like they were friends, like father and a son who loved each other dearly. They talked and they even thought about things together. They had a relationship together, an intimate relationship. God created man so that man might experience God, so that man might commune with God. God wanted man to have this wonderful experience of his glory and his love. He wanted to share himself with man, so he created man. But part of this gathering meant he had to create a place where the spiritual God could tabernacle with the natural man, right? So in order to gather all things together in one, first God needed to create all things. And so he created heaven and earth, the places where man and God would gather together. God executes his decrees in the works of creation. To accomplish his will, he creates. But then question 14 told us about providence. God doesn't create the world and then let it go off on its own, right? Instead, he creates it and then he governs it, meaning circumstances and even actions of every plant, animal, and person, every storm, every sea, and every rising of the sun is the result of God's governing his creation. That's beautiful, right? Think of God as a gardener. That's a picture he gives us in his word. Think about the patience of a farmer. He sows with wisdom. He tests the soil. And he modifies the soil. And he tills the soil. And every plant needs different soil, right? The farmer knows that and carefully prepares each soil for the plant. Then he waters. Not too much and not all at once. He keeps the soil moist but not wet. He protects the plant from bugs and rodents and insects and every creature that might destroy that plant. And his mind's eye is set upon what? The fruit to come, right? The fruit to come is his focus. God's decree is that he would gather all things together in one in Jesus Christ. He tills the soil of the heart by his decree. He plants by His decree. He waters by His decree. He weeds and protects from parasites by His decree. And then He harvests the fruit. He gathers His people together in one, in Himself, by His decree. That's what heaven is. That's what salvation is. It's the fruit of God's work of providence over His creation. It's the fruit of the work of God in redeeming sinners to Himself. And he ultimately does it by the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who actively lived a perfect life and passively died the sacrificial death for sinners. The glory of God is seen in this kind of redeeming love. And this brings us to our question 24 on the Redeemer of God's elect. Who is the Redeemer of God's elect? And the answer is, the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. A summary of today's message can be found in your bulletins. It says, as part of God's decree, mankind who has fallen in sin must be redeemed or bought back to the kingdom of God. This is all according to the will of God that all things might be gathered together in one in Christ. Because the sin of man and the debt of man is so much more than man can overcome, a mediator is required to bring together the thrice holy God and the now totally depraved man. This mediator must be fully God and fully man. He would be sent from his heavenly home to live a righteous life on earth and to die in man's place, purchasing them to God's possession and freeing them forever from the damnation their sin had earned. This is our Redeemer, Jesus Christ. And with that as our introduction, let's pray as we begin. Dear Heavenly Father, once again we thank you for the opportunity to come before you with our prayers, with our studies, with our fellowship, with our communion. Oh Lord, this Lord's Day is a blessing. There is so much grace to be found in our worship of you, in our praises, in our readings of the scriptures, in our studies, in our prayers. Lord, we just thank you that you hear us and we thank you that you've called us out of our busy lives to spend the day with your people in your house, fellowshipping together as we worship together as a body. So we ask you now to bless our time in your word. We ask that your Holy Spirit would be our teacher today, that our hearts and minds and ears would be opened and that we might take in truths about our great Redeemer, that we might understand his person a little better today and understand his work and understand who he is. And I just pray, Lord, that you would lay these things upon our hearts and that we might love you more and serve you more willingly as we understand more day by day who our great Redeemer is. As we pray in Jesus' name, amen. Okay, so who is the Redeemer of God's elect? The Redeemer of God's elect, as I said, is Jesus Christ. And this role of His is part of the Lord's works of providence in executing His decrees. This goes back to question 11. How does God execute His decrees? He executes His decrees by sending a Redeemer. You might say, in His providence, He provides a Redeemer. in his efforts to gather all things together in one in Christ. Our first point this morning is called The Redeemer is the only mediator between God and man. Let's start by thinking about this role as mediator, starting with a definition. The word mediator means essentially to a go-between for two parties who are in a conflict. So he's a go-between between two parties who are in conflict with one another. So let's think about the conflict that's going on here. Conflict meaning an incompatibility between these two parties. In this case, it's an incompatibility based on holiness, right? God is holy. God requires holiness to be in his presence. And man is the opposite of holy. He is depraved. This is what we discovered in our study recently of the fall of mankind, right? Before Adam sinned, he was sinless and able to walk with the Lord in the cool of the day in the garden. When Adam sinned, he became totally sinful or totally depraved and was cast away from the presence of the Lord and out of the Garden of Eden. So we could say that holiness is the conflict here. We could also say that sin is the conflict. Both are equally true. If God didn't require holiness, sin wouldn't stand between us and the Lord. And equally true, if man wasn't sinful, holiness wouldn't stand between us and the Lord. But this conflict makes man and God completely incompatible. And so this conflict between parties requires a mediator. Pretty straightforward when you think about it. We are completely at odds with one another. God is holy and requires perfect holiness, and we simply are not. So when we have a conflict with other people, what do we do? We find a person who is neutral, right? Meaning they don't have a bias toward or against either side. And that person needs to be open-minded to the objective truth of the matter before them. He stands between the two parties, and he helps them come to an agreement. He helps them come together. In Jesus' case, he helps gather all things together in one in himself, right? This is what Jesus does. He stands between us and God in order to bring us back into agreement. His job really is to make us holy. That's really what it boils down to. His job is to reconcile us or gather us back together in one in himself. See how that fits with the decree of God? This is the purpose of Jesus' role as Redeemer and Mediator. He makes it possible for these two incompatible parties to come together again as one. And the Catechism says he is the only Mediator of God's elect. There is only one. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. He's the only way to heaven. Because no one comes to the Father except through Him. That's the language of a mediator, isn't it? Through Him. John Gill writes, Christ is the only way to access unto the Father. There is no coming to God as an absolute God, not upon the foot of the covenant of works, nor without a mediator. And the only mediator between God and man is Christ. He introduces and presents the persons and services of His people to His Father and gives them acceptance with Him. That last part right there is so crucial. Through the mediator, He gives them acceptance with the Father. That's what Jesus does. In God's providence, He provides a mediator to give the elect acceptance with Him. That's how He executes His decree. And that's how He's gathering His saints to Himself. He is fulfilling the requirements for His people in His Son. Everything God requires of us is to be found in His Son. That's providence. 1 Timothy 2, verses 5 and 6 is our first proof text today. It says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all to be testified in due time." So there it is in the very pages of scripture, one God and one mediator between God and men. Jesus is a go-between for these two parties who are in conflict with one another. And what did he do to bring these opposing parties together? He gave himself a ransom for all. He's a mediator and a redeemer. Think about that work of Christ as mediator. He gave himself, meaning he gave himself up to die as a ransom. This is part of God's providence in accomplishing his decrees. So what is a ransom? It's usually a sum of money that's given to release a prisoner or a slave from jail or bondage. That's also the meaning of a redeemer. He is one who redeems, one who pays the debt that someone else owes. That's what Jesus did in dying for the sins of the world. He paid our debt to set us free. And with that in mind, let's think back to what happened after the fall in the garden. Again, Adam was righteous and holy in the knowledge of God. And then when he sinned, he was immediately changed. So there's a shift in righteousness. He was righteous and without sin, and then unrighteous and full of sin. Adam changed because he lost his holiness. But there's also an allegiance that changed when Adam sinned. And that's part of the infinite nature of sin toward God. When we sin, we are expressing our allegiance toward a different master. Whether that is the sin itself or Satan himself, we are choosing to serve a master other than God. And that's a terrible dishonor toward God. That's something that sin changed in the garden. When we sin, we are doing the exact opposite of glorifying God. We are taking from his glory. We are hurting his honor. Why? Because sin is like paying tribute to an enemy king. It's like treason. God created us and yet our sin and Adam's sin Show God that we have chosen another master other than Him. Our allegiance changed in the fall. We became slaves of sin and Satan and death. That's why choosing sin as our master is much worse than the sin itself, right? It's much more than just an act that we do that is against God's law. It's a submission to something other than God, which the Bible defines as slavery. In Adam, we have become slaves of sin. Not slaves to God, but slaves to sin. And a slave needs a Redeemer. So let's think about Jesus' role as Redeemer, giving himself as a ransom. What his death does is it pays for our release from slavery to sin. God is buying us back from the enemy. He is purchasing us back. He's gathering us together in one in Jesus Christ. He does this through the payment of the blood of Jesus as our mediator. Jesus is offering himself to his Father and saying, Father, these children of yours deserve eternal judgment and death. Please accept my death in their place. And the Father accepts him. He accepts the death of Christ in the place of every single believer. And that's a promise you can believe. That's the providence of God. He promised to provide a sacrifice and he has in Christ. Now let's notice that the Bible and the Catechism refer to these believers as the elect of God. These are the people God has chosen to gather together in one. Think about this as more of his providence. He doesn't leave salvation up to chance, does he? No, he elects, he calls, he chooses, and then he purchases them for salvation. He foreknows and predestines, he calls, he regenerates, he sanctifies, and he will glorify his elect. God is intimately involved in the gathering of his saints to himself. God is sovereign in salvation. Now, how do we know if we are elect? That's a question this teaching prompts lots of people to ask. So, how do you know if you're elect? If you believe. If you see the fruits of repentance and faith in Jesus Christ as your only hope for salvation, then you are the elect of God. If you look to Jesus for your righteousness and your life and believe in Him and all He stands for and all He's done and obey Him with all your heart and your soul and your mind and your strength, then you are the elect of God. Being a perfect person is not the fruit of election or salvation. You don't need to look inside and find a perfect person to feel assurance of salvation. You need to look inside and find the Lord's work of repentance and faith. Those are the fruits of election and salvation. And that salvation, that faith and that repentance are the result of God's wonderful providence. They are God's works of providence for the purpose of executing his decrees, for the purpose of gathering all things together in one in Jesus Christ. So first we see that Christ is our mediator, and he is the only mediator. Which brings us to our second point, which says the Redeemer is the Son of God sent from heaven to tabernacle on earth. Catechism says our Redeemer is the eternal Son of God who became man. So Jesus is our mediator, standing between God and men, and he fills this position He stands between us as mediator, by actually being both God and man. That's a pretty profound thought. This requires a Trinitarian view of the Godhead, which states that Jesus is in fact the second person in the Godhead, and that he is actually God. According to the Catechism, the second person of the Trinity is the eternal Son of God, who became man. This is something that a born-again Christian must believe. You cannot believe in Jesus as mediator and redeemer apart from his deity. We must believe that Jesus is God if we want the salvation he offers us. Anything else makes him an idol. But in order to believe this, we need to believe and understand a few things about the person of Jesus Christ. First, we need to believe and understand what it means that Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He is eternal. This is a word which is synonymous with God. It belongs to God only. And anyone else who has eternal life receives it from God. But only God is truly eternal because only God has neither a beginning or an end. That's something that's hard to even understand for us. Our whole perception of life is constrained by time, isn't it? We have a birthday and we have a death day, and that represents time, a beginning and an end. When the Bible talks about eternal life for the believer, it has a beginning date. The day we are born again, meaning the day we repent of our sins and turn to the Lord in faith, is the day we begin our eternal life. That's the time when the works of Christ are given to us and applied to us, and that's when we begin our eternal life. Another way to think about this is that God is eternal life and we receive eternal life. Only God is eternal. And Jesus is being called the eternal Son of God. But we need to decide for ourselves if that's true. If Jesus is eternal, then He is God. John 1 in verse 14 says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is teaching us more than just the words alone tell us. The Word became flesh. Who is the Word, according to John? Well, John 1 says, in the beginning, in eternity past, was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Okay, so the Word was God. Seems reasonable to say that if the Word is God, then the Word is eternal, right? Nobody, not even the cults, argue the eternal nature of God. And so if the Word is God, then the Word is eternal. Now how do we know that the Word is Jesus? Well, the context is clear. He is the begotten of the Father. John says in John 3.16 that Jesus is the only begotten Son. The Word is the second person of the Trinity. That's why the catechism can tell us that Jesus is the eternal Son of God. He is eternal because He is God. But He's also the Son, isn't He? John 1 and verse 18 is one place that reveals this, when it says, no one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Again, John 3.16 calls Him the only begotten Son. This is a crucial part of Jesus as mediator and redeemer. He's the eternal Son who came to dwell with men. So we can see that the Word of God is also the Son of God according to John. And you begin to see the importance of this when you think about Jesus as our Redeemer purchasing our redemption. Why? He must be God. Because the sins against an infinite God are more than any man can pay. No finite creature. Not even a sinless man or a sinless angel could ever pay the debt that man's sin deserves. It requires an infinite amount of death because sin is against an infinite God. It requires eternal death. But I think God's will also requires the death of a son. Galatians 4, verses 4 through 6, we read this this morning as our next proof text. Turn with me there if you would, I want us to see this. Galatians 4, starting in verse 4, But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law. Why? that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. He is gathering all together in one in his son. Just let that sink in. Who else can redeem? Who else is good enough or infinite enough or eternal enough? Only God. And the Father sent His Son to live and die in our place so that we might become His sons and daughters. That's the will of God. He wants to gather sons and daughters to Himself. The Mediator, the Redeemer, is the Son of God, and when He pays our debt, we become sons and daughters of the Most High God. He is gathering together all things in one in His Son. God's will for that will for the people he created is that they would be redeemed and gathered as his own sons and daughters through Jesus. That's why the eternal Son of God became a man. He had to be a man in order to mediate between God and men, and he had to be God in order to mediate between God and men. This is what made him the only person in history who could function as mediator. It took a man to earn righteousness for other men and it took God to pay the infinite payment that sin deserved. That's what Jesus did when the Eternal Son became a man. Which brings us now to our final point this morning. The Redeemer is one person in two distinct natures, God The Catechism says, and so was and continues to be God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. We believe that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. His natures don't mix though. He's not 50% God and 50% man, but 100% God and 100% man. He lived as a man, was judged as a man, and he died as a man. but he redeemed like only God could. Only the Son of God could pay the debt of man, and that's why it's so important and profound to understand the deity of Christ. It was God who died for your sins. Romans 9 in verse 5 says, according to the flesh, Christ came, who was over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen. He is born in Israelite by the flesh, He's a man and yet he is the eternally blessed God. He is God. Jesus is both man and God. That's what makes him suitable for the job he has as mediator. He can relate to both sides of the conflict. Luke 1 in verse 35 says, in the angel answered and said to Mary, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the highest will overshadow you. Therefore also, that Holy One, the Son of God, who is to be born, will be called the Son of God. This child, who would be born from his mother's earthly womb, with the blood and tears and pain and suffering of humanity, would be called the Son of God. Why? Because he is the Son of God. He's also called the Son of Man. He is both Man and God. Colossians 2 and verse 9 says, for in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. The fullness of the Godhead bodily, meaning God in the body of a man. Jesus is the only God-man and this is why he's able to take upon himself the sins of the world. This is how he's able to earn the righteousness that we all require. This is how he's able to take the mantle that Adam dropped and carry it to the finish line in earning eternal life for mankind. That's what Adam was trying to do in the garden. He was trying to earn a life for himself and everyone else. When he failed, he earned the opposite. Christ came as the last Adam, as a man, and earned eternal life for the elect. He finished the job that Adam started, and he did it as a man. And then He paid the debt Adam earned and did that as our Redeemer God. And when He arose from the dead, He kept that earthly body, didn't He? Jesus is forever a man like you and me. He took on our form so that He might forever be one with us, relating to us as a mediator and Redeemer. We are gathered together in one in Him. Hebrews 7. Verses 24 and 25 says, but he, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood. Therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. There's his work as mediator. In one sense, Jesus' work isn't over. His work on earth is finished, but his work as redeemer is forever. He always lives to make intercession for us. He dwells in a human body in heaven. He always lives to pray for us, to bring us before the Father and present us to him in himself. As we draw to a close, I want to think about this. When you think about Jesus, what do you think about? We're taught that we are saved by the person and work of Jesus Christ. What do you think about His person? Do you think about Him as fully God and think about what was required to pay your eternal debt? Do you think about Him as fully man and think about what was required to live a life completely without sin for you? This isn't ivory tower stuff. This is theology. This is the study of God's decree to save sinners. Who is our Redeemer? We must have a right understanding of His person, to think about His person, and ponder His person, and love His person. There's a level of our knowledge of Christ that requires us to see Him as the God-man. Same goes for His work. He worked to live according to the law that we're all going to be judged by. And He did it for us. Think on these things and tell me it doesn't promote some Love in your heart. Tell me it doesn't make you hate your son. Tell me it doesn't make you want to serve him better. But that's not all. This God-man also died for men. That was another work of his. He died to take away the sins of the world. What an amazing God. And all he asks in return is that you trust and obey. That you repent and believe. Our purpose in this life is to think upon the person and work of Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and to enjoy Him and obey Him out of pure gratitude for His great sacrifice. God's will is to gather all things together in one in Jesus Christ. And it's through His works of creation and providence that He accomplishes it. And maybe the most amazing aspect of providence is providing His only begotten Son as a sacrifice in our place, so that we might spend eternal life in His presence, gathered forever, together forever, in perfect communion forever, as one forever, as His children forever, and in Christ forever. Listen again to our opening scripture. As we close, this is Galatians 4 again. This is our Redeemer. Paul says, Now I say that the heir, as long as he is a child, does not differ at all from a slave, though he is a master of all. This is us. But as under guardians and stewards until the time appointed by the Father. Even so, we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world. But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying out, Abba, Father. Therefore, you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir of God, through Christ. What a beautiful thought. This is our blessed hope, and this is the work of our Redeemer. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you again for this blessed truth. We thank you that we gather every day, every Sunday, to honor and glorify our Redeemer. And this is such a crucial aspect of our faith. We thank you for such a clear teaching on it in your word. We thank you that you have laid it upon the hearts of men all throughout church history to really nail down the details of such a wonderful doctrine and that we can be the recipients of that teaching and all of those teachings over history, the men who came before us, the songs that we sing of our Redeemer, Really, the church's whole purpose is to proclaim this Redeemer. And that's why we join together on the Lord's Day to think about the redemptive work of Christ on the cross and His great resurrection and all that is true about His work and His person. So we thank you for who He is. We ask that He would be exalted in our hearts today and every day. And we thank you for these things in Jesus' name. Amen.