Good morning to everyone. Thank you, Lord, for allowing us to continue our studies, our distinctives, and we are now on something that we can consider as probably the heart of what makes us what we are in terms of these distinctives. Just by way of review, we are considering this in terms of various categories, like a triangle or a pyramid, starting from the widest base where we share beliefs with all those who profess Christendom in an orthodox way, so we are orthodox, But in distinction from just being orthodox, we are evangelical, so it narrows down to those who believe in salvation by grace. We are now in that section where we are considering being reformed, which is beyond being evangelical, in that we believe in certain beliefs that were most adhered to and defended during the Reformation. And then, after this section, God willing, we will be looking at the Puritan umbrella of our distinctives, and finally, the Baptist distinctives. So, these distinctives are those that introduce us to others in order to know how we are as a Reformed Baptist Church in comparison to in common with others who also like us and also in terms of contrast with those who do not share our faith. And we are now in the section of reform where we are considering the solace of the reformation. Just to summarize, we began with the sola scriptura, that scriptures alone are the word of God now. And the word of God is already written in what we call the Bible, and there is no word of God that we can call special revelation in other ways, but only in the written form. And then, sola gratia is salvation is by grace alone. And yet, what differentiates us from evangelicals who also believe in salvation by grace, is that we want to explore the depths of God's grace. That's why we see it in terms of the covenant of grace defining biblical history, how God's blessing developed in His plan of salvation. There is development or historical development in the scriptures. which we call covenant of grace, and then in terms of formulation of the doctrine, we formulate it as the doctrine of sovereign grace. So we're not satisfied with just the statement of salvation by grace, but rather we want to explore deeply what grace really means. And then the last we considered last week is sola fide, that justification is by faith alone, And Sola Fide, as we saw, focuses on Christ as the only object of faith. And we must be careful that we do not make faith, while faith is opposite of all works, It does not also focus on itself. This is called fideism, which is very rampant in many evangelicals who exercise or employ the method of decisionism. or easy-believism, and it is reduced to a mere faith in faith rather than faith in Christ. So we will now come to the fourth of this, and it is Solus Christus. So why did it suddenly change from Sola to Solus? Because the scriptures are neuter, Gratia and Fide, while Christus obviously is masculine, and in Latin, the right word for the masculine is Solus. So it's now Solus Christus, and we are asking here the question, is Christ exclusive for salvation? So we are touching on something that will be quite sensitive to many people today in the world, especially in the West. we are dealing with the issue of exclusivism. And we are asking here, of course, the logical follow-up to that question. If Christ is exclusive, are believers in Christ exclusively saved? So that's asking simply, are we not saved by any other means except Christ? uh that is exclusivism so exclusive remember is adjective and the noun of exclusive is exclusion the verb is what exclude so And that is exactly what we are, what Christians are claiming, that Jesus Christ is exclusive, that if you are not in Christ, you are excluded from those who are truly saved. And that is the Christian claim. There should be no no reservation about that. We do not waver. We should not waver, though we are now in a situation where many evangelicals are wavering about exclusivism. This is what Reformed Christians continue to maintain, that the Christian claim is the exclusivism of the Lord Jesus Christ, but we are encountering the quite the opposite spirit in the world, especially in Western culture where it extols inclusivism. You may have heard of DEI, which is the policy in America today as far as appointments and most other things. are concerned instead of the old classic meritocracy that you earn what you work for and what you qualify for. Well today what qualifies you many times is color and the favorite color today is of course the color of the minority. DEI, simply diversity, equity, and inclusion, instead of judging on the basis of merits, people are judged on the basis of color, which is far removed from what the hero of black civil liberty has said in his famous I Have a Dream speech. that one day his children will be judged, and that means everybody will be judged not by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. And the woke people are departing from that, Because, no, they want to be judged by the color of their skin, and that means the black should be preferred, the minority should be preferred over the issue of meritocracy. Now, in terms of conversion, it's not even meritocracy, and definitely not DEI. We are for the exclusive claim of the Lord Jesus Christ. So beware here in the present culture of exclusive That should be inclusive. In the present culture of inclusive and policy of DEI, exclusivism is unacceptable. That is what we are facing now. Maraming lalaban sa usapin ng exclusive lang ang pagka Panginoon ni Yesu Cristo at walang kaligtasan labas kay Yesu Cristo. Sabihin mo yan at ipangaral mo yan ay marami ang magsasabi sayo na you are intolerable and will We'll deal with that in a while. But this is the question we are asking. Is Christ exclusive for salvation? Well, let us consider again what we have been doing in this series, contrasting wrong approaches with the biblical presentation. One is to say, we believe in Christ But plus, so this is where the Solus of the Solus Christus is being challenged. They are not challenging the Christus, they are challenging the Solus. So they will say, yes, I believe in Christ. Christ is needed for salvation, but it cannot be Christ alone. So the first way by which they dismiss the Solus is by saying it should be Christ plus self. That simply means God's part is giving his son but man must complement. Sinimulan ng Diyos. Ang Diyos ay nagsimulan ng gawain ng pagliligtas. Ibinigay niya sa Eso Cristo. Pero may bahagi na dapat nasa tao ang siyang magkakalood. The complement of self. And that is the whole idea of this Christ Plus. and self becomes the plus factor. In other words, Christ alone is not exclusive. It is Christ plus self, and many times when you say self, you will of course say something, what is of that self that makes it a plus factor to Christ? They will often refer to moral condition. So, the moral condition of a person is a free will response. This is similar to what we have discussed in the past, especially in Sola Fide. But you see how these Solas and Solus are entwined. And they are saying, yes, God has done everything he could by sending Christ But now, unless man complements it with the right moral condition, according to the Roman Catholics, or by an exercise of free will, according to evangelicals who are not reformed in their conviction, may gawin na malayang pagtugon ang tao. And in answer to this, let me say that I do believe there is a saving response to the gospel. We are not just presenting the gospel and then say that everybody is saved if they have heard the gospel. There must be a response. And I'm making this very clear to those of you who may have heard the gospel so many times, perhaps for so for so long and yet you have not responded to the gospel. Well, don't use the sovereign grace of God as a pretext why you are not saved when that gospel of salvation has been presented to you so clearly It is an offer to you for you to respond to the gospel. So we believe that men must respond to the gospel. But what many hide or perhaps cover up is what the scripture states clearly that even that response is by the grace of God. It is not that God stopped at giving Christ and then waits until man responds. He demands response from sinners, but sinners cannot respond by themselves. The sinners cannot respond by themselves. In John 6.44, Jesus said, No one can come to me. Excuse me. And Jesus summarizes response to him as coming to him. And that's coming to him in repentance, in faith. So we must come to Christ. You must come to Christ if you will be saved. But Jesus said, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. To may paghikayat ng ama, in theology, is what is called effectual calling. When God calls effectually, that's when a man, a sinner, responds in repentance and faith, but not until the Father himself initiates. graciously so that the sinner can respond. But it remains the responsibility of the sinner to respond to the gospel. But when he does respond, then we say it is by the grace of God. So when it comes to free will, I explained all this already before. Free will of a sinful man is free, but it is the freedom of a sinful man, which means that he sins freely. But the idea of many of free will is a will that is neutral between good and evil. So, that is the wrong idea of free will. We believe in free will in the sense that the will is not coerced. We are not robots. I don't want to do it, but there is a force that I cannot stop. Or maybe I want to do it, but I cannot. I want to approach Christ, but I cannot. There is no such thing. You are free. You are free in the reality of your nature as sinful, so you exercise free will, but that will is in sin. In other words, it's not neutral, choosing between good and evil, it is a free will that has already made the choice. A choice that Romans 8.7 says is a mind that is in sin, and because it is in sin, it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. It cannot be subject to the law of God, even in its freedom, because its freedom is bound by its own sinful nature. So, let's balance that, because there are some reformed who think that we don't believe in free will, and that's what they're fighting for. Every reformed confession has a chapter on free will. We believe in free will, but that free will is bound by the sinful nature of the man who is totally depraved. He has already chosen what That realm is in which he exercises his freedom and that is freedom in sin. So it is wrong to say that you add self to Christ in order to be saved. Now, the second wrong approach is to add the church. And here, the Roman Catholic Church is very emphatic in its documents. Again, I'm just citing official documents of the Roman Catholic Church that the church is the necessary means whereby a man is going to appropriate Christ. sinasantabi si Cristo. Maling sabihin na ang mga kaibigan nating katoliko ay isinasantabi si Cristo, hindi totoo yan. Pinagdidiinan nila na kailangan si Esu Cristo, pero ang kanilang sinasabi, ang kaligtasang mula kay Esu Cristo ay makasalanan lamang sa pamamagitan ng mga gawain sa simbahan. And particularly because of the church hierarchy. The church has the hierarchy to give effect to Christ. Now we tend to think of hierarchy as levels of authority. Hierarchy is from the Greek hieros. Hieros is priest. So it's about priestly structure in the church, because the church, the Roman Catholic Church, it is claimed, has the priestly mediation necessary. You cannot have the salvation of Christ unless it comes to you through the means of The church, the priestly structure of the Roman Catholic priesthood. So, priests make sacraments effective. Kahit na meron kang misa, tapos hindi naman pari ang magmimisa, walang visa ayon. Kaya kailangan mo yung pari. That is what they are saying, that we need the hierarchy of the church. It is not sacramental without the priest. Now, last week, we studied sacramentalism. Now, at this point, we are showing how sacramentalism works, and that is through priesthood. That is what they are saying, why the church is needed to give And our answer to that, based on scripture, is that there is no more mediating priesthood among men. All believers are now priests. What was said of Israel in the Old Testament is applied by Peter to all believers. In 1 Peter 2 verse 9, you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation. It's actually an address to Israel in Exodus 19, but what was said of Israel and to Israel is now transferred in the New Testament by Peter to the church, to all believers. All believers are now priests. And that's why we do not need another man in the church who will render our worship effective. Our only need is Christ. Christ is the high priest. But all of us are priests. Now the pastor is not a priest. Some pastors make an ego trip because many of the converts understandably come from the Roman Catholic Church and they are saddled with this idea of priesthood of the church leader and what they thought of the Roman Catholic priest they transfer to the pastor and they treat the pastor like a priest. And as I've said, many pastors are doing ego trip by accommodating that treatment of priesthood. And that is not the case. It happens sometimes when you think that the prayer request is more effective if the pastor is the one praying. That is treating the pastor like a priest whose prayer becomes meditorial. It is not. And my prayer is no more effective than yours, no more accessible to God than yours. Now, the pastor's prayer will have certain substance in it that is peculiarly pastoral, but never priestly. So, sometimes my father calls me. That is not right. A pastor is not a priest. And Christ is the only Mediator-Priest. This is one of our arguments for Solus Christus. There is one God and one Mediator between God and man. the man Christ Jesus. This is called interdict. When an interdict is imposed on a town, priests are withdrawn. So what now? My sins are in the common mind of the clergy. What will happen? No one will forgive, no one will clean my sins because there is no mass, no confession, no penance, no sacraments. If I die, it might be purgatory or worse, it might be worse. That's one reason for the colonial slavery we suffered for so long is because of this religious blindness. So this is not just a religious thing, but there was a historical implications to us. Another wrong approach is Christ plus saints. And here, you may not have heard of this, or I'm sure if you have been under the teaching of this church, I would have taught it somehow. And this is the belief that the saints have extra righteousness to share to devotees. This is the Roman Catholic doctrine of supererogation. So, parang sinasabi nila, isang saint, and remember, a saint in the Roman Catholic view is someone canonized. At kaya siya nagiging saint ay meron siyang too much righteousness, or righteousness more than he needs. Remember, they believe in salvation by merits. So there are saints who have more righteousness, extra. So what they can do is for the living, with deficient righteousness, For example, they made an act of devotion to a particular saint. For example, they are going to a wedding. o kahit magtirik ng kandila o ano paman, may makukuha silang mula sa kanyang extra righteousness. That's an official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church, the doctrine of supererogation, based on sainthood by canonization, which only the Pope can do. And alam nyo, during the reign of Pope John Paul II, he more than doubled the number of saints. In other words, from the start when the popes were canonized, John Paul II, by his own reign alone, he doubled. the number of saints and saints give merits through acts of devotion. to do acts of devotion for a particular saint. They have a favorite saint that they are thinking of getting their merits from. Now, our answer to this is to say, all believers are saints by union with Christ. No, we do not need to call each other saint. It's hard. It hurts my ears when you say Saint Ike. But, if we understand saint in its original sense of someone separated, God separated him. In other words, he was forsaken by God. It does not mean that he was forsaken by God. What it means is that he was forsaken by the grace of God. ang kanyang mga iniligtas. Kaya't hindi na sila katulad ng mga hindi ligtas. And in that sense, they are sanctified ones. And that's being a saint. 1 Corinthians 1, 2. Those sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be saints. Together with all those who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. both their Lord and ours. So, sa lahat ng mga dako na may ibinukod ang Diyos na kanyang mga iniligtas, sila ay mga banal. And here, the favorite saint without doubt, is Mary. And I want to say even Mary was never given any mediating role. You do not find that in the scriptures. The last mention of Mary explicitly by name is Acts 1.14. And what was she doing? She was praying with the disciples. The disciples were not praying to her. She was a quiet participant in the prayer of the assembly of the church. So, she was not playing a central role. If you remember, in Acts 1, followed by Acts 2, there was a discussion about who will replace Judas. And Mary has no say on that. And that's the last mention of Mary in the scripture. She was never given a mediating role. But we do not say anything against Mary. Mary is a model of humble servanthood. Now there are evangelicals who in their attempt to denounce Mariolatry, that is the worship of Mary, they erode into saying bad things about Mary and that is wrong. Mary is a good servant of God and we should in fact follow her example. What example? In response to the annunciation of the angel that she will bear in her womb the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, without having known a man. Her response in Luke 1.38 was, Behold, I am the servant of the Lord. Let it be to me according to your word. You know, what Mary is asking for here would have led to some gossip. She would become pregnant even though not yet married at that time to Joseph. In fact, this happened. And remember, in one of the conflicts between the Pharisees and Jesus, the answer of the Pharisees was, we were not born of fornication. and the suggestion there is Jesus was. In other words, there was some rumor concerning Jesus precisely because Mary humbly submitted to being the instrument of bearing the Son of God. This is humility in demonstration. So we honor Mary, but we do not treat her as a mediator. Even Mary needed to be saved, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's not by saints. What is the biblical presentation? Well, first, Christ alone is the message, the saving message of the gospel. There is no other gospel except salvation in Jesus Christ. You have assertions of being exclusive. John 14.6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And I already cited 1 Timothy 2.5, the one mediator between God and man in the man Christ Jesus. Besides assertions, there are negations. of inclusivism. Acts 4.12 where Peter was standing before the Sanhedrin and he said there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Take note the negation, no other name. He is not saying this is the best name, but there are more inferior ones you can try. No, there is no other name. If you try to invoke any other name, there is no salvation. Salvation is only in Jesus Christ. And Apostle Paul adds to that in Galatians 1.8, Though we or an angel from heaven should preach to you any other gospel than that which we the apostles have preached, let him be accursed, let him be anathema. It's a denial of anything in addition to Christ as the saving message of the Gospel. So the Gospel of Christ compels a choice. It cannot be both exclusive and inclusive. The Christian faith is exclusive. And the second point corroborates that. Because addition to Christ is, in effect, elimination of Christ. You don't say, I will believe in Christ. I will know Him as Savior. But to be more certain, I will add, so that if there is still something lacking, others can fill it, whether self, church, or saints. Again, that's not possible. Because you are not truly believing in Christ if there is something added to Christ. You are eliminating Christ by adding anyone to Him. For in the first place, there is no match of Christ. Sinong itatapat mo kay Cristo? Sa ating pinagralan from being orthodox and evangelical, Jesus Christ is the only God-man. He is the only one who can truly be a substitute for man because He is man. But He can be a substitute before God because He is God. That's why Apostle Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2, I determined not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ and Him as crucified. He made it a point. that he will not be known for any other message than Christ and Him as crucified. Now that does not mean that he has not preached anything else but Christology. It means that everything he preaches is directed to Christ and Him as crucified. Then, not only is there no match, there is no pair for Christ as all-sufficient salvation. Pero pag may idinagdag ka, sinabi mo na ring hindi sapat si Yesu Cristo. Ang pinapasampalatayanan sa atin ay ang kasapatan ni Yesu Cristo. He is all sufficient for salvation. As the writer of Hebrews says, He is able to save to the uttermost. Those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them. The contrast here is that other priests who die, they need to be replaced. And Christ is not like that. As a priest, He does not die. Kaya patuloy ang kanyang pamamagitan sa Diyos at sa makasalanan and there can be no addition to Christ. When you add to Christ, you eliminate Him effectively. So faith beyond Christ amounts to no faith. in Christ. That's the challenge. Do you have faith in Christ alone? It's not enough that you can say, I believe in Christ. The challenge is believe in Christ alone, which means you will have to forego and renounce any other object of faith. Because if you have any other, then you have no Christ. It's him alone or nothing. Now, in answer to objection, the objection that is common is that there are many more who will end up unsaved. If you say it's exclusive, there are more who are not saved. Well, isn't it only a minority of Christians? And for many Christians, not all of them are true believers in their teaching of Jesus Christ. Are you saying that there are very few who can be saved? Even if that is the case, salvation is not about the majority. This is not democratic. And again, this may be something that is hindering some of you from fully coming to Christ is because you are thinking of many of your friends who you may either lose or change relations with, because you become a Christian, it will have an effect on the people you hold dear. And I can understand that, but remember, we're talking here of eternity, and in the matter of eternity, it will not be a question of how many more are in this particular position, it will not be decided by the majority, but by the truth. So even if this is true, it's not a matter of majority. Salvation is gracious provision. Remember this, God did not need to save any sinner at all. There's no plan of redemption for fallen angels. All of them will be damned. They are reserved for damnation. No one will be saved. Now, if God treated fallen mankind that way, then no one would have been saved, and that still would serve the justice of God. But out of the abundance of His mercy, He made provision for salvation. But as an answer to this, salvation is promised to be abundant and representative. There are reforms Just to cite one in the vision of the Apostle John of the redeemed in Revelation 7, 9 following a great multitude. He saw a great multitude that no one could number. from every nation. Now, nation here is ethne. Ethne refers to every ethnic group. It's not talking about nation states. The Philippines is a nation state but not this nation of Revelation 7-9. This is the same word in Matthew 28.19, make disciples of all nations, ethne. So ethne means Ilocano, that's ethne, Bicolano, that's ethne. And what this is saying is that every people, group is represented. among the redeemed. There will be people redeemed from every ethnic identity, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne. So what that impresses you is It represents the whole of humanity. Those whom God will save covers every community of sinners on earth. In other words, it is going to be worldwide. In the language of Jesus to the apostles, our mission is beginning in Jerusalem, then Judea, Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And we are now in our uttermost part of the earth and there are many more parts of the earth. that have yet to be evangelized and they will be evangelized. That's the optimistic view of mission. Another objection is, it is unfair for those who have never heard. Everyone has heard of the general revelation of God. Psalm 19 verse 1 makes it very clear that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims His handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. In other words, in creation, God is being heard. God confronts humanity with the reality of himself. And Romans 1.20 tells us that that renders man without excuse. Walang may dadahilan ng tao na hindi siya kinausap ng Diyos. Now that revelation is not sufficient for salvation, but that revelation is heard by all and suppressed by all until the grace of God. changes him. So, hearing the gospel is not the right of any sinner. It is a gracious favor. I already used as example the fallen angels. There's no gospel for them. So, that implies something I already said last week. Those who have the favor of hearing the gospel have the greater judgment. Kapag narinig mo nang ibanghelyo, kasama ka ryan. Narinig mo nang ibanghelyo, maaring paulit-ulit. ngunit hindi ka tumutugon anong sabi ng Panginoong Yesus, Luke 10, 12, I tell you that it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town. That is the town that heard the gospel preached to them. And here is Sodom, the name that you remember for immorality and decadence, and yet, In the judgment day, it would even be better off for them than for those who, having heard the gospel, yet rejected it. So the appeal for justice by a sinner is wrongly placed. You can't say it's unfair. You want fair? You're asking God to be just to you? Well, justice for a sinner is really asking for punishment because that is what we deserve. So that's justice. But what we really want is gracious, for God to be gracious. And if God has been gracious to you, own it as God's gift that we do not deserve. And the final objection, it makes the Christian faith intolerant. Let me just explain here. Tolerance is freedom to exercise religion in society. And on that basis, let me say and concede that some have been guilty of intolerance in the name of Christ, but we count it as wrong. And in this, the guilt of blood is carried by both Roman Catholics and Protestants. Those who believe that the Christian cause must be advanced by government. Both are guilty, though, because the Roman Catholic Church, the prominent one, has done more and for a longer time, they have done more abuse But it is a fact of history that Baptists have been the utmost defenders of religious liberty. And you see this in the U.S. Constitution, in the First Amendment on religious liberty, historians both Those who are not Christians at all, and those who are Christians, acknowledge that this was largely by Baptist influence. Why? Because when they were forming the United States as a nation, they wanted to follow England, which had a state church. Until now, England, or UK now, has a state church, the Church of England. And the United States wanted to follow that and they chose the Baptists to be the state church. The Baptists themselves refused. Because that's not the way the cause of the church is to be advanced by government. No. And so they instead proposed to adopt amendment number one, that no religion shall be established by the state. So many are reducing the gospel message in the name of tolerance. However, this is what is wrong. This is unfaithfulness. We are tolerant in the sense that we should allow every religion in society. They should have legal rights. They should not be prevented. even the worst of heresy, unless they harm people. But in the name of tolerance, we should not cushion or soften the exclusive claim of the gospel. The gospel remains exclusive and we in fact use the freedom of religion or religious liberty in order to freely preach and proclaim that there is only one Lord, one Savior in Jesus Christ. So, in conclusion, the significance of Solus Christus is there is an authoritative Christ-uniqueness of gospel proclamation. This is what I was saying earlier, when we preach and proclaim, we should not be tentative we should rather be authoritative. Because as Paul said, for what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and ourselves as servants for Jesus' sake. Indeed, to pride is humility because we are servants of Christ and we know Christ to be King. We proclaim Him as such. to all the world. And there is the imperative for all Christians to live in Christ-centeredness as the disposition of our life. Kung solus Christus tayo, e ganyan din ang ating Christian motive, our Christian goal and objective is summarized in Philippians 1.21, for to me, to live is Christ. If there is one that can define all the life of the believer, that's Christ. And of course, all that goes into it. So this is not to deny the Father and the Holy Spirit, but even our relationship with the Father and the Holy Spirit is through the Lord. Jesus Christ. That's why you often hear the benediction. Actually, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. So, that's 2 Corinthians 13, 14. This is our last verse. All who was describing what he had been as a Pharisee. More than any of the Judaizers who were boasting of their Phariseic superiority, Paul attained more. But what did he say? Indeed, I count everything as lost because of the surpassing wars. of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake, I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish in order that I may gain Christ." If only we can have that kind of comparison. When he says rubbish, he does not mean to say that everything is without value. But it is when compared to Christ, nothing and nothing can even approach to the worth of Christ for the believer. To hold fast to the central place of Christ in life and message, and that is how to live with the distinctive of Solus Christus.