Christ is Called the Son of God

Introduction: Nothing Greater Than Faith in the Person of Christ

0:00 Nothing, I say nothing, is of greater importance in the concerns of a person's salvation from sin than his understanding of and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Holy Scripture. Let me make that statement personal. Nothing, I say nothing, is of greater concern with reference to your soul's salvation from sin than your understanding of and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in the Holy Scriptures.

0:54 Now I did not say that the only thing of concern with reference to your soul's salvation is your understanding of and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. what I said was, nothing is of greater importance with reference to your soul's salvation than your understanding of and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in Scripture. This being true, as we are engaged in this series of studies dealing with major categories of biblical truth, we are spending more time and giving more minute attention to the matters surrounding the person and work of Christ

1:44 than to any other department of revealed truth that will be covered in this series of studies. Having examined the teaching of the Word of God relative to the objects of the salvation of the Bible, we are now concerned with the central figure in that salvation. I have set before you week by week the three basic elements, the irreducible minimum, which constitute the biblical doctrine of Christ's person. Number one, he is truly God.

2:15 Number two, he is truly man. Number three, he is one person in two distinct natures forever. Now for the past few weeks we've been demonstrating the biblical basis for this classic statement concerning the doctrine of Christ's person. We've been looking at the passages which focus upon the first aspect of the church's confession concerning the person of Christ, namely that he is truly and essentially God.

2:49 In the word that was so wonderfully used in the early Christological controversies, he is homoousia with the Father. He is of the same essence, the same substance as the Father. Well, I say, why has the church thus confessed him through the centuries? We've been gathering together the witnesses of Holy Scripture.

3:14 We've looked thus far at three groups of such witnesses to his essential deity. Number one, the places where he is called God, such as John 1.1 and John 20.28 in Romans 9.5.

3:28 Secondly, the passages where he is seen possessing or exercising the characteristics of God, omniscience and omnipresence, Matthew 28 in verse 20. And then last week we concluded our consideration of the third group of witnesses, the portions in which he is seen performing the works that only God can perform, creation, providence, salvation, resurrection, and judgment. Now today we come to the fourth group of witnesses to the true and essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And this fourth group of witnesses is to be found among those passages in which Jesus Christ is given the names and titles of deity.

4:18 How do we know that Christ is God? We consider the first group of witnesses, he's called God. The second group of witnesses, he possesses characteristics that only God possesses. The third group of witnesses, he does works that only God performs.

4:35 Now add to that the fourth group of witnesses. In the word of God he is given names and titles which belong only to a divine being. He is given the names and titles of deity. Now as we come to consider this fourth group of witnesses to his essential deity, I want to say two things by way of introduction.

Significance of Biblical Names as Revelatory

4:59 Number one, something must be said concerning the significance of a name in biblical thought. And then secondly, something must be said about the proper way to arrive at the precise significance of a name in biblical language. First of all then, the significance of a name in biblical thought. To us, a name is usually little more than a verbal symbol of individual identity.

5:31 In other words, when we call our children so that they know which one we're calling, we give them different names. Rarely do we ever trace out the history, the origin, the derivation, the linguistic significance of the name by which we identify our children. For the most part, names in our culture and in the circles in which we move are nothing more than verbal symbols of individual identity. But not so in the Bible.

6:04 Names in general have a great significance, even people and places. We've been reading in Genesis in our consecutive reading through the Old Testament Lord's Day evenings. And again and again we see the significance of the names given to individuals and places. Take Jacob for example.

6:24 The name Jacob means supplanter or deceiver. When God changes his character he changes his name into Israel which means prince of God. There was a place called Luz, L-U-Z. But when Jacob meets God there he changes the name to Bethel which means house of God.

6:45 So you see, with this little sampling, and the Old Testament is literally strewn with such examples, names in general have tremendous significance even when applied to people and to places. However, the names of God in particular are of great and profound significance. It is accurate to say that the names of God are revelatory. You say, Pastor Martin, there you go using a big word again.

7:16 Well, you ought to know what that big word means. The names of God become the vehicles by which God shows us who He is. And that's all we mean by revelatory. You see, you can know no more of God than God is pleased to reveal of Himself.

7:33 Now, how shall the infinite, all-glorious God reveal Himself to finite, sinful creatures? Well, one of his most profound and helpful ways is by the names by which he comes to his people, so that the names of God are revelatory of the character and the ways of God. So close is the identity of the being of God with his name that we read such things as this in Scripture. In Exodus chapter 20, God says in what we commonly call the third commandment, Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain, for thou wilt not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

8:23 So close is the being of God identified with his name that to prostitute the name is to prostitute the person who bears that name. Or again in the Psalms and we have so many references. Again I can only just give you one under each of these categories of thought. And trust that it will be the clue and the key that will open up the significance of many others.

8:50 And I've just picked this one out at random. In Psalm 20 and verse 1. The Lord answer thee in the day of trouble. The name of the God of Jacob set thee up on high.

9:02 How can the name of God set me up on high? I thought God is the only one who can set me up on high. That's right. But God is so revealed in his name that to have the name of God set me on high is to have God himself set me up on high.

9:19 Or take the New Testament language, quoting from the prophecy of Job in Romans 10 and verse 13, also quoted by the apostle Peter on the day of Pentecost, Whosoever shall call upon the what? The name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, I thought the object of faith was the Lord Himself. Whosoever believeth on Him, come unto Me.

9:44 All that come to Him will not be cast out. And yet this text says, Whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord. Now, why can that language be used? Because to call upon God's name is to call upon His person.

9:57 So this concept, you see, just permeates the Scriptures, Old and New Testament. And we must never forget that the New Testament comes to us in a cultural and religious context that was permeated with this mentality that a name is revelatory. A name has great and profound significance. and since God chose to reveal Himself in these last days in the final revelation to be given men in Christ in a cultural and religious context where the name had such profound significance it is our responsibility to seek to go back into that cultural and religious context

10:44 and to catch something of the glory of what is revealed concerning the person of Christ in the names and titles given to him in that very setting.

Proper Method to Ascertain the Meaning of a Biblical Name

10:58 Now having said something about the whole matter of the significance of names in biblical thought, now the second word of introduction has to do with the proper way to arrive at the precise significance of a name in biblical language. When we come across a biblical title, we are tempted to transfer our present use of that word backwards onto the biblical usage. For instance, how often when we've read in Galatians, the law was our schoolmaster unto Christ, or as one translation has it, and it's not very accurate, but it's translated that way, to bring us unto Christ. What do we think of when we think of a schoolmaster?

11:42 Well, we think in terms of the teacher as our schoolmaster, and we say in some way the law functioned as my teacher functions, as my teacher leads me into my lessons to learn them, so the law. But you see, that's not the concept at all. We have slapped onto a biblical word, a current 20th century American culturally identified term, and this is wrong. No, what our responsibility is, or what we are to do, and in fulfilling our responsibility, we must, by comparing Scripture with Scripture, seek to determine precisely what that title meant in the setting in which it came to us.

12:23 Ah, but someone says, Pastor Martin, I'm just a humble believer. I take the Bible as it stands. I believe it says what it means, and I believe it means what it says. Ah, but my friend, that's precisely the issue at hand.

12:36 The Bible says what it means, and it means what it says. The Bible does not say what you think it may mean, nor does it mean what you think or could conveniently construe as being what it says. No, no. It is absolutely true. We must take the Bible as it stands.

13:03 And it means what it says. But what it says, it says in a cultural and religious context that is different from ours. So the whole concept, why get excited about names? Names are nothing but convenient verbal symbols by which we have individual identity.

13:23 Your name is Jane, and somebody else's is Harriet, and somebody else's is John, and somebody else's is Peter. So what? Why get all excited about it? Well, that's the way we regard names, but not in the setting in which our Lord appeared.

13:37 He appeared in a setting in which God was fully cognizant of the profound significance of names, in which all who heard Him speak and who saw the titles given to Him by His intimate followers, the titles given to Him by the Father from heaven and by men on earth, and those names literally bristled with profound implications. And I trust none of us will have the pietistic cop-out that says, well, I'm just a humble Christian, and I believe the Bible says what it means and means what it says. Well, if you really believe that, then you will not count any mental pains too great to understand precisely what the Bible does mean

14:25 when it gives such glorious titles to our Lord as are to be found particularly in the New Testament. Alright? So much then for these two introductory thoughts, absolutely essential as we come to this fourth group of witnesses to the deity of our Lord, the profound significance of names in biblical literature and the proper way to understand the significance of those names. Now then, we come to consider the names and titles of the Redeemer which declare His deity.

Three Key Titles to Examine

15:02 And once again as with all the other categories of witness the teacher the preacher is embarrassed by the surfeit of material The materials are so profuse and extensive that one is hard to know what to include and what to exclude. We could turn to some of the Old Testament titles and names such as are given in that wonderful prophecy in Isaiah 9, 6. The son given, the child born shall be called, hear names, wonderful counselor, El Gibor, mighty God, father of eternity, prince of peace. We could turn to other portions in the Old Testament. We could turn to the

15:50 New Testament and turn to the book of the Revelation and take those names, Alpha and Omega, beginning and ending, many avenues of approach to the subject. But I'm going to limit myself to but three of the names and titles given to our Lord, which very clearly and powerfully proclaim his essential and true deity. Those terms and titles are Son of God, Son of Man, and Lord. Now, why have I chosen those three? I think you ought to know, and I'll gladly answer.

16:28 The term Son of God found somewhat in the Gospels, particularly in the Gospel of John, found quite frequently in the Epistles, is a term which you're going to confront no matter where you're reading in the Scriptures. Therefore, we ought to understand its profound significance so that every time we encounter that title, our hearts may be lifted up to God revealed in Christ in a way that is commensurate with the profound significance of the term Son of God. The second term, Son of Man, of course, is the favorite term by which our Lord speaks of Himself. It is found at least some thirty times in the Gospel of Matthew, I believe approximately eighty times in all of the Gospels.

17:21 It's found once or twice, I'm sorry, in the book of the Revelation. And when you read through the Gospels, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save. The Son of Man must suffer. What are you to think when you see that title given to our Lord, taken upon His own lips, spoken to Him by others?

17:45 I want us to understand that term because it is used so much in the Gospels and then the third title, Lord, Kurios, the title which is most frequently found not in the Gospels, but in the book of the Acts, in the apostolic preaching, and then, of course, most of all, in the Epistles, where again and again he is called by the simple term the Lord, or our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and we ought to understand the rich significance of that name by which our Lord is identified. Well, of course, we can't get through all three of those this morning. God willing, and by the help of the Lord, we'll get through the first, Son of God. Now, consider with me very briefly the frequency of the usage of this title of our Lord, Son of God.

Frequency of Son of God from Conception to Apostolic Preaching

18:39 There are some unthinking people, so-called biblical scholars, who say that that concept is never one that was embedded in the early mentality of Christ or his followers, but something that sort of grew. And as the legends about Christ grew, so the desire to elevate him above men grew, and so the concept Son of God grew along with this superstitious elevation of the preacher who came from Nazareth. Well, that's ridiculous. The biblical records simply do not teach that.

19:13 For at his conception the announcement was made that this person conceived in the womb of the virgin would be nothing less than son of God. I read from Luke chapter 1, verses 31 and 32. And behold, the angel speaking to Mary, and behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great and shall be called.

19:47 Now remember, see, the significance of a name is not simply saying, now Mary, you're going to have a supernatural conception and bring forth an unusual personage. And let's see now, what are we going to call? We've got to give him a name. Maybe a name.

19:59 No, no. To be called this means to marry. You want to know something, Mary, of what you will carry in your womb? Here it is.

20:09 His name shall be called Jesus. Jehovah is our salvation. He shall be called great and shall be called the Son of the Most High. And so the title Son of God is given to him at his very conception.

20:33 We have very little record of what transpired in the thinking and in the activity of our Lord. in those years from infancy to adulthood. But we're given that one glimpse in Luke chapter 2. And here we see in our Lord a very firm consciousness of His identity as the unique Son of God.

20:57 You remember the incident. They'd gone up for one of the feasts at the temple. They return home. They discover that the Lord is not among them.

21:05 They go back seeking Him. When they find him, there is a mild rebuke in their question. Verse 48 of Luke 2, And when they saw him, they were astonished. And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?

21:22 Behold, thy father and I sought thee sorrowing. And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? Knew ye not that I must be in my father's house? in the marginal reading in the 1901 is a much better rendering of the original.

21:41 Wist ye not that I must be about the things of my Father? Now hold in suspension that little phrase, my Father. He didn't say, did you not know that I must be occupied about the things of the Father? Nor did he say of our Father.

22:06 But he said, Wished ye not that I must be concerned about the things of my Father. And we shall see that that little phrase, My Father, had profound significance upon the ear of a Jew. That one would identify himself with the term, The unique Son of the living God. Then, of course, at his inauguration into ministry, it is by this very term that the Father identifies him in the baptismal waters of Jordan.

22:42 This is my beloved Son. As John bears witness to him immediately following his baptism, John 1, 29-34, Behold the Lamb of God. And then he concludes his testimony by saying, This is the one I have seen and borne witness that this is the Son of God. And then there is the classic confession of the disciples there in Caesarea Philippi, recorded in Matthew 16 and verse 16.

23:16 Then there is the apostolic testimony, John 20 and verse 31. These things I have written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. It's in the apostolic preaching, Romans 1.5, the gospel which pertains to this one who is after the flesh seed of David, but declared to be Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

23:43 But perhaps the supreme attestation of this title is given by God the Father Himself. when he speaks from heaven at the baptism of John of all the things by which he could identify the one who stands in Jordan's waters he chooses this designation above all others this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased he could have said this is my servant in whom I am well pleased This is the anointed Messiah in whom I am well pleased. But the thing that he brings into focus is that which is bound up in the title Son of God.

24:32 Now we read the second instance of this in Matthew chapter 17 this morning. When there is this unusual outshining of the inherent dignity of him who was God and man, And there is this transfiguration, this pulling back, as it were, of some of the dulling influence of the humanity of Christ, clouding and veiling the true and essential glory of His true and essential divinity. And there is this amazement as He is transfigured before them. The explanation to that is given by God Himself.

25:10 This is my beloved Son. Hear ye Him. So you see then, the term Son of God is no incidental title given to our Lord. From His conception, right on through His earthly life, with the attestation of the voice of God from heaven, and on into the apostolic confession and preaching, Jesus of Nazareth is ever to be identified by the title Son of God.

Essential Meaning 1: John 5 — God His Own Father

25:43 Alright, having looked at something of the frequency of its usage, now we address ourselves to the question, what is the essential meaning of the title Son of God? Now here's where we have problems. Because we take our prevalent usage of Son and we transfer it backward to that title and that's all wrong. When we use the term son, we think primarily of derivation of being or identity of parentage.

26:18 When I say I am the son of Mr. and Mrs. George A. Martin of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, you immediately think in your mind as that registers on your ears and goes by the auditory nerve to your brain and then you sort it out and attach meaning to those words, you think what Pastor Martin is doing is identifying his parentage.

26:43 He is acknowledging that he has derived his physical being from Mr. and Mrs. George A. Martin.

26:50 He is their son. So derivation of being, identity of parentage, the offspring with the one who gave it birth, is the primary connotation of the term son to us. But that's not true. When we read in Scripture, Christ is called Son of God.

27:12 Now in the Old Testament, the term was used. It was used of Israel. Israel is called God's Son. The term or the concept is surely there in the heart of the pious Israelite, that in some wonderful sense God was father of his people.

27:30 Didn't David know this? In Psalm 103, like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He is called the father of the believing remnant in the book of Isaiah. But when we come into the New Testament, And we find our Lord given the title Son of God.

27:51 And in particular, when He begins to use the concepts attached to that title, namely, calling God His own Father, using the terminology My Father, differentiating between God's fatherhood of all His creatures in the broadest sense, his fatherhood of his redeemed ones in a more narrow sense when he says as we find it recorded in John 20, 17 I ascend unto my father and your father he doesn't say our father he says he's my father in a way that he's not yours he's your father but he's my father in a distinct and unique way

28:38 to my God and to your God he is your God you his believing people but he is my God in a sense that he never can be your God. What is bound up then in that title, Son of God, that allows our Lord to say, My own Father, that allows the Father to say, My own beloved Son?

29:03 There are two key passages which answer this question. And every believer who has an interest in his own salvation ought to know these passages, ought to understand the flow of thought and find them a constant buttress to his confidence that his Savior is indeed truly God. Those passages are John chapter 5 and John chapter 10. Now remember what we're doing.

29:32 We're simply bringing in the witnesses to the deity of Christ found in the names and titles given to him. name and title number one Son of God frequently used but pray tell what does it mean and we're going to ascertain the meaning not by going to Webster's Dictionary and see what he says about Son but by going back into the very day in which that title was given to him was used upon his own lips and understand what it signified in that setting and then we shall know the full and rich significance of that title. John chapter 5.

30:16 This passage ought to be familiar to you Mr Fisher led you in a study of it a few weeks ago The category of witnesses to Christ deity that he does the works that only God does and in this passage the work of resurrection and judgment. Now we go back to glean another very helpful principle and set of truths from it. You remember the setting, he's healed a man on the Sabbath day, and in so doing he's offended the Jews. The Jews now want to know on what basis he breaks, quote, the Sabbath day, as they understand it.

30:53 Now we read in John chapter 5, beginning with verse 16, And for this cause the Jews persecuted Jesus because he did these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them. Now notice, he doesn't say, Our Father or the Father. My Father worketh even until now, and I work.

31:16 For this cause therefore the Jews sought the more to kill Him. Why? Because He not only break the Sabbath, but also called God His own Father, making himself equal with God.

31:41 You see what our Lord did? He says, you accuse me of breaking the Sabbath, the Sabbath given to you by Jehovah through the instrumentality of Moses and the angel there upon Mount Simeon. But it's impossible that I should break the Sabbath because my Father works. He continually carries out His own purposes of providential preservation of His creation throughout every Sabbath.

32:12 And He says, as surely as my Father works, I work. In the identity that I sustain to Him as His unique and peculiar Son, I have such access to the counsels and mind and will of the Father that all that He does I do.

32:35 And if you touch what I do and criticize it, you touch what He does. There is such an identity. Now that's exactly how the Jews understood our Lord's words. And they're enraged and say we must kill Him.

32:50 He's guilty of blasphemy because He not only breaks the Sabbath, But he talks about God being his own Father in such a unique relationship as to elevate himself to the place of equality with God. Now what does our Lord do with that conclusion that they draw from his little phrase, my Father worketh? Jesus takes that claim at its face value and rather than neutralizing it by explaining it away and saying, you poor people, you're so dunce, you're so thick, you don't understand. When I said my father, I didn't mean that I was equal with God, that my identity with Him is one of an inter-Trinitarian relationship,

33:39 sympathy of mind and will and purpose and performance. Let me just explain to you. All I meant when I said that was that I was in a peculiar way His firstborn back before all ages when no one existed but Jehovah God. I was brought forth as some kind of a being above the angels but less than God.

34:04 Our Lord did no such thing. Jesus therefore answered and said Truly I, truly I say unto you The Son can do nothing of himself But what he seeth the Father doing For what things whoever he doeth These the Son doeth in like manner And he goes on to amplify the significance of the little phrase My Father worketh and I work and he says that is true. And if I told you anything other than that, I would be less than truth incarnate. He expands upon it and he takes us into the mystery of that profound relationship of the oneness and the sympathy of mind and purpose

34:51 existing between the Father and the Son, born witness in that culminating act of resurrection and judgment at the last day. And in this passage we have set before us then this very emphatic statement that to claim God as His own peculiar Father is to claim equality with God. now turn to John chapter 10 where we see even an intensification of the significance of the title Son of God in this passage the Jews are divided over the Lord Jesus and his words

Essential Meaning 2: John 10 — I and the Father Are One

35:39 some are saying he has a demon some people say well it doesn't bear out how can a demon do the wonderful things or demon-possessed man do the wonderful things he's doing. And our Lord then is found at the Feast of Dedication, verse 22, and he's walking in the temple in Solomon's porch. Verse 24, The Jews therefore came round about him and said unto him, How long dost thou hold us in suspense? If thou art the Christ, tell us plainly.

36:11 They say, you see, the evidence is inconclusive. Imagine, he's been raising the dead, healing the sick, speaking as no man ever spoke. And they say, the reason we haven't yet decided on this issue, insufficient evidence. Tell us, blame them.

36:26 Whether you're the Christ. Jesus answered and said, I told you, and ye believed not. The works that I do in my Father's name, these bear witness of me. But ye believed not, because ye are not of my sheep.

36:43 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. No one shall snatch them out of my hand. My Father who hath given them unto me is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

37:00 I and the Father are one. Now is that simply one in purpose, one in ministry, one in perspective, one in mission? No, no. The Jews did not understand it in that way.

37:14 Verse 31. The Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I showed you from the Father. For which of those works do ye stone me?

37:26 The Jews answered him, For a good work we stone me not, but for blasphemy. And because that thou being a man, now notice, makest thyself God. The accusation in John 5 is, By claiming to have God as your own Father, you put yourself on a level of such an interpenetration of mind and spirit and will and purpose. He works and you work.

37:58 You claim such identity. You're elevating yourself to a place of being equal with God. Now when he says, I and the Father are one, they say we must get rid of him. He is now claiming to be God Himself.

38:18 And in the original this is so vivid.

38:23 Even the gender is profound in its significance. There is a neuter used, I and the Father are one thing. I and the Father are one essence, one being. so that there is no confusion in the persons.

38:42 He is still I, the incarnate Christ, and the Father is still the Father. I am the Father. There is identity within the mystery of the Godhead. There is the Son.

38:54 There is the Father. But I and the Father are one, not one person, one thing that is divinity itself of one essence. We with the Spirit constitute the Godhead. Now the Jews are confronted with a very powerful, logical argument, and we don't have time to expound it and to show the progression, but suffice it to say, when the argument is done, the conclusion is very clearly set before us in verse 31.

39:33 But if I do, then though ye believe me not, believe the works that ye may know and understand that the Father is in me, and I in the Father. When I claim that I and the Father are one, I am making claim to an interpenetration of divine essence. The Father is in me, and I am in the Father.

39:59 They sought again to take him. You see what our Lord did? He enforced the conclusion that they drew from His words That the significance of the concept Son of God The claim that God was His own Father Was nothing less than a claim to this interpenetration of the divine essence There was in that classic word of the old Christological controversies There was the same, there was that homoousia of the same essence with the Father. And so they seek to lay hold of this one that they consider a blasphemer.

Synthesis: Son of God Means God the Son

40:46 So you see the term Son of God, the title Son of God, points primarily, primarily, to this inter-Trinitarian relationship between what we call the first and second persons of the Godhead. It is right in the language that most of us have heard at one time or another to understand the title Son of God as nothing less than a title that says He is God the Son. and you find it of tremendous help whenever you're reading your Bible and you see Him addressed as the Son of God to pause and say, that means He is God the Son.

41:33 In the great and profound, the inscrutable mystery of the divine being, there is that One, that Person who is Father, eternally Father, and that One who is Son and eternally Son, as well as that One who is Spirit and eternally Spirit. And to hear Him called Son of God is to hear this ascription of divine essence given unto Him. It brings within its scope this claim of John 10, I and the Father are one. The Father is in me and I in Him.

42:16 this interpenetration of divine essence, this interdivine knowledge that we considered in Matthew 11 under His omniscience. No man knoweth the Father, save the Son. No man knoweth the Son, save the Father. Only God can comprehend God.

42:36 And so it is the Godhood of the Father that alone can comprehend the Godhood of the Son. And the Godhood of the Son alone can comprehend the Godhood of the Father. There is interpenetration of essence, interdivine knowledge, perfect identity of purpose and work. My Father worketh and I work.

43:00 That's all bound up in that wonderful title, Son of God. now then what's all this say to us oh as I come to application this morning will you listen carefully you remember the statement with which I opened our study this morning nothing nothing is of greater concern with reference to your salvation than your understanding of and faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ as revealed in scripture your understanding of and faith in what is signified by the title Son of God

43:48 is a matter of life and death. Did you know that? Listen to the language of John. These things have I written unto you that ye may believe that Jesus is.

44:04 This has to do with identity of person. that Jesus is the Son of the living God. And that believing, believing what? Believing that He is Son of God and what that title demonstrates of His essential being, believing that you may have life in His name, in His name, in His name.

44:32 You see, name. what is revealed of His essential person in that glorious name, Son of God.

44:42 Therefore, we have every warrant to say that he who denies that Jesus Christ is Son of God, that is, that He sustains that relationship as one of the persons of the triune Godhead, cannot have life.

Application: Life, Overcoming, Confession, and Romans 8:32

45:04 Life is in the name, in the name of Him who is revealed, Son of God. It is a matter in the second place of whether or not we overcome the world. And it's only those who overcome the world that will not be consumed with the world. In the final manifestation of divine judgment, every promise of heaven in Revelation 2 and 3 is to the overcomers And John says in 1 John chapter 5 and verse 4 Whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world This is the victory that hath overcome the world, even our faith.

45:42 Now is it just faith in itself? Faith is some kind of a spiritual pill that enables us to have such strength that we overcome the world. No, faith in terms of its object. And who is he that overcometh the world?

45:57 That is, who is the true believer who by faith overcomes? Who is he? He that believeth right now that Jesus, the man of Nazareth, is the Son of God. Son of God defined how?

46:16 Not by the clever, fast-talking Russellite who comes to your door. But Son of God is defined by God the Son Himself. in the days of His flesh. Son of God is described by the apostolic testimony, for John can go right on in the conclusion of this letter and describing Jesus Christ in verse 20, call Him, this is the true God and eternal life.

46:40 Son of God, a title which is an ascription of an inter-Trimetarian relationship. He is God the Son. You and I will never overcome the world if our faith is in a Savior who is less than God. The cards are stacked against you, my friend, and there will be no overcoming but by faith, and no faith is vital, true faith, the gift of God, but that which has as its perpetual and continual object, Jesus, who is Son of the living God.

47:15 And then I would remind you that it's a matter of establishing the validity of our claims to salvation, as to whether or not we understand Him to be and confess Him to be Son of God. Chapter 4 of 1 John, verses 14 and 15, We have beheld and bear witness that the Father hath sent the Son to be the Savior of the world. Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God abideth in Him, and He in God. What is the mark of a true confession?

47:52 The confession that comes from the heart of one who is truly abiding in God, who has entered into vital union with God through Christ and the Spirit. Here it is. An indispensable element of that confession is the unreserved, unequivocal acknowledgement that Jesus of Nazareth is God the Son. He is Son of God, defined biblically.

48:18 and then of course so much of the drawing forth of true appreciation for our salvation in Christ is based upon some intelligent grasp of what it means that he is called Son of God and as a sort of a little mini communion meditation may I direct you for our last passage of scripture to Romans chapter 8 and notice how careful the apostle is to emphasize this point having described the great privileges of the people of God all the way from their foreordination unto sonship in Christ to their glorification. He says in verse 31, What shall we say then to these things?

49:04 If God is for us, who is against us? Now look at the language of verse 32. He that spared not His own Son.

49:18 He that spared not the One who with Him shared in the divine essence, who was ever and eternally the Son, distinct from Him, so that there was from eternity that which is hinted in John chapter 1, the Word was with God, face to face with God. Think of it. All of the infinite and pure love that flowed from the Father to the Son. From the eternal Word, the eternal Son to the Father.

49:52 Who can imagine the bonds that exist between the Father and the Son in the pure and holy, albeit mysterious bonds of inter-Trinitarian love and affection? Who can fathom that? But can we not at least look in the direction of that bright light and say It must have been a glorious thing The affection that existed between the Father and the Son The text says He that spared not his own Son He that spared not his own Son

50:40 What did that mean? It meant giving up that Son To the humiliation of a true incarnation Made in the likeness of sinful flesh And that humiliation in all of its descending steps As described in Philippians chapter 2 comes to its profound depths in that mystery of Calvary when He who was His own Son, ever and eternally bound in those bonds of divine filial affection, what does He do? He spares Him not. And when is the surety of His people His position?

51:27 as surety cried to heaven, saying, Pour out wrath upon me, my Father. I stand in the room instead of all who will come unto you by me. And if they are to come with confidence that there shall never be a drop of wrath shed upon their heads, Father, I must be bruised. I must sink to the depths of abandonment.

51:53 And the Father spared not His own Son.

52:02 That inter-Trinitarian intimacy and depth and profound measure of affection was never suspended for a moment.

52:15 In fact, if anything, it was deepened by every successive act of obedience by the incarnate Son. For Jesus said, therefore, does the Father love me because I lay down my life. Think of it. The Father never loved him more than that moment when he was impaled upon the cross.

52:37 And yet may I say it reverently, the Father never treated with greater vengeance an irrational soul under heaven, with greater measures of pure and holy wrath, than when that wrath was poured out unmixed upon his own beloved Son.

52:59 And I deliberately refuse to attempt any human parallel for illustration. If God the Holy Ghost will not take the simple statements of Scripture and somehow overwhelm us with the magnitude and the wonder of it, nothing will suffice to humble our proud and hardened hearts. He that spared not his own Son. When we say very glibly, the Son of God died for my sins.

53:30 Oh, what does that mean, dear people? It means that he who bore that relationship, one with the Father, equal to God, sharing in the divine essence, he was not spared. you see we are not contemplating God in abstraction to use the theological language we are not thinking of God ontologically as he is in himself but we are thinking of him soterically as he is coming to our rescue in sin and how does he come? he comes as son of God and the angel makes that clear in the announcement in his conception that which is conceived in thee He shall be called the Son of the Highest.

54:17 This is what makes our salvation so surrounded with glory and mystery and majesty. As one old man of God said, and I paraphrase him into more simple language, He who refuses to believe these mysteries imperils his soul. He who seeks to plumb the depths of these mysteries will imperil his mind.

54:43 But both are true, dear friends. He who refuses to believe such mysteries imperils his soul. He who will not, because of the pressure of human logic, say, how can it be that he can be the Son and still equal to God? How can there be, this as it were, two persons, the three persons within the wonder?

55:08 I can't understand that. My friend, you're called upon to believe that Jesus is the Son of God. If you will not believe, you imperil your soul. And if you seek to plumb the depths of that mystery, you'll imperil the sanity of your mind.

55:26 And the mark of the true Christian is this. He falls at the feet of that mystery in the person of Christ Himself. And he says, my Lord and my God. He says with Peter, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

55:48 Not a being who derives his existence from God. Not a being who is the firstborn of God, the highest of the angels. Thou art the Son, the Son of the living God. You share in the divine essence.

56:03 You and the Father in a way that goes beyond the ability of the mind to comprehend. You and the Father are one Son of the living God.

56:16 Then before that bright veil of mystery, we worship, we praise, we confess the dullness of our minds and the slowness of our affections. and we cry from our hearts, O God, to know and love Him more as the Son of God.

56:39 You see, no one will be overwhelmed with the glory and wonder of the sight of Christ at His return, that is, with a glory and wonder to salvation, who is not first of all overwhelmed now. No one will see him as he is In the delight of what the old writers Called the beatific vision No one will behold him With naked eyes With joy For that one who has beheld him With the eye of faith With joy Here and now The apostle says The God of this world Has blinded the minds of them That believe not but God he says

57:25 who commanded light to shine out of darkness has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ oh my friend has God by the spirit shown you the very glory of God in the face of Christ if so your heart runs out to him in faith and love and although that faith at times is so weak that you wonder if it's there. And although at times the love is so feeble that you wonder if there's anything of reality in it. If you're a child of God and you've sat here this morning, that little almost dried up trickle of faith has been broadened a little bit before the means that God uses to strengthen faith,

58:12 the sight of Christ. The knowledge and the faith have increased. Take courage. But if you've sat here this morning and said, in God's name, what in the world is that stupid preacher getting so excited about?

58:25 Some of you children sit here and say, what in the world, Pastor? Oh, listen to me. If what we've contemplated this morning doesn't excite your heart, my friend, heaven would be hell to you. Because it is the contemplation of such glorious mysteries that will be one of our great and delightful occupations in the world to come.

Closing Exhortation and Prayer

58:46 when I see thee as thou art love thee with unsinning heart who is our Savior he is God because he is given an ascription a title of deity son of the living God may you know him to be such to your own heart let us pray

59:16 O our Father, we thank you that there are mysteries that we can never plumb. We thank you that there are heights that we can never scale. We thank you that there are breaths to the knowledge of Christ that pass all knowledge. But O Lord, the little bit that we've come to know makes us hungry to know yet more.

59:43 and we pray that this people will be well grounded in the knowledge of their divine human Savior, even our Lord Jesus Christ. For some who sit amongst us who have never beheld anything glorious in the Lord Jesus, whose eyes are more attracted by the tinsel and the trinkets of the world and the flesh, O God, be merciful to such. Pull the scales from their eyes. that they may fall at the feet of this glorious person and say from the heart, My Lord and my God.

60:22 May they take up the cross and begin to follow Him and confess Him before an angry and hostile world and one day dwell with Him in the world to come. Seal then your word to our hearts. May it be the means of our being drawn closer to you. continue with us in the hours of this day.

60:45 O Lord, help us to sanctify all of its moments to our prophet and to the praise of your name through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.