I would like you, if you would, to be so kind to do so tonight, to take your Bibles and turn to Colossians chapter 1. As we talk about the fourth of these pillars of faith, and we talk tonight about Solus Christus or Christ alone. As we have studied through these five pillars of the Reformation, it's become obvious to me that these are not only fundamental beliefs of the Reformation, but they're really the fundamentals of our faith, and they seem to be the things that are attacked the most. They seem to be the issues that don't really go away in Christendom, that continue to be a debate by different branches of the Church visible, and that seem to be the issues that divide the Church. They have always divided the Church, perhaps the difference between the divisions earlier than the Reformation and the parting of the ways since the days of Luther and Zwingli and Calvin and their contemporaries, is that in earlier times all divisions were condemned as heresies, and that is how the Church was able to keep the fold at least visibly together. But it shouldn't surprise us that these are the issues that men argue about. After all, if I were the devil and I wanted to do the work of God and kind of for it to kingdom of God, I would simply find out what were the kingpin beliefs and principles and precepts of that God's kingdom, then I would attack them. And that's what God has seen happen. That's what we have seen happen in history as the devil attacks the Scripture. And tells us that there are other ways to know God's will. Take away the Scripture, and the voice of God is silent in the world. And so we talk about sola scriptura, our only final and absolute infallible authority. And if I wanted to cut out the date and the case exception of it, then I would take away people's faith, and I would derob them of that instrument that allows them to be united to Christ and His grace to be imputed to them. And so we talk about the soul of feeday, faith alone. And I would attack grace. I would convince men what they're already convinced of, and I would never really take people's stuff and print it out. I would vehemently attack grace. And so we need to talk a lot about solitrazia, grace alone. With the thing I would attack the most, if I were the devil, if I had but one chip to play and one more bullet to fire, I'd aim at right at the heart of Jesus Christ. I would never cease to attack Him, for He is the champion of it all, and within the kingdom of God rises or falls. There is no one hated more in hell than Jesus Christ, no one loved more in heaven. And although we consider our enemy the devil, the devil considers his enemy the Christ. And so he attacks him, and he attacks him in the most subtle way. And every day and every age he offers before the world of men, anti-Christ, other Christ, that's what it means in Greek. Not people who are against Christ, seems other Christ, and in that way they are against Him. There are and have been for, seems like gazillions of years, if I can use one of my high school words, many, many other ways to God, but Jesus Christ always has been offered to men always will be. And so it shouldn't surprise us that whenever we get two or three people together to talk about what is the kingpin issue of the Reformation that they can't agree, because the devil doesn't want us to agree that all swirls around the person in work of Jesus Christ. One professor, John O'Brien of Notre Dame University wrote a little book called The Reformation Its Causes and Consequences. Listen to me if you would bear with me for a moment as I read a couple segments of his chapters windowed. The untudored masses were in no position to pass judgment on these subtle questions which tax the ability of trained scholars. The disputant who would win their approval would be the one who would appeal most successfully to their passions and stir the flames of the newly kindled sentiments of nationalism. It was in appeals along these lines that Luther's success lay. In addition, Luther sought to curry the favor of the princes by enhancing their authority in spiritual matters, even to the extent of placing their word above all other ecleastical officials in religious questions. His appeal became increasingly an appeal to secular authority to intervene in religious disputes, and by buttering their bread in advance he could assure himself of their support. It was essentially the backing of secular nobles bribed with permission to encroach upon the church's domain that ensured the success of Luther's heretical revolt. That's mild compared to what he says about Calvin's God. Central to his doctrine in creed is this gloomy doctrine of predestination, regardless of what the individual does. More arbitrary and fearful than any pagan deity is Calvin's God. His awful punishments fall like lightning from the sky upon those who are blameless, while it's ineffable rewards or bestowed upon those who have done nothing to merit them. God is made to appear as such a monstrous monster of unreason that atheism would seem to be the thinking of persons only logical consequence. It is against this Calvinistic caricature of God that men have chiefly revolted while all the time they were told they were revolting against God. Out of this gloomy doctrine has stemmed much of the hatred and bitterness which has been the vain and reproach of those who called themselves Christians, asserting that God loved and hated without reason to do the same. Convince that he was among the elect, Calvin proclaimed that he was loving what God loved and detested what God detested, from this it was easy to step to the conclusion which Calvin reached that God hated all those different from him and therefore were to be hated for the love of God. O'Brien goes on to say that the real causes of the Reformation were nationalism, a politically weakened papacy, rival popes, worldliness and the clergy and an ignorant populace that knew nothing of the spiritual day. Isn't it amazing that that was written in 1966 in our lifetime? O'Brien denies that there was any theological basis for the Reformation whatsoever. It was all the egos of John Calvin and Ulrich Zwingli and Martin Luther that caused it all, devils and she calls them. He never mentions the fact that the one burning desire in the heart of those Reformation as it was in order to all the prophets and apostles before them in the Scriptures was to see that Christ alone was exalted and men had faith in Jesus only to save them from their sin. O'Brien forget it. And that issue still swirls around the church today with this modern and it is a growing movement to be ecumenical to kind of forget our theologies as Peter Craig tells us we all have one religion with different theologies which I don't agree with at all. We're being led down a road that is broad and easy to travel and where there's a lot of laughter and a lot of friends but which ultimately will take us to the place where Jesus Christ is no longer solely supreme as our Lord and Master. I know that if I told you here today that there are many roads that lead to the mountain of God that I wouldn't probably get through another sentence before someone drug me out of this pulpit and physically beat me and threw me out of the church but you know there are many evangelical pastors and theologians who are beginning to say that same thing in different ways. And it's not just the Catholics who are the culprits. It's also what we would call to hear have used to stand firm and seem to be waffling even more on the absolute sufficiency of Jesus Christ in his atonement see that's the issue the sufficiency of Christ is Jesus enough of what he needs to be has he done enough of what he needed to do. To warn for us all the blessings of eternal life the vast majority of men in the visible church to say nothing of the world deny that that is true. I grew up being taught that Jesus Christ had in his part but had left a lion share of redemption to his mother Mary and to the priest and sacraments of the church. I know at the risk of sounding like I'm on another one my anti Catholic tirades I will share with you just what these things say. Taken from the Baltimore Catechism of the Roman Catholic Church in America are these questions and answers who is the invisible head of the church. Jesus Christ is the invisible head of the church who is the visible head of the church. Our Holy Father the Pope the Bishop of Rome is the vicar of Christ on earth and the visible head of the whole church. What do you mean by the infallibility of the church by the infallibility of the church I mean that the church cannot err when it teaches a doctrine of faith or morals. When does the church teach infallibly the church teaches infallibly when it speaks to the Pope and the bishops united in general counsel or to all the faithful. What do you mean by the indefactibility of the church by the indefactibility of the church I mean that the church as Christ founded it will last until the end of time. In whom are these attributes of infallibility and indefactibility found in their fullest these attributes are found in their fullness in the Pope. The visible head of the church who infallibly whose infallible authority to teach bishops priest and people in matters of faith or morals is supreme in the last until the end of the age. Second Vatican Council the knot of Eve's disobedience was untied by Mary's obedience what the virgin Eve bound by disbelief Mary loosens by faith. Death comes to Eve eternal life through Mary in cyclical intersolidazia. Mary suffered and nearly died with her sun sun for the salvation of mankind she announced her mother's rights and as far as dependent on her offered a sun her son to placate divine justice so we may swell say that she with Christ has redeemed mankind. And sickly no letter to the queen of heaven the blessed Virgin Mary used to be called queen not only on account of her divine motherhood but also because of the will of God she has a great part in the work of our salvation. In this work of redemption the blessed Virgin Mary was close to associated with Christ just as Christ because he redeemed us is the special title of our king and lord. So too is the blessed Mary our queen and our mistress because of the unique way which she co-operated in our redemption. She provided her very substance for his body she offered him willingly for and she took. The problem came beside the cross of Jesus stood there mother Mary not merely occupied and contemplating the cruel spectacle but rejoicing that her only son was offered for the salvation of mankind and so entirely participating in his passion. That if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all the torments that her son bore. And from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the reparatrix of the world the one who repairs the world and the dispensate the dispenser of all gifts that our Savior purchased for us by his death and his blood. The second Vatican Council says that Mary has grace men by grace exalted above all angels and men to a place second only to her son Jesus Christ as the most holy mother of God who was involved in the mysteries of Christ and she was rightly to be honored by a special cult in the church. The modern Catholic Catechism published in 1994 had this to say Mary is the perfect prayer a figure of the church. When we pray to her we are adhered with her to the plan of the Father who said his son to save all men like the beloved disciple we welcome to the city and mother of all living beings. We can pray with her and to her the prayer of the church is sustained by the prayer of Mary and united with it in its hope is the order of grace continues uninterrupted from the consent which she loyalty gave to the enunciation and which she sustained without wavering beneath the cross until the eternal fulfillment of all the electric place. Taken up to heaven she did not lay aside this saving office but by her manifold intercessions continues to bring the gifts of eternal life and salvation. Therefore the Blessed Virgin is to be invoked in the church under these sacred titles are advocate our helper are benefactors and our mediator. When I was little boy we were taught to sing these hymns and I sang them with all the other little Catholic children. Hail heavenly queen, hail foe me ocean star, be our guide defuse thy beams afar, hail mother of God above all virgins blessed, hail happy gate of heaven's eternal rest. I'll sing to him to marry the mother of our God the Virgin of all virgins of David's royal blood who teach me holy Mary a living song to frame when wicked men blasphemed thee to love and blessed thy name. Daily daily sing to Mary sing my soul her praises do all her feasts her actions worship with the heart's devotion true. Lost in wondering contemplation be her majesty confessed call her mother call her virgin happy mother virgin blessed she is mighty to deliver call her trust call her loving when the tempest rage around the she will calm the troubled sea. Gifts of heaven she has given Noble Lady to our race she the queen who decks her subjects with the light of God's own grace and we're being asked today to find common ground with that. Let me tell you while all of those things are false and let me say this we have nothing bad to say about Mary the virgin mother of Jesus Christ nothing bad to say if we could live the kind of life she lives we'd be all be a lot better off would we not. It's not Mary this problem Mary would be pulled in his appalled and greed these things I'm sure should she know them taking place it's what people have done with her that is appalling Mary brethren. Cannot be our only mediator because there was one mediator with in God in man which is the man Christ Jesus the scripture said. Mary cannot be the queen of heaven because the specific king of kings and he has no human or celestial bride person that needs to co-rule with him or intercede to the. Father and go around his righteous anger in his just ran. Mary cannot be the creator and mother of all the living because she is not deity and only God can be the father of all the living and by his redeeming and special graces the father of all the elect. Since prayers to be offered only to Jesus Christ it is inappropriate to pray to anyone including Mary in the same so the Pope or anyone else. She should not bear the title of morning star redeemer mediator ruler deliver protector advocate and helper these are titles given in scripture only to the father the son and the Holy spirit. It is not possible to blaspheme Mary's name because Mary's name is not a divine name. She cannot be infallible nor can the Pope be infallible for both of them are sinners and locked in the same darkness and there's that we are until the grace of God breaks through. And only God is infallible only in defectability of the church is found in the spiritual communion of Christ in his elect which human history would tell us for crying out loud all you got to do is look at the evangelical or the Catholic or any other church to find that it is both fallible and defectable in this world. And yet these are the things that continue to be the issues swirling around the Christian faith Jesus Christ and the sufficiency of his person and work. One of the great things about this is that God knowing that this would be the issue of debate the great point of attack left us no small treasure of information in the scripture to defend the doctrines of Christ's sufficiency alone. I venture to say that we could flop the Bible open into whatever page it fell open. It wouldn't take much imagination to find Jesus Christ in the text and preach and clearly he is on every single page of the Bible from front to back in the gospels and epistles of the New Testament. I take this to one to Colossians chapter one where this whole theme of the incomparable Christ is developed in one of Paul's great and stellar epistle this jewel that he wrote while in prison for the name of Christ where he talks to the Colossians about the fullness of Jesus Christ in every way. He introduces that epistle by talking about the sufficiency of Christ work as our king and our redeemer our creator and sustainer the head of the church the preeminent one in verses of chapter one verses 13 through the end of that paragraph verse 20. And in those 10 verses Paul tells us about Jesus Christ and Christ alone first of all he says Jesus Christ alone is the redeemer king of God's kingdom versus 13 and 14 where he delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son in whom we have redemption. This for farther than those two verses to find out why the devil hates Christ so much and why he attacks him all the time Jesus Christ is robbing the devil blind right from under his nose and broad daylight he stealing people out of the domain of darkness taking them out of the clutches of the evil one and transferring them to the kingdom of his father in whom they find redemption in the forgiveness of sin. Notice that these two verses tell us two things about Christ that first of all Christ is our king he says for he that is the father delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved son it is the kingdom of Jesus Christ this thing called Christianity or the church universal the church invisible the church militant in some day triumphant. And therefore Jesus Christ is known as the king of kings or the king of heaven or the ruler of the kingdom of God the kingdom of light the king of his beloved son the king of God the kingdom of heaven and scripture are all synonymous of God's redemptive group of people that he's calling out of the darkness of the devil in this world and into the glorious light and liberty of his son Jesus Christ we know from countless scriptures that Jesus Christ is proclaimed to be the king of heaven. The king of glory Isaiah says that the government shall rest upon his shoulders and he will rule forever and ever the very last book of revelation and the Bible says that all the kingdoms of the world will become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ and he Jesus Christ will rule forever and ever he is called in the book of revelation the king of kings and the Lord of lords in the hour of his death. He wants his pilot in his ignorant bumper to Jesus Christ why don't you say something that don't you realize what authority I have in this kingdom Jesus answered him my kingdom is not of this world and that's something that you pilot don't understand or you will king he said Jesus said I'll say it and it is true I am therefore brethren this thing of the kingship of Christ cannot be shared with anyone else. For God has said in the scripture there was one thing and only one thing he will not share with anyone else what is it he said my glory I will not share with another Jesus Christ because he is God the second person and God in human flesh sits at the right hand of God in all of his glory and shares that glory of the great king of glory all. The Pope was proclaimed in the Catholic Church to be the head of all temporal and spiritual authority in the universe he doesn't need bishops and priests and holy men and Dalai Lama's and people who have divine emanations to tell other people what to do and to rule them spiritually Jesus Christ is capable of doing it all by himself after all he was ruling in a long time before you and I and Mary can belong. I need a vice-region to a co-ruler because he is the vice-region he is the co-ruler he is the prime minister of his father nowhere in scripture is there any mention of anyone else who rules with Jesus Christ and nowhere in scripture does he ever extend the sector to any other living soul living being angelic or human Jesus Christ alone now you can rule I mean you can you can believe in as many queens and kings of heaven as you want to. You would your privilege that you'll find no biblical support for anyone outing on the throne but Jesus Christ not only is he the king he's our redeemer this verse says he is the redeemer king in whom we have redemption the forgiveness of sins when the little phrase in whom is mentioned in that verse it references the previous verse the beloved into whose kingdom we've been transferred it's a reference to Jesus Christ in Christ we have redemption. which is the forgiveness of sins this clearly points to Jesus alone as the redeemer for this simple reason number one no one else in scripture bears the title redeemer except the father in the sun it's not even a title given to the Holy Spirit although he does the redeeming work as he applies it to us only the father in the sun in scripture as far as I know are referenced as the redeemer not only that not only that but redemption comes according to this verse to the forgiveness of sins he said it got there to poke we're not God therefore they cannot forgive sins not only that that this redemption requires a ransom is to be paid or a redemptive penalty it is the wages of sin which is death that has to be paid and I don't know if anyone else in all of human history who's ever claimed to die for your sins and mine therefore no one else should ever be given the title of redeemer or co redeemer or redemptrix or any other thing that even approximate that precious work of our Lord Jesus Christ the scripture says that there is salvation and no one else for there is no other name given among men under heaven by which we must be saved. You can believe in a zillion Christ they've been around forever and there will be more as time goes on for John the Apostle said children it is the last hour and just as you her anti Christ is coming and now many anti Christ have arisen from this we know that it is the last hour you can believe in as many benefactors and redeemers and advocates and helpers you want to your privilege that you'll not find any biblical support for any other one buying and bearing the name of bearing the name of title and buying our forgiveness of sins with his own blood than the person of Jesus Christ alone this text goes on and says not only Jesus Christ the redeemer king he's also the creator sustainer he alone is the father of all the living in no one else look at verses 15 through 17 and he is the image of the invisible God the first born of all creation for buy him all things were created both in the heavens and on earth visible and invisible where the thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things have been created by him and for him to call him all things hold together Christ as first of all ascribed here at the great work of creation which only can be done by God he is called here the creator he is first of all the image of the invisible God the invisible God manifest himself in his fullness in the person of Jesus Christ in fact the scripture says in John chapter one that no man has ever seen God with the only begotten son in the bosom of the father he half revealed him Hebrews tells us that he is the exact representation of his glory in the full effulgence of his nature he is called in John 146 by his own mouth the one who is able to reveal God to us for he said to Philip Philip he who has seen me has seen of the father therefore he in fact that's why he was eventually killed because he himself out to be equal odd the Pharisee said and that's precisely what he did and Paul is bringing this up because in the day in which he was writing this to the Colossians there were many people who believed in a heresy called Nosticism which is very very similar to the New Age movement today just the New Age movement nothing but Nosticism renamed and revamped for the 20th century where they believed that Jesus Christ was just one emanation from God and that God created the world and ruled the world through many angels of which one was Jesus Christ who was an angel in human flesh not God in human flesh and Paul is saying here no angels can't create but Jesus Christ is the perfect image of the invisible God and he rules these ones he calls thrones and dominions and rulers and authorities he's referring to angels he's saying these create whom Jesus made could never be the ruler of the creator in his creation how can the creature rule the creator Jesus Christ alone is the image of God and bears this power to create and to rule what he creates we can pray to and worship and generate and patronize any group of beings we desire but we'll find no scriptural warrant for doing so only God is to be worshiped because he is our creator he has made us for ourselves and not the reverse and therefore it is foolish to think that anyone else can bear the title as the mother or the father of all the living except that man who was the creator with the father Jesus Christ not only see the creator but notice that he's the sustainer according to verse 17 and he is before all things and in him all things hold together notice in these words that is that by him and in him the moment of creating power it is for him he is the purpose for Christ's pleasure for Christ use for Christ's kingdom and in him all these things that God the father and God the son and God the Holy Spirit co-created together in Jesus Christ they all hold together that is one of the most significant instruments about Jesus Christ in all of scripture and it directly impacts your prayer life and mind what this writer Paul is saying is that Jesus Christ alone wields the power of providence not only does he make all things but he provides for them and sustains them and controls them and governs them and rules them and changes them if he wants to now folks you can pray to anybody you want to but let me tell you who you want to pray to whoever you pray to now you go and pray whoever you want to but make sure whoever you pray to has the power of providence which means that they can work miracles whenever they want to that they can control all the causes and effects in the universe to make things come about the way you're asking them to come about they can read that they can raise the dead and we can pray to anybody we want to but you ask me and this is my personal opinion it's absolutely assamely stupid to pray to anybody who is subject to the laws of providence like we are when's the last time you saw an angel make anything when's the last time you saw any saint change the laws of nature suspend them and work a miracle when's the last time you saw Mary raise the dead and heal the sick make that which is dry and barren blossom with God's image in life only Jesus Christ can do that and he's the only one who we pray to because he alone is our creator and our sustainer our God there's a third thing that Paul says about the preeminence and perfections and fullness of Jesus Christ he said he is our preeminent head verse 18 he is also the head of the body the church and he is the beginning the first born from the dead so that self might come to have first place and everything notice that Paul says he is the head of the church something that he says in other places back he says it once here and twice in Ephesians just in these two twin epistles where he says Jesus is given to the head over all things to the church for the glory of God and why is it said to submit to their husbands because the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church the church being his very body he is the head in a double sense loved ones he is the head of the church organizationally and organically for the church is both both an organization and an organism it's an organization in that it has to have a boss it has to have a pastor a pope a bishop a ruler and the scripture never tells us that anyone else bears that title in the singular that Jesus Christ it also is an organism it is incarnate it is the incarnate is strictly about the church it is his body his life is being lived out in this world through this thing called the church and a body needs a head to coordinate its functions feel and to think and to recognize existence for it and to have the blood of Christ course up and down it by its command giving life to the flesh of this body called the church Jesus Christ alone is head of the church and the reasons are given here if you look he says because he is the beginning and the first born from the dead this body we call the church is the body of born again people living in this world born again people with the resurrected life of Christ in them. therefore the one who ever he or she is that's going to give headship in life to this body ought to be someone who has that life in and of themselves and can dispense it to others the pope has never raised himself from the dead Mary according to Catholic theology didn't die she just went on up into heaven she's never experienced a resurrection and therefore she cannot give it how can Jesus Christ and how can anyone else but Jesus Christ give life and power and humanity and the source of resurrection glory to the church how can anyone but Christ do that well the answer is they can't I think that was one of the great and comical ironies of my childhood we were in parochios school we were learning these little dogmas in the Baltimore catechism and I very innocently raised my hand and asked a question to them and I said sister Martin that was her name I said did you just say that Mary didn't die that's right she was assumed into heaven because she was in I learned a Bible verse a few weeks ago which we have that it is appointed unto men to die once and then comes the judgment I thought that you said everybody would die and she said well everybody except Mary and I said well didn't you say earlier that the reason we believe in Jesus Christ is so that we can rise from the dead she said no Michael what's your point I said I don't have a point I'm just asking you how can someone who didn't rise from the dead know what it is to have the saving grace of Christ I was eight years old she sent me to see the priest the pastor and I had to sit in his office for a while same thing happened to me in seminary I got kicked out of class for asking about eating meat on Friday terrible theological problems I had you know a child can figure this out folks how can someone who's never died be the co-redeemer and give a sort of resurrected life that Christ has that she doesn't possess I mean just think it through for a minute who else has raised himself from the dead that he might be the first born among many brethren and be called the Lord of life and the giver of life he's not only the head of the church he's called the preeminent one so that he might himself come to have the first place in everything the preeminent literally the preeminent in everything that means that he is to have the highest and most visible place of honor here's the fundamental problem with praying to Mary in the saints and having all these infallible people running around it's a masterful scheme by the devil it starts out with a simple devotion and veneration but pretty soon it turns into a full blown cult for all of these saints and all of their visions and apparitions and miracles and serious things that they've done overshadowed the person in glory of Jesus all into one church after another from Rome all the way up to northern Germany and every place we went into a non-evangelical church we found statues all over the place always in the front of the church in massive huge form dominating the whole sanctuary was a statue of Mary and you could look until hell froze over and you couldn't find Jesus Christ they name their churches after people after angels and saints and the mother of God they call it and it's not just listen Protestants do the same thing it always bothers me when some churches called the Ross Memorial Church or the Kenyan Memorial Church or the Smith Memorial Church you see there's always the danger that when these cults of other people, other people that become preeminent ones is always the danger that they overshadowed Jesus Christ seeing him anymore which is what this is to do that leads us to the very last thing and the most important thing that Paul says in these last four verses to put out his name which is all the fullness to dwell in him and through him to reconcile all things to himself having made peace through the blood cross through him I say where the things on earth are things in heaven and although you were formally alienated and hostile and might engaged in evil deeds he is now reconciled you and his fleshly body through death in order to present you before him holding him blameless and beyond reproach notice that he says that Jesus Christ is the fullness of God's revelation for it was the Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him the wonderful glorious statement of praise and honor to Jesus Christ uses the word play Roma which means the fullness or the maximum amount or the maxing out of something in both in quantity and in quality is the best and richest the greatest and what is it that's this great rich supremacy that Jesus Christ has well we're told in John chapter 1 that in him we have the fullness of grace we're told in chapter 2 that in him the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form look at verse 3 of chapter 2 in him are all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge hidden what Paul is trying to say in verse 19 is not so much that there's the fullness of deity in Jesus Christ he talks about that in chapter 2 or the fullness of grace which is true that's talked about other places what he's talking about here is the revelation of God God revealing himself so that he might become the redeemer of men and draw them through reconciling grace to himself the fullness of that revelation is in Jesus Christ everything that God wants to reveal of himself he's revealed in its fullest and greatest extent in Jesus Christ so that we don't have to go to any single other person to find out what God is and what God wants we've got it all in fullness all in these unsearchable riches this limitless bank of wonder and grace called Jesus Christ it is amazing to me that people in the modern era will trap halfway across the world to Yugoslavia to measure glory to listen to some people talk about Mary appearing there one time and giving them a total of 37 seconds worth of revelation that they'll go to all different kind they'll believe that angels dug up golden tablets and that gurus and Dalai Lama's and holy men and channels and guides get word and issues if you took all the holy men and women of all the holy times and unholy times of human history pull them all in one room and sit right down everything you know about God that you want the world to know it wouldn't come close to the fullness of that revelation that God has made in Jesus Christ after all folks when Jesus Christ stands before us it's God in its fullness standing before us and his grace John says we have all known in that that fullness is grace upon grace grace multiplied by grace he's also the fullness of reconciliation for this text talks about how he reconciled us in his own flesh the father and the son and the reason he is the fullness of revelation is obvious only Jesus Christ being God and man in one person could propitiate God and satisfy his wrath and expiate man and cover his sin in shame only Jesus Christ can make an infinitely valuable payment because of sin only Jesus Christ can pay the wages of sin and get up to take that payment and apply it up from the grave to make that application of the payment for you and for me and only Jesus Christ lives to constantly apply his blood to you and to me and therefore there is no one else who can be our mediator or our co-mediator or advocate or our goal between or our helper because they all need what Jesus Christ has and none of them have it in themselves angels cannot be our mediator they don't know what it is to sin they don't know what it is to be forgiven this whole thing of redemption occurred outside of the realm of the angel with it demons can't be our mediators even though they try to the new age movement because they don't want to be reconciled to God and they cannot be forgiven or saved from their sins and all of the saints and all of the priests and all of the marries in the world are just like you and me human beings that need to be forgiven they cannot reconcile us to God without Jesus Christ they can't even reconcile themselves so he alone is our fullness of revelation and reconciliation and he stands before us as solace Christus God alone in our flesh reconciled into the world to himself you know brothers and sisters we will always have to fight this battle this thing about Jesus Christ the world will never accept him for who he is and what he's done as long as the devil continues to be alive and well he will always attack our precious Christ always undermining his work in his person always offer some cheap substitute and yet the fact is that we need no one else and anyone else who says that they're needed besides Christ as an antichrist is of the devil not of the Father and we have been given no one else by Jesus Christ and all the others are pretenders that are concocted in some man-made religion not in the mind and heart and plan of God for redemption and the scripture knows of no one else and all the others are merely a man or another man's imagination you know the world's always then like it it's always never been satisfied with one God and one mediator between God and men it's never been satisfied with it it's always wanted a plurality of God a God and a goddess for every mad thing in the world and a queen of heaven keeping them all happy while a seen-out old man of a God sits there on his throne and grumpy and disgruntled with the human race and everybody's afraid to go to him unless they go through the sweet mother and queen of them all it just reflects, Brethren, what a pitiful view we have of our own families and our own God our Father because in many families people are afraid, afraid children are afraid to approach their Father and they can always go through Mother to get the dead that's how they think they have to go to our Father in heaven what they fail to realize is that this Father in heaven has taken his firstborn his only begotten and killed him for our sake and that Father has said to the whole race of mankind now go to my Son and He will bring you home to me there is no among men by which we must be saved and you see that is the hope of the gospel and that's why the devil loves to attack it look at verse 23, look at it and we'll close if indeed you continue in the faith firmly established instead fast and not moved away from the hope of the gospel that you have heard which was proclaimed in all creation under heaven and of which I, Paul, was made a minister what is this hope of the gospel it's simply this believe on the Lord Jesus Christ alone and you will be saved that is our hope and I stand before you as a man for more than half of his life who lived under other hopes, false hopes that became greatly discouraging there is great consolation in knowing that everything you need to say in prayer everything you need to have in terms of forgiveness every miraculous event that you call for in life all of the sovereign grace and protection you need all of the application of atonement and righteousness and justification and reconciliation that you seek for all of these things are found in one place in one man and all you have to do is call upon the name of the Lord the Scripture says and everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will not be disappointed that is why it is the fundamental issue of the Reformation it is the fundamental issue today it will always be the fundamental issue you may believe it but let me tell you some reason there are quite a couple of believe it responsibility to defend it, to preach it, to teach it for their eternal sake for their salvation in no one else but in Jesus Christ that son of the living God we need to be steadfast and firm in that and we need to stand up for that when other men question it let's pray Father we know that in this day and age we are accused of being both anti-intellectual and unkind and discriminatory, unloving and proud for claiming that there is salvation in no one else but in Jesus Christ and yet it is the truth of all truths and ultimately of Heavenly Father it is the only issue that really matters we know that today is coming when Jesus Christ will stand before all the men and women and angels that have ever existed we will ask each one of us in succession what say you Christ we need to be able to answer correctly from our hearts and our experience from our faith that He is our Lord, our God, our Redeemer and Head and there is none other and we need your grace, a great reforming grace to return all the branches of your precious church to a singular affection and devotion to Jesus Christ alone many Father you know well are the faithful souls burning candles running through beads and prayers to other persons looking in hope to other sinners for things they cannot give and all this time the unsearchable riches and the incomparable glories of Jesus Christ have been forsaken and forgotten overshadowed by other Christ deliver our dear loved ones and friends who remain in depression of this existence give them this hope of the gospel Paul talks about which is found in this incomparable Christ your Son and our Lord help us not to be ashamed of these things to speak them even if they offend others may our love for Christ be more than our love for others may we be more than his name in the offence of others and as we spread this singular message by which men must be saved give us this confidence and grace we pray to the pleasure and honor of Jesus Christ to whom we owe it and in his name we ask it Amen.