Concise Definition; Apostolic Testimony to Deity, Part 1

Introduction and Review

0:00 In the light of what you and I are as creatures accountable to the God who made us, in the light of what we are as sinners guilty before God, nothing, and I use the word purposely, nothing should be of greater concern to each of us than to understand and to experience what the Scripture teaches concerning the divine method of forgiveness. If God is God, if you're His creature, and you have sinned against Him, nothing should be of greater concern to you than to understand and to experience

0:47 God's method of forgiving the lives of you and me. More simply stated, since we are all sinners, The Bible doctrine of salvation ought to be the object of our most earnest inquiry. And it is just this biblical concern, the biblical doctrine of salvation, that presently occupies our attention in the ongoing of this series of studies entitled, Here We Stand. Having addressed ourselves to the book we believe and obey, the scriptures of the Old and the New Testaments, Having contemplated something of the glory of the God whom we worship and confess,

1:34 we are presently occupied with the great theme of Scripture, the salvation we receive and proclaim. We've considered the objects of this salvation. In a general sense, man is the object. Man is created, man is fallen, man is ruined in sin.

1:52 In a secondary sense, the earth itself is the object of this salvation. and then in a definitive sense it is elect sinners out of the mass of lost mankind who are the recipients of this great salvation. Last Lord's Day we began to consider the second major division of this broad theme of the salvation we receive and proclaim namely the person of the Redeemer who is the central figure in this great salvation. And the answer of the word of God is clear.

2:26 Christ himself is that central figure. Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Colossians 1 tells us that in all things he, Christ, might have the preeminent. You need know nothing else about the fallacy of the Russellites, the so-called Jehovah's witnesses, than their very name.

2:50 They would make the Jehovah of the Old Testament the central figure in their message. And the moment anyone does that, you know they cannot be biblical. You don't need to untangle all of their species' arguments against the deity of Christ. Anything that purports to be a projection of the teaching of the Bible, that has as its overall message, anything that does not focus upon Christ, is not of God.

3:17 He is the central figure. His person and work are the lodestone of all that God has revealed in the Old and the New Testaments. And so it is essential for us to think biblically and to think correctly, to think with clear definition concerning the person of the Redeemer. And I suggested that we would consider this great subject of the central figure under three main categories, the mystery of his person, the majesty of his offices, and the efficacy of his work.

3:50 And last week, due to the weather and the dullness from which you never escaped as a congregation, all you got was the introduction, the importance of the doctrine of Christ's person. As we address ourselves to the mystery of his person, 1 Timothy 3.16, Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh.

4:12 I suggested that the Scriptures make very clear that few doctrines are more important than this. Salvation depends upon right views of the person of Christ. John 20, verses 30 and 31. The church is built upon the confession of right views of the person of Christ.

4:34 Matthew 16. The preservation and proclamation of the gospel depends upon the maintenance of right views of the person of Christ. Romans 1 verses 1 to 5. And finally a critical test of the genuineness of any supposed movement of the Spirit is the doctrine of the person of Christ. 1 John 4 1 and 2.

Historical Development of the Doctrine (Surveying the Boundaries)

4:57 Well, so much for that little backward glance at where we've been, now let me try to point in the direction that I hope to proceed with you this morning. Having considered the importance of the doctrine of Christ person, we shall address ourselves this morning to, first of all, a simple statement of the biblical doctrine concerning the person of Christ, and then begin the biblical basis of or for this doctrine. First of all then, a simple statement of the doctrine of the Word of God concerning Christ's person. When the Lord Jesus Christ was manifested in the fullness of times, He revealed Himself to His own in such a way as to draw them into an orbit of the deepest religious trust and affection.

5:52 Now follow what I've said. when the Lord Jesus was actually manifested in time he revealed himself to those whom he called his sheep, his people and he did so in such a way that he elicited from them the deepest, the highest, the most profound responses of religious affection and trust imaginable when that inner circle of such, the apostles began to plant churches throughout all of Palestine and then through that apostle born out of due time, the apostle Paul, in all of the major centers of the Roman Empire. When they preached Christ

6:37 and when they laid upon men the demands and privileges of the gospel and then formed churches around Christ's person and work, they did so in a climate that reflected their own attachment to Christ. There was in those churches the deepest, most intimate, the most profound attachment of love and religious trust. So that the churches born by the labors of apostles reflected the same spiritual climate of those who were in first-hand contact with the Savior Himself. Now in the days of the apostles, there were some who began to attack the concepts of Christ that Christ himself had imparted to his followers.

7:29 The book of Colossians in particular and the book of 1 John reflect some of the earliest heresies concerning the nature of the person of the Redeemer. However, there was no widespread attack upon the nature of Christ's person during the days of the apostles. It was shortly after the death of the apostles, about a century passed, and then some of the most violent and vicious heresies came to light with reference to the person of Christ. and it was at that time that the churches living in the reality of that orbit of love and trust and affection and worship were forced for the first time to define precisely who was the object of that worship.

8:20 You see, living in the glow of it, there was no necessity to be careful in the definition of who he was. but it was upon this attack of the enemies of the gospel who said do you know your savior is not really a true man they said hey wait a minute that's not what the apostles taught us that's not what we've learned from the apostolic writings he is a true man and so they began to scour the apostolic testimony to assert what was already resident in the heart but had never been articulated clearly because it had not been attacked The illustration I used some time ago bears repetition. The man who's basking in the sun, enjoying his own backyard, he has his fruit trees, he has his garden, he has all his conveniences, he's not too concerned to know the precise angle of his boundary lines

9:12 until his neighbor begins to encroach upon his property. And each year the neighbor plants a few more shrubs a little bit further away from what he knew was the border until finally, in desperation, He hires the services of a surveyor, and the exact lines and angles and dimensions of his land are so clearly defined that he can go to his neighbor and say, You come one half an inch beyond that stake, and you're on my territory. Now get off. Now that's precisely what happened in the history of the Christian church.

9:42 The Lord Jesus Christ, when He was manifested in time, drew His followers into this orbit of the deepest bonds of religious trust and affection, into this most unreserved confession of what he was as God and man in one person and the only redeemer of sinners. And the church lived and basked and gloried in that wonderful relationship and in that wonderful realization. But when the enemies of the gospel began to encroach upon that territory and say, well, he's man after a sort. And the first heresies were an attack upon his manhood.

10:20 And then you had Arius saying, well, he's God after a sort. Then the church brought out its surveyors and its serious theologians were the surveyors who went through the materials of the word of God and said, this is what the Christ of apostolic testimony is. To confess him to be anything less is to be guilty of heresy. Now, why do I say all of that?

10:45 for the simple reason that as I give this simple statement of the doctrine of Christ person, I am giving you the fruit of 1900 years of the work of the surveyors.

11:00 The statement concerning the doctrine of Christ that I give to you is not original with me. It is the fruit of looking back upon the labors of the most qualified surveyors in the Church of Christ for 1900 years, during which time the issue of who Christ is has been firmly and clearly and definitively established. And here we stand to confess nothing new, to confess no unique insight, but to say faith of our fathers. this is that to which we give ourselves as well.

Simple Statement from the Shorter Catechism

11:44 Now what am I going to use for the simple statement of the doctrine? Can you guess? Well, your first guess was the right one. Whenever I want to give a simple statement of any doctrine, what do you usually get?

11:55 You get shorter catechism. And you're going to get it again this morning. In the shorter catechism, we have the question, question 21, who is the Redeemer of God's elect? The answer is, the only Redeemer of God's elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, who, being, present verb, who, being the eternal Son of God, became man, and so was and continues to be both God and man in one person, in two distinct natures, forever.

12:40 And in that simple little statement you have the boiled down essence of the most perceptive work of surveying done in the church of Christ through hundreds of years. Now there are three basic ingredients to that statement of Christ's person. And every believer who is more than a week old in Christ ought to grasp this. Here it is.

13:04 The first element in that statement is that Jesus Christ is truly and really God.

13:11 All that is true of God is true of Christ. In the language of Colossians 2.9, in Him, that is in the person of Jesus Christ, dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. What do we have in Jesus Christ?

13:28 We have the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Only God can contain God.

13:37 And the statement of Colossians 2.9 is that Jesus Christ contains the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And a simple statement of the biblical doctrine of the person of Christ must always begin with that assertion, Jesus Christ is truly and really God. God. Nothing can be said of God as to his essence as God that cannot be said of Jesus Christ.

14:10 Secondly, this statement asserts that Jesus Christ is truly and really man, who being the eternal Son of God became man. Not just M-A, man, or just A-N, and two-thirds of a man, but he became man. And what do we mean by that? All that is true of man is true of Christ, sin accepted.

14:37 And the apostles are careful to underscore this. 1 Timothy 2.5. There is one God and one mediator between God and man, himself man, Christ Jesus.

14:50 Here is an unequivocal assertion that the mediator is man in a context in which men have already been mentioned There is one God and one mediator between God and man himself man All that the creature is, he is. Sin accepted. And whatever is an essential property of manhood was inherent in the incarnate second person of the Godhead. So that's the second part of any simple statement of the doctrine of Christ's person.

Two Natures in One Person Without Mixture or Separation

15:23 Now this third part is perhaps the area where there is most need for careful instruction. The Catechism very carefully says that this one who was eternal God and became man, so was and continues to be both God and man in two distinct natures and one person forever. Jesus Christ is one person in whom the divine and human natures remain distinct and unmixed forever. You see, the Godhead and the manhood do not mix to produce a third category that is neither God nor man.

16:05 They do not mix. Nor are the Godhead and the manhood so separate as to have two distinct persons. That was another early heresy. You see, you had some heresies that said, well, the Godhead and the manhood are joined into one person, but then they constitute one nature, which is neither God nor man.

16:23 And the catechism very carefully says two distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, two distinct natures. Then another heresy came along and said, that's right, two distinct natures. The body was a true humanity, but there was no true soul, no human soul. The divine logos came and inhabited the body, so you didn't have a reasonable soul.

16:42 You wonder where that old phrase came from? it was to knock that heresy right in the head and shoot it between the eyeballs.

16:50 No, in this one person the godhood and the manhood do not mix to produce a third quality. But the godhood and the manhood are not so separated as to produce two persons. Who did they crucify? They didn't crucify simply the man Christ Jesus.

17:06 1 Corinthians 2.8 says they crucified the Lord of glory. the two distinct natures in the one person you say but pastor that's a mystery that's right great is the mystery of godliness God was manifested in the flesh I can still hear dear professor Murray saying the first great mystery of being is the doctrine of the trinity that there is but one God who exists in three distinct subsistences three persons father son and spirit And yet the three are not three gods, but one. That's the first great mystery of being.

17:44 And never forget it. That mystery has existed from eternity. And then he said the second great mystery of being is the mystery of the incarnation. That in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ, there are two distinct natures.

18:00 The two never mixed, never passing over into the other. And yet, wonder of wonders, one person. Well, how can the two natures be the one person? I do not know any more than how I can explain that the Father, Son, and the Spirit constitute the one God and that the one is three and the three is one.

18:21 And then the third great mystery is the mystery of the union of a believer with Jesus Christ. That we should be in Him before the foundation of the world, in Him when He died, in Him when He was buried, in Him when He was raised, in Him now seated, and in Him even when our bodies decay in the grave. You see, the wonder of salvation is that the mystery of first being, or the first mystery of being, that God is Father, Son, and Spirit prepares us for the revelation of the second great mystery that in the person of the Redeemer there is God and man in one person forever, all to the end, that we might experience the third great mystery,

19:08 that we might be so savingly united to Him as to share in all the virtue of His salvation. My friend, if you want a salvation with no mystery, then you'll go to hell seeking to create it. If you want a faith with no mystery, concoct your own, but you'll perish with it. The glory of the Christian is that he worships in a cloud of mystery.

19:35 Not a cloud of mumbo-jumbo. Not a cloud of theological gobbledygook and double-talk. But in a cloud of mystery. In prayer this morning we addressed our Father.

19:49 And yet we've rendered holy worship to the Son. And we've implored the Spirit. Either we're tritheist or polytheist and idolaters. Or we've been engaged this morning in worship.

20:05 in the realm of mystery. Now that's a simple statement of the basic doctrine of the Word of God. You've got the three elements. Jesus Christ is truly God.

20:16 Everything that can be said of God can be said of Christ. Jesus Christ is truly man. Everything that constitutes man, man was true of Christ and accepted. And the two natures dwelt in the one person.

20:30 Unmixed, not transferred. two natures in one person and the two natures in the one person forever. Now perhaps this will give you a new appreciation when you pick up the confession of our church and read the section on the Redeemer. Do you ever wonder why some of these words were put here?

The London Confession and Chalcedon Quoted

20:49 I hope you understand a little bit more now. Chapter 8 of Christ the Mediator, paragraph 2. Listen to the very precise language. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity.

21:02 Being very and eternal God The brightness of the Father's glory Of one substance and equal with Him Who made the world Who upholdeth and governeth all things that He hath made Did when the fullness of time was come Take upon Him man's nature You see they're asserting true Godhead They're saying it in such a way That no one can wiggle out of that confession being very and eternal God, brightness of the Father's glory, doing the works that only God can do, making the world, upholding the world. Now the confession says He did take upon Him man's nature with all the essential properties

21:50 and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. He is true man, sin accepted. How did this happen? Being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, and then that's enlarged upon, and then this.

22:07 So that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, the human converting into the divine, the divine to the human, without composition being a piece of human, a piece of divine, or confusion. Which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man? I tell you, dear people of God, when I read something like that, I say, thank God for the surveyors. Thank God for those who loved the Word and loved Christ and were willing to go as far as Scripture went and refused to bring Scripture to the bar of human understanding.

22:56 and any of you familiar with the Athanasian Creed will know that much in our confession is extracted right from the Athanasian Creed or from the, I'm sorry, from the statement of Chalcedon in 451 in which there is this confession. Jesus Christ is truly God and truly man of a reasonable soul and body consubstantial with the Father. That is, con, with, substantial, of the same substance. consubstantial with the Father according to His Godhead and consubstantial with us according to His manhood in all things like unto us without sin.

23:35 And then they go on to enlarge upon that third point. To be acknowledged in two natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably the distinction of the natures being by no means taken away by the union but rather the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in one person and one subsistence not parted or divided into two persons but one and the same son only begotten God the word the Lord Jesus Christ. And Warfield who is one of the greatest surveyors that the Lord ever gave to his church said there is nothing here but a careful statement in systematic form of the pure teaching of the word of God.

24:21 There is nothing here but a systematic statement of the pure teaching of the Word of God. And I say, dear child of God, unless you understand those three simple elements of the teaching of the Scriptures, you will not have the key that unlocks many portions referring to your Lord. And as Warfield so perceptibly says with reference to this very thing, There can scarcely be imagined a better proof of the truth of this doctrine than its power completely to harmonize a multitude of statements which without it would present to our view only a mass of confused inconsistencies. A key which perfectly fits a lock of very complicated wards or rooms can scarcely fail to be the right key.

25:10 What do you do when you hear the Lord Jesus saying, the Son of Man knows not the time of His return.

25:17 But of the same Son of Man we read in John this morning He was in heaven while He was talking to Nicodemus. Now you make sense out of that. Any other way than that He's God He is man two distinct natures in the one person forever. And when He says the Son of Man knows not the time of His coming that is an aspect of His humanity.

25:38 His human mind was finite and limited. when he says son of man is in heaven he speaks as to what the old theologians would call the ubiquitous of God ubiquitousness he fills the universe and he says Nicodemus if you think all of me that there is is before you you've missed it the son of man who's come down from heaven is still there in heaven as to his Godhead and I could bring forward a multitude of passages we'll look at many more God willing two weeks from now when we come to that third aspect of the doctrine of the person of Christ. But suffice it to say, this is the proven confession of his person. Well, we must hurry on now to just begin the biblical basis of this doctrine.

26:25 Where in the world did the people of God come up with a doctrine so filled with mystery? Well, they came up with a doctrine because they were honest to the apostolic testimony concerning Jesus Christ. And remember, Christ Himself formed that testimony.

The Key That Harmonizes Scripture

26:43 So that if He was confessed by apostles to be true God and true man, as a result of the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, either Jesus Christ is unworthy of an ounce of respect, let alone worship, because He started a cult of idolatry, or He is truly God and truly man and you can have no middle ground.

27:11 Because in misleading the apostles, He misled all who would follow Him through the ages as they read their testimony. Now, my friend, you can't have your cake and eat it too. Either Christ is all that the apostles say He was as a result of their first-hand dealings with Him, or he is unworthy to be named even among the decent men of the earth let alone the great. Well, let's turn then to that apostolic testimony.

27:42 And we're going to follow the pattern of the three parts of that simple statement of the doctrine. Jesus Christ is truly God. As time permits, we'll look at seven key texts this morning dealing with that. We'll carry on some more next week, God willing.

27:57 Then we'll consider Jesus Christ is truly man. And thirdly, he is constituted of the two natures in the one person. Now, where do we find the Godhead of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, stated in Scripture? Well, one man suggests that there are five categories of truth, or five categories of verses.

28:18 Those that call him, explicitly call him God. Those where he's given divine names and characteristics. Those where he's given divine attributes. those where he performs divine works, and those in which he receives divine honor.

28:33 Well, I think that's a good collation of the materials. We'll only have time for the first this morning. The Godhead of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, is established in those passages where he is explicitly designated to be God. Now, follow closely.

Biblical Basis Introduced: Five Categories

28:51 the major word for God in the New Testament the Greek word theos theology theistic these English words come from that Greek word in certain instances the very just the mere appearance of the word God does not prove anything the Jehovah's Witness will be very very careful to point out to you that according to John 10 human beings are called gods quoting from the Psalms human leaders to whom reverence is to be given because of their position are called gods in a limited sense and the word theos or its plural is found. Furthermore, the devil is called God. 2 Corinthians 4.4 The God of this world

29:37 hath blinded the minds of them that believe not. And the word theos is used. Furthermore, the word God is sometimes used of idols Yes 1 Corinthians 8 and verse 5 Paul says there are lords many and gods many So you see the mere appearance of the word God does not in itself establish the truth that Jesus Christ is God. However, if we look at the context in which the word is used, we grab at the flow of thought and we look at the grammar and we see that the context text and the grammar are asserting that Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the one anointed

30:23 by the Spirit in the waters of Jordan when baptized by John is called Theos, then there is no conclusion to reach but that he is God in every full sense of the word. And I have carefully chosen the text in which no other conclusion is warranted by the context and by the grammar. Now let's look at them. Every believer ought to have them memorized at least as to location and you ought to be able to sit down with anyone and expound them.

30:56 So I trust you realize this morning you are not just receiving for your own benefit but I trust you are storing up to benefit others. The first text is John chapter 1. John chapter 1 and verse 1.

31:15 Since Mr. Fisher recently went over this ground, you ought to be very familiar with it.

Witness 1: John 1:1 — The Word Was God

31:25 As John would unfold the record concerning Jesus of Nazareth, he begins at a point where none of the other gospel writers begin. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. Now, the first problem is, who is this word?

31:51 Is it an impersonal word? I am speaking words this morning. Or is it a person who is designated by the title word? Well, the context answers the question, verses 14 and 15.

32:06 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His, not its, His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. So we know it's a person. It's not an impersonal word because He's called Him, His. Now what's the identity of this person?

32:32 Verse 15 answers that question. John beareth witness of him and crieth, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that cometh after me is become before me, for he was before me, for of his fullness have we all received, and grace for grace, for the law was given through Moses, but grace in truth came through Jesus Christ. And so John himself identifies the word as a personal word, And that word is to be identified with Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God to whom John bore witness. All right?

33:13 We have the identity of the word. Now what is said about him? Notice the thought pattern. In the beginning was the word.

33:23 And if we were to translate this with a very awkward literalism as to English, but very good Greek, this is the way we translate it. In the beginning, the word was ever being.

33:37 In other words, he uses a form of the verb to be that means continual action into the past, and we cannot trace back to a point where it had a beginning. In the beginning, that's where the Scripture begins in Genesis 1.1. In the beginning, God created.

33:55 There was God. He is unexplained. He is not proven. we are confronted with Him as the eternal God who begins a work of creation.

34:04 As John opens his Gospel and would confront us with Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, he begins by saying, In the beginning the Word was ever being, the uncaused, eternally existent Word of the living God.

34:21 Having then asserted His eternal existence, He then asserts His eternal subsistence distinct from the Father. Notice, and the Word was with God. Who is this personage who has been from eternity? In the beginning, the Word was ever being.

34:43 And the Word was with God. There is a separate existence apart from God, or to use more accurate language, a separate subsistence. He is from eternity and yet he is with God. Well, is he so separate as to be something less than God?

35:03 John says, no, no, no, no, no, no. Let me correct that notion immediately. Look at the next phrase. And the Word was God.

35:11 And again in the original the emphasis is emphatic. And God was the Word. He throws the word God forward in the phrase for emphasis. Suppose we were doing this in the English.

35:25 We don't do it as often. But someone might say, what about such and such a person who was over to visit you? You say, well, after talking, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant that man is. And what you do, and rather than using the normal form of conversation, where you say, well, he was brilliant, or he appeared brilliant, you throw the word brilliant forward for emphasis.

35:45 You say, brilliant, brilliant he was. That's what John does. In the beginning was the Word. This is an eternal personage, uncaused, eternal, separate subsistence from God the Father.

36:00 He is with the Word, with God, but He Himself God is. And there can be in the Greek language no more emphatic assertion of the essential deity of the second person of the Godhead than is given to us in John 1 and verse 1.

36:23 Now, where did John get that notion?

36:27 He was the disciple who leaned upon his bosom.

36:32 He got that notion from his own spiritual intercourse with the Son of God.

36:43 And either Christ is unworthy of being classed even among the decent men of the earth, for giving such a notion to a man who had propagated for centuries, or he is truly, and in reality, eternal God. Now we turn to the last chapter, the last formal chapter of the gospel. You have an epilogue, something tacked on, and it's interesting the very point where John begins, he ends in John 20.

Witness 2: John 20:28 — Thomas's Confession

37:16 And I'm amazed at the skill of John's composition. He confronts us in the beginning with a Savior who is God. And he does so, as you heard from Mr. Fisher, in the form of a theological treatise.

37:33 But what's the whole end of all of this? Not to teach us theology in the abstract, but remember, John had been taught this theology in a context of what? intimate, loving, trustful bonds with the Son of God. And that's right where he wants to bring all his readers.

37:50 He wants to bring them right into that same orbit where they not only share his theology of Christ, but they share his loving experience of intimate bonds of faith and obedience. And so he concludes the formal part of the Gospel with what incident? With the incident recorded in verses 26 to 29. And after eight days again his disciples were within and Thomas without.

38:16 And Thomas with them. Jesus cometh, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. Who's there? Jesus of Nazareth, who has been crucified and raised from the dead.

38:28 And he says, Peace be unto you. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger and see my hands. And reach hither thy hand and put it into my side. and be not faithless but believing.

38:41 Thomas answered and said unto him,

38:45 My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed. Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book.

39:06 But these are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God. Believe. In what way? In such a way as we shall be brought to the same posture as Thomas was brought.

39:21 There is an intimate connection between this last recorded incident in the formal treatise of the book prior to the epilogue. There is an intimate relationship between the whole purpose of the book. He begins by saying, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God.

39:38 The Word was God. And when He's all done recording His words and deeds, His death and resurrection, what's His goal? Everyone who reads that letter, that epistle or that gospel by the illumination of the Spirit will find themselves in the society of Thomas, prostrate in heart before this eternal Word made flesh, crying out not just the Lord and the God. That would be a proper confessional statement.

40:08 It would be theologically correct, but it would be detached and distant.

40:14 And so he concludes the Gospel with this confession, Ho kurios mu, my Lord. Ho feos mu, my God. Oh, my friend, you've not understood the Scriptures. If you simply say, The Lord and The God, thank God if you say that, rather than stand with the unbelieving crowd who call Him nothing but man or religious figure, religious leader or imposter.

40:48 Thank God you say, The Lord, The God. But my friend, you'll perish in hell if that's all you have in your confession. It's only in believing that you had life in His name And believing in the biblical sense Is never the simple abstract confession That He's Lord and He's God The faith of God's elect Is the confession that comes from the posture of prostration Prostrate in love In trust in unreserved abandonment to that glorious person.

41:34 Now, how does our Lord feel about that response? He says to Thomas, Thou hast seen and believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Believed what?

41:51 He says, you've believed what you ought to believe about me. I am your Lord and your God. And though your unbelief has caused you to wonder, though your unbelief has caused you to stagger, that is your weakness, not your strength. But blessed are they who never seeing me with the eye of the flesh will see me by the eye of the Spirit who always gives eyesight.

42:20 Through the scriptures.

42:23 Is Jesus Christ God? Of course he is God. How do we know? He has explicitly designated God.

42:31 John 1.1. John 20.28.

Witness 3: Romans 9:5 — God Blessed Forever

42:34 Now let's call in the third witness. Romans 9 and verse 5.

42:41 May I pause to say. Something that we ought to remember. See the person who says Christ is not God.

42:50 All you need to prove him wrong is to have one text, one bona fide witness. I asked the kids at the table this morning. They gave me some fuel for this. I said, suppose someone went stalking through the land saying, no human being is more than six feet six inches tall.

43:03 No human being on the face of the earth is more than six feet six inches tall. How many people more than six six do you need to bring forward to prove them wrong?

43:14 Unos. One. Azo. Just one.

43:18 Just one. And when people say, Christ is not God, all you need is one clear text. So you see, our faith does not stand or fall on whether or not one text may be understood a different way. No.

43:31 It's the deniers whose position stands or falls on the basis of the one witness. And it's interesting, in the history of the church, every one of these texts has been the object of the most ungodly, subtle, satanically wise at times manipulation. because the deniers of the deity of Christ know that one clear witness that asserts his Godhead forces them into retreat. And I've brought forward not the unclear, the debatable, but those that in context and in terms of syntax, that's the structure of language and the meaning of words, assert his full divinity.

44:11 Romans chapter 9, verses 1 to 5. I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience bearing witness with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing pain in my heart, for I could wish that I myself were anathema from Christ for my brethren's sake, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Notice the adrift of the apostles thought having opened up this glorious salvation in the first eight chapters Paul thinks of his fellow Jews who are yet in blindness and he says my heart breaks for them My heart is pained for them And I could if possible even wish myself accursed if in so doing they would become the recipients of grace and salvation

44:58 And now he's going to explain why he's so burdened. And the thrust of his thought is, they've had such privileges. To squander these privileges makes their unbelief all the more tragic. Notice now, my kinsmen according to the flesh, verse 4, who are the Israelites?

45:16 Whose is the adoption? They were the only nation that God called his child. Whose is the adoption? And the glory?

45:26 And the covenants? There was no other nation that had the Shekinah glory dwelling over it in the wilderness and with it in the temple and tabernacle. And the covenants, the Mosaic, the Davidic. And all of these special arrangements of God's dealings.

45:44 And the giving of the law and the service of God and the promises. Whose are the fathers? He says, oh, my heart breaks for my fellow Israelites. They have been showered with privileges utterly unknown to any other nation.

45:57 My heart breaks because their unbelief is seen against the backdrop of their tremendous privileges. And as he enumerates those privileges, he's going to rise to a climax. And look what it is. Whose are the fathers, and of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh, who is over all, God blessed forever. Amen.

46:27 Now some say, well if you change the punctuation, what you have is this. Of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh? period or semicolon God who is over all and then they insert the verb to be be blessed forever. Well let's be reasonable.

46:47 Where in the world does Paul ever give a eulogy in the midst of pouring out his broken heart because of the unbelief and impenitence of sinners?

46:58 Show me one passage. I find eulogy in Ephesians 1. He's going to open up grand Trinitarian salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

47:12 And the verb to bless is placed forward in most of these blessings. You see, a blessing is not in place here. It would be utterly foreign to the whole pattern of the apostles' devotional expressions of eulogy. No, what we have is this.

47:31 the contemplation of the frightening state of Israel's unbelief. Unbelief in spite of the fact that God sovereignly adopted them as a nation. God entered into gracious covenant commitments with them. He gave them the prophets.

47:46 He gave them the law. He gave them the tabernacle. He gave them the Levitical system. And then wonder of wonders, they had the privilege of being the very human instrument through which who would come?

47:57 Jesus Christ who would be not of the seed of any Gentile nation But who would be what? He would be seed of David Of whom is Christ as concerning the flesh But wonder of wonders It would be through the Jewish nation And through a little humble virgin named Mary That the incarnate God would be manifested to the world Never was any nation so privileged and this is what breaks his heart. There is in this text linguistically and contextually a clear assertion of the Apostle Paul's conviction that the Christ whom he serves and whom he preaches

48:44 is nothing less than the enfleshed God as concerning the flesh. Yes, he is true man, but he is also God over all who is to be blessed forever.

49:06 And if you have any question on the technicalities of the exegesis, I refer you to Professor Murray's commentary on Romans in which he has an adequate dealing with the objections. No, here is an assertion of the full Godhead of Jesus Christ.

49:25 Well, our time is gone and I've only gotten through three of the witnesses.

Application: Sin, Love of God, Warning, and Thomas's Faith

49:30 My own heart is being so thoroughly edified I don't want to run through the others so I'm going to stop with these three witnesses and I want to spend the last few moments bringing some application to your conscience. My friends, listen this morning. If the only Redeemer of sinners such as you and I if the only redeemer of sinners is this person who is God. Do you see what that says about us?

49:58 It says that our condition in a state of sin is desperate. Nothing less than the enfleshment of God could answer to your need and mine. You take your sin pretty lightly, some of you. You think it a little thing that can all be patched up by praying a little prayer and going through a little religious exercises.

50:22 No, no, my friend. The state of man in sin is so utterly desperate. May I say it reverently that God must conceive the second great mystery, the mystery of the incarnation, that the eternal Word who was ever with God and was God. Think of the wonder, the Word, Not something less than the Word.

50:49 He lost nothing. The Word in all the integrity of full Godhead. The Word became flesh.

51:00 And any notion that He ceased to be anything less than the Word in the full integrity of full Godhead, when He became man, is abhorrent to the whole mentality of Scripture. That's the wonder of it. My salvation made such demands. It could only be met by the enfleshment of God.

51:24 You take lightly how bad you are, my friend. Contemplate that mystery.

51:30 And oh, it should point to us something of the amazement of God's love. We were reminded this morning in the early hour, For God, eternal, holy, infinite, so loved the world, sinful men, Jews and Gentiles, dead and bound and wedded to their lust and to their pride,

51:55 that He gave, and in that giving is the whole doctrine of the Incarnation.

52:02 Oh, how can we begin to fathom the love of God? The love of God the Father who would consign His Son to all the humiliations of manhood. Manhood in a sinful world. Manhood in the face of unbelief.

52:19 Manhood in the face of spitting. Manhood in the face of crucifixion and abandonment. Who can fathom such love? and this great truth of the Godhead of Christ is not only a pointer to remind us how bad we are but it's a pointer to remind us how vast and infinite is the love of God and oh my friend it is a beacon to warn us to warn you this morning of how wicked and how tragic is unbelief and impenitence when you don't believe the gospel What are you refusing to believe when you will not repent?

53:02 Who are you refusing? My friend, you're refusing the overtures of God. It is Christ who speaks through His servants saying, Repent and believe the gospel. And that Christ is God who holds your destiny in His hands.

53:19 My friend, you're going to stand before Him as God someday.

53:23 In your eternal destiny. in hell or in heaven will be arbitrated by this one who is God.

53:38 How dare you trifle? How dare you trifle?

53:45 This is the great tragedy of so much of contemporary gospel preaching that would huckster off the Son of God as some kind of a cheap panacea for all of the carnal itches of wicked men.

54:05 Oh, the mystery of godliness. It is God manifested in the flesh. It is God saying to you now, through the gospel preached by His servant, repent and believe the gospel. My friend, if you go out in impenitence, You see what you're doing?

54:26 You're tempting Christ to exercise His prerogatives as judge of the world.

54:34 You may tempt Him once too often.

54:37 Then He'll make you an eternal monument of His righteous anger in the flames of hell forever. oh would to God that the Holy Spirit would so open up some little facet it doesn't take much some little facet of the glory of Christ you would be found with Thomas this morning saying my Lord and my God remember he said that having beheld his pierced hands inside it was not Lord and God prior to incarnation, prior to crucifixion. It is not Lord and God in the manifestation of that God before the cross.

55:25 It is Lord and God in the full blazing light of the cross and the resurrection. My friend, that's saving faith. Falling down before Christ as the crucified risen Lord and acknowledging Him to be your Lord and your God. Is that the posture of your soul this morning?

55:47 What about you children? You know enough Bible to know that He's the Lord and the God. You never doubted that Christ was that. But is He your Lord and your God?

55:56 Is He? How about it, fellas and girls? Is He your Lord? Is He your God?

56:00 Has Mom's Christ and Dad's Christ and the preacher's Christ and the church's Christ? Has He become to you what He was to Thomas? Has the Holy Spirit taken the veils from your eyes? and you've seen Him and your heart runs out to Him.

56:15 That's what it means to be a Christian.

56:18 Your friend visiting with us this morning, I know not the state of your soul. Those of you who've been with us for 15 years, I don't know the state of your soul either.

56:30 Who is He? He is God. Is He your God?

Closing Prayer

56:36 Let us pray.

56:41 Our Father, how we bless you that there was ever conceived in your mind this greatest of all mysteries. We confess that we stagger before the height and the breadth of it. We squint our eyes before the blazing light of it.

57:18 We fall upon our faces before the magnitude of it. Oh, Holy Spirit, give sight to poor blind sinners that they may know who Jesus Christ is and that seeing Him for what He is may fall before Him and cry, My Lord and my God. We thank You for a divine human Redeemer. We have come to learn that in no other Savior is there true hope.

57:59 We know that were He God alone and not man, He never could have reached to us. Were He man and not God having reached us, He could do nothing for us. But we thank you that in that Redeemer who is God and man there is the nearness and there is the almightiness to help. We praise you this morning.

58:21 Oh, may his name be loved and extolled and proclaimed through the earth. O God we pray That even in our own generation We shall yet live To see an army of mighty preachers Of this glorious Christ Raised up to thunder Through the length and breadth of this land And to the ends of the earth Something of the glories of this great Redeemer O may we be lost in wonder, love and praise hear our prayers O God we feel our weakness even to contemplate His glory what will it be to see Him as He is

59:06 O hasten the day prepare us for that day we ask in His worthy name Amen

59:24 Thank you. Thank you.