Please join me in Matthew chapter 16. There's an outline in your bulletin to give you the three points this morning. Matthew chapter 16, this is found in two other gospel accounts, Luke chapter 9, Mark chapter 8. Our focus is on verses 15 and 16, though we'll read from verse 13. John MacArthur calls this section the climax of the teaching ministry of Christ, the Apostle's final examination in just one question. Matthew chapter 16, verses 13 through 17. Hear the Word of God. Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples Who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. Would you pray with me? Father, we come now acknowledging our complete dependence on you. Lord, help preacher and hearer alike. Work in us, we pray. All to Your glory, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, this morning I want to bring a message that has been ruminating on my heart and mind. I want to, in particular, look at the person and work of Jesus Christ, a subject we will be plumbing the depths of for all eternity. Here's the thrust. Jesus Christ, one of the three eternal members of the Trinity, of the Godhead, is fully God and fully man, truly God and truly man. We talk about Him having two natures, and in that truth, and only in that truth, we find exactly the saviour we need today and the saviour that the disciples needed that day. These are truths we need to understand and cling to and spread and defend vigorously. Bishop of Liverpool J.C. Ryle said, too many are apt to look at nothing but the surface of things in religion. and regard distinctions in theology as questions of words and names which are of little real value." And then he goes on to warn, the danger of such a shallow view of not going deeper into our understanding of these glorious truths about Christ. Don't stop where you are. Matthew Henry shows us that this is not just a one-time question about Christ either. Instead, this is a question we should, every one of us, be frequently putting to ourselves. Listen, he says, who do we say, what kind of one do we say that the Lord Jesus is? Is He precious to us? Is He, in our eyes, the Chief of 10,000? Is He the Beloved of our souls? It is well or ill with us according to how our thoughts are right or wrong concerning Jesus Christ." Spurgeon, in his usual blunt manner, says, you cannot be right in anything unless you think rightly of Him. Believers, Christ, and only the biblical Christ, rightly understood, is our everything. Only the biblical Christ can save. Only the biblical Christ can give us confidence. This is life and death. These are personal truths that we must understand. We must dig deeper. And the result must be leading us to worship, adoration, love, and service. That's where we're going. But why is this on my mind? Let me give you some history and context. Exactly 1,700 years ago, this year, in the year 325 AD, a council of church leaders was called together by the Roman Emperor Constantine himself. to the walled city of Nicaea, in the country of Turkey, right on the edge of a large lake, four beautiful gates in the walls, hills covered in olive trees all around. Today it's the modern town of Iznik, a place where sadly churches have been remodeled into Islamic mosques. So this is the 1700th anniversary of that great and monumental event. Conferences have been held this year commemorating it. Why? What could possibly be relevant today from so long ago? You must understand that to call one of these great ecumenical councils was no small matter in the early 4th century, just a few generations after the last apostle died. This was the first of a few meetings over the coming years. Imagine the logistics, sending out the invitations, men traveling from all over the known world. Records show that 200 to 350 leaders were invited with their entourage. They estimate that 2,000 people descended on this town. You may have heard of Athanasius. in the early church. He was there, he was a secretary, not in a leadership role at that point, but he was to play a key role in the years to come. Of course, it takes days, weeks, months even to come. If you're one of those attending, you have to clear your calendar for a long time. You often don't know how long this will last. There must be a very important reason to call something like this. What was it? What was the important question they needed to address that was so urgent? Well, it was and is the eternal question of questions. Who is God? Who is Jesus? Foundational, the definition of the Trinity even, recognizing what is clearly revealed in Scripture. They were asking, how do we best articulate this truth that is found in God's Word? It further defined the question, who is Christ? What did He do? Without exaggeration, the answer to that question is the very center of everything. As Jesus asked His disciples, who do you say that I am? This is ultimately not merely a technical theological question, but ultimately a practical and personal one for you and I and everybody else in this room. Who do you say that I am? Do you understand clearly who Jesus is and what he did, even what he's doing? And its significance, its implications on your life. So what had happened all those years ago that was so important? Well, a man named Arius, who thought he was defending truth, was promoting a view that in very simple terms was bringing Jesus Christ down, diminishing Him. He was questioning His divinity, that He is God. You'll find the Nicene Creed in your bulletin this morning. This is the clarity that came out of these meetings. Kevin DeYoung calls this the most important Christian text ever written other than the Bible. He goes on to say that it's doctrinally precise and theologically robust. You see, every single word in what you have there Every single word is thought through and debated and clarified, listen, from Scripture. Let me read it to you. This is the slightly developed, expanded version after a few more discussions in Constantinople in the year 381. It says this, if you want to follow along in your bulletin. We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen. And we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. For us, humans, and for our salvation, he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became fully human. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. He rose again on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. He ascended into heaven, and He's seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And His kingdom will have no end. And we believe in the Holy Spirit. The Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who in unity with the Father and the Son, is worshipped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets. We believe in one holy, universal and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. Amen. So, this is the most fundamental and foundational statement on the Trinity and on the person and nature of Christ. It brings all the Bible truths together from throughout God's Word, not developed apart from Scripture. That's our only authority. No, that accusation is a complete misunderstanding. Sometimes you might hear people say, we don't need creeds, we don't need confessions. No. Everything about these events all those years ago, and the document that comes out of it, shows that this is clearly an absolute dependence on Scripture, proven by Scripture, bringing truths from throughout the Bible together. So our three points are as follows this morning. I'll give them to you now. Number one. Jesus Christ is fully and truly God. Number two, Jesus Christ is fully and truly man. Number three, Jesus Christ is fully and truly mine. So here's our first point. Look with me at Matthew 16. We'll go elsewhere as well. Well, we find Jesus talking to his disciples as they head north. They're on the road towards Caesarea Philippi. Point number one, Jesus Christ is fully and truly God. Verse 16, he said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter replied, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. We've said already, this is the question that defines everything. When Jesus turned to His disciples and asked, who do you say that I am? He posed the most decisive question in all of human history. Every age, every individual, including you and I, must answer this. Peter's confession was, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. That's the very center of our faith. But what does Son of God really mean? That question became the furnace of the early church's greatest trial, those three centuries after Peter's confession, where they gathered to defend the same truth. And like I said, it's not just mere academic detail that they were discussing. but the beating heart of salvation. Is Jesus Christ fully and truly God, or something else, or something less? You remember Arius, who was the figurehead bringing this altered teaching. He was there in the room, wasn't a voting member. He was a witness. And the Arians, then and now, echoed by the modern groups like Jehovah's Witnesses, quoted Scripture, sounded devout. Just like they might today when they come to your door, they can pick a Bible verse and bamboozle you. They set the topics, they never go off script. Because when they look honestly at Scripture, and all of Scripture, if they're willing to, Their assertions about God and His Son simply do not stand up to scrutiny. This is not yesterday's problem. This is not just the Jehovah's Witnesses. In 10,000 ways, people misunderstand Christ. People still obscure Christ today. People misunderstand God. There remains confusion about the triune God even now, even in real churches. Essentially, the Arians said there was a time when the Son was not. You understand what that means. He was created. He was lesser. He was lower. That's what they're saying. And they appeal to Bible verses. One of the common ones was Hebrews 1.5, where the father says, today I have begotten you. They argued that if he was begotten, whatever that word means, there must have been a day before he was begotten. That's the logic. But when we look in depth at the formulation of the original language, and we look at the entirety of the Bible's teaching, that is absolutely not what it means. It's the language of relationship, not origination. It speaks of eternal love within the Trinity, as we heard last week. The Son is eternally begotten. always proceeding from the Father, never beginning to exist. To beget is not to create. He was not made. He was begotten. He is the eternal Son. I don't want to get technical here, I don't want to lose you, but I want you to know that there are entirely satisfactory answers here. Let me make one simple point that may be clarifying. I was at a conference recently. Dr. Michael Reeves was defining what the word begotten means, because they could have just said made. There's a different word for that. That's not what they said. That's not what they meant. That's not what scripture teaches. And Dr. Reeves drew the distinction between made and begotten. He said, we make cakes and other things. And they are different, they are distinct to us, and distinct from us. We make things of a different kind. We beget what is of our own nature. We do not beget cakes, we make cakes. God does not make His Son, He begets Him of the same being, not a different one. He is God. He is equal. He is eternal. They are of the same substance and essence. He is one with the Father eternally. Here lies the brilliance of the Nicene Creed. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made. of one being with the Father. Through Him all things were made. Those phrases were hammered out to protect the majesty of Christ. Diminish Christ? Never! The church fathers weren't playing with words. You see, if Christ were anything less than fully and truly God, then He couldn't reveal the Father. He couldn't save sinners. The Nicene Fathers began with the Word, the Christ, the Logos. They allowed God's own self-revelation to define Him. In the beginning was the Word, said John. And the Word was with God and the Word was God, speaking of Christ. So Nicaea proclaimed, there's no division in the Godhead. The Son is not subordinate in being. He willingly takes a servant's role in redemption. But you see, the Father is seen through the Son. The beating heart of God is made visible in Christ. The Father is made known in the Son. The Son reveals the Father's glory. We see it in His face. Even in my word choices today, I have to be very careful and precise. I'm prone to mistakes. And this can get very deep very quickly as we throw around words like essence and person and nature and hypostatic. Things like that. But this is not cold and technical at all. Instead, as we grow in our understanding, of this great God, Father, Son, and Spirit, we see better the wonder that God himself came down. These are hard-fought guardrails, not Scripture, but built from Scripture. It reminds us that many of these errors have been seen so many times before. We have the material to fight them off. already before us, and we rejoice that the eternal Son became flesh, the Creator entered creation. God himself came down, Christmas, Emmanuel, God with us. Scripture does not merely hint at the deity of Christ, that he is God. No. It declares it with unshakable clarity. Make no mistake, Across the New Testament, Jesus is presented as fully and truly God, equal in essence with the Father and the Spirit. John 1.1, we've hinted at it already, Jesus is the eternal Word, where John lifts the veil of eternity. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Before creation existed, Jesus was. He is not a created being, but the divine Word through whom all things were made. The Creator is God alone, and Jesus is that Creator. John 8, 58, Jesus claims the divine name. When Jesus said, before Abraham was, I am. He wasn't making a vague spiritual statement there. He was deliberately using the covenant name of God, Exodus 3.14. And the Jews understood exactly what he was claiming, that he was God and they picked up stones to kill him. He openly takes to himself the eternal name of Yahweh. Matthew 26, 63 onwards, Jesus not only talks about the divine names for himself, but he receives them from others. When he's standing before the high priest, Jesus identifies Himself as the Son of Man, verse 13 in our passage 2, who will come on the clouds of heaven. It's an unmistakable reference to Daniel chapter 7, this heavenly figure who receives universal dominion and worship, and the high priest tore his robes because Jesus was claiming nothing less than equality with God Himself. Mark chapter 2. We just read the same account in Mark chapter 9, but in Mark chapter 2, where this paralytic was healed, we're told a little bit more about what these scribes were thinking. When Jesus forgave the paralytic's sins, the scribes responded rightly in Mark 2 by asking, who can forgive sins but God alone? Do you know what? You're right. You're right. Jesus was not only announcing God's forgiveness, He was granting it by His own authority. Only God can remove guilt before God, and Jesus does exactly that because He is God. Luke 24, 51 and onwards, Jesus receives worship. After His ascension, the disciples worshiped Him as His rightful due. And it's offered and accepted, but receiving worship is the prerogative of God alone. Jesus accepts it. Titus 2, 13, Jesus is called our great God and Savior. Paul here leaves no room for ambiguity at all. Believers, look for the appearing of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. The grammar's clear, the theology is unmistakable. Jesus is both God and Savior. Revelation 22, 13, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega. Takes to himself the divine titles reserved for the Lord God Almighty. The Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. These are names of eternal self-existence, sovereign rule, belonging to God alone. Yet Jesus claims them without hesitation. Now, the Bible leaves no doubt from his eternal pre-existence to his authority to his receiving of worship. Jesus is no mere teacher, no mere prophet or exalted man, but God in the flesh. If that's an area you want to study, I can give you a book called 100 Proofs that Jesus is God. We've seen about half a dozen so far. He claimed to be God. He did the work of God. He had the attributes of God. He is God. Not similar to God, not like God, but God Himself. God withers. God came down. The Son is not inferior. No. One being with the Father, eternally beloved. That's the confession of Peter. That's what we find at Nicaea, that's the gospel of grace still today. God's glory is seen in the face of Jesus Christ. We see his majesty through the Son. So we've seen first, Jesus Christ is fully and truly God. Now second, Jesus Christ is fully and truly man. We must now affirm with equal vigor that He is fully and truly man. Both truths are essential. If we lose either, we lose the gospel. Your forgiveness, your eternal life depend on this. The early church wrestled with this balance for more than a century after Nicaea. In the decades that followed, new errors appeared, often with noble intentions, some wanting to protect Christ's deity, his godhood. And yet in doing so, they reduced his humanity to something partial, something incomplete. And there's a huge peril when we try to diminish Christ in his humanity. There was another group called the Apollinarians who did that slightly later. So another council had to be called in Chalcedon in 451 to affirm from Scripture that the same Christ who is fully God is also fully man. Two natures united in one person. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter two. Hebrews 2, verse 17. Speaking of Christ, it says, Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted." In every respect, Jesus had to become man. He had a real body. He hungered. He thirsted. He grew tired. He wept. A real mind. He learned. He asked questions. He grew in wisdom. He had a real soul. Troubled. Grieved. He felt compassion. If Christ did not take a full human nature, body, mind, and soul, then He could not fully redeem us. He has to be fully like us to save us. The wonder, the miracle of the gospel is that God became man. The Word, the eternal logos became flesh and dwelt among us. That's the mystery of the incarnation. It's not a mask. It's not a costume. This is not God pretending to be human. but God truly entering into our nature, born of a woman, wrapped in swaddling cloths, learning to walk and speak, growing in stature and favor with God and man. The eternal word, who upholds all things by his power, chose to depend on his mother's milk. The creator of the stars learned carpentry from his father Joseph. The one who commands angels knew the ache of temptation and the sting of betrayal. Why? We just read Hebrews 2.17 and it gives us it in the purpose clause. So that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of his people. He became what we are so that we might be brought to God. There are depths here beyond human comprehension. In Christ there are two natures, divine and human, united in one person, not two persons. He doesn't switch between masks. He's not sometimes God, sometimes man. He's one Christ, one Lord, fully divine, fully human. He did not cease to be what he was, but then he took a human nature without diminishing his deity. Why does this matter for us? Again, because our salvation depends not merely on what Christ did, but on who Christ is. If He were not God, He could not save. If He were not man, He could not stand in our place. Our Redeemer, your Redeemer, needs to be both God to conquer sin, man to bear sin. Our representative, he obeyed perfectly where Adam failed. He endured temptation as we do, but without sin. He took our nature that he might lift us up into fellowship with God. There is now a man like us seated at the right hand of the Father, a man who knows our weaknesses, feels our sorrows, intercedes for us with compassion. That's what the Nicene Creed describes in Christ's work. For us humans and for our salvation, He came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary, and became fully human. For our sake, He was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death and was buried. You see what's happening? The eternal entered time. The infinite entered flesh. The invisible became visible. The deity and humanity of Christ are not matters for ivory towers, seminary students, professors, pastors. No, they are the difference between heaven and hell for every single one of us. So rejoice, Christian, that your Savior is human. He knows the texture of dust beneath His feet. He understands the weariness and the grief. He prayed, he cried, he trusted his Father. When you pray, he understands. When you suffer, he cares, he knows, he remembers. When you die, he will raise you. Because he's already walked through death and come out the other side. And even now, as you sit here, That man is seated at the right hand of God, representing you perfectly. The human Jesus Christ is your faithful High Priest, your perfect righteousness. And it's all of grace, all of it. The incarnation is not our idea, not our achievement. God came down. He stooped to us. Salvation is grace from start to finish. It's the eternal purpose of God through the incarnation of the Son to the indwelling of the Spirit. And He still reigns. Father, Son, and Spirit, one God in three persons. We give Him all the glory for everything. So we saw first that Jesus Christ is fully and truly God. Second, we saw that he is fully and truly man. And thirdly and finally, we see Jesus Christ is fully and truly mine. Verse 15, Matthew 16, but who do you, you, say that I am? Our passage starts actually with men broadly. And then to the disciples, there's a plural you there, and then to the individual, Peter. It's personal. He is Peter's God. These truths about Christ draw us personally. Hebrews 4.16, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace. The one who reigns there at the right hand of the Father is not detached, is not distant. He is born of our bone, flesh of our flesh, God and man, not diminished. Oh no. We must present the gospel of grace in all its glory and precision. Let's not lose a bit of it. If Jesus were not fully divine, his obedience could not atone for or pay for your sin. If he were not fully human, he could not stand in your place individually. Your salvation, your personal union with Him depends on this union of God and man in one person. And when we answer Jesus, our eternity depends on that answer. If we say with Peter, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, we also stand with those men at Nicaea and with every believer. who has ever bowed before the triune God, we declare that in Christ we see God himself, not a reflection, not something similar. God from God. And because He is truly God, He truly saves. Because He is truly man, He pays our debt of sin. And because He is one person with two natures, He now stands in heaven, a man like us, representing us at the right hand of God as the firstfruits, where we are the full harvest. We will inevitably be brought into safety. The Lord's question. moves from the general to the personal. Who do men say that I am? Verse 13. Who do you say that I am? Verse 15. This is the turning point of the passage, indeed, of our entire faith. The council gives us clear words to confess who Christ is, but listen, Christ demands more than correct theology. Christ demands more than correct theology. He calls for personal confession. It's not enough to say the church believes, not enough to say we believe like the Nicene Creed, or my parents believed. Certainly not enough ever to say we confess a certain creed or confession, however important they are. No. The question comes to you directly, who do you say that I am? And you need to wrestle with this yourself, certainly if you're not a believer. But also remember what Ryle said, even as a believer, this is a question that should be coming up, that we should be asking ourselves regularly. Because sadly, there are many Christians who do not go deep. in a search to understand these beautiful, these essential truths. No settling for mediocrity. Strive after Christ, your Christ, believer. Ryle again said, let it never surprises to find the same variety of opinions about Christ and His gospel in our own times. God's truth disturbs the spiritual laziness of men. It obliges them to think. It makes them begin to talk and reason and speculate and invent theories to account for its spread in some quarters and its rejection in others. Thousands in every age of the church spend their lives in this way and never come to the point of drawing near to God. Like the disciples were encouraged to think about reactions to Christ around them in their day. Just think of the typical human presumptions in our day. What do the people of the USA or France or Uganda or Thailand, who do they say that I am? So many opinions, only one truth. When the believer confesses with trembling joy like Thomas, do you remember that night after the resurrection? Doubting no more? He fell at the feet of Jesus and cried, my Lord and my God, true God, true man, my Savior. Correct theology in those first two points, but you've got to get to point number three, my Savior. We sometimes imagine that these ancient debates were dry and academic, but for Athanasius, and the saints of Nicaea. It was a matter of salvation. They didn't fight to win an argument, but to preserve the truth. If Christ is not truly God, we can't worship Him. If He's not truly man, He can't save us. And if He's not truly yours, then nothing else can help you or comfort you. Doctrine rightly grasped is fuel for devotion. Orthodoxy births doxology, worship. He is my eternal Lord. He came down for me. The Nicene Creed begins with, we believe, but Matthew 16 presses deeper, doesn't it? Do you believe? Peter gave a confession. It wasn't a product of intellectual deduction. Jesus tells us that. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. This true confession is a work of grace in the soul. And Peter's answer is loaded with meaning, depth, and God revealed it to him. He opened Peter's eyes. We need that. We need to cry out to God for that. Peter uses various words in responding here, talks of the word Christ, anointed, Messiah, the three offices of prophet, priest, and king, all perfectly aligned in Christ. He's all we need. He's all sufficient. The biblical Christ, nothing else. Peter's saying, you're the one we have been waiting for. And quite literally, the disciples' answer to this question would result in most of them being martyred for this profession. This is how much it meant to them personally. You may know the facts, you may agree that they are true, but have you leaned your whole weight upon this Christ? Have you taken Him for yourself? The question is not only what is, who is He? but is He mine? Fully and truly. Can you say with the bride in the Song of Solomon, my beloved is mine and I am his? Can you echo Paul, the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me? It's one thing to know that God so loved the world, it's another to know that God so loved me. The whole wonder of the incarnation becomes personal when you realize he took your flesh, he bore your griefs, he carried your sorrows. Now in heaven, he stands there for me, bearing my name, representing my cause, interceding for me. There's a human heart beating in glory, and it beats for me. When you pray, he understands. When you sin, he pleads. When you suffer, he cares. When you die, he will raise you. Because he has made your nature his own. The question is not theoretical, it's deeply personal. cutting through every layer of ceremony, orthodoxy, who do you say that I am? And the only saving answer is you are the Christ, the Son of the living God, and you are mine. He enables us not only to say Christ is Lord, but instead to say Christ is my Lord, all those two letters, my. World of difference. The Spirit joins us to Christ in living union. We are in Him. He is in us. His life becomes our life. His death, our death. His resurrection, our hope. That's the wonder of union with Christ that through faith, the eternal Son of God becomes the treasure of your soul. You may be able to recite a creed, but do you know the Christ of the creed? You may defend the faith, but do you delight in your Savior? There's a subtle danger. Doctrinal precision does not equal spiritual health. Yes, we fight for the truth, but we also must live in the truth and know God personally, experientially. We need a living, breathing confession that bows before Christ personally, praising Him, living for Him. And therefore, every true believer can declare, the Lord is my shepherd, my savior, my God. So let's hear that question again as if Christ Himself were asking you today. Who do you, who do you say that I am? Don't hide behind reflex answers. The question is for you. He is the Savior of sinners, but He's calling for your confession, your trust, your heart. And we need to keep asking that question as believers too, over and over. Say it with Peter, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Say it with Thomas, my Lord and my God. Say it with Paul, he loved me and gave himself for me. Truly God, truly man, truly mine. One commentator asked the important question, who exactly is the Jesus that you believe in? He says, if you think that Jesus was a good teacher, then you will follow Him like you would a good teacher. If you think Jesus merely had some good ideas, then you will listen to what He says every once in a while. If you think Jesus was a good example, then you will try to follow His example. If you believe that Jesus was and is the promised Messiah who came to the earth to save us from our sins, to conquer sin and death, and to reign and to rule over all as Lord, then that changes everything about how you live. The church is made up of people who believe in that Jesus and know him intimately. Do you know this Jesus intimately? 1700 years ago, the church proclaimed the eternal glory of Christ. But that council was not the end. The questions remain alive. Those questions are still ringing through every generation until every knee bows and every tongue confesses. Fully God, fully man, fully mine. And when those truths grip you, that the eternal word became flesh for you, you will join in the confession of heaven itself from Revelation 5.12. Worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. I was listening to a speaker panel about church in hard places at a conference in the Middle East recently. And it brought this into focus for me in a way that we simply do not understand here. One of the pastors told the story of a young lady in Iraq who had become a believer. And he said to her, you know, when you get baptized, some people will want to kill you. Her answer was, I know, but Jesus is worth it. And over the centuries since the ascension of Christ, many men, women, boys and girls have died precisely because of their confession that Jesus Christ is who He claimed to be and who He proved to be. And that He is theirs personally. Truth has been declared by men who often were under threat for their lives because of what we've considered today. We mentioned the early church father, Athanasius, earlier. It would only be a few years until he had a leadership role in all of this. But not right then, at the time. He defended these truths for many years, at high cost, high risk. And his life is often summarized by the Latin phrase, Athanasius contra Munda. Athanasius against the world. Against the world. And I wonder, do you feel the weight and the depth and the importance of these truths as our forefathers did, or as deeply as our dear brothers and sisters do today in difficult places around the world? Is the whole Christ valued by you to the right extent? Is he worth more to you than your very life? Would you be able to articulate who Jesus is? And explain the importance of these truths. If somebody asked you, do you have a desire, a compulsion to understand as much as you can about your Savior? Is it easy? No. There's mystery here. We are finite creatures. But there is marvelous and encouraging and uplifting truth. But that must lead us to the personal. Is He mine? Does His Spirit dwell within me? Brothers and sisters, one day the clouds will burst open, and this risen, all-powerful God-man will appear, and everyone will bow their knees to Him whether they want to or not. Yes, I want to challenge you with the question of Jesus as the apostles were challenged. Who do you say that I am? But in some senses, it does not matter what you think of Jesus Christ. As He's often said, the facts don't care about your feelings or opinions. Jesus is Lord and God. He will be glorified. Let's stand with Athanasius against the world if we have to for the sake of truth and the glory of God. Let's declare Christ in all His glory, all His excellence. Let's bring the whole truth of Scripture to those around us and see God work through His powerful Word. Why all this effort? Why is this important? Listen, the truth is that even bringing Christ down by a mere hair, by the slightest fraction, is a horrifying prospect. This is the undiminished Christ. May we hold to the whole Christ, to all of the triune Godhead in our generation, in our church, in our homes, in our hearts. May we seek to understand as much as we are able, we need Christ as man and God, or we are dead and doomed. We have both. It's true. And if you don't know him as your Lord and Savior, I plead with you to run into his arms, to put your faith in him and what he has done, and this perfect God-man will never let you down. Your eternity hinges on this question. It's not one that can be ignored. No answer is ever neutral. It reminds me of the account of the Titanic a boat owned by the White Star Cruise Line. And after people heard that it had gone down, they gathered at the offices of the company in Liverpool on one side of the Atlantic and New York on the other side. And employees would walk out with a name on a piece of card and a pin, and they would take the name and attach it to one of two boards. Only two boards, those known to be lost. those known to be saved. No middle ground. Do you believe not just that Jesus existed, not just the bare facts about His life, death, and resurrection? Do you know Him? Is He yours, the real Him, the whole Him? Believers increasingly so. The biblical Christ. the whole Christ who saves, is he yours? Because he can be this morning. And therefore, draw close to him. Would you pray with me? Almighty God, everlasting Father, we thank you and praise you for the beauty and glory of your most beloved Son. How we thank you that he is perfectly God and man in union. How we thank you that he is exactly what we need to be saved and to help throughout this life and to be secured for all eternity. Oh God, may all of us look to him as the solution of solutions. May all of us answer this question of questions, acknowledging not just the facts, but knowing that He is mine. O God, if you are working in any here today who do not know you, we pray, Father, that this would become a personal reality for them, that you would save once again, that you would show mercy and grace once again. We plead with you. Do this, we pray, to your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.