Father, we are, again, thankful for another Lord's Day for us as your people to gather in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask, Father, for His help in being ministered to today through the Word of God. May the Holy Spirit in your people and in me, Lord, Do a work today, Father, to continue to teach us and to help us to understand who You are and how we are to worship, how we are to believe from the Scriptures. We ask for help that we would do this with the glory of His holy name. Amen. Well, brethren, if you were here last week, you know that we were studying paragraph one. And by the way, if you want to take your hymn books, it's at the bottom of page 674 is where we begin today. We're in Paragraph 2 of our confession, Chapter 8, Paragraph 2 of Christ the Mediator. And Pastor Waldron, as I continue to use his outline, basically as a helpful guiding tool, he titles this particular paragraph, Paragraph 2 of Chapter 8, as Christ's incarnation for the office of mediator. And we're going to be studying some of the doctrine of the incarnation today, and it has absolutely nothing to do with this month or next week. It just happened to fall in this by providence. As I mentioned last week, for those of you here, what we learn in this chapter is so essential to our Christian faith that we are slowing things down somewhat rather than giving a broad overview, as we most often have to do because of time's sake. But we also have to remember, brethren, and particularly for our older members here, that before COVID, our Bible classes used to be 60 minutes long, but now they're only 30. And so if a chapter took four lessons to study, what does that mean? Well, that means now it takes eight to get the same material. And so I say all of that, brethren, to ask you to be just a little patient with us as we little by little make our way through the confession. I also want to say that as elders, this is not simply something that we chose to study because we like our confession and that we like to teach it. This is quite true. But as Paul told Timothy in 1 Timothy 4.6, we have a responsibility, brethren, before God to always be teaching you the Christian faith, the doctrines, the essential teachings, sound doctrine of the Christian faith. It is our calling before God to keep these essentials before you. The greatest detriment to the church, when you read the book of Acts and through the New Testament, the greatest detriment to the church throughout her history even has always been false doctrine. And since what we believe determines how we live, we all need to be constantly grounded in the doctrines of the Christian faith. I almost this morning wanted to hand out little cards. and ask a couple of questions about the incarnation just to see where you all were and what you understood about it and what you believed about it. But I didn't do that. I wasn't going to ask you to put your name to it, but it could have been something we could have done. If ever we get to a place, brethren, where we can say to ourselves, oh, I really already know about the doctrine of the incarnation. Can we move on to something more exciting and new? Well then, brethren, we've moved away from the Bible's own warnings, particularly one in Hebrews 2.1. Therefore, we must give the more earnest heed to the things we have heard, lest we drift away. And though it may at times, brethren, feel redundant and weary to keep teaching these doctrines of the faith over and over, every pastor must follow in the footsteps of the Apostle Peter who said this. 2 Peter 1.12, for this reason, I will not be negligent to remind you always of these things, though you know and are established in the present truth. And so, brethren, we need to understand that the devil is too conniving and we're too weak to allow ourselves to neglect these very important doctrines of the faith for very long. And so, with that, we come to a paragraph in this chapter that is vital for us to comprehend, and not only comprehend, but to believe even unto our death. Because many of our brethren in the past died to make sure this particular doctrine was held and preserved for you and I today in a clear written form. As I have mentioned already, it has to do with the doctrine of the incarnation. Pastor Martin Waldron has five points in his outline and it begins with this first one. The first hitting of the paragraph as we look at paragraph two is the subject of the incarnation, the subject. Follow along as I begin reading part of that paragraph. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, 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 He hath made." First here, we have a definitive statement about the pre-incarnate Son of God. It was once held, brethren, by John MacArthur, one of my favorite Bible teachers, that Jesus Christ only became God's Son after the incarnation. It was called the incarnational Sonship. He has since abandoned the view, praise the Lord, for the true orthodox teaching of the eternal sonship of Christ. But it just goes to prove my earlier point, brethren, that if a godly biblical scholar like John MacArthur could hold such an erroneous view, teaching about our Lord, how much more we dare not neglect studying over and over the true doctrines of the Christian faith, once and all delivered to the saints. And so we believe and we confess that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. The Bible teaches He was the Son of God before His incarnation. Psalm 2 verse 7, I'm going to just quote verses today for time's sake. So this one is Psalm 2 7, I will declare the decree, the Lord has said to me, the me is Christ, you are my son, today I have begotten you. Dr. MacArthur used to take that language and take it literal, of course, which dispensations are wont to do at times. But the reference of time here, today, I have begotten you, is a reference to the eternal decree. Remember what the verse started with, I will declare the decree. Also the word begotten, Christ is eternally begotten. Remember, we went over that when we were going through chapter 2. And so the reason we confess the eternal sonship of Christ is because the Bible declares Him to be God. And if He is God, then there can never be a time when He was not. Therefore, when the Bible speaks of Him being begotten, it's using figurative language for our sakes, to communicate to us He really is the Son of God, but eternally so. There was never a time when He was not the second person of the triune God who is the Son of God. So now the Lord himself declares this eternal sonship and his deity in talking with the Jews in this statement. John 5 18, therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill him because he not only broke the Sabbath but also said that God was his father making himself equal with God. So at this point Jesus was either a liar or he really did say he was and is the Son of God with the intent to communicate equality. In order for God to be his Father, he would also have to be God. If he is indeed God, then he has always existed. Therefore, he had to always exist as the eternal Son of God. John 8, 58, Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am. He didn't send God the Father, didn't send the second person of the Trinity in order to become the Son. He sent forth Him who has always been His eternally begotten Son. It's important that we understand these things. And I'll share with you why at the end. Now our statement also gives us proof here on the validation of Christ's deity by stating, he was of one substance and equal with him who made the world and upholding it governeth all things he hath made. So first Jesus declared this reality of his one substance and equality with the Father in John 10.30, I and my Father are one. And this is a very small verse with enormous theological implications. He wasn't saying that they were one as if it was just simply a term of endearment. That's to go without saying. He was stating that they were one in power and authority, making himself equal with God. No mere man could make that claim because the context of what Jesus was saying there is that no one could snatch the elect out of his hand, neither can either one snatch him out of my father's hand. That's the context of that verse. And then secondly, we see proof of Christ's deity by referencing here in our confession his role in creation, his role of ruling over that creation even at present day. This would come from a verse we keep going back to frequently, which is Hebrews 1, verses 1 to 3. God at various times and various ways spoke in times of the fathers by the prophets, but he's in his last days spoken by his son, whom he has appointed heir of all things. That was the ordination of his mediating work we talked about last time. Through whom, talking here about Christ, his son, through whom also he made the worlds. So if he did that, then he had to exist before the world was. Verse 3, who being in the brightness of his glory, again, our confession just takes that language verbatim, and the express image of his person in upholding all things by the word of his power, Christ's power, the son of God. And so again, God says, he has spoken to us by his son, and if through him he made the worlds, upholds the worlds by his power, he must be God the son. And then when our brains start thinking this way, we have to always keep preaching to ourselves, brethren. Every time we see this kind of language that there aren't three gods. There is only one God, the Lord thy God is one. Three subsistences, it's a word theologians try to come up with because when you start to talk about the Trinity, you're going to get into heresy real quick if you're not careful. Father, Son, Holy Spirit, one God. And so as we'll see in a minute, often what is necessary to know about the Trinity can be said about the doctrine of the incarnation in some ways. There are certain things we must confess to be true in order to keep us from damning heresy. Even though we may not be able to fully explain these doctrines to man's satisfaction, we have to hold to what we do know the scriptures very clearly tell us about who God is and now about who Christ is. I don't know how God is one God, yet within the one God there are three subsistences, or understood properly, persons. Yet to not deny the Trinity of the one God is to believe and worship in a different God. And no one goes to heaven believing in a false God. This is why this is so important. Well, the next point in Waldron's outline is the time of the incarnation, the time. Continue picking up reading there in that paragraph, it says, did when the fullness of time was come. Now, this comes from a verse we quoted earlier out of Galatians 4.4, when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his son, born of a woman, born under the law. God sent forth his son. He didn't send something else that became a son, but he sent forth his son. Now, there, as you know, brethren, many Old Testament prophecies concerning the first advent, which would have reference to the incarnation. Isaiah 7.14, therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel, which means, what does it mean, brethren? God with us. So if he's God and he's son, he has to be eternally the son. Isaiah 9.6, for unto us a child is born and to us a son is given. and the government will be upon his shoulders. His name shall be wonderful counselor, mighty. So you see that the incarnation, the understanding of Christ assuming upon himself this humanity, we understand him being God, very God. Another one would be Micah 5.2, you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you shall come forth to me, the one to be ruler in Israel, listen, whose goings forth are from of old, from everlasting. So again, it's pointing to the one that's going to be born, the one that's coming to the earth, is also the very and same one who is from of old, from everlasting. And it was foretold. So the exact time of the incarnation obviously was not given to us in these prophecies, but the time would have been very recognizable when it did occur because of the events surrounding what was foretold. of virgin birth, one who came from Bethlehem, of the lineage of David, on and on. We see that when this individual comes forth, we got all the backup prophecies from hundreds of years back to show that it must be true. And so with all those predictions, no one would have missed the first coming of the Messiah, and most everyone didn't miss except for the majority of the Jews in that day did miss it. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. Even King Herod understood what was happening in that day. Well, now we go move on, number three, and next, which is the essence of the incarnation. Continue reading the essence of the incarnation. Again, dead when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin. So the essence of, brethren, of the incarnation is the Son of God assuming upon himself true humanity. And that's the language theologians prefer, the assumption, the assuming of it. We have to be careful when we think of God. There was no change in God when God the Son assumed a human nature. Nothing in the deity of Christ changed. He would cease to be God. Remember, we learned that when we studied the doctrine of simplicity. And so the confession makes clear here there is absolutely no difference, though, between the kind of human nature the Son of God assumed and the human nature that we all have in here this morning. Except in one respect, his human nature was without sin. First, how do we know Jesus had a true human nature? And again, we remember when Pastor Timothy went through all those heresies and all those false teachings, this was the reason why they all came out because others didn't confess this back in the day when they were fighting over it. Well, as the confession says, because he had the essential properties and common infirmities of a human nature. The Lord Jesus had flesh and bone. He had to eat and drink like all other humans. He needed sleep and would get physically weary after a long day like all other humans. And he was pierced through by a spear and he bled. And I want you to know as I read these to you, the Scripture goes out of its way to confirm the true humanity of Christ, brethren. And it was necessary, as we'll see in a minute, but there were those in the early church after the apostles, after the New Testament was coming along, the second, third, fourth centuries, people started denying this, that he was just a spirit. and that it was just an illusion. His physical body was an illusion. And so that's detrimental to the Christian faith. So it was necessary to hold these things down when they did so with the scripture. John 19.34, one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear and immediately blood. And then water came out. Matthew 4.2, when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, afterward, he was hungry. And then one more, John 4.6, Jesus, therefore, being wearied from his journey, sat thus by the well. He wasn't wearied because he was God, he was wearied because he was truly human. And, of course, the short verse in the Bible, John 11.35, Jesus wept. Now concerning the evidence of that Christ was truly man but without sin, we also have several scriptures. Our Lord himself says in John 8, 46, which of you convicts me of sin? Now we may be able to ask that question to someone who's only known us for about 10 minutes. But everyone else, it won't take them long to figure out that they can convict us of sin pretty soon. But concerning Christ, what sayeth the Scriptures? 2 Corinthians 5.21, for He, God, made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us. 1 John 3.5, and you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him, there is no sin. And then, of course, the reason why it is important is obvious, that we believe and we understand both that Jesus was truly human but without sin is summed up in Hebrews 2.17. Therefore, in all things, he had to be made like his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest. Again, we're studying about the mediator. We need a mediator. He might be our faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make propitiation for the sins of the people." What made propitiations by type in the Old Testament for the sins of the people? It was the lamb, it was the animal offering, and it had to be what? Without blemish. This is the Scripture. This is the reason the Scripture again goes out of its way to tell us of Christ's sinlessness, is because if he had committed the smallest of sin, he would have become disqualified to be our mediator and to take away our sin. He indeed was the spotless lamb who takes away the sins of the world. He had to be truly human in order to stand in the place of sinful humans. No angel could stand in our place. God himself, thrice holy, could not stand in our place. Only the God-man could stand in our place. And so praise God, brethren, for the doctrine and the reality of the incarnation. Number four, with that was the essence of the incarnation. Now we have the mode, the mode of the incarnation. We move now to the rest of the paragraph, or a little further in the paragraph. It's a long paragraph. It says, being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, the power of the Most High overshadowing her, and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures. And so the mote, of course, was a glorious miracle of God. Many people, many of you perhaps, will read about that miracle next weekend at some point. Out of Matthew 1 20-23, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take that you marry your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a son. It doesn't say he's going to bring forth her son. He was her son in a sense, and that deals with the lineage and the necessity of the lineage, as we'll say in a minute. And you shall call his name Jesus, he'll save his people from their sin. So all this was done, it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet saying, behold, the virgin. shall be with child and bear a son. And they shall call it..." Here it is again, "...shall call his name Immanuel." And here it gives it, which is translated, God with us. It's amazing. This whom came through the womb of Mary is God with us in some way. We have to see what the Scriptures teach this. So Joseph was the seed of David fulfilling the prophecy that the Messiah would be a king. And the lineage of David goes all the way back to Abraham, which fulfills the prophecy that through his seed, all the nations of the world would be blessed. In the gospel of Luke, Christ's lineage goes all the way back to Adam, fulfilling the prophecy that the seed of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. And so, brethren, this is why we needed to make sure, we need to believe that He's truly human, because it must fulfill the prophecies which were already spoken going all the way back to Genesis 3. And so, the reason Christ was born of Mary is the necessity of Him being made like His brethren, and His being born of a virgin, the necessity of Him being born without sin. So that fallen sinful nature that Adam and Eve had that passed down to all their posterity did not pass down to Christ, but born of a woman and by means of the Holy Spirit was in all other ways like you and me. Well, that was the mode of the incarnation. Lastly, now we move on to the result of the incarnation. This is the rest of paragraph two. says so that two whole perfect and distinct natures, this is the theological depth of the paragraph, this is the big stuff. So the two whole perfect and distinct natures were in separately joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man. And so here, brethren, the language is being borrowed from the creeds and the confessions of the past. Those who were in the trenches, as I said, even died to preserve what we just read. so that what was just read could be confessed by the church throughout its history. Particularly, this one here would be from the Macedonian Creed, the same language of 451. When our Baptist forefathers put our confession together, they were not trying to reinvent wheels. They desired as much as possible to confess what the church of Christ had confessed through the centuries. As I said earlier, even if it meant their life, they would not deny these truths. And so the early creeds became safeguards and fences for the true people of God to spot all the heresies that were so prevalent in their day. If we had a visitor in here this morning, and they came from the Mormon church or something, and we just read that comment, it would blow their minds if they had any understanding of the Mormon church at all. If we didn't continue to confess these truths, these heresies would quickly infiltrate Christ's church again. Indeed, the existence of Mormons, the existence of the Watchtower Society, the Oneness Movement, and many others reminds us of why this is a helpful tool that our confession really is. For you see, brethren, all of those cults would say the same thing we would say, they believe in the Bible. The Bible is their word of God. And that's why, brethren, this last statement is so vital to our Christian faith. We may not be able to fully explain to people's minds what it all means that Christ has two distinct natures, yet is one person, but for us to believe contrary to it is enough to condemn us to hell. It's a powerful statement, but it's true. When the Son of God assumed a human nature, nothing about his deity changed. The divine did not mix with the human to create one new creature or one new nature. That's Eutychianism, as Timothy mentioned before. When the Son of God assumed a human nature, we didn't end up with a new person. That's Nestorianism. Again, I saw it. He still had it on the board in there. Our confession is clear, and so is our Bible, that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition, or confusion, which person is very God and very man. Again, nobody is ever going to be truly satisfied to explain how that can even truly be the case, but that's what the Bible teaches. And brethren, the more we study the incarnation, the more we seek to comprehend just who our savior is who came and redeemed us and ascended to the right hand of the father, the more we will worship and appreciate the son of God who is very God, the only true God with the father and the spirit. Yet through his incarnation is now our great mediator who reconciles us to God and ever lives to make intercession for us. Well, brethren, in conclusion, I want to stress again why all of this is so important for you and I to believe. If you had been given that card this morning, what would you have said? Does Christ have one nature or does he have two natures? Did something change when God the Son assumed humanity? Did something change in the Son of God who came? How could he come if he's always everywhere? So these are things hard for us to explain. But we need to understand what the Bible confesses or reveals, what we confess to be true to keep us from these heresies because just one little different angle on the matter is going to damn us, and this is very important. If one does not believe that Jesus is truly God, you will perish in your sin. And Jesus himself said it. John 8.24, therefore, I said to you that you will die in your sins, for if you do not believe that I am a reference to his deity, you will die in your sins. Also, if one does not believe Jesus is truly human, you will also perish in your sin. 1 John 4, 3, and every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the Antichrist. If one does not believe that Jesus is the one person, the eternal Son of God, you will perish. 1 John 2.22, who is a liar? But he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. He is antichrist who denies the Father and the Son. Whoever denies the son does not have the father either. And if you deny the son one part of the nature or the person of Christ, you don't have the right son. See that? If you believe in a Jesus that has two persons or that it's human and the deity mixed in some kind of way, you have a different son. And so it's important that we believe in the Father and the Son, the true Son. And so this is why the scriptures are very dogmatic about our need to believe in Jesus Christ, both God and man, two distinct natures, but only one person. Why is it so important, brethren? Because of the first commandment, you shall have no other gods before me. To fail to worship the Son of God because you think he was only human is to deny the person of Jesus Christ who is God and also very man, very God. To worship the Lord Jesus but deny his humanity is to worship a different Jesus. This is why, brethren, we can't just...in our day and time, among evangelicals, you just go around and say, I believe in Jesus. Well, I believe in Jesus and we can all go sing Kumbaya. Who is your Jesus? Do you know who he is? He is very God, very man, one person, two distinct nature with that composition. Brethren, you may have heard this. Lesson this morning, 50 times in your Christian walk, but we need to keep hearing it lest we drift away from the truth. May God continue to help us to study this glorious doctrine as we continue to study the Bible together. My brethren, we'll close with a word of prayer and get ready for our worship time together. Father Adi, we thank you for the church that you raised up in those early days, in those early centuries particularly, Lord. You revealed the light of the gospel, the light of truth of who your Son really is, and God, that they confessed it even unto death, many of them, for they knew they had to believe in the one true God and His Son whom He has sent. May we be as bold as they all these days of our lives and pass these truths on to our own children and the generations behind us. We pray in Jesus' holy name. Amen.