First, I'm going to seek to honor my word last week with respect to Dr. Dolezal's Christology class. I had the opportunity to sit through that class this past week, 36 hours of MDiv-level lectures and study. mind-boggling, incomprehensible as we meditate upon the person and work of Christ. But I said last week, what I plan to do is share with you, not 36 hours worth, you'll be relieved to know, but share with you some of the highlights of this class. Secondly, one of the things that's going to be a little different this morning is I'm using Dr. Dolezal's material today almost verbatim. I'm going to add to it a little bit here and there, but just know ahead of time I'm borrowing heavily from Dr. Dolezal's lecture, particularly some of the introductory material. I thought it was very good as we simply meditate together on the person of our Redeemer upon the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we work into and work towards His incarnation. But thirdly, something a little different this morning. I'm going to ask for volunteers to read a number of Scripture passages, not long passages of a verse or two, but have your Bibles ready and open so that we can...in fact, if you want to go ahead and in your mind claim one or two. each one on a line, we'll read separately, and draw some particular conclusions. What we want to look at is why do we study this? Why make Christology a specific area of theological study? What's the benefit to us as God's people of doing admittedly difficult work? These things will stretch us, stretch our minds, stretch our brains. It can be because we're dealing with the incomprehensible. We're dealing with God himself. So let me pray and ask for the Lord to help us, for him to send his spirit to us this morning so that we can meditate upon and know more of our glorious Savior. Our God and our Father, we thank you in the name of your Son for all of your blessings upon us, for your eternal love that you demonstrated to us in sending your Son. Sending your Son in the fullness of time, brought forth of a woman, born under the law, and that You sent Him to seek and to save the lost. And we give You thanks. We ask now for You to send Your Spirit to us, to help us in understanding Your Word, helping us in delighting in and worshiping our triune God, and with particular emphasis this morning upon the person of our King, our Lord, our Christ, our Redeemer. We pray these things in His name. Amen. In Matthew's Gospel, from the very first verse of Matthew's Gospel, he sets out to demonstrate that Jesus is the promised king, that he is Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. And there's sort of a slow climb through the first 15 1⁄2 chapters of Matthew's Gospel working up to sort of a narrative climax. It's not the full climax of the life of Jesus Christ, that would be his crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection, ascension and exaltation. But from a literary standpoint, working up to this climactic scene that's recorded for us right in the middle of Matthew 16. Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, I'm reading in verse 13 of Matthew 16, and he asked his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? I mean, isn't that the central question? Not just in Matthew's gospel, but in all of history. Who is this Jesus? And of course, you know the exchange. And the disciples said, some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And Jesus said to them, but who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter replied, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus answered him, blessed are you, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you. but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then he strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. And of course, this is where Rome, many places Rome goes badly wrong, is to say that it's on Simon Peter. the person, Simon Peter, that Christ will build His church. And that's not what Jesus says. It's upon Peter's confession that thou art the Christ. You are the Son of the living God. Upon that confession, the church is constituted and born. And from that time on, all who will confess with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe that God has raised Him from the dead will be saved and will be united to the person of Christ. Who do you say that I am? That's the central question that we want to work through. And I haven't exactly sketched out yet how much time we'll spend on this unit, but I want to think about this. And so I've entitled this, Who Do You Say That I Am? Reflections in Christology. And I want to think today about why we would spend the time and effort to study it. What are the benefits to us as God's people as we meditate upon and contemplate deeply the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, would someone read John 17, the first three verses? Anybody have that? Matthew? Amen. Amen. So, reason number one. Why study Christology? Well, because knowing Christ is eternal life. Knowing Christ is eternal life. He is the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." I mean, the whole purpose for which we were created was to glorify God, to enjoy Him forever, to give Him praise and worship and adoration that He is due, and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ is that eternal life. So I'm going to have the next two passages, John 14.6 and Acts 4.12. Go ahead. Jesus said to him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Great. And then Acts 4, 12. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which to trust. OK. So we see in the first place that knowing Christ is eternal life, But it is knowing Christ alone, only through knowing Christ, is there eternal life. He is the way. He is the truth. He is the life. We must study and know this Christ because there is no other way. There is no other path. There is no other alternative for us to find salvation, to find eternal life, to find glory and praise and honor in the Lord. Next one, Colossians 2. So I'm going to have Colossians 2, 2 and 3. Go ahead, Emerson. Yes, yes. No, that's fine, that's fine. in Christ. Why do we study Christology? Why are these things that we want to give our attention, our focus, our meditation upon? And it is because we find here in the Lord Jesus Christ all of the treasures of wisdom and knowledge and understanding. That's a remarkable statement. And when we think about, as you read through the New Testament, you think about the various churches that we find in the New Testament. Colossians was kind of an out-of-the-way place in the Roman Empire. Colossae didn't even appear on some Roman maps. The Apostle Paul did not plant that church himself. but having heard about them and written to them and visited them, he's very concerned about their welfare. Then I think about other churches. The church in Corinth particularly comes to mind. The Corinthians were very much Hellenized in their thinking. They were very much Greek in their thinking in terms of their pursuit of wisdom. They were fascinated with brilliant speakers that would come in. these fancy rhetorical men that would come in with their big arguments. And the fact that you've read the extra verse, I'm glad, because that's what Paul's dealing with, is this contrast between Christ and the plausible arguments, these what seem like reasonable arguments to the world. And then, of course, you think about other churches, Galatia, the Church of Galatia, where the problem there was not so much a worldliness per se, but a false religion from the Judaizers that was infecting them. And here, Paul had been presenting to them Christ and Him crucified as the sum total of the need that they had to be saved. He was the sum total of the answer to their problem. And the Judaizers would come in and say, oh, no, no, you have to be circumcised. You have to keep the whole law. You have to become a Jew first, a Torah-keeping, Moses-following Jew first, and then you can be a Christian. And Paul recognized the very gospel was at stake. And we could go on and on, but just in your own mind, think through some of the dilemmas that were in these various churches in the New Testament. Think about in Revelation 1 and 2 where our Lord speaks to the seven churches there. And think about how, in various ways, they were all consumed, or several of them were consumed with the search of worldly wisdom, worldly knowledge and understanding. And here, we're told in Colossians 2, Why do we study Christology? Why is it important to give our time and attention to the study of the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man, study His incarnation? It's because it's in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. We're just bombarded every day with data, aren't we? And I'm not a prophet or a son of a prophet. but you all see the same trajectories that I see in terms of just the massive amounts of information. And who knows where all this AI stuff is going, but there are all kinds of, even the best case scenarios, there are all kinds of promises for automation and for human foraging and all these benefits, because we'll have so much information and we can do something with all the information that we have. But the Scriptures don't point us to things like that, to human devices, human understanding, even the sum total of human understanding. Because that's really the promise of AI, isn't it? Is that we can collate all the world's cumulative knowledge and understanding and have access to that and wield that as a sword. Wield that because information is power, knowledge is power. That's the promise, even in a best-case scenario. Now, we know that there are certainly potentially nefarious uses of that, but dear brothers and sisters, we see those kinds of things as we read about them. We need to come back and consider where the true source of all wisdom and understanding is. And the scriptures tell us very plainly that it is in Christ where we find hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not only in this life, but in the age to come. It was mentally and physically exhausting to spend 36 hours of lecture time contemplating these things, wrestling with these things. But what a delight it will be for all of eternity to find the mercies of God new every morning, to find that even in all of eternity, we will not exhaust the well, the deposit of wisdom and knowledge. We will not exhaust the treasure. of wisdom and knowledge that's found in our Lord Jesus Christ. For all of eternity, we will continue to grow in Him. We will continue to delight more and more as we learn and discover more about Him, beholding Him face to face. And in that age to come, we won't be hindered as we currently are. I was hindered because my backside could not tolerate so much. My mind could tolerate even less. But in heaven, we will not be so limited, will we? We will not be hindered by our own sin, the things that distract us, even lawful things that occupy our time and attention. We won't be distracted by those things. So why study Christology? Because in Christ are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge, not only for this age, but for the age to come. The next text is Ephesians 3, 11. You may have Ephesians 3. You have it, Erica? Oh. Go ahead. Go, go, go. Go for it. Go for it. Go ahead. This is according to eternal... Christ Jesus... Okay. Very good. What Paul's discussing here, he's speaking about the gospel of Jesus Christ that was in chapters 1 and 2 of Ephesians. He's, in a sense, pulling back the veil and showing us that these things were planned by God from eternity. And then at a point in time, a specific point in time, a planned point in time, a deliberate point in time. God sent forth his son. And if we back up to verse 9, he brings to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God. who created all things so that through the church, the manifold wisdom of God might now be made known to rulers and authorities in the heavenly places." This, I mean, this revelation, this making known, was according to the eternal purpose that he realized in Christ Jesus our Lord. Think about what Paul's saying. All of history, all of history, was being focused on a particular point in time, a particular place, with a babe in swaddling cloths and a manger. And that all that God had done throughout history, as you read, starting in Genesis 1-1, just reading through, reading about Abraham, reading about Lot, and Sodom and Gomorrah, and reading about all the patriarchs, and then reading through Deuteronomy, and the Exodus, and the wilderness wanderings, and then being led out by being led into Egypt by Joseph, being led out by Moses, and then into the Promised Land by Joshua, and then on and on and on through the prophets, and the exile, and the kings, and all these things. Everything was working to a particular point in time. It's like taking, you know, I spent a lot of time as a kid with a magnifying glass out with the sun, you know. And you could find all kinds of fun stuff to do and all kinds of mischief to make with the magnifying glass and focus the sun. But think about what it does. It takes all the ambient light around and the sunlight and focuses it on a tiny, tiny point. that is so hot, I remember putting my hand under it, in just an instant, it burns you. And what Paul is saying is all of history is moving to a place and time in which the eternal assumes to himself our human flesh and enters into, the uncreated one enters into the creation he made. We can't fully comprehend it, we can't fully explain it, we can state it as a fact from the Scriptures. But why do we study Christology? Because there's nothing else in history more important than this. As we think about, whether you're fascinated with politics, or economics, or history, or whatever those things are, there's nothing in any of those realms that are more fundamentally important to history, not just human history, but all of history, than the word Jesus Christ. is coming into his own creation and taking on, assuming to himself, human flesh. So he is the center of history. So why is it important for us to study Christology? If we're going to study anything in history and we neglect this, we've missed the most important thing, isn't it? It would be like, I don't even know an example. If you're going to study history in general, it would be like trying to study the mid-20th century and never even think about the World Wars. Well, those are kind of important. They shape everything throughout the 20th century. So to neglect something like that and say, but I'm giving a thorough understanding of history. I'm really studying deeply the 20th century. But I didn't bother studying that. Or to study the ancient world and not even think about the Roman Empire. Let's not even think about that. Well, the indelible imprint that the Roman Empire left upon all of human history is almost unquantifiable. Well, then how much more, infinitely more, is it important for us to study Jesus of Nazareth, not just as a historical person, but as the son of the living God who assumed to himself a human nature at a particular place at a particular time according to God's divine decree and providence. So Christ's person and work stands at the very center point of human history. In Christ Jesus, there was a mystery. And when Paul uses this term mystery, he doesn't mean something that is indecipherable or something that's a puzzle. He means something that was previously veiled, was previously covered. I preached at a wedding yesterday, and I used the illustration in Ephesians 5 when Paul's talking about, here's the mystery that's profound, that marriage is about Christ and His church. And I sort of imagined this magnificent statue. I read that that Michelangelo, when he carved the Statue of David, took three years. But that marble had been worked on by two different sculptors prior to that, 10 years earlier, and abandoned because it was described as flawed. And so Michelangelo took up the task and spent three years carving that. But imagine what it was like whatever day that the statue was finally revealed. You know, here's the veil over the statue, and everybody's been anticipating this, what's the final product gonna look like? And at some point, somebody pulls the veil off, and here is this masterpiece. Well, that's kind of how Paul uses the word mystery when he uses it in the New Testament. It's not something that is a puzzle that we can't decipher, it's something that was previously veiled under the Old Covenant. But now that Christ has come, it's been unveiled. And so what Paul is saying here is, here's the mystery. If you're one of the patriarchs, one of the prophets, you are seeing dimly what was to come with respect to the Messiah. There were mysteries of God's plan. He had foretold that one day a servant would come, that one day a Messiah would come, that one day a son would sit once again on the throne of David and rule for eternity. But all those things were somewhat opaque. They were still veiled. And so Paul is saying now, the mystery has been revealed. And so Christ is the realization of God's, what Paul calls the purpose for the ages. That's a weighty phrase. God's purpose for the ages, not just this age, but for the age to come. Yes? before and after. And a hinge holds all the weight, all the force. So he is that hinge everything before him and everything after him. And everything is all that weight. Yeah, that's right. You know, I'm all using the engineering metaphor, too. We call Christ the cornerstone of a foundation. You know, the foundation was the apostles and prophets, but Christ was that cornerstone. He had all the weight. Not only the weight, but he's the reference point for everything else. Everything is measured plumb and square based on him. It's really a fascinating thing to think about. Two more I want to consider. Someone have Galatians 4, 4-6. Gina, this is, in fact, this will be our brother Julius Santiago, be his preaching text this morning, Galatians 4, 4-6. But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the spirit of his son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father. So you are no longer a slave, but a son. And if a son, then an heir through God. Amen. Amen. You know, as we think about the mysteries that were hidden from the ages, the purpose of God from the ages, it is through Christ's redemptive mission. And again, we'll hear about that in the sermon this morning. It's through Christ's redemptive mission for which He took on flesh. And the Lord Jesus clothed Himself in human flesh, and along with the mission of the Spirit, proceeding from the Father and the Son, it is through that means that we're brought to the knowledge of God being triune." Now, there were hints. certainly of God's triunity, of Him being Father, Son, and Spirit in the Old Testament. But again, veiled, right? Some of the Hebrew scholars did pick up on those things, but the full manifestation of that, the full revelation did not come until Jesus came. So we might phrase it a little differently. We enter the knowledge of the Trinity This is a quote from Dolezal. We enter the knowledge of the Trinity by first crossing over the threshold of Christology. So how do we contemplate God the Father and God the Spirit? It's through the doorway. There's a hinge on which this door opens and shows to us that it's Christ. I mean, God would be triune whether we understood him that way or not. Our perception, our understanding does not determine reality, right? But, it is through our study of Christology that we come to understand the Trinity in a more profound way. And so, if there were no If we did not understand Christology, we could not understand creation properly. We couldn't understand the fall properly. We certainly could not understand redemption. We would have no comprehension of that. We would not understand the incarnation of the Son, and we would not know our Messiah. So it's through the appearance of the Son in the fullness of time, in the likeness of sinful flesh, that we are made to know God as triune. So why study Christology? Because Christ's mission, the fact that He took on human flesh, is what reveals to us a greater knowledge and understanding of God Himself. This is the very beginning of Hebrews that we see this, that it's through Christ that we understand that it is by that means that God is holding all things together. Jesus himself said, if you've seen me, you've seen the Father also. There's a greater understanding that comes. I said one more, it's actually two more. Someone have Matthew 28. verses 9 and 17. Calvin? And behold, Jesus met them and said, Greetings. And they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. And Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee, and there they will see me. While they were going, behold, some of the guards went into the city and told the chief priests all that had taken place. And when they had assembled with the elders and taken counsel, they gave a sufficient sum of money to the soldiers and said, tell people his disciples came by night and stole him away while we were asleep. And if this comes to the governor's ears, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble. So they took the money and did as they were directed. And this story has been spread among the Jews to this day. Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had erected them. And when they saw him, they worshipped him. Some doubted. So we see there in verse 9, Behold, Jesus met them and said greetings, and they came up and took hold of his feet and worshipped him. What was the response? It was worship. it was an automatic, immediate response, was worship. And then down in verse 17, and when they saw him, they worshiped him, but some doubted. So we see that, why do we study Christology? Because Christ is the object of our worship, not only now, but in the age to come. Calvin, do you have Revelation 5, 13 to 14? And I heard every creature in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and in the sea, and all that is in them, saying, to him who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb, be blessing and honor and glory, and might forever and ever. And the four living creatures said, Amen. The elders fell down. OK. So here, Vision John is given a very glimpse into the throne room of heaven. And what do we observe there? The Lamb being worshiped. The Lord Jesus Christ being worshiped as God because he is God. And so not only is he worshiped in this age, but in the age to come. I mean, there is really no other appropriate response for a creature, and we are creatures, when we are confronted with the true and living God as revealed in the Lord Jesus Christ, other than worship. And even in his state of humiliation, even as he was was clothed in human flesh, had emptied himself, as Paul says in Philippians 2, even there in that state of humiliation, he received worship, he was worthy of that. And certainly in his exalted state, he's worshiping. Think about this, from the very moment he was born, the shepherds, even the magi, came and worshiped him. And it was right, it was appropriate for them to do that. prior to his resurrection and ascension, Christ is worshipped. I mean, think about when he healed a blind man. In John 9, the blind man worshipped him. And notice, Jesus doesn't correct him. There are times in the apostolic ministry of, say, for example, Paul and Barnabas. And at one point, the crowd comes in and seeks to worship them as gods. And Paul begins to rend his garments and said, brothers, do not do this. We are men of like passions with you. We are not to be worshipped. But Jesus did not respond in that way when men fell down and worshipped him because he is God. He was worthy. He is worthy of worship. And then, of course, after his resurrection, we saw in Matthew 28, the women to whom he first appeared. Their response is to worship Him. His disciples worship Him when He meets them in Galilee. And even as He is ascending into heaven at the Mount of Olives, the right response was to fall down and worship. So why study Christology? Because Christ is the object of our worship. And you can see this even in the one who is a devout atheist. Even in a culture that is increasingly secularized, you see that there are objects of worship everywhere, aren't there? I mean, we can walk through our own, particularly digital town squares, and really sympathize with Paul as he walked the streets of Athens, and his heart was grieved within him, and all of the idols that were there, and even had a statue to an unknown God. Men are worshipers by nature. And the one that we were designed to worship is God triune. And it is through the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are brought into a right worship of God, a true worship of God, to worship Him as He really and truly is. One final one to meditate upon, 1 Peter 1. 1 Peter 1.10-12, think of that. Concerning your salvation, the prophets who prophesied about the grace that was to be yours searched and inquired carefully, inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the suffering of Christ and the subsequent glories. It was revealed to them that they were serving not themselves, but you. And the things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news, by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, thanks which angels... So here's Peter, concerning this salvation. And you can see him, in my mind's eye, I can see Peter, he's holding these things in his mind, so to speak, and he's meditating upon this salvation, this wonderful gift, this eternal gift. And he said, concerning this salvation, The prophets who foretold all these things, men who heard from God immediately and directly and were tasked with proclaiming the word to God's people, they searched and inquired carefully, inquiring something very specific, Peter says, what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the subsequent glories. And immediately, the servant songs of Isaiah come to mind. And here is Isaiah prophesying about this servant who would come, the one who would come and suffer, and would have the sin of the world laid upon his shoulders. The wounds and stripes that he took to his own body would be the same wounds and stripes that healed his people. And not only did the prophets inquire, but even angels longed to look into this mystery. And so things that were veiled, they were hidden, even from the angelic beings. And they longed to look into this. So why study Christology? Just as we saw, why study it? Because it's the most important thing in all of history? Why study Christology? Because even angels studied it. The prophets studied this. And they studied through a glass that was even more dimly lit than ours. We have the full revelation of God. We have the full testimony from eyewitnesses and from the Spirit of the living God about the person, about the life, about the words and works of our Lord Jesus Christ. As we're working through the Gospel of John, we have the privilege of, and I'll use air quotes, seeing that throughout the pages of the Gospels. We have far more available to us to study, and yet even the angels, even the prophets of old, searched carefully. They gave themselves to this study. Verse 12, it was revealed to them, to these prophets, that they were serving not themselves but you. Dear brother and sister, the prophets were serving you. They were serving us as they searched into these things, as they submitted themselves to the Spirit of God to write about these things. things that have now been announced to you through those who preach the good news to you by the Holy Spirit sent from heaven, things into which angels long to look." Jesus is the one that even angels and prophets long to look into. And they studied both his humiliation and his exaltation. I mean, again, the servant songs of Isaiah come to mind, where Isaiah studied the humiliation of Christ, that he would be a Messiah who would suffer. Now, of course, we know as we read through the Gospels that the Jews of Jesus' day didn't comprehend this whole concept of a suffering Messiah. I mean, even the disciples struggled to understand this, didn't they? Remember that scene when Luke says he sets his face like a flint to go up to Jerusalem, and he's telling his disciples privately, I'm going up to Jerusalem, and there I'm going to be crucified. I'm going to be handed over to sinful men, and I'm going to die. Remember Peter's response? May it never be, Lord. And to paraphrase, Peter's basically saying, not on my watch, that's not going to happen. And you remember Jesus' response? Get behind me, Satan. Because what Peter's impulse was carnal. It was even demonic. Jesus, the Scriptures had foretold that the Messiah would have to suffer. And the disciples were not grasping that yet. But it was through the full revelation of the God-man that these things came into our understanding. It came to be more clear for us. But even the angels longed to look into these things. So I want to spend some time over the next few weeks meditating upon this. As we've seen this morning, I think there are good reasons for us to think carefully through this. And so I appreciate your participation this morning and looking at several passages together because the Scriptures do make a compelling case for us. We are without excuse if we neglect to study these riches, the treasures that God has given to us. I mean, what young boy or girl doesn't fantasize about finding a treasure map and going on a big adventure and discovering the secrets of a hidden treasure, hidden long ago? And what the Scriptures tell to us is that that is the case. There's a treasure, but it's a treasure of knowledge, it's a treasure of understanding, it's a treasure of glory and worship and praise. hidden from ages past, veiled to even angels and the prophets that went before us. But now in Christ, all of these treasures have been opened up to us. The Word of God gives us as it were, don't push the illustration too far, but gives us the map. But more importantly, Jesus, we could say, is a hinge, but he's also a key, isn't he? He's the key that opens this treasure of wisdom and understanding. So I'll close with that. Any questions? Matthew. Just, you know, kind of going back to 1 Peter, we have these passages, many passages in the Old Testament. You know, I think usually as Christians we read those, although that's really neat that Christ was active But is there any kind of key takeaway to take from those passages? Yes, we will get there. We want to be careful that we're recognizing this is a pre-incarnate. these Theophanies or Christophanies that are recorded in the Old Testament, these are not the embodied incarnate Son of God that was not revealed until a point in history, a point in time. And so there are theological takeaways, and the most significant and important of that is that our Lord Jesus, one, didn't begin to exist at the incarnation, but secondly, He has always been. active as a ruler in his creation, that which he has made. But he did so from outside of his creation. We don't want to slip into a pantheism or a panentheism where he is part of the creation that he's made. And there are implications for that, I think, even with respect to how do we speak about the incarnation. Many, even in reformed and reformed-ish camps that widely misinterpret Philippians 2, for example, that he emptied himself. And what does that entail? So we're going to work through some of those things as well. Yeah, Emerson. Was this based on a book by James Dolezal? published work of his. This is the culmination of 20 years of study. In fact, he presented a paper that was, interestingly enough, published in a Catholic journal, which was kind of fun because he got to quote a bunch of Reformed Baptists and Protestants in a Reformed journal, but they were very interested in his work on how to describe the God-man. Because as you study church history, there have been a number of heretical ways of describing the God-man. You know, what Dolezal refers to as the arch-heretic. You want to take a guess who the arch-heretic is? Arius. That not only did he deny the divinity of Christ, but ultimately denied his humanity, and then he was sort of the at least in seed form, the beginner of many other heresies that sprung off. But there's either a denial of his humanity, or there's a denial of his divinity, or there's wanting to mix the two natures together. And there's various ways in which the church has gotten, or heretics have gotten those wrong, and that's where a number of our ecumenical creeds have come from, is from God in his good providence used heretics to sharpen his people so that they went back to the Scriptures, searched the Scriptures, and formulated in more precise language how we can articulate the God-man. Let's pray and we'll prepare ourselves for worship. Our God and our Father, we are thankful for the mercy that you've shown to us in your Son, for the love that you've lavished upon us in Him, for the mysteries long hidden that are now revealed to us in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that you will grant to us the grace to desire to study these things, to search your word, to depend upon the illuminating work of your Spirit to give us understanding. Not only that our minds would be sharpened, but that our hearts would be lifted up to sing your praise, to worship you and adore you in all of your infinite wisdom and goodness. And we ask this in Christ's name. Amen.