Get started with our Sunday school today as we continue to meditate upon the person and work of Christ with an emphasis on the person of Christ and thinking through the the fleshing out of this Most profound of all questions when Jesus asked his disciples. Who do you say that I am? the question that falls heavy upon us, even as God's people. That's not a question that we simply answer one time when we come to a salvific faith, but it's a question with which we ought to continue to ponder and wrestle with, and frankly, delight in, as we consider Christ as our true and living God, our one mediator between God and man, truly God, truly man. What I want to do this week and next is look at building the case for Christ's divinity from the scriptures. Now, one of the things that we looked at at the outset of this series is the question that's subordinate to that question, or that comes alongside the question, who do you say that I am? It's the question of how do we know what we know? When it comes to theology proper, It is good and right for us to look to both books that God has given to us, the book of nature, in which the heavens declare the majesty and the glory and the dominion and the goodness and the mercy of God, and also to look at His special revelation, the Bible. But as we observed at the time, when it comes to Understanding our doctrine of the second person of the Trinity, and particularly of the Mediator, the incarnated Son of God, natural revelation is of no help to us. We can observe some things about his divine nature, certainly, from the created order, but with respect to his human nature and his person as the God-man, we must depend upon the Holy Scripture. So with that said, I want to turn to Revelation 5 as not necessarily a passage that we will exegete today, but as a passage to meditate upon and reflect as we think about this question of Christ's divinity. And once again, I am leaning heavily upon the material that was presented by Dr. James Dolezal at our recent class on Christology at RBS. And interestingly enough, he is leaning heavily upon Francis Turithin in particular, and others from whom he quotes in this. But in terms of the order and structure, none of us are coming up with anything new and original. which is a good thing. We're not wanting to come up with new things or new ideas about the person of our Christ. We are looking at the scriptures and being helped immensely by the work of organizing those things by those who've come before us. So let's pray and seek for the Lord's help as we open the word of God. Father and our God, we give you thanks that in your divine and infinite wisdom, You sent forth your Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to seek and to save sinners. Father, we confess that we need the work of your Spirit, but we need His wisdom, we need His might, we need His power to give to us understanding, to give to us clarity of mind, and to give to us a renewed and enhanced doxology. a joy in our hearts about who Christ is and what he has accomplished for us. As we meditate upon the incomprehensible divine person, we ask that you would help us as we think about this person of the mediator, existing in two natures, divine and human. What we ask for your help is we consider that divine nature from the pages of your scripture. We know that we must have your help to understand and take delight in these things. So we ask it in Christ's name. Amen. The book of the Revelation in chapter 5, it's one of my favorite certainly one of my favorite passages in the book of the Revelation, but I think in all of Scripture. This is such a powerful scene that John has the opportunity to witness by means of a vision. And he says in verse 1, I saw in the right hand of him who was seated on the throne, a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. Now, when we think about the image here, who is it that's sitting on the throne? Who's sitting on the throne here in verse one? God the Father. God the Father. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals? And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, weep no more. Behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, has conquered so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals. And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders, I saw a lamb standing as though it had been slain, with seven horns, with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth. And he went, and he took the scroll from the right hand of him who was seated on the throne. And when he had taken the scroll, the four living creatures and the 24 elders fell down before the Lamb, each holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, Worthy are you to take the scroll and to open its seals, for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation. And you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God, and they shall reign on the earth.' Then I looked, and I heard around the throne and the living creatures and the elders the voice of many angels, numbering myriads of myriads and thousands of thousands. saying with a loud voice, worthy is the lamb who was slain to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing. 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, and the elders fell down and worshiped. It's a powerful scene. the scene of the father enthroned in glory, sitting upon his throne with a scroll in his hand, and John weeps because in all of heaven, on earth, under the earth, nowhere in all of creation was anyone found worthy to open the scroll. And then one of the elders points at this lamb, a lamb as if he had been slain and said, he is worthy, he has earned the right. And this of course is a picture of the exaltation, the enthronement of the crucified, dead, buried, resurrected, and ascended Christ. This is the God-man in human flesh being enthroned and exalted and worshiped. So we want to clarify the question of Christ's divinity. Because here in Revelation 5, the Lamb who was slain clearly is a picture, it's a vision, it's an image of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He is worshipped in heaven. Not merely falsely worshipped upon the earth, but truly, legitimately, righteously worshipped in heaven. So the question is, is Jesus God? And if so, how? And one of the things we have to wrestle with is, does His divinity somehow threaten or undo or significantly weaken the monotheistic God presented to us in the Scriptures? If you ask a Muslim that question, what is their answer? Yes, they say that Christians are tritheists, that we have three gods. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And of course, we say, no, we have one God, one true and living God, who has an eternal existence in the three persons. So when we ask whether Christ is divine, we're not merely asking if he bears the honorific divine titles and offices, but we're asking, is he truly? Because many heretics have confessed that Jesus is God, but they want to qualify that or nuance that, to say He is God, but not in the same way that God is God. Francis Turretin sets out the true nature of the question of Christ's divinity. This is in his Institutes of Eclectic Theology. He says, in order to clear away all this smoke, the question ought not to be conceived whether the Son is God, but whether He is true and eternal God. You see, the question is more profound than just, is Jesus God? The question is, is He true and eternal God, coessential with the Father? That's really the question. Because Arius, among other heretics, would have said, yes, He is God, but He's created. What would the Mormons say? He is God, one of many. He is a God, just like you one day will become if you do all the things that the church commands you to do, and you will have your own planet and spirit babies and the whole thing. Jesus is God, but so is Lucifer, his brother. So you see, the question is not, is He God? Is He true and very God, coessential with the Father? Turrington goes on, the question is not whether He can be called the natural Son of God in such a sense as to leave His divinity precarious and dependent upon Him by reason of preeminence, authority, dominion, and office. Rather, the question is whether He is the proper Son who received from the Father by ineffable generation, the same numerical essence with the Father, not in time, but from eternity. The Sassanians, along with the ancient Aryans, deny this, but we affirm it. So the question again is not, is He God or is He a God? The question is, is He a true God? Is He very God? Is He coessential with the Father? Now, Turing goes on from here and says there are four things that are ascribed to Christ in the scriptures, Old and New Testaments, four things that are ascribed to Christ that demonstrate or prove that He is not only God, but true God, very God, coessential with the Father. And so what I want to do this week and next is to look at these four things from the scriptures. The names of God, the attributes of God, the works of God, and the worship due to God. So names, attributes, works, and worship. What I want to put before you today is the first two, his names and his attributes. And here's the argument. If we lay these things brick upon brick, layer upon layer, and we consider all four of these things, As we consider the names that are given to God in the Scriptures, and then they're also attributed to Christ, we come away with a conclusion that sounds like the Holy Spirit, through the human authors of the Scriptures, are saying that Christ is God by the names that are used of Him. Also, that the attributes that are described in the Scriptures that can apply to God alone are also applied to Christ. So we'll get those two arguments today, and then next week, the fact that His works, there are works spoken of in the Scriptures that only God can do, and Christ does them. God alone is worthy of worship. This is the first commandment, isn't it? Have no other gods besides me. And yet Christ is worshiped, as we see in Revelation 5, not only on earth, but in heaven, legitimate. And so when we put the, any one of these things would be sufficient, but we put, add the four together, says Turekton, and I think he's exactly right, we create a unassailable argument from the Scriptures that Jesus is not just God, but true God, very God. coessential with the Father. So let's think in the first heading today is the names of God given to Christ. This will not be exhaustive at all, but it does give you a sense of how the Scriptures speak of God and then how those same Scriptures apply those names to Christ. And then in your own study and reading, you'll probably find other examples of this. And it's one of those blessed phenomenon that the Spirit of God uses, once our eyes are sort of tuned into something, we begin to see it more frequently, don't we? And this happens even in just common things. We've joked for years, you buy a red car and all of a sudden you see a lot of red cars on the road. We just notice those things. My first job out of college, I worked for Cisco Foods. I was a sales guy that called on restaurants and hospitals and jails and nursing homes and all that and I sold all kinds of stuff. Everything from a sugar packet on the table to the plateware and it would, much to Gina's chagrin, we would sit down at a restaurant and I'm flipping over plates and I'm looking at packages because I'm, That's just what I was trained to notice. And to this day, nearly 30 years later, I notice those things immediately when I go into a restaurant, or I see the brands, I see the kinds of products, and I just notice that. Well, that's just a function of our human nature. But we can use this, and the Spirit of God will use this to our advantage. If we train ourselves to notice these things, we'll notice them more often, won't we? So here's a couple of examples. Here's from the Old Testament. There are passages that refer to Christ with names and descriptions that reveal his divine identity. So, for example, Psalm 45 and verse 7, God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above your fellows. Now, the writer of Hebrews, in the first chapter, verses eight to nine, applied that very statement to none other than Jesus Christ himself. God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of joy above your fellows. And here the father anoints the son as a reward for his faithful work as a servant and so exalts him even above the angels. And the distinction between God anointing And God anointed is not an essential distinction between two gods, but rather a hypostatic distinction within the one being of God between God the Son and God the Father. Says Dolezal, and I think he's exactly right. Isaiah 9, verse 6, For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will rest upon his shoulders, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace." Well, that was pretty clear, isn't it? That one day one would come, come among his brothers, and his name would be Emmanuel, and his name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. Then in Jeremiah 23, verses 5 and 6, "'Behold, the days are coming,' declares the Lord, "'when I will raise up for David a righteous branch, And he will reign as king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved and Israel will dwell securely. And this is his name by which he will be called the Lord our righteousness." Well, that's obscured somewhat in the English, but in the Hebrew it's Yahweh. In the Greek it's kurios. He will be called God. our righteousness. Isaiah 7, verse 14, "...behold, a virgin will be born, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Immanuel." This arguably does not merely mean God will favor and assist us through the Messiah, but that the Messiah Himself is the God who is with us. And then one other one in Malachi. Malachi 3.1, behold, I'm going to send my messenger, and he will clear the way before me. And the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple, and the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight. Behold, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. Now, we go forward to the New Testament. John the Baptist in Mark 1.2 identifies this promised messenger as the Messiah. The Lord for whom he prepares us is Christ. And the Turretin elaborates on this. He says, now who is the Lord to whom the temple belongs by way of eminence, but God alone? Hence the day of his coming is called the great and dreadful day of Jehovah. Malachi 4.5. See, the Old Testament prophets spoke and they used the name of God and attributed that name to the coming Messiah, to the Christ. Well, we turn to the New Testament. There are several New Testament passages which very, very clearly refer to Jesus Christ as God. Not a God, but God, truly God, holy God, essentially God. And perhaps none is more clear than John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word is Christ. And if we turn to John 1.14, this becomes apparent. In saying the Word was God, the apostle uses the imperfect tense of the being verb, denoting a continuous existence. The Word was God, always has been God, always will be God, continues to be God for eternity. Turretin, once again, it's not credible. that John, in the very first words of his history, would have been willing to use the name of God improperly and ambiguously without adding any explanation, and thus be the means of drawing believers readily into a most dangerous error, to believe his word to be true God, while yet he is not. Now, although his word may be said to have been with God, personally considered, i.e., the Father, in which sense He could not be the same person with whom He is said to be, this does not militate against His being God." Essentially the same with the Father. That's the message. So Church is basically saying, it wouldn't make sense in the very first verse of His Gospel for John to lead his readers astray. An author in his very first sentence of his gospel doesn't cloud the waters there. He makes his clearest statement first. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And then in 1 John, in John's first epistle, chapter 5, verse 20, And we know that the Son of God has come, and has given us understanding, so that we may know Him who is true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. John says, this Jesus, this Son, is the true God, not a God. He is the true God. And then if we look at the epistles, the Apostle Paul bears testimony in Romans 9, verse 5, "'Whose are the fathers, and from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God, blessed forever?' The Apostle Paul says, he is God, blessed forever. Titus 2. I'm going to kind of go rapid fire here. Titus 2.13, we are waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. He uses a superlative term, great God, which means above any and all so-called gods. He is We are waiting for the blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ. And what Dolezal observes is that the idea of great God and Savior cannot be two different reference, they can't be two different concepts, because they share the same article, meaning the, the. Great God. The Savior. So grammatically, it wouldn't make sense to say these are two different things. He is the Great God or He is the Savior. Those are two separate things. As if the Great God is the Father and the Savior is the Son, no, these are the same. Speaking of the same person. Back to John's Gospel in John 20, verses 28, Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and My God. See, we have Thomas. Now, what do we associate with Thomas? Play the word association game. What word comes to mind? We say, Thomas. Doubting. And yeah, Thomas gets it exactly and precisely right here. My Lord and my God. There's no doubt in his statement. Acts 20, verse 28. Paul, here on this tearful scene on the beach at Miletus, as he's meeting with the Ephesian elders, and they wrap their hands around his neck and they weep over the fact that they will never see him alive again. And there Paul says, "...the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to shepherd the church of God, which He purchased with His own blood." God purchased the church with His own blood. Did God the Father die? It's God the Son who died, but truly, essentially, God. One more, Philippians 2, verse 6, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped. And so, Turretin, once again, he summarizes this. He says, although the name of God can improperly, restrictedly, and in the plural, be attributed to creatures, as to angels and magistrates who are sometimes called gods. Yet, never is it properly, absolutely, and in the singular given to anyone but the true God. Therefore, the Son of God to whom it is thus given must be true and eternal God." So again, our hope today is to look at the first two. Turretin's laying out a four-planked argument. that we can prove from the Scriptures that Jesus is not just a God, but that He is true God, very God, coessential with the Father. And we look at that, first of all, what we've just considered is the names. The names that the Scriptures use that are attributed to God the Father are also attributed unambiguously to Jesus Christ, meaning He is God. Otherwise, it would be illegitimate to use the same names. The second plank in Turretin's argument that we'll consider today is the divine attributes, the divine attributes that are predicated to Christ. And here we find, Turretin once again, the same deity is proved by the divine attributes, which being proper to God alone, to the exclusion of creatures, he cannot but be God of whom they are predicated. Now, when we think about the attributes of God, The terms are not always helpful, but we can think about attributes as communicable and incommunicable. Somebody give me a brief definition. What does it mean, communicable versus incommunicable, when we speak about the attributes of God? Yeah, some attributes are shareable with the creature. What are some examples of attributes of God that are communicable, that are shareable with us? that we can also partake in and even exhibit. Love, mercy, reason, yeah? Those are communicable attributes, but there are other attributes that are possessed by God alone. No creature can possess these attributes. And what we discover in the pages of Scripture is that these incommunicable attributes, these attributes that are reserved to God alone, are said to have existed in the person of Christ. So what's the conclusion? Christ must be God if he possesses these attributes. So let's think about what some of these attributes are. First, eternality. Eternality. For all of us, we had a beginning. Our bodies will have an end, and we were created with an immortal soul, but we had a beginning. We are not eternal beings. Even the angels in heaven are not eternal beings. They were created. God spoke them into existence. So only, only God, of God alone can it be said He is eternal. And the Scriptures tell us that Christ is eternal. Let's look at some examples of this in Proverbs 8. Proverbs 8, beginning of verse 22. The Lord possessed me at the beginning of His way, before His works of old, from everlasting I was established, from the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. Dolezal makes the observation that when it says, from everlasting, the Hebrew is literally here, the Hebrew says, from the then. Not from a point in time, because that's not eternal. Not from a place, because that's not eternal. But from outside of our comprehension. Christ has always been. From everlasting, I was established. From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. Then in Micah, we'll get some testimony from the prophets. Micah chapter five, from you, one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel. This is Micah five two. His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. From the days of eternity. Isaiah chapter 9, the Messiah is called, verse 6, the Everlasting Father, or Father of Eternity. This is a name, an attribute, attributed to the Christ, to the Messiah. Then in John's Gospel, in chapter 8, verse 58, Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am. Now, the Jews knew exactly what he was saying. How do we know that? Because of the way they responded. They picked up Sones to kill him because he's making the claim that he is God. He is claiming an attribute to himself that the Jews know from their Bibles, from the Scriptures, that that attribute can only be possessed, can only be described of the being of God. Before Abraham was, I am. So it is certainly a name that God assigned to himself, the same name that God gave to Moses when he spoke to him through the burning bush. Who should I go and tell these Israelites has sent me? You tell them I am has sent you. Jesus is saying more than just the name of Yahweh, he's speaking of an attribute, the eternality of God the Father. So the Scriptures speak, and again, those are just a few examples, but the Scriptures speak of Christ having an eternal being, an eternality, which only God the Father has. Secondly, omnipotence. Omnipotence, meaning all-powerful. Christ is sometimes called Almighty, and is said to possess universal sovereignty. Now, in the Old Testament, those kinds of descriptions were reserved for God alone. Only God was said to be omnipotent. In Revelation 1, we read this just a few moments ago, I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty. Now, in the immediately preceding verse, in verse 7, the one who is soon to come is none other than Jesus Christ. It is most natural to read verse 8, then, as a declaration of the self-same Christ. The Almighty is a term reserved for God alone, and they're directed to God and to Jesus Christ. Both are described as the one who is and who was and who is to come. I remember several years ago with a Jehovah's Witness sitting in the couch in my living room walking through these earlier passages in the book of the Revelation and from their own Bible. Look, I'll read from your copy. The Alpha and the Omega, the one who is and was and is to come. Well, who is that? Well, that's God the Father, that's Yahweh. Okay, let's keep going. Now, who is it here? It's Jesus. who is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. John 5, verse 17, the Lord Jesus answered them, my Father is working until now, and I myself am working. Now, this appears to a claim that Jesus is doing the same work as God the Father, and this includes healing on the Sabbath. But more than just healing on the Sabbath, creation itself. creation itself. Jesus exercises the same perfect divine power as God. And as a consequence, the Jews are right here, at least in part, to conclude that he is making himself equal with God. He is ascribing to himself the omnipotence of God the Father, the sovereignty of God the Father, the creative power of God. Another example from Matthew 28, verse 18, Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. See, that kind of universal dominion is reserved to God alone. No mere man, no mere creature is ever said to have all authority and the power. Let's think now, of his omniscience, his omniscience. Christ is said to know all things and to know the Father in a unique way. Christ claims to know all things. So in John 21, for example, John 21, verse 17, Ward, you know all things. Now that's coming from the lips of Peter, but Peter recognizes. and testifies to Christ's omniscience. John 16, verse 30, Revelation 2, verse 23, This is Jesus Christ, the Lamb, who was slain and raised, speaking of himself. Matthew 11 verse 27, All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. We will address this at a later time. And Brother Emerson, I have not forgotten your question with respect to Paul's testimony to the Philippians in chapter two, when it says he emptied himself. We're still coming to that, just not today, but we're getting there. But one of the things we have to say is when Christ speaks and he says things like, the sun does not know the day or the hour, We have to be careful to attribute those statements to his humanity, not to his divinity. Because in other places, multiple places, he and others testify to his omniscience. So when he says he does not know certain things, we have to understand these in respect to his human mind. And in a strict sense, his human mind is not omniscient. But his divine mind is. Two more, his immutability. Immutability. Is immutability a communicable attribute? Well, no. I mean, all of us have changed since we got here. I mean, there's constant changes in us. I mean, even just from, I was cold, now I'm hot. You know, I was sad, now I'm happy. I was hungry but I ate, now I'm not hungry anymore. We change constantly. Creatures change constantly. We age, we grow, we improve. We are changing constantly. But there are several passages that indicate Christ does not change. And that's an attribute that can only be attributed to God. Only God can be said to be unchangeable or immutable. So in Hebrews 1, for example, Hebrews 1, verses 11 and 12, "'You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain. They will all wear out like a garment.'" Now, the writer of Hebrews is quoting directly from Psalm 102. And he attributes those words to Jesus Christ, who is God. So he applies these words to Christ. They very clearly, in Psalm 102, originally referred to God, who alone is unchangeable, who alone is immutable. But they must be a reference to Christ's divinity, since this was His human nature. Was it immutable? Was Christ's human nature immutable? No. I mean, the fact that he was born a baby and he died as a grown man is evidence of the fact that he changed, right? He continued to grow. He went through the normal processes of physical development and growth. He went through puberty and everything else that an ordinary man would go through. His body changed. In fact, we're told that he grew in knowledge and understanding. So much so that even the religious scholars of his day were amazed at his growth. Well, growth is change, isn't it? Now, hopefully, it's good change, but it's change. We're also told that as a son, the writer of Hebrews says that as a son, he learned obedience. Well, that's change, isn't it? His humanity, we can say conclusively, did change, but His divinity did not change. Hebrews 13, verse 8, Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. Well, that's pretty clear, isn't it? Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. As a man, Jesus certainly experienced changes, and the writer of the Hebrews doesn't shy away from that. In fact, he points those out. But according to his divinity, there's no change in him at all. So when we read in the Scriptures, and when James testifies, for example, that in God there is no variation or shadow due to change, we can apply that to the divinity of Christ. He is immutable. One more, and we'll close with this for today. Divine fullness and life. Divine fullness and life. The fullness of the Godhead is in Christ Jesus. So is the divine life of the Father. Listen to a couple passages here. I'm going to quote from Colossians and from John. In Colossians 2, Paul testifies in verse 9, for in him, this is in Jesus, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. Now that cannot be a communicable attribute, can it? It cannot be said of any mere creature that the fullness of God is possessed in him. That the fullness of God dwells within a creature, a mere creature. This has to be understood in light of the Son's imaging of the invisible God. Paul had already said that in Colossians chapter one, that he is the image of the invisible God. So this is an imaging that remains within the being of God and in the same divine nature. And since God is simple, God is indivisible. God is not composed of parts. There can be nothing that is in God that is not the perfect natural image of God, which is the Son. One more reference here in John 5, testifying of the divine fullness of life, the divine fullness and life that dwells within the Son. John 5, 26, for just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself. So just as the Father has life in Himself, We could call that a saithy. God is self-existence. He has life in himself. He is not dependent upon anything else or anyone else for his life and his being. He gains nothing from the creature. He gains nothing from what he has made. Even so, he gave to the Son also to have life in himself. So what is that saying? That the essential nature, the essential godness of God is possessed by the Son as well as the Father. To say it in a much more earthy way, the Son is of the same stuff as the Father. He is of the same essence, the same substance as the Father. Francis Churston, once again, says, Nor is it said, to have been given him by the Father is his dignity therefore somehow lessened, because this marks only order, not inferiority, since he received the same numerically with the Father, not from grace, but from nature, not in time, but from eternity. So this is not something that he earned, this is not something he grew into, this is something he possessed by nature, by essence. from eternity. Christ possessed divine fullness and life. So that's half of where we're going, kind of working through this argument from the Scriptures to demonstrate that Jesus is not merely God, but true God, very God, coessential with the Father. He is God, true God, very God, and coessential with the Father. And so what we're doing is laying these arguments plank upon plank. And today we looked at his names. The names given from the Scriptures to God the Father are also given to God the Son. And the attributes that are attributed to the infinite, eternal Father are also the same names attributed to the Son. So then next week, we'll consider the works, the worship, the works of Christ, or I should say the works of God the Father that are also attributed to the works of Christ, attributed as works to Christ, things that only God can do. And the fact that God alone is to be worshiped, and yet not only is Christ worshiped, but we are commanded to worship Him. So any questions from today with respect to the names, the attributes of God? I know in a sense I'm not trying to persuade you as believers that Jesus is God. I hope. You've already settled that in your mind. But isn't it good to delight in these things and meditate upon this and think about the very nature and the being of our Savior who is true and very God? And all of our life, all of our blessed hope in this age and in the age to come depends upon it, doesn't it? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Sure. Yeah. It's good. Right, yeah, exactly, exactly right. So it has a, not only for our own, we could say it this way, our doxological importance to us as Christians. The more we know about our Savior, the more that we can worship him, right? But certainly there's an apologetic emphasis too, isn't there? When we are confronted, when we see these things, when we have neighbors, family members, co-workers who are Mormon, or Jehovah's Witness, or just an uninstructed Christian, or even a baby Christian that can be helped by. These are fairly simple categories, aren't they? The names of God. You don't have to even have all the verses memorized, but just simply think through the argument. Think about names that are given of God in the scriptures that are then applied to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's a compelling argument, that Jesus is God. to think about the attributes of God, His eternality, His immutability, His omnipotence, His omniscience, and to say, these can only be true of God, right? And most people would say, well, yeah. Well, they're also, the Bible says these are true of Christ, too. So what's the logical conclusion? He's also God, true God, very God, not just a God. Yeah, do you know? Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. Right. Yeah, and with respect to that apologetics part, we love to quote from Peter, right? Somebody quote or paraphrase the passage from Peter that is kind of the foundational text for apologetics. Okay, be ready to give an answer for the hope that was in you, for the hope that is within you. But that's only the second part of the passage. Remember the first part? No. Sanctify Christ as holy in your hearts. That's the command. That's the imperative. Then it's actually a participle from there. Always being ready to give an apologia for the hope that is in you. The first step we overlook, don't we? Both practically and doctrinally. Sanctify Christ as holy in your hearts. What are we doing as we study Christology? We're sanctifying Christ as holy in our hearts. As we study His divine attributes, as we study His person, as we study who He is, essentially, we are sanctifying Him as holy in our heart. And then as a consequence, what does God the Spirit give to us? A readiness to give a testimony for the hope that is within us. See, sometimes we can mix up cause and effect, can't we? God is our cause. And sanctifying Him as holy in our hearts is the cause. The effect is We are being made ready to exalt Him before men and to give a testimony for the reason that we have a hope. Why do I have a hope? Because my Savior is eternal. He is immutable. He is coessential with God. That's where my hope is. geologic formations and carbon dating, those are wonderful things to think about, but that's not what that text is about, is it? It's about who God is, who Christ is, and His ability to make us ready to testify of Him. Amen? Let's pray and we'll prepare ourselves to worship. Father, we are so thankful for Your mercy towards us. We thank You that You have given to us a hope that endures and a hope that rests fully, finally, ultimately in the person and the work of the eternally begotten Christ. Our blessed Redeemer, our Savior, our Lord, our Friend, our older brother, the one who has rescued us and has promised to preserve us in this life and in the life to come. We give you thanks in his name for the many blessings that we enjoy in him in this age and in the age to come.