sort of a wrap-up on our study of Christology. We've been working through a more expanded answer to the question that Jesus asked his disciples. When you study through Matthew's Gospel, it's almost as if the first 15 and a half chapters, you're climbing and climbing and climbing, and you get to the middle of chapter 16. And you have this climactic event that Matthew has, I mean, eloquently, poetically, forcefully written the gospel to answer the singular question, who is Jesus? And Matthew's answer is, he is the son of Abraham, the son of David, and the son of God. He is the long-awaited Messiah. And of course, you get to Matthew 16, And there Jesus asks that all-important question, who do people say that I am? And you remember the answer. They said, well, some, say Elijah or Jeremiah or one of the prophets. And I would love to see what the looks on the faces were around that little group when Jesus asked them, yes, but who do you say that I am? and peter speaking for the twelve answers correctly thou art the christ the son of the living god and so that's what we've been wrestling with is this question who do you say that i am and when peter said answer to thou art the christ the son of the living god he said more than a mouthful whole libraries worth of books have been written on that subject sadly many of them We're in error. And so we've been tracing through the Scriptures, tracing through our own Protestant, Reformed, and Catholic history, and understanding a more comprehensive answer than what first appears on the surface of Peter's answer. Thou art the Christ. If you want to turn with me to Philippians, the book of the Philippians, Paul's letter here, chapter 2. I want to pray for us as we consider these words from the Apostle, and consider how it is that these words, I think, are a helpful close to our study, our meditation on that question, who do you say that I am? Let's pray. Father, You are a good and gracious God, and You have sent to us your only begotten Son, very God, eternal God, true God, light of light, God from all eternity. And you sent Him to take to Himself our human nature so that He could be the one and only perfect, sufficient mediator between God and man, the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ. We thank you that you have now exalted Him and given Him the name, Kurios, the name Lord above every name, the name before which every knee must bow. And we pray for the grace of and the power of your Holy Spirit to help us bow before Him today, to submit our hearts, our minds, our affections, our wills to Him. And we pray for those in our midst. We pray for our neighbors, our families, our loved ones who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ. That they will honor Him as Lord while there is yet time. We pray all of this in His name. Amen. So Paul is writing to the Philippian church. I'm going to give just very briefly some context here where we find some pivotal words. And these are words that have been a wonderful encouragement to the church in every age, but they have also been the place of departure, the place where heresy has subtly crept in. Before I read the text, I'm gonna just highlight something to you. I'm reading from the ESV, and the ESV and some of the more modern translations use the word emptied. You see this in verse seven, emptied. The Greek word there is keneo, or kenosis, and from this comes the term that describes a heresy, kenoticism, or kenosis, or kenoticist, or kenoticism. You know, it's often the case when you add that little ism to something, it turns bad, doesn't it? Because all of us, in a sense, we must believe in kenosis, because that's what the Bible says. Jesus emptied himself. But the question is, in what way, in what manner, to what degree, did he empty himself? And there have been various strands. When I say canonicism as a heresy, it's not uniform throughout history. Some have simply said that with respect to his moral attributes, his love, his mercy, that he did not empty himself of anything. He maintained and preserved his full divinity. But he simply set aside his divine powers and some of his divine attributes. Others have said he set aside all of his divinity for a time, for roughly three years, that the eternal second person of the Trinity, the true and living Son of God, divested Himself of His divinity, took on human flesh, and then at the end of that time, resumed to Himself at His exaltation, His true divinity. So things like, this becomes pertinent when we ask, when we see things in the Scriptures, For example, when Jesus says statements like, the son does not know the day or the hour of his return. Some have said, well, we take that statement and we add it to Philippians 2.7, where Jesus has emptied himself, and surely the obvious conclusion is he set aside his omniscience, that the God-man, the Christ, the Messiah, for a period of time did not possess in his divine nature omniscience. Sadly, I saw a clip not long ago from James White, a professing Reformed pastor who said exactly that. He said, Jesus set aside for a time he did not have omniscience. Well, that's the ancient error of canonicism. Well, let's build an affirmative case. What does he mean instead then? If emptying himself does not mean setting aside his divine nature, how do we understand what Paul plainly says, that he emptied himself? Let's go back to verse 1 of chapter 2. and read this. What Paul is doing here, if we go back just even a little further, in verse 27 of chapter 1, he says, "...only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind, striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents." Paul is urging upon the Philippian church humility, a humility that will produce in them and among them a likeness of mind, a common manner of thinking, and He makes the obvious application here and says, let's look to the Lord Jesus Christ and His supreme act of humiliation as an example to us. And really, the question goes like this, if Christ, the eternal, only begotten Son of the Father, the uncreated One, clothed in majesty and splendor from all of eternity, if He humbled Himself then who are you Philippians, who are we, GFBC Conroers, to think that we are something compared to one another? That's really Paul's argument. So that's what he says in verse one. So if there's any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant. Being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. We're considering here in this text the unchangeableness of the divine and the certainty of the human in the God-man. Because what we've been working through is we've worked through this bigger question of, who do you say that I am? When Peter says, thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God, he is confessing both the divinity and the humanity of Christ. Remember, inseparable, and yet without composition, without conversion. without confusion of those two natures in one person. So this has been sort of a mantra as we've walked through this study, is remember this, and have this just seared into your understanding, into your mind. Two natures, one person. One person of the Christ, one person who is the God-man. Two natures, divine and human. both natures absolutely necessary and Paul deals with both here notice he says in verse 6 who though he was in the form of God then he says in verse 8 and being found in human form the Paul is arguing both the divine and the human and I think The words of the psalmist, the words of David, come to my mind when I think about these in Psalm 139, where he says, such knowledge is too wonderful for me. It's high. I cannot attain it. As we meditate upon this great mystery, the God, it is high knowledge. It is not something that, certainly by our human reason, that we can attain to. But I want to draw out two things from the text. Number one, this is a love, an eternal love of God expressed in the full humanity of Christ. But it's also a love that preserves, and this is important, preserves his full deity. Saints, there is not one moment, there is not one fraction of a second where our Messiah set aside his deity. We cannot understand the words of the apostle here when he says he's emptied himself. We cannot understand those. We cannot take those to mean that he somehow divested himself or undid or set aside his divinity. Paul asserts here, according to the humility of Christ, that he did not think of equality to God, something to be grasped. He did not have to selfishly hang on to that or grab a hold of it for his own glory's sake. And, you know, we live in an age where we see striking examples all around us, don't we, of those who are in political power or financial power who refuse to loosen their grip on anything. Some may have legitimate authority, but they refuse to loosen their grip on it. And others strive after, they seize power, they want to grasp authority that was never legitimately theirs. You know, we see this regularly now in our civil sphere, where the civil magistrate is seeking to usurp to itself. And whether that's at the local level, even all the way down to the school district, or local communities or state government or national government wanting to grab to itself authority that God never gave to you. This is glorious. It's marvelous to meditate upon, but by eternal and divine right, the only begotten Son of God, who had every right to demand that His eternal glory be constantly on display, that it would remain unabated, unveiled, and yet he chose to empty himself. He willingly chose to travel a path of humiliation and only then to glorification and exaltation. Now, Paul's directing us here to meditate upon Christ's eternal willingness to suffer ultimate humiliation as a direct encouragement to us as ordinary Christians. to think more highly of others than we think of ourselves. How contrary to our nature is that? By nature, we don't think of others more highly than ourselves do. And we can prove this. Any parent who has more than one child knows this. You take two kids, or more, and put them in a room together, they will not naturally think more highly of the other one than themselves, will they? And then you get much older and more sophisticated and wiser in a corporate environment or a civil environment, and of course, that's all changed, doesn't it? No, it doesn't change at all, does it? We're only slightly more sophisticated than three-year-olds. Let's think for the first part of a love that is an eternal love that's expressed in the humanity. Paul says that he took on the form of a servant, that he was born in the likeness of a man, and that he was found in human form. He uses these three different modifying phrases. Takes the form of a servant, he was born in the likeness of man, and he's found in human form. And so we understand emptied himself to mean this is a true and full sacrifice of something real with respect to his incarnation. There really is a veiling. There really is a true emptying. But it does not mean that he ceased being divine. Or that even for an instant he set aside any of his divine attributes. For example, as I mentioned already, his omniscience. Or his omnipotence. Or his omnipresence. See, according to his humanity, Jesus was like unto us in that he could only be in one place at one time. Jesus could not be in Galilee and in jerusalem at the same time just like you can't be in conroe and in fort worth at the same time we're we're limited according to our or in our humanity we are truly and only human christ according to is humanity willingly limited himself in those ways of that since he emptied himself for example of his omnipresence But according to his divinity, he never ceased to be everywhere. As God, the whole earth, the whole world, the whole cosmos could not contain him. So even when I mentioned this in several lessons ago, even one of my favorite hymns, And Can It Be, John Wesley. And one of the lines in that hymn is, he left his father's throne above. Now, in a certain poetic sense, we can give our brother Wesley some benefit of the doubt, but in a strictly Christological, theological sense, did Jesus leave heaven? No, because he is everywhere all at once. But it does mean that he limited the manifestation of his eternal and infinite glory as he joined his divine nature permanently to his new human nature. And we have to embrace the mystery that remains here. This self-emptying that Paul mentions here is very likely an allusion to Isaiah 53, verse 12. In Isaiah 53, 12, it says that the servant would pour out his soul to death. Listen to Isaiah 53, 12. Therefore, I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul to death and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he bore the sin of many and makes intercession for the transgressors." So, when we understand this illusion, what does the self-emptying of Christ point to? not the setting aside of his divinity. It points to his death. It points to his humbling himself even to the point of death, which is exactly what Paul goes on to say. The writer of Hebrews, which I think is probably the Apostle Paul as well, the writer of Hebrews in chapter 2 presses this point home. He says in verse 14, since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things. through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death that is the devil deliverer or that is the devil and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery to the Apostle here saying it it is it is through the partaking of death itself that Jesus conquers the power of death So we think about these three modifying phrases that I mentioned, that he takes the form of a servant, that he's born in the likeness of man, and that he's found in human form. Paul's speaking of the ultimate example of humility, that the infinite, eternal, holy, holy, holy God in his second person, in the person of the Son, would assume to himself flesh. Notice what Paul says, he takes the form of a servant, Think about this, if Jesus had taken to himself the form of the mightiest emperor or king who had ever lived, it still would have been an infinite humiliation. But just so that our finite human brains are not confused, he takes the form of a servant, a bondservant. See, we see the truest expression of humanity in the Incarnation. He was born in the likeness of men. And by being born means there was an actual beginning to his humanity. His humanity was not eternal. There was a point in time, a point in time when the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary and she conceived in her womb the Christ. His humanity had a beginning. This is why Paul says in 1 Timothy 1, the saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost. We read that phrase, come into the world, and we use things like this all the time. When we travel, we can say we came into a city. You could come into Conroe from another place. But all you've done is change locations. You've moved from one location to the other. But that is not what Paul's saying when Jesus came into the world. The uncreated, the one who made all things, entered into his creation for the purpose of saving sinners. So why is it so important to understand that Christ Jesus took on our humanity in fullness? not just the appearance of a man, which is the ancient heresy of Docetism, by the way. It's somewhat related to Gnosticism, but the Docetists say that Christ merely appeared to be human, but was not actually human. Why is it important that Christ truly and fully took on our humanity? Because, number one, because as our high priest, He has to know our sorrows. He has to be acquainted with our grief. Isaiah 53 again, for he grew up, verse 2, before Him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He had no form or majesty that we should look at Him and no beauty that we should desire Him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief, And as one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. Upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace. And with his wounds we are healed. So even looking back into the Old Testament, the servant songs of Isaiah, we see the necessity of Christ, the mediator, the God-man, taking to himself our human flesh so that he could suffer fully as a human being. St. Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the church fathers, said, whatever he did not assume, he did not save. Think about that. If Jesus only appeared to be a human being, then you would only appear to be saved. If he only took on your body, but not a reasonable soul, then only your body would be saved, and not that which torments you inwardly with sin. So he had to be fully human. And we've looked at this in previous lessons. Both the body and the soul. He did not have a human body and a divine soul, for example. He had to be fully human. So this is why Paul says he took on the form of a servant. He was found in human form. So our Redeemer must have both a human body and a human soul. But, and here's the part that is vital for us to hang on to, but our Redeemer must also retain full and complete divinity. So as He takes to Himself, our human nature we should not conclude when we read something like this in Paul that he emptied himself that that means he took to himself for a while basically a man suit and he cast off his divinity and then picked the divinity up again when he was resurrected and we ascended into heaven or when he was sat down at the right hand of the father exalted and given a name above every name Paul tells us, no, he was in the form of God, but he did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, and he emptied himself. He humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even a death on the cross. So the incarnation of Christ is worthy of our celebration. He's worthy of our worship. He's worthy of our praise and thanksgiving. The eternal Son took on our full humanity so that he could save us fully and Christ is now forever the God man he is now forever eternally glorified as divine and human see one of the one of the things if we say that he set aside his divinity then we're also tempted to think the other way that once he's exalted he sets aside his humanity that He's not both God and man. Why is this important? If you turn over to Revelation 5, one of my favorite passages in all of the Scriptures, it's just a beautiful scene, and here John is in a vision, taken to the very throne room of God, and he sees there in chapter 5, 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. 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 look into it. And I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it." I mean, here's this vision. He sees the Ancient of Days seated on the throne and a scroll in his hand, and John weeps because no one in heaven or on earth or even under the earth is worthy to open that which is in the very hand of God the Father. Verse 5 says, 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 and with seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. And he went and 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 twenty-four 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 priest to our God. They shall reign on earth. See, the reason this picture is so glorious is because this shows the Lamb who is the God-man. eternally God and yet as a man he conquered he redeemed humanity and now he stands physically don't don't miss this this is this is a physical creature the lamb is represented as physical though as one who has been slain and in the song you You were slain, and by your blood, you ransomed people for God." We have to discipline our minds to make sure that we're thinking Christologically, and thinking all that the Bible says to us about our Redeemer, that at no point, not even for a fraction of a second, did Jesus set aside his divinity. And also, for all of eternity, at no point, not for a fraction of a second, has he set aside his humanity. He remains a godman. He assumed to himself the human nature, but by no means set aside his divinity. We have here Christ forever now is the God-man. He's glorified and yet remains for eternity our divine and human Savior and mediator. Again, one person, two natures. One person, two natures. I'm going to read a couple of quotes to you. One from the Puritan, Stephen Charnock, and one from one of our Baptist fathers, John Gill. I want you to see how they word this very carefully, but also I think very helpfully, with respect to working out in our minds what Paul means by Jesus emptying himself. We have to say he did not set aside his divinity, but there is truly an emptying. In one of the lectures with Dr. Dolezal, I don't have this in my notes, but I remember him saying, we all have to believe in kenosis. We all have to, because that's what the Bible says. He emptied himself. But we must not be kenoticists who say he set aside his divinity. Listen to Stephen Charnock. found this helpful this is in his the existence and attributes of God this is in volume one of that that two-volume work he says there was no change in the divine nature of the Sun when he assumed human nature there was a union of the two natures but no change of the deity into the humanity or of the humanity into the deity both preserve their peculiar properties. Now, I've encouraged you with respect to our confession of faith in chapter 8. One of the things we confess is that these two natures, divine and human, were inseparably joined without confusion, conversion, or composition. Those three C's are helpful to remember. And that's exactly what Charnock is saying. He goes on, the humanity was changed by a communication of excellent gifts from the divine nature, not by being brought into an equality with it, for that was impossible, that a creature should become equal to the Creator." Now, Charnock uses the word communicated in the oldest sense. Often when we use the word communicate, we mean to transmit information or data or an idea. But when he's using the word communication here, he's talking about sharing. So humanity was changed by a communication or sharing of excellent gifts from the divine nature, not by being brought into an equality with it, for that was impossible that a creature should become equal to the Creator. He took, and he's quoting here from Philippians 2.7, he took the form of a servant, but he lost not the form of God. He despoiled not himself of the perfections of the deity. He was indeed emptied and became of no reputation, but He did not cease to be God, though He was reputed to be only a man and a very mean one too. The glory of His divinity was neither extinguished nor diminished, though it was obscured and darkened under the veil of our infirmities. But there was no more change in the hiding of it than there is in the body of the sun when it is shadowed by the interposition of a cloud. I like that illustration. On those hot summer days that are coming up quickly, when we just relish the idea of the sun being covered by clouds for a little bit. The last few days we could use some sun, I think. But we get into July and August, we'll be like Elijah, begging for one little rain cloud. But when those clouds cover the sun, has the glory of the sun been diminished at all? Has the sun set aside any of its glory? Not one bit. And so when he took to himself human nature, this is an apt illustration. The glory of his divinity was neither extinguished nor diminished, though it was obscured and darkened under the veil of our infirmities. But there was no more change in the hiding of it, his glory and dominion, than there is in the body of the sun when it is shadowed by the interposition of a cloud. His blood, while it was pouring out from his veins, was the blood of God. He references Acts 20.28. And therefore, when he was bowing the head of his humanity upon the cross, he had the nature and perfections of God. For had he ceased to be God, he had been a mere creature, and his sufferings would have been of as little value and satisfaction as the sufferings of a creature. See the consequence? If Jesus sets aside his divinity, even for a moment, that He has not made full satisfaction for your sins or mine. So it's not a minor error. It's not an error with minor consequences to say, oh, it's okay. I mean, I'm going to give benefit of the doubt to those who say that Jesus, when He said, Paul says He emptied Himself, that means He set aside His divinity. No, we can't. We can't accept that. The chart continues. Just a couple more sentences. He could not have been a sufficient mediator had He ceased to be God. And he had ceased to be God had he lost any one perfection proper to the divine nature. And losing none, he lost not this of unchangeableness, which is none of the meanest belonging to the deity." So in other words, if Jesus sets aside his divinity even for a moment, he's not God. If he sets aside even one attribute for a moment, he ceases to be God. And if he ceases to be God, then he is not offered up a sufficient sacrifice for our sins. Now here's John Gill saying much the same thing, using slightly different words, but making the same argument. He's quoting here again from Philippians 2.7, but made himself of no reputation, or he nevertheless emptied himself. In the ESV, it reads, he emptied himself in the King James, the New King James, and others, it says he made himself of no reputation. It's two ways of translating the same concept. Nevertheless, emptied himself not of that fullness of grace which was laid up in him from everlasting, For with this he appeared when he was in the flesh and dwelt among men, nor of the perfections of his divine nature, which were not in the least diminished by his assumption of human nature. For all the fullness of the Godhead dwelt in him bodily. Though he took that which he had not before, he lost nothing of what he had. The glory of his divine nature was covered and out of sight. And though some rays and beams of it broke out through his works and miracles, yet his glory, as the only begotten of the Father, was beheld only by a few. The minds of the far greater part were blinded and their hearts hardened, and they saw no form nor comeliness in him to desire him. The form of God in which he was was hid from them. They reputed him as a mere man, yea, as a sinful man, even as a worm, and no man. And to be thus esteemed, and had in such account, he voluntarily subjected himself, though infinitely great and glorious." Gil paints a very similar word picture, doesn't he? As if the sun were being veiled for a time. But, and I like the way that Gil puts this, that some rays and beams of it broke out through his works and miracles. And of course, he took Peter, James, and John up on the mountain and he allowed them to witness him being transfigured and to hear the very voice of God. So there's some who saw more, a greater manifestation of his heavenly glory, of his divinity. But saints, I put this before you somewhat as a polemic, somewhat as a preemptive antidote. There are those, even in our conservative, even Reformed circles, who are really flirting with the ancient error of canonicism and saying that Jesus set aside that when Paul says he emptied himself, what Paul means by that is that he set aside his divinity, or portions of his divinity, or attributes of his divinity. We cannot accept that. We cannot accept that, because if he ceases to be God, even for a moment, if he sets aside even one attribute of God, because all that, to use Dolezal's expression again, all that's in God is God. Because God is simple, we can't divide God up into parts. I can lop off your arm, and you'd still be human. There are parts of you that could be taken away. Two weeks ago, I had my appendix removed. I'm still human. I had a part cut out of me, and I'm still human. But it's not so with God. God does not have parts like we do. You can't take out His immutability, for example, and say He's still God. You can't take out His omniscience. and say he's still God. Peter said very clearly there is only one mediator between God and man, the God-man, Jesus Christ. If even for a moment the God part of the God-man is taken away, we don't have a mediator. We have a really good teacher, we have a moral guide, we have a spiritual guru, but we don't have a mediator. We don't have a redeemer. So these things are very, these are not just, you know, esoteric, finer points of doctrine that are not important. This is our eternal life. The one who humbled himself to the point of obedience even to death on the cross, and yet, not for a fraction of a second did he set aside and cease to be fully divine. and for eternity, not for a fraction of a second as he set aside his humanity, which he took to himself inseparably as our mediator. I will close there. I think that's a fitting place to wrap up our answer, or our longer answer to the question, who do you say that I am? Yeah. And that's logically correct, but they're not logical in the way they apply it. Because what some would argue is that he could maintain his divinity, but by setting aside certain attributes. So he could set aside his omniscience and still be glorified on the Mount of Transfiguration. That was a partial revealing, not a full revealing of his divinity, but also that he could basically, from one moment to the next, he could be omniscient today, but not omniscient tomorrow. It doesn't work that way. Any other questions? I appreciate your endurance and patience working through these, I didn't even count up how many weeks we've been at this. I think it's four over 13, but I'm not sure. But this has been a, I've enjoyed studying it, and again, this is not for simply filling up our intellect. This is the Savior that we worship. This is the one who's redeemed us. This is the one in whom we have fellowship. This is the one whom we look to as our full reward for all of eternity. That'll come up in this sermon today. But He is ultimately our reward. And our reward is truly human and truly divine. Let's go. Lord, You are so gracious to us. Thank You that You've given us Your Word as a certain and sufficient and infallible guide I pray that You will help us to understand those things that You have given to us to know. We confess that these things are marvelous. They are too wonderful for us. We cannot fully comprehend them. Because this is beyond our finite human reasoning. And yet, I pray, Holy Spirit, that You will help us faithfully, accurately to confess what you have made known to us in your word. Help guard us from error. Help us to encourage one another and exhort one another in all truth so that we may fully and faithfully praise our risen and exalted Messiah, one person of the Godhead, one person of mediator. one person who is the Christ, two inseparable natures, divine and human. When we ask all these things in the perfect name of Christ our King.