Father in heaven. Tonight we're going to be looking at your son, the gift to us as to his name and to his positions, to his state. And this is really an important issue, Father, to understand. And so we pray that you guide our thoughts and enable us to either learn for the first time or to be refined and strengthened in our understanding of our Savior. In His name we pray. Amen. Tonight we're looking at Christ's name, states, and offices. And I'll begin by reading this paragraph from Squill's book. You've probably heard something like this before, too. I thought it would be a good way to start. I recall an address given by a scholar at a seminary convocation. The attendees were expecting an academic discourse, but he surprised everyone by simply reciting the names and titles for Jesus found in scripture. Lord, Son of God, Son of Man, Son of David, Emmanuel, the Word, and so on. It took him 45 minutes to exhaust all the names and titles. Each one of them reveals something to us about the character or work of Christ. He says in this chapter I want to look at three of the more prominent titles. Have you ever done that? You have A through Z, things related to Christ. He's an extremely interesting person, unlike any other. Well, we're going to look at his names, his states and his offices. And first his names. And Sproul just focused on three. We could focus on more, but we'll just look at those three tonight. From Baker's evangelical dictionary, the word Christ is used to identify Jesus of Nazareth as that person whom God anointed to be the Redeemer of humanity. It thus often appears as a title in the phrase Jesus the Christ, or the Christ was Jesus. Peter referred to him as both Lord and Christ, Acts 2.36. Very frequently the word is coupled with the name of Jesus who appears to be virtually a second name, Jesus Christ. When you were a new Christian, did you think that Christ was his second name? Though not a surname, because Christ Jesus is also commonly used. In close proximity, in the same chapter, Jesus can be called Jesus Christ, Christ, and Christ Jesus. We touched on this last week, just as a reminder to you. Word order is important sometimes. And when you see Christ Jesus versus Jesus Christ, it may be suggesting something. in that Christ would be his exalted name, Jesus would be his name of humiliation. And when you see Christ, Jesus is talking about the exalted one who is humiliated by becoming man. And things related to that side of his being, his humanity, his humiliation. When you see Jesus Christ, that's usually referring to his exaltation, the humiliated one who was exalted. So that doesn't always work, but I think if you look at the context, that may be significant in why it was put together. It wasn't just because it was redundant. So we're going to switch it around. The significance of the name Christ lies in the fact that it was a title granted to Jesus by virtue of his fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy. and by his resurrection from the dead. The name Jesus was a common Hebrew name. It's the Greek form of Joshua. So if you're reading in Hebrews chapter 3, it talks about Jesus and the King James. I think most of the current versions have changed that to Joshua, that Joshua did not give them rest. It's also borne by other people in the New Testament, including Barabbas, Matthew 27, 17, and Justice, Colossians 4, 11. But no one else bears the name Christ. It is significant that early disciples of Jesus were not called Jesusites, but Christians, followers of Christ. So Christ is the Hebrew term, siach. And it's Messiah, the anointed one, the one that was to come. And he was given that title. Second is Lord. The Greek word for Lord is kurios. And while kurios was common as a polite, even honorific title, like sir or master or teacher, calling Jesus Lord to imply divine associations or identity was by no means a convention readily adopted from the Roman world. In Jesus, more Eastern, but militantly monotheistic Jewish Nebu, where the title's application to humans to connote divinity was not only absent, but anathema. The title is an eloquent tribute to the astonishing impression he made. It also points to the prerogatives he holds. Since Jesus is Lord, He shares with the Father qualities like deity, Romans 9.5, pre-existence, John 8.58, holiness, Hebrews 4.15, and compassion, 1 John 4.9. To name just a few, he is co-creator, Colossians 1.16, and co-regent, presiding in power at the Father's right hand, for he intercedes for God's people From whence, as the Creed states, he will return to judge the living and dead. Just as it is impossible to overstate the power, grandeur, and goodness of the Kyrios, the Father, so there is hardly limit to the glory ascribed in Scripture to the Kyrios, the Son. Therefore, Isaiah's counsel in Peter's is to be heeded, sanctify the Lord himself, which Peter tellingly restates as sanctify Christ as Lord. So, as you read through your Gospels, you'll find sometimes he's called Lord and it's not an ascription of deity to him. He's simply being recognized as a master, a teacher. But as you progress, you begin to realize, whoa, this name is more than a teacher. It's more than just mister or master. It's conveying his deity. Thomas, reach here your hand, touch my side, touch my hand, see my feet, my Lord and my God. You will confess the Lord Jesus from your heart. It's not just Mr. Jesus there, it's Jesus as God. Just something along that line in terms of the Lordship of Christ. You're probably aware of it, there was a big debate When MacArthur put out a book on the lordship of Christ in relation to salvation, it caused a stir on both sides, both the non-lordship and the Reformed perspective. His later books moved him more properly to a Reformed understanding of the lordship of Christ. The college that I went to had a professor who didn't believe that lordship was essential to salvation. And he took that verse in Romans 10 and said, it doesn't mean you have to confess Jesus as Lord. You have to confess him as God. Any thoughts on that? Yes, absolutely. If he's God, what is he? Lord. I mean, that seems so simple to describe. And even with premillennial view that Christ has to come back and be king on the earth. He's not a king now. That's basically the dispensational point of view. He's not the king. He's the Savior. Well, he's been exalted at the Father's right hand. All authority in heaven and earth has been given to him. That seems to me that he's king. He's Lord. But that's a title that was given to him. Increasingly, it took on that connotation of his deity. That was, in some of the early Roman persecutions, that was the issue. That all they had to do was to say Caesar is Kurios. Caesar is Lord. And they would have been exempt from martyrdom. But they would not make that confession. They'd confess Christos is Kurios. Christ is Lord. And that's resulted in many martyrdoms over that very word. Son of Man. The term Son of Man occurs 69 times in the Synoptic Gospels, 13 times in John and once in Acts. All the three occurrences come from the lips of Jesus. In John 12, 34, the crowd equating the Son of Man with the eternal Messiah was puzzled at Jesus' prediction that he would be lifted up and inquired about the identity of the Son of Man. Jesus frequently refers to the Son of Man in the third person, causing some to assume he was not speaking of himself. Nevertheless, the term seems to be not only a self-designation, but Jesus' favorite one. Jesus was in constant danger of being forced into limited or illegitimate messianic rule, John 6.15. In response to Peter's confession, Mark 8.29-31, he accepted the title Messiah, equated it with the Son of Man, and linked his work with that of the suffering servant. In the Judaism of Jesus' day, Messiah was frequently understood as a political military leader whose primary concern was for the welfare of Israel. Jesus' usage seems to be an extension of the portrayal of the Son of Man and Daniel in the intertestamental literature. With the term, Jesus dissociated his nature and mission from purely earthly, nationalistic notions. He is a transcendent, preexisted person whose mission is primarily a spiritual one that originates in heaven and whose concern is with all people's nations and languages." If he would have identified himself as son of God, he would have caused a lot more stir. It wasn't his intent to create things like that, until after he had completed his work. The Son of Man, again it's a citation from Daniel, and it's basically a messianic title that they should have understood. As you know, the Jews were, like this author said, looking for a political military leader. And Christ was that. But he was not that in the sense of which they wanted him to be. They wanted him to overthrow Rome and overthrow their subjection to other nations and to bring glory to them. He actually was a political military leader. by going to the cross. And there he defeated Satan, he defeated the consequences of sin, and won perhaps, not perhaps, he won the greatest military victory in history through the cross and the resurrection, and brought glory to his people. So those are the major names that Sproul dealt with. Later, if you want to ask questions about others, we can do that. Regarding Christ's states, there are primarily three. Pre-incarnate, incarnate, king of kings. As far as pre-incarnate, John Wolverine. This is a good quote. The scriptures bear a clear witness to the fact of the eternity of Christ. Sometimes directly, Can you think of one? John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So sometimes directly, often indirectly. The Old Testament foreview of Christ spoke of him as a child to be born in Bethlehem, whose goings forth are from old, from everlasting. Micah 5.2. As Fawcett has said, this term conveys the strongest assertion of infinite duration of which the Hebrew language is capable. See Psalm 90 verse 2, John 1.1. The doctrine of the pre-existence of Christ is substantiated by many other lines of evidence, such as his pre-incarnate works of creation. All things were made by him. About him was not anything made that was made of providence, of preservation, his promises made in eternity past, the Theophanies or Christophanies, and other intimations of preexistence. When did Jesus become the Christ? When he was sent into the world through his birth. At that point, he became the Christ. So when we say Christ's pre-incarnate state, we're talking actually the Son of God, who was eternally designated to be the Christ. But he became the Christ at his birth, and he was publicly acknowledged, according to Acts 2, to be the Christ through his resurrection. Incarnate. Incarnation is the act of clothing with flesh, or the state of being so clothed, the act of taking or being manifested in a human body in nature. Used by itself, the word refers to the fact that in Jesus, God took on flesh and became man. God the Son has truly lived and died and risen from the dead in the flesh as a true human being. Those pre-incarnate appearances of Christ. He was in the form of a man, but he was not a man. He became a man by conception, by birth. We believe in eternal sonship. He didn't become a son by his incarnation. He always was a son. Christ is still incarnate. He didn't leave his body when he ascended into heaven. He still has that body, that glorified body, of which the next now refers, the King of Kings. The four aspects of Christ's exaltation are his resurrection, his ascension, Acts chapter 1, his cession, and that refers to what he's doing now in heaven as our great high priest, and for his return in glory. So, number one, the resurrection was not just a restoration to life, but the beginning of a new and better kind of life, a resurrection life. After the resurrection, Jesus still had a physical body of flesh and bones. Handle me and see. They were able to touch him. He ate with them. He manifested himself alive from the dead. Two, the New Testament clearly presents Jesus' ascension as a bodily ascension to a place, though it is a place ordinarily hidden from our physical eyes. Thus, Jesus retained the human nature when he returned to heaven and will retain it forever. Have you ever just kind of thought about that for a while? If you were there at the ascension and you saw him ascending up into the clouds, where did he go? Is he still going? Hebrews would say, no, he's arrived somewhere. And evidently, just like his body had the ability to appear in a room and disappear, that's the capacity that he has now in his glorified body, is to be able to, kind of like a Scotty beam me up type thing. I don't know if Star Trek got that idea from the ascension of Christ or what, but if it's something I wish I could have once in a while, one day perhaps we will. Perhaps our resurrection body will have that capacity. So that as he shows us all this work, these heavens, he says, let's go to this galaxy over here, or right there. Wouldn't that be neat? Instead of going for a hundred light years. But he's still incarnate, still has his body. It evidently has a dimension that it didn't have before. But it's real. So, number three. A further state in the exaltation of Christ was his sitting down at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Hebrews 1.3. This action shows both the completion of Christ's work of redemption And his reception is God-man to reign over the universe. In this exalted state of reigning at God's right hand, Christ will reign until the end of the age when all his enemies will be conquered. Once for all. Some of them have already been conquered. He didn't mention it, but again, part of his session is not only is he exalted as the king, He's also exalted as our great high priest, who ever lives to make intercession for us. A great, great blessing. Number four, when Jesus Christ returns to earth in glory, his exaltation will be complete. He will receive all the glory that's due him as the God-man who has purchased our redemption and is worthy of eternal and infinite honor. Then this kingdom will be established forever and exalted with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He shall reign forever and ever. Revelation 11, 15 and 22, 3-5. That on the King of Kings was from Wayne Gruden. So that's the states that he's gone through. Began in eternity, pre-incarnate, manifest occasionally in Christophe near Theophany, prophesied of incarnation at the conception of Mary, his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension. It still remains incarnate in King of Kings as he is that now. Christ offices three offices. James P. Boyce speaks of the prophet this way, the word is to be taken in its wider sense of inspired teacher. It is frequently confined in common language to one who foretells future events, but it literally means one who speaks for his God and denotes a divine teacher merely. So perhaps you've heard this that a prophet is not primarily a foreteller as a foreteller. And some of his foretelling is foretelling, but he's the one who speaks for God to people. And he is, as you did your assignment, he's more than an apocalyptic prophet. Thus Moses is spoken of as a prophet and Jesus was foretold as a prophet who should be like Moses. It is in connection with this that the term Logos, or Word, applied to Christ in the first chapter of John is appropriate. The Word. The Word was made flesh. Look at John 1.18. That really says it specifically as being that unique prophet. John 1 18 no one has ever seen God the only God who is at the father's side. He has made him known And the Greek word there is interesting. It's the exegetic God Played out for us all all that he is So that's when Philip said in John 14 show us the father and that will satisfy us He says you've been so long time with me Philip. You have not seen me. You've seen me as seen father. I So not only teaching, but being seen. With the office of teacher, Christ united, as was common with the prophets, the prediction of future events and the working of miracles. But the office of teacher was his special work as prophet. And as the priest, in James P. Boyce, the office of priest is one of divine appointment. It comes from the book of Hebrews. No man takes this to himself. It's given by God. That of Christ corresponds to that of the high priest in the Mosaic economy and is foreshadowed by it. The Aaronic priesthood. The epistle to the Hebrews sets this forth very plainly and explicitly. The priesthood of Christ, however, varies from that of the high priest in several particulars. And the high priest he's talking about is Aaron. Christ's priesthood is perpetual. The Aaronic priesthood passed from generation to generation. Christ's priesthood does not pass. It's eternal. Perpetual. As in one person, without predecessor or successor, making one offering, once for all, An offering actually not symbolically effective, deriving value not from appointment alone, but from its nature also. In this case, also, the victim is the same person as the high priest. Consequently, Christ's office as priest is to be contemplated in the two-fold aspect of priest and victim of sacrifice. It's too bad Boyce didn't mention Melchizedek. in his paragraph, Melchizedek is the order of priesthood to which Christ fulfills. Melchizedek was a type of Christ's priesthood. Psalms speak of him as being after the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews addresses that too. And the reason Melchizedek foreshadows Christ's priesthood more than than Aaron did is because we have no record of his beginning, no record of father, mother, no record of his birth or death, simply his appearance and doing that priestly work before Abraham. So Christ is the priest. He offered himself as the sacrifice here And he is ascended into heaven to do his work as the high priest there. For he doesn't go in once into the holy place. I mean, once a year, he's there perpetually for us, which is really, really neat. Look at Hebrews chapter four. Just a couple of verses there that will, I think, encourage our hearts. Hebrews 4.14, Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God. Let us hold fast our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. There's something about the Day of Atonement that's interesting. I don't know if you've ever noticed it. When the high priest would go in on the Day of Atonement and present the blood, there's a real interesting phrase in that passage that says, until he come out, They didn't know that their sins for the previous year that were being atoned for had been covered until the high priest came back out. And I think that's very suggestive of the fact, how do we know our sins are forgiven? Because he came out. He resurrected from the dead. That may be what one of the things Paul's referring to at the end of Romans 4, that We are, our justification is his resurrection. Yes, he died for our sins. They'd be forgiven. We could be justified, but his resurrection actually became our justification. Because we have seen him come out, we know that God has forgiven us. Have a neat thought. Anything else there? Yeah, let's look at another passage. Oh, that should encourage you, shouldn't it? In terms of the Old Testament saints, they had to wait 364 days, however long their lunar calendar was, and go in once a year. We have a high priest who's there all the time, and not only is he there all the time, he's given us, by his grace, access to be there with him. So that when we pray, we're not just praying up into the air, we're actually in the very presence of God in our prayers. And we can find mercy and grace to help. Maybe one other one to look at is in chapter 7 of Hebrews, verse 23. The former priests were many in number because they were prevented by death from continuing in office. But he holds his priesthood permanently because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him since he always lives to make intercession for them. Don't you think that's kind of a strong verse about the security of the believer? My security does not depend on me. My security depends on the one who intercedes for me in heaven, and he always lives to make intercession for me. He's able to save to the uttermost. That doesn't mean the worst sinner, and we're all chief sinners, but he's able to save us to the uttermost point of our life. When we feel full of unbelief or despair or discouragement, he's able to save us to the That ought to be great consolation to us. Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 in Hebrews really dwell on this aspect of Christ as the superior sacrifice and he's the superior priest, high priest. Wonderful, wonderful ministry for us. Thirdly, his office as king. Christ is the mighty king. His first act is to gather a people for himself. The natural stubbornness of us will be broken down through his word and spirit, and he will subdue us to himself. Formerly, we were unwilling to serve Christ, as still many are now. But after God's power became too strong for us, we were subdued and began to serve him willingly, as it is written. Thy people will be willing in the day of your power. Psalm 110, 3. When we are His subjects, He rules and defends us. Under His government, we are safe. Nothing can happen to us. Maybe we should add to that. Nothing that can happen to us with permanent damage. Things can happen to us. Even death itself is defeated. Satan and hell are conquered and we are set free. Though the struggle is not yet ready on this earth, we know that Christ rules us and defends us against all evils. The Lord is our judge. The Lord is our lawgiver. The Lord is our King. He will save us. Isaiah 33, 22. The enemies, though they may have temporarily overcome us, will not yet have the final triumph. The real triumph and the everlasting one is Christ, and he is our king. I was preaching from Acts 16 last Sunday night, and that was the issue when Paul was at Thessalonica, the charge against him that they don't give heed to the decrees of Caesar, they say there's another king, Jesus. And I think we really need to understand that in our Christian lives. When he set us free, he set us free to be servants of the king of kings. He didn't set us free to be our own king, have our own kingdoms, but to be subject to him. When he talks about God's power became too strong for us, he's talking about efficacious grace. But you're not overcome kicking and screaming, saying, I don't want that. His grace enables us to desire what he's impelling us toward. And that's so neat. He puts the desire in us and gives the power behind it that that desire can be fulfilled. It is Christ, it is God who works in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. He doesn't drag us screaming at anyone who says, I'm a sinner and I want your salvation. He doesn't turn away. Because a person can only truly say that if efficacious grace is brought into the recognition of that. Now it is possible that a false profession could be made. That's understandable. That where a person truly desires to be saved, that desire didn't come from his own heart. It came from the efficacious grace and the power of Christ's kingship, drawing people to himself by the Word and Spirit. So those are his offices. We've got plenty of time for questions tonight, so anything you'd like to ask over these three areas. Names, if you want to ask about another name, or his states, or his offices, it's open up to you. I would say yes. He says, I will tell the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son. Today I have begotten you. And that's when you read Hebrews, that seems to imply that he was begotten prior to resurrection. This would seem to indicate that today was eternity. There's a lot of times these things will overlap in some way as to their existence outside of time and their being affected within time. Some would say he became the Christ at his baptism. I think he became the Christ at his birth. Or is he who was born King of the Jews? And he must be found in Bethlehem, Judea. That's what's written by the prophet. So I really think his kingship and messiahship began there at his birth. But it was officially recognized by God at his baptism, and then at his resurrection it was again officially recognized that he is both Lord and Christ. So, I hope that helps. Eternity transcends time, past, present, and future. He was decreed to be that, but that was effected in time. kind of brought up on the same issue. Because it would seem like, at all, essentially, the third evangelium would be a necessity for it, at least in a eschatological sense. Jesus was the Christ then, right? Because redemption history starts, essentially, at that point in time. So wouldn't there be a... wouldn't there be at least in an eschatological sense, wouldn't he have been a Christ at that point in time, too? Or... No. Because he hadn't appeared. It was all being unfolded toward that point when he would appear. The eternal degree began to become evident in the revelation of scripture and the revelation reached its climax when he appeared. So they were looking for the Christ from that moment on. And I think we noted it before when we were in Genesis, when Cain was born, she called him Cain because she had gotten a man from the Lord. And evidently Eve thought that perhaps this is the one, this is the seed that will correct the sin that has occurred. And that just unfolds throughout the Old Testament. But it's all prophetic in terms of historical timeline. Eternity always was. to Christ by the decree of God. In time, it began to unfold. Well, when we're talking about prophets, this is one that, especially in the Quorum circles, you can go round and round and round with this idea of people and people, and the entire verse is going to start with this distinction. And especially when you're contrasting it with charismatic understanding of prophecy today versus I've heard that spoken as just the way some preachers preach. Some preachers preach more as a prophet than they do as perhaps a teacher. We may cover that when we get to gifts, but let's go ahead and look at it. Any visions? This is where particularly Gruden has this point of view of New Testament prophet versus Old Testament prophet. We'll start in chapter 4 and then go back to chapter 2. Chapter 4, verse 8, verse 7 says, But grace was given to each one of us according to the measure of Christ's gift. Therefore, it says when he ascended on high, he led a host of captives and he gave gifts to men. Skip 9 and 10, not that they're not important, but verse 11 connects directly into verse 8. He gave gifts to men. What were the gifts? He gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors, and teachers to equip the saints for the work of ministry for the building up of the body of Christ until we attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God to mature manhood the measure of the stature, the fullness of Christ and so on. If you go back to chapter two and verse 18, he says, for through him, we both have access in one spirit to the father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but your fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God. built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit." I think it's significant that what he says there in 2.20 and what he says in chapter 4 in verse 11 are significant. He's talking about a foundation which involves the apostles and prophets. How many times do you lay the foundations? Once. Or is it laid? Right there. He's bigger than that, but he did the idea. Foundation is laid once. Apostles and prophets. Then he says, on that foundation we are being built and tended. This is the work of the ancients. The pastor-teacher. I look at that as one. And what you have here, this is the foundation. I call this the firmness. What's an evangelist? Is it somebody that sweats a lot when he speaks? Well, there are gifts to the church of evangelists. We're all called to evangelize, but there are ones who are particularly gifted to do evangelism, to evangelize the foundation that's been left in the world. Where would you most likely find an evangelist today? Holding big crusades on the street. Workplace. Here's where this gift you're going to find. Missionary. Someone who goes into a territory that has not been evangelized. Is sent there. That's what Paul was. Paul was an evangelist. If you went to places where Christ had not been known, and proclaimed Christ, or today in America we call it a church planner. You know, to plan a church, you better have the gift of an evangelist, or have a partner, a co-elder who is that. Because that's what's going to be needed, unless you're going to build off people coming from other churches and convert to Christians. is the one who, now this is a short term in a sense, but it's something that has to constantly be done, have to constantly be replenishing the generations. This is more of an ongoing one. It's one thing to have a child, it's another thing to train that child and bring him to maturity. That's what the pastor teacher does. He shepherds the flock. He teaches the flock. He cares for them and builds them up. I don't know if I'm getting to the question you're answering specifically, but that's how I understand New Testament prophets and apostles. Their work was foundational. lay the foundation until we have this. We'll cover 1 Corinthians 13 at a later point. That's how I would see it. Now, can we speak prophetically? Yes, we can say, thus says the Lord. And a lot of times, somebody who might be recognized as a prophet speaks in the imperative rather than the indicative. By that I mean he gives commands. You must be born again, or you must do this. That's basically speaking prophetically. Indicatively, this is what this text means, this is how it can apply to your life, and there's no real imperative given. Some who preach, that's how I would say today they may be speaking prophetically. They tend to speak in the imperative rather than indicative. That was kind of what I was curious about, because I looked it up, and I thought, I know it was great, but I thought he made a decent argument for it, saying that part of a pastor's job in shepherding his flock is to understand situational issues based on whatever society, stuff like that, and to apply God's Word of plenty and to preach the gospel in a living manner. And it's not that you're preaching, you do. job I had to do to be an attorney to the people of God. Yeah, to call them back to what they needed to believe, or to declare to them, this is the word and will of God for you. Yeah, I wasn't having trouble with that. The church on Peoria, Vineyard, Kansas City Vineyard really got into a mess over this issue of prophets, where they were going up to people and saying, God's told me that you're to marry him and he's to marry you. And they started making statements like that and it just caused absolute chaos. Whenever somebody says to you, God said to me, ask him for chapter and verse. I have another question here. Is that kind of where the argument is? Because we try, a lot of people will disjoin the Ordo Salutis and the Surae Salutis so much that they actually take it to be a sequential progression instead of a logical progression, or the other way around, and you get these, um, this, not, where people don't, fail to understand the, the unions crisis we have at the moment, the conversion, the emergent version of the work crisis in the right direction, I guess. So that's kind of obscure for the conversation. Well, I think Ephesians 2 basically says it. I don't know if I'm understanding your question correctly. Ephesians 2.4 says that God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our trespasses made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. We have a position that we need to, it needs to grip our hearts. I am already seated in the heavenlies. It's as good as done. It's as if I'm there already. That should encourage you, when you feel like you're at the bottom of a pit. that because of my union with Christ, God already sees me in the heavenlies in Christ. I've been raised up and seated with Him in the heavenlies. I love my brothers in Christ, but my brothers in Christ who don't understand their union with Christ frustrate me. They go around and forgive my wife because sometimes we have an issue over this. There are too many Eeyore Christians. You know what I mean? They go around with their head down thinking, oh, whoa, it's me. Everything's coming against me. Life is so hard. You need to lift up your eyes and realize where you are put in Christ. You are seated in the heavenlies. And that ought to encourage you when you feel like you're at the bottom of the pit. This is as low as it's going to get. Well, it might get lower, but it's going to get higher. That's guaranteed to me. One of these days, all these things that I go around depressed and discouraged about will pass. There will be no tears there, no death there, no pain, no suffering or any such thing. I think one of the things that will help you in your Christian growth is to understand your need for Christ and what that all means. That you're seated in the heavenlies already. You're a trophy of His grace. So that in the coming ages He might show the immeasurable riches of His grace and His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. You might like to go through, especially Ephesians and Colossians. And note every time it says something to the effect of being in Christ. In Christ. In Christ. And revel in what you have. That'll keep you going a lot of times when you don't feel like going any further. And sustain you. Did that answer your question? Totally. I think that, yeah, I think it's, to some degree, it's the losing of destiny and all this stuff. It's kind of the re-reconstruction of the community. I know those last couple of Shepard and Long Shepard are in the same thing. I have no idea where they're actually going with it. I was just curious if that's what it was. And I think you're right, but I don't actually know. I'm fascinated by it. Very good. Any other questions you'd like to ask? You said that Jesus became a Christ after you were born. When did you become the prophet and priest you should be? Because when you were born, like Matthew, Again, it's the same issue of he always has been this in eternity and it's effectuated at certain points in history. In terms of the priesthood, he became the sacrifice at Calvary. Even though he knew he came into the world, to make himself an offering for sin, he didn't become the offering for sin, the victim, the sacrifice to the cross. When did he become the high priest? Well, I would think that came through his ascension and his session in heaven. At that point, it's effectuated, if you will, in time. Even though he's in heaven, it was effectuated in time so that from that point forward, we had a high priest in heaven. As far as the prophet, what did he do when he was 12 years old? Remember? He went to the temple and he was teaching and the ones who were listening to him in the temple were amazed at his understanding of verse 12. So I'd say he actually became the prophet at birth, but he didn't pronounce any prophecies while he was laying there in the manger. Well, here it is. The word was made flesh into all of us and we beheld his glory. So even though he didn't even have to say a word, just the fact he was there as the word in flesh, I would say probably qualified him for the office of prophet. It unfolded primarily, if you will, at his baptism when he was declared, this is my son in whom I will, please hear ye him, listen to him because he is the prophet, the one to fulfill the prophecy that one greater than Moses would come. And there he is. I think if you can keep in mind It wasn't eternity, time, eternity. It's eternity that constantly breaks into time. It's the transcendent becoming imminent. And so you have historical events that effectualize, that's a word, what eternity has decreed. And keep that in mind that that will probably correct some of the verses that seem to indicate, well was he always that or did he become this? He always was that and he did become that at certain historic events that happened. Because it wasn't a permanent bond. It was a temporary manifestation. That's what in the Christophany, or the Theophany, that the Fani is manifestation. He temporarily took upon himself a human form to address certain people, but then that form ceased. Whereas, by the Incarnation, he took a body, which is never going to cease. He'll be in that body throughout the rest of time and turn. Despite this transition, like in Ezekiel from the son of man, it is used there as far as the son of Adam to understand it as the second Adam in the New Testament. It came to fulfill that vital use of the son of man in Ezekiel's verses in Ephesians, for example. In reference to Christ as the Son of Man. I think Christ's use of the name was for a particular purpose at a time when they were looking for a certain individual and they had a misrepresentation of what they were looking for. His preference to that seems to be simply that he wanted to present messiahship to them in a term they were familiar with, but not in a term that would cause undue opposition or undue support because they misunderstood what he was and what he came to do. That's probably the best I could explain it. Does that make sense at all? That would be one possibility, that they were foreshadowing what the true Son of Man would be. That's what Ezekiel basically was. That he was sent by God with this very unique message to proclaim to the people who were in exile that they had not lost hope. That he had a message for them that would give them hope. I really hadn't thought much of Ezekiel's use of it as much as Daniel's use, but Daniel was at the same time. And that evidently became, during the captivity, a name of expectation that would have foreshadowed him and would have indicated that this is what Ezekiel is doing. The name, I don't know if this helps at all, but the name son in Hebrew basically has the idea of one who builds a house. And so the son of man, generally when you have that phrase in the Old Testament, it would be Bar Adam, the son of Adam, the son of man. And so what that is doing when you use that term, personal opinion, is it's describing the one who truly builds Adam the way he should be built. And what Ezekiel was doing was trying to bring hope to the destruction of God's people. Not all mankind, but eventually would be all mankind. as far as the redeemed. And so it's the one who builds the house of whoever you're the son of. And that's truly been fulfilled in Christ as the second Adam, or the last Adam, and the second man. He's the one who truly builds the house of Adam in a new way that's never been built before. So that might enter into how that phrase was understood at the time of Daniel and Ezekiel. Son of God is expressive as well. Who builds the house of God? The Son of God does that. It's not just conveying to us next generation. It's conveying to us the idea of this is the one who fulfills and carries out the Father's will. I don't know if that would help somebody. From Genesis 6, when there's a man who wants to play on the face of the land, and the daughters are born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of the man were attractive. I know that we talked about the verse in a different context, but I heard an understanding of this verse as that simply meaning, I don't know if it's a sentence, just the sons of God, And the people of God, the guy I was with today was saying that that's almost God being sarcastic calling the son of God what you're giving. Giving the title son of God and then almost divine sarcasm saying, what are you giving? The title that you have. There are a few guys running about and then what do you give? He takes away their 800 year lifespans and gives them 120 year lifespans of what you're giving. I tend to believe that that passage that talks about the sons of God is about the race of Seth, the descendants through Seth, and that the daughters of men are the descendants through Cain. The two seeds, the intermingling, and if you go back to the idea of the son of God, these were the ones that God intended to build his people, and they were corrupting themselves by intermarrying with the daughters of men who were corrupt. Interesting too, the 120 doesn't refer to a lifespan, that's how many years passed before the flood came. Psalms tells us that a man's lifespan basically is 3 score and 10, or by strength, 4 score. You've got people like Abraham, who lived for 160 plus years, which is a lot less than Methuselah's years. That seems to be something that took place after the flood. Evidently, the climate change was so significant that it affected the lifespan of humanity. It continually has, to the point now. I mean, if you take, say, 3 score 10, and it's my strength That doesn't happen in a lot of third world countries because they don't have advantages. But in America, in more progressive civilized countries, age span goes beyond 80. Some Christians I've dealt with along that line say, I'm living on borrowed time. They passed the fourth score. So that's how I would understand, personally, Genesis 6. With the same idea that the Son is the one who builds the house, not the one for whom He is the Son. And that God brought judgment on them because they violated the blessing that He promised and brought upon themselves and their descendants a curse. There, go ahead. For those who say that the only thing you need is the forgiveness of sins. Christ is Savior. You don't have to confess Him as Lord, because confessing Him as Lord means you have to do everything that He tells you to do. And a young Christian doesn't understand that. A lot of times the non-worship position is seen in two ways. One, which is probably the more common and accepted, if you will, says there has to come a point somewhere after your conversion when you realize that to live your life with the blessing of God, you have to do Romans 12, 1 and 2. You present your body as a living sacrifice, and at that point Christ becomes Lord of your life. There are some, the free grace movement, that's the extreme end of this, that says A person can confess Jesus Christ, have no outward change in his life, he can go on and lie and cheat and kill, but he's going to heaven because he trusts that Christ is his Savior. When you trust Christ as your Savior, he transforms your life. Granted, you're an infant Christian and there's a lot to learn. But I'll tell you this, my dad didn't become Lord of the House when I was 12 years old. He was Lord of my life from the moment. I was born my parents were in charge, and I think that's the right understanding When he's born he's Lord from the point on In your in your experience. He's Lord from the moment. You say I trust in Jesus I Believe in you and trust you immediately comes your Lord And there's no greater freedom than to have Him as your Lord. There really isn't. You're binding people by saying they have to do this. You're setting people free to do what God intends for them to do. to grow in grace the knowledge of Christ, to grow in sanctification and holiness. That only occurs under the Lordship of Christ. We're not under His Lordship. We're not growing as a Christian. Now that doesn't mean everybody fully understands that issue at conversion. But when it's presented to them, they're not going to rebel. They're going to say, oh, that's wonderful. And they'll want that. And if they don't want it, there's something wrong with their life. That person is generally called a carnal Christian. Now, a carnal Christian is a disobedient Christian. Let's call it what it is. They're disobeying the Word of God. Now, it may be by a lack of knowledge, or it may be against knowledge. But all sin is sin. And just to say, well, I'm just a carnal Christian. No, you're not. You're a disobedient Christian if you're a Christian. You need to learn to trust and obey. And I think that's how we have to deal with people. Not let them off the hook. Well, everybody's human. Yeah, but not everybody is supposed to sin. And it's called sin, sin, and deal with it. And I'm speaking prophetically. Isn't that the whole higher life and the common life thing that's moving from, what does it mean? The Keswick. It was really highlighted by them. All that kind of came out of about the 1850s with the Millerites that turned into the Jehovah's Witnesses and turned into the Seventh-day Adventists and turned into the Mazarines, the second work of grace, where at some point you no longer sin, you just make mistakes. That was the more evangelical interpretation of a second work of grace that happens in a believer's life. Like the Nazarene? We've just moved on. We've had the work of Christ in our life. He died for our sins. Now we've got the work of the Holy Spirit. He sanctified us perfectly. We don't sin anymore. Just make mistakes. 1 John is pretty clear about that. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. Alright, well. Final word from John Owen. Let us live in the constant contemplation of the glory of Christ. And virtue will proceed from Him to repair all our decays, to renew a right spirit within us, and to cause us to abound in all duties of obedience. It will fix the soul unto that object which is suited to give it delight, complacency, and satisfaction. When the mind is filled with the thoughts of Christ and His glory, when the soul thereon cleaves unto Him with intense affections, they will cast out nor give admittance unto those causes of spiritual weakness and indisposition. And nothing will so much excite and encourage our souls hereunto as a constant view of Christ and His glory. I don't know if that's all one sentence. It wouldn't surprise me if it is. But we need to think more of the glory of Christ. Who he is. What his state currently is. And what his offices are. And think about that more than we do. It will transform your life. It really will. That's great. Our Father in heaven, Forgive us for our few and limited thoughts about the glory of Christ. We pray that the things that we discuss tonight might not just be academic, but they might be transformative in our lives. Help us to call to mind each day the glory of Christ and as we've also considered our union with him. What a privileged position we have and may we practice that position in our life day by day as a witness to others and as a glory and honor to your name. Through Christ we pray. Amen.