Question number four, and I didn't put this on your notes because we may have covered it, but I don't remember. Question four, was Christ's atonement limited or unlimited? Do you remember that question? Do you remember the answers to that question? Was Christ's atonement limited or unlimited? There's three points of view on that subject. three points of view, and I don't think you'll ever hear of the way I put them, but I believe that at least the way that I try to put them, set them out are honest and true. There are three points of view, unlimited atonement, faith-limited atonement, and grace-limited atonement. Did we talk about this? There is unlimited atonement, faith-limited atonement, and grace-limited atonement. Remember that, David? Did we talk about that? Really? Okay. I don't remember. The unlimited atonement is universal atonement. That's the belief that Christ died for all men without exception. Therefore, every single person that ever lived one day eventually will get to heaven. That's unlimited atonement. That's the only unlimited atonement that there is. That's the only perspective that there is on unlimited atonement. Everyone eventually is going to get to heaven. Nothing limits the atonement of Christ. We know that's not true from the biblical perspective, and I won't go into the details. The next kind of perspective, the next perspective is a faith-limited atonement, or what's called general atonement. General atonement, that Christ died for all men, all people, without exception, but because some do not believe in Christ's atonement, that some do not believe on the Lord Jesus, they do not receive any benefit of the atoning work of Christ for them. So Christ died for all sins except for unbelief, and therefore faith is the big issue. In this case, the efficacy or the quality of the Atonement is limited not by anything else but by faith. Christ's sacrificial death on the cross is not the defining factor in man's salvation. The defining factor in man's salvation is man's faith or lack of faith. So, that's General Atonement, Faith-Limited Atonement. Any questions on that? So they would say, well, Christ died for all the sins of all the people, but this sin of unbelief that just, he didn't die for that. Well, I got news for them. I got news for anybody that thinks that way. We were all unbelievers and we've sinned many times in unbelief. And sometimes as believers, we continue to sin. I hope, I don't know if you do, but I confess the sin of unbelief a lot. I go to the Lord and say, Lord, forgive me for my unbelief. And He forgives unbelief. And so, Christ's atonement took care of unbelief. So, there's universal atonement, or there's general atonement, and then there's grace-limited atonement, which I think of as intentional or focused atonement. Christ's death was superabounding and more than sufficient to atone for all the sins of all the people that ever lived, but was efficacious and determinative only for those chosen by the Father and given to the Lord Jesus and the covenant of redemption. So the extent of the atonement is limited not by man's faith, but by God's grace. And that's what we believe. That's what we believe our confession teaches. That's what we believe more than that. That's what we believe that the Bible teaches. And so we take texts like Romans 3, 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Or Ephesians 2, 8, and 9, and all of you, most of you know that. For by grace are you saved through faith, not of yourselves. Not of yourselves. That faith didn't come from you. For by grace, you say, through faith, and not of yourselves, it's a gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. So, any questions on the limited, unlimited dimension of the Atonement? Yes, lady. Okay, we're going to get into that, Lord willing, this morning. We're going to talk about that, but we'll get into that. Yeah, that's a good question, but we're going to take all those world and all and all those universal expressions and try to deal with them. Any other questions? Thank you. Thank you for asking a question, and forgive me for not answering right away. Any other questions? And it really is, questions are important. Some of you hold back your questions and say, well, I don't want anybody to think I'm stupid. Maybe you think that way, I don't know. You all know that I'm stupid. I come up with stupid things all the time. But somebody else, if you ask a question, somebody else might have the same question and they don't ask it. Vic? Faith in the atoning work of Christ. I guess that's the whole issue. Yes, but the assumption is that that faith is in the atoning work of Christ. And if you either have it or you don't have it. If you don't have it, well, Jesus died for you, but because you don't have it, He didn't die for that unbelief. And therefore, you won't make it to heaven. And so, the limiting principle there is man's faith. And that cannot be the case. You know, the determining factor for our salvation is not faith, it's Christ and His work. And that's why He gives us faith. He gives us that faith that we need. And so, there's where the breakdown comes, I guess. And it's helpful for us to think through those terms. Okay, any other questions? The fifth question that I came up with here is, was Christ's atonement a perfect atonement? And I hope you understand the answer is yes. With an exclamation point, yes. Absolutely perfect. Let me give you a little bit of a historical background on the five points and also on the subject of the Atonement. There was a man by the name of Jacob Arminius. You've heard of Arminians? Well, this is a weird expression. It's not Armenians. Armenia is a country. But Jacob Arminius is the one that came up with a certain perspective regarding not only the Atonement, but salvation as a whole. And after the death of Arminius, his followers presented their theological position known as the Remonstrance of 1610. The Remonstrance, I think I'm saying that correctly, Remonstrance. In this document, and in later more explicit writings, the followers of Arminius taught election based on foreseen faith. God looked ahead, saw that you would believe, therefore He chose you. No one could deny election, because it's in the Bible. But why does God choose? It's either conditional or unconditional. Conditional election believes He chooses because He sees something in you. So, the Armenians taught election based on foreseen faith. They taught the universal application of Christ's atonement available to all who freely choose to accept it. They taught limited human depravity. They taught the resistibility of God's grace. And they taught the possibility of a fall from salvation. And that was in 1610. In 1618 and 1619, the Reformed Churches of the Netherlands and other Reformed Churches from nine different countries, rejecting the doctrinal statements of the remonstrance, set forth the Reformed teaching on these, and they took those points and they came up with five points to contrast those which they believed were biblical points regarding the doctrine of salvation. Their purpose, according to what I've read, was to provide a deeper assurance of salvation for believers consistent with what they believe the Scripture teaches. So, we have the five points. But the followers of Jacob Arminius came up first of all with five points and they just contrasted them. Now, in the Canons of D.O.R.T., it's pronounced D.O.R.T., in the second section, there's Article 3, 4, and 5 dealing with the death of Christ. I just want to read it to you. First of all, Article 3, the infinite value of Christ's death. This death of God's Son is the only and entirely complete sacrifice and satisfaction for sins. It is of infinite value and worth, more than sufficient to atone for the sins of the whole world. So that was article number three. Article four, reasons for this infinite value. This death is of such great value and worth for the reason that the person who suffered it is, as was necessary to be our Savior, not only a true and perfectly holy man, but also the only begotten Son of God of the same eternal and infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. Another reason is that this death was accompanied by the experience of God's anger and curse, which we, by our sins, had fully deserved. And I think that sets it out so clearly. Article number five, the mandate to proclaim the gospel to all. And I think all this is really important because there's some people... In fact, I was listening to someone last night who was talking about election, and one of the issues that people have with election, well, if you believe in election, then you don't believe in evangelism. Well, that's not true. Here's what the canons and dirt, the article five in the second section says, the mandate to proclaim the gospel to all. Moreover, it is the promise of the gospel that whoever believes in Christ crucified shall not perish but have eternal life. This promise, together with the command to repent and to believe, ought to be announced and declared without differentiation or discrimination to all nations and people to whom God in His good pleasure sends the gospel." It's interesting that in In the remonstrance, they begin with election based on foreseen faith, and then they go to the universal application of the atonement of Christ. And the reformers turned that around, and they figured out this acronym, TULIP, Total Depravity. unconditional election, and then limited atonement. Why did they come up with tulip? Because that was the national flower for the Netherlands, tulip. Was that interesting? Anybody think that was interesting? No? Ken, no? Okay, was the Atonement of Christ perfect? Was it perfect? And the answer I gave was yes. Why? Because Jesus did everything He came to do. Christ's perfect Atonement is proven by the fact of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. 1. Jesus' perfect humanity. The Lord Jesus became one with us. And I don't know if we can really grasp that. He became one with us. He took upon Himself our humanity. And He became one with us, except for one difference. And what was that difference? I'm sorry? He was perfect. Elaborate on that. He never sinned. He who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He was sinless. Hebrews chapter 1. Did I give you these texts? Hebrews 1, 9, 14, 17. I want you to look all these up this afternoon. Spend all afternoon looking at these texts, okay? So, He's perfect humanity. Secondly, Jesus is perfect divinity. He was God, as the canons of dirt say. The death is of such great value and worth for the reason that the person who suffered it is, and was necessary to be our Savior, not only true and perfectly holy man, but also the only begotten Son of God of the same eternal, infinite essence with the Father and the Holy Spirit. He is perfect God. Jesus is one with God. Not only is He one with us, He's one with God. And so we have texts like John chapter 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And verse 14 says, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory as the glory of the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. Hebrews 1.6-8 or Colossians 2.9, for in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. So He's one with us, yet without sin. He's one with God. That's why He's perfect. Thirdly, Jesus perfectly accomplished the Father's will. And we get that in Hebrews 10, 7-14. And Jesus Himself said in that high priestly prayer in John 17, verse 4, He says to the Father, I have glorified You on earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to do. He came to save His people from their sins, and He did it. And that was the fourth one. Jesus saves His people. He saves all of them. When the angel came and announced his birth and told Joseph, he said, You shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins. He didn't say he may save them, or he's going to try to save them. He will save his people from their sins. And therefore, He accomplished everything He set out to do. He accomplished the Father's will. He saves His people from their sins. John 17, 12 again. Those whom You gave Me, Father, I have kept. None of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled. And then, the fifth thing is nothing can be added to Christ's atonement. Salvation is all of the Lord. For by grace you have been saved through faith, not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works that anyone should boast. We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus on two good works. We can't add anything to what Jesus did. You try to put on your human faith, add that to what Jesus did, and it nullifies everything. Nothing, nothing we have can add anything to what Jesus did. We just have to believe in what he did and that faith that we believe is given to us. Any comments or questions? Okay. So we believe that Jesus Christ lived a perfect life and that he died a perfect Substitutionary death. He didn't die for Himself. He died for us. He gave His life for us. Not just to make salvation possible, but to make salvation a reality for billions and billions of sinners, people who were chosen by God and given to Christ and the covenant of redemption before the foundation of the world. Now, that's a whole bunch. Any comments or questions about that? given to Christ for billions and billions. We don't know how many. A number that cannot be numbered, the scripture says. As many as the stars in the heavens, and there's a lot of them. John chapter 6, and this is why we say chosen by God, given to Christ before the foundation of the world. John chapter 6, 37 through 39. All that the Father gives me will come to me. And the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out. For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of Him who sent me. This is the will of the Father who sent me, that of all He has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day." And so we should be able to say, as the hymn writer said, oh, perfect redemption. the purchase of blood to every believer, the promise of God, the vilest offender who truly believes, that moment from Jesus, forgiveness, a pardon, receives. And so, Jesus did everything He came to do. Any comments or questions about that? Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's one of the most important issues there. He does all the work. Shouldn't he get all the glory? And he does. He does. That no one would glory in his presence. Now, as I said before, I want you for either two reasons, because you don't understand and you want to understand, or because you're not sure how to express these things to other people. And you'll get these questions if you talk about the atonement of Christ with your friends, people who, some of them profess to be Christians, some of them don't. How do you express these truths, which are important? How do you talk theology to them? How do you do that? And so ask questions based upon either one of those two things. Yes, Frank? Well, that's my answer too. He didn't, and that was a key issue. In the beginning, the seed of the woman would bruise the head of the serpent. Now, women don't have a seed, at least not from the way we understand it. But somehow the Holy Spirit came upon this woman, Mary, who is a virgin, and she was impregnated with the Son of God. And part of that DNA of that woman connected somehow in a miracle, miraculous work of the Holy Spirit, so that Jesus became, was conceived, and He began to grow in her womb, and then He was born, and just like every one of us, was born into this world. But, the difference was, He didn't have that original sin of Adam. And that's why He could become the second Adam. The scripture calls Him the second Adam. That's how I think about it. Any other comments? Andrew, can you add anything to that? Yeah. And that's insulting to a lot of people. But it shouldn't be. There's a lot of things we don't understand. There's a lot of things scientists don't understand. And somehow God did it and it's a miracle. And miracles are beyond supernatural. They're beyond our understanding. No. Well, He was created. It wasn't conceived at all. Well, yes, but it was a miracle, as Andrew said. Yes, yes, but he was created and he didn't have any sin. He didn't have any sinful tendencies. He was created holy and just and good, and then he made a choice. And that choice created a problem, and he died. And all those who were in him, including us, all of us, we died in Adam. And spiritually, we were alienated away from God, and we are sinners by nature. We came into this world sinful people. We didn't have to sin to be sinful. We were already sinful. That's why we sin. What does that mean? Yeah. Who knows what that means? I don't know. But the Holy Spirit impregnated her somehow, some way, and she conceived a child, and that child was the Son of God, and yet He's also the Son of Man. And that's why He can be a perfect Savior. Yeah, and that's kind of what Andrew was saying. That's the problem. We think that we should understand everything, and yet we hardly understand anything. And we need to come to the place, all of us as God's people, that faith believes things even though we don't understand. We just take what God said and say, I don't understand it, but I believe it. That's why Proverbs 3, 5, and 6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him. He will direct your paths. Andrew? Yeah, that's the whole issue there. It really works back to that point. You've got Christ who is 100% God and 100% man. Well, that doesn't work out in a mathematical way. We cannot fathom how that could exist. And the amazing thing is that for all eternity, he's going to have those same two natures. And that's an incredible reality. And it's wonderful, and it's a miracle, and we just believe it. And we know that it's so, and it's wonderful. Any other comments or questions? Anybody but Ken. Go ahead, Ken. I'm sorry. Adam was created by God, and Adam had We, on the other hand, we don't have that choice. We will always choose evil. Is that correct? I'm not thinking correctly. Well, he had a choice. He could make choices. He had a freedom of, we say, freedom of will to make choices. We, on the other hand, when we came into this world, we had a bias, a bent to sin, rebellion against God. not wanting to do the will of God, not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. And so we have this bent. And God changes our hearts and our nature, but there's still part of us that still feels the bent towards sin. And that's going to be fixed. That's what God's doing in sanctification, changing us and so straightening out that bent. completely. And one day, it's not going to happen in this world, but one day we're not going to have any more bent for sin. Does that answer the question that you had? No? Be honest, go ahead. So, give me the question again. And the reason why is the motivation. What's the motivation? And so often the motivation is self. And we don't. We choose until the Holy Spirit works in our hearts, works in us both the willing and the doing of His good pleasure. And what does He do? He takes out that old heart and gives the new heart flesh so that we're sensitive to the things of God. And He writes His law in our heart and our mind. That's what we need. And bless God, He's done that for many of us. Many of us, He's changed our hearts so that we may not understand a lot of things, but I want to seek after God. I want Him. I don't want to follow my old inclinations anymore. I don't want to have that go in that rut that goes down to that moral dump over here. I don't want to go that way. I'm going in a different direction. That's how we know that God has worked in our lives. We hate sin. And the sin that we hate the most is our own sin and our own sinful ways. Jesus wasn't created. He was a man. Adam was a man. He was a perfect man. There was nothing that forced him to do it. He made a choice, and it was a wrong choice. And because he chose that way, he died, alienated from God. And you have to understand, death, spiritual death is being separated from God. And he was separated from God. We came into this world separated from God. We didn't love God. We didn't want to serve God. We didn't want to worship God. But we can pretend. We can pretend. We make up our own gods and we pretend we worship God. We pretend we pray. We pretend we sing praises to Him. Some people do that. They pretend, but they don't know God. They don't know God, and they don't love God, and their desire is not, they don't hate their sins. So there's lots of issues, and they don't love God's people. Evidences of true Christianity is found in Romans chapter 8, the whole letter of 1 John. Any other comments or questions? Matthew 1 verse 20, when Joseph was pondering on The scripture says, Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary, your wife. For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit being the third person in the Godhead. Yes, you're right. Yes, you're right. But, this is the interesting thing, but here's perfection comes upon this woman who is imperfect. She was a sinner. She needed a Savior. Mary, as much as the Roman Catholic Church wants to build her up as she was immaculate, she wasn't immaculate. She was a sinful person. She needed a Savior. Luke chapter 2 tells us that. She needed a Savior. And perfection came upon imperfection and the product was perfection. And we see that time and time again with God. Perfect God, the Spirit, comes upon imperfect man and they write perfect scripture. And so, perfection, working with imperfection, produces perfection. It always happens because God wants to do that. That's what He does. Yes, absolutely. That's right, absolutely. Everything God does is perfect. Okay? And it just kind of carries all over here to this subject of redemption. Oh, perfect redemption. because God is going to be glorified in this perfect redemption. So the first reason why it's perfect redemption, I said, Jesus did everything He came to do. Secondly, God the Father was perfectly satisfied. And it's important, who did Jesus offer Himself on the cross to? Why did He go to the cross? Did He offer Himself to mankind? Was that an offering to man? Nope. Was that an offering to the devil? Nope. What was that? Offering to God. Look at Ephesians 5. I don't think I put that in your notes, but I just thought of it. Ephesians 5, verse 1. He tells us, Therefore, be imitators of God. Literally, be copycats of God. As dear children, and how do we copy God? Walk in love. Our life should be a life of love. We should obey the rule of love. Walk in love as Christ has also loved us and given himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. So, Jesus gave himself up for us and to the Father And His sacrifice, the voluntary offering of Himself on the cross, perfectly, perfectly, perfectly, underlined perfectly, put it in capital letters, perfectly satisfied the Father. And how do we know that? Well, the Father raised Jesus from the dead. Acts 2, 32-36. This Jesus, God, raised up, therefore being exalted at the right hand of God. Therefore, let all the house of Israel know surely that God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ. We know he's perfectly satisfied because he raised Jesus from the dead. We know that he's perfectly satisfied because God the Father glorified the Lord Jesus. Philippians chapter two, eight through 11. We know he's perfectly satisfied because God's law was exalted and God's justice was satisfied. Isaiah chapter 42, Behold, my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights, he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles, and the Lord is well pleased. For his righteousness sake, he will exalt the law and make it honorable. And Isaiah chapter 53, It pleased the Lord to bruise him. He put him to grief. When you make a sowing offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. And on and on and on. It just it's a wonderful thing. God was absolutely exceedingly satisfied and pleased with everything Jesus did on behalf of his people. And you know what that means? That means he's absolutely, exceedingly satisfied and very happy with those of us who are his people. Because we're in Christ. If he's satisfied with Christ, he's satisfied with me. And talk about not being able to grasp that. Who can understand that? Because here's somebody that's imperfect, but God comes on me, and the product is going to be perfection. Not now, but it's going to be. One of these days, I'm going to be perfect, and so are you. But now we struggle. We have a hard time. We have difficulties. Any other comments or questions about the perfection of Christ's Atonement? Okay, now we come to Lydia's question. I don't know if we'll get very far though, Lydia. What about the texts, question number six, what about the texts that say that Christ died for the whole world? For instance, well, we often hear that text that Lydia quoted, but we'll look at some other ones. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. What does that mean? What does that mean? There are three principles of faith I think it's important to consider and remember. And one of my, and these are my principles which you can disregard them if you want to. But this is the way I put them and this is the way I think. Simple faith is always better than sophisticated faith. Some people don't like simple. I do. And there may be a reason why I like simple. But I like simple and God likes simple. Sophisticated. We don't have to know everything. That's why it's so wonderful for me to get simple. We don't have to know everything. In fact, if we're honest, there are lots and lots and lots of things that we do not understand. And I say it's all right not to understand. And we already talked about that. It's all right not to understand. Questions is, can we fully trust God even when we don't understand? Can we trust His providence in our lives? Can we trust His providence? Can we trust His word of truth? Can we fully trust God when we don't get it, we don't understand? And I'm saying, it's all right. It's all right. You don't have to understand everything. Just trust God. Some people have a hard time doing that. They're analytical, they think through everything, and we gotta figure everything out. And sometimes they tie their minds in knots. I'm so grateful the Lord didn't make me that way. He just made me simple, and I just, I don't think about those things. And I just don't think about them that way. So, can we fully trust God even when we don't understand? What do we do when we don't understand something? There's three possibilities. Maybe there's more, but I thought of three. Question God. When we don't understand something, we question God. Does God really exist? Why did God let this happen? Why, why, why, why? And we struggle with the whys and the what ifs. Why did this difficult thing happened in my life, and here I am. And I have this problem. Why? Why did it happen? And so you can question God if you want to, and I hope you don't. Or you can question yourself. And the question that I ask, I would ask myself, is my understanding the determinative factor for truth? In other words, If I can understand something, then it must be true. But if I can't understand, it must be false or error. Is my understanding the determinative factor for truth? Do I really see the big picture or am I like this, with blinders on, can't hardly see anything? The reality for me? And I'll be so bold to say, in a simple faith, that that's the reality for you. You don't see the big picture, and neither do I. We see a little tiny part of the picture. God sees everything. And so, we can question God, we can question ourselves, or we can trust God anyway. Some people don't like that, but I do. I like that. It's easy for me. Trust God anyway. And I quoted that Proverbs 3, 5 through 7. And what's the next verse say? We don't memorize that. Verse 7. We sing that. or in the 131st Psalm, which is a wonderful Psalm. Let's turn there, Psalm 131. Lydia, we're not gonna get to the questions, I don't think, but we'll get them next time though. Psalm 131, this is the Psalm of David, and this is awesome, really awesome. That's why, to me, it's so good to be simple. Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor my eyes lofty, neither do I concern myself with great matters, nor with things too profound for me, because if I do, my mind will get all scrambled. I'm putting that in there, but that's why. Huh? What were you going to say? I was looking for it. No. That's why I don't do it, because I get all tangled up. And some people get all tangled up in their minds. No, I don't do that. Surely I have calmed and quieted my soul like a weaned child with his mother. Like a weaned child is my soul within me. Now, what does he mean, a weaned child with his mother? Well, what about a non-weaned child with his mother? What does he do? The child that's still nursing, That child's on the take, always wants to get more and more and more. But when they're weaned or when they're satisfied, they're not interested in getting, they're just interested in being near to their mom. They're only interested in being with the mom, like a weaned child with his mother. Just being with mom. In this case, we're not interested in anything. Getting something, getting something, getting understanding. I just want to be with my God. I just want to be near my Savior, like a weaned child from its mother. And to me, it's all about simplicity. Like a weaned child with his mother, like a weaned child is my soul within me. I may not understand this doctrine, or this doctrine, or this doctrine, all this theology. I may not. I try to understand the best I can, but realizing that God put me together in this simple way, and I'm happy that he's made me simple, and therefore, I'm like a weaned child with his mother, and I embrace him, and I'm so grateful that he's given me whatever he's given me, and I don't need anymore. Do you understand that? That's how I see that text. I'm just so content with a little bit that I do understand, and I'm ready to accept God with everything else. Andrew? Yes. and I'm like a weaned child with his mother. That's right, and that's the next point that brings that out. It's not come up with excuses to be a lazy student. We should be students. We should read the word. We should say, Lord, give me understanding, help me, get understanding, get wisdom, the scripture says. I still don't get it. I still don't understand. I still don't get it." Well, then be a weaned child with his mother. Just, Lord, I need you. Just give me yourself. And so the second point is, and thank you, Andrew, always use scripture to interpret scripture. So we, I want to understand, and I want to put forth effort. I'm not just going to sit there and be, stupid and happy about it, I'm going to seek the face of God. So, I use scripture to interpret scripture. Every biblical doctrine has what seems to be problem texts. Every one. For instance, John 14, 28. Turn over there. John 14 and verse 28. Jesus says, You have heard me say to you, I am going away and coming back to you. If you loved me, you would rejoice because I said, I'm going to the Father, for my Father is greater than I. Now, people, Jehovah's Witnesses are one, Others use this text to say, Ha! There it is! How could Jesus be God if the scripture He says Himself, My Father is greater than I? So He can't be God. Talk about simple thinking. So how do we understand that text, My Father is greater than I? Well, the Bible doesn't contradict itself. And so we take the unclear, and this by itself is just unclear and can be confusing, but we take what is unclear, try to understand it with what is more clear in the Bible, because the Bible doesn't contradict itself. And we start with the context. Jesus is speaking in terms of his human role as the servant of Jehovah. Isaiah writes about the servant of Jehovah over and over and over again. And he's the servant of Jehovah. And as the servant, he's his father's servant, come to do his father's will. And in that sense, the father's greater than I. And then using what is clear to understand what is not clear. What's clear? Well, John chapter one, and I quoted this already. John chapter one, in the beginning was the word, the logos. And the Lagos was with God. And the Lagos was God. And you keep on reading down verse 14, verse 2. He was in the beginning with God. So he's talking about this Lagos, this Word, was in the beginning with God. He was God. All things were made through Him. Through who? The Lagos, the Word. And without Him, nothing was made that was made. Who made all things? God. And then verse 14, And the word, the logos, became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And all I'm saying is you take what is clear, and this is clear, and you interpret John 14, 28 in the whole context. Another text, John chapter 5, And verse 18, there was no ambiguity about this with the Jews. Therefore, the Jews... He says, My Father has been working until now, verse 17, and I have been working. Therefore, the Jews saw all the more to kill Him, because He not only broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal with God. So, the Jews understood that. That's why they wanted to kill Him. Because He's telling us He's God. And that makes Him an idolater and a blasphemer. And verse 23, that all should honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Jesus said, you need to honor Me even as you would honor God, the Father. And John chapter 20 and verse 28. John 20 and verse 28. After the resurrection, Thomas understood the disciple. You remember he said, I won't even believe you come back unless I see the nail prints in his hand. And Thomas answered and said to him, after he showed him, he said, my Lord and my God. And Jesus didn't rebuke him. He was right. Jesus is Lord and God. So, all I'm saying is we need to try to understand those parts that are maybe a little bit ambiguous, maybe, to us. We perceive this to be hard to understand. We take those things that are easy to understand and bring it over here and try to understand it through other texts of Scripture. Let Scripture interpret Scripture. That's why we need to be students of God's Word. And that's why I don't want you just to accept everything that comes from the pulpit. Just cart blank. You know, just, I'm just gonna accept it. The pastor says it, or the teacher says it. They should understand, and I just accept it. Don't accept it. Be a Berean. If they were Bereans with Paul, the Apostle Paul, and he was an Apostle, and they checked him out to see if he was saying the things that are Scripture saying, then how much more somebody like me, you need to check me out too. And it may be that, you know, we need to take Scripture and use it to help us understand all Scripture. Any other comments or questions on this? Any? Next week, we're going to get to the next part, and this is the question. Don't forget that question, because I might forget it, Lydia, okay? Let's pray.