The Apostolic Witness of the Person Work of Christ x Aaron Wright

The title for this series that we'll be walking through over the next few months. Very excited about this study that we will be doing. I'm entitled that walking in Light through Love, Walking in Light through Love. I think it would be best or most appropriate if I. Gave a title to the series after I had preached through it. Because I can tell you, by the time I get to the end of studying and preaching through a book, my view on it has changed. But at this point that is my title for the series, Walking in Light through Love, and will begin with the first two verses of the first chapter of First John. So let's read First John, Chapter one and verses one and two. That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, have touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life, the life that was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. John here is beginning this epistle, and he's using his words in very efficient ways. Something that you see in John's writings. There are layers to the things that he communicates and the way he communicates this early portion of this epistle is something that has baffled many scholars because it's something that you read it the first time and you think that you understand it, it makes sense to you, or there's layers to this, and as you begin to read it again, you begin to see areas that begin to confuse you something you thought you fully understood. When you read it again, maybe you don't understand it in the same way because you see something that is contradicting something that you thought you had already under stood. And John here at the beginning of this epistle is beginning it in a similar way to the way that he began his. His gospel, the Gospel of John. And he's also beginning which that which he began. He is the way that Moses began the Book of Genesis in the beginning God. But John here is emphasizing something different here than he was emphasizing in the gospel. It's something that he goes into later on in the gospel, but he emphasizes it here at the very beginning. You see John here is trying to put up some doctrinal fences. He's trying to say that you can't go past this mark. He's dealing with people that like to use words in creative ways, that like to allow words to mean one thing to them and another thing to someone else. And here within this early portion of this epistle, he is emphasizing the necessity of the humanity of Christ and understanding the humanity of Christ as one who existed historically, as one who really existed, and using that in our understanding of the message of Christ. So tying the message of Jesus Christ to the person and work of Jesus Christ, and that being what is communicated through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Because there were people at the time when this is written, just as there are people now who would seek to divorce the message of Jesus Christ from the person of Jesus Christ. And the apostle John says no, he allows for no middle ground. And you will see that as we walk through this epistle, that there are. Two groups of people. There are two places that you can occupy, and there's no middle position. There's no way to compromise the two of these. There are people who are of the kingdom of this world, and there are people who are of the Kingdom of God. There are people who are children of the devil, and there are people who are children of God. John will not, absolutely will not allow you to separate the message of Jesus from the person and work of Jesus. See, Jesus is not just an idea. He's not a theological construct that people of power at a certain time began to press forward. And you can take now at this time and re package in another way that best suits you. He doesn't allow it. He doesn't allow for you to have this idea of a theoretical Jesus, your own personal Jesus that is divorced with no tie to the historical reality and existence of Jesus. The message of Jesus, your friends, is not something that we can just take and massage to suit the whims of a modern culture that will whim this way and whim this way, Jesus says I, and the same he doesn't change. When you begin to divorce the message of Jesus from the person of Jesus, you divorce yourself from Christianity. It's a false religion that you're practicing. You may call yourself Christian, you may associate yourself with Christian history, but you lie far from it. Because you divorce yourself from the very founding principle of the scriptures, that to which everything prior to the cross pointed, and that to which everything after the cross pointed, which is central around the person and work of Jesus Christ. John uses his words in such a way here at the beginning of this epistle to make it clear that Jesus was human. It's something that he does and the beginning of his gospel. It takes him a few verses down where he then goes on and says, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. See. But this Jesus that John speaks of here is one who existed humanly, existed in time and space. Jesus is not just someone. He wasn't just a great prophet who tapped into this greater reality, this greater truth that is out there that you can tap into as well, if you will follow afterwards. No, Jesus is not the Lord of the gnostics. He didn't just tap into this eternal truth. He was the eternal truth. The person a work of Christ cannot be divorced from the message of Christ. And that is why the wording of John here becomes difficult, because you read it and you say, well, he's talking about Jesus. But as you read the wording, it's not talking about who, it's talking about a what. Is being intentional there. He's using words here, even in the Greek and a Newter tense, when normally it would have been an a masculine intense when you're talking about a person. But John here is tying the two together. He is speaking about the person and work of Christ Christ and his humanity and tying it to the eternal purposes of God. And the message of the Gospel. And this is. Something that was passed down, passed down through the apostles, something that they saw, something that they experienced in the reality of time. One commentator makes to this point here his name is Burge, and he says he assumes he's talking about John. That the intimate fellowship in the Christian community is only possible when there is a consensus about the identity and presence of Jesus. Understanding who Jesus is is crucial in Christianity. For christ Christianity, you are practicing a religion where you claim you are saved by grace through faith, not your own doing, not your own works, not your own efforts. So the object of your faith is significant. And if you believe that Jesus is something that Jesus is. Not, then you place your faith in one who is not your messiah, one who cannot save, one who does not have the ability to grant you the salvation. That's why these areas are not something we can just gloss over. We can't just ignore these things and pass over them. Well, you say Jesus is God, I say he's not. You say he was human. I say that he's not. But we all stand behind Jesus for this greater good. You divorce yourself from Christianity when you do that. Ignoring such true ignoring such doctrines undermines what you're trying to proclaim. You end up proclaiming nonsense. You end up proclaiming something that is logically inconsistent and unable to help you, unable to save you. We must make sure we use our words properly to church. We must make sure that others that we speak to understand our words rightly. We live in a time, We live in an error where postmodern thinking is everywhere. It is ubiquitous. We are covered in this. We don't even realize it. Sometimes I tell you a time where it often comes out is we will say, you know, I feel. We really should be using the word I think, but we begin to use the word I feel because we have tied ourselves to this line of thinking and we don't even recognize the ways in which we are saturated in this. We must make. Sure for the good of those we communicate with, that we communicate our ideas clearly, that we understand what others are understanding when we communicate to them, because in the process, you can end up declaring peace peace when in fact there is no peace. You can be assuming agreement when there is in fact great, great disagreement, and in the process you're keeping from the person the one source of hope and salvation that the Lord has given, whereby they can be saved. None of us should desire to be disagreeable, but it's important that there is clarity. There must be agreements and an understanding of unity over the very foundation that Christianity is placed upon, dear friends, Otherwise it's dishonest, we're lying. There's three points I want to pull out of these two verses. The first is eternality, the second is incarnation, and the third is unity. This is all under the idea of the apostolic witness in the person and work of Jesus Christ in the Message of the Gospel. So we have the apostolic witness of the eternality of God and the person of work in work of Jesus Christ. In the Message of the Gospel, John makes it clear that Christ is the eternal God, he has always existed. Secondly, we have the apostolic witness of the incarnation of the Son and the person in the work of. Jesus in the Message of the Gospel. John makes it clear in his wording that Jesus was human, he existed in reality, He's from eternity past. He clothed himself in flesh, and he came and he dwelt amongst his people. And thirdly, we see unity, the apostolic witness of the unity of the Father and the Son and the person in the work of Jesus in the Message of the Gospel. Eternality, incarnation, and unity. First we see the eternality of God and the person in work of Jesus Christ. In John one one it says that which was from the beginning, and John here is tying the ministry and the work of the Son of God, to the very beginning itself. He's tying it to the beginning, as he had done in the Gospel of John, which was tied to the beginning in Genesis chapter one. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He's hearkening you back to these words, these ideas, harkening you back to the eternality of God and the person and work of Jesus, which is what he says, which is what we read earlier in our call to worship in John one beginning in verse one, and the beginning was the Word, and the word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and nothing nothing was made, and without him was not anything made. That was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. And John here is beginning his gospel pointing to the eternality of Christ and the person and world of Jesus Christ, that he was the one from the beginning who brought all things into existence. And he's tying here in this epistle the eternality of Christ in the Apostolic witness, something that was a necessary requirement. One who would believe upon Christ, one who would trust upon Christ, must know he is the eternal God. You must understand. There are a great, great many people who declare that they believe in Jesus. There are people who believe that they are saved by the work of Jesus. But when you begin to get into the details, when you begin to understand the means whereby they think that they are saved, there begins to be great distinctions. It's great divisions here. Some will say doctrine divine, and they look at that as though it's a negative thing. Sometimes it is important. Rightly dividing the word is going to cause division over doctrine, because Jesus can't be God and not God simultaneously. In the same way, a right belief upon Jesus is necessary because we believe that we practice a religion where you're saved by grace through faith. We live in a time where we desire not to emphasize these things, where we desire just to use words and ignore what others are meaning by them. But oh the damage you do, Oh the great consequences that can be there for you are communicating something and calling someone to believe in something, and yet not verifying that they have the right object of their faith. If one man says that Jesus is the eternal son of God, one who has always existed, and someone else says that Jesus is the archangel Michael, who was brought into existence by God, well then you're. Not speaking of the same Jesus. We can't hold hands, we can't gather together and pretend that we're communicating the same ideas. Why is the eternality of Christ so crucial? Why is the divinity of Christ something that is necessary? The eternality of God is something that is necessary, which is even recognized in nature itself. The Greeks declare that God is the uncaused cause. It is clear, it is evident in this world that exists in this world that is changing, this world that is mutable, could not have existed for eternity. Yes, Bertrand and Russell made this point. He said, the universe is all that there is, and that's all. But why what a logically inconsistent statement that which changes cannot be eternal? Eternality necessitates immutability. There had to be a cause for this material world. In Christ, being God, which he declared himself to be, which others declared himself to be, which the apostles declared him to be, which the Church that followed over the centuries declared him to be, is one who has always existed as well. We see Jesus saying. This in his high priestly prayer and John seventeen, in verse twenty three, he says, I in them and you and me, that they may be perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent them and loved me even as you loved me. And Jesus, as he continues to pray, speaks of the time where the Father and the Son had perfect fellowship together. This existence for all of eternity. There's great, great significance in the deity of Christ, so significant that if you begin to step away from the deity of Christ, you no longer have the Christ of the scriptures. And John here is speaking of this. He's hearkening back to Christ being the one. This message of Christ is one that has come from eternity past. This message of Christ is tied to the person and work of Christ. It goes as far back into eternity in the covenant of redemption, the covenant that was made between the Father and the Son, that there would be a people set aside for the Son, that he would redeem. This message exists in eternity past. In the beginning, this message was there not merely in the mind of God, but in existence. You existed in the mind of God prior to you coming into existence. But Christ existed in eternity past, and by decree of God we see this. That's why the nicee in Creed says this, and in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, begotten from the Father before all ages, God from God, Light from Light, true God, from true God, begotten, not made of the same essence as the Father. Through him all things were made. There really is no option here. Christ must be divine. C. S. Lewis gives the famous argument, and he says, if Christ must either be a liar, a lunatic, or he is Lord, For we have Christ, one who forgave sins, one who took the name of God upon himself. He said before Abraham was I Am. And in case you didn't think he was declaring himself to be God. They then picked up stones to stone him Jesus allowed others to worship him right, something that Christians do every Sunday and have been for centuries. Jesus even allowed others to call him my Lord and my God. So if he allows this, if he declares himself to be God and he is not, he is either lying or he is crazy. In both circumstances, He's not someone. That you should be gleaning these great eternal truths from these great truths of the universe. He's not one that she should be seeking to follow. He's one who is immoral, or he's one who is crazy. The other option is left, and that is that he is Lord. And that is the only option that John is leaving you with here to declare yourself to be a Christian. For it is in Christ, your friends, that we are able to become partakers of the divine nature of Christ. We're able to be conformed to the image of Christ. Two Peter one. In verse four, he writes by which He has granted to us his precious and very great promise, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of the sinful desire mere humanity was sufficient. The Lord could have just created another. Man, He could have just made someone else from dust, and he could have gone and done what was necessary. Now, the deity of Christ was significant, was necessary, was required. It is upon Christ and his righteousness that we stand. Christ's righteousness is what allows us to be in the court of Heaven. It is because of him that we can boldly approach the throne of God, because of his finished work, the eternality of God and the person and work of Jesus Christ. John leaves no wiggle room here. You must see the divinity of Christ. You must believe upon the divinity of Christ if you are to be one who calls yourself a Christian. That is a part of the apostolic witness in the message of the Gospel. Secondly, secondly, we see his. Emphasis here upon the incarnation of the Sun, the apostolic witness, of the apostolic witness, of the eternality of the incarnation of Son, and the person in work of Jesus Christ. We see this here. He says that which was from the. Beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of life. You see this sensory language that he is using here in this passage, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, touched with our hands. John's only able to use these kinds. Of words, these descriptive words, because Jesus is what he wrote of him in his gospel, that he was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among them. That's how they were able to see him in to hear him. Jesus being the one who was the eternal God and brought all things into existence from absolutely nothing ex nihilo, as the church fathers would say, is the one who clothed themselves and flesh and dwelt amongst them. This is no minor detail. This is not something that's just merely insignificant that we can just gloss over, that we can pretend, well, this is just something that certain people that are very focused on theology are going to emphasize. This is a crucial aspect of the Christian faith, so much so that John is declaring to you that if you deny this, you no longer have the Christian faith. You cannot be a Christian and declare that Jesus was not human, and there's a great many. There's a great many that have come and claim to worship God, even claim to be Christians and deny the incarnation of Christ. One commentator named Thatcher makes this point. He says, well, the Antichrist would argue that the Church is guided by mystical experience of the Holy Spirit. John insists that the faith is founded on objective realities from. A real moment in human history. John will not allow the Christian religion to be one that is founded upon mere subjective experiences. The Christian religion is one that is founded upon historical realities that occurred in real time with real people in existence. But they have their connection to the eternal God. You have the imminence in transcendence that is there. That is why you had me stumbling through that genealogy as I read the Old Testament passage last week, that we are connected in our religion to historical realities. Something by the way, that makes Christianity different from every other religion in the world, the religions of man. Nowhere else do you have a writing that goes over fifteen hundred years, over three continents, by so many different authors in different languages, all communicating the one truth, the message of God, this great redemptive story, and John is using pronouns. He's going to be using pronouns throughout this epistle, putting people into categories us and them, we and they. He's allowing no middle ground in this area. You can't exist in both realities simultaneously. You can't believe that Jesus was human and believe that he wasn't human, because the understanding of his humanity is so crucial to the Christian faith. Now, there's a history of those who have sought to divorce themselves from the belief that Christ is human, for those known as the docentist, and they believed that the material world is something that was inherently evil, something that was inherently bad. So they believe that Jesus just made him. Look as though he was alive, look as though he was there merely just look as though he died upon the cross. But those that had greater understanding, those that knew the greater gnostic realities, knew the truth that this was just a facade. This is a belief by the way. That some and Islam hold to that God just made it look like Jesus died or just went ahead and put someone else on the cross to die instead of Jesus. So the doosetic idea is something that is still believed in the world today. What I wants you to think about that, Ponder that in your mind. What exactly is this saying about the character of God. What is it saying that God would cause it to look like Jesus died create the scriptures in such a way where you have it standing upon the foundation of something that was in anathema. By the way, in the first century, this idea of dying upon the cross and anathema to Jews and anathema to the Romans, that being the means whereby. People were saved. What does it say about the Lord when millions and millions and millions. Of people would be believing. Upon this, So many foundational errs in this belief, the foundational air not understanding the creation right, you look at the early pages of Scripture. The Lord created everything from nothing. When he created, he said this is good. Some things he even said, this is very good. It is an error to believe that the material world is inherently bad. It is the sin in the world that is bad. The sin is the problem there is an inherent goodness in the creation because it was made by God. There is great significance in the incarnation, the incarnation being a crucial aspect in the Christian religion. Why is it? Why is it necessary to believe in the humanity of Christ? So, oh, dear friends, you must understand that Christ came on your behalf. Christ represented you as the second atom, as Paul writes in One Corinthians fifteen and verse twenty two. For as an atom all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. Christ serves as the federal head. Christ came in his humanity to represent his people and to rightly earn an inheritance for them through his righteous obedience. It was necessary that he was. Human, as Paul says in Romans five, beginning in verse eighteen. Therefore, as one trespass led to the condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads the justification and life for all men. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by one man's obedience, the many were made righteous. See Christ's obedience on the cross did for us in his life, his death, and his resurrection, in him keeping the law in every respect did what Adam did not do. Adam was unfaithful, but Christ was faithful. Ask yourself this question. Could we be saved by a dosetic Jesus? Could a dosetic Jesus act on our behalf one who merely appeared to be human, but wasn't one really Look what Paul says in Romans eight, beginning in verse three. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do, by sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin. He condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in Us, who walked not according to the flesh, but according to the spirit. She Christ walked in flesh. Christ suffered as a man. Christ ex experience the frailties of humanity, which is why we have in the Nicean Creed where they continue. Its is for us and our salvation. He came down from heaven, He became incarnate by the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary. And was made human. He was crucified for us under conscious pilot. He suffered and was buried. See we have in Christ a second atom that was faithful, one who stands as a mediator for us between us and the Lord, as the writer of Hebrews says in Hebrews four in verse fifteen. For we do not have a high priest who was unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. So what can we do, then, he says. This, Let us, then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of Grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. That's what we have in Christ Jesus, one who is from eternity past, one who clothed himself in flesh and entered time and acted on our behalf, that we could be saved. We could be saved by grace and through faith, by trusting upon him. Please, dear friend, I pray that you see the significance here of the eternality of Christ. Christ was the Lord, Christ is God, the significance and the importance of the incarnation of the Son, something that is a part of the apostolic witness, something that cannot be divorced from the person and work of Christ Jesus, which is communicated in the Gospel. And thirdly, thirdly, we see the unity of the Father and the Son, the apostolic witness of the unity of the Father and the Son, and the person and work of Jesus in the message of the Gospel. We see that in verse two of first John, chapter one, it says, the life was made manifest, and we have seen it and testified to it, and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was made manifest to us. And John here is emphasizing the fullness of this message, the fullness of this message, this apostolic message that is being carried forward, and the unity that existed with God, with the Father. There's many that struggle with this idea of the unity of God, the unity of the message of God in the scriptures, and many who struggle as they read passages in the Old Testament. And you'll hear such a person speak very highly of Jesus. They'll say, well, you know, I agree with Jesus. There's some things in the Old Testament I don't really like, I don't really understand. They don't really make sense. Perhaps people at that time didn't understand what they were writing. They didn't have the full picture at that time, and they'll say, well, I agree with Jesus when he makes statements like do not judge. Well, that's not exactly what Jesus said. If you read that passage a little more fully, he actually explains to you how it is that you should be going about judging, or you're even making a judgment there saying. That someone shouldn't judge. But they'll emphasize maybe the love of Christ in some place where Christ talks about love, and they'll contrast that with a story in the Old Testament that makes. Them feel uncomfortable. See. But such a disunity, such a disunity, cannot be demonstrated by anyone who truly understands the scriptures, anyone who's truly. Knowledgeable about the Word of God. You see a message flowing through the pages of scripture. It doesn't mean there aren't passages that are difficult, or passages that we don't fully understand. But there's not a great disunity in the message. You don't have a drastic change in between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament. The New Testament. The Old Testament. Covered a longer period of time, so perhaps there's more stories there that you might be uncomfortable with, and you might need to take that into account. But even looking into the New Testament, you might easily be uncomfortable in reading the Book of Acts and seeing Annias and Sapharah who lied before the church and drop dead because they were lying. You can also find much in the teaching. Of Jesus where he speaks of judgment, where he speaks of people who will be facing hell fire because they die in their sin, because of certain things that they are believing. And these are passages that need to be understood. And other people will see such passages and they will have comfort in them. They'll say, well, he's talking to the Pharisees here. That's just self righteous people. That's who Jesus was really going after. But oh the air the error in such a thought. But you understand that everyone who is trusting in their own works is inherently self righteous. You're trusting in yourself, you're believing upon your own goodness, whereby you can save yourself. There are many people in history that have struggled with this. One man who took it to its logical conclusion was a man named Marcian and Marcian is a man who believed there were actually two gods in the scriptures. You had this kind of angry, mean God of the Old. Testament, and then you had this nice, loving God in the New Testament, which is communicated through Jesus. He's someone who, by the way, was declared to be a heretic. He's someone who taught that Paul was the only true apostle. The others need to be disregarded. Somehow, he still managed to disregard many places in parts of Paul's writing. He disregarded all of the scriptures, the entirety of the scriptures in the Old Testament. Kept only nine epistles from Paul, which he edited. He abridged them slightly so they fit his doctrine. See, some people will do this, all right, Sometimes we'll do this, but we won't be so bold as to actually take pages out. Maybe we'll ignore certain pages, maybe we won't emphasize certain aspects that make us feel uncomfortable. Marcian followed this to its logical conclusion. He just removed it. And he even went so far as to have the Gospel of Marcian, which by the way, looks very similar to the Gospel of Luke, but he claimed that he disregarded the Gospel of Luke and he had his own gospel here. He believed there was. A difference between the God of the Old Testament and the God of the New Testament, and he saw no unity here between them. Sometimes i'm sometimes historically Christians have approached the scriptures in this way. They think of God one way at this time, and then completely differently. Now. You will have so called scholars make statements and say, well, the Jewish writers in the Old Testament were really just writing about what they believed about God at that time, and we have a greater understanding now, And not surprising, they do the same thing with many passages in the New Testament as well. As soon as you begin to take out the eraser and to raise portions of scripture, there's really no limitation. It ends up being the whim of whoever has the eraser in their hand at that that moment. I want to make this argument something that I believe is here in John's point here regarding this apostolic witness, there's no disunity in God. There's no division in the Godhead. The message of Christ that was given is something that was promised, it was prophesied, it was given from the earliest pages of scripture in the past, and in no way contradicts anything. That comes after the Cross. The Old Testament does not contradict the New Testament. There's unity in this message because there is unity in the God who sent Christ. Please understand this. Somehow people will begin to make some kind of an inconsistency here. I've heard pastors go and preach on the death of Christ and declare that the God had was separated at that time period, that God was somehow divided at that time period. I heard one apologist go so far as to make an argument as to say that the Father and the Son separated upon the cross and stand in an eternal state of suffering. What an incredible statement. I'm glad that some of you were a little shocked when I said such a statement. That was preached in an orthodox church in this city. By the way, but such is not the true. It's not the case. See sometimes in our sentimentality, in our emphasis upon manned centeredness, we begin to emphasize something that is not there. And what I want to communicate to you is the message of the Gospel and the person in the work of Jesus Christ, which that gospel is communicating through the person in work of Christ. What he actually accomplished is something that the Father and the Son were united in. It's not as though the Father was fretting and he didn't know what he was going to do. It's not as though he was tearing the god Head apart. Friends, You'll find no such wording in the scriptures. Psalm twenty two, by the way, the Psalm that Jesus references when he is on the cross, when it says, my God, My God, why have you forsaken me? That, by the way, is how he felt in his humanity at that time. And that, by the way, is also the psalm to which he is pointing people to. Because that's the name of the psalm. They didn't call it Psalm twenty two. They called it, my God, my God, why have you forsaken me? And it says in verse twenty four of Psalm twenty two, for he has not despised nor abhorred the affliction of the afflicted, nor has he hidden his face from him, but has heard when he cried to him. Wasn't as though the Godhead was separated. They were working in perfect unity the Father and the Son, and I would go on to say the Holy Spirit as well. Peter has this view as well in Acts chapter four, beginning in verse twenty seven, and he says this in his prayer. He says, for truly, in this city there were gathered together against your Holy Servant, Jesus, whom you anointed both herod and conscious pilate, along with the gentiles and the peoples of Israel, to do whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place. It was the intent of God. He wasn't trying to figure out what to do. Yes, men acted sinfully. Men will be held accountable for the sin that they committed. But in the actions of these men, the Lord was accomplishing. His good purpose to bring to fruition the. Promise that he had made in the garden that a child of the woman would crush the head of the serpent. I want to point you again to Isaiah fifty three a beginning in verse ten, and says, Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him. He has put him to grief. When his soul makes an offering for guilt, he shall see his offspring and p long his days. The will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. It was the will of the Lord that Christ would die upon the cross. God can't be divided. That is early, early in the pages of scripture. First off, if we're going to be separating God, you're creating a change in God. And as I said before, eternality necessitates immutability. God can not change. There can be no variation or change in God, and he can't be divided. That was a declaration in the Shemah. In Deuteronomy six, beginning in verse four says hero Israel, the Lord, our God. The Lord is one, and you shall love the Lord, your. God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might. And did not Jesus even say a kingdom divided cannot stand. If that's true, how could there be a division in God? The Lord, the very foundation upon which this universe is held together, the foundation upon which we stand. In the person and work of Jesus Christ, the Father and Son have had perfect fellowship and unity for all of eternity. That's the message that is communicated here. That is what he is calling them to believe in this apostolic But they have never had different goals. They have never had different purposes. That is the beauty that we have here in the religion that we have, that they are united. He's calling there to be unity amongst the people, unity amongst the people, and why because there's unity in God. He says this in John seventeen. I begin to reference it earlier seventeen and versse. Of thee and I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you, Holy Father, Keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one, no division and God. And we are to be united as a church, as a people, as a people who. Were called by God, regenerated by the Holy Spirit, united by the person and work of Christ, because there's unity in God. And that unity in God was made manifest through the person and work of Jesus Christ and accomplishing the will of God on behalf of the people. That's demonstrated in a few ways. It's demonstrated in Christ being resurrected from the dead, in Christ descending sitting at the right hand of the Father, which is why the Nicee in Creed goes on. It says this and the third day, he rose again. According to the scriptures, he ascended to heaven and deceated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. His kingdom will never end. Unity of God to the person and work of Jesus Christ, there can be no separation between the message of Jesus and the work of Jesus. When commentator named Jackman says this, he says, Christ is the Gospel, the person. In work must be held together. And this is what is united in this apostolic witness, the message of the Gospel, which is communicated through this apostolic witness, where they declared Christ to be the eternal God, very God of very God, the one who brought all things into existence, is now remaking this creation that was damaged in the fall. He's making a live of that which was dead. The first time he brought from absolutely nothing something into existence, and now he's making something that is dead and decaying and bringing it to life. Like when Ezekiel speaks to the bones and they're laying there, they're dry and they're dead, and they're coming to life. See, that is the effect of the word of God. The work of Jesus Christ, through the Spirit of God, creating in the beginning and now recreating here in the work of the Gospel. Secondly, we saw the apostolic witness of the incarnation of the Sun. The significance that is there, the importance that is there, the fact that apart from the humanity of Christ, you have no Christianity. That Christ came on our behalf. Christ served as a second atom. Christ kept the law in every respect. Christ was tempted, Adam fell, Adam failed, Christ was faithful. Christ was triumphant, and we stand upon his victory. We have an inheritance waiting for us in glory. In this gospel message is something that comes from eternity past, carried from even the eternity of God. In that covenant that was made between the Father and the Son, there would be a people that the Son would say for himself, they would be redeemed. The Lord wasn't fretting in the garden. The Lord wasn't fretting when Christ was on the cross. He was accomplishing his plan. He was bringing to pass that which he decreed he would do. There is no change in God. There is no variation within the God had they have for all eternity, had perfect unity, had perfect love one for another, and have perfectly done that which they have chosen to do, and that which they determined they would do from eternity past. They brought to pass through the person and work of Christ. As he came and clothed himself in flesh and lived a perfect life, and died as a propitiation for the sins of his people. He was then resurrected, demonstrating his innocence, pointing forward to what would happen to those who believe upon him, and also recognizing inphansizing the beauty of the creation of God. For we have now sitting at the right hand of God, a man who mediates on your behalf, one who you can go to. Think of the Old Testament. Once a year, one man would go into the most Holy Place. Once a year, one man would go and do a sacrifice for his own sins before he went in. Anyone that went in there any other time would be killed, dying before the presence of God because of their own sin. Oh, Christ and his covenant. Is it not greater? Is it not of greater significance? Does not have a greater impact upon the people for in Christ, we can now boldly approach the throne of God because of Christ in what he has done in Christ, accomplishing the plane of God through his work upon the Cross. Don't look at these it's just doctrines that divide. See them as the very foundation upon which life can be gained. See these doctrines as something that apart from which you no longer have a Christianity, that apart from which you are no longer a child of God. See because the message of Christ, the message of Christ that you are called to trust in, has a particular object, and that object is the person Jesus Christ, who has existed for all eternity, and who clothed themselves in flesh and came into time and acted on behalf of his people and acted under the plan of God. Apart from that, there is no salvation. Apart from that, there is no hope. Apart from that, there is no life. And that's going to be John's emphasis as we walk through this epistle, that there is light and there is darkness. Light is in Christ and rightly understand Him, and darkness is apart from Christ. You can live in this world apart from. Christ, or you can live as a child of God, walking in a way that trust in the person work of Christ. Do see these truths, understand the significance of them, grow an ununderstanding of these that you can rightly communicate these truths to other people. The significance of the divinity of Christ, the hopelessness you would have apart from it, No man could do what Christ did, the significance of the humanity of Christ. You needed one who would come on your behalf, who could serve as your federal head, who could do what you couldn't do for yourself, who could make right what was wrong in the garden. Praise be to God he has given to us in his great plan, Christ, Jesus, the one who has come on our acted on our behalf, whereby you can have life, have life abundantly, and in him you can be saved. Oh let's pray, Oh Father God, you have blessed us in such significant and fantastic ways as you have given us Christ, Jesus, Christ, the one who, as we have declared many times, is very God of very God, and one who we have declared as human and acted on our behalf and did for us what we absolutely could not accomplish. Throw in efforts. You have given to us an eternal inheritance, an inheritance that is granted to us by nature of the person and work of Christ, Jesus, one who clothed himself in flesh and entered time on our behalf. Apart from rich. We're without hope, apart from which we are lost. We thank you for the greatness of Christ, the beauty of Christ. Thank you for Christ and all that he is, and all that he continues to do on our behalf, and all that he will do for all of eternity. Pray this and the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen.