Two Natures in One Person, Part 1

Centrality of the Person of Christ

0:00 Most of you, I am sure, are familiar with that incident in the life of our Lord Jesus Christ when he asked the disciples, who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?

0:16 And various responses were given, and then the Lord asked the question, but who say ye that I am? In Peter's confession, which reflected on the part of the disciples a proper conception of the nature of Christ's person, the identity of his person, our Lord then goes on to say, is the very pivotal issue in the church that he himself will build. Because of that biblical perspective, one saint of God of a bygone generation has said that the grand distinction of Christianity is that all its doctrines and all of its forces center in the person of its founder and teacher.

1:03 All of its doctrines and all of its forces center in the person of its founder and teacher. in all other religious systems, it is the teaching of the religious leader that forms the center. But with the Christian faith, it is the person of the teacher that forms the center and the basis of all of its forces. Now, this is not to demean the teaching of our Lord. Every disciple is to be taught all things that Christ has commanded. He is not only the priest and the king of his church, he is the prophet to whom we are to hearken in all things. But that which makes his priestly and

1:53 kingly and prophetic functions effectual is this matter of who is that person who functions as prophet, priest, and king. And the influence and effect of his offices is directly dependent upon the nature of his person. And therefore, in this series of studies dealing with fundamental, pivotal doctrinal issues, a series entitled Here We Stand, we are spending a disproportionate time in examining the biblical materials relative to the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, the central figure in the salvation we receive and proclaim to men. Eventually, we hope to consider what the

2:38 scripture says concerning the mystery of his person, the majesty of his offices, and the efficacy of his work. But the majesty of his offices as prophet, priest, and king, and the efficacy of his work in the fulfillment of those offices is directly dependent upon the mystery of his person. It is what he is as true God and man, one person in two distinct natures forever, which gives weight and power and efficacy to all that he does as the prophet, priest, and king of his people. Week after week, as we've been examining the biblical materials, you have been reminded that the historic formulation of the biblical doctrine of Christ

3:27 includes three irreducible elements. And if you've been here longer than two months and cannot by now recite them, shame on you. That historic formulation is, and if it were not for the fact that these things go out on tape, then perhaps it might be a good teaching lesson for some who listen. I trust by now we could say them in unison.

3:47 That formulation asserts, number one, that he is truly God. Number two, that he is truly man. Number three, that he is one person in two distinct natures forever. We've looked at the major biblical portions which demonstrate his godhood.

4:06 We've looked at the major scriptural portions which demonstrate his true manhood, that he had a true human body, that he had a true human soul, with mind and affections and will that were a human mind, human affections and human will. And now we come this morning to begin the demonstration of the third part of that historic formulation of the doctrine of Christ, that he who is truly God, previously demonstrated, he who is truly man, previously demonstrated, is one person in two distinct natures forever. Now as we think our way through this that I've already suggested is one of the most delicate aspects of biblical revelation, we shall do so first of all this morning by considering what I'm calling a word of caution and exhortation.

Word of Caution: This Is Holy and Difficult Ground

5:03 And that's as far as we'll go today. A word of caution and exhortation which will set the field for that which will follow, namely, a word of summary explanation. What do we mean when we say the Scriptures teach he is one person in the two natures forever? And then a brief scriptural demonstration of that reality. And finally, a word of practical application. Those last three will be the substance of our study next Lord's Day morning, God willing.

5:37 But now, this morning, just a word of caution and exhortation. The word of caution. In attempting to formulate a just conception of precisely how one person can be both God and man, God and man in such a way that the two natures remain unmixed Godhead and unmixed manhood, and yet the two natures comprise the one person, we are in dangerous waters in which many have made shipwreck and drowned themselves. When the human mind begins to contemplate the biblical data, we've looked at those five groups

6:24 of witnesses that assert that Jesus Christ of Nazareth is truly God. He is called God. He possesses the attributes of God. He does the works of God, bears the names and titles of God, receives the full spectrum of divine worship due only to God. He is truly God. And yet we looked at the biblical testimony in the period of preparation, the Old Testament, the period of manifestation in the New Testament, the period of explanation in the epistles, and they all tell us he was truly man.

6:57 He had sweat glands. He had a mind that had to develop. He could bleed. He could suffer. He could be surprised. He could be ignorant. He is true man. And the data is overwhelming. We can't believe the Bible without saying he is the man, Christ Jesus. But now, when we begin to ask the question and attempt to answer it.

7:20 How can one person be both God and man in such a way that the Godhood does not become something less than Godhood by its proximity to the manhood, and that the manhood does not become something more than humanity by its close proximity to the Godhood? How can it be that he can remain truly God, truly man, in such close proximity as does not disturb the Godhead nor the manhood, but at the same time, one integrated, whole person called our Lord Jesus Christ. And it is in the attempt to answer that question that multitudes have made shipwreck concerning the faith,

8:08 and if not actual shipwreck, they pierced the hull with many and grievous holes that have caused them to sail in a tilting list position which has greatly hampered progress in grace. An able student of another generation wrote concerning this very thing, Undoubtedly we freely admit that just here, that in the constitution of the God-man lies that which is to us the absolutely insoluble mystery of godliness. The man who wrote this was a man whose mind was filled with as much theological learning, born of as much theological study and reading as any man in his generation.

8:58 Yet as an old man, he says, this very problem of the one person and the two natures constituted to him the absolutely insoluble mystery of godliness. How is it possible that the same person can be at the same time infinite and finite?

9:20 Omniscient and ignorant. Omnipotent and helpless. How can two complete spirits coalesce in one person? How can two imaginations, two wills constitute one person?

9:38 All this is involved in the scriptural and church doctrine of the person of Christ, yet no one can explain it. The numerous attempts made to explain this mystery have only filled the church with heresies and obscured the faith of Christians. End quote. And you see, it was the unhallowed attempt to pry open this mystery beyond what is written, which has filled church history with such terrible names as Nestorianism, Eutychianism, Apollinarianism, Monarchianism, and all other kinds of isms.

10:21 And when you put them all together, you know what they are? You boil them all down. It's man's attempt to explain the unexplainable. man's attempt to explain the unexplainable.

10:35 So my word of caution on the very threshold of this study is that we are not driving down an eight-lane, freshly laid superhighway straight as an arrow.

10:49 The Garlington's who are visiting with us this weekend, Mrs. Garlington happened to mention something of her experience when she was in Switzerland and had a 20-minute ride down a mountain road screaming all the way because the man went down that mountain in a controlled skid all the way with little narrow roads and jagged precipices. Well, you see, usually, at least in our country, when you come on such a road, there will be big signs saying, Sharp curves, deep grades, drive with caution. You don't enjoy the scenery going down a road like that.

11:24 I mean, you get out on an eight-lane highway, not much traffic, straight as an arrow, big wide shoulders. There's a sense in which you can still be a careful driver and drink in the scenery. But you're going down one of those mountain passes, you better forget the scenery. And keep your eye on the edge of the road, keep the eye on your speedometer and what's coming the other way.

11:41 Well, we're not on an eight-lane highway in these next couple of Lord's Day mornings. We're going down narrow, narrow roads with signs on every side saying, drive carefully. Danger, danger, danger. That's the word of caution. Now, the word of exhortation.

First D: Dependence on the Holy Spirit

12:00 As we seek to approach this subject in the way that the scriptures demand we approach it, my exhortation is comprised of three words this morning, and I'm greatly encouraged to exhort, because in the previous hour we were instructed from Romans 12, he that exhorteth his exhortation, Give himself to it. Well, this morning, I will not be so much the teacher. I make no claims to be a prophet. I shall assume the role of the exhorter. And my exhortation focuses or finds its expression under three simple words, dependence, determination, and definition.

12:37 Three words beginning with D. Should be easy to remember. Dependence, determination, and definition. As we approach this third element of the historic doctrine of Christ, that he who is God and man is one person in the two natures, I solemnly exhort you as I have been exhorting myself in these weeks of preparation to an attitude of dependence.

13:04 If ever there was a call to humble dependence upon the Holy Spirit to teach and instruct us, it is at this point in our study. In the passage read at the very beginning this morning, Matthew 16, when Peter was enabled rightly to identify the person of Christ with the words, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. You remember our Lord's response in Matthew 16. He said, Blessed art thou, Simon, son of Jonah, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father who is in heaven.

13:42 In other words, our Lord is saying, Peter, if you can say, not as something you've learned by rote from others, if you can say with a verbal expression that is but the articulation of what you see and believe in your heart that I Jesus of Nazareth am indeed as to my person the co co Son of God I am God the Son, and that as God the Son I am the promised Messiah, your true prophet, priest, and king Peter. if you see in me what to the world is just the man Jesus, or at best a prophet with unusual power from God to perform miracles,

14:27 Peter, if you see in my person that which I truly am, you have not come to discover this by virtue of human instruction. Flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee. Peter, there has been a mighty operation of my Father by the Spirit giving you this revelation. And therefore, if we are properly to understand our Lord Jesus Christ, and rightly to think of Him when we worship Him, rightly to think of Him as we hold conscious communion with Him, we must not only think of Him as true God and true man, but think of Him in terms of what He is.

15:09 one person in the two distinct natures forever. And if we are to arrive at a proper conception of that from the heart as well as in our minds, it must be as the Holy Spirit is pleased to grant us that illumination. In other words, as we come to behold our Lord as revealed in Scripture, one person in two distinct natures, We do not come to behold Him thus with a rude carnal gaze. We put our shoes from off our feet.

15:46 We draw near with the humble prayer of the psalmist, Open Thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law. We come with a spirit of dependence upon God the Holy Ghost, that He would do His most delightful work. If I may speak without being irreverent, there is one work above all others that the Holy Ghost delights in, and that's the work of testifying to Christ. He shall take of mine and reveal it unto you.

16:19 And it is His delightful work, but God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble. The Holy Spirit is grieved and quenched in a mind that does not cultivate a sense of humble dependence upon him. And it's my own conviction that the heresies and confusion on this point of Christian theology are the righteous judgments of God upon carnal confidence. You hear me?

16:48 The heresies and the confusion are the righteous judgments of God upon people who approach the subject with carnal confidence rather than humble dependence upon God the Holy Spirit. So then I exhort you to cultivate the spirit of dependence. Pray throughout the week, O God, as we gather next Lord's Day morning to contemplate the biblical materials that demonstrate that the Lord Jesus is one person and to contemplate that in that one person are two distinct natures. Lord, this mystery is beyond me.

17:28 This mystery is too high for me. I cannot attain to it. Oh, God, by your Spirit, teach me of your dear Son. May we labor at cultivating this week that spirit of dependence in preparation for our further consideration.

Second D: Determination Not to Fall Short or Go Beyond

17:46 Then the exhortation has a second word, which is the hinge of the exhortation. It is the word determination. And I use it to describe a spiritual determination to resist the influence of our natural thought processes as human beings.

18:06 What is our great glory in distinguishing us from the beast can be our greatest curse. One of the things I most admire in unfallen man, and wonder what it will be like to be restored to that state in the world to come, is to have a mind that is never lazy, that is never indolent, but is never active out of bounds. You see, sin has so perverted us that our minds are dull and slow where they ought to be filled with alacrity, and then they want to run off half-cocked where they ought to stop and not be active. And so the great things that ought to occupy our minds lie undiscovered, and the things that are none of our business, we're always plying into them.

18:52 That's why the Scripture says, The secret things belong unto the Lord, but the things that are revealed are for us and for our children, that we may do them. You see? And so we need to come to this subject with a cultivated determination that we will not fall prey to that sin by which sin itself entered the human race. For involved in the first temptation of Genesis 3 was this very sin.

19:24 Adam would have knowledge in some other way than the way appointed of God. The tempter says to him, God knows that in the day you eat, you will be as God's knowing. God is seeking to withhold knowledge from you by his prohibitions. And Adam, rather than saying, I shall have no knowledge, but that knowledge which comes to me within the framework of revealed will from my God, Adam says, I will have a knowledge at the expense of submission to God.

19:59 That's why the scriptures, when describing sinful mankind, can use such phrases as we find in Ephesians 2 in the early verses where the apostle speaks of the lust of the flesh and of the mind. And he talks in chapter 4 about the vanity of the mind. What do we learn from this? We learn in the language of 2 Corinthians chapter 10 that we must come to this subject with a determination to cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and have every thought brought captive to the obedience of Jesus Christ.

20:42 We don't often think of the sanctifying process with reference to the activity of our minds, but we ought to think more of it. Just as progressive sanctification is evidenced when in the passions of our body, more and more they are brought into line with the precepts of the Word. so we ought to measure our progress in sanctification in terms of our minds. Are we more and more content to meditate upon what is revealed and to mind our business concerning what is not revealed?

21:15 Or are we less and less concerned with what is revealed and more and more preoccupied with that which is none of our business? I say we need determination. a determination that we will not go beyond what is written. If you believe only as much as you understand with full comprehension, the object of your faith is pitifully small.

21:40 You say, what I can't fully comprehend, I won't believe. That's the basic problem of that poor deluded Jehovah's Witness that comes to your door. He talks so smart-mouthed about the tree. Look at Jesus praying to his Father.

21:54 Ha, ha, ha. You don't use that? What is that? It's the sheerest form of uncrucified rationalistic thought.

22:02 If I cannot comprehend how the one God can have within the one divine essence three subsistences, Father, Son, and Spirit, I won't believe it, says the Russellite. You see, if you will not believe what you cannot fully comprehend, you can't even believe in yourself because you can't fully comprehend yourself. You listening to me this morning? What's listening to me?

22:24 Certain sounds are being forced up out of my diaphragm, over my larynx, and my mouth and teeth, tongue, all the speech apparatus working. Certain vibrations are going out, and they're landing on your outer ear. And then they're getting transmitted to the inner ear, and then along the nerve to your brain. Now, that's a physical phenomenon.

22:43 The sounds that are being emanated, they will actually move this paper as I speak. and yet those very words become thoughts that create emotion. Will you explain to me how physical vibrations coming over my larynx having a physical effect upon your ear are instrumental to the creation of emotion? Explain that to me.

23:07 Come on now, just get that all out where I can see it in the test tube. Well, you can't do it. We're fearfully and wonderfully made. What is the interaction between spirit and mind and body.

23:21 Why one so interpenetrating? We can't explain it. Well, you see, if we can't understand ourselves, should we be surprised that we cannot fully comprehend God? If the finite cannot even look upon its own finity with full comprehension, how do we expect to look upon infinity with full comprehension?

23:40 So if you don't even believe what you can fully comprehend, the object of your faith is pitifully small. As one has so quaintly said, faith is reason at rest in God. I would go beyond it and say, faith is reason at rest in God insofar as God has revealed Himself in Scripture. And what is faith?

24:04 Embracing all that He's revealed and asking for nothing more beyond what is revealed. and we need a constant spirit of determination to maintain that spiritual posture. Unmortified human understanding errs in three directions and we're going to turn to the scripture now to look at the examples. First of all, it will fall short of embracing all that's revealed.

Luke 24 and the Foolishness of Picking and Choosing

24:33 And how does God feel about that? Well, look at Luke 24.

24:37 Some of you may say, well, I thought this was a Bible preaching church and we haven't opened our Bibles this morning. Well, preaching the word does not necessarily mean flipping through a lot of pages. You've gotten a good bit of Bible thus far, but you haven't been flipping through pages.

24:53 How does this unmortified mental attitude manifest itself where there is not this determination that I've been describing? Well, on the one hand, it will fall short of embracing everything that's revealed. Luke chapter 24. You remember the incident?

25:09 Our risen Lord meets two men on the road to Emmaus. And they're downcast. They really have got a severe case of depression.

25:21 They're in the doldrums. And our Lord begins to speak to them and ask them what's the trouble. And they said, have you been around these parts? And don't you know the terrible tragedy?

25:30 The one upon whom all our hopes were pinned. He's had it. They've taken him. They've killed him.

25:35 And all our hopes died with him. Now look what the Lord says. Verse 25. And he said unto them, O foolish man and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken.

25:50 Behoved it not the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Beginning from Moses and from all the prophets he interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. You see what their problem was? they were picking and choosing, and then on the basis of what they picked and chose, they drew unwarranted conclusions. They saw prophecies that spoke of the triumph of Messiah's kingdom, spoke of the conquering reign of Messiah. They looked at all those things, said, we believe those. Messiah will conquer, will reign. But what about Messiah as the suffering servant who must be rejected, must be despised, who must be bruised, who must be numbered with the transgressions who must pour out his soul unto death. They chose not to believe that. So on the

26:38 basis of what they picked and chose to believe, they drew some unwarranted conclusions, namely that if he's going to be the conquering, reigning, triumphant Messiah, then suffering and death can have no place in Messiah's history. Therefore, you see, all their therefores were built upon an inadequate premise. And the Lord says, fools and slow of heart to believe all that is written. Now, you can get rid of some of the problems of this great mystery.

27:08 Truly God, truly man. One person, two distinct natures. Now, if you're going to be a fool and slow of heart to believe all that's revealed, you can get rid of some of the tension and problem of that. You can just take the passage to say, truly God.

27:25 And then think of him as a man in such a way that all he has is a human form in which the divine Logos dwells. That was one of the earliest heresies. That rids you of the tension. Because you only then have one nature, the divine nature.

27:40 And then you have just the physical form that our Lord has assumed. But it the divine mind that thinks and feels and wills and all the rest You don have a human mind What have they done Fools and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have said

27:58 Now that tendency will be with us. Some of you will sit here, and as we begin to expound the biblical materials, simply lay them out that say he is one person. But in that one person, two distinct natures, two centers of consciousness, two wills. You say, no, no, no, I can't, I can't.

28:18 Oh, fool and slow of heart to believe all that is written. God doesn't ask you to sort it out. He asks you to believe it. That's what he calls upon you to do.

28:29 Well, on the other hand, there's the other temptation to go beyond what is written. You see, sin is so affected the human mind and spirit that we will either fall short of believing all that is written or in the language of 1 Corinthians 4, 6, we will go beyond what is written. 1 Corinthians 4, verse 6. Now these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself in Apollos for your sakes, that in us ye might learn not to go beyond the things that are written.

29:07 And it's that little phrase. Not to go beyond the things that are written. John puts it more graphically and certainly from an exegetical standpoint. It is more germane to the point this morning.

29:21 You remember how he concludes his letter to the seven churches in Revelation 22, 18. He brings these two tendencies together and says the curse of God rests upon both of them. Revelation 22 and verse 18. I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book.

29:41 If any man shall add unto them God shall add unto him the plagues which are written in the book And if any man shall take away From the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part from the tree of life And out of the holy city Which are written in this book See the twofold tendency Some want to add If only God had said this And since he hasn't said it I'll make quote, necessary deduction, say it. I'll make inescapable human logic, say it. Or they'll use the phrase, the first laws of the human mind, say it. If anyone adds, beware.

Warning Against Adding to or Taking from Scripture

30:23 Others say, well, I just wish God hadn't... That just makes too much confusion.

30:28 Why did God have to make it so plain? He was truly and fully man. Show us his tears. Show us his ignorance.

30:35 We read about his ignorance this morning. The sun knows not of that day. Why did God embarrass us? I mean, it's too obvious.

30:43 There was a human mind with human limitations.

30:47 There was a sense of human frustration. What? Could you not watch with me one hour? God can't feel frustrated when people let Him down, but men can.

31:00 And our Lord in the garden spoke as a true man. What? Could you, the objects of my love and patience, Could you not watch with me? Let's delete some of that.

31:14 That's too obvious. A real man. Let's get rid of it. No, no, my friend.

31:18 Don't add. Don't take away. Leave the words of the prophecy as they stand. So on the one hand, the tendency to fall short of embracing all, and we'll feel it.

31:29 You'll feel it as we get into the materials next week. I'm no prophet, but I know you're going to feel it. and some of you are going to feel the tendency to go beyond what is written. And then thirdly, there is the feeling that what is written is inadequate.

31:45 If only God would give us something more. Now you know where that spirit comes from. You just read Luke 16. The rich man in hell said, what is written is not enough.

31:55 Let somebody go back from the dead. Give them something more. And the word of God is they have Abraham and the prophets. That's enough.

32:04 That's enough. And we need to have a determination wrought of the Spirit of God in our hearts as we come to this delicate subject and all biblical subjects that we shall be content to live with the mystery, determined to believe all that is revealed, to construct no category that is not revealed, and to be content that nothing more has been revealed. you see it takes a mighty operation of the spirit even to prepare us to handle the word of God we're a helpless bunch aren't we the only book to give us light and knowledge we can't handle it aright unless God by the spirit fits us and equips us so to handle it so my exhortation is

Third D: Definition and the Value of Chalcedon

32:50 first of all as we come to this subject there must be dependence secondly determination and thirdly, there must be definition.

33:03 Now what do I mean by that? I exhort you not to be impatient with precise definition. In the unfolding of this doctrine, I shall make repeated references to a non-scriptural creed, in the sense that it's not found within the pages of Scripture. In 451 AD, a group of people met together in an event that is called, in church history, the Council of, some say, Chalcedon.

33:34 My dictionary says the proper pronunciation, at least the anglicized pronunciation, is Chalcedon. So I shall refer to it as Chalcedon, simply because that's what my dictionary tells me I ought to do as an American in the mid-20th century. Those of you who are purist of language, you may have to correct me afterwards. But at the Council of Chalcedon, there was a definition given to the biblical materials.

34:01 And that definition has become the abiding possession of the Church of Christ, not as an explanation of the mystery, but as the Church's unanimous consent against every human effort to explain the mystery. for every single effort to explain the mystery landed the church in a heresy. And definition at this point is so essential and I'm going to commit the unpardonable sin according to the homiletics experts and I'm actually going to read from a book on theology and a worship service on Sunday morning. But since my Bible says let all things be done unto edification and I believe this will edify I'll listen to Paul and I'll deny Broadus any obedience at this point.

34:49 For those of you who don't know, Broadus is one of the masters in homiletics and I'll listen to Paul and do this unto edification. Speaking on this very area of the help that can come from the formulation of the creed, he says that the success and enduring influence of any construction of truth, be it secular or sacred, depends as much upon exact terminology as upon close and deep thinking itself. Indeed, now follow, unless the results to which the human mind arrives are plainly stated and firmly fixed in an exact phraseology, its thinking is to very little purpose in the end.

35:34 Now get this statement. A man by the name of Hewell said, terms record discoveries. Terms record discoveries. That's why we believe in what we call plenary verbal inspiration.

35:52 In the language of Paul in 1 Corinthians 2.12, we believe that the thoughts of God are embodied in the very words that God chose. So Paul says, which things we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but in words which the Holy Ghost teacheth.

36:11 And so Shedd is saying, terms, quoting Hewell, record discoveries. And then he goes on to illustrate this. we may see something with crystal clearness, but if we do not express it in exact phraseology, no one else will share in the joy of our discovery. A young preacher went to an older preacher, who was known for his great ability as a preacher, and he asked him, he said, Sir, will you come and listen to me preach? I'd like your honest assessment of my gifts and my proficiency as a preacher. So the older preacher came and listened to the young preacher.

36:47 The next day he went into his study and said, sir, what comments do you have to make? He said, well, the major comment I'd make is this. Young man, you spent half an hour desperately trying to get something out of your own head rather than spending half an hour efficiently getting something into my head. And you see what his criticism was?

37:08 He may have had clear thought, but indistinct expression meant there was no clear communication. You see? Now, when we come to the subject of the mystery of Christ person, we're coming to a subject to use one of the illustrations of Warfield, which the church has wrestled with, and he uses the figure of a pendulum. And as the pendulum swings, you know, if you give it a good swing, it'll go to the extreme of its arc, come back, and then as the law of gravity begins to work upon it, each arc is a little bit less right and left of center until it comes to rest dead center.

37:46 Warfield goes on to say, in the first few centuries of the church, this is what happened. The Christ who was worshipped by the people of God was worshipped as God and man. One person in two natures. Then when the people of God sought to give expression to this, some were so concerned to give expression to the fact that He was one person, they threw the pendulum way over here.

38:09 And they denied the distinction of His natures. Then you know what happened? Someone said, no, no, Our Christ is truly God and truly man, one person. But you don't elevate the humanity into some kind of deity or take the deity and degrade it to some kind of humanity.

38:26 He's the God-man. So when they sought to give statement to that era, what did they do? They pulled the pendulum way over here. And after a while, the church said, No, our Christ is not that Christ who is two persons.

38:36 He's one person. And so the pendulum came back here, but they'd learned something. So the pendulum didn't go quite back so far. and then the next time it was corrected a little there, a little there until the Council of Chalcedon is the pendulum sitting dead center expressing in guarded careful terminology the truth of the word of God concerning the person of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and so I trust that you will not be weary with precise definition because terms embody and express and secure clear thinking.

Ephesians 4: Doctrinal Stability of the Saints

39:16 Now as I bring my exhortation to a close, I want to give a few words of application. Some of you sit there and say, Pastor, I came this morning hoping to get blessed and all you've done is make me think. This is wearisome. This is tedious.

39:34 And you tell me on the one hand that I've got to cultivate a spirit of dependence and at the same time I've got to be active. I can't be passive. I've got to be determined to resist the temptation to go beyond or fall short or want some more. And then you tell me I've got to work at understanding precise definition.

39:52 It's all too weary. I just want to be blessed. I just want to be a humble Christian that loves Jesus. I'm just a simple believer.

40:02 Have you been thinking that way? I'm not a mind reader. I just live with my own heart you turn to Ephesians 4 will you please I want to direct your attention to two passages of scripture which I trust if you are subject to the word of God written will convince you that my exhortation to dependence determination and definition is a biblical exhortation we read in Ephesians 4 that within the one body as we heard this morning there is diversity diversities of gifts, and that one of those gifts to the church are pastors and teachers. Verse 11, he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers.

40:51 Why? For the perfecting of the saints unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ, till we all attain unto the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a full-grown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Well, what does all that high-flown language mean? In practical reality, verse 14 descends to particulars, that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine.

41:29 You see the picture? Have you ever seen a rudderless ship? Some of you kids, some of us that once were kids a long, long time ago, I can remember one of my sailboats as a kid, and how I cherished that little sailboat. And we had a pond nearby our home And I can remember going down and trying to set the rudder and set the sail so it would go out and come back But if something happened that the rudder broke loose what happened Every little puff of wind would come this way, my poor little boat would go that way.

41:56 Another puff of wind would go that way. Another puff of wind would go this way. Why? There was no fixed rudder so that it could steer its course.

42:03 That's the picture here. He says, you're like spiritual children. Then he mixes his metaphors. That's why it never bothers me to do it.

42:09 The Bible is full of mixed metaphors. If you get the message across, that's the important thing. Not elegance of style, but effectiveness of communication. So Paul says, you be no more little children than another metaphor.

42:21 Tossed to and fro with what? Every wind of doctrine. Someone comes along with a little of a doctrine of Christ that is not dead center on the biblical issues. And he says you're just tossed by it.

42:35 And then another wind, and you're tossed by that. Follow. tossed about with every wind of doctrine by the slight of men in craftiness after the wiles of error. You see those three words?

42:49 Slight. Craftiness. Wiles. Errorists.

42:54 Teachers of error are like magicians. A hand is quicker than the eye. Slight of hand. While you're looking at one thing, they do another.

43:03 He says that's the way people who propagate error are. And if you haven't been trained to follow the hand, you'll end up buying the error. Craftiness, subtlety, and wiles of error. Now, it's because God has given pastors and teachers to perfect the saints with a perfection that involves their stability against every wind of doctrine, against the slight of men, against the wiles of error.

43:35 That's why there must be precise definition. That's why you've got to think the price you will pay for mental laziness in precise definition is spiritual declension and giving up the truth to unborn generations.

43:55 The immediate product of the imprecision of thought may not be seen in abandonment of the truth. That comes in the second generation. If we have any love for our Lord in unborn generations, we must determine by the grace of God that we shall not be children. If someone comes along and says, Oh, the Lord is so great, He's so high, He is God and nothing but God, and I love Him so much that I'm grieved that any would think of Him as a man with human limitations.

44:27 Would you know what's wrong with that statement? That apparently really exalts the Lord. There's only one thing wrong with it. Two things.

44:34 It's not true, and it robs you of a real salvation. Because if he were not true man, there was no true obedience to real law, and there was no true death on the behalf of sinners. You're without a Savior. That sounds wonderful.

44:48 He's just God. Oh, God, oh, I love him. My friend, if he's not man, I have no Savior.

44:55 And if he's all man and not God, I have no Savior. For he may pity me. He may stand where I stand and identify with me, but he can't take me into the presence of the Father. He's not the daysman who can lay his hand upon God and upon man.

2 Peter 3: Hard Sayings and the Need for Diligence

45:15 The second passage is 2 Peter chapter 3.

45:19 If Ephesians 4 passage doesn't cure you of the attitude, well, I'm the humble Christian. I just want to love the Lord and get a blessing when I come to church, and I don't want to think. I don't want to have to apply myself. Listen.

45:33 Listen to the warning of Peter in 2 Peter chapter 3.

45:39 Beginning with verse 14. Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for these things, that is, the return of Christ, give diligence that ye may be found in peace without spot and blameless in His sight, and to count that the longsuffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote unto you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, wherein are some things hard to be understood. Now, isn't that a mystery? According to the wisdom given, he speaks things hard to be understood.

46:17 Well, I thought wisdom was the ability to make things plain. It says according to the wisdom given him He has spoken some things hard to be understood The simplistic mentality is the forerunner of heresy Some things cannot be understood By putting a little simple formula and a little ditty Before the people of God They can't be Some things written are hard to be understood And what happens to those things? Look which the ignorant people that don't know as they ought to know and the unsteadfast. There is a mental and a moral deficiency.

47:00 The ignorant and the unsteadfast rest. And that word rest literally means to put on a rack and to stretch it out of shape. See what they do? They come holding the form of Scripture.

47:12 They say, oh yes, Bible, Word of God, yes. And the language of Scripture is in the mouth. But what do they do? They put it on a rack and stretch it out of shape.

47:20 They rest it. And what's the end result? Look. To their own destruction.

47:27 Now if that's a very real possibility, what are we to do? Verse 17. Ye therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, ye fall from your own steadfastness, but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And it's my desire that you may grow in the knowledge of your Lord.

47:51 That you may know how to conceive of Him rightly as true God and true man. One person in the two natures forever. That you'll know how to behold Him in the Scriptures. Again, as Warfield says, there is no key to unlock the Gospel records, but the key of the two natures in the one person.

48:12 And without that key, page after page of the New Testament is locked up in hopeless confusion. Who is this person who says in one breath, the Father is greater than I? And in another breath, I am the Father of one. Who is this one who says, no man knows the Father but the Son?

48:34 And in another breath says, I don't know the time of my return. Who is he? What kind of a person is this? The key to unlock it is understanding.

48:45 He is God. He is man. One person in the two natures forever. Understand that and you have the key.

48:53 And so when you behold him, as he said before us in the gospel records, where the present point of consciousness is the full integrity of his humanity, you're not embarrassed by it and say, boy, I just hope some Jehovah's Witness doesn't quote that verse to me next time he comes. No, no. You pause and you worship Him as the man Christ Jesus. For as we shall see so close in the language of the old confessions and creeds, is the hypostatic union, the bringing together of the Godhead, Godhood and humanity in the one person, that the one who is man is so joined to Him who is God.

49:35 or that humanity is so joined to the Godhead that He is the proper object of worship, I can worship the man Christ Jesus because He is the God-man. When I see Him in another passage where He speaks according to a present consciousness of His whole omniscience, I'm not baffled. You see, if I'm to grow in the knowledge of my Lord, I must grow in terms of understanding who He is as God in man, one person in the two natures forever. And then there are others who sit here and say, the whole thing's gone clean over my head.

50:16 Why in the world someone would obviously spend hours getting up a sermon? I never used that term. You're using it, some of you. Getting up a sermon just to talk about determination and to talk about dependence and definition of what in the world is...

50:34 My friend, listen, listen.

50:37 You begin to feel and sense and know what you are as a creature of God fallen in Adam who's broken the holy law of God and right now this morning sitting under an awesome canopy of divine wrath. You begin to cry out, Oh God, how can I get out from under this canopy of wrath that hangs over me for my sins? The only answer is in this glorious person. And it took the wisdom of the infinite mind of God to conceive a deliverance that terminates upon the greatest of all mysteries, the mystery of godliness, He who was manifested in the flesh.

51:22 I am convinced that the mystery of the person of Christ is even a greater mystery than the Trinity. I find it a greater mystery and could it be that God has reserved the greatest mystery for his greatest work the salvation of a people from sin and if all of this has been boring and you've just been marking time for the final amen my friend listen the hour is coming the hour is coming when you will recognize that this alone is what mattered in life. Coming in time to the knowledge of Him who as God in man is the only Savior of sinners. Oh, may God grant that you will not rest until you know

Closing Appeal and Prayer

52:09 that you belong to Him and that this glorious Savior belongs to you. So that's my word of caution and my word of exhortation. May the Lord help us to suffer that word of exhortation and to come next week as God spares us in dependence upon the Spirit, prepared to be taught of God by His own precious Word. Let us pray.

52:42 Our Father, we thank You again this morning for the Holy Scriptures.

52:49 that infallible and sufficient rule of faith and of practice. And we're ashamed that we even have to pray that you would forgive us for the sins of the mind. As surely as our physical and carnal appetites have leaped over the boundaries of divine precept, so, Lord, our minds have leaped over those same boundaries. and we have desired to know what is none of our business.

53:21 We have sought to penetrate what is impenetrable. O Lord, forgive us for the sins of the mind. Forgive us for not believing with joy things that we could not understand, not because we doubted that they were revealed, but simply because we could not understand them. Forgive us when we have brought you to the bar of our own finite thinking and there judged you to be unwise.

53:49 O Lord, forgive us. And we pray as we contemplate in the week to come what it is to come to your word and in particular to the mystery of Christ's person with a spirit of dependence upon you, with that determination that we shall not go beyond nor fall short of what is written. O Lord we pray that you will help us That we will come to precise biblical definition That in our thinking all of our worship of him May be according to truth Have mercy upon those who have no concern in such matters O Father only you can arrest them

54:34 And we pray that in mercy you will be pleased to do so Seal to our hearts the word We thank you for your presence. We thank you for your people. We thank you for providing this place in which to meet. O God, the lines have fallen unto us in pleasant places.

54:54 We have a goodly heritage. And for this we praise and magnify your name this day. Receive the praises we offer, as we offer our praises through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

55:11 Thank you. Thank you.