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You can turn your Bibles to the 
Gospel of John, John chapter one. If you're here this morning, 
you'll remember because it was just this morning that we looked 
at John chapter two. Among other things, the angels 
announcing good tidings of great joy, which would be to all the 
people that there was born in that day in the city of David, 
a savior who is Christ the Lord. We opened up, if only briefly, 
a couple elements with respect to Christ and his person. So 
we're going to try to amplify that a little bit more this evening 
and look at a theology of the incarnation from the Gospel of 
John. Very often when preachers, when 
theologians, when Christians, generally speaking, speak about 
the incarnation, there are two texts that are often brought 
together from the Gospel of John and chapter 1. And those are 
verses 1 and 14, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was 
with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and 
dwelt among us. I'm going to read John 1, beginning 
in verse 1 and finishing at verse 18. This is the Word of the living 
and true God, John 1.1. In 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 without him nothing was made that was made. In him 
was life, and the light was the light of men. And the light shines 
in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There 
was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came 
for a witness to bear witness of that light, that all through 
him might believe. He was not that light, but was 
sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light 
which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was 
in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world 
did not know him. He came to his own, and his own 
did not receive him. But as many as received him, 
to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those 
who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of 
the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word 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. John 
bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, This is He of whom 
I said, He who comes after me is preferred before me, for He 
was before me. And of His fullness we have all 
received, and grace for grace. For the law was given through 
Moses, But grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one 
has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is 
in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him. Amen. Well, let's go to our God in 
prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for this text of Holy Scripture. We rejoice again in the opportunity 
that we can gather together for the worship of our blessed God. 
And we do pray that You would be hallowed in this place, you 
would be given honor and praise. We rejoice again that we have 
the liberty to so gather and sing praises to our God, to pray, 
to read the scriptures, to engage in the preaching of the Word. 
And might you, by your grace and for your glory, cause each 
and every one of us gathered here now to rejoice in Christ, 
to sing your praises, and to call it a high honor to gather 
to worship the Triune God. And it's in Christ's name that 
we pray. Amen. Well, Hopefully one thing that 
we can recognize, hopefully we recognize a lot of things as 
Christians, but one of the things that we ought to recognize is 
the absolute and high importance of knowing our Christ. The importance 
of a knowledge of Christ is the stuff of the Holy Scriptures 
bringing before us the reality that to truly have everlasting 
life, to truly have eternal life, is to know God and Jesus Christ 
whom he has sent. the clarion call of the gospel 
is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And so what does that 
mean but that we must take in what is true of Christ and believe 
on it, resting upon the truth, trusting in that truth, believing 
in the person and in the work of Christ. We go to a passage 
like in Matthew 16 where Christ asks that absolutely vital question, 
who do men say that I the son of man am? very important question 
that he asks. The way that we answer that question 
will truly speak to the condition of our souls. For if we say that 
he is only Jeremiah or Elijah or some other prophet, then we 
speak ill of Christ and do not truly profess the Christ of Holy 
Scripture. But if we say with Peter, by 
the regenerating power of God and his efficacy alone, that 
thou art the Christ, the son of the living God, then truly 
We know our Christ, believing upon the true Christ, and having 
faith and life in His name. At the point of the importance 
of a knowledge of Christ, this is C.H. Spurgeon, and his words 
are true. The most excellent study for 
expanding the soul is the science of Christ and Him crucified, 
and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing 
will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole 
soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the 
great subject of the deity. See, we come as Christians to 
our Bibles, and truly Christ's words are true. This is eternal 
life, that you may know God and Jesus Christ, whom he has sent. When we come to the Gospel of 
John, we find a minefield of theological disclosure concerning 
the person and the work of Christ. When we come to John's gospel. We come to a gospel that has 
as its purpose statement, John 20, 31. Remember what we find 
there. John writes, these things were 
written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ and 
believing you may have life in his name. So if that is the purpose 
statement of John's gospel, then in John 1 to 18, we have the 
theological linchpin of that gospel. because John brings out 
before us essential truths concerning that Christ who is to be believed, 
that Christ who is everlasting life. This is what Cyril of Alexandria 
says on that particular point. He's talking about the Gospel 
writers penning long genealogies concerning Christ, which is right 
and fine, and then the difference between them and John with regards 
to the beginning of their respective Gospels. One may see the other 
evangelists with great exactness giving the account of our Savior's 
genealogy in the flesh and bringing down step by step those from 
Abraham unto Joseph or again carrying up those from Joseph 
to Adam. But we find the blessed John 
not caring to be over studious about these but with the most 
fervent and fire full motion of intellect endeavoring to lay 
hold of those very things that are above human mind and daring 
to explain the unspeakable and unutterable generation of the 
Word of God. For he knew that the glory of 
God hideth speech, and greater than our idea and utterance is 
the God-befitting dignity. And hard to utter and most difficult 
of unfolding are the properties of the divine nature. We come 
to John 1.1 and we have these blessed and high statements. 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. And that Word, verse 14, became 
flesh and dwelt among us. Glorious truths that John pens. So we want to look at those truths 
under four considerations, and those four are these. First, 
the eternality of the Word. Secondly, the personal distinction 
of the Word. Thirdly, the essential unity 
of the Word, or we may say simply the full deity of the Word. And then lastly, the true humanity. of the Word. Remember, and of course, when 
we say the Word, we're talking about Christ. John uses the language, 
the Word, here in his Gospel. He uses it again in 1 John, where 
he speaks of the Word of Life in reference to Jesus Christ. 
He uses it again in Revelation chapter 19 and verse 13, when 
he talks about that rider on the white horse, that champion, 
who has the sword protruding from his mouth and he says his 
robe is dipped in blood and his name is the word of God. So here 
we have set before us that Christ that the angels adored in Luke 
2. And we notice first off the eternality 
of the word in the beginning was the word. He is from everlasting 
to everlasting. It doesn't say in the beginning 
the word was created. Or in the beginning, God fashioned 
the word or some blasphemous notion with respect to Christ 
being a creature, that there was a time when he was not and 
he was brought to be, but rather in the beginning was the word. 
As much as God himself was in the beginning, God, the father, 
so too was the word in the beginning was the word from everlasting 
to everlasting is our Christ in respect to his deity. He is from everlasting. Even 
when we use that language, everlasting, that's language that really is 
time filled that we use to apply to one who is timeless. You see, 
when we talk about, when we talk about the eternality of the word, 
when we talk about the eternity of God, as it applies to the 
second of the blessed triune, we don't use eternity as duration 
of time. That's often how we think of 
eternity. And unfortunately, often how 
many Christians and many Christian theologians argue for eternity, 
that it is an everlasting duration of time. But you see, God goes 
through succession in his life. There is before and after in 
God, but he just has before and afterness. Unlike men, he has 
it eternally. Let's see that's incorrect. We 
come to the scriptures and we find a God of Autemporal eternity. He is not bound by time. There 
is no before and after in the Blessed Triune Magistrate. There 
is no before, there is no after, but rather He is eternal. He 
is timeless. He is not bound to change and 
to time and to duration of succeeding events, but rather is beyond 
time. He is eternal. He is autemporal. Jesus Christ, the Word, is in 
the beginning. And that does not have reference 
to the creation, but rather as serial. Then the beginning, is 
there nothing older? He's saying, in that sort of 
way, in his own speech, there is, or the beginning, there is 
nothing older than the beginning. But he says, then the beginning, 
is there nothing older? If it have retained to itself 
the definition of the beginning, for a beginning of beginning 
there cannot be. or it will wholly depart from 
being in truth a beginning if something else be imagined before 
it and arise before it. Otherwise, if anything can precede 
what is truly beginning, our language respecting it will go 
off to infinity, another beginning ever cropping up before and making 
second the one under investigation. There will then be no beginning 
of beginning according to exact and true reasoning, but the account 
of it will recede unto the long extended and incomprehensive. 
All of that to say, Christ is, the word is, everlasting. He 
is eternal. There is no beginning. There 
is no before or after to the eternal word. He is the eternal 
word. Everlasting life. The second 
of the blessed triune, who has no beginning, who has no end, 
who is from everlasting. Remember that text that we quoted 
this morning, Micah 5.2. We find that there, don't we? 
See, it's not just a prophecy concerning where Christ would 
be born. To you, Bethlehem, Ephrathah, though you are the littlest of 
the nations of Judah, yet out of you will come one from where? One from of old, from everlasting. Jesus Christ is eternal. He is the eternal word. You can turn with me to Proverbs 
8 for a moment because This might not be an address of Holy Scripture 
that you often come to in your research and your studies of 
that blessed and highest science, theology and Christology. But 
nevertheless, in Proverbs 8, we have the everlastingness of 
Christ, the eternality of the word of God set before us in 
Proverbs 8, beginning at verse 22. This could be translated, the 
Lord begot me. The language in the New King 
James is the Lord possessed me. But let's read. The Lord possessed 
me at the beginning of his way, before his works of old. I have 
been established from everlasting, from the beginning, before there 
was ever an earth. When there were no depths, I 
was brought forth. When there were no fountains 
abounding with water. Before the mountains were settled, 
before the hills, I was brought forth. While as yet he had not 
made the earth or the fields or the primal dust of the world, 
when he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he drew a circle 
on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above, 
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he assigned 
to the sea its limit so that the waters would not transgress 
his command, when he marked out the foundations of the earth, 
Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman, and I was daily His 
delight, rejoicing always before Him, rejoicing in His inhabited 
world, and my delight was with the sons of men." Christ speaking 
as wisdom, declaring His everlastingness, His eternality. From the beginning 
before there was ever an earth, when there were no depths, I 
was brought forth. Christ is, the Word is, He was 
in the beginning. He is eternal. He is everlasting. Christ himself speaks this. You 
see, if someone was to charge us because they don't believe 
in the inspiration of scriptures and those sorts of things, we're 
just importing Micah, we're importing Proverbs into something that 
John never intended to mean. Well, we come to the words of 
Christ in John's gospel in John 8, and we do find otherwise. 
John chapter 8, notice what we find there. From the lips of 
Christ himself in John 8 and verse beginning in verse 54, 
Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my 
father who honors me, of whom you say that he is your God. 
Yet you have not known him, but I know him. And if I say I do 
not know him, I shall be a liar like you. But I do know him, 
and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced 
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Then the Jews said 
to him, You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen 
Abraham. Jesus said to them, Most assuredly, 
I say to you, Before Abraham was, I am." Wow. What a powerful statement. You 
see, the reason that we know that this is Christ speaking 
to his eternality, but even more to our third point, his full 
deity, is that he doesn't say, most assuredly I say to you, 
before Abraham was, I was. It's not just claiming that he 
is older than Abraham. You know, he could be a created 
angel, but he's older than Abraham. No. It's not before Abraham was, 
I was. It's before Abraham was and then 
the Exodus 3.14 name of Yahweh, I am. Before Abraham was, I am. You see, this is why we have 
verse 59 next in our Bibles. Then they took up stones to throw 
at him. They knew what he was saying. 
They didn't believe him. They knew what he was saying. 
Remember what Christ says in verse 54. You say that he is 
your God, and then he identifies himself as their God. Before 
Abraham was, I am. What a powerful statement. Christ 
is, the word is, eternal. The eternality of the word. Secondly, 
the personal distinction of the word. Notice that's what we have 
next, clearly in the text of John 1.1. The personal distinction 
of the word. In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God. The word God here referring to 
the person of the Father. In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God. There is personal distinction 
in the Godhead. We do not have a monad in our 
God, but a triad. We have the triune God. Glorious 
Magistrate is trinal. There is essential unity, but 
there are three, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And here we 
have the personal distinction of the word. He is or he was 
with God. He is distinct from the Father. Ever since the outset, the advent 
of the Christian Church, this has been the repeated creedal 
stress of men who have come together to formulate confessional statements, 
to glory in their Christ-rehearsing doctrine, and to rail against 
the opponents of so blessed a revealed truth. You see, throughout the 
ages, men have strived, they have striven, I think that's 
a word, isn't it? They have endeavored to, with 
great apologetic and polemic vigor, endeavor to defend this 
very truth. That in this divine and infinite 
being, which is God, there are three subsistences, the Father, 
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Of one substance, power and eternity. The Father is begotten by none. He is unbegotten. The Son is 
eternally begotten of the Father. The Spirit proceeding from the 
Father and the Son. All infinite without beginning. Glorious, historical, creedal 
theology proper. There is one God. How many persons 
are in the Godhead? There are three persons in the 
Godhead, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and these 
three are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and 
in glory. And here we have this distinction 
brought out. In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God. There is something that we need 
to appreciate lest we slip into heresy, and that is that Father, 
Son, and Holy Spirit, the difference between the three persons of 
the Triune God is not just at their names, Father, Son, and 
Holy Spirit. Why is the Father the Father? 
Is He Father in name only? No. Why is the Father the Father? Because He is the eternally unbegotten 
Begetter of the eternally begotten Son. He is the Father because 
He is the eternally unbegotten Father to the Son who is eternally 
begotten. Why is the Son the Son? Is He 
the Son in name only? No. Is He the Son by virtue of 
His incarnation in time and in history? Well, sometimes He is 
referred to the Son in that way. But with respect to Christology 
and theology proper, why is the Son the Son? Because He is eternally 
begotten of the Father, eternally generated, without beginning, 
as the Nicene Creed said, and as our last hymn uses the language 
appropriating the Nicene Creed, He is God of God, light of light, 
true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the 
Father, who for us men and for our salvation came down from 
heaven. Why is the Spirit the Spirit? 
Is He Spirit in name only? The Holy Ghost in name only? 
No. It is because He eternally proceeds 
from the Father and the Son. He is eternally breathed out, 
if you will, by the Father and by the Word or Son. Personal 
distinction. The Word, our Christ, the Son 
of God, is distinct from the Father. And John 1.1 brings that 
out with a raging clarity. And the word was with God. There is personal distinction. And notice the language, the 
word was with God. There is personal distinction, 
but there is an intimate unity, an indivisible and eternal unity 
between the persons of the blessed triune. In fact, Jesus speaks 
to this himself in two places in John 10. in John 10 and in 
verse 38, where we read, but if I do, though you do not believe 
me, believe the works that you may know and believe that the 
Father is in me and I in him. The Father is in me and I in 
him. Theologians speak of this as 
the perichoresis, the mutual indwelling of the persons of 
the Trinity. John 14 has the same truth, John 
14 11. Believe me that I am in the Father 
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the 
works themselves. The mutual indwelling of the 
persons of the Trinity. We come to John 1, 1, brethren, 
and it's rich with theology. And I hope that you would never 
want to roll your eyes at a rehearsal of blessed theology proper, specifically 
for our case this evening at the point of Christology. Who 
is this Christ? Who was that Savior born in the 
city of David? Who was that Savior who is Christ 
the Lord, who now is still Christ the Lord? He is eternal. He is personally distinct from 
the Father. He is, though, and thirdly, essential. He has essential unity with the 
Father. Or we're rehearsing now and thirdly, 
the full deity of the word, the full deity of the word. He is 
with God, distinct from the Father, but then we note, and the Word 
was God. He is the same in substance, 
equal in power and in glory. It's the beauty of the text. 
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and 
the Word was God. In just a handful of words, the 
blessed John takes pen to parchment, and he dashes Christological 
heresy, jettisoning it from the earth. Every heresy that has 
arisen in the church with respect to Christ at the point of his 
full deity and his full humanity is dashed to pieces in John's 
prologue. Beautiful language. In the beginning 
was the word and the word was with God. And we could even translate 
it literally. And God was the word. But the 
language is, and the Word was God, and we need to understand 
from that and gain this understanding that He is and He always has 
eternally existed in the very nature of deity. The Word, the 
Son, the One who came into this world, sinners to save. When 
we talk about the deity of Christ, when we say as Christians, we 
believe in the deity of Christ, What do we mean and what are 
we saying? Well, hopefully we've had a little bit of it already, 
but to rehearse, first off, what we don't mean when we say the 
deity of Christ. For those who were in the chapter 
eight studies a year and a half ago or whenever we did this, 
you might recognize some of this, but it is good to rehearse and 
right to rehearse. What do we not mean? when we 
say the deity of Christ. Well, first, we do not mean that 
he is one God among many in a pantheon of deities. Right? He's not one God among many in 
a pantheon of deities. He's not a God, a small g God, 
the Father being, if you will, the chief God, and Christ being 
some sort of lesser deity. That is, of course, not what 
we're saying, for that is heresy of heresies and blasphemy of 
blasphemies. We are not saying, secondly, 
that He is of a similar or derived substance as the Father. You 
might say, well, why are we rehearsing this? Can't we just, you know, 
can't we just bask in the, you know, the descending petals of 
a mysterious knowledge of God and never actually dive into 
the text of Scripture to understand our God and His Christ? Of course 
we can't bask in the effervescent petals of an incoherent mystery. 
We need to dive into mystery. It remains a mystery. But we 
can nevertheless know the incomprehensible God by coming to the pages of 
Scripture and adoring this one who is absolutely and eternally 
majestic, who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that Son who 
came into this world, sinners to save. He is not of a similar 
or derived substance as the Father. He does not have a shaved off 
or carved off or multiplied or divided essence or substance. 
He has essential unity with the Father. As much as the Father 
is God, so the Word, or Son, and so the Spirit. The essence, 
undivided and unmultiplied. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 
Co-eternal, co-glorious, having the same substance. Thirdly, 
we are not saying that He is divine in the sense of being 
filled with the Holy Ghost. That's not wherein His divinity 
lies, as a man filled with the Spirit. Another heresy of heresies. He is eternally God. He has always 
existed as such. In the beginning was the Word, 
and the Word was with God. Now the Holy Spirit is given 
to Christ as denominated by His humanity. He's given the Spirit 
without measure, the text says. But His deity is undiminished 
deity, His humanity. gains the sending of the Spirit 
beyond measure for his earthly ministry. We are not saying at 
the point of the deity of Christ that he is an exalted man, his 
divinity being a result of being in some way chosen or honored 
by the Father. There are some out there who 
believe all of these things, brethren. I'm not just, you know, 
a preacher man. Okay, how is he not? Well, he's 
not. No, there are people out there that believe all of these 
things. He does not gain His deity by being chosen or honored 
by Father. That's not wherein we discuss 
the deity of Christ. His divinity is not that He merited 
divinity by virtue of His obedience. The Mormon church, the Mormons 
believing that Christ was a man who merited divinity, divinization, 
by virtue of His obedience. And lastly, though we probably 
haven't exhausted the heresies, but we've spent the time on most 
of them here, When we say the deity of Christ, we're not saying 
that as the personification of an impersonal logos or word, 
he was an enfleshed agent of God and so can be called God 
in some sort of ambassadorial way. The heretics of old believe 
this, heretics of new believe this. There's a man that James 
White debated who believes this very thing that the word or Logos 
was just an impersonal principle in the divine mind that was animated 
in time and in history and flashed and dwelt among us. That is not 
the deity of Christ. So then what do we mean when 
we say the deity of Christ? Well, you know, but a good summary 
is 8.2 of our confession. The Son of God, the second person 
in the Holy Trinity, being very an eternal God, the brightness 
of the Father's glory, of one substance, and equal with Him 
who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things He hath 
made, which person is very God." That's what we mean when we say 
the deity of Christ. Full and essential deity in unity 
with Father and Spirit. All three having the whole divine 
essence and the essence undivided. Where do we see this in the Holy 
Scriptures? We don't have time to exhaust the text, but we have 
time to spend time on a few. And one of those we've already 
looked at, John 8, 58, a similar text, John 8, 5 to 8. This is the deity of Christ proved 
by his own self-identification. Jesus Christ fully aware that 
he was God. Of course. John 18, notice what 
we find there in verses five to eight. No doubt, you know, 
the occasion they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth, the answer 
to the question, whom are you seeking? Jesus said to them, 
I am. And Judas, who betrayed him, 
also stood with him. Now, when he had said to them, 
I am, they drew back and fell to the ground. Then he asked 
them again, whom are you seeking? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you 
that I am. Therefore, if you seek me, let 
these go their way. You see, he uses the same language 
as John 8, 58. I am that Exodus 3, 14, that 
Isaac declaration of Yahweh, an ascription of deity that he 
ascribes. to Himself. His deity is proved 
by His equality with the Father. If you're making a note, you 
can note John 5.17, John 8.38, John 10.15 and 30, John 14.10, 
John 17.5. But, brothers and sisters, if 
there's a text that encapsulates rich Christology, we have spent 
some time in John 1.1 already, Notice Philippians 2, and no 
doubt you know this passage well, because I've probably preached 
from it at least five times, and Pastor Butler has on more 
than one occasion as well. But this is one of those places 
in the Bible, brethren, Philippians 2, where we have an encapsulation 
of the biblical message set before us in only a handful of verses. Glorious, glorious theology. set before us, which could have 
been an early Christian hymn appropriated by Paul, or it could 
be Paul himself penning this hymn afresh. Nevertheless, what 
we have is a glorious creedal, if you will, statement concerning 
the full deity and full humanity of Christ. But notice at the 
point of his equality with the Father in verse 5 of Ephesians 
2. Let this mind be in you, which 
was also in Christ Jesus. Verse 6, "...who being in the 
form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 
but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, 
and coming in the likeness of men." See that language there? 
"...who being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery 
to be equal with God." We could perhaps translate it this way, 
"...who being in the very form of God, did not consider that 
subsequent equality with God, something to be held on to at 
all costs. In other words, he has essential 
unity with the Father eternally of the same substance, equal 
in power and in glory. Yet he did not consider it. He 
did not hold on to that at all costs, but condescended in the 
incarnation, taking to himself man's nature to die for sinners 
and to rise again. You might say, well, why didn't 
Paul just say, instead of who being in the form of God, why 
didn't he just say who being God? Well, he's doing a parallelism 
between divinity and humanity, you see. He's writing, who being 
in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 
but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant. So he uses form of God in order 
to really communicate eternal identity with God, essential 
unity with the Father and yet distinction. But he's doing it 
to parallel form of a bondservant. He is fully God and he is fully 
man. He is in the form of God. He 
is in the form of a bondservant. Christ's divinity is proved by 
explicit statements of his divinity. We're bouncing around to texts, 
but hopefully This never gets old as the saint of Christ to 
rehearse that that one wrapped in swaddling bands lying in a 
feed trough is God, most high, eternal, everlasting. Notice what we have in John chapter 
20, 28. John 20, 28. His deity proved by explicit 
statements of his deity. John has already given one given 
us one in the beginning was the word and the word was with God 
and the word was God here at the end of the earthly ministry 
of Christ. In fact, this is post resurrection. We have this reality 
brought forth to us in this blessed declaration of Thomas beginning 
in verse 26. And after eight days, his disciples 
were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors 
being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. 
Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at 
my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said 
to him, my Lord and my God. So beautiful. What a declaration. What a personal connection Thomas 
has with his Lord and Brethren, Thomas is prototypical of each 
and every one of us, because like him, like so many Thomas-i, 
we can say, my Lord and my God. You see, it's a clear, explicit 
statement of the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. Heretics, 
are they, who come to our doors sharp-dressed, knocking on our 
doors on a Saturday when we just want to be left alone, doing 
work in our house, whatever we're doing, You know, mind you, that 
could lead to a good occasion to bring them the evangel, the 
true and saving one. But those sharp-dressed cats 
who come to our doors and wrap on them and spew out the garbage 
of a created Christ, they come to the text of Holy Scripture 
and they're dashed to pieces, dashed to pieces by the rock 
that is the Declaration only of Thomas here, my Lord and my 
God, but everywhere else in the Holy Scriptures. Notice what 
we have, and this is just by noting the text, Romans 9.5, 
Titus 2.13, 2 Peter 1.1. The texts multiply that speak 
of the divinity of Christ, explicit statements concerning that. This 
is Raymond on Thomas's confession. Thomas's confession of Jesus 
as his Lord and God is the supreme Christological pronouncement 
of the fourth gospel. Here within a week of Jesus' 
resurrection, In the presence of the other disciples who would 
surely have learned from Thomas' words and Jesus' favorable response 
the appropriateness of doing so, a disciple for the first 
time employs theos as a Christological title. This demonstrates that 
there is no basis in fact for the view of some form critical 
scholars that the church only gradually came to the view of 
an incarnational Christology. Christians virtually from the 
beginning believed that in Jesus they had to do with God incarnate 
My Lord and my God blessed declaration Closing off his full deity. We would want to note that his 
deity is proved by Old Testament Yahweh versus applied to Christ 
the Hebrews 110 to 12 Romans 1013 and Acts 2 Revelation 1 
8 11 to 8 22 and 12 to 13. And of course, John 20, 
40 to 41. We keep coming back to our gospel 
under consideration to note these things. And brethren, this is 
one of those beautiful ones as well. Notice in John 12. In John 
12 at verse 40, what do we find there? We find this blessed revelation 
given to us by the blessed John with regards to the deity of 
Christ. And it reads this way. backing 
up, in fact, to verse 37. But although he had done so many 
signs before them, of course, speaking of Jesus, they did not 
believe in him, that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be 
fulfilled, which he spoke, Lord, who has believed our report, 
and to whom is the arm of the Lord being revealed. Therefore 
they could not believe, because Isaiah said again, he has blinded 
their eyes and hardened their hearts, lest they should see 
with their eyes, lest they should understand with their hearts, 
and turn so that I should heal them. These things Isaiah said 
when he saw his glory, that is, Christ's glory, and spoke of 
him." You've heard this before, and hopefully it never gets old. 
Brethren, John is saying that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ 
when he would later pen, recording that event, in the year that 
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, Christ, high and lifted up. The 
train of his robe filling the temple. The seraphim flying, 
with two wings covering their eyes, with two flying, with two 
covering their feet. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord 
of hosts. The whole earth is full of his glory. These things 
Isaiah said when he saw Jesus' glory and spoke of him. The blessed 
truth. Were we to go on, we would want 
to note that his deity is proved by verses ascribing to Christ 
those things which can only be predicated of God. the forgiving 
of sins, the hearing and answering of prayers, accepting praise 
and worship, and the possession of sovereign divine prerogative. But we want to close by noting 
the true humanity of the Word. We have the eternality of the 
Word, the personal distinction of the Word, the full deity of 
the Word, and now the true humanity of the Word. If you backtrack 
to John chapter 1, there we find, again, reading verse 1 and verse 
14, in the beginning, was the Word, and the Word was with God, 
and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among 
us. The Word became flesh and dwelt 
among us. Everything that we've just rehearsed 
about this blessed Word, this blessed Christ, this Son of God, 
everything we've read about this glorious One, we now come to 
this, and it says, and that Word became flesh and dwelt among 
us. Brethren, hopefully, just before we move on, we should 
take pause here for a moment to marvel in the amazing humility 
of Christ. The amazing humility of Christ. 
If you're here and you're a saint in Christ, you're a believer 
in the Lord Jesus, you're here because of the amazing humility 
of Christ. So it is our requirement, our 
joyous, our cheerful compliance to pause on these occasions and 
reflect upon the amazing condescension and humility of the Lord Jesus 
Christ. Do you understand what we're reading here? The word 
became flesh. The one whose subsistence is 
in and of himself, a most pure spirit, without body, parts, 
or passions, immutable, most absolute, most perfect, most 
holy, most loving, who commands by virtue of his divine excellence 
the praises of angels and men, He comes down to our lower ignominy, 
our lower shame. He puts on man's nature with 
all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, 
yet without sin. What an amazing stoop. That's 
what John Gill says at the point of Philippians 2 in his commentary. 
Take these two phrases, form of God and form of a bondservant, 
and admire the amazing stoop. The Word became flesh and dwelt 
among us. God forbid that anyone would 
ever say, well, yeah, because we're so great. I mean, why wouldn't 
he want to come and dwell among me? He takes on man's nature with 
all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, 
yet without sin. Common infirmities. He takes 
on the common infirmities of men. He would get weak. He would get tired. He would 
get hungry. He would get thirsty. Might have got sore feet. I don't 
even think we should say might have. A common infirmity. He 
took upon himself man's nature. He had feet, and he used them 
to walk, and he used them to walk far distances. He would 
become weary. He would need to rest his head. That one who is infinite, eternal, 
and unchangeable. in all his glorious perfections, 
came down and took upon himself man's nature. We would exhaust 
the opportunities and the necessary reflections whereby we should 
dwell upon the condescension and the humility of the Word 
becoming flesh. What an amazing thing. Notice 
that it was the Word that became flesh. The Word became flesh and dwelt 
among us. It was not the Trinity that became 
flesh. It was the Word that became flesh. 
It was not the Father, nor was it the Spirit that became flesh. It was the Word that became flesh. It was not the essence of divinity 
that became incarnate, but the person of the Word who has the 
whole undivided essence that became incarnate. God manifested 
in the flesh and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Amazing stoop. And notice that 
the Word became flesh. I'm doing a little bit of emphasis 
on certain parts of the statement there. The Word became flesh 
and now the Word became flesh. What that doesn't mean, what 
this doesn't mean is that he cast off his deity to become 
man. That's not what that means when 
we read the Word became flesh. That He cast off His divinity 
in order to become man? No. God couldn't do that. God 
can't stop being God. We can't unravel the Trinity 
and pull the second of the blessed triune out of the Godhead in 
order that He become flesh. For a while, the Father and the 
Spirit without their mutual indwelling One, the Son of God, who has 
the essence unmultiplied, undivided, co-eternal, co-glorious? Of course 
not. When we talk about the Word becoming flesh, let us never 
say or entertain that He cast off His deity to become man. 
Nor are we saying that He for a time emptied Himself of deity. Common error when people come 
to Philippians 2 is that for a time He emptied Himself of 
deity. So only for a time was He Was 
he not deity? He emptied himself. He divested 
himself and cast off his deity for 33 some odd years before 
he regained it. Again, that's madness. John Owen, 
speaking with regards to that, notes that such an approach to The condescension of God, or 
the incarnation of God, destroys the Trinity and brings madness 
to the doctrine of theology proper. What we do have, or as well what 
we don't have, we don't have, when in the Word become flesh, 
that He took on only a body. This is important to know, brothers 
and sisters, because throughout the history of the Church, men 
have parted from orthodoxy at these very points. We are not 
saying that when the Word became flesh that He took on only a 
body. One man has called this flesh 
suit Christology. That the Word or Son, the one 
who is eternal and unchangeable in all of His perfections, came 
down and He just put on a flesh suit. He took on only a human 
body. It's a heresy in the early church 
that the creeds of the early church opposed in their formulations 
of blessed Christology from the word of God. We are not saying 
that he only took on a body. And lastly, we are not saying 
that it does or what it does not mean. The word became flesh, 
that the divinity was intermingled and confused with the humanity. 
That the deity was intermingled and confused with the humanity 
so that you have something of a pouring over divinity into 
humanity and humanity into divinity. The humanity is divinized and 
the divinity is humanized. No, that's not what we have. 
And in fact, when we come to the doctrine of the incarnation 
and Mary being overshadowed by the power of the Holy Spirit, 
the power of the Most High overshadowing her, we don't have some divine 
material intermingling with the human material. This is bobbing. 
Scripture attributes the conception of Jesus to the Holy Spirit. 
or to the power of the Most High, the Holy Spirit, the Author. 
All physical, psychic, and pneumatic life is the efficient cause of 
the conception. The activity of the Holy Spirit 
with respect to this conception did not consist in the infusion 
of any heavenly or divine substance in Mary, but in a demonstration 
of power that made her womb fertile in the act of overshadowing. 
That's very important, that last statement. what wherein consisted 
the incarnation at the point of the conception, only in a 
demonstration of the power that made her womb fertile, in the 
act of overshadowing. There was no divine material, 
for there is no divine material. He is a most pure spirit, without 
body parts or passions. And so what do we mean then, 
when we say the Word became flesh, We're saying that without ceasing 
to be what He always was eternally, the Word or Son took on man's 
nature. Our confession words it this 
way, the Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being 
very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one 
substance and equal with Him who made the world, who upholdeth 
and governeth all things He hath made, did, when the fullness 
of time was come, take upon Him man's nature. with all the essential 
properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin, being 
conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, 
the Holy Spirit coming down upon her, and the power of the Most 
High overshadowing her, and so was made of a woman of the tribe 
of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David, according to the Scriptures, 
so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably 
joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, 
or confusion, which person is very God and very man, yet one 
Christ, the only mediator between God and man." Oh, but I'll never 
understand such language. Hopefully, brethren, you'll come 
to the Scriptures and you'll try to comprehend so that you 
might not entertain heresy that He is truly God and that He is 
truly man. And in becoming man, He didn't 
put off deity. He didn't just put on a flesh 
suit. but took to himself man's nature. He didn't mutate into 
man. God is immutable. He's unchangeable. God didn't change into man. When 
we read the word became flesh, and when we read God was manifested 
in the flesh, we're simply saying this, that the second of the 
blessed triune, remaining always and ever what he always and ever 
is, took to himself man's nature with all the common properties 
are essential properties in common infirmities thereof, yet without 
sin. We find this in the Holy Scriptures in a couple places. 
Hebrews 2.17, Hebrews 4.17, those texts and following. We must 
note that this truly, truly did happen. Luke chapter 2, John 
1.1, 14, the word became flesh and dwelt among us. in Christ's 
earthly ministry. You can go to Hebrews 2.17 and 
4.17 on your own time talking about Christ taking upon the 
nature of Abraham, the nature of men in order to be the high 
priest, the perfect savior for sinners. It's interesting in 
Luke's gospel, in Luke chapter 24, the study of Christology 
at the point of his true humanity should land us there. What is 
going on in Luke 24, but it's the post resurrected Christ. He's been raised from the dead 
in power and in great victory. And he comes and he gives a Bible 
study to his gathered disciples. And there's doubt in the disciples. 
They cannot believe for joy that it's him. And he says to them, 
look, it is me. Look at the print of my nails. Look, it is me. And they still 
don't believe. So he says, come and touch me 
and handle me. They still don't believe, so 
he eats broiled fish and honeycomb with them to show them, brethren, 
among other things, that he really was Christ, the second of the 
blessed triune God come in the flesh. manifested in the flesh, 
that the Word became flesh. He lets them touch Him. Put your 
fingers in the print of the nails. He says to them, give me the 
broiled fish and honeycomb that you've been making to eat. I 
will eat it. I am truly man, and it is truly 
I that have resurrected from the dead and am here before you 
in my glorified body. Luke 24 speaks to this, and this 
is a doctrine of the absolute and utmost importance. When we 
come to John's epistles, specifically 1 and 2 John, we come to epistles 
where one of the emphases is this, that if you do not believe 
that Christ has come in the flesh, then you are antichrist. You 
are antichrist. I've said it before and I'll 
say it again, and I don't want to trample on anyone's eschatology. But far from the mind of John 
in his epistles is some 2,000-year-in-the-future bad guy who will come on the 
scenes and do bad things. Immediate to his mind are Christological 
heretics. They are Antichrist who say that 
Christ has not come in the flesh. In 1 John 1, we are moving to 
an end. We're going to close with some 
application here in a moment. But turn to 1 John for a moment. 
Notice what we have there at the point of Antichrist and the 
absolute necessity that we believe in the incarnation of Christ 
that he did take to himself man's nature. Notice in 1 John chapter 
4. 1 John and chapter 4. Beginning in verse 1. Beloved, 
do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits whether 
they are of God, because many false prophets have gone out 
into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God. Every spirit 
that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God. And every spirit that does not 
confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit of the 
Antichrist which you have heard was coming and is now already 
in the world. In 2 John 1-7, notice there, 
for many deceivers have gone out into the world who do not 
confess Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. This is a deceiver 
and an antichrist. Look to yourselves that we do 
not lose those things which we have worked for, but that we 
may receive a full reward. You see the importance of this 
doctrine, that the Word truly did become flesh. And brethren, when the Word became 
flesh, He did not cease being that which He was. You know, 
it's interesting, our human language and how we have to employ it 
and to use it when we speak of our God and when we speak of 
God, Jesus Christ, the second of the blessed triune God. When 
we say Christ, the son of God, came down from heaven, he didn't 
actually leave heaven. Because God is omnipresent. He's omnipotent, omnipresent, 
omniscient. He fills the heaven and the earth. 
We didn't have a time where the Son of God spatially left a location 
and came to a place where he was not before. The Son of God 
fills the heavens and the earth. So when we say the Son of God 
came down from heaven, it's our human language encapsulating 
the condescending act of humility to take upon himself man's nature. The Son of God, God himself, 
can't leave heaven. He's everywhere. He's omnipresent. He is immense, eternal, infinite. 
This is two witnesses. Whenever we come to establish 
a thing, we should try to bring two witnesses. This is first 
Cyril. The eternal word subjected himself 
to birth for us and came forth man from a woman. without casting 
off that which he was. Although he assumed flesh and 
blood, he remained what he was, God in essence and in truth. 
For although visible in a child in swaddling cloths and even 
in the bosom of his virgin mother, he filled all creation as God 
and was a fellow ruler with him who begat him. For the Godhead 
is without quantity and dimension and cannot have limits." And 
Calvin, another absurdity, namely that if the word of God became 
incarnate, He must have been confined within the narrow prison 
of an earthly body as sheer impudence. For even if the Word and His 
immeasurable essence united with the nature of man into one person, 
we do not imagine that He was confined therein. Now notice 
this. Here is something marvelous. 
The Son of God descended from heaven in such a way that without 
leaving heaven, He willed to be born in the Virgin's womb, 
to go about the earth, to hang upon the cross, yet he continually 
filled the earth even as he had done from the beginning." Brethren, what an amazing doctrine 
we have in the Incarnation. We don't have some sort of conception, 
a Greco-Roman conception of one deity among many who actually 
spatially leaves a place to come to another place where he was 
not before, and go about and do certain things, but rather 
we have one God, the living and true God in three persons. One 
of those persons who has the essence undivided, the whole 
essence co-eternal and co-glorious with the other two, comes down 
from heaven, but in such a way that without leaving heaven, 
he takes upon himself man's nature. You research the world's religions. You go out on a journey to scan 
the religions of the world. And you do not come to a religion 
as glorious as Christianity, where we have a God immense, 
eternal, infinite, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, and 
all of his perfections, who fashioned, as we read this morning, fashioned 
planets between his palms, who set galaxies in their orbits, 
who fixed the stars in place. And yet, brethren, that one who 
fixed the stars in place, the Son of God, is found Fixed upon 
the breast of an earthly mother Glorious glorious incarnation 
and fixed upon the breast of an earthly mother in his act 
and his state of humility So that what so that he might reconcile 
God to men so that he might save us from our sins From his own 
lips the son of man did not come to be served but to serve To 
give his life a ransom for my for many This doctrine is absolutely 
important for, as John of Damascus said in the 8th century, for 
the whole Christ assumed the whole me, that he might grant 
salvation to the whole me, for what is unassumable is incurable. One man put it another way, if 
Christ is a phantom, then so is our salvation. Christ is a 
phantom, then our salvation is a phantom as well, but it's not, 
because Christ the living and true God, the second of the blessed 
triune, the brightness of his father's glory and the express 
image of the father's person who upholds all things by the 
word of his power, came in time and in history, took upon himself 
man's nature in such a work of humility so that he might go 
about the work of redemption that you might have everlasting 
life. What a hero to believe in. We 
read this time of year when we come to the scriptures and we 
read of this babe wrapped in swaddling bands, lying in a feed 
trough. Remember those words of Cyril, 
let our minds not stay there, but mount up to the pinnacle 
of his glory, and as well condescend to the bottomness of his lowly 
ignominy, that we might lay hold of this blessed Christ, believing 
on him for all things, all spiritual blessings, everlasting life, 
perfect redemption. If you're here tonight and you 
know this Christ, continue to know this Christ. Hopefully, 
brethren, a brief study. Some of you saying brief? Well, 
we could probably debate about that. But a brief study in Christology 
hopefully will encourage you to go from outside of these doors 
and fill your minds with more of Christ. You would eat up the 
word. Speaking of one who is fully 
God, eternal, glorious, and yet fully man. coming in the fullness 
of the times to give himself for guilty sinners. Rejoice in 
this Christ and bring glory to this Christ. In this lower world, 
bring glory to this Christ. You believe on Him, do those 
things befitting your belief, so that others might cast a worldly 
and an earthly eye upon you, that you might have opportunity 
to proclaim to them the riches and the excellencies of so glorious 
a Savior. He's worth proclaiming. He's 
worth proclaiming to all men. His full deity, His full humanity, 
His glorious person. Might we all know Him more. If 
you're here tonight and you don't know Him, believe on the Lord 
Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Again, sometimes a crescenting 
mouth can actually veil an unregenerate heart. Whether it crescents or 
it doesn't, it either veils a regenerate heart that rejoices in Christ, 
or it veils an unregenerate heart that can't wait to get out of 
these two doors. If you maintain, or if you are kept in that state 
until the end of days, this babe wrapped in swaddling cloths, 
lying in a feed trough, remember he didn't stay there. Men opposed 
to his reign and his glorious majesty want to keep him there, 
but he grew. He was the one who stood before 
his opposers and said, woe to you, brood of vipers. He was 
the one who is spoken of in the book of Revelation as the one 
who kills the children of Jezebel with death. He is the one in 
Revelation 19 who is riding upon a white horse. You see, he did 
at one time ride upon the foal of a donkey. But now exalted 
in His glorious resplendent majesty, He rides upon a white and glorious 
steed, and He treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of 
Almighty God. You do not want to be found on 
that last and final day, breathing words of blasphemies before you're 
cast into the lake of fire reserved for the devil and his angels. 
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And He will be to you, yes, that 
same white rider, but you will be following after Him in the 
robes of righteousness, the armies of the Most High King. And you 
will know everlasting life. You'll know spiritual benefits 
and blessings unsurpassable. His praise is forevermore with 
the angels. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, 
we thank You for Your Word. We rejoice in our Savior, the 
Lord Jesus Christ. We thank You for what Your Word 
discloses to us concerning His eternity, His distinction as 
that One who has a full divinity, yet is the Son to the Father, 
and you to Him, to the Son, a Father. With the Spirit, we rejoice in 
our triune God, and we pray that we would know more of our Christ. 
We pray that we would know more of this King of Kings and Lord 
of Lords. We pray that we would know more of this blessed Savior, 
and we pray as we go about our lives in this church that we 
would rejoice in this Christ, that we would know Him more and 
more each and every day, and that we would sing His praises, 
that we would bring glory to Him in this lower world. And 
Lord, that You would, by Your grace and for Your glory, bring 
before us many opportunities to proclaim Him to men, to proclaim 
and speak of His riches and His excellencies and His perfect 
salvation. Go with us now. Help us in this 
lower world to bring honor to You and to our Christ. And might 
You save sinners to the praise of your most free grace. And 
it's in Christ's name that we pray. Amen.