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[0:00] I want you to take your Bibles this morning and open them first of all to kind of a text of scripture that will get us started and kind of introduce our subject this morning and if you've been here for the last couple of years then you pretty much know what our subject is or my subject. That is as I walk through our doctrinal statements as a church. We started this or I started this first of all by walking through the essentials, the essentials of the faith, the basic Christian beliefs and then this morning we're going to be looking at again to the five doctrinal statements of our church. So the passage I want you to open to to begin with will be Titus chapter 1 and verse 9.

[1:13] I quoted this passage last week and now I want you to look at it. It's a very short verse of scripture. Paul is writing of course and he's writing to a young preacher by the name of Titus.

[1:28] And throughout this very short book Paul is giving Titus some very valuable instructions for preachers, for ministers of the word.

[1:40] And yet I want you to understand that he is not just simply the Holy Spirit rather is not just simply writing through Paul to Titus or through Paul to all preachers, just simply preachers, those who've been called to that vocation.

[1:59] But he is writing, but he is writing, but he is writing, the Holy Spirit is inspiring Paul to write truths that are for all of us. And so look at verse 9 of 1st Titus, I mean not 1st Titus, Titus, there's only one Titus.

[2:15] Holding fast the faithful word as he has been taught that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and convict those who contradict. Let me read it from another translation.

[2:36] Hold firm. Hold firm. Tightly. Firmly. To the trustworthy word.

[2:49] The trustworthy word as taught. Titus had been taught. The word of God. The doctrines of the faith. Hold firm to them. This word that is trustworthy.

[3:02] You can count on it. So that what? You may be able to give instruction. And again, this is just not just for pastors or teachers or those who have been called to, you know, places of leadership within the church where they have their responsibility to teach the word or to counsel through the word.

[3:25] But it is to every believer because we are all teachers. We all have opportunities to teach. Be it our children or grandchildren or grandchildren and others that we have responsibility over.

[3:39] So to give instruction. So to give instruction. This is why you need to hold firm to it. This trustworthy word. So that you can be able, will be able to give instruction in sound doctrine.

[3:53] Now that's the term that I want us to really focus on. Sound doctrine. And then he goes on and also to refute or to counter or to contest those who contradict it.

[4:15] Contradict what? Sound doctrine. Sound doctrine. Paul also wrote to Titus. He said, speak the things which are in accord with or in agreement with sound doctrine.

[4:31] So sound doctrine. Important subject. Paul also wrote to Timothy, another young pastor. And I, again, I quoted some of these verses last week.

[4:43] He wrote to Timothy and he said, follow the pattern of the sound word. The sound words. The sound words that you have heard from me.

[4:54] Still talking about the same thing. The body of truth. The doctrines of the faith. Sound doctrines. Sound words.

[5:06] He also exhorted Timothy to rightly handle the word of truth. Now, I'm deliberately kind of pronouncing all these words because I want us to get this.

[5:22] And not just simply get what Paul wrote, but to get the importance of it. Sound doctrines. Sound words.

[5:33] The word of truth. I've told this story before, but I can't help telling it again. Several years ago, I had the, I won't say the pleasurable opportunity to travel to Wyoming.

[5:47] Nothing wrong with Wyoming. But to travel there with a group of pastors. And when we got there, we split up, went to different churches to teach the January Bible study.

[5:59] Some of you have been Southern Baptist for a long time. You remember that, don't we? Later, we called it the winter Bible study. And it was certainly winter in Wyoming.

[6:10] And not really a place that I would recommend that you go to in January. But here I am in a little church there in Kimmer, Wyoming, teaching the winter Bible study or the January Bible study.

[6:27] And I will never forget the experience. That year, we were teaching through 1st and 2nd Timothy. Now, I've already quoted a couple of passages out of 1st and 2nd Timothy.

[6:38] And so you know that Paul is writing to a young pastor. And repeatedly, he talks to him. He speaks to him about sound doctrine. And so you know kind of what the subject of those two books are.

[6:52] Or is. And I will never forget, though, that my first day of teaching. I mean, just right in, just out of the barrel, just right into the teaching, this man in the group.

[7:05] Who later I discovered was a follower or a disciple of Kenneth Copeland. And he said to me, he said to the whole group, he said, we just need to stop talking about doctrine in the church.

[7:23] Now, you can imagine how I would react to that. Now, I was gracious. And I just went on with my teaching. But I thought to myself, really? We need to stop talking about doctrine.

[7:37] Need to stop teaching doctrine. Really? And perhaps some of you. If I might just be so bold or kind of turned off by the term.

[7:48] Is there just some kind of switch in us? As soon as the word doctrine is mentioned, we just kind of tune it out. Because we think, have certain thoughts about that.

[7:58] Just the word doctrine. And, you know, some will say, you know, I'm not really interested in doctrine. I just, I just believe in Jesus.

[8:10] Okay. Well, what do you believe about Jesus? Well, I believe that he's my savior. Guess what? That's doctrine.

[8:22] That's doctrine. The most important of doctrines. And so, what else do you believe? Well, I believe that he's God's son. That's doctrine, too.

[8:35] Well, what else do you believe? Well, he loves me and he died on the cross for me. That's doctrine. That is doctrine. That's sound doctrine.

[8:46] What else do you believe? Well, I believe he's coming back one day. Guess what? Well, that's doctrine. Do you believe anything else?

[8:57] Well, he's going to take me to heaven one day. Good. How do you know that? Well, that's what the Bible says.

[9:08] That's doctrine. You see, you can't even talk about Jesus without this doctrine. You can't believe anything about him. You cannot know anything about him apart from doctrine.

[9:25] The only question really is whether or not what you believe is based upon sound doctrine. See? And so, I think that defines my primary purpose for this series of instructional, kind of instructional sermons.

[9:41] And so, this is kind of a different format than you're used to and I'm used to in preaching. I really prefer expository preaching. Preaching through books of the Bible, verse by verse and chapter by chapter.

[9:54] But we're going to take some time on this. In fact, I think you have already noticed that it's going to take some time to work our way through these things so that we can get it.

[10:07] So that we understand it. Because sound doctrine is so important. Even if the very term kind of turns us off. It's crucial.

[10:19] It's important. It makes all the difference in your life, our lives here on this planet as well as on into eternity. It makes all the difference. Because you see, we're not just talking about facts here.

[10:33] We're not just talking about facts. I'm not just seeking to give you a bunch of facts. Okay, there's a difference between facts and truth.

[10:46] Biblical truth. Adrian Rogers used to say, you know I like to quote Adrian Rogers. He used to say that facts are like a recipe.

[10:58] Truth is like the cake. Okay? Now think about that. He said, you don't eat the cookbook. Right? You eat the cake.

[11:08] You eat the cake. And so digest the truth and it will change your life. So this is not just an opportunity to teach and go through some boring doctrines.

[11:20] This is truth. Biblical truth. Sound doctrine. And it will make a difference in your life. So listen to it. Get it. But don't just simply take my word for it.

[11:33] Study these things for yourself. And so now we're ready for part two of this series that I've entitled. What? This we teach.

[11:44] This we teach. Highland Park's five doctrinal statements. And let me go ahead and name those five for you again. And you can read these for yourself.

[11:55] And not just the titles of them, but also all the substance of these five doctrinal statements. They appear on our website. You can go there and read them. Also in our bylaws.

[12:06] In the appendix. And you can discover and study these for yourself. And so here are the five doctrines. What we teach about God. That's what we started last week.

[12:16] And I'm going to continue that this morning and on into next Sunday. Because we're going to be looking at, we are looking at God in all of his three persons. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

[12:29] We're going to focus on the Son this morning. And then what we teach about the Holy Scriptures. God's Word. The Bible. Third, what we teach about man.

[12:40] I don't mean men. I mean man as in mankind. That's all of us. All the sons and daughters of Adam. And what we teach about salvation. Fourthly.

[12:50] And that's a crucial doctrine for us to look into and understand from Scripture. And then finally what we teach about the church. About the church.

[13:02] Now, again, last week I started to walk us through our doctrinal statement on what we teach about God.

[13:15] About God. And last week we looked first of all to a very general statement on God. Begins that way with just a general statement.

[13:26] About God and about the Holy Trinity. And then from there we kind of break it down. First of all. And this is what we looked at last week. The statement on God the Father.

[13:38] The first member of the Trinity. And now we're ready to see what we teach about God the Son. God the Son. Or the Lord Jesus Christ.

[13:52] The Son. The second member of the Holy Trinity. And so what do we teach about Jesus? God's Son.

[14:03] Or God the Son. Well, let's look at this statement. This is just the beginning of it. It's quite a lengthy statement of belief. So, again, I would encourage you to read it for yourself.

[14:14] But let's walk through this. We teach that Jesus Christ, the second person of the Trinity, possesses all the divine excellencies.

[14:25] I don't need to spend a lot of time on some of these. Because there's some overlap from the essentials, what the basic Christian beliefs, and our five doctrinal statements.

[14:37] So we know that the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, possesses all the divine excellencies. The same divine aspects and nature of God the Father and God the Holy Spirit.

[14:52] So he possesses all the divine excellencies and in these he is co-equal. So he's not a lesser God, a second God. He's co-equal with God the Father, co-eternal with God the Father, and he is equal in divine substance with the Father.

[15:16] Equal in divine substance. And let me give you just a few verses of Scripture. First of all, John 10, 30. I and my Father are one.

[15:27] That's a very simple statement, isn't it? Simple and yet so profound in sound doctrine. Jesus said, I and the Father, God the Father, God the Son, God the Father are what?

[15:41] One. One. We're one. Colossians 1.15. He is, speaking of Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God.

[15:55] The image of the invisible God. The word image there in the Greek text is icon. We're familiar with that term, although the meaning of icon today is certainly something quite different from what Paul meant when he wrote.

[16:09] And I'll explain that here in just a minute. And then also Hebrews chapter 1, 3. Colossians 1.15 and Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 are definitive verses on this subject of the equality in divine substance between God the Son, God the Father, and also God the Holy Spirit.

[16:31] And so Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3 says, he is, again speaking of Jesus, he is the radiance, radiance, the outshining, the visible expression of the glory of God, the full glory of God, and, and here's the important part of this verse, well all of it's important, but the exact imprint.

[16:56] King James, I think, uses the word representation. The exact imprint, and I chose the ESV here because of the meaning of that word, but Jesus is the exact imprint of his, that is God's nature, God's nature, the exact imprint of these two things.

[17:18] So put those two together. Colossians 1.15 and Hebrews chapter 1, verse 3, He is Jesus, God the Son, is the image, He's the icon of the invisible God.

[17:33] That is the visible expression, the observable expression, very nature of God, and He is the exact imprint of God's nature.

[17:47] By the way, that term that's a translated exact imprint is an engraving term, and it means that, kind of like engraving metal, or, or, or, or pressing a form, a pattern against the metal so that you have the exact representation of the real.

[18:06] He is the real, but He is the exact imprint of the Father. And all that to say this, it means that Jesus, in Jesus, the invisible God, is made visible, became visible for us.

[18:24] And, you know, Jesus said, He who has seen me has seen the Father. What else? Well, God created everything.

[18:37] We teach that God the Father created according to His own will, and He did so how? Through His Son, Jesus Christ. John 1, 3. All things were made through Him, through Jesus.

[18:52] All things were made through Him. Without Him, nothing, not anything, was made that was made. Very clear passage of Scripture. God the Father. We talked about God being the Creator last week, and He created all things through His Son, through the second member of the Trinity.

[19:10] Colossians 1, verse 16. For by Him, Him is Jesus. By Him, or through Him, all things were created.

[19:20] All things were created. So, you have two passages of Scripture that say essentially the same thing. God the Father created according to His own will everything through His Son, Jesus Christ.

[19:37] I'm reminded of a number of places in the Bible where all, actually all three members of the Godhead, of the Trinity, are involved in various aspects of God's purposes and plan.

[19:48] And creation, the creation is no exception. We can go all the way back to Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and 3, and we can find all three members of the Trinity there.

[19:59] Did you know that? The Bible begins by saying God, in the beginning, God did what? Created the heavens and the earth. Then it says that the Spirit, His Spirit, hovered or brooded.

[20:14] That's the Holy Spirit. And then it says, and God said. That's the Word. All three members of the Trinity are mentioned there right at the very beginning of the Bible.

[20:26] And so, clearly, God is the creator of all things and He created through His Son, God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

[20:38] He is the, through the agent of creation. And then, by whom all things continue to in existence.

[20:50] We talked about that last week as well. They continue in existence and in operation. You can think of it in these terms.

[21:02] Things continue to exist. Creation goes on. And all things are working together and coming together in perfect order because of the working of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[21:17] This, you see, is Jesus. Colossians chapter 1, verse 17. And He is before all things. That's His eternal, His eternality. And in Him all things consist.

[21:31] That is, they hold together. This is Jesus. The Son. God the Son. Now, what else do we teach about the Son? We teach that in the incarnation, again, you know that term, certainly by now, incarnation, just a big, fancy word that means God became man.

[21:53] God became flesh. In the incarnation, God with us, in the incarnation, Christ surrendered only the prerogatives of deity.

[22:07] Now, possibly you've heard that before and wondered, what in the world does that mean? That He surrendered only the prerogatives of deity. Let me break it down this way. That means that He only set aside or laid aside or surrendered His full rights to the free exercise of His deity.

[22:33] He put that aside and yet at the same time, He did not surrender anything of His divine essence. That is, He's still God.

[22:44] God. When He became a man, He's still God. He didn't surrender His divine essence either in degree, that is, the measure of it, He was still fully God even as Jesus walked this planet, nor did He surrender the divine essence in any kind, that is, any of the particulars of His essence as God.

[23:10] He continued to be all of those things. in the incarnation, in Jesus' incarnation, He continued to possess everything that was His as fully God and we can read through the Gospels and find that He certainly often revealed that, didn't He?

[23:28] Through His miracles, through His dealing with demonic forces, the supernatural things that Jesus did, from walking on the water to calming the winds and the storms, from feeding the 5,000, from exercising demons out of demon-possessed people, to commanding demons and they obeying Him and so forth.

[23:54] So, see, He didn't surrender any of His divine essence. This is Jesus, the Son of God.

[24:05] The other side of this, though, in His incarnation, the eternally existing second person of the Trinity accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity.

[24:22] Now, this is where we kind of get on the, in the area of the unexplainable. Kind of like we talked about last week when I was talking about the doctrine of the Trinity, the Holy Trinity.

[24:37] I can't explain how that works. Neither can you. So, don't think you can. It's unexplainable. It's not something that we can really grasp with our finite minds.

[24:51] This is infinite truth. Now, I don't know that when we get to heaven maybe we'll understand how it works. I don't think even then we will. So, why do we believe it? It's in the Bible.

[25:04] It's in the Bible. Clear truth is taught throughout Scripture. That he accepted, he's God, fully God, but he accepted all the essential characteristics of humanity and so he was what?

[25:18] Fully God and fully man. That's important to note that he was not part God and part man. Not some kind of hybrid.

[25:31] Not some kind of demigod. fully God as though he were not man at all. And yet he's fully man as though he were not God at all.

[25:44] Now, I'm just telling you what the Bible teaches. I'm not telling you how to understand that. This is the truth of Scripture. This is the truth about God the Son.

[25:55] Philippians chapter 2 verses 6 and 7. although he existed in the form of God. That's his existence. He's God. He did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, to be held on to.

[26:15] But what did he do? He emptied himself taking the form of a bond servant and being made in the likeness of men.

[26:26] Then it goes on from there. But think about this truth out of Philippians chapter 2. What's the meaning of this? I mean, how would you understand that? I mean, in the first place, he did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped.

[26:43] And the idea behind that phrase and those words is that he did not regard it as something to keep by force, by his own will, doggedly holding on to it.

[26:55] He didn't regard it his equality with God in that sense. Meaning equality with God is the reality. I mean, that's the truth here. Jesus is fully God.

[27:06] But he did not forcefully hold on to all his rights and all of his prerogatives as God. Instead, what?

[27:20] Let me go back to that passage. Instead, what? He emptied himself. He emptied himself. He didn't empty himself of his deity.

[27:33] So what did he empty himself of? The word has tremendous meaning in the Greek language. It means that he laid aside, he set aside the free, willful use of his deity for his own advantage, his own personal privileges.

[27:54] Jesus. I like John MacArthur's teaching on this. He said that Jesus, the Son of God, emptied himself of five divine rights.

[28:07] Divine rights. Number one, his open expression of divine glory. Jesus walked the planet and no one knew he was God.

[28:18] Other than his statements, some of it explicit, most of them implied about his deity, he being the God, the Son, the Son of God, the Son of Man. But no one knew he was veiled.

[28:31] I mean, Jesus didn't walk around in all of his glory. He couldn't have accomplished his task if he had done that. I mean, everybody would be on their faces everywhere he went. And so he just set it aside.

[28:44] His rights for the full expression of his glory as God. Number two, his independent divine authority.

[28:56] He set aside that right. His independent divine authority. He allowed people to have their way with him. And so he kind of set his right to divine authority aside for a time.

[29:15] Number three, his voluntary exercise of some of his divine attributes. Now, he did express on occasion for his own purpose, and primarily the purpose was to validate who he was and to validate his message.

[29:37] So he did express some of his divine attributes, attributes, and yet he set aside the full and free and constant use, voluntary use of his divine attributes.

[29:54] Number four, his riches, his eternal riches. He set that aside. His rights to all that he possessed. Set that aside.

[30:04] I mean, what does 2 Corinthians chapter 8 verse 9 say? He said, for your sakes he became poor. That's what Paul said. For your sakes he became poor. And then finally, he set aside, emptied himself of his divine right to his unique and intimate relationship with the Father, with God the Father.

[30:25] He set that aside, even to the point of being absolutely, utterly forsaken by God the Father, which he did for our sakes. There is one more important aspect of this.

[30:42] We teach that Jesus Christ represents humanity and deity in indivisible oneness. That's why we're walking through these because some of these terms are a little bit, oh, I don't know, heady.

[30:56] Maybe that would be the word for it. Indivisible oneness. What in the world could that mean? Well, it brings up the issue of what is called the hypostatic union. Do you love that one?

[31:08] It's really not that hard to understand. Hypostatic is a term that refers to nature, his two natures, and the union between those two natures, God and man.

[31:22] So let's look at a couple of verses of scripture. Hebrews chapter 1 verse 3, he's the exact, we looked at this a moment ago, the exact imprint of his what? His nature, God's nature.

[31:34] Hypostasis, that's where we get the word hypostatic union, his nature. And then in John 1, 1, and then later in that chapter in verse 14, in the beginning was the word, you're familiar with this passage, in the beginning was the word, that's a reference to Jesus of course, the son, God the son, in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God.

[32:03] There's no mistaking the meaning of that. The second person of the trinity, God the son, the Lord Jesus Christ, was God, fully God.

[32:16] But then when we go on down to verse 14, and the word, what? God became flesh, became flesh, and dwelt among us.

[32:27] I mean, he really was flesh and blood. He, by nature, fully God. With God, was God.

[32:39] And, he became flesh, he became human, and he dwelt among us. Do you see how the two come together?

[32:50] Jesus has two complete natures, full natures, fully human, fully God, fully human, fully divine, again, fully God, fully man.

[33:03] What the doctrine of the hypostatic union teaches is that these two natures come together perfectly, they're united in one person, and it's Jesus, the God man, the God man.

[33:21] Jesus is not two persons. Jesus is one person. He is at the same time, God and man, way back in 451 AD, the Chalcedonian Creed.

[33:37] Yeah, it had a lot of creeds that came into Christian history to deal with heresies of the day, and that's what this was for, to deal with the heresy of the person of Christ.

[33:48] Many of the heresies centered on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. In this sense, it was concerning his two natures. And so the creed basically said his two natures are without confusion, they are without change, that he's not changing from God to man to God to man, he is fully both at the same time in everything that he did, without change, without division, without division, no separating line, you can't say, well, I can see Jesus and this is his divine side and this is his human side, without any division, and without separation, Jesus is one.

[34:34] He's one. The hypostatic union, very important way to express the doctrine that the Bible teaches about the union between the two natures of the Lord Jesus Christ.

[34:46] He's fully God, fully man, same time, not part God, not part man. It's not a mode in which he's operating, so he's man now, and then he's God there, and then he's man again, and then God there, he is the God-man, fully God and fully man.

[35:07] One theologian put it this way, Christ's humanity was not a mere fleshly shell that God rented and used for a temporary amount of time.

[35:22] That is, man was added to God, not the other way around. It's not God added to man. God became man. He goes on, God did not just come to live in flesh as a man, but the word became flesh.

[35:39] flesh. Again, John 1 14. So his humanity was not an illusion. He really was flesh and blood. God incorporated human nature into his eternal being.

[35:53] That's what the incarnation is all about. In the incarnation, humanity has been permanently incorporated into the Godhead. That's what happened when Jesus came, born of a virgin, and lived on this planet.

[36:10] Let's move on. We teach that our Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born.

[36:21] Now, that's an essential. This isn't something you can decide whether you believe or not. This is an essential to Christianity. It's not just simply what we teach, it's what we believe.

[36:33] This is essential Christian doctrine. the virgin birth. I mean, no virgin birth, no sinless deity. No sinless deity, no acceptable sacrifice.

[36:48] No acceptable sacrifice, no salvation. No salvation. The Bible says in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 14, Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call his name Emmanuel.

[37:07] Emmanuel, that means God with us. By the way, just in case someone might object and say, well, that's Old Testament, that was a prophecy for something else, it wasn't fulfilled in Jesus. Well, if that's the case, then why was it quoted by Gabriel when he announced to Joseph that Mary, his wife, his espoused wife, would be the fulfillment of this prophecy in Isaiah?

[37:28] Mary is the fulfillment of that. Jesus was born of a virgin. And what was the purpose of the incarnation? Well, several things, at least three.

[37:42] First of all, to reveal and glorify God. That's the purpose of the incarnation. In fact, we could say that that's the purpose of everything that God does and has planned to do and will do, for his glory, to reveal and glorify God.

[38:01] God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, really, literally through the face of Jesus Christ.

[38:20] That's a very interesting passage and it just simply means that God became a man in order to reveal and glorify God. second, to redeem men, mankind, to redeem us.

[38:36] The Bible says in a number of places, in John 1, 29, John said, behold, what? The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.

[38:48] To redeem man, that's why God became a man. It's the only way it could be done. We needed him to do that. Philippians chapter 2, verses 9 through 11, God has given him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, is Lord to the glory of the Father.

[39:11] To redeem man, let me give you another passage, Hebrews chapter 7 verse 24, but he, that's Jesus, because he continues forever, has an unchangeable priesthood, therefore he is also able to save to the uttermost, that means save forever those who come to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

[39:36] To redeem man, so to reveal and glorify God, that's the purpose of the incarnation, to redeem us, that's the purpose of the incarnation, there would be no redemption apart from the incarnation, and then also to rule over God's kingdom.

[39:54] Psalm 2 verses 6 and 8, 6 to 8, I have set my king on my holy hill, you are my son, this is prophetic of the Messiah who would one day come, and for us has come, you are my son, I will give you the nations for your inheritance, to rule, see, over God's kingdom.

[40:17] Psalm 67 verse 4, let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you shall govern the nations on earth. Isaiah chapter 9 verse 6, and the government will rest on his shoulders.

[40:32] All of these passages and many others we could look at, clearly reveal that Jesus, the coming of the Messiah, the incarnation, God becoming man, Emmanuel coming, was for this purpose, to reveal and glorify God, to redeem you and me, if we will believe, and to rule the nations, rule the nation.

[40:56] Let's move on. We teach that in the incarnation, the second person of the trinity laid aside his right to the full prerogatives of existence with God and took on the existence appropriate to a servant, a slave, while never, same time, never divesting himself of his divine attributes.

[41:25] Again, I would point you to Philippians chapter 2, although he existed in the form of God, he did not regard equality with God, a thing to be taken by force, grasped, he emptied himself, and did what?

[41:41] Taking the form of a bond servant, slave, being made in the likeness of men.

[41:52] We also teach that our Lord Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through the shedding of his blood, that's what he did at the cross, shed his blood, without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness of sin, and his sacrificial death on the cross.

[42:14] And we teach that his death was voluntary, it was voluntary, John 10, 15, I lay my life down, I lay it down for the sheep, no one takes it from me, but I lay it down of myself, I have power to lay it down, and I have the power to take it up again.

[42:40] Have you ever heard anybody say that Jesus was the only one who ever chose to die? And right off, you know, naturally we start thinking about those who commit suicide, they choose to die, right?

[43:00] No, they chose the time of their death, and maybe the way of their death, but they didn't choose to die, they were going to die anyway, but Jesus was the only one who ever chose to die, because he was the only one who ever lived, he didn't have to die.

[43:12] Huh? He's God. He said, I lay my life down for the sheep. No one takes it from me. I lay it down of myself, and I have the power to do that, the authority to lay it down, voluntarily.

[43:32] Also, his death was, and I'll put these two together, vicarious and substitutionary. You probably have heard a couple of those two terms. Vicarious and substitutionary, they're very similar in meaning, so I put them together.

[43:48] Bible says in Isaiah 53, verse 5, he was wounded for our transgression. That's what vicarious means. Do it for someone else.

[44:02] Give it for the benefit of somebody else. he was wounded, not for his own transgressions, for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

[44:15] The chastisement, the punishment for our peace, so that we would have peace, was upon him, not upon us. This is tremendous truth.

[44:27] And by his stripes, we are here. The vicarious death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Also, this passage. In John 10, 18, I lay down my life for the sheep.

[44:44] You know, I'm always amazed of the depth of meaning of some of the smallest of words in the English language. This is a small word even in the Greek language. Still just three letters.

[44:57] It's gar in the Greek language, for in our language, and it means, it speaks of his substitutionary death. He died for us, that is literally in our place.

[45:11] So, his vicarious and substitutionary death. Another example would be Romans chapter 4 verse 25. He was delivered up for our trespass, for our trespass, and raised for our justification.

[45:30] Here's another one, Romans 5 6. Christ died for the ungodly. All of this is a reference to his vicarious and substitutionary death.

[45:45] Here's another one, 1 Peter 2 24. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He certainly didn't bear his own, did he? He bore ours.

[45:56] This really points more to the vicarious aspect of his death. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness.

[46:11] For righteousness. So the voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary, and here's a good one, propitiatory. Okay. Now, when's the last time you used that word in a sentence?

[46:24] Propitiatory. Well, let me give you a verse of scripture and I'll explain what it means. Romans 3, 24 and 25, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood.

[46:42] And, you know, you can just substitute the word there, satisfaction. That's really the idea behind this word, propitiatory. Satisfied the demands of a holy God.

[46:56] He satisfied those demands through his blood, his blood, through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

[47:15] Wish we had time to really unpack that passage of scripture. But the point is this word propitiatory, propitiation. You can just use the word satisfaction.

[47:27] God is holy. We are sinners. God's holiness demands judgment for our sin, wrath upon our sin. It demands payment for our sin.

[47:38] And who paid the price? Jesus did. And that price satisfied a holy God. Propitiation. Tremendous theological term.

[47:49] And then one last one. that his death was redemptive. Redemptive. It redeemed us. Romans 321. But now the righteousness of God is revealed through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God being justified freely by his grace through redemption that is in who?

[48:17] Your good works? Because you're a good person? Because you have potential to be a good person? That you really want to be and you know but you just fall short?

[48:31] No. It's in Christ Jesus and in him alone. Let's move on because we're running out of time. Let me give you another passage.

[48:42] In fact I'll just skip that one. You can write it down Revelation 5 9. We teach that on the basis of the efficacy there's another $50 word efficiency the effectiveness of the death of our Lord Jesus Christ the believing sinner is freed freed from the punishment penalty power and presence.

[49:12] That's a great alliteration isn't it? really we put punishment and penalty together the punishment and the penalty for our sin freed us from that.

[49:23] How could he do that? Took it for himself. So that we will never have to face the punishment and the penalty for our sin. But not only that but the power of sin and sin has great power here in this world right?

[49:39] Certainly that has been your experience every day even this morning probably. The power of sin and one day the very presence of sin and we're not there yet.

[49:52] We still have to deal with the presence of sin in our lives and in our world today and we will do so until Jesus comes or we die and go on to heaven. But one day whether through death or through the rapture we'll be taken up out of this sinful world and be removed forever from the very presence of sin.

[50:18] And that he that is the believing sinner is what? Declared righteous. I wish we had time to talk more about that and we will talk more about that when we look at the statement of doctrine, statement of belief on salvation.

[50:35] But Romans 321-22 but now the righteousness of God apart from the laws revealed even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe.

[50:50] Declared us righteous. Not only that but he's given us eternal life. He's given us eternal life. 1 John 5-11 and this is the testimony that God has given us eternal life and this life is in the Son.

[51:07] God the Son. He who has the Son has life. He who does not have the Son of God does not have life. So declared righteous, given eternal life and I love this one adopted into the family of God.

[51:23] I've got a whole slew of passages we could look at there. John 1-12 but as many as received him that is Jesus to them he gave the right, the power to become children of God to those who believe in his name.

[51:38] How about Galatians 4-5 God sent forth his Son to redeem those who were under the law that we might receive the adoption as sons. You talk about a wonderful term and concept and theological concept in the Bible.

[51:54] Adoption is absolutely amazing. God would actually adopt us into his holy family and do so through Christ. Ephesians chapter 1 verse 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his will.

[52:14] And you can read some of these others later. Hebrews 2-10 Let me move on. We teach that our justification and that's a big theological word.

[52:26] We'll talk more about that when we look at the statement on salvation. It's part of salvation. Very crucial element in our salvation. Justification is not just another word for salvation.

[52:37] Justification is a certain aspect of salvation. It's a glorious truth in our salvation and it basically means that God sees us, chooses to see us, in fact places us in a position before him where he sees us as he sees his own son.

[52:54] His perfect son. God sees us as though we had never sinned. Not just sin and been forgiven but never sinned.

[53:06] That God actually puts us in a position before him which is really in Christ so that he sees us as though we had always perfectly obeyed him. That's a tremendous gift of salvation.

[53:22] Salvation. justification. And how is this made possible? Through his literal, physical resurrection from the dead.

[53:36] Romans 4, 24. We believe in him who raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered up for our trespasses and raised for our justification.

[53:48] Our justification comes to us because Jesus was raised from the dead. Raised for our justification. And that he is now ascended to the right hand of the Father.

[54:05] He's ascended to the right hand of the Father. Where he now does what? Mediates. He's our mediator.

[54:18] Our advocate. Our high priest. He represents us before God the Father. I love this passage.

[54:29] Hebrews 2, 25. Therefore, he is also able to save to the uttermost. They say forever those who come to God through him since he always lives, continues to live, always lives.

[54:41] He's eternally living to make intercession for them or for us. Hebrews 9, 24. for Christ has not entered the holy place made with hands.

[54:55] That's a representation of the tabernacle, later the temple, made with holy hands. He's not entered into that holy of holies, which are just copies of the true, but into heaven itself.

[55:09] Now to appear, it should be now, now to appear in the presence of God for us. He mediates. 1 John 2, 1, my little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin, and if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous.

[55:31] Now we teach that the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the grave, through that resurrection, God confirmed the deity of his Son. You can just write this passage down, Romans 1, 4.

[55:44] He also gave proof that God has accepted the atoning work of Christ on the cross. Again, Hebrews 10, 12, just write that down, look at it, we're going to need to move on.

[55:57] Jesus' bodily resurrection is also the guarantee of a future resurrection life for all believers. We'll give you this passage, John 14, 19, because I live, you will live also.

[56:14] Tremendous truth. Romans 6, 8, if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We teach that Jesus Christ will return.

[56:28] Amen? We teach that he will return. He's coming back again. Acts 1, 9 to 11, you know the scene there, the disciples, the apostles with Jesus is just before his ascension.

[56:42] In fact, he is taken up into a cloud and I imagine the disciples are standing there with their jaws wide open. You know, what an amazing thing to see.

[56:53] And then the angel says, why do you stand here looking up into heaven? The same Jesus who went up is going to one day come back in the same manner. Come back in the same way. Could be today, actually.

[57:04] So we teach you will return. To do what? to receive the church, that's you and me, the bride of Christ, his body, and receive us unto himself and through what method?

[57:19] You can jot down John 14, let me go on. At the rapture. Now, you know, I introduced this series of studies on our statements, our doctrinal statements, and I mentioned to you that whereas the essentials, the basic Christian beliefs, are non-negotiable, there are differing views when it comes to our five doctrinal statements.

[57:48] And here is one. I mean, there are other views concerning end times, how all that is going to transpire. There's those who love the Bible, love the Lord, and look at some of the same scriptures that I look at, and they come up with a little different conclusion.

[58:05] But I am going to teach you the way I believe it, and what we teach as a church, in 1 Thessalonians 4, 16, for the Lord himself would descend from heaven.

[58:18] I left out a little bit of it with a shout, Trump of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. That's why we know Baptists are going first, because the dead in Christ are going to rise first.

[58:32] Then we who are alive, and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Caught up together is where we get this term rapture.

[58:46] And returning with his church. So these are just kind of step by step. We believe he's returning for his church, to rapture his church, and then he will return with his church here to this planet.

[59:00] 1 Thessalonians 3.13, so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his saints, with his church, and he's going to return to do what?

[59:20] To establish his millennial kingdom, and you'll have to read Revelation chapter 20. It's a good place to go to for that. All right, but there is something else that we teach concerning the Lord Jesus, and this will wrap it up for us.

[59:39] We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one through whom God will judge all mankind. Kind of a sobering way to end all of this, and yet it's the truth concerning the Son, the second person of the Trinity, will judge all mankind.

[60:01] That includes believers. 2 Corinthians 5.10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. I believe that is a reference to a particular judgment of his church, his believers.

[60:16] Not a judgment of our sin, but a judgment of our works. We will all be judged. Not only believers, but all living inhabitants on the earth, at his glorious return.

[60:29] The Bible says in Matthew 25.31, When the Son of Man comes in his glory, then he will sit on the throne of his glory. All the nations will be gathered before him, and the idea is to be judged.

[60:43] And then finally, all unbelieving, the unbelieving dead. The unbelieving dead at the great white throne. There's a difference between the great white throne and the judgment seat of Christ, I believe.

[60:56] The Bible says in Revelation 20.11, Then I saw a great white throne and him who sat on it, and I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened.

[61:11] The unbelieving dead. It all comes down to this, and this is something for every one of us to ponder. as we consider the truth about the Son.

[61:26] We teach that the Lord Jesus Christ is the one through whom God will judge all mankind. He is the final judge of all who fail to place their trust in him as Lord and Savior.

[61:47] Savior. That's a very important truth. He is the final judge of all who fail to trust in him as Lord and Savior.

[62:02] Now, I don't know where you are in that, where you stand in that doctrinal truth concerning the Son. I don't know about you.

[62:15] I would like to assume and would assume that the majority, the vast majority of us have placed our trust in him, that he is our Lord and our Savior.

[62:31] But I have to also assume that there is at least one here, perhaps, maybe more, who have a knowledge, perhaps, of every one of these doctrines.

[62:50] In fact, even as you sit there, you say, well, I agree with all those things. I think all that's true about God the Son. And yet, you can believe all those things and yet not have placed your trust, your faith in Jesus as Lord and Savior.

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