Philippians 2:6-8 "Emptied Himself"

Now, just a little bit of a heads up for everybody. This is going to be some pretty in -depth doctrine that we're going to be going over today.

I hope to go through this very thoroughly and slowly enough that we can understand these things as this is some complex stuff that we're going to be getting into today.

You might ask, why are we doing this on a Mother's Day? Why not do a topical message on mothers? I hope at the end of this, mothers can understand the importance of accurately telling their kids about Jesus Christ at the end of this.

And that they can apply that in their homes. That's what I hope takes place today through the accurate understanding of what

Philippians chapter 2 has for us. Let us first pray, and then we'll go ahead and read the text for us, and then we'll go ahead and pray again as we normally do.

Let's pray. God, I do thank you again for mothers, Lord. I pray that today, especially in the mother's minds, in their eyes, their ears, their hands, their hearts,

Lord, that you would refine us, them, to understand your gospel that much more clearly, so that in the household, that when they are teaching their children the importance of who you are,

Lord, that they would have that understanding, that great privilege that it is to know you accurately, to teach their children about theology,

Lord. Let us, as even fathers in this room, lead our households in this way, that we would understand more about you through the reading of your text, and that you would be glorified in this manner,

Lord. God, I would also ask that today you would bridle my tongue to accurately teach upon you, that I would not go an ounce or a step over what you have declared about yourself, but that we would just acknowledge and glorify the simpleness that it is to understand you,

God. Lord, help us love you better today, and we say this in your name. Amen. Philippians chapter 2, verses 6 -8, let's read this text here.

Who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself by taking the form of a bond slave, or by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men, being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the points of death, even death on a cross.

Let us pray. God, I would ask today that we would see and recognize the humility that is so prevalent in this text,

Lord, that we would not think ourselves higher than what we ought to think ourselves as, but Lord, that we would follow after your example in loving our neighbors by being humbled around them, that we would care for them, that we would love them, that we would take your example and apply it in every aspect that we have in our lives,

Lord, whether it be in our households, whether it be in our workplaces, whether it be here even in church, Lord.

God, help us recognize your deity in this text.

Let us recognize your humanity in this text. Lord, we ask all these things in the mighty name of Jesus, the

God -man, amen. Philippians chapter two, verses six through eight, this is one of my most favorite texts in the

Bible. Out of every Bible verse in the New Testament, Old Testament, this is the one that I have studied by far the most.

And you might ask yourself, why study this? This is something that was brought to my attention about how wonderful this text is through dealing with personal matters, dealing with,

I'll just be upfront with you, dealing with wrong understandings of this text. This is a text that has been used and abused by people to distort the view of Christ.

And so it's one that I've taken a lot of careful timing with trying to read it and understand it.

And in fact, I'm in the process of writing a book very much about verse seven here in this text, verse seven and eight.

So I could just pull out a 300 page book that I'm working on right now and read it for you guys. I don't think that would be as good of a message if we just focused on what the text has here for us.

But just out of context, last week and the weeks prior, what has Philippians chapter two been all about?

Humility, right? Nothing but humility. That's what this whole text has been about. What does it tell us as the church that we are to do?

Regard others higher than ourselves. How this attitude that was in Christ Jesus, have this attitude in yourself that was in Christ Jesus.

This is the contextual key that will keep us from stepping outside of orthodoxy.

It'll keep you from stepping outside of orthodoxy. Context is always so, so important for us to always understand.

Just to give you a few, I'm happy that we asked this question already, what is Philippians chapter two about?

Humility, right? Let me just give you some understandings that people have drawn out of this text that is incorrect and wrong.

And let's just think about this for a second. False doctrines that false religions have taught from this chapter, from these verses.

Man's being is eternal. Do you see that doctrine taught here in Philippians chapter two, verse seven through eight?

Man having a pre -existence, that's the doctrine that's been pulled from this text. Jesus not being fully divine.

Jesus not having divine attributes. Jesus being a different being than the father, being similar but different, distinct, divided, that they are two different beings.

That's a doctrine that's pulled from this text. This one I would call charismania, this charismatic movement and the mania that comes with it.

They draw from this text and they make it so that you as a Christian ought to be able to perform every miraculous thing that Jesus ever did, that the

Christian should be able to do those same things. That is not what we can draw from this text. And you might even ask, how could somebody pull that from this text?

And the reality is it's called mental gymnastics. It's done. It's somewhat of a confusing text that people go to another text in the

Bible, they see something that's difficult and so then instead of acknowledging context, acknowledging the difficulty in that text, they run to this verse to help excuse their false ideology and false theology.

And we'll see that today, I hope. So, you might, like I said, you might just be looking and just think, how could somebody have such an outlandish claim as Jesus not being divine or Jesus not having divine attributes from this text?

And the reality is, is that any text that is taken out of context is a pretext for a false ideology, false theology.

It's something that's used to defend false teachings and this is done for every false doctrine underneath the sun.

You look at every false religion, every cult, everything along those lines and they are reading a lot of times the same exact text that a

Christian is reading, yet they're drawing out of it things that are not therein. And that's something that's a danger for each one of us and it's something that I'd ask us today to be honest with and help defend about and refine our own theology to what this text has.

So, we've already posed the question, what is this chapter talking about? Humility. That's the context.

Humility, humility, humility. This has to be the anchor point that we read this whole text from. So last week, we just started talking about verse six last week and we asked the question, who is the who that's talked about here in verse six?

Who although, who is that who? And we talked about how that individual, the who that's talked about in this text is

Jesus Christ. This is Jesus Christ that we're talking about. Who although, that's the

Jesus that we're talking about. We are talking about the Jesus who says, unless you believe

I am, ye shall die in your sins. You cannot be a

Christian and say that Jesus is not the I am. That would be to deny what

Christ has said you must believe about me. That comes from John chapter eight verses 23 through 24 when he says to the

Pharisees, he was saying to them, you are from below talking about nature. You are from below.

You're from the earth. I am from above. Where is that speaking of talking about heaven? That's where he's from.

I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. This is talking about natures.

Therefore I say to you that you will die in your sins for unless you believe that I am, ye shall die in your sins.

This is explicit to the I am, the ego me, the Yahweh statements that we have here in the New Testament apply to Jesus Christ.

The explicit name of God found in the Old Testament is applied to the second person of the Trinity, the word

Jesus Christ. This is so important for us to understand and remember that Jesus is fully

God. So when we see in here in verse six of chapter two, who although, so who's the who?

Jesus, I am God in flesh. This is who it's speaking about. The word becoming flesh dwelling amongst us.

Again, what is this chapter speaking about? Humility. I'm going to remind us of this over and over and over again.

That's what's going to keep us from going beyond what the text has here for us. Humility is the context. So who?

God himself, Jesus, existing, who although existing in the form of God.

Now this is the first statement that we need to take very, very close attention to. This word form that's here in the

English for us in many of our translations comes from the Greek word morphine, morphine, and it's said actually two times here in this text.

The form of God and the form of a slave in the appearance of a man, form of God and form of man.

Now I'm going to jump ahead of myself and ask the question, do we believe that Jesus Christ was fully man, that he had every single attribute, every single quality that makes him a man?

Was he a man? Absolutely. If he didn't have a quality that was defining as a man, he wouldn't be a man.

And we'll touch on this again here in a moment. But the importance of this is that every religion, most of the time, a lot of the, even the false ones out there, they acknowledge that Jesus Christ is fully man because it says in the form, in the existence, in the essence, in the nature, in the shape of a man, he was there.

He was by nature a man. Well that same word is applied to what?

The form, essence, nature, shape, everything that defines

God, Jesus is that. Jesus is fully

God. So what, this then brings up the question, this is something that it's so important for us to understand.

There's a, one of my favorite books, it's by a gentleman named A .W. Pink. He's one of my favorite theologians, a good solid

Christian book that I would encourage every Christian to read in their life at least three times. I love it.

It is The Attributes of God by A .W. Pink. And in this book, he goes through different attributes that are seen very clearly in the

Bible. I just want to list off to you some attributes that he takes note of. There's many scriptural references that are listed here.

But the solid, solid fairness of God, meaning the uniqueness of God, that God doesn't, there's no one else like God out there.

God in himself is alone in that, that class of God. There's no one else like him.

He's alone in that. The decrees of God, he talks about the sovereignty of God in this way.

He talks about the knowledge of God that God is all -knowing. He talks about the supremacy of God, meaning that he's greater than anything else.

Nothing even comes close to him. This is an attribute of God. He talks about the sovereignty of God, that he rules and reigns over all things.

And then another attribute that he takes notice of, and it's one that we understand very closely and one that we have to understand all other attributes have to exist based off of this one, is the immutability of God.

When God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow, it means that he's never changing.

He's eternal, that all the other attributes that we talk about are just as eternal as that attribute itself, that he is always the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.

Meaning that if he lost a quality, an attribute, a thing that makes him unique in who he is, he's no longer immutable.

He's no longer eternal. He's no longer the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. This is deep theology, guys.

But these are just some of the attributes that he lists. The holiness of God, the power of God, the faithfulness of God, the loving -kindness of God, the goodness of God, the patience of God, the grace of God, the mercy of God, the love of God, and the wrath of God.

All these are different attributes. Now God is in all these things, yet he is not comprised of like a ten -part recipe.

It's not like you add ingredients to a bowl and that's what makes up God. God is all these things simultaneously.

They all make up who he is. It's not like we have a building block that makes up God. In this way,

God is confessed in the last 2 ,000 years by all the church fathers as a simple

God. Not meaning that he's not hard for us to understand, not meaning that it's something that it's just a simple thing to think about.

It's meaning that God doesn't have a one, two, three, four, five attributes that build up to make

God, but that he is one God, that God is spirit, that this all is who he is, that every one of these attributes is fully what he is.

This means that God is simple. If you think for a moment that you could take one of his attributes, let's say we took away

God's love. God was no longer a God of love. Was he a God of love yesterday?

Well, yeah, the Bible confesses him as such. If you remove the love from God, now what does that imply for us?

So if God is no longer loving, that's an attribute that he no longer possesses, now he's no longer immutable.

So did he confess himself to be immutable in the Bible, that he's eternal? Yes. So now does that make him a liar?

Because he said he was, and if he lost it, that makes him now a liar. These are logical applications that we must make from this kind of stuff, is the buying simplicity and the effect of if you remove something from him, it affects the entire being of who

God is. So now, if that's the definition of what is God, who is

God, is all these things that make him who he is, that he's simple in this way, that all these attributes are a part of his nature and his essence.

He's the creator and sustainer and keeper of all things. We then have to ask the question, which we'll look now in verse 7, what does it mean when it says form of a slave, or what is a man?

That's the next question that we have to ask. What is a man? If we could say the essence and nature of God are all these different attributes all in one being, what is man?

Look, if somebody came in here today and had an amputated leg, had an arm cut off, that doesn't stop you from being a man.

You're still 100 % a man, even without a body part. So that's not what makes up a man, it's not the body parts that make up a man.

It's that man is the image bearer. We have to define it based off the Bible. Man and woman is image bearers of God.

That's what makes us unique as other things, is we bear the image of God. If man was void of the image of God, by definition he's no longer a man according to the

Bible. That is what makes us this unique mankind, is that we bear the image of God.

Again, we have to understand these things. This is what's known, when it comes to Jesus Christ, that all divinity dwelt in Jesus, and all of manhood dwelt in Jesus.

It was all there right then and there, it's called the communicado idiomatum, or in more simple terms, it's called the hypothetic union.

And it's how do these things work together? It means that when the Word became flesh, there wasn't a mixing of these two natures to make something new.

Why? Because God's the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. So if it became something new,

God is no longer the same. It did not subtract from his attributes or his nature, because if it did, again, he's not the same.

Did it add to his nature? Well, no, because God is already complete in his nature, so it didn't add to it. This is where it's somewhat difficult to wrap our minds around the complexity and the miraculous event that is the incarnation, but we have to understand it to some degree.

Nor can we say that Jesus was only 50 % man. Why? Why can't we say something like that?

He had to be made like us so that he could die for us. If we said that Jesus was only bearing the image of God 50%, then he wasn't a complete image and he couldn't atone for anybody.

Again, this is called the communicato idiomatum. I dare you to go study this. It's a lot of thinking in it.

And again, this is very, very deep doctrine that we're talking about. But the point that I'm trying to get to us is that Jesus Christ is fully

God and he's fully man. We cannot deny those two things. Now, how do those things come together?

We'll talk about this here in a moment and the difficulty that comes with it. So verse six, let's read it again, who, although existing in the form of God.

So the very essence of who God is, according to Hebrews chapter one, Colossians chapter one,

John, every single chapter in John, it confesses that Jesus is fully

God, that he is the image of the invisible, that he is the very essence of who

God is. He is the exact representation of him because he himself is God in flesh.

That's what the whole Bible confesses to us. So God, even though Jesus existing in the essence, the nature, the form of God did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped.

What is the context of Philippians chapter two? Mary Lynn said it already earlier, humility, humility, it did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped.

Again, all these contextual clues for us are the keys for us to understand what verse seven is speaking about church.

You should take a moment just to fathom about how this verse itself is teaching that there is a single being

God, and yet it's also distinguishing the father from the son, thus implying a triune

God, father, son, and Holy Spirit. This is a Trinitarian verse that we're reading right now, who, although he existed as God, how many gods are there?

One God. So he existing in the form of God, one God, did not regard equality with God, a thing to be grasped, therefore there's a distinction between father, son, and Holy Spirit.

We see it right here in this text, it's quite remarkable to think about. So he did not regard this a thing to be grasped.

What is that speaking of? We'll see it here in just a moment. Verse seven.

This is the verse that has a lot of issue that's tied to it for a lot of people.

Verse seven. But emptied himself by taking the form of a bond slave, or taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.

Now the confusion and incorrect speculation that this verse has brought out in different false religions is something, like I said,

I had to battle with, and I had no clue, and I don't want to say this like it sounds like it's a badge of honor, but rather just a word of caution for us.

This word, emptied himself, in the Greek is know, that's the stem word for it in the

Greek, but it would be, sorry, eknoisen, eknoisen, that's what this word is.

And Paul uses it elsewhere in the Bible. And every time he uses this word know, he uses it, this is what the word means, it means to be rendered void, or to become pointless.

The word is used by Paul as the direct object to whatever he's speaking about, the

X, losing, not losing its attributes, that's not however he, whenever he uses this word, it's not ever in relation to something losing its attributes, but rather that this subject that he's talking about, this object that he's talking about, is made of no value.

It's of no value to the person that's hearing it. An example of this is in 1

Corinthians 9, verse 15, if you would like to study that. So kenosis, this know that we have here in verse 7, there's a heresy that came about in the 1800s by a

German Lutheran pastor, and it was to try to fix a problem that he saw in the text, which is really not a problem, in Matthew chapter 24, verse 36, it says in there that of that day and hour, no one knows, not the angels, nor the son, but the father alone.

So in his mind, he said, well, Jesus doesn't know all things because he says he doesn't know this day.

And so therefore, when I go to Philippians chapter 2, the emptying that is talked about in that text must be that Jesus dumped himself, deprived himself, lost all his divine attributes.

So omnipresence, omnipotence, omniscience, you name any of the divine attributes that you and I don't have,

Jesus lost them all. That's not the text that we, this is not the way that we should take this text by any means.

We're going to see what this looks like here in just a moment and why that's so wrong.

So if nature of God requires him to have all the essence of God, if you lose an attribute of that essence, it violates that essence.

If we said a bowling ball, let's just use an example for a bowling ball real fast. What is a bowling ball?

And I know everybody thinks in their mind right now it's a round object with three holes in it and you throw it down a lane and you hit pins.

What are the attributes that make up the essence of a bowling ball? We could say three holes, round, has to roll down and hit pins.

If that was the definition of what a bowling ball is, that is its essence. That's what it has to be. Is a bowling ball a bowling ball if it's a piece of paper?

Could I throw a piece of paper down a bowling alley? It lost its attributes, right? What happens if it was a cube?

Could I throw a cube down a bowling alley and say that was a bowling ball? No, Lydia's shaking her head, no, why?

It lost its attributes, it doesn't, it's not the essence, not the definition of what the bowling ball is any longer.

When we talk about God as spirit, it becomes a little bit more complex, but every attribute that is the essence of God must remain there for Jesus to be confessed as fully

God, okay? So, this kenosis theory right out of the gate should be seen as an error.

So, again, that's what the argument is, Matthew 24, verse 36, Jesus says he doesn't know the day or the hour, so Philippians chapter 2, that must mean that Jesus lost all divine attributes right then and there, and then it's usually tied with Matthew chapter 12, in Matthew chapter 12 it says that Jesus, he cast out demons by the use of the

Holy Spirit. Now it's true that Jesus did do things by the means of the Holy Spirit, but the argument is, is since Jesus lost himself of all divine attributes, any time he ever performed any miracle, it was through only the

Holy Spirit, so he did nothing from himself, it was only through the Holy Spirit. And then it's usually tied with, if you have enough faith in God, you can be dwelt with the

Holy Spirit just like Jesus was and do every single miracle just like Jesus did yourself. That's not the application,

Lydia's even shaking her head, no, that doesn't sound right to me. That's not correct. That's not correct.

If you have a miracle that happens in front of you, wonderful, but it's not because you had enough faith, it's because God is good and did the miracle.

Each one of these texts that are used within the kenosis theory are always answered in context.

Always answered in context. What's the context of Philippians chapter 2? Humility. What's the context of chapter 24 of Matthew?

Now let me just be completely honest with you, Matthew chapter 24 verse 36 is one of the most debated texts in all of the book of Matthew as well as all of the

New Testament. The chapter itself is of highly debatable qualities and thoughts, but just to think through these things with you,

Matthew 24 verse 36, if it was to mean that in Jesus' incarnation he lost his omniscience, why then is it that the

Father alone knows that date? Matthew 12 comes before Matthew 24 and the whole doctrine of the

Holy Spirit has already been declared. Did the Holy Spirit ever become incarnate and lose his divine attributes?

No, the Holy Spirit never became incarnate. The Holy Spirit always is divine. So why does

Jesus say that the Father only knows? That even voids the

Holy Spirit of this omniscience. You see now why this is so terrible of a doctrine to hold to that Jesus lost divine attributes.

It's not good if you're falling with what I'm saying. Another clear contradiction is that Jesus in John 16 verse 30,

John 19 verse 28, John 21 verse 2 and plenty more all confess

Jesus as knowing all things. Again, Jesus is omniscient.

That's what the whole entire text teaches. This would also contradict the exhortation that Paul gives to us in Philippians chapter 2 verse 5.

Brothers and sisters, do you possess any divine attributes? No, you don't have divine attributes.

That's what separates us from God because God is unique in who he is, right? Verse 5 of Philippians chapter 2 says, have this way of thinking in yourself which was also in Christ Jesus.

So if verse 7 was to mean Jesus lost divine attributes, Paul tells us to have that same attitude in ourselves.

We don't have divine attributes to lose. That's not the application of this text. Again, this is some really deep theology but it's important for us to notice.

So again, what is the context of Matthew 24? Jesus is speaking in parables over and over and over again and oftentimes when he's speaking in parables, he's always talking about the same thing but he's using different perspectives, different parables to reiterate the teaching.

And in Matthew chapter 22 verses 1 through 14, we're not going to read it all right now but I would encourage you to go home and study it.

We see a parable of the wedding feast that's talked about. And guess what? We have figures that are talked about in that parable that are then applied in Matthew 24 verse 36.

In that parable, we see a consistent use of the father. We have a consistent use of a son.

We have a consistent use of servants. We have a consistent use of others that are invited to this wedding feast.

And guess what? In that parable, the father gets the privilege of doing the traditional of that day.

The father got to pick what they ate at the wedding. The father got to pick the invites, those that got invited to the wedding.

The father got to dictate and pick the type of wear, the garments that they would wear to that wedding. The father got to pick it all.

And guess what? The father also got to pick. Well, not quite. Maybe, probably.

But he got to pick the day that they were getting married to. So when

Jesus says, what is the wedding feast? I heard Rick talking about it with the kids in Adventure Club today.

What is the wedding feast talked about oftentimes in the New Testament? The second coming. So Jesus, giving honor to the father in the traditional language of that day, said only the father knows because it's his privilege.

It's not a statement of him saying, I don't know all things. It's a statement of I honor the father.

Context fixes the issues for us. It always does, every single time. So again, father is the one that gets to decide in that day out of tradition.

I know some Jewish individuals. I know one that is now a Christian, and I've even asked him this, and he said it 100%.

So in that day, the traditional language of talking about a wedding would be of that day, no one knows, even though they would know.

They would see the party being set up. They would see the animal being fattened. They would see it being slaughtered. They knew. They got the invites.

They knew. But it was traditional language to say only the father knows. Why? Because it gave him honor.

Gave him honor of being the father of the groom. What is Jesus doing?

Giving honor to the father, just as he always has. Again, context answers this.

So what does this kenosis theory now mean?

Kenosis, this word kenosis, not kenosis theory, but kenosis here in verse 7 mean for us? He emptied himself.

He kenosis himself, meaning the individual of the most honor, deserving the most praise, deserving the most worth.

You think of today for Mother's Day, who in here got flowers for their mother or their wife or their children?

I went to Fred Meyer, and we're going to be giving out flowers later today. And oh my goodness, they were expensive flowers.

They like to upcharge these things on a day like this, right? You might say that those flowers have value.

What would be taking a flower and making it kenosis, making it emptied? You take this flower that's of value to yourself, and you take it and you throw it on the floor, and you stomp on it, and you dirty it up, and you spit on it, and you smack it around, all these things, you make it of no value.

Jesus himself being of the most value, being fully God, having the essence of God right then and there, the one that everyone should have been bowing down to and praising, what did he do for us?

The King of kings was made the scum of scum, because you are dead in your sins, and he has risen again and died for you.

That is the kenosis that we have in here. That is the emptying out, that his worth was made void, that his praise was not sung, that his admiration was not heard, but instead he was rejected and despised above all else.

That he who had never sinned, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.

He has become a curse for us so that we could be relieved of these things. So here in verse 7, but emptied himself by taking the form of a slave, meaning that these two natures have come together, again, not mixing, not adding, not taking away from each other, and brothers and sisters, the question of how does that happen?

How does this miraculous thing take place in the person and work of Jesus Christ? You just have to confess what the

Bible tells you, don't try to make analogies, don't try to make it work in your understanding, because guess what, you will lessen the value of Jesus Christ when you do this.

Jesus is fully God, Jesus is fully man, how do those things come together?

I can't tell you exactly how those things came together. If Don was here, he would tell us about Adams and these things, but even that does not answer for us the miraculous event that is the incarnation.

That he who existed in the form of God was humbled and emptied himself of all value and worth, that has nothing to do with attributes, that has to do with us recognizing his greatness.

We were veiled, our eyes were covered, our hearts were deafened, our ears were deaf, all these things, and we rejected the infinite being,

Jesus Christ, and because he was in fullness of man, he was nailed to a cross and he died for us, so that if we have faith in him, we would live again.

So, he emptied himself, this is a very biblical term, it does not mean he lost attributes, but that he became humble, that his value was not seen in man, because he was in the form of a slave and he was in the likeness of us, and look at verse 8, so even though he existed in the form of God, how did we see him?

How did we find him? Being found in appearance as a man, what's the text teaching?

Humility. He humbled himself, and listen to this, this is remarkable, by being obedient, you think about obedience and you think it should bring you good things, what did

Jesus do for us in his obedience? By becoming obedient to the point of death.

His humility didn't stop there, it wasn't like he just lived a long life and died of old age, death upon a cross.

He lived a perfect life, an obedient life, a life that you and I can't live, and yet he died in our place, he died the death that you and I deserve, he was buried and rose again on the third day, which we'll talk about hopefully next week, because that's what the next text has for us, therefore now he's been exalted above every name.

So now in our hearts, though we rejected him and we saw him as scum and vile, we now recognize and profess that he is the

King of Kings, that he is our Lord and our Savior and our God, that we recognize him as what?

Fully God, and the life he lived, he's fully man. This is a text about humility, and how does this relate to mothers?

Mothers, you have a great burden and privilege in your lives to teach your children things, to have powerful and meaningful experiences with them, to teach them doctrines and to have things that they will remember for the rest of their life.

Know Jesus better today so that you can tell your children about the miraculous miracle of the

God of the universe becoming flesh, understand that and profess that mystery of Jesus Christ, this infinite being dwelling in a finite body that is now resurrected and he still has today.

Don't try to change the doctrine of Christ to make it fit with our knowledge and our understandings, mothers.

Teach them the orthodox, the beauty, the mystery, the things that cause us to fathom the beauty of Christ, the things that we can't explain.

I can't explain why God saved me. I can't explain how in Jesus Christ there's fully

God and fully man. I can just confess those things. I can't explain how my sin was laid upon the perfect lamb's shoulders there upon the cross.

I can't explain these things. But I know that they're true and that's what I have my faith in.

And that's what we have to teach our children, to repent and believe in the gospel. And that gospel, again, if we do not know it today, is that Jesus, who is who?

Fully God? Fully man? He lived a perfect life because he was obedient?

His obedience to the Father's will brought about what? Death? Not just any death, a death that was completely undeserving, a death upon a cross, a tree, because he was made a curse to redeem us?

That he was buried and rose again on the third day, that is the gospel. And that's the only thing that's saved. So if today we have brought anything to our thinking that this is what saves us, that I'm saved because I'm a good mother, or I'm saved because I'm a good father, or I'm saved because of X, Y, and Z things, no, you are not.

You are saved only because God became flesh. You are only saved because of Christ alone.

Let us pray over this. God, I thank you for the wonderfulness of this text,

Lord. I do thank you, Lord, for the privilege and the blessing it is to teach on this.

Lord, I pray that the things, though it might have been somewhat more of a heavy topic, more of a deep theological implications,

Lord, I would ask today that you would help those things settle in our spirits, in our hearts, in our minds, and that we would see you for who you are today,

Lord. God, we ask these things in light of Mother's Day today, that we as parents would be able to teach our kids about this wonderfulness of who you are,

Lord. God, I thank you. Lord, I would ask today that each one of us would profess you as Lord, and that we would be continual to tell others about this gospel in our worship today.

Lord, let us tell our kids. Let us sing this gospel to them. Let us whisper it to them. Let us shout it to them.

Lord, let us pray it with them. Lord, I thank you so much, and I say this in your name.

Amen. So we'll do now communion, and then we'll do our final song for today.