The Incarnation Of The Lord..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. So our passage this morning is in John, the first chapter of John from verses one through 18. We'll read as we have done every time we've been here, just so we can get a proper context of the book and the passage will be, or actually the verse we'll be concentrating on will be the first part of verse 14, which in my estimation is the most profound verse in the Holy Scripture.

So if you have your Bibles open, John chapter 1 verses 1 through 18, and I'll be reading from the ESV. 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 was not anything made that was made. In him was life and the life was the light of men.

The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to bear witness about the light that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light. The true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John bore witness about Him and cried out, this was He of whom I said, He who comes after me ranks before me because He was before me. For from His fullness, we have all received grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The only God who is at the Father's side, He has made Him known.

Amen. About three and a half thousand years ago on the sands of the Egyptian wilderness the people of Israel had made camp on the plains of the Sinai Peninsula. It's been about a year since Yahweh miraculously rescued these people from the clutches of the Egyptians where they were held captive for the last four centuries. It's at this point in the narrative in Leviticus chapter 10 that we read of a disaster that struck and reminded the million-plus wandering Israelites that Yahweh does not speak empty words. If he has something to say, he says it clearly, and he expects everyone to listen.

You know the story. Two young priests of Israel, Nadab and Abihu, the eldest sons of the high priest Aaron, offered to God what is described unauthorized fire or strange fire. You see, only a week earlier, the tabernacle was erected. It was a temporary movable temple placed in the heart of the community surrounded by the 12 tribes of Israel who were yet to become a nation with a land. The tabernacle was a special place where Yahweh would manifest his earthly presence among his people.

Detailed instructions were given from God as to how this tabernacle would be constructed. Among those instructions were specific ingredients to be gathered, beaten into a mix, and used as incense as a burnt offering unto God, producing an aroma pleasing to Him. Well, Nadab and Abihu took it upon themselves to create their own ingredients and offered that to the Lord. Immediately fire rained down from heaven and consumed both these young men, burning them to a crisp before the eyes of their father Aaron. Reading this story, you may be thinking this penalty was a bit harsh.

The punishment seems far to far exceed the crime. After all, these brothers were among the privileged who met with God on Mount Sinai. And in fact, we're told in the 24th chapter in Exodus that they saw God and ate with Him. They beheld the glorious sight of the manifested presence of God that filled the tabernacle with thick smoke only a week earlier. These men knew God, they understood His holiness and they knew God took His holiness seriously.

They understood the gravity of their duties. Yet they decided to offer a substitute fire instead of the authentic fire. Now even though it seems they weren't intentionally dishonoring God, nonetheless their sin was one of presumption. They presumed that they could please God through their own initiatives, according to their own reasoning. Maybe they couldn't understand why it is that the ingredients needed to be exactly as God had prescribed.

Surely a few changes wouldn't hurt, they may have thought. But God had spoken. And when God speaks, he expects perfect obedience. He holds everyone accountable to his word. What these brothers did was deemed an act of rebellion against God.

Not respecting God's word is deemed an impingement on his holiness and his glory. When God speaks, beloved, there's no room for human creativity. That's only going to lead in error or to error, even if our intentions are noble. This error proved fatal for the brothers, the sons of Aaron, and it also proved fatal eventually for anyone who knowingly substitutes anything else in place of the truth found in God's word, especially truths concerning God himself. Before us this morning is one such truth.

The word became flesh. These words are so high and so lofty that they'll marvel our minds even into eternity. But as Christians, we hunger and we thirst for more. We want to know more about God and his salvation. We love to go deeper and dig further.

We don't want to be ignorant about the central truths of the Christian faith, especially that of the incarnation. But at the same time, we don't want to be presumptuous. We don't want to be trying to understand everything and trying to eliminate the mystery and end up finding ourselves deviating into error. Many over the years have strayed from scripture in human creativity, appeasing their philosophical minds and by doing so opposing the clear biblical teaching of the incarnation. If you've done any reading about church history, you'd know that the church was continually bombarded with attacks from these types of people.

Men elevating their own ideas above that of scripture, leading their gullible, ignorant followers, followers who don't recognize the voice of the Great Shepherd, straight into the fires of hell. The Arians, the Nestorians, the Apollinarians, the Monophytes are some of these historical heretical teachings that were all against or deviating against the biblical teaching of the Incarnation. I believe the common denominator of these heresies are the same as the fatal error that the sons of Aaron committed three and a half thousand years ago. It's the sin of presumption. taking matters into their own hands to explain away the seemingly difficult truths in the Bible.

Some details are best to remain a mystery. Beloved, it's the height of arrogance to presume that the manifold wisdom of God can be contained into the box of our own understanding. But having said that, we must get the doctrine of the Trinity, I'm sorry, the doctrine of the Incarnation as revealed in Scripture right. Our whole Christian faith stands or falls upon the veracity of this Christian truth that is central to our belief. Therefore, safety is found in the wise words of the Apostle Paul to the church in Corinth.

He says, that you may learn by us not to go beyond what is written." Sticking to the word of God would have saved Nadab and Abihu's life and this principle will surely protect us from gross error or much worse. So let's together have a closer look this morning at the clause or the first clause in verse 14 of our passage and by God's grace let's stick with what God has revealed to us in his word about this wonderful truth. The word became flesh. This is the last time in the gospel, according to John, where the apostle will use the title Word for Jesus Christ.

He's made his point in the first few verses in this beautiful prologue as to who the Word is. Towering truths so grand that upon examination the reader is left in awe and wonder. Because the point John is making in the first few verses is so clear and simple, yet profound. The Word is God. The Word is the Almighty Yahweh.

Make no mistake, John is not suggesting that the Word is like God, or partly divine, so as to say that He has some of the divine attributes. No. John is saying the Word is the fullness of God. The perfect attributes of God are all found in him. This is John's whole point in the first four verses of this intro.

We've unpacked these together over previous weeks, so we should be aware what John is saying. What is his message? His message is this, Jesus is God. This truth is foundational to our Christian faith. And this disciple that Jesus loved was motivated to proclaim nothing but the truth.

In his own words, he writes, I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in truth. 3 John verse 4. The truth matters and John knows it. As a defender and lover of the truth, John may have been motivated to write this gospel that bears his name to counter some of the heretical views of his day. Views that may have threatened to confuse Christians, those he calls his children.

Docetism may have begun to creep its ugly head into the latter parts of the first century. The Docetic view is simply this. It essentially denies the authenticity of the humanity of Christ. In other words, they don't believe Jesus was actually a human being. Therefore, they don't believe that Jesus suffered as a man.

John has a serious warning in the fourth chapter of his first epistle against people who think this way. By this, he says, you know the spirit of God. Every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. Hear this, this is the spirit of antichrist.

This is a massive indictment In other words, John's saying to deny the humanity of Christ in the incarnation is to be deemed an enemy of God. This is serious, beloved. On the other hand, John was fully aware that the Jews of his day, well, they denied the deity of Christ. The Jews understood the claims of divinity that Jesus made of himself. That's why they wanted to kill him.

To them, Jesus was a blasphemer. In John 10, speaking to Christ, the Jews say, it is not for good work that we are to stone you, but rather for blasphemy. Hear this, because you, being a man, make yourself God. So clearly, so clearly, there was opposition on both ends in the first century. Some deny his humanity and some deny his deity.

Beloved, 2,000 years on and nothing has changed. We still have the same heresies today. But in my view, verse 14 of this chapter is the most wonderful statement of truth in the whole Bible. The Word became flesh. It's interesting because if we think about it, this here, this first portion of verse 14 is John's version of the Christmas story.

He doesn't give any details about the events leading to the birth of Christ, nothing of the nativity scene, no shepherds, no wise men, no angels, none of the events surrounding the miraculous virgin birth. He probably feels the synoptic gospels have done a great job there, and they have. But what John seeks to do instead is to lay down the rich theological underpinnings that define the birth of the Savior. A theology that says the second member of the Holy Trinity, the all-powerful, all-knowing, all-present glorious God of the universe becomes intimate with his creation. God becomes man.

the glories of paradise and all the high praises of the hosts of heaven, the non-stop worship and praise left behind in the condescension when Jesus stoops down to the world he made to live as a real man among a people who would scorn him, ridicule him, and despise him. And eventually, this people, the people he made, will put him to death. Why? Why would he do this? Brothers and sisters, it's for your sake and mine.

The Apostle Paul says it beautifully in the second book to the Corinthians. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you by his poverty might become rich. Did you get that? Jesus left it all in order to accomplish the work necessary for Christians like us to enjoy the eternal joys with Him. The lawgiver is born into a world under the law to accomplish the perfect righteousness of God that we could not accomplish.

Beloved, if you're in Christ, and you're contemplating the immeasurable cost of your salvation, you need to understand that your salvation was being worked out long before the cross. We seem to go straight to the cross, as important as it is, but we neglect to consider the humiliation of Christ in the incarnation. May the Incarnation never cease to amaze us. This is incredible humility on God's behalf. Okay, so as Christians, we all believe in the Incarnation.

We know that the Eternal Son of God became man, Jesus Christ, to accomplish the work necessary for our salvation. The Bible confirms this truth over and over again. But if we're honest, this is a confusing topic. It's nuanced, it's complex and honestly difficult to comprehend. And it's a bit scary, because you really don't want to land yourself on the wrong side of orthodoxy.

I know this is true, but I'm convinced the deeper we explore this precious doctrine, the more wonder and beauty we see in our great God. Exploring the incarnation, hear this, within the parameters of the Bible, is incredibly edifying. So that's what we'll do with the remaining time we have this morning. I'll ask for your undivided attention, because as I said before, this is a complex topic. But I assure you, I won't be exhaustive on the teaching of this topic.

Firstly, we don't have enough time, and secondly, frankly, I'm not smart enough. But I do believe if every Christian needs to be at least equipped with enough biblical truth to confirm that they do have a biblical and orthodox view of the incarnation, which I'm pretty sure most of us have, if not all of us have. But since we're on the topic, let's just make sure. I want to start with the basic truth that needs to be etched in our minds and in our hearts. This truth will protect you from most of the errors out there in regards to the incarnation.

And this is what I want you to remember. The incarnation is an act of addition, not subtraction. So it's an act of addition, not subtraction. The Eternal Son did not in any way cease to be God in the incarnation. He in no way removed or set aside or surrendered His divine nature or His Godness.

In other words, He did not change into a human being. The Bible says He became a human being. There's a difference. To say it another way, the Eternal Son of God did not swap His deity for his humanity. Whatever changes happen that the Bible describes for us, we must acknowledge that Jesus retained all of his divine nature.

The misconception on this point mainly arises because of a misunderstanding of Paul's letter to the Philippians in the second chapter. So if you have your Bibles, please open up Philippians chapter two, we'll be reading from verses three through 11. Philippians chapter two, verses three through 11. Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceits, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Lead each of you look not only to his own interest, but also to the interest of others.

have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God, a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself. By taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men, and being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen.

First thing we need to make clear is this. It's impossible for God to cease to be God. By definition, God will always be God. So this would also illuminate or eliminate the idea that when Christ came, he set aside or gave up his divine attributes. Anything short of perfect completeness in God is the same as saying he is no longer God.

That's impossible. So what does the apostle Paul mean? Jesus emptied himself. You see the point the apostle is making is that the humility of Christ is a model for Christian living. The emptying is not Jesus stripping away his divinity, but him veiling his pre-incarnate glory, becoming a man and thereby not receiving all the glory and all the honor he deserves as God.

The apostle says he does not count equality with God in verse six. He doesn't set aside his, so therefore he doesn't set aside his divine attributes, But he does empty himself, hear this, of his divine privileges while he's on the earth. He did this willingly. in a display of humility. The Son of God didn't come to earth showcasing His divine glory, but humbled Himself, living by the power of the Holy Spirit and submitting completely to the Father's will, even unto death, as Paul says, death upon the cross.

So in His humility, Jesus remained as God, and He has been God for all eternity. In fact, Paul concludes the passage stating, every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, meaning he's God. To assert from this passage that Jesus exchanged somehow his divinity for humanity is to do violence to the text. Jesus' divinity in his humanity, not only here is it pointed out, but it resonated all the way through through the New Testament. John especially makes this point clear in his writings.

In chapter 10, at the Feast of Dedication, Jesus says, I and the Father are one, claiming to be the same essence as the Father. And in chapter 14, when Philip asks to see the Father, what's Jesus' reply? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. There is a unity and a diversity in the Godhead. Jesus is not the Father, yet he is one with the Father.

This is the mystery of the Trinity. Now we can't say that the disciples always understood this mystery, but one thing is for sure, at the end of Christ's earthly ministry, they knew he was God. Even the data among them, Thomas confesses to Christ, my Lord and my God. Being God means all the essential attributes and properties of God are found in Christ. Many of which are listed in the introduction of this blessed gospel of John.

He never, Jesus never stopped being God, not even for a moment. But the world did not recognize him for who he was. But when eyes are opened, when the truth is recognized, beloved, the only fitting response is that of the disciples in Matthew 28. They fell down and worshipped him. Is that not why we're here this morning?

Is that not why we're gathered in this place? Are we not now following the example of the apostles and expressing our worship to our God, Jesus Christ? We bend our knees and we also confess with our hearts and minds that Jesus Christ is Lord. Remember beloved, Lord in the Old Testament is the designation given to God himself. So how important is it for us to acknowledge that Jesus is God?

The big question is this. Is it necessary to acknowledge that Jesus is God in order to be saved? I can only answer this question with Scripture. You remember earlier on I mentioned that the warning that the Apostle John gave to anyone who denies the humanity of Christ? He says that person would be an enemy of God.

But now we're asking the opposite question. Is it possible to be saved if Jesus's deity is not recognized? If someone says that Jesus is not God, can that person be saved? Let's allow scripture to answer that question for us. Turn with me, please, to John chapter eight, and we'll be reading verses 23 and 24.

John chapter eight, verses 23 to 24. He said to them, that's Christ, you are from? below, I am from above. You are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

Now you might have actually missed the point I was making. Now I want you to reread verse 24 again and know that the He in verse 24 is not in the original. It reads this way, for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. Beloved, at the end of this chapter, the Jews pick up stones to kill Jesus. They had a reason to do this.

They understood what he was claiming. I am in the Old Testament is spoken of only Yahweh, only God. Jesus is claiming to be God and unless they believe it, they die in their sins. I believe Romans 10 verse 9 also reiterates the same point. If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is what?

Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. Truth matters, beloved. The deity of Christ is one such truth that must be believed. Think about it. Acknowledging that Jesus is God means that our lives are in the hands of the all-powerful, all-knowing, all present glorious God of the universe.

Think of all the promises He's made. Every single promise will be fulfilled because He is God. Nothing will ever frustrate His will, obstruct His power, or surprise His omniscience. He said everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. God has spoken and you can count on it.

He said that he's going to the father to prepare a place for his people and he'll return and take them home. This is a promise from God. And he will fulfill it. He said that he will never leave nor forsake his people until the end of the age. Beloved in Christ, you will never be alone.

God will presence himself with you. And he has promised, he has promised his Holy Spirit. So therefore God will be in you. No wonder why Paul is able to say, rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say, rejoice.

Your life is secure in God and no one, no one can snatch that away. No one can take you out of his hands. We've spent some time now asserting that the eternal son, the eternal son of God came to this earth, became a human, and he retained his divine nature. He's had this nature from all eternity, and it's essentially unchanged in his humanity. We agree with Hebrews chapter 13, verse eight.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. But in the Incarnation, a change did happen. But what was that change? Well, it wasn't the divine nature, we can be sure of that. But as I said a few moments ago, the change is that the Eternal Son added to Himself, hear this, a second nature, a human nature.

This is the point of this passage. He became a real human being taking all the essential properties of a real human person. He has a real human body and a real human soul. This means that he willingly became a genuine human being with genuine human limitations. Jesus is human just like you and I in every sense, yet without sin.

You see, sin is not essential to our humanity. We know this because Adam and Eve were too at one point sinless. So beloved, Jesus was just or is just like us. Let's be comfortable with that thought. It's biblical.

He's not ashamed to call us brothers and sisters. The scripture is full of the realities that pertain to Christ that belong only to the human nature. Here it is. He was born to a real woman, born under the law, and he grew in wisdom and in strength. Luke chapter 2.

His bones grew as he grew older and he developed muscles on his arms and on his legs. He experienced being a toddler and a young boy and a teenager and was probably excited when his facial hair began to sprout because finally he's able now to grow that beard he's always wanted. His hands would have been calloused with blisters from labor working with heavy lumps of wood in his father's carpentry shop. Jesus was a real person. He had real physical needs.

We're told in Matthew 11, he became hungry. In John chapter four, as Jesus and his disciples trekked the long journey from Judah to, or Judea to Galilee, they made a stop in Samaria because why? Jesus grew weary. He was tired. He sat at the well when a Samaritan woman came to draw the water.

And what was Jesus's first words to the woman? Give me a drink. His throat was parched. He was thirsty. Does God hunger or thirst?

And when Christ's energy was completely depleted at the end of a long day, he put his head down and we're told in Matthew 8, he fell asleep. He had real human emotions. He felt sorrow. In John 13, we're told his spirit was troubled within him. In chapter 11 of John's gospel, upon seeing Mary and Martha in mourning over their dead brother Lazarus, Jesus wept.

And of course, in the crucifixion narratives, we're told he suffered, he felt pain, his body bled, and finally, he really and truly experienced a human death. All these things I've mentioned are all human experiences. Beloved, before the incarnation, Jesus experienced absolutely none of these things. Okay, but why? Why did the eternal son of God become man?

Open your Bibles with me to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter two, verses 14 through 18. Hebrews chapter two. 14-18. Since, therefore, the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has power over death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

For surely It is not the angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham. Now listen to this part very carefully. Therefore, he had to be made like his brothers in every respect. so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God to make propitiation for the sins of his people. For because he himself suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted."

You see, it was essential for Jesus to become man so that he would offer himself up as our high priest. Not only to be, not only to sacrifice on our behalf, but to be that sacrifice. He was both the sacrificer and the sacrifice. He did this to free us from the power of the enemy, to free us from death, to free us from the slavery of sin. He came as the second Adam.

The first Adam brought sin and death into the world. Paul tells us in Romans 3, all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. And a few chapters later, he tells us the wages of sin is death. This is the result of our first federal head. As a result, all mankind are guilty before God, deserving the eternal fires of hell.

But the second Adam, the second Adam, the word that became flesh, he became our human representative, our substitute who bore the penalty of our sin. Not any human being could have been that substitute. That's the whole reason for the incarnation. He needed to be perfect and sinless with infinite righteousness and infinite worth to be able to satisfy the justice of God. He couldn't have been born through the seed of man.

He couldn't have been born with the corruption of sin. Jesus was born perfect and without sin. That's the whole reason God became man. Yet being fully human with all the essential properties of humanity in order to be our human representative, he did not in any way give up his deity. So only such a person as this would be worthy to be the substitute for sinners.

Only he is able to pay the price for justice before an infinitely holy God. Brothers and sisters, only one such person has ever existed with all these perfect divine and perfect human attributes, the God-man Jesus Christ. Because of this, Paul was able to say in 2 Corinthians 5.21, for our sake he made him to be sin, who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. This is incredible news.

If you're in Christ this morning, your sins have been placed on him. He's receiving or he received the punishment that we deserve. and we've been wrapped in the righteousness that He has accomplished. This has only been made possible because the Word became flesh. Beloved, I'm afraid I'm afraid that because the incarnation has become so familiar to us that its beauty and its mystery may escape us.

I fear that as Christians, because the word became flesh is a core principle of our Christian faith and we've heard it over and over again, that we may have become complacent to its wonder. Maybe it no longer stirs our souls. Ask yourselves, does this truth of the incarnation still ignite your heart with infections for Him as it did when you first heard of what Christ has done for you? Does this truth create in you a great love for the Saviour and does His love disturb your inner being and cause you to marvel at what He has done? I hope and pray that it does.

I hope that we realize that the incarnation of Christ is so much more than just head knowledge. Our faith stands on this core principle Christian truth. It's foundation for our salvation and apart from it, no one will be saved. It's only because Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man, having both natures unmixed, yet inseparable, are we able to experience the amazing grace of God. Grace that extends into all eternity with benefits experienced even now.

We have a Savior who is able to sympathize with us all in our weakness, we're told in Hebrews chapter four. He knows exactly what it's like to be human. He knows suffering. He knows pain. He knows what it's like to have lost someone you love.

He knows what it feels like to be rejected. What it feels like to be hated. What it feels like to be despised. Beloved, He even knows exactly what it feels like to be tempted. He bore the full weight of temptation, yet He did not sin.

Whatever human experiences, whatever temptations, whatever trials that you might go through, you have a Savior who knows exactly how you feel. Why? Because He's fully human. And you have a Savior who provides you with the strength and the wisdom to stand under whatever hardship you may go through. Why?

because He's also fully God. Beloved, because the Word became flesh, do you know what we have? We have a perfect Saviour. The perfect Saviour, Jesus Christ, the God-Man, the Son of God, who became flesh so that He could save a people and bring that people unto Himself. Amen.