Hail the Incarnate Deity

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1 Peter 2:24

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What, think ye of Christ? That is a hymn from John Newton.
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John Newton, you know the name, you should know the name, he's the one that wrote
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Amazing Grace. John Newton, actually the anniversary of his death is this coming
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Saturday, December 21st, 1807. So John Newton, the hymn writer, in fact
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I may want to talk with Gunner and Alex and see if we could sing this hymn. But you have to listen closely and the point
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I think really gets to the last verse. The five verses, what, think ye of Christ.
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Now I'm going to read it to you, I want you to listen, but I just want you to think before I read it. You know, there's a lot of things in this world that I don't understand.
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There's a lot of things that I haven't figured out, I haven't mastered, probably I'll never master.
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But the most important thing about you is what do you think of Christ?
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Because if you get Christ right, well there's other things you can get wrong and you'll still be okay.
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But if you get Christ wrong, it doesn't matter what you get right, right, it's
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Christ. So listen to the words of John Newton, verse one, what think ye of Christ is the test to try both your state and your scheme.
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You cannot be right in the rest unless you think rightly of him. As Jesus appears in your view, as he is beloved or not, so God is disposed to you, and mercy or wrath are your lot.
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Verse two, some take him a creature to be, a man or an angel at most.
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Sure these have not feelings like me, nor know themselves wretched and lost, so guilty so helpless am
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I, I durst not confide in his blood, nor on his protection rely, unless I were sure he is
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God. Verse three, some call him a savior in word, but mix their own works with their plan, and hope he his help will afford when they have done all that they can.
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If sayings prove rather too light, a little they own they may fail. They purpose to make up full weight by casting his name in the scale.
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Verse four, some style him the pearl of great price, and say he's the fountain of joys, yet feed upon folly and vice, and cleave to the world and its toys.
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Like Judas the savior they kiss, and while they salute him betray. Ha, what will professions like this avail in his terrible day?
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Verse five, if asked what of Jesus I think, although my best thoughts are but poor,
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I say he's my meat and my drink, my life and my strength and my store, my shepherd, my husband, my friend, my savior from sin and from thrall, my hope from beginning to end, my portion, my
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Lord. And my all. What think you of Christ? Love, this is our third week on a small series here on the gospel of Christmas, and this is an apt question for you to consider this morning as we begin the sermon.
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What think ye of Christ? Let us consider his glory this morning as we hail the incarnate deity.
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First Peter chapter two, verse twenty four. Would you stand as we honor the reading of God's word?
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds.
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You have been healed. Father, would you bless the preaching of your word today?
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Lord, there are some in here who need healing from the wounds of Christ and we pray,
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God, that you would offer that. There are some even Christians who are have been wounded this week, whether it's been from a friend or a spouse or a loved one or a family member or some rude neighbor.
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They've been hurt. I pray, God, that you would remind them today of the gospel and heal their wounds.
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We pray, oh, God, that we would have a right view of Christ. We would not be satisfied with having a right view of anything else unless we think rightly of Christ.
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We pray that would be the foundation. Of all other knowledge that we pursue, we pray that Christ would be exalted here and that he would receive the glory.
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We thank you for the Christmas season and we pray that we would think through it rightly and celebrate it rightly for the glory of Jesus.
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We pray in his name. Amen. You may be seated. Here we have the third little phrase that we've been walking through and the sermon title today is simply
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Hail the Incarnate Deity. And now we come to that third phrase.
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He himself bore our sins and here it is in his body. So we've looked at Christ alone is our only suitable and all sufficient savior.
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Everything in this life centers in and on and around and for Christ. And I said a few weeks ago, we are just trying to keep
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Christ in Christmas. We're in a battle today, if you will, of wanting to keep Christ in Christianity.
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And it's more than just want to friends. It's it's we must because Christ's Christianity is an abomination.
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A false Christ in the heart is functional blasphemy.
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And so many today do a lot of outward things right when it comes to Christianity.
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Perhaps they're even gathering in a building today and they're saying the right things to an extent, but they don't treasure the biblical
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Christ. Now, it's easy to point fingers, isn't it? We can easily point fingers.
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They have no Christ, they're doing weird things, they're singing songs to trees and they're dressed funny and they're doing all this pronoun stuff.
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It's easy to point the fingers at them and say, well, yes, they've lost Christ. But listen, let's get closer to home.
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If we're not careful, we can subtly diminish Christ in conservative churches, too.
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You understand, for example, the United Methodist Church has not always been like it is today.
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There was a time when you would say there was a time that you would say it's good to be in a place that, yes, we have disagreements over baptism, but you would say that's a conservative place.
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They have the gospel there. Their forefathers were men like George Whitefield and Charles Wesley.
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I don't like to. I don't like to praise much John Wesley, but I'll mention his brother.
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So you say, how did they get to where they are today? They left
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Christ, and if we take our focus off the gospel, if we fail to submit to Christ as head of the church, if we make it about us, then what we do is we abandon the
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Christ of the scriptures. So we've been walking through First Peter 224. We've been reexamining.
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I've just called it the gospel of Christmas because the reality is it's the only gospel we have.
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The gospel of Christmas is the gospel of Easter, is the gospel of John, is the gospel of Isaiah, is the gospel of Moses, is the gospel of Paul, is the gospel of Christ.
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There's only one gospel. And this is a gospel that we've been examining. We've been covering it slowly.
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We've been drinking deeply from this text, and I hope that you've seen that Christ is beautiful.
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We covered in week one, he himself, no one else and nothing else but Christ is our only suitable and all sufficient savior.
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Last week, we look at the fact that he bore our sins, that the plot of Christmas is that God has provided for us a sin bearer.
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And then today we are looking at these three little words that have led to countless controversies and conversations and arguments and lots of ink spilled.
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And that is in his body. I submit to you today the fact that Jesus had a real physical human body.
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And that this is may sound elementary to you, but this is absolutely essential to Christianity.
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Theologically, we refer to this as the incarnation. This just comes from two Latin words in Karnas.
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It just means in the flesh, in the flesh. Well, that comes directly from John one fourteen.
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Right. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
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So the truth is, as I prayed earlier in the service, we tend to approach the incarnation, the fact that God Almighty became flesh, we approach this with much too casual of an attitude.
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And Christmas serves as a reminder for us of what the weight and wonder of the incarnation is.
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God became man. John Trapp wrote this, he condescended to our rags, what a high and holy mystery it is church, what a glory, what a power, what a wonder that God took on a body that Peter could say in first Peter two twenty four that Jesus had a body has a body.
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I'm not against games with your children, I'm not going to get into your your family traditions, making the so -called magic of Christmas center on an elf on a shelf or flying reindeer.
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Because listen, church, this is what I'm saying. Like I heard somebody literally say one time, if you if you take those kind of things away from us, then we don't have anything special for our children.
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What? You know what? God became man. I can't get over this.
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I literally can't get over the reality that God most high would stoop so low to be born of the virgin and take on human flesh.
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God came to dwell with us clothed in flesh, the song says, the Godhead see hell, the incarnate deity,
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James Boyce writes, Christ has in his humanity all that is in ours, except that he being without sin exhibited that perfection of humanity, which has appeared in no other of the race except in Adam before his fall.
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What a marvelous mystery. The eternal son of God took on human flesh, hail the incarnate deity, indeed.
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Number one, so let's talk about the mystery of the incarnation, he himself bore our sins and then here's the little phrase in his body.
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Now, I understand and we'll get to this later. I understand that the point of the text is that Jesus is the sin bearer and that he is the sin bearer.
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He bore our sins in the body, in his body. I understand that what we're doing, though, is we're trying to say back up for a second and just pretend you've heard this verse for the first time.
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Like, well, hold on. Hold on just a second. How did he get a body? And that's what we're going to talk about here, because the word in our text there, it carries the meaning of a physical body.
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That's what it means. A very, very. Silly, maybe to even say, but let me just clarify some things, he didn't appear to have a body.
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He actually had a body, a body like you and me, same number of chromosomes, arms, legs, hands, eyes.
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Jesus had a body. Now, how did this come about? Well, we're going to do some theological lifting here and it's
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OK. We don't always do this, but I want to tell you this morning, Christ is worthy of this. Don't tune out.
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He's worthy of proper contemplation. So a few sub points here. The first is, let me talk about the pre -incarnate son of God.
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So when I use the word pre -incarnate, I'm saying before the incarnation, what you need to remember here.
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And we've said this and I think everybody's in agreement and understands the Bible gives us the eternal son of God.
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But he wasn't eternally in the flesh, you understand, pre -incarnate before there is a time the son of God was not incarnate.
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So Jesus took on a body, the text says, and when he does, we're not saying that he was in any less than God.
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He's eternally God, the eternal son, and he takes on human flesh. Let me just say this,
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I'm going to prove it from the context. From first Peter, chapter two, verse one, go there for just a second, just look up for most of you probably just either flip a page or look up.
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So Peter says, so put away all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander like newborn infants long for the pure spiritual milk that by it you may grow up into salvation.
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If indeed you have tasted that the Lord is good as you come to him, a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
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Now, that's all I need to read for just a second. So in verse three, this is just kind of casual. You're throwing this in there.
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Peter's like, OK, if you've tasted that the Lord is good. Now, what's interesting is that the hymn in verse four, as you come to him who the
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Lord that you've tasted is good, him who is a living stone rejected by men, but in the sight of God chosen and precious.
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OK, why is this significant? Because in verse three, he references or he quotes directly
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Psalm thirty four eight. You tasted and see that the Lord is OK. Sorry, Psalm thirty four eight is, oh, taste and see that the
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Lord is good. And so Peter just casually throw this out here. If you've tasted that the
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Lord is good. Now, what's significant in Psalm thirty four eight? The word for Lord is Yahweh. You understand that Peter is calling
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Jesus here in the text Yahweh. OK, now look later in the.
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Chapter at the very end of the chapter, it's the same thing, very similar in verse twenty five, it says, for you were strained like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and overseer of your souls.
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Now, do you think that Peter in his mind had never read Psalm twenty three? Right. Do you think that he wouldn't have understood
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Psalm twenty three? What does Psalm twenty three say? Yahweh is my shepherd, the
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Lord is my shepherd. That's how we know it. But the Hebrew word there is Yahweh. Yahweh is my shepherd.
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What is Peter doing by referencing Jesus? Haven't you read the Old Testament, Peter?
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Don't you know? Not Jesus is our shepherd. It's Yahweh is our shepherd. No, that's the whole point. They're one in the same.
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That Jesus is Yahweh. That Yahweh, understand this, Yahweh is not the father or the son or the
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Holy Spirit. Yahweh is one. I probably said that heretical, so don't clip that out. But just hear the whole context.
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What I'm saying is Yahweh is one God. He's not those alone. Yahweh is one
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God in three co -equal, co -eternal persons. Yahweh is the father.
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Yahweh is the son. Yahweh is the Holy Spirit. Not three gods, though, one God in three co -equal, co -eternal persons.
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And honestly, Peter couldn't be any clearer with it.
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So people who say that the New Testament doesn't affirm this about Jesus are lying. This is here.
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Jesus is truly God. And Peter is teaching us this. So the
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Nicene Creed, we affirm 325 AD confesses this of Christ. We believe in one
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Lord Jesus Christ, the only son of God, begotten from the father before all ages. God from God, light from light, true
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God from true God, begotten, not made of the same essence as the father.
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And you say, what does that mean? Begotten, not made. Well, we'll spend all eternity contemplating the reality of the eternal begotteness of the son.
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But he's eternal, meaning that there was never a time that it's just the father. It's always it's always been
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God, father, son, Holy Spirit. And this is the reality of the pre -incarnate son, co -equal and co -eternal with God, the father and God, the
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Holy Spirit. Secondly, now, as we move into this, let me talk about the hypostatic union.
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So we're talking about now the mystery of the incarnation. So we've talked about this is the eternal son.
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And now let's talk about how he takes on human flesh. He has bore our sins in his body.
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But how did he get the body? Well, we're going to fascinate our minds even further. When the son of God took on flesh, he did so in such a way that he took on true humanity while remaining, not changing from or diminishing in any way his true divinity, truly man, truly
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God. Listen to this sorrow of Alexander. He's born in the late 300s. I'm just giving you some quotes because we confess the same
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Christianity of 2000 years. He says this sorrow of Alexander. We must not divide the one
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Lord Jesus Christ into two sons. Neither will it at all avail to a sound faith to hold, as some do, a union of persons.
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For the scripture has not said that the word united to himself, the person of man, but that he was made flesh.
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This expression, however, the word was made flesh can mean nothing else but that he partook of the flesh and blood like to us.
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He made our body his own and came forth man from a woman, not casting off his existence as God, but in taking to himself flesh remaining what he was.
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The point. Jesus Christ is one person with two natures,
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God and man, our text says, in his body, how did Jesus receive a body, the divine nature, his godhood, mysteriously and wonderfully united to the human nature, whereby neither nature engulfs the other.
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He's not 80 percent God, 20 percent man. They're not mixed up where he's like, OK, he's not he's not
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God, he's not man, but he's now something mixed up together. It's not that they remain both united and distinct in one person,
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Jesus Christ, our savior. You go crazy on this and people have their church history, but just know this.
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Jesus had two natures, divine and human, two wills, divine and human. He had a divine mind.
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He had a true human mind, a true human body, soul, heart. But he's one person, a
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God man, Jesus Christ. John Owen writes, he became what he was not, but he ceased not to be what he was, although he was then on earth as a son of man, yet he ceased not to be
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God. Thereby, in his divine nature, he was then also in heaven. This is the beauty and mystery and incomprehensible glory of the hypostatic union.
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I hope you're getting this. Behold your God, Providence. Consider the virgin birth, thirdly, under this point,
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Luke one thirty five says this, and the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you.
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Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God. So now we talked about the hypostatic union, but now just how did this actually come about?
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Well, the human nature of Christ was not created ex nihilo. Think about that ex nihilo, out of nothing.
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So in Genesis one, you have creation ex nihilo, God spoke and the heavens came to be. But that's not how the human nature of Christ came to be, because in a profound and mysterious way, the
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Bible says, and don't ask me to explain it all. It's hard. I can't wrap my mind. But I'm just going to tell you, the Bible says that the
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Holy Spirit supernaturally orchestrated the conception of Christ, ensuring the formation of a true human embryo from Mary's substance, instantly uniting humanity and divinity, or I'll put it more simply for you.
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Christ took on human flesh when in the womb of a virgin and being conceived of the
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Holy Spirit. Therefore, he did not inherit the guilt of Adam's sin.
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The son of God became an embryo, the Holy Spirit overshadowed Mary in such a way that she became pregnant.
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Though still a virgin now, I'm going to I'm going to take a slight detour for just a moment because I want to mention something, let's affirm here this glorious truth that Christmas reminds us of life, human life begins at conception.
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In some ways, Christmas is not the celebration of the incarnation in some ways.
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In some ways, Christmas is merely the celebration of the birth of Christ. That's the birth in the incarnation.
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You understand that the birth of Christ and the incarnation are two distinct events. I don't want to say separate in the sense that they, of course, they go together.
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But conception and the incarnation, those are the same events. And the birth comes when?
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Nine months later. So I'm just saying we're reminded here that life begins at conception.
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Is there a time I'm going on a tangent? So just give me some liberty. Is there a time in the year that should cause us to hate abortion more than when we think about our
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Lord's incarnation? The life of the humanity of Jesus began in the virgin's womb at the moment of conception.
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At that very moment, the humanity of Jesus has a true human body, a true human nature, a true human soul.
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Abortion, therefore, is anti -gospel. It's anti -God.
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It's anti -humanity. It's anti -Christmas. Is there a connection maybe you think in your mind when
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Herod wants to slaughter the children, right, and abortion that we're fighting today?
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Abortion is always surrounded Christmas. Why? Because life begins at conception.
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And thank you for giving me that liberty. I'm just saying we don't hate abortion enough. We don't hate the abortion industry enough.
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And Christmas should remind us of the wickedness of this great vice and sin upon our society.
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But back to this reality. Do not let any knucklehead and I mean that they're knuckleheads.
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Do not let any knucklehead tell you the virgin birth doesn't matter. You got people all over evangelicalism today talking about, well, it doesn't matter about the virgin birth.
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You don't have to believe that. No, it matters. It matters, number one, because Scripture tells us it matters. And it matters because this is how the
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Son of God became the Son of Man. There is no, listen to me, church, there is no 1
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Peter 2, 24 without a Luke 1, 35. It matters.
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And then finally, under this heading, how not to be a heretic.
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First, Peter 2, 24, he himself bore sins in his body on the tree. The fact of the incarnation that God became man, that is central to Christianity, and this doctrine remains under attack.
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It's under attack. What's interesting is it's under attack. Just I could almost throw a rock maybe in my younger days.
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I could almost throw a rock. Kermit could probably throw a rock from here to to hit the building up on the mountain.
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The Jehovah's Witness, they're just have repackaged Arianism. They've repackaged the denial of the divinity of Christ.
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And when you deny that Jesus is true, that Yahweh is one God and three persons, when you deny this, you put yourself outside of Christianity, outside the saving hope of the gospel.
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And so I was going to list some heresies and just walk them. That was take too much time.
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So instead, I'm going to give you a homework assignment. In fact, Nelson Household will probably do this tonight during our our
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Advent celebration before we go to bed. But I want to encourage our church family with something very practical.
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So gather your family around in the next 10 days and take our confession of faith and open up to chapter eight and read it together.
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That's on Christ the mediator. It's so good and it's so helpful and it teases these things out and it walks through these well and then read some of the scriptures that are cited.
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It's not that I so much care about you knowing all these great big words or whatever. I just care about us understanding rightly the beauty and the glory of the fact that God became man and what this means.
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And this is why, by the way, we have a confession of faith here. Why? To help us, to aid us in articulating these glorious truths rightly.
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So I'm encouraging you to put it to use, put it to use in your Christmas celebration in the next 10 days.
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Let's scriptures speak plainly to us and understand. We understand the full ramification of God becoming man, it's mysterious, but still at the same time, the
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Bible speaks a sufficient truth, sufficient word for us to understand this truth. OK, secondly, so number one, that's the mystery of the incarnation.
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Secondly, the meaning of the incarnation. So why? Why does God become man?
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree. What does it mean for us?
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So five reasons why the son of God took on human flesh. First is a review. First, go listen to last week's sermon, but I'll review it briefly to be our sin bearer.
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OK, the text says, how did Jesus bear our sins? The text says in his body. So without a body,
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Jesus cannot bear our sins and we would still be lost and hopeless. Christ did not offer a bull.
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He did not offer a goat. He did not offer an angel. These things would not be sufficient. He offered up his own body because in his own body he bore our sins.
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Paul instructs the Ephesian elders in Acts 20, verse 28, care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
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God obtained the church with his own blood, how the son of God took on a body to bear our sins, to bleed because we've broken
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God's law. We've sinned. We've gone our own way. Jesus took on a body in order to bear those lawless deeds.
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God cannot be killed, but Jesus took on human flesh so that his body could be nailed to a wooden cross and that the wrath of God against our sin could be satisfied.
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Now, let's review. Secondly. To become our high priest, in fact, if you will just turn over to your left a couple of books to Hebrews two, just going to read from Hebrews two.
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So why did Jesus take on a body to bear our sins? Secondly, to become our high priest in Hebrews two.
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You're familiar with this when I read it to you. Verse 16, for surely it is not angels that he helps, but he helps the offspring of Abraham.
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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 the people.
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For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he's able to help those who are being tempted.
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Why did he take on a body? Because we needed a merciful and faithful high priest.
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Now, this is a wonder. Jesus took on no other nature. He didn't take on an angelic nature. He didn't take on the nature of animals.
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He took on the nature of mankind. Hebrews there said that he had to be made like us in every respect.
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So think about this for a moment. When God became man, he went all out. He didn't become 60, 70, 80, 95 percent man.
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He became truly and actually man. He did not give up his divinity. He remained truly
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God, but he became truly man in every respect because he redeems his people in every respect.
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So he had to have a human mind, a human heart, human hands, human feet. Why? Because you need redemption in your whole body.
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And so we see in the in the New Testament, he really became man. For example, here's something you probably didn't think about.
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He was circumcised on the on the eighth day. You can't do that to a figurative body.
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He had a real body, received the old covenant sign of circumcision in his body.
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He grew up in his body. He increased in wisdom in his body.
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He got hungry in his body. He got tired in his body.
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He traveled one place at a time in his body. He did not know the time of his return in his body.
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He was nailed to a cross of wood in his body. He rose again from the dead in his body.
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He ascended to the right hand of God, the father almighty in his body. He will come again in his body.
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All I'm saying is. This is a truly human Jesus. He is the
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God man, but it's necessary that he became truly human in order to be our faithful high priest, to identify with this people, to offer himself in his true humanity for us without ever relinquishing his deity.
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Thirdly. So we're talking about why is the incarnation necessary? What is the meaning of it?
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We had to be our sin bearer. We got that to he had to be our faithful high priest. We got that.
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Thirdly, he had to be obedient for us. Now, I'm going to argue that maybe it's not the focal point of first Peter two twenty four, but it absolutely is connected and it's contextual.
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First, I'll just mention Philippians two eight that says he became obedient to the point of death.
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Now, it's interesting, isn't it? You ever thought about that? He became obedient, right? He became obedient.
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Isn't he always obedient? Well, Jesus hasn't always been obedient in his humanity in the sense that his humanity didn't exist.
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Right. Of course, his divine nature is truly equal of God and never contrary to the will of God.
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It's not we don't divide that. Of course, that's that's true. We don't divide that. But the reality is he took on human flesh.
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He took on human flesh, the same flesh that Adam had, same flesh as you and I. And in this flesh, he became obedient.
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He was obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. And I'm going to say to you this morning that this is probably one of the most important and yet underrated aspects of the gospel.
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In fact, I can talk to people all the time about what did Jesus do for us? And they don't talk anything about his obedience. They don't talk anything about his righteousness.
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They don't talk anything about his law keeping. They don't talk anything about him fulfilling God's covenant.
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They run to, well, he died for my sins. Well, that's important and that's beautiful and that's a central focus.
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And we'll talk about that next week. But you need to know this morning that the son of God became the son of man in order to do what
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Adam failed to do. Adam was charged with God to obey and he disobeyed.
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Jesus is the last Adam. He is the better Adam. He is the representative of his people.
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He, like Adam and like us, I will say, is charged by God under the law to obey the law.
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And unlike us and unlike Adam and unlike Israel and unlike all the Old Testament, he obeyed
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God perfectly. Oh, that seems too much. Are you sure? Yes. First Peter 2, 22, right before our text in verse 24.
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First Peter 2, 24 says for 22. I'm sorry. He committed no sin.
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Neither was deceit found in his mouth. And even when he was persecuted, so in verse 23, when he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
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When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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That is, in his humanity, the Lord Jesus Christ never sinned. He always perfectly trusted and obeyed
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God. But he bore the sins of his people, but before he bore our sins, he had to bear his own righteousness.
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Remember that Peter is drawing from Isaiah 53, Isaiah 53, 11 says out of the anguish of his soul, he shall see and be satisfied by his knowledge, shall the righteous one, my servant make many to be accounted righteous and he shall bear their iniquities.
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So when I say just a second ago that Jesus had to bear his own righteousness, don't think of it as a burden for him, but do think of it as an obligation.
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He must obey. He joyfully did it, but it was something he was required to do.
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He must do what was not done in the garden. He must do what is not done in your life and in mine.
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And that is to obey God perfectly. He must actively obey the law of God.
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Friends, why is it so necessary that Jesus has a human mind, a human heart, a human soul, a human strength?
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Because we're commanded by God to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength.
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But you're not getting into heaven by doing that because you've fallen short and you can't do that.
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But the gospel is Jesus did that in our place. He's loved
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God always perfectly in his human heart, mind, soul and strength.
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He was obedient to the point of death. Jesus did it. He's the righteous one in his body.
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He obeys the law perfectly in every way. Perfect in his attitude, perfect in his motivation, perfect in his law keeping, perfect in his law fulfilling.
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He is the righteous one. Man broke God's law. If salvation is to be accomplished, then man must keep
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God's law. But you can't because you you're conceived in iniquity.
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And so the solution is the incarnation, Jesus did it.
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Let me let me give you this. Illustration, it's not perfect, but it's an analogy, so there's a difference between a peace treaty and citizenship.
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You can be in a country that's at peace with the United States, but it's not the same as being a citizen of the
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United States. So a peace treaty just says we are not at war. Citizenship says you are a member of this country.
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You belong in this country. It's not a perfect analogy, but I want to say for the
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Christian, you need both. You need a peace treaty and citizenship. So you need your sin atoned for.
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You need the hostility between you and God ended. And this is what we talked about last week.
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Jesus bore our sins, but you also need citizenship. You need a wedding garment.
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Do you remember the the the parable? And the man shows up and he shows up to the wedding, but he doesn't have a garment.
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And you're like, OK, what's going to happen? And they cast him out in utter darkness. We weeping and gnashing of teeth.
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You don't just need an ending of hostilities. You need a wedding garment. You need a perfect record of righteousness in order to get to heaven.
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You need something that says you are a member of this country. You belong here.
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And this is what Jesus gives us. He gives us his righteousness by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
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You belong here. Not by your merits, by the merits of another, theologians have said that the righteousness provided in the gospel is what we call an alien righteousness.
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That just means it's not our righteousness. It is the righteousness of someone outside of ourselves.
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It is the righteousness of Christ that he procured in his body by his perfect life, his perfect obedience to the law, his perfect righteousness.
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This he did in his body, clothed in flesh. The Godhead see hail the incarnate deity.
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And then let me just mention this one, why else is he in a body to secure fourthly our bodily resurrection?
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Because Jesus had a body and bore sins in his body and rose again in his body from the grave.
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We can be sure that those who have faith in him will rise again in new bodies and live with him forever.
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The little things that come up when you read the Bible and to me, I found this last year. It's interesting that in the gospel accounts that at his birth and at his death,
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Jesus's body was wrapped in cloths, swaddling cloths.
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The Bible says in Luke 2, 12, linen cloths. The Bible says in John 19, 40, cloths on his body.
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He was laid in a manger in his body. He was laid in a tomb in his body, the first to awake in humble obedience, the second to arise in glorious triumph.
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This is the king who came in his body. This is the king who has identified with his people.
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He is a king worth following. And I might add this and I said it earlier, but he will return bodily to the earth.
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He is returning in his body and all the nations will see him and have to give an account for their lives.
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Fifth, I'll just mention this quickly. Why is he in his body to be our forever mediator? So I'm just thinking first Peter 2, 5, it says there's one mediator between God and man, the man,
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Christ Jesus. He is our forever mediator in his body. He arose in his body, he ascended in his body, he is seated at the right hand of the father in his body.
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He rules as king of the Davidic line in his body. Jesus is everywhere in his divinity.
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So if you have faith in Christ, the Bible says that you are in Christ and that Christ is in you.
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So he's everywhere. So where is Jesus? In one sense, you can say everywhere in his divinity, he's everywhere. But bodily, he's not everywhere.
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Bodily, he's seated at the right hand of God, the father almighty. And when you see Jesus one day with your eyes, you'll see his physical body and he's our forever mediator.
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The broken fellowship came between God and man, but now we have the God man, Jesus Christ, who mediates on our behalf.
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And when we sin and you do sin and you've sinned today and you'll sin this afternoon, go to the mediator.
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Go to Christ. Because he came in his body and then finally this morning.
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I'll just mention a few notes and we'll close it up, the magnificence. Of the incarnation.
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There's so much more that we could discuss, but I'm just going to give you four more practical reasons, the teaching of the incarnation is so magnificent, the fact that he himself bore our sins in his body, the reality that God became man is so magnificent.
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Number one, I'll say this. It shows us that salvation is all of the
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Lord. Who could have come up with such a glorious reality?
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Only God and Jonah to nine reminds us salvation is of the Lord. Remember, church, the gospel is not what we do.
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The gospel is what God has done for us in Christ. We didn't want God. We ran from God.
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We tried to hide from God. We tried to kill God. We try to erase
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God, if you will. But here's the reality. In the reality of Christmas, God came to us.
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The son of God took on human flesh on a rescue mission. Maybe you're in here today and you say, well,
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I could never be saved. Well, left yourself. You're right. Did you expect me to say that?
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You expect me to say, no, no, no. Well, you're right. I could never be saved. Left yourself. You're right.
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You could never and you would never be saved. Or maybe you think to yourself this morning, my neighbor, my grouchy neighbor will never be saved by my brother, my cousin, my child, my uncle, my grandparents, my dad, my mom.
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They'll never be saved. What is your response, preacher? Well, left to themselves.
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That's right. They'll never be saved. But guess what? Salvation is not of man.
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It is of the Lord. And what a marvelous hope we have.
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We're reminded because of the incarnation that God will save.
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What with what with what is impossible with man is possible with God and all our hope is in him.
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He's sovereign in salvation. The gospel is a miracle. Regeneration is a miracle. And God will save his own way for his own glory.
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And this brings us tremendous hope that salvation is of the Lord. It's not of you.
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It's not of me. It's not of our president. It's not of some theologian out there in church history.
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It's of God. And we see this and are reminded of this because of the incarnation.
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Secondly, it proves that Jesus is our only suitable and all sufficient savior. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree.
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Only in Christianity has God taken on human flesh and suffered for us.
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Only in Christianity did God not just show us what was wrong, but actually did something about it himself.
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The judge left the bench and paid the crime for the criminals. The king left his throne and died for the princess, if you will, or even worse than the princess, the vile, adulterous woman.
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He was born in a lonely manger and he was the man of sorrows acquainted with grief. Only Christ, only
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Christ, all other religions out there, Islam or even the Jehovah's Witness or whatever the case may be, try your best,
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Mormonism, try your best, or Roman Catholicism, do, do, do, do, or Buddhism or whatever kind of made up atheism, whatever case, it's all about do, do, do, do, do, do, do.
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Christianity, done. Jesus has done it all. He's paid it all.
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He's lived it all. He's risen again from the dead. The incarnation reminds us of the glory and the wonder of the gospel and that Christ alone is our only suitable and all sufficient savior.
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The son of God became the son of man, so the sons of men might become the sons of God. Are you resting in Christ?
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This moment, thirdly, I'll mention this, it shows us how important the church is because the church in, and you're just like, whoa, whoa, how did we do this?
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Well, it shows us that the church is important because the church is called his body, right?
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Do you care about his body? Well, one way, well,
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I know we're kind of talking about two separate things here. We're talking about his physical body and then we're talking about his spiritual body, the church, but I'm just saying how important must the church be to Christ if it's going to be used by this label?
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Like it could have been called something else, his footstool or something like the earth is his footstool or his shoebox or his wardrobe, but it's not called any of those things.
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It's called his body. So you understand that if we uphold the incarnation and if we love the incarnation and we extol the incarnation and yet we say we don't love the church, then we're actually confusing one of the most beautiful metaphors that the
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Bible has given us in scripture, because the church is his body. So if you reject the church, you're rejecting one of the highest and most glorious mysteries of the gospel.
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So be careful about that. It reminds us of how important the church is and we should be on mission.
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Anyway, lastly, I'll just mention this, it proves that God can be trusted.
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It proves that God can be trusted. If God says or let me just back up, if someone says they're going to do something, but they don't do it, what do you call that person?
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Call them a liar. But all the Old Testament promises Christmas. And so God makes good on his promises.
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And we see that here in our text, because Jesus took on a body and bore our sins in that body on the cross.
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We can be sure this morning that God is a God that can be trusted. All the promises of God have their yes in Christ.
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I tell you this morning that this is the promise of God. If you'll place your faith in Christ, here's what happens.
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Your sin debt is erased because Christ's work has secured it. The wrath of God is removed from over you.
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You owe nothing more for your sin debt. As far as God is concerned, it has been erased.
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It has been paid for. It has been covered. But that's not all. But wait, there's more. You receive
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Christ's righteousness as your sins were carried by Christ on Calvary.
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His righteousness is now imputed to your account forever. He was credited with your life and you are credited with his.
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God can be trusted. It's the only way for you to get to heaven is the righteousness of Christ on your account.
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And the only way for that to happen is by grace alone, by you putting your faith in Christ alone.
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This results in turning from sin, turning from self, trusting everything that God has said and believing the promises of the gospel.
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It's the only way. And God can be trusted with this. Christian, have you doubted
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God lately? I remind you of this good news. Rest in Christ.
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Look to the cross. He can be trusted. Christ bore our sins in his body.
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The incarnation reminds us that nothing is impossible with God. Listen to me,
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Christian. Listen to me, because you don't believe this enough. You wrestle with it, especially this time of year. You can trust
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God with every need, every concern that you have about your children, every anxiety, every fear, everything.
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You can trust him. He's trustworthy. How do I know? One proof, because the incarnation is real.
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You can trust him with your finances. You can trust him with the salvation of your children. You can trust him with the repair that you need at the house.
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You can trust him with that situation that's going on at work. You can trust him with it all. Stop carrying it yourself.
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Take it to the Lord. He's worthy. Let us trust him. Unbeliever, God can be trusted.
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In fact, I should say it this way. God should be trusted. You owe God your heart, but consider
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God's gift, like, for example, if someone said to you like, you know, God gave us the greatest gift.
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Now give him the gift of your heart. Your heart's not a gift to him. You owe him that.
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Give it to him. Consider the gift of his son in human flesh. Consider his perfect life and his sin bearing death and his bodily resurrection.
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Believe all that you've heard today. Repent of your sin and trust Christ. Because God has another promise
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I should mention. Those who refuse to bow the knee to Christ in this life will face judgment, and I know that God makes good on his promises because I see it in the incarnation.
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Jesus is coming back in his body and he will judge the nations. He's not coming back.
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You understand, right? He's not coming back in a manger, but with a sword. The sword of his mouth.
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And all will answer to him. This morning, I hold before you.
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Christ. Come to him in faith, rest in him, trust him, church, church, let us press on, let us press on to know and to trust the
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Lord and declare his glory. Let's be passionate about things that the place and the time that God has put us.
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I don't understand all that's going on in the world today. I don't. But I know for whatever reason, God has placed this church right here in Perryville, Arkansas.
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And one of the reasons that we're here in Perryville, Arkansas, is to adore Christ, but also to extol his excellencies to those around us, to proclaim his glory to the people of Perry County.
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Like why? Because God glorifies God, right? Yeah. But, you know, these people really like, aren't there more important people?
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Like maybe we'll we'll ship out over to other countries and go. And that's important. Don't get me wrong.
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I'm not minimizing that. But God's place, this church right here to extol the glories of Christ here, what think you of Christ?
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Is he worthy here? Is he worthy of you to give your time in evangelism, to give your prayer for those who are going out in evangelism, to make a point, even this
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Christmas season, to share Christ with your friends and your neighbors and your elders.
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Hail the incarnate deity, worship the
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God man, Jesus Christ. He is worthy. And we are needy, but he gives more grace.