Christmas And The Incarnation

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Our text for this evening to Isaiah, a popular verse and one of our favorites at Apologia Church, Isaiah 6 -7.

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This does dovetail well in our study of the Gospel. According to Matthew, we call this series the

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Kingdom of God series, and it's just a perfect time of year really to celebrate and revel in this truth, the truth of the

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Incarnation, God taking on flesh, entering into human existence and touching us, walking among us.

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Hear now the reading of God's holy and inspired word. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called

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Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

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Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.

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On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the

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Lord of hosts will do this. As far as the reading of God's holy word, let's pray. Father, I want to pray that you'd bless today us, your people, with your word, that you would by your

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Spirit guide this message and, Lord, impress these truths upon us.

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Lord, open our eyes to see your truth. I pray that you open our ears to give us understanding.

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Give us hearts, God, that are soft towards you and receptive. God, I pray that you'd change us, transform us.

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God, allow us, God, to move away from, Lord, our indifference towards these truths,

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God, and allow us to see afresh and once again anew, Lord, the beauty and the majesty of the incarnation.

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Lord Jesus, there's no way that we will ever be able to fully comprehend your glory, your power, your goodness, your mercy, your love displayed in the incarnation.

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But help us, God, to get a glimpse. I pray that you, God, would cause me to decrease and Jesus to increase.

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Get me out of the way. Work in this broken vessel, God, for your glory in Jesus' name, amen.

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So Isaiah 9, 6 -7, one of our favorite verses. You've probably heard it a hundred times in the

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Kingdom of God series working through Matthew. Because so much of Isaiah is in the back of Matthew's mind as he's under the inspiration of the

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Holy Spirit giving to us the revelation of God in Jesus Christ and the gospel according to Matthew.

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But Isaiah 9 is particularly important because if you remember in Matthew 4, after Jesus defeats

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Satan in the wilderness, he goes through the temptations, he goes through really the same kinds of things that Adam, our first parent, went through in terms of a testing.

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He goes through what Israel went through in the wilderness and Jesus comes out victorious. He's better than Adam.

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He's better than Jesus. He is that second Adam, the image of God, what God intended us to be, and he is what

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Israel was supposed to be. Israel was called the Son of God and Jesus is the true

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Son of God, the perfect Son of God. He's everything that God intended for us to be.

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And if you remember in Matthew 4 when he defeats Satan in the wilderness, he goes out, the first thing out of his lips he says, repent for the

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Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. And then he's going around proclaiming the gospel of the Kingdom, but Matthew quotes from Isaiah chapter 9,

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Isaiah chapter 9 about Jesus being the light of the world. He goes out and the light has now broken into darkness.

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And in Isaiah chapter 9, the section that he quotes from right after that section is Isaiah 9 verses 6 through 7.

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And this is a compelling thing because I want to say this, this is a really important verse as Christians in terms of like apologetics and the defense of the faith.

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We can show from the Old Testament that Jesus is there. He is there in vivid detail.

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The who, the where, the what, the why, the when, the how, everything about the Messiah is in the Old Testament. We know that.

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But I think at times we don't really fully grasp really the mysterious nature of those prophecies in terms of if you were a

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Jew before Jesus came, in Isaiah chapter 9, it's not like Nebuchadnezzar came years before Jesus and they were like, oh yeah, he's a human, but he's fully

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God. Yahweh's coming to save us from our sins. There's a mystery there. There were things that they really didn't fully understand.

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If you remember the most popular, it's the Bible study that every Christian wishes they were a part of.

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After the resurrection of Jesus, when he's on the road to Emmaus, when he's walking along that road and the disciples are there and they're freaking out, they're like, oh, he thought he was

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Messiah and it's all over now and he's like, Jesus is standing right there. And it says that Jesus goes into all the

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Old Testament scriptures and he walks them through them and their eyes were opened and their hearts burning within them because they saw with this

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Bible study that Jesus shows them that I was there. That was about me in the Old Testament. That's my story.

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But I think what's a mystery in a sense, if I can use that word, is the fact that in the

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Old Testament, those Jews didn't look at Isaiah 9 necessarily and say, oh, clearly that's a hypostatic union, right?

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Homoousius, not homoousius, right? Like they didn't do that. They weren't like, oh, like necessarily saying 100 %

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God, 100 % man. It was this mystery just planted right there in front of them that there was going to be

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God with us, born of a virgin, the one who owned the land. He was coming to have a kingdom that would increase, a government that would increase with peace and God was going to do this.

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It was going to be God himself coming as a man. There's such a glorious, mysterious nature to the incarnation in this respect.

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God's coming as a man. They could not have fully understood that. Nobody really could wrap their minds around that.

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The one and only true and living God is coming to take on flesh, to walk among us, to take away our sins.

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He's going to humble himself like a servant. This is why it was such, they were so tripped out by Jesus.

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In John chapter eight, when he says, before Abraham was, ego eimi, I am, and they pick up stones to kill him.

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Why? Because he was saying that he was Yahweh. He was God in the flesh and they saw that as a little offensive as monotheistic

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Jews, that a man calls himself God, that he would call himself equal with the father.

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I and the father are one. There's so much to the incarnation that I believe if you spent your entire life studying just this truth, you would never, ever tap the richness of the incarnation.

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Because there's so much here for us in terms of drawing praise from us and worship from us towards God because of what

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God has done to humble himself to save us from our sins. But there's also so much here for us in terms of our practical walk with God that we have so much in Jesus who sympathizes with us in our weaknesses because he actually took on human form and he walked among us and he tasted what we taste.

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He knows what it's like to have people die that he loves and he weeps over it. He knows what it's like to have people betray him and lie about him in a court of law.

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Jesus knows what it's like to be physically abused. He knows what it's like to be abandoned by his family. There's so much to the incarnation that I don't even think we can tap.

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It's so big. And that's why I love Christmas. It's my way to sneak it back in, okay?

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Because, you know, and especially on like social media now, you have, you know, people that are like, oh,

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Christmas, Christmas, you know, you know, pagan holiday. Well, here's what I'm going to say. Whatever you believe about the origins of Christmas, here's the thing.

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We won. We won. You don't see a lot of people around like in the mall celebrating winter solstice or all the other pagan holidays and the other gods.

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You don't see that. What do you hear like in the mall? Songs about Jesus? Songs about God becoming a man to rescue us from our sins?

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So we won. Christmas is a time of celebration of God becoming a man, and that's really why

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I love it so much. If it were up to me, I think we should keep our lights up all year long, our trees up all year long.

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We should do it forever, all the time. Like I really actually want in my family for us to start doing the 12 days of Christmas, like the kind of historical liturgical way of doing

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Christmas celebration, 12 days of Christmas. You know the song, first day of Christmas, don't ask me to sing it because I'm bad, but even each of those things and each day of that song represents biblical truths.

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The partridge in a pear tree is Jesus, keeps us under his wings. What's the second thing? What's the second day?

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I forget. Two turtle doves represent the Old and New Testament. You've got the four, what's the four?

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Four calling birds represent the four gospels. You've got five gold rings, that's the five books of Moses.

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All those things move along, and so I want to just feast and go crazy and celebrate

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God becoming a man because it's awesome. The only time we should really stop is like Resurrection Sunday.

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That's the only time we take a turn, right? It's like, and then he died and rose again, and now we're back. God became a man.

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Like you know, and we just keep doing it, right? And it's really an amazing time for us as Christians because here we are in a culture that is so hostile towards our goals and the songs about Jesus, God becoming a man.

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You turn on the radio, it's songs about Jesus. You go to a store, restaurant, songs about Jesus. You go to a friend's house, and they got, you know, so we're having

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Christmas dinner. It's like, wow, but you're an atheist. Well, pretend that's not happening, right? You know, kind of a weird situation.

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And you know, and it's amazing because this is a cool time of year where like at least for one month, the modern, you know, 21st century

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American evangelical is totally post mill. Like at least for a four -minute song, right?

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Joy to the world is a song we sang. Joy to the world is straight, it's dat post mill. It is.

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Joy to the world. Listen. Joy to the world. Jeremiah was a bull. No, that's not. That's the wrong joy to the world, sorry.

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Not three dog night. Did I say that right? Is that right?

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Okay, good. Sorry, I'm not as old as some of you guys. I don't know. So, I'm just kidding. I get it.

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I get it all week for my kids. I got to give it back to somebody. All right, so listen to the song,

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Joy to the World. Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king.

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Let every heart prepare him room and heaven and nature sing. Heaven and nature sing.

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Joy to the world, the Savior reigns. Let men their songs employ while fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains repeat the sounding joy.

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No more let sins and sorrows grow, nor thorns infest the ground.

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Do you hear that? No more let sins and sorrow grow, nor thorns infest the ground.

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That has to do with the curse. That has to do with the fall. He comes to make his blessings flow far as the curse is found.

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Like that's what it's all about. Jesus, God becomes a man. He does the work that we couldn't do.

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He's a perfect covenant keeper. He's a law -keeping image of God. He dies a death we deserve.

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He was buried. He conquered death, rose again. He's ascended, seated on his throne today, reigning as King of Kings and Lord of Lords right now.

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And he, as the perfect image of God, is taking dominion from sea to sea, from the river to the ends of the earth,

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Psalm 72. He has dominion, and he's bringing that dominion to the ends of the earth.

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And that curse, that curse of the fall, that fallen nature of humanity,

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Jesus is coming to rescue those rebels, and he's bringing the blessings of his salvation to the ends of the earth as far as the curse is found.

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Jesus is restoring everything, and that's really the majesty of Christmas.

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That's really the glory of Christmas, what makes it so wonderful and beautiful. And it's really, this is an amazing time for us as Christians, and I want to just really encourage you with this.

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This is a time of year where it's much easier for us to talk to people that we love about Jesus because they're already hearing about him constantly.

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And that's why it's such a special time for us, because this is a really good time where we can actually have conversations and engage with people maybe in a way we couldn't have done in November or October.

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Now obviously we want to, but this is such a great time. There are celebrations. People are talking about Christmas.

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So what I'm saying is this, is that I want to encourage you as the people of God at Apologia to really seize the opportunity here to invite people to hear the gospel at church, to invite people into your homes, and to talk about Jesus and what he's done in your life, and to talk about what happened when

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God became a man and why God became a man. This is really a spectacular time of year to do it, but let's talk about the incarnation.

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And in order to really talk about what makes the incarnation so powerful, you have to go back to the beginning of the

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Bible, the verse we just quoted from in our catechism, Genesis chapter 1, verses 27 through 28.

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Let's go there so we can begin to unpack the glory of the incarnation. Genesis chapter 1.

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Now I want to say as you guys get to Genesis chapter 1, there's no way to fully do it in this sermon because it's not really a sermon about Genesis chapter 1, unpacking it, but let me just say this,

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Genesis as it gets into the world, when Moses pens Genesis, obviously God through his spirit ordained and carried people along as they wrote what they wrote or spoke what they spoke.

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Peter says holy men of God spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit. But I want to just point this out to you,

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Moses is a real person in time and in space amidst a people who are pagans worshiping false gods.

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And when the story of Genesis comes into the world by the hand of Moses, it was really contrary to what really a lot of cultures thought.

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This is really compelling because you'll oftentimes run into the atheists today who will try to compare

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Jesus to other pagan deities or they try to compare Yahweh to other pagan deities or biblical stories to other pagan stories.

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But there really is no parallel. Think about this for a moment. When Genesis opens up, you've got

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God who exists in a transcendent way outside of his own creation and he speaks it into existence.

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He's not dependent upon anything. You've got pagans that worship the sun, they worship the moon, they worship the earth.

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People do that really today. But these pagans, they thought that their gods were a part of the created order and there were even aspects of pagan thought where you have gods that had intimate relations with other gods and they created little baby gods and then those gods grew up and had fights with other gods and these gods were capricious and these gods were sort of not to be trusted.

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They weren't just. They could do whatever they wanted and it didn't have to be right.

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That's just what they were like. And yet Genesis opens up and it's completely contrary to all the pagan myths.

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Because God isn't a part of his creation. He's actually above it.

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He stands above it. He stands in a sense as transcendent above it, but yet he interacts with it.

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He's covenantally attached to that world. He's imminent. He's active and he speaks and it comes into existence.

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He speaks and the earth comes into existence. He speaks and stars spread out across the universe.

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He speaks and oceans roar. He speaks and little insects, weird little insects like bumblebees, like they come into existence and it's,

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I'm going to say this real fast, if you haven't seen it yet, I got to interview Nate Wilson, Doug Wilson's son.

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It's up on our YouTube channel, Apologia Studios. If you guys remember when we first planted the church, we did notes from the

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Tilt -A -Whirl. It was amazing. I got to sit down with Nate in Moscow and it was really cool and I wanted to say this as an aside that Nate is right.

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We don't often as Christians think about the fact that like God made that bumblebee and that's supposed to speak to us something about God and what he's like.

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Like you know when your kids like draw pictures and they make little things, it says something about what's going on in their heads like when they do it.

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Sometimes you wish they didn't do it because you don't want that like actually in the world what was in their head, right?

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But you know what I'm talking about. You said like a kindergarten class, all these kids making pictures and they're doing little things and making little statues and Play -Doh and weird stuff and these kids are real creative and they're, you're like, oh, that's nice, you know, and, but it's telling you something about that child, right?

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And, but Nate said, we don't often do that with God. Like we never like draw any conclusions from the bumblebee, like anything about God and like what he really is like that he made a bumblebee.

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It's so interesting and weird and like it's, it's, it should tell us something about what

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God is like, like flamingos. God is obviously hilarious, right?

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And fun, right? But like God, he, he stands in Genesis above his own creation and he's not, he's not part of it in the sense that he's dependent upon it.

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He's, he is outside of it in a sense. He's transcendent and he, it, it really, it comes into existence because he wills it and he speaks it into existence, but he's not below it.

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He's not dependent on it. He's the one that wields it. He's in control of it and he is so different and so Genesis is completely contrary to anything you would see in the pagan world.

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And the fact that this God exists eternally prior to creation, God, not dependence,

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God, not needing this world and creation to be satisfied and be full of delight, the eternal one that speaks and it comes into creation by his words, but he's not in it in the sense that he's dependent upon it or he's somehow part of that nature.

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And then Genesis chapter one, you see something compelling in God's creation story, starting in verse 26, then

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God said, let us make man in our image. Notice something God says, let us create man in our image.

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This is really compelling because Moses wrote the first five books of the Bible. Jesus confirmed that the history of Israel shows that that was the tradition.

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Jesus said, that's the way that it was. Moses wrote it, sorry, Moses wrote those first five books and all throughout those five books, you see repeated statements that are monotheistic, exclusively monotheistic.

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There is only one God, Deuteronomy chapter four, verses 35 and 39. He is

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God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below. There is no other. Deuteronomy chapter six, verse four, hear

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O Israel, the Lord is one. Okay. There's only one

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God. You should love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, Jesus says that's the greatest first and greatest commandment.

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And so it's repeated statements. There's only one God, one God, one God. And yet in Genesis chapter one, same author of that book says,

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God said, let us create man in our image, singular, after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.

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So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him, male and female he created them and God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.

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That's the beginning. God takes his image, he plants his image in the garden.

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We're supposed to be in God's likeness, like God. It's almost like God's image comes down into the world and shoots out across the world.

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I showed you, I think it was about two years ago, we talked about what it means to be in God's image and I said, think about it like a mirror that you lean against something and light shines off that mirror and bounces back into the world.

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We're not to think about ourselves as image of God in the sense that we're a reflection of God, like God's looking back at us, but image of God really is in another sense where what people are supposed to see, what creation's supposed to see in humans is the image of God really reflecting out into the world.

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God made us, put us in the garden and he says, now you go be my image in the world.

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You subdue the earth, you take dominion over it. You're my representative in this world.

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And so we were supposed to be in our first parents, God's light into the world, his own creation, we're his creatures and the world is supposed to look to the image of God and see the eternal

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God, the creator of the universe. That was our purpose and God says, take dominion. So think about that,

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Adam, image of God, Eve, image of God, he created them. And God says, now go and you take dominion over the earth, subdue the earth and God puts him in the garden, he's supposed to cultivate it.

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He's supposed to make the world a beautiful place and he even gives Adam responsibility and authority and he tells

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Adam, he says, now go name the animals. In Hebrew thought, naming something was taking ownership of it, sort of like in Matthew's gospel when

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Joseph is told to name Jesus, Yeshua, the savior. Well that's

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Joseph taking ownership of Jesus as his father by adoption. He's naming Jesus and God in the

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Old Testament, he names his people, he gives them names. Abram is then called

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Abraham, father of many by God. He actually names them, takes ownership of them and gives them a designated role in the world and God has his image in the world, humanity, image of God, and he says, now you go be my image in the world, subdue the earth, cultivate it, make it beautiful, make it bring the glory.

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And we know the story. The story, interestingly, ever -present all.

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That was from the New England Primer. First book, first line ever written in North America.

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In Adam's fall, we send all. God puts his image in the garden, he stands above his creation, but he's transcendent and imminent, he's actually communicating with us in covenant with his people.

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Adam was in covenant with God, God told him what he was to do and God told him what he was not to do.

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And we know what took place. Our first parent broke covenant with God and we know what took place. God said, I'll bless you,

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I'll curse you. You're going to die if you do this and Adam sinned against God with a high hand.

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He sinned against God because he saw it and he wanted it. And it didn't matter that it was fruit. It could have been sticks, it could have been don't walk that direction, don't move that direction, don't say that thing.

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This is my covenant God's making with his people and in that moment, Adam, the image of God turns away from God and what takes place?

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God's image in creation, all of creation falls when his image falls.

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Now the amazing thing which makes the incarnation so beautiful is that if God, if God in that moment had destroyed his image, judged him for what he did, he would be right to do it.

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If God allowed Adam to go which direction he wanted to go and he left him to his own devices and he left him to his sin, if God wanted to do that, he'd be right and good and true to do it.

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But the glory of the incarnation is in Genesis chapter three, when the story first opens, the fall enters

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God's image, what's supposed to be his light into the world. God's image rebels against the creator and all of creation falls.

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But Genesis chapter three, go to the text, you have to see it. Genesis chapter three, you see the beginning of the promise of the incarnation and redemption.

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Watch this. Genesis chapter 315, I will put enmity between you and the woman, this is

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God speaking to Satan, and between your offspring and her offspring, he, a specific person, shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.

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You've got to stop for a moment and think about how big this is, how earth shattering this is, how completely other this is.

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The one and only true and living God, the holy one, the just one, the good one, the one who is love and mercy, that God spoke in the universe, came into existence, he puts his image into the garden, he comes into a covenant and relationship, an intimate relationship with him.

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There is where Adam and Eve were with God in fellowship and perfection. It was paradise, no sin, they were upright.

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And they fall, and as soon as the fall takes place, God in relationship with his image comes in and starts talking to him.

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And what does he do? Tell him, you're just cursed, you're just going to die, you deserve what you get, you should own your sin, it's all your fault, and I don't have anything to do with this, no,

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God does something great, God steps in and he actually says, here's what's going to take place, Satan, the woman's seed is going to crush your head and you'll wound him on the heel.

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The amazing thing is that in that text, you know that it's the woman's seed, not the man's seed, which is totally contrary to their culture to speak of somebody as the woman's seed.

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You were the man's seed, that's just how they talked. And yet Moses says it's the woman's seed who's going to crush the head of the serpent, deliver the death blow to Satan.

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When you get your head crushed, that's a mortal wound. When you get wounded on your heel, that it's a heel to head wound, which means there's going to be a simultaneous action in history, something that occurs with this woman's seed that at the same time of the bruising and the wounding, you're going to have healing.

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That's the beginning of the story. And so we know the fall enters and the fall answers so much, guys.

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It answers so much in terms of our depravity and our brokenness. I got to say this, when we talk about the second thing

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I want to talk about today, what makes the incarnation so beautiful and so majestic, you have to think about our nature and experience.

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Dr. White used to say something that bothered me. He didn't say a lot of things that bother me, but he said this and it really bothered me.

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I heard it many years ago. It's probably over a decade ago. He was talking to people who like want to be in full time ministry, right?

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He's like talking on the dividing line about people wanting to be in full time ministry. And he said something.

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He said this. He said, I think he's probably said it more than once. He said, if you could do anything else and be remotely happy, you should do that and not full time ministry.

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And I thought, how rude, right? Way to shoot down people's dreams, right?

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Like half his glasses, half full kind of guy, you know, like that's, that's why, why wouldn't we want to send out ministers into the field and people to go, you know, serve

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God full time in that way. And after years of being in the ministry, I could say, I fully agree.

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If you could do anything else and be remotely happy, even in a small way, don't do full time ministry.

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Because let me just say this, when you get, the gospel is glorious and amazing and beautiful, but I'm going to say this as a pastor, you hear the worst of the worst all the time.

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It's the most brokenness. You get to come into contact with the ugliest all the time. When people contact you as a pastor, when do they usually want to contact you?

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When something's wrong, right? The wheels have fallen off, the house is burning down, everything is broken.

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And so what you have to face constantly is constant burdens of brokenness and sin and despair and all this.

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I must say this, it's absolutely because I'm supposed to be a pastor, my joy to do this.

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But I want to say this, the amazing thing for me about the incarnation really became even more glorious after I became a pastor and got to see all of the ugliness of the world on a regular basis because you see really the results of the fall are so deep.

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They're so deep. They go to the smallest mundane details of life in terms of how

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I can face daily my worries, how I can face my own health problems, how

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I face difficulties in my family and all the damage that's been done to me by my own parents.

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Like it's everything. The fall has infiltrated and found its way into every part of our being, our mind, how we think about God and the world, again, how we trust

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God and worry and fear, all the things that get done to us, people that hurt us, the injustice done to us, the injustice and ugliness in the world, the murder that happens around us on a regular basis, the fall answers all of that, everything, lies, despair, deception, abuse, rape, you name it.

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The fall is the reason the world is the way that it is and the truth is, is

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God sovereign all over that? Yes, he is. He's the one that declares the end from the beginning. The truth is though, our first parents and we in Adam really are responsible for all of that.

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We're the rebels against the king that say no to his ways and yes to ours. We're the ones that can see the glory of God and the light of God and preferred darkness over the lights.

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That's just part of our existence. That's what we do and the world experiences the brokenness that it does.

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We experience the brokenness that we do because of the most popular arguments, do you think?

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From atheists towards Christians in terms of arguing against God, evil in the world.

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How can God be all powerful and good and there still be evil in the world?

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Now it's not a good argument. It's not a good argument because the answer is immediate.

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There is no evil in an atheist universe. That's an immediate answer when the atheist says, well, how can there be an all powerful good

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God if there's so much evil in the world? The answer is immediately there is no evil in an atheist universe. You just showed your colors.

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You just revealed a bit about yourself that you're really an image of God. You know there is such a thing as good and evil.

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We're not just in a universe of blind and pitiless indifference. We're not just protoplasm really that amounts to nothing but stardust.

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We're just not stuff moving around the universe purposely. You know the God that is there.

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But watch this. Here's what's really powerful. That argument about evil in the world, though it's not a good argument coming from an atheist, it's a compelling argument.

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It's an emotionally powerful argument because it hurts a lot.

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And every one of us in God's image knows that it hurts to walk into a hospital for children that's a cancer hospital.

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Every one of us knows if you're an adult, you know what it's like to sit at someone's bedside who's dying.

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You know what it's like to suffer through trials and tribulations. You know what you've seen on the news. You know what you saw driving to work that day when you saw the ambulances and the fire trucks and you saw the person laid out on the freeway.

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You know. And so again, while the argument is not a good argument coming from an atheist, it is an emotionally powerful argument and watch.

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First, as a Christian, you have an answer as to why that should hurt and as to how you can embrace that pain and go to God for the answers.

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And as a Christian, you know the reason it is the way that it is. And the answer is us.

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Why is the world a wreck? Why is the world the way that it is? Here's why. Because God's image in the world has hated him, has rebelled against him, doesn't want him, doesn't want him as king.

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And we try to form little revolutions against God. We do it as communities, as cultures, as tribes, and as individuals every day.

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We try to revolt against the king. That's what all sin is. It's revolt against the king. And the world is the way that it is today because of the fall,

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God's image in the world rebelling against the creator, saying no to God. I won't be like you.

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I won't reflect you into the world. I don't want your ways. I want my kingdom and my ways.

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And so the world is plunged into darkness and this is where the glory of the incarnation comes in. God became man.

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Now this is really important for us to wrap our minds around because you hear it so much as a

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Christian that you might actually over a period of time become jaded to that. God became man.

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Yeah. That's great. I know the story. I was raised in church. Or I know the story.

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I've read the book. I know the story. I've seen the movie. I know the story. We've talked about it. I've heard about it all my life.

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God became man. But I want to say this, that every time we hear God became man, if we really reflect and meditate on those truths surrounding the incarnation, it ought to cause our heart to flutter.

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It ought to cause goosebumps to come up on us. And I think that we should stretch ourselves as believers and fight for joy in the truth that God became a man because it is totally other.

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It is totally distinct and different from what anybody else has said about God. The eternal

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God took on flesh and humbled himself and became man. And this is what's crazy about it because it actually sounds like something you're not supposed to say in church, that God sought others good above his own, that God sacrificed everything for the sake of his rebel creatures.

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It sounds almost sacrilegious, like you're not supposed to really talk like that in church. The holy

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God, the limitless God, the God who is all powerful and love and mercy and just, he took on flesh and he had pimples.

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He got stomach aches. He might have caught the flu. Jesus was punched in his face.

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He had his beard pulled from his face. He had thorns smashed into his head.

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He was whipped with a cat of nine tails and had chunks of his back ripped out. They would have had even maybe organs exposed as a result of the beating.

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Jesus was crucified and put on a cross. It seems so sacrilegious to even talk about God in that way, that he actually humbled himself so low to take that for us, and yet we're the rebels.

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In John chapter 1, I hope you know the text. If you don't, memorize it because it's so vitally important.

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John chapter 1, I just want to read this text to you because we ought to revel in these truths.

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God became man, my third point for today. Here's the verse. In the beginning was the Word. Do it with me.

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And the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The text says in the

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Greek, En arche in hologos, kai hologos ein proston theon, kai theos ein hologos.

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En arche in hologos means in the beginning without a reference point to stopping, forever back, go, go, go, go, forever.

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The Word was already there. Jesus was already there. He was proston theon, face -to -face toward God, the

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Father. That means he was in intimate relationship with the Father forever. This is what's really powerful as an aside.

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Do you ever stop to think what God was doing before he made the universe? No really, stop and think about it.

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Okay, there's nothing. There's no physical like stars. There's no earth.

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There's no sun. There's no moon. There's no waves. There's no creatures. There's nothing. He hasn't spoken it into existence yet.

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We don't have a lot of details about what life was like before, but before the heavens and the earth, what was

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God doing? Ready, forever, forever.

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You can't reach back and stop anywhere and say like up to this point, no, forever and ever and ever with no beginning ever.

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Before he made the world, what was he doing? What was it like? Was he bored?

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The text says, in archaean halagos, in the beginning, the word was there. The word was with God.

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The word was God. Here is what existence was like for God long before he made the world and us.

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It was absolute perfection. It was absolute delight and joy, perfection, no sin, no brokenness, perfect, holy harmony and unity, father, son, holy spirit.

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And I don't get it. I don't understand it, but it's glorious.

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And God was in sheer delight and perfection with no pain, no conflict, utter harmony forever.

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And it says this, all things were made through him,

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Jesus. All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made in him was life.

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And the life was the light of men and the light shines in the darkness and the darkness was has not overcome it.

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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.

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He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light, the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

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He was in the world and the world was made did not know him. He came to his own and his own people did not receive him.

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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 of the will of man, but of God.

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And here we go. Merry Christmas. And the word became flesh and dwelt among us.

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And we have seen his glory, glory as of the only son from the father, full of grace and truth,

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Jesus, who in this text is the only begotten of the father.

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The words mean the monogamous, they are monogamous, they are the unique and one and only

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God was in the bosom of the father. He has made the father known to us.

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God became flesh and dwelt among us in John chapter eight. I told you guys before John chapter eight, the

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Jews are there and Jesus says before Abraham was a boy, me, I am, and they pick up stones to kill him.

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And in John chapter 10, he says, I and the father are one to pick up stones to kill him And he says to them, many good works have

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I shown you from the father, for which of these do you stone me? And they said, for your good works we stone you not, but for blasphemy, and that you being a man make yourself

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God. They knew what he was saying. They understood it. They understood it. It was there right in front of their faces.

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They knew the whole time. They could taste it. They could touch it. They knew. And Jesus, even after he dies and rises from the dead and he goes into the upper room, you know the story.

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Thomas is there and Thomas is doubting Thomas. He's not going to believe unless he touches him, unless he puts his hand in and Jesus appears.

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And he says, handle me and see a spirit does not have flesh and bone as you see me have. And what is Thomas's response?

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He says, the Lord of me and the

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God of me. He is. He's exclaiming, you are Yahweh, you are

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God. They knew who he was. God had taken their debt and their sin.

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You want to hear this. This is really important. Philippians chapter two, go there because this is one of those compelling passages about the incarnation.

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Philippians chapter two. God becomes man and there's so much to it.

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People ask the question, Muslims often challenge

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Christians because they can't fathom the idea of God taking on flesh, being humbled in that way.

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They can't imagine that that would be something that God would do, that he would debase himself, that he'd bring himself so low that he would take on flesh and be beaten up by his own creatures.

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They can't imagine how Christians actually believe that sort of a thing. Look what it says in Philippians chapter two, verse one.

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Let's start here together. Verse one, so if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the

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Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.

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Pause. Can I say something real fast? Beyond the theological, deep, rich things of God taking on flesh and humbling himself, which we're going to see in a second.

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We need to pay attention to this as a community. God puts his image in the garden. Adam fails to be what

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God called him to be, to be God's image, the perfect image of God. He rebels against God.

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Jesus is the second Adam. He is the perfection, the image of God. As God intended for us to be,

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God became man and he was that before the watching world. Now watch what

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Paul says to Christians, to us. If there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort from love, any participation in the

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Spirit, any affection and sympathy, complete my joy by being of the same mind.

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Here's the point. Watch this. It's not about girls. Obey a moral code.

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Here's what you do. Follow this list of rules. Check, check, check, check, check. Here's the point of Christianity.

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God saved us. He's redeemed us. He gets all the glory for it. Here's the point. Now that God has walked among us, we always point to him and we say, that's what you're like.

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Not a code. Not a checklist. We point to Jesus. And here's the message. If Jesus is this way, then you have the same mind.

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You'd be like Jesus. It's really an amazing thing for the apostles to talk like this. We got to see

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Jesus and in particular, get to walk with Jesus. They can point to Jesus and say, look, look,

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Jesus, he was affectionate. Jesus had sympathy. Jesus was like this. Jesus was like this. So you'd be the same as Jesus.

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You'd be like him. And here's what's amazing. Do nothing from rivalry, verse three, or conceit, but in humility, count others more significant than yourselves.

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Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.

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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 made himself nothing, 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.

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Here's the glory of the incarnation. Everything for Christians goes back to, because that's what

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Jesus did. Because that's what Jesus is like. God isn't standing above you in the faith, and he's saying, you do things that I haven't displayed to you.

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You do things because I simply tell you to, although God has the right to simply tell us to do whatever he pleases.

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He's God after all. But the glory of the incarnation is that God enters into his own creation, and he lives among us, being abused by us, walking around a sin -cursed creation, and he shows us the way.

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He is the light in the world that God intended Adam to be, and the amazing thing is that now

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Paul can say, you'd be like Jesus, who was in the very form of God.

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He did not consider his equality with the Father a thing to be grasped or held onto, but he emptied himself, and he humbled himself, and became obedient even to death, and he sought others above himself.

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So you do that in community with each other. If there's any affection in Jesus, any sympathy, any seeking others above yourself and their interests above your own, if there's any of that in Jesus, then you do that with each other.

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That's the glory of the incarnation. It's not just that Jesus dies for our sins and rises from the dead.

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It's that Jesus is the image of God, the image of God in the world, and all of us, because we see the incarnation, because we know it took place, and we know what he was like, we can say, that's what

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God is conforming me to. He's making me like Jesus. The world is broken.

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It's disharmonious. Human beings are wretched to one another. What is the world supposed to be?

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What are we supposed to be like to each other? And now we have in the incarnation the one and only true and living

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God. He's walked among us, and he showed us, and he humbles himself.

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You're not just saying as a Christian, be good little boys and girls, follow commandments, do a checklist, try to be moral people.

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What we're saying is this, come to Jesus, be joined to him by faith, be saved, and then be conformed to his image by God.

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You'll be like him. That's the perfect image of God. I want you to see this last one,

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Colossians 1. These are verses, for those of you guys that are apologetically, the image of the invisible

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God. Do you see it? Jesus, he's the image of the invisible

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God. Adam's created in the garden, and God says, let us make man in our image.

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And then Adam, and us in Adam, rebels against God, revolts against the king, and turns away from God.

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And now we reap the rewards of that. And in Colossians 1, the apostle Paul says,

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Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God. The firstborn of all creation, the word there, firstborn, you ought not to take to mean first in created order.

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In other words, God made Jesus first. That's not what it means. Prototokos, the Greek word prototokos, does not have to do with necessarily the first in order of creation, but it has to do with preeminence and him being the heir.

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Think for a moment, like a Jew, according to the law, the firstborn has particular rights as heir in the family.

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He's the preeminent one in the family. Like, for example, Abraham's firstborn son, we say, was

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Isaac. And yet, didn't Abraham have a son before Isaac?

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Who? Ishmael. But who was Abraham's firstborn son?

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Isaac, because he was the heir. God calls Israel his firstborn,

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David his firstborn. The word there has to do with preeminence and heir. He's the heir of all things.

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Watch this. It says this, for by him, Jesus, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through him and for him.

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And he is before all things and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church.

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He is the beginning of the firstborn. He is the beginning of the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might have preeminence, might be preeminent, for in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell and through him to reconcile to himself, watch this, all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of the cross.

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Jesus, who is God in the flesh and made everything, is the image of God and he through his cross is reconciling what things?

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All things to himself. And that's what

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I wanted to get to in terms of the glory of the incarnation. Let me say this.

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God became man, walked among us, showed us the way, paid the penalty for us, and in doing so he has redeemed people for himself out of every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

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And he's bringing that cross work and that redemption to the ends of the earth. He has reconciled the world to himself.

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I was sitting with Doug Wilson two weeks ago and he put something, you'll get to see it soon, a little interview he and I did in the theater.

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It was awesome. He was talking about the incarnation and the atonement of Jesus Christ and he was talking about the fact that Jesus has reconciled the world to himself and the message is he's king, he has all authority, he gives salvation, and he says the message should go out to the world.

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Why don't you put down your weapons and come quietly? Like he's already king, come quietly.

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He's won the world, come be saved. Put down your weapons, come quietly. I love that because the message is that he's the king, he's brought salvation, the world is full of rebels, he's purchased people for himself, he already has won, salvation is going out to the ends of the world, and all of creation is going to be redeemed in Jesus Christ.

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When he returns all of his enemies under his feet in victory, all of creation, every nook and cranny as far as the curse is found is going to be redeemed because God is going to ultimately answer everything in terms of sin in the world.

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And I want to point you to the final thing that is really the glory of the incarnation.

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First, how are we to actually relate to that incarnation?

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How are we to relate to Jesus Christ? I want you to hear it. The only way we can actually understand that incarnation and the glory of it and actually participate in Jesus is through faith, that's the message of the gospel, is that God became a man for a reason, it's because we deserve hell, and the only way that we can actually be made right with God, have peace with God is to have a representative that we are in, a head that actually represents us, that actually makes us right before God, where we can have a righteousness and stand before God that is perfect, that is blameless, and that's in Jesus.

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And so the message of the gospel was very simply this, you turn from your sin and you trust in Jesus, be joined to him by faith, and the

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Apostle Paul says in his letters over 70 times, in Christ, in Christ, in Christ.

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That is one of the highlight things of our whole experience as Christians.

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We are in Jesus, we are in Christ by faith, joined to him, and you participate with Christ.

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The Apostle Paul says in Colossians chapter 3 that you are seated with Jesus in the heavenly places.

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You're like, yeah, I feel like that, whether or not you and I feel like it, in a world that is still being worked on by God, it's true.

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Through faith in Jesus, you're seated with him in the heavenly places, you are counted righteous, you are no longer counted guilty, that's the truth, you're united to Jesus.

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Romans chapter 5 says this, Adam, if you're in him, it's death and condemnation. If you're in Jesus, it means life, the gift of eternal life and righteousness.

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Which is your head? Is it Adam or is it Jesus? Both were called to be image of God.

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Jesus is the image of the invisible God. He is the perfection that God intended for us to be.

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If you're in him, you are what God intended for you to be because you're in Jesus.

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In Romans 6, he died, you're joined to him in his death by faith and his resurrection.

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That's the glory of the incarnation in terms of our participation. But in Romans 8,

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I want you to see it, and we're ending here. Stuff to think about for Christmas.

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In Romans chapter 8, after one of our favorite verses, after verse 28, and we know that all, for those who love

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God, all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose, for those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his son.

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In order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers, and those whom he predestined, he also called, and those whom he called, he also justified, and those whom he justified, he also glorified.

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Okay. God walked and he touched us. He cried with us.

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He healed people. He touched little girls who were dead. He said, little girl, arise, and she rose up right in front of her parents.

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Lazarus, his buddy, was dead for days, and he said, come forth. He came forth. Jesus healed sick people.

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He healed blind people. He healed deaf people. He healed lame people. He confronted sin.

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He confronted constructions of religion in the world. Jesus walked among us, and more importantly, everything you and I have, and more so.

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People wonder, how can God sympathize with me in my homelessness?

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He was there. How could God sympathize with me in my hunger? He's tasted hunger.

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How could God sympathize with me in my poverty? Jesus has tasted poverty as well.

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How could God sympathize with me in my abuse? I was physically abused, and I was tortured, and people did things with my body that they should never have done, and I want to say,

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Jesus meets you absolutely in that pain. How could Jesus sympathize with me when people backbite and they lie about me and they bear false witness about me?

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Jesus knows what that's like, even in trial. But the glory is this, is that in Romans 8, it says that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love

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God. That's those who believe in Christ, those who belong to God. And it says this, that He has predestined us to be conformed to the image of Jesus.

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And so this is what's really amazing about the incarnation, is that God became one of us. He saved us and showed us the way.

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He is what we were intended to be, and God says this, He has predestined us to be conformed to that image.

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What Jesus is like, who He is, that's what God has predestined for us to be.

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So your hope as a Christian in change and transformation, though you fail constantly, though I fail constantly, though we don't love

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God with heart, soul, mind, and strength any day of our lives, God is committed covenantally by oath to making you like His Son.

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What was Jesus like in His trust towards the Father? What was He like? He was perfect. What was

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Jesus like in His mercy? What was Jesus like in His forgiveness? What was Jesus like in His obedience towards the

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Father? What was Jesus like in His care and compassion for others? What was Jesus like in His love for the

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Father's Word? Perfection. And the Bible says that God has predestined

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His people to be conformed to that image. What Jesus was like, that's what God is making you.

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And God, God delights in glorifying the majesty of His name.

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He wants to vindicate the holiness of His name before the sight of the nations in the world by making you like Jesus.

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Jesus walks into our experience. He tastes everything this fallen world has to offer, and then

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He defeats it with His work on the cross and His resurrection.

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That's what God does. And then, after defeating death and sin,

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Jesus brings us into intimate fellowship with Him and makes us like Him.

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So hope at Christmas is not just for your forgiveness and salvation. Hope at Christmas is this,

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God's not done with you. He's not done with you. He's not done with me. And He is committed by covenant to making you like Jesus.

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Because before the world began, God said, I'm going to make Jeff like my son.

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God said before the world began that He's going to make Perry like his son.

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God said before the world began, He's going to make Tim like his son.

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Believe it or not, Tim. So what is the hope of the incarnation?

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I want to say, I hope that you can see, as brothers and sisters in Christ, that it is beyond simply salvation and forgiveness.

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What we have to glory in the incarnation is the beautiful image of God that God is making you like.

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That's where you're going. Some of you guys might say, I think I'm crazy, like my mind goes weird places, and I have no self -control, and I can't trust, and all these different things.

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Jesus was of sound mind, and He was obedient to the Father. If you are in Jesus, and you cling to Him, and trust in Him, and you investigate

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Jesus, and you study what He is like, and you sit at His feet, you'll be a person that walked among us and committed to save.

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And when He saves, He saves all of you, and He makes you look like Him. He is the light of the world.

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You, through Him, broadcast His light into the world. Adam was told to go forth, subdue the earth, take dominion over it, to be

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His image, God's image in the world. Jesus comes as the second Adam, defeats death in a garden, which is where it was brought.

01:02:38

He's confused. They confuse Him as the gardener, because I believe

01:02:43

He was working the ground. And Jesus is taking dominion over the entire earth. It says so in the

01:02:49

Psalms, He shall have dominion. We are His bride, the bride of Christ, the helpmeet of the second

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Adam, going forth with Him as His helpmeet to take dominion over the entirety of the earth, to destroy the curse as far as it is found.

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Joy to the world. Let's pray. Father, I pray that you bless God. The word that went out today, and I just want to ask,

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Father, that you would allow us as your people to really have time to meditate on these truths, to glory in these truths,

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God, to celebrate these truths in the way that we never have before. God, I know that we should celebrate your incarnation and your cross work and your resurrection every day.

01:03:42

But God, we need your help, God, to be the kind of people who do.

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And I pray with all my heart during this Christmas season, when so many people, Lord, are under your grace because they're hearing about the gospel,

01:04:01

I pray that you would give us boldness to talk about you and to call people to repentance and faith.