The Virgin Conception

There's the 13-second punchline right there. Mike Ebendroth, Michael E. Ebendroth, no compromise radio. Almost change it to Duplex Gratia radio and still might. I talked to somebody the other day and they said to me, you know what, I vote for Duplex Gratia radio.

Someone else said to me today, I never listen to NOCO anymore, all you do is bash people. So I'm going to bash that person, no. I said, it's all about the Lord Jesus now, all, most of the time, I mean, once in a while.

I might talk about something that impinges upon the Lord's glory, like final justification, federal vision or something like that, where you, I mean, you have to teach sound doctrine and refute those that contradict.

But NOCO is really now about the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon, Christ for power, that's Duplex Gratia. We are after Christ-centered preaching, we're after three uses of the law, we're law after law gospel, we are after, by covenantalism, we can add in covenantal redemption there too with covenant of works, covenant of grace.

Those are the things that we talk about mainly here on No Compromise Radio. They undergird things. It's the thing behind the thing, so if we're talking about something, it's the thing behind the thing.

What's the thing behind the thing? The things that I just mentioned, of course. If you don't know what to do, you just give more music. There you go. I have other music that I could play, but that's the one that we have right now.

And we today have a special on sexual fidelity. If you want to buy sexual fidelity off the website, if you order a sexual fidelity, I'm going to send you an extra sexual fidelity and a things to go bump in the church.

So if you email, I mean, you go to the website and then we're trying to get a new website, by the way, for the church as well. If you buy one sexual fidelity, it won't say anything with the cart. There's no code.

You just buy it and I send you an extra one and things to go bump in the church. So I think it's $11 .99 for the one book, two bucks for shipping. I think it'll probably cost me four bucks to ship three books.

And therefore, let's see, that's $9 .99. That's $3 per book. Not bad. That's not a, not a bad deal. So anyway, that's what you need to do. Go to the website, order sexual fidelity, and then you can get an extra sexual, sexual fidelity, sexual fidelity, and things to go bump in the church.

Difficult doctrines, easily explained and kind of funny sometimes too in that book. What are we talking about today? Well, I'm in Luke chapter one and I'm talking about the virgin birth from the pulpit, which makes me want to think about the virgin birth now.

The Virgin Conception and the Virgin Birth

And why is it so important? And I could probably give you several reasons for the virgin birth. And when I say virgin birth, I'm including obviously the virgin conception. And one of the things that I would say that why we need the virgin birth or what it helps us to think through is that Jesus is fulfilling the Old Testament.

Why is the virgin birth important of Jesus? Because Isaiah 7, 14, that, that would be something that I could talk about, but I won't do that right now in the different words for virgin or mother or maiden or any of that kind of stuff.

That would be one thing. There's another thing that I can talk about when it comes to the virgin birth. And that is this leading up to everything right now. I know I haven't really, haven't really said anything much yet.

You're waiting for me, right? You're like, okay, get to the punchline. You're four minutes into the show and what have you done? I want you when it comes to the virgin birth to suppress the urge to go beyond what the Bible says, to go beyond what the Bible says.

When I'm thinking about the virgin birth, I say to myself, yes, it has to be supernatural. That would be another one. And if you believe in God at all, if you believe in the creation of the world, if you believe in the incarnation, if you believe God raises people from the dead, if you believe in supernatural things and you're not a theological liberal, as Machen wrote, Christianity to liberalism, you know, it's an attack.

Liberalism is against the supernatural nature of God and his acts as a person. Well, you should have no problem with the virgin birth, that it could be possible. But here I'm after what some have called a restrained explanation of how the virgin conception happened.

The virgin birth, hey, cramps, water breaks, what do they call that? Contractions, that's all. That birth is the exact same with a virgin bearing and with a non-virgin bearing, right? What's the difference?

There may be a little discussion here or there about that, but overall you think, okay, the key is the virgin conception. Now if you study pagan theology, there are gross, unrestrained, lewd descriptions of God's impregnating women.

That's all I have to say. I don't want to say anything more. This is a family show, right? This is duplex gratia radio, of course, if we're talking about double graces, we don't want to talk about things that are inappropriate, but you get the point, right?

We have to be very, very careful. And I want you to be careful as you think about exactly what happened. Let me read you chapter one, verse 35 of the gospel of Jesus, according to Luke, the Holy Spirit will come upon you, this is Gabriel to Mary, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, therefore also the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God.

Now anything lewd there? Anything vulgar, base? No, of course not. And of course, anything in the Bible we're able to read, and even if it describes sinful things that are awful and base and rape or this, that, and the other and incest and uncovering your father's nakedness, all those kinds of things, it's proper for us to study.

But there's just this cloak, this veil where there's not the titillating details that maybe some would expect, especially in light of modern journalism and TV and social media, et cetera. The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you.

And the child's going to be called Holy, the Son of God. I find that fascinating because we are going to say to ourselves things like this, hmm, did Mary, so her DNA was involved. And so was one of her eggs that were tainted by the fall, right, Adam's fall, were one of those eggs cleansed?

Did God give an egg? But that can't be because it's going to be her seed, Genesis chapter three. So how can there be a holy egg from a sinful person? Mary was a great lady, but she was a sinner. You only get grace if you're a sinner and she was graced.

And you call God your Savior when you know you're a sinner, and that's what she did later in chapter one. Well, where's the male DNA come from? Injected into the womb, sperm? I mean, there's all kinds of things that people think about and think through.

And I just want you to realize this overshadowing language, as some have called it, very delicate, opposite of coarse, base, vulgar, rude, lurid, overshadow. What we get is simply this, and that's why we need to suppress the urge to go beyond what the Bible says.

And we see this restrained explanation. She, of course, Mary, has never had sex with a man, and she is told what's going to happen, but she's told in this way where the Spirit of God will come upon you and overshadow you.

Now, when you think of overshadowing, you ought to be thinking about the Shekinah glory overshadows in, I think, Exodus 40. You could think of the transfiguration where the glory of God overshadows, and it means to encompass or to surround.

And when the glory of God overshadows the temple, it's meaning something, and it means this. It means that God is present. God is working. God is there. God is present. And therefore, this God, in the power of the most high, will overshadow you, right?

The Holy Spirit comes upon you, and the power of the most high will overshadow you. And there's going to be a conception. It's going to be a virginal conception, virgin conception. The virgin birth is one thing, but we're talking about the conception.

It's supernatural. No human involved on the male side, right? It says even in Luke chapter, oh, I can't remember. Maybe it's John or Luke where it talks about, you know, it gives us the details so we know for sure this is not the son of Joseph, literal son.

I don't know what you call him, stepson. That's not my point right now. The incarnation, supernatural. Virgin conception, supernatural. And we don't need to know every one of these details. God does not give us a precise explanation.

Ralph Davis said, God draws a veil of mystery over his work, and we are to be content with that. He goes on to say, sometimes it's better not to know. And sometimes God puts us in that position. Here for example, there are no intricate details about the virginal conception of Jesus.

This is rather typical. With the living God, we often meet conundrums, the mystery of Jesus' conception, the mystery of the cross, the mysteries of Christian experience, the perplexity of unanswered prayer, or the quandaries behind suffering.

Some of God's mysteries may be intentional. It may be that he does not want to feed our curiosity, but to lead us to worship. It is not that he wants you to be ignorant of things, but to be content that he is competent.

Competent to counsel was J. Adams' book. Davis is content that he is competent. He may not want you to speculate, but to adore. I think that's really an important thing when it comes to the incarnation.

Yes, we needed a sinless sin bearer. Yes, we needed a holy and undefiled and blameless substitute to fulfill what the Old Testament talked about with the lambs and no spot or blemish. Yes, it is true that the Holy Spirit made sure that there was no fall involved with this egg.

That's all true. But how can we really go past that? I have zero problem with the virgin birth, with the virgin conception. I never say to myself, how could that be? I just read this. I believe in God.

I believe in his word, and it has to make sense to me in order to believe it. All right, let's put it this way. Can you even figure out what's going on and explain it when a regular sperm meets a regular egg and there's conception?

I mean, think about that. Yeah, we might be able to detail what happens, and there's all kinds of science that's been going and growing, and we could say, oh, yeah, I'm understanding that better. Ecclesiastes 11 .6, though, remains the same even 3 ,000 years ago into today, when that was written 2 ,500 years ago.

As you do not know the way the Spirit comes to the bones in the womb of a woman with child, so you do not know the work of God who makes everything. I mean, let's face it. Trying to describe the wonder of conception in two fallen humans, with two fallen humans, right?

The man and the woman. It's actually in the woman, of course, but what are we trying to do? I think it is a wonderful opportunity for us to think about the virgin birth and just take it by faith. Yes, this can certainly happen, and it had to happen because if you need a sinless Savior and you need a blameless substitute, otherwise he'd have to pay for his own sin, then who would pay for our sins?

You're going to need an advocate that's pure and righteous, and in this particular case, the child to be born will be called what? Holy, H-O-L-Y, distinct, different in the sense that he is pure and spotless and not tainted by Adam's fall.

My name's Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio. We're talking about the virgin birth today. More than that, though, I just automatically say virgin birth, but virgin conception. By the way, if Jay Gresham-Machen can write a book on virgin birth, I can call it that too.

She did bear a child as a virgin, but that was not very spectacular. All births are, of course, but what was supernatural and spectacular is the Spirit of God, like he hovered over the waters in Genesis creation, makes certain that we have a sinless representative and substitute, the Lord Jesus.

Last show, we talked about the extra-Calvinisticum and the two natures of Jesus, the Incarnate One, divine and human, and what was Jesus doing in the womb? Well, his human nature was in the womb and his divine nature was everywhere, like his divine nature always is, and we have two natures in one person.

Son of God and Son of Man

Alright, what else are we doing today on No Compromise Radio? As I'm thinking about the virgin birth, I'm also wanting to make sure we just get our P's and Q's right with the nomenclature of the Son, capital S, Son of Man and Son of God.

Here, it says in verse 35 of chapter 1 of Luke, therefore also the child to be born will be called Holy, the Son of God. Now, we're talking about the incarnation. Why would we say Son of God? That's a very good question to ask.

Son of God and Son of Man. Well, chapter 1 verse 35 calls him the Son of God, and I ask you this question, Son of God refers to his deity or his humanity? Nine times out of ten, which one? Son of Man refers to his deity or to his humanity?

Well, nine times out of ten. There may be exception here or there, but in general, the Son of Man, we would automatically default by saying, well, it says man, so Jesus here is discussing his humanity and Jesus' own self-designation.

Is that the right way to say it? His own self-designation? His designation. His self-designation, but I don't think his own self-designation. How does he talk about himself mostly? Son of Man. So, is he talking about his incarnation there?

What about Son of God? Is it talking about his deity? Now, certainly Jesus is divine. Jesus is human. Two natures, right? We have to believe in that. Assuming human nature, the eternal Son, right? Took on human flesh for us and for our salvation, right?

I sing creed. But in general, when we think of Son of Man and Son of God, we have it backwards. It's backward. Remember, sometimes we'll say towards, but I think that's English, British. I think we say toward.

Backwards or backward. We have it backward if we're not living on the island over there. You say, how are you making this up? Well, what do you do when people think you're making it up? Well, we do all kinds of things.

You want answers? I think I'm entitled. You want answers. I want to handle the truth. That's all I got for you today. We go to R .C. Sproul. If R .C. taught what I just said, Son of Man is talking about his deity most of the time, and Son of God is talking about his humanity most of the time, would you believe it then?

Well, certainly the context here, he's wholly the Son of God. Well, of course, he's Son of God as God, divine, but he's called wholly even the Son of God human. Well, you see, that's not a very good argument.

What did R .C. say? The tendency is for folks to assume that when Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, he was speaking of his human nature. And when he's referred to as the Son of God, he's referred to vis-a-vis his divine nature.

The title Son of God, R .C. said, is given in the first instance in Scripture to those who manifest obedience to the Father. Sonship is defined predominantly not in biological terms, but in terms of being in one accord or submissive towards.

Remember Jesus himself in his discussions with the Pharisees who claimed to be sons of Abraham. Jesus rebuked them and said, you are children of Satan. You are the children of the one whom you obey. R .C. said, don't get me wrong.

The Son of God contains in certain references in the New Testament, clear indications of Jesus' eternal sonship in his deity. So I don't want to overstate the case. But this title Son of Man is the one I want you to really pay attention to when you're reading the Gospels, because it's so often used in the New Testament.

And all but three times that it occurs in the New Testament, it comes from the lips of Jesus. Now, if you start thinking about the Old Testament, it will help you. Is Son of Man used in the Old Testament?

And where is the passage in the Old Testament that talks about the Son of Man? And of course, it will talk about the Son of Man as divine. We go back to Daniel and Daniel sees the Ancient of Days enthroned.

And unto the Ancient of Days comes one like unto that a Son of Man who has the authority to judge the world. He descends divine authority. Sproul said, and when he returns to the presence of God in his ascension, we remember that Jesus says, no one ascends to the Father, except he who first descended from him.

When Jesus says he's the Son of Man, it most of the time doesn't refer to humble incarnation, human will, human nature. He wants you to know it's a claim to divine authority. And that's right from Daniel chapter 7.

When Jesus said, I did this that you may know that the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Only God has authority to forgive sins, Jesus said. I did this so that you might know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.

What a great title for the Lord Jesus. What an exalted title. What wonder when you think in chapter 7 of Daniel, as I read a section of that. And as I looked, thrones were placed and the ancient of days took his seat.

His clothing was white as snow and the hair of his head like pure wool. His throne was fiery flames. Its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him. A thousand thousands served him and 10 ,000 times 10 ,000 stood before him.

The court sat in judgment and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire.

And as for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw Daniel 7 .13 in the night visions and behold the clouds of heaven. There came one like a son of man and he came to the ancient of days and was presented before him.

And to him, the son of man was given dominion and glory and a kingdom that all people's nations and language should serve him. His kingdom, his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away.

And his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. So when you read son of man, I want you to think divinity. And most of the time when you read son of God, I want you to think humanity. You're like, I don't want to do that.

I've been thinking the other way the whole time. I do find it fascinating. If Sproul's right, and I think he is, Luke 1 .35, therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the son of God. We're talking about the child.

We're talking about human nature and he's called the son of God. I don't think he's necessarily referring to the eternal sonship there. I'm thinking that sonship is defined. Well, I act like my what? I act like I have a father who I am submissive toward.

I act like a father that I obey so that I obey him. I act like a human supposed to act, but never act. Acted except before the fall of Adam, before Adam fell, he acted like a human should, but then he mysteriously, and we don't understand all the details.

He fell. And therefore Jesus, the son of God says, I have God as a father and therefore I obey him. And that's talking more in his incarnation than it is about his son of man self-designation as this great divine, awesome God, the son of man.

The Son of Man as a Claim to Divine Authority

Well, my name is Mike Abenroth. This is No Compromise Radio Ministry. We talked today about two things. Number one, we talked about, well, let's start with number two, number two, the son of man, son of God, and then also suppressing the urge to go beyond what the Bible says, not just with the version conception, but probably many other things.

Don't forget, you can order Sexual Fidelity online at nocompromiseradio .com. And then you can, well, that's interesting music right there. It had a pause. You order one set of Sexual Fidelity, you get another free and things go bump in the church.

Thanks for listening.