Christmas - Jesus the Liberator — Erlo Stegen

Testing the Spirits and Confessing Christ’s Incarnation

The question being, why should Jesus have come in the flesh? What is the explanation? Because it also says that there are many false prophets and we need discernment. Especially in this era, where there are those who love to claim they are prophets, but they are lying prophets.

And this text helps us to understand and to correctly see the difference between the spirit of God, the spirit of Jesus and the spirit of the Antichrist. So here in 1 John Chapter 4, from the first verse, as we've read, where we are told, beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. So how are we then to discern? Because it says there are many prophets, but there are many false prophets. And then it says, but you will know the spirit of God through this.

Every spirit that confesses that Jesus has come in the flesh. Is from God. So what is the meaning, therefore, of Jesus being incarnated, coming in the flesh? Because it is admitted by most religions that there was a Jesus.

He was there in the flesh. But the spirit of the Antichrist, does it confess that Jesus came in the flesh? But do remember that the Antichrist does not mean that he denies Christ is existing. The Antichrist is one who replaces Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ as Fully God and Fully Man

So let us, therefore, look more carefully at the meaning of Jesus coming in the flesh. Jesus is both God himself and man himself. And we are told that all things were created by him and unto him. Which shows that Jesus is God, for he is the creator of everything.

He is also the Alpha and the Omega. Alpha being that he was there from the beginning. And has created all things. He created heaven and earth. From the very beginning right to the end. Jesus is God himself.

He is the spirit. But now think. He came down and became flesh. Became fully human like you and me. While being God simultaneously. Known as the Son of God. Are doctors who know the human body so well?

They say a child. Receives its blood by the father. The body from the mother. And in that way, he is both God and man, and that confuses some people. They say, how is it possible to be both at the same time?

It is a great secret. But if you understand that the blood comes from the father. And then it is said in the Bible that Jesus was the son, not of Joseph, but the son of God. That is why his divine blood is so precious.

The Preciousness of Christ’s Divine Blood

We are never to take lightly his blood. If you are washed in the blood of Jesus, remember it is the blood of God. You should treat it as being so precious. How carefully you should treat the blood of the Lord.

We are washed by the blood of God, the Most High, not Joseph's blood. How precious. Shouldn't that blood be to you? For it is the blood of God himself. It is not just any blood. You confess your sin. The Bible says he confesses and forsakes his sin, shall obtain mercy.

Just consider. The preciousness of that blood, how carefully, in what manner should you be living in it? In this world, if you have been washed by that blood, the body is from the mother. The soul is in the blood.

If he had just human blood, then he would be a sinner just like you. But he was sinless. His body he received from Mary. That is why we know him as fully man. But the blood from the Father, from God the Father, that is why we know him as fully divine too.

Now faith. Our faith in this precious blood, the faith that believes that this blood is so precious. And for the one who tramples this blood underfoot, woe to that person. In Romans chapter 8, and we can read from verse 1.

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. I have said that he had the body from Mary.

Sin’s Indwelling Power and Human Bondage

That is why we are sinners, for sin dwells in us in the body. And sin dwells in our flesh. And we live in it. Even when you try and fight against the flesh, you fail. One person said that he will stop smoking.

But that demon of smoking was in him. And in his determination to stop smoking, he went to the outside long drop toilet. He took his cigarettes and threw it down into the pit together with the one that was still in his mouth.

But after two or three days, off he was to the shop to buy his cigarettes again because of this fierce craving that he had. This sin indwelt him. Another old man who wanted to stop with his cigarettes, he had heard that it is bad for him and that it is sinful.

A pipe. He smoked with a pipe. He said, Lord, I am stopping today with this because I hear that you are my... I am the temple for you. This is the end of it. He took a spade, went to his garden, to the corner, and he dug a hole and buried his pipe and covered it too.

But after three days, the cravings were so terrible, he went back to the corner of his garden, dug it up, shook off the sand, and smoked again. And in dwells you in the flesh. You try and stop, it is unstoppable.

And drug addicts too, they say that they try to stop, but they just cannot leave the habit because this habit, this addiction dwells in them. And even though God has told you, stop with your lying, stop with your anger, stop with your swearing, stop with this and your killing and your smoking, but nevertheless you continue.

Though you try ever so hard, you just cannot stop, for the temper indwells you. This irritability is inside you. It lives in you. Jesus with his precious divine blood has a body nevertheless, the body of flesh.

Paul’s Cry for Deliverance from the Body of Death

Now you try and stop it, but it is unstoppable. And that points us to the Roman letter in the seventh chapter, verse 24. Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now in ancient times. Paul and the people of his day fully understood when this expression was used, Wretched man that I am, who will deliver me from this body of death? We in this era, we don't understand the implications of this wretchedness and this body of death.

Now in ancient times, this was the practice. A person wasn't hanged or given a lethal injection. But if he had killed somebody and he was caught, They would take the corpse of the murdered person and tie it to the murderer.

Hands to hands, arms to arms. Mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes. Legs to legs. The person had this corpse tied to him. And if he tried to get up, It was difficult for this corpse was tied to him. And if he tried to walk, it was with great difficulty for his legs were tied to the legs of the corpse.

He would walk down the street and cry out, Oh wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death? Remember this body of death, the person who he had murdered was tied to him, body part to body part, eyes to eyes.

And this body was busy putrefying as you know that a corpse in the hot sun goes rotten very quickly. And it's tied to him. And the worms, they begin to move around and go into him too. And these maggots even mouth to mouth to the corpse would go.

The maggots would go into him nose to nose, terrible smell. That is why even a loved one, even though you loved them so dearly, but you will put them away in the grave. This putrid corpse was now causing him to die for the maggots were getting into him, the rottenness was invading him.

He would cry out, Oh woe is to me, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body? No one could. So look at mankind, look at the drug addict, he tries to stop, he can't. Sexually immoral, tries to stop with it, he can't.

Filthy thoughts, tries to stop, they just, the thoughts come back to him for they are in him, they are operative in him. And he too cries out, Oh woe is me, wretched man that I am, who will set me free from this body of death?

For this body, for this corpse is tied to him day and night, and he will be killed by it because of the corpse. And the cry of that person could be heard afar off because no one was allowed to come and set him free from this body.

Christ’s Liberation from Sin and Condemnation

God saw humankind loving people and seeing them die. God sees mankind in its wretched state, loves them nevertheless. He sees them dying, the sinner dying with these evil habits and addictions, this messing around, the sexual immorality.

Little girls are already busy with sex, boys as well. And they can't stop, look at the disrespect, look at the rebelliousness of young people today. One can mention so many things. You can go to a jail and see how full they are.

Do you know this liberation where you have been bound to the corpse of sin and you are set free? But here is the marvelous thing. He goes on to say, thanks be to God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ in the flesh, he is able to set us free from this body of death.

And then it goes on to say, therefore there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the spirit of life has set me free from the law of sin and death. God gave us the law, don't steal, don't fight, don't be adulterous, promiscuous, don't steal.

But the law does not help us. What the law could not accomplish, Jesus Christ did by coming in the flesh. For there was no sin in Jesus, in Christ. He was pure. So if you are troubled, there is something that you are trying to stop.

But you can't. Come to Jesus, he will set you free. Because sin indwells us, we cannot get victory over sin ourselves. And thus it was, God seeing our predicament sent Jesus Christ, born in the flesh.

So that if you come to Jesus, if you receive him and he comes inside you, he conquers our sin. Because you begin to live his life. For in Romans 8, For the spirit of life, it says in verse 2, this law of the spirit of life in Christ comes and sets us free from the law of sin and death.

It is wonderful to have faith, to be a believer in this world because Jesus Christ sets free, liberates you from your sin. And says for that, which the law could not do, the law which says you shall not steal, you go into a shop and you grab something, you can't stop with it.

That sin is unstoppable, even if you beat that person, whip them with a shambock, they will go back to the sin again. Because the sin of being like a pig is inside him. The satanic dog is inside you, that is why your behaving like a dog does not stop with you.

The New Nature Given by Christ

But if Christ Jesus indwells you, Even if sin is put right in front of you, you can resist it. For you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Even if you have a new law, a new nature inside you. Take a chicken, take its little chicks, see if they go into a water, even if the water is closed, they are not tempted to swim because by instinct, it is not like a duck who loves water.

Now the Spirit that agrees with that is the Spirit of God. But the Spirit or the person who rejects this truth is the Spirit of the Antichrist, for they live in sin. For I have said that the Spirit of the Antichrist replaces, substitutes itself for Jesus Christ.

I do not know whether this is understandable to you or not. You answer me. You tell me. Is it understandable? It should not trouble you. You can leave. Even if Satan tempts you, even if he comes with your old sins, that is no trouble for you because the one who indwells you is greater than him.

Shall we pray? We thank you Lord for this great mystery of the Gospel and this great work which you did which we remember at Christmas. Liberating us from sin and death. Washing us. Snow white in the blood of the Lamb, the spotless blood of the Lamb.

Amen.