His Majestic Birth — Leonard Ravenhill

The Mystery of the Incarnation and the Gift of Christ

Father, we have made an expression in this lovely hymn. O come, let us adore him. We hardly know how to do it. If we took the shoes from off our feet, it might be a sign of our respect and reverence, even for this house.

But we would do more than that. We would dismantle our thinking of any other thing, and we would stay our minds on this blessed, wonderful event. I think of Paul with his colossal mind and his tremendous spirituality, and even he said, thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift.

And if he couldn't express it, it seems almost vanity for us to attempt. And yet there's more to this than words. Your word says that God is a spirit, and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

And we come to do this, this Sabbath afternoon. We look back over the year that has fled from us so quickly. Most of us would say there have been some very dry spots in it. Sometimes the road has been terribly steep and uphill and the load has been heavy.

Sometimes there have been great shadows in our skies. Sometimes we felt particularly lonely, or at times we felt delighted and enriched and quickened. But we thank you that in every changing scene of life you have been with us.

And as the hymn writer says, his love in time past forbids me to think he'd leave me at last in trouble to sink, while each Ebenezer we hold in review confirms his good pleasure to see us right through.

We pray Lord that this word will quicken our hearts this afternoon, that whatever we get out of it we pray that you'll get more out of it because it rings the bells of adoration and praise and thanksgiving and worship in that part of our being which we ourselves have never seen and which we ourselves cannot understand and which nobody else can see in us but you see it.

We thank you for the light you've given us. Again we know not, we know not why there are millions in this beloved country who are still in heathen darkness and it pleased you to bring us out of darkness into his most marvellous light.

To turn us from the captivity of Satan and sin into the freedom of the sons of God. And we remember that your word says that even now we are the sons of God. And we know Lord that however big our cup is this afternoon you can fill it as we've already sung.

That if there's some shade you can enlighten us in it, if there's some weakness may this word strengthen us. If there's some disappointment may it bring encouragement. If there's a situation that seems hopeless may it bring hope and strength and grace to us.

We do remember, we must remember, we will remember the millions who still sit in darkness two thousand years after light came. They've never heard the name that is above every name. They've never thrilled to the wonder of redemption.

Somehow nobody loved them enough to go find them. Cared enough to lay down their lives for that particular area. And as we read reports it seems the world is quickly becoming a prison house of captivity.

That men are not getting more free, they're getting more and more into bondage. And Lord there's only one answer that we can see and that is a great outpouring of your divine spirit. We thank you for the Holy Spirit who wrote this word and we pray Lord that he'll break this bread to us this afternoon that we may eat and be strengthened and quickened and rejoice in thee.

Just remember brother John and ask you to bless him as he recovers from his surgery. Remember that brother Oscar Thompson who's been on many of our hearts and pray you'll quicken his body too. And others who at this time are feeling bodily weariness or weakness or sickness that the spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead will quicken their mortal bodies.

The Waning Authority of Christ in the Church

And we'll give you thanks in these things in Jesus name. In the latter years of his life Dr. Tozer had an increasing burden for what he called the waning authority of Christ in his church. That while the church may seem to increase numerically she is weakening the authority in the church he said is weakening.

And if the authority in the church is weakening the interest in the church it seems to me in the world is waning. Or if you like to put it this way Christ's authority in the church is waning. The interest in Christ in the world is weakening is lessening.

And this is one of those periods in life where I get tremendously disturbed by the fact that we're more and more submerged. The Christian testimony is getting less and less effective even in our own land in many ways.

We're submerged right now under what I call trees and tinsel and toys and trivia. And it's unfortunate that millions of children know more about the red-nosed reindeer or the red-coated fat man than they know about the gospel of the grace of God.

And I want us to think this afternoon about the wonder of this event. We sang this very beautiful I don't know which is the best Christmas carol but I like this lovely lovely song that says oh come let us adore him.

And I choked up I confess got some tears when we when we sang that verse veiled in flesh the Godhead see. You see because lots of people are going to an artificial crib like those original visitors to that crib.

And all they'll see is the manger not the majesty. The first men that went were conscious of the dung it smelled. They were more conscious of the dung than of the deity that was there. They were more conscious of the straw than there was of his sovereign majesty that was lying there in a manger.

That beautiful expression of Charles Wesley's in that hymn Heart the Herald Angels Sing in which he says mild he laid his glory by born that man no more may die. In another expression he says he deigned in flesh to appear widest extremes to join to bring our vileness near and make us all divine.

And then he uses this phrase he says he wrapped him in our clay. If I were to say to you this afternoon listen I have made a discovery that has never been made in history. It is beyond the realm of science, psychology, any science, any human science.

But I particularly have this one revelation. I'm going to share it with a handful of people this afternoon. I'm going to explain to you how the infinite became an infant. Would you believe me? There's no way of explaining how the infinite became an infant.

There's no way of explaining how the one the high and lofty one who inhabited eternity how he was compressed into the matrix of the virgin. He lived in eternal light and he shut up in the tiny womb of a woman.

I don't know when he was conscious if he was conscious there or what. It is mystery. I think if the apostle Paul had given us an account of the birth of Jesus I'm making a guess of course but I think he would have started it.

He loved to start so often in these wonderful things of the spirit. Behold I show you a mystery. Have you ever wondered if the angels cried all the way back to heaven? Huh? They came singing. No they didn't.

Angels don't sing. They came shouting glory to God in the highest. And then they went back to heaven. I took a little time to thank the Father. Not the Son, not the Holy Spirit. I took a little time to thank the Father this afternoon for loaning Jesus to the world for thirty years.

He must have been awfully awfully awfully lonely. We had our boy home for the other day as you know. He's in Belgium today and as I thought of him this morning I felt a tug at my heart strings I confess.

Oh he said we'll try and come next year but we may we may get a five year contract. And I thought well that would be a long while. Of course we've missed some of them as long, longer than that. And then I thought to myself I don't think God had anybody in heaven to talk to.

His Son had come to earth. For thirty years heaven was empty. And for thirty years God watched them kick his Son around, spit on him. Kick him out of the synagogue, abuse him. Again this is the greatest sweep.

The greatest sweep isn't beyond the farthest star to earth. The greatest distance cannot be measured but if it could it would be between the holiness of God and the sinfulness of man. And what did he do?

He deigned in flesh to appear widest extremes to join to bring our vileness near and make us all divine. Listen if you're not divine now you won't be one minute after you die. One of the great things John Ludd, notice how many times he says he's got a bit older when he writes his letters you know.

And when he gets into his letters do you know how many times he says we know, we know, we know. So we stand awed. We stand before the greatest gift that could ever be given to the world. In a verse I think I've only preached on once.

Dr. Tozer told me he never preached on it. He said there's one verse in the Bible too big for me. One that every Tom Dick and Harry evangelist the first time he gets up he spots a lot of stuff he spews it all back.

John 3 .16 God so loved the world. And he says Rayden I didn't touch that text. You know some people rush in where angels would fear to tread. Little guy comes in and says I don't want to tell you this I've read this in four versions I happen to have the 24 versions right here.

And he starts exposifying or whatever he calls it on this and he does nothing about it. Oh the apostle with his colossal intellect says you know you can almost hear him groaning in his face and he says oh the depth of the righteous of the love of God.

This little two before preacher that got his diploma a week ago comes out and says well I'm going to preach to you tonight on John 3 .16 and the only way even that the divine mind could reveal it that God saw.

How do you explain saw? If your boy asks you what a saw is what would you say? You might tell him what a sow is. You might tell him how you saw seed but he says that little word saw what does it mean saw of the world?

Well it's so big and so high and so deep and so vast and so incomprehensible that God says settle for that he's saw of the world. Love so great, so high, so deep. And a poet said oh fairly recently maybe the last hundred years anyhow that's recent in time and he says love, love, love, love what does it do?

Love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives. Have you noticed when people love you they bring you a gift and as soon as they have a tip of something and something's wrong I'll tell you one thing you won't get a gift from them this year.

Why? Love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives. God so loved the world he gave his only begotten son Christ loved the church and gave himself for the church. And John says if we love we should give our life this is what love does, it gives.

Love ever stands with open hands and while it lives it gives. And this is love's prerogative to give and give and give. Well I don't made up my mind, I made up my mind I wouldn't preach when I came this afternoon just talk to you.

The Majesty of the Manger and the Condescension of Christ

But I get overwhelmed I say by the majesty of the manger by deity with wall to wall dung at the side of him by a building that had cobwebs for curtains and the sweat of the animals for heating central heating and it stunk of urine.

I saw one mystery I know every Christmas card you get why I saw one just the other day where the manger was there you know and the shepherds were there and there was a man with a broom cleaning it up.

Didn't need to do that all the animals in the stable had diapers on. You don't think they'd dare to make the droppings in the presence of the son of God do you? Or urinate or the bugs would come in or the animals would sweat.

Do you see our poor little puny minds? I think the reason he came to a stable because it was typical of the human heart it was typical of the lousy filthy world into which he came. There's a lovely song I'm not sure of this I think it was written in this country it was written by the grandson of the founder of the Salvation Army I met him once.

He is an eccentric old boy that's why I liked him and he played a violin like Yehudi Menuhin and there was a big concert up in Canada some years ago and it was a Christian thing and a lot of people there and they said now Miss So-and-so who is a I don't recall a mezzo-soprano or mezzo-soprano but she was to sing and they said she's going to sing that gorgeous song just made for her voice down from his glory.

Somebody watched the old boy shuffle from under the seat there and he walked up behind the stage and as soon as he struck up he stood behind and he played it through and did he play sure he did he wrote it didn't write the tune he wrote the words down from his glory ever living story from heaven to us he came.

And Jesus was his name born in a manger to his own estranger a man of sorrows tears and agony. Oh how I love him how I adore him. My breath my sunshine my all in all the great creator became my saviour and all God's fullness dwelleth in him.

What condescension.

He says bringing us redemption. When in the dead of night not one faint hope in sight. God gracious splendour. God gracious tender laid aside his splendour. Stooping to woo to win to save my soul. Love the world.

But keep in mind. Like dear old Rutherford said you can talk about all the miracles Jesus did. I want to tell you the greatest miracle he did was when he saved me. I don't know what was in you but I know what was in me.

I don't know the potential you had. I know what was in me. He saved me. And I believe this was the divine perpetual indestructible excitement in the heart of the apostle Paul because he says God loved the world.

Sure he loved the world. Christ loved the church. But he said listen there's something greater than loving the world and loving the church. He loved me and gave himself for me. Do you wonder that little guy couldn't keep his feet.

He went fiddling on his old violin and he's muttering it. He'd like to have sung it. Oh how I love it. How I adore it. My breath, my sunshine my all in all the great creator. He once hung the stars. Now he hangs on the breast of a woman.

He put every vein of silver in the world and every nugget of gold. And he came. The only man that intentionally came into the world. I remember one night in a street meeting where a man got pretty rough.

I held this street meeting about three years from ten o 'clock Saturday night. Not the meeting for three years though. You'd believe me I'm sure. But I held the meeting for every Saturday night for three years.

And the drunks and prostitutes came around. One night this man got wild. I want to tell you something. He said I didn't ask to come in this world. I said fell. You may not ask to go out either. Nobody asked to.

No. No no it was a prostitute. Doesn't make any difference in that sense. We didn't ask to come into the world. He did he did. And if you if you're the choice of coming in the world would you say let me be born on the level of poverty and never rise above that poverty.

Would you say. I would like to go in the world and embrace and absorb all the suffering of mankind. And yet he chose to come into the world. I'm making a guess here. I haven't read it. I get less and less interested in books.

Really there's some I'd like and please I hope Betty will get the books. Do read for your for your Christmas. Reading it's almost like reading the death sentence of the nation. But read Dave Wilkerson's new book Racing to Judgment.

It increased my burden. It's a tremendous book. No I'm not. I'm not too worried but I'm going to say this. I believe somewhere in eternity in the council chambers of eternity. You know it says there when God said let us make man.

That's a plurality in the Godhead the Father, Son and Holy. Let us make man. And Jesus says Father I know you're disappointed. You made a perfect world. You made a perfect man. He had no cracks in his mind in his emotions in his will in any area.

But he was perfect perfect, perfect. He was good. You made everything good. And you made man extremely good as the head of everything that was good. And he failed you he messed it up broke your laws. He's become a rebel.

And people say well men could never live and obey God perfectly. Would you let me go down and live that way Father I I'm willing to go. You know we've got so many things mechanized. Even in our theology.

We just think it went like that one, two, three that's all it. Father said you go down Son and carry that load. I don't think it was as easy as that. I noticed the other day on TV a boy said to a preacher well you know sometimes you make Christianity very hard.

He said. Well Son let me tell you two things. The man who says it's easy is one of two things. He's either a fool or a hypocrite. Oh he has many wonderful titles. Isaiah says his name should be called wonderful counsellor.

That's beautiful. Isn't it something very smooth lovely about it. Wonderful counsellor. The mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace. Yeah. But read a bit further down that remarkable 53rd chapter of Isaiah that bird's eye view of the cross 75 years before 750 years before Jesus died.

Remember what it says there he is a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief. And in his humiliation the judgement is taken away. There's a famous old Scottish preacher who said he never missed reading that once a week he needed it.

And if ever you feel your heart is getting hard and your judgements are being pretty brittle and critical. Well just remember the pit from which you were lifted. And I suggest you get on your knees. I like to read on my knees.

Do most of my well I pray on my knees. I do most of my studying on my knees. I think too. I enjoy it. It crowds the world out. I keep my eyes closed. I concentrate meditate. Behold I show you a mystery.

He laid his glory by the glory he had with the Father before the world. Was you know in the in the tabernacle of old. In the temple of old rather pardon me there were 9 gates of entrance. There were 9 doors of entrance.

There were 12 gates to the city. There were 9 doors of entrance into the into the tabernacle. We've got 3 doors of entrance in ours. We missed one somewhere. There are 4 doors of entry in discovering the majesty of Jesus.

They're called Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. And I trust you'll give some time to reading each one of these separate introductions. After all Matthew begins and he introduces Jesus along 2 lines the book of the generation of Jesus Christ the son of David which is the royal line.

And he's the son of Abraham the priestly line that you need to read into the 2nd chapter. You know we hear a lot about planned parenthood these days. I want to tell you something. This is the most planned baby that ever came in history.

I can prove that to you pretty easily because it says in verse 5 of the 2nd chapter they said unto him in Bethlehem of Judah. This is where Christ should be born. The last part of verse 4 says he demanded of them where Christ should be born.

They said unto him in Bethlehem of Judah. For thus it is written by the prophet and thou Bethlehem in the land of Judah art not the least among the princes of Judah. All that right that comes from the prophecy of Micah.

And then you get to verse 15. He was there until the death of Herod that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet saying out of Egypt have I called my son. That's the prophecy of Hosea.

And then it tells you very carefully in the 17th verse then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah or Jeremiah the prophet in Ramah. There's a voice heard lamentations and weeping and great mourning.

Rachel weeping for her children and she would not be comforted because they're not. And so you have 3 prophecies there the prophecy from Micah the prophecy from Hosea and the prophecy from Jeremiah. And then it says at the last verse of that chapter he came and dwelt in a city called Nazareth that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.

Not one not to a whole bunch of prophets said he should be called a Nazarene. You know there's a sect called a Nazarene. They like that they like that he was called a Nazarene. They say he's the first Nazarene.

But there you have all the converging prophecies. If you get a big good map of the United States you'll notice here that all the roads come up here. They come up through these valleys you know. And they come down here through the Allegheny mountains and they all stop on one spot a spot called New York.

And then you'll notice black lines going up here and it says this is the sea lane as it's called. There's no fences up but it's a sea lane and it goes up there to Newfoundland or it goes up to Greenland and down here.

How many miles to Cape Town. How many to England. So what happens. All the roads lead to New York. All the seaways lead out of New York. All the prophecies that we've mentioned here they terminate at Bethlehem.

And all the New Testament prophecies come out of Bethlehem. You see the old testimonies are there. The old prophecies. We had a teacher that was always drilling into our minds or trying to drill into our minds about the old scriptures that the Old Testament the new is in the old concealed and the old is by the new revealed.

Well the emphasis that is given here actually is that the four different entrances as I say into this revelation of the Lord Jesus in what the theologians call his incarnation you hear people say sometimes he's carnal.

Carnal means flesh. The incarnation is coming in the flesh. He was with the father before the world began. And now he comes in flesh. He deigned in flesh to appear the widest extremes to join. So he's introduced by Matthew.

Really he's introduced as a king. The emphasis of Matthew is to show us the kingliness of the Lord Jesus. And so you pass through those prophecies and you come to realize that this babe as he's later described to us is prophesied from so many angles.

Now in Mark we're introduced immediately to John Baptist. In Luke we're introduced to John Baptist but with an emphasis on his parentage his godly mother his priestly father. That's a that's a a great study.

But read Luke he's better. You know I don't wonder that John Baptist was such a marvelous man. Do you know what he had. A spirit filled pastor. Isn't that something. That's what it says. His pastor was filled with the Holy Ghost.

And then it says his mother was filled with the Holy Ghost. And then it says his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. And this may raise a theological problem to you. But the very day he was born he was filled with the Holy Ghost.

And I have an idea that he didn't speak in tongues the first day he was born but he was filled with the Holy Ghost. Now you come to the version that's presented by John. And John gives us an entirely different picture.

John's Gospel and the Word Made Flesh

He says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Oh well take the first verse and I'm not going to stay with it. But just that first verse is so fantastic. In the beginning see it doesn't ask you if you believe in the beginning it just says it.

It just states a fact. Like later in a minute we look at Hebrews 1 and Hebrews 1 1 begins God who at sundry time doesn't ask you if you believe in him doesn't ask you if you believe that somewhere mysteriously God had neither father nor mother.

He has no beginning no ending. How do you understand. You're not asked to understand it. You're asked to accept it. There's a reach of faith. But isn't this sublime. This first verse in the beginning was the word.

The scholars will tell you that that is the Logos. Jesus is described in his pre -incarnation as the Logos that is his name in his pre -incarnation days. And afterwards the word became flesh. He becomes the sun.

In the beginning was the word beautiful. The word was with God marvellous. The word was God. Beyond my comprehension alright in the beginning eternity. The word was with God equality. The word was God deity.

And then you skip the next 12 verses. And you come down to verse 14 and there are 3 3 more things about him.

Remember in the first verse there are 3. In the beginning was the word number 1 the word was with God number 2 and the word was God number 3. Now verse 14 and the word was made flesh. Isn't that something.

And dwelt among us. Isn't that marvellous. And then there is a parenthesis. Again we beheld his glory the glory of the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth. Wow isn't that beautiful. The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

Do you know that word there really is. The word there really is. The word was made flesh and he he tabernacled with us.

The tabernacle in the old testament you remember originally it had no floor. Why. Because they were moving people. And we never ought to stay still. God expects his people to be on the move. And you know what.

It had no windows and it had no steps. So if he were in a hurry he wouldn't fall over the steps or fall coming out in the dark or something. And it had no windows. And it says here the word was made flesh and he tabernacled.

One old preacher says he pitched his tent at the side of mine. That's why I knew him. Isn't that lovely. Because he comes right down to where I live. And it says that Jesus had nerves and sinews and emotions and he got hurt and pushed around and hungry and weary and all the rest of it.

How do you know. Because it says in Hebrews that he was touched with the feelings of our infirmities. He wasn't standing on a pedestal waving a traffic going to go that way for liberty and that way for blessing.

He embraced everything that we have. He wasn't a special edition from heaven except for the fact that he had not no sin in the way that we know sin the word he was the word he was made flesh and he dwelt among us.

John. We don't know when John wrote this but I'll tell you what. I'm sure he was an old man when he wrote it. And you know what. When he when he mentions that miracle of being on the mount with Jesus when Jesus was transfigured John was there but he never put his name on the special list.

You and I would have done that. We were with the VIPs. Only three of us there. Peter, James I was there. But you all know now there's no swagger staggering around. No he doesn't say that. And you know what he's doing here.

I'm sure that he's referring to it here when he says that the word was made flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory. Hallelujah. He doesn't even try to describe it. He says all you can do is behold it.

You hold your breath. Do you wonder they fell down and worshipped him. Do you wonder they were overcome. I don't believe God turned the spotlight out of heaven onto his son there. I believe that when he was shut up in with the father there the glory he had with the father before the world was shunned out of him.

It was his indwelling purity his indwelling holiness the majesty of his person that even though he lived in a dirty world it never stained him it never contaminated him it never corrupted him. In our language he kept on course the whole of the way.

So that's John's interpretation for us. Here's another one that I think is more sublime than any of them. Listen to it. God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken unto us.

How? By his son whom he hath appointed heir of all things by whom also God's very sure we get this. And he says he was with me when I made the world. Don't you start saying he was just just had a different emphasis.

Like some people say well he was a bit more of a prophet than anybody else. No no no that's not what the scripture says. He's appointed heir of all things by whom also now now now listen. Can you comprehend this?

And he says this is my son who being the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person upholding all things by the word of his power when he had by himself purged our sins sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high hallelujah the majesty that he laid aside.

And the father says I'm not going to let you forget that. I'm not going to let you forget. He sat with me when we made the world when we found the stars when we ordered the solar system when we created all the different things he was there.

Doesn't it say that in Proverbs chapter 8 I was with him in days of happiness at the right hand of the father. That's what it says God. I like that. I got a kick out of that. He doesn't ask any reason about it.

He just says frankly God like you begin Genesis in the beginning God created. Well right here the apostle says God who at sundry times at different periods in history and in divers manners. My there were some great people.

And you know so often we say about Jesus. And it's right. And it's beautiful. Do you know what he is. He's king of kings. And he's lord of lords. Right. Do you know what else he is. He's prophet of prophets.

Why. Because it says here that God who at sundry times in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets. Do you know from Moses here to Malachi there you have roughly a thousand years. And think of all the prophets.

The school men have divided them up. I don't know how they were brazen enough to do it. They talk about the major prophets and the minor. Some of those minor prophets have major utterances. But they didn't live very long.

And they didn't write very much. And so you have Hosea and Malachi and the others. And we call them minor prophets. God spake to us. He says in divers manners by the fathers to the fathers by the prophets.

How else did he speak. Oh he spoke about through some mysterious things called Urim and Thummim. You better see if you have a book on that Urim and Thummim. He spoke by prophets. He spoke by visions. He spoke by judgements.

He spoke by captivities. And you go to the manger. And somebody says well isn't that nice kiddies laugh. They don't know any better. It's not their fault. Bless them. They're innocent enough. And you just say there's a little fella called Jesus you know.

Well come on. We've got to go shopping go see us. It'll be closed in ten minutes all in the same breath. Almost deity and depravity. The little fella lying there was with the father before the world was before the stars sang together on the trees of the field to clap their hands.

Do you know why they didn't do it. Because they weren't there anyhow. It's before they hung the stars up. It's before there weren't any trees to clap their hands. Before there were any angels to adore him and magnify him.

And that little babe there do you know what he's doing. He's speaking to us. What is he speaking about. Oh well he speaks about the majesty of God. But God in all his majesty. You know Paul gets a bit stirring when he says immortal, invisible.

Who alone art immortality. The hymn writer says immortal, invisible God only, wise enlightened, accessible. Hid from our eyes. What is it. Something. I've forgotten it so long since we sang it. It finishes up.

We wither and perish but not change a thing. You know we don't really do much praising. Do we. We'll have to find a tune. I thought of it and then I forgot it. But you know it's a good one since we sang the doxology.

Isn't it. Do you know when it was written. Do you know who wrote it. Well of course you'd guess an Englishman. It was written about 1615 1638. It was written 100 years before John Wesley got saved. What is it.

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Do you know the first verse of the hymn. Beautiful. Well think of it. In the morning awake my soul and with the sun thy daily stage of duty run shake off those sloth and joyful rise to pay thy morning's sacrifice.

Well that's beautiful. The last stanza again praise God from whom all blessings flow. I was trying to think of the stanza before that. It doesn't come to my mind. But you see those men knew something.