Well, good evening everyone.
I'm thankful for our pastor and for him. Traveling and preaching
to our brethren afar. And I was thinking today as as. Preparing to try to bring the
message. The labor that is involved each
time you try to stand here. To preach and I don't know how
these men do it. And I'm so thankful for them.
And it's a good thing, I guess, to do this on occasion, if nothing
but to remind me, myself, how my pastor needs our prayers,
needs my prayer, needs our support, because we're dealing with the
souls of men and the worship of the Holy God. And anyway,
I'm glad that our pastor was able to rest this evening, but
he's back at it Wednesday night. I'll be sitting right there. So tonight, I want to begin by giving you two terms in the scripture
that describe our Lord Jesus Christ. There are two terms that
are found frequently. And one is that he is the son
of God. And the other is that he is the
son of man. Now I know before that I have
spoke of this, but it has helped me so much in reading the scripture
and even approaching him, of understanding these terms and
what they mean, what they tell us. So when the scripture speaks
of our Lord Jesus Christ being the son of God, it is speaking
of him being in the likeness of God, the image of God, being
God. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Son of God, is God. And then also, in the same manner,
when it speaks of Him being the Son of Man, He is in the likeness
of man. He is in the image of man. He
is a man. So, those two terms are found
frequently, and for me, understanding those, when I read the scripture,
helps me to understand him as the Lord would have me to understand
him from his word. When I look at the son of God,
the image of God, the being of God, he is too big for me. He's too big. I remember 25 years
ago, probably in my late 20s, early 30s, sitting in a doctor's
office or a dentist's office. And there they have the magazines.
Well, there was, I suppose, a scientific magazine that I had picked up
and was reading. And there was an article there
on our universe about the vastness and the wonders of our universe. And to be honest with you, there
was much there that, in my mind, I didn't understand. The words,
the science, I'm too small for that. But there was some things
that I understood, or at least seen, that caused me to literally
tremble. When it spoke of our own galaxy,
our Milky Way, There's over 100 billion stars, 100 billion stars
in our galaxy. This one single galaxy that we
see at night, the Milky Way, 100 billion stars. But in our universe, there's
over 2 trillion galaxies. I read that. And I thought, our
God created that. It's too much for me. It's too
big for me. It caused me great anxiety just
to think of the vastness of that. Yet, that universe is finite. It's limited. There's a certain
number of stars and no more. In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth. He said, let there be and there
was. That's too big for me. And then when I think about eternity,
now we're talking about infinity. There's no beginning. and there's
no end. And if you, like me, have said
and thought that, and it's overwhelming, it's too much. It's too much
for me. Psalm 92 says, before the mountains
were brought forth, wherever thou hast formed the earth and
the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Our God is an eternal God. That's too big for me. I can't
approach that. I can't conceive that. It's too
much. And in my own conscience, I know
from Romans chapter one, it says that God is manifest for God
hath showed it unto us. That is, for the invisible things
of him, the invisible things of God from the creation of the
world are clearly seen. We see all these things being
understood by the things are made, the worlds and the heavens,
even his eternal power. and Godhead, so they are without
excuse. And what that is telling us that
we know by his creation, we know that there is a God and we know
of his some idea as far in the universe of great power. But when I look at these things,
when I look at eternity, and I look at the creation, and I
look at the things that I see, God is too big for me. But also, not only is God too
big for me, he's too holy for me. In my own conscience, I'm condemned. And as an example in the scripture,
Cain found that God was too holy when he brought before him the
works of his hands. And then likewise, the children
of Israel, when they were in the desert, Moses told the people
that God will make a covenant with you. And they said, yeah,
yeah, we'll make a covenant with God. Whatever he tells us to
do, that we'll do. God come down on Mount Sinai
and he brought his holy law and the mountains shook and quaked
and there was smoke and there was lightning and the people
said, they said to Moses, Moses speak thou to us and we will
hear but let not God speak with us lest we die. God is holy. And Gabe touched on it this morning. There was a man in the Old Testament
named Uzzah. And when that arc shifted and
that arc moved, he touched it. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Uzzah. God became angry. God became
mad. angry because Uzzah touched that
ark. In that ark was God's holy law. And that unclean man touched
that which is holy. God is too holy for me. My own conscience bears witness
against me. There has been times in my life
that I have been too ashamed to lay my head on my pillow with
my face facing heaven because my own conscience bothered me. God is holy. Not only am I condemned in my
conscience, but I am condemned by his law. And by his word,
how then can we get to God? We are separated from God. Without him, we have no life. We can't. We cannot get to God. He must get to us. He must come down. We cannot go up. He must come down. John 1, 1. In the beginning was the word.
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, all things
were made by Him. Verse 14, and the Word, God,
was made flesh and dwelt among us. He came down. He came down. and was born a
man. Therefore, we have the Lord Jesus
Christ, who is the Son of Man. Turn with me, if you will, to
Hebrews chapter 2. And there's several passages
here I want us to look at and briefly comment on. In Hebrews chapter 2, in verse
9, we see that we see Jesus. We see our Lord
Jesus Christ who was made a little lower than the angels. He came down. In verse 14 it
says, for inasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same. God became a man. Verse 16, for verily he took
not on himself, on him the nature of angels, but he took on him
the seed of Abraham. He, our God, took on the seed
of a man. And in verse 17, wherefore, in
all things, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God. He was made like unto his brethren. He was made like me and you. Not only did he come down, but
he came way down. In his birth, he was born in
a place called Bethlehem. And in Micah 2, it speaks of,
or Micah 5, it speaks of Bethlehem being the least of all of Judah. So in his place of birth, he
was born in the least of places. And not only was he born in the
least of places, but he was born into poverty. Our Lord, our God,
was born in the poverty. If you look at the Old Testament
Levitical law, when a woman gave birth to her firstborn, then
she had to go after a certain period and provide a sacrifice. And that sacrifice, it said in
Leviticus, that she bring forth a lamb and a turtle dove or a
pigeon But if she be not able to bring a lamb, then she shall
bring two turtledoves or two young pigeons. When Mary, the
mother of our Lord, went to give her sacrifice, she came to offer
a sacrifice according to that which was said in the law of
the Lord, a pair of turtledoves. She could not afford a lamb. Our Lord was born in poverty. And not only was he born in poverty,
but he was born in a manger. He was born in a place where
no man would be born. He took on himself the lowest
state that he could take. Not only was he born in a manger,
but he was raised in a place called Nazareth. And when Philip
went to his brother, Nathaniel, to tell him, we have found the
Messiah, he said, we have found Jesus of Nazareth. And this man
is the Messiah that Moses spoke of. And Nathaniel said, can there
be any good thing come out of Nazareth? Our Lord was born,
was raised in the worst of places. of the lowest estate. He said of himself in Matthew
chapter eight, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air
have nests, but the son of man hath not where to lay his head. He was completely in the lowest state that he could
be. And then Paul said this of him. He made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant. Do you know what a
servant is? A servant is a slave. He took
on himself the form of a slave, the form of a bondservant, and
was made in the likeness of man. Son of man. This is someone that
is approachable. He came down and in his poverty
and from his beginnings on this earth, all of those things were
purposed by him who created all things that sinners that the
worst of men, that any man could approach him. He who is unapproachable
came down that we could approach him. He brought himself way down so
he could identify with us. Now, if you will, turn to Isaiah
53. Now I'm gonna read the first two verses. Who hath believed
our report? And that report is the gospel.
And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? That is our Lord
Jesus Christ. For he shall grow up before him
a tender plant, and as a root out of dry ground, He hath no
form nor comeliness, and when we shall see him, there shall
be no beauty that we should desire him. That's what we have just
talked about, how he has come down. He is despised and rejected
of men. Verse three, and look at what
it says, amen. A man. Our God came down and
became a man. He is a man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. A man of sorrows. Did he live his life sorrowful? And I didn't have time to write,
I don't have time to go through all of the different verses.
But there's so many verses in the Psalms that speaks, happy
is the man who's God, who's the Lord. And happy is the man that,
and all of those things identified with him. A man of sorrows, did
he live a life as a man of sorrows? He lived a life in perfect union
with his father. He lived a life of perfect faith
without ever wavering or worrying about anything. Our Lord Jesus
Christ never ever once worried, once. He lived a life of perfect
union. He was a happy man in this life. What of this sorrow? Read with
me in verse four. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Our Lord came down, not only
to the earth, And he came all the way down to hell itself when
he took on himself our sins and our grief and our sorrow. We won't turn for the sake of
time, but I want so bad to convey this. When David committed sin,
when he committed adultery with Bathsheba, and when he murdered
Uriah, her husband, he was confronted with Nathan the prophet. And
in Psalm 51, He cries. It's a psalm of mourning for
sin. It is a psalm of sorrow and of
acknowledgement of David's sin. He said, I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. He felt grief for what he had
done. And oh, what sorrow. Imagine yourself having done
such a terrible thing and how you would feel. Remember when
you have been convicted of sin and the sorrow that you have
felt for the things in your life. Remember your sorrow. Remember
your grief. That sorrow and that grief is
the very sorrow and the very grief that he suffered. In our text, we read for both
he that is sanctified and they who are sanctified are all of
one. And that's verse 11, Hebrews
chapter two, verse 11. Both he that is sanctified and
they who are sanctified are all one. When our Lord suffered on
that cross, when our Lord took the sorrows and the griefs, it
was the griefs and sorrows of his people. The very darkness that his people
experienced became his darkness. My darkness became his darkness. My grief became his grief. On that cross, he came down. Not only has he
identified himself in the lowest state, but he has identified
himself with me. And you who believe on the son
of God in your lowest state, he was a real substitute for
his people. That is why, that is why we can
have peace with God. We can have real peace with God
because the sins of his people, the sorrows of his people, and
the griefs of his people were laid on him. One more verse, Lamentations
112. Lamentations chapter one. Verse twelve. Is it nothing to you? All you
that pass by. And this is our Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross. Behold and see if there be any
sorrow lock into my sorrow. which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord has afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger."
That anger in which the Lord struck his son was that very
anger that God had for me and God had against you. God was
angry with you. God was angry with me, but all
his anger that he had toward you and toward me, he took it out on his own son
that we would not have to suffer that wrath. And because he came
down, the report that we have is the very message
that the Apostle Paul opens almost every one of his epistles with.
And he begins his letters to the saints, to his beloved abroad
this way. He says, grace, mercy, and peace
from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Our God, our Lord
became a man God in our place, put away our sin and make peace
with God on our behalf. Amen.