John chapter one. I wish that
we had the ability to focus and a desire from God so that we
would have no limit to our ability to hear his word. Not because
I have so much that needs to be heard, but because the gospel
is so big. It's just so much that we can
never really exhaust it. And I think that the people in
the New Testament time were just constantly wanting more and more. The more they heard, the more
they wanted to hear. And so I pray that God would give us that grace.
The text of scripture that Brad just read to us from Hebrews
chapter 2 and really just about everywhere we turn in the New
Testament has to do with what we're going to look at today
in the Gospel of John. And I've entitled today's message,
The Word Was Made Flesh. The Word Was Made Flesh. So I
want to read with you the text of scripture today from verse
14 through verse 18 in John chapter 1. It says, and the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. The word, of course, is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God. He's called the word
here because all of God's mind is thinking and the expression
of his mind, the accomplishment of his will, all are in the Lord
Jesus Christ. So the word was made flesh and
dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the
only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Full of grace and truth. Verse
15, John, John the Baptist, bear witness of him and cried saying,
this was he of whom I spake. He that cometh after me is preferred
before me, for he was before me. John the Baptist was born
six months earlier than the Lord Jesus Christ, yet he says, the
Lord Jesus, the word of God was before him. Clearly, all of these
verses in the first chapter of John are meant to teach us that
Jesus Christ is God, that he is the second person of the Trinity,
the Son of God called the Word. So John, in saying that he was
preferred before me and was before me is underscoring that fact.
Verse 16, and of his fullness have all we received and grace
for grace. There's no possibility that could
be spoken of a man, not a mere man. but of his fullness, meaning
the fullness of the word, the Lord Jesus Christ, have we all
received and grace for grace. Verse 17, for the law was given
by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. No man
has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he has declared him. Okay, this text of scripture,
like many things we've read in John chapter one, is not difficult
to read. The words aren't difficult, but
the understanding of them is. And as long as I have been hearing
God's word, these words here in John one, verse 14, and what
follows have presented a great amount of truth that is not possible
to fully comprehend by human minds. And yet it's declared
to us, and this is God's grace to us, that what he says is truth,
we believe him. We therefore believe what he
said, and we therefore understand things that can only be known
by revelation. And that's the scripture. Scripture
is the revelation of God. And it tells us about the one
who is the word. And when God tells us about him,
when the scripture reveals him, this is God revealing himself. This is God speaking, he speaks
his son, the eternal word. He's uncreated, yet he created
all things. That's only possible to create
all things if you yourself aren't created, besides the fact that
it takes almighty power to create anything. No one can create but
God. And he was in the beginning.
Whenever the beginning began, he was already there. And it
says in Proverbs 8, verse 30, that he was with him daily his
delights. So the Lord Jesus Christ, the
eternal word, was daily, meaning forever, at all times, the delight
of God the Father. So it is helpful for us to understand
verse 14, where it says, the word was made flesh, if we think
about what the word was before and after he was made flesh.
What was he before? The Word of God before he was
made flesh. What was he? Well, we see in
verse one, he was God. The Word in the beginning was
the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. So he was
God. And when we talk about God, we're
to understand that he is holy, holy, holy. He says in scripture, God is
light, the unapproachable light. He clothes himself with light.
He can't be seen because of his holiness, his character. By men,
he can't be seen. And besides the fact that he's
invisible, he's a spirit. But when we think about the character,
the nature of God, he is infinite in his purity and in his light. and in his truth, in his holiness,
his character, his righteousness. He's all wise, he knows all things
at all times, nothing is hid from his eye. And yet we cannot
begin to know him. He has to make himself known
and that's a condescension we can't comprehend. But in the
beginning, the word was God and with God. And the emphasis here
is on the nearness and the intimacy and the delight between God the
Father and God the Son from all eternity. There was never a moment
from everlasting ages without beginning. when God the Father
was not pleased, utterly delighted and satisfied with His Son, the
One who is pure, light, holy, holy, holy, looking upon His
Son and His Son looking upon His Father, if looking is even
the right term, face to face. There was not a moment when the
Father and the Son were not utterly delighted and satisfied and pleased
in a bond of nature and will and purpose and character with
one another. That nearness between God the
Father and God the Son is called one in scripture. Jesus said,
I and the Father are one. I and my Father are one. Now
when we think about our nearest relation, we get some idea of
what this means, but not really. But we need to think about it
this way. Sometimes we have friends on earth we're very, very near
to. And that is a great blessing,
isn't it? To have people that you're so close to, that you
feel comfortable with them. You delight to have to be with
them and to listen to them, to look at them, to experience things
with them, to recall things and to plan and to talk about the
things you like and to talk about the things you like about them
and to hear what they have to say. The nearness of our friendship
as some brings to our appreciation the nearness between God the
Father and God the Son. Someone you're utterly delighted
with on earth. And yet there's always, even
in the nearest relations on earth, a taint. some sullied part of
that relationship where you want to disclose yourself or you want
to understand that person, you want to experience everything
together in the ultimate sense and yet there's always some part
where you feel like you couldn't actually achieve that. So the
friendship we have with our friends, maybe only one person on earth
we've ever experienced, maybe the relationship between a father
and his son, or between a son or a daughter and her mother,
or between a husband and the wife of his bosom, or even between
a man's own soul and his body. The nearness and the intimacy
of those relations only give us a dark shadow of the relationship
between God the Father and God the Son. Such a friendship, if
you could use that word. Such a unabated, unrestricted
intimacy of knowledge and appreciation and admiration of one for the
other without any degree of disappointment, the almighty, infinite mind of
God, who searches out everything and sees every fault that could
possibly be seen from all eternity, found nothing wrong with his
son before he came into the world. And what was it like after he
came? because this helps us to understand what happened here
in this verse. The word was made flesh. Well,
we read in scripture that he was made, he was born of a woman. He was born, the created. I mean, the uncreated creator
of all things, the infinite God who fills heaven and earth, which
cannot contain him. and made all things by the power
of his word, he himself came into the world, was born of a
woman." Meaning he was born as a man. And he was made under
the law. That means he subjected himself
to the obedience God required of men. So he became obligated for obedience
as a man, and he became a servant. It says in Philippians chapter
two, he who was equal with God did not consider it robbery to
be equal with God, but he made himself of no reputation. So
the one who was with God from eternity, utterly his delight
at all times, in the intimacy, the bond of the same nature,
And the same mind, one in mind and will and purpose and heart
and delight. Holy, holy, holy, that one was
made a man. He came, he stooped, he made
himself of no reputation. He became a man and yet he remained
God. God cannot change, he's infinite. So when he took on our nature,
it was a great stoop. He didn't change as God. He remained
God, a very God. He was just as much God after
he became flesh as he was before he became flesh. And so in Philippians
2, we see this great stoop. He who is equal with God made
himself of no reputation. It was a willing stoop of condescension,
and it had a purpose, and that stoop not only led him to become
a man, and as a man serve, but it led him to obey God, and obey
for a real reason, to fulfill that will of God which was in
his heart from everlasting. He knew the will of God, he loved
the will of God, and he came to fulfill it. But when he came,
he not only was a man and a servant, But he says in scripture that
he was a man of sorrows, a man who experienced grief, a man
who was despised and rejected of men, who was abandoned of
men, who was treated as one we hid our faces from, didn't want
to see him. We did not like to retain God
in our knowledge, and we hid our face from the Son of God
when he came. We did not know him. John the Baptist even says
in verse 31 and 33 of the same chapter, I did not know him,
but he that sent me said to me, on whom you see the Spirit ascending,
that's the one. He's the Lamb of God. And so
we didn't know him. We rejected him, we abandoned
him, we despised him, we hid our faces from him, we reproached
him. Job said that when he talked
to his three friends came to him and they were telling him
about all of his sufferings and what caused his sufferings, he
said, my servants, I would not even set your children over my
dogs. And here you are reproaching
me. And the Lord Jesus in scripture says, he was the song of the
drunkards. He stooped so low, the word was made flesh. The
eternal, unsullied, holy, holy, holy, eternal son of God, the
word of God, the mind of God, utterly pleasing at all times
from everlasting to the Father, the Father's love of his heart.
That one was stooped. He stooped. God sent his son. This was the will of God. The
word was made flesh. Now that helps us to understand
a little bit of it, what the scripture says about before and
after he came. The word was made flesh. The
word for flesh here is a low word. It's not an honorable word. It's a word that means a human
nature. And in a way that has a low esteem
associated with it. In Romans chapter 8 and verse
3, it says that what the law could not do in
that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son
in the likeness of sinful flesh. That's the stoop. God gave a law, but by no way
could any man keep the law in order to establish his own righteousness
before God and God would justify him and therefore reward him
with life. There was no law given like that. And so then God sent
his son, the eternal word, and he became flesh in order that
he might fulfill the law. So we see something here. about
not only the great condescension, but the purpose for which the
Lord Jesus Christ came into the world. This is mind boggling,
isn't it? This is amazing. What we read
about in scripture, let me help you by referring back to Hebrews
chapter two, which Brad read for us, and to summarize what
this chapter is talking about, so that we can see, we can gain
some appreciation by the assistance, by the enabling grace of the
Spirit of God to understand to understand and be persuaded of
what the truth God is revealing here in his word is saying to
us. Not only to understand it with
persuasion that leads us to rely upon him, but to hear it in such
a way that we take it in as an expression of his infinite love
for his people, so that we would not only believe him, but love
him. And so, in Hebrews chapter 2,
he's talking about our great salvation. How shall we escape,
verse 3, if we neglect so great salvation? It began first to
be spoken by the Lord Himself. In chapter 1, He's the one who
was spoken. God spoke His Son, verse 1 and
2. And He purged our sins by Himself
and then took His place at the right hand of the Majesty on
high. God had always commanded the angels to worship Him. He's
the Eternal Son. God said to Him in verse 8, Thy
throne, O God, is forever and ever. And so this One who was
God, the Son, came. And in the likeness of sinful
flesh fulfilled God's law. And he says in verse three, how
shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation? It began
first to be spoken by the Lord. It was confirmed to us by those
who heard him. And then God also blessed that
with signs and wonders and miracles given by his own will, by his
own Holy Spirit, verse four. And then he goes on in verse
5 to teach the Hebrews who had been given the law, who grew
up under the law, and had received the law from Moses, who received
it from God, he says in Galatians, at the disposition of angels,
meaning the angels, God used them to administer the giving
of the law on Sinai, and so that the Israelites had a reverence
for angels, and he said, no, no. Not for unto the angels has
he not put in subjection the world to come. No, he has put
man as given man the dominion, but not any man, but the son
of man, he says. He says in verse nine, We see
Jesus. We don't see all things put in
subjection, as God's word says in Genesis chapter two, to every
man or ordinary man, but we see Jesus. And how is it that God
would fulfill that promise to put all things in subjection
unto man? And this is the mystery of the
gospel right here. The word was made flesh. You
see, in order for God to put all things under the subjection
of man, God had to become man. And in becoming man, now man
is joined in his nature to God in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And every man also joined to
God in Christ is given that same relationship that he has as the
Son of God. so that God put all things in
subjection not to angels, through whom the law was given, but unto
Christ, to whom all of the will of God was given to fulfill and
to reveal that will fulfilled in His grace. You see. So the fulfillment of God's promise
in Genesis 2 was that He was going to put all things in subjection
to His Son, who would become flesh. He would take on a human
nature, soul and body forever, never to be changed. Back, He
would always be man, so that there is a man in glory, sitting
on the throne of glory. Why? Here it is, here's the purpose,
here's the reason. Verse nine, we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death. He had to be made man so that
he could die because the man was made so that he could experience
the judgment of God, lose his life, and be sentenced and experience
the judgment of eternal death. So the Lord Jesus Christ had
to be made man in order that he could suffer death, but why?
He suffered death, he was crowned with glory and honor because
that suffering of death was an obedience that he willingly,
in love, rendered to his father. And then he says that he, this
is why he did this, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. It should be every son. The word
man is not in the original. There's no word there, every.
Every what? Verse 10. For it became Him,
God the Father, for whom are all things and by whom are all
things, in bringing many sons to glory, to make the captain
of their salvation perfect through sufferings. Why did God do this? Why did the Word become flesh? Because God had promised. He
had a will. He had a purpose. It was a purpose
of love and grace given in Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ
was chosen of God. His delight, His elect, the one
who would fulfill His will. In Isaiah 42, 1 it says, My servant
in whom I delight, mine elect, will fulfill all my will. Here,
He's doing that. He came. He was born of a woman. He was made under the law. And
it became, it seemed good to God, it pleased God the Father,
for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in order
to bring many sons to glory, to make his son the captain of
their salvation and make him perfect through sufferings. He
was rejected, he was despised, he bore the reproach of men,
the drunkards, the men who were not worthy to be set over the
dogs of his flock. And the Lord said, in order to
save them, to bring them to glory as my sons, he would make his
son perfect through sufferings. He would be rejected by them
and suffer the consequences from God for their rejection of him. They offended God, God would
reconcile them to himself through the death of his son, Romans
5 verse 10. Verse 9 and 10, he says, for
if when we were enemies, notice, we were reconciled to God through
the death of His Son, the Word made flesh. He had to be made
flesh in order to reconcile us by His death. Why did Jesus,
why was the word, the eternal word made flesh? In order that
he might die, in order that he might fulfill the law and honor
God in the fulfillment of it and pay the debt of God's broken
law and fulfill that perfect law. To do it for a people, who
were they? The many sons. God had designated. He had chosen them in Christ. And in Christ, he had predestinated
them to be adopted as his own sons. But the only way he could
adopt them and make them his son is to set up his own son
in their nature. And in that nature, joined to
himself as God, God would require from him all that he required
of them. And whatever he did, whatever
he fulfilled would be done in their name and rendered to God. And God would receive it from
him as from them. So we read on. He says in verse
11 of Hebrews 2, for both he that sanctifieth, that's the
Lord Jesus Christ, and they who are sanctified are all of one. And here's an amazing fact. God
chose us in Christ, he set his love upon us from all eternity,
and he chose us in Christ and predestinated us to be his sons
by adoption by Jesus Christ. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
was given this will to do. He became our high priest. He
would make us holy. How would he do it? He would
take our nature and in that nature, he would fulfill the office of
the high priest. He would offer himself to God
for the sins of his people. He would present his own blood
by his eternal spirit in the heavenlies and would obtain our
eternal redemption. Hebrews 9 verse 12. Here he says,
he that sanctified the Lord Jesus Christ and they who are sanctified
are all of one. The one who is the son of God.
chosen by God to fulfill his will in becoming flesh, taking
our nature as man. In order that he might bring
many sons to glory, he would sanctify his people. He would
sanctify them. How? First, he would have to
be made their brethren. He says, he that sanctifyeth
they who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he is
not ashamed to call them brethren. Jesus Christ, the eternal word,
the son of God, calling people who were sinners and the enemies
of God. brethren, because they were given
to him by the Father from all eternity to save and to bring,
to make them his children." Verse 12, saying, I will declare thy
name, the name of my Father, unto my brethren. In the midst
of the church, the congregation of God's elect, chosen by God,
loved by God, loved by Christ, married to him, will I sing praise
unto thee. And again, I will put my trust
in him, the Lord Jesus Christ, as a man trusted his God and
father, as a man would trust God, only he did it perfectly.
The reason the Lord Jesus Christ could save people by his one
life of obedience and one death was that he wasn't just a man,
he wasn't merely man, he was man filled with the fullness
of God, joined in one person, two natures. The virtue of his
obedience was the obedience of God. The virtue of his blood
was the blood of God. It says in Acts 20, 28, the church
which he has purchased, God purchased with his own blood. The virtue
of our redemption was by the one who in heaven was found worthy,
the only one in all of the universe found worthy. to open the book
and fulfill it too. And all the saints around the
throne cry and sing, thou hast redeemed us to God by thine own
blood." The blood of God. Because his nature as God added
such value to his manhood, that all he did as man, he did as
God in the flesh. Is that understandable? I can
believe it, but can I really understand it? I just simply
say, this is mind boggling. How could God bring many sons
to glory? By sending his son, taking their
nature, sanctifying, making them holy by his own blood. His blood had to be shed. Obedience
had to be rendered. God had to be satisfied with
the captain of their salvation. And it would happen through his
sufferings. The one who was eternally pleasing
and with God from all eternity stooped in order to suffer as
a man. Sorrows and grief and abandonment
and rejection and spitting and shame and reproach, none of which
was deserved. And yet all of it was deserved
because He bore our sins. Now that's love, isn't it? And
He's sanctified as saying, He declares His Father's character,
His nature, His person, and all that He is, His name to His brethren. He sings, He rejoices, He gives
thanks, He blesses God in their presence in order that they might
see the love of God. As we just read, though the sky
of parchment made in every stock on earth a quill, and every man
a scribe by trade to write the love of God above would drain
the ocean dry. Drain the ocean dry, it wouldn't
begin. But the Son of God, in my nature,
to save me who offended God. God took the initiative and accomplished
the work to remove my offense and make me his son by the sacrifice
of his own son. For as much then, he says in
verse 14, no, in verse 13, again, I will put my trust in him. And
again, behold, I and the children which God has given me, for as
much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself, who called them his brethren, he also himself
likewise took part of the same." That is love, isn't it? And through
his death, that through his death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. We couldn't know God. We couldn't
love God. We couldn't confess what we are.
We're always fearful of the wrath and the justice of God. The devil's always accusing and
holding over us in our own conscience what we are. A despicable, God-hating
offense to the justice of God. And there's much to be accused,
isn't there? But in the Lord Jesus Christ,
there is no condemnation because he took our sins. He washed us
from our sins in his own blood. And he goes on. He says, verily,
he did not take on him the nature of angels. He did not come to
save angels. Not one angel who fell, who disobeyed
God will ever be saved. He did not exalt angels to be
sons of God, no. He took on, notice, not the seed
of Abraham, but the seed of Adam. Not the entire race of Adam,
but the seed of Abraham. That people who are called the
children of promise who also believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
by God-given grace. Wherefore, in all things, notice,
it behooved him, he was compelled out of his own nature and character
and love to be made like to his brethren. that he might be a
merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people." It says,
really, propitiation. He offered himself. God accepted
his offering. It satisfied God. And everyone
for whom he died, then and there, were purged of their sins, made
holy, reconciled, forgiven, justified. All their sins remitted. for in that he himself has suffered
being tempted." God was tempted? No. The man, Christ Jesus, was
tempted. That's a stoop, isn't it? He
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil in order to save us, in order to prove his own faithfulness,
his faith and his faithfulness and his obedience of love of
heart to his God and Father for the sins of his people to take
them away and to defeat the devil and to also do this to sucker
them that are tempted to run to the aid of them that are tempted. God, the word, was made flesh
in order that we might have a high priest to bring us to God, to
know our infirmities in every temptation, that we have access
to God through him. And this is why we read in so
many places of the love of the Lord Jesus Christ for his people.
Look at John chapter 14, for example. These things, they teach
us something beyond our comprehension. And yet, to the eye of faith,
our total adoration and admiration in love, amazing grace, amazing
love. John chapter 14. Look at verse
18. This is the word made flesh. Why did he come? I will not leave
you comfortless. I will not leave you orphans.
The adopted sons of God, I will not leave. I will come to you. He says in verse 18, I will not
leave you comfortless. I will come to you. How? Well, first of all, he came when
the word was made flesh and he lived among his disciples and
declared his father's name to them and in declaring himself
He says in verse six of the same chapter, I am the way, the truth,
and the life. And here he says, I'm not going
to leave you comfortless. When he rose from the dead and
ascended and was enthroned in glory, he sent his own spirit.
He himself came in the spirit of God. In verse 19, notice this. Yet a little while and the world
sees me no more. Pretty soon I'm going to go return
to the Father in my body. They're not going to see me.
But you see me. Eyes of faith. Because I live,
the Son of God made flesh. And because He lives, having
conquered death, defeated the devil, purged us from our sins,
reconciled us to God, made propitiation to God for our sins. Because
I live. Because of that. That resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because He fulfilled all righteousness
and put away our sins, God raised Him from the dead. And that same
power, because of His righteousness that raised Christ from the dead,
That power is exerted to raise us with Him. When He raised His
Son, He raised His people. And because He raised us with
Him, then He sends His Spirit to give us life in our souls
to understand and to be taken by His love for us in what He
declares to us from the gospel. He says, yet a little while the
world sees me no more, but you see me because I live. The very reason every child of
God lives is because Christ lives. Because God set him up from the
beginning to be our captain, our life, our wisdom, our righteousness,
our holiness, our redemption, our all. Verse 20, at that day,
You shall know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I
in you. Can you explain that? It means
that we are one with the Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing can separate
us. Everything that he is, we are
in him. He is in us. His life is our
life. Christ is our life. Isn't that
what Colossians 3, 4 says? I live, Paul says, yet not I,
but Christ liveth in me. He's in us. We're in him. And
the Father is in him. Look at Colossians chapter 1.
And we're going to close with this. All we can really do is
just sort of Scratch the surface of these things, because the
New Testament, as I said, is full of this. It's full of this.
The Apostle Paul in Colossians chapter 1, he's talking about
the gospel. He calls the gospel a mystery.
A mystery in scripture means something that is not known until
God reveals it. He says the gospel, which is
that mystery, was hidden by God until now. And the mystery that
was hidden was that God would save a people for himself, make
them his sons by his son. Look at verse 19. It pleased
the Father that in him, the Lord Jesus Christ, should all fullness
dwell. All fullness, everything God
is pleased with, everything we need, everything in heaven and
earth that is the virtue of God, the life of God, the truth of
God, the power of God, the authority of God, the wisdom of God, everything,
the will of God, the glory of God, the love of God, the mercy,
the grace, everything, God's righteousness, His holiness,
everything is in Jesus Christ, the man. The fullness of the
Godhead dwells in him. The fullness of the Godhead dwells
in him bodily. Verse chapter two says in verse
nine, but here, and having made peace, God the Father, putting
all in His Son, and having made peace through the blood of His
cross, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, in whom He pleased the
Father, that everything should dwell. Everything would be accomplished
by Him before time began. God gave us His own purpose and
grace in Christ Jesus, and therefore He saved us and called us with
a holy calling. Eternal life was given to us
in Christ Jesus, and here he says, because of that. Having
made peace through the blood of his cross, see? He had to
be made flesh by him to reconcile all things to himself by him,
I say. Whether they be things in heaven
and earth or things in heaven, everything Everything pivots,
everything is accomplished in God's will to make everything,
put it all in order and save a people and bring them to himself
and make them his sons and make himself known to them and put
them in the same relation as his son to know him and to experience
that joy of his presence and his love for them throughout
all eternity. Everything reconciled in Christ.
All of it was done by him. And you that were sometime alienated
and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh, that's why he had to be made flesh,
through death to present you how? Holy and unblameable and
unreprovable in his sight. Who did it? Christ. Who did he
do it for? Sinners, wicked sinners, enemies
of God. And notice now. I want you to
look down at verse 25. Wherefore, Paul says, I am made
a minister according to the dispensation of God. In other words, God has
given me this stewardship, this mystery, this gospel, this dispensation. According to the dispensation
of God, which is given to me for you to fulfill the word of
God, even the mystery which has been hid from ages and from generations,
but now is made manifest to his saints." What is that? To whom
God, his saints, to whom God would make known what is the
riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles. We're talking
about the peak of the mountain here. What does he say? This mystery, this riches of
the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is what?
Christ in you, the hope of glory, whom we preach. You see? Christ
in us, the only way we can be made children of God is in Christ. All of the glory of all of God's
sons will be Christ, is Christ, our life, our righteousness,
our holiness, the cleansing of our sins, everything, our understanding,
the wisdom that we have is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our redemption
from sin and from the curse of the law and from Satan, all of
it is in the Lord Jesus Christ. And now we're brought to glory,
we're brought to know this because Christ has given to us and as
he has given to us in his own spirit now, today, in our own
lifetime. This is our confident, our hope,
our confident expectation of glory as the children of God,
Christ. The word was made flesh and therefore
we are the sons of God by his work. And therefore we're given
this faith to believe Him. And we're given the authority
to know that we are the sons of God because we've been birthed
by God according to what He did in Christ. Having fulfilled our
righteousness and given us this life and this relationship to
Him, I have a spirit in us, and now I'm being made by spiritual
birth, the children of God. And this mystery, our glory,
look at Philippians chapter three. Philippians, the one book back,
chapter three. Our citizenship, in verse 20. Philippians 3.20, our citizen,
our conversation it says, but it means our citizenship is in
heaven. From whence also we look for
the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, this is what he's gonna
do now, the word made flesh in order that he might bring many
sons to glory and make his father known and let them see him and
seeing him be like him, conformed to his image before the throne
of God, praising him who redeemed them by his precious blood. and
made them fit to be partakers of the glory of eternity. He
says, who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned
like unto what? His glorious body, the one who
is God and man. according to the working whereby
he is able even to subdue all things unto himself, our sins,
death, Satan, every enemy of our souls, our own pride and
lust, everything that opposes God and His truth will be subdued. God is able to do it. The very
power that raised Christ from the dead is exerted towards us,
giving us life from our spiritual death, and He shall also redeem
this body to be made like His glorious body, so that His eternal
purpose will be fulfilled. When Christ comes, the Son of
God, who calls us His brethren and we will be brought to this
condition in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, He's gonna
change our body and we will be like Him. And God's eternal will
and predestinating purpose of love and grace will be fulfilled
by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh. Let's pray. Father, help us to understand
your great love and grace given to us in Christ Jesus, the Lord. The word of God, the eternal
word, the uncreated creator of all things, who was with God
from eternity, face to face, intimately in the bosom of the
Father, lying there, his eternal delight was made flesh, took
upon Him our nature, a body and soul subject to death, and took
upon Him in that nature all of the obligations God required
to honor His law, to satisfy His justice, to set forth His
truth in righteousness. And He did it in the Lord Jesus
Christ, our holy and blessed and all-glorious Savior. May
we be given this grace, Lord, to join that congregation around
the throne of His glory and say unto Him who loved us and washed
us from our sins in His own blood, to Him be all glory and power.
and dominion and blessing and everything subjected to him. He is worthy, worthy ever, and
we shall cast our crowns at his feet and we will sing to him,
the redeemed of the Lord, redeemed by his precious blood. What a
Savior, what a mystery, the Lord Jesus Christ bringing us to Himself,
He Himself now dwelling in us, teaching us of His work for us
and His glory, causing us to be overtaken as those swooning
at the prospect of the love of the Son of God for us who gave
Himself. Lord, give us His grace to know
you. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.