Such as that puzzles us, and
as mysterious as that is, when our Lord Jesus was born in the
manger to a virgin, to Mary, and when she first beheld Him,
and then proceeded to clean Him up, and she looked in His face,
she was looking into the face of one who's God. He's always
been God, know that. Even in his time of humiliation,
he robed his deity, his Godhead, with his own flesh. And there
was a union between God and man, a union that will never be broken. Before He came, He was God over
all, blessed forever. When He entered into this world,
He took into union with Himself our humanity. And from that union came forth the Son of God, the
Son of Man, and that's a union that will never be broken. The
one who is in heaven right now, our Savior, The Lord Jesus Christ,
Jesus the Savior, Christ the sent one, the one who sits at
the right hand of God on high, He shall evermore be the God-man. There will never be a division
there. And even when you read of Him
in the Scriptures, know this, He is a whole Christ. Our Savior
is both God and man. He's God to satisfy God. He's
God to meet all the demands of God. And He was as much a man
as me, or you, or anybody else, with only sin being the exception. He's God. He has equal status. He's always
had equal status as the Father and the Spirit. All the characteristics of God
belong to Him, even all the way back into eternity, which we
have no ability to measure. He created all things. Creation
reveals He is God. He created all things out of
nothing. In the beginning, God created.
So I remember reading that verse of Scripture. Well, in John 1
verse, the third verse, it says, all things were made by him and
without him was not anything made that was made. The fact
that he created all things is proof of his Godhead. And then he controls all things.
That's called providence. Providence. The one who sovereignly
rules over all things In heaven and on earth and under the earth,
the one who rules with absolute authority and power, the one
who governs the universe is Jesus Christ our Lord. The scripture says, by him all
things were made and by him all things consist. He himself rules
in every situation. Creation proves his Godhead,
his deity. Divine providence proves his
divinity. And his miracles prove him to
be God, even when he's on this earth. John 5.36 says, Christ
said, the works that I do bear witness of me. All of his marvelous
works, even when on earth, revealed that he's God. when the storm arose on the Sea
of Galilee, and he's in the back of a boat, and he's asleep. The fact that he had to sleep,
that he grew weary, is evidence of his humanity. And the disciples awoke him. They said, Master, we perish. and he spoke peace to the raging
sea. Who can do that? Who could say to the wind and
to the waves, be still, wind, stop blowing. I understand the weather forecast
for today is high winds, right? That's what I hear from the weathermen,
and you know they're always right. At least 40 to 50% of the time. But who could in the midst of
a windstorm, when the winds are howling, who could say to the
wind, be still, and the wind stopped blowing? Who could do
that but God? All of his miracles proved him
to be God. His works, they testified of
his deity. He made the lame to walk, the
blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dead to live. One time a little boy had a couple
of little fishes and five barley loaves, just a little. His mama
packed him a lunch. And there were thousands of people
gathered to hear the Lord Jesus Christ preach. Thousands. And the disciples said, we don't
have enough money to buy food for all this crowd. And one of the disciples spoke
up, said, well, there's a little boy here. He's got a little packed
lunch. We used to say a sack lunch.
But what's that among so many? They brought that food to the
master, and he began to multiply as it came right out of his hands.
And over 5,000 men plus women and children were fed till they
were full. They couldn't hold anymore. They
said, this is the best buffet we've ever had. And then the
disciples gathered up the leftovers. Who can cause food to multiply
as it's coming out of His hands except God? Proof of His deity. And then redemption, that proved
He was God. No man but the God-man could
save sinners by His death upon the cross of Calvary. No other
death could accomplish salvation or redemption or justification. Only the death of this God-man.
You see, our Lord Jesus, He was more than an example in this
first few verses. He's an example of humiliation. That's true. But He didn't come
just to be an example, and He didn't die to become a martyr.
He died because He's the Savior. And it was by His death upon
the cross of Calvary that He as the God-man suffered the wrath
of God and put away our sins and brought in for us everlasting
righteousness. Who can save from sin? Who can forgive sin but God only? And He forgave sin. And really, all of the sins of
all of the people for whom He died some 2,000 years ago, all
of our sins were forgiven right then and there. When we're regenerated or quickened
or born again by the Holy Spirit, that's when we come to realize
that the issue of our sins toward God was forever settled when
our Lord Jesus Christ died upon the cross of Calvary. Who can
save but God? Who can die but man? Redemption. And only God can justify the
ungodly. I'm a sinner by practice, by
birth. It's my nature. And yet I have been forgiven
of all of my sins. And God, He declares me to be
righteous. deal with my sins in such a way
as to satisfy Jehovah except the Lord Jesus Christ. We're justified. Only God can
justify the ungodly. I can't justify, I can't pronounce
you to be forgiven. I know there's some religions
where they have a man who professes to be able to pronounce you absolved
of your sins. I can't absolve you, no man can
absolve you, but the God man did at the cross of Calvary,
and I pray that he'll make that real to you and that he did that
for you by the revelation of his spirit. And then our Lord
Jesus proved he's divine by his resurrection. The fact that He
raised Himself from the dead. Most of us have visited the cemetery
several times. And we know there's going to
be a resurrection of the dead sometime or other. But our Lord
Jesus, He resurrects people who are spiritually dead. And that's
what we all are and were by nature. We had no life toward God, no
real interest in God. We didn't have any interest in
how God could be just and justify the ungodly. And then we heard
the good word of Christ Jesus and His work of salvation upon
the cross of Calvary. And maybe we heard it for several
times and didn't have any interest. Then all of a sudden we found
ourselves having an interest, a heart interest in the things
of God. and how God could remain holy
and yet save us from our sins and make us perfect in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, what happened? We were
resurrected spiritually. And the one who resurrects spiritually
is our Lord Jesus Christ. After all, He died and then took
His own life back to Himself. He said, no man takes my life
from me. I have the power to lay it down.
I have the power to take it again. This commandment have I received
of my father. And then I'll tell you something
else that proves he's God. All judgment's been appointed
to him. You know who you're gonna face,
the judgment? And it's called the judgment
seat of Christ. You'll face this same God man.
and you'll either face him having been washed in his blood and
robed in his righteousness, or you'll face him in your own sins. Surely, surely, as you think
about what I'm saying and think about what the scriptures have
to say about meeting God and being perfect in Christ Jesus,
you do not want to meet the judge laden down with your sins. Because I'll tell you this, in
the judgment there will be no mercy. No mercy at the judgment. The
mercy that is doled out now according to the purpose of God, the mercy
now is salvation, and grace, and righteousness, and justification. But no mercy at the judgment. At the judgment, you will be
seen before God as the one you really are, either righteous
in Christ Jesus or not. Our Lord being in the form of God, he's
always been in the form of God. But secondly, not only the form
of God, but the form of a servant. It says in verse 7, But made
himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant. And the word took upon him means
he, as it were, reached out and embraced. He embraced servitude. He embraced humiliation. He embraced
being a servant, a servant to Jehovah and a servant to us. He took hold of, He didn't take
hold of deity, He's been deity. But some 2,000 years ago, it's
as though He reached out and took to Himself our humanity. And that means that He's bound
to our humanity forever. He took it willingly. with all
that that involves except, of course, our sins. Consider this, He voluntarily
did this. He whom the angels worshiped.
Can you imagine the singing in heaven, the adoration to the
Son of God that has been going on ever since creation of the
angels? And then the saints of God who
have died, gone on to glory. Can you imagine their singing
and their worship of Christ the King? And that one who created the
angels, he voluntarily stepped out of heaven. And into the womb of a virgin,
he joined his deity to that body that had been prepared for him. This was all ordained before
the world ever began. And the only everlasting covenant
there is is the covenant of grace. And the nature of his humiliation
was obedience, obedience. Understand this, our Lord Jesus
in His deity, He has always had all authority over everything.
He created all things, He provides for all things, He provides for
all people, the animals, He provides food for them on a daily basis.
But He stepped away from being the King and the Governor over
all things to be humbled in rendering obedience,
not only to God, but rendering obedience to the laws of men. He rendered obedience to his
mother and to Joseph, to the civil authorities. He who has everything He paid
tribute to the Roman government. Say, why did he do that? He's
a perfect man, that's why. It's for us to honor and obey
those who have the rule over us as long as they don't lead
us to disobey the rules of God. Our Lord Jesus who made the rules
came down and he had to obey the rules. Now grasp that if
you can. You see, the nature of his humiliation
was for obedience. And consider the real reason
for his humiliation, to suffer the shame and the indignities
of the cross of Calvary. Because that's the only way God
could save sinners, is for somebody who would be a suitable substitute
to live and die in the stead of the guilty. And the only one
who could do that is this God-man. He suffered the shame of the
cross, the indignities of crucifixion, crucified naked on the cross. And not only did He bear all
the physical tortures of crucifixion, which was the worst way to die,
He bore up under the wrath of God that flooded His soul because
He was dying in the stead of sinful people. He bore our sins
in His own body. And it's as though God the Father
in His legal authority said, now that's gonna cost you. This
was all ironed out before the world began, and considered the depth of his
obedience. Verse eight says at the end,
he became obedient unto death, unto death. What kind of death? The most awful death that any
man could ever die. The death of the cross. You see,
the death of the cross brought Christ to his lowest point. To bear the sins of his people
in his own body on the tree. To expose himself willingly to
the wrath of God. That's what he did. And the Father
didn't go easy on him either. All of the wrath of God, that
all of God's chosen people would have suffered forever and ever,
all of that wrath was poured into the very soul of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He likened the wrath of God to
being in a cup. And he drank the cup of God's
indignation. He drank the cup of God, the
fierceness of God's wrath. He drank it down to its last
bitter dregs. Somebody had to die for our sins. Either you gonna die for your
sins and you'll die forever in hell. Or Christ Jesus, the substitute
of his people, he died in our stead and suffered for us. The Scripture says he made himself
of no reputation. He made himself. You say, well, but men did it
too. He made himself. You know who's behind the crucifixion? The cruelty of the soldiers nailing
Him to the cross and then before that, putting the crown of thorns
upon His brow and whipping Him, slapping Him, beating Him to
where His back looked like furs. You know who did all of that?
You know who arranged all of that? Himself! Himself! You say, why did He suffer all
of that? Because that's what it took to
save us. All that men could do to him,
they did. And all that God could do to
him, God did, so that he suffered in his body and in his soul. The scripture says that he gave
up for us. He gave up his riches. He owned everything. He's the
master of all things, and the master steps down to become a
servant. Figure that out. And though he performed miracles
as God, which attested to his deity, he did not perform a miracle
to ease his own discomfort. When he got tired, well, let
me ask this, when you get tired, what do you do? You go to sleep.
So did he. When he got hungry, he had to
eat. Just like we do. He got thirsty,
he had to drink. You see, he gave up. He gave
up so much to give us everything. He who was rich became poor that
we through his poverty might be rich. He who owned everything Borrowed
everything. Where was he born? In a palace? Attended to by kings and noblemen? No. No. He was in a palace in
glory. He came down here and was born
in a manger, in a stall. His attendants in heaven were
the angels and the departed saints of God, singing His praises.
His attendants, those who were with Him when He was born, were animals. And He wasn't cradled in a fancy
cradle Made just for the King of kings and the Lord of lords?
No. Where is he laid? In a fig trough. And he had to borrow that. When he made his triumphant entry
into Jerusalem, he had to borrow somebody else's
animal. He arrived into Jerusalem on a white steed, He rode in on a donkey. When he instituted the Lord's
Supper, he told his disciples, go to such and such a place and
tell a fellow, the Lord needs you up a room. And finally, when he died, he
was buried in a borrowed tomb. And the Scripture says, during
his public ministry, he didn't have a place to lay his head. He said, foxes have holes, birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man, he didn't have anywhere
to lay his head. Now you're talking about poor. And moreover, he took the responsibility
upon himself to pay a debt he did not owe. Let me tell you something. All
of us, by nature, are debtors to God. How many times you reckon
you've sinned against God? There's no way you could possibly
know that. Sins of commission that you commit
sins of omission, the things that you ought to do but you
didn't do. There's no way to calculate our sins, because our
sins are not just the things that we do, it's the reason why
we do the things that we do. I mean, if you eat your food
without being aware of and thankful for the fact that God gave you
your food, you know, you're sinning then. Because the Bible says,
whatsoever is not of faith is sin. That's what it says, isn't
it? Have you done anything this day that was not of faith, that
God wasn't in your mind doing it for His glory? You say, well,
a lot. All of them sins. I tell you,
we're just We're a mess. But see, Christ came to save
people who are by nature a mess. We're sinners. And he gave up his heavenly glory. And he gave up the independent
exercise of his authority. He became the supreme servant. Never been a servant like this. One writer said this, and I thought
it was really good. He said, the only person in the
history of the world who had the right to assert or demand
his rights, waived them all, surrendered them all, ignored
them all, and willingly became a servant. Isn't that something? People marching around saying,
I've got this right, I've got that right. You have a bunch
of privileges, and I do too. If there was ever any man who
had a right a right to claim as His own and do as He wanted
to with everything all around Him. It was our Lord Jesus Christ,
but He went from the highest of the high to the lowest of
the low to be made sin for us. Now, what do you think about
that? And if in your heart you're not driven to rejoice in this
glorious Savior, there's something really wrong with you. You see, our Lord Jesus told
his disciples, I am among you as one who serves. And he told them on one occasion, I didn't come to be ministered
to. I didn't come for you to do something for me. He said,
I came to do something for you. And I'm telling you right now,
don't think in your mind and in your heart that when it comes
to this salvation business, it's something you do with Christ
or for Christ. No, no, no. He does the work
and He gets the glory. That's just the way it is. And may God give us grace to
humble ourselves before Him. Lord, I deserve nothing but death,
judgment, and hell. And I truly mean that. I truly
mean, as much as I can, that's what I deserve. But Christ Jesus, the God-man,
being in the form of God, but taking upon Himself the form
of a servant, He came down here and did for me that which no
angel could do it, not a legion of angels. And certainly I couldn't
do it myself. He reconciled me to God. He saved
my soul. He gave me a vision, as it were,
in my heart by faith of the glories of this Savior. And I hope he'll
give you a vision of the glories of Christ Jesus too. And then
you'll be amazed. You'll know a little something
about what John Newton meant when he wrote the song Amazing
Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once
was lost, but now I'm found. I was blind, but now I see. Let's get our hymn books out.