David had, I believe he played
that song for the offeratory this morning, and I sat there
listening and I thought, I'd like to hear James sing that. And so he did, and I thank him
for it, and I'm thankful to God for him and for his faithfulness
And I'm thankful for each of you and that you're gathered
with me this evening to open the Word of God. And I invite
you now to go with me to the book of John chapter 1. began the subject this morning,
began preaching on the subject of the savior is suitable, or
the suitable, suitable savior. He had to be, he had to be suitable
to God, as God, being the infinite one, and he had to be also He
had to be suitable to God as the perfect man, Christ Jesus. And we'll develop that even more
this evening, but then also he's got to be suitable to us. He's got to be one who we can
comprehend to a degree, One we can appreciate. One who is like
us. One who is flesh, bones, blood,
like we are. One who entered into the world
as we entered into the world, born from our mother's womb. And yet he must be different
from us in this sense. He must not have any guilt. He must not have any sin. And as a man, he must grow up
before God. And God must approve of him. And he must be one who meets
all the all the qualifications of one
who is worthy to be our substitute. He's got to be like us. He's
got to be one of us. As we so often say, according
to the scriptures, he must be bone of our bone and flesh of
our flesh. And then he must, as this man,
as this God man, He must meet and honor the justice of God. All of the wrath of God must
fall on him for all of the people in whose stead he came to represent. And in that body, this God-man
must die because that is the wages of sin. And as God cannot
die, God who is invisible, God who is everlasting, God who had
no beginning, and God who will have no end. Yet that great penalty
for our ungodliness before the Lord must be punished with death.
Therefore, he became a man, and as a man, he must suffer. He must suffer at the hands of
men, but moreover, he must suffer at the hands of God. His soul
must suffer. He must be cut off from the Holy
One because he bore in his own body all the sins of all of the
people that God gave him to save. And there met on our Lord Jesus
a mass, a mass, an infinite and immeasurable mass by our standards,
immeasurable, there had to meet upon him all of the sins of all
of his people. According to Isaiah chapter 53
and verse six, all of our iniquities were made to meet on him. And
then as the man, as the God man, he must die for our sins according
to the scriptures. He must answer for us. One who
is like us. One who is very, very suitable
to meet our needs. There's only one who is indeed
totally suitable to God and totally suitable to us. And that is the
Lord Jesus, our Savior. He is God, for his name is wonderful. His name is Counselor. His name
is the mighty God. His name is the everlasting Father. His name is the Prince of Peace.
And he must still be one like us. And so Isaiah in the same
breath, he says there in Isaiah chapter nine, for unto us a child
is born. And unto us, He says, a son is
given. As a child he was born, like
all other children. Now, not as the result of a union
of a man and a woman, because he did not have the Adamic nature
as we have. But he was born from, he was
conceived in his mother's womb, as a result of the Holy Ghost
overshadowing Mary. And he came into this world just
like us. Just like us. Unto us a child
is born. But never forget unto us a son
was given. He's the son of God. No wonder when the messenger
came from God to Mary to tell her that she was going to conceive
in her womb, and she would bear a son whose name would be called
Jesus. The angel, the messenger from
God said that holy thing in thee shall be called the Son of God. What a marvelous, marvelous truth. You see, there can be no salvation
for us. There can be no redemption for
those of us who are enslaved to sin and Satan. There can be
no release from our indebtedness to the law of God unless one
who is absolutely suitable to God, as God and as man, come
down here and then he must have a suitability to us. So he's
got to meet these requirements, necessary requirements if he's
going to save us. So therefore my subject is the
suitable Savior. We began this morning here in
John chapter one talking about he's suitable to God. And he had to be suitable to
God because he was divine. We read here in John 1, and permit
me to read these three verses to you again. John chapter 1
and verse 1, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
God. The Word was with God, and the
Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him,
and without Him was not anything made that was made. This is the one who was in the
beginning, in the beginning. When all things were created,
he did the creating. When all things were made, he
did the making. This is necessary for all things
to come into existence, that God do it. The universe being made and you
and I, Adam, being made out of the dust of the ground on the
sixth day, it's gonna take the very power and wisdom of God. And indeed, that's exactly what
happened. All things were made by him,
and without him was not anything made that was made. And he was there as the maker
He was there in the beginning, in the beginning. I love the
little verb was. And if you'll notice there, how
many times it's used, in the beginning was the word, and the
word was with God, and the word was God, and the second verse,
the same was in the beginning with God, was. Now, what does
the word was mean? Well, it's a very, very simple
verb, which means to be, to be, but in a tense, which means was,
or always, or ever has been. So let's read these two verses
that way. Here it reads, in the beginning
was and ever had been the Word, and the Word was and ever had
been with God, and the Word was and ever had been God. The same was and ever had been
in the beginning with God. John is led of the Spirit of
God to immediately embark upon setting forth the divinity of
Jesus of Nazareth right from the beginning of the book. He
wants us to know that the Jesus born to Mary as set forth in
Matthew 1, the Jesus who went forth preaching the gospel as
set forth in Mark 1, The Jesus who lay in a manger, Luke chapter
two, was indeed God. He was and he has always been
God. He's ever been God, he's ever
been with God, always. There never was a time in which
he was not divine. even as he entered into this
world. He did not forsake his deity. He did not forsake being God. And I'll show you that in just
a few minutes. He is God. He is God. The word. This word, word, is a vehicle
of thought. A word is a vehicle of thought.
We know that. You cannot know what's on my
mind, you cannot know what I intend to say unless I vocalize my thoughts
and I communicate those thoughts to you as words. And words are very important.
Well, God has spoken. God has made Himself known. God has revealed Himself. He's
revealed His will. He's revealed who He is in the
glory of His person in the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is
God told out. As I said this morning, he's
God's vocabulary. From A to Z, from alpha to omega,
he's everything. Everything God has to say, everything
God has to communicate to you and me, every message that God
intends to deliver to us comes by way of this one who is the
eternal word. The word. This word was and ever
had been with God. With God, which indicates at
least two people. If I say to you, yesterday I
was out with, I just pick out, say David here. I was out with
David yesterday. Well, obviously, if I say I was
out with somebody, then you know it's got to be another person
involved. And I say, well, it was with David. Well, when it
says here in the first verse, in the beginning was and ever
had been the Word, and the Word was and ever had been with God,
that indicates two people, or two individuals, two persons. Well, who was he with? Our brother
read to us from the book of Proverbs chapter eight, and wisdom is
our Lord Jesus Christ. He is wisdom. We're to pursue
Him. We're to seek Him because He's
life. Those who believe Him, those
who know Him have everlasting life. Those who don't will die
in their sins. He said, I'm wisdom. He said,
and when all of these things happened, I was there. I was
with God. That's what He said. I was with
God. There is therefore every indication
here that before anything came into existence, there was a plurality
in the Godhead. And we know that to be Trinity,
Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. And this one who is indeed
suitable to God to be our savior is with God. He's always been
with God. He's always been God himself. He was right there when creation
began. In fact, he did the creating. He's the Lord of glory. He's
the one who is in the beginning with God. And he was God. He was and ever
has been God. So that he could say at the burning
bush, when Moses spoke to that bush, after the bush had spoken
to him, a voice came out of the bush. And the voice said, I want
you to go and deliver my people from Egyptian bondage. And then
Moses said, well, who shall I say has sent me? And the voice said,
tell them, I am has sent you. I am, but I am. I'm the ever-existent
God, the unchanging, eternal God. And our Lord Jesus did not
hesitate to use that identification regarding himself in the New
Testament, specifically in the Gospel of John. And he said to
those Jews in chapter eight, and he knew this would absolutely
infuriate them, but he did not hesitate to infuriate them when
they needed to hear what he had to say. He said, before Abraham
was, I am. And they were ready to stone
him. He did not hesitate. He did not
hold back any truth, even though he knew that truth would be so
offensive to the religious self-righteous folks. I am. When they came to arrest
him in the Garden of Gethsemane, there he was with his disciples. They said, He said to them, Whom
seek ye? Because he initiated the conversation. They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And all he said was, I am. And they all fell backwards,
just at the glory of his person, the power of his words. Who is this who spoke to them? This is the one who sweat great
drops of blood in the garden. And yet here he is having, he's
made himself known to be a real man by his tears and by his blood. And now he says, I am, I'm God,
I'm divine. That's what he says. He's suitable to God because
he is himself, I am. And He's got to be God to save
us. He's got to be God for His death to mean something to God. The death of the best man on
earth. would mean nothing to God as
far as being a substitute for anybody else. How could the death
of one of us, the finest individual in this congregation, how can
our death avail anything before God to save yourself, much less
anybody else? It just won't do. There's got
to be a suitable savior to God. God's got to approve of him.
He's got to approve of him as God. And I'll tell you something
else. He's got to approve of him as
man. And this brings in one of the
greatest mysteries of the ages. And it's what the apostle referred
to in 1 Timothy chapter three as the mystery of godliness. The mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in the flesh. You know, throughout the scriptures,
Old Testament and New Testament as well, lots of times we have
the appearance of angels, right? And you can think of several
instances as well as I can. Angels are spiritual beings. They are invisible. Did you know
that? Angels are invisible beings.
And when they go, when they're sent by the Father on an errand,
on a mission, God has to give them some sort of body. Otherwise, they couldn't be seen. They're spiritual beings. Do
you not believe there are spiritual beings here this evening called
angels? I do. Do you see any of them? No. What about demons? Do you not believe in the reality
of demons? Yes. You ever seen one? I've seen some people I thought
were filled with demons, but I've never seen a demon and I
don't want to ever see one. So in order for men to see an
invisible creature as an angel, God had given some sort of body. For instance, in the book of
Genesis, when the three angelic visitors, and I think one of
them was the angel of the Lord, that is our Lord Jesus Christ,
who at that time was the invisible, the invisible son of God had
to then take some sort of body, which he did because when our
Lord Jesus and those two angelic messengers appeared at Abraham's
door, he said, I got three men visiting me. Now, what he said?
Well, that's because God provided them some sort of corporeal body. And Abraham said, we're gonna
fix you something deep. We'll kill the fatted calf and
we'll get some wine and honey and whatever else. And it was
quite a meal for these men, but they weren't men at all. They
were actually, two of them were angelic creatures, and one of
them was the Son of God. But they could not be seen unless
they took a body. Now, let's just talk about angels
for just a couple of minutes. Stay with me. In the New Testament,
when our Lord Jesus was born, Bethlehem's manger, the shepherds,
they heard the voice of an angel. and that angel spoke to them,
and then the skies were filled with angels. Now, these are invisible
beings, so we can therefore conclude that God gave them some sort
of body. Otherwise, the shepherds couldn't
have seen them. And then the angels went away.
Where'd they go? Went back to God on another errand
to receive other instructions concerning another ministry.
When our Lord Jesus A rose, John chapter 20, Mary goes to the
tomb and she sees two angels in bright clothing. Those angels
are created spirits who could not have been seen unless God
made for them some sort of body. Maybe it's the same two angels
a couple of pages over in Acts chapter one when the Lord Jesus
ascended to heaven. And two angels are there to assure
the disciples who are gazing up into heaven, this same Jesus
shall so come again in like manner as you've seen him go. So here's
my point. Angels are invisible. They don't have flesh and blood,
they're spirits. They don't have flesh and bones,
I should say. They're spirits, invisible spirits.
And the Lord gave them an appearance, a visible appearance, in order
to fulfill a mission. Our Lord Jesus, the second person
of the Trinity, is the invisible God. John chapter four, God is
spirit. You can't see God. God is spirit, he's invisible.
He's everywhere. You can't go, David even said
in the psalm, where shall I flee from thy presence? He said, if
I send up to heaven, you're there. And behold, if I go down to the
depths of hell, you're there too. He's the invisible God who
fills all of his creation. But if God is going to suffer, bleed,
and die, he's got to take into union with himself a body. And so he says in Hebrews chapter
10, quoted from Psalm 40, a body thou hast prepared me. This was
a body prepared for him and ordained for him from before the foundation
of the world. It's the body that was the pattern
for which Adam's body was made. In order for the invisible God
to be visible, intangible, to be a corporal being, as we would
say, to be material, he had to take into union with himself
flesh and bones and blood for a mission. See, I said those
angels, angels are given some kind of bodies in order to fulfill
a mission. Or our Lord Jesus was given a
body to fulfill a mission. The mission was to live a life
of perfection and then to die a death of substitution and satisfaction
to the law of God in order to satisfy God and redeem the objects
of his everlasting covenant electing love. But here's the difference. Angels receive a body just temporarily. but that's not the case with
the Son of God. He has received a body forever. Because you see, there's a union
of the divine one with flesh. And so therefore, our Lord Jesus
was born into this world. And you think about it. Well,
let me give you this reference. Look over in Hebrews chapter
two. Hebrews chapter two. So he took
into union with his deity, a body. Hebrews chapter two. And this
is how the writer of the Hebrews puts it in verse 14. Hebrews chapter two, verse 14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. That through 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. For barely he took not on him,
and the word took means to lay hold of. He laid hold of not
the nature of angels, not angels, but he took hold of the seed
of Abraham because these were the elect of God. These were
the people of God. He took hold of flesh and blood
for his people. Go with me. Let me show you a
couple of more passages. Look at Romans chapter eight.
Look at Romans chapter eight. And verse three. for what the law could not do,
in that he was weak through the flesh. We couldn't obey it. We didn't have the ability to
do that. Never have had since conversion, still don't have.
We love the law of God, we're not under the law of God, but
we still can't obey it. Not for justification, not for
sanctification. In fact, the people of God are
free from the law. The law has no right to us. We've
been redeemed from the curse of the law. It has no claim on
us whatsoever. That doesn't mean we're free
to break the law. But we don't live according to
the precepts of the law out of fear. We live in accordance with
the loveliness and the beauty of the gospel out of love. Now watch it. God, God sending
his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh, just like you,
in the likeness of sinful flesh, except he didn't have any sin.
But he was made in just like you, just like you. And for sin,
the word for means concerning sin. The reason he was made,
to be this sinful flesh or like sinful flesh, it had to do with
sin. That's what it had to do with.
It was concerning sin. He came to do something about
it. God gave him a body and sent him on a mission. Do something
about sin. What? Put it away. And John says
he was manifested to take away our sins. That's why he came.
That's his mission. Now, let me show you this. Go
to Luke, the second chapter. Have you ever wondered why God
didn't just send the Lord Jesus Christ to earth when he was 33
years of age and he'd just go ahead and die and redeem us? Well, a lot of people have thought
about that. What was the reason for all this other? But it was
necessary in the purpose of God. Because remember, He has to be
identified with us in every way. In every way except sin. And so, by the power of the Holy
Spirit, He was conceived in the womb of Mary. The Lord didn't
just put this infant in her womb at nine months and then he was
immediately born? No. He's got to go through everything
that we have to go through. And so he was conceived in the
womb of his mother with the umbilical cord bringing all the fluids
and the blood and things that Alyssa could explain to us much
more than I could or Tommy could. Anybody who's in the health,
in the medical field could do that, but we get the gist of
it. He was fully dependent upon his
mother, just like you. It's astounding, just like you. And all the fluids, the blood,
the nourishment from his mother flowed into the little infant
she's carrying in her womb, Jesus. And then after nine months, she
gives birth to him. And she gave birth to him just
like you dear mothers gave birth to your sons and daughters. And that one who came forth from
her womb, He's covered with the same mucus, just like you were. He's had to be made flesh and
blood like us. He's got to go through everything
we have to go through with. And maybe there was a midwife
there, or maybe it was Joseph, whoever it was, that cut the
cord. And then wife cleaned up the
baby. You moms know what that's like. And some of you dads maybe were
in the delivery room when this happened and you witnessed all
of this. The same thing happened to Jesus,
the Lord of glory. And he began to grow, just like
you began to grow. In fact, we get to the end of
Luke chapter two, And he's 12 years of age, and he goes up
to talk with the doctors and the lawyers at Jerusalem. And he's 12 years old, but he's
an unusual little boy. You know, 12-year-old, I can
vaguely remember when I was 12 years old. And you know, kind
of a smart aleck at times. You know, hey, you know how 12-year-olds
can be. Get on your nerves. I'm sure
I got on my parents' nerves quite a bit and deserved every whipping
I got. And some I did deserve, I kind
of got by with because they didn't see what I did. But that wasn't
the way Jesus was. And he goes up to the temple,
and he visits with the doctors and the lawyers. And he isn't
a kid with a smart mouth. He's not trying to embarrass
them. It's not the way it was. He's
perfect. And he just exchanged thoughts
with them. This is the perfect 12-year-old
boy. And we get down after that part
of the story, you get down to verse number, verse 52, excuse
me. Luke chapter two, verse 52. And
Jesus increased in wisdom, Luke 2, 52. And Jesus increased in
wisdom. Boy, he manifested it there in
the temple. He increased in wisdom. You see,
he had to learn, just like we have to. And at some point he
went to his mother, Mary, and said, mom, I think I've learned,
I think I've memorized the letters of the Hebrew alphabet, all 22
of them. She said, good, that's a good
job. And he said, and now I understand
that Psalm 119, Each of those paragraphs is each
of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet. And Mary said, good
job. What's happening? He's growing
in wisdom, just like you had to grow in wisdom. You had to
grow in wisdom. And he makes that wisdom manifest
there in the temple in Jerusalem. He increased in wisdom and statute. And I'll even back up to increased
in wisdom. I'm sure he helped his legal
father Joseph out in the carpenter shop. And he only had to be told one
time, because he was a quick study. Measure twice, Jesus, cut once. Yes, Papa. Yes, Papa. And he did it. And Joseph said, cut a straight
line here. Yes, Papa. Is this the way to
do it, Papa? Oh, yes. And I expect one morning he goes
to Joseph and he says, oh, Papa, look, I got a little stubble
under my nose, over my lip. And Joseph said, yes, you're
becoming a man, Jesus. See, that's what we, that's the
way we are, right? That's the way we had, and he's
got to be the same way. And he grew in stature. And maybe every year, like we
do boys, you know, you put them up against the wall and you mark.
Then next year, look how you've grown. And Jesus would say, measure
me, mom. And she'd measure him and she'd
say, you see how you've grown this year? Yes, mama. But this is even more amazing. He increased in favor with God
and man. Now, I readily admit I'm in waters
way over my head here. But as our Lord Jesus was obedient
to all of the laws of the scriptures, and as he, taken in the context
now, dealt with these doctors and lawyers in the temple, And
God the Father saw how he was polite, respectful, showed kindness. He spoke to
them as we instruct our little ones to say, yes sir, no sir,
yes ma'am, no ma'am. He did all of those things. And this is where I just use
my own imagination. It's like the father observing
his only begotten son. And the father says, yes. This is good. Because this is what is necessary
for you to be the proper and only redeemer. You have to be
the perfect young man. And then the father, under the
father's watch, care, and under the father's observation, he
grew to adulthood. And he would say, I do all those
things that please the father. And he was absolutely telling
the truth. You see, he had to be attempted
and tested and tried in all points. Now what the Scripture says,
in all points, as we are, if He's going to be our Savior,
if He's going to be our representative, if He's going to redeem us, He's
got to be one of us. He's got to know what it's like.
And as his mama told him about his birth and his young years
and his growth, reaching adulthood just like us. And like those lambs in the book
of Exodus chapter 12, when God told Moses, you tell every family,
go get them a lamb, a male of the first year. without spot,
without blemish, or any such thing, and you inspect them. And you see, our Lord was inspected
all of his life. He's got to live up to not our
measurements, but the measurements of God. He's got to measure up
to what God demanded because we don't measure up. That's the
problem. That's why He came. We're sinful. We're polluted. We're poor creatures
who sin with every breath. We're full of iniquity like an
eggshell is full of the meat of the egg. There had to be one
in our flesh who satisfied God, and he did. He did. Therefore, he is qualified
to be the sacrificial lamb, to be the Passover lamb who would
redeem us, which is what he did. This is the who was made flesh. Just like you. You're flesh. You cut yourself, you bleed. Anybody cut him, he'd bleed.
He would bleed. Now, he was incorruptible, so
there were obviously some differences. So he couldn't get sick. And
his body couldn't corrupt. Because there was no sin. And he wouldn't die. He would
not die. That's the reason he said, no
man takes my life from me. I'll lay it down myself. They
couldn't kill him. Can't kill God. But he can lay down his life.
And he did. He did to save us, to honor the
Father in every sense of the word. And we know that everything
he did satisfied God, because God raised him from the dead.
This real man, this real man. And I'll tell you, he did everything
that was necessary to save His people from their sin. And then
He sent His Spirit, the promise of the Father, who deals with
us individually, convicts us, convinces us, brings us to true
repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. But
wait, one more thing, that Savior And that body, he's still joined
to that body. There's a man in heaven. He's
the God man. And he's your brother. He's your
brother. He's your savior. He's your Lord. And he has never been and will
never be ashamed to call us Brethren, it's astounding, isn't it? Oh
my, a glorious savior.