It's found in the book of Isaiah,
chapter 9, two verses. The title of the message is God. God was manifest in the flesh. Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6. For under us a child is born. Under us a son is given. And the government shall be upon
his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government,
kingdom, peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it, to establish it with judgment
and justice from henceforth even forever. And the zeal of the
Lord of hosts will perform it." This is God's doings, God's work. Now, what a text. What an awesome
subject. We're left without words to explain
it or to express it, but God was manifest in the flesh. It's called a great mystery.
That's what Paul said in 1 Timothy 3, without controversy, great
is the mystery, the mystery of Godliness. God was manifest in
the flesh, seen of the angels, that he has announced his coming
by the angels. justified, vindicated by the
Spirit, preached to the Gentiles, believed on in the world. That's
a miracle. Received up in the glory. That's
a mystery. And Paul calls it in 2 Corinthians,
unspeakable. It's just impossible to find
human words that can explain or help us to understand God
becoming a man. Thanks be unto God, Paul said,
for his unspeakable gift. Unspeakable. He called it in
Romans, unsearchable. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. And we find in Matthew 22 that
all of the brains, religious brains, found it unanswerable. Our Lord said to the Pharisees,
when they were gathered together, what think ye of the Christ?
Whose son is he? And one of them spoke up and
said, well, according to the scriptures, he's the son of David,
the son of David. And our Lord said, well, how
is it then that David called him Lord? David said, the Lord. God said to my Lord, the Messiah,
sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Now then, to these men he asked, how is he David's son and David's
Lord? And listen to the reply. And no man was able to answer. Mystery, unspeakable, unsearchable,
unanswerable. And how complex and mysterious
is this person? David's Lord, David's son, Mary's
child, and Mary's God, son of God, son of man. In this verse I read to you a
moment ago, he's called a child. Under us, a child is born. And
in the same breath, the prophet calls him a counselor, the counselor. The child is the counselor. He
calls him the son. Under us, a son is given. And
then at the last of the verse, he calls him the father. He's the Son and He's the Father?
That's exactly right. He that hath seen me hath seen
the Father. There are three that bear record in heaven, the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and they're one. I and my Father
are one. And when the Son visited us,
the Father came. That's a mystery. No man can
explain that. Martin Luther was sitting at
his desk one time studying a verse of Scripture. It was our Lord's
cry from the cross, My God, the man Jesus of Nazareth cried,
My God, why have you forsaken me? And he sat there and studied
that scripture. His wife brought his lunch. He
said, I don't want anything. He sat there late in the afternoon,
and then he arose. He wrote this in his own biography,
and he smote on his desk. forsaken God, no man can understand
that. He can believe it, but he can't
understand it. That's what I'm talking about.
He's a man of sorrows, that's what Isaiah called him, a man
of sorrows, acquainted with grief, and yet he's the mighty God. He's said to be despised of men,
rejected, and yet it says the government's on his shoulder.
And his kingdom knows no end. His dominion is from everlasting.
His garments, Isaiah said, are rolled in blood. He is a mighty
warrior that destroyed the enemy. And yet he is the Prince of Peace,
the Prince of Peace, the King of Peace. Oh, he thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. and yet made himself of
no reputation, and took upon himself the form of a serpent,
and was made for a little while lower than the angels in human
flesh, and became obedient." How obedient? Obedient. No man
has ever been obedient. This man was. Unto death, even,
even the death of the cross. Wherefore? highly exalted him,
and those in him, and given him a name above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, every knee will bow. Oh, what a day! I'm looking forward
to that day, when every solitary knee, every voice, every knee
will bow and every voice in heaven, earth, and under the in one accord,
that you will cry out, He is Lord, He is Lord, to the glory of God. Under us, look at my text, under
us a child is born, under us the Son is given. There's no
contradiction there. There's no repetition there.
A child is born who never lived on this earth, who never walked
on this earth, who was never seen on this earth, a child,
a human form. human being. But a son who inhabited
the body of that child was already from everlasting to everlasting,
inhabited that body that was prepared for him. He was given. He came from heaven. You and
I didn't come from heaven. We came from our daddy's loins.
This son of God came from heaven and took up his abode in that
body of that child. There's no contradiction there.
But it's a lesson, it's a lesson not learned by reason. Don't
sit there and try to reason this out, because it can't be. In fact, it doesn't even have
a name. The angel said to Mary, that
holy thing, there's nothing to compare it with, never been and
never will be. That holy thing, born of youth,
that holy thing is the Son of God. It's a lesson not learned
by reason. It's not learned by research.
Don't go back to the books and the writings of men. You're wasting
your time. It's a lesson learned by revelation. That's the only way. Peter, what
are they saying out there about the Son of Man? Who do they say
I, the Son of Man, am? Well, he said, they're all mixed
up out there. Some of them say you're John
the Baptist, who's dead, came back. Some of them say you're
Elijah, who went to heaven on angels' wings, translators. Some say you're one of the prophets.
Well, Peter, whom do you say that I am? He didn't say, son of man. He
said, whom do you say that I am? Not who I became. Not a son of
man, but whom do you say that I am?" Peter said, you're the
Christ, you're the Son of God. Now he said, blessed are you,
Peter, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, you didn't
learn that by reason and research and study with the minds of today. My Father revealed that to you,
that's how you learned it. Our Lord said, no man can come
to me except my Father which sent me draw him. And I'll raise
him up at the last day. It's written in the scriptures,
they shall all be taught of God. My Father revealed that to you.
And all who come to me shall be taught of God. And he that
hath heard and learned of my Father, you come to me. You worship me. you bow down.
You see, there's no seeing Christ in the light of the commentaries
and the books and the creeds and the catechism. You see Christ
only in his own light. He's the light that lighteth
every man that cometh into the world. God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness when he said, back yonder, let
there be light, had shined in our hearts to give us the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. It can come
by reason or research. It comes by revelation. God said,
let there be light. Christ can only be seen in his
own light. And he's the teacher, but he's
the truth. He's the lesson. You don't just learn from him,
you learn of him. You have not so learned Christ,"
Paul said. He's the one to whom we look,
and he's the light by which we see. He's the priest, but wait
a minute, he's the altar. He's the sacrifice. He's the
atonement, and he's the God to whom it's offered. Oh, and it
gets deeper and deeper, doesn't it? It gets better and better,
though. He's the priest after the altar of Melchizedek. Priest
forever. He's the altar. We have an altar,
the scripture says. Y'all don't have an altar down
here. Yes, we do. It's not down here. It never
was down here. It's up there. It's Christ. He's our altar. We don't worship
at a man-made altar. We worship Christ Jesus. Y'all
don't have a priest. Yes, I do. He's not some feminine
man walking around here in a long robe with a broken wrist. That's mean, but that's the way
they look to me. He's the man Christ Jesus. You
just erase that. We have a priest. We have a priest. We have a great high priest.
He's the Son of God. He has an effectual sacrifice
too. He can forgive sin. He can forgive
sin. He's able to say to the uttermost
hymn to come to God by him. Look at John chapter 1. Let me
show you something here in John chapter 1. John 1. Listen to this, verse 1. I want
you to watch this. John chapter 1, verse 1. Now look carefully at this. In
the beginning was the Word. See that? In the beginning was
the Word. Now look down at verse 14. The
first line. The Word was made flesh. Now
look back at verse 1. The Word was with God. Now verse
14. He dwelt among us. Verse 1. The Word was God. Verse 14. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. How beautiful, how wonderful,
how unsearchable, how unspeakable, how unanswerable, how like God
who does the impossible. Now then, I have three questions.
Is this true? All these things that we've read,
the angel coming to Joseph, the announcement of the birth of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the angel coming to Mary announcing that
God would send his Son through her womb. These verses that I've
read, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word dwelt
among us. We beheld his glory. Is this
all true? Did God come down here in human flesh to save us? Is
it true? My second question is this, if it is true, what does
it mean to you and to me? And the third question is, if
it's not true, If this is all false, as some
people say it is, what does that mean? All right, let's try to
answer the question, is it true? Well, the scriptures, the word
of God, which God Almighty gave through his prophets, the scriptures
from Genesis to Revelation, all speak of the coming of God in
human flesh. Isaiah 7 verse 14 says, Behold,
the Lord himself will give you a sign. A virgin shall be with
son, with child. You call his name Immanuel, God
with us. That's all the way through the
Old Testament. God coming to earth. He's coming. That's what
scripture says. He's coming. He's coming. He'll
be the seed of woman. He'll be a priest forever like
Melchizedek. He'll be a king like David, a
prophet like Moses. Messiah, he's coming. That's
what the woman at the well said, the Messiah's coming. He'll tell
us everything. That's what the Old Testament's
all about. He's coming. The desire of all nations. And
then the New Testament declares God was in Christ. Let's turn
and read that. God was in Christ. Over here
in 2 Corinthians 5. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 19. Look
at this. 2 Corinthians 5, verse 18 and
19. All things are of God, who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and given us the ministry
of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself. God was in Christ. That's what
Paul said to the elders at Ephesus when he spoke to them. He said,
you go preach the gospel, this gospel of the blood of God. to the church which he purchased
with his own blood. The church of God which he purchased
with his own blood. That's what Paul called it. So
the scriptures, that's one note through the whole scriptures.
God became a man. Then the angels. I read you a
moment ago how the angels appeared to Joseph and now this is the
Son of God. How they appeared to Mary, this
is the Son of God. How they appeared to the angels,
We didn't read that, but we'll read it tonight. The shepherds
were abiding, keeping their flocks. The angels came down and said,
We bring you good tidings of great joy. Unto you is born this
day in the city of David a Savior, Christ the Lord. And then the
Father in heaven, he bore witness that Christ is his Son. He said
from heaven, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. When Christ was transfigured
on the mount, he said, this is my son. Hear him. The Father announced it. The
works that he did. When our Lord stood on that ship
and made the wind cease and the waves to lie down and the thunder
to stop rolling and the moon to come out, these disciples
said, what manner of man is this? that even the wind and the waves
obey his voice, his works. He gave sight to the blind, made
the dead to live, his works bear witness that he is the Son of
God. Even the demons, let me show you this in Matthew chapter
8. Even the demons who possessed people, when our Lord encountered
these demons. It says in Matthew 8, verse 28,
listen to this, And when he was come to the other side of the
country, of the Gerges seas, there met him two possessed with
devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no
man could pass that way. They were afraid of these fellows.
And behold, these demons cried out, saying, What have we to
do with thee, Jesus, thy Son of God? Art thou come hither
to torment us before the time? Scriptures say he's the Son of
God. The angels declare he's the Son
of God. The Father in heaven said he's
my only begotten Son. The works that he did declare
he's the Son of God. They said he's the son of God.
And the resurrection. When God raised him from the
dead, the scripture says God declared that Jesus Christ is
the one by whom he'll judge the world. That man by whom he'll
judge the world in Rochester. It's true. Now, second question. This being true. What does it
mean to me? Well, it means these four things.
Number one, it means I have a representative. I have what the scripture calls
a mediator. God is one, but he's the mediator
between God and me, the man Christ Jesus. I have a mediator. I have
a great high priest with God who has a perfect sacrifice.
God was never pleased with those Old Testament animal sacrifices. But he was pleased God to bruise
him. He accepted us in his righteousness
of blood. I have a representative who is
agreeable to God. See, God sent him. God chose
him. No man takes this honor upon himself, not even Christ. He said, The Father sent me.
The Spirit of God has anointed me to be the prophet. So this
mediator is agreeable to God, and he's sure agreeable to me.
He meets my needs. He's the only one that can. He's
the only one that does. And I have one with whom the
Father is well pleased. God's already said that. In fact,
he's sealed it with this word. To the Son, he's saying, sit
down at my right hand until I make you enemies, you footstool. I have a representative who is
able to restore to me all that I lost in Adam. As in Adam all die, in Christ
we are made alive. By one man's disobedience, we
are made sinners. By his obedience, we are made
righteous. As we have borne the image of
the earthy, we will bear the image of the heavenly. I have
a representative. Secondly, I have a redeemer.
a Redeemer, a kinsman Redeemer. You see, when Ruth the Moabitess
came from Moab with her mother-in-law Naomi, it sold out. Her husband sold everything.
He sold his possessions, he sold his farm, he sold his house,
he sold everything and left the country. And they came back poor,
broken, bankrupt beggars with nothing. and they had to go out
in the field and follow the reapers and just pick up what somebody
left. But there was a law that if a
person had a kinsman, a kinsman, a near kinsman, a very near kinsman
in the Jewish people, their nation, if they had a kinsman who was
rich, wealthy, who loved them, who was able and willing to restore
their land, what they'd sold and lost and forfeited. That
if he would, he could do it. And that's what Christ is. He's
our kinsman redeemed. He kinned to us. How has he kinned
to us? He made flesh and dwelt among
us. He became a man. He's wealthy. All things are
his. The Father has given him all
things. And he's able to restore what we lost in Adam. He is the
best, he's willing. He said, no man takes my life
from me, I lay it down willingly. I love my sheep, I give my life.
So I have a Redeemer, a kinsman Redeemer, who's able, who's wealthy,
who's willing, who loves me, who paid the price and restored
to me all that I lost in Adam and enabled God to be just and
justify. That's what it says over in the
book of Job, turn him loose, let him go. deliver him from
the pen, I found a ransom. You have a ransom? Sure you do.
I've got a representative. I've got a redeemer. I've got
a ransom. It's paid. You're not your own.
You're bought with a price, the blood of Christ. And then I have
a perfect righteousness. See, he had to become a man.
He had to become a poor man. He had to become of fleshly. He wasn't made in sinful flesh,
he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. He became a baby
and a boy who worked in a carpentry shop and a man. It's hard to
explain, but he's God as much as if he wasn't a man, as if
he never left the bosom of the Father. He's God. See, he knew
men's He could take two loaves and five fish and feed 5,000.
He could make the lightning stop and the wind quit blowing, and
the dead rise, and the blind see, and the lame walk, and the
dumb deaf hear. He could do all those things
because he's God, as if he wasn't a man. But yet he's man as if
he wasn't God. Because the devil said to him
when he'd fasted 40 days, he said, are you hungry? Well, if
you're the son of God, why don't you make this stone into bread?
You can do that. You can feed 5,000. You can sure
feed yourself. But he couldn't. Not as a man. He can as God,
but not as a man. Because I can't do that. He represents
me. See, he had the hunger. He had
the thirst. He had to be weary. He had to
be tempted in all points as we are, all of us. You let your
mind run around about temptation and all these things, temptation,
temptation, trial. He had to be, yet without sin,
because he was working out for us a righteousness. I have a
representative, I have a Redeemer, I have a ransom, His blood, and
I have a righteousness. I stand right here and you sit
right there, perfect before God. Oh, preacher, don't talk about
perfection to me. I know me better than that. You
don't know you like God knows you in Christ. You know you in
you. You know me in me, but you don't
know me like God knows me. God doesn't see one sin in any
of his people. They are holy, unblameable, unreprovable
in his sight. That's Bible, as the old preacher
said. That there's Bible. We're in
Christ just as holy as he is, accepted. And to be accepted
has to be perfect, doesn't it? That's his righteousness. And
not only that, but this being so, I have a hope of resurrection. That's right, a hope of resurrection. Because he lives, I'm going to
live. I do live and I will live. That's
my hope of resurrection. Now here's that third question
I'll close with. What if it's not so? What if all this that
I've been preaching 50 years is a bunch of baloney? What if
it is? But I'll tell you this, if it's
not true, Jesus of Nazareth is not God, if that's true. He's
the world's greatest imposter, he's the world's biggest liar
and fool, and he's a madman. He's not a good teacher. You
read that article in the bulletin. He's not a moral man. He's a
fool if he's not what he said he is. I am God. Secondly, all
who worship Jesus Christ and call on his name are idolaters. We're worshiping somebody who's
not God. And only God's to be worshiped.
And if this is not true, his death on the cross, if it be
not the death of a Savior, is the death of a madman and of
no benefit to anybody. And if Christ be not God, risen
from the tomb, you're yet in your sins. I'm a false witness
of God. The dead rise not. Forget it!
Forget it. And we are of all men most miserable,
and we have no mediator, no representative, no high priest, no atonement,
and no way to God. if this is not true. But my friends,
it is true. It is true. The hymn writer wrote
this, Jesus, my great high priest, shed his blood and died, and
my guilty conscience seeks no sacrifice beside. To this dear
surety's hand do I commit my cause, He answers and fulfills
all the Father's broken laws. And my Advocate appears to all
his people on high. The Father sees the Son and lays
his thunder by him. That's beautiful, that sepsis
in the blood. And his blood did once atone,
and not all that hell can save, for he pleased before the throne.
And he'll never turn us away. It's so. Who is he? Look at my text again, Isaiah,
and I'll let you go. Isaiah 9. Who is he? A child is born, a son is given,
and the government, creation, the universe, providence, God's
kingdom and salvation is on his shoulders, in his hand. And his
name is wonderful. That's who God said he is to
Manoah and his wife. My name is wonderful, secret.
He's the counselor. He's the mighty God, the everlasting
Father. He's the Prince of Peace. Therefore,
being justified by faith in Christ through his blood, we have peace
with God. Aren't you glad that God has
revealed to us the gospel. We know who Christ is. We know
why he came. We know what he did. We know
why he did it. We know where he is now. And
we stumble around. We can't put it in the words
that we'd like to put it in or the words that the prophets in
which they put it. But it's here. I know whom I
have believed. I'm persuaded he's able to keep
that which I've committed to him, don't you? I'm persuaded.
And if this is not the gospel, there is no gospel. My salvation
is not in my hands, or your salvation is not in my hands either, or
the priest, or the pope, or the fathers, or all these preachers. My salvation is in the hands
of Him who's at the right hand of God. I've committed it to
Him against that day. That's who I'm preaching to you,
Christ and Him crucified.