The Word Made Flesh

Now returning for the message
tonight to the first chapter of John, John chapter 1. In the beginning was the Word. Now these words teach our Lord's
eternal existence. In the beginning was the Word.
The same was in the beginning with God. When our Lord prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, Father, glorify thou
me with the glory which I had with thee before the world was. And Paul wrote in Colossians,
he is before all things, and by him all things consist. This is our Lord's eternity. In the beginning was the Word. And it continues and tells us,
and the Word was with God. These words teach his equality. He thought it not robbery to
be equal with God. They took up stones to stone
him. And he said, Many good works have I done among you, for which
of these do you stone me? They said, We are not stoning
thee for good works, but because thou, being a man, makest thyself
equal with God. I and my Father, he said, are
one. I don't understand the Trinity,
but I will not deny it. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And Philip said, Show us the
Father, and Christ said, Philip, have I been so long time with
you, and yet thou hast not known me? He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father, equal with God. He was in the beginning with
God, he was with God, and what's the next line? The word was God. These words teach his deity,
not made God, he was God. Not appointed God, he was God. Under us a son is given, under
us a child is born, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Living Lord, the True God, who purposed all
things, who created all things, who provided all things. The
songwriter put it this way, Great God, how infinite art thou! What worthless worms are we! Let the whole race of creatures
bow and pay their praise to Thee. Thy throne eternal ages stood
ere seas or stars were made. Thou art the ever-living Lord
where all the nations dead. Eternity with all its years stands
present in Thy view. To Thee, my Savior, nothing old
appears. My God, there is nothing new. In the beginning was the Word,
his eternity. The Word was with God, his equality. And the Word was God, his Deity. Now look down at verse 14. And
this Word, this Word which was with God, this Word which was
God, This Word was made flesh. Now, he wasn't made God, he was
God. He wasn't appointed God, he was
God. But he was made some things.
He was God. In the beginning was the Word,
the Word was with God, the Word was God. But he was made, the
Word was made flesh. Now, the Bible tells us five
things about what Christ was made, and I want to show them
to you tonight. It says he was made flesh. He was made of a
woman, he was made under the law, he was made a curse, he
was made sin. First of all, verse 14 of John
1 says, and the word, Eternity, Equality, Deity, was made flesh. He was not flesh in the beginning.
He was not flesh when the first ray of light shone, when God
said, Let there be light. He wasn't flesh then. He was
not flesh when the dry land appeared, when he said, Let there be dry
land. Let the dry land be separated from the water. He was not flesh
when the first river flowed, nor when the first bird sang,
nor when the first rose bloomed. He was not flesh when Adam and
Eve were created and spoke. For by him all things were created
that are in heaven, that are on earth, and he is before all
things. But in the fulness of time, in
his Father's purpose, he actually was made flesh." The Word was
made flesh. He said, "...a body thou hast
prepared me." Note three things about this. First of all, he
was made flesh, not just a body. not just a body, but the whole
human nature. Our Lord Jesus Christ took under
himself a human nature consisting of a true body and a real soul,
not a phantom nor a superman. But our Lord took upon himself
a frail human body that was able to thirst that was able to be
hungry, that was able to feel pain, a human body, a frail human
body, with all the infirmities and all the needs, all but sin. He was made flesh, not by changing
one nature into another, but by the assumption of a human
nature. Watch this now. Christ remained
what he was. What was he? eternal, equal with
the Father, deity. He remained what he was and became
what he was not. A divine person and a real human
person, but one person. He was made flesh. The Scripture
says, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, numbered with the
transgressors. one of them, identified with
us, tempted in all points, tried in all points as we are, and
yet absolutely, immaculately holy without one sin. Turn to Hebrews 2. Listen to
Paul here. In Hebrews 2, talking about our
Master's incarnation, and he says here in Hebrews 2, Now remember what I said, our
Lord took upon himself a body, a body thou hast prepared me.
Christ remained what he was, he became what he was not. He
took a human nature, able to bleed, able to suffer, able to
perspire. He grew weary and tired, he had
to sleep. It says in Hebrews 2, verse 17,
"...wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren," just like me and just like you, "...that
he might be a merciful and a faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
Our Lord was made flesh. But notice the scripture says
he was made in the likeness of sinful flesh. His flesh was not
sinful. He never sinned. He did no sin,
but he was made flesh. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
4. Our Lord was made flesh. The Word was made flesh. But
it says here in Galatians 4, verse 4, he was made of a woman. Listen to it. But when the fullness
of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman. He who denies the virgin birth
denies the Bible. It doesn't matter who it is.
He who denies the virgin birth denies the deity of Jesus Christ. He who denies the virgin birth
makes Jesus Christ a son of Adam and consequently a fallen sinner. He who denies the virgin birth
makes the cross of Calvary a blood-stained failure and folly. The scripture
says, A divine sign shall be given, for the Lord himself shall
give you a sign. A virgin shall bring forth a
son, a divine son, and his name shall be called Immanuel, a divine
visitation, God with us. Now, brethren, and I don't think
I exaggerate when I say this, The virgin birth of Jesus Christ
is the alpha of his earthly pilgrimage. And let that be accepted, and
let that be believed. And the whole alphabet follows
the scripture exactly. But deny the virgin birth. And
you put a question mark on everything he said while he was here on
this earth, and you put a question mark on everything he did. Because
unless he was born of the Holy Spirit, he was the world's greatest
imposter. W.B. Reilly, a great old preacher
some years ago, said this, and I think we ought to pay heed
to it. With whatever features of rhetoric The denial of the
virgin birth is covered. It is a death spell that Christianity,
to deny the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, makes the whole New Testament
a fiction and a fraud. Note this word carefully. In
the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. not created as Adam was, not
begotten of man as you were. It doesn't even use the word
born, though he certainly was, but it says he was made of a
woman. What did God say when Adam and
Eve fell? He came to them and he said this
to the serpent, to Adam and Eve, I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, between thy seed and her seed." Her seed? The woman's seed, made of a woman,
without the aid of a man. And that's never been. Every
human being is the seed of man. There is no such thing as the
seed of woman, naturally. But God says there will be a
seed of woman, just one. And I'll put enmity between thee,
thy seed, and her seed, and thou shalt bruise his heel, but he'll
crush thy head." This is the seed of woman. Here it is, God
sent forth his Son made of a woman, made in her, made of her, formed
in her, of her flesh, and of her seed, God's divine Son, the
Messiah, the Redeemer. The ancient of days became the
infant of days. And this is something to think
about. He who one day in the Garden of Eden made a woman and
brought her to Adam, four thousand years later was
made of a woman and brought to us sinners. sin came through
woman, and the Savior came through woman. How low he stooped to
become one with us, one with us in every way, made of a woman,
made flesh. Now look at the next line here
in Galatians 4. It says, When the fulness of time was come,
God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. Now look at this,
made under the law. He was made under the civil law
as a recognized son of Joseph. He wasn't Joseph's son, he was
Mary's son. He was God's son. But recognized
in Nazareth and in Judea and in Bethlehem as the son of Joseph,
he was under the laws of taxation. He was under the laws of obedience,
he was under the laws of the government, he was under the
civil law as a son of Joseph. Also he was made under the ceremonial
law as a son of Abraham. And all of the requirements of
the Mosaic law were fulfilled in Christ. And he was made as
a son of man under the moral law. And our Lord said of that
law, the civil law, the ceremonial law, the moral law, I came not
to destroy the law. I came to fulfill it. And this
he did as a man with perfect obedience. Turn to Romans 3.
As our representative, he fulfilled every law, every jot, every tittle, As our representative, he met
the law head-on and fulfilled all that it required. The scripture
says what the law could not do. What couldn't the law do? Well,
it couldn't find any righteousness in me, but it couldn't find any
fault in him. In Romans 3, verse 19, Now we
know that what things whoever the law saith, it saith to them
who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped. And all
the world may become guilty, guilty before God. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified.
The law cannot cleanse, it can only condemn. The law cannot
redeem, it can only reveal my guilt, my evil. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. The revelation of sin, the manifestation
of sin. The Lord doesn't make me a sinner,
the law reveals my sin. But now, the righteousness of
God, the holiness of God is manifest. It's revealed without the law. Being witness for the law and
the prophets. What is it? Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. by the faith of Christ, by the
obedience of Christ, by the loyalty of Christ, by the holiness of
Christ, by the righteousness of Christ. The righteousness
of God is revealed by the active obedience of Christ, and it's
unto all, look at it, and it's unto all, and it's upon all,
and it's for all them that believe. There's no difference, Jew or
Greek, Jew or Gentile. Turn to Romans 5. How did we become unrighteous?
By our representative Adam's sin. How did we become holy? By our representative Christ's
obedience. How did we fall? By our federal
head's disobedience. How are we restored? By our federal
head's obedience. in Romans 5 verse 19, for as
by one man's disobedience many were made sinners," that's when
we became sinners, so, "...by the obedience of one shall many
be made righteous." The word, Equality, deity, is made flesh,
and he was made of a woman. Fulfilling God's prophecy and
God's promise, the Messiah came, the seed of woman, with flesh
and blood, bones, infirmities, temptation, trials. As a human
being, he never ceased to be what he was, he became what he
was not. He came down here into this world
and met this holy, spotless, pure, immaculate law, and as
a human being, with eyes and ears and a mouth and a heart
and feelings and touch and sense and smell, he fulfilled every
jot and tittle of it perfectly, so that the Father said, This
is my Son in whom I am well pleased. And man, on the throne of judgment,
said, I can find no fault in him." He's a perfect man. And he did it as my representative.
With his spotless garments on, I am as holy as that holy one. Somebody said, I wish I had a
life like that. In Christ you do. I wish I had a righteousness
like that. In Christ you do. I wish I had a record like that.
In Christ you do. But natural man, in his natural
religion, in his godless religion, is going about to establish his
own righteousness and will not submit. And that's what it takes,
submission. Do you know, Ralph Barnard said
one time that over in John 1 verse 12, as many as received him,
the word there he said is submit, as many as will submit to him. will be made the righteousness
of God. They will not submit themselves
unto the righteousness of God which is Christ. He was made
under the law. Now then, Galatians 3, verse
13, he was made a curse. He was made
a curse. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law. What's the curse of the law?
The curse of the law is this, the soul that sinneth shall surely
die. That's the curse of the law.
Sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death. The wages of sin
is death. Cursed is everyone. Look back
at verse 10. As many as are of the works of
the law unto the curse of the law, and here it is, it is written,
Cursed is every one that continueth not, as best he can, to keep
the law of God. No, that's not what it says.
It says, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. James
said to offend in one point is to be guilty of the whole law
of God. whole law of God. And it applies
not just to the action, but to the attitude. Christ said, Thou
hast heard it said by them of old, Thou shalt not kill. I say
unto thee, to be angry with your brother without a cause is to
be guilty of murder, in danger of hell fire. Where
the law says, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Christ said,
Thou shalt not think it. The curse of the law is, Cursed
is every one that continueth not in all things, not only in
action, but in attitude, not only in deed, but in thought,
not only in thought, but in word, in all things. But Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. How? Look at verse 13,
being made a curse for us. One of my favorite illustrations
Children always love this. I wish we could become children
again. Our Lord said, except you become
as a little child, you shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Wherever I go, I use this illustration in meetings, because young people
understand what I'm saying. They can enter into these illustrations
The little boy one time came to his pastor and he said, I'd
like to hear Brother Mahan preach. The pastor was Brother Luther
Hooks over in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina. He said, why
son? He said, well, he'll preach around and he'll tell you something.
And then he'll preach around and he'll tell you something.
He meant by that I'd just talk a little while and then I'd give
a story, you know, an illustration. That's all he was interested
in anyhow. Well anyway, they had this little one-room schoolhouse. somewhere in the hills of Eastern
Kentucky or East Tennessee. First through the seventh or
eighth grade, long years ago. And they couldn't get a teacher
to stay there. They'd bring teachers in there, men teachers back in
those days, and these big old country boys were 17, 18 years
old, still in the sixth or seventh grade, you know, and they'd come
to school and they'd give the teacher a hard time. And they
quit. And so they finally got a fella
to take that school job. He was just a little old dried-up
fella, wasn't big as a peanut, you know. And when the boys came
to school that morning, they saw that boy, that new teacher
standing out in front of the school, and they thought, well,
he won't last long. A puff of wind will blow him
away. But he fooled them. He got up
in front of the class that morning, stood there and looked them over,
you know, little kids in the first grade and big kids in the
second grade. Some of them already shaving
in the fourth grade, you know, and he looked them over and he
said, now this, this isn't my school, this is your school.
Well, they knew that, you know, it's been their school a long
time. They took it over a long time ago. But he said, tell you
what I want you to do. He said, I want you to make the
rules and I'll enforce them. It sounded like fun, you know.
So he went to the blackboard and he said, now I want you to
put the rules up here. I'll write them. You tell me
what they're going to be. And then I also want you to tell
me what the punishment will be for breaking the rule." So he
stood there with his chalk in his hand, and one fellow, a great
big old boy named Jimmy, stood up and said, well, said, I think
it ought to be a rule that you can't steal anybody's lunch.
The teacher said, I think that's a good rule. We shouldn't steal
people's lunches. So he wrote up there that I shall
not steal your lunches. He said, now, Jimmy, you made
that rule. What's going to be the punishment in the event someone
steals a lunch? Well, he said, I think you ought
to get ten lashes on his bare back. Teacher said, that's pretty
strong, isn't it? Well, you ought not steal lunches.
So he wrote up that ten lashes on the bare back, and then he,
they kept on going, you know, all the different rules. Not
cheat at marbles and all these other things, and finally he
had ten, eleven, twelve rules, and, and you know remarkably,
it worked. Till one day. Jimmy came to the
teacher, the fella that made the first rule, I shall not steal
lunches. He came and said, somebody stole
my lunch. And the teacher said, well, you know who it is? He
said, no, I don't. The teacher said, well, I'll
have to find out. So he called all the children in from the
playground. They sat down. He got up and walked a little
bit, and he realized he was at a critical stage in his administration. So he said, I want to know who
stole that lunch. I can find out, but I'd rather
the person admit it. So they waited a minute, finally
a little old boy in the back, a little skinny fella named Billy,
poor, had only a pair of overalls with one gallon, you know, and
an old coat on, an old man's coat, and it was right here in
front, no button, the cloth was pushed through the hole, the
nail stuck through it and pulled up around his throat like this,
and he came forward and he said, I stole it. Teach said, Bailey
said, why'd you steal it? Teach said, I was hungry. Teach
said, didn't you have a lunch? No, sir. When's the last time
you ate? Two or three days ago. You didn't have any breakfast? No, sir. Well, son, you stole
the lunch. Yes, sir. Take off your coat. Don't make me take my coat off.
Take off your coat, son. So he took off his coat and he
didn't have on a shirt. See his little old ribs sticking
through his skin there, you know. The class sat there in astonishment. Teacher told them, said, bend
over the desk. He bent over the bed. He reached
over and got that long switch. And he raised it in the air and
a voice back there in the back said, don't you whip that boy.
Teacher looked up and it was Jimmy standing up. Go ahead,
big boy. Teacher said, now Jimmy, I got to whip him. You see the
law? You made it. You see the punishment? You said it. And we don't have
a school, and we don't have a law, if we don't punish the offender.
He's got to be punished, and I'm going to punish him. Old
Jimmy started down the aisle. He said, I said, don't you whip
that boy. Teacher said, I'm sorry, Jimmy, I'm going to whip this
boy. I'm going to fulfill the law. The law must punish sin. Jimmy started taking off his
shirt. He came up and he pushed Billy aside, laid across the
desk, and he said, don't hit him, hit me instead. And the teacher stood there and
brought that switch down ten times on Jimmy's back. Billy
stood over there crying. And when he got through, Billy
walked up and put his arm around him and said, thank you, Jimmy,
for taking my licking. You see, the law was broken,
the punishment was set, and it had to be fulfilled. And God
Almighty made His law. And you and I have broken it.
The scripture says, what the law saith, it saith to them that
are under law, that the whole world might be guilty. I might
not have broken the first one openly, or the second one, but
to offend in one point, in attitude, motive, deed, word, action, thought,
imagination, dream, I've broken God's law. I'm a son of Adam,
I'm flesh, I violated the law. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
down here and said, Justice, don't whip him, whip me! And he was wounded for my transgressions,
he was bruised for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace
was upon him, and by his stripes I'm healed." God will, God must
punish sin. And my sins have been punished.
The stripes are right up yonder on the right hand of the Father.
The wounds are in his hands and in his feet. And the stripes
are across his back. He took my curse." Last of all,
turn to 2 Corinthians 5.21. The Word was made flesh. The
Word was made of a woman. The Word was made under the law.
The Word was made a curse. And last of all, in 2 Corinthians
5, verse 21, it says, "...he hath made him to be seen." He
hath made him to be sin for us. He knew no sin, but God made
him to be sin. Think of it. He who knew no sin
was made sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. wonder of oneness, the sinless
became sinful, that the sinful might be sinless. What does it
mean, Preacher, he was made sin? It means this, he stood before
the Father with my sin upon him, that I might stand before the
Father with no sin justified. He was numbered with the transgressors. He bade the sin of many, that
we might not bade them, that we might be free from all guilt.
He actually, literally, took my sin in his body on the tree,
and he was punished in full. He made his soul an offering
for sin. We see him in the hands of wicked
men, in the hands of Satan, and yet even in the hands of the
Father. walking the winepress of all
that wrath, the wrath of man, the wrath of the Roman Empire,
the wrath of the religious world, the wrath of the world of demons,
the wrath of Almighty God in heaven. Christ walked that winepress
of wrath, wrath that was stirred up, wrath that was united, wrath
that was organized from the whole universe. He walked that winepress
of wrath alone. And he drank the last bitter
drink from the bottom of the cup, and there was nothing left
for me. Nothing. Our Father, bless this word which
we have read. Show us the glories, oh, the
matchless glories of him who loved us and gave himself for
us. This is our hope, this is our
refuge, this is our message. Blessed we pray thee to the glory
of him who fulfilled it, who is the message, who is the refuge,
who is all things. But in his name we pray, amen.

The Word Made Flesh

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The Word Made Flesh

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