I went to see Ethel yesterday,
and she told me her son-in-law, who's a pastor of Hurricane Grace
Church in Ashland, Kentucky, Pastor Frank Tate, has been diagnosed
with a very aggressive type of prostate cancer. He's on chemotherapy
right now, so remember him as Frank Tate in your prayers, and
seek the Lord's help for him. He's a gospel preacher. I pray
the Lord will be merciful. Other than that, let's begin
our worship service with hymn number 460, For a Thousand Tongues
to Sing, My Great Redeemer's Prayer. Oh, for a thousand tongues to
sing my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King,
the triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim ♪ The honors of thy name ♪ Jesus
a name that charms our fears ♪ That bids our sorrows cease
♪ Tis music in the sinner's ears ♪ Tis life and health and peace
♪ He breaks the power of capsule sin His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Hear Him leadeth His praise ye
down. Your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind behold your Savior come. And leap ye lame for joy. Glory to God and His love be
ever, ever given by saints below and saints above the church in
earth and heaven. Hymn number 267. All things work
out for good. 267. ♪ All things work out for good
we know ♪ Such is God's great design ♪ He orders all our steps
below ♪ For purposes divine ♪ For purposes divine ♪ This is the
plan the test, and lets me lorry in
his wheel. For well I know tis best. For well I know tis best. So now the future holds no fear. God guards the work begun. And mortals are immortal here
Until their work is done Until their work is done Someday the
path he chose for me Will all be understood In heaven's clearer
light I'll see All things worked out for good. All things worked
out for good. If you have your Bibles, turn with
me to John chapter 1. I want to read one verse of scripture
tonight. and the Word was made flesh. Verse 14. And the Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. And we beheld His glory, the
glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and
truth. Let us pray. Our Father, we are
thankful that we can read this passage of Scripture And we are
thankful that you have given us faith to believe. It's not merely a matter of embracing
a fact, but embracing the truth that is the Word. We look at this passage full
of wonder and mystery. and do bow our heads in adoration.
For we know therein lies our hope, that the word was made flesh
and dwelt among us. Help us, Lord, to behold that
glory. See him as the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. We thank you, Father, for the
mercies that are new every day. We ask for those who are sick,
remember Brother Frank Tate, to be with him and also with
his family as they minister to him and the doctors as they seek
to help him with this cancer. Pray for the others who requested
prayer. Pray for Arlene as she's getting
ready to see her doctor. For Cynthia as she's getting
ready in October to see her doctor. to the others who requested prayer,
Loretta and Crow, and those of our shut-ins. Father, we ask
if you'd be pleased tonight to give us a sense of the glory
that is in this passage that describes our Savior. Would to God we could see it
and rejoice in it and glorify your name. But what you've done
for poor, wretched sinners in this world, we're thankful that His blood
availed for us, that it washed away our sins,
that it sunk them to the bottom of the sea, separated them from
us as far as the east is from the west, and cast them behind
your back. We are thankful that though we
are ever reminded in our own selves of how wretched we are,
that you remember our sins no more because of the perfect sacrifice
of Jesus Christ. Help us, Lord, tonight to see His face, for therein
is the glory of God. We pray in Christ's name, amen. This passage is what Paul was
talking about when he said, Great is the mystery of godliness,
God manifest or displayed or openly displayed in the flesh. Our Lord said to one of his disciples
when they said, Show us the Father. He said, If you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. This passage of scripture is
the catalyst and the story of our salvation. The salvation
of sinners was such a monumental task, a task that infinitely
exceeds the power of any mere creature. that only a supernatural
being can perform our salvation. And he that undertakes to satisfy
God by obedience for the creature's sin must himself be God. Nothing
less will do. He that performs such a perfect
obedience by doing and suffering, all that the law required, must
be a man. To save me, he must be God. To
suffer, he must be a man. The mystery is how these two
natures may be united in one person, remaining distinct one
from another and yet cooperating together in the greatest mediatorial
work that's ever been known to man. This is that great mystery
of godliness, God manifest in the flesh. In our text we have
before us the wonderful revelation of Jesus Christ in the declaring
of how these two natures are united in the magnificent person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was promised in Isaiah 7 14 when it said, His name shall
be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. Until this time,
God was only considered as separate from us. That's what one of the
words for holy means, separate. God is out there. He's beyond
the touch and grasp of humanity. He must deal with humanity because
humanity cannot deal with Him. He's out there, but not anymore. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. Emmanuel, God, is with us. God is with us. apostle john
by inspiration inspired word divine like divine poetry gives
us this clear declaration he begins in verse one when he says
in the beginning was the word and the word was good with god
and the word was god and then says in the word was made flesh
the word was made flesh seven things i want to look at tonight
i'll try to be quick i don't have a watch my watch quit so
i may preach to twelve o'clock First is this, who is the person
assuming flesh? Who is the person? It is none
other than the second person of the glorious Godhead, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased God that in the fullness
of the Godhead that Christ would dwell bodily. And the one that
assumed flesh is God Almighty. God Almighty assumed human flesh. And why is He called the Word?
He is called the Word because He is the subject and the fulfillment
of all prophecy and promise written in Scripture. Scripture says,
All the law, that is, the Word of God, and the prophets, all
that the prophets wrote, from Isaiah all the way to Malachi,
all of them gave testimony or gave witness of Jesus Christ.
That is what Peter said at Pentecost. All the prophets gave witness
of Him. He is that Messiah promised in
Daniel 9 who will seal up the prophecy. That prophecy is the
Word of God who alone is worthy to loose the seals and open the
book as He has spoken of in Revelation chapter 5. He expounds and reveals
the mind and will of God to men as the only begotten of the Father. verse 18 he says the only begotten
son which is in the bosom of the father he has declared him
christ has declared the father that's what it says in john 17
several times in the high priestly prayer that christ prayed he
came to reveal the father to reveal the father now god jehovah
god elohim out there no man can touch he's seen in different
capacity he has a son so he's the father that's how the father
is revealed he is the divine communication the divine communication
from god the language of god according to hebrews chapter
one for god spoke before to the the prophets by in various ways
and sundry means but now in these last days has spoken to us by
his son the lord jesus christ if you want to know who god is
this is the only god you're going to know People talk about the
Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus Christ,
God the Father. He's also God the Son. He's also God the Spirit. He's
all things. He is called when He was promised
to be born. For unto us a child is born,
and a son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulders,
and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father. This is the description of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And thirdly, what is the nature
of flesh that he assumed? He took on him. And this is the
hardest thing for us to grasp as a human being because our
telescope is turned the wrong way. We're looking through the
big end and we see everything small. We're looking at us as
the human beings that are the measure of things. Don't do that.
We're the fallen ones. We're the mutated ones. We don't.
Nothing should be compared to us but a worm of the dust and
a maggot on a dunghill. The flesh he assumed, however,
was just exactly our flesh. Our flesh. He took on him the
entire human nature, body, soul, and spirit, without assuming
the depravity. It's a mystery. He was a real
human being. The word flesh is employed here
rather than the word man to show the amazingly gracious condescension
and abasement of Christ to become identified with those who He
came to save. Because His children were flesh
and blood, it says in Hebrews 2, He partook of the same. He was made, according to Romans
chapter 4, chapter 8, Romans chapter 8,
made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without sin. Philippians
2 said He took on the form and the fashion of a man and became
obedient even to the death of the cross. So the word flesh
is employed to teach us that this was a real human being.
Oh, we sing, oh the mighty gulf that God did span. Indeed it
was. We can never begin to understand
the condescension of the thrice holy God to take upon himself
and unite himself with human flesh. Oh, what a glory it was
for man to be united with God. But what a condescension it was
for God to be united with man. He had to be made like His people
and yet remain sinless in order to be a just substitute and a
suitable sacrifice for sin. Why did Christ live a perfect
life? We're not saved by His life.
We're saved by His death. But why did He live a perfect
life? Because He must be the sacrifice that is acceptable
to God. It must be a perfect sacrifice. He must have neither spot, nor
blemish, nor any such thing. He must stand before God as wholly
pure. He was the only human being ever
that was a suitable sacrifice. His death actually accomplished
something. Our death won't accomplish anything. It'll just finish us
off. We're not gonna accomplish anything.
You never heard somebody stand before a casket and look at a
body and say they finally did it right? They don't say things
like that. Because it's a final declaration. Human death is a final declaration
that our will doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Because everybody
who's dying has a will to live, but it don't work. His death actually accomplished
something because He was the perfect man, the perfect man. How did Christ assume our character? How did He assume this flesh,
our nature if you will? He was made flesh and not merely
clothed in flesh as some would like like it to be in a vain
attempt to deny the existence of Christ's glorified body that
now rides in glory. There's a man in glory, a man,
a human being. We talked about the Lamb of God
Sunday, that's a man, that's the Lord Jesus Christ. There's
a man in glory sitting at the right hand of the Father, having
accomplished salvation. He was made, that is, he took
or assumed human nature in the unity of his divine person, with
all its integral parts and essential properties and all its frailties
and all its weaknesses. He got tired. He needed sleep. He got hungry. All the things
that we have. He got thirsty on the cross. He said, I thirst. I'm thirsty. He called the oceans into existence. He makes the rain. He can send
water down. He can call 10,000 angels. And
he said, I thirst. Why? Because he's a man. He's
a man who is very God. But thus made he was a true and
real man. If you want to judge humanity,
don't start with you. Start with Jesus Christ. And
you'll see how far we've fallen. See how far we've fallen. Yet
we must be careful not to think that somehow there was a mutation
here of God and flesh. was not. No more than when he
was made to be sin for us on Calvary's tree. He did not become
a sinner. Sin was made to meet on him.
It means that somehow he ceased being sinless and became sinful.
That's not what it says. He was made to be sin for us.
That was by imputation. His deity, this is the thing,
his deity did not bleed over into his humanity. and his humanity
did not bleed over into his deity. As the old writers used to say,
he was very God of very God and very man of very man. He is as much God, I believe
Scott Richardson said this, he is as much God as if he were
not man and he is as much man as if he were not God. This is a unification of God
and man. God and man. And what is the
vital significance, the utter necessity of God being made flesh? Why would He do such a thing?
Who could come up with such a plan? If we were to try to come up
with such a plan, it would be blasphemous for us to say, well,
here's how I ought to be saved. God ought to become a man. No,
wait a minute. God ought to become a man and
then die in my room instead. No, that ain't right, can't be
right. Only God can come up with something like this. Only God
can come up with such a scheme. Without Him becoming man, there
could be no salvation. There could be no salvation.
His incarnation and condescension, His doing and dying was the full
accomplishment of salvation. And when I say the full accomplishment,
I mean the full accomplishment. Redemption, reconciliation, perfection,
justification, sanctification. All those things were settled
in a few hours on the cross of Calvary, which God has purposed
in eternity for His elect." All of that belonged to them before
they knew it. It was accomplished for them before they were born,
before they existed, and accomplished in time when some people existed,
but we surely didn't. We surely didn't 2,000 years
later. God had purpose. to redeem us,
to justify us, to sanctify us, to give us wisdom, and to make
us righteous before God. He birthed us and adopted us
into His kingdom. It was a once and done thing
with the Lord Jesus Christ in His death. That's what it says
in Hebrews chapter 10, by one sacrifice. He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified by the will of God. he hath perfected
forever, so much so that God will remember their sins no more.
This is what took place on Calvary's tree, and it was a man who hung
there. This man was different from all the other men, high
priests and priests that had served all that community in
the Old Covenant. They didn't ever take away sin.
They were not made perfect. No man was perfect pertaining
to conscience by their work. Their sin was never put away,
but this man, After he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever,
he sat down on the right hand of the Father until his innards
had been made his footstool. That's Jesus Christ, the man. This is a vital gospel issue
that religion either ignores or denies, but with that which
no man can truly know or honorify or glorify God, the only way
a man can glorify God is glorifying his Son in the substitutionary
work he accomplished on Calvary Street. This was a done deal.
because God was made a man. The Word was made flesh. Now
what is the proof that God actually came in the flesh? It is singularly
confirmed by the one who walked with Him, John, who calls himself
an eyewitness of the account. He dwelt among us and we beheld
His glory. Now when He walked among men,
He didn't look glorified. except on the Mount of Transfiguration,
perhaps at the baptism. But other than that, he walked
just like everybody else. They said, he's not just Joseph's
son. He's not the carpenter's son. We knew he is. Nothing good
can come out of Nazareth. That's what they said about him.
He would just look like everybody else, but they saw his glory
in the words that he spoke and the promises that he made. This
is no fantasy. He walked among us. This is no
clever wives tale or cunningly devised fable, but the real deal. The word was made flesh and dwelt
among us. He pitched his tent or tabernacle
among us, and we were eyewitnesses of it, as much so as the children
of Israel could look out of their tents and see the tabernacle
and Shekinah glory. He tabernacled among us. that
which was from the beginning, which we have heard John said
in 1 John, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have
looked upon, and our hands have handled the word of life, for
the life was manifesting, and we've seen it, and bear witness,
and show it unto you, that eternal life, which was with the Father,
and is manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard,
declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with
us, and truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with
His Son, Jesus Christ. god has given his children faith
to believe faith to believe what they cannot see what do they
have they got the word and it says that that glory was revealed
in two things here many things but two things here full of truth
and grace full of truth That means He is the fullness of those
things. The fullness of those things. God has declared in Colossians
1.19 that all fullness should dwell in Him and all preeminence.
He should have preeminence in all things. All fullness. The
word fullness in Greek terminology represented a pantheon. Greeks
had many gods. and the collection of all of
them together, that pantheon that gathered all together, they
called the fullness. That was what the Greeks called
their group of gods. God said, no, he's the fullness.
Jesus Christ is the fullness, the fullness. That word full
means filled up with truth and grace as opposed to being empty
of it. It speaks of a surface that's
covered in every part. thoroughly permeated with, full,
complete, lacking nothing, perfect. That's what that word full means
in this passage of Scripture. In verse 17 it says, For the
law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. There's no grace and truth in
the law. Well, the law is true, but it's
not the truth. Jesus Christ is the truth. Jesus Christ is the
author and finisher of faith. John 8, 32 and 36, our Lord says,
ìYou shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.î
Then down in verse 36 He says, ìAnd if the Son make you free,
then you shall be free indeed.î He said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life, and no man comes to the Father but by Me. In John 17, He says to the Father,
sanctify them with their truth. Thy word is truth. One of the meanings is complete.
In Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead body, and you
are complete in Him. Everything that God has for a
sinner, everything, God has for a sinner found in this person
who was God and was made to be man. The world was made flesh
and dwelt among us and we beheld his glory as the only begotten
of the Father full of grace and truth. There is no truth outside
of Jesus Christ and there is no grace outside of Jesus Christ.
I say to you, and often say to myself, about every day, Look
no further! Father, bless us to our understanding,
we pray in Christ's name, amen.