Title: Jesus Christ is Come in the Flesh
Text: Galatians 4: 4-7
Date: December 23, 2012
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
The
Spirit of God tells the believer through the apostle John, 1 John 4: 1-3, “Beloved, believe not every spirit,” by
spirit he means preachers, “but try the spirits whether they are of God:
because many false prophets are gone out into the world.” Not every preacher is
of God. Many are false prophets. How can I know if they are speaking by the
Spirit of God? “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth
that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that
confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this
is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and
even now already is it in the world.”
But it
appears this time of year that everyone is confessing that Jesus Christ is come
in the flesh. This is the time of year
designated to celebrate the birth of Christ.
Proposition: Confessing Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is more
than merely expressing the fact, it is confessing who he is, why he came, and
what he accomplished. So if you will turn to Galatians 4, I want to confess to
you this morning that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Galatians 4: 4: But when the fulness of the
time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, 5: To
redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of
sons. 6: And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son
into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. 7: Wherefore thou art no more a
servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
I. CONFESSING CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH IS
CONFESSING THAT CHRIST CAME BY THE ETERNAL APPOINTMENT OF GOD--v4: When the
fulness of the time was come,…
This
time of year you may hear men argue that Christ was not born December 25. That
is true. December 25 is merely the day
in which the fact of his birth is, at least, recognized the world over.
Set From Eternity
What is
important is that Christ came into this earth, at the time set between God and
his Son in the covenant and council of peace in eternity. God does nothing by accident. It is not as some vainly imagine, that God’s
first plan did not go accordingly therefore he sent Christ into the world. God purposed for his Son to come from
eternity. The work which Christ came to accomplish was purposed from eternity.
And God purposed the exact time his Son would come.
That
lets us know that the fall of Adam in the garden by which he plunged the human
race into sin and death was no surprise to God.
It was according to God’s purpose to glorify his holy name in the
salvation of chosen sinners by the work of Christ Jesus his Son. The salvation of God’s people is ordered in
all things and sure in Christ from all eternity.
Christ is King, Christ’s Kingdom is Spiritual
His
coming marked the time set when the scepter—the king and kingdom--departed from
the earthly kingdom of Israel.
Genesis 49: 10: The sceptre shall not depart from Judah,
nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall
the gathering of the people be.
Isaiah 9:6: For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is
given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be
called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The
Prince of Peace. 7: Of the increase of his government and
peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to
order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth
even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
King
David and the earthly kingdom of Israel was but a picture and type of Christ
the King and of his spiritual kingdom. The wise men came,
Matthew 2: 2
Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews?
John 1:49: Nathanael answered and saith unto him, Rabbi,
thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel.
Daniel prophesied
of the exact time and of exactly what Christ would accomplish.
Daniel 9:24: Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of
sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting
righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most
Holy. 25: Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the
commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall
be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again,
and the wall, even in troublous times. 26: And after threescore and two weeks
shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince
that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof
shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Habakkuk 2: 3: For the vision is yet for an appointed
time, but at the end it shall speak, and not lie: though it tarry, wait for it;
because it will surely come, it will not tarry.
Micah 5:2 But
thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,
yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel;
whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.
So
Christ came,
Mark 1: 14…preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God,
15: And saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand:
repent ye, and believe the gospel.
Be sure
to get this: To preach Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is to preach that the
purpose and time was set by God in eternity.
Therefore, Christ came “when the fulness of the time was come.”
Brethren,
amidst all our failures, isn’t it a comfort to know that our God is so
absolutely sovereign that “The LORD of hosts hath sworn, saying, Surely as I
have thought, so shall it come to pass; and as I have purposed, so shall it
stand:”. “Declaring the end from the
beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure.” (Isaiah 14: 24; 46: 10) Those who declare otherwise are antichrist.
II. TO DECLARE CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH IS
TO DECLARE WHO HE IS: CHRIST IS GOD AND MAN IN ONE PERSON--V4: God sent forth
his Son, made of a woman…
Jesus is God
What a
mystery and manifestation of amazing love.
God sent his Son—Jesus Christ is Immanuel, God with us.
John 8:42: Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father,
ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God; neither came I of
myself, but he sent me.
1 John 4: 9: In this was manifested the love of God
toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we
might live through him. 10: Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he
loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins…14: And we have
seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Saviour of the
world. 15: Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth
in him, and he in God.
Those
who preach that Jesus is not God—one with God the Father and God the Holy
Spirit—the third person of the trinity—are not born of God, God does not dwell
in them nor them in God. But they are antichrist,
denying that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.
Jesus is Man
Made of
a woman is very important. Jesus Christ,
unlike any other person, is the Seed of Woman, from Gen 3: 15, meaning he was
not of Adam’s corrupt seed.
The
Lord Jesus was not created as Adam was.
And he was not begotten by Adam’s seed, as all other men are. He was
conceived of the Holy Ghost. He was conceived in the womb of a virgin who had
never known a man. Therefore, from conception, the Lord Jesus was holy. He is unlike
all other men born of Adam—he was holy in conception, all other men are
corrupt, conceived in sin.
Luke 1:35: And the angel answered and said unto her, The
Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow
thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God.
Why Did God Take a Body of Flesh?
God the
Son joined his divine nature, with holy human nature. But why? Why was he “made in the likeness of men, made
flesh, made of a woman?” Two reasons: to
be our High Priest to make reconciliation for the sins of his people and that
he might be touched with the feelings of our infirmities.
Hebrews 2:14: Forasmuch 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; 15: And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. 16: For verily he took not on him the nature of angels; but
he took on him the seed of Abraham. 17: Wherefore in all things it behoved him
to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful
high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of
the people. [and] 18: For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is
able to succour them that are tempted.
Hebrews 5: 1: For every high priest taken from among men
is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts
and sacrifices for sins: [and] 2: Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and
on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with
infirmity.
Christ Our High Priest Made Reconciliation
for his People
First, Christ
came for the purpose of being our High Priest, to “save his people from our
sins.” God the Holy Spirit told Joseph to name him “Jesus, for he shall save
his people from their sins.” Doing so,
Christ manifest the righteousness of God. In Christ crucified we see that God
will by no means clear the guilty. In Christ crucified we see how God is just
in justifying his people. And we behold that
God himself is the Justifier. That he reserves mercy for thousands.
God the
Son is Spirit. It was flesh, man that
sinned, so he must become a man and have a body in order that he might fulfill
the law as a Man, that he might “his own self bare our sins in his own body on
the tree,” “Without shedding of blood is no remission”, so he took a body that
he might have blood to shed. (Hebrews 9: 22)
“With his stripes we are healed”, God the Spirit could not bear stripes,
so he took a body that he might bear the stripes due to his people in his own
body on the tree. (Isaiah 53: 5) “The
wages of sin is death”, as God he could not die, so he took a body that he
might lay down his life. (Romans 6: 23) Being
eternal God, he offered himself through the eternal Spirit so by his one
offering, Christ Jesus made eternal satisfaction for the sins of his people—he is
the eternal propitiation for his people.
Christ our High Priest was Touched with the
Feeling of our Infirmities in his Body on the Tree
Secondly,
he was made of a woman that in his body he might be touched with the feeling of
our infirmities, that he might be able to succor us in all our sufferings. He “carried our griefs and our sorrows.” Christ
was made sin, made guilty before God, by imputation so that God was just to
forsake him on the cross. And by that
forsaking of God, Christ was touched in his own body on the tree with all the feelings
and afflictions—the smiting and bruising and stripes—that comes upon our flesh
and our spirit. This touching of his body
was not only the feelings of want and persecution of men and trying of Satan
when he walked this earth and was nailed to the tree by men. He was touched with the feeling of our infirmities
by being forsaken of God on the cross.
Adam’s spiritual
death and the deterioration of his physical body, like our body which is dead,
was the result of being cut off from the life and light of God like a flower
withers when cut off from the light of the sun.
The condemnation of hell which Christ put an end to for his people was
endured and put an end to when Christ was forsaken of God on the cross.
Scriptural Descriptions of what Christ was
Touched With in His Body on the Tree
The
Psalms describe it as being touched with extreme suffering and affliction in
his own body on the tree, “His moisture turned into the drought of summer”
Psalm 22:14, 15: I am poured out like water, and all my
bones are out of joint: my heart is like wax; it is melted in the midst of my
bowels. My strength is dried up like a
potsherd; and my tongue cleaveth to my jaws; and thou hast brought me into the dust
of death.
Lamentations 3: 1: I am the man that
hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath. 2: He hath led me, and brought me
into darkness, but not into light. 3: Surely against me is he
turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day. 4: My flesh and my
skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones. 5: He hath builded against me,
and compassed me with gall and travail. 6: He hath set me in dark
places, as they that be dead of old. 7: He hath hedged me about, that I
cannot get out: he hath made my chain heavy. 8: Also when I cry and shout, he
shutteth out my prayer. 9: He hath inclosed my ways with hewn stone, he hath
made my paths crooked. 10: He was unto me as a bear lying in
wait, and as a lion in secret places. 11: He hath turned aside my ways,
and pulled me in pieces: he hath made me desolate. 12: He hath bent his bow,
and set me as a mark for the arrow. 13: He hath caused the arrows of his quiver
to enter into my reins. 14: I was a derision to all my people; and their
song all the day. 15: He hath filled me with bitterness, he hath made me
drunken with wormwood. 16: He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he
hath covered me with ashes. 17: And thou hast removed my soul far off from
peace: I forgat prosperity. 18: And I said, My strength and my hope is perished
from the LORD: 19: Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and
the gall.
Isaiah 53: 3: He is despised and rejected of
men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our
faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. 4: Yet we did esteem
him stricken and smitten of God. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he
was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him;”
It was for no sin of his own that he was
touched in his own body, but for the sins of his people.
The
mystery of the cross is that while the sins of his people were imputed to him so
that God was just in pouring out his wrath upon our substitute, at the same
time, Christ in himself endured it in perfect obedience to God unto death. No
guile was found in his mouth. He never
in his heart turned rebel against God. He remained like a lamb silent as it is
sheared. And from the Fathers side of it
all, while God was just to forsake him, at the same time, it pleased the LORD—it
made satisfaction to the LORD—to bruise him—“and with his stripes we are
healed!” Not the stripes inflicted by
men, but the stripes from being forsaken of God. What a mystery of mysteries!
What wisdom! What depths of love! What a manifestation of the glory of God!
Now believer, because Christ was touched
with the feeling of the very kinds of infirmities which he healed as he walked
this earth: feelings we feel by disease, by blindness, by an issue of blood,
and so on—he is able to succor his child in all our suffering.
Hebrews 4: 14: Seeing then that we have a great high
priest, that is passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast
our profession. 15: For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. 16: Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
III. TO PREACH CHRIST IS COME IN THE FLESH IS
TO PREACH THAT BY HIS ONE OFFERING CHRIST ACCOMPLISHED THE REDEMPTION OF HIS PEOPLE
ON THE CROSS--V4: Made under the law, 5: To redeem them that were under the
law,
Christ Succeeded in Redeeming his People
The
children he came to save were under the curse of the broken law, so he was made
under the law and made a curse for us.
Galatians 3: 13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree:
As God
he gave the law to Adam in the garden of which all his people broke in
Adam. As God he gave the law to Moses on
Mt. Sinai to shut our mouths and declare us guilty before God. But as the GodMan,
he subjected himself to that very law and that very curse.
The
precepts of the ten commandments was the heart of his heart. He was holy and
righteous in his very nature, not even a thought contrary to the law of God. The
law was his heart and his delight. But this one who knew no sin of his own was
made a curse for us under the law and forsaken of God.
The
condemnation of hell will be being forsaken of God, the worm that never dies, death
that never dies. Christ bore that death when he suffered being forsaken of God
on the cross. So when he cried “it is finished” and gave up the ghost, it meant
the condemnation, the curse, was dead for his people.
Romans 8: 1 says “There is therefore now no condemnation
[kat-ak-ree-mah] to them which are in Christ Jesus,” born of his Spirit, because
“Christ was made a curse [kat-ar-a] for us.”
Romans 8: 3: For what the law could not do, in that it was weak
through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and
for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.
He
cursed the curse, condemned the condemnation, made death die for his people,
forever. Now the righteousness of the
law is fulfilled in us, who are born of his Spirit. The sins of his elect were put away by Christ—our
sins past, present and future. We are
not trying to fulfill the law, the believer has through faith in Christ who fulfilled
it. Being justified the law will never
say that there is sin in us but it will always say of the believer, we are
righteous. Not because we did anything
to make it so, but because Christ has done it all!
IV. TO PREACH CHRIST COME IN THE FLESH IS TO
DECLARE THAT BECAUSE CHRIST REDEEMED HIS PEOPLE EACH ONE SHALL BE BORN OF THE
SPIRIT--V5: that we might receive the adoption of sons.
Predestinated to the Adoption
God
predestinated his children to the adoption before the foundation of the world.
Ephesians 1:5: Having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his
will, 6: To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he
hath made us accepted in the beloved…
Because Ye Are Sons
It is
by the Spirit of his Son that each one whom Christ redeemed is given life and
faith whereby we cry to God our Father--v6:
And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. We do not become the sons of God by believing,
But because we are sons God and have been redeemed.
Heirs of God with Christ
By
Christ redeeming us, being born of his Spirit, we are sons and heirs of God
with Christ--v7: Wherefore thou art no
more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ.
Ephesians 1: 11: In whom also we have obtained an
inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh
all things after the counsel of his own will: 12 That we should be to the praise of his glory,
who first trusted in Christ.
So I
confess to you that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh. He came at the time set
from eternity. Jesus is God and Man in
one person: our High Priest at the right hand of the Father, who knows the
feeling of our infirmities. Christ has
redeemed his people being made a curse for us. Each one he redeemed are sons
and must be born of his Spirit because our Father’s justice demands it. Believer, you are a child of God our Father,
an heir of God our Father and joint heirs with Jesus Christ our Righteousness. All of this good news is because Jesus Christ
is come in the flesh.
Amen!