“The perseverance of the saints is not that wearisome servitude of duty to which law religion calls, but the life long cherishing of our beloved Savior who loved us and gave himself for us. It is finding in him the sufficiency of life and entering into his rest.” — Pastor Darvin Pruitt
Immanuel Has Come to Earth — Don Fortner (Tune: #98 — I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day — LM) Arise, my soul, and take your flight To Bethlehem, recall the night, And in the humble stable see The Man, the woman’s promised Seed.
This is the Infant long foretold, Rejoice, my soul, rejoice! — Behold, He’s God by nature, Man by birth! Immanuel has come to earth!
This Child, descending from the skies, Was born to be a sacrifice! His wondrous birth, and life, and death, Forever shall employ my breath!
CHRIST, ALL I NEED
“Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other.”
(Psalm 85:10)
When I read this verse of divine inspiration, I can only think of one person and one thing: — Christ and Him crucified. Mercy I could never deserve and truth I could never see, have met together for me in Christ my Lord. For you see, Christ alone is Truth. God’s mercy that I so desperately need is only found in Him. In Christ alone have mercy and truth met together in perfect harmony for me an undeserving sinner. And because God caused them to meet together, now perfect righteousness I could never perform or provide and peace I could never buy or embrace have kissed each other in Him. Christ is truly made unto me all I need; and He is all that God requires. — Pastor David Eddmenson
The Incarnate Word
“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14)
If there is any verse in the Book of God marked with the special emphasis by God the Holy Spirit, surely this is one. Every word is of immense importance. Here is the Son of God, that glorious person so highly spoken of in the preceding 13 verses of this chapter, the Word. The Word, we are told, “was made flesh.” God the Son was “made flesh.”
The best theologians warn us often, “God did not become man, but only became united to man.” I fully understand and share their concern that an improper understanding of the incarnation may lead men to have low thoughts of God and may diminish in the minds of men the greatness, infinity and immutability of the Triune God. But God the Holy Spirit, whose special office and work it is to glorify Christ our God and Savior (John 16:14) says, “The Word was made flesh!” The Son of God became what we are that he might make us what he is.
The word translated “flesh” is very strong. The same word is used in Romans 3:20, where we are told no flesh can be justified by the deeds of the law. In Romans 8:3 Christ is said to have been made “in the likeness of sinful flesh.” This word, “flesh,” has the same significance as the Hebrew words used in Genesis 6:12 to speak of “corrupt” and “corrupted” flesh. John could not have used a stronger, more emphatic word to speak of our Savior’s great condescension and humiliation in assuming our nature. Had John merely said, “The Word was made man,” the meaning would not have been so emphatic a declaration of degradation. (Philippians 2:5-8).
“The Word was made flesh!” — The Son of God was made what we are, made to be our full nature, body and soul, a complete man. He who is God became man. He did not cease to be God; but he took our human nature into union with his divine nature, so that the Lord Jesus Christ is God and Man, the God-man, our Mediator.
“The Word was made flesh,” as Augustine put it in the 4th century, “Not by changing what he was, but by taking what he was not.” This union of God and Man in one person is indissolvable and forever. Jesus Christ our Savior, our God-man Mediator is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8).
I have no idea what the length, breadth, height or depth of what I am about to say may be; but I cannot help linking these words to those of the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 5:30. — “The Word was made flesh;” and “we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones!” So is it now, so it has been in all ages of the Church, and so shall it be forever.
“And we beheld His Glory!”
(John 1:14)
Who are these favored people who have beheld the glory of him who is the only begotten of the Father?
They are a chosen people, God’s elect. The Lord Jesus said, “I know whom I have chosen.” He said, “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.” He came unto his own, and his own received him not; but they who did receive him are described as people who were “born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” The elect in Christ’s day, though they were but a small remnant, nevertheless did exist. There were but few who followed him; but there were a few who followed the Lamb whithersoever he went. The “we,” then, who beheld Christ’s glory, were a chosen company. So it was then, and so it is now. Thank God for his electing love. Those who behold his glory are those who were chosen from eternity to behold his glory (Acts 13:48).And those who behold his glory here shall behold his glory forever in the world to come (John 17:24). Thank God for his electing love.
Those who behold Christ’s glory are a graciously called people. We behold his glory because we have been specifically called by him to behold his glory. — “He calleth unto him whom he would” (Mark 3:13). — “He calleth his own sheep by name” (John 10:3). It is written of those he delivers from going down to the pit, “His life shall see the light” (Job 33:28). “Many shall see it, and fear, and shall trust in the Lord” (Psalm 40:3). — “They shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God” (Isaiah 35:2). — “The humble shall see this and be glad” (Psalms 69:32; Isaiah 25:9). The Son of God calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. If you and I behold Christ’s glory, it is because he has called us to himself; and that call is the result of his election of us unto salvation.
These who behold his glory are also a divinely illuminated people. If others do not see what we see, and we are as blind as they by nature, our seeing his glory must be because of something he has done for us and in us, and not because of anything in us or done by us (2 Corinthians 4:6).
C. H. Spurgeon wrote, “None of the princes of this world knew him. The priests who had studied the law could not discover him; the members of the Sanhedrim, who were under some expectation of his advent, could not perceive him. In vain the star in the east; in vain the miraculous appearance of angels to the shepherds; the blind generation would not perceive him. In vain the opening of blind eyes and the preaching of the gospel to the poor; in vain the raising of the dead; in vain all those innumerable signs and wonders; they could not perceive his glory; but of those who did perceive it it may be said, as of Simon Barjonas, ‘Blessed art thou, for flesh and blood hath not revealed this unto thee.’”
“Blessed are your eyes, for they see!” — None believe in Christ but those who are his sheep. No man comes unto him except the Father who sent him draws them, and none ever perceive him but those whose eyes are opened by his own healing fingers. Let the question be passed round among us. — Do I behold his glory? If so, beloved, it is because he chose me, he called me and he illuminates me by his grace.
Grace Bulletin
December 20, 2009
Grace Baptist Church of Danville 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com
Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services
Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
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