Sermon #42 Hebrews
Notes
Title: The Glorious Humanity
of
Our Lord Jesus Christ
Text: Hebrews 10:5
Subject: The Perfect Manhood of Our Savior
Date: Tuesday Evening --
Tape # W-24a
Introduction:
Our text tonight will be Hebrews 10:5. The title of my message
is -- The Glorious Humanity of Our Lord Jesus Christ.
Proposition: If the Son of God would be
our Redeemer and Savior, it was necessary for him to become one with us one of
us, God in our nature, Immanuel. -- Therefore, in order to redeem and save his
people, a body was prepared for him.
Let me repeat what I have told you often. It was not necessary
for the Lord of glory to redeem and save anyone. The Triune God is independent
and self-sufficient. He does not need us! There is nothing man could do to
cause God to save him. But, having purpose to be gracious, having purposed to
save a people for the glory of his name, the only way it could be done was for
God himself to take humanity into union with himself.
[Hebrews
2:16-17] "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."
This is what is spoken of in our text. Let's begin reading at
Hebrews 10:1. --
[Hebrews
10:1-5] "For the law having a shadow
of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never
with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the
comers thereunto perfect. [2] For then would they not have ceased to be
offered? because that the worshippers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sins. [3] But in those sacrifices
there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. [4] For
it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away
sins. [5] Wherefore when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me."
"Wherefore" -- Because there was no other way of atonement whereby God could
be both a just God and a Savior, whereby he could both forgive our sins and
satisfy his own holy law and justice -- "when he cometh into the
world," -- At that precise moment in time when the Son of God
entered into Mary's virgin womb, as he was entering that holy thing prepared in
the womb of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, -- "he saith,
Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not," -- Because no sacrifice would do but the
sacrifice of one who is both God and man in one glorious being, -- "but" -- because God found a way
to save sinners in the person of his own dear Son, -- "a body
hast thou prepared me." Because it pleased God, the great,
glorious, triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, to make an external
manifestation of his divine glory, a body was prepared for his Son in the womb
of the virgin by the Holy Spirit, a body which our blessed Savior gladly took
into indissolveable union with himself.
[1 Timothy
3:16] "And without controversy
great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in
the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the
world, received up into glory."
This is, indeed, the great mystery of godliness -- God manifest
in human flesh! As we consider this great mystery, the mystery of the incarnate
God, let us do so with reverent, believing hearts. If Moses, when he stood
before the burning bush, was required to take off his polluted shoes, how much
more must we, as we stand before the incarnate God (of whom the burning bush
was but a type), take off the polluted shoes of carnal curiosity, speculation,
and reason! We must stand here, upon this holy ground, upon the bare feet of
reverence and faith.
J. C. Philpot wrote, "The sacred
humanity of the blessed Lord consists of a perfect human body and a perfect
human soul, taken at one and the same instant in the womb of the virgin Mary, under the overshadowing operation and influence
of the Holy Ghost."
This is the meaning of the angel's message to Mary. --
[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."
Divisions: I want to show you three
things from the Scriptures about the preparation of our Lord's body.
1. A body was prepared for the
Son of God in eternity, in the everlasting covenant of grace.
2. In the fulness of time, a
body was prepared for the Son of God in the womb of the virgin
Mary by the supernatural power of God the Holy Spirit.
3. Our Lord's incarnation is
one of many things which assure us of the salvation of all God's elect.
I.
A body was prepared for the Son of God in
eternity, in the everlasting covenant of grace.
Our Savior was not a man
before he came into this world. Neither his human body nor his human soul are eternal. Yet, his human nature was prepared by God
in predestination, in the arrangements of the covenant of grace, before the
world began.
[Psalms 139:13-16] "For thou hast possessed my reins: thou
hast covered me in my mother's womb. [14] I will praise thee; for I am
fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that
my soul knoweth right well. [15] My substance was not hid from thee,
when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of
the earth. [16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect;
and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance
were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them."
The incarnation of our Savior has always been the purpose of
God. I am convinced that when God made Adam in his own image and likeness (Gen.
1:27), he had in mind's eye that Man who, in the fulness of time would come,
who would be "the express image of his person" (Heb. 1:3).
II. These
words also reveal The Sure Salvation of God’s Elect.
As the
Lord God prepared a physical body for our Lord Jesus Christ, in which he
fulfilled all righteousness and accomplished eternal redemption as the federal
Head and Representative of his elect, he has also prepared a spiritual,
mystical body for his Son as the Mediator of his elect and the Surety of the
covenant. The
A. The Lord God prepared a body for his Son
in eternal election.
All the elect were chosen in Christ to be his body
before the world began (Eph. 1:3-4). Christ was chosen to be our Head. And we
were chosen in him. And the salvation of that elect body is as sure and certain
as the exaltation and glory of Christ himself.
B. This body has been prepared for Christ
by the satisfaction of divine justice (Rom.
God’s
chosen ones, before they could be brought into union with his Son, must be both
redeemed from all sin and made perfectly righteous before the law. It is true, Christ himself has made us righteous and redeemed us
to God by his own obedience and death. But the scheme of redemption was devised
by the Triune God for the glory of Christ, that he might have a body of
redeemed sinners for his praise (Job 33:24; Ezek. 16:62-63).
C. And the church is a body prepared and
made ready for Christ by God the Holy Spirit in regenerating grace (Eph.
1:20-23).
In divine
regeneration the Spirit of God gives each of God’s elect, those men and women
redeemed by Christ, a new, holy, righteous nature. The righteousness of Christ
has been imputed to us in justification. But the righteousness of Christ is
imparted to us in regeneration. By making us righteous, sanctified, giving us
to be partakers of the divine nature, God makes us a body prepared for Jesus
Christ, his dear Son.
Application:
Here are
three reasons for faith in and praise to the Lord God our Savior.
1. His glorious humanity!
2. His accomplished redemption!
3. His almighty grace.