Truth and Jesus Christ #2

As you start to contemplate the glories of Christ, you get lost in the wonder of it where to even start to contemplate and to meditate upon the glories of who he is. Hello and welcome back to the truth. Going green, founding pastor of truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio by Bill Wright. How is it possible that Jesus Christ is both fully God and fully man.

At the same time.

Well today as Don continues teaching God's people. God's word is going to unravel the mystery behind this seemingly incomprehensible yet fundamentally important topic. So let's join Darnell for the second half of the message called truth in Jesus Christ, the truthful beloved. There's a couple of things that you need to understand about reason that we don't rely on revisions to be the basis upon which we find a revelation of God.

First of all, Scripture says definitively that Satan can disguise himself as an angel of light. The fact that someone sees a supernatural vision is no indication that it's a vision from God. Quite to the contrary is going to be a manifestation of Satan himself because revelation is over is complete in the Scriptures, and God is found in the Scriptures. Now, not through visions in Scripture explicitly warns us about basing our experience of God on visions.

Colossians 2 speaks about this as well. Don't be led astray by someone who takes his stand on visions that he is seen very important for you to understand this. This is critical to biblical discernment but going further, as we contemplate the word dwelt among us in the God having manifested himself. What is Peter's response when he realizes that he's really in the presence of God. He falls at Jesus feet and he says Lord go away from me sinful man.

I cannot is a sinful man tolerate the reality of your presence.

He was undone just like Isaiah chapter 6 says woe is me, for I have seen the Lord and I'm a man of unclean lips, and I live among the people of unclean lips in Scripture. When people saw the manifestation of the holiness of God, they fell down in terror.

Beloved that is not that is not the spirit that you find in the supposed modern day miracles. These modern-day visions, I should say this is not the experience.

When Paul was caught up into it into heaven as he talks about that in Corinthians, he said. I saw things that man art man is not permitted to speak and yet today we have all kinds of people saying they brought up to heaven they come back and now they tell us what everything that they saw nothing could be more contrary to the word of God's, and that people who are exposed to the realities of the holiness of God are shattered by it. They are convicted of sin when it happens in Scripture. In today's claims to visions are nothing like that at all and so we have to we have to have the discernment and we have to have the willingness to say no Scripture alone through faith in Christ comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ is based on the revelation of God found in his written word these days.

That's one point of discernment and the other aspect is what these modern visions lead to in the way the people talk about them is nothing like the reality of someone that has seen Christ as shown in Scripture.

This is so very critical for us to cling to and to hold to and to insist upon the Word became flesh. The word dwelt among us, and so with that little bit of summary understand this. That for three decades.

Jesus took up residence among men. They really saw them and it really had an impact on them in the entire New Testament testifies to these realities and the subsequent 2000 years since Christ became a man, the world has never been the same since that everything is changed. We measure time by the incarnation of Christ, and I realize that there are academics that are trying to you know that that the don't follow the long-established measurement of time and talk about the common error before the common era after the common era will what's the dividing point. What's the dividing point. The dividing point is even in that scheme. The dividing point is found in the person of Jesus Christ. So as a matter of historical reality. God actually became a man actually walked on earth actually dwelt among men and just while you're in Luke.

Let's just remind ourselves of something else of the of the utter humility that that act was on the part of our Lord Jesus, look at the end of chapter 9 of Luke, down in verse 57 as they were going along the road.

Someone said to him I will follow you wherever you go. And Jesus said to him, the foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. He dwelt among men. But he had no dwelling place of his own thing about that God on earth on the earth that he created without a place to lay his head.

Verse 59 he said to another follow me, but he said, Lord, permit me first to go and bury my father. But he said to allow the dead bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God. Another also said I will follow you, Lord.

The first permit me to say goodbye to those at home but Jesus said to him, no one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God you find in Christ. This call to absolute discipleship.

This call to absolute unreserved unqualified commitment to him that human loyalties cannot transcend human loyalties must be in human loyalties must yield to the supreme loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ.

This is his authority as God and in his humanity.

We see how much he humbled himself not only taking on human flesh, not only leaving heaven and the worship of angels, but humbled himself to the point of death, even death on a cross after he had lived a life in his adult ministry where he had nowhere to lay his head. As you start to contemplate the glories of Christ, you get lost in the.

The wonder of it where to even start to contemplate and to meditate upon the glories of who he is, do you focus on the greatness of his deity do you focus on the greatness of his humility that he would leave heaven to come on a mission to save sinners who had rebelled against him. You focus on how he lived a perfect life utterly devoid of the trappings of royalty to which you deserved you focus on the fact that he went to the cross and suffered in agony hanging literally between heaven and earth, for the salvation of sinners. You focus on that.

Not only is there no exhausting the glory of Christ. There is no exhausting the different aspects of which you could begin to consider it. He is so far above us.

He is so great, so glorious and yet glorious in his humility as well. This is what we contemplate when we see that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, the glories of Christ now revealed force perfectly and in an inerrant, reliable way in the 66 books of the Bible. That's who Christ is God in human flesh and the fact that perhaps if we grown up in the church we been in the church for a long time we started to hear this and it It's kind of become familiar truth for some of us we should never accept that the lethargic spiritual state that just accepts that an just kind of yawns added as though this is something that I've heard many times before. Know this is the reality of the glory of God found in the person of Christ and the true Christian never tires of it. The true Christian never exhausts the fullness of what it means. And so the Word became flesh. The word dwelt among us.

Those of the historical assertions we see in this passage in John chapter 1 notes go on let's go on and consider the revelatory significance of it. The revelatory significance of John chapter 1 verse 14.

Let's look at the verse again and as we do understand this, that the incarnation was nothing less than the very revelation of very God himself. John chapter 1 verse 14 the Word became flesh and dwelt among us so so you got the word became flesh and dwelt among us, and there's something else or something. Further, we saw his glory. The word and they are that coordinating conjunction indicates that there was a consequence to Christ's coming. Something had happened, something, something took place while Christ was dwelling among men, and what John is saying is, is that we saw him, we, meaning the apostolic circle. Those that were close to Christ.

The verified apostles. They saw him. John and his contemporaries beheld him they saw something they saw his glory, the bird their saws from the Greek word that my it means more than a passing glance is more than just seeing somebody drive by on the street and say oh I saw the cargo by or you bump into somebody and you have a five minute discussion with demised. I saw Jane when I was at the store today. That's not the idea of saw here. This is more than a passing glance. One lexicon says it means to look upon with special interest. It did. There's a gazing that has the idea and intent focus. We looked upon him with intent focus, and we saw his glory so the apostles did not merely observe Jesus as he walked by, they looked upon him, and they took notice as it were. They sat up straight and looked and paid attention as they saw Christ and as a result of that the apostles have and had a special perception about Christ, a special understanding a depth of recognition that goes past a casual acquaintance aided by the Holy Spirit.

The apostles realized that they were looking at glory in the highest sense and they were looking at.

Truth incarnate, they said, looking at their will with me again, we saw his glory, and then he expands on what the glory was glory as of the only begotten from the father glory that was full of grace and truth that the wonder of the excellence, the majesty of Christ that they saw.

John says, was a revelation of the very glory of God himself and his so his glory refers to the glory of Christ. What oh what a privilege it is for us to to contemplate this and for me to even be able to say something like what I am about to say we are really privilege to have the word of God in our own language, beloved, we are privileged to be able to study the word of God in peace. Whatever else is happening around us. We are privileged to hear about the Christ who came to save sinners just like you were privileged to have the Holy Spirit with us to help us understand all of these things are great privileges from God that we should never take advantage of, or assume that it's always going to be like this. We need to capitalize on the opportunities while we can.

So as we contemplate the glory of Christ, let me say this, that Jesus Christ has intrinsic infinite merit is infinitely worthy of worship. There is no exhausting his goodness and his greatness because Jesus Christ is uniquely the representative of God the father.

There is no one else like him. There is no other place where God has revealed himself in a man, but in Christ, and so because he represents the infinitely holy God because he himself is the infinitely holy God in human flesh, the fullness of sovereign majesty, the fullness of God's all-night presence, omniscience and omnipotence. All of the essence of God somehow localized in the person of Jesus Christ. When we look on Christ we are seeing the greatest one in the universe. We cannot comprehend his greatness. We can we can know it truly but we cannot know it exhaustively. That's how great Christ is. That's how infinite he is, his merit, his righteousness, his greatness is beyond all measurement and it is because he uniquely in a way no one else does, reveals and manifests God is an appearance of God in Christ. Many scriptures speak of Christ in these revelatory terms, let me just camp on this for just a moment this is so important to understand that in Christ God is making himself known. God is revealing himself.

He is manifesting himself to those who look upon Christ and that's why it is so important for you my friend is so important for you to consider carefully how you are responding to Christ. How you respond to this truth, because how you respond to Christ, is how you respond to God himself and the one who rejects Christ rejects God and seals their doom for an eternal judgment in hell.

This is no academic matter that we are considering here today we are dealing with matters of eternal life and eternal death, as we proclaim Christ to you. We are standing as it were.

We are standing with our heels on the cliff without a rail in front of us were standing on a cliff over which eternity hangs. The question is whether you're going to ground the heels of the defeat of your soul on the rock of Christ whether you'll take another step forward and plunge into an everlasting fall that leads into everlasting doom.

Nothing less than that is at stake in what we are considering here and so Scripture speaks of Christ in these revelatory terms. These terms by which he makes God known to us so that you read in second Corinthians chapter 4 verse four. Christ is the image of God in Colossians 115 he is the image of the invisible God, Christ manifest exactly who God is because he is God. Jesus said in John 819 if you knew me you would know my father also he who has seen me has seen the father John Nolan quoted from this book. In the past little Puritan paperback. Published by the Banner of truth, titled the glory of Christ highly recommend that book to you.

John Owen says this Christ is especially glorious because he and he alone perfectly reveals God's nature and will to us without Christ, we would have no nothing truly about God, for he would've been eternally invisible to us."

Jesus Christ put God on display in a way that was new in the progress of revelation, so that look back at John 114 John identifies the glory here, glory as of the only begotten from the father when they heard the astonishing teaching when they saw the astonishing miracles, beloved, they were seeing, not the glory of a mere man they were seeing the glory of God. The unique non-repeatable glory of God and the father loved Christ like no one else so that the father speaks from heaven at different times in the Gospels says this is my beloved son in him I am well pleased. God pleased with Christ. God perfectly pleased with his son rather challenging very humbling for us as sinful creatures to look upon Christ and say are we perfectly pleased with him as our beloved are we well pleased with Christ. Is he in Christ we find are all in all do. In Christ we find our reason to live in Christ we find our highest loyalty. Our highest priority are we pleased with him to like that in Christ we find our satisfaction even in the midst of distressing circumstances. Scripture lays it all out.

Christ displayed God in truth, in other words, he showed God's glory, as it really is. Charles Spurgeon said this, he said the grace in Christ is true grace is not fiction or vague hope. It is grace, which in fact brings redemption and pardons sin. It in fact gives new life and a salvation which completely saves" see its true blood you see the same truth, the way things really are the way that it is accurately and it is in Christ as fully God and fully man in one person. It is in Christ. Christ crucified Christ resurrected Christ ascended only in that Christ is true salvation found. Do you know Christ in that way. Do you confess Christ with your mouth in that way you own him as Lord and God in that way you rely on Christ and Christ alone for your righteousness before God in that way you still trafficking in the cheap wares of a been a pretty good person. I'm sure God will let me into heaven.

Understand that those words can never come from the lips of the true Christian because a true Christian understands it's in Christ alone were glory and truth are revealed where God is revealed.

It is in Christ alone that we find this gracious truth, Spurgeon again says it is not the truth in Christ. The truth in Christ is not truth which condemns and punishes. It is truth.

These are sweet words, it is truth steeped in love, truth, dripping with mercy.

The truth, Christ brings to us comes not from the judgment seat, but from the mercy seat that beloved this revelation of Christ that we seen here today it's no longer visible to humanize Christ. Christ was up to heaven.

Christ is at the right hand of God when he comes a second time. It's not going to be in private visions.

He's going to come in a way that every eye will see him look upon him whom they pierced. So we don't look for spiritual visions rather we look in the written word, the vision, the knowledge of Christ is manifested to us now to our minds by the Holy Spirit through the word of God.

That's where Christ is found, we must ask ourselves whether Christ is in us or not. And he cannot be in us, and less. He has been received by that faith, with which we behold his glory." You must behold the true Christ and receive him by faith. If you're going to be saved from your sins, I beg you, do not settle for vague notions of religion that do not say don't settle for for simply appearing amongst the people of God for a period of time while holding all of the reality of it at arms distance, you must embrace Christ for you will be lost.

You must embrace Christ as God in human flesh crucified, buried and risen for your sins and for your salvation.

Ask him to save you and to make himself known to you so that you can say by faith. I see the glory of Christ.

It is the glory in him of the only begotten from the father full of grace and truth.

Well, that's going to bring our study to a close for today here on the truth pulpit. If you'd like to hear this message again. Just go to the truth. Pulpit.com when you get there you'll find all of Don's teaching available to you 24 hours a day, once again, that's the truth. Pulpit.com and I'll just before we go here again is done with the closing word, my friend. I am committed to the dynamic of verbal preaching. I love to preach and speak. I think there's a dynamic when a preacher opens the word of God to hearers that that the audio component of that is a means that God uses greatly in the lives of those who here but I also understand that sometimes you want to go back and study what was said more closely. We have transcripts of all of my full-length sermons available on our website and I would encourage you to go there to find them and to be able to study the messages more closely through the written word as you've also enjoyed it through the spoken word. Thanks God, and friend. Thank you for taking the time to be with us today hi Bill, right inviting you to join us again next time.

As Don Greene continues teaching God's people. God's word on the truthful