The Word Became Flesh

Welcome to our midweek service by live stream from the Auditorium of Beacon Baptist Church.

Thank you for tuning in and joining us in this fashion as we continue our COVID situation, but we are gradually, gradually moving out of it. We are not, however, entirely alone in the auditorium tonight because we have been joined by Chester and Christina Sharon, Missionaries to Honduras since 1975, and they stopped in for a visit tonight not knowing that we were not having a people present service, but nevertheless they're here and we're very glad to have you with us tonight. Let me mention a couple of requests. Well, first I'll start with announcements and then we'll move to our prayer requests. We will be having a Sunday night service this coming Sunday. In addition to our people present service at 930, our regular worship service in the morning, and Sunday school following morning service, and we just added that very recently, and Sunday night we'll be gathering together again at 6 o'clock here in the auditorium and we'll be gathering around the Lord's table to have a communion service together. So please keep these events in mind. We are meeting by live stream in the auditorium. Our teens are meeting in the teen room with Pastor Bob Latour, and they, of course, are having a live service there. May I remind you of our Book of the Month? We will not be silenced by Dr. Erwin Lutzer. We have had great interest in this book.

The first supply that we had sold out very quickly and we've ordered a second supply, and you'll find them in our book room when you come on Sunday. So please keep that in mind. Also looking forward to our homecoming in May, the third Sunday in May, we are definitely going to be having a homecoming service in the morning. We are still talking about some of the other details of that particular service. Last year, of course, we canceled our homecoming service because of COVID.

We were not meeting at all at that time. But we will be having one this year, so please keep that in mind and we'll tell you more about it in the days to come as we decide which details to include. Let me read from Proverbs 15, 32 and 33. Please join us in praising the Lord that Brenda Kramer is recovered now from COVID. She has been on our prayer sheet. And also Nancy Ellis, the daughter of Paul and Gail Ellis, is home from the hospital, also recovering from COVID, a very serious case, and she's home doing well. We're also praising the Lord that Dawn Hammond has completed the radiation treatment, the daughter of Eddie and Clara Driver, and we trust that the Lord will give her strength in the days to come.

Government official of the week is Mebane Councilman Sean Ewing. Some of the highlighted requests among our members, please continue to pray for Drew Guthrie, who has stopped all chemotherapy, and is letting the cancer run its course. She's strong in the Lord.

She's not experiencing any pain. And she will encourage you, if you call her, more than you will encourage her. Pray for Doris Loftus as she recovers from surgery because of a broken arm, and for Debbie Red as she's getting treatment for gait ataxia, and Shirley Watkins as she is recovering at home. Beyond our members, we have a number of requests. Please pray for Evelyn Butler, who's in Mebane Ridge nursing home and is in declining condition. For Jeff Etheridge, who was seriously injured at work and is now in the hospital awaiting surgeries, a number of surgeries. This is a relative of Jane Latour. Steve Lynch's brother, Harold Lynch Jr., is now home from rehab and is dealing with a number of health issues. And we're praying for Frank Mims, who has severe dementia.

He is a friend of Eddie Driver. Also, Linda Whitmire is having renal failure due to COVID, and this is Chris Wilburn's grandmother. I can report that Laverne Waugh in Zimbabwe is doing well. I've got an update on her situation, and we're thanking the Lord for that. We continue to pray for Missionary Mike Webster as he battles colon cancer.

I think I have a letter from the Webster's, which I may read in a moment. And then a number of families in our church or related to our church have experienced deaths recently. Arlene Wright's sister, Eleanor Keating, passed away in California.

She was a believer. Alice Marley's son-in-law, Ronald Stinnett, married to Alice's daughter, Sharon, passed away. The funeral is being conducted in Tennessee. And then we were so saddened to learn about the death of Justin Weaver, the son of Joel and Mary Ann Weaver, retired missionaries to Kenya. We were in partnership for many years, and that family definitely needs to be undergirded in prayer at this time. And finally, Lori Gagnon's stepfather, Larry Yoder, passed away recently.

As we consider those with cancer, Ted Driver's father-in-law, Joe Cazero, is battling cancer, and Dave Hamrick, a friend of Eddie Driver, likewise. And then we continue to pray for Shirley Rocky, who's being treated for cancer, former member at Beacon. And I have an update here, if I can put my hand on it very quickly.

Here it is. She's scheduled to have her last chemo treatment this Friday if her platelets are high enough. She was scheduled to have it last Friday, but unable to do so because of the platelet levels being too low. She's very tired and somewhat discouraged, and she needs our prayers.

Shirley Rocky. Also among our shut-ins, we continue to pray for Betty Duncan, who is dealing with back pain, as she has actually for many years, and is really wearing her down and also wearing on her husband, Pat, and their daughter, Jeannie, who is her primary caretaker at this time. Before we pray, I want to read the words of a hymn that we sang recently, one of the hymns by John Newton that is not as well known as Amazing Grace, but it is a wonderful hymn about the Lord Jesus Christ and about the greatness of salvation. He writes, Let us love and sing in wonder. Let us praise the Savior's name.

He has hushed the law's loud thunder. He has quenched Mount Sinai's flame. He has washed us with his blood. He has brought us nigh to God. Let us love the Lord who bought us, pitied us when enemies, called us by his grace and taught us, gave us ears and gave us eyes. He has washed us with his blood. He presents our souls to God.

Let us sing, though fierce temptations threaten hard to bear us down. For the Lord, our strong salvation, holds in view the conqueror's crown. He has washed us with his blood. Soon will bring us home to God.

Let us wonder. Grace and justice join and point to mercy's store. When through grace and Christ our trust is, justice smiles and asks no more. He who washed us with his blood has secured our way to God. Let us praise and join the chorus of the saints enthroned on high.

Here they trusted him before us. Now their praises fill the sky. Thou has washed us with thy blood. Thou art worthy, Lamb of God.

Will you join me in prayer? Heavenly Father, we join our hearts together around the throne of grace. We thank you for the grace of salvation that came to us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, our Redeemer. Your grace that came to us in the work of your Holy Spirit, showing us our sin and pointing us to Christ.

Your grace, O Heavenly Father, that designed salvation's plan. We praise you. We thank you. We worship you.

And we pray that you may take us redeemed sinners worthy of condemnation, but nevertheless washed in Christ's blood. And Lord, help us. Guide us. Direct us.

Fill us. Use us for the honor and glory of Christ. We pray, O Lord, that you will help us to be strong in these days of COVID and these days of national turmoil and these days of moral decline. It seems that we are battling more things and are confronted with greater events designed to discourage us than we have ever known before. We wonder, O Lord, how those who do not know, you can bear up under such a load. But Father, knowing you, knowing that Jesus has conquered and we are conquerors as well, knowing, O Lord, that you are protecting your church and nothing shall defeat it, knowing, O Lord, that we shall be preserved here upon the earth until you take us home to heaven and that we have a glorious future that awaits us with these truths, O Lord, we can bear up. We can persevere. We can have joy in our hearts in the midst of trials. We can bear witness for the Lord Jesus Christ in this sin darkened world. Help us, Father, to be what we ought to be as we ask it in Christ's name.

Amen. I will share some missionary communications with you at this time, and I'll start with the Webster's in France. Dear Praying Friends, and he quotes first from a government official who says, We cannot dialogue with people who refuse to put in writing that the law of the republic is superior to the law of God. Officials have since walked back those comments, but this statement by the Minister of the Interior is representative of the current government's prevailing attitude toward religion. This week the French Senate is debating and voting on a law that would restrict the freedom of worship in France and add a serious administrative burden on local churches.

This new law to reinforce republican values was conceived to protect France from the encroachment of radical Islam, yet the same law will apply to evangelical churches. Please pray. Don't waste your illness.

That was the subject of a series that Mike recently taught via Zoom. The point was, we waste our illness if we see it as a curse instead of a blessing. Though it has been rough, we do not have the space to recount all the blessings that we have experienced through our recent health challenges. He's referring, of course, to his colon cancer.

But here are a few. Mike's surgery in February was successful, and the two months convalescence has revealed that the preoperative chemotherapy and radiotherapy had eliminated the cancer, meaning that no further treatment is necessary before the second surgery. Mike has been able to continue with certain preaching, teaching, and leadership responsibilities, and his class at the Bible Institute was rescheduled for May. God has given Melanie good health through it all, enabling her to provide good care for Mike. Our niece Rachel was able to come down from Paris for two weeks in between lockdowns and curfews to help while Mike was in the hospital and for his first week home. We initiate continued prayer for the next SEP, which is scheduled for April 15.

That will be tomorrow, followed by several more days in the hospital. Another point in Mike's Tuesday studies was, we waste our illness if we miss the opportunities that it gives to share the Gospel. In a land where so few know the Lord, health care professionals who deal with much negativity are easily struck by the positive attitude that Christians can exhibit through their trials.

This was true of the home health care nurses that Mike had for a month. One of them took time to ask questions and seemed generally interested in our Bible-based answers. On her last day, she accepted a copy of the Scriptures as a thank-you gift. The continuing restraints due to COVID have not stopped the work of God in hearts. Despite yet another lockdown, our third, we are thankful that with the proper measures in place, churches may still hold services. Our attendance has been very, very something.

I think that went off the page. Prayer and Bible studies must continue online, but attendances are still good. Since the restrictions allow only worship services, we do not know when the annual business meeting can take place. However, a recent family meeting on a Sunday morning showed that the church is still on track towards recognizing and electing biblically qualified lay leadership. We are thankful for your prayerful support, Mike and Melanie Webster, serving with Independent Faith Mission in France.

Silas Vanjur Campos, right from Brazil. Greetings from Brazil, South America. Despite a growing number of deaths due to COVID-19, the governor of our state decided for a stricter lockdown. So once again, we are prohibited from gathering together for worship, but we decided to pray and invest on preaching God's word online. The Lord is blessing, and the message is reaching more than 1,000 people.

Rejoice with us. Right now, we are preaching a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Let me read some and pick it up where he says, What a joy, referring to the Sermon on the Mount series, what a joy to hear Jesus teaching on the Christian character, love for our enemies, revenge, speech, divorce, etc. I thank God for teachers such as D. Martin Lloyd Jones, John MacArthur, and D.A. Carson, from whom I am able to rely in my studies. We rejoice in the fact that many years ago, we translated into Portuguese Studies on the Sermon on the Mount, an 873-page volume by Dr. Martin Lloyd Jones. With love and gratitude for your partnership, sign Silas and Vanjur Campos. This is a heartwarming testimony from Piedmont Rescue Mission.

Hello. My name is James Anthony Robinson, Jr. I was born in Lumberton, North Carolina, the eldest of three and the only boy. Life in the neighborhood I grew up in wasn't always easy. My dad was an alcoholic, but my mother truly loved the Lord. The side of the tracks that I came from introduced me to street life at a very early age.

Hustling and stealing came natural for me, being around the company that I kept. My sweet mother taught me that God loved me and that his son died to save my soul from hell. Even though I heard the Bible in my house all the time, my hard head and stubbornness would not allow me to receive it then. Not knowing the ruler of the world was Satan, I wanted to see what it had to offer. For many years I delved into the things of the world, many of which could have caused my death. The prayers of many were sent up to the Father on my behalf. After years of life, of living in sin, in 2014 God led me to the Piedmont Rescue Mission and my life began to change. I was one of the men that came and went about four times before I surrendered my life to the Lord.

At that point in my life, I let God have his way. The mission and the church have been my foundation in getting to know my Savior. God has shown me that he has a purpose for my life. He has always been there when I needed him. He sent me a God-fearing woman to be my wife. Her name is Mary and she is the love of my life. I have put her through some tough times before I surrendered to the will of God.

She has a big heart and a kind spirit. I thank the Lord for her and the patience she has and continues to show me. Now, side by side, we worship and serve the Lord to the best of our abilities.

Life is good for me now. No one can tell me that God doesn't love me because I've learned what love is and what he is. The mission is what I needed for God to get me to listen to him. Through all my times at the mission, God has been there, ready and willing to help me. Since coming, I am serving the Lord as song director at the church and working part time on the staff of the mission. God is using me to help show other men what God can do for them if they will trust him. I pray through my testimony that I can be a witness to other men of God's grace, love, and forgiveness. In his time, Jesus makes all things beautiful. What a beautiful testimony. Well, I have one last letter here that I'm going to try to read selectively because it comes from missionary David Edens who has served many, many, many years in the land of somewhere else. And because of the sensitive nature of that country, and I'm sure all Beacon members know exactly what country that is because we have supported the Edens probably for nearly 40 years or more, but because this is going out on the internet, I'm not going to mention the country. I don't want to put anyone in danger, but there are a lot of good things going on with the gospel of Christ in this land far away.

So, may the Lord help me to catch the key phrases, words and phrases that I should not read before they slip through my lips. Dear Praying Friends, we ask continued special prayer for the believers in that country at this time. This week, the militant terrorists again attacked.

A group of civilians were intercepted as they traveled in a military convoy returning from markets in the southwestern region of the country. At least 58 were killed. At the same time, the recent elections are being contested in the country. This only compounds unrest and confusions.

Believers in the north report almost total collapse of the infrastructure, electric power, water and communications. Thank you for praying. Some have been praying for, and he names an individual, after reading of his cataract problem in the last prayer letter. Some years back, we were aware of annual visits to the country by European surgeons who performed eye surgery free of charge.

Several times, we were able to help friends take advantage of these occasions. Some were helped with cataract surgery and others by surgical interventions that saved their eyesight after they had been injured. This man has been interested in his possibility before, but we assumed that he was hindered by the closing of the borders this year due to the new virus quarantines. After some recent inquiries, we discovered that there is a surgeon there in a particular city who performs cataract surgery. Our friend was able to arrange for the surgery on March 9.

We have yet to hear just how successful the surgery was. Please continue to pray for him. Meanwhile, another individual has continued to travel in witness to the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. At the end of January, he was invited to visit a new location, Last Stop Village.

I think I can safely say that when surely there's no one who's going to know where that is. Some 60 miles out into the desert, the village chief had heard of this man's witnessing in various villages and came in person to invite him to come to his village and witness of Christ. At first, another believer agreed to take them in his four-wheel drive vehicle, but later declined because of the reputation of the region known for armed bandit attacks. Our friend and the village chief then found transport on a transfer truck growing through the area. Our friend was surprised when they were met by four motorbikes loaded with men sent out ahead to greet them and welcome them to their town. He says something about how many people they can pack on a motorbike. Even more surprising were groups that gathered to hear our friend's testimony and to receive the word of God gladly.

There were too many to count. When I spoke with our friend in February, he was ecstatic and rejoicing in the Lord. He has already visited a second time, taking his son along with him.

They also carried printed New Testaments and audio New Testaments to some who had asked for them, enough to supply all who asked. Four days later, another friend phoned and asked for another visit to the village of, by a different name, one he had visited back in 2013. An elderly former priest teacher from this region had left his religion and come to Christ. He was very influential in turning our friend from that religion to Christ.

This village is 180 miles away down in the desert south of our headquarters city. In 2013, this man asked our friend to visit him. He had preached the Gospel to the entire village. After he later passed away, his son asked our friend to visit them again and bring with them the New Testament in their language.

So our friend was able to visit again in February for about five days. While with them, they visited three other villages in the area and found believers in all of these villages. He traveled with another friend and his brother to distribute printed New Testaments in the local language. In one village, an elderly man testified of his salvation, saying, Jesus Christ has always been the way, the truth, and the life all these past years, but we have been deceived by our former religion.

Thank God that we now know the truth. Our friend returned weary from the long trip but very encouraged to find that God's word continued to spread from village to village. Wherever it spreads, many are turned from darkness to light of the Gospel of God's dear Son. And so forth.

I'm going to skip some more as the letter continues on. And he closes by saying, Thank you for your prayers and support for this ministry. The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much. Let us remember to thank and praise the Lord for his many answers to prayer. Signed, David and Donna Edens.

And Donna, of course, has had serious health problems and is also battling cancer. So please pray for this dear, dear sister in Christ that I have known personally for more than 50 years. She truly is a faithful saint of God. Now, let's open our Bibles to the Gospel of John, chapter 1, and we shall continue where we left off the last time I was in the pulpit on a Wednesday night, which actually goes back about three weeks. Last Wednesday night, we were in Bible conference with Mark Webb, hearing the final message from that series, powerful series of messages from Ephesians, greatly blessed of God, warmly received by the Beacon congregation.

Thank you for your good attendance and your support of these meetings. I have been in contact with Mark Webb since he has departed. As soon as he landed back home and unpacked, got off the plane and unpacked, he had a quick night's rest and then headed out the next day to, I want to say, the Dallas area, where a cousin that he was rather close to had died, and he was conducting the funeral. And he conducted that funeral on Saturday. He traveled over that way on Friday. It was quite a ways. Texas is a big state.

You know that, don't you? People used to drive across Texas. They'd enter in on the east side, perhaps, traveling west, and about halfway through, they'd say, the sun has risen, the sun has set, and here he is in Texas yet. And that's about the way it is.

It's a big, big state. And so he traveled out on Friday, conducted the funeral service on Saturday, and then they had a long procession to have the burial a couple or 300 miles away from where the service was held, and so he enjoined that procession and conducted the graveside service. So he was pretty worn out after having been here preaching for a good part of the week and then following it with that.

But he's doing well. He is very grateful for the warm reception that he received here, and he thanks Beacon Baptist Church for the kind hospitality and interest that we conveyed to him. So that was last Wednesday, and then the Wednesday before that, Pastor Carnes was conducting the service, so my last time goes back to, I don't know, sometime in March. But we have been working our way through the prologue of the Gospel of John, bit by bit. Prologue is another name for introduction, but it's a particular kind of introduction. And the prologue of the Gospel of John is actually the first 18 verses, and it sets the stage for the remainder of this Gospel to follow, where John endeavors to show us that Jesus is the Christ. No question about it in John's mind, and he's convinced that if you will consider carefully what he says, the evidence that he presents, the encounters that he had with Christ, the things he learned from him, that you will come to the same conclusion, and that is his desire. These things are written, he says at the close of the book, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and that believing you might have life through his name. Well, we have completed the first 13 chapters of the prologue, I mean, the first 13 verses, and we're coming tonight to verse 14, a key, key text of Scripture. It says, and the Word became 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.

What a statement. Now, this is all part of the prologue, and so to get it all in context, I'm going to go back and read beginning at verse 1 down through verse 14. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God.

All things were made through him, and without him nothing was made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This man came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all through him might believe. He was not that light but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was the true light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, and the world did not know him.

He came to his own, and his own did not receive him. But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Well, in our verse for tonight, verse 14, there are three parts. And each of the three parts of this text correspond to a statement in verse 1. As a matter of fact, you can read verse 1 and then skip to verse 14, and it makes wonderful sense.

All the intervening verses are important verses as well, but listen how this ties together. John 1, 1, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, verse 14, and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Starting in verse 1 from identifying this One known as the Word, who turns out to be God, along with the Father who was God, who turns out to be the One who, along with the Father, created this universe, we come to verse 14 and learn how this One came into the world. 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. So we read in verse 1, In the beginning was the Word, and verse 14, and the Word became flesh. We read in verse 1, and the Word was with God, and we read in verse 14, and dwelt among us. We read in verse 1, and the Word was God, and in verse 14, and we beheld his glory. The glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This verse tells us about the time in earth's history when God became man.

It is an amazing truth. He acquired human nature. He invited thorough investigation. He manifested a divine origin. He acquired a human nature. The Word became flesh. This eternal Word introduced in verses 1 and following. This second person of the Trinity, for God is indeed a triune God, one God, three persons, nobody has ever fully understood it, nobody can fully comprehend it, and yet that is exactly what the Bible teaches. If you want to know God aright, you must understand he is one God, but he exists eternally in three persons that we generally know of as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But in this passage, the Son is called the Word.

It is God, the Father. It is the Word that is the Son of God, the only begotten of the Father, and of course the Holy Spirit is not as conspicuous in this passage, but he also is the third member of the triune Godhead. And so this text, verse 14, is talking about the second person of the Trinity, known here as the Word, the eternal Word of God. It was the Word which became flesh and dwelt among us. It was not the Father who became flesh and dwelt among us. It was not the Holy Spirit who became flesh and dwelt among us. It was the Word that became flesh and dwelt among us. This one, the Word, was made flesh, or became flesh.

Now this indeed is mystery. Not only is the doctrine of the triune Godhead a great mystery, but the doctrine of the Incarnation is also a great mystery that we cannot fully comprehend. But we can consider what the Bible reveals, and we can and will surely by the aid of the Holy Spirit believe what the Bible reveals. And what this tells us is that the Son of God, eternal, who had no beginning, he was with the Father in the beginning. He created the universe alongside the Father. This eternal Word was made flesh, and in doing so he added humanity to his deity. He added humanity to what he eternally had been.

He added humanity without relinquishing his deity. He was made flesh. He became flesh. Or it could be translated, he took to himself flesh. Or even for a more broad translation, he arrived on the scene as flesh.

What did he become? Flesh, that is human nature, a human being, a human man, full human nature, according to its full and complete manifestation. He became a human man, body, soul, spirit. I don't think that probably body and soul are actually two different entities, but rather two different names that basically describe the spiritual part of man. But whether you believe in a tripart being or a bipart being of man's nature, we know that man is both physical and spiritual. He has this body, this physical material body, and then he has this inward immaterial soul. And Jesus Christ acquired all of that in its human form. His human nature was both human body and human soul.

Now maybe we can understand this more clearly if we consider some of the erroneous ideas that have been proposed to try to explain this mystery of the incarnation. Some have erroneously taught that he only appeared as a man. He was not actually a man.

He was God. But he somehow constituted himself into the visage of a man, into the appearance of a man, and came temporarily to the earth in this form, though he was not actually a man, similar in many ways to angelic appearances that we read about in the Bible. When angels who are also spirits, they are not corporal, they are not physical, they are ministering spirits, the Bible tells us. They are messengers of God that are spirits. But nevertheless, we find them all throughout the Bible coming to earth and in every fashion appearing to be a man. They looked like a man. They talked like a man. And as far as I know, if you felt them at that time, they would feel like a man, and yet they had not become a man. They had, by some power that God invested in them, been able to acquire the appearance of a man for a particular task, a particular assignment upon the earth, and then they returned to their spirit nature. And some have said that's the way it is with the Incarnation, that Jesus came to earth, appeared like a man, but he wasn't really a man.

He was the eternal spirit God, and that's who he was all along. Wrong. And this text tells us that.

We could go to many others, but we don't need to. The Word did not look like flesh, did not appear like flesh. The Word became flesh. I wouldn't doubt, but that is one of the reasons why, in God's design, he came as a baby conceived in the womb, so we could see the whole process. When an angel comes to earth and appears as a man, he wasn't born of a woman. He wasn't conceived in the womb. He wasn't born of a mother for nine months and then birthed into the world and appeared to be a man in that fashion.

That would not be possible, I don't think, but that's the way Jesus came. He became a man all the way from conception to death, the very same route that we take. He was conceived in the womb. He was fashioned for nine months in the womb of his mother. He was brought into the world through the birth canal from his mother. He started out as a little baby and then grew, grew, grew into boyhood and into, we would say adolescence, the concept they probably didn't have in that day and then eventually into a full-grown man. And he did not appear to be a man. He became flesh.

That's what our text tells us. Another error concerning the incarnation of Christ taught by some is that he switched his natures, that he came as God and then he transformed himself into a man, a creature for a period of time, and then he transformed himself back into deity. That he ceased to be God when he became man and he ceased to be man when he returned to his form as God. And in that erroneous teaching, he was not fully God when he was a man. He wasn't God at all. He was a man. He was not and is not today man at all now that he's returned to his deity.

And that is entirely erroneous. The Bible teaches that he became flesh. He acquired a nature in addition to the one that he already had. He did not cease to be God when he became man.

These two natures were wedded together forever. Until the virgin conception, he was God. After the virgin conception, he was the God-man. After his death and resurrection and ascension back to heaven, he is still the God-man.

And now upon the throne of God in heaven sits a man. He acquired humanity forever, something he did not have from the beginning in eternity past. But on that day when the angel spoke to Mary and said, You shall conceive and you shall bear a son, from that day forward, the Word became flesh. The Word became a human being.

The Word forever is a human being. Now, of course, glorified humanity, not the same Adamic flesh that we have in this world, but the first fruits of the resurrection. In other words, the first human body to be glorified and we who believe in him will be likewise glorified and live in a glorified body throughout eternity. But he became a man and continues to be a man. And for all eternity will be a man, even as for all eternity he will continue to be God.

He is the God-man. A third error that is sometimes propounded to try to explain the incarnation but to do it incorrectly is that the Word, the logos, as it's accurately called because of the Greek word logos, which is translated word, and some teach therefore that the logos replaced the human soul or the human spirit so that Jesus had a human body but he did not have a human soul. His soul was who he was before the incarnation. His soul was the divine logos. His soul was the eternal spirit so that he was a man in body but God in soul. He did not have a human soul.

But again, that plainly is incorrect. Consider this text that you are familiar with in Luke 2 as Luke talks about the development of the boy Jesus. We read in verse 51, Then he went down with them, that is his parents, and came to Nazareth and was subject to them, but his mother kept all these things in her heart, and Jesus, listen to this now, increased in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man. Increased in stature, that of course is the physical side. He increased in wisdom, that's the inner part. That's the soul, that's the mind, the mysterious interaction between mind and soul.

Bimlically speaking, the mind is more than the physical brain, though it operates along with the brain, no question about it, but it's more than that. And this tells us that Jesus increased both physically and spiritually, both in stature and in wisdom. Eternal deity, logos, cannot increase in wisdom. God can never learn anything. God can never know any more than he already knows.

He knows it all. He can increase in wisdom, but human beings can, and Jesus did. Jesus was a human being in every sense of that word. The word became flesh. What he was was one person with two natures, a human nature and a divine nature, and he is the only one to have these two natures.

No one before him, no one after him. We are human beings. We have a human nature. Our human nature, by the grace of God, is redeemed, it's transformed, it is glorified, it will live forever with God in heaven.

We will have a perfect soul without sin, without corruption, when we are with the Lord, when we are entirely sanctified, something we do not have now. But nevertheless, we have only and always a human nature, though someday a glorified one, but this one has ever and always a divine nature, for that's who he was eternally, and added to that a human nature, which is what he now is as well eternally, the only one in all the universe to have these two natures. Now, there are a lot of implications and ramifications from that truth, but one is that this makes him a fit mediator between God and man.

Why? Because he's both. He's both. You talk about one who can bridge the gap, as it were, standing between God and man, and reach up and take hold of God, as it were, with one hand, and reach down and take hold of man with the other hand and bring them together. He is the God-man.

He's the perfect high priest. He's able to represent us before the Father. He can represent us with full knowledge of our weaknesses and infirmities because he had them all except for sin, but he lived on earth. He suffered pain. He suffered hunger. He suffered insults.

He suffered sorrow. He knows all of these things. He understands them perfectly, and he can therefore represent us in that aspect before the Father, but he knows the Father perfectly because in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. What a mediator! One mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus.

Beloved, this is a great truth indeed. He acquired a human nature, but there is more that we will have to take up another time. He not only acquired a human nature, but he invited a thorough investigation. He dwelled among us. He allowed us to behold him as he was in his humanity and also as glimpses of his deity shone through from time to time, but he invited thorough investigation.

He didn't hide anything. He wasn't like some of the superstar media preachers of our day that only have a media persona, a media personality, a media presentation that people can see, and then carefully step away from that and shelter themselves in a private way so that nobody can really inspect their lives and see what's going on. In a lot of cases, what's going on is not good at all as we come with sorrow to find out in many cases, but not Jesus.

Not Jesus. He dwelt among us, and as John says, we beheld. He dwelt among us 24-7.

He invited the apostles to be with him day and night and to inspect him to hear his every word. He never let a wrong word slip. They never heard him say anything that he shouldn't have said.

They never saw him do anything he should not have done. They saw a perfect man who was indeed the eternal God in human flesh. The word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory.

He manifested a divine origin. We beheld his glory, the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. And we'll have to take up those wonderful aspects of our text on another Wednesday night, Lord willing.

But now, will you bow with me? Oh, before we pray, I'm going to take time to read another hymn that focuses upon these truths. God With Us, O Wondrous Name by Basil Manley, Jr. God with us, O wondrous name, manifest in flesh he came, hiding in a form like mine all his attributes divine. Equal with the Father's still, he obeys the Father's will, lays his rightful glories by, comes as man for man to die. While as man on earth he dwelt, as true God, his power was felt.

At his voice diseases fled, opening graves restored their dead. As a man, he groans and dies. Prisoned in the tomb, he lies. Soon he rises from the grave, man to die, but God to save. Hallelujah. What a Savior. Shall we pray? Father, we have no words to describe the wonder, the glory, the beauty of this glorious person, the Lord Jesus Christ, that you gave to sinners to redeem us from our sin, to rescue us from eternal condemnation, to save us from our sinful bondage, to release us from our wayward path. O Lord God, we bow in wonder and in praise. We thank you that Brenda Kramer has recovered from COVID and that Nancy Ellis is home from the hospital with her battle with COVID.

And we thank you for the good news that Dawn Hammond has completed her radiation treatments. We pray tonight for all of our government officials and especially this week for Mebane Councilman Sean Ewing. O Lord, give him wisdom. Guide his decisions. Guide his thoughts.

Use him, Father, as a representative of truth and righteousness and true justice in the position where you have placed him. We pray for Drew Guthrie as she battles cancer and Doris Loftus as she recovers from arm surgery. For Debbie Redd as she undergoes therapy for her condition. We pray for Evelyn Butler as she weakens evermore. And for Jeff Etheridge as he undergoes several surgeries to repair the damage of that terrible car accident, or no, rather terrible work accident. We pray for Harold Lynch, Jr., that you might uphold him.

And for Frank Mims and Linda Whitmire. We continue to pray for Laverne Waugh in Zimbabwe and for Mike Webster in France as he battles colon cancer and also for Donna Edens as she is dealing with heart issues and recovering from a serious car accident and also has some cancer issues to deal with as well. And, Father, we uplift those families whose family circle has been invaded by death, the enemy of death. Father, we pray, therefore, for the family of Eleanor Keating and the family of Ronald Stinnett and of Justin Weaver and of Larry Yoder. We pray for Ted Driver's father-in-law who has cancer and for Eddie Driver's friend Dave Hambrick with his cancer and for Shirley Rocky as she undergoes her final chemo treatment that we trust, oh, Lord, will be effective in arresting the cancer that she has been battling. And also, Father, we uplift Betty Duncan that you might be near to her.

And, Lord, we could name a host of others. These are burdens, these are needs, these are trials that you have appointed for these people. Lord, sustain them, uphold them, show them yourself, show them your promises, show them your power and your love and your grace. And may that be very present with them at this time as we ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.