From the Manger to the Cross #2

Welcome to The Truth Pulpit with Don Green, Founding Pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Hello again, I'm Bill Wright. It is our joy to continue our commitment to teaching God's people God's Word. Today Don is continuing with the second part of a message we started last time.

So let's get right to it. Open your Bible as we join Don now in The Truth Pulpit. If you're not a Christian here today, this is exactly how you should be thinking. You should be thinking that God, in His grace and mercy, brought you to this very place today so that you could receive Christ today. That there is an urgency to the Gospel message that appeals to your heart, and that you need to receive Him today for salvation at this very moment through His Word.

I can say on the authority of God's Word, the Spirit of God is pleading with your heart through His Word at this very moment. Repent! Come to Christ for eternal salvation. Because this is the whole reason He came. He came to forgive our sins. Turn back to Matthew 1 with me.

Matthew 1. Jesus came to forgive our sins. There's a second aspect that we see in this passage about the coming of Christ.

The richness and the depth of the genius of God has shown that He's accomplishing multiple things in everything that He accomplishes. It wasn't just for the forgiveness of our sins, but point number two here this morning, Jesus came to fulfill prophecy. Jesus came to fulfill prophecy. His birth was like no other, and His birth had been predicted throughout the centuries by the Jewish prophets of old. Going back centuries, look at verse 22 and 23 with me.

Looking back on these statements that the angel made to Joseph, looking back on this statement of the purpose of the incarnation that Christ would save His people from their sins, with all of that in mind in these simple words of verse 22 and 23, look at this. Now, all this took place to. There's a purpose there.

This is a statement of purpose. Why did this happen? Why was it that this manger scene was unfolding in what would come after? Why was it that the angel was speaking to Joseph in this manner about his bride Mary?

Why was it? Verse 22, all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and shall bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. A statement from Isaiah 7, verse 14, back in the Old Testament.

You ever stop and think what that means? You realize when Isaiah conducted his ministry? 700 years before Joseph and Mary were on the scene. 700 years! Do you realize that to give that some perspective from our position in life, that that would predate the coming of Columbus to America? 700 years ago was roughly 1300? Do you have any idea what was happening back in 1300?

Don't feel bad, I don't either. I just know that that's really distant history to us. We think about that as being pretty distant history. We don't know anyone by name, you and I, we don't know anyone who lived at that time.

Oh, some of you history buffs might have a speck of a name from that time frame, but 700 years ago, those people are gone and forgotten to us here today. And yet, as the angel spoke to Joseph, God was carrying out a precision of fulfillment of the word of his prophet from 700 years ago, that was more certain to be fulfilled than what you think you're going to do later today. There was no doubt that when Isaiah called forth that there would be a child born to a virgin, there was no doubt that that would be fulfilled. And while there's no way for us to think about this in any manner that appreciates the insane complexity of making sure that happened, oh, generation after generation after generation being born, world ruler after world ruler rising and falling, rising and falling, the heaving waves of the passing of time throughout centuries, and yet there was an utter certainty that this prophecy would be fulfilled, because that prophet was speaking under the inspiration of God, and this speaks to us and shows us the absolute perfect control of every detail that God has over the unfolding of human history. Words spoken 700 years ago were certain in their fulfillment, and that's what we see here in verses 22 and 23.

Now of course, this was not the only prophecy that was made of Christ. Turn back, if you can find it in your Bibles, to the book of Micah, which is in the middle of the last 12 books of the Old Testament. If you get back to Ezekiel, you've gone too far, Micah, just before the book of Nahum, just after the book of Jonah. Micah chapter 5 verse 2. At about the same time as Isaiah, some 700 years before the birth of Christ, speaking to the little village of Bethlehem, 700 years earlier, said, But as for you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the clans of Judah, from you one will go forth for me to be ruler in Israel.

His goings forth are from long ago, from the days of eternity. That's a prophecy about where the Messiah would be born. There was no way to orchestrate this. There was no way for men to orchestrate the ensuing events of 700 years, and the ensuing generations of some 50 to 60 generations of people that followed after that prophecy.

There's no way you can generate that. This is simply a statement that God was totally orchestrating every detail of it to accomplish His purpose. And so when Jesus came, He wasn't only coming to forgive us of our sins, He was coming to fulfill and uphold the Word of God. And these and many other prophecies like them remind us here at this time where we remember the birth of Christ. This points us back and reminds us, fulfilled prophecy shows us, get this, that God is working out His eternal plan on His timetable, and the fulfillment of that is certain and cannot possibly fail. God is in perfect control, and mark this, even the rebellion of man against Him cannot hinder the fulfillment of what He intends to do. The loving intentions of God toward His people have always been at work. The loving intention of God to save your soul has been operative from the course of history from the beginning of time. Listen, just think it through with me.

Just think it through with me. Your salvation depended entirely upon this work of Christ that we're going to remember briefly at the Lord's table. And God planned that from the beginning so that throughout the beginnings in Genesis and throughout the Old Testament and the 400 years of silence that followed after the Old Testament and into the New Testament and working through the subsequent 2,000 years in the history of the church as the gospel was proclaimed with varying degrees of outward success through the years. All of that being done under the sovereign superintendence of a holy, omnipotent, omniscient God that somehow in reasons that only He knows, for motives that only He could animate, somehow a plan that, as magnificent as that all is, somehow included you. This great eternal plan that Christ was fulfilling with His birth, that was the fulfillment of prophecy, points us to the sovereign oversight of God, not only of the big picture but of the details. And if you are in Christ, you can rightly say that you're included in that eternal plan, that somehow God included your soul in His saving purposes, which He had before time began.

Where do you find words to describe that? What words are sufficient to honor the God who is that great, that's that great? And not only great, but has been that gracious to His people, has been that gracious to you. Oh, beloved, what I want you to do this morning is to think beyond, to think about your salvation beyond the context of your own little life and put it in the context of the eternal plan of God, which was being worked out to perfection without possibility of fail in the town of Bethlehem 2,000 years ago. There's no doubt, there's no doubt that the church today has lost sight of the magnificence of this, or the worship and teaching that we see all around us would not be so trivial and superficial and empty and powerless. These are the greatest themes that could ever engage the human mind. Jesus came to fulfill prophecy, and that speaks to the eternal plan of God.

Freely, sovereignly, magnificently, riding above the storms of human history, always working through it to accomplish exactly what He wants. It's humbling, isn't it? It makes us feel tiny by comparison, doesn't it?

Oh, beloved, do you understand that that's exactly what it should do to your heart? You see, we worship because God is so much greater than us, and to the extent that you see Him as greater and greater, there's going to be a greater depth and greater profundity to the way that you worship Him. It's not about candles and incense that promote worship. It's about the understanding of who the greatness of God is, and bowing and humbling your human soul before His feet, and honoring Him according to the great truth which His Word speaks about His great character and His great plan. Humble gratitude is the mark of someone who understands these things. Point number three. Point number three, it's not just that Jesus came to forgive our sins that makes this magnificent. It's not just that He came to fulfill prophecy that makes this even more magnificent.

This just continues to get incomprehensibly more magnificent with each passing verse. Point number three, Jesus came in the fullness of deity. Jesus came in the fullness of deity.

Honestly, honestly, who is adequate to speak to this? Paul said, who's adequate for these things? The God who fulfills prophecy like that, the God who superintends the unfolding of history to make sure that His eternal plan is perfected in utter detail, that God who does that and planned it from before the beginning of time, that God is the God who was the baby. That was the God who was with us. Look at verses 23 through 25 with me. The virgin shall be with child, shall bear a son, and they shall call His name Immanuel, which translated means God with us. There's only one God, you know that. There's one God, and He was with us in the manger. Verse 24, Joseph awoke from his sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, took Mary as his wife, but kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a son, and he called his name Jesus. God with us.

The statement couldn't be any plainer. Mary's baby was God in human flesh. God the Son took on humanity in order to achieve this work of redemption, in order to fulfill prophecy. Beloved, there aren't many people that we know in human history, maybe a few, who give up great prerogatives of royalty in order to humble themselves for the sake of someone else. Whatever the best human example of that could be pales into utter insignificance by the recognition that the holy ruling one of the universe abandoned the prerogatives of heaven, abandoned the glories of heaven for the sake of becoming a child. And not only becoming a child, you can't plumb the depths of this, not only to just become a child and kind of hang out with humanity and then go back, he came to die on a cross to give his life for sinners!

For rebels! What kind of God is this? Oh, beloved, do you see it? You can't exhaust the majesty, the glory, and the depth of worship that this Lord Jesus Christ is worthy of!

No one does that! Paul alludes to that in Romans 5, doesn't he? Maybe there's a righteous man who'd give his life for his friend, but that's a pretty extreme thing. But God demonstrates his own love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. This God who had with utter prerogative, with utter sovereignty, with utter holiness, with the utter complete right to judge and incinerate humanity for the rebellion against him, rather than exercising that prerogative and vindicating his holiness in that way, in grace, in kindness, in love, came and gave himself for you! This was God who was doing this!

Not a delegate, not a surrogate. One of the most appalling, damning aspects, the theology that drives Jehovah's Witnesses and things like that, is that God created Christ and then sent him to do the work. Do you realize how that robs Christ of his glory? Do you realize how that robs God of his glory? To think that God made someone else to do the work? That's not true!

That's utterly false! God himself did that, and that magnifies the glory and grace of God infinitely more than the false lies of those who say Christ was the first of his creation and then Christ came and did the work. When you understand the difference between those two outworkings, you realize that to say that Christ was not God is a damnable heresy. It's not a matter of a difference of theological opinion. It goes right into the throne room of God and brazenly tries to rob him of his glory.

And their judgment will be severe and their judgment will be just, because no man should ever assault the glory of God in that way. No. No.

No. When we come to this table in a few moments, we're going to remember that what is in front of us is a remembrance of a work that God did on our behalf. And it was a work of utter humility and self-sacrifice on behalf of Christ. And that's why we love him. That's why we would give our lives for him. That's why we get animated collectively together as a body of believers together.

We get animated over these things because the themes are too great to treat casually or flippantly. God was with us to forgive our sins and to fulfill prophecy. Jesus is God himself, acting to save us and deliver us from sin, from Satan, and to secure our eternal blessedness. I ask you, beloved, don't you love him?

I do. The story began in the throne room of heaven. It swept down to Bethlehem in a manger.

It went to a cross and it ascended back into glory. One day he's going to come again, finish the work as it were, and you and I won't get lost in the process. He's not going to lose sight of you. The certainty with which he went to the cross and carried your name as it were on his shoulder when he shed his blood, it's just as certain that as he fulfills his purposes for the ages and brings this present world order to an end, you're not going to get lost in the process.

He's not going to forget about you. We have a magnificent Savior. We have a glorious Christ. We have one that's worthy of all of our devotion, love, and worship. The Gospel of John said, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. As we come to the communion table, remember, he didn't just dwell with us.

He died for us. Well, my friend, before we go after today's broadcast, I just want to invite you to look me up on Facebook. Don Green on Facebook.

I often make original posts. I make comments about ministry and other matters of biblical importance there that do not make their way into this broadcast. And so if you are on Facebook, I invite you to join me. Look for Don Green and join us on Facebook for another way to connect with our ministry. That's Don Green, founding pastor of Truth Community Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. Thank you so much for listening to The Truth Pulpit. Join us next time for more as we continue teaching God's people God's Word.