It's nice to be with you this Tuesday
evening, for the welcome, for the invitation, and
for the welcome for this, your weekly Tuesday
ministry meeting.
Brother Stephen Owen, to ask if I would
come, he said we are taking up some
subjects and would you be free to speak
on the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
It's a deep subject, it's a very tender
subject, it's one which is the foundations of
our faith.
Those of us who are a wee bit
older would remember our brother Tom Richardson, Evangelist,
spoke at a conference here, I think it
was in Fife, whether it was their own
or not I'm not sure, but I always
remember what he said as perhaps his opening
remarks but nothing else, when he said, if
the first rung on the ladder of our
faith is rotten, where do you stand?
And of course those of us who walked
on ladders were always glad when the rungs
were not rotten.
I've walked on ladders where they were rotten.
What we want to do this evening is
think about the Lord Jesus Christ as his
protégé for us in Holy Scripture.
One verse I want to read and that
is found in 1 Timothy chapter 3 and
verse number 16.
We want to look at other verses but
just want to read this verse at this
time.
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.
Amen.
It's the first expression in the six little
statements that's made that we want to think
about in the context of this subject of
the incarnation.
God was manifest in the flesh.
One has said that the future incarnation is
intimated in the theophanies, or appearances of God
in human form, and distinctly predicted in the
promises connected with rejection and with the Davidic
covenant.
And that has to do with Old Testament
scriptures.
And before we come into the new, I
want to think with you of that which
used to be often spoken about but very
seldom now, the theophanies, or some of them,
of the Old Testament scriptures.
There are three expressions found in the Old
Testament that bring to us this truth.
And one is entitled the angel of the
Lord, the other is entitled the angel of
his presence, and the third is entitled the
angel of the covenant.
And when we look at scriptures where these
expressions come, and they're found in the Old
Testament, we find that there is a divine
person that's manifested in human form for a
brief moment of time.
And it has been called a theophany, a
divine person in a human form.
The pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ.
And in our Old Testament scriptures, there are
many of them.
And the first one that I want to
think with you about is a manifestation to
a woman.
And that woman was an Egyptian.
And that woman was a handmaid of Sarah.
Her name was Hagar.
And Hagar, she's found by the fountain of
water in the wilderness in the book of
Genesis in chapter 16.
And she is freeing from her mistress.
And the Bible says at verse 16, And
the angel of the Lord found her by
a fountain of water in the wilderness, by
the fountain in the way to Shur.
Now, you look at your Bible, and you'll
see that the word Lord is spelt with
capital letters.
That in our English translation that we use,
parochialized, I mean, it's always translated and printed
with capitals, L-O-R-D.
Often other times, it's spelt with a capital
L and a small o-r-d, the
common lower case.
Which means our English translators of 1611 noticed
that there were different words in the original,
which had the same English word, but in
order to distinguish them, they distinguished them by
the capitals or with the common letters O
-R-D.
Jehovah.
The angel of Jehovah.
The angel of the Lord.
And we ask ourselves the question, is this
a normal, ordinary angel?
Or is this a special manifestation of the
Lord Himself?
And there to Hagar, as she's in the
wilderness, by the way of a fountain in
the way to Shur, the Lord appears to
Hagar.
And he advises Hagar to go back to
her mistress.
Come down through Genesis and you come to
chapter 18.
And we read these words in chapter 18.
The Lord appeared unto him in the plains
of Mamre, and he sat in the tent
door in the heat of the day.
This he, or the him, refers to Abraham.
And Abraham, who had been called of God
to leave his country, or of the Chaldeans,
to go to a land that he would
inherit, is walking through, to and forth through
that land, and there comes a moment here
in his life experience, recorded in chapter 18,
that he's sitting in his tent in the
heat of the day.
And we would try to visualize what a
tent would look like, but he sees three
men coming to him as he sits in
his tent on that hot day.
And as Abraham entertains those three men, he
recognizes that they were angelic men.
Later on, down in the chapter, we discover
this.
That two leave, and one remains.
And we discover that Abraham recognizes it is
the Lord that has spoken to him in
the heat of the day at his tent
door.
He recognized the Lord.
Again, we come down to chapter 22.
And in chapter 22, he's no longer sitting
in the tent door, but Abraham is upon
a mount, Mount Moriah.
He has heard God saying to him, Take
thou thy son, thine only Isaac, whom thou
lovest, and get thee into a mountain that
I will show thee.
And so Abraham prepared to take his son
with the wood, with the fire, and his
young men with the ashes.
And eventually, he leaves the young men with
the stuff, and Isaac and him go up
the mountain, Mount Moriah.
And turning up Mount Moriah, that question that
so often has been asked, Where is a
lamb for a burnt offering?
Behold the wood, the fire.
Where is the lamb?
And Abraham had said, God will provide for
him self a lamb out of heaven.
So in verse number 12, we learn in
that chapter 22, that the angel of the
Lord called unto him out of heaven and
said, Abraham, Abraham.
And he said, Here am I.
Now in verse 15, he called to him
a second time.
So what do we learn in these pre
-incarnate manifestations of Christ?
That he's interested in a Heber, and he's
interested in an Abraham.
He's interested in a Heber who is fleeing,
and he's interested in an Abraham who is
obeying.
And there's an interest by the pre-incarnate
Christ in these men.
We come down to Jacob.
And there is chapter 31.
Jacob, he is in the house of Laban,
his uncle.
Down yonder in Haran, in Mesopotamia, where Jacob
had cheated his brother, and Jacob had fled,
and at his mother's instigation, he had gone
back to Uncle Laban's house, her brother's house.
And we know how prosperous he becomes in
the house of Laban, his uncle.
And there becomes a bit of a jealousy
between his uncle and his sons, and the
nephew Jacob.
And there is that animosity right there in
Haran, in Mesopotamia.
And we read, The angel of God speaketh
unto me in a plain saying, Jacob, and
I say, Here am I.
And so God is speaking.
The angel of God.
And so we learn again of a manifestation
of Christ speaking to Jacob and telling him
to return and go back and face his
brother Esau.
Take his two wives and his children that
he has gotten in Haran, in Mesopotamia and
go back home.
Later on, we read that Jacob is at
the side of a brook.
A brook called Teniel.
And he's left alone.
He's taken his wives and his children, his
sons, and sent them over the brook.
And he remained on the other side.
This is what scripture says.
Jacob was left alone.
And there wrestled a man with him until
the breaking of day.
A man!
Yes!
In the pre-incarnate form of a man.
Just as Abram had welcomed the three at
a tent door.
And here is Jacob welcoming a man.
Wrestling with him.
What does the man say?
The man says this.
Jacob, and he raised his finger upon his
thigh.
Jacob was a different man from that man.
He halted, leaning upon his staff.
And God speaks to him.
He says, I have seen, Jacob says, I
have seen God face to face.
And my life is preserved.
Now how do we know it was an
angel?
Have we got to go down to the
Bible until we come to the book of
Hosea?
And in the book of Hosea, in chapter
12, in verse number 4, this is what
Hosea says.
This is what the Spirit of God says.
Yea, he had power over the man.
No.
Yea, he had power over the angel.
And prevailed.
He wept, and made supplication unto him.
He found him in Bethel, and therefore spake
with us.
So we learn that these in Exodus and
in Genesis had the experience of seeing
and speaking and knowing the angel of the
Lord.
Let's come over to Exodus.
Right at the very beginning of the book
of Exodus, we learn that there is another
man.
He has fled from the face of a
pharaoh.
He has gone away miles out into the
desert.
He is watching sheep.
He is no longer a prince in a
palace, but a shepherd watching sheep.
And he sees something.
He saw a bush burning and was not
consumed.
And he says, I'll turn aside and see
this great sight that a bush would burn
and not be consumed.
When I think of this, I think of
a day in Sandy Grande.
A day of walking past the Presbyterian Church
of Scotland.
There are four churches in Scotland in Trinidad,
and there is one in Sandy Grande.
And a big place.
A wooden building.
I don't know how old it is.
I just went and had a look at
the notice board.
One day.
Because there was something on it that I
couldn't make out from the pavement.
So I went a bit closer, and it
was a symbol.
It was a symbol of the bush burning
and not being consumed.
That's a Presbyterian symbol.
You'll find it right here in Scotland.
You might find it here in Buckheim, in
the Kirk.
And you might even find it right here
in Lord Meadow.
But they had it painted on the notice
board.
And Moses drew near.
And he hears a voice.
And the angel of the Lord appeared unto
him in a flame of fire out of
the midst of the bush.
And he looked, and behold, the bush burned
with fire and was not consumed.
What did the Lord say?
Take off my shoes and off my feet.
For the ground whereon thou standest is holy
ground.
A pre-incarnate manifestation of Christ.
He came to Moses.
Again.
To Israel.
And they've been redeemed as a nation out
of Egypt's bondage.
And they've gone out with a high hand
out from Egypt.
And they make their way towards the wilderness.
And when we come to Exodus 14 and
at verse number 19, this is what it
says.
And the angel of God which went before
the camp of Israel removed and went behind
them.
And the angel of the cloud and the
pillar of the cloud went from before their
faces and stood behind them.
Again.
One of those manifestations.
One of those theophanies.
We come to the book of Numbers.
And we discover in the book of Numbers
there's a man there called Balaam.
And Balaam was hired to curse Israel on
their journey through the wilderness.
And Balaam had hired him.
He was a hireling.
He was in for the money.
He had been good in the Commons, in
the House of Lords, you know.
He was in for what he could get.
Look what it says.
To Balaam, God's anger was kindled because he
went.
And the angel of the Lord stood in
the way for an adversary against them.
So not only do we have the angel
of the Lord being for people, but in
this case of Balaam, he stands against them.
So I selected these.
There are others.
There is Manoah.
There is Joshua that comes to mind.
That they experienced the divine visitation in their
lives.
When for that moment God as the angel
of the Lord visited them for special purpose.
As we said, a pre-incarnate manifestation of
Christ.
When we come over to the book of
Isaiah in chapter 69, it's not the angel
of the Lord that we read about, but
we read of the angel of his presence.
Isaiah is not speaking of something in history,
but he's speaking of something in their history.
And he says this, in all their affliction.
He was afflicted.
And the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and in his pity, he
redeemed them.
And he bared them and carried them all
the days of old.
What is Isaiah speaking about?
Distressing from that day that we've left them
as they were on the other side of
the Red Sea.
They came through the Red Sea.
They went through the wilderness until God brought
them over the Jordan and into the land.
Isaiah describes the angel as the angel of
his presence.
Do you know that?
That they knew the presence of the Lord.
How did they know that?
Do you remember that we saw there at
the sea, that by high hearth that the
cloud went from before them and went behind
them and stood between them and the Egyptians.
That cloud was a pillar of cloud by
day and was a pillar of fire by
night.
The angel of his presence was with them
in the cloud by day and by night.
When we come over to Malachi that's where
we have the third expression in chapter 3.
He's called the angel of the covenant and
it's the only time that we get this
expression not in our authorised version.
Our authorised version says the messenger of the
covenant.
Mr. Darby takes the word messenger just as
we have in the new testament and gives
us the other word and Mr. Darby in
this translation says this Therefore the Lord behold
I send my messenger and he shall prepare
the way before me and the Lord whom
you seek shall suddenly come into his temple
and the angel of the covenant our authorised
says the messenger.
Mr. Darby the angel of the covenant in
whom ye doubt behold he cometh saith the
Lord of hosts.
So there is a covenant and we thank
God that we have this assurance.
Now there's other verses in the old testament
and they speak to us of a sign
that was given of a son that was
promised.
There was a very wicked man upon the
throne of Israel his name was Ahaz that
wicked king on the throne had a very
wicked wife as well and Isaiah was sent
to him one day and he was sent
to him to ask a sign an old
wicked Ahaz with his equally wicked Jezebel of
a wife Ahaz would not request a sign
but the Lord said I'll give you a
sign this is how Isaiah puts it in
chapter 7 in verse 14 therefore the Lord
himself shall give you a sign behold a
virgin shall conceive and bear a son and
shall call his name Emmanuel.
We rejoice in that verse of scripture don't
we?
We love to quote it we love to
think about it we love to memorize it
we like to meditate upon it what does
it really mean?
Interesting Israel does not take out of that
verse what you and I take out of
that for be denied it has anything to
do with the Jesus of Nazareth a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son wonderful isn't
it?
that God should place on record six centuries
before it was fulfilled that the sign would
be given to a wicked Ahaz a virgin
shall conceive and I was reading about Manoah
I was reading about his wife and Manoah's
wife was old, she was born she had
no child and she got a promise and
the promise was this to an old woman
an old wife who had never had a
child you'll conceive and bear a son now
that expression only occurs three times in the
bible it occurs in the book of Judges
in relation to Manoah's wife it occurs in
this verse that we read in Isaiah chapter
7 and 14 and in its fulfillment in
Luke's gospel in the New Testament and God
says to a born person you'll conceive and
bear then we turn over to Isaiah chapter
9 we learn unto us a child is
born unto us a son is given I'm
not going further down the verses, it has
other truths that we're not quite touching tonight
a child born a son given and so
those Old Testament manifestations that was given how
God is bringing some of the focus even
more intense and he says there's going to
be a child born and there's going to
be a son that's given was it last
week you had the teaching on the eternal
sonship of Christ that this is the son
that's to be given who is the child
that will be born and so as Isaiah
speaks of these things we come over the
scriptures, we come down the years a bit
further and we come into the book of
Micah and Micah says in chapter 5 and
at verse number 2 but thou Bethlehem Ephrathah
lo, thou be little among the thousands of
Judah get out of thee shall he come
forth unto me that is to be a
ruler in Israel and it's this expression whose
goings forth have been from old from everlasting
it's an interesting expression the one who is
going to be born the son of the
virgin the son that's going to be given
the one that's coming forth from God born
into this world his goings forth have been
from old from everlasting you may look at
the corner of the margin of your bible
and see another expression there from the days
of eternity the days of eternity, so the
one that's coming in incarnation the one who's
had manifestations the one who's from all eternity
is the child that will be born and
the son that will be given and he
will be from everlasting so we come over
into the new testament and we learn this
I came across a quote by F.W.
Grant this is what Mr. Grant said in
Christ the human and divine have been inseparably
united together and there cannot be the least
discordance between the two so that which we've
been thinking about as far as the old
testament is concerned the angel of the lord,
the angel of his presence, the angel of
the covenant that which we see as it
were through a glass darkly is going now
to be seen in clear light that he
who was God manifests in the flesh as
far as we are going to see now
is the one who is manifesting himself to
those patriarchs of old in a very small
way now what do we read?
the first thing we come to the book
of Matthew and in Matthew chapter one in
that first chapter at 23 we learn behold
a virgin shall be with child and shall
bring forth a son and he shall call
his name Emmanuel which is being interpreted as
God with us to whom is that said?
that was said to Joseph and God speaks
to Joseph in a dream because remember Joseph
was a good man a righteous man, a
just man Joseph had a espoused wife one
who was engaged to him to be married
and she is found with child of the
Holy Ghost Joseph said no Lord all Joseph
could see that Mary was with child and
he was thinking about this and meditating on
it contemplating I won't make her a public
example I'll put her away privately privately is
her authorized while he thought upon these things
God says fear not to take unto thee
Mary thy wife that which is conceived in
her is of the Holy Ghost for it
is written behold a virgin shall be with
child and shall bring forth a son and
they shall call his name Emmanuel is being
interpreted God with us that's not all remember
Luke has something to tell us Luke says
in chapter 1 verse 35 as the angel
answered and said unto Mary and to her
the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee and
the power of the highest shall over shadow
thee therefore also that Holy thing which shall
be born of thee shall be called the
Son of God Mary is going to be
with child she says behold the handmaid of
the Lord Mary says how can this then
be seeing I don't know a man I
know not a man she is thinking along
natural lines how can it be and so
the angel answers her the Holy Ghost shall
come upon thee and the power of the
highest shall overshadow thee therefore that Holy thing
that shall be born of thee shall be
called the Son of God.
Now John comes to that in his first
chapter of his gospel and in chapter 1
in verse 14 John says very very simply
yet profoundly pauses it down to a few
words this is what John says and the
word was made fresh the word became fresh
and dwelt among us.
Chapter 1 in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God and the
word was God and the same was in
the beginning with God and he comes down
to verse 14 and he says the word
was made fresh someone has calculated that it
took Luke 2500 words to tell us about
the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ it
took John 4 words to tell us of
the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ what
was made fresh it's a mystery and we
grasp it by faith said John if I
know ye the spirit of God every spirit
that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God we live in
a day when this is most doubted and
denied that the one who we celebrate the
one who came into time is none other
than God manifest in the flesh he may
have come to the patriarchs and the fathers
of old in these pre-incarnate days but
he has come to us as a man
born of a woman made under the law
that's the wonder of it all so John
would teach us and so would Paul and
Paul says this as he wrote to these
Corinthian believers in his second letter in chapter
6, chapter 8 for ye know the grace
of the Lord Jesus Christ though he was
rich yet for your sakes he became poor
that ye through his poverty might become rich,
he was rich eternally he became poor when
he took upon himself the form of a
servant that he might lift you and I
who are poor and make us rich, again
through being in the form of God thought
it not robbery to be equal with God
but being himself of no reputation and took
upon him the form of a servant was
made in likeness of men and being found
in fashion as a man he humbled himself
he became obedient unto death, even the death
of the cross and no verses go further
than that it tells us now of his
exaltation at God's right hand but our thoughts
tonight are on the incarnation that God became
a man again intimacy the verse that we
read great without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness God was manifest in the flesh,
one of our dear servants of the Lord
now with the Lord, an Irish brother who
labored for the Lord in Africa for only
45 to 50 years wrote a book The
Mystery Doctrines of the New Testament in which
he lists 14 New Testament mysteries not mysterious
it's that which God has hidden in past
times and has now revealed to us in
the scriptures and this is one of them
great is the mystery of godliness God was
manifest in flesh you might say well, there
are some translations that doesn't say that there
are some translations that say who wasn't manifest
in flesh and he refused to place the
word God in that verse and he would
say simply without controversy, great is the mystery
of godliness who was manifest in flesh or
he was manifest in flesh so almost a
year ago I picked up a book in
a second-hand stall at the half-yearly
missionary conferences over in the Hamilton College always
have a scatter through the second-hand books,
you never know what you can find what
other have discarded becomes a treasure and it
just happened to be one of Mr Newberry's
books and let me glance through it the
other evening he makes a comment on this
particular verse dear brother Newberry so revered amongst
us, says having studied the manuscripts in detail
at length I am convinced before the Lord
that the word is God was manifest in
flesh it's good to know that you come
and you have the same thoughts as men
of past generations that the person who was
manifest in flesh was God just as was
manifest in pre-incarnate days in the person
of the Christ of God so we have
the Christ of God today as he is
manifest in flesh there are four little verses
we would like to leave with you and
here they come but we see Jesus who
was made a little lower than the angels
for the suffering of death crowned with glory
and honour that he by the grace of
God should taste death for every man and
again for it became him for whom are
all things and by whom are all things
in bringing many sons unto glory to make
the captain of their salvation perfect through suffering
and again for as much then as the
children are partakers of flesh and blood he
also likewise took part of the same that
through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death that is the devil
and again when he cometh into the world
he said sacrifice and offering for sin thou
wouldst not but a body hast thou prepared
me.
I know that's different from Psalm 40 but
that's the New Testament commentary on Psalm a
body hast thou prepared me lo I come
to do thy will oh my God the
poet said arrayed in mortal flesh he like
an angel made and holds the promises and
pardon in his hands commissioned from the father's
throne to make his place to mortals known
so when we read in the Old Testament
scriptures of the angel of the Lord the
angel of his presence the angel or the
messenger of the covenant who are we reading
about?
we are reading about the pre-incarnate Christ
who in the days of his flesh was
born of a woman was made under the
law, who was God manifest in the flesh
whom the virgin conceived and bore a son
and called his name God with us our
Father we do thank you for the word
of God we thank you for the scriptures
of truth that we might learn from them
day by day we might peruse them we
thank you again our Father that we have
only touched a little but we remember again
who the person is thy son, blessed for
him immortal the one our Father who is
from all eternity the Son who came into
time our Father as we think of him
that we might be drawn closer to the
Saviour we may not see a theophany but
one blessed day we will see him face
to face whom we are a job of
hope we will see for ourselves and not
another and so Lord we commit ourselves to
thee now as we give thee thanks in
our Saviour's name