THE POWER OF THE GOSPEL (15)

Pastor (Mrs) Silvia Lia Leigh continued preaching about ‘The power of the Gospel’. The sermon today was titled ‘The Doctrine of Incarnation’. Her main text was taken from the Book of Matthew. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. Then Joseph her husband, being a just man, and not wanting to make her a public example, was minded to put her away secretly. But while he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And she will bring forth a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” So all this was done that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying: “Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,” which is translated, “God with us.” Then Joseph, being aroused from sleep, did as the angel of the Lord commanded him and took to him his wife, and did not know her till she had brought forth her firstborn Son. And he called His name Jesus” (Matthew 1:18-25)

Pastor (Mrs) Silvia Lia Leigh said that by the leading of the Holy Spirit, we shall glorify the Lord Jesus Christ! This is the true doctrine of Christmas. Jesus is always at the center of everything! Christmas is Christ! Christianity is Christ! We reject the evil spirit of religion that preaches another ‘Christ’, another ‘Gospel’ and has another ‘Spirit’. Mary, Joseph, Angel Gabriel, the wise men, the shepherds, and all the other people are not the center of Christmas. They are only assisting in ‘the drama’. The heart of Christmas is Christ the Lord! Without Christ there is no Christmas! “Oh, come let us adore Him!” 

THE DOCTRINE OF INCARNATION

*The Second Person of the Trinity, God the Son, became incarnate, took upon Himself human nature. He did not become a new personality when He was born. He was still the Second Person of the Holy Trinity but took a human nature upon Himself. He is completely both God and Man! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God… 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” (John 1:1, 2, 14)

*Jesus Christ is the Old Testament Jehovah God. He is the fulfillment of all prophesies in the Old Testament. He has fulfilled at least 350 prophecies. If even 8 out of these are fulfilled, the chance that Jesus is not the fulfilment of prophesies is this: 1 out of 10 at power 17. For example: you cover Texas (or Nigeria) with 1$ coins to be 2 feet deep. You mark one coin and hide it among all others. A blindfolded man is told to walk up and down Texas and find that coin. It is impossible! As it is impossible for the blindfolded man to find that marked coin, so it is impossible to say that Christ is not the Lord. The truth is Christ is the King of kings and the Lord of lords! He came to fulfill all prophesies! Jesus said: “Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill” (Matthew 5:17)

*To believe the incarnation you must believe the doctrine of the Trinity. It is the most difficult and mysterious doctrine of the Bible. You need the revelation of the Holy Spirit to believe it. Anyone who rejects the doctrine of the Trinity is not born again. No human being could have invented this doctrine. It comes straight from the Bible and it is not found anywhere else. It is the most exalted of all doctrines. It is mystery revealed! We cannot understand it, but we can believe it. We should look at it with wonder and worship! There is no explicit statement about this doctrine in the Bible, but it is implied. It does not mean that there are three gods. In both Old and New Testament, the Bible reveals that there is only one God! God, in His innermost nature is one! But He exists in three Persons! The Westminster Confession says: “In the unity of the Godhead there be three Persons, of one substance, power, and eternity; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. The Father is of none, neither begotten, nor proceeding: the Son is eternally begotten of the Father: the Holy Ghost eternally proceeding from the Father and the Son”

*This is the truth revealed: the Second Person of the Trinity became flesh. He did not come as an appearance, or as a spirit. He came as a Man, in the flesh. It was a true incarnation. Our Lord was 100% God and 100% Man, not 50-50%! When He was conceived and He was born, He did not become a new personality (like a human baby). He was still the eternal second Person of the Holy Trinity. There was no change in His personality. The baby lying in the manger was the second Person of the Trinity. That is what the Shepherd and the Wise Men saw, with their eyes of faith. Our Lord took His human nature from Mary. He did not bring a special body from heaven. He took the complete human nature, including body, soul, and spirit, from Mary. Therefore, He was truly a Man. He was called ‘the Seed of the woman’. Long ago God prophesied: “And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel.” (Gen 3:15). The Holy Spirit took a cell from Mary and ‘washed’ it from all sin and pollution. This is because Mary was a sinner. Out of that cell, the Holy Spirit made the sinless human nature for the Lord. God did not use Joseph in any form at all. It shows the utter helplessness of man in the things of God. In the work of incarnation, God only used a woman and not a man. God took the woman, the weaker vessel, and made a human nature for His Son. This work was done by the Holy Spirit as He overshadowed Mary. The Angel informed Joseph about this work and Joseph obeyed the angel’s instruction. He too had great faith. Thank God for Joseph! The Word was conceived in the womb of a woman, not after the manner of men, but by the singular, powerful, invisible, immediate operation of the Holy Ghost, whereby a virgin was, beyond the law of nature, enabled to conceive, and that which was originally and completely sanctified. Her pregnancy was by God’s creative power! Halleluiah!

Jesus is the only Savior of sinners. To be our Savior He needed to be a true Man, a sinless Man. He needed to die on our behalf. The incarnation and the Cross was necessary for our salvation. Without a true human nature, He could not have been the descendant of Adam and David, according to the prophecies and He could not have saved us. Everything about our Lord was mysterious. From His conception, birth, life, miracles, teachings, resurrection, and ascension. We may not understand everything, but by the power of the Holy Spirit, we believe! And we are enabled to worship, the Lamb upon the throne! Merry Christmas to you all! God bless you! Worship the Lord!