The Humanity of Christ Manifested

Introduction and Prayer for Spiritual Perception

0:03 This sermon was preached on Sunday evening, October 11th, 1987, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now let us once more ask the help of God and pray that the ministry of the Holy Spirit, which our Lord predicted would be one of his distinctive and crowning ministries, would be powerfully known tonight, our Lord said, concerning the coming of the Comforter and the Spirit of Truth, that he shall not speak of himself, he shall take the things of mine and reveal them unto you. And let us pray that he will be present, so attending his word that we will come to a more settled and certain and spiritual perception of the identity of Jesus of Nazareth. Let us pray together.

1:12 Our Father, we bow in your presence with our minds reeling before that great mystery that he who lay in that manger bed was indeed the creator of heaven and earth and the multitude of the galaxies. And while lying there in helpless infancy, he was yet at the same time upholding the universe by the word of his power.

1:47 O God, how can our minds take in such glorious, such wonderful, such amazing mystery? But we pray that you would send the Spirit to us this night, that as we meditate upon your word, he will indeed testify of Christ and do so in such a way that the eyes of our hearts may be enlightened, that we may not merely find our minds confronted with words and concepts, but that our hearts will be flooded with light, even that light which alone is given by the Spirit's ministry. Send him upon us in power, we pray, that he may testify of Christ and that we may know and love our Savior as never before. We ask in his name. Amen.

Recap of Mark 11:12-19: The Cursing and Cleansing

2:57 Now, as I indicated in the announcements this morning, we would be returning to our studies in the Gospel of Mark this evening, and so I would encourage you to turn with me to the 11th chapter of Mark's Gospel and follow as I read verses 12 through 19. Mark 11, beginning the reading in verse 12. Right here. Beginning with reference to the event of the triumphal entry on the first day of the week, and then our Lord's subsequent retreat to Bethany, Mark tells us, and on the morrow, when they were come out from Bethany, he hungered. And seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves, he came, if happily he might find anything thereon. And when he came to it, he found, nothing but leaves, for it was not the season of figs. And he answered and said unto it, No man eat from you henceforth forever.

4:12 And his disciples heard it. And they come to Jerusalem, and he entered into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and them that bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the money changers and the seats of the people, and the and the chief priests and the scribes heard it and sought how they might destroy him. For they feared him, for all the multitude was astonished at his teaching. And every evening he went forth out of the city.

5:16 Now three Lord's days have passed since we last examined together this portion of Mark's gospel read in your hearing. And as we take up this section of the word of God again, let me attempt in just a few minutes, to remind you of its setting in relationship to the unfolding of the events leading to the crucifixion of our Lord. And having done this, I shall then merely refresh your memories relative to the major elements in the two incidents recorded in this passage. The setting of these two incidents is, as I've already suggested, that which is commonly called the triennial, triumphal entry of our Lord into Jerusalem on the first day of the week. The details of that entrance are given to us in Mark 11, verses 1 through 11. And you will remember that the main thrust of that passage was that we saw in this entry of our Lord his own deliberate arrangement of the details of his entrance to Jerusalem, his own deliberate arrangement of the details of his entrance to Jerusalem, his own deliberate arrangement of the details of his entrance to Jerusalem, his own deliberate arrangement of the details of his entrance to Jerusalem, to make it abundantly clear that he was indeed the messianic king, to make it abundantly clear that he was indeed the messianic king, and that as the messianic king,

6:42 he was coming as the king into the city of the king in the precise manner prophesied by Zechariah in Zechariah 9 and verse 9. Then upon entering the city, according to verse 11, he went immediately to the temple precincts and carefully scrutinized all that was transpiring and carefully scrutinized all that was transpiring there in the temple area. Then, according to verse 11, he retired with the twelve to the town of Bethany some two miles southeast of Jerusalem. Now, on the very next day, according to verse 12, in company with the twelve, our Lord began to make his way back from Bethany to Jerusalem. in company with the twelve, our Lord began to make his way back from Bethany to Jerusalem. And it was on his way to Jerusalem that the first of these two significant events of day two of the so-called Passion Week occurred. And that first event was the cursing of the disappointing fig tree.

7:52 Then, upon entering Jerusalem itself, he again goes immediately into the temple, and there we have the record of the second major event of that day, the cleansing of the defiled temple. Now, in our initial consideration of these two incidents three weeks ago, all but the last few minutes of our time was taken up with simply attempting to open up the substance of the narratives. And we saw on that occasion that under the cursing of the disappointing fig tree, Mark is led by the Spirit under the tutelage of Peter to highlight three things. First of all, the circumstances which led to the cursing, verses 12 and 13. And then the actual act of cursing, 14b, and then the witnesses to the cursing in 14a, I'm sorry, the actual act of cursing, and 14b, the witnesses to the cursing. And I promised you on that occasion when we come to verses 20 to 25, we shall then consider the explicit and major lesson which our Lord wants us to derive from this act of cursing the fig tree, and then the implicit lesson

9:18 which the immediate context and the larger analogy of Scripture forces upon us. Then we noted what Mark gives to us again by the guidance of the Spirit, concerning the cleansing of the defiled temple in verses 15 to 19. And there he emphasized five major things. The place where the cleansing occurred in the first part of verse 15.

9:48 It is clear that he entered into what would be called the court of the Gentiles. It was there that the money changers had set up business and the sellers of animals and of fowl were there providing these beasts and these animals as sacrifices for those who were coming on pilgrimage from many parts of the Roman Empire. And then Mark highlights the activities involved in the cleansing. And there are three very vigorous verbs by which he describes those activities.

10:27 They were an activity or activities comprised first of all of expulsion. He began to cast them out. And then there was disruption. He overthrew the tables of the money changers and the benches of them that sold the doves.

10:47 And then it was an act of prohibition. He would not permit that anyone should pass through the temple with common vessels using the court of the Gentiles as a shortcut in order to perform business somewhere else in Jerusalem. And then thirdly Mark emphasizes the teaching which followed the cleansing of the temple. Verse 17.

11:13 And he taught. And that teaching is summarized in terms of a searching question and then a withering indictment. And then fourthly Mark records the reaction of the religious leaders in verse 18. And then in verse 19 the retreat of our Lord subsequent to the cleansing.

The Discomfort with a Cursing and Cleansing Christ

11:36 And that in substance was the exposition of these two major events that occurred on that second day of the Passion Week. And in the closing moments of our time together I asked but one very simple but pointed and searching question. And the question was this. Are you comfortable in the presence of the Jesus of day two of the Passion Week?

12:07 Are you comfortable in the presence of a Jesus who curses and who cleanses? Who makes a fig tree wither and die by the word of His lips and goes into the temple possessed of holy violence and casts and overturns? And stands as a determined sentinel guarding the sanctity of His Father's house? Many find themselves very comfortable in the Christ of the triumphal entry.

12:46 And the scene of Jesus in meekness and humility upon a donkey strikes notes of sentimental affinity for Jesus of Nazareth upon a donkey. And they really think that they have come to a spiritual perception of and a saving submission to the Lord Jesus because their sentiments are stirred on Palm Sunday when they think of Jesus riding on a donkey. But when they hear of a cursing Christ and when they hear of a cleansing Christ they are very skittish. They are very uncomfortable.

13:31 They define themselves something less than sentimentally stirred. And they find a disposition something other than affinity for the Jesus who is not at all pleased with the mere show without fruit. Who stands as sentinel over the place of His special presence and with holy violence throws out everything that is an offense to Him. But the true child of God who has come to a revelation of Christ by the Spirit's ministry attending the Word is just as much at home with the Christ who curses and cleanses as He is with the Christ who comes riding in meekness upon a donkey into Jerusalem. Now that is an effort in about seven, ten minutes to capture about an hour and a half. And ten minutes of exposition. And what I want to do tonight and God willing again next Lord's Day is to come back to this passage that was expounded three weeks ago and concerning which only one pointed personal application was made and to glean from it something more of its rich teaching,

Manifestations of Christ's True Humanity: Hunger, Observation, Retreat

14:59 its reproof, its correction and its instruction in righteousness. And hopefully between tonight and next Lord's Day we will consider four such gleanings as we go back into the passage. Tonight hopefully just two of them. First of all I invite you to consider with me in these two events the vivid manifestation of our Lord's true humanity and then secondly to consider with me in these two events the vivid manifestations of our Lord's true deity.

15:39 First of all then consider with me in these two events of the cursing of the fig tree and the cleansing of the temple the vivid manifestation of our Lord's true humanity. Now the Bible makes it clear that the efficacy of the work of Jesus rests directly upon the true identity of the person of Jesus. In other words the Bible teaches us that Christ is able to do what He does precisely because He is what He is. If He were not who He is He could not do what the Bible says He does particularly with reference to the salvation of His people. And when we turn to the scriptures both the Old and the New Testaments the cumulative evidence drawn both from blunt assertions from necessary deductions from living incidents and examples in the life history of Jesus

17:02 forces upon us the conclusion that Jesus is none other than the unique God-man. He is in the language of John 1 the eternal Word who has become flesh and dwelt among us. And in these two incidents of the cursing and the cleansing there are three vivid manifestations of the reality of His true humanity. And I remind you that while apostles were still living the first attacks upon the person of Christ did not come at the point of His true deity but at the point of His true humanity. For the devil knew that if he could undermine the faith of God's people as to the true humanity of Jesus he would destroy their salvation as much as if he could undermine their faith in the true deity of Jesus of Nazareth. And the record of this is clear in such passages as 1 John 4, 1 and following. What then are the inescapable and vivid manifestations

18:27 that Jesus of Nazareth did indeed possess true, real, real humanity? Well, notice first of all His physical hunger in verse 12. And on the morrow when they were come out from Bethany He hungered. Somewhere along the beginning of that early morning trek from Bethany back up to Jerusalem the text informs us and the nuance of the tense allows this kind of description.

19:05 Hunger pangs began to grip our Lord. Now this was not the case that so many of us experience and within which we must exercise Herculean will to keep our weight stable. It was not the case of someone with a half full or a completely full stomach who seeing a nice dainty has his desire for that piece of food awakened by suggestion and sight. Look at the text carefully.

19:38 Before He ever saw a tree with leaves upon which figs might be found it is said without any suggestion coming by way of a visual encounter with any substance that would be edible that He hungered. In other words, somewhere in the midst of that early morning trek from Bethany to Jerusalem hunger pangs gripped Him. He felt that gripping sensation in His midsection. He may have even heard the growling of His stomach which in a sense is the muffled cry of an empty stomach that someone would pay attention to its need.

20:21 And without being irreverent but to underscore the reality of His humanity may I suggest He may have even burped and had to say excuse me to His disciples. Whatever constitutes hunger growing out not of a half full or a full stomach at the sight and suggestion of food no, whatever grows out of genuine hunger from a stomach that is totally empty of food and the juices and gases are there waiting to work upon the food and they begin to work upon the stomach itself and we feel that pain and sense the bloating and perhaps our Lord even began to feel some weakness or dizziness with the drop in His blood sugar level. Here was real bonified hunger so real that when in the midst of feeling those hunger pains He sees a tree afar off that stands out from all other trees of its kind because it is in full foliage He thinks well there may be at this time of the year as there sometimes is a tree that is so situated in terms of its subsoil

21:49 in terms of its exposure to the sun and the other elements that it brings out its foliage sooner than others and we are told by those who study the horticulture of this part of Palestine that the ordinary fig tree has at least two or three bearing periods and that often the fruit begins to appear even before the leaves and if you find a tree that seems to be in unusually full foliage in the spring it may well have upon it not the big luscious ripe figs of the later harvests but at least these smaller sour figs that would in some way ease the hunger pangs of a genuinely hungry man so what we have in reality is the picture of our Lord so gripped by hunger pangs that the thought of a few little hards cite him enough to go and explore and see if indeed such little will be found upon that tree and in my meditation I could not help but think of Proverbs 27 7 which says the full soul loatheth a honeycomb but to the hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet

23:16 our Lord was hungry this was real bonified genuine hunger and all that is involved in that hunger that physical appetite in which we have common ground even with the bru and even with the worms of the earth and the gospel writer is not at all ashamed to state in simple straight unadorned narratives that on the morrow when they were come out from Bethany he hungered and here is real in humanity held of hunger pangs but then the second indication of his true humanity in this passage is his acquisition of information by means of observation his acquisition of information by means of observation you remember in verse 11 the first thing he did when he entered into Jerusalem was to go into the area of the temple and when he had looked round about

24:41 upon all things his first concern when he came to Jerusalem was to assess and to come to a present and certain knowledge of the state of things in his father's house and in his own house and how does he gain that knowledge he gains it as all human beings gain it by observation he goes and he looks round about upon all he could only know where he had observed and to the extent that his observation reached so he looked round about there's the extent of his observation upon all density of his scrutiny and his observation and it was most likely what he saw by that comprehensive and extensive observation that so stamped itself upon the image walls of his mind that as he made his way back to Bethany that evening he probably spent if not a sleepless a restless night with his soul

26:10 agitated and torn with his sensitive and holy spirit giving birth to a night of sighs and groans and tears and perhaps strong that so attended him in the morning hours that when his beloved host and hostesses Lazarus Mary and Martha said breakfast is ready our Lord excused himself to fast and to wait upon his father for strength for he knew he would have to go to that temple and there possessed of holy violence and a sentinel but the knowledge which is so and gave birth to his deliberate and prayerful was knowledge gained by observation the same thing is emphasized with regard to the tree notice verse 13 and seeing a fig tree afar off having leaves now I don't mean to be irreverent it doesn't say he turned his eyes into zoom lenses

27:36 he didn't do that he didn't turn his eyes into Superman's eyes that have preternatural powers to see beyond through what others can see no indication nor is there any indication that he reaches of his divine missions he did that but what he did do according to the text is he came that is he came to the tree if perhaps he might find anything thereon and when he came to it he inspected it picked up the leaves looked under the leaves looked around that it had nothing but leaves the acquisition of information by observation and whatever else it tells us surely dear people it tells us that our Lord was possessed of true and real humanity that here is our Lord whoever he is truly man but then we see in the third place a vivid demonstration and manifestation of his true humanity not only in the record

29:02 of his physical hunger his acquisition of information by observation but thirdly his self-preservation by judicious retreat his self-preservation by judicious retreat we read in verse eleven that in the evening after that initial exposure to the temple he went out unto Bethany with the twelve and if we read the parallel accounts in Matthew Luke and the whole climate as it is described in much greater detail from other perspectives in the Gospel of John our Lord came into an intensely hostile climate and knowing that he did not tempt the Lord his God if he were to be preserved through that passion week until at the end of it he would lay down his life as the great shepherd of the sheep he had to be preserved to that hour and how was he preserved as any other human being is preserved in dangerous and hostile circumstances under the guidance of divine providence he takes measures for self preservation by judicious retreat verse nineteen and every evening he went forth out of the city and as we see the growing

30:31 hostility of those who are committed to his destruction whatever other purposes were in the mind and heart of our Lord one that lies on the surface of the text was that he was concerned for legitimate self preservation he does not draw upon the resources embedded in his deity to be preserved that was the temptation which the devil had already set before him in the wilderness throw yourself down has not God promised you will not dash your foot against a stone he will give his angels charge over you and he said you shall not tempt the Lord your God and so our Lord for his preservation that which was never called and not consigned to God and to God or the world that he cannot tell it and he cannot tell it to anyone for all that

The Scandal of Christ's Humanity and the Mystery of the God-Man

31:55 itself upon our blessed Lord, but real, true, vulnerable humanity in the weakened condition of the fallen that our Lord did take upon Him. Now you ask me, and legitimately so, well, Pastor Martin, the points are clear, and I appreciate having them highlighted. I didn't quite see them that way as I read it, or they did occur to me, and my thoughts were moving that direction, and you've confirmed it, but what is the point of highlighting these things? Well, you see, for skeptical and unbelieving minds, these unashamed indications of the real humanity of Jesus all constitute a scandal, a stumbling block, and the skeptic believing mind cries, how can we worship, trust, and certainly, unashamedly, mistakenly, trunger pangs in the ground? He doesn't know what is in a hostile situation. He doesn't drive back his enemies with a word of his power and annihilate the city every night

33:24 like a coward. These are unashamed affirmations of the reality and the integrity of His humanity, and the skeptic and the unbeliever stumbles before such manifestations of His true humanity. Well, it's the same people who, when there are indications of His deity, they bring to bear upon the text tons of unnatural pressure to explain it away. In reading some of the liberal commentators on the previous verses in this chapter, verses 2 and 3, when Jesus tells the two disciples, go into that village, you'll find a colt tied, whereon no man ever yet sat, and if anyone asks you, this is what you tell me. You'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, this is what you tell me. You'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, this is what you tell me. You'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll find a colt tied, and if anyone asks you, you'll and controls all things, even the disposition of a dumbass and its little foal.

34:34 And they say, oh, no, no, no. Why? Because their thesis is this. If he is truly mad,

34:47 the great leap that their skepticism and unbelief makes in their logic, if he be skepticism and unbelief or unwilling to, with what one servant of God who has gone to glory called the second great mystery, see, in the universe the greatest mystery is the mystery of the being of God, that he is the one true and living God. And yet within that one God there are three subsistences, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. So the Father is not the Son and the Son is not the Spirit. The Spirit is not the Son nor the Father yet. There are not three gods but one God. That's the great mystery.

35:42 And the second great mystery is the mystery of the person of our Savior, that he is as much man as though he were not God and as much God as though he were not man. And yet we have not two but one Christ. The two natures forever, forever in person and yet two distinct and separate natures in Christ. And we can no more unravel those,

36:17 satisfy the... the logic of the computer's impulses than we can do so with the great mystery of the three-in-one and the one-in-three.

Humanity's Essential Role: Virtue for Acceptance with God

36:27 And yet, dear people, if such a person were not necessary for our salvation, such a person would never have come in the fullness of the times. His true, his real humanity is as essential to our salvation beginning, middle, end, as is his true, essential deity and undiluted divinity. The one who humbled himself, became flesh, is indeed true man. And in answer to the question, why bother to highlight it, I've given the negative answer, but now positively. And I trust God will help us to grasp with firmer, hand these glorious truths. His true and real humanity is essential, first of all, in terms of the virtue of Christ, which is the ground of our acceptance with God. If anyone ever enters heaven, it will be because he has earned a title to life.

37:50 Or he has an earned title. That's a more accurate way to state it. He has an earned title to life. In the beginning, God placed a man in the garden.

38:03 His name was Adam. And he appointed him as head of the race. And he called him to a life of perfect and perpetual obedience in the real human condition of real humanity. And it is inferred in scripture, and only inferred, that had he stood in the integrity of his unfallen state and pursued the course of obedience, that the reward of grace to him would have been a confirmation in that state for himself and all of his posterity.

38:45 But we know the tragic account of Genesis 3. Man sinned against God. And in Adam's sin, we involved with him as our appointed head, the term I use, the whole human race, being piggybacked upon him. When he fell, we fell with him, and in him in his first transgression.

39:09 Now then, how do we ever have an earned title to everlasting life? Our first father fell, and we fell with him and in him. And we forfeited any claim to that title. And from our very conception, we are possessed of a disposition in nature that is against God and his law and his rule and his government.

39:31 So that the scripture says, we go astray from the womb speaking lies. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned everyone to his own way. And the whole total sum of our lives is that of disobedience and wrath deservingness.

39:49 But what did God do? God says, if one can come, into their realm, their domain, one of their kind, and fully obey my law, then in the human condition, a righteousness has been wrought. Perfect obedience in that condition, and if there are other factors that make it right for God to do so, that perfect obedience of a true human being, in our true human condition, can be credited to others, that they might have an earned title to eternal life. And that is precisely why our Lord became a true man. Galatians 4, 4 says, when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman. There is humanity, and in a way that we cannot, marry to the incarnate God.

41:11 The embryonic life within her womb is true human life. There is nourishment by Mary's umbilical cord. Mystery of mysteries. While nourished by an umbilical cord, he's upholding the universe by the word of his power.

41:37 I can't explain it. I only bow before the white light of the mystery, and worship God. Why? Why?

41:48 In the birth of the Christ, finished into thy hands, I commend my... There would be one, who never once, in the slightest motion of thought, ever deflected from God's holy law.

42:26 In the slightest impulse of desire, never deflected from God's holy law. Who never once glanced upon a forbidden object, or upon a legitimate object, in a forbidden way. Whose eye was never the inlet of covetousness, or of lust, or of greed. Who never spoke one sentence, with one half of a word, with a barbed sarcasm.

42:58 Who stood that was, to the demands of God's sanctity of truth. Who from the time Mary nursed him upon her breast, never once, never once, felt an attitude, expressed a response, embarked upon a pattern, that dishonored his mother, or his father. And in the human condition, with the ground, and with the necessity to acquire, and to make of his father's appointment, our Savior is true man, that we might have the virtue, of a righteousness wrought, never have a title, and unless someone comes in our place, and works it out for us, and God graciously credits it to us,

44:21 then it's forever barred. But blessed be God, He came to our domain, He came to our condition, and this is what Paul asserts in the Romans 5.19, As through the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one, shall the many be made righteous. The many shall be constituted, excuse me, righteous.

44:54 Why? Through the obedience of the one. But who is that one? He is the one described in chapter 8.

45:03 What the law could not do, verse 3 of Romans 8, in that it was weak through the flesh, God suddenly is sending His own Son, in the likeness of sinful flesh. God sending His Son in the likeness, of sinful flesh. Dear people, if you value the biblical doctrine, that the virtue by which heaven will be open to you, in the final day, or in the intermediate state, when your spirit departs the body at death, if you have any intelligent grasp upon the fact, that you can only enter heaven, and life in its consummate glory, and bliss, if there is a proper title next to your name, glory in the real humanity of Christ. For such a title was earned by Him, in our condition, in this world, in real humanity. And therefore it is right and proper, that God should graciously impute the virtue of that perfect obedience, to those, who run into Jesus Christ, and are clothed in Him. But then secondly,

Humanity's Essential Role: Substitutionary Death for Salvation

46:29 it is a precious truth, not only in terms of the virtue of Christ, which is the ground of our acceptance with God, but His true humanity is a precious truth, in terms of the substitutionary death of Christ, which forms the heart of our salvation. If His humanity were not real, then His substitutionary death would not do as the heart of our salvation. Let's go back to the garden. It was there in the human condition that God said to Adam, You shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat thereof dying, you shall surely die. And God has said, The wages of sin is death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. And the essence of that death is separation.

47:25 And the consummate horror of that separation is the separation of the soul from God forever in outer darkness, which is the ultimate curse of the broken law. Cursed is everyone that continues not in all things that are written in the book of the law to do that. Now if we are to be freed from that curse, one must come to our condition in order to be our substitute. An angel cannot substitute for man.

47:59 It must be man substituting for man. It is man who has provoked the ire and anger of God. It is man who has brought death upon humanity. And therefore one must come into the human condition in reality with true integrity of real humanity, if there is to be a death that is truly substitutionary on behalf of fellow men.

48:27 And that's precisely the emphasis given to us in Hebrews chapter 2. Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 14, Since then the children are sharers in flesh and blood, true humanity, flesh and blood. He also himself in like manner partook of the same. Not something that appeared like unto, something that had the image and the appearance of.

49:03 No, the text says he partook of the same. Why? Now notice. That through death, without partaking of the same flesh and blood, there could be no true death.

49:18 Therefore no substitution of his death for the death we deserve. That through death he might bring to naught him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and might deliver all them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject of bondage for verily. Not to angels does he give help, but he gives help to the seed of Abraham. Wherefore it behooved him, it was necessary for him, in all things, to be made like unto his brethren, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.

49:55 Notice now, to make propitiation for the sins of the people. And what is propitiation? It is the sacrifice which turns away God's wrath. It appeases God's wrath.

50:09 It placates his wrath by those who deserve it. It was fallen human beings partakers of flesh and blood. Now if someone is to take the punishment due to them in that condition, he must come to that condition, stand in their room instead, take what they deserve, and so swallow up the wrath of his father in voluntary self-offering that there's not a drop of it left for his people. When you read, he hungered, my friends, don't pass over it.

50:50 Say, that's real humanity. That's true humanity. And if it's true humanity, then indeed his obedience is the obedience of one under the law, an obedience rendered to the law in our...

51:05 And if that is credited to me, then I too have title to heaven, not by me and my person or my efforts, but earned by my substitute and surety, even the Lord Jesus. And when I read, he came to the tree to see true humanity, he must acquire knowledge by observation, and he retires each night out into the village or into the Mount of Olives when he did not go to Bethany. I see true humanity using legitimate means for self-preservation. Of what significance is that to me?

51:42 It means that when I read a few chapters later that he hangs upon a cross and he cries, amidst shrouded heavens, inky black with the darkness of Egyptian night, and when I read toward the end of those three hours of lying beneath the horrible weight of divine malediction and wrath, he cries, my God, my God, why have you forsaken... This is no comedy that God is acting out on a stage.

52:15 Dear people, that's the man, Christ Jesus, in our room and in our stead, appeasing the wrath of God by absorbing it into his own soul. If I may say it, to use the imagery without irreference, his soul was one massive blotter that could soak up every last drop of the wrath of God against his elect. And if there was one drop left, I'd go to my grave in terror, wondering if it was my drop. But we can all, who trust in Christ, go to our grave, that that Lord...

Humanity's Essential Role: Intercessory Work for Confidence and Consolation

52:59 wrath against his own. But then, thirdly, this has great implications for us as God's people, not only in terms of the virtue of Christ, which is the ground of our acceptance, in terms of the substitutionary death of Christ, which forms the heart of our salvation. But gird up the loins of your mind and pray that God will help you to grasp this. But it is also of great concern and comfort and significance, dear people, because, or in terms of, the intercessory work of Christ, which is the focus of our present confidence and the basis of all our consolation. What is the focal point of our confidence that in this sojourn plagued with remaining sin, beset by a seducing world that constantly like an experience flashes its thigh and constantly under the gaze of one who prowls about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour?

54:27 Dear people of God, we ask the question, how can we live with so many cards stacked against us and have confidence that we're going to make it through all of the reality of human sin and the seducing power of the world and the subtlety and influence of the devil and at last be brought home in his presence as we sang tonight? And the answer is Hebrews 7.25 Wherefore he, Christ, is able to save to the uttermost, that is, to the consummation of all that he died to give his people he can save to the uttermost while seeing he ever lives to make intercession for them. His end intercession which got me into the way will keep me upon the way until it brings me at last to the end of the way which is being glorified in his very presence when he shall be the firstborn among many brethren and we will lift up our voices in united praise to our great and glorious God. But now the question is this if I'm to derive consolation strong encouragement from his intercession which the writer to Hebrews says is the means of securing my preservation to glory

55:55 what do I need to know about his intercession? Well I need to know what is emphasized in Hebrews 2 verse 18 and Hebrews 4 and verse 15 look at it Wherefore Hebrews 2.17 it behooved him in all things to be made like unto his brethren why? that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God that's the generic reason now there are two prongs of the specific we only dealt with one earlier to make propitiation for the sins of the people now verse 18 for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted temptation was a form of his suffering why? because there was real humanity with real appetites and real fears and real longings and real desires and when temptation presented itself not I say it if you have any question go to Gethsemane where the thought of his holy soul being one massive blotter to soak up the wrath of God that was in his cup

57:24 and was full he sees that cup and he says oh my father if it be possible if it be possible that this cup there was in our Lord's holy soul a righteous version to the thought of his holy soul being that massive blotter to soak up the wrath of God for him to have anything other than aversion to that thought would have been the height of impiety it's only man with seared cups in his holy human will and aversion to the soaking up of every last drop of that cup and yet he says in such real intense agony that he sweats as it were great drops of blood not my will but thine be done when his own beloved friend and confidant Peter would dare even to suggest

58:43 an easier way into his messianic glory than the way of the cross what does he do he turns and says to his intimate confidant whom he loved not his God but the thoughts of men Lord the temptation was real because there was real humanity though there was no sinful nature that was like negative polarity in the presence of temptation which with us is positive polarity and we have a pull from within he did not have that dimension but the inducement to evil was real and because his human appetites and his human fears and his human vulnerability were real and not sinful merely human what does that mean it means that he can be a faithful high priest because he has known the suffering temptation now turn to chapter 4 and verse 15 and I'll seek to bring the lines together for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities there the emphasis again falls upon real humanity and human weakness and infirmity but one that hath been in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin

60:12 let us therefore draw near with boldness what will give us boldness to draw near when we are buffeted by temptation when we are oppressed by the sheer weight of human weakness and vulnerability what will give us confidence O child of God grasp the wonder of it every single felt weakness and infirmity which our Lord experienced in the days of his humiliation every time he had to struggle in the acquisition of knowledge perhaps had to scratch his head doing the orthography of his Hebrew alphabet academy students maybe the olive didn't come easy to him I don't know perfect humanity does not mean that there were no real struggles maybe the first time he tried to set a peg and whack it with a mallet he hit his finger and Joseph had to say no my son you do it this way so you hit the right thing think of it now every single moment of every day of his earthly pilgrimage with his hunger pangs with his real bodily appetites and bodily necessities and needs

61:40 and when he didn't get enough sleep and there was unusual expenditure of energy he knew what it was to be bone weary John 4 Jesus being wearied with his journey sat thus by a well he had the needs of the soul for companionship and understanding and sympathy and empathy so he comes to the three and says watch with me one hour I'm entering into the trauma of facing the cop I need the support of my fellow creatures when he comes back and finds them sleeping there's disappointment what could you not watch with me one hour that holy heart experienced disappointment it experienced pain and weariness and all of those human emotions now Christian grasp this as one author stated it and I shall never forget it that holy heart has carried with it into the glory the reservoir of all of his felt human experience and there's a man in the glory with a heart full of ability to sympathize with us in our way do you see that we have not a high priest

63:06 who cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities well where does he function as a high priest right now at the right hand of the father now the clear teaching is that at that place right now the reservoir of his holy heart is full of all his of humanity in this cursed condition and he's carried all of that with him up to the right hand of the father and therefore we can come and say Lord Jesus I know that according to your word this is the choice I must make but Lord the consequences seem so ominous Lord and you stop and say well does that mean I'm rebelling and you remember Gethsemane and say no he understands he understands what it is to see the path of the will of God marked out before him and to know an aversion in his soul to the implications of that will and the suffering and agony of truth and to embrace his will and to walk nobly through the baptism of agony that he might accomplish the will of the father and when you're called upon to lie there upon a bed of pain

64:33 and you can see no reason for that pain when you must stand as some of you have done and we've mingled tears with you as we've put the little box in the ground and some of you mothers have had to see the fruit of your womb laid in the cold earth and you've wept remember there's someone who's stood by a grave and wept and they said behold how he wept and we loved him that's our savior dear people that's our savior that's our human savior though time does not permit for its gone to open up the indications of his deity tonight God willing we'll do it next week in everything I've said you know you know I am assuming and I unashamedly confess the other side of the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ Jesus of Nazareth as to his identity is not only as much man as though he were never God but he is as much God as though he were never man and dear people that's just the kind of savior we need how in the world can you face a day without a savior like that as your friend as Pastor Nichols said this morning and surely dear people God attended the word with unusual power

Call to Unbelievers and Believers: Embrace the Savior

66:01 why fight one like that if he's willing to take all of the reality of humanity in pre-Eden and when the time comes when by constraint of the Father's will the same constraint that led him through Gethsemane and on to Golgotha to die when that constraint will lead him to sit on his throne and he has to say to multitudes of men and women depart from me ye cursed he will do it I say it reverently with all his heart and soul but only because the hour for the shutting of mercy's door has come dear people while mercy's door is open why do you keep it a distance from such a savior like that why it's irrational it's madness who do you think you are that you can make it

67:27 and all you do is lights griefs and disappointments ride over you as you harden yourself more and more to prove you're the master of your own fate and the captain of your soul well my friend listen when the death rattles in your throat and God's about to pull that soul away from the body we'll see who's boss then you tell the death angel go away it's not a convenient time for him to come see if he listens to your voice dear unconverted friend this savior whom we've contemplated from Mark's gospel he's the savior who is sincerely and freely offered to you in the gospel and he became true man that we might have a real gospel to offer real sinners that brings real deliverance and a real perfect record in heaven and the real turning away gives us a real sympathetic high priest to succor us while we make the rest of our pilgrimage until we see him face to face go to that savior run to him and follow him Jesus of Nazareth what a fool I've been have mercy upon me and save me for your name's sake and dear Christian there comes a point doesn't there where the guise of humility

68:55 behind which you hide rotten unbelief needs to be pulled off it is not humility to go around groveling all of your days like some of you do it's not humility to doubt the virtue of Christ's obedience in our nation quickly kept the law and if you trust in him and have rolled the weight of your guilty soul upon him you're accepted in the beloved and you glorify God not by groveling by glorying in Christ Jesus who is your righteous stop doubting if there's a drop or two left in God's cup and maybe he just diluted it and pours it out in terms of difficult providences but really it's wrath because Jesus quite didn't pay it all no everything of God's judicial wrath was swallowed up by the Son of God he cried to tell us Ty it has been accomplished and it stands accomplished child of God that's not humility that's wicked unbelief in this business of saying well I'm so rotten and I'm so no good I can't go to God that's not humility that's rotten unbelief that's veiled self-centeredness

70:22 and self-pity that's not faith it's not humility you go in humility and say Lord Jesus why you'd ever come to my condition I don't know but the Bible says you did and why you would now carry into the glory and not leave behind all of the memory of weakness and weariness and rejection and disappointment I don't know Lord but you carried it up there into heaven and it sure makes me bold to come in my weakness and in my weariness and in my disappointment and in my confusion to come boldly to the throne of grace knowing there's a man in the glory with a heart that is a reservoir of empathy with the likes of me oh dear Christians love him glorify him by going to him feed upon him let him succor you by his grace as you feed upon him by faith let us pray our Father what thanks can we render to you that you so loved the world as to give your only begotten son we marvel that you would be willing to give him up to the true

71:50 to the real to the bonified human condition Lord Jesus we marvel at your willingness voluntarily to take that condition to have as your last words when you left the glories of heaven a body thou hast prepared me lo I come to do thy will oh God and we thank you that it is by that will that we are sanctified because in the performance of that will you offered up once for all an acceptable sacrifice to your Father and you now ever live to make good in all for whom the sacrifice was offered all that was purchased in your agony and blood Lord Jesus we do love you the little glimpses we get of you in your word make us long for the day when we'll see you face to face when we shall look upon you and love you and serve you with no more sin to grieve our hearts and to cloud your face and to dishonor and bring shame to you oh Lord Jesus even so come and take us from this present situation and veil of weakness infirmity and sin we bless you oh Holy Spirit for coming and doing the work you were sent to do

73:18 lovingly willingly testifying to Christ guiding the biblical authors to leave such a record that he himself comes to us in all the livingness and glory of his person when we open the book which you inspired oh Holy Father Holy Son and Holy Spirit we worship you we magnify and bless you for all that you are to us as the one true and living God in the mystery of your three persons we worship you we thank you and we long that this night some sitting here who've never seen your glory in the face of Christ would catch a glimpse tonight that would make the world bitter in their mouths and sin bitter in their spiritual stomachs bring them to the vomit of the soul that they may long to drink of the water of life and eat of the bread of life and no longer feed upon the husks and the rancid food of this world and of their sin oh God speak we pray that that great day of unveiling will show that on this day and in this place Christ was not preached in vain hear our cry send us on our way rejoicing in you and in your so great salvation

74:47 we ask with thankful hearts Amen