All Sermons

Who is Jesus By Merv Topp

29/12/1996 Smithfield Baptist Church
Psalm 24:1-10 and Romans 1

In the early 70s, in Melbourne, there was a monumental tragedy.
I wonder if anybody can remember what it was.
The West Gate Bridge collapsed.
They were building it from the two ends, either side of the arrow, and they were working across.
And I can remember to this day the pile of dust that went up, and we didn't know what happened.
We knew something serious had taken place.
Thirty-four men were swept in eternity an instant of time.
And so it is with the bridge of the gospel, with the collapse of this bridge,
with the denial of either of these truths, truths of the perfect deity of Christ
and the sinless humanity of Christ, thousands will be swept into Christless eternity.
You see, in Palestine, they celebrated a brave in the manger.
In Japan, I used this illustration last week, they had great Christmas decorations.
And of course, it's mild sin all around us.
In fact, the fact that we're in the year of our Lord, 1996, and about to go to 97,
there was an event that took place 2,000 years ago.
The importance of these great truths are important then as it is now,
in what we have in a society where they're coming from all roads,
and the idea that all roads will ultimately lead to God,
whether it's Islamic or Hindu or Buddhism or whatever.
See, this is the thinking, and this is why in the minds of many men and women around the world,
he's still a babe in a manger.
You see, we can see him acknowledging him as a babe, and that gives certain sentimentality,
certain emotional feelings, certain satisfaction.
I don't know how many Aussies would have gone this year and would...
I mean, some would have gone to certain church services once in their lifetime.
Every Aussie goes to three church services in his life.
Christmas service... four, sorry.
Christmas service, perhaps an Easter service, when he gets married and when he dies.
That's when they get emotional about it.
But you see, for you and I, dear child of God, if we do not understand
and embrace these great truths that we're about to talk to about this morning,
we're no better than those that look at that little babe in the manger.
We have lost the point. We've lost the pot.
And if we don't seek who Christ is, he's God's eternal son in eternity past.
You see, and if we don't come to see who he is in perfect humanity, yet without sin,
we have missed the whole purpose of his birth, his death, his burial and resurrection.
I believe that there are hinges in the Christian faith as to who Christ is.
If you have a Jehovah's Witness come to the door, the first question I keep them at
and keep them on is who is Jesus Christ?
You can talk about all the other superficial things, but who is Jesus Christ?
If a Mormon comes to the door, who is Jesus Christ?
And how does a man get fit to go to heaven?
You see, it centres on the gospel. If we miss this, we miss the gospel.
We've missed this. We've missed it enough to be lost for all eternity.
We're to be crushed with humanity, with the rest.
It's like this great bridge it meets, and it meets in the centre,
the one who is truly God and truly man.
Without that, the bridge is collapsed, and men and women are swept into eternity, lost.
So it's important we kick it through.
And you see, this is not the first time it is thought through.
You see, this has to do, dear friends, this morning with your salvation and my salvation.
If he has not been truly God, which we discovered last week,
and if he's not truly man without sin, we have no hope,
because he will never have left the grave.
And if he's in the grave still, we're men and women most miserable,
because we have no hope in eternity.
So when we come to it, there's no more important question,
that he was a man and was God.
And these two verses, Paul uniquely brings them together.
Uniquely. Look at it.
Now concerning Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seed of David.
The Bible has no trouble blending it together as we shall see.
No trouble.
Now, and declared to be the Son of God, according to the spirit of holiness.
The Bible brings them together.
And there's so many passages, we begin to look at the passages of scripture,
we're amazed as you begin to see.
Jesus was both fully man and fully God.
As to his human nature, Jesus was descended from Israel, from King David.
As to his spiritual nature, Jesus was the Son of God.
Born directly, Matthew 1, 18 through to 21 says, by God the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is fully man, and he has a human mother, and was born as a baby into the world.
See, this is the issue.
Although Jesus was God, he was seen and touched by men.
The Bible says he was made in human likeness.
Now we could spend a lot of time, and I'm not going to do that in terms of looking at the Greek
and all this sort of thing in likeness, it's a very important argument there by the way.
Worth looking at.
And so we see he was made in human likeness.
It is important to believe that Jesus became fully man.
Because in John's epistle makes this very test of the false or true in relation to this.
You see, John makes the test of the true spirit, saying that the deceivers and the false prophets
would deny that Jesus came in the flesh.
Now we've all heard of the Sworn Theory, and there's a whole lot of things that deny his human character.
See, even at the very resurrection, his divinity and his humanness was displayed to Thomas.
Thomas came to blind unbelief.
Here we have Christ as the resurrected, glorious Saviour, not yet ascended,
and he invites Thomas, through his unbelief, to put the finger into his side.
This is the challenge.
Now, I want to say that his humanity has to be worked through at every age,
because at every age, almost as I look through Church history, his humanity has been denied in some shape or form.
Christian Science doesn't believe in substance.
I'll never forget one day when I was in a Christian Science bookshop,
and this woman was telling me about substance and matter, and I said,
Oh, you don't believe in substance?
Well, you shouldn't have any trouble if I leap onto your foot.
If I had my substance, we wouldn't feel a thing.
But she declined the offer.
Substance.
See, he was a human body, in the likeness of man.
It's important that we see that he is fully man.
He was not a man from eternity past, as true as his Godhead, he was a man in the likeness of human flesh.
He became man at the point and at the time and through the Incarnation.
The sovereign working of the Holy Spirit come forth, issued forth.
He is the God-man, in whom alone we look for salvation, in whom you and I look for salvation.
There is neither any salvation, neither any other name given in earth nor in heaven by which you must be saved.
There is no other way of salvation.
You see, it's important as we become, as we see his deity last, as we begin to look into his humanity,
as the one that has redeemed us as sinners, as we struggle in our humanity,
in our temptations, in our failures, in our shortcomings,
that we see we have a man now risen and seated at the right hand of the majesty on high,
a prince and a saviour, who intercedes on your half and on behalf of me and you,
at the right hand of the throne room of God.
Oh yes, the enemy, the arch enemy of God is around accusing the brethren,
but we have one who is seated at the right hand of him on high,
who became in all the likeness of sinful flesh.
If you turn in your Bibles, and Mrs. Pasey is so often quoted at Christmas time.
In fact, if you went to handle the Messiah, it would be so.
As I know him, this passage often, two full nature of Christ here are described.
For unto us a child is born.
Now I guarantee everybody that sung that at Christmas time and the carols were candle light,
whatever, maybe the men of the Bible are Christian, they won't have understood it,
but would not have understood this text.
For unto us a child is born.
For us a son is given.
Through humanity of Christ, the true deity of Christ.
See, unto us a child is born.
What has gone?
And the government shall be upon his shoulders,
and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father and Prince of Peace.
Isn't it about that place in the Handel's Messiah where the trumpet blows?
I think it's about there.
And he gives you a little dash on the trumpet,
maybe a little further towards the end, I don't know.
It's almost musical as a piece of string.
Undo us a child is born.
He's born of a virgin.
True humanity.
Undo us a son is given.
You see, it's at this point of what Paul really taken up.
Regarding his son, who to his human nature was the descendant of David,
and who through the spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God.
You see, it can be no mistake.
Here are the bridges coming together in perfect union.
When the time and fully come, God sent forth his son to be born of the woman.
Born under the law.
To redeem those under the curse of the law.
And that's the Gospel.
You see what I mean? We need that bridge from both sides.
God and his sovereignty and his grace and his mercy is moved.
He didn't send an angel.
He didn't send Gabriel or Michael, the archangel.
But he sent his son.
Dear child of God, this is the Gospel.
I'm going to ask you this morning, have you received him as your own personal savior?
Has there been a time when in your life, when Christ and all his glory has shone in your life,
and you see him for who he really is, the eternal Son of God,
and truly, truly man who took upon himself our sins and our sorrows at Calvary's cross?
Have you turned from your sin to confess him?
And all this is done so that we might receive the adoption of sons.
To be brought into a relationship with God in such a way that we can truly come into God's presence
without fear of favor and try daddy, daddy, ever father.
This is the truth of adoption.
And so when we come, we see that Son Jesus Christ was sent because he was always God's son.
Yet he was born of a woman under the law and thus became man.
The Bible never hesitates.
I'm only touching on a few verses here.
God never hesitates.
I'm touched on key ones that we all know about but don't think about.
Never hesitates to put these two truths together.
The full deity of Christ and the true humanity of Christ together.
And where else does he do that?
I want you to think about it, friends.
These are passages that are well known.
The humanity of Christ was asleep in the boat.
The man of Christ stood up and said, be still and calm the storm.
The humanity of Christ was at a wedding.
The deity of Christ took the wineplots, the waterplots, and turned it into wine.
He was nothing more human than Jesus' death over on Calvary's cross.
He was crucified between two common thieves.
He received the death of a common thief.
What was the words of the centurion at the cross?
Truly, this man was the son of God.
Truly, this hard-cased Roman soldier who'd seen many a battle, who'd faced many a war,
stood and saw who Jesus truly was.
Nothing could be more divine than the darkening of three hours of darkness upon the cross.
You see, dear child of God, when we start to meditate on these things and draw our attention to them,
the Spirit of God draws our attention to them, suddenly as it were, it seems,
why didn't we see this so much before?
The tearing of the veil of the temple from the top to the bottom, the fulfilment,
the opening of the graves around Jerusalem.
Others that we have not touched on, as he stood at the grave of Lazarus
and called into the grave and said,
Lazarus, Lazarus, come forth.
You see, acting in perfect unity and perfect harmony is the God-man.
Now, I want you to listen to this.
You see, I believe with all my heart that we're living in a day and age as believers
who love the Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal Saviour
or need to define more closely what we believe about Christ.
But this has always been the act of the Church.
And so I'm going to read to you an act that the Church did so long ago as they gathered,
as they struggled and they looked into the Scriptures who Jesus Christ was.
True to God and truly man of reasonable or rational soul and body.
Consubstantial or co is essential with the Father according to the Godhead.
And consubstantial with us according to manhood in all things like unto us without sin.
Begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead.
And in these latter days for us, for our salvation.
Born of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God, according to manhood.
One and of the same, Christ, Son, Lord, only begotten.
To be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeable, indiversable and inseparable.
The distinction of the nations being by no means taken away by the union.
But rather of the property of each nature being preserved and concurring in the one person and one substance.
Not parted or divided into two persons, but one of the same, Son, only begotten God.
The Word, the Lord Jesus Christ.
That was the Childean Creed that was formulated in 451.
As they wade through this whole issue of who Jesus was.
And there was an earlier one or another one that come later, the assassination Creed which of course was much simpler.
But I chose this one simply because I believe it had a very good wording to give us how the saints in that period of time worked through who Jesus was.
You see, we're living in a day and age where everything all roads lead to Rome.
Interfaith movements and all these things.
But I tell you, dear child of God, if they're wrong in relation to Jesus Christ, they're like the West Gate Bridge, they'll fall and be crushed for all eternity.
And so as we move on then, we see that in one area which Jesus became like on us through the incarnation is in the emotional life.
You see, it's important as a child of God, we understand in His humanity and emotional life, the emotion was frequently attributed to Christ in compassion or pity.
You remember when He looked over Jerusalem, He had compassion upon them, He grieved.
Inspiration of deep love when He confronted by those who had fallen men and women.
He groaned.
He groaned with anger as it were at the tomb as He entered the tomb of Lazarus.
And that groaning, I believe, was through unbelief.
On one occasion when confronted with hunger, a large crowd followed Him and having compassion because they had nothing.
They'd had nothing for three days.
And then we see His humanity and then His deity taking over and blessing, providing the food.
Oh, the greatness of this Christ that we've come to know as our Saviour.
We have nothing to eat, they have said.
And if we send them away hungry to their homes, they will faint in the way, the disciples said.
Some of them have come a long way.
And so it is for you and Lee.
We have feelings, desires, emotions.
And we need to know in our lives, in the pastoral sense of the word, the compassion of Christ.
There's not one of us that have not gone some circumstances in life in this church today.
There may be some here that have burdens that no one else knows about.
And this is why we can sing, burdens are lifted at Calvary.
You see, this has become very pastoral now in His humanity.
We need to know Christ and all His beauty.
When we have nowhere else to go in our despair or loneliness of night or desires of what we're facing,
or temptations or feelings we might be going through, we know that we have one, the perfect Son of God,
who is in the likeness of sinful flesh, like unto us without sin.
And all points have been tempted without sin.
Who is able to come beside you and bring to you the care and need that is needed?
Because it is true humanity.
We are told He was moved with pity at the sight of the leper, at the sight of the leper.
Leprosy was such an awesome thing.
The leper had to be put outside of the community.
No one would have anything to do with the leper except the eternal Son of God in true humanity who is moved in compassion.
Moved in compassion.
I want to say, dear child of God, He's the only one that has to do with your sin and my sin.
Leprosy always in the Old Testament in typology speaks of sin.
All the burden and the guilt of sin has been lifted by the One who died upon Calvary's cross for your sins and for mine.
He is the One that has been moved with compassion.
He is the One that is able to bring healing.
Remember I made reference in Luke 19 41?
He actually wept aloud over Jerusalem.
Wept aloud over Jerusalem because of this stubbornness and unbelief.
Oh, what the heart of the humanity of Christ must be in relation to how stubborn it is and unbelief.
Maybe you've sat through many of church service. Maybe you've sat through many a gospel meeting.
Maybe you've been under the sound of a gospel and yet you've never dealt with that whole sin question.
You've never repented, confessed your sins to eternal God and turned from Him.
He is moved with compassion.
The other area of life that leads to his grief, indignation.
We made reference to that grief that he had at Lazarus' tomb.
Death creeps above all of us.
It's unappointed if a man wants to die and after death the judgment is coming a day when each one of us shall pass from this scene.
Death is the awful consequences of rebellion, the brokenness of man.
And you see the Lord Jesus Christ and all his mercy and all his love and all his care at the tomb of Lazarus.
In our very puts it, he was deeply moved.
He was deeply moved and troubled.
You see we don't have an insensitive Christ.
We don't have an unmovable Christ that's not able to help in saccharine times of difficulty and trials.
We don't have a Christ that doesn't know all your circumstances of life.
We don't have a Christ that doesn't know all about the circumstances you might be going through.
He is the one who has carried our griefs and borne our stripes in us.
It's through him we have been healed.
He is the one that understands.
He is the one that has moved with righteous indignation and anger over sin.
Indeed, dear child of God, he is a man of sorrows, a quite good grief.
And so from the pastoral sense of the word we can come to him.
He is the one that came into the world to bear the sins of men.
He is the one that came and gave his life a ransom for many.
He is the one who coggoned with the gladness of the eminent victory in the heart,
with the joy set before him.
Was able to endure the cross and despise the shame.
He is the one that comes to us in times of need.
He is the one that knows your very circumstances.
All the counselling in the world cannot substitute for the counselling and the compassion of Christ.
Not one bit.
John 15 11 says, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
You see, dear child of God, it is right to have emotions.
It is right to have fears.
We do face temptations, but we have a man in the glory.
Who is able to comfort you with all comfort.
Do you realise that?
Remembering his high priestly prayer.
So I've come unto thee that these things I spoke to thee in the world that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
There's no joy like the joy of knowing Jesus.
He is the one that is able to take away all fears.
He is the one that's been tempted. If you're facing temptation, young or old, whatever, if you're facing temptations,
he is the one that has faced temptations.
By the means of his incarnation he came.
He's able to relate to you and me.
He's able to be our guide in living the Christian life.
He became subject to temptation.
Listen to what Hebrews 4 says, for we do not have a high priest who cannot be sympathised with our weaknesses.
We do not have a high priest who cannot sympathise with our weaknesses.
But wise at all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Dear child of God, this should bring us comfort.
This should give us strength in the joy of knowing Christ.
At all points, in all the reigns of the confusion that we have in the world around us,
here we have this perfect Saviour, the sinless Saviour, the perfect man.
You see, Jesus was driven out into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
Jesus replied to the devil, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
You see, there is no thing that is befalls us, dear child of God.
That we cannot come to the Saviour and pour out our hearts before Him at the foot of the cross.
There's nothing, whether it's a broken home or a broken life,
or it's a loved one who's passing from his scene, whatever the difficulties or the circumstances,
whereas the loved one that has never come to faith, faith in Christ.
Can you imagine the humanity of Christ as the one who knew in his midst Judas was to go out and betray Him?
No, we have one who's able to minister to us, who's able to minister to you and to me this morning,
because he's that perfect one.
Jesus became like us in order that we might become like Him in suffering.
There may be things that we're asked to test and suffer.
If you look at the list that Paul suffered for the sake of the gospel, he knew what it was to suffer.
If you look at the list of the suffering saints at times that have suffered,
give you a little exercise, you get Robert Tyrrell's little book or the two books on prayer.
That man was taken to the stake a couple of times and they never lit the match.
He certainly learnt how to pray.
And it's that suffering and the testings that we cast our thoughts on him because he cares for us.
He cares for us emotionally, spiritually as well.
He also experienced physical needs. He hung and thirsted.
In the wilderness he's thirsted and weary and so forth.
On the cross he cried I thirst.
What was he given? Vinegar.
The greatest example of all was his suffering in anguish of soul and body that has endured the cross.
Here he hung between heaven and earth and here, there he was forsaken of God.
Abandoned.
You and I will never know that in those hours of darkness upon the cross.
Here, truly the Son of God hung upon the cross.
So we can come to him. We can look to him.
He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.
And here we can turn to him in all our fears and look to him for encouragement.
And this is no mere baby, baby in a manger. This is truly the Son of God.
And so as you see in this book concerning his son Jesus Christ, the Lord born of the seed of David.
Declared to be Son of God and a power according to the whole spirit of heart in us.
Dear child of God, in coming to Christ we come to him the living one who has risen from the dead.
In coming to him he is truly God and truly man without sin.
And he'll ever remain that in all eternity.
When we come to glory, how will you identify him?
You will identify him for the marks of his humanity, the nail prints in his hands.
Dear child of God, I trust that this day as we go out from this place in the realization who Jesus is.
And I as a pastor, I don't know all your affairs. I don't know all your testings and trials.
You only hear bits and pieces.
But God alone knows the inner soul of your heart, your inner desires.
And we have a living Saviour.
A man in the glory seated at the right hand of the majesty and I, who ever intercedes on your behalf and mine.
May we go from this place in the joy of knowing him who is like eternal.