Once again, we have great privilege to come together and to look into the Word of God, and we are going to do so under the heading of "The Humanity of the Son Incarnate." A little three-part series that I wanted to do at Christmas to help us understand more of the glory of Christ, and this is the second part; we will do one more next week. But I want you to remember something that is easy to forget in this holiday season in our culture, and that is Christmas celebrates the birth of our Savior and our King, the Lord Jesus Christ. May I remind you from the outset of a couple of passages. You remember when the angels came to the shepherds in Luke two, beginning in verse 10, it says, first of all, "But the angel said to them, 'Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ, the Lord.'" And then the great prophecy in Isaiah nine, we read beginning in verse six, about the coming Christ, "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; and the government will rest on His shoulders; and His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government, or of peace, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness from then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts, will accomplish this." And how I long for that day, as I'm sure you do as well, when he establishes his glorious kingdom on this earth.

Now, we increasingly see Satan doing everything that he can to obscure the glorious truths of who Christ is, and ultimately then, what Christmas is all about - the incarnation of Christ. And it's been turned into kind of a big party time, a time to give gifts and a lot of materialism, a lot of fun and family and certainly that's appropriate to enjoy those things, but if you look even at the average yard, at the Christmas season, very seldom will you see anything that speaks of the incarnation of Christ. It's hard to even find the nativity scene anymore. I mean, you'll see Santa Claus and Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman and all of those kinds of things. But you typically don't see anything that really symbolizes the magnificent reality that God became man to save us by his grace.

In fact, it's even politically incorrect today, isn't it, to say "Merry Christmas." You have to say what "Happy Holidays" or whatever. By the way, whenever I hear that, I will always respond, "Merry Christmas" and hopefully I'll have an opportunity to say something more. Isn't it wonderful to know that God sent his son to die for our sins and save us by his grace? And it's even sad that among those who acknowledge that Christmas is all about the birth of Christ, a lot of Christians really don't live as if he is their Lord and Savior. In fact, John MacArthur said it well, quote, "The world is happy to let Jesus Christ be a baby in a manger, but not willing to let him be the Sovereign King and Lord that he is. Yet that is the central truth of the Christmas story. The child of Christmas is God."

Beloved, please hear this, there is nothing more important in your life than your understanding of who God is, than your perception of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. In fact, your view of God will determine how you worship. It will determine how you will live your life. It will determine how you treat your wife, your husband, your children. It will determine the habits of your life. It will determine, certainly the kind of church that you will attend, and certainly it will determine where you will spend eternity. And how sad to watch people live out their lives as if God doesn't exist, or perhaps worse yet, worshiping a god that doesn't exist; and many times,calling him Jesus, because they have no understanding of who the real Jesus is. "Eat, drink and be merry," that tends to be the attitude. That was what the Greek philosopher Epicurus promoted, "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." It became kind of a popular English idiom, promoting kind of a carefree lifestyle, no concern about anything. Certainly, no concern about God and his glory, his judgment or eternal life.

I was looking at some of the ways hedonism is lived out today. And that's what that is; sometimes that's called, by the way, Epicureanism or hedonism. And I think of what Paul said when he extolled the certain hope of the resurrection from the dead unto glory for believers. In First Corinthians 15:32, he says, "If the dead are not raised..." in other words, if, if there's no resurrection, then he said, "...let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die." And that, by the way, isa direct quote from Isaiah 22 and verse 13 that described the damning hedonism of the backslidden Israelites and the tragic futility of living your life for yourself apart from the glory of God; separated from God, and contrary to his word and his will. So many sad and hopeless people, even around Christmas. Have you noticed that? Beneath the smiles there's a hollowness, there's a sadness. An unknown writer has summarized this perfectly, and perhaps you have heard this frankly hopeless statement that has been made popular on social media. Let me read it to you. I want to get you good and depressed so that I can really contrast the glory of what it means to be in Christ. The statement goes like this, "Have you ever wondered in 100 years and 2124 we will all be buried with our relatives and friends. Strangers will live in our homes, which we fought so hard to build, and they will own everything we have today, all our properties will be unknown, including that car you spent a fortune on. It will probably be scrapped. I guess it will be in the hands of an unknown collector. Our descendants will hardly know who we were, nor will they remember us. How many of us know our grandfather’sfather? After our death, we will be remembered for a few years, then we will only be a portrait on someone's library. And a few years later, our history, our photos, our deeds, go into the dust bin of oblivion. History. We won't even be memories. Maybe if one day we stopped to analyze these questions, we would understand how ignorant and weak the dream of obtaining everything was. Certainly, our approaches, our thoughts would change. We would be other people, always having more and more, without having time for the things that are really worthwhile in this life. I change all of that to live and enjoy those walks I've never taken, those ungiven hugs; those kisses to our children and our loves, and those pranks we never had time for. Those would definitely be the best moments to remember. Basically, they would fill our lives with joy. And that is what we waste with greed and intolerance, day after day. There is still time for us. Think about it." End quote. How sad. Just another way of saying, "eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we die." What a stark contrast to the hope and the joy that we have as believers. Paul put it this way, "For me to live is Christ and to die is gain." In Philippians, three, eight, he said, "I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, so that I may gain Christ."

Now compare Paul's testimony to that of unbelievers who on their death bed, as they face eternity, uncertain of what lies ahead; on the brink of death, all they can do is sing with Frank Sinatra, "I've lived a life that's full, I traveled each and every highway, and more, much more, I did it my way." Not God's way, but my way. And as a result, they will perish in their sins. They will slip into eternity, and they will enter into the solitary confinement of an eternal hell where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. But not so for those who trust in Christ, and herein is the hope of the Gospel. Jesus said in John 8:12, "'I am the Light of the world. He who follows me will not walk in darkness but will have the light of life.'" You see, life is found in Christ and in John 11:25, he said, "'I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die.'" And I think of the eyewitness testimony of the apostle John, who said in First John one beginning in verse two, "And the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us. But we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. These things we write so that our joy may be made complete."

You see folks as believers, we live in light of eternity. This world is not our home, and the darker the world gets around us, the more we realize how important it is to live in the light of his grace, and to know the light, to walk in that. You see folks, without Christ, there is no gospel; there is no good news. And without the Good News of the Gospel, there is no eternal life, and therefore there is no joy in this life, except those things that you pursue to try to make yourself happy, the fleeting pleasures of life. Oh, the smell of a new car, and a year later you're wishing you had the next model. Isn't that how it works? Well, this Christmas season is a perfect time to elevate the Lord Jesus to his proper place, to behold the excellency, the majesty of Christ and the hope and the joy that we have living our lives in him and so to do so, we are once again going to look at the mystery of the incarnation, focusing primarily on the humanity of the Son incarnate.

Just a quick review. The last time we were together, part one, we looked at the virgin birth of the eternal Son. We saw how that Jesus had to be born of a virgin. He had to take on human flesh, to be punished for our sin as our substitute, but he also had to be God in order to endure the sufferings of all that the Father had given him, all who would believe in Him. Remember that God's holy and infinite justice required a holy and infinitely glorious ransom, and that was the Lord Jesus. So the work of redemption required a theanthropon - a God-man - one who would supernaturally fuse together the human nature and the divine to form an indissoluble bond.

We secondly looked at the self-emptying of the eternal Son, called the kenosis from it's drawn from the Greek word "kenoó", meaning to empty oneself. This speaks of Christ's voluntary surrender of the independent use of his divine attributes when he took on human flesh.  Jesus "emptied Himself," Philippians, two seven, "taking the form of a bond servant." And again, remember, this does not mean that he in any way divested himself of any of his divine attributes. He didn't take something from himself or out of himself, thereby becoming less than God. But to "empty Himself" really means that he poured out himself - the idea of making himself void, nullifying himself. In fact, the King James says he, "made himself of no reputation." And so he did this not by pouring something out of himself, but by taking on human flesh, and thereby adding himself to true humanity. This is, as I say, an addition rather than a subtraction. So he chose not to exercise the full limits of his attributes during his earthly life as the incarnate Christ. He emptied himself by refusing to access his divine rights and privileges. He made void certain aspects of his divine prerogatives. And so, as a result, the full manifestation of his deity was veiled; it was restricted. it was limited by his human nature. And that's why the Apostle Paul would say in Second Corinthians 8:9, "...though He was rich, yet for your sake, He became poor."

So we looked at the virgin birth of the eternal Son and the self-emptying of the eternal Son. And we're going to return to the third point in my little outline, and that is the spirit empowerment of the eternal Son. And last week we began, I kind of introduced this a little bit, we began to answer the question, you know, was Jesus perfectly obedient because of his intrinsic divine nature? And if his obedience was empowered, therefore by his divine nature, how can we, not having a divine nature, obey the commands to be like him? I mean, is it fair for God to ask us to be like him? Well, the answer that we began to look at, and we're going to see it more here today, is that his obedience to do the will of the Father was not enabled by his intrinsic divine nature as God, but rather it was solely through the power of the indwelling Spirit working in his human nature. He did not depend upon his divine nature to resist sin, but through the power of the indwelling Spirit in his human nature. And of course, this is immensely encouraging to all of us as believers, because the same resources that enabled Christ are available to us. Those of us who, according to John 3:8 are "born of the Spirit." We have the same supernatural, divine enablement available to us. And yet it's so sad to see so many millions of people reject Christ. They're just ruled by their lusts, ruled by their flesh. They chase after all of the fleeting pleasures of life, rather than being ruled by the indwelling Spirit,yielding to him, surrendering to him, walking by the Spirit. And as a result, enjoying all that is available to those who know and love Christ. But rather than that, they live for themselves. Their own selfishness is the center of gravity around which their lives orbit, and they end up living a life of misery.

Well, no wonder, according to the CDC, suicide continues to be on the rise. It is one of the leading causes of death. I was reading an article the other day where it said over 49,000 people died by suicide in 2022 that's one death every 11 minutes. I couldn't find the stats for where we are now, but that was 2022 and we know it's more than that now. It said that many adults think about suicide or attempt suicide. 13.2million people seriously thought about suicide. And again, this is 2022. 13.2 seriously thought about suicide. 3.8 million made a plan for suicide, and 1.6 million attempted suicide. The number of opioid overdose deaths in the United States in 2022 was 81,806. And I was reading from some research from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and it said this, "The sharp rise in drug deaths in recent years was driven by fentanyl deaths." And you hear about this a lot with the illegal aliens bringing this in and so forth. Went on to say, "Fentanyl involved opioid deaths surged more than 23 fold over the last decade, while prescription opioid deaths remained steady, and heroin deaths declined. Fentanyl deaths more than doubled during the pandemic, increasing from 36,359 in 2019, to 73,838 in 2022." And now it's more than that. Also, one of the statistics that stuck out to me is 32% of US adults report how drug abuse has caused trouble in their families. And I know some of you would attest to that. I certainly would with issues in our family.

Folks, people need the Lord. People need the Lord, and so it's to him we turn our attention as we reflect upon the humanity of the son incarnate. And in doing so, I really want to look now more closely at this whole issue of the Spirit empowerment of the eternal Son. This the babe in the manger. You cannot separate these things. You must see this. I return again to Isaiah 11 and verse two, "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him," the Spirit of God tells us in his prophecy. "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." Now, bear in mind, while the Holy Spirit contributed nothing to Christ's deity, he contributed everything, all ofthe supernatural power and enablement to his humanity. It was the Spirit, as we see here, that gave him wisdom and understanding. Isn't it wonderful to know believers who, by the power of the Spirit, have wisdom and understanding. It was the Spirit that gave him counsel and strength. It was the Spirit that gave him knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And we know from Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.

And again, in Isaiah 42 verse one, "'Behold, My servant whom I uphold; My chosen one, and whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.'" And Isaiah 61 beginning in verse one, "The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the LORD has anointed Me to bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners; to proclaim the favorable year of the LORD and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a spirit of fainting. So they will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that He may be glorified."

Now I want you to think about just the life of Christ in light of the Spirit's work within him. Once again that is available to us. Do you realize that Christ's dependence upon the Holy Spirit began at conception? The miracle of conception. Matthew 1:18, we read, when "...Mary had been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child by the Holy Spirit." It reminds me of John the Baptist. Remember the forerunner of the Messiah, who was indwelt by the Spirit while he was yet in his mother's womb. Remember in Luke 1:15. And then at his baptism, we see the Spirit at work in and on him. Luke 3:22, "The Holy Spirit descended upon Him in bodily form, like a dove." We know that the Spirit was at work in him, empowering him, sustaining him at his temptation in the wilderness. Matthew 4:1 "Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil." I think about that a lot in my life. When some great tragedy is there, some great temptation, I realize that somehow the Spirit is involved with this, and I have an opportunity to be obedient or to be disobedient, and he empowers us to do that which is pleasing in his sight. "And after Jesus was tempted by the devil," Luke says, in Luke 4:14, "that he returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee."

So beloved, please understand, Jesus resisted temptation not by resorting to his divine nature, not by relying on the supernatural power of his divine nature, but by relying on the resources available to him through the indwelling Spirit of God. And his dependence obviously upon his Father; we know that the Spirit of God empowered him throughout his ministry. We see this for example in John 3:34 There we read, "For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure." We see it in his preaching, Luke four, beginning in verse 17, we read about the book now, "...of the Prophet was handed to Him." And it says, "And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, 'THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD ISUPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.'"

Now I want to pause for a moment. There is a common misnomer, especially in the south, where you will hear about "God-called" preachers, they’re called. They're just Spirit empowered preachers, meaning, and one of the main things about these preachers is they brag about the fact that they've never been to seminary, that they've never had any formal education, that they just stand up and the Spirit just tells them what to say. And there's all kinds of reasons why that is a very dangerous thing, and that's not what we're talking about here, but certainly what we see is that the Spirit of the Lord was upon Jesus that instructed him in his word, and we're going to see more of that in a moment. And the same thing is true of any man who has been called into pastoral ministry. It is the Spirit of God that gifts them, the Spirit of God that teaches them and sustains them, etc, etc. We read about this in Ephesians four in particular. It was also quote, "through the Spirit" that Jesus gave commandments to his chosen apostles, Acts one and verse two. And according to Matthew 12:28, He cast out demons by the Spirit of God. And he also healed people by the Spirit; Acts 10:38. Remember Paul's great sermon to the Gentiles. He says, "You know of Jesus, of Nazareth, how God anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how he went out doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him." Folks, once again, this is so encouraging, so profoundly encouraging to us, because the very things that Jesus had going for him, you might say, by the power of the Spirit, is available to us.

So again, Jesus promised you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. These are the very resources that Jesus used to live an obedient life, a powerful life. And again, the same resources that are made available to not only his apostles, but all who follow Christ. And is it any wonder why the Apostle Paul would just be so overwhelmed with his these realities that he would pray this, as we have recorded in Ephesians three, beginning in verse 14, "For this reason, I bow my knees before the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened..." here it is, "...with power through His Spirit in the inner man." And here's why, "...so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend, with all the saints, what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God." And then he burst forth with this great doxology, "Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power..." catch this, “...that works within us." Alright? "To Him be the glory in the church and in Christ,Jesus to all generations, forever and ever."

And we can consider what he promised his disciples, and by extension, to all believers, in Acts one eight, he said, "You will receive power when.." what? "...when the Holy Spirit has come upon you." You see, before the Holy Spirit hadn't come upon believers and indwelt them, but"You will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth." Now certainly the apostles had already experienced the Spirit's saving power in their lives and ministry. Not only did he save them, but he empowered them to preach and to teach and to perform miracles and so on. But again, soon now, at Pentecost, the Holy Spirit was going to come upon them and dwell within them. And it's a miracle of miracles to me, that God has redeemed us, that He might inhabit us; that we might be empowered to do all that He has commanded us to do. And how sad when we have that power available to us, but we do not avail ourselves of that power because we're living by the flesh, or we're not taking advantage of the various means of grace that are available to us that I will elaborate on a great deal the next time we are together. And of course, when the Spirit of God dwelled within them, it just supercharged their witness, right? You see this change. You see the old Peter and the new Peter, for example. But remember at Pentecost in Acts two four, "And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit was giving them utterance." The tongues there are foreign languages that heretofore they did not know so that the gospel could go forth to all of these different languages. There it was not the ecstatic gibberish - that is the fake tongues that you hear today in our culture. And in First Corinthians six beginning in verse 19, we read, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? For you have been bought with a price: therefore, glorify God in your body."

Now, I want you to think about the Spirit's work in Jesus, even as a child. You will remember in Luke two, beginning verse 40 we read that "The Child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom; and the grace of God was upon Him." And then in verse 52 we read, "And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor," or in other words, grace, it could be translated, "...with God and men." Now, obviously this passage makes it clear that Jesus did not live his life dependent upon his intrinsic divine nature, but according to the indwelling Spirit that was working within him in his human nature.

There's a great story that we read about in the Gospels. Remember, in Luke two he went with his family to the feast in Jerusalem, and Jesus got separated from the family when the caravan was returning to Nazareth, and he ended up remaining in Jerusalem. And his parents freak out about this. They look around, as we've all done before. It's like, where's Jesus? Have you seen Jesus? And Luke two verse 46 says, "Then, after three days they found Him in the temple." Not on the playground, he was in the temple, "...sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers. When they saw Him, they were astonished; and His mother said to Him, 'Son, why have You treated us this way? Behold, Your father and I have been anxiously looking for You.' And He said to them, 'Why is it that you were looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father's house?' But they did not understand the statement which He had made to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them." Let me pause there. Though he knew that he was a child of the Heavenly Father, that he was God very God, he still chose to submit to the authority of his parents. Isn't that a wonderful thought?

"And He went down with them and came to Nazareth, and He continued in subjection to them. And His mother treasured all these things in her heart. And Jesus kept increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men." Now, again, I want you to think about this. In his deity, he is God very God. He is omniscient, all-knowing, and his omnisapient, which means all-wise. He not only knows all things, he knows how to apply the wisdom. But not so in his humanity. Because what we see here is he had to not only grow physically and emotionally, but also spiritually and intellectually. I mean, when you stop and think about it, if I can put it this way, he was not ready for Gethsemane and the cross at age 12. Remember Isaiah 11 in verse two that we read earlier. "The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and strength, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD." So you have a 12 year old boy operating according to his human nature, empowered by the indwelling Spirit. And here he is in the temple, interacting with the greatest theological minds in the world - absolutely astounding. But still in his human nature.

We read in the text that he had much to learn. You see, the Father was preparing him. The Father was developing his character by the power of the Spirit through his word, he had to quote "increase in wisdom." In other words, the Spirit of God dwelling within him had to take the great truths of the Word that that he was reading, that he was hearing about, and illumine his mind so that he could live them out. He had to increase in wisdom. I will elaborate on this a whole lot more next week. But this means he had to learn the word, he had to understand the word, he had to be able to articulate the word, he had to be able to exhort in sound doctrine and refute those who contradict. He had to be able to converse with others concerning the word. So he sat at the feet of those who knew more than he did at that time to learn the word of God, and he sought them out. He submitted himself to discipleship. And the Lord used all of that to help him increase in wisdom.

And through these things, and other means of grace, his heart was open to the leading of the Holy Spirit, so that in the life of Christ, the fruit of the spirit that we read about in Galatians five, was perfectly manifested in every single way; the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, all of it perfectly manifested.

But I want you to see some more here concerning the Spirit's work in Christ's humanity. I mean, think about this, every act of perfect obedience placed him increasingly at odds with a hostile world. I mean, the more we obey Christ, the more we're hated, right? I mean, if you capitulate, if you compromise, and everybody kind of likes you, that's why I say anytime somebody's promoting a Jesus that the whole world loves, you know, it's not the Jesus of the Bible. But every act prepared him for the next stage of opposition; for the next stage of suffering, which would naturally increase the power of temptation to compromise. And think about temptation in our own lives. When we're tempted, we typically give in pretty quick, don't we? And then the temptation goes away because we've disobeyed, and then we have 1000 reasons to justify what we did and ignore it and kind of move on. But not so Jesus. And here, I want to take you to Hebrews five for a moment, if you want to turn there.

Here in Hebrews five, the context it's part of this inspired argument given to the Hebrews to prove the superiority and the deity of Jesus Christ. In Hebrews five, beginning in verse seven, we read some fascinating things about our Lord. It says, "In the days of His flesh," that, is his human incarnate life on Earth, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of his piety. Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." Now again, I want you to notice here, Jesus' obedience was not some automatic response, enabled by his divine nature that somehow, he was tapping into, and thus eliminating any real struggle to trust and obey, come what may.

If I can digress for a moment, I mean his experience in the Garden of Gethsemane alone would refute that notion. Remember Mark 14, beginning in verse 33 it says, "And He took with Him Peter and James and John, and began to be very distressed and troubled. And He said to them, 'My soul is deeply grieved to the point of death.'" And in Luke 22 beginning in verse 42 he says, "'Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.'" Then we read, “Now an angel from heaven appeared to Him, strengthening him. And being in agony, He was praying very fervently; and His sweat became like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground." It's absolutely astounding to me; Jesus' obedience was a manifestation of the Spirit of God at work in his human nature.

So again, in Hebrews Five verse seven, "In the days of His flesh, He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying." Obviously, you see his humanity here, and I find it interesting too "loud crying" - “kraugēs," in the original language, a very significant term. It doesn't refer to a cry a man chooses to express, shall we say, on his own, to kind of own, his own utter it out. Rather, it speaks of a cry that is extracted from him. He's in such grief, if you will. It is a cry that is pulled from him. It's forced out of a man as a result of excruciating anguish. Again, this points to his humanity and the need for the Spirit's work to sustain him.

So, "He offered up both prayers and supplications with loud crying and tears to the One able to save Him from..." or could be translated literally out of death, "...and He was heard because of His piety." Then you have this phrase, "Although He was a Son." I mean, think about this, the Father didn't give him a pass here on his suffering, even though it was his Son; he was given no exemption from all the sorrow and all of the pain associated with the human condition. And because of his perfect obedience to the will of the Father, he ultimately experienced death. Sothere was nothing that we can experience, there is nothing that we can experience, that he did not experience far greater. And for this reason, he is affirmed, is he not, as our sympathetic high priest?

Now notice again in verse eight, "Although he was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered." As I reflect upon this, I think "my, yes." I mean, every new affliction would be a new learning process, something else that he had to deal with; every new agonizing form of rejection, every new pain required a new kind of obedience. It required a new level of dependency upon the Father. It required a new level of faith in the Father'sprovision and protection. It required a new level of submission to the inner working of the Holy Spirit; a new level of commitment to the directives and the applications of the Word of God, whatever the cost. So indeed, "He learned obedience from the things which He suffered."

And then verse nine, "And having been made perfect, He became to all those who obey Him..." Now, this can confuse people. You think, well, he was already God, I thought he was already perfect. Well, that's not what the term means. It's not a metaphysical perfection here, but it's speaking in terms of function. In other words, that is having completed all that was necessary to make him perfectly fitted to become our Savior and High Priest. And so, once again, the Father and the Spirit now are systematically forming the character of Jesus, helping him grow in the grace and the knowledge of Christ. Helping him to increase in wisdom until he is made perfect, in other words, until he is completely ready; is perfectly fitted to do what the Father is going to ultimately ask him to do. And that is to suffer and to die in our stead.

Folks, never forget that this is the same work of grace that operates in each one of us. Bear in mind that those seemingly trivial opportunities for obedience prepare us for more costly areas of obedience; seemingly insignificant areas of service, prepare us for more significant areas of usefulness. You just must remember that if you truly belong to Christ, if you've truly been born again, if you've truly been raised from spiritual death to spiritual life, and you're a new creature in Christ, and your disposition is one of wanting to know and love and serve Christ, then everything that you go through in your life is part of the Spirit's work to conform you into the likeness of Christ. I want you to also notice that he offered himself on the cross by the enablement of the Spirit. Hebrews nine and verse 14, we read, "...how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit, offered Himself without blemish to God..." and he says, "...cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?" Again, think about this, it was the Spirit that enabled and preserved Jesus during the horrific agonies of Gethsemane. It was the Spirit that preserved and sustained him during the humiliation at the hands of the authorities during the unbelievable torture of the scourgings - plural; the crown of thorns, the crucifixion. It was the Spirit constantly helping him.

I might want to add, however, it was Christ who voluntarily submitted to the will of the Father, as he suffered in our stead, who went to the cross voluntarily. John 10 verse 17, he said, "'For this reason, the Father loves Me because I lay down My life so that I may take it again. No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own initiative. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This commandment I received from My Father.'" It's important to understand from scripture that all three members of the triune godhead were a part of the resurrection, but Paul speaks specifically, at one point, about the Spirit's role in Romans eight verse 11, it says, "But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you."

The point with all of this, dear friends, is from conception to resurrection, the Holy Spirit empowered Jesus' human nature to be obedient to the will of the Father and ultimately accomplish our redemption. That's what I want you to see. In fact, this was Jesus' own testimony. Remember when the Jewish leaders accused him of doing all those miraculous things by the power of Satan to try to get people to hate Jesus and still keep them in a position of power. Jesus accused them in Matthew 12 verses 30 through 32, I won't read it all, but he accused them not of blaspheming him, but speaking against whom? The Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And Paul summarized the very essence of the humanity of the eternal son with his assertion in First Timothy two and verse five, where he says, "There is one mediator between God and man, the man, Christ Jesus." Folks, this was the babe in the manger.

Well, I have one final sermon, I think, on the humanity of the Son incarnate. I want to go back and help you understand something that sometimes people will ask. I've answered part of it, and you will see it as we go forward expect, especially next week, but I want to answer the question that many will ask surrounding the issue of the temptation to sin in the life of Jesus. James 1:13 says, "God cannot be tempted by evil," right? How could Jesus have been tempted? First John three and verse five, "In Him, there is no sin." The great text in Second Corinthians 5:21, we read that "God made Christ to be sin who knew no sin, so that we might become the righteousness of God." And yet, in Hebrews four verse 15, we read that he was, quote, "...tempted as we are, yet without sin." Doctrinally, this is the doctrine of the impeccability of Christ. He was impeccable, meaning he could not sin. So therefore, on what basis was he genuinely tempted? We will discover and rejoice in the answer to that question that emerges from the Word of God the next time we get together.

And I might also add that the biblical answer to that, to this shall we say, perceived dilemma, will accomplish a second goal that I will have next week as we come together, and that is to demonstrate the very practical ways we can avail ourselves of the resources that we have in Christ by the power of the indwelling Spirit; resources that will  empower us and protect us and sustain us and bless us. Because again, we see that Jesus was a man who labored to obey. He was a man who struggled through the Father's maturing testings; a man who maintained purity and faithfulness to the very end. And as we contemplate these great truths, I trust that you will celebrate all the more, who Christ is, as we reflect upon his birth as our Savior and our Lord during this Christmas season. And I challenge you to measure your life against him.

I know that many of you are struggling right now. There's not a day that goes by as a pastor that I don't talk with, sometimes multiple people, even in this body, who are dealing with some very difficult issues. And isn't it wonderful to know that we have the Spirit of God as our resource. So let's reflect upon these great truths this Christmas season. Amen? Oh, we serve a glorious God, do we not?

Father, thank you for the truths of your word. May they find lodging in our hearts to such a point that that we manifest them in how we live, and that we experience them as we enjoy the fullness of all that is ours in Christ. And Lord if there be one within the sound of my voice that knows nothing of what it means to truly be born again, to truly experience the miracle of the new birth, to know that their sins are forgiven, to enjoy Christ even this side of glory, Oh, Father, will you, by the power of your Spirit, overwhelm them with the guilt of their sin that they might cry out for saving grace and be saved. I ask this in the name of Jesus and for his sake. Amen.