1-6-25 Nehemiah 8:9-12a

SPEAKER 01 : 0:08

Welcome to Expository Truths, where we exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with Dr. John Kyle, pastor of Faith Community Church in Vacaville. As Christians, we are called to know the truth and be able to proclaim it. We can know the truth when we know the word of God, which is precise, without error, powerful, and effective for both salvation and spiritual growth. Let's join Pastor Kyle as he takes us verse by verse through the book of Nehemiah, an incredible book showing us how God sovereignly used the faithfulness of Nehemiah to lead the people to rebuild the walls of Jerusalem in the midst of many mighty and powerful enemies.

SPEAKER 02 : 0:57

Merry Christmas. We don't know the exact day that Jesus was actually born, but the exact day doesn't really matter. No, the fact that we take time to recognize and to celebrate the birth of Christ is what matters. And we are doing that today in view of tomorrow. He certainly is worthy, this God, who left heaven and came here to rescue undeserving sinner like us. He is worthy. And look. Those who understand that love Him with passion and fervor. Anybody? Right? We do. We do. So we take time to worship Him and we take time to lift Him high today. The verse that I want us to look at is a prophecy from Isaiah. One verse that tells us some great truth. Isaiah 7.14. Let's go ahead and look at that. Isaiah 7.14. Therefore, the Lord Himself will give you a sign... Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel. Now the context of this prophecy is Isaiah 7, and in the year 738 B.C., Ahaz the king of Judah is in trouble. Ahaz is in serious trouble. I mean, it looks like his kingdom is about to be destroyed, and Ahaz is scared. He's really scared. That's when Isaiah went up to him and said, hey, don't be afraid. God is with us. The battle is the Lord's and the Lord God Almighty will protect us. And to prove that fact, God will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Emmanuel. I mean, what a sign. See, this prophecy would give Ahaz hope that his kingdom wouldn't perish and that God would indeed be with them. And even though the fulfillment of this prophecy is still 700 years away, hey, it's still going to happen. Judah won't be destroyed and God is indeed watching over us. In fact, God is with us. See? See how that works? Fast forward over 700 years later. Look. This guy from Nazareth named Joseph is betrothed to a young teenage girl named Mary who was about 14 years old. A betrothal was much like an engagement today, but it was much more closely linked with marriage. For example, a betrothal was regarded as equally binding as a marriage. And a betrothed girl had the same legal position that a wife had. In fact, an actual divorce was necessary to terminate a betrothal. So... A betrothal was a very serious thing. Now, while all that was true, look, it wasn't normal for sexual relations to take place during this betrothal period. But here's the problem. Mary was pregnant. And Joseph knows that they have never had sexual relations. I mean, that is a major problem. So, here's what Joseph's going to do. I mean, he's a good guy. He's a God-fearing guy. He's a just man, as Matthew calls him. And he doesn't want to embarrass Mary, so he plans to quietly divorce her and then go his own way. Well, that's when the Lord appeared to him in a dream in Matthew chapter 1 and said, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. And say what? He then went on to quote our verse from Isaiah. Behold, the virgin shall be with child and bear a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which is translated God with us. Again, say what? So look, even though Joseph and Mary have never ever had sexual relations, and even though Mary has never had sexual relations with anyone, guess what? She's pregnant. She's pregnant. Okay, what happened? Well, God did a miracle. And clearly Mary's child that's in her womb isn't a normal child. In fact, her child isn't a child who's going to be born of man, but he's going to be born from God, specifically God the Spirit. And her child is in fact God himself. Now look, Joseph a man and Mary a woman can't produce God. And God can't be born into this world by natural human processes. And there's no way that Jesus could have been God unless he was born of God in some miraculous way. And that's exactly what happened in the virgin birth. Now why is this so important? It's important. Because it preserves the truth that Jesus really is fully God and fully man at the same time. See, he received his physical body from Mary, yes, however, his eternal holy nature was his from all eternity. Also, Joseph didn't pass on his sinful nature to Jesus because Joseph wasn't the father. And unlike any other human being who's ever been born, Jesus had no sin nature. That's important because every normal human birth produces another sinner. Any parents know that? But our Savior had to be genuinely human and truly sinless in order to become our perfect substitute and also in order to pay our penalty of guilt before an infinite and holy God, thus the necessity of the virgin birth. See, without the virgin birth, there'd be no salvation for sinners because Jesus would just be another sinful human being. And a sinful human being can't pay the eternal and infinite wages of sin. A sinful human being can't save anyone. A sinful human being can't rescue us from sin, hell, and eternal wrath. So, the virgin birth is very important. One writer, in stating the importance of the virgin birth, said that No other fact in the Christmas story is more important than the virgin birth. The virgin birth must have happened exactly the way the Scripture says. Otherwise, Christmas has no point at all. If Jesus is simply the illegitimate child of Mary's infidelity, or even if He's the child of Joseph's natural marital union with Mary, He's not God. If he's not God, then his claims are lies. If his claims are lies, then his salvation is a hoax. And if his salvation is a hoax, then we are all doomed. So yeah, the virgin birth is crucial to our faith. Because without it, then Jesus is just a man. And if Jesus is just a man, then we're all still in our sin and we are all heading for hell. See, this is important. The Bible clearly tells us that Mary was a virgin, and guess what? Even so, she's still having a baby. And clearly, God is up to something incredible. The second great truth to note from this verse is this. His name shall be called Emmanuel, which means God with us. Implication? That the child that Mary will give birth to is God. What? Yeah, yeah. Now, just to be clear, the Bible makes it very plain that we worship one God who eternally exists in three distinct persons. That's a mystery to our human minds, yes, but it's biblical and true nonetheless. The Father is God, the Son is God, the Spirit is God, and they are one. Just to make it more clear, Hebrews 1.8. But unto the Son he, God said, thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. A scepter of righteousness is a scepter of thy kingdom. And here, God the Father called Jesus God. Colossians 2.9, For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. That's clear. Titus 2.13 says that we're to look for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. Jesus is God. Okay, so what happened? This is called the Incarnation. And it's truly a mind-blowing doctrine. Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 through 8 helps us out. You can turn there, but I'm going to read it. Philippians 2, 5 through 8, verse 5 says this, "...let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant and coming in the likeness of men." Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Now here we learn a few important truths about what really happened at the incarnation. God with us, Jesus, God the Son, becoming a human being. And the first thing to note is this, as we've already seen, that Jesus is God. Look what it says. Jesus is in the form of God. What does that mean? Well, the word form in the Greek refers to the nature or to the true character of something or someone. It's who they truly are. It stresses the essence of one's nature. It's that which is absolutely unalterable, inalienable, and unchangeable. It's their essential and unchanging character as opposed to their external appearance or to their outward shape. So when Paul says that Jesus Christ was in the form of God, he's saying that Jesus is God, that Jesus is indeed one in nature, one in attributes, and one in character with God Almighty. So his true nature was God before he became a man, and also when he was a man, and then after he died and rose again, God always, fully and completely God. That's his nature. John 1.1, In the beginning was the Word, Jesus, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 Peter 1.1 calls Jesus our great God and Savior. Jesus himself affirmed that he was God, and the only way that anyone can say that Scripture isn't clear that Jesus was and is God is if they don't read their Bibles. Because this doctrine is found in every corner of the Scriptures, that Jesus existed from all eternity as God, not merely resembling God, but as God in the truest sense of the word, his true nature. Look, form in verse 6 describes the true nature of Christ, while appearance in verse 8 describes the outer look. So, the true nature stays the same, while the outer appearance changes. For example, the nature of any human being is his or her humanity, and that humanity never changes. On the other hand, his or her appearance is continually changing. Anybody? Hey, we aren't getting any younger, right? So a baby, a child, a boy, a youth, a man of middle age, an old man always has the nature of humanity, but the outward appearance changes all the time. Well, Christ's true nature wasn't human. It was God, even though for 33 years he took on humanity. More on that in a bit. The point is clear, though. Jesus is God. And look, he was utterly selfless. Look what it says in Philippians. Jesus, being in the very form of God, very nature God, didn't consider robbery to be equal with God. Other translations put it like this. He didn't consider equality with God something to be grasped. The word robbery or grasped originally meant a thing seized by robbery. Eventually, it came to mean anything snatched, clutched, embraced, or prized, much like how a treasure is clutched and held tightly to. Well, Christ didn't do that when it came to His equality with God the Father. Now, please note again that this doesn't mean that Christ ever ceased being God. No, no, no. It simply means that, as Dwight Edwards said, "...out of love for us, He released His grip on equality with the Father and began sliding down the rope of humiliation." Christ had a perfect right to hold on to what was His, but He didn't cling to His rights, but rather He let go of them with all five fingers. So again, Christ is God. He never ceased to be fully God. He always was and always will be fully God. However, He chose to lay aside the conditions of His preexistent state and become a man. Now think of that. We're talking about God here. He owes His existence to none. None. He's the rock of all ages. He's the infinite, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, gracious, just, holy, unchangeable I am. He's the king of kings, the lord of lords, and the only supreme lawgiver in the universe. We're talking about God. That's who he is. And yet, look, for us, he said, I'm going to let go of all that. so I can become a man and save my people from eternity in hell. So I lay it aside, and even though I'm still fully God, hey, I'm not going to grasp onto that. I'm going to veil my deity, not void my deity. I'm going to veil my deity, and I'm just going to be the king of all kings, walking around like the poorest and lowest of men, so that I can save them from themselves, from their sin and all its wages. And that's exactly what he did for us. It's incredible. One said, had he come into the world emphasizing his equality with God, the world would have been amazed but not saved, so he didn't grasp at that. But rather, he counted humanity as prize, and so he became man. It's incredible. On top of that, Jesus, it says, made himself of no reputation. Verse 7, he made himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, coming in the likeness of men. The Greek word for no reputation means to empty. Empty of what? Empty of his expression of deity, not his possession of deity. See, in his incarnation, God, Jesus becoming a man, he clothed himself with humanity. So his emptying consisted of taking on humanity and then veiling his glory for a time. So Christ voluntarily, moment by moment, submitted to human limitations apart from sin. And so Christ voluntarily did that. And the incarnation didn't change the person and attributes of Christ in his divine nature, but it added to it a completely human nature. So he gave up his rights and privileges as God, even though he's still 100% God. And again, he didn't surrender his deity, but he veiled his glory. God then became a man. Now think about that. This is mind-blowing. Though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8, 9. You think he loves you? Look at what he did for you. A.H. Strong says it like this, When Christ became incarnate, He was one person with two natures, divine and human, each in its completeness and integrity. Christ emptied Himself in order that He might fill us. What did He give up? John MacArthur tells us a few things that He gave up. One, He gave up heavenly glory for a time. In John 17, He prays to the Father in verses 4 and 5, and He says, Father, restore me to the glory I had with You before the world began. Amen. So when he took on humanity and became a man, he gave that up for a time. He gave up that face-to-face communion with God the Father for a time. That's why he went so often to pray alone, because he loved that intimate communion with the Father that he had in heavenly glory. He also gave up the independent authority that he had as God, the second person of the Trinity. Hebrews 5.8 says that he learned obedience. That's incredible. So we see that he submitted to the will of the Father while he was here, even though he never ceased being God the Son. So he willingly limited his own divine attributes. In Matthew 24, 36, Jesus said that he didn't even know the time that the Father had in mind for the setting up of his kingdom. He said, no man knows not even the Son. So he willingly set aside some of the exercise of his divine attributes, even though he was still fully divine. We also find that in Jesus emptying himself and taking on human flesh, he laid aside his eternal riches. 2 Corinthians 8, 9 says that he was rich, but for your sakes he became poor. He said, foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. Also, he gave up a favorable relationship with God for a time. My God, my God, he said on the cross, why have you forsaken me? 2 Corinthians 5.21, He became sin for us even though He was the one who knew no sin. So God the Father punished God the Son for those of us who believe. That should, again, blow us away. This is mind-boggling. What else? He took the form of a bondservant and He came in the likeness of men. See, though the Lord Jesus was not literally a slave, he occupied a most lowly condition in life, and then he condescended to perform such acts as are appropriate only for those who are servants. God, you ready? God became a servant for us. Matthew 20, 28, the son of man didn't come to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. So he came all the way down. He emptied himself and he became a slave and he served man as one who was a slave. Talking about God here. Note that this was very real. He was a real man, not just a figment. One said, did he feel pain? Yes. Did he feel sorrow? Did he weep? Did he have strong crying and tears? Yes. Did he ever hunger? Did he thirst? Was he weary? Was he weak? Did he die? Yes. Yes. See, He took on full humanity when He came here, and the only thing He eliminated was sin, being all points tempted as we are, yet without sin, Hebrews 4.15. But look, even though He didn't have a sinful nature, He definitely felt the results of the fall by becoming one of us, so that He could save us. Think about this. God the Son emptied Himself, He stripped Himself, and He chose to become one of His creations, a man, a baby who was born in a stable. Why would God do that? Here's why. To die so we who believe could live. That's incredible. But think of what he left behind for 33 years and think of what he took on for 33 years. God Almighty, God the Son, became a baby and he submitted himself to human limitations apart from sin. He felt physical pain. We're talking about God. God. He got blisters and calluses. He got mocked and ridiculed. We're talking about God. He submitted himself to his parents, the parents that he created. He became a teenager. He felt hunger pains. He was homeless and he had no place to lay his head. He sweated and toiled. He was like us in every way, yet without sin. We're talking about God. God became a servant for us. Everyone around him saw him as a baby, a teenager, a man. But inside, his true self, his true nature, he's the Lord God Almighty. If you remember, three of the disciples got just a glimpse of his true nature on the Mount of Transfiguration. But that was just a glimpse. But while he was here, Christ veiled that. He veiled it. Why? Why? So He could accomplish what He needed to accomplish to save us. And so, He that made men was made a man. Our God loves us incredibly, incredibly. So why did He do it? So He could die. Look at what it says in Philippians. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That's why He came. He came to live, yes, and to live a perfect life, yes, but He came to die. So He humbled Himself and became a man, but He didn't just become a man. He became a poor man, right? He lived a simple life. He was born to peasants. He was homeless much of the time. One said he didn't ask for a palace. He didn't ask for a charity. He didn't ask for servants. He didn't ask for a wardrobe. He didn't ask for golden jewelry. He didn't ask for anything. But even then, it was more than that. See, he not only became a poor man, but he went lower. Verse 8, he became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. That's incredible. So he, God the Son... came to die for sinful wretches like us. And he didn't have to do it. He volunteered. He gave it up. Why? For us. to save hopeless sinners like us. He's the only hope for any sinner to be saved, and that's why he did what he did. Look, the Bible's very clear that sin separates us from God. Sin makes us at enmity with God. The wages of sin is death, Romans 6.23, and we're full of sin. All of us are. Therefore, we all stand condemned for hell. Objects of wrath because of our sin, that's who we are. See, every sin deserves death in the eyes of holy God because every sin is utterly wicked in its perfect and spotless sight. And on our own, all we can do is pay up, pay the wages, eternal wrath. So on our own, we're all hopeless. On our own, we're all doomed. All pay as Jesus, God the Son, speaks up. I will pay. I'll leave heaven, leave all this, I'll leave my glory. I'll drop way low and become a man so I can become their substitute for sin. Their sacrifice, their perfect sacrifice for sin. Sin must be paid. Either they pay in hell or else I pay for them as believers in their place on the cross. I will do it. And he's the only one who could have done it. See, since the wages of sin was death, someone had to die. Since God required a sacrifice, someone had to be sacrificed. And only Jesus, God the Son, could be that perfect sacrifice for sin once and for all for every believer. So he humbled himself and he came to die for us who believe. So he came. He lived for 33 perfect years and then he died on that cross and it was there on that cross that the sin of every person who would ever believe was placed onto Jesus Christ as our substitute and God the Father then poured out all his wrath against all that sin onto Jesus so he could pour out his blessings onto those of us who believe. Hey, either you pay the wages of your own sin in hell or else Jesus paid for it for you in your place on the cross as a believer. Oh, won't you surrender to Christ today and be saved from the wrath to come? See, Jesus is our hope. Jesus is our only hope. So he said, I'll suffer so all who believe in me can live. I'll pay the wrath that they deserve. And he did. And boy, did he ever pay as God's wrath against billions of heinous sin was poured out onto Christ on that cross so we who believe could be saved. He suffered more than we could ever think or imagine. God did that for you. So, as we celebrate the birth of Christ, the cross is always looming, right? Because that's why he came to die for sinners like us. Oh, and good news, three days later, what happened? He rose up from the dead, proving who he was and proving the eternal victory that he won for those of us who believe on that cross. God with us. God came down. That's the best news there is. The best news in the history of the world. Eternal good news for us.

SPEAKER 01 : 24:27

Thanks for joining us for today's exposition from the book of Nehemiah on Expository Truths with Dr. John Kyle. To find this and other sermons, visit expositorytruths.org. Faith Community Church seeks to exalt Christ by bringing clarity of truth through the scriptures with a commitment to glorifying God through the pure, deep, and reaching message of the gospel. Pastor Church of Vacaville, a seminary professor and a trainer of preaching pastors overseas. Join for services at Faith Community Church Sundays at 9 and 1045 a.m. 192 Bella Vista Road, Suite A. To learn more, visit vacavillefaith.org or call 707-451-2026. That's 707-451-2026. Or visit vacavillefaith.org.