Why Did God Need to Be a Man

Jesus became a man because it was necessary for Him to fulfill the prophecies of the Old Testament. The virgin birth of Jesus was essential for our salvation. If Jesus was not virgin-born, He would be a sinner like us and could not be our Savior. The birth of Jesus was not ordinary, as He was the Son of God. Jesus existed as the second Person of the Trinity and has always been the Son of God. He became a man to be a servant to humanity. The incarnation of Jesus, putting on human flesh, was an essential doctrine at Christmastime. Today, we're going to look at the topic of why did Jesus become a man? Why was it necessary for Him to be a man? As we saw last week in why the nativity all focuses and centers around the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, and we found that Joseph actually adopted Jesus Christ, giving Him the opportunity to be an heir to the throne, but we also saw that Joseph was a descendant of Jechoaniac, and because he was that descendant, he was never going to be allowed to sit on the throne, and so it's just amazing at how God takes everything and works it out exactly the way that it needs to be for His purpose and His will to be accomplished. Our scripture reading this morning, we ended with the verse, but Mary kept all these things and pondered them in her heart, and one of the things on the movie last Sunday night is it kind of helped me kind of to see and remind me that Mary and Joseph was ordinary people like you and I. You know, I told the deacons, we had them over to the house the other night for supper, and I told them one of the things was, you know, the flirtatious going on between Mary and Joseph as teenagers, but that would be the same exact thing that you and I, but as we think about Mary and think about the fact that this was not just any birth is amazing. I can remember the birth of my children and how just amazed that I was, but here, this was not an ordinary birth. This was a birth that was done of a virgin, and Christ was definitely a gift, and He had been set apart from anyone that had ever been born in history in the world, and as Mary's holding this baby, can you imagine the things that must have went through her mind? The things that she must have thought about? And if you go in your Bible this morning, turn to Luke chapter 1, and we're going to kind of be there, and the sermons over the next couple of weeks tonight, we're going to look at Joseph. Next Sunday morning, we'll look at why Mary. The last Sunday morning, we'll look at why a Savior, and these are more topical type sermons, and I am definitely expository, and it's kind of odd doing topical messages. I'm not used to it and don't necessarily prefer it, but we're going to kind of take a topical approach at this this morning, and in Luke chapter 1 and verse 30, it says, "...the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favor with God. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest, and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also, that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God." The angel spoke directly to Mary, and Mary's heart confirmed exactly what the angel had said to be true. This child that she held was the Son of God, and yet Mary must have had so many questions, as I know that I would have, and so many things that was there. Why did Jesus, why did God have to become a man? And when we talk about that, the fancy word for that in the religious circles is the word incarnation. When you hear the word incarnation of Jesus Christ, the word incarnation literally means to embody in flesh. And so when we talk about Christmas, we talk about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, we're talking about when God put on flesh. And so as He does this, why did God, who is God and can do anything and everything and all power and all authority rests in Him, why did God have to succumb Himself to human flesh? And that's what we're going to look at today, and hopefully that's what we will understand when we get to the end of the message this morning. But before we can get into the humanity of God, we must look at the deity for just a moment. When we look at the deity of God, I want you to understand, Christ has always existed. When we talk about the birth of Jesus Christ, we're just talking about when God became flesh. But Christ has always existed. He has been there from the very beginning. And if you notice in Scripture, in Isaiah 9, in verse 6, that we use at Christmas time a lot, it says, For unto us a child is born, and unto us the Son is given. And typically if you have things around your house or whatever, they stop right there, right? And that's all of the quote of that verse that they give. But notice what he goes on into this verse. He says, And the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, Almighty God. But notice what I've underlined here. The Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Even in this verse tells us that Jesus Christ, His Son is going to be goven, but He has always existed. He is everlasting. In John 8, verse 58, Jesus Christ was looking at His disciples and He said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was... And notice what phrase He uses. He says, I am. I am. Before Abraham was, Jesus said, I have always been there. When you look at Colossians 1, in verse 16, Colossians Paul writing to the church at Colossae says, For by Him, Jesus Christ, were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created by whom? Jesus Christ and for Him, and He is before all things. He was before the creation, and by Him all things consist. At the very end of the book when He finishes and comes to revelation in chapter 1 in verse 8, He says, I am the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, which was, and which is to come, the Almighty. So Jesus Christ existed as the second Person of the Godhead, as a part of that Trinity that has always been the Son of God. He has always been the Son of God, and He will continue to always be the Son of God. The birth did not make Him the Son of God. And I want us to understand that today because there are so many in false religions and so many others that are trying to teach today that God put on humanity, but He left His deity aside. Then He came and He got back His deity for a time, and then He dropped it again and back and forth. No, Jesus Christ was 100% God, and He was 100% man 100% of the time. So He became man. Not any man, but Jesus Christ said, I came to be a servant, a servant of humanity. As a matter of fact, He refers to this in Philippians chapter 2, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation and took upon Him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of man. You also look there in Romans chapter 1 in verse 3, He says, Concerning His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, which was made of the seed of David according to the flesh and declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by the resurrection of the dead. He gives us two things about Jesus Christ there, and we mentioned this in our sermon last Sunday morning. In verse 3, it talks about His incarnation. In other words, it says according to the flesh, God came after the seed of David and put on flesh. But verse 4 deals with His resurrection. God declared Him the Son of God and proved it by His resurrection when He brought Him forth out of the grave. So understanding that Christ has always been God, He's 100% deity, now we can look at the question why did God have to become a man? Why did He have to become human? Because the incarnation, the embodiment of flesh, the virgin birth of Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior, all of a sudden becomes an absolutely essential doctrine at Christmastime. You cannot be saved without the virgin birth of Jesus Christ. And so we're going to look at that this morning. If Jesus was not virgin born, then He would be a man just like you and I, and He would be a sinner and could not be our sacrifice. If Jesus Christ were not virgin born, He could not be our Savior because He would be a sinner just like you and I. If Jesus Christ were not virgin born, the books of Isaiah, Matthew, Luke, John, and all these others say that Christ had to become a man. They would all be fakes and we'd have no need for our Bible. So I want to look at five reasons this morning that Jesus Christ had to be a man. Number one, He had to do it in order to satisfy the prophecies of the Old Testament. When you look at the Old Testament and you look at the prophecies about Jesus Christ, the very first time that we ever read about God becoming flesh, it's found all the way back in Genesis 3 and verse 15. It is known in Latin as the Proto-Evangelion, the very first good news. You remember what happened in Genesis 3. Adam and Eve had now discovered that they're sinners, right? And the wages of sin is death. They had plunged human mankind all the way into sin and death and separation from God, but what did God promise them? He said in Genesis 3, verse 15, referring to Satan, He said, I will put enmity, a war, between you and the woman and between your seed and her seed, and it shall bruise thy head and thou shalt bruise thy heel. By referring to her seed, seed is passed through the man, not through the woman. And so right here in this very verse, we're saying that this child that is going to put it in, that is going to bruise the head of Satan, is none other than God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. He would be born of a virgin. Another prophecy that we read this time of the year in Isaiah 7, verse 14, it says, The Lord Himself shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Emmanuel. You know what Emmanuel means? It means God with us. God is with us. In other words, when we couldn't get to God, God came to us in Emmanuel. He came to be with us, to redeem us. And so He tells us in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2 another prophecy, But thou, Bethlehem, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto me, that is to be a ruler in Israel, whose goings forth have been from what? Of old, from everlasting. Jesus Christ has always existed. He's always been the Son of God. As a matter of fact, Jesus Christ said in Luke chapter 24 and verse 44, These words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms, concerning who? Concerning Me, Jesus Christ. Everything said in the Old Testament was done and fulfilled when Jesus Christ came into the world. And so He had to fulfill every single thing. If you go through the Old Testament, and we could give you Scripture after Scripture after Scripture today that refers to the One that would come as a King, that would come as the Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and you go all the way through the Bible from Genesis to Malachi, and the words just jump out of the page. Some of it is right out bold. Some of it is kind of not so obvious. But it all refers to the coming of a Champion, the Messiah, Jesus Christ. And the prophetic books were written by many different writers. They were written at different time periods over many different centuries, but yet when you put them all together, throughout the words of the Prophets, there were glimmers of a Savior. There were glimpses of a King who would rescue His people and restore them to God. And the Prophets spoke over and over of this One who was to come. In fact, there were more than 300 prophecies that was very specific to the coming of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And every one of them promised a Messiah. The hints were very, very persuading. Micah offered a prediction that was both specific and startling. He said the King would be born in Bethlehem and He would come from a distant past. He would have lived forever, but He would now appear in Bethlehem. And when you read Micah 5 and verse 2, here's what you read. He says, "...out of you, Bethlehem, shall He come forth." Jeremiah prophesied that the birthplaces of the coming One would suffer a massive death of many infants. In Jeremiah 31, verse 15, it says, "...thus saith the Lord, a voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel, weeping for her children, refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not." The children had died. You say, well, that's kind of vague right there, isn't it? Yeah, it is. So let's go over to Matthew 2 and verse 16. In Matthew 2 and verse 16, it says, "...Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth and set forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men." But then notice the next verse in verse 17. "...Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet, saying, In Ramah was there a voice heard, lamentation and weeping in great mornings, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not." So notice what's happening here. More than 300 Old Testament prophecies. As specific as even this one. Jesus Christ came and He fulfilled each and every one. There's a mathematician that is a whole lot smarter than me that calculated the possibility, the odds of somebody coming and just fulfilling one prophecy exactly. And the number is 1 in 83 billion. 1 in 83 billion, but yet Jesus Christ came and He fulfilled all 300. Perfectly without blemish. Isaiah said that this special Deliverer would be a miraculously born of a virgin and that His name would be called Emmanuel. Isaiah wrote this not one year before it happened, He didn't write it just 10 years before it happened, but Isaiah wrote it hundreds of years before it ever took place in Isaiah 7.14. Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and you shall call His name Emmanuel. And so Jesus Christ had to become a man to fulfill prophecy because prophecy said He would be a man. Prophecy said that He would be God in the flesh. But also, He came to show us the Father. He came to show us the Father. Notice what happens when He talks to Philip in John 14 and verse 8 and 9. If you remember John 14, He tells him that he's fixing to go to the cross to die. And He says, but don't you worry, because if I go, I come again to prepare a place for you. And if I go, I will come again. And Philip saith unto Him in verse 8, Lord, show us the Father, and it will suffice us. And Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen the Father. And how sayest thou then, show us the Father? Jesus was God in flesh. He was right there before us. And so, you know, if you want to get to know God, if you want to build a relationship with God, you've got to focus on Jesus Christ. Because no man has seen God, but we have seen Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ was the essence and the character and everything of God the Father. When you see Jesus doing what He did in the Gospels, you're watching God work. You're watching God do what God does. Do you want to know God? Do you get to know Jesus Christ? That's why the only way you can become a Christian and to know Jesus Christ, because Jesus said in John 14 and verse 6, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by Me. And so not only did Christ have to be a man in order to satisfy prophecy and not only to show us the Father, but also to sympathize with our weaknesses. You see, there's something about human flesh. There's something about our sin. In Hebrews 4 and verse 15 says, For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are. But notice the next part. He faced every temptation that you and I face, but there's a difference about Him. See, He did it without sin. So verse 16 says, Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy. We come to the throne room of grace. We obtain mercy in order that we might what? Find grace. The gift of help in the time of need. See, Jesus came and put on flesh so that God could understand where we come from. Because He wants to know what's going on. Do you know why you can go to Jesus with whatever problem, whatever you have going on in your life, and know that Jesus Christ hears you? Knows that He understands you? The reason is because He came down here and He experienced everything that you've experienced. He's gone through all of this, and Jesus as God was embodied in the flesh. Do you realize that Jesus Christ in the flesh had physical limitations? As a matter of fact, the Scriptures, and I'm not going to show you all of these, but I'm just going to give you some of these physical limitations that Jesus Christ had. Jesus Christ got tired. Did you know that? He would get tired. So how many of you are tired this morning? Jesus understands you being tired. He said Jacob's well was there, Jesus therefore being what? Wearied with His journey, sat thus on the well, and it was about the sixth hour. Any of you just sat down by the well because you're tired? See, Jesus got tired. You know, Jesus also had to sleep. He had to sleep. It says in Matthew 8.24, And behold, there arose a great tempest in the sea, insomuch that the ship was covered with the waves. But Jesus was asleep. Jesus Christ hungered. He tells us in Matthew 21.18, now in the morning as He returned into the city, He was hungry. He woke up hungry. He woke up needing food. He was also thirsty on the cross of Calvary. It said, After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled, said, I thirst. I thirst. Hanging there on the cross. And so He had physical limitations. But in that body, He also had intellect and moral limitations. When you look at Jesus Christ, He observed life. He looked at life. It says, In 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 the time of figs was not yet. He knew enough about life to know that when He saw leaves on that tree, it was the time of the year that it should have had figs. But what He had reasoned was not true. He also faced temptation. If you go back and you look at the very first thing in Hebrews 4.15, it says that He was tempted like as we are. After He was baptized, He was led away by an angel into the wilderness where He was tempted what? Three times by Satan himself. He was mentally, physically, spiritually, but yet He passed all three without sinning. Jesus Christ had emotions. It tells us in Matthew 9.36 that He was moved with compassion. He was moved with compassion on them because they fainted and were scattered abroad as sheep having no shepherd. It also tells us in Scripture that when He looked around about them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts. See, Jesus Christ got angry. He was grieved. He was upset. He had emotions and stuff just like you and I. We also find in Mark 10 and verse 21 that Jesus, beholding Him, loved Him. He loved people. He said, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, and sell whatsoever thou hast. So He had physical limitations. He had moral limitations, but He also had spiritual limitations. If you'll look at Jesus Christ, He said sit you here to His disciples while I go and what? Pray. So He had to pray. We see all through the Gospels where Jesus Christ would get alone to talk to His Father. Where He needed to go and pray. If God Himself went in flesh and needed to pray, how much more do you and I need to pray? And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned to the Jordan. And look at this. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. The same way after salvation, you and I are led by the Spirit. And so He had the same spiritual limitations as us. It's not what I want to do. It's what the Spirit leads me and guides me into doing because the Spirit will lead us in all truth. And so Jesus Christ in this human body had these limitations that He had and He became a man so that God would become touchable and approachable and reachable. He is Emmanuel. God came to be with us. And whatever you've been through, you can be sure that God has been all the way to the end of the road. And He's going to be there to embrace you and to love you and to say, I've been there and experienced that. So not only did Christ come to satisfy prophecy and to show us the Father and to sympathize with our limitations, but more importantly, He came to save us from our sins. See, probably one of the greatest reasons that God had to become a man was because we needed salvation from our sins. When you go back to the Christmas story that we looked at last week in Matthew 1 and verse 21, it says, "...she shall bring forth the Son and shall call His name Jesus." What does Jesus mean? He means He shall save His people from their sins because people are sinners. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. And this is where we're introduced to another big Christian word that we have. The word of atonement. You ever heard of that word? The word atonement? Well, He tells us in Romans 5 and verse 11, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received... And notice what He says. The atonement. The atonement. In the Old Testament, it is always referred to as a atonement. Every one of their sacrifices, every time they went to the tabernacle, every time they went up to the temple, they made an atonement that was temporary that just actually covered their sins. But Jesus Christ was the atonement. He not only covered sin, but He canceled sin. He did away with it in our life. And so when you look at this word atonement, it really breaks apart into two different words. At one. At one meant atonement. Emmanuel, Jesus Christ, through His atonement, brought God and man at one. He brought us together. That is atonement. Religion says do. Do. Remember all of the Sermon on the Mount? As we looked at that, the scribes and the Pharisees, what were they focused on? Do, do, do. But Christianity and Christ says it's done. It's done. Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary said it is finished. It is finished. And so atonement is the reason for the incarnation. The reason that God had to be embodied in flesh is in order that He might atone us from our sins. He tells us in Mark 10.45, For even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto two, but to minister, and notice what He says, and to give His life a ransom for many. Did He give it for all? He sure did, but guess what? There were many that didn't receive it. Notice what He also says in John 12.27, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour. But for this cause, for this cause came I. Unto this hour. Paul writing to young Timothy in chapter 1, verse 15 says, This is a faithful saying and worthy of all expectation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. He tells us in Hebrews 2.14, For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He also Himself likewise took part of the same, that through death He, Jesus Christ, might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil. You remember that Genesis 3, verse 15? Where what? Satan's seed would be destroyed by a woman's seed. That's the incarnation and the atonement of Jesus Christ. He goes on in Hebrews 10.5, He says, Wherefore, when He cometh into the world, He saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldst not, but a body hast thou prepared Me. See, all of them sacrifices they made all through the Old Testament they just covered. They couldn't do what God did in the flesh. And so the atonement was required by the incarnation. When we look at this, He tells us in John 3.14 and 15, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. See, God had to become flesh. He had to come and live with us to show us that guess what? He can be tempted in all points as we are, yet He was without sin. He became the perfect sacrifice to do what nobody, no human could ever do. Why did Christ have to die? Number one, He had to die to satisfy the holiness of God. Christ had to die for the holiness of God. See, God is holy. And this is part of the Godhead that we forget about today, and we want to talk all about His grace, and we want to talk about His love, but we forget that God is holy. And God through the Old Testament and through the New Testament alike, says that our requirement is to be holy as God is holy. And so God is holy. And what happens because we're not holy? Then we sin. We sin. And if God is holy, God cannot look upon sin. God cannot act upon sin. The penalty of sin is what? Death. For the wages of sin is death. The holiness of God demands that sin must be punished. Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. And because God is holy, He cannot and will not overlook sin. It has to be dealt with. Why? Because that's His nature. He's holy. And He can't go against His nature. If He goes against His nature and He allows sin, then He's no longer holy. And if He's no longer holy, He's no longer God. So therefore, He has to deal with sin. God came as a man in order for man to get to God. Man must be holy. I'm not holy, but guess what? I don't have to be because I accepted Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ now lives in me. And now I can stand at the throne room of God boldly because not in my flesh, but I stand in the person and the nature of Jesus Christ having accepted Him as my Savior. Go all the way back to Leviticus 17. This was part of the law. He said, For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make what? An atonement. See, that's that an atonement. Not the atonement, but a atonement for your souls. For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul. That's why the animals had to die. That's why when Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, I believe it was a lamb. Scripture doesn't say, but immediately when they saw that they were naked, God did what? He sacrificed an animal and clothed them with the skins and the hide of that animal. That animal gave His life in order that they might be covered so they no longer see their nakedness. That's what an atonement is. And that's exactly what Jesus Christ did in Hebrews 9.22. It says almost all things by the law are purged with blood. Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission. Only sinless man could pay the price for a sinful man. See, only a man that lived totally perfect that never wants sin could make the atonement for mankind. The animals just covered up. But Jesus Christ came in and He atoned our sins. In 1 Corinthians 15, v. 45, it says, so it is written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. You remember in Genesis? God let us make him in our image, right? And He breathed in him the breath of life and he became a what? A living soul. But however, what happened? Because of the wages of sin, he's dead. And so God created him a living soul, but because sin in his life, he was now going to die. He was now separated from God. But notice what Paul says. He says the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. He brought it back to life. Not in the soul. Not in the mind. But in the spirit that is there. And he says, how be it that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural. And afterward, that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth. Where did God make him? Out of the dust of the ground. Remember? And He said when you die, you shall do what? Return back to the dust of the ground. But the second man, Jesus Christ, He wasn't from the earth. He wasn't earthy. He was from heaven. He was begotten of the Father. And so look at what He says in verse 48. And is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy, and as in the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image of the earthy, every one of us has a human father, so therefore the sins of Adam has been passed down through the seed of every one of our fathers all the way down through to us. But look at what He says. But we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Now, God wasn't born from this earth. He wasn't born of a man. He was begotten of God. Born of a virgin. And so now we have the opportunity to be spiritual. Now we have the opportunity to have the imitation of the One that died for us. He says in verse 50, Now this I say, brethren, flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Neither does corruption inherit corruption. Not only did God have to become man to satisfy the holiness of God, but Christ also had to die to satisfy the love of God. See, not only was God holy, but God was also a God of love. And you cannot deal with the love of God until you first of all deal with the holiness of God. And our society today has it backwards. We want to focus on the love of God without the holiness of God. And we have all of these people everywhere that say, well, I can worship God at my house, or I can worship God just as good in a boat or on a deer stand, or I can worship God anywhere, or all religions are okay. Why? Because God loves me. And God's going to let me do whatever I want to do and be whatever I want to be. Oh no, He's not. Because God is holy. And He says we are to be conformed to His image. He's never conformed to our image. We are to be conformed to His image. And so the love of God. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. You see, when we look at the virgin birth of Jesus Christ, God solved this great dilemma. This great problem. You remember what He said in Genesis 3.15? The seed of Satan and the seed of woman. There was going to be an enmity, a war, a battle. And this battle has still been going on for all these years. And it's going to continue to go on until the return of Jesus Christ. But listen, God was able to love the sinner and still punish the sin. That's what we forget. That's what Jesus taught in the Gospels. He would later do what? Jesus Christ would suspend Himself on a cross. He would stay there between earth and between heaven. He would be nailed to that cross. Suspended there. He was rejected by men. He was forsaken by the Father. Christ paid the penalty of sin in full. 100% satisfying all of the holy demands of God and having Him free from the slave of being a sinner. We had to have a God-man to save us. And because Jesus was God and because Jesus was man, guess what? He lifted up one hand and took hold of the Father. With the other, He reached down and took hold of man. And there at the cross of Calvary, there on Golgotha, in a moment of time, He brought God and man together. And now with His hands reached out, He offers us salvation. In Revelation it says, If any man thirst or hunger, let him come. Let him come. And so we have the offer of invitation. The very last thing is not only did He come to do salvation, but He came to secure our hope of heaven. See, Christ, while He was on that cross, in John 19.30 it says, When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. And He bowed His head and gave up the ghost. He became the ultimate sacrifice. He became the ultimate sacrifice. In Hebrews 7.27 it says, Who needeth not daily as those high priests to offer up sacrifices for His own sins and then for the people's? For this He did once when He offered up Himself. Hebrews 9.26 says, For then must He often have suffered since the foundation of the world, but now once in the end of the world hath He appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. Hebrews 10.12, But this man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right hand of God. Verse 14, he says, For by one offering He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Those that are set apart. He says in Romans 6.9, Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over me. Death don't dominate me anymore because why? Christ paid for my sins. The wages of sin is death. But Christ suffered and died on the cross. He became our atonement. And Hebrews 10.10 says, By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. See, I'm not great because of me. I am great because of Jesus Christ. He has set me apart. He is the One that died for me. I cannot accomplish anything good. There is none that doeth good. There is none that seeketh after God. There is none that is righteous. No, not one. But Christ was good. Christ was righteous. And therefore, He made an atonement for me. Therefore, He offered His body in order that I might be set apart and used of God. Colossians 1.27 says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Until Christ comes to live within our heart, you're not fit for heaven. You're not fit for heaven. And the only way you can live in heaven is with Christ living with you. That's why Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man, no human being can come to the Father but by Me. There's only one way to God. You have to come by Jesus Christ. Because Jesus Christ is God. He's God. And Jesus Christ was God that became flesh in order to show us the way to the spiritual. And so, He's the One that paid the penalty for our sins. And one of these days, He is going to return. One of these days, He is coming back for us. And the Bible says that we will hear a trumpet sound. And when that trumpet sounds, that we will be with Him. Those of us that have already died will come up first. Those of us that are still alive will be joined with Him in the air. And we shall forever be with Jesus Christ. Everything He says about His second coming can only be predicated upon His first coming. If He fulfilled 300 prophecies to the exact dot and tittle on His first coming, then what's He going to do for His second coming? But you can trust Him. You can put that in the bank. The Bible says, You can trust Him. You can put that in the bank. The message of Christmas. Listen, the message of Christmas is that God became flesh. He is now one with us. He is now one with us. He did this because of you. God loves you. God wants to bless you. When He created Adam and Eve in the garden, remember, He gave them everything. He said all of it is yours. I've blessed you. I've enjoyed it. I've given you dominion over it all. But Adam wasn't satisfied with what God had given him. And so the question that I have for you this morning is we do not serve a God that is way away from us. That is far away from us. A God that is untouchable. A God that we cannot go to. But listen, we serve a God. And this is what Christmas is all about. We serve a God that is close as your hand. If we just reach out. He says, if you'll reach out, I will come with you. He says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. All you have to do is open the door and He will come in. And He will dine with you. And He will sup with you. Listen, Christ is our Savior. The Christ of Christmas is here. God became flesh. And the question that we need to ask this morning is have you accepted the Christ of Christmas? Have you accepted the Christ of Christmas? And when you accept Jesus Christ, say you believe on Jesus Christ, what are we believing? You have to believe that He was fully God. That He was fully man. That He was born of a virgin. See, all of this is who Jesus Christ was. You can't be split. You can't be torn on who Jesus Christ is. Because if He's anything other than who He was, His sacrifice was not sufficient. But the fact that He is who He says He was, that He's God in the flesh, He was able to redeem us and give us eternal life. And He says if you will believe in Jesus Christ, and you confess it with your mouth that Jesus Christ was born of a virgin, that He died for your sins, that He was buried in the grave, but listen, three days later, He arose. He arose. He said if you'll confess that, thou shalt be saved. So the question becomes what are you going to do with the Christ of Christmas? What are you going to do with Him? Are you going to accept it? Or are you going to reject it? You know how many people we saw on the film last week? How many people was going about their business in Bethlehem and never ever realized that the King had been born? That God was with Him? And how many today get so busy around Christmas and other times of the year that we get so busy that we forget that God came to be with us? We don't have to be fearful. We don't have to panic. We don't have to worry. Because God is with us. He's with us right here and right now. And Jesus Christ said this. He said you know what? I can't be because of my physical limitation. I can't be with all of you at the same time. But you know what He did? He sent a Spirit. So when you walk out of here today, guess what? He's still with you. When you come back next week, He's still with you. When you go to your job, He's still with you. When you go to the doctor's appointment, He's still with you. See, that's what Christ did. God came to us when we couldn't get to Him as we stand and have a verse of invitation this morning. Have you accepted the Christ of Christmas? As we sing, what He has to say is 412.