THE LORD JESUS COMING INTO THIS WORLD

W. Lamont

Hebrews 10: 7; 1 Timothy 1: 15; John 10: 10

It will be evident, dear friends, that these three scriptures refer to the Lord Jesus leaving conditions of deity and coming into this world. One who was God as to His Person, equal with the Father and the Spirit, equal in deity eternally. What these relationships were before

what we refer to as the incarnation we do not know; we know that there were three Persons equal in deity. The world had been invaded by that virus sin and the results of it are seen today, almost full blown. When the church goes, the saints go, and the Spirit of God goes, lawlessness will be seen in its fullest extent. I would shudder to be alive when the church goes and be left. Will you be left? Your only hope is the blood of Jesus. Who will be left?

When the lovers of the Lord Jesus go, will anyone here be left? Left for judgment; left for hell. That is the truth, dear friend, if you do not trust in the precious blood of Jesus your destination is hell. Hence the preaching of the glad tidings; there is salvation in the name of Jesus. When the church goes, the saints go, the Spirit of God in the church goes, there will be not one little particle of anything belonging to God left in this scene. Soon, of course, the remnant will come to light, a nation will be born in a day; but at that moment, in the twinkling of an eye, God will remove from this scene everything that is His, every one that belongs to the Lord Jesus. Will you be with them? Or, again I say, will you be left for judgment? A very solemn thing. I want you to think about it; let it get right into your soul, and may your answer be positive that you will go with the saints.

The Lord Jesus came into this scene in order that you and I might be saved. I put it simply. It does not say He was sent from heaven, it says, “Lo, I come”. From eternity God had purposed certain things. He purposed there should be a universe of glory where sin could never enter, and that believers could be part of that great universe of bliss. The foundation of it is the blood of Jesus, the work of Jesus, but God purposed it. Then divine Persons counselled how it was to be brought about, and the Person whom we now know as the Lord Jesus (although that name did not apply to Him then) said, “Lo, I come (in the roll of the book it is written of me) to do, O God, thy will”. So primarily He came into this scene to do God’s will, and He fulfilled it in perfection. Every minute, every second of His life was lived in perfect accord with God’s will. I want you to listen, and be sober about this, it is a time of great sobriety the preaching of the glad tidings—the welfare of your soul is at stake, it is urgent. So He came into this world in order that blessing should be available for you and for me. His precious blood was shed in order that it should be so. So He came in primarily to do God’s will. What a thing that was! A Man was here. One who was God as to His Person, a Man in perfect accord with God’s will every moment of His life. He could even say, “My food is that I should do the will of him that has sent me”, John 4: 34. He was sent as here on earth, not sent from heaven.

Hence the greatness of that word in John 1, “And the Word became flesh” (John 1: 14); not as the King James version says, “And the Word was made flesh”, that is wrong; He was not made flesh, He became flesh, an act of His own. How beautiful it is that one divine Person, full of condescending grace, should be found as a Man here on this earth.

What kind of world did He come into? Morally the same kind of world as we are in now, and He found Himself despised and rejected of men, “a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief”, Isaiah 53: 3. You may say that the world would welcome such a One. My friend, the world would treat Jesus the same today as He was treated nearly two thousand years ago. He is still despised and rejected. That was the first thing. He came on God’s behalf, not on your behalf initially. He came first on God’s behalf in order that the whole question of sin and sins should be settled for God’s glory, and that the claims of God’s throne should be upheld. That was His first objective. We sometimes use the word propitiation, as John says, “he is the propitiation for our sins; but not for ours alone, but also for the whole world”, 1 John 2: 2. That word means that God’s glory and honour have been upheld in the face of the universe and the whole matter of sin cleared on God’s behalf. Substitution is that He did the work for me, and I claim the work of Jesus as being for me.

He came in to do God’s will. Solomon speaks of Him as the One whom the heaven of heavens cannot contain, and yet He came in as presented in Matthew and Luke as a little child and as a babe. How affecting! The gospel is intended to affect us and to affect us tenderly. Think of that Babe there wrapped in swaddling-clothes, a helpless babe seemingly; He of whom Solomon said, “Behold, the heavens, and the heaven of heavens, cannot contain thee”, 1 Kings 8: 27. O the wonder of the incarnation!

In 1 Timothy, Paul gives us another reason, he says, “Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the first”. I suppose we would all admit that we are sinners. Whether you admit it or not you are a sinner, God’s word says so, “for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God”, Romans 3: 23.

If you do not admit it what will happen is that you will lose the blessing. Your first step to blessing is to acknowledge that what God says about you is true—that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Accept that and you are on the first step to blessing. Then He would say, I have set forth Him, that blessed Man, a mercy-seat through faith in His blood. I can say, like Mr. Darby and others, I pin my faith on the blood of Jesus. It is a wonderful thing that precious shed blood, the blood of the Saviour; never was there blood like it. Peter speaks about it, “precious blood, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot”, 1 Peter 1: 19.

He came into the world to save sinners, and Paul adds, “of whom I am the first”. What a sense of mercy the apostle Paul had! He speaks about, “God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love wherewith he loved us”, Ephesians 2: 4. Behind it all lies the love of God. Oh, the heart of God! Would in the glad tidings every preacher could convey it in a better and fuller way.

Behind the glad tidings lies the love of God and concern for your soul. The Lord Jesus was so concerned about sinners that He came into the world to save sinners. Think of that! He left conditions of deity, firstly to do God’s will; He did not leave deity, He left the conditions of deity, but He never ceased to be what He always was on account of what He became. But He came into the world to save sinners. Paul says, “of whom I am the first”. Are you a saved sinner? Or are you a lost sinner? There are two categories of sinners, there are saved sinners and there are lost sinners. It is a terrible thing to be a lost sinner, and it is a wonderful thing to be a saved sinner. Joy enters into the soul as you know the forgiveness of sins and you become a saved sinner. In that very first preaching after the Lord had been crucified, put to death by wicked hands, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, exalted at His right hand. Peter says, “God has made him, this Jesus whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ”, Acts 2: 36. Set in a position of absolute authority, as Lord and Christ, He was immediately exercising that authority in blessing, and He is still exercising that authority in blessing today. Come under the blessing; allow the flow of the tide of blessing to enter your heart.

He came into the world to save sinners, and we might say simply His mission has been successful. He has saved sinners. Heaven will be full of persons who will thank Him eternally for the fact that He came into the world to save sinners. The gospels are full of it. Think of that woman in John 8, under the law totally condemned, and the Lord says, “Woman, where are those thine accusers? Has no one condemned thee?” And she said, “No one, sir”. Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn thee” but also He says, “go, and sin no more”, (John 8: 10, 11). I think that is a wonderful illustration of what John says at the beginning of his gospel, that the Lord Jesus was full of grace and truth. When He said, “Neither do I condemn thee”—full of grace; “go, and sin no more”—full of truth. What a perfect balance!

She was not allowed to escape the consequences, “go, and sin no more”, but her sins were forgiven in the light of the fact that He would bear them in His body on the tree. Think of that! Peter says, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”, 1 Peter 2: 24. How Peter loved the Lord Jesus; what he would be thinking when he said, “who himself bore our sins in his body on the tree”! It is only by faith he could say that, and it is only as you say that by faith that you get the blessing.

I turn now to John 10, “The thief comes not but that he may steal, and kill, and destroy—I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”. There is another reason for the Lord Jesus leaving the heights of glory, coming in that persons might have life, and life abundantly. Well might we sing ‘Life is found alone in Jesus’ (Hymn 266); you will find it nowhere else. Your life will be full of dissatisfaction otherwise; I can tell you that from bitter experience. If you do not accept the Saviour you will stumble on from one thing to another seeking satisfaction and you will never find it. God has created man in such a way that the only Person who will fully satisfy is Jesus. None but Christ can satisfy and fill with joy the heart. There was a believer once corresponding with a business colleague who was an atheist, and the atheist business man wrote at the end of his letter to the believer, ‘Never mind, never mind, rest and peace are hard to find’. In his business reply the believer added at the end, ‘Come to Jesus and you will find rest of heart and peace of mind’. That is the answer, my friend, and it is the only answer. There is no satisfaction anywhere else. One could say,

‘I tried the broken cisterns, Lord,

But ah! the waters failed!

E’en as I stooped to drink they’d fled,

And mocked me as I wailed’.

That is this world. So the thief here is the enemy of your soul, he is not seeking your good; he will present the pleasures of the world in all their attraction to you, but he is seeking to destroy you. It says that here, “steal”, he would steal your soul; “kill”, he would destroy you morally, and ultimately physically, that is what is happening. It is happening in this city, it is happening in every town and city and village in the country; persons are doing things (I do not want to be too specific) and it is ultimately killing them, not only morally but physically. It says here “and destroy”. The enemy of your soul, my friend, is out to destroy you. You might think the world is an attractive place but the devil is behind it. There are pleasures of sin for a season, and the enemy would use them to destroy your soul and make you miss the blessing. But the Lord Jesus says, “I am come that they might have life, and might have it abundantly”. John presents the divine family; in this chapter it is the flock. The flock in John corresponds to the way Paul presents the body, a circle where you are safe, a sphere of salvation. You are safe among the saints; you are safe from the world; you are safe from the devil and all his wiles; you are protected. Keep yourself in it. I urge us all, young and old, let us keep ourselves in the circle of the fellowship of the saints, we are safe there.

So Jesus has come that we might have life, not just have life, but have it abundantly; more than you can absorb. There is more in the glad tidings, more in the divine system than you could ever absorb. Paul says, “that ye may be filled even to all the fulness of God”, Ephesians 3: 19. What possibilities there are, what great enjoyment lies before you as you accept the Saviour, as you are obedient and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. It is obedient persons that receive the gift of the Holy Spirit, and it may be you need to ask for it. The Father gives the Spirit to those who ask. Do not think it is an automatic matter, that immediately you believe you will immediately have the Holy Spirit, it may not be; the disciples at Ephesus were believers, but they did not have the Holy Spirit. These are important things. The Holy Spirit is the power in your life for enjoyment. Paul says, “the mind of the Spirit life and peace”, Romans 8: 6. It is the only way to have life as we are speaking of it here—it is the only way to have peace in your soul, or you will go on for year after year in a disturbed condition of mind and soul. But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. It also says, “the mind of the flesh is death”. Death morally and ultimately, death actually; and it may be, if you do not accept the Saviour, your part in the second death which is the lake of fire. My friend, beware, I say to you beware; give your heart to Jesus now for His name’s sake.

Preaching at Manchester
18 June 1995