The Fountain of Life Opened Up

430 years were determined upon the people of God in Egypt, and then, even in that very night, God brought them forth. For them, the time of the promise was come. Acts 7, 17. Number 5. The Lord Jesus providentially protects His people amidst a world of enemies and danger. It was Christ that appeared unto Moses in the flaming bush and preserved it from being consumed. The bush signified the people of God in Egypt, the fire flaming in it, the exquisite sufferings they there endured. The safety of the bush amidst the flames, the Lord's admirable care and protection of His poor suffering ones. None so tenderly careful as Christ. As birds fly, so He defends Jerusalem. Isaiah 31, verse 5. That is, as they fly swiftly towards their nests, crying when their young are in danger, so will the Lord preserve His. They are preserved in Christ Jesus, Jude 1, as Noah and his family were in the ark. Hear how a worthy of our own, Dr. Owen, on indwelling sin, expresses himself on this point. That we are at peace in our houses, at rest in our beds, that we have any quiet in our enjoyments, is from hence alone. Whose person would not be defiled or destroyed, whose habitation would not be ruined, whose blood almost would not be shed, if wicked men had power to perpetrate all their conceived sin. It may be the ruin of some of us hath been conceived a thousand times. To this providence we owe the preservation of our lives, our families, our estates, our liberties, and whatsoever is dear to us. For may we not say sometimes with the psalmist, My soul is among lions, and I lie even among them that are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears, and their tongue a sharp sword. Psalm 57, verse 4. And how is the deliverance of men from such persons contrived? God breaks their teeth in their mouths, even the great teeth of the young lions. Psalm 58, verse 6. He keeps this fire from burning. Some he cuts off and destroys. Some he cuts short in their power. Some he deprives of the instruments whereby alone they can work. Some he prevents from their desired opportunities. The attention of some is diverted to other objects. And oftentimes he causes them to spend their force upon one another. We may say therefore with the psalmist, O Lord, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all. The earth is full of thy riches. Psalm 104, verse 24. Number 6. He punishes evildoers and repays by his providence into their own lap the mischiefs they intend for those that fear him. Pharaoh, Sennacherib, both the Julians, and innumerable more are the lasting monuments of his righteous retribution. It is true a sinner may do evil a hundred times and his days be prolonged, but oftentimes God hangs up some imminent sinners in chains as spectacles and warnings to others. Many a heavy blow hath providence given to the enemies of God from which they were never able to recover. Christ rules, and that was a rod of iron, in the midst of his enemies. Psalm 110, verse 2. Number 7. And lastly he rewards the services done to him and his people. Out of this treasure of providence God often repays those that serve him and that was a hundredfold reward now in this life. Matthew 19, 29. This active, vigilant providence hath its eye upon all the wants, straits, and troubles of creatures, but especially of his people. What volumes of experience might the people of God write upon this subject, and what a pleasant history would it be to read the strange, constant, wonderful, and unexpected actings of providence for those who have committed themselves to its care. Roman numeral 2. We shall next inquire how Jesus Christ administers this providential kingdom. Both angels and men are his instruments. The angels are ministering spirits sent forth by him for the good of them that shall be heirs of salvation. Hebrews 1, verse 14. Luther tells us they have two offices, to sing above and watch beneath. These do us many invisible offices of love. They have dear and tender regard and love for the saints. To them God, as it were, puts forth his children to nurse, and they are tenderly careful of them while they live and bring them home in their arms to their father when they die. And as angels, so men are the servants of providence, yea, bad men as well as good. Cyrus on that account is called God's servant. They fulfill his will while they are prosecuting their own lusts. The earth shall help the woman. Revelation 12, verse 16. But good men delight to serve providence. They and the angels are fellow servants in one house and to one master. Revelation 19, verse 10. Yea, there is not a creature in heaven, earth, or hell, but Jesus Christ can providentially use to serve his ends and promote his designs. But whatever the instrument be which Christ uses, of this we may be certain, that his providential working is holy, wise, sovereign, profound, irresistible, harmonious, and for the peculiar good of the saints. Number one. It is holy. Though he permits, limits, orders, and overrules many unholy persons and actions, yet he still works like himself, most holily and purely throughout. The Lord is righteous in all his ways and holy in all his works. Psalm 145, verse 17. It is easier to separate light from a sunbeam than holiness from the works of God. The best of men cannot escape sin in their most holy actions, but no sin cleaves to God in whatever he does. Number two. Christ's providential working is also most wise and judicious. The wheels are full of eyes. Ezekiel 1, verse 18. They are not moved by a blind impetus, but a deep counsel and wisdom. And indeed the wisdom of providence manifests itself principally in the choice of such states for the people of God as shall most effectually promote their eternal happiness. And herein it goes quite beyond our understanding and comprehension. It makes that medicinal and salutary which we judge destructive to our comfort and good. Zeruiz, speaking of the felicity of the other world, says, Then the blessed shall see in God all things and circumstances pertaining to them excellently accommodated and attempered. Then shall they see that the crossing of their desires was the saving of their souls and that otherwise they had perished. The most wise providence looks beyond us. It eyes the end and suits all things thereto and not to our fond desires. Number three. The providence of Christ is most supreme and sovereign. Whatsoever he pleaseth, that he doeth in heaven and in earth and in all places. Psalm 135, verse 6. He is Lord of lords and King of kings. Revelation 19, verse 16. The greatest monarchs are but as the worms of the earth to him. They all depend on him. By me kings reign and princes decree justice. By me princes rule and nobles, even all the judges of the earth. Proverbs 8, verses 15 and 16. Number four. Divine providence is profound and inscrutable. The judgments of Christ are a great deep and his footsteps are not known. Psalm 36, verse 6. There are hard texts in the work as well as in the words of Christ. The wisest heads have been at a loss in interpreting some events. Jeremiah 12, verses 1 and 2 and Job 21, verse 7. The angels had the hands of a man under their wings. Ezekiel 1, 8. That is, they wrought secretly and mysteriously. Number five. Divine providence is irresistible in its designs and motions. For all providences are but fulfillings and accomplishments of God's immutable decrees. He works all things according to the counsel of his own will. Ephesians 1, 11. Hence the instruments by which God executed his wrath are called chariots coming from between two mountains of brass. Zechariah 6, verse 1. That is, the firm and immutable decrees of God. When the Jews put Christ to death, they did only what the hand and counsel of God had before determined to be done. Acts 4, 28. None can oppose or resist providence. I shall work, and who shall let it? Isaiah 43, 13. Number six. The providences of Christ are harmonious. There are secret chains and invisible connections between the works of Christ. We know not how to reconcile promises and providences together, nor yet providences one with another. But certainly they will all work together. Romans 8, 28. By the influence of the first cause. He does not do and undo, destroy by one providence what he built by another. But just as all seasons of the year, the nipping frosts, as well as the hot days of summer, conspire and conduce to the harvest, so it is in providence. Number seven. The providences of Christ work in a special and peculiar way for the good of the saints. His providential is subordinated to his spiritual kingdom. He is the savior of all men, especially of them that believe. 1 Timothy 4, 10. Things are so laid and ordered, as that their eternal good shall be promoted and secured by all that Christ doeth. Inference number one. If so, be then to whom you are indebted for your lives, liberty, comforts, and all that you enjoy in this world. Is it not Christ that orders all for you? He is indeed in heaven, out of your sight, but though you see him not, he sees you and takes care of all your concerns. When one was told of a plot laid to take away his life, he answered, If God take no care of me, how do I live? How have I escaped hitherto? In all thy ways acknowledge him. Proverbs 3, 6. It is he that hath appointed the state thou art in as most proper for thee. It is Christ that doeth all for you that is done. He looks down from heaven upon all that fear him. He sees when you are in danger by temptation and interposes something you know not how to hinder it. He sees when you are sad and orders reviving providences to refresh you. He sees when corruptions prevail and orders humbling events to purge them. Whatever mercies you have received, all along the way you have gone hitherto are the orderings of Christ for you. You should carefully observe how the promises and providences have kept equal pace with one another and both gone step by step with you until now. Number 2. Hath God committed the government of the world to Christ and trusted him over all? Then do you also leave all your particular concerns in the hands of Christ and know that the infinite wisdom and love which rules the world manages everything that relates to you. It is in good hands, infinitely better than if it were in your own. I remember when Melanchthon was under some despondency of spirit about the situation of God's people in Germany. Luther chides him thus for it. Let Philip cease to rule the world. It is not ours to guide the course of providence or direct its motions but to submit quietly to God. Yet how apt are we to regret providences as if they had no tendency at all to the glory of God or to our good. Exodus 5.22 Yea, to limit the Almighty to our way and time. Thus the Israelites tempted God and limited the Holy One. Psalm 78 verses 18 and 41 How often also do we unbelievingly distrust God as though he could never accomplish what we profess to expect and believe. Our bones are dry, our hope is lost, we are cut off. Ezekiel 37 verse 11 So Genesis 18 verses 13 and 14 and Isaiah 40 verse 17 There are but few Abrahams among believers who against hope believe in hope giving glory to God. Romans 4.20 And it is but too common for good men to repine and fret at providences when their wills are crossed. This was the great sin of Jonah. Brethren, these things ought not so to be. Did you but seriously consider either the design of these providential dealings which is to bring about the gracious purposes of God towards you, formed before the world was. Ephesians 1.4 Or that it is opposing your wisdom to his as if you could better order affairs. Or that you have to do herein with a great and dreadful God in whose hands you are. You may do what he will with you and all that is yours without giving you an account of any of his matters. Job 33 verse 13 I say of such considerations as these could but have place with you in troubles and temptations they would quickly mold your hearts into a better and more quiet frame. Or that I could persuade you to resign all to Christ. He is a skillful workman. Proverbs 8 verses 25 through 30 And can effect what he pleases. It is a good rule. Let God work out all that he intends but have patience till he hath accomplished his design and then find fault with it if you can. Ye have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord. James 5 verse 11 Number 3 If Christ be Lord over the providential kingdom and that for the good of his people then let none that are Christ's henceforth indulge a slavish fear of creatures. It is a great consolation says Grotius on my text that Christ hath so great an empire and that he governs it for the good of his people as a head consulting the good of the body. Our head and husband is Lord of all the hosts of heaven and earth. No creature can move hand or tongue without him. The power that any have is given them from above. John 19 verses 11 and 12 The serious consideration of this truth will make the feeble of spirit cease trembling and cause it to shout The Lord is King of all the earth. Sing ye praises with understanding. Psalm 47 verse 7 Has he not given you abundant security and many expressed promises that all shall issue well for you that fear him? All things shall work together for good to them that love God. Romans 8 verse 28 Verily it shall be well with them that fear God even with them that fear before him. Ecclesiastes 8 verse 12 And suppose he had not yet the very understanding of our relation to such a king should in itself be sufficient security. For he is the universal, supreme, absolute, meek, merciful, victorious, and immortal King. He sits in glory at the Father's right hand and his enemies are a footstool for him. His love to his people is unspeakably tender and fervent. He that touches them touches the apple of his eye. Zechariah 2 verse 8 Till this be forgotten, the wrath of man is not feared. He that fears a man that shall die forgets the Lord his maker. Isaiah 51 verse 12 and 13 Number 4 If the government of the world be in the hands of Christ, then to acknowledge Christ and engage his blessing in all our affairs and business is the true and ready way to success. If all depend upon his pleasure, surely it is our wisdom to attempt nothing without him. It is no lost time that is spent in prayer wherein we ask his direction and beg his presence with us and rely upon it that which is not prefaced with prayer will be followed with trouble. How easily can Jesus Christ dash all your designs and frustrate in a moment all the purposes of your heart. The Turks will pray five times a day how urgent soever their business be. Bless you that enterprise your affairs without God. Number 5 Lastly, I, Christ, in all the events of providence see his hand in all that befalls you whether it be evil or good. The works of the Lord are great sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. Psalm 111 verse 2 How much good might we get by observation of the good or evil that befalls us throughout our course. Number 1 In all the troubles and afflictions that befall you I, Jesus Christ, and set your hearts to the study of these four things in deflection. Study his sovereignty and dominion. These afflictions rise not out of the dust nor do they befall you casually but he raises them up and gives them their commission. Behold, I create evil and devise a device against you. Jeremiah 18, 11 He selects the instrument of your trouble. He makes the rod as afflictive as he pleases. He orders the continuance and end of your troubles and they will not cease to be afflictive to you till Christ say leave off, it is enough. The centurion likely considered this when he argued I have soldiers under me and I say to one go and he goeth and to another come and he cometh. Luke 7 verse 8 Meaning that as his soldiers were at his command so diseases were at Christ's to come and go as he ordered them. Study the wisdom of Christ in the contrivance of your troubles. His wisdom shines out many ways in them. It is evident in choosing some kinds of trouble for you as are best adapted to purge out the corruption that predominates in you in the degree of your troubles suffering them to work to such a height as to reach their end but no higher lest they overwhelm you. Study the tenderness and compassion of Christ over his afflicted people. Oh think, if the devil had the mixing of my cup how much more bitter would he make it. There would not be one drop of mercy in it but here is much mercy mixed with my troubles. There is mercy in this that it is no worse. Am I afflicted? It is of the Lord's mercy I am not consumed. Lamentations 3, 22 It might have been hell instead of this chastisement. There is mercy in his supports under it I might have been left as others have been to sink and perish under my burdens. Mercy in deliverance out of it this might have been everlasting darkness that should never have had a morning. Oh the tenderness of Christ to his afflicted. Study the love of Christ to thy soul in affliction. Whom I love I rebuke and chasten. Revelation 3, 19 This is the device of love to recover thee to thy God and prevent thy ruin. Oh what an advantage would it thus be to study Christ in all the evils that befall you. Number 2 Eye and study Christ in all the good you receive from the hand of Providence. View your mercies in all their lovely circumstances. Eye them in their suitableness. How conveniently Providence hath ordered all things for thee. Thou hast a narrow heart and a small estate suitable to it. Hadst thou more of the world it would be like a large sail to a little boat which would quickly pull thee under water. Thou hast that which is most suitable to thee. Eye the seasonableness of thy mercies. How they are fitted to thy wants. Providence brings forth all its fruit in due season. Eye the peculiar nature of thy mercies. Others have common thou special ones. Others have but a single thou a double sweetness in thy enjoyments. One natural from the matter of it. Another spiritual from the way in which and end for which it comes. Observe the order in which Providence sends your mercies. See how one is linked strangely to another and is a door to let in many. Sometimes one mercy is introductive to a thousand. And lastly observe the constancy of them. They are new every morning. Lamentations 3.23 How assiduously does God visit thy soul and body. Think within thyself. If there were but a suspension of the care of Christ for one hour that hour would be thy ruin. Could we thus study the Providence of Christ in all the good and evil that befalls us in the world. We should be in every state content. Philippians 4.11 Then we should never be stopped but furthered in our way by all that occurs. Then would our experience swell to great volumes which we might carry to heaven with us. And then should we answer all Christ's ends in every state he brings us into. Do this and say Thanks be to God for Jesus Christ. Chapter 18 Page 210 Christ's Humiliation in His Incarnation And being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death even the death of the cross. Philippians 2.8 You have seen how Christ was invested with the offices of prophet priest and king for effecting the blessed design of our redemption. The execution of these offices necessarily required that he should be both deeply abased and highly exalted. He cannot as our priest offer up himself a sacrifice to God for us except he be humbled and humbled to death. He cannot as a king powerfully apply the virtue of that his sacrifice except he be exalted yea highly exalted. Had he not stooped to the lowest state of a man he had not as a priest had a sacrifice of his own to offer. He had not been fit as a prophet to teach us the will of God so as that we should be able to bear it. He had not been as a king a suitable head to the church. And had he not been highly exalted that sacrifice had not been carried within the veil before the Lord. Those discoveries of God could not have been universal effectual and abiding. The government of Christ could not have secured protected and defended the subjects of his kingdom. The infinite wisdom foreseeing all this ordered that Christ should first be deeply humbled then highly exalted. Both which states are presented to us by the apostle in the context. He that intends to build high lays the foundation deep and low. Christ must have a glory in heaven infinitely transcending that of angels and men. And as he must be exalted infinitely above them so he must first in order thereunto be humbled and abased as much below them. His form was marred more than any man's and his visage more than the sons of men. The ground colors are dark but the picture is filled with all the splendor and glory of heaven. Method requires that we first speak of his state of humiliation. And the scripture I have now selected presents you the son almost under a total eclipse. He that was beautiful and glorious Isaiah 4 verse 2 Yea glorious as the only begotten of the father John 1 14 Yea the glory James 2 1 Yea the splendor and brightness of the father's glory Hebrews 1 verse 3 Was so veiled clouded and debased that he looked not like himself a god nor scarcely as a man for with reference to this humbled state it is said I am a worm and no man Psalm 22 verse 6 I am become an abject among men as the language Isaiah 53 verse 3 signifies. This humiliation of Christ we have here expressed in the nature degrees and duration of it. Number 1 The nature of it He humbled himself The word imports both a real and voluntary abasement. It is not said he was humbled but he humbled himself. He was willing to stoop to this low and abject state for us. And indeed the voluntariness of his humiliation made it most acceptable to God and singularly commenced the love of Christ to us that he would choose to stoop to all this ignominy suffering and abasement for us. Number 2 The degrees of his humiliation It was not only so low as to become a man a man under law but he humbled himself to become obedient to death even the death of the cross. Here you see the depth of Christ's humiliation it was unto death even the death of the cross the death of a malefactor. Number 3 The duration or continuance of his humiliation It continued from the first moment of his incarnation to the moment of his resurrection from the grave so long his humiliation lasted. Hence we derive this proposition the state of Christ from his conception to his resurrection was a state of deep abasement and humiliation. We are now entering upon Christ's humbled state which I shall describe under three general heads namely his humiliation in his incarnation in his life and in his death. We now consider his humiliation in his incarnation implied in the words being found in fashion as a man by which you are to understand not that he merely assumed a body to appear transiently to us in it and so lay it down again but his true and real assumption of our nature which was a special part of his humiliation as will appear by the following particulars. Number 1 The incarnation of Christ was a most wonderful humiliation inasmuch as thereby he who is overall God blessed forever is brought into the rank and order of creatures. This is the astonishing mystery that God should be manifest in the flesh. 1 Timothy 3.16 That the eternal God should truly and properly be called the man Christ Jesus. 1 Timothy 2.5 It was a wonder to Solomon that God would dwell in the stately and magnificent temple at Jerusalem. But will God in very deed dwell with men on earth? Behold, heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how much less this house which I have built. 2 Seton Chronicles 6.18 But it is a far greater wonder that God should dwell in a body of flesh and pitch his tabernacle with us. John 1.14 The heathen Chaldeans told the king of Babel that the dwelling of the gods is not with flesh. Daniel 2.11 But now God not only dwells with flesh but dwells in flesh. Yea, was made flesh and dwelt among us. For the sun to fall from its sphere and be degraded into a wandering atom. For an angel to be turned out of heaven and be converted into a fly or a worm had not been such a basement for they were but creatures before and so they would abide still though in an inferior rank. The distance between the highest and lowest species of creatures is but a finite distance. The angel and the worm dwell not so far asunder. But for the infinite glorious creator of all things to become a creature is a mystery exceeding all human understanding. The distance between God and the highest order of creatures is an infinite distance. He is said to humble himself to behold the things that are done in heaven. What a humiliation then it is to behold the things in the lower world. But to be born into it and become a man great indeed is the mystery of godliness. Behold, saith the prophet, the nations are as the drop of a bucket and are counted as the small dust of the balance. He taketh up the isles as a very little thing. All nations before him are as nothing and they are accounted to him less than nothing in vanity. Isaiah 40 verses 15 and 17 If indeed this great and incomprehensible majesty will himself stoop to the state and condition of a creature, we may easily believe that being once a creature he would expose himself to hunger, thirst, shame, spitting, death, and anything but sin. For that once being a man he should endure any of these things is not so wonderful as that he should become a man. This was the low steps, a deep abasement indeed. Number 2 It was a marvelous humiliation to the Son of God not only to become a creature but an inferior creature, a man and not an angel. Had he taken the angelic nature though it had been a wonderful abasement to him yet he had stayed if I may so speak nearer his own home and been somewhat more like to a God than now he appeared when he dwelt with us. For angels are the highest and most excellent of all creative beings. For their nature they are pure spirits. For their wisdom intelligences. For their dignity they are called principalities and powers. For their habitations they are styled the heavenly host. And for their employment it is to behold the face of God in heaven. One description both of our holiness and happiness in the coming world is this we shall be equal to the angels. Luke 20, 36 As man is nothing to God so he is much inferior to the angels so much below them that he is not able to bear the sight of an angel though in a human shape. Judges 13, 22 When the psalmist had contemplated the heavens and viewed the celestial bodies the glorious luminaries the moon and stars which God had made he cries out What is man that thou art mindful of him and the son of man that thou visitest him thou hast made him a little lower than the angels. Psalm 8, verses 5 and 6 Take man at his best when he came perfect and pure from his maker's hand in the state of innocency yet he was inferior to angels. They always bore the image of God in a more eminent degree than man as being holy spiritual and so a more lively representation of God than man could be whose noble soul is immersed in matter and enclosed in flesh and blood. Yet Christ chooses this inferior order of creatures and passes by the angelic nature. He took not on him the nature of angels but the seed of Abraham. Hebrews 2, verse 16 Number 3 Moreover Jesus Christ did not only assume the human nature but he also assumed its nature after sin had blotted its original glory and withered its beauty and excellency. For he came not in our nature before the fall while as yet its glory was fresh in it but he came as the apostle speaks in the likeness of sinful flesh Romans 8, verse 3 that is in flesh that had the marks and miserable effects and consequences of sin upon it. I say not that Christ assumed sinful flesh or flesh really defiled by sin. That which was born of the virgin was holy. By the power of the highest it was so sanctified that no taint of original pollution remained in it. But yet though it had not intrinsic native uncleanness in it it had the effects of sin upon it. Yea it was attended with the whole troop of human infirmities that sin at first brought into our common nature such as hunger thirst weariness pain mortality and these natural weaknesses and evils that clog our miserable natures and under which they groan from day to day. Though he was not a sinner yet he appeared like a sinful man and they that saw and conversed with him took him for a sinner seeing all these effects of sin upon him. In these things he came as near to sin as his holiness could admit. Oh what a stoop was this. To be made in the likeness of flesh though the innocent flesh of Adam had been much but to be made in the likeness of sinful flesh the flesh of sinners rebels. Oh what is this and who can declare it? And indeed if he were to be a mediator of reconciliation it was necessary it should be so. It behooved him to assume the same nature that sinned to make satisfaction in it. Yea the sinless infirmities were necessary to be assumed with the nature as his bearing them was a part of his humiliation and went to make up satisfaction for us. Moreover by them our high priest was qualified from his own experience and filled with tender compassion to us. Oh the admirable condescension of a savior to take such a nature to put on such a garment when so very mean and ragged. Did this become such a savior? Oh grace unsearchable. And yet more by this his incarnation he was greatly humbled in as much as this so veiled clouded and disguised him that during the time he lived here he looked not like himself as God. Hereby he made himself of no reputation. Philippians 2 verse 7 By reason hereof he lost all esteem and honor from those that saw him. Is not this the carpenter's son? Matthew 13.55 To see a poor man traveling up and down the country in hunger thirst weariness attended with a company of poor men one of his company bearing the bag and that which was put therein. John 13.29 Who that saw him would ever have thought that this had been the creator of the world the prince of the kings of the earth. He was despised and we esteemed him not. Who of you would not rather endure much misery as a man than be degraded into a contemptible worm? Yet Christ stooped to an infinitely deeper degradation. And think with yourselves now was not this astonishing self-denial? It was a black cloud that for so many years darkened and shut up his glory that it could not shine out to the world. Only some weak rays of the Godhead shone to some few eyes through the chinks of his humanity as the clouded sun sometimes breaks forth a little and casts some faint beams and is hit again. We saw his glory says the beloved apostle as of the only begotten son John 1.14 but the world knew him not. If a prince walk up and down in disguise he must expect no more honor than a mean subject. This was the case of our Lord Jesus Christ. Number 5 Again Christ was greatly humbled by his incarnation inasmuch as thereby he was put at a distance from the Father and that ineffable joy and pleasure he eternally had with him. Think not reader but the Lord Jesus had high and matchless communion with God while he walked here in the flesh but yet to live by faith as Christ here did is one thing and to be in the bosom of God as he was before is another. To cry and God not hear as he complains Psalm 32 verse 3 Nay to be reduced to such distress as to be forced to cry out so bitterly as he did. My God, my God why hast thou forsaken me? Psalm 22 verse 1 This was a thing Christ was utterly unacquainted with till he was found in fashion as a man. Number 6 And lastly it was a great stoop and condescension of Christ if he would become a man to take his nature from such obscure parents and choose such a low and contemptible state in this world as he did. He is born not of the blood of nobles but of a poor woman in Israel espoused to a carpenter yea and that too under all the disadvantages imaginable not in his mother's house but an inn yea a stable. He suited all to that abased state he was designed for and came among us under the humbling circumstances imaginable. You know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ how that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor. 2nd Corinthians 8 verse 9 Thus I have shown you some particulars of Christ's humiliation in his incarnation. Inference number 1 Hence we gather the fullness and completeness of Christ's satisfaction as the sweet first fruits of his incarnation. Did man offend and violate the law of God? Behold God himself is become man to repair that breach and satisfy for the wrong done. The highest honor that ever the law of God received was to have such a person as the man Jesus Christ stand before its bar and make reparation to it. This is more than if it had poured out all our blood and built up its honor upon the ruins of the whole creation. It is not so much to see all the stars in heaven overcast as to see one sun eclipsed. The greater Christ was the greater was his humiliation and the greater his humiliation was the more full and complete was his satisfaction and the more complete his satisfaction the more perfect and steady is the believer's consolation. If he had not stooped so low our joy and comfort could not be exalted so high. The depth of the foundation is the strength of the superstructure. Number 2 Did Christ for our sake stoop from his majesty glory and dignity in heaven to the mean and contemptible state of a man? What a pattern of self-denial is here presented to Christians. What objection or excuses against this duty can remain after such an example as is here given? Brethren, let me tell you the pagan world was never acquainted with such an argument as this to press them to self-denial. Did Christ stoop and cannot you stoop? Did Christ stoop so much and cannot you stoop the least? Was he willing to become anything a worm, a reproach, a curse and cannot you bear any abasement? Does the least light and neglect poison your heart with discontent malice and revenge? O how unlike Christ are you! Hear and blush in hearing what your Lord saith in John 13 verse 14 If I then your Lord and Master wash your feet ye also ought to wash one another's feet. The example does not oblige us as a learning man well observes to the same individual act but it obliges us to follow the reason of the example. That is, after Christ's example we must be ready to perform the humblest offices of love and service one to another. This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available free and for sale in audio, video and printed formats. Our many free resources as well as our complete mail-order catalog containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reformed books, tapes and videos at great discounts is on the web at www.swrb.org