Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the profound mystery of the incarnation, where the Word became flesh, highlighting the humility of Christ's birth in a manger and the significance of His presence among us. He reflects on humanity's failure to recognize their Creator, the depths of God's love, and the call for believers to seek a living relationship with Him beyond mere doctrine. The sermon urges the congregation to embrace the reality of Christ's glory and to live in a way that prioritizes God's will over personal desires, fostering a heart of gratitude and submission to the divine purpose.

I'd like to begin a little early this morning because the girls are going to be leaving for the shower, and I would like to have the opportunity to share this with everyone. So shall we bow our hearts before the Lord? Father, thank you again so much for your faithfulness. Thank you for your Son. Thank you for your Holy Spirit, Lord. And thank you for your mercy and your grace and your kindness, Lord. Thank you for your presence, Lord. Lord, we recognize that we're in the presence of a king. It's hard to speak, Lord, because you're the king. And it's to you, Lord, that our hearts bow. You're the righteous one. How true the words of Peter are today, Lord. Lord, when he saw your glory, he put his head down and said, depart from me, Lord, for I am a sinful man. And Lord, I am a sinful man in your presence. And so, Father, we pray for grace and mercy and strength. We thank you for your Son. We thank you for pardon. We thank you for forgiveness. We thank you for atonement. We thank you for reconciliation. Why would you, O God, why would you, O God, give your life to reconcile us back? Why would you, O God, go to the depths of Calvary? Why would you, O Son of God, endure the wrath of God, even to the point where you cry, my God, my God, why? Have you forsaken me? Why would you go to these depths, O God? We thank you, Lord, for your love. We pray, Lord, that you will be in your word today, Lord, and minister to us. Bring us low at your feet, Father. Bring us low. Give us a clear, fresh, living unveiling of who you are. Remove the high places in our life, Lord. Thank you for the tenderness of your dealings, but yet the firmness. Thank you, Lord, just for who you are as our Father. We commit this time of ministry into your hands. You turn to John, the book of John, John chapter 1. Begin reading in verse 1. May the Lord help this reading and his word to be life to us this morning, that we might see what is actually being said. I think it was Eric who sent out an email a few days ago, a beautiful email that blessed my heart about how our Christianity has to get beyond doctrine. It has to become a living reality. And I think Colette communicated to me that Norman shared, I could be wrong with names and times, but someone shared that sometimes we misguidedly think that the knowledge that we have of God from his word is equal to reality. And it's not so often. The Pharisees were so, so acquainted with the law of God. And they did not know Christ, didn't know him. And so it's our Father's job in heaven to take what we know and through his sovereign, loving discipline and dealings in our life, enable us to partake of the reality of it. And that's what he's doing in our lives. So may the Lord help us to know him, to know him, to know him who is eternal life. John chapter 1, beginning in verse 1, in the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. And the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him. And without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life. And the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness. And the darkness comprehended it not. Oh, the history of man, not comprehending, not understanding, not recognizing God, creator. Just think as a parent if one day your children woke up and looked at you and said, who are you? Who are you, Norman? Who are you? Why should I even take a moment to ponder you or to think of what your wishes are or what your heart is? Why don't you leave my house? Why don't you get out of my life? Let me do my own thing without breaking your heart. What have we done? All we like sheep have gone astray. In the beginning was the word. And the word was with God. The word was God. This is a revelation from John the apostle of the beloved eternality of the blessed son of God. He was with God. He was God. He was in the beginning with God, eternal fellowship, eternal koinonia. There was never, ever a time that the son was ever separated from the father. Never separated from the father. Just eternal bliss and joy and communion and fellowship. We cannot grasp it. We can't grasp it. I know we have the word. And I know God has given us the word so that we can understand what he wants us to see. But we cannot grasp the concept of the son and the father together with the spirit engaged in eternal koinonia. Such love. Such communion. Such intimacy. Such love. Such respect. That's what we're talking about here. It's not just a letter. It's not a dead letter. There's life. There's flesh. There's blood. There's emotion. There's feeling in the word of God. And that's why we need the Holy Spirit because he takes the word of God and he enters into the reality of it. The reality of it. How can we ever read the story about Christ as the heavenly groom and the church as the bride with a cold, sterile, doctrinal perception when it's so much more than that, beloved? And so this is what John is wanting to do by the Holy Spirit. When John penned this, he didn't just want to pen a doctrinal discourse. He was trying to help us to see that in the beginning, the word was with God. He was taking the man, Christ Jesus, to his rightful place of eternal God with the Father. And the light shines in darkness. And the darkness comprehended it not. And there was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light which lights every man that comes into the world. And now this word, God himself, the Son, came into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. The greatest heartache of Christ when he walked as a man was that he was in the world, he created the world, and the world knew him not. He was in their midst, the creator. And they didn't know him. They didn't recognize him. They didn't honor him. Every time he showed up anywhere, men ought to have fallen down on their faces, crying out, my God, my God. And what did they do? What did they do? They didn't even recognize him. And that's why when he came as a baby, he was born in a manger, not a five-star motel, not in one of the beautiful rooms of Rome, in a manger, despised, rejected of men. He came to the world, and the world did not recognize him. And then in verse 11, he came unto his own, and his own received him not. All the prophets spoke of the seed of David, the promise that God would give David a seed who would become the king, who would be the king. And here Christ came to his own. It could mean both the Jewish people as well as the world. And they did not receive him. They did not embrace him. They did not honor him. Verse 12, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born, not of flesh, nor of the will of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And then John goes back to this incredible mystery. And the Word became flesh. Now think about it. Think about it. Dear ones, the Word became flesh. God became a baby implanted by the creative power of the Holy Spirit into the womb of a virgin and was born a baby. God, a baby, such love, such humility, such meekness. God becomes a baby. And His Father chooses His birthplace, a barn. You know every mother, and I know it's true because I've had seven children, or Colette's had seven children, every mother has an instinct when the baby's, when she knows she's pregnant, and especially when the baby's about to come. And one of the strong instincts of a mother is to make sure the baby has a beautiful little bassinet and a beautiful little place for the baby to sleep. Isn't it true? And we want to get beautiful things, which is okay. We want to get pretty blankets for our baby. Everyone loves to, at the baby shower, get cute little baby clothes and stuff, and that's all okay. Where was Christ born? In a manger. Why? Why was He born in a manger? Don't you think He should have had the nicest place? God? He was born in a manger. What's a manger? A feeding trough. For who? Animals. Can we begin to understand the depths of pain and the depths of God's heart? How far humankind, how far we went from God's thought. God says, I'm going to create a man. And then when the time comes when this man, when God decides that he has to become a little baby, he's born into the world that He put this man in charge of, and his birthplace is a barn in a manger. What's wrong? What's wrong? How far our hearts have gone. How far our blindness has taken us. That our Creator and our God would have to be born in a manger. I have to chuckle at times when people come and visit our home in the summertime and aren't used to the farm smells and the fertilizers. The first thing they say when we're driving, and I've had guests in this home frequently in the summer. They smell the fertilizer and they say, oh my, oh my. Well, imagine going in a barn, in a manger. And yet that's where our God was born in His humanity. What was Paul after when he said that I might know Him in the fellowship of His sufferings? What do you think Paul saw? The fellowship of His sufferings. The sufferings of God. The sufferings of Christ. The sufferings, the trauma, the scandal. Oh, can you imagine, can you imagine, can you imagine what happened when the baby was born and the news began to spread. The scandal, the scandal that came upon Mary. The scandalous lies. Oh, I can't believe Joseph stayed with her. I can't believe Joseph stayed with her. Where did that baby come from? Everything, everything about the coming of God as a man in this world was scandalous. Was suffering, was abuse, was misunderstanding. And everyone associated with Him had to share in that scandal and that abuse. Everyone associated with Him. Verse 14, And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. A heavenly glory. An altogether different kind of glory that the world looks for. The glory of the world is fleeting. The glory of the world is passing. The glory of the world is focused on man and his pride and his pomp. And when they beheld the glory of this man, the glory of this heavenly man, it was a glory altogether different. Brothers and sisters, don't ever think that the glory that is on this man has anything to do with the glory that is in this world because it doesn't. Don't ever think that the glory of this world is in any shape or form like the glory that is on and in and around the Son of God, the matchless Son of God, because the glory of this world is like the grass that fades. It is gone. But the glory that is on the Son of God is a glory that reveals His intrinsic value. It reveals His intrinsic worth. It reveals who He is in the depths of His being. We beheld His glory. And then I think of the Scripture, we have all sinned and fallen, what? Short of this glory. This glory is nothing more or nothing less than the outward display of the inward reality of who God is in His moral perfection, in His moral excellence. And this is what God ever intended for man to display. Not Himself. Now let's just put our finger there and go to Genesis for a moment. And if you please pay attention very carefully. Genesis chapter 3, beginning in verse number 1. Genesis 3, beginning in verse number 1. We're talking about the glorious Son of God. Is everyone there? Go ahead. Just stay there for a moment. I'm going to read a Scripture in Peter. But you just stay there. 1 Peter 1, 23. Stay in Genesis. You can turn here if you want. Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. Incorruptible by the Word of God which lives and abides forever. Everything about our salvation, everything about what God has done is about His glory. It's about the incorruptibility of who He is. Now listen. For all flesh is as grass. That means all the glory of man, all the pomp of man. That's why when God sent His Son into the world, He put Him in the womb of a virgin. And when He was born, He placed Him in a manger because God was saying, and listen carefully, I will not condone or associate or be a part of the pomp and glory that's in this world because it is not a glory that comes from me. I'll have nothing to do with it. My Son will bear the shame of rejection rather than share in the fellowship of this glory. God will have nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with the glory and pomp of man. God has His own glory. God has His own intrinsic value. And the glory of man is an abomination to God. It is the outworking of this that we're about to read in its full display. The outworking of what we're about to read in its full display. That's what the glory of man is. God says the glory of man is as flesh or as grass. And all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower thereof falls away. It fades. Don't put your eye on the fading glory of man. Every one of us has had our eye on it. Oh, I heard my wife's voice. How do you like that? How's this? See that? Training does work. That's alright. Every one of us has had our eye on the glory of man, the pride of life, the God in His mercy and His kindness and His love. Redirects our misguided hearts so that they can clearly see the glory of the Son. My ambition, the glory of the Son. My passion, the glory of the Son. My pursuit, the glory of the Son. Alright. Let's go back to Genesis. Oh, Father, we just want to burst out in prayer and thanksgiving because of your kindness and your goodness. There is only one that is in our midst today, Lord, that is altogether lovely and worthy and deserving of the deepest, deepest adoration, worship and deserving of our affections and that is our blessed Lord and Savior. We acknowledge Him. We acknowledge Him, Lord. Oh, God, thank You for opening the eyes of our heart, the depths of our rebellion, the depths of our rejection of You. We just read about ourselves, Lord. He came into the world and the world knew Him not. He came to His own and His own received Him not. But because of Your grace and kindness and mercy, oh God, You opened up the eyes of our heart and now we stand amazed, Lord. Speechless. Capture our heart, Lord. And help us to see this in Your Word, Lord. And help us to stay close to You so that we are not beguiled by the serpent. Now, let's begin in chapter 2. Just a verse or two ahead because that's where the context is. Verse 20 of chapter 2. You know, God is looking to give Adam a helpmate. Why do you think God wanted to give Adam a helpmate? Remember what John said in the beginning was what? The Word and the Word was with God. Did God know something about the unspeakable pleasure of fellowship? Sure He did. God's desire to give Adam a helpmate was God's gift to humanity to share in a little way in a spiritual virtue reality that God Himself eternally enjoyed. Fellowship. Not only did God call us to fellowship with Himself, but God gives us the gift of fellowship one with another. What an amazing gift. Are you guarding this gift of fellowship? Are you guarding it? Do you value the fellowship that you have with other people in your family, in your friends? You guard it. What a kind God. And the Lord caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam. And he slept and took out of his ribs and he took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh. And the rib which the Lord had taken from man made he a woman and brought her unto the man. What an unveiling of the mystery of God Himself here. Here God takes something that was from Adam so that Adam can look at the woman and say, what? This is my bone. This is my flesh. This is me, yet it's not me. And what does God see when He sees His Son? This is me, fully God, but yet there's that which is in the Son that is distinct from what is in the Father. Distinct but one. One in essence. One in deity. And when God makes man He unveils this unbelievable mystery about Himself by taking out of man and from this man forming a woman, building, actually the Hebrew is not forming, it's building. He builds a woman for this man so that there can be koinonia fellowship. Fellowship. Do you think it was God's intention for man when He created him to take this mystery of taking out of Adam and forming Eve and having a man and a woman? Do you think it was God's intention for that relationship to become what it has today? Brothers and sisters, the reason why God created relationship and family was to teach us about the mystery the unbelievable, incredible mystery of the realities of who He is as the triune God. And as our hearts would be fixed on Him He then makes our relationships function in the same way that His with Himself as Father, Son and Spirit function. It is an unveiling, a mystery. God intended to take woman out of man and then man and woman come together and then children born, a family, what's He after? What's He after? We touched on this seven months ago. What was God's eternal purpose that He purposed in His Son? A family, a vast family. Not a family governed by a law that they create. A family governed by divine purpose. And here's what God's divine purpose is. God says in eternity past I am God and everything about me is good. And so therefore if I create if I create a family if I create a husband and a wife and children the purpose of that family the purpose of that creation is one and one thing only to see me and to function like me because everything I am and everything I do is perfect. The supreme joy the supreme satisfaction the supreme fulfillment within the heart of every human being but especially the redeemed is finding in God and who God is the triune God the mystery of the triune God and finding in that unveiling significance purpose and understanding of why I exist. And whenever the heart turns to anything other than that to try and find significance or reason to live it's setting itself up for a fall. That is why God as our Father is constantly overseeing every movement, every spring, every thought, every motive, every intention of our heart He stands in our midst Revelation chapter 2 3 as the Son of Man His eyes as what? A flaming fire searching into the depths of our being the word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword even to the dividing of what? Searching exposing unveiling the very what? Motives intense depths of our heart and what is He looking for? What is He looking for? Why does He stand in our midst and in our homes and in our lives and in the church what is the nature of this judgment that we're at the door, the day of visitation is quickly coming what is God looking for? He's looking for every motive every desire, every thought every plan that is not centered on God God is why I'm here this man God is why I'm here it's you Lord I'm here my family's here, I'm in a church why? because you want to reproduce functionally operationally in our lives a little teeny caricature a little teeny picture of the unspeakable glorious realities that exist in you all the communicable ones not the incommunicable ones, not the realities that are in the in the Godhead as it relates to their deity, that is theirs alone and they will always and forever possess it and the church, no human being even those who are new creations in Christ Jesus destined to share in the glory of God, they'll never touch the deity, they'll never touch it they'll never partake of it they'll never share in it but all the communicable attributes that God possesses that are displayed eternally in the man Christ Jesus are destined to become fully displayed and partaken of in that bride in that new man all of them because that is the zenith of God's heart in displaying in humanity in humanity the mystery of what is true in deity, displaying in humanity what is true in deity not taking humanity and making them deity, but in his son, the new humanity the new humanity, the humanity of Jesus Christ that's the humanity that God will fulfill all his promises and all his eternal intentions in and the first humanity in Adam has been set aside, and anyone who does not embrace and come into and become a part of that new humanity a new creation in Christ Jesus at the last day will be eternally separated from God because God is finished, his work is complete complete and everything that he will ever do and everything he will ever realize has already been done in his son and so if you want direction if you want to know what God is doing, get a rekindled vision of his son and beware of anyone who leads you away from the son, beware of anyone who says, oh God is doing something here, and you go there, and you don't see the son you don't see the glory of the son you don't see God's satisfaction in the son, you don't see your heart crying for the son run if the son is not there because if the son is not there, the father is not there that's what John said alright and so again, we're seeing how the Holy Spirit can take the doctrine will never minimize but crack it open and bring out of the doctrine remember all doctrine is theology which is the study of who? when doctrine becomes unrelated to God or another way of saying it, when doctrine is not leading us to discover more of the intrinsic reality of God but simply is informing us and giving us information but that information is not leading us to God and remember, every time the eye of a man sees God, where does that man go? down to the ground you truly see God Isaiah was a great prophet but when he saw the Lord, where did he go? Oh, woe is me Peter woe is me Paul, what happened to Paul? I am the chiefest of sinners and so pray the Holy Spirit will help you in your devotions and with your family and with your fellowshipping one with another say Holy Spirit please, I thank you for good sound doctrine and brothers and sisters don't ever throw out good sound doctrine don't ever embrace anything that says doctrine is not important because it is important but don't embrace the letter of doctrine without asking the Holy Spirit to take the doctrine and to bring your heart to seeing God because it's all there to reveal God and His Son and there God created Adam or Eve in verse number 23 and Adam said this now is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh and she she hath what is that? phew yeah I'm just trying, alright here we go it's blurry and dim and he shall be called no she shall be called woman because she was taken out of man what does the scripture say in John chapter 1 where did Christ come from? He was where? In the bosom of the Father you know the word bosom there represents the most intimate place and so the scripture says He came out from the Father and really what the Greek there is what it means is this He came out from in order to disclose and make known what was there and see this? Eve came out from out of Adam and she became an unveiling of an essential part of who Adam was she wasn't Adam but she was she was and wasn't it's the mystery what a sacred trust and how relationships have been reduced to the horror of fleshly sinful passion and desire a woman a piece of meat how horrible is that what God intended? by all means with a capital NO and a number of exclamation points following no it was not what God intended and a man was it intended to be the owner of women to rule over or to sell their bodies just saw a program on TV last night of what's going on in this country slaves women slaves owned by men generating money I'll be discreet for the sake of children in Texas in Louisiana in California slave trades the women were on testifying with their faces blackened so no one would see them with tears I can't get out I'm owned I want to but I can't he owns me right in this country the Sudan Christians thousands of them owned beaten the women several times during the day by several different men abused is this what God intended where do you see that behavior in the Godhead where can you even see such behavior in heaven it's not fair it's not fair beloved God how we need the Lord how we need healing in our homes and in the church and how the church needs to get focused on heaven I don't mean to be melodramatic I really don't I don't mean to be over emotional emotion doesn't necessarily mean anything but I'm sorry just find it difficult to maintain my composure when I see these things so clearly by God's grace man and woman how sacred how holy if the husband is to depict the father in what way are we to treat a woman verse number 25 they were both naked the man and his wife were not ashamed why should they be ashamed why should they be ashamed they knew nothing but the hand of the one who created them and their eyes were on nothing but him but oh whenever God's sacred heart moves now the serpent now the serpent now we introduce into the story Satan and this you can know brothers and sisters this you can know every holy and sacred purpose that God has is challenged by the wicked one Satan who seeks to pervert and destroy the purpose and intention of God and this is what we see here now the serpent was more subtle, sly crafty manipulator than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made and he said to the woman yea hath God said you shall not eat of the tree of the garden and the woman said to the serpent we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden God said you shall not eat it neither shall you touch it lest you die and the serpent said unto the woman you shall not surely die for God knows this that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be open and listen carefully verse 5 unveils and unlocks the strategy of the serpent he is doing nothing but preaching the gospel to Eve that he himself believed he himself birthed and he himself conjured up he is the father of lies and so this is the original this is the original gospel according to Lucifer right here it is and it's gotten very deeply deeply enrooted in Christendom today for God does know that in the day you eat thereof then your eyes shall be opened and you shall be as gods knowing good and evil the root the seed of conception within the heart of Lucifer that brought about his catastrophic and disastrous fall and eternal perdition was this lie right here and here it is as simple as it can be said God knows that you can know what's best for you not what's best for God but what's best for you you you will discern you will judge what's best for you why have we fallen short of the glory of God and why is the glory of God so distant so often from our lives because we yet seek what's best for me and when the woman saw oh she's seeing now in a different light isn't she she's seeing in a different light remember verse number 25 naked no shame why because she was seeing God what's best for God what's best for His glory what's best for His interest what's His purpose why am I here why am I naked why am I with Adam why am I in the garden God what's your plan now because of the serpent's influence because of the serpent's tempting because of the serpent's poison she now is looking but now she has a different perspective a different world view a different vantage point a different center now it is no longer what is best for God but now she's looking she's surveying she's assessing she's viewing and now she she her interests are in view and with that she embraced the forbidden fruit where was Adam and gave it to her husband and he gave it to her and verse 7 the eyes of them both were opened oh they hadn't been opened before that of course they were opened it says that they were both naked they were both present they were both there they were unashamed but the eyes of them both were opened and they became slaves to what viewing life viewing life and saying what's best for me what's in it for me what can I get out of it sound like some of the books we read where in the secular world no no in the Christian bookstore what's best for me okay brothers and sisters contrast this with where we started out this morning and there was a baby born in the womb of a virgin and he was laid in a manger and he came to his own and his own received him not he came to the world and the world didn't know him why because our eyes were opened and we looked at this lowly despised man and we said what's in it for me he can't do anything for me step aside illegitimate son who's your father anyway we heard about the room what's in it for me and in closing brothers and sisters I want to say that the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration and the work continued work of the Holy Spirit with the word of God in the new creation can be reduced down to one and one thing only in Christ we don't view life anymore what's in it for me but we wake up morning by morning and we bow our hearts before our God and Father and we say thank you and we just go through the whole litany of thanksgiving and then we utter not my will but thy will be done what's in it for you today Lord what's in it for you what have you got up your sleeve God what's your plan can you see it and it's only that kind of heart that attracts the Lord and that gives him that place he's welcome in our homes he's welcome in our thoughts he's welcome in our gatherings, he's welcome in our car, he's welcome in our bedrooms when we are constantly saying Lord what's in it for you let's bow our hearts if we would for the Lord