and the word was made flesh and dwelt among us
the hardest proposition the infidel has ever
gotten up against is to account for jesus christ
and i believe that the only thing they can say
is we don't understand it. Pause just a moment.
Because you can't understand it is no sign that
it is not true. There are lots of things you
can't understand and yet you must acknowledge
that you believe them or else acknowledge that
you are a fool. You say it's unthinkable. What
is unthinkable? The alleged result of such a
birth. Who do you mean? You say, the union of
a divine and human nature in one person. Well,
now, let's see. Because that's not just exactly
what the incarnation is. The union of two natures
in one person, a combination of the divine and
human in Christ Jesus. If you do just a little
bit of real hard thinking, it may not be as unthinkable
as you now think it is. But if it's unthinkable
to the best human thinker that operates, that
steal no sign that it's untrue. Can you understand
the mechanical union of oxygen and nitrogen that
makes air? Do you understand hydrogen and oxygen
that makes water? Or the union of body and soul
that makes yourself? You are a person. And if
you can't understand this simpler union, don't
growl about divinity and humanity uniting in
one person. For it's no more incompatible than
the union of matter and spirit that makes one
person out of you. If you can't understand what
makes you, you, then don't growl about not being
able to understand the divinity and the human
part of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You say,
if the divine in Jesus was truly divine and the
human, truly human, then there must have been
both a divine consciousness and a human consciousness
in him. You say it can't be? One or the other
of them must be sacrificed on the order of reason.
But hold on just a minute. I know it's hard to
understand. But here is something else. If Christ
was divine, and united with the Father in the
function of creating and sustaining the universe,
how could he produce a storm on the Sea of Galilee
and then stop it at the same time? His divine
will could not act in two opposing directions
at the same time, could it? You saying no? But
I don't believe he ever calmed the storm. I get
any miracle, but hold on. That still doesn't
help Yard. You've got God to deal with. How could
God make the iron axe head to swim? Could he
will, as he apparently does, that iron should
sink? in water and at the same time will that
it should not, as he apparently did, without
at least seeming to have a double consciousness
in him at that particular moment. You say I don't
believe God about it? In fact, I don't believe
in miracles. But hold on. That still doesn't
help you out any. Ruining the Bible out of court
doesn't get rid of the laws of nature. These
are always operating against each other. Life
and death, growth and decay, and the two opposing
forces, e .g. gravitation. We claim that these
and all the laws are expressions of the divine
will. But whether they are or not, how are you
going to explain? I do know that this mysterious
thing of a double consciousness in Christ Jesus
is not any more mysterious than the fact of a
spiritual union between God and man, as a result
of which the man acts sometimes under God's impulse
and sometimes under his own and sometimes under
both at the same time without being able to tell
just which one begins and the other ends or how
they operate together at one and the same second.
I'm not telling you. that i fully understand
it the greatest saint that ever lived including
paul himself would not dare say that he fully
understood it but to avoid it shall we be wheedled
into accepting Some of the weak substitutes for
it. God forbid. The word was made flesh. And
it was the essence of God himself that came into
man and gave us the God -man. And not only a
God -like. man. That were God in the flesh that
walked this earth. Not a God -like man. Well,
but you say, this doctrine of the burdened birth
seems utterly unnecessary. When the word was
made flesh, Whatever of God came into the man,
Jesus, could have done so without the method
of conception involved in the doctrine of the
virgin birth. Surely there could have been some
other way. The skeptic says the virgin birth,
as recorded in the Bible, was... absolutely unnecessary.
Well, in the first place, it takes an infinite
amount of conceit for a little mortal like you
to say what was or what was not necessary in
such a stupendous thing as the bringing into
the world of the only begotten Son of God. all
the conceit of some mortals when that mortal
is dependent on the mercy of god for every beat
of his heart who am i to say who are you to say
That it was not necessary in such a stupendous
thing as the bringing in the world of the only
begotten Son of God. Saying it was useless. Unnecessary.
It's a pity God didn't wait till you were born.
Graduated from high school before he undertook
to do it. It's just too bad he didn't wait. until
you could have given him some assistance. Watch.
In the next place, it's in the Bible. And that
ought to be enough for any human being. Because
it is God's Word. Because it is in the Bible.
Ought to be enough. Matthew's and Luke's account
are genuine. The account of the virgin birth
is found in every manuscript and version of the
Gospels that has ever existed. And so you can't
cut them out. They're there. That's what I don't
understand about some of these ministers who
stand behind their pulpit and would dare to do
away. with the virgin birth of the Son of God,
who will dare to do away with the divinity and
deity of the Son of God. Because it's found in
every version of the Gospels that has ever existed.
portion of God's Word? Who gave you the authority
to cut out any portion of the Bible? It's there.
You've got to have respect for the Bible. You
don't dare take out your penknife and your scissors
and cut out that which you do not agree with.
then in the next place, it would seem necessary.
And I'll tell you exactly why. If Christ was
the very Son of God made flesh, a miracle in
His birth is the very thing that one would expect.
And it is just this miracle in His earthly origin
that... furnishes us the necessary explanation
of his supernatural person and all that goes
with it. So what's the use of taking issue with
it? There's nothing to gain. In the next place,
it was necessary. It had to be for two reasons.
First, that the scripture might be fulfilled.
Isaiah prophesied and said, Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and call his name
Emmanuel. That's one reason why the virgin birth
was necessary. The second reason, that he might
be a man and yet escape. the moral kink that
comes to everyone born in the human race by natural
means. This he had to do in order to be sinless.
And sinless he had to be in order to offer himself
a sacrifice for our sins. A sacrifice for sin
had to be pure and unblemished. If just any sacrifice
could have paid the price, Abraham could have
died. If just any blood could have paid the price,
I am sure, beloved, Moses would have gladly have
sacrificed his life. I am sure that Elijah, anyone
of the prophets, The prophet Isaiah himself would
have been glad to have given his life on the
cross. And Jesus never would have had to have
come. But watch. Jesus, the sinless one, the
very son of the living God, had to come because
he... was the only one who was sinless. A sacrifice
for sin had to be pure, had to be unblemished.
If not John the Baptist or any other good man
would have done. If Jesus had inherited the moral
taint of ordinary generation, he would have needed
a savior himself. If sin had ever touched his
life, if he had sinned just once, he would have
needed a savior to forgive his sin. The fellow
who denies the virgin birth usually ends up by
denying the virgin or sinless life of Christ.
A virgin life. is just as much of a miracle anyhow
in the moral world as a virgin birth is in the
physical world. Oh, you say Mary was sinful and
Christ would have gotten the moral taint from
her as well as from Joseph. Well, what does the
record say? It says Jesus was born of a virgin
mother. But it says more than that. It says he
was conceived by the Holy Ghost. It doesn't say
a new person was created. It was an already existing
divine person. Entering by this method into the
human race and the divine, creative miracle wrought
by the Holy Ghost precluded the possibility of
any taint of sin from the earliest moment of
conception. And so, Mr. Critic, Mrs. Unbeliever,
if you'll just make the proper adjustment of
your mental bearings, you'll see that your objections
vanish into thin air. Now comes the most important
question of all. Why was Jesus incarnated? What
was the purpose of the incarnation of Jesus?
Well, It was more than one purpose. Let's see
what the Word of God says. In 1 John, the third
chapter, the eighth verse, to this end was the
Son of God manifested that he might destroy the
works of the devil. Isn't that a piece of the
most glorious news this whole world has ever
heard? The Bible says the devil is a murderer.
It says he's a liar and the father of lies. The
Bible calls him the lawless one. And sin is a
transgression of God's law, and the devil is
a fountainhead of lawlessness and sin. And so,
you know what the works of the devil are. Murder,
lying, lust, dishonesty. Everything that is bad
is born in hell. Say, do you know the only thing
I'm afraid of? In God's big world, it's sin.
No man ever played with sin. That sin didn't
get the better of him. Don't you try to play
with sin. If you do so, I'll tell you something.
You're going to get into trouble as sure as can
be. Don't try to play with sin. If you must do
it, go out in the field. Pick up a rattler. Let
it play in your bosom. Go down to the electric
railroad. Play with the third rail. Reach up
in disguise and play with the forked lightning.
But for God's sake, don't play with sin. Whatever
you do, don't play with sin. For the wages of
sin is death. Spiritual death. God says so. And
I believe God's word. Two little Italian boys
in New York City were returning from a swim and
wherever you find two little boys with time on
their hands, you'll always find trouble. They
were each about 15 years old. Tony had picked
up a piece of copper wire, thought he'd have
a little fun with the third rail of the New York
Central track along which they were walking.
And he poked away around the wooden covering
of the rail. Nothing happened. That's funny,
he said. I guess I didn't. touch the right spot.
Then he pushed the point of his wire down underneath
the covering. There was a flash of blue flame
and a shriek of pain as 11 ,000 volts of electricity
shot through the wire. In a moment and even less.
His clothing was on fire, his hair, his eyebrows
were burned off. He tried to drop the wires.
It hissed and sputtered at a white heat, but
it wouldn't let go. He tried to pull away, but
it stuck to the rail. He did everything humanly
possible, and yet it stuck to the rail. A little
friend tried to pull him away, but was hurled
to the ground with a terrific shock. And the
brave little lad then threw his rubber coat around
Tony and pulled him loose. And Tony started to
run but fainted and fell. They took him to the
hospital and the doctor said, one chance in a
thousand to recover. The two boys said it. They
knew there was something dangerous about that
rail. They'd heard older people say so. But they
didn't think it would hurt any to play with it
a little. And so, beloved, sin scorches and burns
and kills like a live... third rail