And for our scripture reading this morning, turn with me to Luke 1. Luke 1, we read together verses 26 through 45. The announcement to Mary that she would be the mother of the Christ child. Luke 1, beginning at verse 26 through 45. It begins in the sixth month, which is talking about the sixth month of Elizabeth's pregnancy with John the Baptist. Hear now the Word of God, beginning at verse 26. In the sixth month, God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. The angel went to her and said, Greetings, you who are highly favored. The Lord is with you. Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. But the angel said to her, Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end. How will this be, Mary asked the angel, since I am a virgin. The angel answered, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth, your relative, is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God. I am the Lord's servant, Mary answered. May it be to me as you have said. Then the angel left her. At that time, Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice, she exclaimed, Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear. But why am I so favored that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished. If you would also turn in the back of the Psalter hymnal to our confessional reference, Lord's Day 14 of the Heidelberg Catechism. As you recall, we've been considering the Apostles' Creed portion of the Catechism. Page 21 in the back of the Psalter Hymnal, we find questions and answers 35 and 36 as we confess together what we believe with these answers. Question 35 asks, What does it mean that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary? that the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, a truly human nature, so that He might become David's true descendant in all things like us, His brothers, except for sin. How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you? He is our mediator. And with His innocence and perfect holiness, He removes from God's sight my sin, mine since I was conceived. Beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, after confessing in the Apostles' Creed, professing that we believe in Jesus Christ, God's only begotten Son, our Lord, and thereby confessing His deity, that He is God, we quickly add, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary. Now, you know that's quite a confession. In fact, to make that confession is to make a confession really that will get you laughed out of the room by the world. Because everybody knows that's impossible. With all of our advanced technology, especially in medicine, we know beyond a doubt that it always takes some form of a union between a man and a woman, even if it's in a test tube, to conceive and bear a child. And nothing can change that. To which we reply, Oh, really? We know that with regard to man, that is indeed true. We cannot change that. But the angel said to Mary in Luke 1, verse 37, for nothing is impossible with God. This article of the Apostles' Creed has been one of the most commonly rejected articles throughout the history of the New Testament church. But congregation, we must diligently defend the truth of this article because of the great joy that belongs to the believer because of this truth. This truth is absolutely essential to the salvation package of our Lord. As you know, we have discussed the teaching of Scripture as to who the Savior is by discussing His names or titles. Jesus, Christ, only begotten Son of God, Lord. And now following the order of the creed, we begin to consider the Scripture's teaching about what He has done and what He continues to do. The work of Jesus Christ on behalf of His people was accomplished and is accomplished in His states of humiliation and exaltation. We speak of those two states of Christ. Humiliation followed by exaltation, which the rest of the creed's treatment of the second person of the Trinity lays before us in the Catechism. In the state of Christ's humiliation, He worked out or accomplished our redemption and in the state of exaltation, He affects, completes, or applies that salvation. And this morning we begin to consider the Creed's articles dealing with the Savior's path of humiliation. And the first step on that path was the Incarnation. God with us. As we consider this Word of God, notice first of all, the meaning of the Incarnation. Secondly, the manner of the Incarnation. And then finally, the merit of the Incarnation. This article that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, celebrates for us the birth of our Lord. Again, something which is not new to us, we celebrate that every December, don't we? With our Christmas celebration. But really, it is fitting that we consider this this morning well apart from December 25, because at the traditional Christmas time, the truth of Christ's conception and birth is largely ignored by the world. But we know that the world hallmarkizes it, romanticizes it, and even by many Christians, his birth is often covered up with nice fancy gift wrapping and bows. Yes, indeed, he is the most wonderful gift ever given to his people. But in reality, the humiliation of his birth, and it was humbling, and the reason he was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary is often overlooked. If we truly consider that humiliation and the reason He had to come, which is because of our sin, then that's not so joyful. But then when we add to that the fact that He came and the reason He came, that's very joyful. Now when we consider the Incarnation, what are we talking about? Boys and girls, the Incarnation is God becoming man. As Isaiah prophesied, some 700 years before Christ's birth, they shall call His name Emmanuel. Which Matthew translates in chapter 1, verse 23 of his Gospel, God with us. And John says, And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the meaning of the Incarnation. even as answer 35 says again, that the eternal Son of God, who is and remains true and eternal God, took to Himself, through the working of the Holy Spirit, from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary, a truly human nature, so that He might become David's true descendant in all things like us His brothers, except for sin. Now, the glory that John says we beheld was, first of all, that this Word is God's eternal Son who is and remains true and eternal God. This glory points to His uniqueness. This One who Himself is not simply a God or a God one out of many, but the one and only true and eternal God left His home in glory, giving up the glory of the Father for a time to become man and living among sinful men. Now, the truth is not one of us has or ever will be subject to that kind of or that degree of humiliation. We will never experience that. Now, the catechism directs our attention to the amazing love of our Lord when it says that He took to Himself a truly human nature. No one made Him do it. He willingly took the job. He took to Himself a truly human nature. He humbled Himself. He initiated the humiliation which He endured, and He did it out of His perfect love for Himself and His glory and His love for those He created in His own image. But boys and girls, this doesn't mean that God changed into man. It doesn't mean that God changed into man. That's not possible because God is changeless. What I mean to say is the only begotten Son of God did not cease or stop being God when He came in human flesh. In Philippians 2 we read, Who of Jesus Christ, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bondservant, and being made in the likeness of men, And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. He emptied Himself. Now that can be misinterpreted. But the verse itself explains it. Taking. You see, when our Lord emptied Himself, that doesn't mean that He gave up anything. He didn't give up any part of who He truly is. He didn't give away any of His deity. But he emptied himself by adding something that he wasn't before. And that is the human nature. Of course, we know that no earthly analogy or no man-made analogy can do justice to this beautiful truth of this mystery. Maybe we can get a little bit of a glimpse of it, a little bit of an understanding through this analogy, which I read, that says if you put on a different coat, you remain the same. but you might look different. Our Lord's glory, the glory of His deity, was veiled for a time by His humanity. And we know, of course, in the Mount of Transfiguration that that veil was put aside for a moment as the glory of His deity was made visible on the top of that mountain. The mystery of the Incarnation is that the divine nature and the human nature came together in the one person of Jesus Christ so that He remained a true and eternal God and was at the same time a true man. And the beauty of Bethlehem, as one commentator states, is that the eternal binds Himself to time. Now notice the contrasts here. The eternal binds Himself to time. The King of the ages takes on the form of a servant. The Almighty becomes a helpless child. God is wrapped in human flesh. And this is why we as believers could be adopted into the family of God as we talked about last week in connection with Lord's Day 13. And now think about for a moment this very uneven exchange. Boys and girls, you can understand this too. This uneven exchange. He adopted unto Himself. He took unto Himself our flesh and blood. and gave us the adoption of children of God. And by doing so, He was presented with death, but He presented us life. It doesn't take a whole lot to figure out who got the better end of that deal. Now, how human was He? Well, He was completely human. As the Catechism says, He was in all things like us His brethren except for sin. Now, we can't even begin to imagine, not even for a moment, what it's like to be without sin. But if sin is left out of the equation, out of the picture, just for a moment, then there is not one single difference between Christ and us as far as His humanity. He had human flesh and blood. He had a human mind and will and desires and needs and feelings and experiences and emotions. But you see, beloved, the human nature He took to Himself was the human nature, or I should say, the flesh weakened by sin. Not that He was sinful, but He received the post-fall flesh. He was not born with what Adam had before the fall. Even though He was completely without sin, the human flesh He received from Mary was tarnished in that he suffered the effects of sin all of his earthly life. His humiliation is characterized by the condition of suffering and it began by taking on the form of a man and entering and being surrounded by a sinful world. The Bible is clear that he grew physically. He experienced physical weakness of the flesh. He had a body that aged. He knew hunger and thirst and fatigue and suffering and joy and sadness and anger and temptation and loneliness and pain. It wouldn't be a surprise to me if as a young baby he had an ear infection like many of our children. As well, if Joseph really did have a carpenter's shop and Jesus really did work in it. No doubt he got a wood sliver once in a while. If he ever cut himself with a saw, he bled like you and me. There is nothing that we could ever suffer that would baffle our Lord. Hebrews 4, verse 15 says, For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. He lived our whole life. Hebrews 2, verse 14 begins, Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, he himself likewise shared in the same. Yet, He was without sin. Original sin or actual sin. But congregation, His exemption from sin is no small omission. It's a big deal. In fact, the truth is that this is the key to the significance of the Incarnation and indeed the key to our salvation. In Lord's Day 6, the questions are asked, Why must He, that is the mediator and deliverer, be truly human and truly righteous? And why must He also be true God? And this Lord's Day before us, Lord's Day 14, tells us how He came to be that truly human and truly righteous and true God. But answer 17 of Lord's Day 6 says that He must be true God so that by the power of His divinity He might bear the weight of God's anger in His humanity and earn for us and restore to us righteousness and life. Man sinned, therefore man must pay, but you and I couldn't do it. He had to be God as well in order to bear the wrath of God against the sin that you and I committed. In congregation, for all of that, he must be guiltless, free from corruption, and without actual sin. If Jesus Christ had been sinful, He could not offer His obedience or His sacrifice for others in such a way that would be perfectly sufficient and adequate for our need. You see, we needed the reverse of what we are. If He were unclean, how could He cleanse His people? If He were a sinner, how would He be able to substitute Himself as a perfect and unblemished sacrifice for sinners, all of which was necessary? yet this word become flesh who dwelt among us was testified to by a scripture which says in 1 Peter 2 who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth. The meaning of the incarnation? God and man, the divine nature and the human nature united together in the person of Jesus Christ our Lord. this is the one we needed. And what then was the manner of the Incarnation? Jesus Christ took to Himself through the working of the Holy Spirit from the flesh and blood of the Virgin Mary a truly human nature. You know, the uniqueness of Christ's person, the one of a kindness of His person as true God and true man is mirrored in the uniqueness of the manner of His conception and birth. The manner of the Incarnation points to both His union with us and His difference from us. That union is seen in the fact that He was born. His being like us in every way includes the fact that He grew and developed in the womb of His mother as we all did and He was born by the usual painful delivery. His human nature with His flesh and blood came from Mary. His human nature was not created separate from Mary. But He became one with us through His mother. Mary gave the unborn child Jesus His human life as He took to Himself the flesh and blood of Mary. Paul says in Galatians 4, verse 4, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman. Now, those few words support both the union and the difference that we're talking about here. But the difference, then again, is that Mary was a virgin. She knew no man in the conceiving way. Mary herself testifies to this in Luke 1, verse 34. She says, how can this be, since I am a virgin? She understood the human impossibility of having a child while being a virgin. And the fact that today we have all kinds of artificial means doesn't change that. We all know that even with artificial means, we still need the proper ingredients, if I may say it that way, of both male and female. The angel answered in verse 35, The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, so the Holy One to be born will be called the Son of God. And thus we confess that Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit. This One who had no mother in heaven had no earthly father in His conception. Being born of Mary identifies why Christ had a human nature. And being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin identifies the sinlessness of His human nature because He is God from God. In Psalm 51, it says that we are all conceived and born in sin. That's true of you and I, but not of Jesus. He was not conceived and born by the will of man with the guilt of original sin, but His human nature was protected from all sin by the Holy Spirit. He was conceived and born by the will of God so that, as the angel says, He could properly be called the Son of God. By the Incarnation, which was the most awesome miracle of God, our Lord was set apart from sinners at the very beginning of His earthly existence. And with the Incarnation of our Lord, God kept His promise to send a Redeemer who could only be God, but as well that He should reign as David's son on the throne. With Mary as His mother and Joseph as His legal earthly father, Jesus Christ is the true seed of David. Through Jesus Christ, Isaiah's prophecy finds fulfillment. There shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. And beloved, with the fulfillment of this prophecy, we can't help but to notice the merit, The benefits of the Incarnation. Again, question 36 asks, How does the holy conception and birth of Christ benefit you? He is our mediator. And with His innocence and perfect holiness, He removes from God's sight my sin. Mine since I was conceived. Now, boys and girls, a mediator is one who goes between two sides. a middleman, especially one who goes between to work to bring two opposing sides together. A mediator might work between an employer and employees. A mediator also works to gain benefits for the weaker side, which we can understand that when it comes to our Lord working on our behalf. But our Lord knows the two sides perfectly and intimately, the side of God and the side of man. He knows what God wants and expects and demands of man, and He is the only man who, as the representative of all of His people, is qualified and able to fulfill what God wants and demands and expects of man. He alone gains merit or gains benefits for the elect He represents. And He begins His work on our behalf as the God-man already from His conception. Remember from Lord's Day 1, the first thing we need to know to live and die in the joy of the comfort of salvation is how great our sin and misery is. Well, the very sinless conception and birth of Jesus Christ reminds us of why He had to come. Because of our sin. I am condemned of my sin by His sinless coming in the flesh. And I am condemned not only for my actual sins, boys and girls, the sins that we commit every day when we say a bad word or think a bad thought, but my original sin as well, that sinful nature that I was conceived and born with. Not only must my guilt, the guilt that I accrue every time I sin, not only must that guilt be paid for by suffering the wrath and punishment of God, but my unrighteousness, my sinful nature must be replaced or covered by righteousness. Beloved, by His passive obedience. willingly submitting to the earthly authorities, being obedient even unto the death of the cross, enduring suffering and shame for you and me, Jesus Christ as our mediator paid the penalty for our sin. All of it. But by His active obedience, His holiness, His sinlessness, His perfect righteousness to the law of God, He lived the perfect life in my place. You see, therefore it starts at the very beginning. As the catechism says, he removes from God's sight my sin. Notice the emphasis first. He removes from God's sight. That's the emphasis of the catechism. Removes what? My sin. What a beautiful, beautiful thing. A comforting thought. Mine since I was conceived. You see, we were in need of a total transformation. Everything about us needed to be dealt with, beginning with our being conceived and born in sin. And by His obedient death, He paid for my sins. And by His holy life, He removes the blemishes and stains of my life. His innocence and perfect righteousness is credited or imputed, freely given to us all the way back to our very beginning. That means, congregation, that by the grace of God, our life is restored and sanctified down to its very roots. That's significant. We know that if the root is damaged or dead, the whole plant is damaged or dead. But we are restored, our lives are restored and sanctified down to the very root. So often, we fail to consider our original sin. That sin which permeates our whole existence. Which infects us and infests us from top to bottom, inside and out. If we do consider it, we often treat it like more of an excuse for our actual sin instead of recognizing our guilt because of even our original sin. The fact that even before we were born, we deserved to suffer hell. We use it as an excuse. That's just the way I am. I can't help it. But Jesus Christ, through His holy conception and virgin birth, took away that excuse for His people. Beloved, God's plan of salvation is from eternity. But that salvation package began to be accomplished on earth when the Word of God became flesh. By the power of the Holy Spirit of God, the Son of God in human flesh and blood was perfect. And His perfect righteousness, holiness, and sinlessness is the key to that complete salvation package. Because apart from His being conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, there is no and can be no salvation. What did He merit for us? Well, the form for the celebration of the Lord's Supper says it so beautifully and well. He fulfilled for us all obedience and righteousness of the divine law. He was bound that we might be loosed. He was innocently condemned so that we might be acquitted. He suffered the curse of the cross so that the curse might be removed from us. He suffered hell so that we might be able to enjoy God. This first step of Christ's earthly work on the path of humiliation points to His completed work. He became like us so that we could be remade like Him. His holy conception and virgin birth points to the new birth, the regeneration of His people. John says, but as many as received Him. To them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. Now so many have and continue to reject this Jesus because they do not have the true faith to believe that something so unnatural and something so impossible could be so possible and indeed actual with God. They do not understand their need for this Savior. But only this Jesus conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary is the Savior. And congregation, all those who do not believe on this Jesus by grace through faith, instead of having their sins removed from the sight of God, By Christ's innocence and perfect holiness will have all of their sin exposed, laid out before the wrath of God. For them there is no place in His kingdom. They will be forever shut out. But our comfort is that there is still hope today for those who turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone in repentance and faith. For you who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and belong to this Savior, it is your comfort and assurance that His perfect life and His obedient death covers your sinful life and your deserved death in the sight of God. Removes it from His sight as far as the east is from the west. Beloved, what does it mean that He was conceived by the Holy Spirit? born of the Virgin Mary. It means that this Jesus is the only one we sinners needed. It means that He alone is the mighty fortress to cover and shield His people. The first step on Christ's path of humiliation means the believer's first step on the path of restoration. Amen. Shall we pray? Father, we confess that there are mysteries such as this in your holy word that we have a hard time even beginning to comprehend and understand. But we thank you, O Lord, for the faith, the childlike faith that you have given to your people to believe what you say is true. We confess that because of our sinful human nature, we want to reason things. We want things to make sense. And this doesn't. God and man. Two natures in one person. But we thank you for this truth that Jesus Christ, very God of very God, was also complete man in our place. Father, may this be such a joy incomprehensible to us that we go forward from this day on celebrating that truth, desiring to share the Gospel message with those with whom we have contact, spreading the good news of Jesus Christ. We ask that you would hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name, Amen.