The Word Became Flesh Part 3 Kathryn Kuhlman

Isaiah said of him, his name shall be called Wonderful. And there's no better name to describe him. Somebody says, was it necessary for Jesus to come? In the first place, Jesus had to come that the scripture might be fulfilled. Isaiah prophesying of him said, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and call his name Emmanuel. In the second place, he had to come that he might be a man and yet a state. the moral taint that comes to everyone born into the human race by natural means. In the third place, he had to come, for the word of God says, to this end was the Son of Man manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. Let me ask you, what are the master forces in your life? If they are the forces of evil and you find yourself in their grip, I'm here to tell you of one who was manifested 2 ,000 years ago to destroy the works of the devil and who works as powerfully today as he worked then. And if you turn to him, He will set you free. He'll destroy the works of the devil in you and give you the victory. And your days of defeat will be over. And only Jesus Christ, the very Son of the living God, can give you victory over your defeated life. Well, you say. That's marvelous. I need that kind of power in my life. But watch. You say I'm already burdened with a sense of guilt. I've done enough sin already to lose my soul a thousand times over. What about the past? I don't need... You, Miss Kuman, did tell me that I'm a sinner, that I need deliverance. That's well and good, but what about my past? I've got wonderful news for you, my friend. And my authority is the word of God. And a fool is the man or the woman who will take issue with God's word. For God's word says... Ye know that he was manifested to take away our sins. No Jew of that day ever heard an expression like that, that he didn't think it once on the day of atonement back in the Old Testament. You know the high priest would lay his hands on the head of a goat? and confess over it the sins of the people and then the goat would bear them away into the wilderness and they'd be gone forever. Now that goat, during the Old Testament dispensation, was the type of lamb that was to come. And don't you remember how John was baptizing in the River Jordan and Jesus came along and John pointed... to him to the people and cried behold the lamb of god that taketh away the sin of the world you know it's hell in a man's breast when his soul is lashed by the whips of a guilty conscience there is no absolutely no pain that is greater to a human being than the pain of a guilty conscience. And to the man who knows his sin and loathes it, who hates the memory of his sin, and to whose soul the consciousness of the wrong that he has done is like a hideous nightmare, I... Tell you, to this man, the sweetest song that's ever sung, the brightest message that was ever delivered, is the glad news that in some mysterious way, which he can never quite fully comprehend, Jesus Christ puts himself underneath that man's sin, underneath all that is foul and vile in the experience of the past. And Jesus lifts that one up, delivers him from the power of sin, cleanseth him from all unrighteousness. And that man who was once condemned stands pardoned, a new creature in Christ Jesus, an heir of God and a joint heir with Christ Jesus. I can't understand this wonderful experience any more than I can understand the deity and divinity of Jesus Christ. Nor can I understand the person of Almighty God. But I tell you what I know because I have experienced it. I've taken the Word of God in face and value. And I find it works. I came to him as a sinner. And he did exactly what he said he would do. He gave peace of mind and peace of soul. That's exactly why Christ was manifested. To take away sins and say, do you know that God has exhausted? the possibilities of human language to let you and me and every poor sinful man and woman know how completely our sins through the personal work of Jesus had been put away? You say my thoughts are dirty thoughts. Ah, but listen. Jesus says, I will remove thy iniquities from thee as far as the east is from the west. You say, but I've cursed, I've blasphemed, I've profaned. And the word rings back, it's all taken away. I will cast all thy sins behind my back. But you say I've led a double life? Only God knows my past, the vileness of my sins. But he answers back, I will cast all thy sins into the depths of the sea. You cry out, I've been a crook, a liar, a thief, and God's glad answer is, it's all taken away. I will blot out thy iniquities as a thick cloud. Someone cries out, I took a man's life in cold blood, yes. And you've done something worse than that. You've crucified the Son of God. Your sin rolled the crown of thorns and pressed it down his brow. Your sin fastened him on the cross. Your sin rolled the spikes through his hands and feet. It was your sins that drove the spear into his side. It was your sin that broke his heart. But somehow I can hear the very... angels as they bend low crying out tenderly to you it's all taken away and God in his tender mercy through the person of Jesus Christ whispers to you and says I will remember thy iniquity against thee no more forever. How can it be? Such good news is too good to believe. Well, beloved, that's because you do not know that... tenderness, the love, the compassion of God. And here comes the other purpose of the incarnation. He was manifested to reveal the Father. It says in the first chapter of John, the 18th verse, that no man has ever seen God. but that Jesus Christ was manifested to reveal God to us. He that hath seen me, Jesus said, hath seen the Father. The only perfect revelation that God ever made of himself, he made in Jesus Christ. And if you look at him through Jesus, you'll know what kind of God he really is. For he that hath seen me hath seen the Father. Did you see him moved with compassion for the restless multitude who were like sheep without a shepherd? That's God. Did you see him that night weeping in pity over Jerusalem? That's God. Did you hear him speak? The blind Bartimaeus told sure. The disciple stepped forward and said, Shut up. You're a beggar. Who do you think you are to speak to one so holy? But Jesus said, Bartimaeus, receive thy sight. That's God. Were you so near that you heard him speak to the poor woman? With the scarlet stain of sin on her soul, she'd been taken in the very act of adultery, and her accusers brought her into the very presence of Jesus. The crowd wanted her stoned. But Jesus said, Go in peace. And sin no more. That's God. Jesus revealed God as a father. And as a father, he does not need to be reconciled. He's waiting for you to come and be reconciled to him. Years ago, in South Texas, there was a little home in the country, and one night it was burned to the ground. And before the neighbors could rescue the family, All were burned to death, save one little girl. She was not more than nine years of age. But she was badly burned on one side of her face, and her little body was horribly burned. The rest were all burned to death. And the neighbors, after a few days when they had consulted among themselves, sent Little Mary to the very famous orphan's home in Texas. The Buckner Orphan's Home. And they advised the noble head of that great orphan's home that Little Mary would come and off a train. And there that good, precious man of God ducked. Dr. Buckner was at the train waiting for her. And when she got off the train, her little eyes were red from weeping. And she just instinctively seemed to know that he was there waiting for her. Walking up to Dr. Buckner, she said, Are you Dr. Buckner? And he said, Yes, honey, and are you Mary? And then she came running to him and threw her arms around him. And it was a wonderful meeting as she laid her little head up against his knee and sobbed with emotion. And then she turned her little burned face up into his and said, You'll have to be my papa and my mama both. And he said, I will the best that I can, Mary. And then she went into the home and was looked after along with those hundreds of little children. The day came that the children were out playing in the yard of the orphanage. And down the street came Dr. Buckner. The children left their plane and rushed over to them, all but little Mary. Little burned -face Mary. The children gathered around Dr. Buckner, kissed him. Oh, they were just so thrilled with him. to say, but little Mary stood off several feet away and looked across her shoulder, watching the whole affair, sobbing like a little heart would break. And when these little ones had kissed the good man, he looked across and saw Mary and said, Mary, why don't you come and kiss me? That was entirely too much for her, and she sobbed aloud, and then he went over and touched her little chin and lifted it up and said, I don't quite understand you, Mary. Why didn't you come and kiss me? And the little thing had difficulty in speaking. When she did speak, she said, Oh, Papa Buckner, I couldn't ask you to kiss me. I'm so ugly. After I got burned, I'm so... Ugly, I couldn't ask you to kiss me. But if you'll just love me like you do the other children and just tell me you love me, then you don't have to kiss me at all. And do you want to know what that great man of God did? He pushed all those... beautiful children away and took little Mary in his arms and he kissed the little burned cheek again and again and said, Mary, you are just as beautiful to me as are any of the rest. You're Beautiful. I was once that ugly child. Sin had left its mark upon my life. But Jesus paid it all. All to him I owe. Sin had left its crimson stain, but Jesus washed it white as snow.