The Ohio Independent Baptist, December 1972

esus by Dr. A. W. Tozer r·111 \ , l)l ( ' [: fl' l ()f the t1irt}1 of C hrt'it can1c ,l, ,l ,unbur,t ()t Jt)\ tt) .1 \\ orltf \\ here grief anc.f pain arc ~nt),, n t) all ,ltltf 10, con1c rare)} an,J never tarr1c, long. 1 he Jt)\ tJ1c a11gcl brought to the U\\C- ·t.rt ~ck ~heph~rd ,, ,l, nt1t tt) l1c ,1 ti1,en1hotiietf ,, p.;p of rcl1g1ott emot ion. R,tthcr 1t ,,.1, .1ntf '" .1 state of la ting gladne , resulting frt)fll t1tf1ng, th,tt there ,, a<; horn in the cit} of Dav id a •1, 1our ,, h1ch is ( ' hr1st the Lord. Jt ""a an overflowing ,en,c f ,, ell-being that had ever} right to be there . The birth t ( ' hri<;t told the ""orld omething. That He ~ht1uld 0111c to be born of a ""oman to make Him elf of no reputation and, being found in fa hion a . a _man, to ht1n1hle Hin1~elf even to death on a cro - th1 1 a fac t ... o n1e(,1ningft1J, o eloquent a to elude even the power of a Da, id or an I ,1iah fully to celebrate. Hi coming. I re– peat. told the \\Orld omethi ng: it decl ared omething, e. tabli ~hed . 0111ething. Wh at wa it? FIR T, THAT GOD i real. The heavens were opened and another "" orld can1e into view. A message came from be) ond the familiar world of nature. "Glory to God in the highe t •• , chanted the celestial host "and on earth peace, good will.'' Earth the hepherd know too weJI· now they hear from God and heaven above. Our earthly \,\ orld and the world above blend into one scene. Jt i little wonder that they went in haste to see Him who had con1e from above. To them God was no longer a hope, a de ire that He might be . He was real . SECO D, HUMAN LIFE is es entially piritual. With the emergence into human flesh of the Eternal Word of the Father the fact of man's di vine origin i confirmed . For God and man to unite they must be to some degree like each other. It had to be so. The Incarnation may indeed raise ome que tions, but it an wer many more. The ones it raises are pecul ative ; the one it et tJes are deepl y moral and va tl y important to the ou l of men. Man's creation in the image and likene of God is one question it settles by affirmi ng it po itively. The Advent proves it to be a literal fact . THIRD, GOD INDEED spoke by the prophet . The prie t and cribes who were ver ed in the Scripture could inform the troubled Herod that the Chri t wa to be born in Bethlehem of Judaea . And thereafter the Old Te tament can1e alive in Christ. It was as if Mose and all the prophet s hovered arottnd Him , guiding Hi foot teps into th e way of the prophetic Scriptures. So difficult was the Old Te tament gamut the Messiah must run to va lid ate Hi claims that the poss ibility of any– one' being able to do it seemed utterly remote ; yet J e u did it. Hi coming confirmed the veracity of the Old Te tament Scriptures, even as those Scriptures con– firmed the oundness of hi own claims. FOURTH, MAN IS lost but not abandoned. The com– ing of Chri t to the world tell s u both of these things. Had men not been lost no Saviour would have been required. Had they been abandoned no Saviour would have come. But He came, and it is now established that God has a concern for men. Though we have sinned away every shred of merit, sti ll He ha not forsaken us. "For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lo t." FIFTH, THE HUMAN race will not be exterminated. God did not vi sit the race to rescue it · in Christ He took human natu re unto Himself, and now He is one of us. For this reason we may be certain that mankind will not be wiped out by a nuclear explo ion or turned into 3U bhuman monsters by the effects of radiation on the human genetic processes. Chri st did not take upon Him- 3elf the nature of a race soon to be extinct. SIXTH, THIS WORLD i not the end. Christ spoke Nith cheerful certainty of the world to come. He reported Jn thing He had seen and heard in heaven and told of the man ion awaiting us. We are made for two worlds and a surely as we now inhabit the one we shall also inhabit the other. SEVENTH, DEATH WILL some day be abolished · and life and immortality hold way. "For this purpose the Son of God was manife ted, that he might destroy the work of the devil ,,, and what more terrible work has the Devil accompli hed than to bring in to the world and death by in? But life i now made manife t by the appearing of our Saviour Je u Chri t, who hath abolished death and hath brought life and immortality to light through the go pel. (The above article i ava il a ble in tract form from the Ameri can Tract Society, Oradell N. J. 07 649.) (Concluded from page 6) Upchurch met us and erved the ubiquitous soft drink - "Coke". The day followi ng this medical trip, I left Puerto Princessa for Ma– nila. Here I was privileged to attend a reception for Rev. and Mrs. Wen– dell Kempton , President of ABWE. From Manila I flew to Iloi lo City on the fitting climax of my tay in the Republic of the Philippine a I wit– nes ed the 42nd annua l commence– ment exerci e of the Doane In titute. A few days later I left - with re– luctance - the Philippine I land . brought back with me. There i 'Omething about living in a foreign country, a different environment, a trange culture, that open one's eye and broadens one's mind. I learned egros. While in Iloilo a young Fili– pino physician took me on a tour of the Iloilo Mission Hospital - a base medical work of the late Dr. Rafael Thomas, founder of the Doane Bap– tist Bible Institute. That evening was 8 DECEMBER, 1 972 One of my purposes in pending three months in medical chooI in the Philippine Island was to re earch rura l health care facilitie there. An– other goa l wa to ob erve mi ion especially medical mi sions, fir thand: and fina ll y, I hoped to learn ome medicine, whi ch I am ure I did. As I look back to tho e three months, I cannot help but think of the important le son I learned and the unexplai nable impre ion I o much about my elf. Yet, I di - covered that I wa the ame per on in ide. I had the ame piritual battle with my elf. But the ame faith in the ame Saviour give me the victory. I a,11 si1re the L ord Jesus had a pi,rpose in taking 111 e to the Pl1ilippines. My prayer is that J will be willing to do what H e purposes. I love tl1 e Philippines, and l lo ve the people, bec·ai1se I love my L ord w/10 clied for the,11. THE OHIO INDEPENDENT BAPTIST