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Adventist Pioneer Library

William W. Prescott

The Word Became Flesh

Prescott These are some comments made by Ellen White, 1 of those present at the meetings.

She said, I have been just listening to a discourse given by Professor Prescott.

It was a most powerful appeal to the people.

Those not of our faith seem deeply interested.

They say, There is no life in our churches.

The people are of the very best class of society.

Of all ages, noble-looking men of white hair sit and listen as for their life.

Some men who are superintendents of Sunday schools are as eager to get the discourses as they see our reporters taking notes in shorthand.

All say, never did we have the privilege of hearing the Bible made so plain and brought to that simplicity and explanation that we cannot help but understand.

Maggie Hare is reporting Professor Prescott's discourses in my talks for publication.

Professor Prescott's sermons will never seem the same, I fear, as when given by the living preacher, for the words are spoken in the demonstration of the Spirit, and with power his face all aglow with the sunshine of heaven.

I think I may safely say I have never in my experience seen so large a number attending meetings not of our faith who are so hungry for the truth." Ellen Whitelaw went on to say, The Lord has visited Brother Prescott in a most remarkable manner and given to him the Holy Spirit to give to this people.

Those who are not in the truth say, that man speaks from the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

We are sure that the Lord has endowed him with his Holy Spirit, and the truth is being poured forth from his lips in rich currents.

The truth has been listened to by preachers and by people not of our faith.

After the meeting they beg of Brother Prescott to give them a copy of these discourses.

Brother Prescott has spoken many times, and those of our faith have felt deeply and expressed themselves that he was speaking under the inspiration of the Spirit of God.

The people in the suburbs of Melbourne are calling.

Set up your tents in our locality, and let the people hear the things that you have preached in Armdale.

We all need the words that you have spoken to us here.

Abundant evidence has been given that the Holy Spirit of God has spoken to men through human agencies.

Large numbers testify that they have never heard the word administered with such power and in the manifest demonstration of the Spirit as at this meeting.

God has said in the heavenly courts to his heavenly intelligences, Let there be spiritual light to shine amid the moral darkness of accumulated air and fables, and reveal truth.

The messenger of the covenant has come, and the sun of righteousness to arise and shine forth upon the eager listeners.

His preexistence, his coming the second time in glory and power, his personal dignity, his holy law uplifted, are the themes that have been dwelt upon with simplicity and power.

The Word Became Flesh In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us.

The word in the revised vision says, it became flesh.

The theme of redemption will be the science and the song of the eternal ages, and while may it occupy our minds during our short stay here, There is no portion of this great theme that makes such a demand upon our minds in order to appreciate it in any degree as the subject we shall study tonight.

The word became flesh and dwelt among us.

Through him all things became, and now he himself became.

He who had all the glory with the Father now lays aside his glory and becomes flesh.

He lays aside his divine mode of existence and takes the human mode of existence, and God becomes manifest in the flesh.

This truth is the very foundation of all truth.

And Jesus Christ Becoming Flesh God being manifest in the flesh is 1 of the most helpful truths, 1 of the most instructive truths, the truth above all truths, which humanity ought to rejoice in.

I desire this evening to study this question for our personal, present benefit.

Let us command our minds to the utmost, because to comprehend that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us demands all our mental powers.

Let us consider, first, what kind of flesh, For this is the very foundation of this question as it relates to us personally.

For as much, then, as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

For verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people.

For in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted." Hebrews 2, verses 14-18.

That through death, being made subject to death, taking upon him the flesh of sin, he might by his dying destroy him that had the power of death.

Verily he took not on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of Abraham.

The margin says, He taketh not hold of angels, but of the seed of Abraham he taketh hold.

And 1 version reads, He helps not angels.

We see the reason from the next verse, Wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.

Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made.

He saith not, And to seeds, as of many, but as of 1, and to thy seed, which is Christ.

Now verily, he helps the seed of Abraham by himself becoming the seed of Abraham, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin condemned sin in the flesh, that the righteousness of the law might be revealed in us who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

So you see that what the Scripture states very plainly, is that Jesus Christ had exactly the same flesh we bear, flesh of sin, flesh in which we sin, flesh, however, in which he did not sin.

No matter how you may have looked at it in the past, look at it now as it is in the word, and the more you look at it in that way, the more reason you will have to thank God that it is so.

Adam's Sin, Typical What was the situation?

Adam had sinned, and Adam, being the head of the human family, his sin was a typical sin.

God made Adam in his own image, but by sin he lost that image.

Then he begat sons and daughters, but he begat them in his image, not in God's, and so we have descended in the line, but all after his image." For 4000 years this went on, and then Jesus Christ came, of flesh, and in the flesh, born of a woman, made under the law, born of the Spirit, but in the flesh.

And what flesh could he take but the flesh of the time?

Not only that, but it was the very flesh he designed to take, because you see the problem was to help man out of the difficulty into which he had fallen.

Christ's work must be not to destroy him, not to create a new race, but to recreate man, to restore in him the image of God.

We see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honor, that he might by the grace of God should taste death for every man." Hebrews 2.9.

An Undone, Helpless Race God made man a little lower than the angels, but man fell much lower by his sin.

Now he is far separated from God, but he is to be brought back again.

Jesus Christ came for that work, and in order to do it, he came not where man was before he fell, but where man was after he fell.

It rested on the earth where Jacob was, but the topmost round reached to heaven.

When Christ comes to help man out of the pit, he does not come to the edge of the pit and look over and say, Come up here, and I will help you back.

If man could help himself up to the point from whence he had fallen, he could do all the rest.

If he could help himself 1 step, he could help himself all the way.

But it is because man is utterly ruined, weak, and wounded, and broken to pieces, in fact, perfectly helpless, that Jesus Christ comes right down to where he is and meets him there.

He takes his flesh, and he becomes a brother to him.

Jesus Christ is a brother to us in the flesh.

For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son.

Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given." Isaiah 9.6.

For Jesus Christ, because of sin, has taken upon himself humanity, and today he wears that humanity and will through all eternity.

Jesus Christ became the Son of Man as well as the Son of God.

He did not come as an angelic being, but was born into the family and grew up in it.

He was a child, a youth, a young man, a man in the full prime of life in our family.

He is the Son of Man, related to us, bearing the flesh that we bear.

Adam was the representative of the family, therefore his sin was a representative sin.

When Jesus Christ came, he came to take the place in which Adam had failed, and so it is written, The first man, Adam, was made a living soul.

The last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

The second Adam is the man Christ Jesus, and he came down to unite the human family with the divine family.

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The Word Became Flesh

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