The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1913-04-18
Pastor RuSsell's Sermon

Il =
| man conditions.
| From being above the angels, He of
| His own volition took nature and
| place IA little lower than the angels.
| And He did this. knowing II was only
preliminary step He knew that the
(! particular steps OF selfdenial and suf-
feiing were 10 follow. He humbled
Himself TO become Il man. because a
| man Adan--lad snned. and through
him Il race had come under sentence of
death. and could mol extrirale itself.
only an uncondemned mai could re.
deem the condemned one. For this
purpose Jesus left His glory. and was
| found In fashion ;ls IL man"
The lo2oS did not become a sinful
man. Il benislIed or imperfect man.
On the contrary. He was holy. harm
less. undefiled and separate from sin
nerS.' Otherwise. He could not have
been the Redeemer. BEING sinless, how
ever, this perfect One would suffer all
the more from the shame and igno-
miny connected with the mission He
undertook.
AS it was not babe. but a man.
that had sinned and was to be redeem
ed therefore Jesus needed to wait un-
til He reached manhood's estate-thirty
years-before He could begin His min
istry. Promptly at thirty He made
His conservation. and SymboliZed it
by water immersion at Jordan. Then
He went forth. declaring the Message
which He knew would be misunder
stood-the Message of Gods Love. the
Message that there must be Il sacrifice
for sin, the Message that He was the
Sin Offering. the Message that as a re
suit of that Sin Offering. blessed fruit
lennial Kingdom, which would bless
all the families of the earth.
AS He foreknew. mankind. even the
best preparedEthe Jewish people
were not ready for the Message Thus.
as He foresaw and as tile Scriptures
foretold. they crucified Him-ignorant-
ly-for as St Paul declares: Had they
known it they would not have erucified
the Lord of glory Il Corinthians 2:S)
st. Paul reminds us that we should
consider Christ's undeservedness Of
persecution. lest We should be weary
and faint in our minds" Similar ex-
perfences must to some extent come
upon us And il He who was perfect
endured patiently. we who are imper-
feet may well exercise great patience
And so in our, text the exhortation is
that we perceive how Jesus humbled
Himself. and that we should think it
a great privilege and pleasure similarly
to experience humiliations.
The Rewards of Humility and Loyalty.
No doubt the Logos. 1.-The Beginning
of the Creation OF God the First
born of every creature the one by
whom all things were made, had such
loyalty to the Father that He would
have been obedient. even had no re-
ward been attached to the invitation
given Him. But. on the other hand.
it would not have been consistent with
kindness. love or justice for the Father
to demand OF, His Son such sacrifice.
Justice can make no such demand.
And if Love makes such a suggestion.
1t should properly back up the sugges
ton with some promise of special
favor or blessing According to the
Apostle. God did just this He in
formed His Son that He would appre-
ciate such a sacrifice, and set before
Him joy, hope.
The Apostle does not explain the de-
tails of that hope, but we may infer
them: ~ The Joy Of the Fathers
blessing in superlative sense. (2)
The joy of bringing many sons of God
to the plane. of glory as His Bride
class. 81 The joy of rescuing the
world Of mankind from sin, sickness.
sorrow. pain. death, and of uplifting.
or resurrecting all the willing and ODE
dent of the race to human perfection.
and all that was lost by Adam. a.
An exaltation to still higher station
than that which He had left. He
would be made partaker of the Divine
nature. far above angels, principalities
and powers, and above His own previ
Gus high station as the Only Begotten
of the Father, the Logos-the Word
John 1:1-3.
Here we are, dear brethren. with the
Apostles words and the full scope of
his inspired testimony before US He
tells us that if we desire to be of the
glorious Class of more than conquer
ors. who will be honored by the Re-
deemer, we must humble ourselves to
the doing of the Divine will to the
best of our ability as our Redeemer
humbled Himself to do the Fathers
will perfectly. Not that the Father
will accept anything less than perfec
ton, but that our Redeelner will make
up to US by the imputation of His
for all that which we
lack through our share in Adams fall
and its consequence. In other words.
If we have the same loyalty of heart
that the Master had. we will do what
we can. and so doing shall be accepta-
BILE to the Father, through the Son.
Satan's Course In Contrast.
Notice, now, the contrast between
Satan's course and that of the Lord
Jesus. Satan took the opposite course
from that which the Redeemer took.
Instead of humbling himself, willing
to do everything that would be pleas
ing to the Father. he was proud,
naughty, and sought to exalt himself.
Lucifer was rich before his rebellion. |