The Bible says,
"And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifest in the flesh…."
The incarnation truly is a mystery.
Today, please fellowship with us just what incarnation truly is.
The Elders have arrived!
Brothers and sisters, peace to you! Sorry, we're late.
There they are. So good to see you. All of you, have a seat. Hello.
Hi. Good to see you. Oh, how have you been? All right. Let's start soon.
Yes. So good to see you. I agree. So, how's everyone doing?
Praise to the Lord. Let's continue our fellowship. (Yes.)
I've believed in the Lord for many years.
Although I know the Lord Jesus is the God incarnate.
I still don't understand much about the truth of His incarnation. (Mm.)
If the Lord comes again and appears just as He was then,
working as the Son of man,
we won't be able to recognize Him, and we can't welcome His coming. (Yes.)
The incarnation truly is a mystery.
Very few people out there can understand the truth of it. (Yes.)
Today, please fellowship with us just what incarnation truly is. (Yes.)
We all have no idea about the question from Brother Lin.
If the Lord Jesus comes again as the Son of man,
we really could not recognize Him. (Yes.)
Maybe we will resist and condemn Him just like the Pharisees. (Yes. Sure.)
The Lord will come again as the Son of man? Impossible!
The Lord Jesus made it clear to us! He'll come on a cloud for all to see!
That's right! This is clearly prophesied in the Bible!
How in the world could you deny it?
That is what the Bible says. It's undeniable. Exactly what the Bible says.
What other way is there to see it?
You say He'll come on a cloud.
Are you sure the Lord will come again upon a cloud?
The bridegroom is coming at midnight. What if you hear that?
Those wise virgins hear it.
They hear the bridegroom's voice and welcome the Lord,
attending the feast with Him.
Do you dare deny that'll happen?
Mystery is behind the Lord's coming.
Mm.
You know this verse. I know that you do.
God's thoughts are always higher than man's thoughts.
And God's wisdom cannot be fathomed.
It is the truth. There are mysteries in God's work.
Since you can't gain insight, don't make a conclusion.
Don't judge blindly just by a single verse.
You will all mislead and deceive others, and also resist God as well.
Mm. Yes. I think that's right.
Everyone, regarding this issue, we must all strive to seek the truth.
Mm, right. (Yes, that's right.)
Yes. God's wisdom is unfathomable.
The Lord's return is a mystery.
Nobody should jump to conclusions just based on one verse.
It'll be better for us to seek it. (Mm. That's right.)
Oh, thank God.
That's a very good question.
Incarnation is indeed a huge mystery.
Thousands of years, no one has understood the truth of incarnation.
That is a fact.
Almighty God comes in the last days
and reveals the mystery of incarnation to man by Himself.
Only then do we understand the truth of incarnation.
Let's read some passages from Almighty God.
Page 1362.
From Almighty God's words,
we know incarnation means that God's Spirit becomes a flesh,
that is,
God's Spirit is realized in the flesh with a normal humanity and normal mind.
Yes.
He becomes an ordinary man to work and speak among mankind.
This flesh has a normal humanity and complete divinity.
Though ordinary and normal in appearance, this flesh can undertake God's work,
express God's voice, lead mankind, and also save mankind.
That's because He has complete divinity.
This complete divinity is the inherent disposition of God,
which His Spirit possesses.
Also God's holy and righteous substance,
what God has and is, His almightiness and wisdom,
and His authority and power are all realized in the flesh.
This flesh is Christ and indeed is
the practical God who comes to the earth to do the work of saving mankind.
In appearance, Christ is an ordinary and normal Son of man,
but there are substantial differences between Him and created humans.
The created man has humanity without any divine substance,
yet Christ not only has normal humanity.
More than that, He has complete divinity.
He has God's substance. So, He can fully represent God:
He can express the truth with God's identity,
express God's disposition and what God has and is,
and He can bestow to man the truth, the way, the life.
This is beyond any created man's capability.
When Christ works, speaks and expresses God's disposition,
and what God has and is,
He expresses all of these in the flesh.
No matter how He expresses God's word and work,
He lives in normal humanity all along.
So He is of normal flesh, not supernatural.
So this now proves God has come into the flesh
and He has become an ordinary man.
It's this ordinary and normal flesh
that fulfills the work of "the Word appearing in the flesh."
This is the incarnate practical God.
Because Christ has complete divinity,
He can represent God, and express the truth, and save all mankind.
Because Christ He has complete divinity,
He can directly express God's words instead of conveying them.
He can express the truth anytime, anywhere to supply and water man.
He can lead the entire human race.
Because Christ has complete divinity, God's identity, and God's substance,
we can say that He is God incarnate, is the practical God Himself. (Yes.)
That's right. We've never heard that before.
Thank the Lord.
I used to think that when God incarnate comes,
He would do what the Lord Jesus did before,
performing wonders, healing the sick, bringing life to the dead.
A word from Him comes along with miracles. That is God incarnate. (Yes.)
Now I realize it doesn't seem so. (Ahh, thank God.)
God incarnate in the last days is an ordinary and normal flesh.
He seems normal outside and looks nothing special from other people.
However, He has divine substance which can't be seen by our own eyes.
He can express God's voice.
He can express all the truth and provide man with life.
Only because His humanity is so ordinary, (Yes, praise God.)
no one believes that He is the incarnate God Himself.
Now I think I understand. Inside my heart, I feel brightened.
I've believed for most of my life.
Honestly, I thought God incarnate should perform miracles, signs, and wonders.
I thought that He should look a certain way, lofty and outstanding.
Through Almighty God's full disclosure, I am ashamed.
Actually, God incarnate is just an ordinary and normal flesh, not supernatural.
No wonder why the Pharisees said,
"Isn't he the Nazarene?" "Isn't he the carpenter's son?"
It's because the Lord Jesus' flesh was too ordinary. (Mm. Yes.)
God's incarnation counters everyone's conceptions and imaginations. (Mm. Yes.)
It's truly a mystery.
I need to investigate this much more carefully. (Oh, thank God.)
The mystery of incarnation is not about
whether His flesh looks lofty or looks ordinary,
but that inside this man, this completely ordinary looking man,
there is a hidden divinity.
This hidden divinity can't be discovered and cannot be seen by anyone.
Just as the Lord Jesus came to work,
if people couldn't hear His voice or didn't experience His word or work,
then no one would know that the Lord Jesus was Christ and the Son of God.
Thus, incarnation is the best way for God to remain hidden among man.
When the Lord Jesus came,
nobody could tell from His appearance
that the Lord Jesus was Christ, the God incarnate,
nor could anyone find that there was divinity hidden inside His humanity.
Not until the Lord Jesus expressed the truth and did redemptive work
did man believe and find His words had authority and power.
They began to follow Him.
It was after the Lord Jesus was resurrected and appeared to man
that man truly saw the Lord Jesus was the incarnate Christ,
the appearance of God.
If He hadn't expressed the truth and done the work,
no one would've followed Him.
If He hadn't testified Himself as Christ, the appearance of God,
no one would've recognized Him.
We have a conception and imagination:
If He's really God's incarnate flesh, He would be an extraordinary flesh,
like a great man, so majestic, lofty, dignified.
His words don't just have authority and power.
He also shows us signs and wonders.
That is the God incarnate.
If the flesh looks ordinary like a common man, and has a normal humanity,
He can't be the God incarnate.
Let us all then recall this.
When the Lord Jesus was indeed incarnated to speak and work,
no matter how He expressed the truth and expressed God's voice,
no one recognized Him.
And when someone testified the Lord Jesus, they said,
"Isn't he the son of Joseph?" "Isn't he a Nazarene?"
Why did they talk about Him in that way?
It's because Jesus looked like a normal man on the outside.
He looked like an ordinary man. He didn't look like a great man at all.
So they didn't accept Him. (Mm. Yes.)
Actually, God incarnate shall indeed have normal humanity.
People will know that the flesh God takes on is ordinary and normal.
He shall be just a real and normal man in appearance.
If God takes on an extraordinary flesh, a special flesh,
not actually a real human,
the significance of His incarnation is gone.
Therefore, Christ has to have normal humanity, and has to be a real human.
Only that can prove He is the Word become flesh. (Yeah.)
Let's read Almighty God's word.
Page 1365.
Brother Wang. Can I read it? (Yes.)
From Almighty God's words, we can clearly see
the God incarnate needs to have normal humanity and has to be a real man.
From His appearance, He is still an ordinary and normal man.
His humanity is not supernatural.
If people judge Christ according to their imaginations and conceptions,
they'll never truly acknowledge Christ and accept Christ.
At most, they'll accept Him as a prophet sent by God, or a man used by God.
To know Christ, we must investigate His work and words,
and check to see whether what He expresses is God's voice,
or whether His expression is the disposition of God, and what God has and is,
whether the truth and the work He expresses actually save mankind.
Only this way we are able to know and to accept and obey Christ. (Mm.)
If people don't seek the truth or investigate God's work,
even if they do hear Christ's words and see the facts laid before them,
they won't be able to know Christ.
Even if they live with Christ by day and by night,
they'll still treat Christ just as an ordinary man,
and they will resist and they'll also condemn Him.
Actually, to acknowledge and accept Christ,
we only need to recognize God's voice, and then admit that it's God's work.
But to truly know Christ's divine substance,
in order to truly obey Christ and love the practical God,
what we must do is discover the truth from Christ's work, and from His words.
We need to see God's disposition and what God has and is.
We need to see God's holy substance, almightiness and wisdom.
We need to find God's loveliness, His kind and thoughtful heart.
If we do all these things,
we'll obey Christ truly and worship the practical God inside.
It's certainly something to think about. Yes.
Yes. We believers in the Lord all know
the way the Lord Jesus preached, the words He expressed,
the mystery of the kingdom of heaven,
His requirements for man are all truth and the voice of God.
It's very clear. (Yes.)
They're the expression of God's disposition and also what God has and is.
The signs that He performed, healing the sick, calming the wind and waves,
feeding men with five loaves and two fish, and raising the dead and so on,
these are some of the manifestations of God's authority and power.
During that time, the truth seekers
like Peter, John, Matthew and Nathanael,
recognized the Lord Jesus from His works and words.
They found He was the Messiah who was to come and so they followed Him.
They gained His salvation.
The Jewish Pharisees,
though having heard the Lord Jesus' sermons
and witnessed His signs and miracles,
only believed that He was just a normal and ordinary man.
He had no influence or fame.
So they condemned and resisted Him fiercely, fearlessly.
And so, finally they just nailed Him to a cross. They committed a heinous crime.
The Pharisees' failure is really thought-provoking.
It has fully revealed their antichrist nature of hating the truth and God.
The foolishness and ignorance of the corrupt mankind is revealed.
Now then, the incarnate Almighty God, like the Lord Jesus,
does all of God's own work in His normal humanity.
Almighty God has expressed all the truths
that corrupt mankind must possess to be saved (Yes.)
and does the work of "judgment beginning with the house of God"
in the last days.
He not only reveals and judges mankind's satanic nature and their corruption.
He also shows the six-thousand-year management plan of the salvation
that He has for humans.
He shows how to break away from sins, to become holy and be saved by God.
He reveals to man God's inherent righteous disposition, what God has and is.
He displays God's unique authority and power.
Almighty God's work and words have fully shown God's own identity and substance.
Today, people follow Almighty God,
because they hear God's voice from Almighty God's work and words
and see the appearance of God's words in the flesh,
thus returning before His throne
to accept His purification and perfection.
But the religious people who still resist, deny, and condemn Almighty God
have undoubtedly made the same mistake as the Jewish Pharisees.
They treat Christ of the last days—Almighty God as an ordinary man.
They don't seek to investigate the truth expressed by Almighty God.
Finally, they nail God to the cross again, and have provoked God's disposition.
Obviously, if we hold on to our perceptions and imaginations
without seeking and investigating the truth expressed by Christ,
we won't recognize God's voice as uttered by Christ,
nor will we accept or obey Christ's work.
As a consequence, we will never have God's salvation in the last days.
If we don't know the truth of incarnation,
we will not obey or accept God's work.
Besides, we're likely to be punished and cursed by God
for condemning Christ and resisting God.
So, seeking the truth and knowing the mystery of incarnation
is so extremely important and crucial for us all to be saved. (Yeah.)
Thank the Lord. You've fellowshiped about incarnation very clearly to us.
I feel much more enlightened. (Thanks be to God.)
Christ is normal Son of man outside,
but the divinity hidden inside is most difficult to perceive.
If we don't seek Him with our hearts,
or know of Him from Christ's words and works,
it's indeed difficult to know Christ's divine substance. (Yes. Right.)
Yes. Think of Judas.
He lived with the Lord Jesus and ate with Him morning and night,
but he never knew that the Lord Jesus was Christ.
Later, he betrayed the Lord Jesus, became an eternal sinner.
It's really a lesson to us. (Mm. Yes.)
Almighty God has revealed the mystery of incarnation so clearly.
It seems that He is truly the returned Lord Jesus. (Yeah.)
Mm. I can't agree more.
Back then, because the Lord Jesus performed all these miracles and wonders
in His normal humanity,
people just failed to recognize Him. (That's right.)
Only those who thirsted and searched for the truth recognized Him as Christ.
Yes.
It seems that believing in God incarnate
is not really easy when you think about it.
We believe in the Lord Jesus today all because of the Bible,
not because we got a chance to meet Him and experienced His work.
We just believe. (Yes.)
Hearing your fellowship, I'm wondering:
If now I really see the Lord Jesus' work among man,
can I truly believe in Him? Can I truly obey His work?
It's really difficult to say.
It's no wonder that when Almighty God comes to work,
there are so many religious people resisting and condemning Him.
It seems that according to the Bible it's easy to believe.
But it isn't easy to believe and accept Jesus
once we see He comes to work again.
What we are is ignorant of the truth of incarnation.
We really don't know at all.
Praise to the Lord. Almighty God's words help me understand.
Incarnation means God's Spirit takes on flesh and becomes a real man. (Yes.)
In appearance He's an ordinary and normal Son of man, not supernatural. (Yes.)
Yet what's hidden inside Him is divinity, which no one can discover. (Yes.)
Just like when the Lord Jesus worked, no one discovered His divine substance.
Therefore, no one recognized that He was the God incarnate. (Mm. Yes.)
Now, it seems that only from the incarnate God's work and word
can we truly know the God incarnate. (Yes. Mm.)
If we measure and condemn the Christ by our imaginations,
we will very likely treat Christ as just an ordinary and normal man. (Yes. Mm.)
We'll resist and condemn Christ easily.
Mm. For those of us who wait for the Lord's coming,
but don't know what incarnation really is,
the truth that you're talking about here is so important. It's significant.
Thank God. (Yes. It's very important.)