Open your Bibles to the second
chapter of the book of Colossians. You know everywhere I go, and I know certainly in our own
circumstances and church family, there are trials and sicknesses
Reflections of every kind and problems. In that we're no different from
anybody else. But it's a wonderful thing to
have our great God to turn to and call on and pray. We don't pray to a God who cannot
say. And I'm thankful. I pray the
Lord will help Not only these that were mentioned, but all
His people and their situations. I want to talk about the unique
person of Jesus Christ. Who is Jesus Christ? I sometimes hear men say concerning
things about Jesus Christ that they know things and they
believe things that they are not able to explain. Well, I'd have to say personally
that just about everything I know about the Lord Jesus Christ,
I cannot fully explain. But I do believe this, and that is whatever we believe
about the Lord Jesus Christ, we must have a clear and definite
statement of that truth in this book. if we don't find it clearly stated
and really often repeated about the Lord Jesus Christ in this
book, better leave it alone. Better shy away from it. But I say that it is so vitally
important to know some things about the Lord Jesus Christ because
who He is determines what He has done. Jesus of Nazareth, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is, as one said, a unique person. He is that unique person, one
of a kind, no other like Him. And while the Scriptures teach
that all His people are complete in Him, that they are viewed by God as
He is, and one day will be like Him, none are or ever will be
exactly like Him. They won't ever be exactly like
the Lord Jesus Christ. And all we have to do to find
out whether or not that is true, if you look back in chapter 1
of the book of Colossians, in that 18th verse, Paul says, and
he is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning,
the firstborn from the dead, that in all things he might have
the preeminence. For it pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell." Look over in chapter 2. At that
third verse, it says of him in whom are hid all the treasures
of wisdom and knowledge. And there are a lot of things
that could be said and that should be said over the course of time
concerning the man Christ Jesus, but there are three things tonight
that I want to restate concerning the person of our Lord Jesus
Christ. I am sure of them. And I'm sure
of them because I find them so clearly stated and repeated in
this, the Word of God. He is all these things now, and
He was all these things as He carried out that work as our
Savior. And not only that, but as he
was in all these things, he remains so in the doing of this work,
and he remains so to this day because it says that he changes
not. Three things. Number one. Jesus Christ was and is the divine
person. If you look in chapter 2 of this
book of Colossians, at that ninth verse, he says, For in him dwelleth
all the fullness of the Godhead. all the fullness of the Godhead. So that what we find in just
that one single clear statement of Scripture is this truth that
this is the divine person. This is nothing less than deity,
nothing less than God Himself. And it should not have come to
anybody's surprise who had ever read the Old Testament prophecies,
because in such places as Isaiah writes in chapter 7 and verse
14, this was one of those prophecies. Therefore, the Lord Himself shall
give you a sign, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son,
and shall call his name Immanuel." Now there are a lot of prophecies
in this book you might get mixed up on. But if you will just turn
over in the New Testament, in Matthew's Gospel, and in that
first chapter, and read the restating of that prophecy in verse 23,
where it says, Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall
bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which
being interpreted. is God with us. God with us. Not just the messenger
of God, not just the favor of God, not just the blessings of
God, but God Himself. Listen to Isaiah's prophecy again
in chapter 9. He said, For unto us a child
is born, and unto us a son is given, and the government shall
be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God. The Mighty God. And then somebody always comes
along, those detractors to the deity and the Godhood of the
Lord Jesus Christ, they'll run to a verse like this in John
14 where our Lord said this, You have heard how I said unto
you, I go away and come again unto you. If you loved me, you
would rejoice, because I said, I go unto the Father, for my
Father is greater than I." What's he talking about? They'll take
a verse like that and try to diminish or absolutely disprove
the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But our Lord speaks oftentimes
in the New Testament in language like that because as He was prophesied
to be also, He came as Jehovah's servant. But he didn't leave us to wonder
because in John 10, speaking as Jehovah's Servant as he did
then, he said also in John 10, I and my Father are one. And what we find is that in the
Bible there are many, many declarations, many statements of Scripture
wherein we find that he is this divine person. God manifests
in the flesh. Look back in John's Gospel in
that first chapter. John chapter 1. And John does
not even get out of the first chapter or even the first verse
before he has to restate this, because if this is not true,
there is no need to say anything else. In the beginning was the Word. Capital letters. And the Word
was with God. And the Word was God. Now that's one of those things
I can't explain. But I've got a plain and a clear
statement in Scripture of this truth. Because he goes on in
verse 14 and he says this, And the Word that was God, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory,
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. full of grace and truth. And what we find is that over
and over again, the Lord Jesus Christ, He demonstrated these
divine attributes on many occasions. He demonstrated that divine omniscience
because it says He needed not that any should tell Him anything
because He knew what is in the heart of man. There ain't but one that knows
what's in the heart of every person, and that's God. Not only
that, but also ascribed to Him is that immutability that belongs
to God alone. It says that He's Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today, and forever. And then also divine
sovereignty, because it says of Him, He said Himself, all
power, All power in heaven and in earth was given unto Him. He is the divine person. He is none less than God Himself. And Paul, he describes it, writing
to Timothy in this way, he says, and without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness God was manifest in the flesh, justified
in the Spirit, seen of angels. Do you know the angels had never
seen God either until the Lord Jesus Christ came? They did His
bidding. They owned Him as their Creator.
They acted as His messengers. But it says when he came, he
was seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on
in the world, received up into glory. And then John says this
in 1 John 5, he says, For there are three that bear record in
heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost, and these
three are What? He says a little later in verse
5 and verse 20, And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath
given unto us understanding, that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God. and eternal life. You know, the Jews, they were
never confused, as men seem to be in our day, as to what the
Lord Jesus Christ claimed as far as deity was concerned. When they were about to stone
him on one occasion, he asked them this question. He says in
John 10, what good work is it that I have done? What miracle
that I have performed? What is it that I have done in
these good works for which you stone me? They said, for a good work we
don't stone you. We are not stoning you because
you multiplied those fish or those loaves or anything else.
We are not stoning you for good work, but we are stoning you
for blasphemy, because that thou, being a man,
makest thyself God. You see, if he was not God, then
he could not satisfy God. If he was not God, he could not
give to God anything that he would accept, but his deity is
what makes his sacrifice avail for the great multitude of his
elect that he came into this world to die for. He is the divine
person. And so when in any of those,
what they call them, peckerwoods that come to your front door
and they're knocking on the door and they want to talk to you,
they've got some literature for you, whatever, I've always got
one question for you. Just answer one question for
me. And if you answer this one question
for me right, we might have something to talk about. Is Jesus Christ
God? And they'll start kind of squirming
and twisting and digging in their pockets and all this kind of
stuff. Well, we believe He was the Son of God, or we believe
this. That's not what I ask you. Is Jesus Christ God? Because if that is not the case,
not only do we not have anything to talk about, there is no salvation
in Christ, there is no hope in Christ. He is, according to this
book, repeatedly declared to be the divine person. Understand that? No need to fight
about that. But here is the second thing.
And that is, not only was he that divine person, he was and
is a human person. Look at that verse in Colossians
chapter 2. He says in that ninth verse of
Christ, he says, For in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
Bodily. Bodily. You know, this word is not found
anywhere else in the New Testament. But the word means having a body
instead of just existing or appearing in a spiritual form. He didn't
just appear or exist in some spiritual form. He was in a human
body. He was a human body. Turn over to 1 John. Look at
what it says in 1 John chapter 1. John begins this epistle by just
simply saying, that which was from the beginning. Now, if you want a real interesting
study, you just take those two words, the beginning, and you
look at how many times in this book they refer to Christ. He's the beginning. Not just
the beginning of creation, but the beginning of salvation. He's
the beginning. "...that which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which
we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word
of life." Men embraced God in a body. He says, for the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father, not just from the Father,
He was with the Father, and was manifested unto us. That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may
have fellowship with us, and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ." He is a human person. John said
that word was made flesh. And that Word, none other than
Jesus Christ, was and is not just simply a man, but the man. You hear all these people say,
like Paul warned us not to do, they compare themselves with
themselves. Well, preacher, I probably live
as good as you do. Probably better. But that's a
low standard. Because God's standard for all
that a man should be, all that he requires a man to be in human
flesh, there he is, Jesus of Nazareth. The one that Isaiah
called the mighty God, the one he said is the son that would
be given, he says also is the child That's born. He's the God-man. And the reason for this is because
God, absolutely considered, He cannot die. I tell my folks that
I remind them of this again and again. Because in order to accomplish
the salvation of a man, he must become a man. You think about what God Almighty
not only could have, but did from heaven. Created these worlds,
rules over it, sends angels, does everything imaginable and
even does so particularly for his people, he can do everything
that's necessary except the one thing that's absolutely necessary. He can't die. And so he has to take on himself
a human body in order to do the one thing necessary to save us. If you want to know how bad a
sinner If you want to know what sin is, if you want to know how
rotten to the very core we are in order to save us from our
sin, God had to take on a human body and come into this world
and die. Die in our place. Because Paul
said there is just one mediator between God and men. He didn't speak of a mediation
between God and man as a generic whole. He said there is one mediator
between God and men. The man, Christ Jesus. He is the Son of God and He is
the Son of Man. And that child in Mary's womb
was nothing less than what the Spirit said, that holy thing. And he is not only called David's
Lord, but he is also David's son. He is that one who long,
long ago was prophesied as the seed of the woman. And Paul says,
when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His
Son made of a woman. Made under the law. He is a human person. Turn over
to Philippians chapter 2. Philippians chapter 2 and look
down at verse 5. Beginning there, he says, Let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God,
Thought it not robbery to be equal with God? I can tell you this. Anything
that's not equal with God is robbery. That's what iniquity
is about. Inequity. Not equal to God in
what He requires. He says, but he made himself
of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and
was made in the likeness of men, and being found in fashion as
a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even
the death of the cross. also have highly exalted Him
and given Him a name which is above every name, that at the
name of Jesus, that name of His humanity, that at the name of
Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven and things
in earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue
should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. to the glory of God the Father. He ate. He slept. He got tired. He walked around
in clothes. He had this body. And it says
that He died the death of the cross in this body, that He bore
the sins of His people in this body. And when Paul writes in
Hebrews, and quotes this very thing by the Spirit of God that
was prophesied long before in the Psalms. He says, Then said he, Lo, I
come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, that
he may establish the second, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The body. Now, I'm sure of these two things.
He is that unique divine person. And He is that unique human person. And here's the third thing. He was and is that sinless person. Sinless person. In other words,
he had to be God and he had to be man and he had to be sinless. If he's not God, no Savior. If he's not a man, no Savior. And if he's not sinless, no Savior. No Savior. You see, the Apostle
Peter said that it was as the just one that he suffered for
the unjust. It is as the Lamb of God, the
one sacrificed for sins forever, as that Lamb of God, He had to
be without blemish and without spot. You go back over in this book
and you trace through that law that God gave through Moses in
that Old Testament economy with its sacrifices and offerings,
you get all the way back to the book of Leviticus, and it is
stated so clearly that in order to be accepted, you had to be perfect. All through that book. All through
that history of the Jews. all through all that blood poured
out, those sacrifices of every kind of imaginable amongst clean
things, it had to be perfect to be accepted. No man could convince him of
sin. Even that man Pilate at his so-called
trial had to say, I find no fault in Him." None. The devils even called Him the
Holy One. That's more than some preachers
are calling Him. The Holy One. Isaiah recorded these words,
he says, And he made his grave with the wicked and with the
rich in his death, because he had done no violence, neither
was any deceit in his mouth. And I'll tell you something,
if you'll go over and read the book of Hebrews, where you find
this contrast and comparison with the priesthood and the priest
and all these things, and right in the midst of it all is something
again and again about this sacrifice. Hebrews 4. The Apostle says,
For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted
like as we are. without sin. Can you just imagine going down
to the bank, asking the man who holds all the accounts, if so-and-so
can come over here and take care of this terrible debt you've
got? And he turns over there to their
account and looks at their account and they've got the same amount
of debt you've got. He'll say, oh, no. yet without sin. He goes on in Hebrews 7. He says,
For such a high priest became us, suited us, fitted us, fitted
us in God, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners,
and made higher than the heavens. Gosh, that's plain. He says this in Hebrews 9, How much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God? Is that what that says? Let me
read that. Let me see if I can get more
out of that than that. I don't want any more out of
that than that. Who without spot offered himself
to God on the behalf of his people as their substitute, as their
Savior. He offered himself without spot
to God. Purge your conscience from dead
works to serve the living God. Turn over to 1 Peter chapter
1. You know, I've been reading this
few verses here a long time. As best I can tell, it hasn't
changed a bit. I'm not looking to come to any
new revelation about this. 1 Peter 1, look down in verse
18. He says, for as much as you know
that you were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver
and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your
fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot. When he got to giving those instructions
about that Passover lamb, very first at the head of it, you
lock that lamb up, you shut him up, you watch him, you make sure
he hasn't got a scab or a break or a twisted joint or a blemished
eye or anything like that. Because he's going to picture
the Son of God. He is going to picture the Lamb
of God that takes away sin. Look over in chapter 2, verse
22. Peter Rather is speaking in the
same vein that Paul and every other writer of Scripture does.
In that 22nd verse, it says, "...who did no sin, neither was
Guile found, in His mouth. You see, John says in 1 John
3, and you know that He was manifested to take away our sins. And in Him is no sin. No sin. You know, the old preachers
of the Gospel, the old what I'd call true biblical scholars and
writers and teachers, they talked about the impeccability of Christ. Somebody said, well, in order
to save us, He had to be able to do this. No, He just had to
be sinless. and a substitute. And he had to be sinless in order
for God to impute our sins to him. Isaiah said, All we like sheep
have gone astray, and we have turned every one to his own way
but the Lord. The Lord hath laid on Him the
iniquity of us all. You know, I get troubled when I hear anybody kind of making
a mockery in a subtle way, kind of degrading what they call sometimes
a legal redemption or a legal salvation. Bless God, show me
another one in the Bible. I'm serious. What do words like redeem mean? What does a word like ransom
mean? What does a word like justify
mean? Why did God say, revealing Himself
there in the book of Isaiah, you look unto Me, I am the only
God there is, I do everything, and I am a just God and a Savior? There is nothing mystical here,
people. Here is a sinless man. Here is a divine man. Here is a man, and he is God
in flesh, come to die and pay the debt for sin necessary to
redeem us. What does that mean? It means
to buy back by the paying of a price. What does it mean to justify?
It means that a high court somewhere has by an act of that court declared
Somebody not guilty. A fellow asked me one time, he
said, do you believe in imputed guilt? I had republished old Rushton's
book on redemption, you know, and in it he makes a statement
like that. And I thought, you know, before
I answer that, I better check on that. I believe in imputed
guilt. So I went and I got to studying,
you know, and I got to looking in my concordances and my Greek
dictionaries and all this kind of stuff. What is guilt? I believe in imputed guilt. As if guilt was simply responsibility
or something like that, mystical. I believe in imputed guilt. So
I went over there and I looked. at all the various definitions
in the Greek for that word guilt. You know what the first one was? Responsibility. Do I believe in imputed responsibility? Absolutely. I believe that God
imputed That responsibility laid on His Son, the responsibility
for satisfying divine justice and paying the sin debt for all
His people on Jesus Christ. And He paid it. He paid it. You don't have any
trouble wondering if you go down to the bank plunk down that hundred
dollars for that hundred dollars you owe them and they give you
a receipt, that's pretty... You say, well, that's just, that's
so cold. I'll tell you what, I've had
been able and blessed of God to pay a few debts in my time
that made me rejoice. Made me happy. Somebody said,
but that's not real. It's real to God. And the only
thing that's real to you as a sinner has to be what's real to God. He knew no sin. That's what He
says. And I'm sure the brothers are
going to come. He's going to tell us the straight of this
thing. But right there in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, it says, He hath
made him to be sin for us who knew no sin. Well, at this certain point,
do you suppose that somehow God has given someone kind of an
inside view of what was actually felt of Christ? What actually
took place between the Father and the Son in this business
of redemption that He hadn't told the rest of us? Jesus paid it all. all the debt I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow." You see, righteousness, if you want to define it to its
finest essence, is simply justice. It has to do with what God does
And all that God does, He has to do right. And He was right to declare His
people righteous, for whom the Lord Jesus Christ, as God, as
man, and as the sinless man, came and bore their sins in His
body on the tree. That's a unique person. And that's
the one we read about in the Bible. And I'm so thankful that
God had made this thing so complicated. He said He'd made him to be sinned,
this one who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God. Period. I'm afraid not. In Him. Now, I'm sure that there's
a mystery and a glory in this union between Christ and His
people that one day I'll understand and know more clearly and more
appreciatively than I do right now. But I'm telling you this. The fact is, what I find stated
says, what I'm sure about is, that by this representation,
call it legal, call it whatever you want to, all his people stood before God,
viewed in Christ, dealt with in Christ, saved in Christ, everything
in Him. He's a unique person. He's the
God-man. And I love Him. You can talk about somebody that
I ain't seen all you want to. You know, you can get to heebie-jeebies
if you want to. I know this, but I can't explain
it. If you can't explain it, get
on down the road somewhere. God has. You see what I'm saying? God has. He laid it out. It's plain. This divine person became a human
being, sinless, that he might be the sinless sacrifice for
this sinner's sins. And this is that receipt. A declaration
by God that says He paid it all. Thank you.