Mary's son was very God. He was God. And though he was God, he made himself of no reputation. Gave himself to be a servant.
and was an obedient servant unto God, even obedient even to the
death of the cross. Wherefore, verse 9, wherefore
God hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above
every name. There never was, there is not
presently, and never shall be a name exalted as highly as the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ." Think about that. Think about
that when you hear preachers talking about Him, what He's
hoping to do and trying to do. That's not so. That's the wrong
Jesus. I'm sorry, but it is. And at
the name of Jesus, one day this is going to happen. One day this
is going to happen. One day you're going to do it.
Unless you do it in the day of grace. bowing to him, receiving
him. You'll do it in the day of his
judgment, but he's going to sit on the throne of David, that
every enemy is put under his feet. One day, at the name of
Jesus, every knee shall bow, things in heaven, things in earth,
things under the earth. that every tongue shall confess
that He is L-O-R-D, He's the Lord. That's what Peter preached
on the Day of Pentecost. That Jesus you crucified, He
was delivered into your hands by the determinate counsel and
foreknowledge of God. God raised Him up, made Him to
be both L-O-R-D and Christ. That man you killed, He's your
Lord. He was in your hands for a moment
by the will of God. And you're in His hands forever.
He's the Lord. Jesus Christ is the Lord. The
preacher, why is this so important? Because knowing Him is life eternal. That's how I made the decision.
That's good. I'm glad. I walked an aisle, I repeated
a prayer, and I did this and that and the other. The only
life in this Bible, the only life that we read about in this
Bible is knowing Christ, knowing God in Christ, knowing Him intimately,
and trusting and loving Him. You know Him. All these other
words were epitomized in that one. Knowing Him. If you know
Him, you love Him. If you know Him, you come to
Him. If you know Him, you trust Him. If you know Him, you follow
Him. Knowing Him is everything. Everything. And one day, every
knee is going to bow to the Lord Jesus Christ. Men treat Him badly and talk
badly about Him in our day, but one day they'll get their language
straight, real straight, when they see Him as He is. Colossians
chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1. This is
life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou sent. I said, well, I know him. Well,
tell me about him. If you know him, tell me about
him. Who is he? What is he? Where did he come
from? Where is he now? What's he doing now? Tell me
about him. The Bible said every believer
ought to be ready and able to give an answer to every man that
asks him. Give a reason of the hope that he has. That hope is
Christ. Tell me about him. Colossians
chapter 1, verse 15, Christ, who is the image of the invisible
God, and He is the firstborn of every creature. By Him were all things created. Did you know Jesus of Nazareth,
the Son of God, the God-man, was the creator of all things?
He is. All things that are in heaven,
all things that are in the earth, all things visible, all things
invisible, whether they be thrones, dominions, principalities or
powers, all things, everything was created by Him. And what does it say next? For
Him. For Him. And He is before all things,
and by Him all things consist. That little word consist, it
means when you look at the whole universe, all the planets, all
the stars, their suns, their moons, their satellites, all
things consist, all things are held together by His sovereign
will. He keeps them all in the proper
orbit. All held together by Him. That's the Christ of this book.
And the Bible says that on His belt, around His waist, hang
the keys to hell and death. There's the keys to death and
hell. I want to talk to you a few minutes this morning about my
Lord Jesus Christ. I hope He's yours. I want to
give you some thoughts about Him. I heard Brother Mahan say
years ago, and it's becoming more painfully clear all the
time. I had a lot of people talking
about salvation, but they're not talking about the Savior.
They might preach a great message on redemption, but they're not
talking about the Redeemer! And it's Him we must know. Not
just trust the doctrine. We must know Him and love Him
and trust Him. Tell me about him. Tell me about
him. First of all, I'll tell you this.
You'll find this in Proverbs chapter 8. that before anything
was ever created, back in the stillness of eternity past, He
was everything to the Father. The Father rejoiced in Him. The
Father delighted in Him. They delighted in each other.
Proverbs chapter 8. And so to God the Father this
name is above every name. It is now and it always has been
and always will be. In all that God does, the triune
God is glorified, but Christ has the preeminence. His name
is above all names. He has the preeminence. Now listen to this. To God the
Father, His name is above every name. Every divine purpose is
in the name of Christ. Every divine work that the triune
God ever did, did it in Christ. You see what that name is? It's
everything. Everything. To God the Father, that name
is above every name. To God the Holy Ghost, that name
is above every name. Christ said when He comes, He
won't speak of Himself, He'll speak of me. He'll take the things
of mine and show to you. He'll not glorify Himself, He'll
glorify me. The purpose of the Holy Ghost,
the office of the Holy Ghost is to glorify, lift up, elevate,
magnify the Lord Jesus Christ. To take the things of Christ
and show them to me. Show them to you. To the Holy
Ghost, He's everything. That's why He's here to speak
of Him. He came to speak of Him. to speak
of Him. His every activity and every
manifestation of the Holy Ghost is to glorify the name of Christ. Well, we've seen what He is to
the Father, what He is to God the Spirit, what is He to you?
That's an important question. What is Christ to you? What do
you think of Him? What place does He have in your
mind? What place does He have in your heart? What do you think
of Him? That's the most important issue
between you and God, as He looks down upon your mind and heart
this morning, sitting right here, your thoughts of His Son. And in the Holy Scriptures, He's the living oracle. That's
what the old Puritans would have said, the living word. The incarnate
word. He's the message from heaven.
He's not only a messenger who brought the message, he himself
is the message. He stood before men and women
in his day on here on the earth, and he said, I'm the way, and
I'm the truth, and I'm the life. God said of him in John chapter
one, he is the word. the eternal living Word become
incarnate walking around in that fleshly body. He's the Word become
flesh, made flesh. And we beheld His glory, the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. He is the first, He is the last,
and everything in between. That's Christ. Spurgeon said
He's the sum and substance of all truth. What is it to the holy angels? Oh, He's their love, their worship,
their master. They sing glory, glory, glory
constantly around His throne. And they hang around His throne
waiting for command. They're ready to go forth and
follow that command. They delight to do the will of
God. That's what Christ is to the
holy angels. To the spirits of just men made
perfect, those in Hebrews 11, and that great cloud of others
who followed on and gone home to Gloria, what is it to them? Ms. Coleman, those who've left
this number, gone home to be with Christ forever. What is
it to them? Well, He is the name. He's all their love. You ask them what they love,
who they love, they all point to Him. all their salvation,
all their praise, all their glory, and in their hearts is written
this song, worthy is the Lamb that was slain, has redeemed
us unto God by His own blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation. To them He's all and in all. He's everything. He's their heaven,
He's their bliss, He's their joy, He's everything. What is it to the saints of God
on earth, this old sinner here? I preached two Sundays recently,
all and in all. He's everything. Those who are
quickened by the Spirit of God, saved by the grace of God, they
don't boast on circumcision, uncircumcision, riches or poverty,
bond or freedom. He's all. They boast in Him. He's everything. He's the salvation. He's made unto them wisdom, and
righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption. He's all. Everything. To me, He's everything. As I think about, and I sit at
home doing this sometimes, think about one day I'm going to go
out, and it may be real soon, it may be today. Stand before
God, just in this mysterious, unimaginable, leave this world
and stand before God, the holy God of this world. I can't think of but one word,
one name, one plea, Jesus Christ. What do you trust? What do you think gives you the
right to be here? What is it you trust to make
you accepted of God? The Lord Jesus Christ, that's
all. Christ is all. He's all my confidence. He's all my trust. He's all my
hope. And He's all my praise. He's
all. There is a name I love to hear. I love to sing its worth. Sounds like music in my ear. Sweetest name on earth. The Lord
Jesus Christ is everything. What is it to the fallen angels,
you reckon? Well, when the fallen angels
see Him, His name is synonymous with holiness and divine omnipotence. They said, we know who you are,
you're the Holy One of God. Have you come to torment us before
our time? They knew they were in His hands.
And for the life of me, I can't get folks to understand that
today. Most folks think Jesus is in their hands. Oh, that's not the case. We're
in His hands right now, tomorrow, for time and eternity. We're
in the hands of God's Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He died and
revived and rose again. He might be L-O-R-D or the living
and the dead. He's Lord. He's the Lord. That name strikes terror into
the heart of the fallen angels, the demons of this world. But in modern religion, now I
want you to listen to me. I wish I had this written down
for each of you. Maybe I'll put it in a bulletin
next week. You listen to these words. In modern religion, this
name, the name of Jesus Christ, This name is a mere signature
to sanctify in the minds of men and women every false belief
and practice that's ever been known in this world under the
sun. They do all of their wickedness,
their religious wickedness in that name. Modern religion. Modern preachers
are like men who look through a telescope backwards. Do you
ever get a telescope and look through it backwards? Instead
of bringing it nearer, it makes it farther away. Instead of enlarging
the view, it makes it small. That's the way they see God.
They read the same book I do, but I see a big Jesus and they
see a little one. There Jesus, much of modern religion,
most of it, there Jesus is a little pygmy. Now you listen to me,
this is important. Knowing Him is life. You have
wrong ideas of Him, you ain't going to heaven, you ain't going
to glory, you ain't going to miss hell. Only way you miss
hell is have right ideas of Him. No women love Him. There Jesus,
I repeat, is a little pygmy. He has a plan for all things.
He has a lot of plans for everything, for your life, my life. He has
a plan for all things, but it's generally thwarted by man's lack of cooperation. There used to be a preacher famous
on television, God has a wonderful plan for your life. Won't you
let Him work it out? That's not the Jesus I read about
in this book. There Jesus has a will of all
things. A will to help your life, make
this world better. He has a will. But unwilling sinners won't permit
him to carry it out, they won't cooperate. By the will of the creature,
by that sovereign free will of the creature, the Son of God
is divorced from His creation. He's more of an observer than
He is an actor. to them. And yet this book says
he's an actor. By him he upholds all things,
all things by the word of his power. Hebrews 1.3. We read in
Colossians, by him all things consist. He's the sovereign ruler over
all things. He made all things for himself,
by him and for him. By the will of the sinner, he
is helpless in his most glorious redemption. The greatest glory
of God is not left up to him, but left up to the sinners. I don't believe that. What I
read doesn't teach that. What we read together. They're
Jesus. Striving with all men alike.
Deals with all men alike. He wouldn't be partial. And yet,
I don't know whether anybody really believes that or not.
And I know they don't want to. Because even the most ignorant
person, when they're talking about salvation for their little
Johnny or their little Mary, they say, Lord, have mercy on
Mary. Have mercy on Johnny. Have mercy
on this one. Have mercy on that one. What?
You just said He deals with all men alike. Start persuading John
he don't bother God. He's done all he can do. You
see what I'm saying? That's what they say. He's done
all he can do, and yet they bother Him. No man wants that to be so. God
deals with all men alike. Because when they're crying for
little Johnny, they want him to give special attention to
little Johnny, special attention to little Mary, special attention
to the poor boy next door. And yet they've just been to
church and the preacher said God's doing all he can do, dealing
with all men alike. Holy Ghost is striving to get
them in. You know, any man whose experience doesn't
deny that thing that God done all he can do, if your experience
doesn't deny that, you have a talk with Peter and Saul of Tarsus and Zacchaeus and the blind Bartimaeus. Just go through the Bible. Go
through the Bible. They got this thing, you take
the first step and God will take you home. Spurgeon said he heard one time
a story about a man got killed three miles outside of town,
cut his head off, the enemy did. That old man picked up his head
and walked all the way back to town. And Spurgeon said, I believe
that. if you could show me how He could
take the first step. If He could take that first step,
He could walk all the way back to death. But He can't take that
first step. He's dead. He's dead. And we're dead in
trespasses and sins. Dead. Dead. Spurgeon said that first step,
that giant step, is a step from death into life. And only God
can give life. You can't take that step. God
must come and give life. Salvation to the Lord. And Spurgeon
further said, went on to say, if God left you one step away
from glory, the pearly gates, and left you right there, you'd
go plummeting into hell. Salvation of the Lord from beginning
to end. Our faith is sustained in our
hearts by the Lord. We can't take any step without
Me, Christ said. You can't do anything. You can't
do anything. Friends, I want you to understand
this. Men aren't converted Men aren't
converted through bringing Christ down, and that's what the preachers
are doing. But men are converted through
lifting Christ up. The preacher exalting, magnifying
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how sinners are converted.
That's what happened on the Day of Pentecost. The Apostle Peter,
by the Old Testament Scriptures, proving what he said by the Old
Testament Scriptures, took Christ from the cross to the grave and
set Him on the throne. I said, now that same Jesus whom
you crucified, God made Him Lord and Christ. He was in your hands
for a moment, you're in His hands forever. And they said, oh my
soul, what are we going to do? That's preaching. That's biblical
preaching. It's not trying to bring Jesus
down so you'll have a sympathy for it. Men are saved through hearing
the Lord Jesus Christ lifted up. Not as He is diminished,
but as He is magnified. Like on the day of Pentecost.
Nobody is saved. Listen to me now. Nobody. Nobody
is saved except through the exaltation
of Jesus Christ our Lord in a sinner's mind and in a sinner's heart. And how can they ever see Him
exalted in that position without hearing Him preached? They're not hearing Him preached
like that. And I'm so sorry. They must hear Him preached as
a Savior and as a Sovereign. as a king of kings, and yet gracious
and full of compassion. When they hear him preached as
he ought to be preached, it'll probably come to their heart,
oh, can it be? Up on a tree, the Savior died
for me. Look at Jesus Christ, just a
moment, I'll try to hurry, in the natural realm, natural sphere.
Just a moment. He is the Lord Jesus Christ,
Mary's Son, the God-Man. Listen to me now, I'm going to
hurry. Jesus Christ is the Creator. He is the Sustainer of life. He is the Preserver of life. Life finds its continuity in
Him. Do you know why I'm standing
here today? He's holding me up. You know why I'm still breathing?
I don't do it very well sometimes. I have to squirt this stuff in
my throat. It's because of Him. His will. His will. He is our Creator, our Sustainer,
our Benefactor, our Preserver, and the Continuity of all things. His preservation, listen to me
carefully, his preservation is not just a mere negation of actions. He isn't preserving this earth
just by failing to blow it up or destroy it. He is involved,
actively involved in keeping it going every moment. Acts 17, 23 through 29. In Him, we live and move, however
it be. He's the giver of life, of breath,
and of all things. I stand here this morning in
the hands of God's Christ, the Lord Jesus. I'm in His hands. And thank God to be there. Thank
God I'm there. Wherever, if you want to write
it down now, Nehemiah 9, 6, Job 7, 20, Psalm 36, verse 6, Psalm 104, verse 29
and 30, He's the preserver of life. He
keeps me alive. You remember what the prophet
said to, Daniel said to Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son, you have
failed to glorify that great God in whose hand your breath
is. Your next breath is in the hands
of God, and you saw what He did to your father, and yet you never
glorified Him. You're going to die, and that
night He died. What a God. Now listen to me,
wherever there's life, There is the personal presence,
attention, and activity of Jesus Christ wherever there's life. From the newborn infant, the
infant in the womb, to the oldest man on earth, and from the greatest bear in
the woods, to the smallest grasshopper in the grass. It's true. You know, the Apostle James said
one time, you know, before we brag and boast about what we're
going to do, we ought to say, if the Lord wills, if the Lord wills, are you going
home this afternoon My answer, biblical, from God, if the Lord
wills. If you get home, will you arise
in the morning? If the Lord wills. No other way. David said, I laid me down to
sleep and I woke in the morning. Slept peacefully and I woke in
the morning because God only preserved me. It wasn't the guards
at the gate. They couldn't do anything without
God. God preserved me. If the Lord wills. That's the
key to our life, our health. That's the key to our poverty
and our wealth. He is personally involved and
active in the life of every man and woman here this morning. He's keeping you going. keeping
you alive, keeping you breathing. You say, how does He do that?
I don't know. It's a great mystery to me. But I know He does it. In every bird that wings its
way through the air, every bird that wings its way through the
air, God is active. Active. Personally involved. The only way they make it is
the same way we make it, by the will of God. Let me tell you something. I
love, now listen to me, I'm old enough to know something about
trials and temptations, and about being near death a few times,
and probably a lot of times I didn't realize it, but I love being
in the hands of Jesus Christ. He's a man like me. He's God,
but He's a man like me. And He's touched with the feelings
of my infirmities. He knows how things touch me
and how they trouble me and how they bother me. And most anything
in this world can get past my wisdom and my will, but not all
the demons out of hell. can get past the will of my Lord
Jesus. Let them join hand in hand. They
can't get to me without coming through Him. And He works all things after
the counsel of His own will and makes those all things work together
for my good and His glory. Oh, it's wonderful to be in the
hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wonderful. What a safe place.
What a safe place. Look at Jesus Christ in the spiritual
sphere quickly. Think about what I'm saying.
I've got it written down. You try to mark it down or something.
Salvation is possible for sinners only because nothing is impossible
with God. You know the only reason that
salvation is possible for you? Because nothing's impossible
with Him. Matthew 19, 23, the disciples,
apostle walking along with the master, this rich man, you know,
the story of the rich man. And Christ told him, said, boy,
I tell you, it's easier for a big old camel to go through the eye
of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.
And the apostle looked at him stunned. They said, who then
can be saved? And the Bible said He just gazed
at them a moment. He just stared at them a moment
in silence. And then He said, with men, nobody. But with God, all things are
possible. That's the only reason I can
be saved, because nothing is impossible with Him. I can't
be saved because I can save myself. I can't be saved because the
preacher can save me or even help me. I can only be saved
because nothing, regardless of how hard, nothing is impossible
with my Savior. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Salvation is possible for sinners
like me, not because I'm good, but because He's sovereign and
gracious. He might have mercy. Doesn't
have to. Salvation is possible for me
not because of the power of the flesh, but because He has power
over all flesh. Listen to these things now. This
is important. And it flies in the face of most everything you
hear from the pulpit today. on radio and on television. Salvation
is possible for me not because it's in my hands, but because
all things are in His hands. And with Him all things are possible. Salvation is possible for me
because He can quicken dead sinners, and He quickens whom He wills. Salvation is possible for me
because He can but speak a word, and the dead live. They pass
from death into life by a spoken word from glory, from the lips
of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus, through this book. Through this
book. And I'll tell you this. He cannot
fail. He cannot fail. Old Saul of Tarsus going down
the road with anger, bitterness written in the lines of his face.
Oh, he hated, hated the name of Jesus and everybody that used
that name. And God just turned on the light.
Saul of Tarsus fell in the dust. The only way salvation was possible
for Saul of Tarsus was because nothing is impossible with the
Savior. He saved the heartiest sinner.
Paul said, I'm the chief of sinners, but he saved me. He saved me. I heard a story one time. This
old man, he tried to He killed himself three
times. One time he tried to hang himself
and the peg broke, put his rope on. The next time he tried to
hang himself, the rope broke off that was hanging on the peg
around his neck. Then he hired a taxi man to take
him to the Thames River. He was going to jump in the river
and drown himself in deep, terrible, terrible British fog, England. And the man got lost and wound
up right back in his house where he was. Isn't that amazing? Nothing's impossible with him. And he decided that he'd sinned
so long and so grievously and so bad that there was no hope
for him. He just checked himself into
an insane asylum, a bedlam. Usually when you get in those
things, if you weren't crazy when you went in, you'd be before
you got out. But one day he was walking through that place and
came to a table, and on that table was a preacher's Bible,
and that Bible was open at Romans chapter 3. And he read verse
23, and it said, All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God. Oh, how well he knew that. And then he read being justified
freely by God's grace through the redemption, the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forward to be a
propitiation, satisfaction through faith in his blood. And the light
came on. The light came on. And he later
wrote several songs, but one of them was, There is a Fountain
Filled with Blood. drawn from Emmanuel's veins,
and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. He saw in those verses how God
can be just and justify the most ungodly man. He said the light
came on. That's the answer. That's it. And he was in the church pastored
by the author of Amazing Grace, John Newton, I think for 16 years,
and they wrote hymns together. There is a fountain this morning,
filled with blood, drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners
plunge beneath that flood. lose all their guilty stays. May God help you to trust Emmanuel. Trust Emmanuel. He wrought out
our salvation through His incarnation, His holy life, His shameful death,
His glorious resurrection, and His ascension. He's sitting there
praying for His people right now. praying for us, those who
believe on Him. God help you to trust Him. OK,
David.