Christ is Eternal, Changeless, Omnipresent

Introduction: What Think Ye of Christ?

0:00 In the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 22 and verse 42, there is recorded a very penetrating question. The question which came from the lips of our Lord Jesus Christ was this, What think ye of Christ? Whose Son is He? As this question cut to the heart of the burning issues of that day, so it does to the burning issues of our own day.

0:33 As our Lord stood in the midst of the great external religiosity of the Jewish nation and asked the question, What think ye of Christ? So he would stand in the midst of all that constitutes professing Christendom and would ask the question, What think ye of Christ? What is the precise identity of Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ of God? And in this present series of messages concerning great, pivotal doctrinal issues, a series entitled Here We Stand, we are addressing ourselves to this very question, who is Jesus Christ?

1:18 And we are doing so as we consider the broader question of the salvation which we receive and proclaim to sinners. Having gleaned from the Scriptures something of the fundamental teaching of the Bible concerning the objects of God's saving work, we are now contemplating the central figure in God's salvation, the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. And as we contemplate this person, we are doing so, gathering the main lines of biblical truth around three centers. The first, the mystery of his person.

2:00 The second, the majesty of his offices. And thirdly, the efficacy of his work. For several weeks now, we have been contemplating the mystery of Christ's person. According to 1 Timothy 3.16, the great and fundamental mystery of the Christian faith is the mystery of the person of Christ.

2:24 For Paul said in that passage, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifested in the flesh. We have seen from the word of God how pivotal is the doctrine of Christ's person. We have also looked into the scriptures to try to give a simple statement of the irreducible minimum that constitutes the doctrine concerning the person of Christ.

2:50 We have discovered and I trust memorize the three ingredients of that simple statement. They are as follows. He is truly God. He is truly man.

3:02 He is one person in two natures forever. Now then, we are considering those assertions in detail. The person of Christ in the mystery of that person is the mystery of one who is truly God. The first gathering of witnesses were those texts which set forth the assertion of Godhead or Godhood to Jesus Christ in terms that cannot be understood in any other way than a full ascription of deity to Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

3:39 We looked at the seven witnesses who say that Jesus is God. I hope each of you who was here for those two weeks in which we looked at those seven witnesses can at least remember the references. John 1.1, John 20.28, Romans 9.5, Philippians 2.6, Titus 2.13, Hebrews 1.8, and 1 John 5.20, and you ought to have them as readily at your fingertips as I have just had them in reviewing without looking at my notes.

4:14 He is called God, and in each of those passages, the reference of which has just been quoted, there is no honest treatment of the language but to come to the conclusion that the biblical writers are ascribing to Him full, true, essential Godhood. Now that's a review of some four hours of study in the Word of God. We come now to the second gathering or second collection of witnesses that speak to the fact that Jesus Christ is God. Having looked at the first group, the passages in which He is called God, We come to the second group this morning, the passages where Jesus is described as possessing the distinguishing attributes of God.

Method: Second Group of Witnesses — Distinguishing Attributes

5:08 In other words, passages where he is not explicitly called God, but where he is either described as possessing or seen exercising certain characteristics that are peculiar to Godhood. Now let me explain what I mean by the distinguishing characteristics or attributes of God. If I were to take you outside at the close of this service this morning and set before you a baby carriage and a brand new little Pinto or Chevette or, let's see, I don't want to show prejudice to any of the car manufacturers, a Pinto, a Chevette, a Dodge Dart, or an American Motors Pacer.

5:55 We've taken the big three and the little fourth, American Motors. And I were to ask you, describe to me the characteristics of these two vehicles. Well, they would have certain characteristics in common. You children would say, well, the baby carriage has four wheels.

6:12 The Pinto, or the Pacer, has four wheels. The baby carriage is made to carry a passenger or passengers. It may be one of these carriages made to tote twins around. And you would say of the pinto or the pacer or the gremlin or anything else, you would say it also is made to carry passengers.

6:33 Well, you would say another characteristic is the carriage is turned by the will of the one who is holding it or pushing it. And you could say likewise, the car is turned in the direction of the one who is operating it. So there are many characteristics which a baby carriage and a pinto or a chevette or a pacer have in common. But now if I asked you children, describe the distinguishing characteristics of the baby carriage or of the car, I would be asking you to describe the characteristics peculiar to the one and not applicable to the other.

7:11 So if you were describing then the distinguishing characteristics of the Pinto, you would not say it has four wheels, because the baby carriage has four wheels. You wouldn't say it carries passengers. Well, that doesn't distinguish it from the baby carriage. What you would say is it has an engine and is self-propelled.

7:30 Now, you've never seen a self-propelled baby carriage. Now, I'm sure there's some little tots that would like the idea, having about 14 horsepower and four on the floor. They'd have a great time. But I've never seen such a creature. You see, it is a distinguishing characteristic of the automobile that it is self-propelled by an internal combustion engine. That's the technical language. It doesn't have a motor, it has an engine. An internal combustion engine.

7:58 All right? Another distinguishing characteristic would be that the automobile can carry adult passengers. Carriage can't do that unless it's a midget. It's one of the distinguishing characteristics.

8:16 So you see, when we talk about distinguishing characteristics, we're talking about characteristics that set one thing apart from another. Now, why do I labor that point? For the simple reason that there are many things about Jesus Christ, as He's revealed in the Scriptures, that are common to all rational creatures. Angels, men, and even some things that our Lord has in common with the demons.

8:46 He has a mind. They have a mind. He, by His Spirit, can take possession of human beings. They, in a sense, take possession.

8:54 You see, there are many things where there are common characteristics. But there are certain things by which God is set apart as God from every other creature that He has made. And when we consider in the Scriptures some of the distinguishing characteristics of God, and we observe that Jesus Christ possesses those characteristics, we do not need to have an explicit statement saying He is God. If you go outside and find an object that has all the distinguishing characteristics of an automobile, you do not need to find written in red letters on the side, this is an automobile, to recognize what it is.

9:40 you recognize what it is by that sum total of the distinguishing characteristics of that which makes a car a car. And so Jesus Christ does not need to come to us in the gospel records with the name God emblazoned as it were upon his forehead on every single page. Nor do we need to find him in the epistles and in the book of the Acts as he is known in worship with the explicit name God, as it were, hung around His neck on every page. If we see on page after page in the Gospel records and in the book of the Acts the object of the worship of the early church and in the epistles

10:26 one who possesses all of the distinguishing characteristics of God, then it is proper for us, it is sinful for us to do less than to acknowledge Him to be what He is in the manifestation of His own characteristics as the God-Man. Now, do you understand then what I mean when I say the second group of witnesses to the deity of Christ are those portions of the Word of God in which we see in Jesus of Nazareth the distinguishing characteristics or attributes of God. Alright, what is the first? The first is eternal existence.

Attribute 1: Eternal Existence

11:16 In Psalm 90 verses 2 and 3, the man of God describes God in this language. This is a psalm composed by Moses.

11:33 Lord, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth and the world. Even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. Now, do you see this particular distinguishing characteristic of God that Moses is celebrating?

12:02 It is the eternity of God in contrast to the transitory or temporary or limited existence or experience of man Verse 3, thou turnest man to destruction Man comes on the scene at a point in time He's here for such a brief time and then he's gone But in contrast to this, a distinguishing characteristic of God is that He is from eternity to eternity. There never was a time when God was not. There never shall be a time when God will not be. Now, if that is said of Jesus Christ, then it is perfectly proper to acknowledge Him to be God for eternity.

12:52 Timeless existence, beginninglessness, and endlessness are a distinguishing characteristic of God. It's not true of angels. Angels were brought forth at a specific time. It is not true of man.

13:10 It is not true of devils. But it is true of God that eternal existence is a distinguishing characteristic. Well, is such an existence attributed to Jesus Christ? Yes, it is. And let me very quickly give you four references which assert this. In John chapter 1, the passage to which we referred with reference to an explicit reference to Jesus as God, we read this, In the beginning was the Word.

13:44 If we were to give it a very crass literal translation, this is what the translation would be. In the beginning the Word was ever being. In other words, he does not say, and there was a perfectly legitimate form to say this. He uses that in verse 14 when he says the Word became flesh.

14:05 John does not say, in the beginning the Word began to be. He says, in the beginning the Word ever was being.

14:15 Indicating that as certainly as Genesis 1, to which this verse is parallel, introduces us with the preexistent, eternally existent God, who in the beginning created, we are to understand that within the mystery of that one God was this eternal Word who was ever being. And I remind you, as we've said again and again, when it says in verse 14 that this Word became flesh, He did not cease to be what He always was, the eternal Word, when He began to be what He never had been, a true man. Nothing is lost of the essential Godhead of the second person of the Trinity. Something is taken to Him.

15:03 Something is acquired. Something is added, but nothing is subtracted. In the beginning the Word was ever being. For how long?

15:12 For as long as God was God. That is, without beginning. We find in John 17 5 the self of our Lord relative to this very fact Not only is this the consciousness of those who followed Him in faith and love it was the self-consciousness of the Lord Himself. In John 17, 5, the prayer He prayed prior to the crucifixion and His ascension back to the Father.

15:44 Verse 4, I glorified thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which thou hast given me to do. And now, Father, glorify thou me with thine own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world began. And again, our Lord is very careful to use a form of the verb, or John is careful to record him as using, so that we could translate it this way, the glory which I was ever having with thee before the world was. Our Lord is conscious of an eternal existence with the Father before the worlds came to be.

16:33 This statement is picked up by Paul in Colossians chapter 1 and verse 17 in a chapter in which the apostle is showing the supremacy of Christ over all things. A chapter in which he is showing the folly of setting up any other mediator between the sinner and the living God. He describes Christ in this way. Verse 17, And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.

17:08 and things in this passage are all created realities. Look at verse 16. For in Him were all things created in the heavens upon the earth, things visible, invisible, thrones, dominions, principalities, powers, all things created through Him and unto Him, and He is before all things. Now the Russellites know the force of this text.

17:38 That's why they twist the Scripture and they put in their version, He is before all other things. Because in the context, a thing, according to the Apostle, is any created reality. Throne, dominion, principality, power, seen or unseen. And if Jesus Christ is a created reality, even though as the old Arians said and as the current Arians say created long before other angels and men and worlds but there was a time when the word was not there was a time when he came into being by a procreative reality and procreative act of the Father then you see he is not before all things

18:27 for he himself is a thing a created reality And the Apostle Paul states in the strongest language possible That He is the eternal God Who had no beginning at any point in time Either time as we know it Or time prior to the creation of the earth If we may use such terminology He is the eternal Word And then the witness of John in John 1-1 And of our Lord in John 17 and the Apostle in Colossians 1 is brought to what I believe is the strongest assertion of the eternity of Christ in John chapter 8. In John chapter 8,

19:15 you'll notice that in each of the passages I'm not simply quoting a verse, I'm trying to give you the drift of the context. In this chapter, as we were introduced this morning, to this larger section of the book of John in the previous hour, we find our Lord in one of these situations of controversy with the religious leaders of his day. And in the midst of that controversy, our Lord is demonstrating the validity of his works and of his words and that he is worthy to be trusted and followed. And of course, the Jews do not think that it's so.

19:55 And the great issue at stake, let me start reading with verse 42. Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, you'd love me. For I came forth and have come from God, for neither have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech?

20:12 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ear of your father the devil, in the lust of your father you will do. Here they claim to be the children of Abraham. And Jesus said, no, you can't be.

20:23 Because if you were the children of Abraham, you'd do the works of Abraham. And Abraham's works are those of believing the word of God. But you won't believe my word, which is the word of God. And so the controversy comes to a climax in verse 53.

20:37 Art thou greater than our father Abraham who died, and the prophets died? Who makest thou thyself? Now the issue is, you're making such claims, the Jews say, and we get the force of these claims. you are claiming a superiority for yourself above even our father Abraham and all the prophets.

20:58 Who in the world do you think you are? That's their question. You see it in verse 53. Art thou greater?

21:06 It's a question as to the relative worth of Jesus of Nazareth with the great leaders in the thinking of the nation of Israel. Abraham, the prophets. Art thou greater than our father Abraham? Now Jesus is going to address himself to that question.

21:23 Jesus answered, If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing. It is my Father that glorifieth me, of whom ye say that he is your God. And ye have not known him, but I know him. And if I should say I know him not, I should be like unto you a liar.

21:42 But I know him, and keep his word. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he sawed and was glad. The Jews therefore said unto him, Thou art not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham? You see what they're saying?

22:01 They're saying, We regard you as nothing other than a common Palestinian Jew. And you're not even fifty years old, and you claim that Abraham saw you? Who in the world do you think you are? And now this stupendous claim.

22:17 Jesus said unto them, Whenever you find this verily, verily, there's an unusual solemnity. He who is the truth of God and always speaks the truth of God introduces a true saying with this, Amen, Amen. Truly, truly, I say unto you, before Abraham was born, or literally from the original, before Abraham began to be, not I was. which would have been much better, we would say English, before Abraham came to thee, I am.

22:58 They took up stones therefore to cast at him. Why? Because they felt they had to obey Leviticus 24, 13 to 16, in which they were warranted as a congregation to stone every blasphemer. In answer to their question, who in the world do you think you are?

23:21 Jesus says, I am. And you know what that meant to the ear of a Jew? It meant identity with Jehovah. The God of the covenant who, when asked by Moses, whom shall I say has sent me?

23:39 Jehovah says, you say the I am hath sent you. And that name which no godly Jew would speak out of a superstitious regard for that name, Jesus Christ identifies Himself as that Jehovah of eternal existence, the eternal, the ever-blessed I Am. Why do we worship Jesus Christ as God? Not only because He is explicitly called God And we looked at that group of seven witnesses But because the first witness in the second group He possesses the distinguishing characteristics of God

24:24 The first of which is eternal existence Now the second is this changelessness or you kids want to go home and show off a big word in the neighborhood next week immutability that means without change something that is mutable is changeable you learn in science classes about mutations immutable without change now let me define the idea if anything changes what must it change from and what must it change to Well, it must either go from something that is imperfect to something that's more perfect, from something small to larger, small to smaller. It must go from something good to mediocre, something mediocre to bad.

25:15 You see, all change is either in the realm of progression, from good to better to best, or regression, from best to good to not so good, or increase of something that is imperfectly formed. You talk about a perfect baby. You don't mean the child can do calculus. You don't mean he can dig up the garden and weed the beans.

25:37 What you mean is everything he ought to be at that stage in his development, he is. That's a perfect baby. When you talk about a perfect ten-year-old, you're talking about that stage of development. But you see, perfection, perfection involves a state that is static and cannot be changed.

25:56 The moment you've reached perfection, if you can get something better, then it's not perfect. And if you have anything less, then it's no longer perfect. And there is only one being then who is immutable, who is changeless, and that being is God. In Malachi 3.6, we read, I am Jehovah, I change not.

26:21 In Numbers 23 and verse 19, we read this statement concerning the living God. Numbers 23 and verse 19.

Attribute 2: Changelessness / Immutability

26:37 God is not man that he should lie, neither the Son of man that he should repent. Hath he said and will he not do it? Hath he spoken and will he not make it good? You see, we change our mind because of our imperfect knowledge or our imperfect commitment, our imperfect ethical standards.

26:57 But God needs never to change His mind because He makes up His mind in the midst of all of His perfection of knowledge and design and plan and counsel and everything that goes together with it. So that changelessness is a distinguishing characteristic of God. It is not true of angels. It is not true of men. It certainly is not true of sinful men.

27:24 The wonder of wonders, the Scripture says that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is possessed of this distinguishing characteristic of Godhood, namely, changelessness. Turn, please, to Hebrews chapter 1. Hebrews chapter 1.

27:46 Remember now the great concern of the writer to Hebrews is to demonstrate the superiority of Christ. God's final revelation to men and his first sub-argument or first pivotal line of argument demonstrating the superiority of Christ is he is superior to the angels. Superior because He's given a name they never have, Son of God. Because He is called God, something no angel has ever called in this full sense.

28:22 Because He is Creator, now also because He is immutable and changeless. Verse 11, or perhaps we could back up to verse 10. And thou, Lord, in the beginning didst lay the foundation of the earth. This is spoken of the Son.

28:38 and the heavens are the works of thy hands. They shall perish, but thou continuest. And they shall all wax old as doth a garment, and as a mantle thou shalt roll them up, and as a garment they shall be changed. But thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.

29:03 Speaking of the Son, the writer to the Hebrews says, He is the changeless or the immutable Son. Thou art the same. This is a characteristic, a distinguishing characteristic of Godhood. Because God is all perfection.

29:23 He cannot become more perfect. And if He could become less than perfect, He would not be God. Now obviously there is change in the state of Christ. From one of humiliation to one of exaltation.

29:36 Obviously, there is development in Christ as to His manhood and as to His fitness to be a sympathetic Savior. So the writer to Hebrews later on says, being made perfect. But this is speaking of other facets of His glorious person. In terms of His inherent dignity as God, we can attribute to Jesus Christ all of the changelessness, the glorious immutability of undiluted Godhood.

30:08 Thou art the same, and thy ears shall not fail. This is why the writer to the Hebrews then can, in the conclusion of his letter, say those wonderful words that have brought consolation to so many throughout the history of the church. Hebrews 13 and verse 8. Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today and forever.

Practical Value of Immutability for Believers

30:36 He will never be found to have been something to a needy sinner a generation ago that He will not be to any needy sinner who comes to Him in the present hour He will not be found to have been something in the days of his flesh to men that he will not be to those who come to him now as he sits at the right hand of the Father Changelessness, Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, today, and forever. And so we have the second witness in this second group of witnesses attributing to Jesus Christ a distinguishing characteristic of Godhood. He is the Christ of eternal existence. He is the changeless and immutable Christ.

Attribute 3: Omnipresence

31:24 Thirdly, He is the omnipresent, the everywhere present Christ. Now what do we mean? What do the theologians mean when they talk of the omnipresence of God? Well, they are simply trying to define and describe the teaching of the Bible that goes something like this.

31:48 God is present in all places, at all times, in the whole of His being. Now, if you want something to make your mind swim, you just meditate upon that statement. And that's simply an expression of the teaching of the Bible. God is present in all places at all times in the whole of His being all of God is here all of God is in that place that the scripture calls heaven all of God is to be found in the uttermost part of the city now there are different senses in which God dwells in heaven dwells in His church dwells in His people dwells in this building.

32:35 Granted, and that would take up a whole series of sermons on the biblical concept of the dwelling of God. But suffice it to say that the Scripture says, and now I quote Jeremiah 23, verses 23 and 24, speaking of this glorious God, Jeremiah 23, verses 23 and 24, Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places so that I shall not see him, saith the Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth?

33:16 And how? As the God who can see and hear. It's not as though you'll find God with His eye in one place of the earth, but deaf, and God with His ear in another part of the earth, but blind, he says, am I a God near or far off? In other words, can you parcel me out until you get somewhere where I am not to be as the seeing and hearing God?

33:42 He says, of course not. I, in the fullness of all that I am, is God. I fill heaven and earth. Here's God's own declaration to omnipresence.

33:54 Solomon recognized this in that great dedicatory prayer in 1 Kings 8, 27. As he addresses God in that passage of Scripture, 1 Kings 8 and verse 27, he does so in this language. 1 Kings 8 and verse 27. But will God in very deed dwell on the earth?

34:20 In other words, he says, do we have reason to believe that Jehovah will take up a peculiar dwelling in this temple that has just been constructed? That temple that sits in the midst of the nation of Israel. Behold, he says it's unthinkable on the one hand. Heaven and the heaven of the heavens cannot contain thee, much less this house that I have built it.

34:47 In other words, he says, God, I possess no silly notion that because we have an expansive and beautiful building, we've somehow confined you. Lord, you can come with a peculiar dwelling here, but you still at the same time so fill heaven and earth as to be said to be the God who dwells in heaven and upon the earth. You see, omnipresence is a peculiar, a distinguishing characteristic of God. Now, is omnipresence attributed to Jesus Christ?

35:20 Yes, it is. Turn to the third chapter of the Gospel of John, a text that was briefly alluded to several Lord's Days ago in the Sunday morning class. There is a problem with this verse from a textual standpoint. Some of you have a little understanding of this.

35:40 In the transmission of the manuscripts, there are times, and thank God they are very minimal, but there are times when we're not quite certain whether John or Paul or Mark wrote a certain passage or whether a sleepy scribe stuck in a word or whether someone who was fighting a theological battle in the 3rd or 4th, 5th century slipped in a word or two here or there to aid his own cause. And this is one of those passages. However, there is very good manuscript evidence to believe that Jesus actually spoke these words. And if he did, they are one of the clearest assertions from his own lips, albeit not the exclusive assertion.

36:21 Our argument does not stand or fall on this one witness. But let's look at it. In the third chapter of John, as our Lord speaks to Nicodemus, He says, No one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man who is in heaven. Our Lord has been baffling this poor religious Jew named Nicodemus.

36:49 He's been speaking of the most elementary facts of the kingdom of God, but in language that has absolutely left this poor fellow completely buffaloed. If only the Lord had talked about more ceremonies, more forms, more do's, more don'ts, this Pharisee with his wagon load of trappings of religious externalism and activity would have understood him. But he talks about a spiritual birth, a birth from above, a birth of water, a birth of the Spirit. and poor Nicodemus' head is reeling.

37:20 How can these things be? And now the Lord really sends him against the ropes with this one. Does this trouble you? Nicodemus, no one hath ascended up into heaven.

37:32 Anything you'll ever know of God has got to come down from God by way of revelation. No one hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man and Nicodemus, that Son of Man upon whom you look, is even now as to His divine nature in the presence of God in heaven. Now Nicodemus, go home and chew on that for a while. Now how can He be the Son of Man talking to Nicodemus in Jerusalem and still be in heaven unless as to His Godhead there is omnipresence?

38:08 For He shares equally with the Father in all that is true of Godhead, all that is true of Godhood, Godhood is the better word he shares in that omnipresence. But now let's turn to several witnesses, the textual validity of which is undisputed or are undisputed. Matthew chapter 18, an amazing statement.

38:36 Our Lord is giving some very practical directives concerning that oft-forgotten responsibility of church discipline. what to do when there is a sinning brother in the congregation. And our Lord had realistic expectations of His church. That's why He gave these directions before He went back to the Father.

38:58 He never had the notion that His church would be a collection of people who'd learned such secrets, quote, of victory, that they would never sin, that they would all have such a mighty, quote, baptism of the Spirit is to eradicate their sin nature and never need such directions as these. The same Lord who taught us to pray daily, forgive us our sins, our debts, is the Lord who taught His church how to deal with sin in the midst. And in the midst of that instruction, notice the teaching of our Lord, beginning with verse 18. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Matthew 18, 18, What things soever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven.

39:42 what things soever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven again I say unto you that if two of you shall agree on earth is touching anything that they shall ask it shall be done for them of my Father who is in heaven for where two or three are gathered together in my name that is gathered in the light of the revelation I have made of myself and my salvation Any gathered in my name in the light of the revelation of myself and my salvation Gathered around me, gathered in obedience to me There am I in the midst of them

40:27 Where there is the smallest congregation of the people of Christ Christ himself is present Now, it's obvious he is not present in his glorified theanthropic person, that is the God-man. Somewhere in the universe of God today, and I don't know where, it's simply called in Scripture the right hand of the Father. Somewhere in this vast universe, Jesus Christ actually sits with a glorified body that has form and substance. If you and I could be transported there, we could press that glorified flesh.

41:05 I don't mean to be irreverent. I'm trying to impress you with this great reality. Jesus Christ as the God-Man, the two natures in the one person forever, is somewhere in the universe of God. Bless God, He's going to come from that place with the shout, the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God, and we shall see Him and be made like Him.

41:27 But as to His divine nature, He is able to be present as the omnipresent God wherever and whenever, even the smallest group of His people gather in His name. He is there. He is there. Not there in the sense that Paul could say to the Corinthian church, when you gather together for this act of discipline, he says, in essence, I'm with you in spirit and in my apostolic authority.

41:55 No, no. He is there as the indwelling Lord of His people, as the life of His church. And this is utterly impossible unless He is the omnipresent God. Think this morning.

42:10 Throughout all the nations of the earth, some in little mud huts, some in great cathedrals, Some in dungeons, some in secret, some in the marketplaces, some under a palm tree, some in the bush. The twos and threes and the hundreds and the thousands meet. And Jesus Christ can fulfill this word of promise to every gathering of all of His people throughout the earth. to claim to omnipresence that is sheer fanaticism unless he is indeed God.

42:50 And then in the 28th chapter of Matthew he gives a similar word concerning himself.

43:00 Upon commissioning the eleven disciples also called and commissioned apostles He tells them that they are to go on a mission that will involve making disciples of all the nations baptizing them and teaching them Then to encourage them He gives this promise in verse 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you and lo I am with you always What an amazing statement Because remember These are people who had seen and known Him after the flesh. When Jesus said, I command you, there was a physical form standing before them. A form that bore the visible remembrances of His recent crucifixion.

43:51 And when He said, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever, I have commanded you, They were looking into the face of one whose commands had come from physical lips, with a physical tongue, as air was forced up over a physical diaphragm, by a physical diaphragm, over a physical larynx. Now see, we've never had that. So we read a passage like this, and it doesn't hit us the way it ought to be. Now he says, you're to do all of this that I have commanded you, and lo, I...

44:24 He doesn't qualify. He says, I'm with you. I am with you. I am with you.

44:31 The same Christ who has instructed you and comforted you and rebuked you and now commissions you, though I go to the right hand of the Father and in a few days you will see me actually ascend up into heaven and clouds will hide me from your sight, you must not think of me as a distant sovereign. I am with you in the plentitude of my authority in all of the grace and all of the pity and compassion that I have manifested in the days of my flesh. Hugh Martin, one of the great godly Scottish theologians and expositors of the Word of God in the introduction to his book called The Divine Presence

45:18 makes a very astute observation, and it's this. It said, in the Gospel record, we have at the beginning of Matthew this statement, the book of the generations of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And then we have a record of all that Jesus Christ did. We have biography, a record of his deeds and his words, an insight into his personality, if I may use the term in its highest sense, how he related to those who loved him and trusted him, and how he spoke to his enemies and his friends.

45:57 And then he said at the end we have this wonderful promise of the abiding presence. That's the title of the book, isn't it? The abiding presence. I've forgotten the title of the book.

46:08 But the title is not important. But it the principle that having given this introduction that now is to be unfolded a biography there is the promise of the presence And he said one without the other can lead to nothing but frustration And this is how he illustrated it. When we read the biography of a great man of a bygone day, at the end we're disappointed because we say, Oh, that such a man were alive today. How can you read Whitefield's biography and not have holy wishes that somehow God would raise him from the dead and turn him loose on this generation?

46:42 What a difference. When he stood before the counts and countesses and the leaders of his day, he didn't talk smooth talk. He called upon them to face their sins. Our so-called national preachers, when they're invited into the courts of church leaders, are silenced about the sins of national leaders, not of Whitefield.

47:03 He was fearless to face anyone and call upon them to know that they were accountable to God. Well, you read a biography such as Dolly Moore's biography of Whitefield, and you say, oh God, what a disappointment. Whitefield's dead.

47:18 Because you have only the biography without the presence.

47:22 I said with our Lord how wonderful it is that having read the biography, we need not have nostalgic longings and say, oh, would that there was someone who this day would be the friend of publicans and sinners. Would that there was someone in this day who could speak a word of authority and tell me how to know God. We have with the biography the pledge of the abiding presence. Lo, I am with you always.

47:53 Now, if all we had was the promise of the presence without the biography, and he said, I'm with you, we'd say, Lord, with me to be what and to do what. and then everyone would project his own mystical, fanciful imaginations of what he is being with us. But we have the biography to tell us all that he is and does, the pledge of his presence, so that in this very hour there is no sin-sick soul that needs to leave this building oppressed and weighed down with the guilt of sin. Did Jesus Christ receive and welcome sinners in the days of His flesh?

48:32 Yes, He did so, much to the consternation of the religious leaders. That's what got them upset. He's the friend of publicans and sinners. Oh, my friend, He says, Lo, I am with you.

48:44 In this place today, Christ is here. To do what? To receive every penitent sinner who throws himself upon His mercy. to comfort everyone whose conscience has been lashed with the law, whose spirit has been oppressed with a sense of sin.

49:03 Throw yourself upon Christ as He's revealed in the Gospel, and you have His presence. You have His promise that He receives sinners.

49:16 The omnipresence of Christ asserted in John 3, Matthew 18, Matthew 28. We don't have time to look at the other references But let me just give you what they are Revelation chapter 1 verse 13 He's seen in the midst of the lampstands And then as the messages to the seven churches unfold Each one starts with this assertion I know thy works Jesus Christ is present at Ephesus At Pergamos At Thyatira He is present at Laodicea He is present at Philadelphia He's in all the churches at all times, in all circumstances. It isn't as though He has to set up an itinerary and say, well, I'll go down to Ephesus now in my person and in the presence of my Spirit

50:02 for the first day of the week, and then I'll rush over. No, no. He's everywhere present in all of the churches at all times. He's the one in the midst of the lampstands.

Application: How the Attributes Suit the Sinner's Need

50:13 Then He is the omniscient Christ, the one who knows all. He is the omnipotent Christ, the one who can do all. These must wait for a subsequent exposition, because I want to conclude with some pointed application this morning. The application takes its starting point from this simple principle.

50:34 We are not studying this morning the attributes of God in abstraction, as though it were a philosophical exercise. What is the broad scope of our study at this point in this series? It is the salvation we receive and proclaim. And we have been contemplating not God as He is in abstraction, but God as He is manifested in the Redeemer.

51:03 We have been contemplating the mystery of the person of the Redeemer. And it is accurate to say that everything the Scripture reveals of the person of Christ, whether we contemplate His Godhood or His manhood or the union of the two natures in the one person, forever we are contemplating realities that are calculated to suit our need as sinners. Everything about the person of Christ Is perfectly suited to everything In the need of the sinner

51:48 Think for a moment As we just go back over the little bit we've covered this morning What difference does it make to me as a needy sinner If I am what the scripture says I am As we contemplated in previous weeks A creature made in the image of God fallen in Adam, ruined by sin, bound and helpless and under wrath and condemnation. Does it make any difference that Jesus Christ is not only called God, but has all the distinguishing characteristics of God, that He is eternal? Ah, my friend, what a difference it makes. There will never be any wrinkles of age upon the brow of the Son of God.

52:31 No gray hair will ever streak His temples Speaking of a waning of His strength He is from everlasting to everlasting In the plentitude of all of His Godhood For what purpose? To save sinners the likes of you here this morning He is not only the changeless Christ Perfectly suited the eternally existent Christ but the changeless Christ. We've already alluded to this briefly and I want to underscore it again. What difference does it make if He bears this characteristic of changelessness?

53:12 My friend, it's all the difference in the world between a well-grounded faith and a mere hope and wish that I shall be saved. How do you know that Christ has not gotten sick and tired of putting up with sins? I get sick and tired with certain sinners and there are times when as an elder there are some of you that I'd like to just wash my hands of now thank God I can't do it but it isn't because there are times I wouldn't want to and I'm sure there's many times some of you would wish you could wash your hands of me I'm sure there's times my wife has felt that way about me how do you know that Jesus Christ will not come to a point where he says I've had enough I've had enough bearing with these dumb, stupid sheep.

54:01 They make the same mistakes over and over again and then come running to me to get them all patched up. They go into the same nettles. They go wandering and they get bitten and torn by the same wolves. They go into the same places and come back smelling foul and they expect me to fix them up and patch them up.

54:18 I'm tired of all of this. How do you know the Lord isn't going to do that? Jesus Christ, the same yesterday. today and forever.

54:29 He's the Christ who bore with a wayward sheep like Peter. Lord, the whole bunch deny you, not me. And the Lord says, yeah, Peter, that sounds great. Before the little rooster crows a few times, three times you're going to deny me.

54:44 Oh, no, Lord, not me. If you said that I might do this or that, I might lose my temper and I might believe that, but Lord, deny you? No, no, that's not native to my personality, Lord. Do you remember what the Lord did?

54:59 He didn't wipe His hands of him. He said, look, Satan hath desired thee to sift thee as wheat, but I have prayed.

55:08 I have prayed. And when thou art turned again, strengthen thy brethren. Then you see the tender Lord Jesus in John 21, dealing with that sheep that had walked, as it were, with his eyes wide open into a place of danger and came back scarred and bloodied. And what does the Lord do?

55:27 Lovingly and gently restores Him. Gives Him a task to do to feed His sheep and feed His lambs. Oh, how thankful I am that my Christ partakes of this distinguishing characteristic of Godhood. He is immutable.

55:44 He will not change in His tenderness with His wayward sheep, in His willingness to receive the violence of sinners, and listen to me, He will not change in His holy hatred to religious sham. There's nothing our Lord exposed with more scathing denunciations than religious sham. People who are content with the external, but who within are far from God in truth, whose worship is nothing but an act of hands and feet, and the external members, and whose hearts are not right with God. And Jesus Christ burns with holy anger this morning against those of you who merely go through the form of worship.

56:28 He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Does it make any difference that He is omnipresent? Oh, what a wonderful difference it makes. Think of it.

56:38 I can have all of Christ with me throughout every hour of every day as though there were no other child of God for Him to care for but me. And you can have all of Christ throughout every moment of every day as though there were no other child of God to care for but you. Oh, what a wonderful thing to know. Lo, I am with you always, even to the ends of the age, to the consummation of the age.

57:07 All of Christ and all that constitutes in Christ is with me and with every one of His children.

57:15 You see, my friend, these are not abstractions. This is why I abominate the view that doctrine is for the classroom and nice little mushy meals are for the people of God in the house of God. No, my friend, unless you know and have scriptural grounds as to why you know who your Savior is, at best you'll go limping through life all of your days. Do you know Him to be such a Christ?

57:44 very God of very God. Why? Because He is called God. You know Him to be God because He has the distinguishing characteristics of God.

57:59 Never beginning, never ending existence. He is the eternal Son of the living God. He is the ever-present Son of the living God. He is the never-changing Son of the living God.

58:21 And He is all of these things in the exercise of His offices of prophet, priest, and king in the redemption of His people. Do you know Him? Do you know Him as such? Oh if not may you this day cast yourself upon him And find him to be all that his believing people have proven him to be Since the day he came and revealed himself to men And then may God fill us all with a holy zeal That we shall be willing if necessary to join our forefathers who rather would embrace pillory, dungeon, stake, death itself

59:10 than relinquish the testimony of the Word of God concerning the fact that Jesus, the Christ, their Savior, was very God, a very God. Let us pray.

Closing Prayer

59:30 O Lord, we come this morning and praise You for all the glory that surrounds Your head. As the eternal Word who was ever with the Father, we thank You that there never was a time when You were not, and we gladly confess our faith in You as the One who possesses in Himself all of the distinguishing characteristics of Godhood. We worship You as the eternal Christ. We worship You as the changeless Christ.

60:09 We worship You as the ever-present Christ. And, O, we plead this day, Lord Jesus, pull the veil from some sinner's eyes. O Lord, pull the veil from many eyes, that some who have never tasted the sweetness of a living faith in Your person may this day find their hearts running out to You in faith and love and may pass from death into life. We pray for us who are Your children.

60:40 O Lord, strengthen us in our walk as Christians as we understand more and more the greatness of what You are as our Savior. may our walk reflect that enlarged understanding and the fresh and deepened actings of faith. Hear our prayer, blessed Lord, and lift up the light of Your own countenance upon us.

61:06 Now we plead that the remaining hours of this day may be spent in such a way as to nourish our souls, to bring much praise to You with the Father and with the Spirit. Hear us, oh we pray, pray, hear us, in this the prayer that we offer. Amen.

61:49 Thank you.