634-2 THE MAGNIFICENCE OF JESUS CHRIST
October 4, 1981
Henry F. Kulp
The great question facing every individual born into this world is, who is Jesus Christ, and what is He? Your answer to those two questions will determine your eternal destiny. Will you spend it in Heaven or hell? What do you think about Jesus Christ? Who is He, what is He?
John 1: 1 - 5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
1/ John tells us here in this Scripture, that in a beginning that was not a beginning was the Word, and the Word was face to face with God the Father, and then the Word was God. For Jesus Christ to be anything less than God, He cannot be your Saviour.
2/ Many claim to believe in Jesus Christ, but the Christ they believe in is not the Christ of the Bible. To many He is a great teacher. To others He is a Way-shower, and to others He is God Almighty, Who is the only Saviour, and the last one is where we fit and where we know the Bible wants us to be.
3/ The greatest offense against God the Father is to bring the charge against His Son, He is not God. Let us see in the Bible whether Jesus Christ is really God or whether He is just another man or some created being.
4/ John 14: 1 Jesus Christ turned to His disciples and said, Ye believe in God, believe also in Me. He taught them to put as much confidence in Him as in God. Thus identifying Himself with God, and what man would ever be able to do that? Say, you put as much confidence in Me as you do in God. Could any angel say that? Of course not.
5/ John 5: 23 Here Jesus Christ states, all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father. Let me ask you, Who is this person who dares to take a share of God’s honor? To be on equal basis in being honored with God?
6/ Among the sacred names of God as He has revealed Himself to us, one is a hallowed name. The exact form of which is lost for a modern one. This name is Jehovah. The name Jehovah appears over 7,000 times in the Old Testament, and it was held in such reverence and awe, man never spoke it in audible terms, and when the priest was reading the law and came to the sacred name of God, he shut his eyes, bowed his head, crossed his hands upon his breast, and worshipped. The congregation, knowing what he was thinking about this name of God, bowed with him and joined him in homage.
7/ When a scribes was copying the law, when he was to copy that name, he always used a new pen to write it in the text. In the course of time it became agreed that since that name was never spoken, they would leave a blank in the record, and copies were thus made in this fashion. When the reader came to this blank, he knew that the special name of God was intended, and he paused and worshipped and thought of that Name. Thus, after generations and centuries of this practice, the name became lost and for the sake of convenience, we use the English form Jehovah, and simply state it. It was the holiest word to speak of God. This word Jehovah, always means the Person of Jesus Christ.
8/ We have those who call themselves Jehovah’s witnesses, but deny Jesus Christ is God. This is a ridiculous teaching.
9/ In the third chapter of Genesis we have the first announcement of the coming Redeemer. It was Jehovah who said that the seed of the woman should bruise the serpents head. Then in the 4th chapter of Genesis it was Jehovah-God Who accepted Abel because he came by the means of the shed blood of the lamb. In the 6th chapter of Genesis when God made provision for the salvation of the believing remnant from the flood, it was Jehovah who gave the pattern of the ark.
10/ On the eve of the departure of the children of Israel from the land of Egypt, it was again Jehovah Who demanded the sacrifice of the Passover Lamb. Who commanded that it be applied to the lintels and door posts.
11/ When the law was given from the slopes of Sinai. It was Jehovah who gave this law to the children of Israel.
12/ Let us take our Bibles and notice how the New Testament writers quoted the Old Testament passages describing Jehovah and applied them to Jesus Christ.
13/ Isaiah 44: 6 Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel, and his redeemer the Lord of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.
This is a tremendous statement. The Lord God describes Himself as the Redeemer, whose Name is Jehovah of Hosts. And He claims eternal existence for Himself in the phrase, I am the first and I am the Last, and then He declares very clearly that He is the only God in existence. Now consider the audacity of John the Apostle, who knew Jesus about as well as anyone ever did when He walked upon this earth…
Revelations 1: 17 And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:
Revelations 22: 13 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Notice how Jesus is described in these two passages. It is impossible to escape what he is saying. He applies to Jesus Christ the Old Testament description of the one great God – he makes Him to be first and last, the beginning and the end, the Alpha and Omega.
14/ Exodus 20: 10, 11 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the Lord thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates: For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.
But the 7th day is a Sabbath unto Jehovah thy God. That is a clear statement, it is the Sabbath of Jehovah thy God. That is to say, this day belonged to Him exclusively. And with what amazement did the Jews hear the words of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 12: 8 For the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath day.
In that astounding sentence, Jesus claimed to be Master and Soveriegn of the day which belongs exclusively to Jehovah.
15/ Psalm 103: 1 - 3 Bless the Lord, O my soul: and all that is within me, bless his holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases;
Psalm 130: 3, 4 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
We can see very clearly from these words, there is forgiveness with God, and only from God, and the God who forgives sins is none other than Jehovah.
Matthew 9: 1 - 3 If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with thee, that thou mayest be feared.
We can imagine the astonishment of the people of Israel. They heard Jesus Christ say, Son, be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven. And in high indignation, the scribes said to each other, this Man blasphemeth, and they were justified by this acclamation. Unless this Man was God. Perhaps no other single portion of Scripture or incident in the life of Christ more thoroughly convinces us that He knew He was God. He said clearly, I forgive your sin.
16/ Matthew 4: 10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
If there was one thing that the Jews knew it was that the ultimate sin was idolatry. You are to worship none but God. Here we have a Scripture—it is very hard to understand if He is not God.
Matthew 28: 9 Behold, Jesus met them saying, All Hail! And they came and took hold of His feet and worshipped Him.
Some would argue, Well, it was proper for the apostles to worship Christ on this occasion, because He had been raised from the dead, but you can go throughout the earthly ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ and you will see that He accepted worship and He went out of His way to invite that worship.
17/ John 9: 1 And as Jesus passed by, he saw a man which was blind from his birth.
Here the apostles raise a question concerning the cause of this man’s blindness, and they said it was because of sin. Jesus corrected their harsh and erroneous opinion, explaining that this man had been born that way in order that he might become a testimony to the mighty, miraculous works of God that Jesus Christ should do. And so the Saviour made clay, anointed the eyes of the blind man, and ordered him to wash in the pool of Siloam, and when the man obeyed this very strange command, his eyes were opened and perfect sight was given to him. So this man went into the temple and gave his testimony, and he greatly distressed the Pharisees who hated Jesus Christ, so they talked to him and said, give God the praise. We know that this man, Jesus, is a sinner. He said, whether he is a sinner or not, I cannot say, but one thing I do know, that where I was blind, now I can see. It was an unanswerable argument. They were stymied. So therefore they excommunicated him and cast him out of the temple.
John 9: 35 Jesus heard that they had cast him out; and when he had found him, he said unto him, Dost thou believe on the Son of God?
You say, that no great thing. I have been excommunicated by ecclesiastical members of a denomination. They defrocked me five times, but it has never affected my ministry one bit, for if one pulpit is closed to me another will open. If I am God’s man with God’s message. But this was not true when this blind man was cast out. To the Jew, the temple was the means of access to God, therefore when they cast the blind man from the temple, they cut him off from worshipping Jehovah, and the poor fellow went out bewildered and amazed at the hardness of the treatment given to him by the church leaders. He wondered what he would do with no means of approach to God.
Our Lord knew what happened, and He sought him out, and when He found him He said, Dost thou believe on the Son of God? He said, Who is He, Lord, that I might believe on the Son of God? Then He said Thou hast both seen Him, and it He that talketh with thee. Thereupon, the fellow was absolutely delighted, cast himself down before Christ and worshipped saying, I believe. Christ showed that He knew He was God, and in effect, He was saying to the excommunicated man. If they will not let you worship God in the temple, worship Him in Me, right on the city pavement.
18/ Galatians 4: 4 But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law,
This is an astounding statement to think about. Jesus Christ was a Jew in humanity. He lived under the law, and He advocated the holy, unswerving obedience to the divine law, but do you realize, Jesus Christ never offered a sacrifice for Himself. Indeed He could not. He Who is the Lamb of God, needed no lamb. The lamb of the sacrifice was offered to cover the sins of the worshipper, and since Jesus Christ had no sins, He never offered a lamb.
19/ It is equally interesting to notice that Jesus Christ never prayed for forgiveness. He often sought the face and presence of His Father, but it was only in communion, and when He prayed, He talked to God as an equal.
20/ John 3: 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Jesus Christ taught the necessity of Israel, Israelites being born again. He said, You must be born again. He didn’t recommend it, He didn’t say it was a wonderful experience, He didn’t say you ought to be, but He said, you must. But Jesus Christ was never born again. Not one place do we read of Him being born again. He excluded Himself.
21/ Also we need to see, He was not a sinner.
Hebrews 7: 26 For such an high priest became us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made higher than the heavens;
That He was the Holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and so He was the perfect man. Again, words cannot be clearer—in Him was no sin.
I Peter 2: 22 Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:
Who did not sin. He never committed one sinful act, He never had a sinful thought.
II Corinthians 5: 21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
He who knew no sin, was made sin for us. So it is clear that Jesus Christ was the only perfect one who ever lived on the face of this earth, because he was God manifest in human flesh.
22/ I suppose the most forceful argument for the sinlessness of Jesus Christ was His own resurrection from the dead. We know that death is the result of sin. The wages of sin is death.
Romans 5: 12 By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
James 1: 15 And sin, when it is finish bringeth forth death.
So it is clear to us from the Word of God, that sin causes the death of all men, and Jesus Christ would have remained in the grave had He ever been guilty of one sin.
No, we have a Saviour, Who is perfect in every way, for He is God, and He is the Redeemer of mankind, and all who trust in Him will have eternal life.
AMEN
Ref: 10/4/1981 / 634-2 THE MAGNIFICENCE OF JESUS CHRIST / July 2020
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