God the Son

We've covered those in red, and today we're going to take a look at God the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here's what I need for you to do. You need to imagine eternity past. Just put in your minds, eternity past. There was no time. There was no earth, sun, or moon. There was no universe. There were no angels. There were no principalities, no powers. There was only God.

God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. And they're separate persons, as we've seen in our study on the Trinity, but yet they're one. They're one in their glory. or their essential essence. Back in eternity past, God had eternal purpose. His purpose was fourfold, to declare his glory, to reveal his glory, to share his glory, and to be glorified.

So in the divine counsel of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit determined to create the heavens and the universe, he would also create man, an earthly man and a heavenly man, in order to share his glory with man. So man could enter into this circle of fellowship with God. God would create an earthly environment for earthly man, and he would create a heavenly environment for heavenly man. The church is the heavenly man. The Jews and Gentiles are the earthly man. Back also, in eternity past, God formed his eternal covenant.

In eternity past, God knew that when he created man, that man would sin. And just because God knew that in his omniscience didn't mean that it was causative. It didn't cause man to sin. But Adam's sin and its resulting sin nature would prevent man from entering into this fellowship with God because man would come short of the glory of God. But nothing could thwart God's eternal purpose and having fellowship with man. So God had to deal with the sins of man, and not only the sins, but the source of those sins, the sin nature.

Hence, the eternal covenant. A covenant is an agreement between two parties. So the agreement was between God the Son and God the Father. And God the Son agreed to shed his blood to die. And the Father said, if you shed your blood and die for the sins, then I'll raise you up again. Hence we have the resurrection. So, now, God would create time, mass, space, universe, and God would create earthly man and place him on planet Earth.

Now, the line that you see there Let me just go back over. You can see that that blue line represents time. Now, there's a problem with what I have here and. And the problem is this. that the line is much too wide. It needs to be trillion times trillions narrower to represent time with respect to eternity. Hopefully you get the picture that time in this old creation is insignificant compared to eternity. In fact, in our Sunday School class today in 2 Corinthians, Bob was going through 2 Corinthians chapter 4, where it says that our light affliction is but for a moment. The moment, the time that we are here compared to eternity is almost insignificant.

However, the events that occurred during this period of time that God created would be very significant. God would focus all the events around his eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The focus would be on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, in eternity past, in time now, in eternity future, The focus is on the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. If there's one thing I want to communicate to you this morning, and that's this, that the center of God's interest is his Son and the glory of his Son.

So now let's take a look at some of these events during this period which we call time. And we're going to do it in two ways. I'm going to give you an overview of this little period of time and then go through each of the details as far as time allows. So we're going to expand it. Here's time.

Most scientists say that time always existed. The Bible says that God created time. And up to now, from the beginning of time up to now, it's been about 6,000 years. Scientists say it always existed. So which is right? Well, I think the scripture is right. And the thing is, time is going to end.

So as we go through and we look at, say, the beginning of time, we know that Genesis 1.1 says, in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. So in the beginning of time, God created the heavens and the earth.

And the word there, create, in the Hebrew is bara. And bara means to create out of nothing. It's an ex nihilo creation. The world and the universe was created by the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know that because when we go to John chapter 1 and verse 3, it says that all things were made by him. And without him, not anything was made. Not anything made that was made. It was all made by the Lord Jesus Christ. So the world and universe is not the result of a Big Bang. What a discredit it is to God. and it robs the Lord Jesus Christ of his glory.

The next event is the fact that he created man and he put man in the garden and he told him to till the garden and we're going to go through that in a little bit more detail later. The next event is that the Lord Jesus Christ actually appeared physically before his incarnation. So he appeared on earth to Abraham, he appeared on earth to Joshua, and we'll take a look at one of those instances in terms of his pre-incarnate appearances. Then came his incarnation, where he was born of a virgin, born of Mary.

Then came the cross, his death and his resurrection. And his death and resurrection are truly the fulfillment of that eternal covenant that God the Son and God the Father made in eternity past. And as a result of his death and resurrection, there is this church, a church called out once. called out ones into Christ, called out from both Jews and Gentiles into Christ.

Right now, the Lord Jesus Christ is a priest of the ministry. He's a great high priest. He's sharing his very glory with you and me. The very next event that's going to occur, a prophetic event, is that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back for his saints.

He's going to come back in the clouds, and we call that the rapture. Following the rapture is a tribulation period where God is going to pour out his wrath upon this earth. And then, during that tribulation period, while we believers are with the Lord, there's going to be what is called the judgment seat of Christ. And we'll take a look at that in a little bit more detail and ask the question, are we really going to be judged? Think about it. Then at the end of the tribulation, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come back again physically to this earth.

And then he's going to rule and reign in his millennial kingdom, and he's promised a kingdom to the Jews. And this kingdom, now which has been postponed, he's going to rule and reign for that 1,000 years. Following the end of his kingdom rule, there's going to be a great white throne judgment. And all of the dead, who are unbelievers from the beginning of time to the end of time, are going to stand before the Great Bright Throne and be judged. And then following that there's going to be a new heavens and a new earth, totally new in quality from this earth.

So that's the big picture. So now let's take a look at the individual points I have here that really magnify the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. So there is time, and then in time is the creation. in terms of God creating the heavens and the earth. And if you take a look, this is the Milky Way. This is an artist's conception made by satellite or telescope images. So an artist has put together the scientific data that has come back. So if you want to look at the Milky Way from how God sees it, this is how God sees it. And you see the little arrow there which says Sun, the Sun is there.

Scientists believe that there's anywhere from 200 billion to 400 billion stars in our galaxy. Think about this, that with the advent of the Hubble telescope, we're finding out there's billions of more galaxies like this, with billions of stars in each of those galaxies. Can you comprehend how big the universe is? And scripture tells us that God has a name for every star? Big Bang? I don't think so. And here's what scripture says, it says, for by him, that is Christ, were all things created that are in heaven, that are on earth, visible and invisible. So he's the creator of all things. And his creation declares his glory. Remember we talked about God's eternal purpose. The first aspect of his eternal purpose was to declare his glory. The heavens declare the glory of God.

Now then, God created man. Created Adam, took Adam and put him in a sleep, took a rep, and created his counterpart Eve. And this is what God said. He said, let us, and notice the us, let us, Father, Son, Holy Spirit, made man in our image after our likeness. So God created man in his own image, and the image of God created him, male and female.

Now, when it talks about us being in the image and likeness of God, when you think about in Hebrews where it talks about the Lord Jesus Christ being the image of God. There it talks about him being the expressed image of God, the exact image of God. It doesn't say that about man. We are not the exact image of God. We are not the exact representation of God. We're like his image. We're in the likeness of his image, not the exact image.

At any rate, he put them in the garden and said, you know, of all the trees in the garden, you're free to eat, but of this one tree, you can't eat. And the day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Now, if you look at the Hebrew, the Hebrew is more specific. It says, dying, you shall surely die. And what it's talking about there is two distinct deaths. The moment you eat of the tree, dying, you shall surely die. And first death is spiritual death. Dying, the moment you eat thereof, you're going to die spiritually. And then, in time, you will die physically. So here we have both spiritual death and physical death. And then here's where we come in.

We are, if you will, descendants of Adam, and his son begat Adam's image. So in his own likeness after his image, that is Adam's image. So we are identified when we're born, every person born into this world, is identified with Adam. We have his image and his likeness. And it's a fallen image. And it's a fallen nature. And God has to give us a new nature in order to be in fellowship with him. To go on to his pre-incarnate appearances, there's one that I really love to read and that's in Genesis chapter 18.

Here's the Lord Jesus Christ and two angels walking down the road towards Abraham's 10. Abraham sees them from a distance and he says, Lord, he's down on his face and he's worshiping the Lord. He knew that it was the Lord Jesus Christ. And he knew that the other two men that were with him were angels. And he begs them to stay with him and have a meal with him. And then the interesting thing is the Lord Jesus Christ, that is the pre-incarnate Christ. Here's what he says to Abraham. He says, I'm going to return unto thee to the time of life.

And Sarah, who is now 90 years old, shall have a son. And Sarah is inside the tent. And she hears what the Lord Jesus says, and she goes... She knows her womb dries up. She knows that there is no way that she can have a son. And the thing is this, when she laughed, it was an internal laugh. There was no audible laugh at all. And the Lord Jesus Christ says, why does Sarah laugh? And Sarah says, I didn't laugh. Yes, you did. Yes you did. So here is a pre-incarnate appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ. Then comes his incarnation and here is the incredible part about this.

So you go back to the book of Isaiah where there is a prophecy that says, therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign. And behold, a virgin shall conceive. Now, if you look at a Hebrew text, or if a Hebrew scholar was to interpret this, and if you look at a Hebrew text, it will say, behold, a maiden or young woman shall conceive. But the thing is this. See that word sign? It means miraculous sign, and it is not miraculous for a young woman to conceive. Therefore, the translation, Behold, a virgin shall conceive, is the best translation. There is another prophecy in Isaiah chapter 9 that says this, For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.

I highlighted child and son because this talks about the hypostatic union of our Lord Jesus Christ. It talks about his deity and it talks about his humanity. So unto us a child is born. What do you think that refers to deity or humanity. humanity. Unto us a Son is given. It doesn't say that the Son is born, but the Son is given. The eternal Son of God, who existed for all eternity, is given. So we have the Lord Jesus Christ as the God-man. Then there comes the fulfillment. to the angel Gabriel.

He was sent to Mary and said, you know, you're going to conceive. How can I? I haven't known a man. I haven't had a sexual relationship with any man. And he says, you're going to conceive in your womb and bring forth a son and call his name Jesus. So in his Incarnation.

Now, can we understand, or did people walking on the earth at that time understand the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ? And listen to what John says. In John chapter 1, verse 1 says, In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. And then down in verse 14, it says, The Word became what? flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the Only Begotten of God, full of grace and truth." And so, Jesus Christ walking this earth, anybody observing the Lord Jesus Christ, observed His glory.

Then comes his death and his resurrection. And as indicated before, that this is the fulfillment of his eternal covenant. The eternal covenant that was made back in eternity past that Jesus Christ would die for sins and unto sin so that so that we would be forgiven of our sins if we trust and put our faith in the person of Christ and in the work of Christ. In the person of Christ in terms of that he's the eternal son of God and the work of Christ and that he died for your sin and my sin.

And so in 1 John 2.2 it says that he is the propitiation or the satisfaction for not for our sins only, but for the sins of the entire world. So this is the transaction that went on in the eternal covenant between God the Father and God the Son. And then he had to deal with not only the sins, but he had to deal with the source of the sin, and he had to deal with the root of the sin.

And he dealt with the root of the sin, because, as it indicates in 2 Corinthians 5.21, that for he hath made him sin, a very sin nature for us who knew no sin, and that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Now, righteousness and life are interchangeable terms, so that in order for us to have life, that life which was required to have that fellowship with God, the only way that we could have that life was that Jesus Christ died unto that sin nature and that we be separated from that sin nature.

So that believing in that and believing in his death and his resurrection, 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, He's a new creation, totally new.

Old things are passed away. All that we were in Adam are passed away. Behold, new things have come. Or the word in the Greek is genomite. New things have come, come into a new state of being for every single believer. His death and his resurrection, there's another aspect of it, and that is the church's new covenant. Now covenant, the word covenant means to put a place between to put a place between two parties. So a covenant is just that. And so the new covenant is the two parties is the Lord Jesus Christ and you as a believer. And what has happened is that we've been identified or we've been put in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, his person and his word. So that when you go to Romans chapter 6, it says, no you're not.

That is, many of us were baptized into Jesus Christ, were baptized into his death. So we were baptized into Jesus, into the person of Christ, were baptized into his death. We're also baptized or immersed into his resurrection. And the idea of baptism and immersion here is to place into something and never take out. And so we were put into Christ and never taken out. We were put into his death and never taken out. The old man was crucified. We were put into his resurrection and never taken out. We have his life.

He has a priestly ministry right now for you and for me. He's our great heart priest. And as scripture says in Hebrews, he's a minister at the heavenly sanctuary. As a high priest, he's a bestower of blessings. And this high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, is a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. Melchizedek was a high priest that bestowed blessings, and that's what the Lord Jesus Christ does.

He's touched with every one of our weaknesses, and we can approach the throne of grace, and it says, boldly or with confidence. Now, I want you to notice that you as a believer are a priest. and we have a great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can come to him boldly, confidently, before his throne of grace. We don't need an intermediary. We don't need someone in between.

I belonged to a church where we had priests, and of course I was taught, boy, if you went through all the rituals in terms of baptism and confirmation and all of that, that you were okay with God. And the only way that you really could communicate with God is through the priest.

Well, I became a believer and started reading scripture. And I saw from scripture that, wow, that is far from the truth. And I sat down with several of these priests, a long story to make it short. My question to them is that if you should die tomorrow, where will you spend eternity? And the answer, their answer, was they did not know. And I said, but you can know. Let me tell you. I don't even know a little bit of scripture, but let me tell you what scripture says.

That this is the record, this is the witness that God has given to us eternal life. And this life is in the Son. He that has the Son has life. He that is not the Son of God has not life. If you have the Son of God, you have life. And these things are written that you might know you have eternal life.

And the priest said, time out. Look what you're doing, Hal. What am I doing? You're taking the Bible as the Word of God. I saw my whole life passed in front of me. when he said that, as to why I never understood. And I said, Father Kerry, if the Bible is not the Word of God, then what is it? He says, Hal, it contains the Word of God, but it's not the Word of God. So that what I just quoted to you, Father Kerry, is not the Word of God? That's right, it's not the Word. Then how do I know what's the Word of God and what isn't the Word of God?

Then he adjusted his collar and he says, this is where we come in. So anyhow, the thing is, no longer need to go to an intermediary. We can go directly to God's throne of grace. And what he's doing right now during this church age, he's sharing his very glory with you and me. Now he's already done it, because in what Helmut read this morning from John 17, 22, where the Lord Jesus Christ says, Father, the glory which you have given me, I have given them. And the word given them is in the perfect tense, means it's a past action, it's a completed action in past time. When do you think the past time was? The cross? When you believed? Or when you believed the cross?

How about that eternal purpose? His eternal purpose was to share his glory. How about then, back in eternity past? I think it was back in eternity past because he knew that you would believe. So, conditionally, he shares his glory with us. the moment we believe we have no clue as to what his glory is.

And by beholding the Lord Jesus Christ through the Word, we are then being transformed and we come to know more and more about his glory and growing in that glory. The next event we talked about is the rapture. The one thing I want to say is, I'm going to speed this up, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going to return in the clouds, and all of those who are dead in Christ are going to be raised. All of those who are alive when he returns are going to be caught up to meet him in the air and to ever be with him.

And I just want you to notice that the Church is not going to go through the Tribulation period, the Great Tribulation. Scripture says that we're not appointed to wrath. Then, during the tribulation period, there's going to be the judgment seat of Christ. And if you look at the word judgment seat in Scripture, the word is Bema. And Bema just means a raised platform. And the question is, what's that raised platform all about? And the point is, it's about rewards, and I don't, a believer is not going to be judged for, you're not going to be judged for your sins. They've been dealt with on the cross. And as you go through scripture concerning the judgment seat of Christ, you see that the focus is on rewards, that every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labor.

And our works may be done out of the flesh, and those of wood, hay, stubble, or they may be done out from the spirit, which is gold, silver, precious stones. They're all going to pass through the fire. The wood, hay, stubble is going to be burned, those out from the flesh. However, those that abide, which is the gold, silver, precious stones.

Look what the scripture says, you shall receive a what? A reward, not judgment. And then how about the works that are burned? It says, if any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss. Loss of what? Loss of reward. at loss of salvation, because the verse goes right on to say, but he himself shall be saved, and yet so is by fire.

Then comes the second coming, where the Lord will return to this earth. And prior to his coming is the tribulation period, as we've talked about. And then the scripture says immediately after the tribulation of those days. Now I want you to picture this for a moment. It says immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened. Think about this now. The sun is darkened and the moon shall not give forth her light. Why? Well, the moon is a reflector, right? All the moon does is reflect the light of the sun. So the sun is darkened, the moon is not going to give light.

So we're going to have total darkness on this earth. total darkness and the stars are going to fall from heaven as scripture says. Then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man coming in clouds with power and great glory. The Lord Jesus Christ is going to illuminate the entire world by his glory. In other words, the glory that he is manifested in light is going to light up this entire world. When he comes, he is going to rule and reign for that 1,000 years. And by the way, scripture says that we're going to come with him. He's going to come with all the saints. And when he comes, At that point in time, he's going to take all the nations in the world and judge them.

Sheep on one side, goats on the other. Goats are those who did not put their trust and faith in Christ. They're going to go to hell. Those who believed and trusted in the person and the work of Christ, he says, come enter into the kingdom, which is been prepared for you from the foundation of the world, so they're going to enter into the millennial kingdom. And we're going to be priests of God, we are priests of God, and we're going to reign with him a thousand years.

How's he going to reign? He's going to reign with a rod of iron, which means he's going to reign in righteousness. There's going to be total righteousness on this earth, so that There won't be any Katrina. There won't be any looting. If there is, because men are going to be born during this kingdom period, even though everyone going into the kingdom is a believer. But during this period, those believers who have children are going to be born with the same nature.

And there's going to be unrighteousness, and he's going to put it right down. After the Millennial Kingdom rule, there's going to be the Great White Throne. He's going to gather all the unbelieving dead before him and judge them. He's going to judge them out of the books. and there's the book of life, they're going to find out their name has been blotted out of the book of life, and there's the book of works, and they're going to be judged out what is written in the book of works.

After the kingdom period, scripture says, and John says, I saw a new heaven and a new earth, and the holy city, coming down from God out from heaven. And that's where we'll be. in that holy city. And in that holy city, there's no temple. The God, the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ are the temple of it. There's no need for sun because the glory of the Lord lightens that holy city.

And it goes on to say, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light of it. In Romans 11, we're just going to close here, it says, for of him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen. One thing I'd just like to say in closing is that that very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ today is contained in vessels, earthen vessels, and you and me are an earthen vessel, and we contain the very glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's done it that way, and the only way that man is ever going to see the glory of Christ is through us. Wow, isn't that phenomenal that he would use us, these earthen vessels, weak and frail, to manifest the very glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. What a privilege. Amen? Amen.