Routley, Ray: His Name 03 ~ His Name Is Mighty God

I wonder if we could say our verse together, Isaiah chapter nine and verse six. Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder. His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. Lovely titles and a lovely verse. We had to have him as the child born, we learned in order to have a substitute. We had to one who have one who could come and take our place that was made like unto us, sin apart. We never read that he was born the seed of Adam, but we do read that he was the seed of the woman, and we do read that he was Abraham's seed. He didn't take on in the nature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. I believe we read of him as the seed of Abraham because Abraham stood as the father of the faithful, and therein he could be the seed of Abraham. But when it came to his seed, it was an eternal one, and thereby we learned that he was the son. You see, I needed to have a substitute as a sinner, and I needed to have a propitiator. I needed to have one who could be my substitute, who was well able to take my judgment, as well as bearing my sin. You see, it wouldn't do any good for me to have another one just like me try to take my judgment, because the throne and justice could not be satisfied. You see, the Psalmist tells us that justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne, and mercy and truth go before thy face. And so, in order that justice and judgment could be satisfied, and mercy and truth could be brought into play. I would have had to have a perfect one to be my substitute, and then in his perfection, he could substitute and he could propitiate. He could satisfy the judgment of God for sin as it was poured out upon him, and then that God could be a righteous God and show mercy to the sin. My, I love that. The throne is completely satisfied. God will never reap judgment on you and I. He satisfied it on his son. He was our propitiator. He was the eternal son. And in his eternalness were all the eternal perfections of God himself. And then we learned that he was wonderful, and we learned that was incomprehensible. When it came to trying to measure out his eternal past, we couldn't do it. We could enter in and rejoice in the things he's taught of us, that he was from the beginning wherever the earth was, that he was raised up with him as one that was with him from the beginning. He was from everlasting to everlasting. He's the one who changes not. He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's the I am, the ever-present one, the ever eternal one. And so when he became my propitiator, and he became my substitute, now through him I enter into the eternal things. I have the eternal inheritance that was his, because he says, he that hath a son hath life. And then he says, through this life, we become heirs of God and joint heirs with Jesus Christ. And so all are yours, because ye are Christ, and Christ is God. Isn't that lovely? All are yours. My, sometimes we think, poor me. But poor me isn't poor at all. You might be poor as far as this earthly goods are concerned, but you're rich toward God, and you're rich eternally. All the riches of heaven are ours. You know, sometimes men are looking for the earthly riches. Well, they're things that are going to pass away. They're things that the thief can break through and steal. They're things that the moth will work on, and that rust and oxidation will corrupt because they're stored away here, and many of them never used. But my, how good it is, rich man, if we've got some. When you see that they really belong to the Lord, and then you store your treasure in heaven. You make an investment in eternity, and then you just become a steward of what he's given you here. How blessed it is for you. How blessed it is for you, poor brother and sister, when you're poor as far as these earthly goods are concerned, but you're rich toward God in as much as he's given you the riches of his grace, and you can enjoy them day by day. I remember a sister once, I went to my, that poor lady was really poor. I went in to visit her, and she lived in a little tar papered shack, and in that shack she didn't have too much at all. Her little girl had two or three dresses on, trying to keep her warm. They didn't have a stove in the place. And I noticed that she had on several pieces of clothing, trying to keep her warm. But when I walked in, she didn't bemoan her loss. She pulled out a chair from the kitchen table because that's all they had. There was only two rooms, a kitchen and a bedroom. Wasn't any back on the chair, just two posts that stay stuck up, and she said, sit down, brother, and she threw her Bible on the table, and she said, look, I've only been saved a short while, and I got some things in the Gospel of John, the first chapter, that are puzzled to me. She said, will you show me them? And I sat down with her for forty five minutes. I saw the light of heaven in her face, and I never heard a word of complaint on her lips. She had the riches of his grace. My, it can take the poorest of the poor as far as the world's goods are concerned, and give them the glory of God and the joy of the Lord as we walk in this sea. Ah, the poor are rich, really. It's easier for a poor man to come to the kingdom than it is for a rich man. The rich man always looks on his riches. They're sufficient for him. I had a friend that I spent years in the service with during the Second World War in New Guinea. We say- shared the same tears of dying and the same dangers of death and the same diseases of the jungle, but we never shared the same Savior. The other day I went down to visit him. He lives in Miami. I thought once more, I'd like to talk to him about the Lord. I saw him, I think, maybe ten, fifteen years ago. He seemed rather receptive then, but in these last fifteen years, he's made a pile of money. He's got a great big home in Coral Gables, got himself a boat and several automobiles, and everything's going his way. And when I tried to present the Savior, there wasn't an ear tuned to his grace, only a desire to make more. Beloved, how wonderful it is when you can see him as a child born, as the son given, as the incomprehensible one, because you see, we need the wonders of his love, of his grace, of the riches of his wisdom and his knowledge, unfathomable. And then we enter into his counsel. We needed that. My, how we need his counsel, and he says, counsel is mine. We can commit our works to him and have him establish our thoughts. We can walk in his way, knowing full well that he'll direct our thoughts as we give our works to him. We needed his counsel. Praise God, he gave us the Lord Jesus, the counselor. But you know, he's the mighty God. Oh my, some people kind of stiffen up at this one. But you know, if you've seen him as the seed of the woman, and you see him as the eternal son, and you see him as the incomprehensible one, and you see him as the counselor. Oh, then, beloved, you've grown in that communion we've been talking about. That drawing out, and if I've ever seen a verse of God's word to draw us along the path, to bring us to fatherhood in the faith, it's that verse. And as we grow in our communion with him, he brings us to the fact that he's the mighty God. Now, that is the El Gibor. Some have made it a hero God, but beloved, that would be short-sighted. Some of our translators that want us to think that that's the light that is given him, but it's far greater than that. He is a hero in the sense that he's the victor, but he's mighty in the sense that he's over all. He's mighty in power, and the word here is used in the light of battle. Ah, you see, as we grow along in the path of faith, we need that recognition that as weak as we are, we have a mighty God, who is the mighty God, to do battle for us. We don't have to do battle, beloved. Sometimes there's strife with the Christians because we're worrying about place and position with one another, and pride wants to lift us up. And sometimes we're wrong, or we're right, and we think we're right, and we're sure we're right, so strong we become wrong, and we want to defend our position. We've got a defender. He's in the mighty God, and we need to allow the mighty one to defend us. That's what he is, a defender. And that's the light that the title is given. When we look at it, I suppose if we went to the first time this particular word was used with God in the scriptures, it would give us an idea. Deuteronomy chapter ten. You can see how this becomes a militant title. Verse seventeen says, for the Lord your God is God of gods. The Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty. That's the word, Gabor. It means victor. It means powerful. And he says, and a terrible with regard- which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. He doth execute the judgment of the fatherless and the widow, and loveth a stranger in giving him food and raiment. Now we got an idea that the mighty God is the defender of the fatherless and the widow, and also to entertain the stranger and be his defender and hold him up. I'm going to come back to this, but before I expound it a little more, I want to look at the word God or the thought of God. We can see here the light of the mighty God, but now the thing that seems to stumble so many in using this title is to say, how could the Son who came out of God be mighty God? He could, in the same way that we spoke of the other day in the rays of the sun, being sun because it brings a manifestation of all that the sun is. My, how I can enjoy the rays. We've been enjoying them these past days. We bask in them, we feel their warmth. But how long could you bask in the presence of the sun? Could you even look upon its glory? It'd fry your eyeballs, and it would destroy you in its presence. And if we look at it in the light of God, now God manifest was the Lord Jesus Christ. My, I can bask in his presence. I can enjoy the warmth of his love, because it was a manifestation of all God is. All God was, and all God evermore shall be. It is in the Son. And so now, as I view the Son, I can view God in his glory, because the Son manifests the glory of Fa- the Father. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. So now, as I can enjoy God in the Son, because the Son is the manifestation of all that God is, because he is God manifest in the flesh. So the first verse then that I would be interested in would be First Timothy three sixteen, because this is the verse that teaches me that God was manifest in the flesh. Let's go to that verse. My, how thankful I am for that verse, that it teaches me that God, in coming here to this scene, desired to manifest himself in his glory, and the Lord Jesus accomplished it. We read, and without controversy, great is the mystery of godliness. Without argument. Without taking it up to discuss it. A matter of a statement straightly made, great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up in the glory. There you have God coming in the flesh, having the fullness of the spirit. Remember, he didn't receive the spirit by measure. He has the fullness of the spirit of God. He was seen of the angels. My, the angels brought that announcement to the shepherd on the hillside. There's a sign, and it shall be a sign. You'll find a babe wrapped in swaddling clothes lying in a manger. They could say, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. At his birth and all through his life, the angels had a chance to view it. You know what I think strangest and loveliest of all their views was when they viewed him on Calvary's cross. I think of the angels as they were restrained by the power of God from going to his defense. You know, one man could whip out a sword in a minute to be his defender. And he says, Peter, put it away. He said, you think for a minute you have to use that thing? Couldn't I call legions of angels in a moment, you ever think of what two angels did to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? When they called down that fire from heaven, and in a moment those cities were destroyed. What would have ten legions of angels done at Calvary to this universe who cried crucify. He restrained them. And his love bound them there. He was God. Manifest. You see, that's the first thing. I have to see the deity of Jesus Christ. And I see it in the sense of God being manifest in the flesh. Romans chapter nine and verse five. In the book of Romans and in chapter nine. I get the idea of the blessedness of this God. He's speaking from verse one through verse five as to the position and the blessings that belong to Israel. And he could say in verse five, who are Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, and the service of God and the promises? Whose are the fathers, and of whom, as concerning the flesh, Christ came? Who is over all? God, blessed forever. Who is over all God. That's what it says. Who is he speaking about? The one came in the flesh. The Lord Jesus. So now when I see him, I see him as the manifestation of God. Under the witness of Paul to the Romans, he stands again as God. He stands in the position of power over all. The Lord Jesus could say, all power is given unto me. The Lord Jesus was the one who in the beginning created all things by the word of his power. People are wondering how the world came to be, and they've got all kinds of answers figured out. It's no problem for me. He spoke the word. The worlds were framed by the word of his power. My, those countless millions and billions of stars and galaxies that are out there, he spoke them into being. Some people say you must be some kind of a nut to believe that. Well, let me tell you. I guess Walter Wilson wrote a book once, Christians Are Nuts, and that kind of a nut I am. I believe it with all my heart. He spoke him into being, but in his power, when it came to man, he formed them with his hands. Oh, listen, man had the touch of God from the very beginning. And when man turned aside from God and turned aside from his touch and from his life, he left a void in his life. A void that the world has searched for to fill, and that our young people are looking for today in drugs and drink and sex and everything else. They're looking to fill it. But the only way it can be filled is with the Mighty One. The babe, yes indeed, the seed of the woman, the child born, the son given, the eternal son, the son of God, the living word, the Great I Am, the incomprehensible One. That's the one. And so you see here, he gives us the idea, Paul does in Romans nine five— uh Again, Christ is God over all. Now, if I was to go to First John chapter three and verse sixteen, first epistle to John. Here I find that there's a manifestation of God's love in Christ. Hereby we perceive the love of God because he laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. Now here's a good practical aspect to the love of God. And a good practical verse to show that Christ is God. Because he says, hereby we perceive the love of God because he. Who's it talking about? It's talking about the one who laid down his life. So God is the one who died. And that was the manifestation of God's love. You know, if we can grasp some of these verses that give us the deity of Christ, that show us exactly who he is, we won't be so shaken. And these people are coming today with their weird translations and weird interpretations of what God says. You might find it interesting to take the Jehovah's Witness New World Translation and sit down and read these five verses that I'm going to give you and see what they do to them. That wasn't a translation, it was a perversion with a point in it to deny the deity of Jesus Christ. They've generalized a little bit better today, and they'll say, oh, I believe he's the Son of God. I was staying with a brother in Omaha, and I heard a lady knock on the door one morning and talk to this brother. I could overhear the conversation. She said, oh, I believe he's the Son of God. Ah, but she wouldn't believe that he was the God. You see, they can see he is a God, and that's their interpretation of the Son. He was one who came out of God. He was born as a created being. No, beloved, he was always God, overall, blessed forever. That's who he is. And here's a manifestation of God's love, that God, he, Jesus Christ, laid down his life for us. We ought to lay down our lives for our brethren. Now listen, because we become the sons of God now, we ought to take up the characteristics of the one that we're born of. You like to see children who walk in the way of their parents, when it's an honorable way. Then we ought to walk in the light of our Heavenly Father, beloved. We ought to walk in the light of God the Son. Because in their oneness, all the manifestations came through the Lord Jesus. We couldn't understand the Godhead as much as we do, beloved, except for the manifestations that came through the Lord Jesus. And so when we view him here, we view him as the one who stands as the eternal Son. Here we have Book of the Acts, chapter twenty and verse twenty eight. Now we get it even in a stronger sense here, because we find that he is identified here plainly as the one who sheds blood, his own blood that was shed. We read, take heed therefore unto yourselves and to all the flock who the Holy Ghost has made you overseers to feed the church of God. Whose church? The church of God, which he hath purchased. Who purchased? God purchased. Which he hath purchased with what? With his own blood. With his own blood. Now I have the Lord Jesus here as the one who is God manifest in the flesh, the one who laid down his life for his brethren, for those that he loved, one who could manifest his love, one who was God over all, blessed forever. He never ceased to be God because he came in the flesh, and in the flesh he shed blood. It was precious blood, Peter would tell us. Now let's go back to First John chapter 5 and verse twenty, Because when you look at now all his earthly manifestations in what he did, in love, in dying, and shedding his blood, you still see him as the eternal one. Chapter five of First John and verse twenty. And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true. And we are in him that is true, even in his son, Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal. Is that a bit confounding for you? It is for me. I wouldn't make any bones about it, but he makes it very plain in what he said. We are in his son, Jesus Christ, and his son is the true God and life eternal. And everyone who is placed their faith in the one who purchased the church by the shedding of his blood is the one who has eternal life, because that life is found in eternal God over all, blessed forever, the mighty God. Now I'm glad that God would allow me to have his word, that I might enter into it to this extent, that I might take what he said, and even though I can't comprehend the fullness of the Godhead, I can say, Father, in the simplicity of faith that you've given, in that measure, I believe your word is true. And I see that the Lord Jesus was the manifestation of God. In all love, in all power, in all might, in all mercy, in all grace, as he walked here and he died. So now, as I receive this, and I can see what is meant by God. Now I can put the word mighty with it, and I get a better comprehension as to how he is the mighty one. And when I need strength in our own life, we need it in our own lives, now I can apprehend it, and I can lay hold to it, knowing that he's filled with power because he is. And no less. Now I can go back to the book of Deuteronomy, and I can consider the one there that he wrote of, who is Lord of lords, and who stands as the one who is God of gods, Lord of lords, the great God, a mighty, a terrible, which regardeth not persons nor taketh reward. Uh, there's instruction that he gives to us, that we are not to be respecter of persons. In his mightiness, he does not lift the face of one above another. And the same instruction goes to every believer in the book of James. He says, does- do not be respecter of persons, that's sin. He is a God who does not do that. He does not respect persons. His grace is to all, and his mercy is upon all that believe. So when I look at it and I get an idea now that he stands as a mighty God. And in his might, he's a God that does battle. I want to take you to the twenty fourth Psalm, and I think in this twenty fourth Psalm you can see where the mighty God and the Lord of hosts, which is again a militant title of the lords, are put together. And they're put together right with the King of Kings in the light of reigning in glory. So you see three titles now, the Mighty God, the Lord of hosts, and the King of glory. They're put right together. Twenty fourth Psalm, verse eight: Who is the King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty. The Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, o ye gates. Even lift them up, ye everlasting doors, and the King of glory shall come in. Who is the King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is King of glory. So now when I view the Mighty One, I view him as the Lord of hosts, and I view him as the King of glory. The Lord of hosts means that he is Lord, he is ruler, he is mighty all over all hosts. Be it principalities and powers that are holy, or be it principalities and powers that are evil. In power, he is over all. And in power, he's gonna manifest his power over evil when he takes Satan and he casts him into the bottomless pit during his reign as king of glory on the earth. Because that shall be the day when that psalm prophetically comes to pass. When he rides in glory to his city of Zion here upon this earth, and he comes with ten thousands of his saints to reign with him. Indeed, those gates that have been closed will be open to him when the prince shall ride victoriously. He will do it in that day because he is mighty God. And he shall take Satan, the mighty force against him, and he'll put him in the bottomless pit until that thousand-year reign is done. And then he's going to loose that evil power, as mighty as it is, for a little moment. And then in the power of that deceiver, as the nations are again deceived, and come up against the camp of the saints, the Lord of hosts is going to take that one and all evil power and cast it into the lake of fire, where it shall be forever and ever. There is no host under heaven that has a power greater than his power. He is the God, and that's capital G, of gods, little g. In other words, he is God, and there is none else, because all the little g's are created beings and things that men have made and set up to powers in their own evil mind. He stands as mighty God. Now, when I go to the eighty ninth Psalm, I can find in the eighty ninth Psalm just four thoughts I'd like to leave with you quickly. I think, first of all, as I mentioned, he was mighty in creation. So mighty that he could speak the word, and all the worlds were framed by the word of his power. So mighty that I could read that he sits on the circle of the earth, and he has the clouds as the dust of his feet. Think of it, beloved. You know, I know some think the circle of the earth is the circumference of the Earth. I don't think it means that. You know what the circle of the Earth is? It's the orbit of the Earth around the sun. That's the circle of the Earth. That's the circle it travels. How's that put your God in your mind? And then he says he has the clouds just as the dust of his feet. He's a mighty God. He could speak all these things and put them into being. I read in verse eleven of the eighty ninth Psalm, the heavens are thine, the earth also is thine. As for the world and the fullness thereof, thou hast founded them. The north and the south, thou hast created them. Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name, thou hast a mighty arm. Now, the arm of God certainly is the arm of the Lord that's revealed in the fifty third of Isaiah. That's the fullness of the arm of God, the mighty one in the Lord Jesus, the mighty God. But I see him here in his creatorial work, and I can read that all things were made by him, and without him was not anything made that was made. How you like that, beloved? Was he God? Oh, amen. He's the creator God. Or again, I can read that all things were made by him, and then I read that in him all things consist. You know what that means? It means that this piece of wood and this pulpit is bound together by the might of the Creator. There is one power in the universe that all holds all things together. There is one energy, the mighty God, the Creator of the heavens and earth, the Lord Jesus. My, what a step down he took. How long a step from the glories to the grave. I think so many times as I see him walking that journey toward that cross, and I see him spit in his face, and I say, why'd you let him do it, Lord? Why'd you let him blindfold you and strike you? Why'd you let him beat you? And every time I hear him say, just because I loved you. That's why I continued that path to the cross, and that was the only way that salvation could be our portion, just because he loved us. I used to, when I was a younger man, say, Lord, you could have stopped anywhere along the way. You could have said, it's enough. I won't take anymore. I made this miserable little creature. Why should I let him spit on me? But he didn't. That miserable little creature needed a propitiation, and that's what he came for. That miserable little creature needed a ransom, and he came to pay it. He was the mighty God, but he took the humility, the ignominy, and the shame of Calvary. The one who could speak it all into being was the one that let him nail him to the cross. You think those nails could have bound him there? The thought of his mind could have made him disappear. But his love for me bound him there. I think sometimes there were cords that bound him there. There was the cord of the determined counsel of God, made before the foundations of the world. There was the cords of the prophetic word of God that had to come to pass. There were the cords of his love to the Father, not coming to do his own will, but the will of him that sent him. And there was that cord of his love for me. Beloved, that's what bound him there for us. My, what love is that? Mighty God, oh yes. He was mighty in creation, but he was mighty in salvation. Indeed he was. He re- we read, thou hast a mighty arm, strong as thy hand and high as thy right hand. Justice and judgment are the habitation of your throne. Mercy and truth go before your face. How lovely. His throne demanded judgment, and yet his heart said mercy. His throne was truth, and it demanded judgment. But his heart said grace. And so he let his heart speak, and he gave himself that his throne could be satisfied, that the sinner could have mercy. I read that he's plenteous in mercy. Think of it, beloved. No limit to his mercy. Mercy and truth go before our, before his face. Think of it, they're two opposites. Yes, they are. They're opposites. Truth demands judgment. If you don't believe it, get in your automobile and go speeding through that little town of Keystone. You'll find that truth's going to demand judgment. And that policeman's going to hand you a little ticket. That's the judgment. Truth demands judgment. But you know, God wanted to show mercy. He really did. And so he took the judgment that the sinner might be free. My, mighty in salvation. And then, you know, verse seventeen teaches me something. It says, for thou art the Lord of glory of their strength, and in thy favor our horns shall be exalted. For the Lord is our defense, and the Holy One of Israel is our king. Here I find him mighty in occupation. Then thou spakest in vision to the Holy One and said, I have laid help upon one that is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out of the people, mighty in exaltation. The Lord Jesus stands in that sense as the one who has been exalted, the one who is God's right hand, the one who stands as God, mighty arm, the one in whom salvation is found. I think the fullness of that is given to us when we look at his might and resurrection in Ephesians chapter one. In Ephesians chapter one, he gives us all our blessings that are spiritual, those that are found in the Lord Jesus. And then he brings us to that point that we have in resurrection and our blessing in that, verse nineteen: And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. The Lord Jesus was raised from the dead. How did he get raised? By the power of the Father, God the Father, a power that's divested in him as well because he could say, I'm the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believe this? You see, on one hand, you can see the power that the Father used in bringing forth the Son from the dead, and yet the Son could say, I have the power to lay down my life and the power to take it up again. He said, you destroy the temple and I'll raise it up. Don't you see, beloved, we get into a confounding thought where on one hand we read of the Father's power and the Father doing the work, and on the other hand we read of the Son saying, I have that power. I have that power. He could say it because he was God. Mighty God, mighty in power. That's why you can read things that you read applying to God the Father, and then finding the Lord Jesus taking up the same claim. Because he could say, he that has seen me has seen the Father. Because he could say, I and the Father are one, in the sense of power and unity, the love. They're bound in the Godhead, in that relationship we were speaking of the other day. A relationship of love. The relationship of Father and Son is there. Oh, yes, it is. I never want to take it away. When I speak of the power, that's one spring. Don't you see? One spring, the power of God in the Father, divested in the Son, manifested in the Son. Power found in equality, in unity. But now when I speak of Father and Son in love, oh, I don't want to take that relationship away because it's there. It's a relationship of love. If I took that away, my, how much it would take away in the manifestation of Calvary. It was a father giving a son. God so loved he gave his only begotten son. That's another spring, don't you see? When we look at the things of God, there are so many springs that come from that one eternal fount. And with his help, we learn about the things that differ. We grow and walk along toward the fatherhood in the faith. The Lord Jesus was the child born, he was the son, child born, the son given, the one who could bear government.