The Greatness and Glory and Deity of the Lord Jesus Christ

… Isaiah 44 Verse 6 Thus says 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. I am the first, and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. Now, Isaiah chapter 6 Verse 1 In the year that King Isaiah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his crane filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphim, each one of six wings, with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts, the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me, for I am undone, because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now, we've come to the New Testament, to the passages that connect to this. First of all, in John chapter 12. I've got a key order for this this morning. John chapter 12 And we'll just read about chapter 1. These things said Esaias when he saw his glory and state of him. Now, lastly, in Revelation chapter 1. Verse 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. I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell and of death. Just a very brief one, dear brethren. But to follow on with what we've already had as to the greatness of our Lord Jesus Christ. I think we are all aware, I'm sure we are, we're all aware that constantly there is an attack upon the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. The false cults are particular in this respect. Always an endeavor to bring him down to the level of a great man, but certainly not God. And we believe that the Bible, in the Old Testament as well as the New, emphasizes this again and again that Christ is God. And all those who have some affection in our hearts for him would desire to see this clearly and to maintain it, the Spirit giving us help. Simply, we find in Isaiah three portions where Jehovah, the God of Israel, is referred to as the first and the last. And if you take the time to search out, you'll find that to be true. And correspondingly, in the book of Revelation, the Lord Jesus three times is referred to as the first and the last. I would say for myself that this is conclusive proof that the Jehovah of the Old Testament is the Jesus of the New. And we have no hesitation in pointing out these scriptures to emphasize the greatness and glory of our Savior. Surely if we love him, and I'm sure we do, however meager and shallow that love might be, it's there in sincerity we would desire to preserve this great and glorious and unique dignity that belongs to him. It's one of the things that I do, not that I'm confident to judge translations, but I always turn to passages where there should be references to the deity of Christ. And if I find that that's in any way impaired, then I refuse that. It is good that we put our foot down firmly on this great fundamental truth that Christ is God. Indeed, we could not understand the many things that are said of Christ and the many things he did if we did not believe that he is God. But all through the fiber of scripture, we find this referred to again and again that our Savior is God. And again we find this in Isaiah chapter 6. Isaiah, he was there in the presence of God, that Christ, holy God. Perhaps a reference to the Trinity. Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, not revealed as such, but nevertheless there. And we find that when John speaks about him, he refers to him in this way. Isaiah saw his glory, the wonderful glory of the Son of God, equal with God. Oh, how great and how glorious he is. And he is our Savior. Let us repeat that again and again, that we have this in our hearts. He's done so much for us. He will do yet far more for us. But over and above it all is his unique and great glory. And so when Isaiah saw this glory, he spake of him. And John refers this to our Lord Jesus Christ. And again, we have no hesitation in saying that the Jesus of the New Testament is the Jehovah of the Old. Just one more reference. That is in Isaiah chapter 9. We did not read it. But there we have a description of the Messiah. Clearly, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. And one of the features of the name that he has is that he is the mighty God. Now, if you turn over to chapter 10, you'll find there that the same name is given to Jehovah, the mighty God. So here in the Old Testament itself, it's conclusive proof that the Messiah, the Son of God, our Lord Jesus Christ, is God, the mighty God. That's all I have to say to you, brethren. But how we need this reinforced in our hearts. His greatness, his supremacy, his unique glory, infinitely greater than our minds can think of. He is the eternal God. He is the mighty God. He's the first. He's the last. He's the Jehovah of the Old Testament. All the glorious names that we can think of belong to him, and how thankful we are that this is so. I was thinking about the psalmist when he said, my heart is welling up with a good matter. I was thinking about Elijah. He was absolutely exasperated because of all the talking that was going on, and it was getting him nowhere. The three friends of Job, and Job himself, many, many, many questions asked, and no progress being made. No wonder he was exasperated. And then I thought of the indignant feelings of Paul as he moved about in the city of Athens, and he saw the city given up blindly. How indignant he was. My, what a wonderful thing to have the heart move in real appreciation of Christ. Dear brethren, if our hearts are unmoved, we are callous, unfeeling, what an awful thing to be in the presence of Christ and not be moved by him. If we have feelings of indignation when we see increasing sin and the opposition to God, something wrong with our feelings. And if we are frustrated when sometimes in our meetings there's a daydream of talking but no progress, well, there's something wrong with our feelings if we haven't those kind of feelings. And so we would desire above all to be marked by the spirit of spontaneous desire towards Christ to express ourselves in deep appreciation of him. May it be so. Amen. We sing the hymn number 485. 485. Thou art the first, Lord Jesus, so thou art the last. Thou fillest all the future, present, and the past, the alpha, the beginning, the omega, the end, once dead, alive forever, to whom each knee shall bend. Number 485. Thou art the first, Lord Jesus, so thou art the last. Thou fillest all the future, the present, and the past, the alpha, the beginning, the omega, the end, once dead, alive forever, to whom each knee shall bend. The brightness of the Lord in which I have never seen. Thou never hast beginning, eternal policy. Thou art the perfect image of God in this world. In light which none appointed, in love which none has. …