The Spurgeon Series 1859 & 1860. Charles H. Spurgeon

Some of our choicest hymns are founded on that circumstance, and our richest hopes flow from that attribute. We know that all things will change. We are convinced that we ourselves are mutable as the winds, and as easily moved as the sand by the waves of the sea; but we know that our Redeemer lives, and we cannot entertain a suspicion of any change in his love, his purpose, or his power. How often do we sing: —

      Immutable his will,

      Though dark may be my frame,

      His loving heart is still

      Unchangeably the same.

      My soul through many changes goes:

      His love no variation knows!

      Do you not see that you have in fact called him God, because no one but God is immutable? The creature changes. This is written on the forefront of creation — “Change!” The mighty ocean, that knows no furrows on its brow, changes at times, and at times changes its level. It moves here and there, and we know that it is to be licked up with forked tongues of flame, and yet we ascribe to Christ immutability. We do, then, in fact, ascribe to him, divinity; for, no one but the Divine can be immutable.

      12. Is it not also our joy to believe that wherever two or three are gathered together in Christ’s name, there he is in the midst of them? Do we not repeat it in all our prayer meetings? Perhaps some minister in Australia began the solemnities of public worship today with the reflection that Jesus Christ was with him, according to his promise, and I know that as I came here the same reflection comforted me, “Yes, I am with you always even to the end of the world,” — that wherever a Christian is found, there God is. And though there is only two or three met in a barn, or on the pasture under the canopy of God’s blue sky, yet there Christ bestows his presence. Now I ask you, have we not ascribed to Christ, omnipresence; and who can be omnipresent except God? Have we not thus in fact then, though not in words, called Christ “God?” How is it possible for us to dream of him as being here, and there, and everywhere; in the bosom of his Father, with the angels, and in the hearts of the contrite all at the same time, if he is not God? Grant me that he is omnipresent, and you have said that he is God, for no one but God can be present everywhere. Again, are we not also accustomed to ascribe to Christ omniscience? You believe when your heart is aching that Christ knows your pains, and that he hears every groan; or at least if you do not believe it, it is always my satisfaction to know that —

      He feels at his heart,

      All my sighs and my groans.

      And so he does the same for you. Wherever you are, you believe that he hears your prayers, that he sees your tears, that he knows your needs, that he is ready to pardon your sins; that you are better known to him, than you are to yourself. You believe that he searches your hearts, and tries your inner most being, and that you never can come to him without finding him full of sympathy, and full of love. Now do you not see that you have ascribed omniscience to him; and therefore, though not in words, you have, in accents louder than words, called him the mighty God; for you have assumed that he is omniscient; and who can be omniscient but the very God of very God?

      13. I shall not stop to describe the other attributes, but I think we might prove that each of us has ascribed to Christ all the attributes of the Godhead in our daily life and in our constant trust and intercession. I am sure that it is true of many loving hearts of God’s own children here. We have called him the mighty God, and if others have not called him so, nevertheless the text is verified by our faith. “He shall be called wonderful, counsellor, the mighty God.” So he is, and so he shall be, world without end.

      14. And now I have another proof to offer, that Christ is called “the mighty God.” We call him so in many of his offices. We believe this morning that Christ is the mediator between God and man. If we wish to understand the term mediator or daysman, we must interpret it as Job did; one “that might lay his hand upon both of us.” We are accustomed to say that Jesus Christ is the mediator of the new covenant, and we offer our prayers to God through him, because we believe that he mediates between us and the Father. Let it once be granted then that Christ is the mediator, and you have asserted his divinity. You have virtually called him the Son of God; and you have granted his humanity, for he must put his hand upon both; therefore he must put his hand upon man in our nature; he must be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, and be in all points like as we are. But he is not a mediator unless he can put his hand upon God, unless as co-equal with the Eternal One he shall be able without blasphemy to place his hand upon the divine Being. There is no mediatorship unless the hand is put on both and who could put his hand on God but God? Can a cherubim or seraphim speak of laying their hands on the Divine? Shall they touch the Infinite? “Dark with insufferable light his skirts appear” — then what is he himself in the glorious essence of Deity? — an all devouring and consuming fire. Only God can put his hand on God, and yet Christ has this high prerogative, for note, there is no mediatorship established, there cannot be, unless the two are linked. If you wished to build a bridge you might commence on this side of the river, but if you have not connected it with the other side, you have not built the bridge. There can be no mediatorship unless the parties are fully linked. The ladder must have its feet on earth but it must reach to heaven, for if there would be a single breach we should fall from its top and perish. There must be complete communication between the two. Do you not see therefore that in calling Christ mediator we have in fact called him the mighty God.

      15. But again, we call Christ our Saviour. Now, have any of you that foolish credulity which would lead you to trust in a man for the everlasting salvation of your soul? If you have, I pity you: your proper place is not in a Protestant assembly, but among the deluded votaries of Rome. If you can commit the keeping of your soul to one like yourself, I must indeed mourn over you, and pray that you may be taught better. But you do trust your salvation to him whom God has set forth for a propitiation, do you not, oh follower of Jesus? Can you not say all your hope is fixed on him, for he is all your salvation and all your desire? Does not your spirit rest on that unbuttressed pillar of his entire satisfaction, his precious death and burial, his glorious resurrection and ascension? Now, observe, you are either resting on man, or else you have declared Christ to be “the mighty God.” When I say I put my faith in him, I do most honestly declare that I dare not trust even in him, if I did not believe him to be God. I could not put my trust in any being that was merely created. God forbid that my folly should ever go to such an extent as that. I would sooner trust myself than trust any other man, and yet I dare not trust myself, for I should be accursed. “Cursed is he who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm.” And would the Socinian have me to believe that I am to preach faith in Christ, and that yet, if my hearers trust Christ, they will be accursed, as they assuredly must be, if he is nothing but man, for again I repeat it, “cursed is he who trusts in man, and makes flesh his arm.” You get a blessing by faith in Jesus, but how? Is it not because — “Blessed is he who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is?” Christ is very Jehovah, and therefore the blessing comes to those who trust in him. So, then, as often as you put your trust in Jesus, for time and eternity, you have called him “the mighty God.”

      16. This subject is capable of the greatest expansion, and I do believe there is sufficient interest attached to it to warrant me in keeping you to a late hour today, but I shall not do so. There has been enough said, I think, to prove at least, that we are continually in the habit of calling Christ “the mighty God.”

      17. III. My third proposition is to explain to you HOW CHRIST HAS PROVEN HIMSELF TO US TO BE “THE MIGHTY GOD.” And here beloved, without controversy, great is the mystery of Godliness, for the passage from which the text is taken says, “To us a child is born.” A child! what can he do? A child he totters in his walk, he trembles in his steps — and he is a child newly born. Born! what! an infant hanging on his mother’s breast, an infant deriving his nourishment from a woman? Can that one work wonders? Yes, says the prophet, “To us a child is born.” But then it is added, “To us a Son is given.” Christ was not only born, but given. As man he is a child born, as God he is the Son given. He comes down from on high; he is given by God to become our Redeemer. But here behold the wonder! “His name,”