Morning Sermon - 13th September 2026 - Our Saviour, the True God

Now let's turn in our Bibles to Hebrews chapter one please.

Hebrews chapter one.

We'll take time, to read the chapter.

Hebrews, chapter one.

Hebrews chapter one Long ago at many times and in many ways God spoke to our fathers by the prophets but in these last days he has spoken to us by his son whom he appointed the heir of all things through whom also he created the world.

He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he upholds the universe by the word of his power.

After making purification for sins he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.

For to which of the angels did God ever say, you are my son, today I have begotten you or again I will be to him a father and he shall be to me a son.

And again when he brings the firstborn into the world he says, let all God's angels worship him.

Of the angels he says he makes the angels winds and his ministers a flame of fire but of the sun he says your throne O God is forever and ever the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.

You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness therefore God your God has anointed you with oil of gladness beyond your companions.

And you Lord laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning and the heavens are the work of your hands.

They will perish, but you remain.

They will all wear out like a garment.

Like a robe, you will roll them up.

Like a garment, they will be changed.

But you are the same and your years will have no end.

And to which of the angels has he ever said, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for my feet?

Are they not all ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation?

Amen.

And we know God will bless his word to your hearts.

Now at the heart of the Christian faith, we find of course the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The gospel that we are sent to proclaim centers on what Christ has done to save sinners.

And it's about the God ordained way of salvation.

And to lose sight of that is really to lose sight of the gospel.

Christ is the center of the gospel in his person and work, and it's crucial for Christians that we understand as fully as possible the salvation that God has provided for us.

And there are different reasons why that's the case.

But of course we can't communicate clearly to anyone the message we haven't really grasped ourselves.

It's like someone trying to teach a class and they're not too well grounded in the subject themselves and occasionally you might have come across this and the communication is very obscure and everybody's lost in the process but in our witness for the gospel of course that's the last thing that we really want.

And it's also important for Christians themselves for their own spiritual health because the better you understand, what the Lord has done for you then the stronger your faith will be and the deeper your spiritual life will be.

So it's wise and it's profitable for Christians to keep going back to the fundamentals of the gospel.

Sometimes the temptation is to think well I know these things and I've grown beyond these things and I want something else.

But we always need to remind ourselves that the fundamentals of the gospel leave a secure grasp of God's truth as they're applied by the aid of the Holy Spirit.

Now here in Hebrews chapter two and verse three the writer poses a very searching question, a question that you've heard before.

How shall we escape if we neglect such a salvation?

And he knows the answer of course.

We won't escape.

No one will escape if they ignore the salvation that God has provided.

So over the next number of Lord's Day mornings I want us to focus on this question posed in Hebrews chapter two in verse three and to reflect together on this great salvation as we begin a series this morning entitled exploring a great salvation.

And what I intend to do is to look at different aspects of salvation.

How it's provided, what it provides for us, an answer to our spiritual plight, and of course to deepen our understanding of the gospel.

When thinking about salvation, it's imperative that we commence by answering the question, who is the savior?

And we want to think about the identity of the Lord Jesus Christ who is who is the one that God has provided to save us.

So we're thinking first of the person of Christ and then we're gonna think about the work of Christ.

The two are really inseparable.

Not two different subjects.

They're one of the same subject and what Christ does is is possible because of who He actually is.

So we start with who He is and then we'll go on to think of what He's done and what He continues to do on at other services.

So we begin thinking about exploring this great salvation and we come this morning to thinking about our savior, the true God.

Our savior, the true God.

And this is fundamental in a sense of we get this issue wrong.

If we get the issue of who Jesus Christ is wrong, well then everything else concerning the gospel and everything else concerning salvation will be wrong.

So we're coming to think about our Savior, the true God.

And there are two things that we want to think about this morning.

First of all we want to think about the Savior's divine names and then secondly we want to think about the Savior's divine perfections.

Both these explain who the Savior is.

So first of all let's think about the Saviour's divine names.

The Saviour's divine names and we have often said that the Bible names are very important.

Names in the Bible are very significant.

It's part of the culture that names were given for a particular reason.

And you think of different characters in Scripture and the names that they were given speak about the purpose for which God had called them and the experience that they had of God in their lives.

We think for example of Abraham's name change.

In the biblical account primarily found in Genesis 17, God renames Abram which means exalted father to Abraham which means father of a multitude, father of many nations as part of establishing His everlasting covenant.

And the text explicitly ties the new name to the promise that God has made with Him the father of a multitude of nations with descendants with kings and a lasting relationship.

So the names that God uses are of great significance.

They're not random.

They all have a lesson for us.

So when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's profoundly important to see that He is referred to very specifically in Scripture.

Those names are given to Him, the very names of God.

And as we think of the names given to the savior, there are two things that we need to think about.

First note, he is actually called God.

It's as simple in one sense as that usually when you read in the scriptures about God, it's it's referring to the father.

And that's a reasonable safeguard throughout scripture.

And when there's a reference to God, usually the father's in view.

And then when we come across particularly on occasion, the name of God being applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, our ears should prick up.

It stands out when we find those instances, references in the scriptures to the Lord Jesus Christ being the creator of the universe.

He's seen as the sovereign Lord over all things and there are many examples of these found throughout scripture.

And it's a number of these that I want to look at.

In John chapter one, that great chapter, which of course echoes Genesis chapter one, very clearly Genesis chapter one is in the mind of the Apostle John as he writes the first chapter of his gospel.

And remember how he starts, In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

It's very similar to the creation narrative in Genesis one.

But note what we're told about the Word.

The Word existed before the first act of creation.

He's not part of creation.

He existed before there was any creation, before God said, Let there be light.

The Word existed.

And the Word of course is a person and indeed John tells us there that the Word was responsible for the creation.

And John tells us nothing that was made without Him that has been made.

Nothing was made without him that has been made.

And there in verse one, as clearly as it could be stated, the word was God.

And this isn't a is a description.

It's an ascription of the deity given to the Lord Jesus Christ or ascribed to Him as the Son of God.

He is God.

Now you might say, well, okay, so what?

The cults of course will try to wriggle out of that.

If you open the Bible translation that the Jehovah's Witness use for example you'll find in John chapter one it says, The Word was a God.

And there's a small g at the word God.

The argument that they try to present is that He's less than the Father that He's not fully God in that sense.

He doesn't deserve a capital G and this is simply a deliberate mistranslation to serve their own denigration of Christ because they don't believe that He is the Son of God.

They don't believe He is fully God.

So in order to spread their heresy, they have to somehow escape the meaning of John chapter one verse one by a mistranslation.

Let me be clear here the way John puts it in Greek is the only correct way the Greek language can really describe Jesus as the Word.

The Word was God.

There's no other way for John to say it in the original language than the way that he actually describes it time and again all through John chapter one we see Jesus affirmed as fully God and he can't be stated any other way.

There's no room for debate as far as this language is concerned and yet, the Jehovah's Witnesses and others would have us believe that in this single case it somehow means something different.

And not only the Jehovah's Witness, the non subscribing Presbyterian church are exactly the same.

And you can go right through history where people have taught this idea that the Lord Jesus Christ is a great example, the greatest human being who ever lived.

Right away back to the second century when there was a man called Arius.

There's nothing new under the sun.

And John couldn't have said it any other way.

The language left him no other option.

In John chapter one, over and over again, Jesus is shown to be fully God.

You can't read it any other way.

There is no debate.

But they want us to believe that in this one place it doesn't mean what it says.

And this is the worst possible interpreting of Scripture throughout John chapter one verse after verse.

The original word theos refers to the one who is fully God.

No matter how you write it the message is the same when it speaks of the word the Son of God it declares that He is fully God just like the Father.

John chapter one is a crucial passage but it's not the only one.

It's fascinating to go to the end of John's gospel.

John's gospel chapter 20 and verse 28.

And in a sense, you would say that the whole of John's gospel is building up to this.

It's leading up to this incident when Thomas meets the risen Christ and the other disciples met him.

Thomas hadn't been there in the upper room.

Remember he said, Oh unless I feel the spear print in his side and I feel the nail marks in his hands I won't believe that it's him.

And of course he meets the risen Christ and Jesus so lovingly and graciously lets him feel the print of the nails and the spear print in the side and Thomas realizes it's Christ and He's truly risen.

And Thomas' confession is found there in John chapter 20 and verse 28.

It's profound.

My Lord and my God.

My Lord and my God.

And there's no avoiding the significance of the title.

Thomas is referring to Jesus as God.

And Jesus accepts that title.

And that's important to to look at because you remember, for example, there at the beginning of the book of Revelation written by the apostle John, John falls down before one of the angels to worship him, and the angel says to him, don't do that.

Don't do that.

Worship God.

And yet here Jesus accepts Thomas' ascription of deity, my Lord and my God.

Thomas has come to a full understanding of the deity of Christ.

And again the cults try to get out of the force of this particular verse and they suggest for example that Thomas was so shocked.

He was so shocked that these words came out of him like a swear comment.

That he was swearing.

Can you really believe that?

My Lord and my God.

And this is Thomas they're saying just swearing because he's so surprised.

This is absolute blasphemy.

My Lord and my God is exactly who Jesus is risen in triumph.

And then we can go to Colossians chapter two in verse nine.

And again another wonderful testimony to the deity of Jesus Christ.

In Christ all the fullness of deity dwells in bodily form.

He has the same divine nature as the Father, all the fullness of deity.

It couldn't be more clear than that made there by the Apostle Paul.

Jesus wasn't a wee bit of deity.

He wasn't a big bit of deity.

He was full deity.

Jesus wasn't part of deity.

He was fully God.

And then we think of the amazing truth of the incarnation.

Jesus Christ coming in bodily form.

Jesus of Nazareth as He walked and He's healed and died on the cross.

He is the fullness of dead in bodily form.

Another mighty testimony to the deity of Christ.

And then we come to Hebrews chapter one which we read together.

We read it for a reason.

In Hebrews chapter one we have several quotations from the Psalms.

References made by the writer to the Hebrews of Psalm a 102 and Psalm a 110 about God being creator.

And these are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

He is the Lord.

And it's interesting if you open up Psalm 102 in your Bible and you look at the title, you'll see at the very beginning of the Psalm that it's addressed to the Lord, the covenant name, God Himself.

And then you turn to Hebrews chapter one, and Christ is given exactly the same designations.

Indeed in a sense we don't need anything more other than Hebrews chapter one to answer the cults.

On occasion when they come to your door and they start arguing that Christ isn't fully God and they bring up of course different arguments and questions and issues.

Take them to Hebrews chapter one and they have no answer because the only answer is Jesus is fully God.

Of course their tactic is to take you off in another direction.

And you may be encountered that with them.

However, there's no escaping the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God is fully God.

He shares the Father's nature in every respect, so He is called God.

But not only is He called God, secondly, He is called Lord.

Now often in the New Testament, especially as you read the Gospels, there are some folk who speak of other people being Lord and Jesus being Lord.

And they're doing this out of being polite.

It's like our addressing someone as sir, maybe it's not really used as much nowadays.

And they're polite and they say, Lord this and Lord that, and they're not suggesting there's anything particularly special about Jesus.

They would talk to anybody they felt was superior to them in such a language.

They would address them as Lord.

They would address them with that word.

And so we have to be careful when we handle the gospel and make sure that we're understanding them properly and that we're not thinking that people are saying more about Jesus than they really are.

They were being polite at times.

But there are verses that make it very very clear that Jesus Christ is being addressed as God, as Lord.

You only have to go to Luke two eleven the annunciation of Jesus that will be reaching at some stage soon for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour who is Christ the Lord.

Luke's whole narrative is full of references to the Lord and it's clear over and over again.

It's God that He's talking about.

It's true in the opening chapters of the gospel we hear again and again, God is the Lord.

God is the Lord.

14 times in chapter one, we come across the the free is concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Lord is God.

And so here the angels proclaim the savior is Christ the Lord.

So in the context of Luke chapter one and chapter two, this is a reference to Christ being fully God.

He is the savior.

And to any Jewish mind, the savior is God.

All through their Bible, our Old Testament, only God can save and the shepherds are being told Christ is the Savior.

And immediately they conclude it's God.

That's what the angels are talking about, the Lord, the divine Lordship of Christ, Christ the Savior.

All of that tells us that He, Jesus Christ is fully God.

You can go to Matthew chapter 22 and verse 44.

It's another important text.

Jesus debating with the Pharisees as He often did and you know that they debated particular passages of Scripture because the scribes and the Pharisees they were concerned in asking Jesus questions from various passages of Scripture so that they might catch him out.

They might make him look unwise and foolish.

But Jesus quotes Psalm a 110 to them, The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand.

And Jesus challenges the Pharisees and says, Okay, you know the passage.

Who is David really talking about here?

Is it the Messiah?

And they say, Yes.

But David refers to the Messiah as my Lord and that tells us that David recognized that Jesus Christ of Nazareth who would be born centuries later was actually the Lord, was God.

So Jesus challenges the Pharisees.

Do you understand what this means?

Are you willing to admit the implications of David's words?

And of course the Pharisees weren't.

They tried to pull down the shutters.

They tried to end the argument.

And they were being cornered because Jesus was forcing the issue upon them from Psalm 110 and the testimony is clear there in Psalm 110.

The Messiah's identity as David's Lord is God himself and it's Jesus Christ.

And many times in the New Testament and in the book of Acts for example, the title Lord is applied to Jesus.

In fact of course the title really has become part of how we refer to him.

We refer to him as the Lord Jesus Christ.

And note the title Lord, it's not a name.

It's a title.

And that's the way the church thought of him.

He is the Lord and in their scriptures and in their Bible are old their Old Testament again and again Jesus Christ is seen as fully God.

So the New Testament church very clearly understands the message the Savior is bringing, the message that the Scripture sets before us that the Messiah the Savior is fully God so we have the Savior's names.

That's a proof that He is God.

He's called God and He's called Lord and there's no availing the force of those verses in any way.

The Savior's divine names.

But in the second place let's think about the Savior's divine perfections.

The Savior's divine perfections we have thought about His divine names.

Now let's think of these perfections because all through the scriptures the Messiah is described as having perfections or we might put it attributes or we might put it characteristics that only God possesses.

They say this is what the Messiah is like and you think well only God can be like that.

They say this is what the Messiah does and you say okay, only God can do that.

And there are many examples.

I'm just going to mention a few to you.

First of all, the Messiah Jesus Christ is eternal.

He's eternal.

And there's a wonderful passage on the eternalness of Christ found in John's gospel chapter eight and verses 56 through to 59.

And the Jews are questioning, is Jesus greater than our father Abraham?

And by embarking upon this line of questioning, what they're really trying to do is denigrate Jesus.

They're trying to say basically, who does he think he is saying that he's God?

Who does he think he is putting himself above Abraham?

Do you think there's anybody greater than our father Abraham?

And of course they don't think Jesus is greater than Abraham.

But Jesus comes and he gives them an answer that really shocks them.

It really rocks them back on their heels because Jesus said to them, Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day.

Wow.

Jesus isn't 40.

Abraham rejoiced to see his day and how strange how could that be?

And then even more amazing Jesus says, Before Abraham was I am.

Before Abraham was I am and he's claiming that before Abraham was born into the world centuries before Jesus existed.

And note the title of God I am.

He uses God's great covenant name.

And the Pharisees understood exactly exactly what he was saying.

He's claiming to be God and this is the God who at the burning bush told Moses, My name is I am that I am.

And so here very clearly Jesus is saying He as the Son of God is eternal.

Before Abraham even existed He was there.

He is God.

He is eternal.

But then secondly note the Messiah Jesus Christ is all powerful.

He's all powerful.

Look at the works that the Bible says Jesus does.

We know about His miracles.

We remember His changing the water and the wine.

He calmed the storm.

He fed 5,000 with a few loaves and fishes.

These were mighty works.

The power to perform these miracles was in Jesus Himself.

And we read when He changed the water into wine, for example, mentioned in John chapter two, this we're told manifested His glory and His disciples believed Him.

And the focus is on Christ.

It's His glory that's revealed when He changed the water into wine and it demonstrates His power over nature.

And could there be any greater miracle of course than the raising of the dead?

His power over death.

We go to John chapter 11 and we read the story of Lazarus.

He simply spoke the word of command.

Jesus spoke those words.

Lazarus come out and Lazarus received life and he came out and he's the son of God and he's all powerful and he he does works that only God can do.

He is eternal.

He is all powerful.

But then thirdly, the Messiah Jesus Christ is all knowing.

He's all knowing and again that's a characteristic of God alone and you think of some of the things we're told in the gospels that Jesus actually knew.

We're told that He knew the thoughts of the scribes and Pharisees in Mark chapter two.

He knew what was going on in their heads and he didn't speak it aloud but Jesus Christ understood and Jesus Christ knew.

We're told that he had seen Nathaniel at a distance in John chapter one.

This was so amazing that Nathaniel was convinced that this is the Messiah and he submitted to him.

Now Jesus' knowledge is not like the knowledge the prophets had for example where God would tell them about things that would happen perhaps in the future.

God was telling them, but when you read the gospels, you see Jesus had this knowledge from within.

This is the very knowledge of God.

For example, in John chapter six, we're told Jesus had known from the beginning which of the disciples didn't believe and which would betray him.

Amazing.

And then, of course, he knew the heart of each disciple.

He knew that Judas would betray him.

And in his divine nature, Jesus could read the hearts of every person.

He could read the hearts of every person.

Only God is all knowing, and Jesus is all knowing.

He is truly God, eternal, all powerful, and there are so many perfections we could mention.

And the last perfection that I want to mention is the Messiah Jesus Christ is present everywhere.

He's present everywhere, and that's a characteristic of God, isn't it?

Who?

But God is present everywhere in his human nature, And Jesus could only be in one place at any one time when he was here on earth, but in his divine nature, he is everywhere throughout the whole of creation.

And we mentioned the quote from Psalm 102 and a reading from Hebrews chapter one and it describes him as the creator.

The creator is everywhere in his creation and the son of God is everywhere.

And he leaves that great promise where two or three are gathered together, there I am in the midst.

It's not saying I am with you in spirit.

And you know what it is when some people can't make it to a meeting and say, Don't worry, I'll be with you in spirit.

But that's not what Jesus means.

He's telling them He is really there.

Where two or three are gathered together at the ends of the earth, He is there.

He's present.

I am in the midst, not just in spirit.

I am actually there.

And it's reminding us of the wonderful truth that the Son of God indwells every Christian.

Every believer in the Lord is indwelt by Christ.

So wherever there is a believer, Christ is there.

And whenever believers gather together, Christ is there.

He is everywhere in the entire creation and only God is everywhere in creation.

The Savior's divine perfection.

Now let's draw this all to a close.

What an amazing Savior we have.

And we will go on God willing to think of how He's truly man in later message but this is surely the place to begin.

Beginning at the beginning the fundamental truth, the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior is truly God.

If He's not God, He's not a Savior.

He is is God because the Word says He is called God and He is called Lord.

He exercises divine perfections.

He is eternal before Abraham indeed before Adam and Eve even existed, the Son of Man was.

He's all powerful.

He can do anything that doesn't contradict His holiness.

He's all knowing.

He knows every corner of every heart.

He knows every part of the universe that He has made.

He knows it exhaustively.

And He's present everywhere.

Being present everywhere is such a comfort, isn't it?

Where can I go nowhere?

And that's not frightening.

It's it's a precious thing, a wonderful thing to think that our Savior is everywhere.

Wherever you are, he's there and you never wonder beyond his sight, beyond his care or beyond his love.

And of course, that love is a love that brought him from glory to be our savior, to provide everything that we need so that we can spend eternity with him.

He is the great savior who offers a great salvation.

It's a great salvation because we have a great Savior.

And the work he does is the very work of God.

He is fully God in every respect.

And how sad we listen to the cults and the liberal theologians, and they'll talk about Jesus, and they'll they the and they talk about him very respectfully, but the Jesus that they're talking about is not fully God and he's not the Jesus of the Bible and he can't save anybody.

A Jesus who is not truly God is no use to any of us.

He can't he can't save us And to believe only in Jesus who is purely human is to believe somebody who can't save you from sin and really is of absolutely no use whatsoever.

But praise God, we have a savior who is truly God and he's able to save.

And he's able to save you this morning if you're not saved.

Why is he able to save you?

Because he is Lord and he is God and God has died on the cross for your sin.

He is your substitute and by dying for your sin He has bridged the gap between God and us and we can come to Him if we come in repentance and faith, seeing that we're sinners and crying out to Him to save us.

Our Saviour truly God and He can truly save you.

May God bless these words to our hearts.