Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 724
Delivered on Sunday Morning, December 9, 1866
“The Everlasting Father.” Isaiah 9:6.
How complex is the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! Almost in the same breath the Prophet calls Him a “Child,” and a “Counselor,” a “Son,” and “the Everlasting Father.” This is no contradiction, and to us scarcely a paradox, but it is a mighty marvel that He who was an Infant should at the same time be Infinite—He who was the Man of Sorrows should also be God over all, blessed forever—and that He who is in the Divine Trinity always called the Son, should nevertheless be correctly called “the Everlasting Father.”
How forcibly this should remind us of the necessity of carefully studying and rightly understanding the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ! We must not suppose that we shall understand Him at a glance. A look will save the soul, but patient meditation alone can fill the mind with the knowledge of the Savior. Glorious mysteries are hidden in His Person. He speaks to us in plain language, and He manifests Himself openly in our midst, but yet in His Person itself there is a height and depth which human intellect fails to measure.
When he has looked long and steadily, the devout observer perceives in his Well-Beloved beauties so rare and ravishing that he is lost in wonder! Continued contemplation conducts the soul, by the power of the Holy Spirit, into an elevation of delighted admiration which the less thoughtful know nothing of. So deep is the mystery of the Person of our Lord that He must reveal Himself to us or we shall never know Him! He is not discovered by research nor discerned by reason. “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona,” said Christ to Peter, “for flesh and blood have not revealed this unto you.” “When it pleased God,” says the Apostle, “to reveal His Son in me.”
Another Apostle asked the question, “How is it that You manifest Yourself unto us?” There is no seeing Jesus except by His own light. He is the Door, but no man opens that Door but Jesus Himself, for “He opens, and no man shuts. He shuts, and no man opens.” He is the lesson, but He is also the schoolmaster. He is both key and lock, answer and riddle, way and guide. He is that which is to be seen, for we are to look unto Him, but it is by Him that we are enabled to see, for He gives sight to the blind!
Let us then, dear Friends, if we really desire to understand that most excellent of all sciences—the science of Christ Crucified—entreat the Lord Himself to be our Rabbi, and beg to be allowed to sit with Mary at the Master’s feet. Be this our prayer, that “we may know Him,” and be this our desire, that “we may grow in Grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” For “to know Him is life eternal,” and to be taught of Him is to be “wise unto salvation.”
The title before us is a somewhat difficult one. Some years ago I preached to you from “His Name—Wonderful” [Sermon #214, Volume 4.] I felt I could expatiate upon that with ease. We advanced as far as “Counselor,” and then we halted a while. After a time we were led to preach upon “The Mighty God.” But we have been somewhat diffident of our ability to open up this particular title, for there is a depth in it which we are not able to fathom. This morning I cannot pretend to dive into the profound depths of the Word, but can only skim the surface as the swallow skims the sea. Silver of deep learning and gold of profound thought I have none—but such as I have I give you. If my basket contains nothing more than a barley loaf and a few small fishes, may the Master of the feast multiply the food in the breaking, that there may be food convenient for His people.
It is necessary at the outset to observe that the Messiah is not here called “Father,” by way of any confusion with Him who is pre-eminently called “THE FATHER.” Our Lord’s proper name, so far as the Godhead is concerned, is not the Father, but the Son. Let us beware of confusion. The Son is not the Father, neither is the Father the Son. And though they are one God, essentially and eternally, being forever One and indivisible, yet still the distinction of Persons is to be carefully believed and observed. For the mere word “Persons” we do not contend—it is but a make-shift word, although we know not what better term to use.
But the fact is all-important that the Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Father. Our text has no bearing upon the position and titles of the three Persons with regard to each other. It does not indicate the relation of Deity to itself, but the relation of Jesus Christ to us. He is to us “the Everlasting Father.” The light of the text divides itself into three rays—Jesus is Everlasting.” He is a “Father.” He is the “Everlasting Father.”
I. First, Jesus Christ is EVERLASTING. Of Him we may sing with David, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever.” A theme for great rejoicing on our part! Rejoice, Believer, in Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever! Jesus always was. The Babe born in Bethlehem was united to the Word which was in the beginning, by whom all things were made. The title by which Jesus Christ revealed Himself to John in Patmos was, “Him which is, and which was, and which is to come.”