The Doctrine of Christ no 34
“God is Sovereign, Jesus was
not”
Brian Kocourek, Pastor
November 27th, 2011
This
morning we will continue in our study of the doctrine of Christ, and look at
the fact that the Son of God was not sovereign, but God is sovereign.
Let’s
turn in our Bibles to John 5:17 where we will see that
Jesus was accused by Jews of working on the Sabbath because He healed someone
on the Sabbath. But listen carefully to his answer in verse
17.¶ But Jesus answered them, My Father works
hitherto, and I work. 18 Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him,
because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but He said that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. 19 Then answered Jesus unto
them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but
what he seeth the Father do: for what things so ever he doeth, these also doeth
the Son likewise.
Notice that Jesus tells the
Jews he is completely helpless unless the Father shows him first what to do. He
says, the Son can
do nothing. Then
if we believe Jesus, we will understand that the son cannot save, he cannot
heal, he cannot redeem, he can do nothing unless shown by the Father what to
do. These are not the words of One who is Sovereign. But God is Sovereign. God
is Omniscient and Omnipotent.
Now,
to better understand how this principle of sovereignty separates the Father
from the son, we must first understand what it means to be sovereign.
1.
One who is sovereign is the supreme authority and
answers to no one.
2.
One who is sovereign ranks supreme and thus reigns
supreme above all.
3.
Therefore, One who is sovereign is completely
independent of all others.
Now, if we are honest in our
study of the difference between the Father and son we will have to come to the
conclusion that the Son of God is not Sovereign, and that God alone is
sovereign. Why can we say Jesus was not sovereign, because Jesus was completely
dependent upon his Father in his actions and his speech. And not only were his
actions and speech governed by and subject to His Father, but he surrendered
his will to the will of the Father as well.
Jesus did not speak his own
words. Jesus did not do his own works. Jesus did not have his own doctrine. And
Jesus subjected His own will to his Father’s will. God alone is sovereign and
He (the sovereign God) indwelt his Son who was dependent on Him in all things.
God is Omniscient, God is Omnipotent, but his son is always dependent on His
Father for everything including; speaking, acting, doctrine, and even
submitting His own will to the Father’s will.
Therefore, if we are to understand the sovereignty of
God, we must first learn the first rule of this sovereignty, which is that God
has the supreme Rank, He is Number One, and that He therefore has a specific
order to everything that pertains to His Sovereign Position.
In further understanding the sovereignty
of God we must come to the place where the first role of Sovereignty that being
God is in control, He is number One, he answers to no one, He is in full
control, then that leads us to the second rule of sovereignty which is rule,
itself. And we know that Rule is authority, and then authority
becomes power for power is authority. For we know that
God is Omniscient, Omnipotent and Omnipresent. Yet the Omniscience must come
before the other two, for God is not omnipresent as if He is in all places at
all times and filling all space, but His Omnipresence comes from the fact that
He is all knowing, (omniscient). And thus of the three,... Omniscient,
Omnipotent, and Omnipresent, the greatest of these, and the highest order, is
Omniscience. And this is where Sovereignty itself comes from. God's power and
strength comes from His Omniscience. For could you imagine having all power and
not knowing how to use that power? So we see that God is the Absolute, He is
the ultimate, he is the all in all, and Jesus the son of God answered to God
His Father and was subject to the father in all things.
Jesus said, "Father, I would that
you take this cup from me, But not My will but Thine be done". Those
are not words of one who is sovereign. Every Scripture that speaks of the son
show that Jesus the son of God was not
sovereign, but that he was in subjection to the Father in all things. One who subjects Himself to another is not
sovereign.
Hebrews 2:8
Thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under
him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all
things put under him.
1
Corinthians 15:27 For he hath put all things under his feet.
But when he saith all things are put under him, it is
manifest that he is excepted, which did
put all things under him. 28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him,
then shall the Son also himself be subject
unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Hear ye
Him 57-0519A P:40 Now, watch. God never did anything 'less He
asked man to do, but what He did Himself.
His Son, when He was born here on earth, He was an obedient Son. Every step was
for the Father. Everything He done
was to glorify God.
Who is this Melchisedec 65-0221E P:26 And
remember, you, your eyes, your statue, whatever you was, you were in His
thinking at the beginning. And the only thing that you are is the expression
word. After He thought it, He spoke it,
and here you are. If it isn't, if you wasn't in His thinking, there's no
way at all for you ever to be there, for He's the One that gives Eternal Life. You
remember how we read the Scriptures, "Not him that willeth, or him that
runneth, but God..." And that His predestination might stand true, He
could choose before anytime who...
God's
sovereign in His choosing, did you know that? God's sovereign.
Who was back yonder to tell Him a better way to make the world? Who would dare
to tell Him He was running His business wrong? Even the very Word Itself, very
sovereign... Even the revelation is
sovereign. He reveals to whom He
will reveal. The very revelation
itself is sovereign in God. That's how people pound at things, and jump at
things, and hit at things, and not knowing what they're doing. God is sovereign
in His works.
Again the word sovereign is
defined by three things:
1.
One who is sovereign is the supreme authority and
answers to no one.
Now, therefore, God being sovereign answers to no one, but Himself.
Therefore, he can not even go against His own Word, or he would break His
sovereignty.
From his sermon Manifestation of the spirit
51-0717 P:14 Brother Branham said, And
now, Divine healing is based on His Word. And we know that God is sovereign. People think that God can just do
anything He wants to do. God cannot do anything. God is obligated to His Word. God cannot lie. The Bible says He
can't. So there's one thing that God can't do. And when God says anything, and makes a promise, God can't take that
promise back, because He's God, and He's sovereign, and He can't go back on that promise. Now,
how many believes that's true?
2.
One who is sovereign ranks supreme and thus reigns
supreme above all.
Trying
to do God a service 65-0718M P:15 God is sovereign. And we see here what David done in the
Scripture reading of I
Chronicles 13. And his intentions were good. But God does not give us merits on good
intentions. There's only one way to
serve God; that's by doing His will at His command. And God, being sovereign, there's no one to
tell Him what to do or how to do it; He does it the way... He knows the
right way to do it. And that makes me feel good. And it ought to make all of us
feel good, and I'm sure it does. For one would have it coming this way, and one
have it going that way, and one the other way...
3.
Therefore, One who is sovereign is completely
independent of all others.
Now, although Brother Branham said God’s sovereignty is governed by His
Word, and God must answer to Himself, yet Brother Branham also makes it plain
that as a sovereign He answers to no on else but Himself as we see in his
sermon, Message of grace 61-0827 P:72 Sovereign
grace is from a sovereign One. Sovereign
grace from a sovereign One. Sovereign,
what can it do? Sovereign can do whatever it wants to. Listen to this now.
Sovereign grace can only be given by One that's Sovereign. And God is Sovereign, so He can give
sovereign grace. Therefore, being
sovereign, grace don't have to ask anybody; it don't have to... It does what it wants to. Isn't that
wonderful? It don't have to ask, "Can I do this? Or, shall I do this? Can
I? Must I? Will I?" Doesn't do it. It does it itself. Grace is sovereign; therefore, He can save the vilest. He can save
the worst. He can save the impurest. He can save the immoralest. He can heal
the sickest. Hallelujah.
John 5:20 For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things
that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may
marvel. Notice Jesus was dependent on God to show Him a
vision of what to do.
John 5:21 For as the Father raises up the dead, and quickens them;
even so the Son quickens whom The Father wills. John 5:22 For the Father
judges no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son
Romans 15:5¶ The God of patience and consolation grant you to be
likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus:
John 12:44 ¶ He that believes on me, believes him that
sent me.
John 5:23 all men should honor the Son, even as
they honor the Father. He that honors not the Son honoureth not the Father
which hath sent him. When we honor the Son we
honor the Father, because the Son only does what the Father instructs Him to
do. Thus what we see is the Father working and the son working hitherto. When
we give honor to the son we acknowledge the Father’s pre-eminent role, and the
son’s role of complete obedience to His Father.
John 5:24 Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
hath everlasting life, & shall not come into condemnation; but is passed
from death unto life.
John 14:10b The words that I
speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in
me, he doeth the works.
Trinitarians use several arguments to explain how God and Jesus are one
like your finger is one. Oneness only do the same, but with a different
application. Whereas Trinitarians see at three individuals involved, they try
to make them one like a triangle with three corners. But God and His son are
one by God’s Word. God is the Word, and His Word was expressed in the person of
His son. The following Scriptures Trinitarians use to try to explain a
Trinitarian Godhead.
Philippians 2:6 Being in the form of God Colossians 1:15 The image of the invisible
God.
2 Corinthians 4:4 Christ, who is the image of God
John 12:45 He that seeth me
seeth him
John 14:9 he that hath Seen
me hath seen the Father
Colossians 1:19 In him all fullness
dwell
Colossians 2:9 In him dwelleth all the
fullness
Hebrews 1:3 Express image of his person
These scriptures can be
broken down into two categories of argument. One, they believe that Jesus was
in the form of God means that He is
God. This they reason because they do not understand English. A Form or image
is not the same as the original. And they do not understand God-life.
Bible teaches us God placed in the woman’s womb the complete
body.
Hebrews 10:5 “A body hast thou
prepared me”
(ie: both egg and sperm)
Hebrews 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and
upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;
The man Jesus (the body, the son of
God) was born with every
attribute and characteristic that was in God. In other words, God
infused his Divine DNA so to speak, (all that He was intrinsically he
placed in that gene pool of the son of God) and therefore that Body was a
living breathing replica of the Father, but it was not the father, but in “the Image” of the Father. Now, an image is not
the original, it is an image of the original. And if he
came forth in the image of the Father, then he was not the
Father Himself. Therefore do not think for one minute that Jesus the son of God
was God the son. The word “image"
means “likeness or impressed
character”. Jesus was the physical expression of God-Life in
a man. His character reflected all that is God or that God-Life could be
expressed in a physical body. Therefore, Men could know God's character by
looking at the life of Jesus. His life revealed God’s holiness,
his life revealed God’s righteousness, his life revealed God’s justice, His
life revealed God’s love, His life revealed God’s mercy, His life revealed
God’s loving-kindness, His life revealed God’s truth, His life revealed God’s sincerity,
and His life revealed God’s faithfulness. Therefore, the man Jesus was godly; and
He was God-like in character and conduct. But Jesus was not God Himself; but He
reflected God's character in His life.
The scriptures that refers
to the fullness of the Godhead indwelling Christ does not make the man himself
God, because God is not flesh and blood, God is Spirit, and neither is he flesh
and bones. The Invisible God came down and indwelt His Son at the River Jordan
where John physically saw the Light, (ie:
the Pillar of Fire) come down
and light upon Jesus and remain in Him. That same anointing left Him in the
Luke 24:39 they thought Jesus was a Spirit, but when he
showed them his hands and feet, they knew he was not a spirit. Now, God is Spirit, but
Jesus was a man in Whom the Great Supreme Spirit indwelt. After greeting them,
Jesus told them “as my father sent me so send I you.”
Showing that he was not the
Father, but was sent by the Father, and
therefore in subjection to the Father.
Since Trinitarians use
Thomas’s words as proof that Jesus was God, then the devil has a right to use
the Pharisee’s words that Jesus was a blasphemer, because both can be found in
the scriptures speaking about who they believe that Jesus is. That argument
does not stand the test of the hundreds of Scriptural proofs we have set forth.
Just because someone says some words in the Bible does not make those words the
Word of God. The Bible says that Judas went out and hung himself, and in
another Scripture we find Jesus say in Luke 10:37 “Go ye
and do likewise”. You must rightly divide the word of truth. A
wrong division of the word brings spiritual death.
Another Scripture the
Trinitarian’s use is Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of
the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; However this scripture
does not speak of the Son of God, but the Father of Glory as Paul speaks of Him
coming in Ephesians 1:17 and 1 Thessalonians 4:15-18. The Appearing speaks of
the Presence of the Holy Spirit (God Himself) before the literal
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the son of God with whom we meet him in the
air or in the clouds. The scriptures speak of an appearing of the Father of
Glory down here on earth before we go to meet the Son of God in the air (not
here on earth) just as we saw in the book of Genesis, where God Appeared to His
prophet Abraham before the coming of the promised son.
In the NIV translation
we read Hebrews 1:3 as follows: “The Son is the radiance of God's glory and
the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his
powerful word.” We also find in the Amplified version of Hebrews 1: 3 “He is the sole expression of the glory of
God, - the Light Being, - the out raying of the Divine. And He is the
perfect imprint and very
image of God's Nature, upholding,
and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His Mighty Word of
Power.” Any other translation of this would fly against the truth of
Scripture and the Words of Jesus Christ himself spoken in John 17: 3 And this is life eternal, that
they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
In the Old Testament God is
known as the One
True God. We find in Jeremiah 10: 10
But the LORD is the true God, he is
the living God, and an everlasting king:
Again he is spoken of as the
True God in 2 Chronicles 15: 3 Now for a long season
William Branham, Prophet of God to this last age summed up the relationship between God
the Father and His Son Jesus Christ with the following words:
Total
Deliverance: 59-0712 P:55 Jesus was completely, totally man. He
could cry like a man, He could eat like a man; He could become like a man. He
was completely, totally man in His physical being. And in His Spirit, He was
completely, totally God, so He made His flesh submissive to the Spirit
that was in Him. You see, He was tempted in all manners like we are. He was
man, not an Angel. He was a man. He had desires and temptations just like we
do. The Bible said He did. He was a man, not an Angel above temptation. Hebrews 1:4 said He was made
lower than the Angels. He was man, completely man, that God took a complete man
to bring total deliverance; and He filled Him with His Spirit; the Holy
Ghost was in Him without measure. And He was tempted like we were. And He
was completely God. He proved it when He raised the dead, when He stopped
nature, the roaring seas and the mighty winds. When He spoke to the trees, and
so forth, they obeyed Him. He was God inside. And He could've been man, for He
was Man, but He totally and
completely delivered Himself as a Man into the hands of God for the service of
God. And He is our example.
Show us the
Father and It’ll Satisfy: 56-0422
E-36 Now, it's many times it's been said that no man can see God at
anytime, the Bible said so. But the only begotten of the Father has declared
Him. Philip, here was very inquisitive; he wanted to see the Father. Says here
He said, "I've been so long with you, Philip, and you don't know Me?"
Said, "When you see Me you see My Father." In other words, you see the Father express
Himself through the Son. Him and the Father were one in the sense that
His Father was dwelling in Him, not Him doing the works; He was a Son,
Himself, the immortal, virgin born, Son of God. And then in Him was dwelling the God the Father,
expressing Himself to the world, His attitude towards the people. See?
Well, that's how Christ and God
were one. God was in
Christ reconciling the world to Himself. Now, He said, "When you
see Me, you see the Father, and why do you say, 'Show us the Father?'
We would see Jesus: 58-0612 P:55 When He was here on earth, how many knows that that was the Pillar of Fire that followed the
children of Israel in the wilderness, that It
was Christ, the Angel of the covenant? All right. How many knows that was Jesus in Jesus, that same Spirit??
Unveiling of God: 64-0614M 257 Jesus once said, "When you see Me, you see the
Father." See? God and His Word is
One. Now you understand? When the Word is manifested, what is It? Right.
See? 260 Jesus said, "Search the Scriptures, you think you have... You
believe in God, believe also in Me. If I do not the works of My Father, then
don't believe Me. But if I do the works, I and My Father are One. When you see
Me, you have seen the Father." And when
you see the Word made manifest, you see the Father God, because the Word is
the Father; the Word is God. And the Word made manifest is God Himself
taking His Own Word and manifesting It among believers.
Paradox: 61-1210 253 Jesus did the works of His Father because the Father was in Him. That's why the works was done,
because that the Father was in the Son.
Do you believe that? That in Him, He was the incarnate God. Do you
believe that? That God the Father, which
is the Father of Jesus Christ, the Great Spirit dwelt in the fullness of His
power in Jesus Christ, which was the Tabernacle of God, made flesh and
dwelt on earth, representing the Word.
Paradox: 61-1210 315 I believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of the living God, born of a virgin, conceived, God in a womb, a Tabernacle in which He would dwell in. I believe that,
in Christ, He is the incarnate
God. He is God made flesh. When the
Father God came into Jesus Christ, He was the Fullness of the Godhead bodily;
in Him dwells all the Fullness.
God the Father spoke the Words. Jesus said, "It's not Me that speaks, but My Father that dwells in Me. He
does the speaking."