He doesn't like flower introductions, but we're terribly
glad to have him back.
He was with us about two years ago,
and we automatically tried to book him for
a year from that date, but he was
called to Africa, and so we had to
let him go, and we're very, very happy
to have him back now, and we believe
the Lord is going to bless his ministry
to us.
And so, I'll give it to Mr. Wilson
now, and you're all set till 5.30,
Mr. Wilson.
Thank you.
It's a very great privilege and a joy
to be back again at Ebenezer.
Since we were here last, we had the
privilege of going back to Africa, going up
the Zambezi, visiting all the stations there from
the Copper Belt right up to the border
of Angola.
Unfortunately, I didn't have any visa to enter
Angola, although I'd like to have done that.
Fighting was going on at the time in
the southern part of Angola, and I was
advised that it wouldn't be proper or right
to attempt to cross the border on account
of the fighting.
But we have been in contact with the
believers over there.
Just the day before yesterday, we received some
very, very distressing news.
The area in Angola where we lived in
Biye, there are four mission stations there, and
a very large work has been going on
there for many, many years.
And we just received news yesterday that all
four stations have been leveled to the ground
by the enemy.
And Capango, where we spent the last 20
years of our service in Angola, have been
bombed by Cuban military forces, and some of
our dear friends there have been killed.
One is a brother called Mateos, a man
that I've known for over 50 years, and
he was one who lost his life.
The news came through Charlie Shorten and his
wife Betty.
At the present time, they are in Rwanda,
and they are having the greatest difficulty there
on account of conditions in the country.
One of the difficulties they have is in
finding food.
At the present time, owing to the conditions
of the country, nobody is putting a hole
in the ground.
And for that reason, food is very, very
difficult to find.
I don't want to say anything more about
that, but I just want you to pray
that God will look in mercy upon that
country.
The work has been going on there for
many years, and up until the time of
this emergency, there were about 400 New Testament
assemblies in Angola, and approximately about 40,000
baptized believers in assembly fellowship.
So God has wonderfully blessed the work in
that land.
The only missionaries we have there today is
George Wiseman and his wife, Ina, at Beulah
in Shortly Land.
And there are two young women with them.
That is Marjorie Beckwith and Doris Pittman from
Quebec, from Sherbrooke.
And then at the coast, we have Charlie
Shorten from London, Ontario, and his wife, Betty.
Betty was commended by an assembly at Niagara
Falls and also by Tenafly in New Jersey.
There are two girls on the frontier, Emily
Rowntree and Eva Warrick, and they are living
at a place called Kazombo on the Zambezi
River.
But actually, it is more Zambia than Angola.
They haven't been interfered with at all, and
they are carrying on a very valuable work
in that area.
The only reason I mention this is that
it is a very big burden on our
hearts.
Please do pray for the Christians and also
for those that are carrying on the work
under very difficult circumstances.
I understand that the subject of the meeting
this afternoon is the greatness of the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I just want to read one passage
of scripture, the last paragraph in the Bible,
Revelation chapter 22.
And for the context of what I want
to read, we will read from verse 7.
Revelation 22 and verse 7.
Behold, I come quickly, blessed is he that
keepeth the sayings of the prophecy of this
book.
And I, John, saw these things and heard
them.
And when I had heard and seen, I
fell down to worship before the feet of
the angel which showed me these things.
Then said he unto me, See thou do
it not.
For I am my fellow servant, and of
thy brethren the prophets, and of them which
keep the sayings of this book.
Worship God.
And he said unto me, See not the
sayings of the prophecy of this book.
For the time is at hand.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust
still.
He which is filthy, let him be filthy
still.
He that is righteous, let him be righteous
still.
He that is holy, let him be holy
still.
And behold, I come quickly, and my reward
is with me, to give every man according
as his work shall be.
Now this is the passage I want to
speak about.
Verse 13 through verse 16.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and
the end, the first and the last.
Blessed are they that do his commandment, that
they may have right to the tree of
life, and may enter in through the gates
into the city.
For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers,
and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and
maketh a lie.
I, Jesus, have sent mine angel to testify
unto you these things in the churches.
I am the root and the offspring of
David, and the bright and morning star.
And the spirit and the bright say, Come.
Let him that heareth say, Come.
Let him that is a thirst, come.
And whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely.
For I testify unto every man that heareth
the words of the prophecy of this book.
If any man shall add unto these things,
God shall add unto him the plagues that
are written in this book.
And if any man shall take away from
the words of the book of this prophecy,
God shall take away his part out of
the book of life, and out of the
holy city, and from the things which are
written in this book.
He which testifyeth these things saith, Surely I
come quickly.
Amen.
Even so come, Lord Jesus.
The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be
with you all.
Amen.
And may God have his blessing to the
reading of this very, very precious portion of
his word.
It has often been said that a man
who writes a book or preaches a sermon
must always have three things in mind.
First of all, he must have an introduction.
And in his introduction to his book or
his sermon, he tells you what he wants
to say, and gives an outline of it.
And then in the major portion of the
book, we get the development of what he
has said in the introduction.
And then at the end of his book
or sermon, he gives a conclusion and an
application of what he has already said.
Now this is the way that the Bible
is formed.
The first three chapters of the book of
God's book, the Bible, we find the introduction.
And all the great themes and doctrines that
we find later developed in holy scripture, we
find outlined for us in Genesis 1 to
3.
And then from that point on, right through
to the book of Revelation, we get the
development of these great themes that we find
in the introduction to the Bible.
And then in Revelation chapters 20, 21, and
22, we get the conclusion and the application.
So that what we find in the Bible,
we find a very logical outline of the
mind of God for his people at the
present time.
And what I want to do this evening
is to look at the full, full doctrines
that we find in the passages that we
have read together.
Here we get the conclusion to the word
of God, and we also get an application.
And when we look at it, we find
that all the great doctrines of holy scripture,
we find it here condensed, so to speak,
an epitome, a summary of all the great
doctrines that we find in holy scripture.
Now the first one I want to mention
is the gospel.
We get a lovely outline here of the
gospel, reduced to its simplest term.
If we wanted to find the doctrine of
the gospel, we would need to turn over
to the epistle of the Romans.
And in that great doctrine of the epistle,
we find the gospel gone into in detail.
It's not so much the preaching of the
in the epistle of the Romans, but it
is the doctrine of the gospel.
And anyone who presumes to preach the gospel
of God's grace today, they should study very
carefully the teaching that we find in the
epistle to the Romans.
But when we come to the end of
the Bible, here it's reduced to its simplest
term.
And there are three great words here where
we find the gospel introduced.
We read in verse 17, the spirit of
the blight say, come.
Let him that hears say, come.
Let him that is a thirst, come.
On whosoever will, let him take the water
of life freely.
Now the three words that we find here
that bring the gospel to its simplest term,
it's the last blast of the trumpet of
redemption.
The first word is come.
And we find it here twice.
Come, come.
You know, the very first word often that
a child learns when its mother is teaching
it to walk, it puts those little feet
on the floor and holding out her arms,
she said, come.
And it's a word that we have all
known from our very earliest days.
And then those little feet, they come to
the mother and she puts her arms around
it and folds it to her bosom.
The first word is come.
And the second word is take.
Take the water of life freely.
And the third word is whosoever will.
So here we find the gospel reduced to
its simplest term.
Now I don't know whether there are any
here this afternoon that have never obeyed the
injunction, never obeyed the invitation, except that the
invitation that we find here, my beloved friend,
here, God, before the page of inspiration closes,
it is this great invitation.
Come and take.
And it's addressed to whosoever will.
Just the other day I was speaking with
a brother that has very strong meanings to
what he calls hyper-Calvinism.
And I'm going to discuss this here this
afternoon.
It's not my purpose at all.
But he had the idea that it's only
certain people to whom the gospel is addressed.
And the vast majority of people in the
world today, there's no opportunity that ever can
accept the gospel because they have not been
chosen by God himself.
And they would push this to an extreme,
hyper-Calvinism.
And then there were others that would push
it to the other extreme and say that
it entirely depends on man, that it's his
responsibility whether he accepts the gospel or not.
Now I'm not going to argue the point
here this afternoon.
But let me say, on the one hand,
I hold to God's sovereignty.
On the other hand, I hold to man's
responsibility.
And these are two great truths that are
taught in Holy Scripture, and any intelligent believer
should hold both of them in equal balance.
God's sovereignty, man's responsibility.
We can never, never reconcile them down here.
But I believe that in the coming day
we'll be able to understand this great mystery
in connection with the gospel.
But as far as I'm concerned, I haven't
the slightest compunction of standing anywhere on the
housetop and shouting at the top of my
voice, whosoever will, let him come and accept
the gospel of God's grace and accept the
Lord Jesus Christ as their own personal savior.
So the first great doctrine we find here
outlined in its simplest terms is the gospel.
Now the second is the word of God
itself.
And there are three terms that are used
in connection with it.
First of all, we're told that we're not
to put a seal upon it.
Secondly, we're not to take away from it.
And thirdly, we're not to add to it.
You know, one thing that is done very
often in the world in which we live
today is to put a seal upon the
word of God.
Some would take away from it, and others
would add to it.
You know, the very greatest blessing that we
have among us today, apart from God's salvation,
is the fact that we have God's word
in our own language.
I do thank God for men who give
their lives many years ago to take the
word of God and translate it and put
it into our language.
And wherever you find anyone today in the
English-speaking world or the French-speaking world
that does not possess a Bible, they do
not possess the greatest treasure that God has
given to us, apart from his salvation on
his well-beloved Son, the word of God.
You know, I believe that the greatest task
of missionaries in the world in which we
live today is to translate God's word into
the language of the people.
We have been engaged in this work for
many years, and we do thank God that
in Angola today, in the four main languages
in the country, we have the whole Bible
translated from Genesis to Revelation, and the people
have been taught to read it.
I believe that if no missionary is able
to go back to Angola today, that the
greatest treasure, the greatest work that the missionaries
have done is to leave the whole of
the word of God from Genesis to Revelation
translated into the language of the people.
I suppose most of us here this afternoon
know David Long.
David has translated the whole Bible from Genesis
to Revelation into the Choctaw language.
And our dear brother Albert Horton, possibly known
to quite a number here this afternoon, has
translated the whole Bible into the Low Valley
language.
These are treasures that have been left to
the people, and I believe it's the greatest
task of the missionaries today to give the
people the word in their own language and
teach them how to read it in a
sense that God will use.
Unfortunately, there are many putting a seal upon
it today.
They may have a Bible, but they never
open it, they never read it, and they
don't understand it.
They put a seal upon it.
And then there's others that would take away
from it.
That is the work of the liberal theologian.
Anything that he doesn't like, the great foundation
doctrines of Holy Scripture, he would take it
from the word of God.
I would use a theological knife and cut
out sections of the word of God that
he doesn't agree with or may offend, may
disturb his conscience.
And then there are others that would add
to it.
I've been speaking just recently with some friends
out in California, and they're very greatly troubled
by some of the things that are happening
out there.
Those people in Salt Lake City that have
gone out to the western states and have
done a tremendous lot of propaganda, the Mormons.
And they put the Book of Mormon on
the same level as God's precious word.
Mrs. Mary Baker Eddy, she does the same
thing with her book, Science and Health.
And there are others in the Christian world
today who put tradition alongside of God's word.
It's absolutely unique.
It's God's breath.
It's inerrant.
And we need to heed the great expectations
that we find at the end of the
Bible connected with the word.
First of all, don't put a seal upon
it.
Don't add to it.
Don't take away from it.
So the first great doctrine here is the
doctrine of the gospel.
And the second doctrine is the doctrine of
the inerrant, inspired word of God on three
exhortations connected with it.
A third great doctrine here that's mentioned three
times in this final paragraph and the conclusion
of the Bible is the imminent return of
the Lord Jesus.
Behold, I come quickly.
Surely I come quickly.
I don't know what you feel about the
world in which we live today, but I
can help it for you that the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ is very, very
near at hand.
Possibly during the time that we're here, we
may have an opportunity of speaking a little
bit about the reasons why we believe that
our time down here is very short.
Things are heading up rapidly for the imminent
return of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And I believe that we should have our
heads up, realizing that before long, he's coming
back again to receive us to be with
himself.
Now, the fourth great doctrine that I want
to look at this afternoon is the Passion
of Christ.
And we find here five great double titles
of our Lord that I want to speak
about, and I want to concentrate on the
greatness of his name.
Five tremendous double titles, and right in the
center we get the human name, I, Jesus.
And in the center of these five double
titles, covering the whole ground of the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we
get this lovely name, Jesus.
Jesus, the very thought of thee, with sweetness
fills my breast, but sweeter far thy sense
of faith are in thy present breath.
Many years ago, when I was home on
my first travel from Africa, I spent some
time in the city of Detroit.
There was a brother there at the time,
a medical doctor who was very much interested
in Bible study.
His name was Dr. Cameron.
He was a Scotsman, and I came to
know Dr. Cameron very well.
He was quite a deep student of the
word.
And one day I was in the doctor's
office, and he said to me, I have
discovered rather remarkable things about the Passion of
Christ in the Bible.
I said, what is that?
He said there are 365 different names and
titles of the Lord Jesus in Holy Scripture.
Well, I said, Dr., that's remarkable.
Doesn't that mean that there's a name or
a title of the Lord Jesus for every
day of the year?
He said, that's correct.
Well, I said, why don't you sit down
and compose a little book or a diary
and put one of those names and titles
of the Lord on every day of the
year?
I said, it would give some food for
thought and for study.
And if we only studied one of those
titles every day of the year, it would
practically cover all the great truths concerning the
Passion and Word of the Lord Jesus.
Dr. Cameron said, well, that's an idea.
Now, that was in 1930.
That's over 45 years ago.
Seven years later, when I was on my
second furlough in 1937, I came back.
And again I came to Detroit, and I
went to visit Dr. Cameron in his office.
And he was sitting behind a big desk,
roll-top desk.
And he opened the drawer, and he pulled
out a very beautiful compiled little booklet.
And he pushed it across the desk to
me.
He said, there's your diary.
I have kept it from that day to
this, and I've enjoyed looking at it.
A different name or title of the Lord
Jesus for every day in the year.
Now, it would be utterly impossible in the
course of 25 minutes from now for me
to all of these 365 different names or
titles.
But I do want to say, beloved brethren
and sisters, it's a most exciting study.
Looking at the names, the great names of
our Lord Jesus Christ that we find in
Holy Scripture.
It would be utterly impossible to look at
them all.
But I want to concentrate on these five
double titles, and this lovely name, the name
of Jesus, right on the center here, for
a few minutes this afternoon.
Now, before we do that, it might be
as well to say that in most of
the books of the Bible, there are a
galaxy of names of the Lord Jesus.
If we were to look at the Pentateuch,
for instance, I think there's about seven of
them all together, just to mention one or
two of them.
You remember he's called, first of all, the
seed of the woman.
We get that in Genesis chapter 3.
And then when we come over to chapter
49, you remember Jinkis, in that blessing that
he gave to his son, later there were
the heads of the twelfth class of the
children of Israel, we get there Shiloh.
That is the man of peace, Shiloh.
The chapter shall not depart from Judah, nor
the law differ from between his feet, until
Shiloh comes.
Lovely, lovely title of the Lord Jesus.
And then a little further down, we read
that he is the shepherd and the stone,
the stone of Israel.
Going over into the end of the Pentateuch,
you remember Balaam and those things that he
said, those prophecies of Balaam that he said
at the end of that chapter.
We read about the star, the star that
would come out of Judah.
You know, these are lovely, lovely titles.
There's quite a number of them.
There's a galaxy of them in the first
five books of the Bible.
That is the Pentateuch.
If you come over into the prophet Isaiah,
we find exactly the same thing.
And again, it was occupied all the time.
If we're to look at the tremendous names
and titles of our Lord in the prophet
Isaiah, when you come over into the New
Testament, we find exactly the same thing.
Remember, in the four gospels, one of the
first names of our Lord is Emmanuel.
What a lovely title that is.
God with us.
It's taken from the prophet Isaiah, Emmanuel, God
with us.
We're told there that he's the son of
Abraham, but he's the son of David.
We come over again into the gospel according
to Mark.
Under Mark's gospel there, he is the servant
of Jehovah.
It's a title that's taken from the latter
part of the prophet Isaiah.
We come into the gospel according to Luke,
and there he is the son of man.
And then into the gospel by John, and
there he is the son of the living
God.
And so we could go on and on.
Practically every book in the Bible has a
beautiful, beautiful name or title of the Lord
Jesus.
Three hundred and sixty five of them altogether.
But here at the end, there's five brief
double titles of our Lord, and then the
human names right in the center.
Now let's think about them just for a
few minutes.
The first one is the Alpha and the
Omega.
I don't think I need to tell anyone
here that this is the first and the
last letter of the Greek alphabet.
We know that the New Testament was originally
in the Greek language.
That is, the original language of the New
Testament was the Greek language.
And the first and the last letter of
the Greek language is Alpha and Omega.
Now I would suggest that this is the
grammatical title of our Lord.
It's what we would say He is the
A under Z.
Do you say Zed here, or do you
say Zee?
I've been living in the United States, and
I don't understand that letter, the Zed.
That's what we would call it when we
were young.
But over there they say the A under
Zee, or the A under Zed.
The first and the last letter of our
alphabet is A and Zed.
Now at home, I have an unabridged Webster
dictionary, great big thick volume.
I don't know how many words are in
it.
I've never counted them, and I don't know
how many that are there, but it's one
of the volumes that I have.
But you know, every word in that volume
in Webster's unabridged dictionary could all be comprehended
inside these two letters, the A and the
Zed.
And it's exactly the same with God's precious
word, the grammatical title.
Not only is He the living word, but
we believe all in the written word is
about Him.
Again, if we were to look at Holy
Scripture along this line, the grammatical title of
the Lord Jesus, in the Pentateuch there we
find Him typically.
All those great types, illustrations, pictures, in that
portion of Holy Scripture, it's all about the
Lord Jesus.
Not only about His person, but also about
His work.
In the Pentateuch we find Him typically.
We come over into the book of Psalms,
and there we find Him poetically.
This little book that we wrote a couple
of years ago, the Messianic Psalms, there are
16 of them all together, and we get
a complete outline of the person and work
of the Lord Jesus poetically in the book
of Psalms.
Some of the great, great pictures of Christ,
some of the most beautiful language in our
language today, we find in the book of
Psalms, there we get Him poetically.
Come over into the prophets, and there we
get Him prophetically.
In the prophet Isaiah, we find Him there.
We find Him in Ezekiel.
We find Him in Zechariah.
Many, many lovely prophecies concerning the Lord Jesus.
And then coming over into the Gospels, we
get Him historically.
Matthew, Mark, and Luke, and John.
Four historical pictures of the Lord Jesus.
Four historical accounts of His life here below.
We come over into the epistles, and there
we find Him doctrinally.
In the fourteen epistles of the Apostle Paul,
the Apostle James, the Apostle John, the Apostle
Peter, the Apostle Jude, there we get our
Lord Jesus Christ doctrinally.
And then when we come over into the
book of Revelation, there we get Him finally
as King of Kings and Lord of Lords.
And let's all head it up in this
lovely, lovely title at the end of the
book.
He is the Alpha and the Omega.
The grammatical title, the Bible is all about
Him.
A wonderful exposition of God's beloved Son.
Not only the Son of Man, but the
Son of God.
And thank God He is our Savior at
the same time.
Now the second title is the Beginning and
the End.
I am the Alpha and Omega, the Beginning
and the End.
I would suggest that in this title we
get Him creatorially.
The creatorial title of the Lord Jesus.
He is the Beginning and the End.
You remember the first verse of the Gospel
according to John.
In the beginning was the Word.
The Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
The beginning, He was the One who threw
the galaxies into space.
It was that hand that was responsible for
creation.
The beginning and He also will be the
end.
The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
he uses the expression, Then cometh the end.
On the Apostle there in five great slaughters,
he speaks about the end of the world
as we know it today.
The One who was the creator at the
beginning was the Lord Jesus, and the One
who will be the end, who will wind
creation as we know it today, and who
will bring in the new heavens and the
new earth is the Lord Jesus Christ, is
creatorial title.
You know, today these are things that are
being denied on every hand, and our blessed
Lord and God Himself is being politely bowed
out of His own creation.
And there are people who tell me that
we came up from the slime.
God completely ruled us, and to come up
from the depths of the ocean and to
end today, we have man as we see
Him.
You know, I remember when Frank Borman, when
he circled the moon for the first time,
and when he was on the dark side
of the moon, that dear man, he opened
his Bible and read these words.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
And I could feel my spine tingling when
I heard those words.
And I bowed my head and I said,
Amen.
In the beginning, God, the triune God, God
the Father, God the Son, God the Holy
Spirit, a plural word linked to a singular
verb.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and
the earth.
There are a lot of people who don't
believe that today.
But you know, as a boy, I learned
a thing that has remained with me through
life.
Now, it may sound a little bit amusing,
and I'm not here to amuse anybody or
to entertain anybody, but there's a tremendous truth
behind it.
What I learned as a boy, and by
the way, I attended a Presbyterian school in
those days.
That's over 70 years ago.
And there was a dear old man at
that time who was the manager of the
school.
He was a Presbyterian minister called Dr. Workman.
And I learned a thing at that time
that has remained with me through life.
This is what it is.
First, he was a tadpole beginning to begin.
Then he was a frog with his tail
tucked in.
Then he was a monkey up a vineyard
tree.
And now he's a doctor with a PhD.
If you want to believe that kind of
stuff, you're perfectly welcome to it.
I throw it out completely.
And when I read my Bible, in the
beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.
I'm not able to answer all the questions.
I don't think anybody can.
We have to accept that by faith and
what God says in his word.
But when God says, in the beginning, God
created the heavens and the earth.
And in the first chapter of John, verse
1, we read, In the beginning was the
Word.
The Word was with God, and the Word
was God.
I bow my head just as a simple
believer, on a simple faith, without any question
or any reserve.
I accept that, and I say, Amen.
He was the beginning, and he will be
the end.
And on that day that's described in the
last chapter of the prophet Isaiah, and also
in the last few chapters of Holy Writ,
when the heavens and the earth shall pass
away, the one who will be responsible for
introducing the new heavens and the new earth
will be our Lord Jesus Christ.
The beginning and the end, his creatorial title.
Have you ever studied carefully what Colossians chapter
1 has to say about the creation?
There are some tremendous words there.
They're so deep, they're so profound.
Five different prepositions that are used in connection
with it.
No time to go into it here this
afternoon.
But again, let me say that we have
absolutely no reserve when we accept what the
Word of God says about the creation that
we see around us today.
By the way, I have never at any
time ever met a pagan African in the
middle of Africa that would deny the fact
of God as a creator.
The first thing we do when we learn
their language, if you go into a tribe
whose language has not been committed to writing,
and you go in among that tribe, the
first thing you have to do is find
out their name for God.
One tribe will call them Suku.
Another tribe will call them Zambi.
Another tribe will call them Kalunga.
And you say, who is Suku?
Who is Zambi?
Who is Kalunga?
And they'll look at you with astonishment.
Why don't you know?
That's the one who's created all things.
Look above your head and you see the
sun and the moon and the stars.
And look around you and you see the
trees and you see the grass and the
rivers.
And then look at yourself.
Look at your body.
Who created it?
Why, of course, it was Suku.
I have never, never met a pagan African
that has never heard the gospel, never read
the Bible, has never seen the Bible, that
would deny the fact of God as a
creator.
But oh, thank God, the Word of God
makes it so plain that it was Christ.
Christ who was the one who was the
beginning and the end.
It was he who created all things by
the word of his power.
And he will be the one who will
draw creation as we know it to an
end and will bring in the new heavens
and the new earth.
His creatorial title.
And then the next one, the first and
the last.
This is his mediatorial title.
Oh, he is the first begotten from the
dead.
Not only is he the only begotten son
of the Father, but it is titled in
Deity, the only begotten, the monogenes.
What a wonderful word that is.
The only begotten one.
It's only used by the apostle John.
And it indicates the complete essential deity of
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten.
But then he's called the first begotten from
the dead.
The first one to rise from the dead
with a glorified body was our blessed Lord.
The first begotten.
And he is the first fruits.
The first fruits not only of all creation,
but is the first fruits of the new
creation.
And then he is the last.
He's the last Adam.
And just as the first Adam failed miserably,
the last Adam, with the scepter in his
hand and the crown upon his head, he
will reign over our renewed creation in the
coming day during his millennial reign.
He is the first and the last.
One again would like to pause here and
go into this mediatorial work of our blessed
Lord.
It's central to the passage.
All thank God he is the savior.
He is the mediator between God and man.
He is the first and the last.
And then we get his messianic title.
We read that he is the root and
the offspring of David.
Now the root of David, that means he
had an existence before David was born.
It was from him that David sprang.
That indicates his deity, his preexistence.
He's the root of David, but he's also
the offspring of David.
And one day as the son of David,
he will rule from sea to sea and
from the river to the ends of the
earth.
Again, one would like to pause for a
little while and speak of the relation of
our Lord Jesus Christ to the nation of
Israel.
We're living in a most exciting day.
I don't know what you feel about the
events that are taking place in the Middle
East today in relation to the nation of
Israel.
And again, it would open up a tremendous
field for investigation and also for exposition.
That is the relation of our Lord to
Israel.
Now I'm perfectly aware of the fact that
people today would say that God is through
with the nation of Israel.
They're in the condition of apostasy today.
That away from God they have crucified the
Messiah and that there never, never will be
a restoration.
That is not the teaching of Holy Scripture.
God has a wonderful future for the nation
of Israel as unearthly people.
I believe that what we're seeing in the
Middle East today, the stage is being set
for that time when Christ shall come on
the nation today that's in the low am
I condition.
That away from God it's true.
Anyone that would go over to Israel today
would see that most of the people that
are over there today are atheistic.
Many of them are communistic in their views.
We were over there last September and to
have a law today that it's against the
law for anyone to preach the gospel in
Israel or to try to influence anyone to
change the religion.
If you were to walk into the street
in Israel today and stand up and preach
the gospel of God's grace, you could be
arrested and put in jail for it because
it's against the law.
Get away from God at the present time.
Now I thank God as a godly remnant
and I believe that God is working among
them.
But one day when Christ comes back again
they shall look on him whom they pierce
and they will mourn for him as one
mourns for their only son.
And in the words of Isaiah 53 they
will say he was wounded for our transgression.
He was bruised for our iniquity.
The chastisement of our peace was laid upon
him and with his stripes we were healed.
And they will get down at his feet
and they will acknowledge their sin and true
repentance and a nation will be born on
the day he is the root and the
offspring of David.
God has a glorious future for the nation
of Israel and things are opening up at
the present time and developing at a tremendous
rate.
We're living in an exciting day and I'm
awfully glad that I'm allowed to see what
is happening.
The root and the offspring of David.
But the final double title here is he
is the bright and morning star.
This is his advent title.
You know he's coming back for Israel as
the son of righteousness that shall arise with
healing in his wings.
But for us he is the bright and
morning star.
I wonder how many of us here this
afternoon have seen that lovely lovely object in
the heavens.
It comes up at the darkest hour of
the night.
It comes up at the weakest hour of
the night.
It comes up at the sleepiest hour of
the night and it's around about three o
'clock in the morning that it comes up.
Sleepy heads who lie on their bed till
six o'clock will never see the morning
star.
But you know I have it already in
here.
It is already risen in my heart.
The bright and morning star Peter tells us
in 2 Peter chapter one that it is
already arisen in the heart of the believer.
I'll never forget the first time I saw
it.
I remember many years ago in Angola I
was living at a place in the Songo
country doing pioneer work opening up a new
tribe.
There was a Portuguese official, an administrator who
lived about 150 miles away at a place
called Navagaya.
It was the local administration and the Portuguese
administrator he sent a message to me that
he wanted to see me about some things
in connection with our work.
Now it was practically a command.
In those days there were no roads in
the country at all, nothing but the little
nine inch path and I started off on
a bicycle.
It was the only means of transport we
had in those days and I rode the
150 miles on the bicycle and I arrived
at Navagaya.
I transacted my business with the administrator and
then he showed me a place to sleep.
But at about three o'clock in the
morning there was a scout come in with
some news from our home over there at
a place called Chitutu and it made me
very very much disturbed and perturbed and it
meant that I had to get up out
of bed and start for home.
I got up, dressed, started on the bicycle
and after about 10 miles it broke down
and I had to abandon it at the
roadside and I started to walk.
I walked all the remainder of that night
until the morning and in the morning I
met some of my men and they were
sleeping beside a fire on the bank of
a river called the Jamba and I asked
the boys if they would like to, a
volunteer would like to come with me and
we went through the night until we arrived
home.
Oh they said you better come in here
and have something to eat and as soon
as the sun comes up well we'll go
and I said no I have to get,
I have to get going and there's a
boy sitting beside the fire there called Machingango
and he picked up his axe and he
put it over his shoulder and he said
Tatuyenu, let's go.
We crossed the river in the dugout, a
river called the Jamba.
It was one of those rivers infested with
crocodiles and hippos.
We got safely across to the other side
and then we started to walk through the
night.
About midnight he pulled himself away, I was
holding onto his belt in the dark and
he pulled himself away from me and he
threw his axe at something and I yelled
at him, I said what is it?
Oh he said it's a leopard, it has
just killed an antelope and it's been eating
it but he said I have chased it
away and he yelled at me to come
on and I went forward again and grabbed
him by the belt and started on again
through the night.
About three o'clock in the morning I
saw something come up over the horizon, it
looked so bright almost like the headlight of
a motorcycle but there were no vehicles in
the country at that time at all.
I said to Machigango, I said what's that?
Oh he said that's the Mutumbo.
Now I had never heard the word before,
Kutumbuka, that means to jump and Mutumbo means
the jumping one.
I said what is it?
Oh he said it's that star that comes
up just before the dawn and he said
if you watch where it comes up, he
said that's where you'll find the sunrise.
He said we call it the Mutumbo, the
jumping one because it comes up so quickly
and we went on and on.
I'll never forget that first time I ever
saw the Mutumbo.
It came up over the horizon, it's usually
the planet Venus when it's not a Venus.
Sometimes it's the evening star but often it's
the bright and morning star and we went
on until daybreak and then the morning star
it sank and the sun came up and
looking right away across the trees, we're standing
on the edge of a precipice and looking
across the trees I could see a little
place that I called home.
The term that we use is my home
and the smoke was coming up in the
trees and all that I held dear in
this life at that time it was there
in that little house built of sun-dried
brick and a glass roof.
We started off again and at three o
'clock in the afternoon I got home and
when I arrived there I found that all
my fears were dissipated and I pulled off
my shoes and lay down on the bed
and I slept right around the clock for
24 hours.
I'd walked about 140 miles without stopping and
without having any food so you can imagine
I'll never forget the first time I ever
saw the morning star.
I was in Newport News in October last
October and I happened to mention the morning
star I was speaking in 2nd Peter chapter
1 and I happened to mention the morning
star and that I was interested in astronomy
and a dear brother there after the meeting
he said are you really interested in astronomy?
I said yes.
Well he said I have a brand new
telescope at home.
I have never used it.
He said if you can use it you're
welcome to it.
And after I arrived home there was a
big parcel arrived with the United Parcel Post
and I received the telescope.
I'm looking forward to someday when I'm able
to go home and a nice night in
the summertime when there's no clouds in the
sky and I'm going to take my telescope
and have a good look at the bright
and morning star through the telescope.
You know he is first of all the
Alpha and the Omega in relation to the
word.
Secondly is the beginning and the end in
relation to creation.
Thirdly we get that title the first and
the last in relation to redemption his mediatorial
work.
He is the root and the offspring of
David in relation to the nation of Israel
his messianic title but he's the bright and
morning star.
His Athen title in relation to you and
the nation.
And right in the center we get these
words I Jesus.
Now to me that is absolutely delightful.
The human title right among this galaxy of
double titles I Jesus.
I do love that name but there's one
little word I want to say in closing.
My dear brother, sister if you're ever speaking
to him in prayer or you're ever speaking
about him either in the ministry of the
word or the proclamation of the gospel don't
forget to give him his title.
He is the Lord Jesus.
Now it's becoming quite common today in Christendom
people who profess to have a superior brand
of Christianity and in speaking about him will
say dear Jesus, precious Jesus, loving Jesus.
You will never never find these exaggerated adjectives
in the Holy Scripture.
He is the Lord Jesus.
And when you pray to him don't forget
to give him his title.
He is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember the apostle Peter in his great Pentecostal
address this is what he said that same
Jesus whom you crucified has been made both
Lord and Christ.
And every intelligent believer today in speaking to
him reverently they will use that title the
Lord Jesus Christ.
May God bless this word to each one
of our hearts and these delightful delightful titles
connected with the greatest name among mankind today
may it be a blessing to each one
of us for his name.
They say there's nothing like stopping when you're
hungry and I just wish we could have
kept on but maybe it's good to stop
and whet your appetite for tonight.
We're going to sing two verses of 268.
Maureen if we may.
It's a very old and beloved hymn.
Loved with everlasting love led by grace that
love to know.
Spirit breathing from above thou has taught me
it is so.
Oh this full and perfect peace.
Oh this transport all divine in a love
which cannot cease.
I am his and he is mine.
We'll sing verses one and three.
Let's stand.
It's good to be with you tonight.
We've been here once before when we had
a social when you had that go down.
It's good to be here again.
Our brother made me feel 10 years older.
We're really building a relapse.
Christina she's far too long anyway.
Thank you brother.
But we kind of know you because some
of our people um used to attend here
and we feel at home and I hope
you do too.
Oh Shall
we together please in the gospel according to
look hmm in the gospel according to look
I would like to read two short paragraphs
the first paragraph from the book and the
last one in Luke's gospel chapter 1 verse
1 Luke chapter 1
verse 1 for as much as many have
taken in hand to set forth in order
a declaration of those things which are most
surely believed among us.
I want you to notice especially that little
clause the things most surely believed among us.
I want to use that as my text
tonight.
Even as they deliver them on the onto
us which from the beginning were eyewitnesses of
the word.
It seems good to me also having a
perfect understanding of all things from the very
first to write unto thee in order most
excellent theophilus that thou mightest know the certainty
of those things wherein thou hast been instructed.
I shall read the last paragraph in Luke's
gospel chapter 24 in verse 50 and he
led them out as far as the Bethany
and he lifted up his hands and blessed
them and it came to pass while he
blessed them he was parted from them and
carried up into heaven and they worshipped him
and returned to Jerusalem with great joy and
were continually in the temple praising and blessing
God.
Amen.
Think about his blessing to the reading of
these very precious portions of his word.
I thought I'd like to take these two
little paragraphs tonight and occupy a short time
in speaking about them concerning the person and
work of the Lord Jesus.
The gospel according to Luke has been called
the most beautiful book in the world.
Now the man who said that was a
skeptic.
His name was Ernest Renan.
He was a literary critic, a man who
had studied literature for a lifetime and after
that lifetime of study, this is what he
said, he said the gospel by Luke is
the most beautiful book in the world and
I would say amen and I thank God
for the man who wrote it.
His name is Dr. Luke.
The amazing thing about the two books that
he wrote, the gospel by Luke and the
Acts of the Apostles, that he never mentions
his own name, keeps himself completely in the
background and I think that is true of
any man that knows anything at all about
Christ or about the ministry of the word.
You may remember that one of the functions
of the Holy Spirit is he shall glorify
me said the Lord and he shall testify
concerning me and I think any preacher that
stands up before an audience he has to
keep that in mind.
To keep himself completely in the background and
speak about Christ.
He shall glorify me and he shall testify
concerning me.
In the Acts of the Apostles, there are
three passages there, they are generally called the
we passages.
Now the reason for that is that in
these three passages there is a change of
pronoun.
When Luke is giving an account of the
development of the church that we find in
the Acts of the Apostles where he was
actually present he uses the term we but
where he was not present he changes the
pronoun and he uses the pronoun they and
the only time that we can find where
he is present is the time that he
uses that pronoun.
Elizabeth, a delightful character, is called the beloved
physician and apparently he had a friend who
was a Roman official.
I think Dr. Harry Ironside suggests that he
may have been a governor of a Roman
province.
His name was Theophilus and apparently this official
was very much interested in Christianity and the
origins of it and so Luke sits down
to write and he addresses him in this
little paragraph at the beginning of his gospel
as most excellent Theophilus.
But the amazing thing is that in the
Acts of the Apostles where he writes a
second book he drops the term most excellent
and he just calls him Theophilus.
Dr. Ironside has suggested that in the meantime
what Luke had written to him concerning the
person of Christ it had led this dear
man to put his faith and trust in
the Savior and so his title is dropped
in the Acts of the Apostles and he
is just simply called Theophilus.
56 years ago I went to Portugal.
I was there studying the Portuguese language and
after we had some fluency in the Portuguese
language we had to go to some lectures
to teach us how we should address an
official and we were told that in addressing
any official over in Africa it was the
custom in Portuguese to bow your head and
say vossa excelência your excellency.
Now anybody like me that was brought up
in a democratic environment it was a little
bit difficult for me to do that because
some of the men that I had to
address as your excellency were living an immoral
life.
They were living a life that I would
be ashamed to tell about and for me
to address a person of that kind as
your excellency I found it a little bit
difficult but I had some dear friends over
in Africa.
Some of them never had a shirt on
their back.
Some of them never had a shoe on
their foot but they were members of the
family of God and I had no difficulty
at all in bowing my head to someone
like that and addressing them as your excellency.
The people of God are the excellent of
the earth.
They are the artists of the sea of
heaven and we thank God for them and
thank God we have friends of this character
in every part of the world.
Now Dr. Lutz in writing to Theophilus first
of all he addresses him as most excellent
Theophilus and he tells him that his object
in writing his gospel is to speak about
the thing most surely believed among us and
the certainty of it.
Now I thought I'd like to choose five
good subjects from his gospel the gospel according
to Lutz and I want to speak about
them tonight.
Now the first one is the virgin birth
of Christ his virgin birth.
The second one I want to look at
for a moment or two is his virtuous
life.
The third one I want to look at
is his victorious death upon the cross and
the fourth one is his victorious resurrection and
then finally his visible ascension to God's right
hand.
These are great basic fundamental doctrines and I
do believe today that every true believer or
as a matter of fact every person should
understand these great fundamental doctrines of Christianity and
they're beautifully lined up for us by Dr.
Lutz in his gospel.
Now the fifth one is concerning his birth
the virgin birth and again let me repeat
we find also his virtuous life we find
his temptation in the wilderness and how he
gloriously overcame every temptation that satan had for
him in the wilderness and then we read
about his victorious death upon the cross and
again let me say that all our hopes
for time and for eternity are firmly based
on what the Lord Jesus did when he
died for you and for me upon the
cross is the carrying of death and then
his victorious bodily resurrection that also is a
fundamental doctrine and then lastly his visible ascension
to God's right hand.
It's not so well known very often it's
not mentioned at all but there are about
16 passages in the New Testament dealing with
the ascension ministry of the Lord Jesus.
It is one of the great fundamental doctrines
and of course it goes into some details
about it.
Now let's consider these five things just for
a few minutes this evening.
One time wouldn't suffice to go into them
in detail any one of them could well
occupy an hour and I'm certainly not going
to do that but I do want to
point out that every true evangelical believer understanding
the teaching of the word of God these
are things that God has given to us
to have and to hold.
The whole facts today in the day in
which we live and don't you and writing
to Theophilus he learns a lot from it.
First of all his virgin birth sometime ago
in another part of the country after giving
an address on the virgin birth there was
a friend came to me and he said
I think he said that the length and
length of Christ is important but he said
what importance is it whether he was born
of natural generation or whether he was born
of a virgin.
Now I want to point out here tonight
the importance of the birth of Christ and
the beautiful beautiful way that Luke, Dr. Luke
tells us the Bible the virgin birth of
Christ.
If he was not virgin born I would
close my Bible tonight and I would go
home and I would never stand up on
a platform again.
Every doctrine in Holy Scripture is indissolubly linked
with the virgin birth of Christ and I
want to go into some little detail in
a moment or two why that is so
but first of all the beautiful language that
Luke uses here connected with the person of
Christ and also his virgin birth in Bethlehem.
The only two accounts that we have of
it in the Gospels is that given by
Matthew and that given by Luke.
In the Gospel according to Matthew the background
there is from the standpoint of Joseph that
is the natural father that is the reputed
father of our Lord and in the Gospel
according to Luke apparently the source is merely
the virgin.
I'm taking the two together to get two
beautiful accounts of the birth of the Savior.
I think it was Dr. Sir Robert Anderson
many years ago he said this, he said
the whole of Christianity is a standard fall
with the last verse and the last sentence
of the verse in Matthew chapter 1 and
if you were to turn over to that
passage you would see what he meant.
Now Sir Robert I'm not going to turn
over but I want you to look at
it carefully.
It gives an account there of the birth
of the Savior and what is said about
it is most important.
We read that Joseph did not know Mary
his wife until she brought forth her firstborn
son and they called his name Jesus.
That means to say that they did not
come together as man and wife until after
the birth of the Savior.
Sir Robert Anderson was a very profound theologian.
Not only that but he was the head
of the criminal investigation department in Scotland in
London.
A very learned man and that was the
statement that he made.
The whole of Christianity it either stands or
falls with that last verse and the last
sentence of the verse in Matthew chapter 1
and I would say amen.
Now the reason for that is this you
and I in this world born of natural
generation our first parents were Adam and Eve
and then the first few pages of the
bible were told how the sin was introduced
into this world by our first parents.
They fell under the kin fallen creatures in
the sight of God and every one of
us here tonight born of natural generation we're
linked to the federal head of the rich
and my bible tells me that we're born
in sin and shippen in iniquity every single
one of us sometimes people speak about an
innocent child.
Do you know that a child could tell
a lie before it's able to talk?
You say have you ever seen that?
I have.
We happen to have three children.
We have twelve grandchildren and we have one
great-grandchild and we know a little bit
about bringing up of a family and all
that I can say is this looking into
my own heart and looking into the heart
of my children and my grandchildren I know
that I'm a poor weak failing creature sinned
against God born in sin and shippen in
iniquity.
Now the bible tells me that even though
I'm a Christian there are three things that
characterize me defined by far in the epistles
of Romans chapter six and seven.
The first thing is I have an old
nature it's called the old man secondly I
have what is called the flesh and thirdly
the body of sin.
Now these are three terms that are used
of man in his natural condition and even
natural form again in the word of God
the old man, the flesh, the body of
sin.
Now what does this mean?
The old man is the kind of life
that I lived before I became a Christian.
The habits, the things that I did, the
things that I said that is the old
man.
Now I'm told to put it off but
the matter of fact the term is used
three times in the new testament put it
off put it off and then you have
put it off that is the old man
it's just like an old dress or an
old coat and you know it's characteristic of
the old man on that old dress or
that old coat somebody has said you never
put it on again unless you want to
be some dirty wife that is the old
man but the flesh is something that I
have inside and you know I have been
a Christian now for 60 years I was
brought to the Lord in 1918 and I
believe truly born again at that time and
the older I live the more I realize
how wicked I am I have the flesh
and every day when I get out of
my bed I have to ask God to
keep me before I go to bed at
night in case I would bring some dishonor
in the name of the Lord or some
disgrace it's only God can keep us because
we have the old man we have the
flesh and then the body of sin that
is the body can be used as an
instrument for carrying out the dictates of the
flesh now that's a human need we have
that old evil wicked nature and we'll never
never be rid of it until that day
at the redemption of the body when Christ
comes back again and we leave it all
behind now when God brought his son into
the world that child with a federal head
of the race was snapped he's called that
holy sound of his birth in the gospel
according to Luke not that innocent sound but
that holy sound and the child with the
head of the race was snapped and God
brought a super in bringing his son into
the world he was not brought into the
world by a natural generation but by the
birth of the virgin by conception of the
holy Lord and then conceived of the virgin
now this is absolutely fundamental and important and
let me emphasize it it's something that Luke
in his gospel tells in the most delicate
language i'm awfully thankful that a medical doctor
is telling the story and the beautiful beautiful
language and delicate language that he used is
absolutely beautiful you know in the gospel according
to john who read there about the incarnation
john uses four words the word became flesh
but Luke in his gospel speaking about the
birth and about the incarnation of our Lord
and about his virgin birth he uses 2500
words and he goes into more detail about
it than any other writer he tells us
here that he has done some very very
careful investigation he was a scientific investigator just
last week i was reading a book by
sir robert by sir ramsey sir william ramsey
who was a professor in aberdeen university many
years ago that man first of all was
a skeptic he believed in some of the
philosophical theories that people hold today in connection
with the word of god but he started
to study the word of god and he
decided he would go over to the middle
east and investigate everything that dr luke had
written and he came to the conclusion that
luke was the greatest historian in human history
and i believe that that is true dr
luke was not a quack he wasn't a
charlatan he was a scientist and a man
he tells us he himself but gives very
careful investigation of what he's putting down here
in print that is what we find here
in this beautiful little paragraph of the commencement
of his gospel now in speaking about the
virgin birth he tells us first of all
about a symphony of heaven and reads that
the glory of the lord came down and
sean learned about the shepherds on the shepherd's
field now i believe that that was the
satanic glory that dipped down it dipped down
at his birth it dipped down again at
the transfiguration and it dipped down again when
he went back to heaven it was the
satanic glory that sean when christ was born
and read the glory of the lord sean
learned about the shepherds and then became a
symphony of heaven glory to god in the
highest and on earth peace goodwill to man
now it's only luke who tells us about
that symphony of heaven the angelic chorus and
there is a message from heaven to man
but then luke tells us of a four
-fold response from that now every time i
hear a hymn well sung it rejoices my
heart but you know usually in singing a
hymn or a chorus it takes four people
to make the complete harmony you need a
soprano you need a contralto you need a
tenor and you need a bass and the
beautiful way that luke describes it here he
tells us about a beautiful sweet soprano that
was mary the virgin and then he tells
us of a very delightful contralto that was
elizabeth the mother of john the baptist and
then he tells us of one who comes
in with his beautiful tenor voice that was
antelio and finally we find the deep fierce
heart of sinan that spoke about the death
of christ on that day when the sword
would pierce the heart of the virgin i
would love to occupy a little time in
speaking first of all about the symphony of
heaven and the response of her i would
be surprised to do that but just let
me mention the virgin that beautiful beautiful song
that sweet soprano voice of hers she speaks
about god my savior i think that is
wonderful a few years ago i was over
in india and there was a new zealand
brother there speaking about the magnificat that is
the song that mary sang and this is
what he said he said he had examined
very carefully this beautiful soprano song that was
sung by the virgin and he discovered that
there were 38 different quotations from the old
testament and 19 were taken from the song
and the way he ended up with the
question is not bad for a young woman
and i think that is perfectly true oh
what a beautiful beautiful response to get here
of her on earth the virgin to the
symphony of heaven it's only dr luke that
tells us of these four songs and also
the shekinah glory coming down on the symphony
of heaven this is the way that luke
defines the virgin birth when the angel spoke
to mary and told her about the soon
the birth of the savior he said that
the holy ghost shall come upon me and
that which shall be and he spoke about
the conception the conception of the of the
savior and that the holy ghost would overshadow
her and that which shall be born of
thee shall be called the son of god
now there right at the very commencement of
the life of the lord jesus he is
called the son of god and then a
little further down you remember the beautiful title
that zechariah placed upon him he called him
the day sprang from on high i was
noticing that word a little while ago that
it means the sunrise the sunrise from on
high oh as we look at this beautiful
beautiful account of the virgin birth of the
lord jesus again let me repeat it's one
of the fundamental doctrines very important and i
believe that every evangelical believer not only should
understand it but also the implications connected with
it so first of all his virgin birth
by secondly his virtuous life there's a large
section of the life of our lord that
we don't know anything about at all they
have been called the obscure years 18 years
of his life in nazareth we don't know
anything about it at all nothing is recorded
there's just one incident and it's when the
lord went up to the temple with his
with joseph and with mary and you remember
how he remained behind and when they came
seeking him they came following and you remember
what he said wish you not that i
must be about my father's business you know
that some would say today that it was
only at the baptism of our lord that
he was conscious of his mission that he
was conscious of his person and it has
been said to that the lord only learned
who he was by the study of the
old testament scriptures but here at 12 years
of age the lord says wish you not
do you not know that i must be
about my father's business he certainly knew his
sonship and he knew his father it's only
he up until this point that calls god
his father he was practically conscious of his
person and of his mission and for people
to say that it was only at the
baptism that he found out who he was
when the holy ghost came down at the
bell and rested upon him i think that
it's outside the teaching of holy scripture first
of all his virgin birth and then secondly
his virtuous life at the inauguration of his
ministry our lord first of all was baptized
now we're told in the gospel according to
john and the other gospels that john's baptism
was a baptism of with a view to
the remission of sin and our lord when
he came and asked john to baptize him
john demonstrated he didn't want to accept the
responsibility of baptizing him he knew who he
was but he refused to baptize him and
i suppose the reason was that his baptism
was a baptism of repentance with a view
to the remission of sin but our lord
he told him that it was necessary to
fulfill all righteousness and then john he baptized
him but coming up out of the water
the heavens were open and the voice of
god the father said this is my well
-beloved son in whom i am well pleased
vindicated by his father i thank god for
him it was no confession of sin but
was simply an identification with the nation of
the jews that he went down under the
waters of unfulfilling all righteousness when he comes
up god his father he speaks this is
my beloved son in whom i am well
pleased um there we get the the testimony
of god the father concerning his son now
the next time before he entered on his
public ministry he went under the the power
of the holy spirit out to the desert
to be tempted of satan i don't think
i need to tell anyone here tonight that
the penitentiaion of christ and the meaning of
it and the implications connected with it is
a matter of very acute controversy at the
present time i'm not going to enter into
that controversy but i do want make it
absolutely clear what i believe about it our
lord when he went into the wilderness satan
came to tempt him our first line believe
it was more a test than a temptation
god cannot be tempted with evil and he
was gone you remember at his virgin birth
the testimony of the angel was that he
was the son of god and before we
even look at the temptation let me make
it perfectly clear that we believe in the
complete essential deity of the lord jesus christ
at his birth the son of god on
the testimony of god the father this is
my well beloved son in whom i am
well pleased on the one hand god manifests
in flesh and by the way when we
speak about that his deity any passage that
makes it absolutely clear to me without any
shadow of a doubt is the testimony of
the apostle paul in colossians chapter one in
him dwelleth all the fullness of the godhead
in bodily form i want to repeat that
again because it is most important in him
dwelleth present continuous tense all the fullness of
the godhead in bodily form that means to
say when he was here below all the
fullness of the godhead dwelt in him on
the one hand god a very god but
on the other hand a real man in
every sense of the word apart from sin
a sinless man and here our lord as
he goes down to the one that gone
into the desert to the tentative state and
we must realize the person that lost handed
on the one hand god a very god
but on the other hand a real man
of body soul and spirit and the two
natures two natures never can be separated never
can be differentiated but they're indescribably joined together
when he was born in Bethlehem he was
the god man on the one that was
tempted in the wilderness on the one hand
was god a very god but on the
other hand a real man now the bible
tells me that he suffered being tempted he
really suffered and believe that in all points
he was tempted not as we are but
sin apart now the point is this at
the temptation the devil did everything he possibly
could to break down that dependence that he
had upon god his father he took a
complete position of dependence upon his father here
below and what the devil tried to do
was to get him to to depart from
that dependence and to act independently our lord
never when he was here below ever acted
independently of the will of his father now
the first temptation was for his body it
was directed to the body the second one
was directed to the soul and the third
one was directed to his spirit and by
the way the first words that the devil
used was directed to his godhead this shall
be the son of god and he used
that term twice this shall be the son
of god so it is directed to this
godhead but then the first temptation was now
let's eat strong bread and our lord he
said man shall not live by bread alone
but by every word that proceeds out of
the mouth of god that was directed to
his appetite now the second one was directed
to ambition he took him up to the
pinnacle of the temple and told him to
cast himself down and then the devil must
misquote it the 91st psalm he says it
is written that the angel shall take charge
of these laced by glass by fruit against
the stone but he left out a part
of the part of the word you know
the devil is never more dangerous than when
he comes with a Bible and when he
starts to cook the Bible because he left
out to keep thee in all thy ways
he misquoted the Bible but our lord he
he said again he called it holy scripture
and he said thou shalt not tempt the
lord thy god and then the third was
directed to his spirit that is to adoration
first of all to appetite secondly to ambition
and thirdly to adoration he said worship me
i said i'll give you all the kingdoms
of this world because they have been delivered
unto me but again the lord replied it
is written it is written it is written
i shall worship the lord thy god and
him only so where our first parents failed
he gloriously overcame now i want to ask
the question was there any possibility that our
lord could have fought why the body stopped
saying that he was the god man god
manifest in place it sends the shivers your
spine and for anybody to suggest that the
lord could have sinned or could have fallen
is treaded on very very thin ice actually
it's a subtle effect on the person of
christ himself oh he suffered the intent of
it he certainly did but there is no
danger of him falling into the he gloriously
overcame in the way that he can overcome
that is by trusting not only in his
father but also in coping the word of
god now these are things that are very
very much in people's minds today and i
just want to make it perfectly clear where
we stand in connection with the person of
christ the thing that christ created for me
i believe is an attack on the person
of that one manifest in place he gloriously
overturned in the same way that we can
overcome and complete dependence upon god and also
by the quotation of his precious word this
is virtuous life again one could go on
to speak about the manifestation of the attributes
of his god head here below i have
heard people say that our lord in his
lifetime here he never at any time has
the cup of his godhead it was always
out of his humanity you know again people
who make that statement do not consider the
teaching in the gospel according to luke or
any other gospel our lord did not lay
aside any attribute of beauty in his humanity
they were all there he never acted independently
that's true but at the same time they
were there and they were manifested again and
again and again omnipotence luke tells us of
crazy miracles that he performed and they were
in four spheres first of all in the
sphere of he was superior to all disease
secondly he was superior to the forces of
nature he turned water into wine he walked
upon the water he spilled the storm he
fed five thousand loads of bread and peace
and two fishes here we get them superior
to the forces of nature it was superior
superior to the forces of satan there are
seven occasions in the life of our lord
when he cast out demons i want to
ask you do you believe in demon possession
in satanic power i have lived the most
of my life in a pagan environment and
when i hear people talk today that people
that the lord came in contact with and
that he the bible says that he cast
out demons that his demon possession they say
it must have been just some bodily ailment
like epilepsy or some form of lunacy the
bible makes a distinction between physical infirmity and
demon possession and anyone who has had any
experience at all in satanic power today they
know that there is such a thing at
the present time my beloved friends can i
let me say that what we have experienced
in central africa among people who are possessed
by demons they're becoming more and more common
in the so-called civilized lands today i
could give experiences that one has had in
recent days of exactly the same thing certain
is increasingly powerful and young people today i
believe in some cases are playing the fire
and if they do they have limited the
glamour themselves if they get burned a little
while ago on halloween there was a group
of young people who went down to a
church in new jersey where i live and
in the middle of the night they had
what they called a death mass in a
church and when the minister heard about it
he laughed well he said young people must
have their fun actually it's the worship of
satan in a in a so-called christian
church at the present time this kind of
thing is increasing by reach from god and
as the time goes on i believe that
satanic power will become more and more potent
and more widespread i don't know whether you
find it here in montreal or not but
certainly in the part of the united states
where we live we've seen it again and
again just the same as we find in
asian africa but our lord on seven occasions
in his life he cast out demons superior
to satanic power and then superior to death
on three occasions he raised the dead again
i've heard the statement made that if we
are only filled with the holy spirit we
would be able to do exactly the same
as our lord did because all the miracles
that he performed were performed out of his
humanity and not out of his deity my
dear friend don't split the deity and the
humanity of our lord at all times he
was god and man in one glorious fashion
and i think that it's most important to
realize that and to say that as we
were only filled by the spirit we could
do exactly the same as he did is
it possible for us to raise the dead
is it possible for us to lay a
hand on the leper and find him i
don't think so he was absolutely unique not
only a unique birth but a unique person
in his sinlessness here below and also in
the fact that he had all the attributes
of deity and he exercised them again and
again here below not only the divine attributes
but the moral attributes as well his virtuous
life then is vicarious death again one would
love to pause and speak about the lovely
account that he gave of the vicarious death
of christ upon the cross the gospel according
to matthew speaks about miracles four miracles miracles
that jesus that was performed when jesus died
upon the cross he is occupied with the
supernatural in the gospel according to mark we
find the signs of birth he opened up
his mouth it was only when he was
put on earth that he opened his mouth
when the high priest asked him i dare
you by the living god to tell us
whether that be the christ or not and
he stood up and he said i am
and he said one day you'll see the
son of man coming in the clouds of
heaven and putting him at the throne of
his glory and the priest said the high
priest said he's worthy of death then we
get the silent chapter but in the gospel
according to it leap ranges 10 individuals around
the cross a cross section of humanity and
we find a reaction of these 10 individuals
to what they saw when the lord jesus
died upon the cross my dear friends here
tonight every one of us has to face
us to tell them and what happened to
us when the lord of london bled the
lord jesus christ vicariously laid down his life
for you and for me upon the cross
but we find 10 individuals in six different
groups and we find them expressing their feelings
and their reaction to what they saw when
the lord jesus died upon the cross his
victorious death now someone might say what do
you mean by victorious death well it simply
means that he wasn't dying for his own
sin he had already pointed out he was
holy he was harmless he was sinless but
he assumed responsibility for the sin of the
world and i thank god he assumed responsibility
for my sin i'm standing underneath that cross
i bow my head and i get down
on my knees and i say thank you
lord for dying for me he was frozen
when he was dying friend sitting by his
side said mr spurson you have preached the
gospel to thousands of people you have seen
many many heads of Christ now that you're
going out to praise god on whether he's
attended for your salvation and that dear man
almost with his dying breath he said on
the truth behind four little words and the
friend said what are they he said the
words of these jesus died for me that's
the gospel that's vicarious death jesus died for
me i'm the sinner but i thank god
he died for me and i spent my
my whole eternity my whole destiny in the
coming days on what happened upon calvary's cross
that is the cross and then the resurrection
my gift of word is that the beautiful
beautiful part of the godly resurrection of christ
didn't die late it's only he who tells
us about the walk to a man those
two individuals two of us and another i
wonder who that that other was there's been
all kinds of speculation here at large i
think the william lanza the man that mentioned
he thought it was luke himself i question
i don't think so it's possible that at
that time luke was not a believer but
in any case ellis has suggested that it
was clear to his mouth but in any
case he went with them they were going
hard they had lost their hope they had
lost their joy they had lost their vision
they had lost their heat and they needed
jesus himself and that beautiful story only told
by god the letter he tells us how
that he drew near and asked him one
or two questions and believed that they stood
still looking sad oh how graphic that is
they stood still looking sad and then they
asked him one or two questions and then
from the word he opened up the word
the things concerning himself many years ago i
had the very great privilege of sitting at
the feet of good men i spent six
months there's just a few at times in
two times for about six months of his
life i was tight now at the time
i'll never forget those days i had the
very great privilege of sitting at the feet
of mr and some
of the things that he taught me many
years ago but i tell you i'd like
to have walked under the north road that
day and heard what the lord had to
say i would love to hear what he
said about all the Isaiah 53 about the
22nd psalm and about all the great passages
in the old testament but in any case
when they arrived at their home it is
made known unto them in the breaking of
bread and he said lift not our hearts
bring it in it while he took the
best part away and made known unto us
his victory is that the door dance is
that the hood dance is that the heat
dance i have learned within it while he
talked with us by the way and a
little later they got their vision that he
opened their he opened their understanding that they
might understand this victory it's only with the
time with which it is nearly three years
connected with the godly resurrection and this is
what he told them this beautiful little part
beautiful little paragraph at the end of this
passage he loved them all as far as
the darkness he lifted up his hands and
he blessed them and while he blessed them
he was taken up from them into heaven
and believed that the point of deletion was
good job and they blessed him last September
i was over in Israel i beheld the
privilege of going over there and spending two
weeks in Jerusalem i went up to the
Mount of Olives and on that Mount of
Olives is a little church and it's called
the Church of the Ascension and going inside
that church the guide said there's a stone
on the floor and there's a mark on
it and they told us i think it
was his prominent teeth they said that these
were the marks of the teeth of our
lord when he ascended up to heaven obsolete
nonsense it's simply not true it's one of
those stories that these people would like to
tell because look here he tells us where
he stood there certainly wasn't a map there
just opposite the temple on the top of
the Mount of it was on the Mount
of Olives but it's only absolutely because of
this specific place he led them out as
far as Bethany and he lifted up his
hands and he blessed them Bethany is in
a different spot in town why do you
think the lord led them up to Bethany
there were four places for our lord to
be executed down here first of all in
Bethlehem where he lived tried to kill him
in Nazareth when he opened Isaiah chapter 61
and went out with most of the enemy
forces we read that they all went to
the Mount of Olives and tried to push
him over the precipice and try to kill
him the fourth place is Capernaum and at
the end of three years of public ministry
our lord said they're all Capernaum Capernaum it's
the 91st which has been done in me
have been done in me have been done
in time's garden so it is a pentagram
of the in fact Capernaum suggested in Capernaum
and finally Jerusalem condemned to death on our
side of the camp outside the walls in
a way to offend gibbets usually the fourth
place is where it is rejected because the
list of people killed for it is not
rejected called Capernaum the first time we read
of him being there we find a woman
sitting at his feet learning his words second
time he was there he raised a man
from the dead and he went away a
woman's fury and the third time he was
there he reminded his head and feet to
the presence of ant-man and he leaves
with a whole heart filled with the order
of the ant-man have you any number
that he led the night to Bethany for
that is a place of quiet retreat great
hospitality he read the mark of fire at
the Bethany and then he had brought the
crowns and blessed them I wonder if he
used the truth to bless him number 625
the lord bless you and keep thee the
lord lift up his face upon you and
he graces unto thee the lord lift up
his countenance upon you and give thee peace
lift up his crowns and he bless them
and unto bless them it is taken up
common and the last thing that they saw
as he went up I think they gave
uplifted hands the peace of hand and the
peace of seated displeasure as he went up
and sat down upon the ground at least
that a prayer it is him out of
their sight I think here again just as
that is this is kind of how it
dips down and the mountain top of the
same situation would dip down again but here
as he went down to heaven it came
down again upside this is him out of
their sight I'm sorry and the
lord has turned his eyes let me say
again that these are the things that most
surely believe not and that's what lucid girl
describing to theophilus the things most surely believe
or not and I believe it had the
effect of leading that dear man to the
lord first of all his faith in god
and the beautiful language connected with it secondly
his guiltiest life which if you convince the
fear of sin at the end of his
life he could say it tends to be
a comic that is not in a maze
if you came before he could get the
spot the son of god the son of
man is working at night and then his
vicarious death is thankful virtue of the future
if the carrier is going to be favored
his boundary resurrection and his miserable ascension that
god has had we are blessed in law
to be faithful until the lord be with
us