for brethren with me on the platform here. And then, in this peaceful moment arrived, they all took me in pledge. And I felt I was all alone in the Sahara Desert. The platform seemed too large. The audience was too numerous. I was a stranger, and many of them were too late. Well, I don't have exactly the same feeling this morning. I'm glad to be back with you. And I must relate to a conversation that I overheard on my way here on this trip. It was between two creatures. And one said to the other, have you ever been to the park at the pond to see? And the question is that I have never. And I said, well, I've never been there either. In fact, I hope I never go there. And the first man said, and why is that? He said, do you think that you could tell them anything new apart from home? They've all lived long enough to have heard everything. And they all know everything. So he said, really, I have not anxious to go. Now, in the light of that, what am I going to do? you see I have already been informed that you have all heard everything and you all know everything so that wasn't a very good introduction I hope you understand on my on my account I was listening to it and we said I wasn't a participant in the conversation of all I was just overhearing sometimes it's not good to be hearing something that you shouldn't however I I've summoned up all my courage and I was here in Florida at any rate and I couldn't go home without discharging my duties so you understand the handicap under which I'm working. I won't often speak to a convocation, a congregation that knows everything and that has purged everything. I wish very quickly this morning in the Gospel by John chapter eight as an introductory message for our studies that we shall have morning and evening from Tuesday through Friday. They will not be just on one topic, although the two topics are very closely related. And I should tell you at the outset, because if I don't, while I'm finished, you won't have known what I was trying to say. But if I tell you at the beginning what I'm trying to say, then at least you will know what I meant to say. And as And a brother up in Toronto often says, he said, don't go to sleep because you'll listen to Dave's aside. And the aside, gentlemen, is when I wander from the topic and go off into bypass meddles. And he said, sometimes you get a whole lot more out of his aside than you will out of his sermon. That's just a little word of advice to you in case you wonder about it or in case you wander because of it. You have all heard, those of you who are either related in any way to the process of education in our days, if not you, then your children, if not your children, your grandchildren, and if not your grandchildren, some of you probably have grades, that there is a common expression used today as the title topic in the world and teaching of philosophy and psychology, and it's this. There are no absolutes. Now this, our younger generation are being taught both in high school as well as in colleges and universities, and I have met up with some of them. And it has been on my mind, I wish to counter that statement, that categorical statement that psychologists are making and philosophers are making today, that there are no absolutes. I noticed rather interestingly that these people who claim adamantly that there are no absolutes, if they're not agreed with something that is said, they will say, that's a lie. And right away you say, how can it be a lie? Because if there are no absolutes, there's no truth by which to call it a lie. Right? Truth is absolute. You can't change it. You might distort it. You might deny it. You might counter it with something else. But truth is inviolate. It is absolute. And the very fact that they will say to you, that's why we are knitting an absolute. And that is true. And yet they will hand this statement out to us and to our younger generation particularly today that there are no absolutes. In our morning studies, I wish to look with you at a few of the numerous absolutes that we have given to us, particularly in the Gospel by God. And in the evening studies, I wish to change that, and I would like to consider with you some of the privileges of the light of the Lord Jesus. There's the groups of three. I read a book some time ago that was trying to enlighten me from what? Now it's a little bit longer than I am now. And it's called The Secret of the Universe. It's written by a known by the name of Nathan Woods. And his conclusion of, if you read the whole book, was that the secret of the universe lies in the trilogies of the universe, and number three, and how many times it recurs, not only in Scripture, but in duality and other areas of Torah. So I wish to begin with you this morning from John's Gospel chapter eight. We'll have a short reading and then I shall read with you about the ultimate absolute. John's Gospel chapter eight. You shall read from verse twenty-one. Learn, say Jesus, again unto them I go my way and ye shall seek me and shall draw on your sins. Whether I go, ye cannot come. And so the Jews, will he kill himself, because he said, Hither I go, ye cannot come? He said unto them, Ye are from beneath, how I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world. I said therefore unto you, ye shall die in your sin. For if you believe not that I am he, you shall die in your sin. Sin said thee unto him, Who art thou? Jesus said unto them, Even the same that I should unto you from the beginning. I have many things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true. And I speak to the world those things which I have heard of him. They understood not that he's taken them of the Father. Then through Jesus unto them, when ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then surely know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself. But as my Father has taught me, I speak to you things. And he that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone. For I do always those things that pleased him. As he spake these words, many believed on him. Now let's find it on the chapter. Verse forty-two. Jesus said unto them, If God were your father, you would love me, for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because he cannot hear my words. ear of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning. He abode not in a truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of it. Because I tell you the truth, you believe me not. Let's look farther down. Again to verse forty-nine. Jesus answered, I have not a demon, but I honor my father, and you do dishonor me. And I seek not my own glory. There is one that seeketh and judgment. Verily, verily, I say unto you, if a man keep my saying, He shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we know that thou hast the devil, or a demon. Abraham is dead, and the prophet. And thou sayest that the man keep my saying, He shall never face the death. Are thou greater than our father Abraham, which is dead? And the prophets are dead. Who makest thou thy death? Jesus answered, If I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me, of whom ye say that he is your God. Yet you have not known him, but I know him, and if I should say I know him not, I shall be a liar like unto you. But I know him, and keep it safe. Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it, thus glad. Aaron said the Jews unto him, that were not yet fifty years old, and has not seen Abraham? Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then for Piaf stones did pass at him, that Jesus hid himself and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed on. Of all the marvelous things that our Lord Jesus said when he was here, I think the statement we have read in John chapter eight, is the most remarkable, the most outstanding, the most striking of them all. Immediately it draws your attention. You cannot lightly dismiss it. You cannot lightly forget it. And this is what I like to call the ultimate absolute. Perhaps some of you have noticed that the miracles in the parables of our Lord Jesus Christ when he was here are often followed by a discourse which results in being, perhaps to your notice, more important than the miracle itself. John chapter eight begins, as most of you will know from memory, with the incident of the woman taken in adultery. But after that incident, manifesting the grace and the glory of our Lord, there came the discourse that we have read of here in Shokeree. And it is just another example of the fact that our Lord's miracles generally are followed by a discourse. And the discourse, I may say, is of much greater value than the miracles. While we tend to remember miracles and forget the discourses, nevertheless, the words which our Lord speaks subsequent to, consequent upon the miracles are the things that we study with interest and remember so in this occasion the Lord is speaking with the Jews he said to them that he was the light of the world upon that there came a discussion with them and the Jews being frustrated because they couldn't understand him and they couldn't discern just exactly who he was they were charged him with being demon-possessed and the Lord said he was not demon-possessed but he had one father that was squawed and they said well we're not born a fornication that was a distinct slur on our old birth we've only brought one father, and that is God. And our Lord said, if so, were your father, you would love me. And you would listen to my words, and you would express my words, because I came forth from the war. But you were your father, the devil. And the words of your father, you were dead. You were the murderer from the beginning. Who did you murder? Our understanding of the beginning of the historic account of the adversary in the family, or a human family, was which we are part, begins, of course, in Eden. Should murder take place in Eden? Our Lord said he was a murderer in the beginning. He abode not, or he stood more in the truth. Murder, eh? They open their eyes and they say, is what means that a lie is murder. How did he murder our first character? That a lie. And how has he brought death and destruction into the world ever since? What is the armor in which he trusts? Of which the Lord spoke so clearly. in the Gospel of chapter eleven. This is the lie. This is deceit. Because a lie kills and proves he is. And so he is a liar, our Lord James. There is no truth in them. He cannot speak truth. He might stimulate it. He might quote it from the scripture at this time. But behind it all, even his quotation of scripture, is the sinister lie. There's no truth in him. He's not capable of stating the truth. And this is the sentence. This is the condemnation that God passed upon me. When we read about this, Paul, over in Ezekiel chapter twenty-eight, Paul said that a fire was pushed out from him. so that he never ever could resort to truth. He was always to be that which he began to be. That was a murderer by the use of a lie. So a lie still tells. Prove is that of Jesus. And after chatting with our Lord and discussing with him with some big matter of this passing part that was the regret of the morning, Our Lord made a very remarkable statement, and I want to notice this with you, in part at any rate. We come to the last part of the chapter, and he said something about Abraham. They came to Abraham to be their father. He said something about Abraham. He said, you know, your father Abraham is going to see my day, and he saw in this land. Theologians have been puzzling ever since exactly to what our Lord is referring there. What's the day he's talking about? And when did Abraham see his day? And we have come to sometimes different conclusions about that matter. And then they said back to him in report, they said, thou art not yet fifty years old, and hath thou seen Abraham? It's not what he said, of course. He said that Abraham saw his day. But they're through this Adam. And our Lord made this day. This is the statement that rings all through. the gospel by John verily verily I say unto you he said before Abraham was I am that's the ultimate purpose before Abraham was I am now consequent upon that statement as they had done previously in the gospel by John and as they would do later, they took up stones to stone them to death. Because he had said that before Abraham was, I am. And when our Lord made that claim to be the I am, then he is what he was referring. Although he related it sequentially with Abraham, but they knew he was going back to Exodus chapter three. You will remember that incident, Moses, that led the sheep of his father-in-law to the backside of the desert. Interesting, isn't it? He wasn't a shepherd, but after forty years in the backside of the desert in Perrin, he learned to be a shepherd, and the dexterity of his shepherd's character was revealed when he led a flock of sheep. to the back side of the desert. He didn't drive them. He led them. He led them into a desert because without leading or guidance, they wouldn't have gone. He couldn't have driven them into a desert, quote. But he could lead them there. And he had done that in the beginning to the incident that we know so well connected his trust with the burning bush. He saw this thorn bush in the wilderness, and he saw it on fire. It was burning. And as he watched it so that he quickly consumed what it was on the thorn bush, he was amazed to discover that it did not cease to burn. It did not be reduced to ashes. So he was doing here to look at it. And as he did so, a voice spoke to him out of the bush. He said, Moses, Moses, and he said to him, take your eyes off from thy feet, for the place were on us down, if this whole was out. Then you remember God spoke to him, the angels Jehovah spoke to him out of the burning bush, and he gave them a commission that he was to go down into Egypt, back down into Egypt, where he had left for him this before, and he was to say to the king, let my people, though that they may serve me in the wilderness. You will recall how Moses protested against that. He said, Lord, I'm not able to do this. I'm not competent for this prayer. I was at least at once. And anyway, I am a very poor speech, regardless of what Acts, Stephen stood in Acts chapter seven of you as a man. And I didn't have any words, which the sermon later on wasn't written. Sir, I'm a poor man of speech. I don't have the ability. I'll take it on to Pharaoh. I'll fled from the face of Pharaoh. For Pharaoh became a left Egypt forty years ago. God said, I'm turning it around to Egypt. When you get there, gather the elders at this room together and tell them the right permission gives to Pharaoh, let my people go that there may spread me in the wilderness. And you will bring my people out. This will be the sign of Jesus who has got on this mountain. And Moses said, When I gather there, we'll gather there so together, they're going to ask me, Who commissioned you? And the Lord's answer to that was, to cause you to read, as you will find out later on in the epistle to the Corinthians, and also in the book of Revelation, if you know the name of the God who sent you, you are given authority and a gift Well, who's drenched? And God said to Moses, Tell them, I am that I am. Trust me. And then Moses put trusty together, and finally God reduced the title, and he said, Tell them that the I am has sent you. That's what the people would have understood, the Jews would have understood that our Lord was quoting from. when they said, thou art not the fifty years old, and thou shalt be near Abraham. He said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was. And he goes back through the days of Moses, and then he goes back through the days of Abraham, and he goes back beyond Abraham. He goes out into timeless deity, and he says, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, For I am. So they knew what he was saying. They knew what was implied in that statement. They knew that he was more, had to be more than Jesus of Nazareth. He had to be more than the virgin's son. He had to be the prophet, more than the prophet of Galilee. For Abraham was, he said, I am. So the method of chapter three, we remember, too, that he added something to that. He said, I am that I am. And we understand that with difficulty because our English language does not convey the language with the original even in the Greek or even in the Hebrew or the Greek where we have read it here. But we have difficulty reading at times that our Lord just used that statement. I want to notice some of them with you. And all he said was, I am. We have to say something in addition to that. We have to add an appendage to that. We have to say, I am this or I am that. We can't just say, I am. And the Lord claimed that he was the I am. Timeless deity. And so they were very much disturbed about this. This was equal to what he said in the presence of Cairo, which is judged later on in the course of the high priest. And so we have come to that which our day is absolutely I am that I am not I am what I was not I am not what I shall be I am that I am he always was he always will be that he is he can't say that he can't say I am that I am we can say I am that I was not for we are not today what we were a year ago right we cannot say I am that I am we have to say I am what I shall not be for a year from now we won't be what we are today whoa we are not timeless we are subjected to time we speak about past present and future our Lord goes above all of that as Peter said what did Peter mean when he said one day was thought as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day You might like to make chronology out of that, if you please, and say, well, the thousandth year, of course, in some of you, the millennium. And, yes, I know. I understand that. We were supposed to have been a raptor in length in the age of two, but we weren't. And then they pushed it off in ninety-one, and that came in the end. And then they pushed it off in another, and we're still here. I don't know what you're doing here. The raptor was supposed to have taken place long ago. So, we can't say that. We are what we were not. We are what we shall not be. For we are subject to constant change. Mentally. Physically. Intellectually. Spiritually. We are not what we were. We are not what we shall be. But God is the I am than I am. Changes. One of the marvelous titles of our Lord is given to us in the Christmas of the Hebrews. Do you remember it? In chapter one he epistle to the Hebrews unto the angels. Did he not say thou art my son this day have I begotten thee? No. And you remember when he comes farther down in that chapter he said, he's quoting from the hundred and second psalm, when our Lord has said thou hast weakened my strength in the way, cut off, cut me not off in the midst of our day. What did the Father say to him? that thou, O Lord, in the beginning hath laid the foundation of the earth, the heavens are the works of thine hands. They shall perish. That's all you need. When you go back to the hundred and second psalm, and see actually when God said that to you, son, unto his son, he said, What did he say? Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever, threptor of righteousness, threptor of thy kingdom. Thou shalt love righteousness and day to the naked. Therefore, God, even thy God, has an orgy of deal with the oil of sadness above thy failure. And then what happens? Then you go back to Psalm hundred and two, and you find that our Lord from the cross is speaking to his power and his death, thou hast weakened my friends in the way. Cut me not off in the midst of thy news, my days. And God speaks back to his son and what does he say? They shall perish. Thou remain. They all shall act old as a garment, and as a vestry, shalt thou fold, and often they shall be changed. But thou art the same. One of the titles of our Lord. Thou art the same. The heavens of the earth will pass away. Thou remain with God his Son. Let's go, look at Hebrews chapter one, the light of twelve hundred and twenty-one, hundred and fifty. Can you see how that looks out? So he is the changeless one. Do we know him today? Is he the famous I'm reviewing fifty years ago? Fifty years without, fifty years without. So he won't go. Is he not the same? Today as we will be, ten years and now, twenty years and now, hundred years and now, about this title, thou art discerning. This is my world, which is ultimate, the ultimate absolute. When this world is lovely, all confident, and all strength has been Do not this the one whom he believed for many years himself who thought us would have brought us to life. Do not this the one that we understood had borne all sins in his own body for the Trinity. This is the one that we understood he had brought us back to God in reconciliation. He said he would believe us on this one has everlasting one. Is it just the same one? to say, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, good, that the one thing you say, okay, if you do again, they took a stone, stone of death, He used what he was saying. I want you to look correctly in the chapter where we're reading this, you see how important this movie is. You just said what we read from verse twenty-one, the beginning of the paragraph verse twenty-one. He said, in verse twenty-three, here for many times from above, absolent participation of the I am statement, here is a swirl of mud of this world, I feel different you, you shall die away in your sins. Though the gospel preacher looks to take this verse and do this when he preaches the gospel, the gospel let forgiveness of sins, the gospel of redemption, the gospel of reconciliation, the gospel that God has given to us a complete and full pardon. And he tells his audience who are unbelievers, who are not Christians, who are not saved. He tells them, O Lord, that you shall die in your sins. And if you die in your sins, where I am, you cannot come. You cannot come if you die in your sins. And so immediately the listener's mind is racing through the category of his sins. Because the speaker has said you shall draw on your sins, holding the word from the master whom God has already. And yet you shall draw on your sins where I am, you cannot come. This is of the darkness of the wages. This is of the days of eternity. that ye have little strength of terror else. And they say what a dreadful thing the five hours in my serene. For the watch is removed, it was me this morning, but the more terror she mentions that hour. She's not talking about adultery. She's not talking about drunkenness. She's not talking about a drug addict. She's not talking about a robber. No, there's not a thing he's talking about. What's he talking about? What's what he seriously? For twenty-four, I said, therefore I'm to do ye shall go around you soon. For if you believe not that I am, I shall go around you soon. That's the truth. Then he said to you not. We enter a large crowd like a friend under the statement of our law. But that's not what is before in the case. He forgave the daughter of divinity. He forgave the rich, the divinity. Then do they go and do no more. But what is he doing here? He said, if you believe not that I am, This is our industry. My friend, it is of the utmost importance that we know into him as we. It was of the utmost importance that we held our mind still with the glory of this glorious day. We have not taken to ourselves another doctrine of remission. We will not lay upon the grass upon some liturgy or ritual. No. in whom do we believe? That's the important thing. For if he believes not that he is who I am, it's all well, you know, see. Where do you live? You remember Matthew's Gospel, chapter eleven, John the Baptist, he's in person. When there was an apostle and a good story had read, it was countless, bizarre, in darkness, virtually, he'd written a spirit. And you will recall that John turned two of his servants, which described us in Jesus, and said to Arsangu, that the town of Gou left for another. Not another of the three times, but someone different. This is what has happened to John. John stood in the river Jordan and said, I thought a heaven's open. He stared at God descending like a dove and roosting upon him. I saw under a witness that the church was done on the floor. In other words, he is in the shadow of doubt. He is in the dungeon of despair. He is wondering, and then he is decided, ask him, ask him if he is the one that should come, or do you look for another? And what did our Lord do? He said, go and tell John that, The blind see, for I am the light of war. Tell John that the bereft are hearing. Tell John that the lame are walking for I am the way. And I am the truth. Tell him what you've seen here, witnessing the miracles of the revelation of who he was. And when he said, Tell John this, and I think this is his pair of men. He had received his run. Happy as he. He doesn't stumble at me. There's the great prophet of whom there was not an equal. Let alone a better age than John the Baptist. And yet in the dungeon of darkness, in that grunge and a drought of questioning, he spread this to the world, and the Lord could not let it pass. So do I? Well, if you know, he doesn't stumble at me. If he will he will he not rely on me, or if he will he will not let I run, which is what our Lord said, he desires to receive. And I know, of course, how beautiful he could go on the Lord. Immediately sprang to the defense of his servant. Wouldn't you go with the willingness to speak before us? But this is the important thing. In whom do we believe? Where do our things rest? Whom do we consider as Lord and Savior? If we believe what in our realm? What is what I am? Let's look further down. First time you thought I proved this. When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you shall know. I am. Now, blubbing the mind and roaring this language, this doesn't make a lot of strength, some sort. You'll notice a little bit. But it doesn't, we can't understand just directly what it means. But when you go back to, not only the Greek, you can also go back to older languages, which they do perfectly and talked brutally in front of his last name. He, in third school, when he had left the group, the son of a friend, then you should know that I am. We have to say that in English, I am free. In perfect for the school check, the proficient in that world. For the original, there is no group check the proficient. It is no, at all, I am free. You will know that I am free. When you have to open it up, it's your good man. That's what you're going to discover. That's what you're going to do. Well, you're me, Colonel, one. You're forward. You're delivered. And how are you going to know this? Well, from four o'clock noon to three o'clock in the afternoon, in the dark and over all the night. Where did that darkness come from, from New Delhi, for the time of the walking of the evening sacrifice? Then there were going to hear a crow rise in the darkness. Ranish! And the temple there was red in the pot full of water, and the dirty eye ran to the door. and then the rocks were going to be wrecked on the hill upon which they were supposed to fly. The graves were going to be opened in many part of the center stage to which that rose and promoted the graveyards into the whole city in the pyramids. You know, I mean, one line, because you put the eye around. But you've gone back to what was it, you have said, finished. And when his own resurrection, he was going to really declare really the Son of God with power by the resurrection, the Son of Man, then he said, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, notice this title that he uses. That Son of Man, when you have lifted up the Son of Man, and you will know that I am. That was to be the confirmation of what he was saying at the close of our chapter eight. This, my friend, is the absolute, the ultimate absentee. Jesus is the change, the Lord of eternity. For the liberal pride, though he came into the sphere of our reckoning of time, this is he who could say, not only Abraham, not only Moses, Moses was the burning bullet, but before Abraham walked. I am the absolute rock upon which our three rests with context. He is the same today as when you knew him first, which he is before. He is the same today as when you will see him in the days you are born and the ages to come. He will be as you know him now. He's changed. He is. He I am. What a comfort it is to always face, isn't it? What solidity it gives to our confession. What substance it does give to us in our salvation when we know that this one is our that challenges, the one who himself was buried in the third day, as we have said, He would rise again, with him out in the grave. Shattered the shackles of death in all its imperial power, shook off from himself all these opposing strips, as Colossians do tell him of it. And he who was there to receive him with acclaim, saluted him, He said, this day, or why we ought not to be. Sit on my right hand until I may turn on any further. Is there any wavering in that confidence that we must have in him? No. No, no, no, no. This is the ultimate answer. Jesus is. Always will it be. I am. That which was, that which is, and that which is, shall be. As we've already heard this morning, our glorious Savior is ours. Holy Christ. Our Father, we thank thee for being able to come before thee in the conscious presence of him who is the great I am. We thank thee for, O Lord, he meets our deepest need. He satisfies. our hardest longing and to fill the horizon of eternity for us. He is what we first knew him to be. He will be what we know him now. We thank him for all that is to come. He will be our change of Savior. And by blessing the ten, on this missile that we separate this morning and this night,