Jesus declares himself to be the ultimate absolute, the "I AM," in John 8, directly confronting the philosophical notion that there are no absolutes. He asserts his divine nature, predating Abraham and existing outside of worldly limitations, contrasting himself with the devil, the father of lies. The sermon highlights Jesus' claims of eternal existence and unchanging nature, drawing parallels to God's self-revelation to Moses and emphasizing that belief in him as the "I AM" is essential for salvation. The ultimate confirmation of his identity as the "I AM" is found in his resurrection, solidifying him as the changeless rock of our faith.
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before, brethren with me on the platform here, and then in this peaceful moment arrived, they all took me and fled. 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 Pound to see?
And the question is, I have never. No, no, 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 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 we understand the handicap under which I am left us. 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 listen to Dave's aside. And the aside gentleman 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 absolute. 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 absolute. 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 absolute. 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 Job.
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 from 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 occurs, 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 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 you 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 go sing that pleased him. As he spake these words, many believe on him. Now let's find it on the chapter. The 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 can't 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 maketh thou thy death? Jesus answered, If I honour myself, my honour is nothing. It is my Father that honours 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, and was glad. Aaron said the Jews unto him, that were not yet fifty years old, and hast thou seen Abraham?
Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, before Abraham was, I am. Then took the upstones to cast 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 miracle. 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. The Lord said he was not demon-possessed, but he had one father that was squawed. 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 listened to my words, and you would express my words, because I came forth from war. But you were your father of the devil, and the words of your father, you were too. You were the murderer from the beginning.
Who, do you murder? Our understanding at the beginning of the historic account of the Runderseri 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, that 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 truth heals. And so he is a liar, our Lord himself. 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 taking 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, and that was a murderer by the use of a lie. So a lie still tells, proved is that with years. And after chatting with our Lord and discussing with him the subject matter of this passage, part that goes to regret this 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, and it's last.
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, Howard might get fifty years old, and hath thou seen Abraham? That'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 used 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 was 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. 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's place.
But he could lead them there. And he had done that in the beginning to the incident that we know so well connected us from the three of 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, and he said, Moses, Moses, and he said, Here, Ma, take your shoes off from thy feet, for the place were on us down, if this whole was out.
Then you remember God spoke to him, the angel of Jehovah spoke to him out of the burning bush, and he gave him a commission that he was to go down into Egypt, back down into Egypt, where he had left forty years 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 am not able to do this. I am not competent for this prayer. That was an easy one. And anyway, I am a very poor sage, regardless of what acts, if Stephen stood in Acts, Joseph said to me, you were a man, and I didn't have any words, which the proven leader on wasn't it.
Sir, I'm a poor man of speech. I don't have the ability. I'll take it down to Pharaoh. I'll fled from the face of Pharaoh. So 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 Israel together and tell them the right commission 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 have a little together. They're going to ask me, Who commissioned you? And the Lord's answer to that was, to cause it to read.
As you will find out later on in the epistle to the Corinthians, or also in the book of Revelation, if you know the name of the God who sent you, you are given authority and a debt. So they'll say, well, who's drenching? And God said to Moses, tell them, I am that I am. Drenching. And then Moses put drenching together, and finally God reduced the title, and he said, tell them that the I am of drenching. But 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 the Galilee.
For Abraham was, he said, I am. So in Exodus chapter three, we remember, too, that he added something to that. He said, I am that I are. And we understand that with difficulty because our English language does not convey the language of 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 someone 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 absolute. 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. So, we are not timeless. We are subjective at this time. We speak about past, present, and future. Our Lord goes above all of that, as Peter said. What does 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 eighty-eight years, but we weren't. And then they pushed it off in ninety-one, and now it came in, and then they pushed it off 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 has given to us in the Christmas of the Hebrews. Do you remember it? In chapter one he epistles to the Hebrews unto the angels. Did he not say thou art my son this day have I begotten thee? Now. And you'll 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 hast 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 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 was speaking to his power and his death, thou hast weakened my friends in the way.
Cut me not off in the midst, which I knew my day. When 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, but thou remain with the gods of his son. Let's go, look at Hebrews chapter one, the light of twelve, hundred and twenty, one, hundred and fifty.
Can you listen to how that looks out? So he is the changeless one. Do we know him today? Is he the famous, I'm revealed fifty years ago, fifty years without, so he is the sound. So he won't go. today as we will be, ten years and now, twenty years and now, hundred years and now, about this title, thou art discerning. The truth, my world, is ultimate, the ultimate absolute.
And then this world will be lovely, all confident, and all strength has been. Do you doubt that the one whom we believed for many years we saw the thought of the word of God was the light? Do not the one that we understood had borne all sins and was on board with a treaty. Is it 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? The same. The same. The same.
The same. The same. The same. And then he said that. That was. One crazy thing. Okay. Still again. They took a stone. Stone of death. he used what he was saying I wanted to look correctly in the chapter where we were reading this you see how important this movie is is this is 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 predict 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. When 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 was 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 panel, come. This is of the darkness of the wages. This is of the days of eternity. as you get a little grin of terror out. And they say, what a dreadful thing the five hours in my room. Well, we want you to move it with 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. He's talking about what he's talking about. Look what he's doing too. Verse twenty-four, I said, therefore unto you, shall draw in your tune. For if you breathe not, shall I run. There shall draw in your tune. 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 him here. He forgave the adulterous divinity. He forgave the rich, free 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 that we are. It is of the utmost importance that we have our minds filled with the glory of this glorious day.
We have not taken to ourselves another doctrine of remission. We will not lay hold on the grass at home 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 we're going to see where he is what we're sent for if you remember matthew's gospel chapter eleven john the verse says he's in person and within the prison of which all we have read it was countless this hour in darkness virtually the great amount of spirit And you will recall that John turned to of his servant, Sister Slyphus, and Jesus, and said to Arsangui that she had come ago, we 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 have brought a heaven's open, spirit of God, descending like a dove and roasting upon him. I saw under a witness that the church was done at war. In all ways he is in the shadow of doubt. He is in the dungeon of despair. He is wondering, the Trinity Jesus Christ is, ask him, ask him if he is the one that should come or do you look for another. What did our Lord do?
He said, go and tell John that. the blind see, for I am the light of the world. Tell John at the door if I hear thee, 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 the sweet as one. 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. And he is trying to defend himself with his service.
Wouldn't you go to the wilderness of three before us? But this is the important thing. In whom do we believe? Where do those our things rest? Whom do we consider as Lord and Savior? If we believe what in our ground? What is what I am? And therefore, let's not fool it down. First time you thought through 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 sprint, some sort.
You'll notice the whole bit. But it doesn't, we can't understand just directly what it means. But when you go back to, not only do you see, Greek you can also go back to older languages, which they do perfectly and hope brutally in turn, very blasphemy. 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 protected profession of that world, for there is no, there is no protected profession. It is no, at all, I am free.
It is you will grow that I am. 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 to noon to three o'clock in the afternoon, to the darkness 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 cry, Why, in the darkness? Ranish! And the temple there was red in the top of the water, and dirty I ran before. and then the rocks were going to be raised on the hill upon which they were supposed to lie the graves of one city opened many part in the center of the city which that rose and promoted the graves into the whole city in a period of the land and in a period of the land they couldn't see either of them but it was one that co-authored with your head finished And wherein his own resurrection he was going to really declare, really the Son of God with power by the resurrection, the Son of God, he said, 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 today, 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 the years ago. He is the same today as when you will see him in the days you have done 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.
One who himself was buried in the third day as we had 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 of Colossians two-tell verses, and then passed into the glory. 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 make my name and he says, 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, and that which is, shall be. as we've already heard this morning, but a glorious day will it be ours. So we pray. 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, the unique sound heath us 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 day.