The four Gospels offer distinct yet complementary portraits of Jesus Christ, revealing him as King (Matthew), Servant (Mark), Savior (Luke), and the divine Son of God (John). John's Gospel, in particular, introduces Jesus as the searching Light of the world, the sacrificial Lamb of God who bears away sin, the Spirit-sealed Son, and the ultimate Satisfier of all human need. This multifaceted presentation of Christ underscores his divine nature and his capacity to meet every aspect of human longing and sin. Ultimately, the sermon calls listeners to recognize and embrace Jesus in all his divine roles, finding in him the complete answer to their spiritual condition.
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shineth in darkness. The darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light that all men through him might believe. He was not the light, but was sent to bear witness of the light. That was the true light. light on us, every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world. The world was made by him. And the world knew him not.
He came unto his own. And his own received him not. But as many as received him, for them gave he power to become the sons of God. even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the word was made flesh and dwelt amongst us, and we beheld his glory.
the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. May the Lord bless us as we have read together his word. It is hardly necessary for me to remind you, because you have been told over the course of years, that the wonder of the New Testament is surely expressed in the four Gospels given to us a slightly different description of Jesus Christ. One of the proofs to me that the Word of God is the Word of God is that thing.
You see, if it had just been conjured up by man, if man had got together and said, we're going to start a new religion, we're going to tell men and women about a person who we will claim is the Christ, I say, Matthew would have said to Mark, Mark, what are you going to say about Jesus? We better make sure we say exactly the same thing. And if Jesus preached the sermon, let's make sure, John, that you and I say exactly the same, that men and women might not look and think, why, look, they can't even remember what he said.
The truth to me that the word of God is the word of God is that God never stamps out a man's personal. And John remembered what Jesus said. And Matthew remembered what Jesus said. And Mark recorded what Jesus was said. And Luke wrote down what others told him Jesus and said. They all tell us a slightly different we might get a complete vision of him i was in singapore some little while ago and in the great gospel chapel in the center of singapore is quite near the anglican cathedral and the first day i went down to the gospel chapel i stopped someone in the street and i thought maybe they won't know where it was or how foolish i was so i said to him tell me uh Where's the Anglican Cathedral?
Do you know what he said? He said, well, as a matter of fact, it's in four rows. Which entrance do you want? And he gave me four rows. Later on, when I saw it, I pounded and occupied a block. And yet I rightly could have been told that it was in such and such a street. Shall I say North Street or East Street or West Street or South Street? All of them looking at the same building, a person seeing it, telling us something different about it. Yet all giving us a true and accurate description of the gospel of the life.
The gospel of the life. You know that Matthew looks at the Lord Jesus as the king. And he starts his gospel, where is he that is born, king of the Jews? And he finishes it, all power is given unto me in heaven and earth. He sees Jesus the king. Mark sees Jesus not as the sovereign, but as the servant. Mark, as you know, is the only one who tells us nothing of the ancestry of Jesus. How consistent that is. If you employ someone, you don't look at them and say, who was your great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad?
He is taking your work. And so they tell us nothing of the ancestry of Christ when they show us Christ the servant. But Mark, who himself was such a failure as a servant, Martin returned from the missionary journey that he should have seen the end of. Such a failure as a servant. He writes and tells us about the perfect service. So he tells us nothing about his ancestry. He just shows us Christ working. And he comes to the close of his gospel and he says, Christ working with them. And confirming the word with signs of it.
When Dr. Luke tells us about Jesus, he looks at him and says, Ah, he's not the sovereign, and he's not indeed the servant alone. He's the Savior. So he gives us the message the angels brought. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. And he comes to the end of his gospel, and he tells us that through him, it is preached the remission of sins. when we come to the chapter that I'm going to speak on this evening and the book that I'm going to speak on. It is not Jesus Christ who is the sovereign. It is not Jesus Christ who is the servant.
It's not Jesus Christ who is the Savior. But hallelujah, it's Jesus Christ the Son, the Son of God. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God it opened. And it finishes with Thomas falling on his face, crying, my Lord, and my God. Oh, friend, I'm so glad tonight, that I can commence this series of gospel services by reminding you that I have not come to talk to you about some man who was a great philanthropist or a great emancipator or a great teacher or a great leader.
come to tell you about someone who was a great God. A great God. As we look at the first chapter of the Gospel of John, I am going to suggest that there are four things that stand out so wonderfully for us. For as we look at the first chapter of John, first of all, we see Jesus Christ introduced to us as a searcher. For verse nine says this, that was the true light, that lighteneth everyone that cometh into the world. He's introduced to us as the light, the one who is searching, the light that shayeth him done.
Isn't it wonderful that I can look in your faces tonight and say, sir, I have a savior who's searching for you, madam, I have a Savior who's searching for you, and in the darkness of this world, can I deliver one person? As I go down in the chapter, I see he is not only a searcher, but I remember the glorious words of verse twenty-nine, as John the Baptist gazed at the Christ and said, Behold the Lamb of God, who beareth away the sin of the world.
For he is not only a searcher, but hallelujah, he's a sacrifice. The Lamb of God beareth away the sin of the world. If all Jesus did was to come to search for me, to show me that I was in darkness, to find me in the situation in which I'm found, if all he did was that, then of all men I would be most miserable. I would rather be in darkness and not know it than have a light to shine upon me and just show me my loss condition.
But thank God he didn't just come to see me. He came to say, he not only came to be a light, he came to be a lamp, not only came that he might search for you and me, but that he might bear away. Would you mind me stopping and just shouting hallelujah? As you know as it would, he came to bear away the sin of the Lord. But as I read through this chapter, I find that I need someone to search and find me. I need someone who's prepared to sacrifice for me. But I need something else.
I need someone who is not only a searcher and a sacrifice. I need someone who's a sealer. I look at this very chapter and I read verse thirty-three and I see the glorious story of Jesus Christ as there he is baptized. And suddenly the Spirit of God comes down and seals him. I remember this, that my New Testament tells me the epistle to the Ephesians, that the same Spirit that sealed Christ with the Savior, the sacrifice and the searcher, is the Spirit that will seal you and I, seal with the Holy Ghost.
and those that have come to know the same. But not only do I find here a searcher, and find here a sacrifice, and find here a sealer. Or Zechus, I find here a satisfier. For you will remember in verses thirty-eight to verses thirty-nine, There are some disciples of John the Baptist who come to the Lord and say, Master, where dwelleth that? And Jesus said, Come and see. And they went and abode with him.
And they suddenly found that while John the Baptist had been a God-master, while they had been willing disciples of John the Baptist, they suddenly found someone who was greater than John the Baptist. Someone who could completely satisfy them. They abode with him. Actually, as we'll see in a moment, they went on and witnessed for him when they found that he satisfied them. My friend, if there is anything this world needs today, it is a searching. sacrificing, saving, satisfying Savior.
That one is the one you can have tonight. First of all, he is a searcher. How many times have I bowed my head and said as it were, maybe not using these words, but said to the Lord, O thou infinite mine, though infinite lies. However could I comprehend it, if Jesus Christ had not come into this world to revenge, it would have been an empire of silence. God would have been unknowable. But Jesus Christ came, and God is knowable.
I often tell her as in a story, Some few years ago I was in the city of Liverpool. I'm often there, of course, but some few years ago I was in the city of Liverpool, and I was there for their great Christmas rally. There is, on the Mersey Tide, Liverpool and Birkenhead and the area around, some may be forty or fifty assemblies of Christians like this. And every Christmas they hire the largest building in Liverpool and have a united Christmas service. And I've been invited to a sleep action to conduct this Christmas service. I arrived in Liverpool rather early. Well, rather early for the service.
But late enough for the shops to be shut, they shut in half past five in my country, you see. And so I walked down Lord Street and down yonder to Line Street to look at some of the shops. I knew I wouldn't be able to spend a penny. I just had a look in the windows. Right on the edge of Lord Street and Lyme Street, if any of you know the city of Liverpool, there is a large jeweler. They have a window almost the length of the chapel. It comes right round the corner. Christmas coming on, their lights were full on.
I crushed the road to look at the window, and I caught my breath, as I saw that the whole window was filled with clocks and watches. To all sorts of clocks, you know, the old cuckoo clock, cuckoo, cuckoo. Well, I know, I still didn't listen to it. Great big chromium clocks and brass colored clocks, Little watches you had a job to see. It was still. There must have been hundreds of clocks and watches in that business. And as I stood and looked, I said to myself, what skill, what wisdom, what ability, that as I looked in that window, I could have told you something of the skill.
I could have told you something of the wisdom. I could have told you something of the patience of the watchmaker. And I couldn't have told you anything about him. I wouldn't know if he was a good man or a bad man. As far as his personality was concerned, I knew nothing about him. Because, please, it is a principle, it is a fact that personality can only be revealed by personality. Is God a person?
Is he a person? Or is God just some influence? The heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament showeth what is handiwork. Oh, I can see his skill. I can see his power. I can see his might. But is he a person? Thank God he's a person. Do you know how I know? Because Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal it. God knew. personality could only be revealed by personality the father sent the son he came into this world as a man to reveal God and to lighten everyone that cometh into the world so to show that he cares that he pays the son oh I know he's called the bird For I hear him speaking.
I know he's called love, for I hear and see him moving. But oh, bless God, if he's the word and if he's love, he's light as well. For I see him showing. And isn't it interesting that he's only called love twice. But in this gospel, he's called light twenty-three times. I don't know what it means. It means something. Love twice, light. And isn't it wonderful to know, young man, he's searching for you.
Young woman, he's a light, he's searching for you. And doesn't he search in a wonderful way? A wonderful, wonderful. I have a very dear friend, Dr. McCarlane. With a name like that, of course, he's Scottish, as you will understand. And I love to hear him give his testimony. I may have shared it with you before, but I want to share it again to that. I love to hear him give his testimony. He went to Glasgow University to study medicine. The young fellow up for Mearshire. fine sports but a good rugby player and there came an occasion when on a monday morning they had to go into a lecture theater and there on a table in front of them covered with a sheet was the body of a man who died in a mud lodging house the night before there was no one to claim him before they buried him in a porpoise grave his body was to be used.
There was a crowd of young men and women there, medical students, had grown somewhat callous. And there they talked about the rugby game on Saturday, and about the dance they'd been to Saturday night, and the fun and games they'd had on the Lord's Day. Just a crowd of chattering young folk, fine, good, clean, somewhat more young folk. Suddenly they walked in to that lecture theater, the professor, who was to give the lecture. He heard the chatter. He heard the laughter. He saw the smiling. Taking his gavel, he rang upon his desk, and he said, Will you be silent?
Looking at them as only he could, said I want you to remember that this pointed to the body under the shoes. This was once the home of an immortal soul. You will be reverend. My friend, young medical students, said he never heard a word of the lecture he never saw them as they took their knife and detected that body all he heard was this was once the home of an awful son from the lecture theater he went back to his lodging Back to find the Bible.
Back to turn its page and read. Back. Find Jesus Christ and let Jesus Christ find Jesus. Oh, he's a light. He's a light. I don't want to share with you again the way he shone into my life. I only know this. He's a light. searching for you. He lightens up everyone that cometh into the world. But he is not only a light to searcher, but he's a lamb, a sacrifice.
So John the Baptist behold the Lamb of God who bears away the sin of the world. In a Bible-loving church like this, in an era of America that's called the Bible Belt, It's not necessary for me to go back into the Old Testament and remind you of the one who is called the Lamb of God. We should spend time tonight in reminding you of Abel's land. We should take time tonight to remind you of Israel's land. We should take time tonight to remind you of the leper's land. I only know this that you are as familiar with them as I am.
But I want to ask the question that you may be very familiar with them. But how have you acted in the light of that? You will remember that Abel's Lamb tells us that sin can be removed. Israel's land tells us hell can be removed. Oh, isn't that wonderful? But as Abel offered his sacrifice, he learned the lesson that sin can be removed. And I went my way to Calvary's cross.
And I see the Lamb of God who beareth away the sin of the world. And I remember the words of Peter. He took my sin in his own body. And Greek prepositions have always been difficult. And I love the revived version. He bore my sin in his own body to the tree. You see him there. He gave. in South Korea tonight I can say all my sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought my sin that imparted but the whole was nailed to the cross and I'll bear it no more praise the Lord it's well with the soul oh friend could I ask you in the words of the old salvation army here have you listened to Jesus for the cleansing power washed in the blood of the land.
Abel's land removes sin, and Christ the land of God removes sin. Israel's land removes hell. I see them as they go and take a land without sparse and without blemish, and they sprinkle the lentil and the doorpost of the house. and they enter in, sheltering under the blood, and the angel of death comes as it hovers over Egypt. It looks down, and it sees a house on which the blood has been sprinkled, and it says, Oh, I've been there already. And on it comes. Token stars, sheltering under the blood, removed from death, and in being removed from dead, removed from hell, taken away from the bondage of Egypt with their feet placed on the road that leads to the celestial throne.
Oh, bless God. God will not twice demand, says the old hymn writer, once for my bleeding, short his hand, and then for mine. Praise God, God gazes at Calvary. For those that have trusted Christ, he says, I've accepted the death of Christ for those people. He will not twice demand, once at my bleeding, short his hand, and then at mine. You know, I'm glad I'm saying. Oh, I'm glad I'm saying. But if Abel's land delivers the sponge, sin, Israel's land delivered from hell, the leper's land is delivered from uncleanness.
It's a tremendous sin. Maybe one evening you might have to preach from it. I don't know. But the fourteenth chapter of Leviticus is a chapter that I feel somehow we're almost neglecting in our modern preaching. You will not forget God laid down the principle of a man who was a leper. Before he could ever be received back into the Israel of God, before he was ever received back to his home, to his people, he had to take a land. and had to die. And he was received as one that was cleansed.
And oh, bless God tonight, Jesus Christ not only delivers us from the punishment of sin, but as far as the East, are you listening, Blake, as far as the East is removed from the West, so far hath he removed our transgressions from who? Us. Thank you, sister. From us. Not received or removed our transgressions from him. He's removed them from us.
Hallelujah. Oh, what salvation is found in Jesus Christ. Tell me something, sir, with your great intelligence now. Tell me something. Could you think out a better salvation than that? That'll remove us from sin and remove sin from us? And praise God, Jesus is the Lamb of God, and he's the one, blessed be his name, who is a sacrament. But he is not only a searcher, and he is not only a sacrifice. But bless God as we read this story, there's a sealer.
There was a sealer for him. Oh, how do I know he's the sacrifice? How do I know he's the light? How am I certain of it? Because God sealed him. He sealed him with a Holy Spirit. By the way, I know we've mentioned this in the conference before, but I'm going to say it again. I think it's simple, but sometimes we're after a little bit of it. We become so sophisticated, so sophisticated, we forget the simple fact. May I take you back as much? You can shut her off. Back to the country.
God never asked anything of us that he does not ask of himself. God never tells us to do something. He hasn't done himself. God laid the principle of evidence. And every lawyer in this service tonight knows the principle of evidence and it's this. the mouth of two. Let every word be established. God says you must not listen to the evidence of one man.
It is in the mouth of two witnesses. Let every word be established. God never himself asks us to believe anything unless he gives us two witnesses. The Gospel of Luke There are two witnesses as to the royalty of Jesus Christ. John the Baptist baptizes the Lord and suddenly the Spirit of God descends as a dove. And a voice comes out of heaven, the voice of the Father. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And we have the twofold witness of the Spirit and the Father that he is the royal son.
Move along in the Gospel of Luke. Let's climb a mass. Let's see the Lord transfigured before his disciples. And we have the twofold witness, not to his royalty, but now to his redemption. So there appeared Moses and Elias, and they spoke of the decease that he should accomplish it usually. Hallelujah, the twofold witness as to his redemption. Come with me to the twenty-fourth of this. three repent of Luke come with me as a prophet Luke come with me to the twenty-fourth we've the twofold witness not to his loyalty not to his redemption we've the twofold witness as to his resurrection as they came to the tomb and they looked in and they saw two one at the head and one at the foot saying why seek you the living among the dead he's not here he's risen and Dr Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles And he gave us the twofold witness not only to his royalty, and not only to his redemption, and not only to his resurrection, but he gave us the twofold witness as to his return.
There were two men who said, Why, stand ye gazing up into heaven? This saint Jesus shall come again, as you've seen him ascend into heaven. Sir, I haven't followed cunningly devised angels. as he holds witness of my God. And I see him here in the Gospel of John as he is filled. And I remember this. I remember this. That the Spirit of God is given that we might be filled. Filled with the Holy Ghost. The ninth chapter of Ezekiel speaks indeed of the living.
And it says it's filled with indelible ink. I don't know if it was Stevens or Parker's. I only know this, that that's the word of the Holy Spirit and the word of God. Oh, my friend, that great ninth chapter of Ezekiel, it tells us that a thing is marked, it's filled. Why, the epistle of the Ephesians says we can be filled. Friend, we're not in the Spirit of Christ, we're none of it. I come, Father. from a sheep rearing area you don't grow sheep over here very much not in North Carolina until I let you into a secret all the months I've been here I've only had lamb once but I come from a sheep rearing area rearing area some time ago I was down in the county of Devonshire I was staying with a dear friend of mine Morley Bedford on a farm in a little place born out of it, right in the heart of the country.
And I picked up the local newspaper, the Western Morning News. There's one part of the newspaper I always enjoy reading, Doss and Pat. You see how it's full of stuff that I own nothing for the newspapers, especially the Amherst. Oh, I said, it's just nonsense. But that's life. Life. Lost and penned. Lost. A Dartmoor Ram. License number. Silver under right horn.
Boy, you've got it meant to have a Dartmoor Ram because on Dartmoor, the great moor where there's no fences around and they turn the sheep out. Every ram has to be licensed. They don't allow any old rams to go out there with a sheep. They have to be licensed. I could understand that. I could understand they had a number. But I couldn't understand this silver under right horn. And so I called my farmer friend. I said, Mawley, what does this mean? Silver under right horn. And this is what he told me. He said, oh, man, that's an old cuss. No. Still some of the old stuff do it.
Others don't. They mostly punch their ears, you know. But years ago, and still some of the old farmers today, when they turn a ram out on the moor, they take their knife and they make a little slit in the skin, a little tea slit. Then with their knife, they prized back the skin, And they take what we used to call an old Joey. You won't know anything about those, but an old threatening bit. And it used to be a little silver coring. And they clean it. And they press that little silver coring behind the skin and hold the skin back. And it would sester for a while and no doubt be painful.
But it would heal. And the wool would grow over it. And no one would know where that silver was except the owner of that ranch. My friend said he was in Exeter Market, saw the auctioneer walking the boards, came to a pen with a number of sheep and a ram. The auctioneer stopped and said, Now, these have been sent in by farmer, so and so. Suddenly a man leaned over the pencing and said, Don't you sell that ram? That's mine. You know, the auctioneer looked. Yours? It was sent in by farmer.
I don't care who sent it in. It's mine. Don't you sell that ram? You know the farmers gathered around. They thought there was going to be a fight, you know. Market that. Oh, a bit of entertainment. And suddenly the man who caught them in, called by the auctioneer, that man, he looked and he said, that's my ram. No, said the other man. If it's your ram, show me the silver. The man flustered and said, I don't put the silver in my seat. Well, I do.
And into the pen the man jumped and turned the sheep across his knee and said, Sir, let's go to near, come here, feel that. Right where he put his finger, there was I haven't got time to talk about the silver of redemption. I just want to say this, that when God saves me, the Spirit seals me, and the devil may come along and say, he's mine, and God says, show me the silver. He's sealed. And if you trust Christ, and you're in it, and you trust Christ and mean it, he has sealed everything.
The man who's searched for, and the man who's saved, and the man who's filled, is the man or woman who needs to be satisfied. And hallelujah, he's satisfied. Oh, bless God he does. Why, here they were, these two disciples of John the Baptist. And they heard John say, Behold, the Lamb of God, who beareth away the sin of the world. And that's just what they wanted. They're simply taken away. And they say, Master, where is that? Jesus said, Come and sit. They went and they rode with him.
If you all trust Jesus Christ tonight, I tell you what you'll have to do. You'll have to abide with him. they went to abide with him and when they abode with him listen they spake to Jesus and they listen to Jesus and they abode with Jesus and they witness for Jesus that's the sure sign of a man who's trusted Christ we abide with him we want to be where Christ is we want to do the things that are pleasing to him we go to dwell with him And if you came to my home, you would conduct yourself as pleasing to me.
And if I came to your home, I would conduct myself as pleasing to you. And if I dwell with Christ, if I dwell with Christ, I will conduct myself as pleasing to him. They abode with him. And they labored for him. Oh, isn't that wonderful? One of those two was called Andrew the patron saint of the Saul winners. I don't know if that's good or not, but it sounds good anyway. The patron saint of the Saul winners. Because Andrew, you remember, he was the man that first found his own brother and took him to Jesus.
And then Andrew was the man that found the little boy with the loaves and fishes and took him to Jesus. And Andrew was the one who, when the wise Greeks came, saying, Sirs! I like that, don't you? You know, I must confess I do like your southern sir. I did. I did. I not only like it because of its politeness, but I like it because it's scriptural. You imagine these wise Greek men come into some rough old fishermen saying, sir I mean you say sir to nobility don't you good old rough fishermen well that's what happens when a man comes to Christ he learns to be polite I only know this they came and said sir we would see Jesus and Andrew said come on I'll introduce you to it that's what happens when you abide with the Lord You want to tell your family about it.
You want to tell the children about it. Hallelujah. You want to tell men and women from afar about it. Because he satisfied. You satisfied. All this first chapter of John. The searcher. The sacrifice. The sailor. The satisfier. He could be your savior tonight. you all trust me. One story, and I'd love it.
It's not the sort of story that I use very often because it is an emotional story. I do tell it sometimes, but I just feel I'd like to tell it tonight. It was born into the home of a rather wealthy couple in my land, a little boy. I say, what's yours? Their first little boy. Mum, you'll understand how that mother many a time went to the cot where a little one laid and passed her hand over the cot and watched her little boy. And everything was lovely for the first few days.
But as the days went by, there was a desperate gnawing in her heart. For as she passed her hand over that cup, the baby's eyes never followed her. And you mothers know how concerned she was. They brought him the doctor. She tried. to get the attention of that little one. Noise would get the attention. Movement would. He turned to the man and his wife and said, I'm sorry.
Being somewhat wealthy, they were able to bring not only from our own land, but from the continent of the leading surgeons and eye specialists. And one from Switzerland said, I believe when that lad grows, if he may be thirteen or fourteen, we might see that he's healthy and strong. So the father went down into what we call the Garden of England and the County of Kent and purchased a little farm or rather a home with quite parkland. The boy was raised as a country boy, healthy and strong, but unable to say.
Many a point. The father would take the boy and they'd walk together across the paddock, across the green fields. And one day as he walked down the green field, his father, the boy said to his father, Dad, where are we? Dad said, we're in a field, son. A field there? What's a field? Well, it's green grass, son. Green grass, what's green grass there? Well, green's a color, son. The grass, let me, and he took a handful and put it in his boy's hand.
And the boy said, but daddy, what's green? And the father tried to tell a boy what green grass looked like, and not really bad. Would you permit me to ask you a question? Have you ever bowed your head and said, God, thank you, I can say. Have you? But the lad was fourteen. They took him away to the great Ormond Street Hospital, the great Children's Hospital in the city of London. The surgeon came over from Switzerland and they operated. They had the bandages round his eyes.
But his body was healthy and strong. He was a country lad, and he squirmed. The specialist said, look, take him home. You could afford to have a nurse with him. Take him home. We'll come down and take the bandages off at your house. And we're after the period of time when the wounds would have healed, they came down to the house. The surgeon looked out and it was a rather dull day. And he looked out and saw the green paddock so beautiful. And he said, that's right there. And as they went and they took off the bandage. And suddenly a fourteen-year-old boy, he looked for the first time in his life he could see.