Gospel Meetings s.h.c.- 02 Four Gospels — Stan Ford

The Light Revealed in the Gospel of John

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, whose light on us every man that cometh into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received as many as received him.

To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, but were made flesh, and dwelt amongst them. We beheld his glory. It is hardly necessary for me to remind you, because you have been taught 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.

The Four Gospels Give Four True Perspectives of 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, and 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, that you would have said to Mark, Mark, what are you going to say about it?

We'd 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.

To me, that the Word of God is the Word of God. God never stamps out a man's person. 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 had said.

They all tell us a slightly different story. We might get to complete this. I was in Singapore some little while ago, and in the great Gospel chapel in the centre 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, where's the Anglican Cathedral?

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 view of the Gospel.

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 not as the Sovereign.

Mark, as you know, is the only one who tells us nothing of the ancestry of Jesus. If you employ someone, you don't look at them and say, Who was your great-great-great-great-great-great-granddad?

You say it in 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, Mark who returned from the missionary journey that he should have seen the end of.

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. He tells us about Jesus, he looks at him and says, He's not the Sovereign and he's not indeed the servant alone.

He's the Saviour. And so he gives us the message the angels brought. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour. And he comes to the end of his Gospel and he tells us that through him is preached the remission of sin.

And we come to the chapter that I'm going to speak from this evening, and the book that I'm going to speak from. 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 Saviour. 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, 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.

Jesus Christ the Searcher

I'm going to tell you about someone who was a great God. As we look at the first chapter of the Gospel of John, I'm going to suggest that there are four things that stand out so wonderfully. As we look at the first chapter of John, first of all, we see Jesus Christ introduced to us as a searcher.

Verse 9 says this, He's introduced to us as the light. The one who is searching. The light that shineth in darkness. Isn't it wonderful that I can look at your faces tonight and say, Sir, I see he is not only a searcher, but I remember the glorious words of verse 29, as John the Baptist gazed at the Christ and said, Behold the Lamb of God who beareth away the sin of the world.

Christ as the Sacrifice for Sin

For he is not only a searcher, but hallelujah, he's a sacrifice. 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, oh man, 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 lost condition. He didn't just come to seek. He not only came to be a light, he came to be a lamb. 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? You know as it would. He came to bear away. 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. Look at this very chapter. I read verse 33 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. My New Testament tells me the epistle to the Ephesians the same Spirit that sealed Christ is the Savior. The sacrifice and the searcher is the Spirit that will seal you and us. Seal you and us.

Christ as the Sealer and Witness of God

But not only do I find here a searcher and find here, and find here a sealer I find here. For you will remember in verses 38 through verses 39 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. They went and abode with him. 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. They abode with him. Actually, as we'll see in a moment they went on and witnessed. My friend, if there is anything this world needs today it is a searching in Savior 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 Thou infinite mind, infinite mind however could I have not come into this world to live in.

It would have been an empire of silence. It would have been unknowable. A few years ago I was in the city of Liverpool and I was there for their great Christmas rally. There I was on the Mercy Tide Liverpool and Birkenhead and the area around some maybe 40 or 50 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 sleep at it to conduct this. I arrived in Liverpool rather early. Well, rather early for the service but late enough for the shops to be past five in my country.

And so I walked down Lord Street and down yonder to Light Street to look at some of the shops. I knew I wouldn't be able to spend the night just standing looking in the windows. Right on the edge of Lord Street and Lime Street if any of you know the city of Liverpool there is a large church.

They have a window almost the length of the chapel. It comes right round. Christmas coming on, their lights were full on. And I crossed the road to look at the window and I caught my breath. And I saw that the whole window was filled with clocks and watches.

You know, the old cuckoo clock, chromium clock, little watches you had a job to see. And watches. And as I stood and looked, I said to myself, what skill, what wisdom, what ability. 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, but 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 person.

Is he a person? Sublimely fluent. I have taught his handiwork. Oh, I can see his skill. I can see his power. I can see his might. But is he a person? God, he's a person. Do you know how I know? Because Jesus Christ came into the world to reveal God.

He came into this world as a man to reveal God. And to lighten everyone that cometh into the world. To show that he cares. He's called the Word, 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. And isn't it interesting? He's only called Love twice. Thus for he's called Light 23 times. I don't know what it means. It means something.

Isn't it wonderful to know a young man? And doesn't he search in a wonderful way? A wonderful way. I have a very dear friend, Dr. MacFarlane. With a name like that, of course, he's Scottish, as you will understand.

I love to hear him give his testimony. I may have shared it with you before, but I want to share it again tonight. I love to hear him give his testimony. He went to Glasgow University to study medicine.

A young fellow up from Ayrshire. A fine sportsman. A good rugby player. There was an occasion when, on a Monday morning, they had to go into a lecture theatre, and on a table in front of them, covered with a sheet, was the body of a man who died in a motel 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. They'd grown somewhat at a 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 moll, young folk. Suddenly there walked in to that lecture theatre the professor, who was to give the lecture. He heard the chatter. He heard the laughter.

He saw the smiling. Taking his gavel, he banged upon his desk, and he said, pointed to the body under the sheet. The poem of an immortal soul. You will. But he never heard a word of the lecture. He took a knife and dissected that body.

Back to find a Bible. Back to turn his page and read. Jesus Christ. I don't want to share with you again the way he's gone into my life. He's searching. But he is not only a light to searcher, but he's a lamb of sacrifice.

The Lamb of God and the Removal of Sin

Sit on the Baptist, behold the Lamb of God, who beareth away the sin of the world. In a Bible-loving church like this, in an era of America that's called the Bible-vent, 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 could spend time tonight in reminding you of Abel's land. To remind you of Israel's land. We could 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. You may be very familiar with them. How have you acted in the light of them? I remember that Abel's land tells us that sin can be removed. The world can be removed. He learned the lesson of sin.

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. Greek prepositions have always been difficult, and I love the rabbinic version.

He bore my sin in his own body to the tree. I see him there. He gave... I can say, O my sin, O the bliss of this glorious thought! My sin that in part but the whole was nailed to the cross, and I'll bear it no more.

Praise the Lord, it's well with my soul. O friend, could I ask you in the words of the old Salvation Army? Abel's land removes sin. The Lamb of God removes sin. Israel's land removes... as they go and take a... and the angel of death comes, and as it hovers over Egypt, it looks down and it says, Oh, I've been nailed already!

...from death, and in being removed from death, removed from hell, taken away from the bondage of Egypt. Their feet placed on the road that leads to the celestial tomb. Twice demands, says the old hymn writer, once for my bleeding shorty's hand, and then for mine?

Gazers 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 shorty's hand, and then at mine? Do you know how glad I'm saying?

If Abel's land delivered this one, Israel's land delivered from hell! Tremendous story. Maybe one evening I might have to preach from it, I don't know. But the 14th chapter of Leviticus is a chapter that I feel somehow we're almost neglecting in our modern preaching.

With the leper? Before he could ever be received back into the Israel of God, before he was ever received by his people, he had to take a lamb. 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...

Thank you, sister. 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.

Would you think out a better salvation than that? That'll remove us from sin and remove sin from us? Jesus is the Lord, and he is the one, blessed be his name. But he is not only a searcher, and he is not only a sacrifice, but bless God, as we read the story, there was a sealer.

The Spirit’s Seal and the Twofold Witness

There was a sealer for him, filled him with the Holy Spirit. By the way, by the way, I know we've mentioned this, never asks anything of us that he does not ask of himself. God never tells us to do something he hasn't done himself.

Every lawyer in this service tonight knows the principle of evidence, and it's this, in 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 to believe anything unless he gives us two witnesses. The Gospel of Luke witnesses us 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 two-fold witness of the Spirit and the Father, that he is the royal Son. Move along in the Gospel of Luke today. Let's climb a mountain. Let's see the Lord transfigured before his disciples.

And we have the two-fold witness, not to his royalty, but now to his redemption. There appeared Moses and Elias, and they spoke of the decease that he should accomplish. Hallelujah. The two-fold witness as to his redemption.

Come with me to the 24th of Luke. We repent of Luke. Come with me, of the 12th of Luke. Come with me to the 24th. We have the two-fold witness, not to his royalty, not to his redemption. We have the two-fold 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 ye the living among the dead? He's not here, he's risen. Dr. Luke wrote the Acts of the Apostles.

And he gave us the two-fold witness, not only to his royalty, and not only to his redemption, and not only to his resurrection, but he gave us the two-fold 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 he's seen him ascend into heaven. Sir, I haven't followed. I see him here in the Gospel of John, as he is sealed. And I remember this. I remember this. The Spirit of God is given that we might be sealed.

Sealed with the Holy Ghost. The ninth chapter of Ezekiel speaks indeed of the living. And it says it's sealed within Delamoint. I don't know if it was Stephens 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 the thing is marked, it's sealed. Why the epistle of the Ephesians says we can be sealed. For if we've not the Spirit of Christ, we're none of it.

The Seal of Salvation and Belonging to Christ

Come from a sheep-rearing area. You don't grow sheep over here very much. Not in North Carolina, I'm told. I'll 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.

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 called Alderbury, right in the heart of the country. I picked up the local newspaper, the Western Morning News.

There's one part of the newspaper I always enjoy, it's usually the adverts. So I said, it's just nonsense. But that's life. More rare. Since number two, we're under white horse. Oh, aren't you going to mention 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 ram 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 white horse.

And so I called my farmer friend, I said, Morley, what does this mean, silver under white horse? And this is what he told me. He said, Still some of the old stop to 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 T-slit. Then with their knife, they prise 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'd clean it, and they'd press that little silver coring behind the skin and hold the skin back.

And it would fester 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 ram. My friend said he was in Exeter Market, saw the auctioneer walking the boards, came to a pan 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 fencing and said, Don't you sell that ram. That's mine. The auctioneer looked. It was sent in by a farmer.

I don't care who sent it in. It's mine. Don't you sell that ram. Farmers gathered around. They thought there was going to be a fight, you know. Market day. Oh, a bit of entertainment. Suddenly the man who brought them in, called by the auctioneer, That man.

He looked and he said, My ram. Oh, said the other man. If it's your ram, show me the silver. The man flustered and said, I don't put silver in my sheep when I do. And into the pan the man jumped and turned the sheep across his knee and said, Sir, the auctioneer.

Come here. Steal that. Right where he put his feet. 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, It's mine.

And God says, Show me the silver. You trust Christ. And you're in it. And you trust Christ and mean it. The man who's searched for and the man who's saved and the man who's sealed is the man or woman who needs to be satisfied.

Abiding With Christ and Witnessing to Others

Hallelujah. He's satisfied. Oh, 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.

Their sin taken away. And they say, Master. And they abode 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 speak 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, I will conduct myself as pleasing to Him. One of those two was called Andrew, the patron saint of the soul winners. But it sounds good anyway. The patron saint of the soul 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, you know, I must confess, I do like Europe. But I like it because it's scriptural. You imagine these wise Greek men coming to some rough old fishermen.

I mean, you say, Sirs, 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, Sirs, we would see Jesus. And Andrew said, That's 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 sacrificed. You said, Oh, this person, this search, this sacrifice could be your savior tonight.

The Savior Who Seeks and Saves

One story and I'd laugh. 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. There was born into the home of a rather wealthy couple in my land, a little boy.

I say, what joy! Their first little boy. And, Mum, you'll understand how that mother many a time went to the cot where her 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. As she passed her hand over that, the baby died. As you mothers know, he surged. They brought in the doctor. She tried to get the attention of that little one.

Noise would get the attention. Movement. 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, the leading surgeons and eye specialists.

One from Switzerland said, I believe when that lad grows, he may be thirteen or fourteen, we might... So the father went down into what we call the Garden of England, into the county of Kent, and purchased a little farm, or rather a home with quite parkland.

The boy was raised as a healthy and strong. He 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?

His dad said, We're in a field, son. A field, Dad? What's a field? Well, it's green grass, son. Green grass. What's green grass, Dad? 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?

Tell a boy what green grass looks like, and out of his head. Would you permit me to ask you a question? Have you ever bowed your head and said, God, thank you? 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. Well, 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.

He said, Let's go out there. And out they went, and they took off the bandage. Suddenly, a fourteen-year-old boy, he looked for the first time in his life. He could see. He'd been so useful.