Eternity and Time 01 the Day Approaching — David Clifford

I was in a house today, I won't tell you what city it was in, and the name of the house was Don Roman. Well now, I haven't Don Roman, they put this thing on me so I can roam around at my leisure tonight.

That's because I've got to turn round from time to time, and this would miss me, maybe you would miss what I was saying or something of God's Word if I didn't have this around my neck. So I'll do a little roaming as long as you'll do the listening and maybe read the Word of God together.

It's nice to have Ernest Woodhouse on the platform with me and opening the meeting and helping with the atmosphere, that's very important you know. I think two of the most important parties in a service are, one the chairman's son leader, and a lot depends on him as to what kind of atmosphere there's going to be, and the other is the congregation.

One of our English New Testament commentators has recently said, Barclay, William Barclay his name, that the congregation should know that they make at least 50 of the spiritual atmosphere. And the point is this, that the preacher of the Word cannot preach the Word in liberty and power unless the congregation come in the Spirit with open hearts to receive all that the Lord has for them.

I'm sure you've come like that this evening. One brother was trying to get moving and didn't get any liberty and I don't think he was blaming the chairman or the son leader. And his voice wasn't coming through the speakers and, or else the mic wasn't working right.

So he eventually said to one of the elders sitting down there, he says, what's the matter tonight brother? He says, don't worry, there's a screw loose in the speaker. And that even made him worse. You know, I miss some faces, Park of the Palm's faces, this time.

It makes me very sad in a way, but not altogether, because you know heaven's a nice place. We're bound for glory. I'm ready to die tonight. If the Lord wants to say to me, Clifford, come home tonight, you've said far too much.

I should say, Amen, Lord. Heaven's a lovely place. I've had a nice time getting there. The ministry in the Lord's service has been great and the work is continuing around the Word. And we give the Lord all the glory and we thank you for your prayers in our ministry.

I know some of you pray for us quite regularly. One or two of my old friends I see are still missing. One or two not quite so well, I've been inquiring about them. But you're keeping going, most of you, that's fine.

You keep going just for a little longer and you'll be going upwards then, I'm quite sure. Don't give in now. You know when Sir Winston Churchill was called upon to speak at his old school, he wasn't a very good pupil, but now that he was famous they asked him to come back on speech day and give a word to the boys.

Of course they built him up very, very much indeed and the headmaster was saying, what a tremendous man this is and he's coming to our speech day. And then of course when he was there, when he came, the boys were all there with their notebooks and the pencils ready and everything been arranged and they were going to take down as much as they could of his speech.

And eventually the headmaster introduced him and Sir Winston hobbled along towards the podium and he said, boys, never give in, never give in, never give in, never, never, never. And that was the end of his speech.

They said it was one of the best speeches he ever gave. And I'm glad you like that here. You keep going and you keep going and that's it. And while you go you serve the Lord and enjoy fellowship with the Lord's people and there's nothing better on this earth.

Just keep going to the Lord calls you home. One of these great days he's going to say, rise up my love, my fair one and come away. It's lovely here, come away. It's springtime here, come away. The birds are singing here, come away.

It's always summertime, springtime here, come away. And we'll dwell with the Lord forever. And what a great day rejoicing that will be when we all see Jesus. We'll sing and shout the victory. We'll read a word or two from the scriptures.

Paul's Mystery of the Gospel to the Gentiles

Ephesians chapter 3, verse 6. The Gentiles shall be pharaohs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in the gospel. You don't think that's too loud dear brother do you? My voice is awfully noisy apart from this.

Oh does it? Well thanks for telling me. Very kind to me. Don't turn it down if you think it's the right pitch. We'll pause just for a moment. You see how nervous I am. The Gentiles, thank you sir. The Gentiles shall be pharaohs and of the same body and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel.

Whereof I was made a minister, I was made a minister of the gospel according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power. Unto me who am less than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the beginning of the world hath been here in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ.

To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be made known, might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God. According to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord in whom we have boldness and access with confidence by faith of him.

May the Lord bless to us his word and now our meditation on his truth. You see the day approaching. No, you see the day approaching. Not V day or D day or VJ day, but V day. You see it is approaching.

The Approaching Day and the Coming Kingdom

Jerusalem is trodden down by the Gentiles no more. The nation of Israel is homeless no more. The wailing wall is wailing no more. The fig tree is blossoming again. The desert is blooming like the rose again.

And the temple will certainly be built again. And the Middle East is the centre of the earth again. And you see the stage is set for the last great drama, the coming of the Lord. You see the day approaching.

What manner of persons ought we to be in the light of this approaching day, with all holiness, holy living as we wait for his appearing. This is man's day. Man's making amiss of things on the earth in his day.

Man in his godlessness is having his way. But soon there will be God's day dawning and God will have his way on this earth by his man, the man he has ordained, whereof he has given assurance unto all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.

So God's day is about to dawn. We are in the last days, the last times of man's day, if we can put it that way. Now in God's day Christ will reign over the earth. But this must therefore be preceded by the resurrection and the rapture of the saints, because the church will reign with Christ.

In God's day Christ will reign over the earth, so this must be preceded by his coming in power and glory. In God's day there will be peace among the nations, so this must be preceded by the judgment of the nations.

In man's day Satan will be powerless, so this must be preceded by his being bound for that season. And in God's day there will be blessing for Israel, when God will fulfill his word to them. For the calling of God is without repentance, so this must be preceded by their suffering and refining and judging and cleansing, and then their delivering.

You see the day approaching. Now in talking on these prophetical subjects we are going to be fairly careful, and some of you may disagree with some of the ideas we propagate, but I hope you will find that I'm not being too dogmatic.

The Five Charts and a Practical Approach to Prophecy

I don't think we can be too dogmatic. I have designed this little chart at the back myself, because I didn't quite agree with some of the other charts I've seen around. I have used other charts, but this one I felt would suit my purposes better.

But this is only one of a series of charts. We have five all together, and God willing we shall be using the five, one each evening. One extra one. We hope to leave this one here all the week, because this is eternity and time as one whole there.

But on Tuesday evening we shall have a stand just here with another chart, and I hope you'll be able to see that one. It's an enlarged part, an enlarged idea of this section here. Wednesday night will be an enlargement of that with more details, Thursday night an enlargement of that with more details, and Friday night an enlargement of that with more details.

You see it says here, a series of five charts. This is number one. This actually is number two, that is the enlargement. That will be number three, number four, and number five. So it's fitting in nicely with the few meetings we have at our disposal.

The charts that we'll be using, slightly smaller charts than the other evening, have been drawn by my son's, plural, son's father-in-law, because my two sons married his two daughters. And he is a great artist.

If any of you want to take pictures, you're at liberty to do so. Remember the Apostle Paul said to the Ephesian elders, I kept nothing back that was profitable unto you. And in the light of the fact that Christ is coming soon, you can take as many pictures as you like, and there's no charge at all.

Well now in talking about prophecy these days, we want to be very practical, not just try to be theological and eschatological, but to be practical too, and to exhort one another to live as we should, to serve as we should, in the light of his soon coming.

Now of course in talking about prophecy, there is realized prophecy and unrealized prophecy. A lot of the prophetic scriptures have been fulfilled, but there's so much more to be fulfilled yet. And this is what we should talk about mostly, and I'm sure this is what you are especially interested in.

Literal, Historical, and Spiritual Interpretations of Prophecy

Now there are some who interpret prophecy historically as though it had all happened. There are some who interpret it literally, that is the unfulfilled part of eschatology for the future. And others who interpret it spiritually only, and I think by doing that they miss a great blessing.

You see some Bible teachers literalize the prophecies about our Lord's first advent, his coming to Bethlehem, but they spiritualize the prophecies about his second coming, is that right? There are some who literalize the prophecy regarding the dispersion of the Jews, they say it actually happened, and their scattering, it actually happened.

But they spiritualize the prophecies regarding the Jews, regarding the regathering of the Jews, is that right? Now Micah chapter 5 they say, refers to the birth of Christ in Bethlehem, absolutely right.

Yet the same verse says that he is to be ruler in Israel, but they spiritualize that part of the verse, is that right? In Micah chapter 4 it says, every man shall be under his own vine and fig tree, and they say this is figurative language about the fig tree, and we must spiritualize this.

But why do they want to spiritualize that when they take the prophecy in chapter 5 about Christ's coming to be very literal? There are dangers in dogmatizing in prophecy. Not one person is correct in every detail of interpretation.

Mark my words, not one person is correct, and I'm included in the number. I think it's important we search God's word for ourselves and see what he has to say to us about difficult portions of the word where there are multitudinous ideas and interpretations.

Really only one interpretation, but some apply it and spiritualize it in different ways. Well now, we can only be dogmatic in relation to the interpretation of the word when the word itself gives us the interpretation.

Such as, for instance, in the parable of the sower and his seed, the Saviour himself tells us exactly what is what and what it meant to show. I want to give an illustration of this. You can't follow anybody under the word itself as God reveals it to you.

Testing Prophetic Interpretation Against Scripture

Schofield said this, Until the coming of the Lord in glory, Jerusalem is politically subject to Gentile rule. That's what Schofield said. Now, Jerusalem is not today subject to Gentile rule. Now, I was listening only the other day, last Monday it was, in Nassau, to our dear friend Dr. Pentecost.

And we've all got his book, Things to Come. I think it's an excellent reference book on eschatology. But you know what Dr. Pentecost says in that book? The scripture reveals that from the time of Daniel till the time when Jerusalem shall be given freedom from Gentile domination at the second advent of Christ, there will be four great empires which will rule the world, rise and fall.

Now, he's quite right, I'm quite sure about the four empires rising and falling. But is he right about the other? Jerusalem being given freedom from Gentile domination at the second advent of Christ. Christ hasn't come.

Jerusalem is free from Gentile domination. Well, what do you think about that? It's good for us to lose confidence in men and put our confidence in God and his word as God reveals it to us. I used to say it's the middle verse of the Bible which says, it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men.

But somebody told me the other day they worked it out and that's not the middle verse of the Bible. Psalm 118 verse 8. However, it's not far off. Now, Professor Bruce, I heard on the radio in America some time ago, they said, this preacher said, Professor Bruce of Manchester University is the greatest evangelical scholar in the world today.

Now, Professor Bruce is a friend of mine. He used to lecture in my college. He's worked with me on our degree courses for many years. And he's a great friend of mine. Do you know what he said? He said, the abomination of desolation spoken by Daniel was fulfilled in 168 and 169 before Christ.

Now, I ask you, is that right? When the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 24, when you shall see the abomination of desolation as spoken by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, then do so and so. Evidently in our Lord's time it hadn't happened then.

I tell you, H. L. Ellison is probably the greatest lecturer in the world today in theological circles. We had the privilege of having him serve in our college in England for five years. Some of you have got his books on your shelves.

The Rapture, Tribulation, and the Blessed Hope

Now, H. L. Ellison believes that the church is going through the tribulation. Personally, I don't. But you see, 95 of the churches now in heaven, they're not going through the tribulation. If you're unfortunate enough to be alive when Christ comes, I'm sure your prayer would be, if this is what you believe, O Lord, let me die quick.

Where in the New Testament is there a distinction between the 95 in heaven and the 5 on earth? We were thinking about the Lord's coming in this term. I think it was in our chorus that Mr. Woodhouse was teaching us just now.

A lovely chorus. That this is a blessed hope that we're looking forward to, as the Apostle Paul in Titus says. And if we were to be called upon to go through the tribulation, we would be looking forward to a blessed nightmare and not a blessed hope.

I believe that the future, that the coming of Christ is still future. He did not come at the fall of Jerusalem. He did not come to us when we converted. He did not come personally and take us to be with himself.

He did not come at Pentecost. That was another paracletos that came at Pentecost. And He does not come to us at death. We go to be with Him. But His coming personally for His own. And we shall rise to meet Him in the air.

And His coming is still a future. I believe He will rapture the church. In the Harvester, one of our English papers a little while ago, in Professor Bruce's page, and questions and answers, the question was, is there a scripture in the New Testament which states there will be a secret rapture of the church?

And His answer to that question was, just one word, no. Now I think really, you know, to be fair, my friend Professor Bruce should have said, not actually in so many words, but it is implied. The catching away, the rapturing of the church is implied in so many places.

And I believe that is to be before the tribulation. Perhaps one of these evenings I will go into detail about this for your comfort. And especially from 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. Only in recent weeks has the Lord given to me a little better understanding, I believe, of 1 Thessalonians 5, especially in this connection, to show so clearly through the contrast there that we are the king for the day of Christ and not the day of the Lord.

We are children of the day and not children of the night. And Christ is our deliverer from the wrath to come that others will pass through. So there will be, after that, tribulation on earth, a thousand years of peace and reign of Christ upon the earth.

Christ's Return When the Church Is Complete

Now the one great thing about eschatology, about the doctrine of things to come, about unfulfilled prophecy, is this, that Christ is coming again. When, you say? The answer is, when the church is complete.

The commission is to us, go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. We've never been told to convert the world, but by the enabling of the Spirit to complete the church. And that's when Christ will come, when our work is done, by the enabling of the Holy Spirit.

You remember in Acts chapter 1 it is recorded that when they were in the upper room the Lord Jesus Christ came in. And they asked him a question and they said, When? I wonder if the Lord Jesus came in here today, instead of Mr. Willie or Mr. Woodhouse or the doctor or me.

If he came in, what would you say to him? What would be your one great question? What's on your mind? Say, Oh Lord, I'm glad you've come. Tell me just one thing. How can I make an extra dollar? You know some people think of nothing but that in life.

And Christian people sometimes can be affected along that materialistic way. What would you ask him? I think you'd mostly say, Lord, when are you coming back for it? Wouldn't you? Do you know what he would say to you?

I know he would say this. It's not for you to know the times nor the seasons that the Father has put in his own power. What is that to thee? What is that to thee? Follow thou me. So when? Well, he's coming back when the church is complete.

And why? To take the church his bride to heaven. To heaven. But where I am, there ye may be also. I'm going to show you during the week that you're going to live in heaven with the Lord Jesus. And you're not going to be on earth for a thousand years.

I know America's a lovely place. Oh, yesterday, for the first hundred and fifty miles, the journey was adorable. I'd just come from England and it was miserable. Not so cold as it usually is, but very rainy and cloudy.

Then when I got within one hundred and fifty miles of Park of the Palms, the rain came down in torrents and I thought I was back in England for a moment or two. Well, the Lord Jesus is coming to take us home to dwell with him in heaven.

America's a lovely place. But heaven is just glorious. Why is he coming? To reward his faithful servants. Why? To deliver and save a repentant Israel. Why? To judge the nations he is coming. Why is he coming?

To reign over the earth in the place where he was rejected and scorned and despised and crowned with thorns and crucified. He is coming to reign as the glorified Lord. And when he comes in bright array and leaves the conquering line, it will be glory then to say that he is a friend of mine.

And if he is going to be my friend in that day, then I must, in this day of his rejection, follow him into his rejection and share his reproach, just like Ittiyah the Gittite did when somebody usurped David's throne.

And he went over the Bukkidron, which means obscurity, into the rejection experience of the wilderness. And he shared his rejection, and he came back later and shared his glory and shared his reign. He is going to reign over the earth with his own.

And why is he coming? He is coming to judge the Christ rejecter. Now, for about 400 times in the New Testament, the subject of the Lord's return, the subject generally about the day in Christ's appearing, is mentioned over 400 times.

As a matter of fact, it is the most prominent subject by way of number of times mentioned in the New Testament. I am not suggesting it is the most important subject. But in teaching my students homiletics here and there in different parts of the world, I seek to show them that the gospel message, the full message, must include the preaching of the hope.

According to Colossians chapter 1 and verse 5, the gospel there includes the glorious message of Christ's return. Because this is the end of the plan of salvation, this is the culmination of our great and full salvation we have in Christ when he comes to take us home for us to dwell with him eternally in the glory.

The Day of Christ and the Day of the Lord

So the rapture is our glorious hope. And I think it is important that we make a contrast in our minds between the day of Christ and the day of the Lord. The day of Christ is always looked upon with joyful anticipation in the scriptures, whereas the day of the Lord is looked upon with terror and fear because it is a day of judgment.

Now I'm sorry that some of you can't see from the back there, but we have some empty seats on the front, you know, which is very nice for you on occasions like this. But what I was going to say is this, that if you possibly can, if you've got your telescopic lenses on, you'll be able to see that there's an arrow downwards there and an arrow upwards there and an arrow downwards there and an arrow going out that way there.

Can I explain those for a moment, you see? Now this is the church period, and here where the coming of the Spirit was the beginning of the day of grace. And we're in the day of grace now, thank God. This is the day the Lord hath made, Psalm 118.

We will rejoice and be glad in it. You think it's Sunday, I think it's the day of grace. All right? Well now, the day of grace comes to earth by the coming of the Spirit and as a result of the work of Christ on the cross of Calvary.

Then going upwards, the day of Christ, because he will receive his own to himself and they will meet him in the air. That is the day of Christ when the trumpet shall sound. And then, of course, here when Christ comes with his own in power and great glory, and his feet stand upon the Mount of Olives, and this arrow is facing downwards, this is the day of the Lord.

Now, Joel in his prophecy was speaking about the day of the Lord, and in his prophecy there were about three or four days of the Lord. And they were all days of judgment. There was a kind of grasshopper, locust judgment.

It was called the day of the Lord. There was a drought judgment coming. That was another day of the Lord. Then he goes on to speak of that great and terrible day of the Lord. And this is what he's referring to when the Lord himself shall come to judge all the nations of the earth.

That's the day of the Lord. And, of course, the day of God is the eternal day. Now, the greatest signs in the world today of the Lord's coming for his own are, I believe, as follows. Israel is in the land.

Israel, the Nations, and Signs of the Last Days

The nation is there in its own land. There may be another war this year. There may not. But they'll certainly get more and more trouble with the nation of Israel because they're in the land in unbelief.

But they're not fully in the land. You know there are millions of them here in this country and millions all around the world. But one of these days, God is going to start sending them back. It's the Zionist movement that's sending them back now.

But God is going to do it, I believe, at the beginning of the tribulation. And they will go back in there, millions, and God will do it. And then there will be even a greater fulfillment, complete fulfillment of the scriptures about their return to the land.

And, of course, there are dozens and dozens of plain, straightforward scriptures about that fact, their return. Not only is Israel in the land again, and they have their own land and it is a nation again, but I read the other day when I was in New York that in one of your American papers that a new world synagogue has commenced building on the Temple area site in Jerusalem.

Now there's plenty of room there for one, and I'm just waiting to see what truth there is in that report. Whether there's any truth in that report or not. One of these days it will be very factual, I'm sure, that the Temple is being rebuilt.

They'll call it probably a world synagogue or something. And they may not build it right on the Golden Dome site, the Mount Moriah site, but it's sure to be going up one of these days. Now, secondly, the world economic disaster creates a call internationally for a superman.

This call is very strong in the world today. In the London Telegraph on the 9th of December, 1974, we read this. Britain's gain yesterday in the Common Market Summit meeting, if that is not too strong a word, again, was the decision of the nine EEC governments to appoint a wise man, in inverted commas, a wise man, in quotations, to investigate the subject of European Union and to come up with a definition by the end of 1975, which means to say in all probability by the end of 1975 there will be, at least in Europe, a superman with much power being given to him by the nations of the EEC in Europe.

And this, of course, eventually, if he is not going to be the one, his successor will be not only the headman in the Ten Kingdom Confederacy, which we are expecting in Europe, but he will virtually be a world ruler because of his wisdom, earthly wisdom, of course, and his ability to bring peace in the Middle East by a covenant with the Jews and to organise the economic problems in the world and sort things out and all power, it seems, will be given to him and all will follow him.

Thirdly, there is the World Council of Churches and the inevitable amalgamation of most religions eventually under the control of the Antichrist. Things are moving rapidly to this end these days. This, of course, suggestion of Antichrist and amalgamation in opposition to God's truth started just here and more about that perhaps on Monday evening.

And then, of course, the spirit of lawlessness which is abroad in the world today is to my mind a very outstanding sign of the last days and that we are in them already. There never has been such lawlessness anywhere in the world as there is today.

It's not just on the campuses of America or Britain or France but it's all over the world amongst all kinds of people and this is going to grow until this spirit of lawlessness heads itself up in a person, the lawless one according to 2 Thessalonians chapter 2 the one who is called the man of sin who, of course, is the first beast mentioned in the 13th chapter of the book of Revelation.

Dispensations, Stewardship, and the Seven Time Periods

I think before I close, such a lot I wanted to say. You'll probably notice as you come forward afterward or some other time at your own leisure to look at the chart and I hope you'll do that. You'll probably find that I haven't got the word dispensation down there at all because I personally don't think that a dispensation is a period of time.

So I've called these periods of time or time periods. The word oikonomia is dispensation literally means a stewardship as in 1 Corinthians 9 .17 and Colossians 1 .25 in Ephesians 3 and 2. But there's a slight suggestion somewhere, Ephesians 1 .10 I think it is where the idea comes from making the dispensation a time period in the dispensation of the fullness of times itself.

I must be fair and tell you of that one. But W .E. Vine in his book on his dictionary on New Testament words which is a must for every Bible student worth its weight in $500 bills, no kidding. He says this, a dispensation is not a period of time.

It is an erroneous use of the word but it is a mode of administration. In other words, a stewardship. And the Apostle Paul says a dispensation has been given to me, a stewardship, a responsibility from God in the work of Christ.

And that's what a dispensation is. So if you'll pardon me, I'll kick to the idea here of time periods. The first time period is the rule of innocence. Here you see, and this ended with the fall. All these figures here are just symbolic of these particular crises that happen as we go through time.

The second time period is the rule of innocence, the rule of conscience. And that ended in the flood. And there is a picture of the ark. The third time period is the rule of human government. And this ended with the division of the nations and the Tower of Babel and utter chaos and confusion you remember.

Human government always ends like that eventually. And then the fourth time period is the rule of promise. And this was from the call of Abraham and the start of the nation of Israel. And this of course ended in the rejection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

The fifth time period is the rule of law. And the law was given by Moses. But then grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. The sixth time period is the period of grace, the church age in which we find ourselves at the moment.

The Church as a Spiritual Temple and the Coming Reign of Christ

Now I ask the artist not to draw a building there, but when we enlarge this we do have a building, and thus confess. But to draw some people instead. So we just do a church door with some people going in.

After all is said and done, the church is not a building, of bricks and mortar I mean. But everybody who is trusting the Saviour, everybody who is God's child through faith in Christ, is a living stone in this mystic building the church of God on earth, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.

Well the sixth time period of course is the present age, the church age, the age of grace. And the seventh time period is the rule of God's King when Jesus shall reign from shore to shore, till moon shall wax and wane no more.

Eternity, Time, and the Eternal God

Now as I close this evening, for close I must, although I am reticent to close, but you love it I know. But as I close, follow me for one moment more, you've been so very good tonight, you've listened very well.

I hope you don't think this is a lecture, it's supposed to be a message, from God's throne to your heart and mine, about the soon coming of the Saviour, that we're on the last days and Christ is coming soon, and we ought to be really living in the light of His glorious appearing.

But you notice that this chart is titled, Eternity and Time. You can probably only see a little part of that, but you can take my word for it, that's what the title is. Eternity and Time. Not from eternity to eternity.

You see, eternity is the whole thing. You can't talk really about the past eternity and the future eternity. Eternity is the whole thing. There's no beginning, you see, and there's no ending. Now there's a beginning and ending to this cane.

And if you cannot imagine no beginning and no ending to this cane, well imagine therefore that right in the middle there, there's one thousandth of an inch, and that would be time in relation to eternity.

Right in the middle somewhere, time in relation to eternity. You know the earth is just the teeniest, smallest speck in the whole of space and the universe. Just really nothing at all. And time is just the smallest speck in all eternity.

But thank God that we creatures of time have a God who is eternal to rest upon and trust in. The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. I'm sorry for people who don't know God because they refuse His Son who said, I am the way, no man cometh unto the Father, unto the eternal God, who is a refuge for us but by me.

And then of course there's the eternal Son. Now there are not many scriptures which talk about the eternal Sonship of the Lord Jesus. The first epistle of John in chapter 1 speaks about the eternal Word.

That's why the neuter gender is used there. That which was from the beginning. There He is, the eternal Word and the eternal life. In John's Gospel, chapter 1, He is the eternal Word. But where is He, the eternal Son?

I thank God that this platform, this podium, stands for the essential deity and the eternal Sonship of our Lord Jesus Christ. And you find the idea twice in Hebrews chapter 1. Find it and tell me where it is, and it won't be straightforward.

But it's there as plain as can be for those who look for it. Well thank God that our Saviour is the eternal Son of God, as well as the eternal Word and that eternal life. And when you receive Christ, you see, you are receiving that eternal life, the life of the eternal you are receiving.