In this sermon, the speaker discusses the significance of the number eight in the Bible. They mention that David, the eighth son of his father, started a new dynasty in Israel, symbolizing a new beginning. The speaker also highlights the eight miracles in the book of John, explaining that the first and eighth miracles teach the same lesson, as do the second and seventh, the third and sixth, and the fourth and fifth. They emphasize that these miracles demonstrate different lessons, such as peace and overcoming fear. The speaker concludes by emphasizing that Jesus is the only one who can meet our needs and give us rest and salvation.

Thank you, beloved. That song almost made me change my sermon, because I was saved 17 years before I knew the Holy Spirit personally. Then Dr. James M. Gray introduced me to the Holy Spirit as a person with whom I could have sweet fellowship and on whom I could lean and trust for service. I didn't know it. I'll never forget the night that he told me about the Spirit of God as a person, and since then I've noticed that very few people ever thank God for the Holy Spirit. Very few. They thank God that the Lord Jesus died for them, and they usually leave him on the cross. They don't thank God he's up there on the throne for them. Our faith seems to be sort of anemic, or else something's wrong. I don't know what it is. But I'll tell you that January 14, 1914, I met the Holy Spirit for the first time, and the change in my life was greater than December 20, 1896, when the Lord Jesus saved me. A greater change in my life. Now, I would get acquainted with the Holy Spirit, know him personally, but I mustn't talk on that subject. How many of you have trouble remembering where things are in the Bible? Let's see now. Put your hand up. I don't believe the rest of you. I forgot to mention to you yesterday that the book Growing Up for God has a chapter in it on how to remember where things are in the Bible. I paid a dollar for the information in that chapter, and when I was a medical student at the Northwestern University Medical College in Chicago, I found I had to remember so many things. A man offered me that little booklet on the subject, and I paid him a dollar for it, and I can't tell you the value that's been to me since. So I incorporated the principles of it in that little book called Growing Up for God. Some of you got it yesterday. You'll find a chapter in there on how to remember where things are in the Bible. Then someone was asking me yesterday about how to know the meaning of the numbers in the Bible, the numerals, from one up to forty, perhaps. You'll find those explained in my book on types, Dictionary of Bible Types. They have it over at the bookstore. It takes all the numbers from one up to forty, the principal ones, and tells you how God uses them and why they are used as they are, and why certain figures are used and numbers are used in different places. You find it most profitable, and it will give you the idea of looking for numbers in nature, which is, of course, my hobby. It's most interesting, most delightful, most instructive. This morning I want to talk with you about the preeminence of Christ. Now, last night when Brother Allen was talking on the subject, I became pertinent in shouting something. It was just wonderful, wasn't it? But my heart all stirred up. So I want to talk to you about him in his preeminence, particularly just now from the Gospel of John, although we shall take other portions. One time in Kansas City I was asked by the Infidel Club of Kansas City to address them. There were sixty-three infidels in the club. There were four men and fifty-nine women. They were also spirit mediums, all of them. They were all spirit mediums. That's one reason there were so many women. Remember in the Old Testament, the witches were all women. Now, I don't know why, and I have nothing against the women. I have six of them all in the family, and they're lovely. I don't know why it is, but if you pick up the New York Times anytime and look at the Saturday night advertisements, you will find the same proportion of women against men advertising spirit mediums. Very few men, nearly all women. And I don't know why I haven't any suggestion to offer at all. But in the Gospel of John, I took that from my subject that night, and I went to the hotel and met them in a conference room, fifty-three spirit mediums who were all infidels. And I took the Gospel of John from the miracles. There are eight miracles in the Gospel of John, and by the way, eight is the number of something new. And you may be surprised when I tell you that every chapter number eight in the Bible contains a new truth that is not found any previous place in the Bible. Now, you can look it up for yourself if you wish, but I know what I'm talking about. The eighth note on the piano or organ begins a new octave. The eighth day begins a new week. The eighth color begins a new spectrum. And David was the eighth son of his father and began a new dynasty in Israel. But there are eight miracles in John, and the first and the eighth teach the same lesson. The second and the seventh teach the same lesson. The third and the sixth teach the same lesson. And the fourth and the fifth teach the same lesson. There are four lessons, each one different from the other, but they are taught by two miracles apiece. And that's what I used with these spirit mediums. And the next morning when I arrived at my office, that's when I had my ten morning shop, Mr. McWilliams, the president of that outfit, was there and his face was swollen in red. He said, Dr. Wilson, I haven't slept a wink since last night, nor eaten a bite. I'm going to hell and I want to be saved. The president of that outfit, I lay him to Christ the next morning. He said, I never realized I was such a faker and such a frog as when I heard that lesson on those eight miracles last night. Now you look at it. In Jesus came and wine in the Bible is a type of joy. Usually not always, but usually type of joy. We had a song leader in our church. He was six foot nine, quite a gentleman. And he was on the police force. He carried a gun in one pocket and the Bible in the other. And when he'd arrested chap and take him down to jail, he preached the gospel to him all the way down there. And that boy told me that the worst cases he had were those that were drunk on wine. He said he'd rather tackle anybody else except a wine drunk. Wine is used in good many ways. I won't give you a lesson on that either. But it's wonderful that the Lord would use that to start with. Because I say to you, and I say it without any hesitation and from years of experience, there is no real joy outside the Lord Jesus. I mean, see a man that had made a million, $125,000 on one deal, cash. And I went in to congratulate him in Kansas City. I knew him well. And I found a miserable man. Why, if you got the hundred and twenty-five thousand without the million, you could live with you for joy. He was just as wretched as he could be. I knew why. I knew something about him. Money doesn't do it. You know, money is so hard and cold and round dollars never fit a three-cornered heart. Won't do it. And our Lord used wine here and said they've nothing to drink. But in the last one, they've nothing to eat. Children, have you any meat? He said, no, we've toiled all night and caught nothing. By the way, Clarence Darrow outlined that verse in the fourth chapter of Luke with a big black lead pencil. And when John went in to see him, a friend of mine, he said, Clarence, what do you got that around there for? He said, that's the story of my life. Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing. Fame and honor and position do not give the thing that we need. Until Jesus came, then he didn't need what they caught. He had it on the fire coals there. Nothing to drink, nothing to eat, till Jesus came. And he gave them what they needed. The fish and the bread, the toast. He toasted the bread. The bread was on the fire. And when he came, the need was met. And there's no use trying to find anywhere else. You won't find in music, and I love music. You won't find in chemistry, and I love chemistry. I didn't get a good grade in because I'm colorblind. But I loved it. Worked after. I worked after school. I tell you, young folks, I liked it so well that I used to stay after school to work out special formulas. And one of the formulas I worked out was how to waterproof cloths. And one day I walked into Quartermaster's office in Washington, D.C., and he gave me an order for $235,000 worth of waterproofing, because he couldn't find anybody else that could do it. Waterproofing tents. Just because I'd spent a little while in the afternoon studying how to do it. I love chemistry, but that won't satisfy your heart either. I remember when I walked home one time with a tremendous big order for our firm, and the thing that struck me was, when I put that order into the work, was this. Pretty soon the stuff will be made, and we'll get the money, and the money will be spent, and what have you got left, Walter Wilson? Just a memory. You won't find it outside of the Lord Jesus. He has the preeminence in satisfying the human heart. He made it, and he started it. Do you know when your heart starts to beat? When you go home, you ask your doctor. If he tells you, you telegraph me at my expense. I've tried for years to find out when a baby's heart gave its first beat. I brought babies for nearly 35 years. I never found out, and I don't know today. When does it start? When does it give its first beat? Is it the closing beat or an opening beat? And what makes it do it? We don't know a thing about it. We only know this. The one that starts it is the one that is going to stop it someday. So the Lord Jesus satisfies the desire of life. He makes the things we eat out, John. And everything you eat has poison in it. Everything, I don't care what it is, milk or meat or vegetables or fruits or grains or vegetables or melons, everything you eat has poison in it. Deadly poison, too. And if you didn't separate it inside yourself, you'd die. I've seen a few do it when the bowel didn't work right and the stuff that should have been thrown off went through the bowel wall into the bloodstream and it's agonizing death. What is it that does it? What separates it? I don't know. I never found out. I've seen inside many a body. I never found out. Our lovely Lord makes the things grow and then he gives us a digestive system that can take care of it, usually, whether it's meats, vegetables, grains, melons, fruits, doesn't make any difference what it is. God has given us something or other inside that takes care of it. Then the second one, chapter 4, verse 47, there was a boy that was dying. And in chapter 9, chapter 11, verse 11, there was a man that was dead, until Jesus came. Remember the man came down from Capernaum to Cana and said to the Lord Jesus, will you come and heal my son? He's at the point of death. And Jesus said something to him that's remarkable. He said to this man, except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And some of you dear folks here just like that. You ought to feel something inside before you believe God. You can't feel it before you have it. You can't enjoy the pudding until you eat it. Except you see signs and wonders, you will not believe. And I was in that mess for six months myself, after I heard the gospel. I was trying to find something in here that told me God told the truth, and told me I believed God. I'm looking in here for it. You can't do it. And then here was Lazarus. He was dead. He'd been dead four days, and his body was beginning to corrupt. And he was wrapped in grave clothes. I want to tell you that's something. I unwrapped a mummy one time. It took me an hour to unwrap his head, just the head. It was over in Detroit, in the museum there. The curator there was a friend of mine. He got in three mummies, and he told me you can unwrap one of them. And I did it. And it took me an hour to get the head unwrapped. There was yards and yards and yards and yards of that stuff about as wide as my four fingers. And in between the layers, there was a perfume that was so pungent that I saved some of these wrappings and took them home. And when I went in the front door of my home, my sweetheart was out in the kitchen, and she said, where did you get that perfume? She smelled it, and it was about 1,200 years old. Didn't get that at the ten-cent store. Then Jesus came and kept the boy from dying. And there's a strange thing there. The scripture says, the man believed the word that Jesus had spoken without the signs and wonders, and went his way. But then the next verse says, he met the servants coming down, and they said, your boy is alive. When did he begin to get well? Yesterday at the seventh hour the fever left him, to the same hour in which Jesus had said, thy son liveth. Then it says, and the man believed. How come? Didn't he believe yesterday? But you see, the first is the belief of faith. The second is the belief of experience. And we need both. And then Jesus came, and he's the only one that can keep us from dying. I don't mean physical death only. He does that too sometimes. But we don't know when he wants us in heaven. You haven't any idea. You beg and beg and beg God. A woman came in my office one time, and she was sobbing terribly. I don't know when I've seen such grief. And I said, what's the matter? She said, God answered my prayer. Dear Mia, that's unusual for you to have such grief over that. Most people rejoice. She said, my husband died, and all my relatives were dead except a little boy, three years old. I just had that little boy, that's all. My husband died, and I was left alone with this little boy. And then he took sick, very sick. And the doctor came and said he can't live. And I said, it was in the evening. I said, doctor, will you stay here tonight while I go in and pray? And then she broke into sobs again. I could hardly, she couldn't talk to me. And after a while, when she was able to speak again, she said, I kept still waiting. I saw she wanted to tell me. She said, I, about four o'clock in the morning, I'm lying on the carpet sobbing and telling God, please don't take my boy. He's all I have left in the world. Please don't take him. And when I came out about four o'clock, because I had the assurance in my heart, God was going to let me keep my little boy. And I said to the doctor, doctor, I believe my little boy is going to get well. I have the assurance from God. And he said, yes, the fever broke just about 30 minutes ago. I believe he's going to get well. And then that woman just sobbed her heart out. I waited a while. I said, tell me the secret. She said, yesterday, the police took him off to the penitentiary for 20 years for highway robbery. Went to guardian, died at three and gone to be with Jesus. You look out, beloved, how you plead with God for somebody to leave. You don't know. You don't know what's ahead. Leave it to your lovely Lord. Well, Jesus came and this boy was saved from dying and Lazarus was given back from the dead. He's the only one that can keep us from dying and going to the second death, the lethal fire. And he's the only one that can give life to a dead sinner, and he loves to do it. The third one is in the fifth chapter, verse five. There was a man there at the pool that couldn't walk. And verse nine, there was a man at another pool that couldn't see till Jesus came. Then they were able to walk and to see. And both things happened on the Sabbath day. When he began to walk right, he had rest in his life. And when he began to see right, he had rest in his life. The Savior came. Then the walk was fixed up. We had a woman saved in Kansas City recently. She was about as bad as they make them. Blasphemy, dope fiends, cigarettes, vodka. She drank a bottle of vodka every day. Oh, but she was a tough customer. And then our new pastor, Brother Bishop, she lived next door to the church. And he went over to see her and led her to the Savior. She had been to every service since. She told me a day or two ago, just before I came up here. She hadn't taken a drop of anything, hadn't smoked anything, hadn't cursed. She said, I just love the Lord Jesus. The Savior transformed that woman who for years had just been as wicked as she could be. That same thing happened in the Moody Church. One Saturday night, I was dressing youthful Christ. A woman came up, and she was terrible. I mean terrible. Dressed that way and acted that way. And I learned afterwards, she was everything that was bad. And that night she trusted the Lord Jesus, and he saved her and gave her eternal life. About six months later, when I was back, a pastor came to me and said, You remember that horrible woman that was saved six months ago? I said, Yes. He said, She's the best customer I have in my church. She's the best member I have in the church. She's on the front seat of every service with a lead pencil and notebook, and she's after souls for Christ, and she pesters me with questions about the word of God. She's an ideal Christian, and she had been an ideal sinner. Then Jesus came and was at a pool. And by the way, that's in the fifth chapter of John, because every chapter number five in the Bible contains something that's helpless and human weakness and human helplessness and human hopelessness. Every chapter number five from Genesis Revelation has something in it of that sort. And there was no man to put him in, you remember, at the pool. And then the pool speaks of the precious word of God, and they were both at the pool. One got to walk, and the other got to see when Jesus came. And, beloved, nobody else can do it. He breaks the power of canceled sin, sets the prisoner free. Spurgeon had a chorus they sang at his meetings. The Lion of Judah can break every chain and give us the victory again and again. And they sang it and sang it in Spurgeon's tabernacle. Then the fourth one is found in the sixth chapter. Both of them are in the sixth chapter. In the first one, they had the fear of starving to death, and in the second one they had the fear of drowning to death. Until Jesus came and took the fears away. And, beloved, nobody can do it except Christ Jesus. The stream of time is strewn with over 700 programs of various kinds to make people better. Over 700. You can read them when you go through history. Schemes and plans to make people good. I went into a store in Louisville, Kentucky, to buy some things for my wife. It was the day after New Year's. I wanted to buy her some hankies. I never buy any hankies around Christmas time. I expect her friends to give her a lot, but they didn't do it. So I went in to buy some. And I said to the girl, where's the hanky car? And she said, upstairs on the third floor, right in front of the elevator. So I went up and bought her some hankies. And when I came down, I went back to this clerk, and I said to her, uh, I'm sorry I disturbed you while you were making out your inventory. She said, you didn't disturb me at all. I was making out the cards for the inventory. We're going to take inventory next Sunday when there are no customers here. I said, did you ever take inventory of yourself? And that girl turned as red as they make them. She said, mister, you must be a stranger in Louisville. I said, I am. I knew it, said, you wouldn't ask me that. For I have the name of being the worst woman in this city. There isn't any sin that I haven't been in and loved it, but I'd like to break it. Well, I said, I can tell you how to break it. You can't, said, that shows you're a stranger. Because I've been given every kind of remedy there is, and they don't work. Many a time I've got up in the morning and said, I'm going to be good today. I'm down in the mire before I go to bed. I can't be good. I said, how would you like to be made so good instantly that if you died behind the counter, you'd go straight to heaven? Said, no, I know you're a stranger. You go and tell that to somebody else. Don't tell that to me, because I've tried everything there is. So I opened my Bible to Romans 4, verse 6. I turned around and I said, I think she did. David describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. She looked at it. I said, come on, read it out loud. And she did. I said, read it again. And she did. I said, read it a third time. And she did. Said, I don't understand it, mister. Well, I said, suppose that you working here in this store, you're not getting a great deal of money, and I know you can't be a very wealthy girl. You wouldn't be working here. And a multimillionaire came in here and saw you and fell in love with you and proposed to you, and you accepted him and married him. A multimillionaire known all over Louisville as the richest man in Louisville. And a newspaper came out tomorrow morning in the Louisville Courier-Journal with your picture and his picture, that the multimillionaire married the poor girl out of the store. Couldn't you go to any jewelry store in this city and get anything you want and say, charge it? Couldn't you go to any furrier and say, charge it? Couldn't you go to any automobile house and say, charge it? Yes. How come you got so wonderfully wealthy all of a sudden? Did you work for it? Did you save it up? Did you merit it? How come you got all this wealth? Oh, she said, by marrying him. Oh, I see, she said. If I marry Jesus Christ, I've got everything he's got, don't I? I said, you do. She said, I'm trusting him right now. How quickly God saved that girl. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done. Not on merit. You can't work for it, you can't save it up, you can't do anything for it. But when you trust that lovely Lord, the fears are gone, the sins are gone, and you're a new person in Christ Jesus. So in the sixth chapter, they were afraid of the storm, they were afraid of starving to death, till Jesus came and he did the job. It's wonderful how he does it. You know, you plant one grain of corn, you get up 742 grains. That's the way he does it. I was speaking in a high school up in northern Missouri, at Salisbury, and I told them every cobbled corn has an even number of grains, an even number of silks in the tassel, an even number of rows of corn, and an even number of shucks on the cob. And when I got back home a few days later, I received a piece of a cobbled corn, and the fellow said, this isn't true. He sent me a piece of a country gentleman corn. You know, where it's all mixed up. But fortunately, he sent me the piece that was next to the cob, next to the stalk. And there were 16 grains on it. So I took the trouble to take the two pieces that he sent and cobbled all the grains. There were 742 on it. So I said, hold this back there. I said, there are 16 rows and 742 grains and 742 silks, because there's a silk for every grain of corn. That's the way God does it. And when you trust your soul and your life to him, beloved, you're getting somewhere. He'll take you and plant you somewhere for him, and you'll not only multiply yourself once but twice and a dozen times and over and over again. The man that led me to the Savior was a shoe merchant up in Vancouver, British Columbia. And on his vacation, he came to Kansas City and led me to Christ. Just think of it. I don't know how many more he had. But in that sixth chapter, the Lord Jesus took those loaves and fishes and fed 5,000 men besides women and children, which means about 15,000 people fed with five loaves and two little fishes. Because when you trust yourself to him, he multiplies you. Then they're afraid of drowning in the storm. Well, that's one way he has the preeminence in the things in nature. Then there's another lovely passage, 1 Peter 3.18. Now notice one word. Christ also, notice that word also, Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Not send us to God, bring us to God. Why is that word also in there? Well, I'll tell you. All things were made by him, we're reading Colossians 1, and for him. Potatoes weren't made for you. Well, carrots weren't made for him, but I don't know why I feed carrots. But the cabbage and lettuce and tomatoes and corn, all these things, they weren't made for you and me. And flowers, the passion flower, the most beautiful thing ever grew on a plant, seems to me, the passion flower. Or the night-blooming series with all that marvelous perfume in it, wasn't made for you and me. Pansies weren't made for you and me. All things were made by the Lord Jesus and for the Lord Jesus. That's what it says. You and I just get it by grace. Well, after he made all minerals, look, he made five kingdoms. He made the mineral kingdom, then the vegetable kingdom, then the animal kingdom, then the human kingdom, then the celestial kingdom. Our Lord Jesus made those five kingdoms. Now notice, none of these can get up into the one above it. The mineral can't get up into the vegetable. The vegetable can't get up into the animal. The animal can't get up into the human. The human can't get up into the celestial. The one that's above has to reach down and pull the other one up. So the vegetable reaches down and pulls the mineral up into it. Then the animal reaches down and pulls the vegetable up into it. You and I reach down and pull the animal up into us, and he has to reach down and pull us up into his kingdom, or you'll never be there. You can't get up. Now you think of those kingdoms. They're wonderful. There are 103 chemical elements in the mineral kingdom. Gases and solids, sodium and chlorine, and phosphorus and bromine, and oxygen and hydrogen and nitrogen, and gold and silver and platinum and radium and whatnot. There are 103 of those, and our Lord Jesus made every one of them, and he made them for himself. That's the reason he's compared to so many of them. He made them, and you and I get them just through kindness. Do you want a beautiful metal? Well, he has gold. How do you like to have iron in your teeth? Wouldn't that be a mess? Or brass? He made gold because you know you'd want to beautify yourself. Some of us need it. And then he made hard metals like iron and steel, because we had to have those around the stove. He made calcium, because he knew we needed it in our bodies. He made phosphorus. The nervous system is made up of phosphorus salt, just like the blood system is made up of iron salt. And our Lord knew it, so he made them. And the one who made the mineral kingdom is the one who controls it. And there isn't a mineral... Did you ever stop to think that you'd like God to make something he didn't make? Do you know any mineral or metal that you wish God had made that he didn't make? Name it. Then he made the vegetable kingdom with all the plants, and some of them are wonderful. Keep away from poison ivy. He made that after the fall, I think. But he made vines to climb. Do you know what makes a vine climb? Anybody here know what makes a vine climb? You plant a vine in the middle of a ten-acre field, it'll find something to climb up on. What makes it climb? I don't know. There are several things I don't know. But I know beans are left-handed. Of course, they grow up from left to right. Morning glories are right-handed. They grow up from right to left. And nobody in the wide world knows why they do it. He made it that way for himself. He made the trees. And there's a couple of brothers down in St. Petersburg, Florida, that make great big pictures for the wall out of wood. Not a bit of paint on them. All out of wood. They've scoured the world to get all kinds of colors of wood. I saw them myself. Went into it and saw it. Paid a dollar to win lift and stuff. Wonderful. Great big pictures. Mural scenes mostly. But all sorts of colors of wood are there. And our lovely Lord made it. And he made the animal kingdom. And you just think of the animal kingdom. A cow. You know, the pig's the only animal that's no good while it's alive. It has to die to be any good. Everything else can do something for you. A horse gives you work. A cow gives you milk and cream and butter and so on. And a hen will give you eggs sometimes. And ducks and geese. Every kind of an animal is valuable while it's living, except the pig. And it's the only good thing. I don't know how good it is, but it dies. Our Lord Jesus made the animal kingdom. He made porcupines, too, as our brother was telling us about. And he made, well, you know, cows eat grass and make milk. And ducks eat grass and make feathers and skunks eat grass. And you can't understand it if you don't know a thing about it. Our lovely Lord made all the animal kingdom. And then he made the human kingdom. And he made you the most wonderful thing in all the world as he talked to you about it. But I say this. Our Lord Jesus is the preeminent one. In creation, he's the only one that can do it. In salvation, he's the only one that can do it. In preservation, the rotating of crops and the reproduction of animals, nobody can do it but Christ Jesus. And the only person in the world that can take you to God is Christ Jesus. I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And in 1 Peter 3.18, Christ suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. And in order to do it, he has to make us fit. Now, I'm not fit to go in the operating room right now. I keep myself clean all the time, keep my clothes clean. But I can't go in the operating room. I've got to go and scrub for ten minutes on my hands, then put on rubber gloves, and then put them in the nascent solution. Take my garments off and put on some that just came out of the sterilizer. Cover my face, cover my hair. But as a result, I've got to cover it up in order to go in the operating room. But there are people who think they can jump out of Delilah's lap into Abraham's bosom. It don't work. Can't do it. The Lord Jesus has to fix us up so we're fit for God's presence. And then he has to give us a nature that will love God's presence. And then he has to make God the Father willing to have us there. And so he does it. We are accepted in the Beloved. Religion won't do it. Character won't do it. Good works won't do it. Religion won't do it. It takes a person to do it. And that person is our lovely, precious, wonderful Lord Jesus Christ. So we ought to kneel at his feet in adoring worship and say, Thine am I, Lord Jesus, and on Thy side is our Son of God. Let us pray.