In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the Word of God. He highlights how people are often drawn to stories and anecdotes, but the true value lies in understanding the mysteries of the Gospel. The preacher focuses on the Gospel of John, stating that it is a simple and straightforward Gospel that can be understood by being filled with the Spirit. He encourages the audience to delve into the mysticism and mysteries of the Gospel, as it is through this understanding that one can truly be a child of God.

Let us pray. Father, we looked at Thee. He gives now Thine eyes upon us, and we thank Thee for this. This is our safety. This is the cradle of our love. This is the wondrous thing we want to find in our hearts all the time, in our heads as much as we can. But bless Thee, dear Father, that Thou art with us, and cause us to know Thy presence. And I for one will be satisfied, Lord. And grant unto every one of us the ability to absorb Thy true word. And grant unto us who has been gracious enough now not to be with us in the flesh, but come in the Spirit and be with us, so that we may be taught beforehand what we shall know when we reach heaven. Therefore, glorious Lord, we commit ourselves unto Thee in the certain knowledge that where two or three are gathered together in Thy name, there Thou art in the midst of them, making every two into three. We bless Thee, Father. We thank Thee for this Thy love, and depend upon Thee for grace to speak or to hear as Thy will is. Amen. Let us get to the word, dear beloved. The gospel according to John, which you will know is the fourth in our New Testaments. It's a very simple, straightforward gospel. All you have to do to understand it is be filled with the Spirit. And that's the hardest thing apparently for men and women to know as a permanent condition. There's nothing really historical about it. The fact that Jesus Christ was born, Matthew and other people deal with, as God's choice was. But John comes into us from that which is unborn and that which could not be got into a stable or a manger. We do bless the Lord for this, and we should be moving about in the truth according to God's will. Let us start immediately, shall we? Verse one of chapter one. In the beginning was the Word. I did wonder whether I would get beyond that phrase this morning. In the beginning was the Word. You do know, don't you, that all these gospel writers began at different points. All right? John goes back further than any of them, of course. He goes back into mystery. John is undoubtedly a mystic. Whatever else you would say about him. And you know what it is to be a mystic. I hope you do. I think every gospel preacher has to know a little of it, if not a lot. And here he starts in mystery. Joseph and Mary don't come into it at all. What you will find referenced to her is in the second chapter and again further on in the scriptures. But he calls her woman. Now you must understand that God is dealing with woman rather than Mary in this gospel. The way he deals with her in the second chapter is woman. What hast thou to do with me? There he is a man conscious of the beginnings of things. And it wasn't Mary. It was himself. He utilized Mary, loving her of course, so that by her he could come into the world as a man. And that was very, very necessary. You are aware of this, of course, that it all began in the Spirit. If you're not careful, you'll begin with the incarnation in the other gospels. They're written to draw your attention to that thing, though Mark doesn't take up what we call the incarnation at all. Incarnation, making the word flesh. But the whole tremendous thing is this, that it all began in the Spirit. May I refer outside of this gospel at the moment to Luke, which I have said formerly and which I shall continue to say in one way or another until the Lord takes me home, which some might have thought was a few months ago. But it all began because an angel came and spoke to Mary, that is on the incarnation level, and because the Holy Ghost came upon it. So how is it going to be, says Mary, I'm putting it in our language, the Holy Ghost will come upon it. That's it. It all began with the Holy Ghost. And that was in the will of God and in the mind of God. He, if you like, began, he came into the world, as we say, became incarnate, there was a nativity. But although that was special and necessary for the work that he had to do, and for God's plans and purposes through his incarnation, that was not the beginning of it. It all began in Spirit. Now that's the thing that you and I have to take into our hearts very deeply. As far as the incarnation is concerned, it began with the incarnation, with the Holy Spirit. And again, it all began with the Word, not in the sense of the Logos, which is spoken of here, but an angel came and spoke to her, bearing the Word, which would alert her to what God was requiring of her, by which also she would conceive. Jesus Christ was conceived from the Word. The angel spoke to her, and she believed his Word, and the Word then came into human existence. Now this is a very, very wonderful thing. I hope it alerts us all to the fact that all turns on the reception of the Word. It will do in your life. The Word preceded the coming of the Holy Ghost upon Mary. It's a very big thing then, for us to understand it. In the beginning was the Word. That is when God, before God chose to begin his work on earth, by a visitation of Mary, it had all begun. The discussion, if I may say so, took place in heaven. I shall never forget reading a man named Oswald Chambers. I don't know whether you read him. I would commend him to you. We're talking about Isaiah, and what we call the call of Isaiah. Isaiah did not hear the call he makes very plain, in the sense of, Isaiah, I want you to follow me. I want you to be my prophet. Not like that. He didn't hear that. Oswald Chambers suggests, anyway, that he overheard. Who will go for us, says God. And he overheard the conversation in heaven. Who will do it? Our God, Lord, he said, here am I, send me. This then is the mysterious position into which we are brought, immediately by John. And you will know that the Greek word used here, mind you, I don't mistake me for being as good a Greek scholar as Derek. He had to do it to get his B.D. I think. But I haven't got a B.D. or anything like that. But occasionally, you have to dig into the Greek a bit. You can always find what you want anyway. And it says, in the beginning was the Logos. Now there are some words in scripture, which I wish the translators had left alone. That's the word Logos, that they ought, I think, to have put in, in the beginning was the Logos. And stuck to the word Logos, all the way through. There's another word too, if it interests you, a Hebrew word, a Greek word, which I would have loved if they had left it alone. Agape. Not translated it love, but kept it distinct, so that everybody reading it would say, Agape, what's that? You see? And you'd have started to understand that it means this wonderful love of God that cannot be expressed by mouth. Oh, that's an adjacent and unusual thing. It can only be expressed by life. Now you get that right deep down into you. You get that deep down in because possibly you're all going to be preachers, or at least in some capacity where that's concerned. And we'll carry the thought a bit further. This word Logos, Paul said, we preach the Logos. Now if you know the Bible, you'll be searching around for that, or know what I'm going to say next. We preach the Logos crucified. One Corinthians, one. Now that's what he always preached. When he preached about service, he preached about this, he preached about the other, and he preached about everything. He says that he preached the Logos crucified. Or as it would be in our Bible, Christ crucified. But how much more it would have meant tracing the truth of the Logos back, say, through a concordance, or having instructions in Greek, and so on, if it had been left as Logos. Because the word Word doesn't really mean anything to us. We've been brought up on a multitude of words. Most of them started with, don't do that, or behave yourself, or if you don't stop, I'll give you a smack. Oh, we don't advise Dr. Spock here. The great thing, beloved, is to know the truth. Only the truth can set you free. And it's you, not necessarily the instruction of your mind, though you're gaming there, that's why you've come here. But it's you. We're so facile, we have a facility with words, but we can't be facile with our being. It's what we are, or what we are not. Make no mistake about it. That's the thing that counts in the sight of God. It is good for us to have an understanding of that. Even, say, you come into these lectures and have opted to come, know they will help you, wanting to serve the Lord better. But you must understand that it's you that God has exercised. God is a being, he is the being. Well, he's only primarily interested in other beings. Oh, he has more concern for the earth, than these earth wallows that talk about this and want to substitute it with new age teaching into your mind for God. You have to see that he's interested in beings. In creation, you will remember, if you go back to Genesis, he made the earth. By the way, you understand that the earth and the heavens was a binal creation. Binal, of course, meaning two. There are, as they tell us, binal stars. In the beginning, he created the heaven and the earth, put them together, he never put them separate. Keep that clear. You will also know that in creation, where God got the earth from. Say he created it. But when? Because I read, when I read Genesis, that he called it up from under the sea, out of the waters. Have you ever thought of that? It came up from under the sea, so it was there, flooded. Then he gathered the waters together. Of course, you believe Genesis, you don't believe any other myth you might have learned at school. You and I, beloved, have been given this book. It's the only sure book in the world. You're not sure of any other, anything else that any of the inspired men or women may have written, are not included in the book. So, we start on this. Of course, it came up from under the water and now inspires the idea that the best place to be born is under the water, but you can't tell your mother before you're born. Here is the, it's supposed to be science there, but it's a very, very funny science. You and I, beloved, have to see the origins of everything. Well, here is John saying, well, if you want to know the beginning, it was the word. Well, was it all something spoken then? No, it had to be spoken. Of course, I've hinted at that in Isaiah, that Isaiah overheard the conversation that was going on in heaven between the Trinity. Who shall we send? And Isaiah, having an ear for God, be careful you have that. Oh, not just for my words or anybody else's words first. And you hear God. Isaiah, I said, well, I'll go, send me. There had to be a lot of rugged training before God could teach them. I think he never went out being sent, was it for 13 years after that? Rather like the Lord Jesus, you know, when he was 12, he wanted to be on the trip. He was tying all the DDs or I don't know what up in knots in the temple, asking them, answering their questions. And he was the best preacher that they'd ever had in the temple. So you thought that would have been the beginning of his career? No, you go back to Nazareth and spend another 18 years at the bench before you go out. Take it into your heart. Take it into your heart. Because many of you might have been born like I was born, with an ability to speak. And I damaged the Church of Jesus Christ, standing in the pulpit many Sundays, because I hadn't got the Holy Ghost. It all starts with the Spirit, as we shall see. It doesn't start with an ability to speak. No. You keep that clear. I once, I discovered, if I may make a personal reference, that I wasn't in a position, I wasn't saved, I certainly hadn't got the Holy Ghost. And nobody else had got saved through my ministry. I just would challenge you, each one, has anybody else got saved through your personal speaking to them, or ministry? This is the way I checked up, that I wasn't right, though I believed all that could be believed. Must start with the Spirit. Must start with the Spirit. Not say, well, I'm saved, and I want everybody else to be saved. It's wonderful to have that ambition. But the inspiration and instigation of the validity of all preachers is, you have the Holy Ghost. Now, God then tells us about this wonderful thing, in the beginning, was who were. Now, you, because, I trust anyway, because you're au fait with scriptures, will know that in the last book of the New Testament, which of course is the book of Revelation, and in the 19th chapter, you will find this spoken of our blessed Lord, that it was after the things, of course, which had gone before, you will remember, in chapter 19, after the marriage of the Lamb, he sees the further revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 11 of chapter 19, I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that no man knew. So, don't you think you know this blessed heavenly name of Jesus? Don't you think you know that? He had a name which no man knew. So, when they write their choruses, you know, every knee shall bow, the word Jesus is in there, in the chorus. Always bear in mind my doubts. Would you like me to pass on my doubts, as well as ideas? I very much doubt whether the makers of such choruses have got the sense of what the Bible has said. The Bible says that he has a name that no man know but that. And it's because he bears that name, now this may reverse your thinking, but allow it to be reversed, if necessary, because of that name, because of that name, every knee is going to bow to the name of Jesus, but that's not the great eternal heavenly name. What we're going to call him, the logos made manifest in the flesh, we'll call his name Jesus, because that is his earthly commission. That's what he was. Only by being born of babe could he obtain the blood that he needed, and you needed him to get, in order that he could redeem us. Pour it out. He got the blood, pour it out. It has a use. I hope I'm not treading on anybody's feelings or altering the shape of your thinking, but if necessary, you allow it to be changed. There is no blood in New Jerusalem. Now keep that clear. In New Jerusalem you have one liquid only. It's the river of the water of life. There is no blood in New Jerusalem. And that's the thing that we're heading for. Now, later down in that same chapter, which has accused me of doing stupid things, I've shut that reference up. Turn back to it. I plead age, please. In the same chapter, as I said, 19, you get this great truth. The name that nobody knows but him. And then it says he was clothed with this sure dipped in blood. Now it's different now. When he was on earth, his flesh, if I may put it this way, clothed the blood. Now you'll find that the blood is clothing the person. His name is only just dipped in blood. It isn't the person. The vesture is dipped in blood. Now, his name is called the Word of God. So the name of the person that was born, was conceived in Mary, born in Bethlehem, that you dear, and latterly embraced by all of us who love the Lord Jesus, is not anything more than the earthly concept. But because he has a name that wasn't revealed when he was on earth. And under the name of Jesus, which he assumed on earth, everybody has got to bow to that. That is the last earthly gathering, sorry, the last gathering of earth creatures, when God will call Satan himself, all the blasphemers, liars, whatever they call themselves, they've all got to bow at the name of Jesus and worship this miracle of God. Maybe God then may reveal unto us the further name. I'm longing for that. I hear Jesus, Jesus, Jesus on every hand and sometimes I go on and say, Lord, are they singing with understanding? When we are totally heavenly creatures, when we got rid of these old bodies, I mean, I've lived to 83 now, I'm not the oldest person here, I'm sure. I believe he's older than I am. But he's stone deaf, he doesn't hear what I'm saying. We're going to get rid of these old bodies. They're only useful for saving souls. Oh, we have lots of other pleasures, coffee, for instance, and so on. But that's not your calling. That was not in God's wish when he made Adam and Eve. Not that, it's our destiny. Sometimes when it's made so bitter, I hate this stuff. That's coffee, I mean. Beloved, to see the truth, I want you to get into the mysticism of it. I want you to start thinking about going far out weekends and walking over knife edges or what they are. They're lovely, I've done it, but I prefer the idyllic in the valley. You must see, beloved, what it's about. You've got to be introduced into this. You cannot be a real, real, born again child of God and not be a bundle of mysticism or mystery. Sorry, mysticism. I didn't want. You've got to. You've got to get into the mystic, we'll have to call it. I mean, language, a pretty poor thing anyway, leaves me standing often. What I'm going to say next, how are you going to describe it? See how text these great writers were to get truth, eternal truth into language. You've got to have something in you that goes far beyond language, unless you are not a child of God. It's got to be, and you've got to develop that. No, I don't say you'll get all mysterious, or you're on drugs or something. But to realise what the Holy Ghost can do with you, in you, for you basically are spirit. Though it may be dead in that sense. I don't mean non-existence, because death does not mean non-existence. It can be dead in you, and you can be dead in your seat there this morning. And you have to be alerted to, with the hope of making you alive to, if you are not already there, this great mystic thing of it all. For if I just flick a moment or two back into 1 John 1, we read the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He still is. This then is a great and wonderful privilege we have to hold this book in our hands, whether it be concentration on Genesis or Revelation or what, just to have the book that is the greatest treasure this earth has, and read it. The Word was God. Hallelujah. Is God the Word? Yes. Is he only the Word? No. God is far, far more than the Word, though we worship at the thought, at least I do, that in the beginning was the Word. All right then. What is the Word for you? Taking out a capital W, put an ordinary W. What is the Word for you? Well, let me change it. Who is the Word? God. That's what the Word has to be for you and me. Not salvation. That's wonderful. I appreciate it. Of course. But did you know you only got saved if you are saved, excuse me, doubting that, but you know what I mean. Because sometimes I meet with people who say they're saved, they say, Lord they must have a different kind of salvation from me. They must. Because of their behavior, their language, their lifestyle, everything. The Lord only allows me to do certain things. You know you're taken into captivity, don't you, once you're saved. If you truly say you're a captive, marvelous hymn that said, Make me a captive, Lord, and then I shall be free. Teach me to render up my soul that I shall conquer a being. That could mean a lot to you if you pondered that all this day, though you've got a lot of lectures to attend. Here then, is the truth. The Word to you is God. And it wasn't until the Word reached you. Now, on the Logos, although it's inferred in it. It wasn't until the Word reached your heart in the power of the Holy Ghost did you become a Christian. You might have had a lot of Christian beliefs before that. I did. But how wonderful it is, though, that you're going right back into infinity. You're right. You and I are living in a state that is, is, was, is to come. You've been involved into this tremendous mystery. Spend more time on that than you do on reading other books. And you'll penetrate into God, or God will penetrate into you. You have to study books, of course, in this series of lectures. Not that mine's a lecture, but it is. Here then, is the wonderful truth. So this then, will, oh dear, look at that clock. Well, don't. I'll call out, I'll call out in a minute. All right. You're involved in this mystery. Now, you have come from mystery. And unless you're an open book for everybody to read, and a mystery at the same time that nobody can read that isn't initiated into it, you're not a born-again person. Now, whether the mind grasps this at the moment, isn't the matter of fact, but I would advise you to take a note of it. Here then, is the tremendous thing that God is introducing to us. And you have noticed, I hope, anyway, in your reading, if not, suffer me to tell you this, that there is a great affinity between John's Gospel, in fact in the Revelation as well, but we're not touching on that, with Moses, and Moses' writings. A great affinity. And you should consider that. Because Moses started, and the book starts with this revelation. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, this binal creation, called the earth up from under the waters that were there. That's all we know, as we know that God was there, and is here, and ever shall be. We've moved up into the great mystery of earth. We're such earthbound creatures. We can't avoid that. We've been born onto it. I mean physically. But the insistence which we look at, hopefully, some days hence now, I don't know when, the great utterance of Jesus Christ was you must be born again. You'll never understand what I've got to say, not really. Oh, you'll understand if I tell you parables. But you remember when the Lord was on earth, and the apostles elect, as they were then, they were only trainee apostles of course, were always trainees, being trained to live with God forever. Here is the great thing, beloved. They were told a parable, and you know the wonderful parables, and he told say Matthew 13, seven lovely parables there. Okay, they said why don't you speak to them in parables? They came to him, why do you use parables? Well he said, well he didn't say this, I'm putting it into another way, the Lord will bear with me, I'm only a human being. He, he goes, well I can't talk to them any other way. They won't understand if I do tell them the real truth. I talk to them in parables. But now listen to this. If I talk to them the truth, he didn't say these words, it'd be too much for them. I have to talk them in parables, now you'll be surprised at this. Matthew 13, he said, that seeing they do not see, and I understand they do not understand, for if they saw they would convert and I would heal them. He's quoting from Isaiah. He deliberately told them parables that they should not see. Have you read your Bible properly? But unto you, listen to this, each one of us stands on this one, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God. There it is, there's my, if you like, franchise for speaking to you as I am this morning, doing a childhood, I hope, throughout the gospel. Unto you it is given, don't you, let it slip by, because later he had to say to these chosen ones, how is it you do not understand? I put the emphasis, he wouldn't have been exasperated, but here's the thing, how is it you don't understand? It's given to you to understand and know. Why do you always want, you call him a good preacher if he can expound a parable to you. He says that's for the world. But he is counted a great expositor who can make parables live to you in one sense, but you come out at the end of the exposition, doesn't mean to say you're in it at all. So then, we see what God is really talking about, because I'll tell you one of the great failings of the human race, they like you to tell them stories. I've just been over to Germany, and if I told them stories, they loved it, they thought stories were wonderful. And there's a certain gentleman in England who still badgers me to tell stories, you'd be surprised. I think he's on your lectureship. But here is the thing, beloved, I sometimes say you're like a lot of little kids. We love stories. Jesus said it's good to you, you've got to know the mysteries. And beloved, if you want to be a preacher, use words that will disclose the mysteries, not cover them up. Your success as a minister will lie in whether you can make known to people, by the Holy Ghost of course, the mysteries. It's given to every disciple of Jesus Christ, they were the atrainy apostles then, to know the mysteries. It's given to you. It's like you having an inheritance and you haven't a clue that it exists. And instead of eating the peas like you, you're like the Australians that eat the shells. Perhaps you didn't like that, but I've just come back from six months in Australia. You see, beloved, I want above all that you should be introduced into the mystery. And what is the mystery, you say, all agog and alert? God. The mystery of the Incarnation? Yes. The mysteries of his life? Yes. Mysteries of his death? Yes. Mysteries of his resurrection? That's all. Because our salvation turns on him, but he, though he shed the blood, is constantly saying, and this gospel will reveal to you, that he said, it isn't me that's speaking, don't you understand, I don't want to run over the ground before we reach it. Fifth chapter of this gospel, it's my father that's speaking. You say, what was he then? A parrot? Was he a no-person? Did he just have to? He was one. Good God. The secret, or at least the outcome, of being a real Christian, Christ one, is that you allow the Father to speak through you. Now, that will mean that you will watch your thinking and watch your speaking.