In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the importance of the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000, which is the only miracle recorded in all four Gospels. He emphasizes the significance of this miracle and encourages the audience to think deeply about its meaning. The preacher also discusses the concept of eternal life and the power of the Son of God to give life. He highlights the Gospel of John as a comprehensive and profound understanding of Jesus' ministry.

He told the woman to go to him and say I ascend to my father and your father, to my God and your God. The development of the relationship through John, John's the best of all the Gospels I think, on all the vital things. It doesn't matter to us much, you know what I mean, whether we know he healed a million people, it doesn't matter as much. Well it does of course because he did it, but you know what I mean, it's not vital to us. So when the Lord healed this impotent man, really cured him, not only gave him power, he saw his father do it, so he did it. It was wonderful that, you know. It isn't what you have power to do, you have power to do nothing. Your power is granted you only to keep your eyes on the father. Now you keep that clear, if not you will talk about conversion and you in birth being the same thing. Moses converted people to do all kinds of things and Joshua did even the old type, Old Testament type of Jesus, just by stoning those that broke the thing that he said. He converted them, they never stole goats or frogs or bars of silver or gold anymore. That was a wonderful thing. Conversion, beloved, is necessary. I'm talking about clear new birth, the life of God in you, on earth. Did you know that's what new birth meant? Or did you think it was a conversion of your ways or thoughts or things of the other man? Do you believe you get a new nature? That's right, that's how it works out. You and I should do as by nature the things that Jesus taught. Oh, but there's this, that and the other. But Jesus wasn't mad when he taught the things he taught. Especially if you profess to be filled with the Holy Ghost, that's only God and that's all Jesus was, only God. That's all the Father is, only God. I'm not putting this word only into almost non-existence. He's God. May God help us clear our vision, save us from our mere humanity and the tendencies of our mere humanity. And push us, and bring us up into the truth of God. But I must hurry, away we go. He says, I'll show the Son, the Father will show the Son, verse 20, greater works than these that you may marvel. For as the Father raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. So you see, it's the synthesis of the will. The will of the Father, that's the thesis, if you like. The will of the Son, which is antithesis. And there's a Holy Ghost going between the two, which is synthesis. I don't know whether you want to put that down, but I've suggested a human figure to you, to grasp what it's about. And we move in this wonderful realm, the Son quickeneth whom he will. So you see, his will was free because he had the will of the Father in him, as a man. And that's how you can act in freedom of will. You may think this is pretty tough stuff to get into your thinking. It's embedded in mine. So that's easy for me to say. But let's go on. The Father judgeth no man. He hath committed all judgement unto the Son, that all men should honour the Son even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which sent him. That is a special application to the Jewish race. And he was talking in the background of Jewish life, habits, religion, and everything. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word and believeth on him. Oh? Hear my word and believe on me? Surely he should have said. Listen to what he said. You hear my word and believe on him. That's the Father that sent me hath everlasting life. Have you ever heard that preached on? To have everlasting life you've got to believe on the Father as well as the Son. That's the tremendous thing. I know it had its special inflection of meaning because it was in the Jewish context. Like everything else in the New Testament, or at least in the four Gospels. And God wants us to understand this. You've got to believe on the Father. May I suffer me to repeat what I said. He was really on earth to say, only you knew my Father. That's what he was on earth for. You know the text which says that you have to come to God by him. God's the goal, not just Jesus. Jesus was not the end, despite the beautiful hymn which says, Jesus my life, my Lord, my life, my way, my end. It's wrong. It's the Father is the end, if you know what I mean, of that which never ends. But you know what I mean, the end of my ministry, the end of my being here. As John came to introduce me to you, I've come to introduce you to the Father. Verily, verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, I'm ever so glad you knock that verily home. Verily, verily, you better believe it. When you read those two verilies together, you better lose your life and not get onto it. Absolutely. Here it is. Verily, verily, these are the great, if you like, staging posts, if I may say that, in your thinking. And if you think right, you will learn the art of thinking, that you will believe with all that you are and all that you have. This is so tremendous truth. Verily, verily, it comes on again. You pass from death unto life, and verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear, the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in himself, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And he would not have that life unless the Father had given him life. So as a human being, of course, on the earth, the visible God says so here. Life in himself. In himself. In himself. Not just in the Father. You keep that clear? He, of course, is talking as a human being, the manifestation of God, the revelation of him for men. The story of it all is contained in the four Gospels, the Synoptic Gospel, written as Matthew, Mark and Luke, giving details that John doesn't bother with, I was going to say. He doesn't talk about those. Bless him. I do thank him for that. He gives it to me straight. God raised the four men up, don't misunderstand me. But, you know, when I was a boy, how many of you boys can remember boys? Because you don't think you're men yet, I mean, you're quite young. Here's the thing. My mother used to give me stuff. For instance, she thought I needed phones, so she pinched my nose. I had to swallow it, you see. But I got it straight from my mother, even though she pinched my nose. It went down with my breath. It's as easy as that. Do you understand what this relationship is? No struggle, no anything. He'll give you life in yourself like this and he won't pinch your nose. You understand? It's as natural as breathing. That's the place you've got to get into. This confidence that Paul talks about. Don't let, no, sorry, the writer of the Hebrew, I better call him that. Lose not your confidence. I'm quite confident that if I live through tonight, I shall wake up breathing air in the morning and I can't even know I'm doing it. How about that? It'll be there. This is the way we've got to come in. Thinking. Knowing what God has done in this desperate thing of salvation. You wouldn't think the car was anything else but a desperate act, would you? God wants us to understand what it's about. He says, listen, as the Father hath life in himself, 26, so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself. And hath given him authority to execute judgment. Also. Wonderful, isn't it? Because he's the Son of Man. You can execute judgment, Jesus, this is entirely imaginary now. Because you're going to be a man. You're going to be a man. You're going to live in all the states of temptation and trials and everything else. Like a man. I'm not going to judge, says God. I'm not going to judge upon what I just see. I'm going to judge on what you live on earth, Jesus. What you'll come back and relay to me. What you'll bring back with you. All the experiences of humanity. God's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. And it's so right when you, I'd like you to go home, I know you've got to have other lectures, isn't it tiresome? But just meditate in this chapter. It's the source of life and the way it should work. And it's got to work in you. Just like this, you won't find it in chapter 6, 7 or anything else. You'll find hints will come to me and drink and all that. But here's the truth, he says. He says, do you remember verse 19, keep that clear in your, the son can do nothing of himself, what he sees the father do. And in case you thought it was a slip up, look at verse 30. I can of mine own self do nothing. How about that? Impotence. Two impotent men, I told you were in this chapter. The Lord Jesus confessed, taught, said openly, whatever words you want to use, that of his own self he could do nothing. Now you just look at all the things that you've done of yourself, trusting because you're a Christian or you're someone or something that you've done right. That you had an anointing 10 years ago or something like that. But Jesus was talking about what had happened that day. This is the kind of life you've got to be living. It's a tremendous thing. You've got to say to yourself, I am impotent. I can do nothing of myself. When you come to the Christian life, say, oh, but to hear the son of God, Jesus, talk like that. Couldn't do it. Oh, the wisdom of God. The wisdom of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Let it sink in. I've let it sink into me. I trust I have anyway. Hard old crusty man. But you have to understand, and I'll tell you what, it will keep you eternally new. And when you understand this, you don't, you see, you say, believe great things, attempt great things. That's axiomatic. In missionary circles it says, believe great things, do great things. Wonderful, isn't it? Everybody say hip, hip, hooray. That's the way. But you don't need psychological boosts. You don't need that from words. It's life. If I hear a lot of that, I think he's trying to whip up some dead horses. That the thing is this. Preach life. Do you know what? There was a very famous man. You would have heard of him. His name was Rhys. Not Rhys. Rhys Howells. He was a missionary. Okay. You've all heard Rhys Howells. Well, he came home on leave. And I asked him to speak at the Keswick Conference. And when they were seeking missionaries, they wanted missionaries. They appealed for missionaries. This was written of him by someone else, not himself. All he did up, did, when his turn came to speak, was stand up and preach entire sanctification on the Lord. They had more people appealed to be missionaries than either of them had ever had before. Never made any appeal for missionaries. Men and women came under the power of the Spirit to be entirely holy unto God. Keep ambition out of your mind. Holiness. The entire sanctification of the life unto God. Can you say anything else? That was true of Jesus Christ. I can't do anything of myself. How about that? Pity me, I'm so helpless. But you were full of power. Yes. Because he kept himself sinless. What a marvellous thing it is. He didn't make any excuses for himself. He also was a man. Hallelujah. And this book is telling us how we who are also men, including women of course, can live a life entirely belonging to God. That's what the Bible's written for, New Testament anyway. You will know of course that the epistles are only developments of the Gospel, from the Gospels. So you see, here then is the truth. I love it. He testifies again. I am in myself. He's talking about deeds here, but he's really talking about himself. I myself, I cannot do anything. He didn't say, I'm thinking great things, I can do great things. Isn't that wonderful? I'm quite impotent of myself. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will. Did you know that? Did you know that if you seek your own will and way, your judgment cannot be relied upon, neither will it in the end be just. Oh, he's setting the standard here. This is our most important chapter. I think that's why it's so little preached on. It's very important. As I hear, I don't seek my own will, but the will of the Father which sent me. I bear witness of myself. My witness is true. That's taken the opposite position from what's written in the verse. But that's what it's meant to do. Now listen to the kind of life. Now we come on to the testimony to it. Now this has to be true in each one of us. You rise from your innate powerlessness, impotence. Now, we'll take those that bear witness. John Baptist bore witness of me. I know that his witness is true. He witnesses of me is true. You sent unto John. He bear witness unto the truth. But, now if you are going to, please take this in. Live utterly unto God the selfless life and everything else. Utterly give no to God. You must not do the very thing he taught you. I do not receive testimony from man. Now, if you act, sing, speak, go, do anything. Oh, he's a wonderful fellow. You should hear him. Oh, he's got a great gift. Don't you receive that? You'll never be like Jesus if you receive that. You can get a thousand voices doing things like that, but as sure as anything as you receive it and not be it, let it be like the wind that bloweth over your head and has no lodgment in your heart. It'll destroy you. He was a burning, shining light. You were willing for a season to rejoice in his light. And you know what his light really was in the end? He witnessed of Jesus Christ. He testified that he was not Christ. I'm sure. How long it went on, I don't know. But Jesus didn't receive it. Do you know why he got baptized, the Lord Jesus? I should say minimally it was to support the testimony of John, but largely it was to tell you that he rejoiced, that they were rejoicing in his light, simply because he had come to set forth the Christ. That was the light. He was not that light, John 1, we've come this way. He was just sent to bear witness to the light or testimony, whichever word you want to use. That was his greatness. Because we look at him, preach sermons about him, read books about him, call churches after him. Church of St. John the Baptist or something like that. Beloved, he was a good man, of course he was a good man. But he said, Jesus said, you know that he that's least in the kingdom of God is greater than he. What ought you to be then? What ought you to be? You may say, well I'm just in the kingdom, I'm the least of all in the kingdom. He said, you ought to be greater than John Baptist. What? Yes, Jesus said it. He said, I have greater witness. You've got to come through here and I want to get to the end of the chapter. The works which the Father gave me to finish, the same works which he did finish and prayed about in John 17. I have finished the works you gave me to do, now come unto thee. Now you know his greatest work, he hadn't even attempted yet, that was to hang on the cross, shed his blood, rise from the dead. But he'd finished the allocation of works that the Father had given him to do. The obedient son, he could go and say to his Father on the way to Gethsemane and the cross, I've finished. Now listen, you go around church yards at times, probably, but you see memorials to the people that have died and they have a lovely broken column standing up. Don't you see? Don't you have any in this part of the world? Oh, they couldn't have been rich enough. They had masonry columns and they're cut off, smashed at the top. You see? Never finished their work. It wasn't a complete column, it was a broken column. If only they'd lived on, what would have happened? So on and so on and so on. But Jesus never left an unfinished work. Never. I've finished that lot. Now, you take these over, Father, read John 17, read it many, many times and you'll see the wishes of his heart. Now come I to thee. Wonderful work. So, he finished being a child. When I was a child, I spake as a child, taught as a child, blah, blah, blah, blah. He finished that. Up to 30, and youth, he finished that all. 30, he started his outward life among men and he completed all those works, gave him to do, including this one of the healing there at the lake, the pool, a lot more. Finished. You remember the last miracle he did was restore the ear that Peter had cut off Malchus, the high priest. Do you know why he restored it? Well, he was lovely, he was sweet, he was wonderful. I want to make a suggestion to you. The trouble with you, Peter, you've never been listening. A suggestion. He put the ear back. In the beginning was the word. Oh, this Gospel of John is a marvellous Gospel. It's complete in its understanding. It's complete, I guess, as a man could ever get. Here we go. On and on we go then. The same works you gave me to finish. That I do, they bear witness of me that the Father has sent me. And the Father himself sent me. He's borne witness of me. 37. You have neither heard his voice at any time nor seen his shape, and you have not his word abiding in you, for whom he has sent. You believe not. That's two testimonies he mentioned. You will know that this reference, this Gospel here, it makes the reference to the one shape the Holy Ghost ever took, and that was a dove. So they saw the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove. They heard the Father's voice saying, this is my son. Father? No. No. He bore witness of me. And you don't believe me. And he refers to the Scripture. And the next one, you've all got to have this in your life. Did you know that? Not to the extent, not to all the fullness of wonder of the works and things of the Lord, but listen. Search the Scriptures. Well, let me ask you a question. Do you search them? Search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life. And there they would testify of me. That's what the Scriptures are. But never think that eternal life is in the Scriptures. Never think that. The guide to it, perhaps. The Lord is teaching us, and God taught us, that by giving Christ flesh through Mary, he showed that life was available through him, and it must come like that in you. You search the Scriptures, they testify of me, you will not come to me, that you might have life. Alright? Think of the ways come, John's testimony, God's testimony, the Scriptural testimony, now man's, I receive not honour from men. That you must not accept honours from men. But if you think back over your life, I hope before you were saved, you set a lot on the honours that men could give you. You devoted yourself twenty-odd years of your life, perhaps, to get certificates. Perhaps you wore a mortarboard hat at one period. You see, let me tell you of one of the grandest men I have ever met. He's gone to be with the Lord once. He was a missionary in India. He was in charge of the work in India. And he had his little home, but he'd, on the walls he'd got certificates he'd won. Yeah, you go into a home and you see, ooh, ooh, ooh. Sometimes in Australia when I went into, had to go into the doctor's dens, I was going to say, waiting rooms. And, and all these doctors had got all certificates, fellow of this, that university, somewhere else, you know, all there for a thought, you see. Oh, what a wonderful man. If anybody can cure me, this man can cure me. See? So, this dear friend of mine, I was going to write something else, but I'll leave that. Don't accept anybody's testimony about men. But he, he was sitting there in India, the great top man, all right, of the Indian field. He went on to great things still after that. Some will recognise him from that description. All right. And he got him all there. He was a fellow of the Geological Society. May I tell you this? You heard about the conquest of Everest? Why? He was the chosen man to go. Yeah, they wanted him to do it. Go up. Turned it down, stood for the Lord's work. Wonderful man he was. I mean, he would have been famous. I remember walking past Tim Singh's house and all that. All right. The Lord spoke to him. There they were. He said, I got up and I went, rubbish. That's why he became a greater man than he was at that moment. We love the accolades of men. Our expertise, or achievements, or winnings, I don't know. But God showed him what to do. Cleared the rubbish out. All right. Don't accept honour from men who don't live to get it. Live a don't care life. What a wonderful thing it is. I know you, he said, verse 42, you've not got the love of God in you. I am come in my Father's name. That's another thing you've got to learn. You haven't got to live in your own name. Keep it clear. Oh, people don't like that. Of course you want to live in your own way. Don't you? I, G.W. North, achieved nothing. That's the thing you better get into your head. Not I got top of my class, top of my year. You got nothing. We're talking about reality. And in the end, you'll agree with my friend who saw it all as rubbish. What a tremendous thing for us to get to. But we want to live in our own name. I know, humanly, we've got to say, you can't have G.W. North's letters delivered to John up there. In that sense, we've got to have it. We've got to have a name and an address. Nothing. Nothing. Hallelujah. I am come in my Father's name. You've got to come in somebody else's name. If you want to be like Jesus, if you want to be potent, if you want to have the other things, there are really only extra powers. It's power to live like God that you've got. Not power to do miracles in the end. That's extra. Power to speak in tongues, well I do, if that means anything to you. But you haven't heard me speak one word in a tongue. Here's the big thing for us to grasp, beloved. Tongues. He could give you the tongue of a dove. You would sound nice then if he wanted to. Listen, beloved, you are a human being. Be a human being, will you? That is Jesus Christ. Be that. Be like him. Always bearing in mind that there's neither male nor female in these things. What a wonderful thing it is. If another shall come, verse 43, in his own name, you'll receive. So, here's the name, his name is, put it up on the billboard, we hand out leaflets, you see his photograph and all that. And you will know if I mention names in what we call church circles, you would immediately know who I'm talking about. I tell you this, they've come in their own name. They're lovely people, don't understand me. But you've got to get this, that Jesus Christ said the highest and the best. And you go in some circles where they hoot at the lovely hymn that I learned when I was young, young girl anyway. Keep me little and unknown. But everybody wants to be big. They want photographs of themselves sent out. They want lovely bill heads and Mr. So-and-so or Reverend So-and-so or somebody else what not. I love it. Dear old friend, you've got to live in another name. You have to be Jesus' person. This is the rise from impotence. I realise, says the Lord, I like that man that I healed. Waiting for somebody, waiting for this, waiting for that. Jesus crept in, little and unknown. The man didn't even know who it was who healed him. Eh? But I could mention thousands came to their meetings. I'm not jealous that thousands have been combined. If you go to certain countries, beloved, they will do. I tell you what, if any of you went to South India, unknown, perhaps hardly, and you said you were going to have a big conference, then you'd at least get about five thousand there. That's what they do. They wait till the riverbeds dry up and then they set up pungals in the riverbeds, massive stretches of sand, and you all come sit there and somebody preaches to you he's come from another country. You could do it. You could do it. By certain guarantees, of course. That's the trouble. Listen, I dare say that in some of the countries behind the Iron Curtain that were, and the walls are down and the curtain's been ripped to pieces, if you went there and held meetings, they'd come and hear you through an interpreter. You see, because they've been starved of it, being repressed, depressed. That's why. I'm telling you, I'm not saying, except from observation, why should people come and hear me? Just because I've come from England and so on and so on and so on. Why should they? Say what happened to you, and then you get somebody with the right camera at the right moment, all the people got their hands up. You see, I've been through it, love it. You go to be little and unknown. You be a reese house who comes back almost unknown from missionary who stands up and preaches entire sanctification of God, and people turned out missionless. One of the biggest responses they've ever known at Keswick. You see, here's the thing, beloved. A but being nothing, except a Jesus person. This is the way. The first man was impotent simply because of the disease or whatever he had. The second one was voluntarily impotent, there's nothing more impotent than a babe, except the babe, unless it's heart had been born diseased. But just to be a normal birth, nothing more impotent. The most helpless creature on earth, I should think, is a human babe. That's how Jesus came. Do you know, he never thought he demeaned himself either. Lovely. Jesus, thou art all compassion, pure unbounded love thou art. Visit us with thy salvation. That's the great thing. Marvellous thing. You know, beloved, I think the biggest thing that Christians have to compete with after they become a child of God is themselves. Not the devil. He wouldn't get a look in on you if you got free from self. Here is the big thing. Great, wonderful. Do you know, this is what Jesus said. Excuse me. How can you believe, in verse 44, he told them they couldn't believe, under certain circumstances, which receive honour, one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only. The other day I asked Derek to let me know when he was going to have your big day, when your term's finished, and you'll be all ever so glad. I want to come to it if I can. I expect if I can he will want me to speak. I just tell you that. But here's the thing, beloved. You're working for something. You're going to be a CWP. Yeah, he will. He started a bible school out in Zimbabwe. And all the dear black brethren in Zimbabwe all wanted a piece of paper in their hand to say they'd been through, you see. What are you working for? I'm not saying you shouldn't get a certification that you've been a good boy or a good girl or something like that. But don't set your heart on that. Don't frame it, have it put up in your room, and everybody say, what's that? Oh, beloved, it's nothing. Wonder you come then, isn't it, for nothing. Here, you've got to get into your heart. You receive honour, one of another. You can't stop people saying you're a good boy or a bad boy, but it doesn't matter if you're walking with God. If you can go and kneel by your bed at night and say, father, father. But I warn you, if you say it and you mean it, you'll probably be demeaned for it in public. Hallelujah. If you must seek the honour that comes from God, only. That's what the scripture says, and it's recording what Jesus said. Do not think I will accuse you to the father. You're wrong. You've been wrong. You're living wrong. You're rejecting your hope of salvation. You're wrong. He didn't storm at them in anger or anything like that. But he said, don't think I'm going to accuse you. You have one that accuses you. It's the one that you idolise almost. Perhaps some did. Moses. Now remember this, that Jesus was also a Jew. Well, he wasn't really. He was only a half-Jew. You know that, don't you? His father wasn't a Jew, but his mother was a Jewess. He was only ever half a Jew, so you kill that lie, that he was a Jew. That's said by those who don't believe that he had virgin birth. Take no notice of them. Here's the thing. Moses accuses them. See, there's the trouble. As soon as you break the Mosaic law, those Jews were accused to the father. Oh, isn't that lovely? I think it's lovely. Moses did at least give them one day's rest a week. Modern society won't give you any. Aren't the days all alike? You and I have to see what it's about, and this is what I'll tell you. Because he wouldn't accept the restraints that had been imposed upon the Mosaic law, they accused him. He got into trouble. He healed somebody on the Sabbath day. Deliberately broke it. Deliberately broke all the man-made stuff St. Louis Moses was. You see, he's different. He stands out. Do you see that? And are you an outstanding person? I don't think I've got to accuse you. Moses, you trust in him. He's accusing you to the father. If you had believed Moses, you would have believed me, for he wrote of me. You know he wrote of him, don't you? He spoke of a prophet that God would raise up, like unto me, of your brethren, he said. If you don't do what he says, that's right. More than that, he wrote of the Lord Jesus when he said, bring a lamb for your offering. This is the lamb, says John, the last spokesman for Moses that God had on earth. He wrote of Jesus all the time, he wrote of Jesus. And some of his sayings and doings are taken up a little later in the Gospel, in this one. He was a great man. He stood with Jesus in transfiguration. Had you believed Moses, you would have believed me, he wrote of me. But if you believe not his writings, how should you believe my words? So, I was going to say tomorrow, next week, by God's grace, no, a week's time, I hope you don't weep, we'll take up the mighty chapter of the feeding of the 5,000. Let me say this, this is the only miracle that's recorded in four Gospels, all four Gospels. So you'd better see it's important and start thinking around that. It's the only miracle. That's tremendous. So may the Lord bless us and lead us all together. Goodbye for a week.