Gawley, Jack: The Name Of The Lord ~ Matthew 5;17

You'll have to blame me for a little bit of confusion in regards to that little chorus, because I requested it at the last moment. Because tonight I've been exercised to speak about his name. His name truly is wonder. And as we sang that, I couldn't help but think of the many times that wonderful chorus was sang in this chapel, led by our dear brother Andy. And Andy's no longer singing it to a congregation, but Andy's in the presence of the Lord, singing to the Lord in glory. So one of these days we're going to be there too. There's going to be a mighty song singing His Name is Wondered. Shall we just look to the Lord for a moment of prayer? Our Father and our God, how we praise and thank you again for your love. We thank you for the plan of salvation, and we thank you so much for the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I praise and thank you from the very depths of our hearts. Truly, we can say his name is wonder. Because he is our Lord, he is our Savior. Now, Lord, we just look to you for these next few minutes, that as we consider that name that's above every name, that thou minister to each one of our hearts. Lord, you know those of us that are going through trials and have needs, we just pray that you'll bless. Some of us that are confused and wondering, I just pray that you'll answer our prayers. And above all, Lord, let none of us leave this place as we came. Let us go out rejoicing and praising you for how great you are. So we just commit all to you now in our Savior's name. Amen. You folks, I'd like to keep you up to date. Mr. Hupton just gave me a report tonight. You've been my prayer warriors. Here for a while, I won't be traveling, but as I traveled for various meetings, the folks at Park of the Palms prayed, and we saw God bless in a wonderful way. Well, you remember we went up to Virginia, Minnesota in Easter time, and we had a crusade up there, and I reported that some got saved. We often wonder what happened. Well, one of the men that trusted the Lord was on the sunset side of life. He had cancer, very serious, was terminal. He received Christ as his savior, and you know, because you prayed, he's in glory today. A testimony from his own wife and from those that knew him that this man truly w- knew the Lord before he passed on. And then tonight we heard about Mrs. Abramson's brother. He too trusted the Lord. And I just received a report tonight that he's holding Bible readings in his home. And so once again, we can give God all the praise and glory for answered prayers and for souls that have been snatched from the burning. And so let's not lose heart. Let's keep praying because God is able to do all things for which we give him praise. Turn in your Bibles, if you will, to Matthew, the fifth chapter, for our scripture reading. I've been speaking on the Beatitudes each time I've spoken to you, and we're going to use this portion of scripture as a springboard into a discussion or a lesson tonight on the name of the Lord Jesus. Matthew, the fifth chapter, beginning at verse seventeen. We've covered the first sixteen verses of the Sermon on the Mount. We can se- considered all the phrases the Lord Jesus Christ mentioned, blessed are the poor, and blessed are they that mourn, blessed are the meek, and blessed are they that hunger. And then we moved on down, we rejoiced, we found out about the salt, the illustration the Lord Jesus Christ used, about us being the salt of the earth. And when salt loses its savor, it's no earthly good. And we Christians have to be very careful that we don't lose our savor. Sometimes we can become overly zealous, and we hurt the name of the Lord. And sometimes we can become negligent of witnessing and going forth to help, and by the same token, we hurt the name of the Lord. There's always a very speci- specific ministry that we should be aiming at. Now, tonight, the Lord Jesus Christ speaks about the law. Verse seventeen, he says, think not that I am come to destroy the law, the law or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. Oh, verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whatsoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. For I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And then turn with me, if you will, over to First John, the first epistle of John, way in the back of your Bibles, the fourth chapter. We want to consider verses one to three. The first epistle of John, chapter four, beginning our reading at verse one. Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of God. Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. And this is that spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should he should come, and even now already is in the world. May God bless the reading of his word. I'm very concerned because I believe with all of my heart the stage is set. The stage is set for the Antichrist himself, for the beast. We're seeing all the indications that the Lord told us to watch for all around us, and we're seeing many false doctrines come up today. I've noticed as I've traveled around and I've visited Christian groups, and as I've been involved with various Christian organizations, many of them have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. And this is where I think we Christians have to be careful. And I would challenge every man that opens the word of God before a congregation, that in these final days, he hammer home and warn God's people of the antichrists that are existing today. And I believe one of Satan's greatest weapons today is to tear down the name of the Lord Jesus. To pull the Lord Jesus down to the level of man. Make him a pal. Make him a friend. My friends, he's God. He's the Lord of glory. He's not a pal you can slap on the back. He's not a friend that you can go and crack a joke with. He's the Lord of glory. We've seen much of royalty the last few days. We've seen the president, and we've seen Queen Mary, Her Majesty, as she's visited this country. And you know, the president, I don't know if you realize it or not, but when a man becomes president, many things change in his life. Before he was president, he was used to walking out the door and holding the door for his wife to walk ahead of him. But they say one of the hardest things for a president to learn is to walk through the door first himself, because he's president of the United States. He doesn't step back or step aside for no one because he's carrying the title of the highest office in this land. When Mr. Ford was called to fill the spot of president, before that time, all of his friends called him Jerry, even as a senator. Wherever he would go, he was Jerry. He was one of the boys, and they j- laughed and joked with him. But, you know, after he assumed that position in the White House, to his closest friends, he was no longer Jerry. He's Mr. President. I'm reading the book Born Again, and Mr. Colson gives some intimate glimpses into the Wa- into the White House and into the position of president. And even in his book, it's very obvious that Mr. Colson is very conscious that Mr. Nixon was Mr. President. In all of his expressions, in all the hard times that he had, all the tremendous demands that were put upon this man by Mr. Nixon, he was still the president. He was the Mr. President. He didn't get angry and say, well, that dummy up there, he should know that I'm busy. He never questioned, he never doubted. What I'm trying to say, my friends, is this. When the Lord Jesus Christ was here on Earth, yes, they referred to him as Jesus because he was a man in the flesh, but he was still God. But after he went to the cross and rose from the tomb and ascended to glory, he's no longer Jesus, my friends. He is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the Lord of glory. He's Jesus the man. He's Christ the anointed. And I believe with all of my heart that we Christians should give him his full time. A man came into my office the other day, one of the people around the park, and had some literature they had received, some twenty five pages about a religious order up north. They've been trying to get him involved in it. He said, would you read this over and give me a report on it? Tell me if it's of God. And so I read it through from cover to cover and tried to analyze it the best I could, and then I sat down, and I thought of scripture, and I thought of the Lord. And as I analyzed it, it spoke about God, but it spoke about God, the father of mankind. God is not the father of mankind. God says there are two fathers in the world. If you know him, God is your father, and if you don't know him, the devil is your father. And so God is not the father of all mankind, and that was error number one. But then as I went through and also, oh, I found the Lord Jesus was mentioned as Jesus, and it spoke about a statue of Jesus up on the sacred mountain. And if you remember, God in the commandments warned his people to have no graven images. There would be no graven images above heaven or under the heavens or beneath the earth. We are to honor no graven images, and that's why he left no image of his son, because men would tend to worship the image instead of the creator. And these are the things we have to be very careful of, and this is what I wrote to this man and told him, that this is absolutely Antichrist. This material be very fearful. But, you know, Satan is very subtle. Satan comes in in subtle ways. I heard Dick Anthony tell the story. Many of you have heard Mr. Anthony's music. He and John Peterson, the great writer, are very close friends, and it was at a concert up in Chicago Dick Anthony was giving, and he sang the song Over the Sunset Mountain. And after he sang it, he says, I'd like to tell you a little word of testimony about that song. He's when Mr. Peterson wrote it, it was a, it was fairly successful around Chicago and around the Moody Bible Institute. It was a catchy tune, and the words were nice, and people were humming it. Now, Mr. Peterson had just started out in his writing career, and he wasn't very wealthy. In fact, he was kind of down in his luck. He was looking for every dollar he could get. And he got a call from one of the big publishers of music in Chicago, a lady publisher, and she was Jewish. And she asked Mr. Peterson to please come over to her office. She wanted to talk to him about publishing the song Over the Sunset Mountain. And so, Miss John Peterson asked Dick Anthony to go with him, and two of them went over to this publisher's house, met this woman, and she was very gracious and very friendly. She says, oh, she says, I like your song very much. She says, the melody is catchy. She says, I think we can make a hit, and it can make you much money. She says, only one thing I want you to change. She said, and I'll publish it. She says, you take out the word Jesus. Over the sunset mountain, into your arms of your sweetheart, or into the arms of your mother, or into the arms of someone waiting there. She says, I don't care what you use, but just take the word Jesus out. Well, here was a lot of money offered John, and John was tempted, but you know, God sent a helping along. God sent Dick Anthony. So John asked if they could be excused, and they stepped out in the corridor for a word of prayer. And he asked Dick what Dick thought of it. And Dick told him, he says, well, he says, if you take Jesus out, there's no song. And so these men went back in, and Mr. Peterson told this lady, he said he appreciated her offer, but he used Dick Anthony's words. He says, if I took Jesus out of the song, there would be no song. And they turned down her offer and went back to the Moody Bible Institute. And when they got back, Mr. Peterson wrote another song, and it's called My Song. You've all heard the song, My Song, and he wrote that for Dick Anthony because they took a stand for Jesus Christ. It wasn't easy to compromise. Take the Lord Jesus Christ out, and we can make a lot of money, and this is what the devil would have us to do today. Take the Lord Jesus Christ out of our ministry. Well, if we won't take him out of our ministry, let's pull him down to our level. Oh no, my friend. The Lord Jesus Christ, as I told you, is the Lord of glory. Now tonight I want us to consider his name in four res- respects. He's the le- called the Great I Am. The Lord has many names in the scripture, but the name that thrills me the most is I Am. And we want to look in four places in scripture. First of all, we want to go back in the Old Testament. We want to look at that burning bush with Moses, as Moses saw the Lord of glory. He reminded Moses, I am. Then we want to go over to the New Testament. We want to look at the name of the Lord, the name of the Lord in power, where he met them in the restroom in the garden, and he said, I am, and they felt the power of that name. Then we want to consider also a man that met Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior. We want to consider his name as a source of salvation, the great I am, to save men from their sin. And then finally, we want to look in Revelation, as we see the completeness of his name, as we consider, as he said, I am the beginning, and I am the end, the great I am. Turn with me, if you will, back to Exodus, please. Exodus, the third chapter. Exodus chapter three, we want to read at verse thirteen and fourteen. Now, you all know the picture here. Moses has been in the wilderness for forty years now. He fled to the backside of the wilderness. He had been going through God's Sunday school, if I can use that expression. God has been training Moses, and it wasn't a class for six weeks. It wasn't a class for six months. It wasn't a class for six years. My friends, it was a lesson that lasted for forty years. And I believe if it would have taken fifty years to break Moses, God would have taken fifty years. And so each one of us should always remember that God works, and his work is final. Exodus the 13th, the third chapter, beginning at verse thirteen. And Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel and say unto them, the God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, what is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am. And he said, thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am has sent me unto you. Respect for his name. That's the first thing we want to consider, that we Christians must always have respect for his name. Here was Moses, just a few verses back to set the stage so we can get the vision in our own mind. Moses is tending his father-in-law's sheep on the backside of the desert. A humbling experience for a man like Moses. Oh, Moses was a Jew, but he was raised as an Egyptian. In the eyes of Egyptians, there is nothing lower than a sheep herder. This is about as low as a person can go. And so God took Moses, this man that was raised as the stepson of Pharaoh, this man that was educated in the greatest of all of Pharaoh's schools, this man that at the age of forty was one of the greatest generals that Egypt ever knew. Oh yes, he was a great orator. He was a great politician. He was groomed and schooled to take over the throne of Egypt. And Moses had to make a choice. The choice was the throne of Egypt, with all of its gold, with all of its glitter, with all of its slaves, with all of its beautiful palaces. This is what was offered. Or to serve the Lord, turn back to his people and face the wilderness. But Moses was ordained to serve God from almost from his very birth. His very birth, his childhood was a miracle. How his mother put him in the water in the Nile River that was full of crocodiles and trusted him to the Lord. And how Pharaoh's daughter came down and picked up that little ark of bulrushes and found this little babe, and God arranged it so his own mother could nurse him. Only God could work out the details like that, but God's plans are perfect. And now Moses had spent forty years in the wilderness, forty years learning to be nobody, after spending the first forty years of his life learning to be somebody. Yes, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Each one of our lives, our young people today are going to schools, schools of great learning, and I praise and thank God for our schools of great learning, but I hope and pray they'll also learn to be nobody so they can serve the living God in the days ahead. I don't know how many days we have left. I don't know how many months we have left, but I know this, that time is short, and God is looking for fellas and girls and men and women, yes, and grandmothers and grandfathers to stand up and become. And so Moses, as he was tending the sheep on the backside of the desert, all of a sudden he sees a bush. Strange about a bush burning. If you've ever traveled the desert, you see that quite often. A lightning storm comes by at night, and the bushes are dry and, and tingly. It doesn't take much to set them afire. And so you can see little brush fires in various places. But Moses saw this bush burning, and it was very peculiar because the bush wasn't being consumed by the fire. And it caught his attention, he stopped. And the scriptures tell us that he drew near to the bush to find out what was happening, and all of a sudden a voice came out of the bush, and this voice warned Moses not to come any nearer, and it told Moses to take his shoes off, that he was standing on sacred ground. And the voice that spoke to Moses said, who is this speaking to me? He says, I am. I am the Lord. And Moses fell on his face, and he worshipped God. He was fearful. He didn't want to look at God in the face. He had great respect for God. And God told him, now Moses is faced with the situation. God has given him this instruction. And Moses tells God, he says, God, how am I to go, to go back to Israel? I tried to speak to them once, and they wouldn't listen. And God says, you go in my name. And Moses, in the scripture we read, he says, well, he says, what name should, should I use? Jehovah? Should I tell the children of Israel that God had sent me? No, he used the expression. He says, you tell them I am. That I am. Why did he use that expression? You know why? Because he was telling Moses to tell the children of Israel, he says, I am all that you need. I am your strength. I am your wisdom. I will provide your needs in the wilderness. You just, you just trust me. Yes, respect for his name, the great I am. And learn, Moses learned his lesson well, because that whole forty years of walking through the wilderness, Moses never lost his respect for God. He was put to many trials. Many times the children of Israel rebelled. Look at the time he was up in the mountain, he came down out of the mountain, and the children of Israel had turned to idol worship. He could have thrown up his hands and said, well, I'm sick and tired of it all, I'm going to go back. Forget it. But no, he had great respect for God, and he believed his God. He believed that God was the great I am and would provide his needs. Yes, we could go on all night talking about the God's experience in the wilderness, leading Moses as the great I am. But now let's turn over to John, the eighteenth chapter, please, and let's consider the name of the Lord, the name in power. John eighteen verses four to six. This is an incident in the Lord Jesus' life now, the end of his ministry. The Lord Jesus is coming to the point now, Calvary is only a few hours away. He had met with his own up in the upper room. Time was pressing him. You see, he was God, and he knew what lay ahead. In verse four he, Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth and said unto them, Whom seek ye? And they answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus said unto them, I am he, and Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backwards and fell to the ground. Then asked he them again, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Here we see the picture of the great I am and the power of his name. Just the power of his name forced those men to fall back. And I'm thrilled as I consider the Lord Jesus Christ and how perfect God's timing is. The Lord Jesus Christ had lived thirty three years. For three years he had been ministering all around Jerusalem. For three years men have been plotting in ways to put him to death. Do you remember the incident in John seven? The incident when Nicodemus was to gather together with the Pharisees, and the Pharisees had heard about the Lord Jesus, and they thought, well, now is the hour. He's out there holding street meetings. He's blaspheming God. Let's go out and arrest him, and let's bring him to the council. And so the Pharisees in their council, they dispatched the soldiers of the police that they had in those days to go out and arrest the Lord Jesus. And if you remember the incident, the soldiers came back, and the head of the council said, well, where is he? And they said, never heard we a man speak like this man. Why, we couldn't lay a hand on him. Isn't that amazing? You know why they couldn't lay a hand on him? Because it wasn't the hour. Because it wasn't God's time. My friends, I believe with all of my heart, every Christian that's walking in the will of God is immortal until God says the time is up. I don't believe, oh, I believe we can be foolish. I think I can go out and drive my car a hundred miles an hour down the road and get myself killed. But if I'm using common sense and I'm serving God, I believe that God will take care of all of my needs, and I can rejoice and praise him because there is power in his name. And as I said, the soldiers came back and they said, never a man spake like this man, while we couldn't lay a hand on him. And do you remember Nicodemus? Nicodemus stood up in the midst of them, and they said, well, would we try a man without first giving him a trial? And these men turned around, they lashed out at Nicodemus. They said, are you one of these Galileans? Well, I believe he was a Galilean in his heart. Because, you see, Nicodemus, we read about him three places in Scripture. We read about, about him in John three. Oh yes, Nicodemus is still Mr. Nicodemus. He's a Pharisee. He's a leader in the synagogue. He's a man of much wealth and great respect. And he comes to Jesus by night. And he said, he says, Master, he says, we know thou art a teacher come from God. Can you help me find the real truth? Basically, that's what Mr. Nicodemus was saying. And that's when the Lord Jesus Christ gave that wonderful little outline about being born again. And I believe that that was the point where Nicodemus found that Jesus Christ wasn't just a teacher. He wasn't just a rabbi, but that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. But in this portion I just shared with you, John, the seventh chapter, Nicodemus stands up in his own strength, in his own flesh, and he said, now wait a minute, will we arrest this man? And when he was challenged, the scriptures say that he sat down, and the men went out. But you know, Nicodemus didn't end there, because again, there's power in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, if we'll only claim the power. And Nicodemus came to a point in his life where he had to call upon the power of heaven to give him strength. Because I believe when Nicodemus, with Joseph of Arimathea, went before Pilate, it was a real trial. It was a real test of their faith, a real test of their strength. Because, you see, today we try to glamorize everything that happened in scripture, and it wasn't a glamorous situation. The Lord Jesus Christ wasn't crucified as the Lord of glory. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't die on the cross as the savior of mankind, and I say with all due respect, but Jesus Christ, a few hours before that, died on a cross as a criminal. You may say, Jack, that's a terrible thing to say about the Lord. You're there talking about his name, and you say that our Lord died as a criminal. Yes, he did. Whose place did he take? He took the place of Barabbas, and Barabbas was a thief, and Barabbas was a criminal. Jesus Christ took my place, and I was a sinner. I was a thief, and I was a murderer. Oh, you may say, Jack, you were. Oh, that's something I didn't know about. Haven't you ever stole a little bit of time from somebody? Haven't you ever quit your job a few minutes early? That's stealing. You stole some time. Haven't you down in your heart, someplace in your life, somebody crossed you, you said, oh, I hate that person. The Lord said to hate is just as bad as to kill. So you're a murderer too. The Bible says that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But praise God, tonight we can rejoice that we're sinners saved by grace. And so Mr. Nicodemus, as he came there before Pilate to claim the body of the Lord Jesus, he didn't say, well, give me the body of the Son of God. He didn't say, Mr. Pilate, give me the body of your Savior, I want to bury him. I believe when Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus came into that great court, Pilate was sitting there on his throne, and he was answering requests, and they said, Sir, we'd like to take the body of Jesus. The body of who? The body of Jesus. We want to take it and bury it. What do you want his body for? Why, he was that rabble-rousing Jew, that preacher, that one that even his own people turned upon. What are you, Nicodemus? Why, Nicodemus, you're a Pharisee. Why, Joseph of Arimathea, you're a very wealthy merchant. That's good enough, these Galileans, those stupid people don't know any better. But you men are sophisticated men. You're businessmen. Why, you're wealthy men. What do you want with his body? I believe that those two men had a call upon the power, the power of his name, and say that we love him, and we believe that he was the Son of God. He is our Messiah, and we want to take his body and bury him. Yes, there's power in his name, and it's only the power of heaven that could give men the strength to do that. What gave men the strength in the, in the first century, in the days of the Roman Empire, to stand in the Colosseum with their wives and with their daughters, with their grandchildren, be standing in a great arena, have the animals turn loose? All they had to do was deny their Lord. As I think I've told you before, Dan Smith from Emmaus has used the expression many times. But every time they say in those great coliseums, as they were jammed with people, they were screaming and hollering, watching to, to see the Christians torn to bits by the wild beasts, and as that little group would huddle together down in the middle of that great arena before the animals would come out, they said there was always some Christian someplace up in the stands, and you know what they'd shout? They'd shout, Maranatha! Maranatha! You know what the word Maranatha means? The Lord. And those Christians, though they were huddled together down there in the, in the center of that arena, though they were scared, they were human, they were like we are. They were scared, but the moment they heard Maranatha, they find power in his name. They knew that the great I am was Jeff Witty, moments away. I think I shared with you the story about the man Popoff. He was a prisoner of the communists. He was the, uh, relative of Art Miller. Some of you knew Art Miller used to come here selling books. But Popoff was a relative of Art Miller by marriage, and he told the story of being a prisoner of the communists, and he was put in a great warehouse, and the warehouse was completely dark, and he had to stand with his hands against the wall, day and night. And he says every hour on the hour, the guard would come in with a flashlight, shine the flashlight on him, pull out his revolver, put it to his head, and pull the hammer back. You hear the click, and he'd say, well, Lord, I'll be with you tomorrow. And the guy would untock the gun, put it down, and walk away. And that went on hour after hour after hour after hour. He said he almost went mad, till all of a sudden he called on him, the name that was above every name, and he received power from heaven. Yes, the power of the great I am. And that's what the Lord Jesus Christ did there in the Garden of Eden. His hour had not yet come. Judas Iscariot was there. Judas Iscariot was there with a kiss, the kiss of betrayal. And the Lord Jesus Christ, he challenged the men. He says, whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus. He says, I am. And just with the expression of the great I am, the men fell back. Can you imagine the expression on their faces? With all the love of heaven that heaven can pour, could pour out. Again, he looked at them and he said, whom seek you? And they said, Jesus the Nazarene. And he surrendered and walked away. Yes, the power in his name. But also, you know, we don't, we can rejoice in the respect of his name, and we can praise God for the power of his name, but did you ever stop to think there's salvation in his name? Yes, praise God, salvation in His name. Turn with me, if you will, over to Acts, please. Acts, the ninth chapter. Now, as you notice, this is the part that thrills me about scriptures. Scripture testifies of itself. We start our way back in the book of Exodus, and we consider the great I am and respect for His name. Then we move to Calvary in the New Testament, the Gospels, and we saw the power of his name. And now, praise God, we can look at this wonderful story of the li- in the life of Saul, and we can rejoice in the salvation. John the ninth chapter, Acts the ninth chapter, verse three. This is talking about Saul. And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus, and suddenly they shined around about him a light from heaven. And he fell to earth and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And he said, who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. It is hard for thee to kick against the voice. Yes, here is the great Apostle Paul in that moment that changed his life. Yes, the Apostle Paul, the one that wrote so much of our Bible. He's a sinner saved by grace also. He had a call upon the name of the Lord for salvation. And to me, it's always a thrilling story as I read this part portion, and as I look at Saul, and the first thing I notice is his expression. If you'll notice in verse five, as Paul saying, he said, who art thou? A comma, and then Lord, a question mark. Now, how did he know it was the Lord? In other words, had he, as he was going down the road, the Apostle Paul was not a criminal. He was not a drunkard. He wasn't a murderer. He was a very religious Jew. He was on the church's business. He was going to arrest these blasphemers. He was going to Damascus to arrest these people that called themselves Christians, that said that Jesus Christ was the Messiah. But God had an appointment for, for Saul. You see, a man died so that a man could live, is basically what it's all about. And as Saul was going down the road, that great light shone down upon him and drove him right to the ground. As he lay on the ground there, he said, who art thou, Lord? He knew it was the Lord speaking to him. How did he know that? The key to it is, the Lord says, Saul, Saul, why kipest thou against the pricks? What were the pricks? The pricks, my friends, were the pricks in his conscience. You see, go back just a few years, and here was a young Jew, a young Jewish lawyer, a Pharisee, just raised up to a position of preeminence, a position of power and importance. And as the crowd was gathered together, there was a man on the street corner preaching the gospel. His name was Stephen. Oh, he wasn't a great disciple. He wasn't a great apostle. He wasn't even an elder. He was a deacon. He took care of paying the bills, and I wouldn't belittle the office one iota, but he was a man that had a ministry. You see, regardless of what your responsibilities are on the church, each one of us has a testimony, and we have a responsibility to proclaim the truth of God. And Stephen stood on the street corner, and he preached the gospel, and this little Jew came by, and he got a crowd together, and he said, listen to what he's saying. That's blasphemy. We shouldn't stand for that. Why don't we do away with them? You see, he was so smart, he wasn't going to soil his own hands. He built up the crowd, he, he stirred up the crowd, and he held their coats while they threw the stones and stone things. But do you know what the prick was, my friends? A saint going to glory. Because I don't think the Apostle Paul, if you read very closely in his life, he refers to it just casually, not really not casually, but just touches on it, that incident that never left his mind. How Stephen, as the stones hit him in the face and hit him in the forehead, as he sunk to his knees, he looked up into heaven, and his face shone. And what'd he do? He didn't curse those men. He prayed. He said, Father, forgive me. They don't know what they're doing. There, my friend, is real Christianity. You want to be a witness for Jesus Christ? Well, go out and serve your neighbor and help your neighbor and love your neighbor, and you'll find a lot more results than a lot of the other things we're trying to do today. But here's Stephen as he sunk down, and as he looked up into heaven, the scriptures say his face shone as he got a glimpse of his Lord. Yes, he had respect for the name, the Great I Am. He knew the power of the name of the Lord Jesus because he was calling upon him. And now God was using him in a mighty way. As Saul looked into his face, and Saul couldn't get that prick out of his, out of his, out of his conscience. And that's why, when the light shone down upon him, he says, who art thou, Lord? And he called upon the name of the Lord. The Lord said, I am Jesus. I am. And all the Apostle Paul was converted from Saul to Paul. From the man that was on the road to Damascus to arrest the Christians, to the man that turned right around and went a hundred and eighty degrees the other way to serve the living God. Yes, my friends, we can rejoice and praise God that there's salvation in the great I am, and each one of us can testify to that. But now let's play the fourth point, completeness in me. Turn with me, if you will, over to Revelation. Yes, there's completeness in the Great I Am also. Revelation, the first chapter, in verse eight. We'll begin back in verse seven. Revelation, the first chapter, verse seven. The scriptures say, behold, he cometh with clouds, and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him, and all the kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, AM. Amen. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is and which was and which is to come, the Almighty. What a thrilling finish, as we consider this wonderful name of our Lord, the Great I Am. He is the I Am in the beginning. In the beginning, God, he was the I Am. How can you describe him any better? Can you say he has limitations? There are no, no ends to God. When was God created? He always was. That's why he says I am. And that's why if you look to Moses, he says, Moses, he says, I'm sending you in my name. I am. I am all you. Oh, Christian, will you rejoice in the name of the Lord tonight? Will you claim his name and say, oh yes, you are my I am. You supply all of my needs, and I praise and thank you. Yes, he is the I am in the very beginning, and he's also the I am that Noah, as Noah preached for one hundred and twenty years, that judgment was going to fall upon the world. He says the great I am God is going to bring judgment upon the world, and the world laughs. Yes, and by the same token, as those soldiers, as they tried to arrest him, as he said I am, when they fell back, they knew the power of his name. Oh, thank my praise and thank God that he's also the unique, the out and the only. He's also the great I am in the end. Oh, men of laugh and men of stone. But Paul tells us in Philippians, that wonderful portion of scripture, he says that one day that every knee will bow and every tongue shall confess what? That Jesus Christ is the one. What a wonderful moment that's going to be. But oh, my friends, the world, all those that have rejected, all those that have left, all those going will see him also. And they'll see him as the great I am, the great I am sitting upon the great white throne. The scriptures say that the books will be open. The book of life will be open, and every person that passes before that great white throne. They may say, now wait a minute, I was involved in a prayer meeting at Park of the Palms, you know, they had a big prayer meeting, and I came. The Lord will say, I'm sorry, your name is behind. Well, now wait a minute, Lord, I didn't have a chance. And the scripture says that the books will be open, and the books will testify to the fact every opportunity a person has to receive the God. Yes, my friends, God is very diligent. God keeps perfect records, and I believe that every man and every woman is going to give an account for everything they've done in their life. And I believe we Christians are going to give an account for us. Only one life will soon be passed, and only with some in Christ. It's a challenging thought. But that's why I say he is the great I am. The great I am, he sees all things, he knows all things. He looks down in your heart right now. He knows your needs, he knows your wants, and he wants to take care of you. Oh, my friend, if we'll only turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory. And so, I hope after tonight, you're going to feel a little bit taller as a Christian. You're going to rejoice that your God isn't just God, and I say that with great respect, but he is the great I am. He is all things. He's the beginning, and he's the end, and he will supply all of your needs if you'll only cast yourself upon him. Shall we? Our blessed God and loving Father, how we praise and thank you again, that we could go through the book from cover to cover and see these wonderful portraits of how great you are. We praise and thank you that thou art the great I am. We thank you that you're the same God today that met Moses in that wilderness, from the burning bush, and told him to go forth in your name. The I. And Lord, we praise and thank you that there's still power in your name. Even as those soldiers and those men found out in the garden that night, as they came to arrest you, and you said, I am, and that great power came forth, and the soldiers fell back. We praise and thank you that we can claim that power. And oh Lord, we praise and thank you also for the power of salvation. That you are the great I am that died for our sins and that saved us from an eternal hell. And just like the Apostle Paul, Lord, we could call upon your name and rejoice that you are our Savior and our Redeemer. But oh Lord, what a joy it is to realize also that you're the alpha, that you're the unique, that you're the beginning and you're the very ending. You're all things, and we can call upon you. And Lord, what a joy and what a privilege it is that one so great as thy Son, one so great that there's no beginning and there's no ending, and yet we as mortal men and women can come before the throne of grace and offer up our prayers and call you our Father. What a joy it is and what a thrill. Lord, we know that we're living in the last days. We know there's many antichrists coming across the scene. We know that there'll be many more. But we can praise and thank you that we can stand upon your name and rejoice in the fact that thou art able to take care of all of our needs. So we just pray for the week that lies ahead now and all of our busy schedules, that you'll guide and direct. Oh Lord, I just pray that you'll give us opportunity to share with neighbors, to share with friends, to share with those we meet in the marketplace, that thou art the great I am, that you're our Lord and Savior. We give you all the praise and glory now.