Jesus Only
Now tonight’s subject is “Jesus.” Last week, a friend of mine said to me, “You know, I’ve heard you so often, but really over quite a period now, and I’m not quite sure that you believe in Jesus.” Well, that’s my friend’s opinion, perfectly all right. If I said to you, “Do you believe in God?” the chances are everyone here would say yes, without batting an eye. And if you asked me, “Do you believe in God?” I would, without hesitating, I would say, “Why, certainly I believe in God, but, you know, you and I may be miles and ages away in what we believe.”
Today, I said I believe in democracy. Well, so does Khrushchev, but it’s not my concept of democracy. Or maybe… how old is the United Nations, I don’t know, but the Australian Ambassador, who represents Australia at the United Nations in San Francisco, ___(??), he defined for us his country’s concept of democracy, which is my concept, but it may not be yours; and certainly, it is not Khrushchev’s. He said, “Democracy to us in Australia is based upon the principle of compromise, but not upon the compromise of principle.” All the difference in the world! For that’s my concept of democracy: this two party system, where this area of the world, our world, needs help, but it doesn’t—someone in the mid-West they don’t need the same kind of help, but they will cast their vote with me, representing this part of the world, that I may get the help I need for the people I represent. And so I don’t need what he wants when the vote comes up and he’s putting it forward, but I remember his kindness to me and so I will throw my vote with him. That’s not compromising principles; it’s simply the principle of compromise.
So when I was asked, “Do you believe in Jesus?” I said, “Well, I don’t think anyone walking the face of this earth believes more in Jesus than I do.” But, who is Jesus? The poet said, “Truth embodied in a tale shall enter in at lowly doors.” Well, the authors of the Bible, and no one to this day knows who they are, no one knows the author of the Bible, save it’s inspired and dictated by God. So when we read Jeremiah, Isaiah, and all these names, no one knows the true prophet who received an inspiration, this Word of God. But they knew, as the poet I just quoted knew, that we understand best not bare truths but thoughts put into stories. Man wants to see the truth, and so, they presented the story in such a manner that we could see the truth. But over the years, man has mistakenly taken personifications for persons; they’ve mistaken the vehicle that conveys the message for the message; the gross first-sense for the ultimate-sense intended. So today, we have idols made out of the personifications of truth.
So here, let me this night try to explain to you what I mean when I use the word Jesus. You see, you and I name a child because we like a relative, or a friend or maybe the sound of the name. You will say, “Well, I like that, that sounds well,” so we give a child a name based upon sound, or based upon the fact that we like our uncle or our father or our mother, or maybe some friend. But in the Bible, this great book of God, it is not done in that manner. In the Hebraic world, names are chosen for their meaning in ___(??); so all these names are chosen for their meaning in the great drama of God. So what is the name Jesus? It’s the Anglicized form of the Hebrew word Joshua. It means “Jehovah is salvation.” Jehovah is a savior. Therefore, the 43rd of the Book of Isaiah tells us, “For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I, I am He, and besides me there is no savior” (verse 11). Call him Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. So he’s called Jesus, and the only savior is Jehovah; and Jehovah’s only name is I AM.