Here in John chapter 12 verse 44 and 45. John chapter
12. Jesus cried and said, John chapter
12, verse 44, Jesus cried and said, He that believeth on me
believeth not on me, but on him that sent me. And he that seeth me seeeth him
that sent me." Now, we don't actually expect to see Jesus or to meet
Jesus in flesh and blood. In reality, we don't. But we do know that there is
a great and glorious blessedness in store for those who have not
seen him with these mortal eyes. A blessing awaits them that have
not seen him with these mortal eyes and yet believed on him. We do expect to meet Him and we expect to
see Him after a spiritual fashion. We see the love of God in Christ. Nowhere can the love of God be
seen except in Christ. We see Him in the Gospel. We meet Him in the Gospel. I
remember in my little five-cent experience when he
first appeared to me many years ago, and I believe
has appeared to me many times since. Not in flesh and blood. but hath
appeared to me in the gospel." To see God and to know God is
in Christ. For all that we can ever know
about God is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. So I remember when He first appeared
to me. When He first appeared to me, He made me to see my shame and
my guilt and my sin. I had never seen that before.
I had never seen that I had offended God. When they talked about heaven
and hell, I wasn't interested in the subject and had nothing
to add to the conversation. It was said and it was gone. I never heard it, and if I did
hear it, I forgot about it. But when he appeared to me in
the gospel, I was overcome and overtaken. in the sense of my guilt and
sin, agreeing with God that I was a sinner, a helpless and hopeless
sinner. Nothing in me, about me, pertaining
to me was worthy of his notice or consideration. But then I
heard the voice of the gospel. Come unto me, look unto me, all
ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved. Come unto me, all ye
that labor, and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Well, many days have passed since
that time. The biggest part of fifty years
have passed since I first was made acquainted with Him. Acquaint thyself with Him, the
Scriptures say, and be at peace. Many years. And He has come to
me again and again and again down through these years. My
knowledge of Him and my spiritual vision of Him is greater now
than it was. I was a baby and desired the
milk of the Word. But as God made me to grow into
maturity, I see Him in His election of grace. I see this one who was aroused
from his peaceful sleep by his disciples and said, Master, carest
thou not that we perish without a word? He looked to that bottomless
ocean, that fierce waves of boisterous And he said, Stop! Cease to be! He just spake, and
all was calm. I've seen him like that. I didn't
at first see him in that light as a God over all and above all,
the Creator of all things, the Maker of all things. sustainer
of all things, controller of all events, the manager of all
affairs, a sovereign God, seated on His throne in glory and majesty,
doing as He pleases. He says here, He that seeth me, seeth him that sent me. Well,
it goes without saying, then, that a man must see. You cannot
know God apart from Christ. It is imperative. that if a man
has a good hope, he must see Jesus with his spiritual eyes. We probably won't see him any
other way. We'll probably die before he
comes and takes us away. But it may be that these are
the latter days. It may be that this time in which
we live is the time that was foretold, a time when the earth
will shake. There will be rumors of wars and man's heart will fail. This
may be that time. I don't know. I'm not a prophet
or a son of a prophet. But it might be, and there might
be, some of you all will see Him face to face when the angel
comes and the Lord Jesus Christ cries
with a loud voice and the dead in Christ shall rise first. You may see Him face to face,
I don't know. I believe that when Jesus cried
and said, He that believeth on me believeth not on me, but on
him that sent me. There ain't no separation. He that seeth me seeth him that
sent me. Knowledge. I've learned some things down
through the years. Learned some things. Got some
knowledge of who he is. And I was just thinking about
what I'm talking about here tonight, that it seems like the most vital
thing that this nation needs, these 50 states,
the population. According to those who are in
charge, there are certain ones in charge, There's bosses and
there's employees. There's those that sit in high
places and think that they can manage our affairs better than
we can manage our affairs or better than God can manage our
affairs. And so I heard, I've been listening
to and reading the papers and all, And the most vital thing
that those who are in charge think that is needed for us is
more education for the children. First thing on the agenda, first
thing I'm going to do when I'm elected president, we're going
to reform, review, the schoolteachers, the schoolhouses, and teach the
children. And if the schools don't teach
the children, then we're going to penalize them. Well, I got
to thinking about that. And they may be right in their
eyes. But in my eyes, the way I look
at it, I believe that what every man, every woman, every boy,
and every girl needs is the knowledge of who God is. I think that's
the greatest thing. I don't think there's anything
above that, that we might know Him. Know Him. We can know our signs. And Martha
and I the other day was watching the television prior to the news
or maybe on the news where little 6th and 7th grade kids was calling in and they had problems
with algebra. And they had an instructor on
there and he would work out their problems, question them, work
out their problems. Well, I'm sure that's good. I'm
sure that's good that you can do that. work out those problems
now. But that's not the greatest thing
in the world. The greatest thing in the world is to know who he
is. That's what the great... You can know that algebra. And Martha and I looked at it
and we said, ah, so? We didn't ever graduate. We didn't
ever got out of high school if we had been required to know
what these sixth graders and fifth graders and fourth graders
This Epson, one up here and the 29 down there, I didn't even
know what they was doing. I don't know what their purpose
was. All I know is 2 and 2 is 4. 12 and 12 is 24. But the greatest thing, the greatest
thing, nothing is greater than this for humankind, is for a
man to know him. And He said, He that seeth Me
seeth Him. He said, For Me, for I am the
Father, we are one. To know Him, to know Him. Here in another verse that I want to
read to you here, John chapter 4. John chapter 4 and verse 11. John chapter 4 and verse 11. This woman, this woman that had
five husbands, that had five husbands, And Jesus said, answered
her, no, Jesus said, Go call thy husband, and come hither. And the woman answered and said,
I have no husband. And Jesus said to her, Thou swell
said I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands. You lived
with five men. And he whom thou now hast is
not thy husband, in that you said right when you said, I have
no husband. This woman, this woman who was
an adulterer, lived in open adultery, which was a violation of the
law of God. Thou shalt not commit adultery.
That's part of the law of God. God will never, never, never
be satisfied with any man, woman, boy, or girl until that law is
satisfied. Justice must reign. Whosoever looketh upon a woman
with lust in his heart hath committed adultery. All then are reduced
to sin. But the thing that I liked about
this was back up here. When he said, well, the tenth
verse, Jesus answered and said, that is in reply to the question,
How is it that thou being a Jew, asked the Lord Jesus, ask a drink
of me which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, If
thou knowest the gift of God." Well, in this meager spiritual
understanding that I've had, not because I was brighter than
others, God forbid, but because God made me to see this. God made me to see that salvation
is a gift of God. And it is not like a gift that
you and I give. We give gifts and at times regret
that we gave the gift. And we would take it back if
we could. But I have learned that whatever God does, He does
forever. Never reclaims his gift. It's
a gift of God. He said if you knew that, if
you knew anything at all about the gift of God. Now if this
generation of people, church people included, if they knew
the gift of God, they'd know a whole lot more than algebra. wouldn't teach
you. If you knew who it is that saith
unto give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. And here's the part I like. And
a woman saith unto him, Sir, this sinful woman, this sinner
who had five husbands, and the man she lived with still wasn't
her husband. She addressed him as Sir. Now, years back, Sir
was used a whole lot. But it is rarely in our day do
you hear the word Sir used. I'm right, am I? All right. I looked this up in the dictionary.
It says, Sir is a term of greeting used in the title of a man's
office. She called him Sir. Used in his title, he was the Son of God. He was
God manifest in the flesh. And the term, sir, was rightfully
used in regard to him and to his offices because he's a prophet
and he's a priest and he's a king. She said, sir, this woman of
adultery, sir, thou hast nothing to draw with. The well is deep. From whence then hast thou living
water? Well, turn with me then again
to John chapter 12, verse 21. The same came, therefore, to
Philip, which was of the Sadia of Galilee, saying, Sir," addressing Philip as to, certainly
to his child. He was one of the disciples. He was one who was near and dear
to the Lord Jesus. And he said, Sir, we would see
Jesus. He that seeth the Son seeth the
Father. For I and the Father are one.
Sir, we would see Jesus. Well, that leads me to say this. How important is it to you, And
how important is it to me to see the Master? How important
is it? It was very important to these
that I've read and quoted from in the Scriptures. Well, how
important is it to you to see the Master, the King, the Prophet,
the Priest? the Savior, the sin bearer, our
righteousness, our justification. How important is it to you and
to me to see, well, you answer that question every day when
you pray. You praying is an indication. when you pray unto God who you
have not seen and yet believe. It is an indication of your soul that you want to see Him when
you pray. So you answer that question every
day when you pray. And when you seek His face, you
answer that question. When each week, by your attendance to the Body of Christ or the
Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, how often do you attend? Your attendance is an evidence
of your desire to see Jesus. If you attend, go today and two weeks from now
go again, or stay away, you really don't have that desire to see
Jesus. Those that have a desire to see Jesus, evidence of that
fact, by their attendance to the worship service, where they
can worship and sing praises and hear the preacher tell them
about Jesus. You give evidence to that. It is so important to one woman here in the Bible for her to see Jesus. that though
she was sick, she was very sick. She had an issue of blood. I don't know what her disease
was, but it was bad. She was weak and she was sick. And at first her ears were opened
and she heard them talking about this man. who calms the storm, who tells the waves to stand
still. She heard about that man. Someone said he was nearby healing
people, saving their souls and healing their bodies. She was
so weak and so sick, she had went to every physician in Israel. And none of them done her any
good. And she was desperate to see this one that they called
Jesus. And so she broke through that
crowd. There was an enormous amount
of people, side by side, wall to wall. And she broke through
that pressing crowd. in order to touch His garment. Oh, what a desire was in that
woman's heart that day. Move aside! Step aside, I'm coming
through! I've got Jesus on my mind. I must see Jesus! I must say, Jesus. She was determined to catch a
fleeting glimpse of the Great One, of the Great One. I remember years ago, I used
to listen to, watch on the television, to Jackie Gleason, and he liked
to be referred to the Great One. He likes to be called the Great
One. The Great One is here. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the Great One. And this woman was determined
and nothing was going to stop her from seeing Him. And she rushed through that crowd and she seen Him. And the Lord
said, Why, woman, what is it you want? Just touch him. That's all she had to do was
touch him. Just touch him and I know it
will happen. She slipped through that crowd and came back out
and she was healed. Well, over here in John, I think,
chapter 19, And verse 3 is another character in the Bible that we're
familiar with. He wanted to see Jesus. You don't run across very many
today that say, Preacher, I want to see Jesus. Or brother or sister,
I want to see Jesus. This fellow wanted to see Jesus.
Well, in passing, let me say that want to is of God. Not every man wants to, but they
are a number, an unlimited number of people that God has chosen
to Himself. And they are of that number that
sooner or later they want to seek Him. The want comes from
God. He will have His own. If He sanctified and set apart
a number of people and He wrote their names down in the Lamb's
Book of Life, He'll have those people. All that the Father,
Jesus said, all that the Father giveth Me will come to Me. And I will in no wise cast him
out. So the want to, the want to in
this fellow was the work of God. This is the work of God that
you believe on him whom God has sent. And so here in this 19th
chapter it says, Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. And
behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief
among the publicans and his rich." Now, that's strange, isn't it?
He had a good job. He was the chief among the tax
collectors. He just wasn't a tax collector,
but he was the head of the tax collectors. And the Spirit of
God adds to the Word, and says he was rich, rich, and he sought
to see Jesus. I wonder how that come about. His want to see Jesus is the
work of God. He sought to see Jesus, who he
was, and he could not for the press, could not see him for
the crowd. But he was determined. How determined
are you and I to see Jesus? Our determination is evidenced
by our attendance from time to time at the place of worship
where we can pray, where we can sing, and where we can hear about
him and pray to the end that God would show us Jesus. Well, he could not see for the
press because he's a little fellow, wasn't very big. He ran before
and climbed up a sycamore tree to do what? To see Him. He didn't
see it, me, see it the Father who sent me. And he climbed up
that tree, just a little guy, and probably the limbs weren't
too were down low, probably had a time getting up there, but
he had this determination to see this Jesus that had passed
by. For he was to pass by. And when Jesus came to that place,
he looked up. Strange that our Lord looked
up. Not strange to him. One of his, he was a son of Abraham. One of his was up that tree.
God's going to find him. He's going to find every one
of his own. Ninety-nine was lost, or ninety-nine was in the fold,
but there was one that was lost. But the great shepherd who owned
the sheep, he went on a hunt, and he didn't stop until he found
the sheep. And he won't stop until he has
them all in the fold. And they'll all come. by seeing
Jesus in the gospel. When a man sees Jesus in the
gospel, he can do nothing else but love Jesus. He'll love Him
because he first loved Him. Make haste, I say, come down,
for today I must. I'd like to. Well, would you
entertain me as your guest? No, he said, I must. I've got
to. I've got to. It's written in
the purpose and the will of God. I've got to be there today. For today salvation has come
to thy house. He climbed up this tree to catch
a glimpse of this great one. Then I'll just mention those
two Marys and quit. Those two Marys, Mary Magdalene
and Mary, the mother of another one of their disciples. Forget
now. They came unto him, and he said,
After the resurrection, they come looking. They ran down there and there
he was. And he said, All hail! All hail,
he said those two men. You know what they done? They
fell down on their knees and grabbed him by his legs and they
wept and worshipped him. They see Jesus. Let's stand. We are going.