And that second line, all the
vain things that charm me most, I sacrifice them to His blood. We won't do that unless He makes
us. Because there's a lot of vain
things that we hang on to. We don't sacrifice them. We don't
let them go. He has to make us let them go.
We're going to see that tonight in our text here in Luke chapter
2. The Lord here is 12 years old. And the Ancient of Days, the
Eternal God is 12 years old in this passage. And He went up
with Mary and Joseph to the Feast of the Passover. And the first
thing we see here is an example of a believer's faithfulness
toward God. Now, what we see here is not
supposition. This is not supposing upon God
and His grace. This is not presuming upon God
and His grace. This is faithfulness. This is
faithfulness. It says there in verse 41, now
his parents went to Jerusalem every year. at the feast of the
Passover. And when he was 12 years old,
they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the feast. By God's
grace, Joseph and Mary were faithful servants of God. They served
God under the covenant that they were under at that time. Whenever
the Lord came into the earth when he was born, they took him
up to the tabernacle. to the temple to be circumcised.
They went to this feast every year. They had been to this feast
11 years before this. Every year, taking Him up there.
Now they're back again. And you have to remember, they're
doing this and they're poor. They're very poor. You can tell
by what they sacrificed. Turtle doves, they were the poorest.
And Nazareth, where they lived, was a long way from where Jerusalem
was. And it was a dangerous trip to
go all the way to Jerusalem. And yet, together, as husband
and wife, taking their child with them, they went up there.
And they went there each year. Every year, they went there.
They left everything at home, and they went there. And they
went there trusting the whole way that God's going to provide
for them. This poor couple. Every husband
and every wife, the husband as the head of the house has a responsibility
to bring his wife and his children to the house of the Lord, to
the place where Christ is preached in truth. That's his preeminent
responsibility. bring her and his family, his
children to the house of the Lord, to the Lord's house, to
hear a word from the Lord. And the children in obeying,
the wife in submitting to the husband, the children in obeying
the parents, they are to come to the house where the truth
is preached. Not to a house that is a vain
house, not to a house where the gospel is not preached in truth.
to the house of the Lord where Christ is exalted and God receives
all the glory. Notice they came to the house
of the Lord with the Lord Jesus. This had to have been a most
extra special time for them because they heard something already.
They knew something already of the truth that the Lord Jesus,
this Son that they're bringing up in their house is Christ Jesus,
God Almighty, the Messiah. They had heard that repeatedly
already. And Mary, it said before, she
kept these things in her heart. And I say again, she kept these
things in her heart. She's learning these things.
The Lord is making sure she gets it. She's raising Him. She breastfed this child. She's
raising this child. She's clothing this child. Joseph's
providing for this child. But all along, this child's providing
for them. They're His house. He's God. He's Holy God. All-powerful. doing the will of the Father,
working through the Holy Spirit, accomplishing His will in the
earth. That's what He's doing in everything He's doing here.
Now, they were observing the Passover. They were there to
observe the Passover feast. And there they had... They know
if He's the Christ, as they've been told, the angels of the
Lord told them, the shepherds told them, they know this one
right here is the... He's the Passover lamb. He's
the one the Passover typified. Don't you know that service had
to be more than it had ever been when they actually had Christ
in their company, in their midst? Anytime you come to the house
of the Lord, the only way you're going to truly worship God is
if Christ is in the midst, if He's in our company. That's the
only way. And giving us worship, true worship. Now, that picture you have here
of them there at this feast and everything, it's a picture of
what we're doing here. It's a picture of the Lord's people gathering
together, assembling together. We do this now under the new
covenant, under the everlasting covenant. This is our law. This is our yoke. Christ said,
you come and you hear of me. You come and you hear of me.
Now, I have to say that when we come, There's no other way
to come to God, no other way to approach God except through
the Lord Jesus Christ. You hear us pray, the men pray,
and we always pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Somewhere
in the prayer we mention that. Even when you say the word Amen,
that word is Christ. That's what the word means. He
is the Amen. We're coming in the name of Christ. That's the only way to approach
God, because God's righteous. You just try to think of somebody
that is just so right, they're never wrong. Well, they're nothing. God is right in everything He
does, right in the way that He does all things, right in the
way He He works all things right in His thoughts, His words, His
deeds, right in how He punishes those who are not righteous. He's right in everything He does.
He does it right, righteously. And He's holy. God is so immaculately
holy. He said, I will be sanctified
in them that come to Me. I'll be high and lifted up and
exalted above all in the hearts of everyone that come to Me.
And he said, and teach your children this too. He won't be approached
in any way but strict holiness. That's why he struck Nadab and
Abihu dead. They came flippantly. They came
drunk in their self-righteousness. They came drunk in their self-will
and their rebellion. They gonna come to God like they
would come to God. And they didn't care what their
minister said to them. And God killed him dead as a
hammer. God can kill you and me dead as a hammer and best
physically be alive and not know it. That's right. But he's going to be approached
holy in a holy manner. And that righteousness, that
holiness is the Lord Jesus. We've got to come in Christ through
faith in Christ. That's how God receives his people.
As righteous as Christ, as holy as Christ, he's our righteousness
and he's our sanctification. Now, since they were poor, now
let me ask you this, since they were poor, were they supposing
that God would provide, were they presuming upon God to make
such a long trip to come to the Lord's house? Were they presuming
upon God's grace to do that? Since the fact of the matter
was that they're going to leave everything back home, their land,
their house, everything, and leave it there unprotected, thieves
and robbers all around them and come to the Lord's house. Were
they supposing Christ is going to be in their midst or God is
going to be in their midst to protect them? Were they presuming? You hear folks say, you know,
my funds are down and what have you and I can't come to the Lord's
house. I'd be presuming on His grace to trust Him to provide
for me. or, you know, I got things I got to take care of, I got
my land, I got my house, I got to feed my dog, I got to feed
my cat, whatever. No, it's just the opposite. If
they had stayed home and forsook the assembly, forsook coming
to God's house and worshiping God through Christ, if they would
have forsook that, that would have been supposing God was in
their company, supposing God would provide grace for them.
Because anytime you disobey God and go directly contrary to God's
will and expect God's going to still be in your midst, in your
company, preserving you, you're presuming on God's grace. That's what that is. Supposing
God's going to be in my company even though I won't dare come
and be in his company. You see what I'm saying? But
by coming there, they were showing that they believed God, they
trusted God, and by heart constrained by love, they were obeying God.
Here's what they trusted. You remember when the Lord told
the men, He said, three times in the year, you come up to the
Lord's house. Come to Jerusalem. Leave everything behind. Come
there. I don't care if you're poor. I don't care if you got
nobody to look after your stuff. You come to the Lord's house.
Why? He said, I will cast out the nations before you and enlarge
your borders. Neither shall any man desire
your land when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord
thy God three times in the year. They came trusting God's grace. They came, if they'd have stayed
back, they'd have been presuming, well, God will keep me even though
I'm rebelling against him. They came trusting him. They
came trusting him. They showed nothing else is as
important as the public worship of God. That's what they showed.
They showed that there's nothing to excuse turning from God and
from the place where God has set up his name and the means
God has said he'll bless his people with. There's no excuse
for forsaking that. Now, here's God's Word to you
and me. Turn to Hebrews 10. This is His
Word to you and me. Let's look at Hebrews 2 first.
Hebrews 2. He says this to us. Therefore,
Hebrews 2.1, we ought to give the more earnest heed to the
things which we have heard. Heard. things we've heard. We ought to give them more earnest
heed to the things we've heard, lest at any time we should let
them slip, lest they should start leaking out like from a leaky
vessel. For if the word spoken by angels
was steadfast, when God gave that law, if those words spoken
by angels was steadfast, and every transgression and disobedience
received a just recompense of reward, He said, if when they
were under that old covenant, that's where we saw, see Mary
and Joseph. They obeyed. They came up to
worship like God said to come worship. Now He's saying, you're
not under that covenant. But if they disobeyed and they
received a just recompense of reward, verse 3, how shall we
escape if we neglect so great salvation? It's greater than
what they had. A lot greater. He said, which
at the first began to be spoken by the Lord. This salvation is
a spoken salvation. It's a preached salvation. It's
a salvation we are spoken by the Lord at first, and it says,
"...and was confirmed unto us by them that heard Him, God also
teaching them, bearing them witness with signs and wonders and different
miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to His own will."
Now look at Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10. Having a high priest over the
house of God. Verse 21, having a high priest
over the house of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's got all power
in heaven and earth. He can move men's heart. He can
move the desires of men's heart. He can protect all our stuff.
He can provide all things necessary. He's represented us to God the
Father, righteous and holy. He's succoring us, comforting
us in all our infirmities. We've got a high priest over
the house of God. That word house of God is important.
We're going to see that in a minute. They went up to the house of
the Lord to worship the Lord. We've got a high priest over
that house. At that time, that high priest
was 12 years old and went up there to the house, his house,
his father's house. He went there with them to that
house. We've got him now seated at God's right hand, ruling everything. And he says this, Let us draw
near with a true heart. in full assurance of faith. Believing He's going to receive
us. Believing He's going to provide
for us. Believing He's going to protect us. Believing Him.
Having our hearts sprinkled from that old evil conscience. That
conscience of excuses and blame and malice and just that old
defiled conscience. And our bodies washed with pure
water. Let us hold fast the profession
of our faith without wavering. For He's faithful that promised
And let us, now watch this. God puts love in your heart.
You love your brethren. And here's what you do when you
love your brethren. Let us consider one another. Let us consider
one another. How do you do that? To provoke
them to love and to good works. How do you do that? The number
one way that you do that is by not forsaking the assembling
of yourselves together to hear the gospel in the Lord's house.
Number one way. Look, he says that. He says,
not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the
manner of some, but exhorting one another. And so much the
more as you see the day approaching. Do you see the day that's approaching
in this country? We're fixing to be in a bad shape
in this country. I don't know how soon or how
long it'll be, but we're going to be in a bad shape in this
country. There are going to be a lot of folks getting their
heads chopped off. I guarantee you that. We're going to be assembling
together Probably in darkness, probably hiding, probably being
wherever we can get together because it's the only way we
can get together. And we're going to do it more and more as we
see Christ's return approaching. That's so. If a man won't come
in a green tree, what's he going to do? What's he going to do
then? Look here now. For if we sin willfully after
that we've received the knowledge of the truth, If we willfully
forsake assembling ourselves together with Christ and His
people to hear Christ speak to us. That's what this is. We come here to hear Christ speak
to us. Not coming is like saying, I don't care what Christ has
to say. And if we sin willfully after we receive the knowledge
of the truth, there remains no more sacrifice for sin, but a
certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation
which shall devour the adversary. It's certain. And he says there
again, just like under Moses' law, if they forsook coming to
those feasts and they forsook coming to the Lord's house and
worshiping the Lord in the manner the Lord ordained, They receive
a just recompense. He said, how much more sore punishment
shall we receive? We tread underfoot the Son of
God. We have that live broadcast.
I'm very thankful for the live broadcast. I really am. You know,
we have it for three reasons. Number one, we have it for those
who meet here regularly with us on Sunday, but live so far
away they cannot logistically make it here. on Thursday night. We have it so they can watch
and join us in the service. We have it so that those in parts
of the world who don't have a pastor, they can watch and hear the gospel
preach. And we have it, number three,
in hopes that some of Christ's lost sheep that don't know Him
will be called through the preaching of the gospel. But here's what
we don't have it for. We do not have it so that those
who could come and worship with us on Sunday just stay home and
watch it instead of coming. We don't have it for that reason.
We don't have it for that reason. To do that is to disobey God. It's to willingly presume upon
God. It's to suppose God will be in
my company on my terms doing it my way. Let me tell you something,
truthfully, as one sent to tell you the truth, God won't. He
won't. He just won't. Alright, so first,
let's follow their example. Joseph and Mary went up there
to the Lord's house to worship the Lord. They didn't suppose
upon God, they didn't presume upon God, they went to worship
Him. Now secondly, here's a word on presumption, verse 43. And
when they had fulfilled the days, As they returned, they headed
back home now, Luke 2 verse 43, the child Jesus carried behind
in Jerusalem. Is He disobeying His parents?
Oh, no. You think the righteous and holy
representative of His people is disobeying His parents? No,
He's not disobeying His parents. This is the Lord over His house.
He's the one that was over that house that they went to up there
to worship the Lord. He's the one that's over his
father's house. No, he's not disobeying. He's
doing them a great service. He's ministering to them. Watch
this. He tarried behind in Jerusalem,
and Joseph and his mother knew not. But they supposing him to
have been in the company, went a day's journey. Now let's understand
this first. Those that God the Father chose
in Christ Jesus, freely by His grace and blessed with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, Christ came and He redeemed them, He purchased
them with His blood, He's purged our sins, He's put away our sins,
justified us before the Father. Those in whom the Spirit of God
dwells has sealed us with the Holy Spirit of redemption and
to the day of redemption, that final day when we're redeemed
fully into His presence, He will never allow us to be separated
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus. He won't allow
it. It won't ever happen. Paul said this, I'm persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Never. It won't
do it. It just won't do it. He won't
allow it. And that's what we're seeing
a picture of here and what he's actually doing here with Joseph
and Mary. He's not going to allow us to
be separated from him. But Christ can make us feel as
though we're separated from Him. He can sure make us feel like
He's not present with us. And He never does that without
a reason. He never does that without a cause. He can make
you and me, who are His true people, believe, I don't even
have Christ in my company. He can do that. Now He sees us
when He's doing it, and we don't see Him. We don't see Him. Well, how does this happen that
we go off and get separated from Him and bring ourselves to this
point of being separated from Him? How does that happen? Look
here. When they had fulfilled the days,
they returned. They took off back home. And
the Lord stayed behind and they didn't even know it. Many come
to the house of God simply to fulfill their duty. They come
and they fulfill their days. They just come for that reason.
He says, well, I got to go. I'm going to go. And then they
set off toward home and the miners set on a thousand different things
they got to do. Well, I've done my duty, now
I'm going to go home. I got to do, I got all these things I
need to get. And then nothing, it's all gone. They left it all,
they left Christ behind. They left Him behind. Many search
the Scriptures. They look for life in the Scriptures.
They think, well, this is my duty. I got to read the Scriptures.
So they read so much Scriptures a day. And when they get done,
they feel better and they say, well, I did my duty. And then
they go off and they go on doing what they really wanted to do
in their heart. And they've left Christ behind. Didn't have Him
in their company. Didn't have Him with them. They've
left Him. Many try to fulfill their day's duty by keeping the
Law of Moses. Going over and looking, seeing
what they should touch and not touch, what they should taste
and not taste, what they should observe and not observe. Christ
said this. He said, I came to fulfill the
law. He said, except your righteousnesses exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you can in no wise enter the Kingdom
of God. And He wasn't suggesting there,
now you better do better than the Pharisees. He was saying
the only one that can do better than the Pharisees is the Lord
Himself. He's saying He's the righteousness
of the law. He's God's righteousness. He's
the righteousness we must have or we can't come into God's presence.
How does this happen? How do we get separated from
the Lord? Look at verse 43. They supposing Him to have been
in their company. They supposed, oh He's in my
company. They just presumed it. He's in
my company. Now in those days, the men walked
together and the women walked together. And I know exactly
what happened here. Mary's walking along thinking
he's with Joseph. And Joseph's walking along thinking
he's with Mary. And I know that's true because
we lost Will at a parade one year. And you know the first
thing, we were frantic. And you know the first thing
that we started talking about when we, as soon as we got together, I said,
I thought he was with you. And she said, I thought he was
with you. And we went to looking. We couldn't find him anywhere.
But you know, here's the point of this. It's not my responsibility. I mean, it's not your responsibility.
for me to make sure I've got Christ with me. It's my responsibility. It's my responsibility to be
remembering the things I've heard and seeking Him constantly and
wanting, desiring in my heart to walk with Him. That's my responsibility.
That's not your responsibility. And it's not my responsibility
to be following you around and making sure... Are you sure you've
got Christ with you? Are you sure you've got Christ
with you? It's my responsibility to come here and declare Him
to you and bring these things to you and exhort you, but I
can't make you have Him in your presence. You can't make me have
Him in mine. That's not our job, brethren.
When we come to the house of the Lord, don't suppose Christ
is with you. Don't just come and presume Christ
is in your company. You can't worship without Him.
You can't approach God without Him. Come asking Him. Lord, give me an entrance. We've
got boldness to enter by the new and living way, Christ the
Lord. We've got to come to the door. We've got to come to the
way. We've got to come to Him who
is the entrance to get this access, to have this entrance. We need
Him. We don't presume we have Him.
Many, there's a lot of folks that go through the motions of
worship and they think, well, I worship Christ. Not necessarily. Not unless Christ gave us a heart
and made us worship Him, we can't come and we can't have worship
without Him. There's a lot of folks who know
doctrine and know true doctrine and don't know Christ at all. We got to know Christ of the
doctrine. Not just suppose because I know this, this and this. I
know the doctrine of election. I know the doctrine of predestination.
I know the doctrine of particular redemption. So that means I know
Christ. Maybe not. Maybe not. When we go home from
the service, they return, they're headed home. I shouldn't suppose
I got Christ with me when I leave. I should seek to have Him with
me. I should want Him with me. I
should desire to have Him with me. When we get through after
the service, it's okay to talk after the service. Let's don't
forget who we heard. You can just picture them going
along that way and they're probably talking to one another and they're
saying, man, that temple at Jerusalem is so beautiful. Isn't it? The
architecture and everything about it is just so beautiful. But
they forgot Him who is the temple. They're walking along there and
they're thinking, did you see the high priest? The robe he
wore and the thing that, that's what God told him to wear. That's
beautiful. In His service, what He does,
He represents His people to the Lord, and you can't come to the
Lord except in that high priest, and then He comes out, He knows
the field of our firmity, so He knows what we're going through.
But they forgot Christ, who is the high priest. They come walking
along and they're talking about, oh, the Passover. Wasn't it a
wonderful ceremony we went through? It was just so wonderful! And
they left Christ, who is the Passover lamb. Talking about
all the feasts. Wasn't it a wonderful feast? Oh, we feasted when we were there.
And left behind Him who is the wine on the leaves, the feast
of that thing. Let's leave here thinking on
one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. Leave here thinking about how
God chose Christ and He chose His people in Him. What amazing
grace that He would choose a sinner like me. Walk away from here
thinking about how that God predestinated me to the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. He didn't leave anything to chance
or luck or any of these superstitious things. He's ruling everything
in my midst to make sure that I'm brought into His presence,
the child of God, into His family. walk around thinking about how
Christ is the one who came and successfully redeemed me from
all iniquity, and particularly all His people, how He redeemed
His people. He didn't fail, He succeeded
in what He did. Go out, and it takes effort,
don't it? It takes effort to make sure
I'm not going to just... I'm not going to just walk out
of here and not go home and open up my Bible. I know I'm not going
to get life by reading so much in my Bible, but I'm going to
go look in that Bible because I want to see Him who is life.
When He said, search the Scriptures, He said, search the Scriptures.
But not thinking you have life in them, knowing that everything
written in that Scripture, the whole volume of the book is written
of Him. And knowing He is eternal life. He that hath the Son hath
life. He that doesn't have the Son don't have life. Search it
to see Him. How does this happen? Look here.
We wait too long to seek His face. Look at verse 44. But they,
supposing Him to have been in the company, they went a day's
journey. And that's when they sought Him.
They went a whole day's journey before Christ came to their mind. And then when they sought Him,
they didn't find Him. Does that sound strange to go that long
without thinking about your child? Didn't y'all have... Cheryl,
was it your daddy that went off and left somebody? I was thinking
about that. Well, you know, that's not nearly as bad as going a
full day's journey and Christ not coming into your mind? The
Lord of Glory not coming into our mind? Us not thinking to
seek Him? Seek Christ and His righteousness
first. First, before coming to the Lord's
house. First, when you're looking into the Scriptures in the Lord's
house. First, when you're leaving the Lord's house. First, when
you set out on the journey. First, in every step of the journey.
First, when you get to the end of the journey. First, first,
first, first, seek Christ. Seek ye first. the kingdom of
God and His righteousness. The kingdom of God is a person.
Christ the Lord. Seek first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness. Everything else will be added
to you. And don't walk out of here like they did. And I think
by what happened here, this is what happened to them. They went
up there and they went through this ceremony of worshiping the
Lord and they left. And as soon as they returned
to leave there, they immediately set their mind and their attention
and their focus on tomorrow and everything they got to do. Joseph,
I think, we got to get home, y'all. Don't anybody, y'all use
the bathroom now and get on here and let's go because we're not
stopping. I got to go to work tomorrow. Tomorrow is evil enough. It'll take care of itself. Think
on Christ today. And so Christ was left behind.
He was left behind. Now, here's the third thing.
Here's the lesson in seeking and finding the Lord once we
realize we've lost Him. And really, this is a lesson
in how the Lord seeks and finds us. That's what's happening here
in all of this. That's what's happening here in all of this.
All right? Now, try to imagine how their
hearts are breaking. They can't find their son. Their
only son. They can't find him. Now, you
know something about this. If you're a believer and you've
been brought to the place where you realize, you begin to think,
I don't even know the Lord. I don't even have the Lord. I
don't even have Him in my company. That's heartbreaking. When you
cannot, you can't find him, you can't, that's heartbreaking. More than it is to lose a son
or a daughter. Moses said, if your presence
don't go with me, Lord, don't send me up. We want him with
us all the time. And so they began looking for
Christ. They're looking for it. Where do you find Christ? Where
do you find Christ? First, they sought Him in their
company. Look at verse 44. They sought Him among their kinsfolk
and their acquaintances. And they didn't find Him there.
Now, they were just looking among all their relatives and then
they went looking at their acquaintances they had met that were there
in the company walking along. But get spiritually what this
means. We spend a lot of time with our kinsfolk and our acquaintances
who do not know the Lord. That's just plain and simple.
They just don't know Him. We're not going to find the Lord with
them. You're not going to find the Lord running with folks who
don't know the Lord. It ain't happening. It ain't
happening. Or when we fall under conviction,
we go to a preacher. Or we go to our brethren or what
have you. Now listen, that's fine. And
if they're faithful, what they're going to do is they're going
to tell you, like John the Baptist said, I'm not the priest. I'm
not the Messiah. I'm not that Christ. I'm not
that light. I'll tell you where you can find Him though. That's
what they'll do if they're faithful. But that's what we do. We go
to our kinsfolk, our preacher, our acquaintances. We go to all
these different places trying to find some comfort. Well, then
what did they do? Then there's a picture here of
repentance. Look at verse 45. When they found
Him not, they turned back. They turned back again to Jerusalem
seeking Him. This turning back is a picture
of where Christ brings us. If we're His, He's going to bring
us here to turn us back. Because the way we're going in,
we're going directly away from Christ. That's what they were
doing. He's back there. They're going this way. And when
we're going in our way, and we're walking by our will, and we're
going to be stubborn and rebellious and have it our way, unless we're
turned back by the Lord, we'll perish. Here's the good thing. If He's in our presence, if He's
in our company, He's going to make it seem like He's not in
our company so that He can turn us around and bring us back to
His company. This is what He does. This is
what He does. Now, they went back to Jerusalem. Now, Christ
won't be found in earthly Jerusalem. He won't be found in religion.
He won't be found in vain religion, in vain works, in vain legal
religion. That was not where He's going
to be found. Paul said, Jerusalem, which it now is, is in bondage
with her children. But Christ will be found in heavenly
Jerusalem. That's where He will be found.
He said, Jerusalem, which is above, is free, which is the
mother of us all. That's another city altogether. What city is that? Listen, you've
come unto Mount Zion. Believer, you've come to Mount
Zion. That's where Jerusalem was. But
now you've come to heavenly Mount Zion. You've come to the city
of the living God. The heavenly Jerusalem. The Jerusalem that's in heaven.
To an innumerable company of angels. To the General Assembly. To the General Assembly and Church
of the Firstborn. That's where this Jerusalem is.
It's His house. His house in heaven, His house
on earth. It's His house where He dwells
in His people, which are written in heaven. He's the God. You've
come to the God that's the judge of all. To Jesus, the mediator
of the new covenant. His blood speaks better things
than that of Abel. He says, now be sure you heed Him that is
speaking. If we're hearing Christ now speaking
to us, He's speaking to us from Jerusalem, heavenly Jerusalem. into his church, into Jerusalem. He's speaking to his people.
That's who he's speaking to. In his house, that's where he's
speaking. That's where you're going to find him. That's where
you're going to find him. Now, note this here. It might
be more difficult to find Christ than it is to lose him. Look
at this. It came to pass that after three
days, they lost him in one day. It took Him three days to find
Him. But here's what Christ will do.
He's going to give His child a heart to seek Him and not give
up seeking Him. And He's going to wait until
the time's right. The number of man is three. He's
going to show you, you can't find Me by your seeking. He's going to make you desperate.
He's going to make you, you've got to have Him. I've got to
have Him. That's what He always does. Now look, He said there,
you'll find me. He said, you shall seek me and
find me when you shall search for me with all your heart. You
see, by waiting like this, He makes every other vain thing
we cherish, He makes us let it go. Because we got to have Him. And we got to come empty. That's
when we'll find Him. So where is He going to be found?
Christ is going to be found. One place. In His true temple,
teaching those that He brings to truly seek Him. That's where
He's going to be found every time. Look at this, verse 46.
It came to pass, after three days, they found Him in the temple,
sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking
them questions. That's what Christ is doing.
If He meets with us here and makes us to worship Him, this
is what's happening. He's meeting in His temple. He's
meeting with those that He's made students of the Word by
His grace. He's hearing our questions that
we're asking in our heart and He's answering those questions
in Spirit in our heart. That's what He's doing every
time the Gospel is preached. Every time. This is where He
speaks. This is where He instructs His people. You remember in the
children of Israel there was one place God told them He would
meet with them. One place. In the temple. from heaven, in that temple,
in that mercy seat. That's where he said, I'll meet
with you. If they wanted to meet with God and speak to God, they
had to come to that place right there and meet with God. There
was a few rare exceptions where, like we saw Sunday, there was
a stone there in Beth Jume, where there was a priest there and
everything required so that it pictured Christ, and he met with
them. But he met with them in the place that was his place
that he set up that he said he would meet with them. You see,
that's humbling, brethren. That makes us go, I can't come
to God my way. I can't have it my way. I can't
come to God sitting at home in my flip-flops with my feet up
in my pajamas, sipping hot coffee and living to myself. I can't
do that. I'm going to have to sacrifice.
I'm going to have to love God's people. I'm going to have to
give of myself because Christ gave everything for me. He's
going to bring us to do that. And He's going to bring us to
want to seek Him and know Him, to be a student of His Word,
to be a doctor, that He's made a doctor, a scribe, a student. And He's going to hear what we
ask Him and He's going to answer what we ask Him. I don't even
know. I have no idea what you're asking. I don't know what you
need. He does. And as the same words go on forth,
somebody asked me one time, why do you cover so much in a message?
I just preach whatever the Lord gives me. He's answering every
question that anybody has. And that's what happens. One
person will hear something, and it will answer the question they
need. Another person will hear something. And just when you
think, I've said that same thing over and over. I'm just so tired.
I know I'm laboring the people to say that same thing, that
same way, over and over. And you're going to do it anyway.
And somebody will walk up to you and say, I have never heard
that before. And you've said it three, four
dozen times the same way. All right, now look. We're going
to find Him where He is. And look at what He said. Look
at verse 49. He said unto them. They said,
We've been looking for you everywhere. And He said this, How is it that
you sought Me? How did you seek Me? He's saying,
Where did you go? Where have you been looking?
Now look at this next word, wished you not that I must be about
my father's business. That's a good translation, but
if you'll see the marginal reading there, it gives you another scripture.
If you go read that scripture, the other scripture translates
to the word, don't you know I must be in my father's house? I'm
going to be in my father's house. That's where you're going to
find me. That's what he's telling them. That's where they found
him. That's where they found him. And He's about His Father's
business in His Father's house. He's accomplished the work of
redemption. And He's justified His people from all things from
which we could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now, He's
in His Father's house calling His people, drawing His people,
making His people to be Bereans, making His people to be students
of the Word, teaching us in our heart that we've got to have
Him in our company all the time. And when we come and we think,
well, I've done my duty and we head out, he draws back and says,
let them go for a little while out there and let them fall flat
on their face and let them realize I ain't with them. And all the
while he's drawing you back to him, back to his house, back
to be gathered with his people, back to his body. And He brings
you in there and then He instructs you and He says, and you know
this is where you'd find me all along. Right here where I said
I'd be. Right here where I said I'd be. If you then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above. Where Christ sits at the right
hand of God, set your affections on things above, not on things
of the earth, for you're dead and your life is hid with God
in Christ. We don't come here to be taught
by a man or to be taught about a man, we come here to be taught
of Christ, about Christ, the God-man. To hear of heavenly
spiritual things. And what happens when He makes
you hear Him? Look here at verse 47. And all that heard Him were
astonished at His understanding and His answers. And verse 48
says, And when they saw Him, they were amazed. That's where
He brings you, to be astonished and amazed. And one last thing,
why does Christ sometimes draw back from a believer like He
did here? This is the point of what I've been trying to teach
you. Why does He draw back from a believer like He did right
here? Verse 48, the answer is in what she said to the Lord.
And His brother said unto Him, Son, why hast Thou thus dealt
with us? Why does He thus deal with us?
Behold, Thy Father and I have sought Thee sorrowingly. That's
why. That's why He makes you seek
Him sorrowing. That's why He deals with you
thus, to make you seek Him. That's why. And look, if you
don't understand at first, and you don't understand what He's
saying at first, here's what He does. Verse 50. They understood
not the saying which He spoke unto them, and He went down with
them. And He came to Nazareth, and
He was subject unto them. Christ draws us to dwell in Him,
and then He comes down in Spirit, and He abides in us, He dwells
in us. Nazareth was their dwelling.
He dwells in us, and He ministers to us. That's what He did there.
And here's what He does. He makes you keep all these sayings
in your heart, and look. And this is what happens in your
heart. Jesus increased in wisdom. That's what He makes happen in
your heart. He increases in wisdom. He becomes your wisdom. He increases
in stature. He becomes exalted above all.
He increases in favor with God. You see that the only one that
satisfies God is Christ. And in favor with man, you become
satisfied with Him too. That's what He does. How do I
know I have Him? If you can go your way and go
more than a day's journey and just keep on trucking and think,
I'm alright. I got Him in my company. You
don't have him. But if he just won't let you
go and he keeps bringing you back to him and making you join
and come with his people, you got him because he's got you. That's the only reason. Amen.