It's good to see you again. It
really is. I love coming here. Of course, I love your pastor
and his wife, but I've grown to know many of you now and love
you too. I'm thankful to be here. It's
an honor. It's always an honor to be asked
to preach anywhere, an unworthy honor. A trust that's put upon
a man to stand in another man's pulpit. You're very jealous for
this pulpit. And a trust I do not want to
betray. I honestly mean this when I say
I'd rather be sitting there where you are listening to your pastor
preach. I really would. But it's a privilege to help
you out. I know you're real busy at this
time and just glad to do it. Can't tell you how many times
he's preached for us. Countless times. Very thankful
for him. Very thankful. Turn with me to
John 14, where Brother Gabe read from. John 14. And I appreciate
that prayer, Brother Gabe. That was a blessing. Gabe prayed
that the Lord would be glorified and God's people edified. You know, when you're a young
preacher, what you're concerned about with mostly is that you
don't fall on your face. You know what I mean? That you
don't mess up. You want to do well, you know.
You get a little older and you start preaching a while and the
burden, you want God to be glorified. You really do, don't you? You
want to tell the truth. You want sinners to come to Christ. You really do. And you want God's
people to be comforted. You want God's people to be edified.
That's what he told, Isaiah told, God told Isaiah to do, comfort
ye, comfort ye my people. And nowhere could we find more
comfort than this, what the Lord is telling his disciples here
in John 14. Judas had left. And now it's
just 11 apostles, true disciples that know him and love him. He loved them, and so they love
him. And he's talking to them. And
John 14, 15, and 16, someone says, greatest message sermon
ever prayed, followed by the greatest prayer ever prayed,
John 17. It was a prayer for them and
for us. And what the Lord tells His disciples
here, words of comfort, all comfort, allaying their fears, their doubt,
they're full of fears, they have doubts, they have worries about
many things, and He's allaying their fears, He's comforting
them, and us, if we're His disciples. God's word to the unbelieving
world is, His words are few, His words are repent, Bow to
my son. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Call on him. But to his people,
this whole book is full of exceeding many great precious promises. Promise after promise after promise
from our Father who cannot lie for our comfort. So I hope these
words will be comforting to believers. This is to believers here tonight.
If I had a text, it would be verse 9. Look at it with me again.
John 14, verse 9, and a title. Jesus saith unto Philip and to
all of his disciples, have I been so long time with you, and yet
hast thou not known me, Philip? What I hope to show us from the
Lord's words here, we just don't know Him as we should. If we did, we would have very
few doubts, very few fears, very few worries, if we just knew
Him, if we just knew Him. Faith is to know Him. These are
the words, like I said, of our Lord to His disciples, words
of comfort. Now the Lord had just told all
of them that they were going to forsake Him. He just told
all of them that they were going to be offended by Him and leave
Him, flee from Him. He just told Simon Peter, you're
going to deny me, you're going to be worse, you're going to
deny me. And yet he is comforting them.
He should be rebuking them. He should be, but he's comforting
them. They're gonna leave him, but
he's comforting them. He told them he's gonna leave
them. He said, I must go away. I must
go away. He's gonna leave them. So there
are two things they're worried about. They're worried about
him leaving. They're his little children.
They're totally dependent on him. They love him, they trust
him, they look to him, and he says, I'm leaving. And they really
don't know where he's going. He's been telling them, but like
little children, they're not listening very well. And he said
he's gonna leave them, all right? They're worried about that. And
then he told them, you're gonna leave me. Now I ask you, are
these not our two greatest fears, believer? Are these not our two
greatest fears that the Lord will leave us and forsake us?
He's done with me now. And that we will leave him, isn't
it? So our Lord here in these verses,
they were all trouble. They're all trouble because of
these two greatest fear. And if you're troubled by that,
that's a good sign. That's a good sign. If you're
worried that the Lord is going to leave you, that means He must
be with you. If you're worried you're going
to leave Him, you must know Him. You must believe Him. There was
a time when you weren't concerned at all. You understand what I'm
saying? So these are our two biggest
fears, and the Lord is allaying those fears. Now, they were full
of trouble, they were full of doubts and fears about Him and
about them, and in spite of all He had said and shown them, What
it was is they really hadn't heard what he said. They really
weren't listening to him. They really didn't believe him.
Had they really been listening to him? He'd been telling them
all along, I'm leaving. This is why I came, and this
is what I did, and I did it for you, and I'm going away, and
he told them that. He said, I'm going to Jerusalem,
and they're gonna take me and crucify me, but I'm gonna rise
again, and I'm gonna come back, and you're gonna be happy. It's
like they didn't hear a thing. And they're full of doubts and
fears and worries, like us. It's like we don't hear a thing.
Most of our worries and fears are unbelief, aren't they? We
have worries, we have doubts, we have fears about others, and
about ourselves, but we worry about those we love, we worry
about things, we don't know the outcome, and it's love. It's
not always unbelief, it's love. But most of our doubts and fears
are, we really don't know our Lord well enough to trust Him. You follow me? So the title of
this message is, Our Little Known Lord. How little we know the
Lord. If we knew Him better, we would
have less doubts and fear. Now the disciples had seen many
things that the Lord had done, hadn't they? They had seen him,
they saw him heal the blind, saw the blind giving eyes to
see. They saw the lame to walk. They
saw the lepers cleansed. They saw the deaf to hear, didn't
they? They saw the deaf healed. They
saw the dead raised to life. The
poor have the gospel preached to them. They'd gone through
storms and thought the Lord had left them and they were all gonna
perish, and yet they saw him coming to them in the midst of
the worst of storms. Well, brethren, we've seen all
of these things, haven't we? We've seen the same thing. I
once was blind, and now I see. Aren't you? I've seen the blind
giving eyes to see. I've seen the deaf giving ears
to hear. I've seen people sit there and sit there and sit there
and hear message after message, I did, and hear message after
message after message, and then one day their ears are open.
It's proof. Everything he said is true. I've
seen the lame walk, those who could not come to Christ, those
who would not come to Christ, I've seen them come to Christ.
Dead right, you hath he quickened who were dead in trespass. So
we've seen the same thing. We've heard the same gospel.
They heard him speak as no man could speak. And so have we. You've heard
your pastor preach and broke your heart, healed your heart,
opened your eyes, opened your ear. Same Lord, same Lord. And yet they still had doubts
and fears and unbelief. They saw all of it. They had
been with him for three and a half years, or rather, he with them.
He said, have I been so long time with you? They had been
with him for three and a half years. And all that they had
seen, all that they had heard him say, and yet they were still
full of doubts and fears. Why? You know, after it was all
said and done, these were grown men, these were adult men, and
what did he call them? Little children. Little children. That's how little children acted.
And they were worried. Peter and Thomas and Philip and
Jude, they were all worried, weren't they? Huh? Simon Peter
said, Lord, why can't I go? The Lord said, I'm going away.
He said, I want to come. He said, you can't. He said,
why not? That sound just like your children? Where are you
going? Can't I come? No, you can't come. Later. I want to go. Thomas, we don't know where you're
going. Show us the way. Philip, well,
show me something. Show me the father. Jude, how? They were all asking questions
like, when, where, what, or how? Your pastor preached a message
down in Sylacauga. He may have preached it here.
Did you preach it here, 2 Timothy 1.12? I know whom I have believed. And he said, if you know whom
you believe, all the answers to the who, what, where, and
how are answered. It's like, they said, Thomas
said, we don't know the way. He said, if you'd known me, you'd
know the way. I am the way. We don't know where you're going.
If you know me, you're already there. You understand? Show us the Father. Philip, if you've seen me, you've
seen the Father. I am the Father. Don't you believe
that? He did only things, he said only
things that God could say and do, didn't he? We've heard that
same voice, haven't we? So he said in verse one, look
at verse one. Let not your heart be trouble. You believe in God? This is not
a question. He's reassuring them in it. You believe in God? They did.
There was a time they didn't. There was a time you didn't.
There was a time I didn't. But now I do. I really do, don't
you? Don't be afraid to say it. It's
not presumption to say that, it's faith. And why do we believe? We didn't decide to. God gave
us this faith. Faith's not of yourself, it's
a gift of God. We do believe in God, don't we?
The God of the Bible. He said, let not your heart be
troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. You believe in God. We do, don't
we? I mean the God of the Bible.
Your pastor preaches the God of the Bible. Very few men do,
but he does. And you've heard the God, this
is life eternal, Christ said in John 17, that they might know
thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he sent. We know
the only true God now. We've heard him pray. You've
heard him pray. We know the God who is God. Not the God who's
trying to be God. Not the God who wants to be God
if you let him. That's no God at all. We know the God who is
God. The God who works all things
after the counsel of his will. His will, that He does according
to His will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants
of the earth, doesn't He? That's the God we know. You know
that God? Sure you do. You believe Him, don't you? We
do. We believe in that God, our Creator,
our Sovereign, our Judge, yet our Father. Christ kept telling
them this. I go to my Father and your Father.
God who worketh all things after his will, God who reigns and
rules in the armies of heaven among the inhabitants of the
earth, and none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest
thou? That's the God who is God, isn't
it, brother? We believe that God. We really do. You know how
few people do? Well, this is life eternal. We
believe that God who purposed all things, who predestined all
things, who ordered all things, and it's all sure, it's absolutely
gonna come to pass. Every single thing that he has
purposed and ordered, and he did all this before the world
began. Predestined all things. You know how few people believe
that? I do. Do you? You believe in God. That's life, it's life. We believe
that God was manifest in the flesh. We believe that that God
became a man. and his name is Jesus Christ.
That that man who walked this earth 2,000 years ago is not
just a man named Jesus, he's God manifesting the flesh. Call
his name Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father. We believe that that Son of God
is not just the Son of God, he is God. He's the Father and yet
the Son. You say, I don't understand.
I don't either, but I believe it. Don't you? You believe in
God. And she says, believe also in
me. He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. No man hath
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared Him. No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
but the Son, and he to whom the Son will reveal Him. That's what
Scripture said. And John said, we know that the
Son of God has come and given us an understanding that we might
know him that is true. What's that? The true God. And
we're in him that is true. This is the true God and this
is eternal life. Do you believe God? Do you believe
this God? Do you believe that Jesus Christ
is God? You have life. And what you got to worry about? Let not your heart be troubled.
Let not your heart be troubled. He went on to say, in my father's
house are many mansions. That is, much room. You reckon
there's room for me? I reckon there's room for you. Many mansions. If it were not
so, he said, I would have told you. God who cannot lie. This is the record that God who
cannot lie. God has given us eternal life
and this life is in his Son. And he that hath the Son, he
that hath faith in the Son, he that has a need for the Son,
he that believes the Son hath life. Not might have it, hath
life. You believe in God. Believe also
in me, Christ said. Oh man, I wish I believed in
more, don't you? There's a Psalm, Psalm 9 verse
10 that I remember reading as a young believer that blessed
me so much and it stuck with me all those days. It says that
they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. They
that know thy name will put thy trust in thee. What's his name?
Well, we call our Lord, Lord. Because He is, don't we? He said,
you call me Lord and Master, and you say, well, for so I am. He really is Lord. He reigns
and rules over all things. He's the sovereign Lord, isn't
He? He is. He's called Lord Jesus. What's
that mean? It means Savior. Call His name
Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sin. Not might
save, He shall save. Did He? We believe that He did. We believe. Christ, what's that
man? The Messiah, the mediator, the
Messiah, the mediator, the covenant head, the substitute, the prophet,
the priest, the king, the one whom God would send as our, the
Lord, our righteousness, the Lord, our shepherd, the Lord,
our everything, the Lord, our salvation. Lord Jesus Christ. They that know his name will
put their trust in him. Do you believe he's Lord? Do
you believe he's your Lord? then everything's fine. Jesus,
Savior. You trust him, your Savior, from
sin? That's his name. Christ, Messiah,
representative, substitute, do you? Messiah. They that know
thy name will put their trust in thee. They did. They believed. These disciples
did. They believed Him. They really did. One time, He
asked them, He said, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man
am? And they began to say different
things. Some say you're this, and some
say you're that. He said, who do you say that I am? And Peter
spoke up. One time he spoke up, and I'm
glad he did. He said, we believe, no, we're
sure, that thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And
I know the Lord smiled. He said, blessed art thou, Simon
Bar-Jonah, flesh and blood didn't reveal that to you, but my Father
which is in heaven. He said, have not I chosen you?
I've chosen you, like Isaiah 53 says, that you might know
me. You believe in God, believe also in man. He said, I go to
prepare a place for you. In verse three, I go to prepare
a place for you. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners. Is that you? The Lord went to
the cross to save sinners. He said, I go to prepare a place
for you. I go to Calvary's tree to be
your substitute, to be your sin offering. He's telling this to
his disciples. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to Calvary
to be made sin for you, that you might be made the righteousness
of God in me. Then I'm going to the grave to
take my sins, which I bore in my body on the tree, and take
your sins and cast them far away from you as far as the east is
from the west so that they'll never be brought up again. He
said, then I'm going to the holy of holies and put my blood on
the mercy seat within the veil in the holy of holies where God
is and put the blood on the mercy seat that you might be accepted.
I go to prepare a place for you. And then I'm going to the throne
where I'm gonna sit forever, reigning and ruling, making sure
everything that I ordered will come to pass, making sure every
single one of my people are brought into the fold, every one of my
sheep, and then I'm coming again. I'm coming again. He says, if I came for you the
first time, I'm coming back for you the second time. Let not your heart be troubled.
Do we not worry that when the Lord comes for his people, he'll
leave us out? Surely he gonna forget about
me. No, you may forget him. We just don't know him well now.
Just don't know him well. He kept saying this in verse
seven. If you'd known me, you should have known my father.
Verse nine, have I been so long time with you, and yet you haven't
known me. We act like we don't know. This
is our peace, this is our comfort, this is our assurance in knowing
him. Now let me, just a few more minutes.
I told men it was gonna be about 30 minutes. I am, I mean it. All our doubts and fears and
unbelief reveal how little we know of our Lord. If we only
knew Him more, we would have more assurance, we'd have more
faith. Because faith is not in us, in
ourselves, but it's in Him. It's trusting Him. It's looking
to Him. And if we knew Him better, who
He is, we would have less unbelief and less fear, less doubt. If
we knew more about His perfect love, The reason we can't understand,
the reason we can't really believe His love more fully is because
we only have our love to judge love by. And that's a poor judgment. His love is perfect love. I mean
perfect love. And perfect love, Scripture says,
cast out fear. If we only knew His love, once
He loves someone, if He loves someone, it's forever. His love
never fails, it cannot fail. His love saves. Whomever He loves,
He saves, wouldn't you? You love your children, don't
you? If you could save them, would you? He can, and He does. Because that's perfect love.
Perfect love never quits. Perfect love never fails. He
said, you're going to fail me. You're going to leave me. You're
going to be unfaithful to me. He cannot be unfaithful. It's not possible for him to
leave his people, those he loves. You understand? He's going to
leave me. It's not possible if he loves
you. His love covereth, love covereth
all. The word atonement means covering. Those you love, you don't expose
their sins. You cover them. You don't talk
about them. You don't bring them up. You
cover them, don't you? You don't want the sins of your
loved ones to be known. That's what Christ said. They're
gonna look for the sins of Israel. They're not gonna be found. I've
covered them. Why was our Lord silent when
he went to, stood before Herod? Because he's dying with our sins. And he became us. And he's gonna
die with our secrets. Our secrets died with him. Do
you understand? There's going to be a day when
the secrets of men are going to be exposed. The books are
going to be open and every single secret done by men that they
think is covered, he's going to expose it, but not his people.
Not one single charge is going to be brought up. Love covereth,
covereth. His perfect knowledge of us.
If we knew something of His perfect love, it would cast out fear.
His perfect knowledge of us. Our salvation is really not knowing
Him, because we know so little, although He said that. But we
know Him, Paul said, or rather are known of Him. The reason
we know something of Him is because He knows us. He foreknew us.
It's His knowledge of us that is our salvation. His perfect
knowledge of us. David wrote Psalm 139, one of
my favorite. He says, thou hast searched me,
thou hast known me. There's not a thought in my head
you don't know. There's not a word in my mouth
you don't know. And he still loves us. He said, such thoughts are too
wonderful for me. Thy thoughts, O Lord. God said, I know my thoughts
toward you. Thoughts of peace. Bring you
to an expected end. His perfect knowledge of us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. He knoweth
our frame. The parent knows the children,
unlike the children know the parent, don't they? And you know
what their peace and comfort is? That the Father knows them
and loves them and cares for them, if we only knew. If we
only knew Him better. His mercy. His mercy, that's
His name. Moses said, who shall I say has
sent me? He said, tell them the Lord,
the Lord God, merciful, that's His name. The scripture says
He delights to show mercy. It says He takes great pleasure
in them that fear Him and that hope in His mercy. Brethren,
that's about all I can do. That's about all I can do is
hope in his mercy. He says he takes great pleasure. Nothing
gives him more pleasure than to show mercy. Well, that's what
I need the most. Well, nothing gives him more
pleasure. He says, if you'd known me, if you only knew me, have
I been so long time with you and you doubt me and you're worried?
If you only knew me. His mercy endureth forever. I
heard you preach from Psalm 136 one time, Brother Bob. 26 verses,
and every single verse ends with this. 26 verses, every single
verse is, His mercy endureth forever. Why does he keep telling
us this? Do you keep telling your children
the same thing over and over again? He must mean it. His mercy endureth forever, forever. If we only knew His mercy. David
one time said, is His mercy clean gone? And then he went in the
sanctuary and he said, I forgot. God can't forget to be merciful.
That's His name. Faithful. If you knew how faithful
God is, ready to pardon. A God ready to pardon. More ready to pardon than we
are to ask for it. In fact, God pardoned his people
before the world began. They were pardoned before they
ever sinned. That's ready to pardon them.
Oh my, ready to pardon. Let me give you a good illustration.
I've preached a little while now, I'm gonna show you something.
Like my pastor said one time, that little girl liked his preaching.
Our God is ready to pardon anyone, anytime, every time, every time,
no matter what. Is that right? No matter what. All manner of
sins shall be forgiven. Just ask, Lord, forgive me. Anytime,
every time. He waits to be gracious. Not
like false religion says, he's waiting on man to do something,
but his people, he's gonna be gracious. and he's gonna grant
repentance, and they're gonna call on him, and he's gonna answer
them. Before they call, he's gonna answer, and he's ready
to part, ready to part. Let me show you something. It's
not in your Bible, but in 1 Chronicles 13, you say, it's not in my Bible. It's not in your Bible. You see
that? Can you see that? Can you see that? See those scribble marks? Scribble marks all over First
Chronicles 13. Isabella did that. When she was about two years
old, they were visiting that. And I had my Bible open on the
footstool in front of my chair with an ink pen on it. And I
was out of the room, and I came back in the room, and Isabella
just... Oh, my Bible! Isabella! It upset me, that's
my Bible. And I got up in front of her
and I sat down in the chair and she's standing there and the
only time I've ever yelled at her is the last two. I said,
honey, look what you've done. Now she didn't know what she'd
done. She didn't know what she'd done.
I had to make her realize what she'd done. that she'd marred
my Bible. I had to make her realize that.
I had to grant her repentance. I had to make her realize what
she'd done. I had to grant her repentance.
I had to make her feel sorry for it, and then she was sorry,
and her little lip went out. Do you know what, Brother Obey?
I had already pardoned her before I made her realize that. Before I ever said a thing, she
was pardoned. There's nothing she could do
I wouldn't pardon. Right? Brethren, Scripture says the
Son of God's visage was marred more than any man was. It said,
we with wicked hands have taken and crucified the Lord of glory.
We left scars on his hands, permanent on his feet. But he had already pardoned us
before that happened. You know what I think of every time I
look at 1 Chronicles 13 and Isabel? I think of Isabella. And I'm
not mad at all. In fact, I look on that with
fondness. I said, I look. Honestly. Our Lord said, I have
engraved my people on the palms of my hands with the scars of
those nails. That's what it took to make us
his people. And he looks at those scars with
fondness, with love. Ready to pardon. Ready to pardon. If we only knew, if we only knew
His grace, His goodness, if we only knew His faithfulness, if
we only knew His long-suffering, if we only knew... How long is
the Lord going to put up with us? How long does it take? If
we only knew how patient he was. He never is put out. No one ever imposes on the Lord.
You can never. One time Sophie came up to my
little study in the attic and she said, I've come up here to
tell you that me mom told me I was not to come up here and
bother you. You think I kicked her out? No
way, I was glad to see her. That rule didn't apply to her.
He says we can come boldly, come freely, anytime, it's God's people.
In my father's house, he says it's my father's house, it's
your house. Come boldly, come freely, ask anything. If he only
knew me. And he's too good to err, he
said all things work together for good. Those disciples thought
him leaving was the worst thing that could happen. He said, no
evil shall befall you. He can't do evil. He's too good
to do evil. He loves too much to do evil.
No evil shall befall you, he said. None, it can't happen.
It's all good. Someday we're gonna know, as
we've been known, and we're gonna say, I just didn't see it at
the time. I just didn't know it. I just
didn't believe. I couldn't see how this awful
thing that has happened could possibly be, but I know now,
and thank you, Lord. Thank you, thank you, thank you. How do you know somebody? They've
got to reveal themselves to you. How do you know somebody? You've
got to talk to them. They gotta talk to you. How do
you know somebody? You gotta walk with them. You
gotta commune with them. How are we gonna know him better?
Same way. Come and hear this man. You get
to know him more. Call on the Lord. You walk with
him. You talk to him. You commune
with him. And the more you know him, the more you trust him.
May the Lord cause us to know him better. Amen.