Thank you, John and Robin. Go back now to John 14. John 14. Read verse 9. Our Lord saith unto
Philip, all of them and us, have I been so long time with you? and yet hast thou not known me,
Philip, our little known Lord." That's the title of this subject. This will be a message of great
comfort for those who love the Lord Jesus Christ, those who
follow Him, His disciples. It will be a message of great
comfort, and yet there will be a little shame and guilt because
He is rebuking them and us for not knowing Him better, not trusting
Him more. The disciples were greatly troubled. The Lord told them that He was
leaving them. He'd been telling them that all
along, what He came to do. He'd been telling them. It's
like they'd never heard Him. I don't know. We're slow to hear
things, aren't we, and to learn. Then He told them all, not just
Peter, the other Gospels, He tells them all, that every one
of them will leave Him. And they're deeply troubled. And these are the same fears
that trouble us, aren't they? That the Lord will leave us and
we'll leave Him. Aren't they? Those are our greatest,
greatest fears. every true lover of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So he says in verse 1, let not
your heart be troubled. He doesn't say hearts, does he?
He says your heart. Because they all had one heart.
They all had the same feelings for Him. And they all had the
same troubles. Troubles with their heart. They
weren't different. Their troubles were the same.
So he said, let not your heart... And their hearts were united.
They were together. listening to the Lord. And they
were one. They loved Him, loved each other,
had fellowship. They all had the very same troubles.
He said, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God.
He's not asking a question here. He's affirming to them, you believe
in God. Why? Because He gave them that
faith. He revealed the Father. No man knoweth the Father but
the Son. And neither knoweth any man, and vice versa. No man
knoweth the Son, but the Father, and no man knoweth the Father,
but the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him." The Son
revealed the Father to them, and they knew Him, but not much, not much. But they did believe Him. They
believed the living and true God, that He is God. He said,
you believe God reigns and rules, you believe God is all-wise,
you believe God is Love, you believe God is merciful, believe
me. Believe in me. Believe also in
me. He said in verse 2, in my father's
house, there are many mansions, many rooms that is, many dwelling
places, large rooms, my father's house. On down there, you remember
where he said, if you heard it say that I'm going to my father,
he said, you ought to rejoice. Later on, He said to the angels,
or to the ladies, He told them to tell the disciples, I go to
my Father and your Father. I go to my Father's house. You
know, your Father's house, your earthly Father's house. Is that
a place you enjoy going? Do you dread going there? Do
you feel comfortable? Do you feel total freedom when
you go there? Just go in and make yourself
at home. No fear. You become total boldness. Open
up the refrigerator and eat anything. You don't feel that way in anybody
else's house, do you? But your father's house, you do. You say,
I go to the father's house. My father's house. Your father's
house. There are many, many mansions, many rooms. And I told myself,
if you're not careful, you're going to get stuck right here.
Good place to get stuck, though. There are many mansions, many
dwelling places, much room there. He said, if not, I would have
told you. Like Manoah's wife told Manoah,
he said, if it were not so, he wouldn't have told his sin. And
so the Lord says, there's plenty of room. Is there any room for
me? There are many and there's much room. And look who he's
talking to. He says, you, you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for
you, I will come again and receive you unto myself. Who's he talking
to? Who's he talking to? He's talking
to men that were called by him. They were just ordinary fishermen
out there fishing. They had no interest in the Lord
Jesus Christ at all, and one day He came along and called
them by His voice, didn't He, as He called you? They weren't
special people. They were chosen by Him, loved
by Him, taught by Him, provided for by Him, and they just followed
Him. They just believed Him. He was their all. They weren't
special people. Is that you? So what He says to them, He says
to you. I go to prepare a place for you." Who? Me, Peter, Simon
Peter, and all of them for that matter. But Simon especially
is going to deny the Lord, deny and curse, act like he never
knew Him. That's who he said, I'm going
to prepare a place for you. That's who he's talking to. He
just told him what he was going to do. And now he's telling Simon
Peter what he's going to do. You're going to deny me, but
I'm going to prepare a place for you. We're worried about him kicking
us out. You don't know him. You don't know him. You understand, the whole course
of this mess is going to be along those lines. You don't know him. He said,
if I go, I'll come again. I'll receive you unto Myself
that where I am, you may be also. And whether I go, you know, and
the way you know, and we do too. But we have fears. We have doubts.
We have worries. We worry that we'll be lost in
the end. We worry that when He comes back
that He won't take us. Anybody? Thomas said unto Him, Lord, we
know not whither Thou goest. How can we know the way? And our Lord said, Thomas, I am the
way, the truth, and the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. You know how you and I are going
to get the glory? Jesus Christ. It has nothing to do with you. He says, I am the way. It has
nothing to do with you. It's Him. He's going to take
you there. He said, I'm going to come and get you, and I'm
going to take you there. You might be off running somewhere,
but I'm going to find you, and I'm going to take you there. That's right. That's what He's
saying here the whole time, isn't it? And they're torn all to pieces. He's giving them the best news
they could possibly get. I am the way, the truth. He can't
lie. He can't lie. He that believeth
on me, he that seeth the Son, seeth his need of him, seeth
that Christ is his all, I'll raise him up to the last day.
That's what Christ said. And he said, no man cometh unto the
Father but my name. So you come to me, Christ said,
you come to me and I'll take you there. If you had known me,
you should have known my Father also, verse 7. And from henceforth
you know Him, or will know Him better, and have seen Him from
henceforth." See, right now they are so full of doubts and fears.
You know, we need to be much more understanding with the disciples
because they didn't know right then what we know right now.
They didn't. You know, the Lord hadn't been
crucified yet, and though He'd been telling, we'd have been
just like them. In fact, our unbelief is worse than theirs. It really is. If you'd known. Well, it's Philip now. Philip,
you notice Simon Peter said to him up there, he said, where
are you going, Lord? I want to go. No, you can't go. Thomas
said, well, we don't know where you're going. Show us. And he
told him. And then Philip said, well, show
us the Father. Show us something more to assure
us." And then Jude said, they're all so full of questions. Philip said, Lord, show us the
Father and it sufficeth us. In other words, Philip says,
if you just show us a special vision. Maybe Philip heard Peter,
James, and John tell about the Lord taking them up on the mountain.
There's only three of them. Maybe Philip said, or Simon,
Peter, and James, and John told that we heard the voice of the
Father say, that's my son. So Philip says, I want to see
the Father. If you just show us the Father.
Now Lord, all the way through this chapter, He keeps saying,
believe me, Believe me. He keeps telling him, I'm the
only one you need to hear from and to see and to know. I'm the
one. No man will ever see God at any
time. But you've seen me, you've seen
him. It's what he keeps telling him. Do you not believe I'm in
the Father and the Father in me? I like verse 20. He said,
at that day, One of these days you'll know I'm in my Father
and you in me and I in you. Can't get any closer than that,
can you? Well, and here's what our Lord
said to Philip and all of us. Jesus said unto him a gentle
rebuke and instruction. Here's what we're going to look
at. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known Me?" Philip, put your name there. Have I been so long time with
you, and yet thou hast not known Me. Now for a long time the Lord
had been showing them who He was, showing them His glory. They'd seen miracle after miracle
after miracle. They'd seen sign after sign,
wonder after wonder that declared Him to be the Son of God with
power. They saw Him feed so many with
few, with the same food. They saw Him heal the blind,
someone who could not see at all. And one day, see clearly,
they saw him heal the deaf, someone who could not hear anything,
would never hear a thing, and yet all of a sudden, they hear
him. They saw him heal a dumb man
who had never spoken a word, and then the next thing they
hear him praising the Lord, singing. They saw him take a leper, I
mean, filthy, rotten, stinking leper and turn his flesh new. They saw him raise a dead person.
And people, haven't we seen those things
for a long time now? Haven't we seen those things
for a long time? Haven't we seen many who couldn't
see anything, saw no beauty in Christ that they should desire
Him, all of a sudden one day, You can't get enough of seeing
Him. Somebody had never heard a word of the Gospel, all of
a sudden hearing on the edge of their seat, huh?
Haven't we? Long time now. Long time now. Some of us, a
long time, 30 or 40 years. Hearing His blessed words, oh
my, has not the Lord spoken powerfully to us at times? Huh? Hasn't it
been the Lord's voice we've heard? But Philip says, show us something
more. That will convince us. That will give us peace. That
will allay our fear. Show us the Father. Philip, don't
you know me? Don't you know me? I am all you need to know, he's
saying. Now, disciples are going to believe
him more And you've heard me say this before. Now let me remind
us that the just shall live by faith. We walk by faith, not
by sight. And this proves it. These men
saw. You and I would like to see what
they saw, wouldn't we? I would have liked to have seen
the Lord in person, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you have liked
to have actually touched Him and handled Him, wouldn't you? Wouldn't you
have liked to have heard His voice? No man spoke like Him, wouldn't
you? He says we have. Peter said, you see, we don't
know him very well, do we? Simon Peter said, we heard God,
we heard the Father speak to us, and he said, we have a more
sure word. You must not know him. You're not hearing His voice. See, this is a rebuke. Show us
something. No, no, no, no, no. Faith doesn't
come by sight. Faith comes by hearing. Oh my, believe His Word. Disciples
are going to believe His Word more than when He spoke it to
them in person. Look at verse, let's see, where
is it? Look at that. Verse 26, he says,
The Comforter who is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send
in my name, He shall teach you all things and bring all things
to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you. They were
scared to death, John, while the Lord was with them. But when
He left, they weren't scared of anybody. Think about it. They all ran
when the Lord was standing there in the garden. And then, later
on, when the Holy Spirit was sent, Christ was gone back to
heaven. They all stood to the ground.
They stood to the ground. Because faith is evidence of
things not seen. Faith honors God more than sight. And it proves Him more than sight. Show me and I'll believe. Uh-uh.
You believe, I'll show you. That honors Him, takes Him at
His Word. And because all of God's people before Christ came
and all of God's people after He left, none of them saw Him. Just a few. The rest of us will
never hear His audible voice. We'll never see His form or His
face until we get to glory. But yet He's with us just as
really as He was with them. And our problem is we don't know
Him. We don't know Him. He's been
so long time with us. We don't know Him. We don't know
Him. Like Jacob. Remember when Jacob said, the
Lord was in this place and I didn't know Him. Why didn't you know it, Jacob?
Because of your unbelief, that's why. Now listen to this. The Lord, they've got to leave Him. They've
got to leave Him. The Scriptures have to be fulfilled. They've got to leave Him. But He will never leave them.
They will forsake Him, but He says, let not your heart be troubled. You'll forsake Me. But I'll never
forsake you. Now, I want you to look very
carefully with me at this, this whole message, okay? It's all in a line here, what
our Lord says here. Have I been so long time with
you? Have I been so long time with
you? Where did the Lord promise to be? Where does the Lord promise
to be right now? Where? Where two or three are
gathered in His name. That's in the church. That's
Mount Zion. And the Lord loveth Mount Zion
more than all the places in Israel. That's where He's always there.
Always promised to be in the midst of His church. The Lord
is in the midst of that. If Christ is being preached and
there are just two or three sheep, if it dwindles down to just two
or three, He still won't be there. You hear me? We fear the Gospel
leaving us. And we should. We should. Because we get just like Ephesus
losing our first love. We get just like Laodicea. We
become lukewarm because we're rich and increased with goods.
And the Lord ought to spew us out of His mouth. But He's warning
those churches, isn't He? He is warning them. And it's
written, let he that hath ears to hear, hear. what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. And we ought to fear because
we ought to fear the reason in ourselves. All right? But now the Lord promised where
two or three, I will never leave them. So, if you can find it in your
heart to gather in His name with one more person, He is never
going to leave us. That sure gives me comfort. The
Lord will never leave us as long as Christ is being preached,
the door of the ark is open. And if He ceases to be preached,
door is shut. No more mercy as long as that
door is open. And here is the point too. He will never leave those who
don't want Him to leave. Many left Him earlier on, back
in John 6, didn't they? Many of them left. They said,
these are hard sayings. We can't take that. We don't like that.
Many of them left. Many of His disciples seemed
like disciples. They left. And our Lord turned
to His disciples. His hand chosen ones said, will
you also go away? Remember what they said. Is that
what you said? Lord? To whom? Where? This is the Word of Life. And so Christ will never leave
those who don't want Him to leave. And need not fear the Lord leaving
us as long as a few still need Him. As long as we need Him and
don't want Him to leave us. Now, knowing the Lord is to know
His character. To know the Lord more. is to know His perfect love. He says, Have I been so long
time with you, and let thou hast not known Me, Philip? To know
Him more fully, to know Him, is to have more peace, more joy,
more rest. Do you have a lot of peace, a
lot of joy? Do you? Do you have strong faith? Why? Don't know Him. Because faith is in Him, isn't
it? Isn't the stronger your faith, the stronger your assurance?
Isn't it? In other words, the more you're assured of Him, isn't
that the more peace you'll have? And the more you're assured of
Him, the more rest you'll have? The more you're assured of His
love for you, the more joy you'll have? Huh? Why don't you have
any? If I've been so long time with you, and you don't know
me, I don't want you to hang your
head any at all tonight again, okay? I want you to lift your
head up because the Lord is saying that you need to know Me that
I'll never leave you. Understand? Now smile. If you
know His perfect love, John 13 verse 1. This whole story started
John 13 verse 1. Before the feast of the Passover,
Jesus knew that His hour was come. What? I'm going to be forsaken. I'm going to the cross. Over
in chapter 14, He said, the Father gave me commandment and this
is what I'm doing. I'm going to the cross. To do
what? To die for my people and be made sin for them. That's
why He came. This is a faithful saying. Are
you a sinner? That's why He came. Has He been
so long time with you and you don't know that? Look, read on. He said, His hour
has come that He should depart out of this world to the far,
having loved His own. Do you love Him? Well, it's only because He first
loved you. And if He did, He'll love you to the end. Yeah, but I don't feel like I...
No, you don't love Him like you ought to. You don't love Him
like you're going to. But that's not where your faith should be.
Your faith should be in His love for you. Perfect love does what? Cast out fear. Who are His own? John 17. Love His own. I remind you, He chose these
fellows. Common, ordinary fishermen? Who
else did He choose? Harlots, publicans, thieves on
the cross. John 17, verse 6, the Lord in
His prayer to the Father says, I manifested Thy name unto the
men, Thou gavest Me out of the world. Has the Lord manifested
His name unto you? Yes, He has. Prophet, priest,
king, Messiah, Redeemer. Righteousness, Lord Jehovah,
our Righteousness. Nine they were, that is the Father
chose them before the world began, loved them, Thou gavest them
Me, they've kept Your Word. Do you hold to His Word as being
true, as your all, your only hope? Do you? I do too. He says,
They've kept Your Word. Verse 7, They've known all things
whatsoever Thou hast given Me are of Thee. Do you know that?
Do you know that? Christ was given a people, and
He's the Great Shepherd, and their salvation is in His hands,
huh? I've given them, verse 8, the words you gave Me, and they've
received them. Have you received them? Sure
you have. You haven't turned away your
ears from the truth. And as John prayed, a man can receive nothing
except it be given him. And as many as received him,
to them gave he the right, the privilege to become the sons
of God. You must be born of God. Have you received Him? Most people
don't. Well, that's you. He's talking
about you, having loved His own. Verse 8, they know I came out
from thee. They believe that thou didst
send me. That's who I'm praying for. So you shouldn't hang your head
again. Well, maybe at the end of this because there's a few
things here we need to be ashamed about. But His perfect love,
His love never fails. Our love is not perfect. And what we're going to see here,
I hope, is that He's not like us. And you can trust Him. You can completely trust Him
because He's not like us. He won't leave us. His love never
fails. His love is forever. His love
is perfect. He has a perfect understanding
of you. He knows everything about you. He knows every thought in
your mind, every word in your tongue before you speak it. He
knows what you're going to do. He knows your sins. He knows
everything about you. He's known you before the world
began. He knows you and He knows you
better than you'll ever know yourself. And He loves you. That's perfect love. Perfect
love is to really know and understand someone, their frame. To know
their frame. If you know someone's frame,
if you really understand them, you'll know they're up, they're
down, their ins and their outs, their good days, their bad days,
won't you? If you really know somebody, you'll know their bad
day. Do you ever wake up in a bad
frame of mind? Do you? Anybody? Beside me? And those that know you know
when to speak to you and when not to. Like your husband or
your wife. He's not talking, he's quiet
and will steer clear. Or he snaps at you, she snaps
at you. Or they do something to offend you. If you know them,
you'll know. Have a bad day. Peter denied Him like He never
knew Him. Peter denied the Lord like He
never knew Him. I don't know that damn man. Did Peter know Him? Yeah. What's
Peter's hope? The Lord knew him. We need to know each other like
that. Aren't you glad He's not like
us? We need to know His perfect love if we did. You know, His
love covereth all sins. We worry about our sins, and
we do, and we should. We need to repent of them. We
need to turn from them. We do, don't we? But what happens
when we do sin? The Lord has not dealt with us
according to our sin. And He never will. He has not
rewarded us according to our sin. You know what love does
about sins? We think He's going to expose
us to Him. Have you been so long time with Him? I could have exposed you a long
time ago. Have I been so long time with
you? And you don't know me? Love covereth. In fact, when
He went to the cross, the reason He didn't answer a word was He
was dying with our Secrets, safe with Him. I spoke not a word. I'm not going
to give them up. Take me. You've heard people
say, your secret will die with me. Yeah, right. But it did with
Christ. His mercy. We don't know much
about His mercy. We really don't. We really don't. The Lord is merciful, full of
mercy. We're not. We're not. We might show mercy one day and
have none the next. But the Lord is merciful. That is Him. We might love somebody
today or say we do and not tomorrow. That's not true love. But the
Lord is love. And if you're loved, you'll always
be loved. The Lord is merciful. The Lord
delights to show mercy. Sometimes we begrudgingly show
mercy because we know we should. No. The Lord delights to show
mercy. He taketh great pleasure. It gives Him nothing but pleasure
for them that just hope in His mercy. If anybody wants it, he's
just delighted to give it. And we think, oh, he's going
to get me now. And I've been so long time with
you. I've been so merciful to you for so long, and you don't
know me. You don't know me, do you? You
just don't know me. His tender mercies are over all
His works. You remember in Sermon on the
Mount, he said, did you do the birds, the sparrows? I was out on the porch today
watching that wind blow, the rain, the storm, the trees in
my backyard, you know, just like that. And I thought, what about
all those little birds? What happens to all those little
birds that weigh an ounce? Nothing happens to them. The
Heavenly Father takes care of them. And we're worried. Oh, He blowed my house down.
Well, good. Because He said, having food
and rain, but... tender mercies over all His works. Oh my, He's merciful to the just
and the unjust, isn't He? The rain falls on the unjust.
He waters their crops. He's so merciful. Even to those
that, well, what is mercy? Not deserving it. His goodness
to know Him is to know that He's not like us. Remember what He
said to His disciples, if you being evil, if you being evil know how to
give good gifts to your children, you're evil, He says. And you give good gifts to them,
don't you? You love to give good gifts to your children. You wouldn't
dream of giving them something that would hurt them, would you?
You wouldn't think about it. He says, you're evil and you
do that. How much more? He can't possibly give anything
that's not the best. He can't possibly take something
away that would hurt us by taking it. He has to. He's too wise to err. He never
makes a mistake. Wouldn't you like to go back
and raise your children again? Not him. He's too good to do anything
wrong. All things work together. For what? Good. Oh, but this
is awful. Jacob after 145, 175 years, how long did he live? 145 I think. He said, few and
evil have been all the days of my life. Jacob, Jacob, has he been so long time
with you? Evil. There's been nothing evil except
what you've done. The Lord has done anything evil. His goodness. He's too good to
do wrong. He's too gracious. Gracious.
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth more. You know, children take
parents for granted. They just do. Even when they're
older. You keep doing for them and doing
for them. That's what you like to do. And there'll be times
when they forget to thank you. And later on feel guilty about
it and thank you. But that's just children. That's
just children. Our Lord is the Heavenly Father.
He giveth and He giveth and He giveth, knowing we need everything. He knows we need everything.
He knows that we can't do anything. He knows that. And He will always
provide. He always has, always will. He
said, don't worry about what you're going to eat or drink
or wear. That's what unbelieving world thinks about, huh? Every
good and perfect gift comes down from Him. The Lord is long-suffering.
The Lord is patient. The Lord is forgiving. The Lord
is forgetting, and forgiving is forgetting. It's not forgiving
if you don't forget. The Lord said, does He pardon? Does the Lord pardon our iniquity?
You know what it says? It says He's ready to pardon.
Before you repent, He's ready to pardon. And He said, their sins and iniquities
will be sought. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought and it won't be found. He said, I'll remember them no
more. I won't ever bring them up. What's past is past. It's gone.
It's buried. It's over. He's not like us. We think, well,
this is going to come up. Have I been so long time with
you? You don't know me? You know, think about this. He
told them that they were all going to leave him, yet he's
comforting them. He said, all of you are all going
to leave me, and some of you are going to act like you never
even knew me, like Simon Peter, yet he's the one comforting them.
What if you knew I was going to forsake you and act like I
never knew you and treat you that way? Would you be trying
to comfort me? You get what I'm saying here?
He's comforting them. They're going to do something
to him, but he's comforting them. Can you get a hold of that? We
don't know him, do we? We don't know him. He's not like
us. He's not like us. He's been so long with us and
yet we don't know Him, still think He's going to reject us,
still think He's going to cast us out. But listen, the more
we know of Him, the less fears we'll have, the less doubts we'll
have if we really know Him. The more we'll trust Him, we'll
know He's not only able, He's willing. He's not just willing,
He delights too. If we knew Him, Have He been
so long time with us and yet we still have all these childish
doubts and fears and worries? Even over provisions, that's
the last thing we should worry about. We shouldn't worry about
that at all, provision, but we do. Listen, we prove we don't know
Him by our lack of growth and grace. Growth and grace and knowledge
go together. The growth and grace and the knowledge of the Lord
goes together. The more you know the Lord, the more you'll grow
like Him. To know Him is to walk with Him.
To walk with Him is to know Him. To walk with Him is to know Him.
To know Him and walk with Him is to love Him. To love Him is
to be like Him and emulate Him. And if we don't act like Him,
that means we're not welcome. They don't know Him too well.
If we know the Lord, listen to me, if we know the Lord, we'll
know He's present. If we really know the Lord, He's
omniscient, omnipresent. We'll know He's present. What
did He say about our words being few? This is the sin of fools that
we're all so guilty of. This is the thing that offends
everybody. This is what gets us in trouble
every time. If we knew the Lord more, we'd
talk less. We'd listen better. We'd be swift
to hear and slow to speak. if we knew the Lord more. Now,
this needs to shame us. This is where we need to be rebuked.
Have I been so long time with Philip? I mean, Peter is spouting
off, spouting off. Our Lord had much to say and
yet only spoke when it was necessary. He's the only one worth listening
to. If we really knew the Lord, we would not listen to Him. If
we knew the Lord better, we'd know His displeasure. The thing that He hates more
than anything, are you listening? The thing He hates more than
anything is pride. That's the same as self-righteousness.
Envy, jealousy is pride. An unforgiving spirit is pride.
Easily offended is pride. The Lord hates that more than
anything. that if we knew Him better, we'd know just how displeasing
that is to Him. And it would check that. When
we start to act like that, that's offensive to my Lord. He's present. I've been so long time with you. If we know His love and His mercy
to us, we'll emulate Him. The more we know of His love
and mercy to us, The more merciful and loving we'll be to others. He's been with us a long time.
We don't act like we know Him. He loves charity. He loves a
cheerful giver. We'd be more charitable, wouldn't
we? If we really stopped and thought about just how much the
Lord gave us and gives us and gives us. Wouldn't it? We don't know Him
very well, do we? How do we know Him? I'm going
to close with this. Then how is He known? How is He known? A couple of ways, and you know
these things before, but like Paul said, I'm going to tell
them to you again. He's known through His Word. He's known
through His Word. Has He been so long time with
you, and yet you know so little of Him? That's why, that's why it's the
source of all our problems. I venture to say, now listen,
and I say this for your help, very few people study this book
an hour a day. Very few people study and pray
up to an hour a day. Very few people. But you know
what you have the privilege of getting? Now, if you did that
for an hour a day, six days a week, that's six hours. What you have
the privilege of getting is in every message, you get from six
to eight hours of study for you. You understand? This is what
the Lord is using. Please the Lord by the foolishest
preacher. That's why He raises up preachers, to study. Show
themselves approved to study. and seek a message from the Lord.
And if you'll come and listen, you can glean seven hours of
study in one. Honestly, if you'll listen real
carefully, if that man is worth his salt, he spent a lot of time. And you go back, you remember
chewing the cud? You remember divide the hoof
and chew the cud? Don't let the fowls of the air
take it away. Here's this world. Don't talk about something else
right after the message is over. You won't know Him. The Word read? Yes, of course,
reading it yourself. But God's pleased to use this
because this is how He made Himself known to the disciples when He
was here, two or three together. Every time. He was never one-on-one
with any of them. Always in a group. Tell them
all the same thing so that they could rehearse them over and
over again. Did you hear what he said? I heard it. Wasn't that great?
Now I forgot what he said. They'll remember. Oh, he said
this. But there's a point I've lost. Oh, this is what he said.
You see? That's why. Communion with the
Lord. Talking with the Lord. You've
got to talk to someone to know Him. I'd venture to say that
people in this room, other for many, many years that don't know
each other. You can't know somebody unless
you really talk to them intimately and spend a lot of time with
them. No. You can't know them. Enoch walked with God. Noah walked with God. Same world
we live in. No idea. Walk with God. Abraham,
friend of God. Talk to God. Face to face. Talk.
Talk. Say prayer. Same thing. Same thing. All day long. Pray without ceasing. Have I been so long time with
you? You haven't known me. Well, Lord, how can I get to
know you better? Talk to me. Talk to me. Drop what you're
doing. Talk to me. Listen to me. I speak. He speaks
one way. He speaks one way. He answers
you. You talk to Him, He answers you
one way. Does it preach through the reading
of the Word? Okay, stand with me. Our Lord, we would not know Thee
but through Your Word and how we thank You for it. We thank
You for Your Holy Spirit that takes the things of Thee and
shows them unto us. How very much is in one line
that You spoke, words of reproof and rebuke and correction and
instruction, yet words of great comfort, peace, oh my, joy, rejoicing,
words that gives us rest. Oh, Lord, how we thank You for
Your Word. But, Lord, none in here feel like we know You, like
we want to. Forgive us, Lord, like the disciples
of old. Forgive us for not trusting You,
not believing You, not hearing Your voice more. Forgive us,
Lord. Make us swift to hear, slow to
speak. Make us like You. Make us seek
Your face. Be like David, thy face will
I seek, O Lord. O Lord, give us, teach us to
pray. Walk with us, Lord. Let us walk
with Thee. Get to know Thee better. Be like
Thee. This is our great desire, that
we might be like Thee and know Thee. Whom to know is to have
life and peace and joy and all these things. O Lord, speak to
us. Use these words. And again, let
not the fowl of the air steal them away. Let not the words
fall on hard hearts, but hearts that have been prepared by Your
Spirit. Forgive us of our sins through
Christ our Lord, we pray. Amen.