Good evening. Open with me to
Colossians chapter 1. Dad and I were talking this afternoon,
and he reminded me how close we are to the new year beginning. And with the new year, everyone
generally looks forward and starts thinking about the things they
want for the new year to bring forth. And that's in my mind,
and I came across this passage. And I read Paul's prayer here
and I thought this is what I'd like for us for this year. Verse
9 says that we might be filled with the knowledge of his will.
Verse 10 that she might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing
being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge
of God. What a blessing that would be
if in this year. we might have those blessings
at once. Let's read the first 20 verses
of Colossians 1 together. Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
by the will of God, and Timotheus, our brother, to the saints and
faithful brethren in Christ, which are at Colossae, grace
be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus
Christ. We give thanks to God and the
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ praying always for you, since
we heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which he
hath to all the saints. For the hope which is laid up
for you in heaven, whereof ye heard before in the word of the
truth of the gospel, which is come unto you, as it is in all
the world, and bringeth forth fruit, as it does also in you,
since the day ye heard of it and knew the grace of God in
truth. As you also learned of Ephraim,
our dear fellow servant, who is for you a faithful minister
of Christ, who also declared unto us your love in the spirit. For this cause, we also, since
the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you and to desire
that you might be filled with the knowledge of his will in
all wisdom and spiritual understanding, that you might walk worthy of
the Lord. unto all pleasing, being fruitful
in every good work, and increasing in knowledge of God, strengthened
with all might, according to His glorious power, unto all
patience and longsuffering with joyfulness, giving thanks unto
the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in light, who hath delivered us from the power of
darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear
Son, in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness
of sins, who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn
of every creature. For by him were all things created
that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible,
whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers,
All things were created by him and for him, and he is before
all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of
the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn
from the dead, that in all things he might have the preeminence.
For it pleased the Father that in him should all fullness dwell,
and having made peace through the blood of his Christ, By Him
to reconcile all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether
they do things in heaven, things in earth, or things in heaven.
Let's open our Bibles this evening to Genesis 18, continuing our
messages through Genesis. Genesis 18. And when I get through
with this, I'm going to go on through Exodus. But also, I've
been praying for some time about starting another series And I've
read a lot of 1 Samuel, an awful lot, over and over. And I may
start on 1 Samuel here in the very near future, God willing. I've been reading a lot of it.
But get through Genesis here. And I'm just hitting the high
spots. saying a lot of things, but tonight I want to read the
first eight verses, and then from then we'll just go down
through the chapter and deal with them as we come. And the
Lord appeared unto him, Abraham is talking about, in the plains
of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
And he lift up his eyes and looked, and lo, three men stood by him.
And when he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door
and bowed himself. toward the ground, and said,
My Lord, if now I have found favor in thy sight, pass not
away, I pray thee, from thy servant. Let a little water, I pray you,
be fetched, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the
tree. And I will fetch a morsel of bread, and comfort you your
hearts, afterward that you shall pass on. For therefore are you
come to your servant, and they said, so do as thou hast said. And Abraham hastened into the
tent unto Sarah and said, make ready quickly three measures
of fine meal, knead it and make cakes upon the hearth. And Abraham
ran unto the herd and fetched a calf tender and good and gave
it unto a young man and he hasted to dress it. And he took butter
and milk and the calf which he had dressed and set it before
them. And he stood by them under the tree and they did eat. Our relationship to God. Here's
Abraham. God, this is the third time God's
appeared to Abraham. Back in Genesis 15, look what
it says here. After these things, the word
of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision. Came to him in a vision
there. God spake in divers manners in
different ways. Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield
and thy exceeding great reward. And then in chapter 17 in verse
one, when Abraham was 90 years old and nine, 99 years old, the
Lord appeared to Abram and said unto him, I'm the almighty God,
walk before me. And so he's appeared to him in
a vision. He appeared to him and talked
to him and here he is appearing to him again, but this time it's
not a vision. This time it's not just by word.
This time, he actually comes in his presence, physical presence,
to meet Abraham, to meet Abraham. And our relationship to God can
be summed up in four words. Sons, we're sons. You're no longer
servants, but sons. And the second word that sum
up our relationship with God is worship. If you're a son of
God, you're gonna worship God. You're gonna worship him. Abraham
fell before the Lord here. And then we have stewardship. God gives us things in this world. And everything that He gives
us, He gives us just to use it for His glory and the good of
others. Not just for ourselves, but for the good of others. And
the fourth word that would sum up our relationship with God
is fellowship with Him. Fellowship with Him. John said
it like this, Our fellowship is with the Father and with His
Son, Jesus Christ. And that word fellowship means
communion. It means intimate relation with, having a communion
with, having a delight in, and coming close together. And that's
what that means. And our fellowship, John said,
our fellowship, our union is with the Father and with His
Son. And here's Abraham, he has fellowship. And so we as believers are sons. Sons. What Obey read tonight
there in Colossians chapter one. There's three evidence of sonship
right there in that chapter. First of all, I heard of your
faith. All sons have faith. God-given faith. Third thing
is, is that we've heard of your hope. Faith giveth hope. Hope maketh not ashamed. Because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.
And the third thing is, I've heard of your love. Faith, hope,
and love. And that's what the evidence
of it, you know, that's just the way it is, and that's the
way we are. And so here we are, here's Abraham, we're sons of
God, we're friends of God, we have fellowship with him. But
look what happens here. It says here in verse one, and
the Lord appeared unto him in the plains of Mamre. And it was
a hot, hot day, very hot day, the heat of the day. It was the
hottest part of the day, and Abraham was sitting in his tent,
and look what it says, and he lift up his eyes. Remember a
few weeks ago, I brought a message on, they lifted up their eyes.
Lot lifted up his eyes and went towards Sodom. Abraham lifted
up his eyes and went the other direction. But they lift up their
eyes to look and behold out the land. Abraham lift up his eyes
and look at what it says here. Lo, three men stood by him. He didn t see them walking. He
didn t see them coming. He didn t say, Boy, I see three
men coming from far off here. I wonder who they are. The Scripture
says that three men stood by Him. Ain t that the way it is?
The Lord, do you know when He appears? He s there! These three men, and let me tell
you about these three men. This is, of course, the Lord
Jesus Christ, because it talks about a tree, and fellowship
in a tree, and resting around a tree, and eating under a tree.
And this is, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ, and this is just
a shadow of the Trinity. Because there's three men here,
and this just is a shadow of the Trinity. You know, Paul said
in Hebrews 10.1, said the law was a shadow, a shadow. A shadow of what? Good things
to come. This was a shadow of the Trinity.
And now, beloved, there's no more shadow, but it's good things.
These good things, Christ has come. The Holy Spirit's come. The Father sent Him. Oh, listen,
we're not living on shadows anymore. We're living on the reality of
it. And this is the Lord Jesus Christ
here, and it's a shadow of the Trinity. God didn't send a word. Didn't say, I'm going to send
a word to Abraham. God didn't say, I'm going to send a message
to Abraham. God didn't say, I'm going to
get Abraham a vision. But he said, I'm going to go
visit Abraham. I'm going to appear to Abraham.
I'm going to make myself known to Abraham like I've never made
myself known to him before. And that's what happened here,
beloved. Three men stood by him. And that's the way it is. You
know, that's the way. When the Spirit of God comes,
we don't know where he's gonna blow. We don't know who he's
gonna blow on. But when he does blow, you know
that he's blowed on you. You can hear the sound thereof.
You can feel it. You experience it. And that's
what happened to Abraham here. He's sitting there in the heat
of the day, and all of a sudden, There stood the Lord. Oh, and I'll tell you what, that's
what happens to us. That's what happens to us. We
don't know God until God, one day, He's there. That's what
I've said. I've said this so many times.
There was a day you was not a believer, and then there's a day you are.
There's a day you didn't know God, and then there's a day you
do. There's a day when you did not know anything about Christ,
and then there's a day that's all you want to know. There's
a time when you couldn't see, and now you ask God to give me
eyes that I may see more. And there was a time when we
didn't hear His voice, and now we ask Him all the time, Oh Lord,
let me hear from You. When we go to these services,
Lord, speak to me. Let me hear, like Obe said, give
me a knowledge of Your will. And oh, I tell you why, beloved. Why do you know the Lord appears
to us? And you know why He appears to us? Because we were chosen.
Abraham was chosen. God called him out of the Ur
of the Chaldees. Called him out of idolatry. Why? Because he was chosen of God.
He was chosen of God to be his son. Chosen of God to be the
father of the faithful. He was chosen of God. And that's
why the Lord appears. And He appears to us because
we were chosen. God's elect. And I tell you what,
in the Son, the Son redeemed us. The Son paid our sin debt.
The Son did away with everything that was against Him. He made
peace through the blood of His cross. And our Lord in the Holy
Spirit comes and He takes the things of Christ. And this is
what is so mysterious. This is, you know, one day here
you sit, and you're not a believer, and you listen, and then one
day you just, your mind just says, yes, that's it, that's
it. Your mind and heart says, that's
it, I believe that. What happened that caused that
to happen? The flesh didn't do it, the Holy Spirit opened a
man's heart, opened his mind. But he read that tonight, he
translated us from the power of darkness into the kingdom
of the Son of His love. And when you know you're, I remember
being in darkness. I can remember so well being
in, I remember being in religious darkness. Oh, religious darkness
is the awfulest darkness in the world. Paul was in religious
darkness. Oh, he said, I was a righteous,
I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, a Jew of Jews. Oh, I was super
religious. Zeus had a right set the law
blameless. And oh, what darkness he was
in. And he said, it pleased God who separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by his grace. And oh, beloved, and I tell you
what, that's what he says, may the Lord Jesus Christ, God the
Father and the Spirit of the Holy Ghost be with you, he said
over in 2 Corinthians. But oh, look what Abraham does
now. The Lord appeared unto him. standing
by him, they stood by him. And he looked up, he's sitting
there in the tent, probably about half asleep. You know how you
get when it's in the heat of the day? You get just drowsy,
you're sitting in the sun, you're sitting in the heat, and it was
a hot day and he's sitting out in the tent trying to get some
air. He's sitting there, groggy probably, and then all of a sudden,
these three men, and he lifted up his eyes and looked and said,
oh, oh. He lifted up his eyes and looked.
and looked, he didn't know the Lord was on the place. He's about
half asleep and he lifted up his eyes and there's those three
fellows standing beside him. And then look what it says, he
saw them and he ran to meet them, ran to where they were and bowed
himself toward the ground. Oh my. I tell you, ain't that
our response? When God opens our eyes, gives
us sight, gives us sight, we look up and we see the Lord Jesus
Christ, we see Him in His glory, we see Him in His power, see
Him in His grace, see Him in His love, see Him in His might,
see Him in His compassion, see Him in His mercy, and His willingness,
and His willingness to do, and His willingness to do. And what
do we do? We meet him. And what do we do? Just like Abraham, we bow down. We bow down. People think that
they got to actually, and he bowed down his head toward the
ground. I mean, he put his head in the dust, bowed down. Men
don't bow to other men. I mean, unless, you know, I know
some of these kings want people to bow to them and all that kind
of stuff. But I ain't no, the only person I'm gonna bow to
is the Lord Jesus Christ. If I was to go to England and
meet the Queen of England or the King of England, I'm not
going to bow to him. If I go meet one of them Saudi kings,
I'm not going to bow to him. Are you? I'm certainly not going
to bow to anybody but Christ. And that's what Abraham did.
Oh, I'd gladly bow to him. And I'll tell you something else,
beloved. Believers are constantly bowed to Christ. They got their
heads down to Christ. They got their hearts submitted
to Christ. They got their souls committed
to Christ. They're bowed down to Christ. Lord, I take your
yoke upon me, and I want to get under it. And to get under a
yoke, you've got to get down. And you know what scares us?
I tell you, I know what I'm talking about here. I really do know
what I'm talking about. A believer's scared to death of lifting himself
up. He's afraid. He's afraid that he's going to
get up. That he's going to lift himself up. That he's going to
rob God of some of his glory. That he's going to take something
unto himself that he shouldn't. He's going to attribute something
to himself that he didn't do or that he didn't think. And
he's scared. He's afraid to lift himself up. He's afraid that
he's going to be lifted up. And he said, Oh God, Oh Lord
Jesus, keep me down. Keep me down. The apostle said,
hold the beginning of your confidence steadfast unto the end. When
was the beginning of your confidence? Of being a believer. What was
the beginning of your confidence? You knew you was a sinner and
you came to Christ. And that's the beginning. You
hold on to that right there. I come to Christ as a sinner
and he was the savior. And we never graduate from that
place. Two. That's my confidence, but
that's the beginning of it, and it ain't got no better. I ain't
got no more. That's the confidence that I
started with, and that's the confidence I'm going to die with. Christ come to save sinners. Paul said, I'm the chief, and
that's what Abraham did. He met the Lord. And when he
met the Lord, when he run to see the Lord, got out of the,
there where they stood by the tent, he got up and went to where
they were and bowed down, bowed down, bowed down his head to
the ground. And look what the first thing
come out of his mouth was. In verse three, it said, my Lord. It's like Thomas, my Lord and
my God. He says, my Lord. And you notice
they, my is capital and the Lord is capitalized. The Lord's got
to become yours. He says, my, that's capitalized.
My Lord, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. The Lord leads
me beside the still waters. The Lord causes my cup to run
over. And here he says, my Lord. That's
the first thing he says. It's like those three lepers
that came down off the mountain. And they saw the Lord Jesus Christ
and they come to him and the first words out of their mouth
was, Lord, Lord, if you will, if you will, you can make us
clean. But they said, Lord, we don't
know nothing about this fella that was just born on December
the 25th that's laid in a manger. We don't know nothing about him.
We know something about a man who came here through the womb
of a virgin, that he was God-man. And we know this man, and when
he'd be entered into his ministry, the first thing he says, the
Spirit of the Lord's upon me. And we know something about him,
and we know something about him being Lord. He was Lord before
he got here, he is Lord while he is here, he's Lord right now,
and he'll always be Lord, and one of these days, every knee's
gonna bow to him and say, yes, he's the Lord. It's gonna happen. He's the Lord. I've seen signs. There was a place up in Fairmont,
if I'm not mistaken. When you went into Fairmont,
it said, Make Jesus Lord of this area or something like that.
You're too late. You can't make Jesus Lord in
your life. You're too late. God done made
Him Lord. And if you know Him at all, you know Him as Lord.
That was a thing that they had years ago. And I guess they still
do it, you know. You get saved. You get saved. and you go on for a while and
then when you get really saved, you make Jesus Lord of your life. Listen, you know why we bow to
him? Because he's Lord. We submit
to him because you can't worship anything but the Lord. If Christ
and God was anything like us whatsoever, we couldn't worship
him. We couldn't worship him. If God had to depend on me in
any way, Christ had to depend on me, how can you worship somebody,
anything resembling yourself? But if someone is a sovereign,
someone has all the power, someone has all the glory, someone has
all the might, someone who's got all the power, someone who's
got all the will, you can bow and worship that one. And you're
thankful that he lets you do that. He lets you do that. He
said, my Lord. And then look what else he said
now. My Lord, if now I have found grace in thy sight. Oh my. That's the first thing
he wants to know. Lord, if you give me grace, do
I have, have I found grace? Do you, if I found grace in your
sight, if you give me grace, Do I really have your grace?
If I found favor in your sight, if I found grace in your sight,
Lord, did you give me grace? Grace, did you give it to me? If I found it in your sight,
my like Noah, have I found grace in your sight? Look over at Exodus
33. Exodus 33. And look what happens here in
Exodus 33 in verse 13. Oh my Lord, if I found grace
in your sight, look what Moses says. Now Moses has done performed
an incredible amount of signs. God used him mightily, but still
yet, listen to what he says. Exodus 33, 13. Now therefore
I pray thee, If I have found grace in thy
sight, show me now thy way. Now listen to this, that I might
know thee, that I may know thee, and that I may find grace in
thy sight. Here's a man who knew God, and
he still said, he's like Paul, I want to win Christ, I want
to be found in Christ. And that's what he says, if I
found grace in your sight, I want to know you, and I want to know
that I have grace. I want to know that. And I tell
you, it's like on the Emmaus Road, and they's walking with
the Lord Jesus Christ, and their eyes weren't open that they should
behold him. But you know when they saw him? When he sat down
to have meat with them, and he gave thanks for the meat, and
their eyes were open, they knew immediately it was the Lord Jesus
Christ. And that's what happened to Abraham
here. The Lord opened his eyes, and he saw the Lord. He saw the
Lord. Now back over here in Genesis,
look what else happens now. He says there in verse three,
if I found favor, if I found grace in your sight, listen to
what he says now. Pass not away, I pray thee, from thy servant.
Don't leave me to myself. Don't walk away and leave me
alone. Please don't leave me alone. Don't just pass away. We sing that song, Pass Me Not,
O Gentle Savior. That's what he said here. Oh
Lord, don't pass away from me. Don't go on by me. Oh, don't
turn away. Don't turn away from me. Please
don't leave me to myself. And then look what he says now.
And he shows such regard and such respect for the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's like Mary and Martha. He wants to feed them. He wants
to take care of them. He wants to show respect for
them. He wants to, and the first thing he says, I want to get,
I'm going to get some water and we're going to come out here
and we're going to wash your feet. You know, our Lord Jesus
washed his disciples' feet. And he says, you do the same
thing. And that's the thing that these,
he said, I'm gonna get some water. And you sit down here, I'm gonna
wash the dust off your feet. I'm gonna comfort your feet.
I'm gonna make your feet cool. You've been in this whole hot
weather. I'm gonna cool, I'm gonna wash your feet. And then
he says, rest yourselves under the tree. Oh my, you know the only place
we find rest at is under the tree, under the tree. That's
where we, where Christ is at, under the tree. That's where
we want to be. We glory in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on to say, and then
I'm going to get you something to eat. I'm going to get you
some bread. And I tell you what, that bread's going to comfort
your hearts. And now, you know, he's doing this for the Lord
and the Lord Jesus Christ, he turns around and he gives us
himself as the bread of life. And after that, you're going
to pass on. And therefore, you come to your
servant. And they said, you do what you said you was going to
do. Abram hastened into the tent, told Sarah to make Three measures
of meal needed, make cakes, make some bread on the hearth. Run
and got him a calf. Calf tender, young, tender calf. Gave it to the man. He hastened
it. And he took butter and milk and the calf which he had dressed
and set it before them. And this is what I like. Now
they're resting under the tree. And we find our rest in Christ
and what he did on the cross. And then it says there, ate under
that tree. That's where we have our food.
That's where we get our food. We eat with Christ around the
cross and because of the cross, because of what took place under
that cross. We have the bread, we have the
wine, we have the fellowship, we have the communion. And Abram
just stood there and beloved, thank God for the cross. Thank
God we can rest because of what was accomplished on the cross.
And oh my, he was so respectful. And then look what happens here.
God gives assurance to him. Let's go down here to verse nine.
Look what God says to him now. Says to Abraham, oh my. Wouldn't you love to have a meal?
You remember when Mary and Martha, after Lazarus had been raised
from the dead, they said that the Lord Jesus sat there and
meet with them in their house. Can you imagine sitting down
at a table with the Lord Jesus Christ? And He's the one who
offers thanks. And when He sat with His disciples,
He took the bread and break it. Gave it to him and then he gave
thanks. Gave thanks for his own broken body. And he sat down
under that tree and they rested under that tree. And they ate
under that tree. Their communion was under that
tree. Their fellowship was under that tree. Now look what happens
in verse nine. And they said unto him, where
is Sarah thy wife? He said, she's in the tent. He
said, well, I'm gonna certainly return unto thee according to
the time of life. Now listen to me, now only Christ
can give life. That's why we know it's the Lord.
I'll return unto thee according to the time of life and Sarah
your wife shall have a son. And Sarah was standing there
and she listened to this conversation. And it says that Sarah heard
this in the tent door which was behind him, she was behind him.
And oh my, now watch what happens now. He said I'm gonna return
at the time, this time next year, at the time of life. And that's
when Christ comes, the time of life. It's like that infant cast
out. It was the time of love and time
of life. Now, look what happens. Now,
Abraham and Sarah were old and well-stricken in age. And listen
to what it says. And it ceased to be with Sarah
after the manner of women. She was way, way, way, way past
bearing a child, age. And so Sarah laughed within herself.
She didn't laugh out loud. She just laughed within herself.
After I am waxed old, got to be an old, old woman, shall I
have pleasure, my Lord, being old also? She said, this ain't
good. There's no way in the world it's
going to happen. She just laughed in her heart. She said, this
ain't going to happen. I'm old. Abraham's old. What in the world
he talking about? And the Lord said unto Abraham,
now listen to this. Abraham wasn't in the tent, he
didn't know what was going on with Sarah. Wherefore did Sarah
laugh, saying, shall I of a surety bear a child which am old? And oh my, this is the key to
the whole thing right here. Is anything too hard for the
Lord? The same power that God created
the world with is the same power that he raises us from the dead
of our sin. And he said again, at the time
appointed, I'll return unto thee according to the time of life,
and Sarah shall have a son. When it's time for you to have
a child, Now that shows you it's a miracle, it's a supernatural
act, and only Christ can do that. When it's time for you to have
that, that made you a promise that you's gonna be the father
of many nations. I'm not gonna go there, how am I gonna happen?
Well, Sarah said, I know how I'll have a child. I'll get my,
I'll get Agar. No, no, Agar had to leave with
Ishmael, the bond woman and the son. And the free woman can't
live together. The bond, the child of the flesh
and the child of the spirit, they can't live together. And
look what he says. Then Sarah denied, saying, I'll
laugh not, for she was afraid. And he said, the Lord said to
her, this is Christ's sadness. Oh yeah, but you did laugh. And
what it says, she laughed within herself. That just goes to show
you the Lord knows what's going on. She laughed within herself. And the Lord, she said, no, I
didn't laugh. The Lord said, oh yes, you did. I knew it. I know what you did. I know what
you did. I know what you thought and what
you felt. Oh my. And he repeats that. And he tells
her, there's nothing too hard for the Lord. Just like when
the disciples, he's talking about how in the world can a man be
saved? And our Lord Jesus Christ says, with men it's impossible,
but nothing is impossible with God. And then look at what God
says to Abram here. Abram has such fellowship with
the Lord. And the men rose up from thence
and looked toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to
bring them on the way. Abraham went and walked along
with them. And the Lord said, Listen to this, and the Lord
said, shall I hide from Abram that thing which I do? Shall
I not let my child, my son, not know what I'm fixed to do? You
think I should hide it from, no, no. And look what he says. And this is what God knows about
all of his children. Seeing that Abraham shall surely
become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth
shall be blessed in him. And this is something else that
I know about Abraham. This is the Lord speaking now.
For I know him, that he will command his children, and his
household after him, and they, because he'll command them, shall
keep the way of the Lord. I know this is what Abram's gonna
do, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon
Abraham that which he has spoken of him. Oh, shall I hide anything
from Abraham? Now I'm gonna read something
to you in Amos chapter three and verse seven. You can look
at it yourself when you wanna look at it. I marked it tonight,
but look what it says about what God does. Surely the Lord God
will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants,
the prophets. He ain't gonna do nothing, but
what he reveals. And he, you know, our Lord Jesus
told his disciples, he said, hitherto, I've not told you anything. But says, now you're my friends. A servant don't know what his
Lord's going to do. But you're my friends. And I'm
going to tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you
what I'm going to do. I'm going to tell you where I'm
going to go. And I'm going to tell you how it's going to be
done. And I'm going to tell you what's going to happen after
it's done. After it's done. And oh, that's the way He is
with us. He said, shall I not make known unto them what's my
will? Shall I make known unto them
what I'm going to do? What I'm gonna do? And oh, beloved. And then he goes on and says,
and the Lord said, because the cry of Solomon Gamorrah is great,
and because their sin is grievance, I'm gonna go down now. I'm gonna
go down. Anytime Christ comes into this
world, he had to come down. And see whether they've done
all together according to the cry, which has now come up to
me, and then I will know. You know, Whenever we know God,
God makes us know Himself, and He appears to us, our fellowship
with the Lord is always associated with Him making Himself known
to us, and making His will known to us, making His will known
to us. And that's what He prayed, it's
what He read tonight, that we might increase in the knowledge
of His will. And where do we find His will?
Right here. What's the will of the Lord?
This is the will of Him that seeth the Son, that everyone
that believeth on Him may have everlasting life. I know that
much of the will of God, and this is the will of Him that
sent me. And I tell you what, the will of God, God ain't gonna
come to us, and you know what I'll know what God's will for
me tomorrow is? When I get up and deal with tomorrow. It may
be a will to do nothing but relax and rest, and get a few things
done. It may be that I get a call and
something else happens. You don't know what God's will
is, His will for you personally, until you face that day. We just
don't know. We just don't know. And look
what it says in John 15, 15. Let me show you this and then
I'll quit. John 15, 15. You know, our Lord
Jesus, knowledge of His will, to know His will, John 15 and
verse 15. You know, nobody knows their master's will
and purposes but those that he makes to know it. He said here
in John 15, 15. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called
you friends for all things that I have heard of the Father, I've
made known unto you. And this is what I've known of
the Father. And I've made it known unto you. You've not chosen
me. I've chosen you. Father made
me know that. And I'm letting you know it. Oh my. Ordain you. Ordain you. John 13, 25. Oh, we always want to know what's
going on. You know, this is when the Lord
Jesus Christ is going to be betrayed. And old John was lying on our
Lord Jesus Christ's breast when our Lord said, somebody's going
to betray me. And he said to him, Lord, who
is it? Who is it? Who is it that's going
to betray you? He answered, it is he to whom
I shall give a sop when I have dipped it. When he dipped the
sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. But oh, beloved,
that's what, who is it? Who is it? I'll tell you, beloved. Three men stood by, and there's
a song. I found it, Bobby Buckner sang
it down at Sylacauga. Lord, stand by me. When I'm old
and infirm, stand by me. When I'm in fear and anxiety
and in trouble, stand by me. When I get ready to cross chilly
Jordan, Lord, stand by me. Stand by me. And the Lord Jesus,
here's the thing, He said, I'll never leave you, and I'll never
forsake you. And bless His holy name. Paul
said, He's at my right hand. The Lord's at hand. That means
He's at my right hand. Christ is always with us. Whether we feel it, whether we
experience it, or whether we can enjoy it or don't enjoy it.
He is by us, always with us. Ain't that right? Because that's
what he says in his word. That's what he said. So I don't
feel his presence. I don't either, but that don't
mean he ain't there. You know, well, I shut up. Our father, oh, blessed father,
precious, precious name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you
for your abundant mercy given us in him. Oh, the bounding grace
of God given us in Christ. And Lord Jesus, we bless you
for the day that you stood by us and appeared to us and we
opened our eyes and we saw. We saw the Lord Jesus Christ
and we bowed before him. And we keep bowing, we keep coming,
we keep bowing. And Lord, thank you that you've
opened your word and you've appeared to us and made us to know something
about your word. We thank you for these things
in our Lord Jesus Christ's name. Amen. Amen.