I want to bring a message here this morning,
and I want to start it with a question. There in John 40, it says this,
and this is the will of Him that sent me, John 6, 40, and this
is the will of Him that sent me, that everyone which seeth
the Son and believeth on Him may have everlasting life, And
God will raise him up at the last day. Now, if life is in seeing the
sun, and this is the will of God, that you see the sun, what
does it mean to see the sun? What happens when a man sees
the sun? How do you see the sun? What
does it mean to see the sun? Back up in verse 39, it says
this, And this is the Father's will which hath sent me. This is the will. This is God's
sovereign, eternal, immutable purpose. This is the will of
the Father. This is according to His covenant
and His own counsel. This is the Father's will that
sent me. his secretive will, because he
goes on to say there, that of all which he hath given me, not
only his sovereign, eternal, immutable purpose, after he works
all things according to his own counsel, but he says it is his
secretive will, of all which he hath given me. There's a people
that were given to Christ. Before the world, she sang it
there in the last verse, who shall declare his generation?
Who's going to declare it? Millions upon millions I've already
lived, and myriads have fallen in His train. Oh, all that He hath given me.
Oh, that's the blessed will of God. And then, oh, but look what
His revealed will down here in verse 40. That was His secretive
will, all which He hath given me. I should lose nothing. Oh, God's will sent me. God's
will gave me some people. And then His revealed will, the
will that we see, the will that we know something about, the
will that, I'm going to talk to you about it. This is the
revealed will, that everyone which, this is the will of Him
that sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son may have everlasting
life. I'll not lose a one of them.
I'll raise them up at the last day. That's the will of God.
That's the will that He's made known to us and what He'll do
for sinners. And then back up in verse 38, look what it says
here, this is the one who came to do the will of God. We have
so much said here about the will of God. Verse 38, this is the
one who was obedient to God's will. For I came down from heaven,
not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me.
I came to do that eternal will of God, that sovereign will of
God, that secretive will of God. And that revealed will of God,
that all that He has given me, I'm going to give Him life. And
I'm not going to lose one of them, I'm going to raise them
up at the last day. And yet, God, He's the one who did the
will of God, who came and accomplished the will of God. Not man's free
will. Man's free will can't even heal
him of a toothache or a headache. Not much less have anything to
do with His salvation. Not man's right, not man's obedience. He was the one who said, I came
down from heaven not to do my will, but the will of Him that's
sitting. I came here to obey and do the will of God. And there's
only one who could fulfill and accomplish the will of God, and
that's the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father's eternal purpose,
His Son. When our Lord, the day He was
baptized, the Father spoke from heaven and says, this is my beloved
Son. I'm well pleased with Him. Never said that about anybody
else on the face of this earth. And the Lord Jesus turned right
around and says this, He says, I do always the things which
please Him. Oh, I don't even do things that
please myself. I do a lot of things that don't
please me. I want to, but I can't. But our
Lord Jesus did the Father. You see, He was the one who not
only did the will of God, so obedient to the will of God,
but He's the one who declared and made known the will of God.
That's why He says, This is the will of Him that sent me. This
is the will of Him that sent me. How would we know the will
of God if Christ hadn't come and declared it, if Christ hadn't
come and done it? How would we know it? You know,
God has sent me times and different times and different ways in the
last days, and spoke through the fathers by the prophets.
But half in these last days, what did He do? He speaks to
us through His blessed Son, makes Himself known to us, makes His
will known to us through the Son. The Father loves the Son
and has given everything into His hands. And that's what, you
know, in fact, I'm going to say this, not only did he do the
will of God and declared the will of God and made known the
will of God, but he himself is the will of God. Everything that
God does, he does by his Son. God manifests his will and does
his will, and he does it through his Son, and his Son is the will
of God himself. It pleased the Father that in
all things, He should have the preeminence. It pleases the Father
that in Him all fullness should dwell. And all the fullness of
the Godhead dwells in the Lord Jesus Christ bodily. You know
where He done His will? You know that He was the will
of God in creation? Ain't it what it says? By Him
all things that was made was made. Without Him was not anything
made that was made. And He was by Him all things
that were created. He's before all things, and by
Him everything exists. You want to know what thou God
created? He did it through His Son. He's the will of God in
creation. And I know this without a shadow of a doubt. And this
is what needs to be cried from the rooftops. And I wish every
preacher in America and in the world that gets in a pulpit today
would say this, that He is the will of God in salvation. There's
no other place That's why he says, This is the will of him
that sent me, that all which he hath given me, I'll not lose
a one of them. I'll raise him up at the last
day, and this is the will of him that sent me, that everyone
that sees the Son might have everlasting life, and I'll raise
him up. Oh my, so I mean salvation's
in one person. God, you want to deal, we want
to deal with God. You've got to deal with this.
This is the will of God. You want to have it or we don't
want to have it. That's what they said. What might we do to do
the works of God? This is the work of God that
you believe on Him. And He's the will of God in providence.
You know everything God does in this world? He does because
of His Son and through His Son. In fact, The father loves his
son, give everything into his hands, and we're going to, you
know God works everything in our life to conform us to the
image of Christ. Everything he does in this world
is to conform us to the image of Christ. That's what he's doing. And this is something I don't
like to say, but it's true. But he's the will of God in damnation.
Our Lord Jesus said this, if you believe I am he, you'll die
in your sins. He says the father judges no man. But He hath given
all judgment into the hands of the Son, the very Christ that
men don't want to bow to and don't want to submit to and don't
want to believe in, and wants to just hold Him at bay and hold
Him at their power and hold Him at their will. That's the very
Christ that they're going to face. And here one day, depart
from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew you. You know, it
says this, I am he that was dead, and I am alive, and I live forevermore,
and I have the keys of what? Death and hell. He's gone. You know, we used to think, you
know, said, boy, people used to, preachers used to preach,
and we used to believe, you know, that if we didn't do this and
that, somebody would go to hell on account of us. I'll be not
one soul in hell because of anything I've done. And I won't be one
soul in hell because of something I didn't do. Won't be. No. Uh-uh. There's only one person that's
got the power over that place. Only one person's got the keys.
Only one person. And that's why you find in the
Scriptures that Christ put Satan himself in the bottomless pit.
And that's why he told that bunch of Pharisees, how you gonna escape
the damnation? How you gonna escape it? So,
beloved, back here in our text, Men must see the Son in order
to be saved. This is God's will. This is the
Father's will which hath sent me. This is the will of Him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on Him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. And it can't be changed. You can't change
God's will. And salvation is seeing the Son.
So what does it mean to see the Son? Moses lifted up that brazen
serpent. Our Lord Jesus says, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of
Man be lifted up. And when that serpent was lifted
up, everyone that was bitten with those serpents, when that
brass serpent was lifted up, Moses said, everyone that looks
will have life. Everyone that looks will have
life. And that's what I'm telling you,
there's life in a look. I know of two men that saw Him
in the Spirit. Isaiah said, when I saw Him,
who? The Lord. When I saw the Lord, He'd be
seen. When He seen Him that high and
lifted up. What else did He see? He saw
His glory. And when He done that, what did
He cry out? Oh, woe is me. Oh, Job bragged and bragged and
bragged and bragged, and then all of a sudden, he said, I've
heard about you. I've heard about you. I've had
all these comforters for all these days telling me about you.
Now my eye, my eye sees you. I see with my own eye that I
have abhorred myself. So he can be seen. He can be
seen. So listen. Got a few little points
this morning. What does it mean to see the
Son? To see the Son is to be convinced, to be convinced without
a shadow of a doubt, of the reality of Christ. Of the reality of
Christ. What do I mean by that? Everybody
knows Jesus. Everybody's accepted Jesus. Everybody
knows who He is. Everybody one of these days intends
to accept Him. Everybody one of these days intends
to get right with Him and make peace with God. But to be convinced
of the reality of Christ, the Scripture says, he that cometh
to God must first believe that He is. Now, that don't mean that
he believes. They say in America 75% of people
believe in God. They believe in a higher power,
believe in a supernatural power, believe in somebody. But I mean,
do they really believe God? Do they believe him as he is? Who is he? What's he like? He's
eternal, he's immutable, he's sovereign, he's majestic, he's
holy, he's righteous. And that's why when Abraham,
when God spoke to Abraham, he believed God. And oh, beloved,
you must believe that He is, not who you think He is, not
who you want to believe, or just in His existence, believe that
He is who He says He is, and that He will do what He says
He'll do. He is a rewarder of them that
diligently seek Him. And oh, look over here in Romans
10, 14 with me just a moment. This is one of the verses of
Scripture, Romans 10, 14. That's why Pharaoh
said, when Moses went and said, God said, let my people go. Let my people go. And went in
and tell Pharaoh. Pharaoh sat on his throne. He's
the most powerful man in the world at that time. And here he comes in. Moses comes
in to the most powerful man. Here's a fellow that's been tending
sheep for 40 years on the backside of the desert. God said, let
my people go. You know what the first thing
Pharaoh said? Who is the Lord that I should obey him? Who is
he? Who does he think he is? He ain't
got any power. Tell me to let somebody go? Who
is he? And that's what most folks say.
Who is he? And when you preach him as he is, they'll say, that's
not the one I know. Look here in Romans 10, 14. Watch
what it says. Verse 13 says, For whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now here, how then shall they
call on him in whom they have not believed? If you've not believed,
then how are you going to call on him? Now here's the next question.
And how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard?
How are you going to call on somebody you don't know? And
how are you going to believe in somebody you've never heard
about? And I mean here the truth about him. Hear the facts about
him, hear him as he is described in the scripture. Now look back
over here at John 6, let me show you exactly what I'm talking
about. Look down at verse 41, John 6, 41. Then the Jews then
murmured at him because he said, I am that bread which came down
from heaven. Look what they said about him. And they said, is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph? whose father and mother we know.
How is it that he said, I come down from heaven? We know his
mom and his dad and his brothers and sisters, and here we know
him, and he says he comes down from heaven. How can that possibly
be? They didn't see the reality of Christ. And, oh, beloved,
you know, all saving faith, all saving faith is founded on knowledge
and understanding. There's no such thing as blind
faith. There's no such thing as that. Faith is founded on
knowledge. Knowledge of what? Knowledge
of Christ. When Isaiah said, I saw the Lord
high and lifted up, and not only knowledge, but knowledge and
understanding of what you know about Him. That's why Paul said,
you know, he says, I was a Pharisee of Pharisees, and I didn't know
God. I didn't know Christ. I was ignorant. I was in unbelief. And then one day Christ brought
him down on the Damascus Road, and beloved, you know what he
come to say after that? He said, I count everything but
done, that I might win Christ, that I might know Christ. And
I want to have the excellency of the knowledge of Christ and
be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness. He had some
knowledge of Christ, some had understanding of Christ. Oh, you can't trust an unknown
and unrevealed Christ. That's what he says, you know,
that everyone that seeeth the Son. You can't trust an unknown
Christ, an unrevealed Christ. Everybody, you know how many
people this morning are going to be talked into going to an
altar, be talked into going to the front and accepting Jesus.
And that's the first time they've been in a church service in years.
You know how many is going to have that happen to them? They
don't know anything about Christ. They're just going to hear about
Jesus and how much He loves them and how He stands here with His
arms open for you. They're not going to hear about
him as the sovereign. They're not going to hear about
him with all power. They're not going to hear about
his cleansing blood. They're not going to hear about
his substitutionary death. They're not going to hear about
his satisfaction to the justice of God. They're not going to
hear about how that he was made a sacrifice for sin. They're
not going to hear about how holy and how righteous and how omnipotent
and how glorious he is. Oh my, you can't trust an unknown
and unrevealed Christ. I read something the other day
that astounded me, astounded me, that men have always called,
as long as there's been a man on this, has called on the God
that he knows. And I read something in the scriptures
this week over in 1 Kings that says, you know, that they took
all the Jews out of one place and moved them over here and
took a bunch of people and moved them back over here. And to put
them in those homes and that, they moved the Jews out and moved
all these other people in. Well, lions come among them,
started killing them, started eating them. And they said, Oh
my, we don't know what to do to satisfy the gods of this land. So we don't know the manner of
the gods of this land. So what are we going to do? They
said, well, send us a priest out of them Jews, and he knows
something about it. That's what they said, the god
of the manor, the manor of the god of this land. And that's
what you do when you go somewhere, you go with the god of the manor
of the land. When you go to Mexico, they've
got a God down there that's the man of the land. You go to the
Philippines, a God. You go to India, the God of the
man of the land. And that's what most folks are
doing. They're going along with the God of the man of the land. And ever have they tell you about
Him, that's what you're going to trust in. And oh, beloved,
you can't ask why. Who is Jesus Christ? When we
ask you, who is He? If you ask the average person,
who is Jesus Christ? Do you know what they say? Well, it's just Jesus. It's just Jesus. They fight this time of year.
Every year they fight over Christmas songs and Nativity scenes and
whether y'all say Christmas or Happy Holidays and all that.
They're arguing over stuff like that. And they're missing the
whole point of who is Jesus Christ. I'll tell you who He is. He's
God. He says, I came down from heaven. My father sent me down from heaven. He said, I'm from above, you're
from beneath. He was God. The only God you'll
ever see, the only God you'll ever know, and the only God you'll
ever bow to is Jesus Christ, the Lord of Glory. God's eternal. He's invisible. He's spirit. Well, how are we
going to see Him? How are we going to know Him? He came manifesting
in a place that we could see Him, where we could handle Him,
where we could taste Him and touch Him. The Word of Life.
God Himself came down in Jesus Christ. He's God. And what did
He do? What did He do? What was His
purpose in coming? Get God in the notion of liking
us and loving us and helping us save ourselves? Thou shalt
call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. Huh? Oh, beloved, why did He
do that? Why did He come here to save
His people from their sins? She sung that He was wounded
for our transgressions. The Lord, here we are, we're
sinners. Born sinners, shapen in iniquity, we cannot deny our
sin, cannot deny our hypocrisy. We cannot deny our sin, we cannot
deny it, we're sinners. Sinners in what we say, sinners
in what we think, sinners in where we go, sinners in what
we do, sinners in what we feel. Sinners in our minds, sinners
in our wills, sinners in our hearts, sinners in our souls.
Something must be done with that sin or else we're going to face
God in judgment. God took that sin, charged it
to his son, put it on his son's account. And Christ went to the cross
and God's wrath poured out on him. God's judgment fell on him
till he himself cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Wherever sin's at, God's got
to forsake it. And all our sins were there.
And you know why He bore our sins? And bore them away into
the tomb, and come from the grave, and ascended back up into glory?
So that God could be just. God was just. How can God save
me, and me being a sinner, without punishing me for my sins? Without
me dying for my sins, without me being judged for my sins,
without His wrath coming down on my sins, how can God be just
and save me? Put somebody in my place, equal
with myself. Now, I come to the Son, and God
justly receives me, because I don't have any sin. Where they gone?
Christ bore them away. He was the just for the unjust.
Now watch this, that he might bring us to God. And where is
he now? Oh, my. He's standing out here
in the front, honey, for you. He's weeping for you. He's heartbroken
for you. He's standing at your heart door
just begging, begging, begging, please let me in. No, I'll tell
you where he's at. After he by himself purged our
sins, he set out at the right hand of the majesty of heaven.
That's why it says, if you see the sun. Do y'all see, some of
y'all see in the sun right now, ain't ya? You see in the sun. And oh, there he sits in God's,
you see him up there? See him? See him in his glory? See him in his authority? See
Him in His Majesty. See Him in His finished work.
See Him in His intercession. See Him holding us up and keeping
us. Do you see Him? Do you see Him? Oh, beloved,
Christ is not a myth. He's not a myth. He's not a martyr for some special
cause. He's not a mystical figure of
history. that everybody's searching for and trying to figure out
if he really existed, what he did, what he's in, if he's who
he said he was. He's not just an influence. He's
not just an idea or an idealistic teacher to we ought to listen
to or an example that we should follow, but a living person. with all glory and all power
and all right and all salvation in Him. And this is the will
of God descending. He said, if you'll see Me, look
at Me, embrace Me. That's what seeing the Son means.
Seeing Him and seeing Him as your salvation. Seeing Him. He
said, I'll give you life. And I'll never lose you. And
not only that, but when you go to the grave, He said, I'll raise
you up at the last day. He's God manifesting. Let me
show you one verse of Scripture before I move on. First John
5.20. First John 5.20. First John 5.20. Look what it says here. We know. Oh Christ. Not a myth, a martyr, mystical
figure, marriage counselor, and all that. No, no, no. Look what it says here in 1 John
5, 20. And we know, know, that the Son
of God has come. It's the Father sent me. I came
from heaven, not to do my will, but to will. And we know that
He's come. And when He came, look what He done. It hath given
us an understanding. He comes to give us an understanding.
What is this understanding about? And why did He come? That we
may know Him. That is true. And not only that,
but this is what seeing the Son is, that we are in Him. That
is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. He's coming. Oh, beloved, let me hurry on.
I'm taking too much time. I know conviction. Conviction.
A fella called me the other day, he says conviction's something
anybody don't even talk about anymore. You know, when man's
convicted of a crime, you know, if he's guilty, he understands.
You know, I'm convicted. I'm going to jail. I'm going
to suffer. Well, conviction of sin, conviction of not being
able to be acceptable to God, conviction is born of knowledge
of the law. Oh my, Paul said, I was alive
without the law once. But then I seen it. I seen it
in its holiness. I seen it in its demands. You
know, when the law says love God, I love myself more. Love your neighbor, I love myself
more. Don't you lie. Oh my, I don't
know how many I've told. Don't you covet. I want everything
I see. And so we're convicted of our sin. I'm a sinner. I can't undo that sin. I can't
undo them lies. I can't undo that covetousness.
I can't undo that left self-love. I can't undo it. And so conviction
of sin is born of a knowledge of the law. And repentance, that
repentance, beloved, that makes you turn from yourself and turn
to Christ, is born of a knowledge of Christ. When you see your
sin and you see Christ, You can't help but turn from yourself and
turn to Him. If you ever see your sin, you
can't help but turn. Oh, I see my sin, and I see Him! I know Him, I call on Him, I'm
looking to Him. Oh my! So now repentance is born
of the knowledge of my sin. Oh my! It's against you only
that I sin. And faith is born of the knowledge
of Christ. Oh my, when I see Christ, I say,
oh, faith comes. Bartimaeus said, oh, son of David,
have mercy on me. Have mercy on me. Paul said it
this way, I know whom, whom I have believed. Do you believe a person? And
I'll tell you, I'll never get through this of today, I don't
reckon, but I've got to say this. And I've said it so many times,
there's going to be so many people in hell who said, I trust the
finished work of Christ. I trust the finished work of
Christ. You say, how can that be? It's not. It's not the finished work of
Christ. It's Christ who finished the work. Paul didn't say, I
trust the finished work of Christ. He didn't say, I trust the cross
of Christ. He said, I trust Him. I want
to know Him. I want to win Him. He said, I know whom I have believed. And you go through the Scriptures,
and how many times did they say, if I can touch Him, they called on Him. And when Philip, that eunuch,
was sitting in the reading. What did Philip preach to him?
Five points of Calvinism? Baptist doctrine? Join the church? Be baptized
and wash away all your sins? No, no, no, no, no, no, no. He
began to preach unto him the Lord Jesus Christ And he came
to see this water to be baptized. He said, well, here's water.
What does hinder me from being baptized? He said, if thou believest. Well, the same thing is said,
if thou seest that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you may. He
said, I believe with all my heart. And that's what I'm, Lord, saying.
He that seeth the Son. Let me move on. Here's my second
point. So to see the Son is to be convinced of the reality of
Christ. Conviction of sin, repentance, faith. And to see the Son, to
see the Son is to be convinced of my awful, my ruined, my helpless,
my lost rebellious state before God. I mean, have you ever seen
yourself utterly and absolutely lost? Absolutely lost. Helpless to do anything about
it. Ruined. It can't change your state before
God. It's to be convinced of our own sinfulness. Sinfulness. I say this without any thought
about it. That man who has never grown. mourned over his sin. I mean, groaned and mourned over
his sin. We'll never rejoice over redemption
by the blood of the Lamb. Never rejoice over that. But
boy, if you ever see your sinfulness, and you groan over it and you
mourn over it, oh, you'll say, when you hear that hymn, son,
there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, Plus, beneath that flood lose
all their guilty states. When you hear about that fountain
filled with blood, that's for me! That's for me! Where it cleansed
me of my sin, that's for me! I've got to have it! Oh, my! And I'll tell you one characteristic
of this church-going generation, of this Bible-believing generation,
of this born-again generation, of this praying generation. This,
I love the Lord. I don't care much about the gospel.
I don't care much about church. I don't care much about being
committed. I don't care much about the Bible.
But I love the Lord. One thing I've found characteristic
of this generation is they don't have any knowledge of sin at
all. They don't have any knowledge of it. They just swap their so-called
idea of an idol for another idol, just that Jesus. to all other
gods that they're worshiping. Huh? Oh, they don't have any
knowledge of sin. They don't know what it is to
be a sinner. Huh? Oh, my. They've got Jesus. They've fixed up for heaven.
And at the same time, they will not have this man to reign over
them. Huh? They'll stand up and tell you,
since I got right with God, I've quit my sin. Look at my hands.
Don't know nothing about sinfulness. Sin to them is something strictly
to be done with your hand. And that's why preachers so manipulate
congregations. They get them up and start telling
them about all the sins, start talking about sins. Sins of cold-heartedness. Sins of not praying. Sins of
not being faithful. Sins of not giving you money.
Sins of not tithing. Sins of being ill or hateful
to your wife. And they'll go on and talk about
sins. Next thing you know, they've got everybody feeling guilty.
And they'll have the altar full and everybody just crying. And
they'll get up and they'll just weep. Oh Lord, I'm not going
to do that no more. I thank you. They'll feel so
good about the sins. They'll get up and go back out.
You know, two or three weeks, the preacher had them all feeling
guilty again. You know why? Because they're
dealing with sins, not sin. Oh, my. Sin is something of the
heart. If I ask you right now, what's
the worst sin that you think that anybody could possibly commit
in this world? I mean, you know what? We got
that little new grandbaby. How could anybody? injure an
infant. But people kill them all the
time and wrap them in blankets and put them in dumpsters. How
can anybody rape a four-year-old child? But they do it all the
time. How can anybody just walk in
and shoot people down, just bam, bam, bam, bam? Just shoot them
down dead. How can a mother or son hate
and despise a mother and a father? Or a mother and father hate and
despise a child and wish they'd never seen him again. But it
happens every day. So what's the worst sin you can
think? We talk about all these sins. But you know, every one
of those sins are sins of the heart. And I'll tell you what
our Lord said about sin. When he began to describe sin,
you know what he said? For from within, out of the heart,
the first thing was an evil thought. What do you think evil about?
First thing, you think evil about God. Then you think evil about yourself.
If you think you're good, you're thinking evil. Because you ain't
good. Huh? You ain't good. And all
sin is something they do in the flesh instead of the spirit.
But all these sins that we commit that only God sees, pride, covetousness,
self-righteousness. You hear somebody say, I ain't
got a self-righteous bone in my body. Well, self-righteousness
is not in the bones, it's in the heart. You heard people say, I ain't
got a jealous bone in my body. Jealousy is not in the bones,
it's in the heart. Boy, that preacher sure got on my toes.
Now listen, that makes everybody feel good about the preacher
got on my toes. That means, boy, I understand a little bit about
myself. Listen, if God don't get in a
man's heart and show him how sinful he is, Oh, ain't no hope
for me. And before a man, before a man
will have peace in his heart, before a man will have peace
in his heart, he'll weep over his sin. His sin, that's what
he is. Sin's what we are. We breathe it. And secondly,
we'll mourn and weep over our sins, what we do. What we do, we confess them,
Lord, please forgive me of that. And then I'll tell you one thing
that we'll really weep over and really, really mourn over, and
that's our righteousness that we had for so many years that
we thought was acceptable. We'll count it as done. We'll
weep over that righteousness that we had and trusted in for
so many years. God, forgive me of that righteousness.
Oh, please, that righteousness that I thought was good and acceptable
to you, forgive me. It's done. And we'll get up every
day and say, oh, God, for I believe, but help my unbelief. Oh, beloved. Let me give you one more and
then I'll quit. To see the Son is not only to be convinced of
the reality of Christ, to be convinced of your wretchedness,
you're ruined, you're lost, you're sinfulness. The third thing,
to see the Son is to be convinced, be convinced of the absolute,
absolute necessity of Jesus Christ. You've got to have Him. You've
got to have Him. Once you ever feel the necessity
of Him, that necessity gets stronger and stronger and stronger. Oh,
my. Oh, I see him. I see him as absolutely
necessary for me to be forgiven of my sin. He's absolutely necessary
if I'm going to be accepted of God. He's absolutely necessary
if I'm going to be justified. He's absolutely necessary if
I'm going to be sanctified. His righteousness absolutely
necessary if I'm going to have a righteousness. He's absolutely
necessary for me to have life. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ, you're
convinced of this. He's an absolute necessity. He's
not a convenience. You know, that's what He is to
most, just a convenience to most folks. You know, when they get in trouble,
what do they do? Jailhouse religion. Go up to
the jail. One of these days, you go up
there at that justice center, and they've got a huge rack there
of one religious thing after another. And they get in there, and Jesus
is a convenience to them. He's a convenience for them when
they face the judge. He's a convenience for them.
Jesus is a convenience when people are starting to have a divorce.
Jesus is a convenience when somebody gets sick and they land dying.
Jesus is a convenience. He's not a necessity. He's a
fire escape. You don't want to go to hell,
do you? Of course not. I know how to keep them going. And, oh, he's not a doormat.
Oh, I just get upset with folks using him as a doormat. You know,
we'd use doormats to wipe our feet off, you know, when we'd
come in. Folks come into church, you know,
and they've lived like hell, and these preachers let them
come in and say, well, oh, Jesus is ready to take you back. And
they can get lost and back and lost and back. Every time they
come in here, they use him for a doormat to wipe their filthy
feet off. He's an insurance policy. You
can even sign an insurance policy. He'll guarantee you that you'll
go to heaven. Oh, beloved, He's not just one
of the ways. He's not just one of the doors.
He's the only way. He's the only door. God only
deals with men through His Son. And I'm convinced, beloved, I'm
convinced that all I need You see, absolutely, all I need is
found where I am in Him. When I see Him, I say, oh, I
found everything I need. When I see Him, I see everything
I need. A man has not seen the Son until
he sees that all, A-double-L, capital A, capital L, capital
L, is found in Him for all he needs for time and eternity.
You need righteousness? God made Christ our righteousness.
You need holiness, God made Christ our holiness, sanctification.
You need redemption, God made Christ our redemption. You need
wisdom to understand yourself, wisdom to understand the scriptures,
wisdom to understand some spiritual things, Christ has made unto
us the wisdom of God. And oh, God says you're complete
in Him. Oh my, to see Him is to receive
Him and entirely, undivided. I don't take Him as my Savior
and not my Lord. I don't take Him as my Redeemer
and not my Master. I've got to take Him as my Prophet,
my Priest, my King, my everything, all, everything. I can't divide
Him up. And I despair when you see Him.
You despair of salvation in anyone or anything else other than Him.
And I've just got two points, what would take me five minutes
to do these, and I know it's hot. To see the Son. To see the Son
is to see Him as the free gift of God. Free gift of God. You can't earn it in Christ.
You don't work for Christ. You don't marry Christ. The wages of sin is death. That's
what you're going to get for what you do. Jesus Christ. But the gift of
God is Jesus Christ. The gift of God. Being justified
freely, freely by His grace. So if I have Christ, He just
give to me? You don't merit a gift. You don't
deserve a gift. You don't pay for a gift. God give us His Son freely. In my hands no price I bring.
Jesus paid it all, all to Him alone. Sin had left a crimson
stain. He washed it, white as snow. And last of all, to see the Son,
look here in our text, to see the Son is to see Him as your
security. Look what it says there in verse
37. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and watch this, and him that cometh to me, I'll
never cast him out. Oh, I ain't going to cast him
out, I'm just going to kill him. And down in verse 39, and this
is the Father's will at chest, which has sent me that all which
you have given me, watch this, he ain't going to lose nothing. That's pretty good. Christ says
I'm not going to lose you. I'm lost. Me and Larrys talked
about this. We'll put something up and say,
I'll put that where I'll always remember where it's at. So when
I get ready to go back for it, I'll know right where it's at.
When you get ready to go back for it, where did I put that
thing? And you run from one end of your building to the other,
left, right, up, down, look everywhere, and you can't find it. But Christ knows wherever one
of His people is. And He said, I won't lose that
one. Oh, that one over there, that devil said, that one over
there done some awful thing. I ain't gonna lose it. Oh, I'm
not going to lose you. I know right where you're at,
know what you're doing. I'm going to hold on to you tight.
And oh, listen to this. And then not only that, but he
says, I'm going to raise him up at the last day. Oh, from Adam, oh, from Abel
to the last saint going to be raised up. He'll not let one
be cast away. I say this, not one bone of his
body shall be broken. Not one sheep, not one sheep
will be left in the wilderness. Nope, he'll find every single
one of them. Old Simeon, that old man went
in the temple. God told him, says, you're not
going to die till you see my son, till you see salvation,
till you see the Messiah of Christ. He walked in there one day, and
he was a 40-day-old baby. He picked that infant up, held
it in his arms, and here's what he says, My eyes have seen thy
salvation. My eyes saw it. Nobody else in
that building saw it, but he saw it. And he says, Lord, let
me go on home now. And oh, my, have you seen the
Son? God help you, give you eyes to
see. Give you eyes to see. Oh, blessed, blessed Savior,
gracious, eternal God, in the blessed name of Christ our Lord,
bless this message to the understanding, to the heart, God open hearts,
open understandings. Please, please, please, oh Lord
Jesus, make the word effectual. Oh God, cause this gospel to
be real, alive, powerful. To your dear saints, oh Lord,
I pray that you give someone the sight today. Give them that
sight. Give them those ears. Give them
those eyes to see. Give them that faith. And we
bless you in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.