Turn back to John 14. That's
one of my favorite, favorite songs. That's the theme song of my heart.
It is right there. I can go to sleep with that song.
Every night, every night. That could be our prayer, couldn't
it? Every night. Give me Christ or else I die. I brought this message not too
long ago, somewhere else. I brought it somewhere. I was
thinking about it for here, but between getting here and then,
I've been several other places. But this one thought, and this
is basically what I want to give you this morning, is just a thought. What's on my mind more than anything. And it can be summed up in this,
the importance of knowing Jesus Christ. He's very real. God is real. Jesus Christ is
real. Eternity is real. Judgment's
real. Salvation in Christ is real.
And He's to be known. And He's to be known. You would
think that creation this human race would just want
to know who created them, wouldn't you? You would think they'd want
to know the Creator. And yet, when you look at the
human race, they want nothing to do with Him. It's just astounding
to me how depraved, how dead, and how lost the human race is.
And we're a part of that human race. And God gave us understanding. God called us out, gave us an
understanding, revealed Christ in us. And since then, there's
nothing, there's absolutely nothing more important than to know Jesus
Christ. But the thing that brought this
to my mind a few weeks ago, I was talking
with my parents. They're now, they're getting
old, older. They were up in their mid-80s.
Dad's getting, you know, he's getting very weak. And we were
talking. I went over to mow grass. After
that, we sat down. Dad got to talk. We were just talking about the
past, you know, reminiscing. And then he talks about dying. And he said, you know, the hardest
part of dying is just leaving those loved ones. And leaving
the one you've been married to Almost 70 years, getting close
to 70 years. He said, that's what makes it
so tough. And I said, I said, Dad, we ought to live our lives
preparing to leave. I said, it's taken me 60 years
to learn that. But we ought to live our lives,
our lives preparing to leave. What do we all know that we have
to do? What do we know? I don't know what I'm going to
have to do tomorrow, but I do know one thing that I have to do.
I have to die. And I've got to meet God. I'm
going to meet God. No matter what, I'm going to
meet God. There's a lot of people in this world I'm not going to
meet. There's seven billion plus people in this world. Most of
them I'll never meet. But there is one I will meet.
God. Almighty God. Then a man called
me Friday from North Carolina. wanting me to come back down
there. And he was telling me, I was
asking if everything's going all right there, down at Rupert,
Rupert Robinworks. He said, yeah, he said, everything's
doing fine. He said, we have a, there's a lady in the church,
her mother's 90 years old, and he said, you can remember her.
I said, it's any day now, her mother could go. And I thought,
you know, my thought was, oh, how important. It is to know
the Lord Jesus Christ when this hour comes, because it's coming,
it's coming. And then here's, about three
months ago, I went to the doctor and I had trouble swallowing.
I just couldn't get through my lunch or dinner. That's a good
weight loss program, by the way. I'm starting to lose some weight
over that. I thought, it's not, it might not be too bad. I don't
want to keep this. But I went to the doctor, and
they ran, you know, went down my throat, and he said, everything
looks fine. He said, you don't have any cancer
or nothing, no pre-cancer cells, but you got three ulcers on your
esophagus, because I have acid reflux real bad. And I was telling
the gentleman this that works with me, he's a supervisor. He
said, yeah, I've been having a problem with that. I said,
well, I have mine checked out. He said, I think I have mine
checked out. And he came to me last Friday, and he said, I've
got stage four cancer. And I thought, first thing my
thought was, that could have just as easily been me. You know,
that could have been my diagnosis. And he walked around the rest
of the day. I was hitting on him for a few weeks, but he didn't want to
tell anybody until he was, he went away for treatments in Philadelphia.
And he walked away, walked around the rest of the day, and he was
just, I mean, just like a shell, just like an empty shell. I could
tell you just not there. And again, I thought, oh, how
important it is to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how important
it just can't. I just can't. Just can't emphasize that enough.
We all have to go sooner or later. And this is the reason why we
are, Paul tells us in Colossians three, seek those things which
are above. where Christ sits at God's right
hand. Set your affection, set your mind, set your heart on
things above. Not on the things of this earth.
I don't want to have lived 60, 70, 80, 90, whatever years, and come up and
be... and not have Christ. And not have Him. I can't imagine that. I just
can't imagine that. I want to have lived such a life.
I want us, everyone here, to have lived such a life that we
can say right now, for me to live is Christ. I have to die
today. For me to get up in the morning
is Christ. For me to go to work tomorrow
is Christ. And to die, it's not like, God said you're going to. Pointing
at a man who wants to die. I have conducted a lot of funerals
over the years. And I've conducted a lot of funerals
of believers. People that I've, well I've known
you all, some of you all, at least most of you probably, since
I was 23 years old. I came to 13th Street when I
was 23 years old. I'm now 60. We've known each
other a long time. And I tell you what makes me
happy is that we're still here. We're still here. I tell you,
it makes me happy when I sit down and I think I still believe
the gospel. I still believe it. I still enjoy going to hearing
the gospel preached. And many of you I've seen for
years and you're still here. You know what a miracle of grace
that is. You know what that is. That's a work of God. kept by
the power of God through faith. And the evidence of it is you're
still here and you still love the gospel. You still love Christ.
You still love hearing about Christ. You still want to learn
of Him. You can't exhaust that knowledge.
You cannot exhaust the knowledge of knowing Christ. He's the wisdom
of God. Can you exhaust the wisdom of
God? Absolutely not. No. Well, my first thought when
I was talking to Dad and Mom My first thought when I left
there, I left there down depressed. I was just saddened. But this
scripture came to my mind, and this is going to be the springboard
for all the other scriptures we're going to look at. Let not
your heart be troubled. That's what I would say to them
and to everyone here. Whatever trouble we go through,
you and I have a God-given right not to let our hearts be troubled.
I have a God-given right to live like I have good sins. I do. No matter what, He sends my way.
And when it comes to that time, now here, He was leaving. He's
gone back to the Father. But now it's going to come time
for us to leave. And us to depart from one another. And He's going
to say, and He says here, let not your heart be troubled. You
believe in God. I know you believe in God. Exercise
that same faith in me. And the reason he says that is
because he's God. If he were not God, he wouldn't
say that. It would be idolatry to worship him. It would be idolatry
to exercise the same faith in Christ that I exercise in God. And he says, so with that same
faith that you believe in God, trust me. Trust me. In my father's house, and he's
going to tell us about his father's house. In my Father's house are many
mansions, many dwelling places. There's many dwelling places,
there's no empty spots. There's no empty spots, there's
no vacancy. Now if I believed the Armenian
gospel, the Armenian, what they say, there'd be a whole lot of
vacancies, wouldn't there? There'd be a whole lot of vacancies.
But there's no vacancies. In my Father's house are many
dwelling places. Now if it were not so, I would
have told you this. Christ is the truth. Everything
that came out of His mouth is truth. He never spoke a word
that was not truth. Every syllable, every time, He
breathed truth. And He said, if it were not so,
I'd tell you. I would tell you. I'd go and
prepare a place for you. I was like, John, listen. John,
listen to what he's saying to you. I'm going to prepare a place
in my Father's presence for you. God who is a light unto which
no man can approach. I'm going to prepare a place
for you in His presence. Can you imagine that? I have
a place in God's presence because Jesus Christ prepared it for
me. Oh, how obsessed we ought to
be with Him. How obsessed we ought to be with the Lord Jesus
Christ. Knowing Him. Following Him. Paul said, Oh, that I might know
Him. He couldn't get enough of Him. Couldn't get enough of Him. I go and prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, you, I'm not
just going to prepare a place and all those who accept me as
their personal Savior can be there. I'm preparing a place
for a particular people. My servants shall not fail. That's
what God said in Isaiah 42. My servants shall not fail. And
if there's one place, if there's one seat, if there's one room
that's empty, he failed. He absolutely failed. But he
says here, he says, I'm going to prepare a place for you. Now
listen, and if I go and prepare a place for you, if I do this
for you, you can just bet your life on this. You can stake your
life on this. I will come again and receive
you to myself. How many times has he done that
over the years? I've preached, as I said, I've preached several
funerals. And all the funerals that I've preached to those who
believe, I wasn't preaching the funeral of a dead person. I'm
preaching the one that's living. And what happened? What happened?
You say so-and-so died. Well, what just happened? Brother
of so-and-so or sister of so-and-so died. What just happened? I'll tell you what happened.
I'll come again for you. That's just what happened. The
Lord came. The Lord came for the one He
prepared a place for. And He took that person to the
place that He had prepared for them. Now, I know it's painful when
our loved ones depart and we weep for them, but again, think
of where they are. They're in that place where the
Lord said that He had gone to prepare for them. That where
I am, I'll be there. I'll be there. I'm not taking
you to a place where I'm not. That where I am, not where I'm
going, where I am, He's already there. You may be also. You may be also. Oh, the importance of knowing
Christ. The importance of coming to know him more and more and
more and more to the point where this place means nothing. This place. This earth and the
things I have on this earth mean nothing. The relationships I
have in Christ are going to flourish. All others are going to be cut
out, sundered. They're going to be cut asunder and gone. And whether I go, you know. You
know where I'm going. You know where I'm going. Now
you and I have the advantage of having the complete Word of God.
Philip didn't have that. Philip didn't have that. But
you know, this is the same Philip that asked that eunuch, do you
understand what you're reading? This is the same one who asked
the Lord. We don't know. We don't know where you're going.
That philip or that eunuch said how can I accept some man show
me and he just stepped right up He just stepped right up said
let me tell you about jesus christ Let me tell you about the one
that I let me tell you about isaiah 53. Let me tell you about
the one that's speaking We can that's why i'm saying
we never exhaust the knowledge of christ you grow and you grow
and you grow until you finally go home Whether I go, you know, in the
way you know. Thomas said unto him, Lord, we know not whether
thou goest. We don't know where you're going.
And since I don't know where you're going, how can we know
the way? Jesus said to him, I'm the way,
the truth and the life. No man comes to the father but
by me. If you had known me, oh, what
a statement. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. And from henceforth, you know
him, and you've seen him. Philip said to him, Lord, show
us the Father, and this will be sufficient. He said to Philip,
oh, and this is what I don't want for us, us. Have I been so long a time with
you? As I said, I've been with you
all since I was 23 or what, that's 37, almost 40 years. sat under the gospel, sat under
the most powerful preacher of our day. I believe that. I sat
under one of the most powerful preachers. I sat under the powerful
preacher of our day. That's the way he is in my book. And I don't want this to be said.
Have I been so long a time with you and you don't know me? You don't recognize me? You ever
know somebody and think you know somebody and don't know somebody?
I remember one time, Joe Terrell, I had him over to the house and
had some of you come over to the house and Jackie Dale was
over to the house. And I was joking around with me and Joe,
kind of joking around. Jackie said, well, I've never
seen that side of you. That's because the only time
she'd ever seen me was here. Christ is like the rainbow in
the colors. So much to know. So much to know. Listen, I don't want to just
know Christ here. I want to know Christ out there.
I want to know Christ on the job. I want to know what it's
like on the job. I want to know him on the job. I want to know him
out there on the golf course. I want to know him wherever I'm
at. That's how I want to know him. That's how I want to know
him. You watch him in the gospel,
you watch him move among the people and watch how he talks
to the publicans and the sinners and how he talks to the Pharisees. I'm watching God, just watching
God. Now, why is it so important to
know Christ? Let me give you a few things
I only wrote, scratched out a couple of pages here. Why is it so important
to know the Lord Jesus Christ? Because to know Christ is to
know God, is to know God. He said there in verse nine,
he that has seen me has seen the Father. Philip, he that knows me, what
he's saying, he that knows me knows the Father. There is no
difference. There's no difference. Jesus
Christ is God manifested, revealed in the flesh. To know Him is
to literally, it is to literally know the living God. That's what
it is. To know the Lord Jesus Christ
is to know righteousness. There is no righteousness that
even exists apart from Jesus Christ. There is no righteousness.
Self-righteousness is not righteousness. It's just another form of sin.
That's all it is. It's another form of sin. Paul
said, oh, that I might know him and the power of his resurrection.
Over in Philippians 3, turn over there, let's read it. In Philippians
3. Look at this. Let me start in verse 8. Paul
says this in Philippians 3. I'll start in verse 8. Yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge,
for the excellency of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whom
I suffered the loss of all things and do count them but done, that
I may win Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I have
his righteousness. I want his righteousness. Jesus Christ is the only one
who ever loved God perfectly and his neighbor as himself. He's the only one who never had
a sinful thought in any way, shape or form. He's the only
one who worshiped God in spirit and in truth perfectly. And that
is my righteousness. His perfect love, His perfect
obedience is my righteousness. And that's the righteousness
I want. And to know Him. Now, when I say to know Christ,
I'm not talking about knowing some facts about Him. I'm talking
about a relationship. A relationship. To know Him. To know Him is to know righteousness.
To know Jesus Christ is to know full and complete salvation. It's to know the only sacrifice
for sin. Do you have sin? Well, the only
way God can forgive it is through a sacrifice. And Christ is the
only sacrifice for sin. It's to know the only atonement,
the only payment, It's to know the only priest. You have to
have a high priest if you're going to deal with God. He's
it. He's it. It's to know justification. It's to know what it is to be
justified, cleared of all charges. Now only, I'm telling you, only
a guilty person will appreciate what justified means. If you're
guilty and a gavel comes down and it says justified, you're
like, I know I did that. But before God, you didn't. Before
God, it's gone. That's how complete the sacrifice
of Christ is. All my sins, all my wretchedness
are gone. It's gone. Completely gone. And I stand
before God justified. And I stand before God justified
because of my union to Christ, my knowing Christ, my connection
to Christ. Well, you think we'd be so obsessed
with him having that kind of good news? Well, we're a bunch
of dead people, aren't we? I feel so dead. When I think
upon Him, when I think upon what I have in Christ, and who He
is, and what He's done for me, and how cold my heart is at times,
most of the time, aren't you glad salvation's all
of grace? I told somebody the other day, I said, I'm gonna
preach a message Wednesdays, and aren't you glad it's all
of grace? And I'm just gonna name off our
sins, and just headline each one of them with, aren't you
glad it's all of grace? There's so much hypocrisy in me. There's
so much. There's just so much of sin. See. Or. The importance of knowing
Christ. And then to know Christ is to
know peace. Peace with God. Peace, real peace now. Not not
some conjured up peace, but real peace. Peace with God. Peace
in the heart. When the storms of life are raging
and you can literally have peace in the heart. You can actually
sit down and just calmly, calmly let it go by. That comes from knowing Christ.
Knowing Christ. Christ, the scripture says, in
Ephesians 2, He is our peace. He's the Prince of Peace. It's
to know the Prince of Peace. And then it's to know forgiveness. Oh my, to know, to be forgiven. To be forgiven. I tell you this,
not just to be forgiven of all my sins before, but the sins
I've done since I've known the God, since I've known Christ,
since I believed. To know that they're gone. to be forgiven of God, of all
my offenses, which are many, which are many. And then it's
to know eternal life. Look over in 1 John. To know
Christ is to know eternal life. Over in 1 John, let's look in
chapter 1 first. In verse 1, 1 John chapter 1,
that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we
have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands
have handled of the word of life. Well, the life was manifested
and we've seen it and bear witnesses showing to you that eternal life,
which was with the father and was manifested unto us. Look over in 1 John chapter 5. Verse 11, and this is the record
that God has given to us eternal life. And this life, this eternal
life, which is the life of God is in his son. And he that hath
the son hath life. He that hath not the son of God
hath not life. Now look in verse 20. And we
know that the son of God has come and has given unto us an
understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in
him that is true. Even in His Son, Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and eternal life. So many religions, false religions,
they preach eternal life as the length of it. And you're going
to go to a happy hunting ground. You're going to live forever.
Well, you're going to live forever whether you're in heaven or hell.
It's forever either place. But the eternal life spoken of
here is the life of God. And he said, I am the way, the
truth, and the life. Life. You know, we, I've been given
life, but I'm not life. I'm not, he is, he's the bottom
of life. Life doesn't exist apart from
him. All things are made by him and for him. Without him, nothing
exists. Nothing exists. And then to know
Jesus Christ is to know rest. Rest. You know, a false religion won't
let you rest. A false hope won't let you rest.
A false profession won't let you rest. But Jesus Christ, that'll
let you rest. That'll let you just Sit down
and quit trying to feel like you got to do something or go
somewhere. If I miss a service, they're going to think I'm lost. Rest is when I'm here or when
I'm at home or when I'm at work. I have rest in Christ. He is
my God. David said, God has become my
salvation. He's become my salvation. He's
it. He's it. Oh, to know Christ is to know
rest. He said, come unto me, all you that labor and heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest, and take my yoke upon you, and
do what? Learn of me. Does that, do we
ever graduate from that? Do we ever graduate from learning
of Christ? No, not at all. To know Christ
is to know hope. It's to know hope. It's to have
a real, listen, it's to have a real, genuine living. My hope's a living hope. It's to have a real, genuine
hope that when I die, I'm gonna stand before God justified, I'm
gonna stand there accepted, and I'm gonna stand there forever.
Look back over in Psalm 119. I'll wind this up. Psalm 119. Look in verse 116. Uphold me according unto thy
word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my hope. If Jesus Christ, now pay attention,
if Jesus Christ is your hope, you will not be ashamed of it.
You will not be ashamed. Any other hope, you'll be ashamed.
It's written in the book of Job. They were confounded because
they had hoped. They were confounded because
they thought they were saved and they weren't when it was
over. Lord, we preached in your name. We used your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We've done many mighty works in your name. And he says, depart
from me. I don't know you. And David's saying there, let
me not be ashamed of my hope. If Christ is your hope, you will
not be ashamed. You will not be ashamed. And
then it's to truly and genuinely know the love of God. The love
of God in Christ. When that love is shed abroad
in your heart by the Holy Spirit, and Christ dwells in you, you
will know in knowing Christ the love that God has to you. To
give his son and to do what he did to him in order to have you, that's love that passes understanding.
It passes all understanding. Now I say, let's set our hearts on things
above. Let's take his yoke upon us continually
and learn of him and look with anticipation. This is what I
want. Look with anticipation for him
to come. Are you looking for him to come?
Or you talk more about retirement? You're more concerned and talk
more about retirement and what you're going to do if you retire?
Or you're looking for him to come? Looking for Him to come. Not
looking for an event to happen. If we would think more of Him
coming for us instead of us dying as something that's got to happen,
but to look for Him, it's a lot of difference. You know, I've
learned one thing. Attitude's everything. Attitude. The attitude of looking for Him,
watching for Him, is far different than The conversation
I had with my father, far different. Looked with anticipation. I said this, Henry is the only
man I know that prays every day not to wake up on this earth.
He's the only man I know that wakes up disappointed on this earth. He told me, he said, I pray every
day the Lord will take me. And I thought, my, my, my, what
a place to get to. What a place to get to. Let me
finish by reading this. Let me leave you with this. And
see if this is not worth setting our hearts on things above. Revelations
21. This ought to put a snap in our
step. This ought to enable us to take sickness a little bit
better. This is what's coming. I know
the future. You know that? I can tell the future. Because
I've got it right here in my hand. Right here is the future,
people. And I saw a new heaven and a
new earth. For the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away. And there were no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a great voice out
of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people,
and God himself shall be with them, and be their God, and God
shall wipe away all tears from their eyes. Why would I want
to stay here a week more? This is what I desire. And there
shall be no more death, Henry said to me one time, we were
walking away from a funeral, from the gravesite, and he looked
at me and he said, I'd be glad when we quit dying. Well, here
it is. I mean, no more death, neither
sorrow, no crying, neither shall there be any more pain for the
former things are passed away. He that sat upon the throne said,
behold, I make all things new. He's not into renovation or antiques
like you and I. You know, we get into antiques.
He said, ah, he can have his antiques. I make all things new. And he said unto me, write, for
these words are true and faithful. It's going to happen. It's going
to happen. And he said unto me, it is done.
It's done. It's as good as done. It's done. It's done. I'm Alpha and Omega,
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that's a
thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. This is
our future. To know Christ is to know all
this one day.