One of them said, well, I'll
sing before you preach, and you can sing before I preach. So
that's what we're going to do. That's exactly what we're going
to do. Well, David, you come and sing for us, and then Paul,
you come and bring our final message. My hope is built on nothing less
than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. On Christ so solid rock
I stand, all underground. A labyrinth is sinking deep. When darkness veils His ugly
face, I rest on His attainment. ? In every high and stormy gale
? My anchor holds within the veil Sing it with me. ? Across the solid rock I stand
? The whole other ground is sinking sand All other ground is sinking
sand His hope is come, but let his blood So pour me in, the
willing flood When all around my soul gives way Even as I,
my own heart, stay. On Christ the solid, rock I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. ? When He shall come with a trumpet
sound ? ? Oh may I then in Him be found ? ? Dressed in His righteousness
and love ? ? Hopeless to stand before the throne ? ? And Christ
the solid rock ? All other ground is sinking sand. All other ground is sinking sand. I told David, he's preaching
in our meeting next weekend. We're having a meeting next weekend.
David and John Chapman are preaching for us. And I didn't ask him,
I told him I want him to preach that message. And then I just
told him, I'm commanding you to sing that song when you go. I don't have that kind of authority,
though, do I? I'm asking you, brother. Thank you, thank you,
thank you so much for everything you've done for me, everything
you've done to bring about this meeting, and you ladies, thank
you so much for all the food that you've prepared, and it's
just wonderful. It's just been wonderful. Thank
you so much. Your pastor, David, he has just cooked and cooked
and cooked and served us. My, my, we're just both impressed. We don't want our wives to know
how much he does in the kitchen. But he fixed us biscuits and
gravy and bacon and eggs yesterday morning. I don't eat like that
every morning. And I called my wife. I said,
Mindy, I'm going to stay a few more days. A few more days. Thank you, buddy. Thank you so
much. I've enjoyed being here. And
that message was a blessing. Thank you. I love that. I love that man. John chapter
14. Go with me to John chapter 14. John 14, now these are the words
of our Lord to his disciples. These are not to the world. He
is not speaking to the world. The things he is saying is to
his true disciple. Judas had left. He told him to leave. Right before
this, like a dog, you get what you do, do quickly, go on. And
he got out of there. He was a tare, he was a goat,
he was not a sheep, and the Lord told him to leave. Now he's got
something to say to his disciples. These were men that he had chosen,
men he loved, men he revealed himself to. They knew him. They knew him because he first
knew them. For whom he did foreknow, he
did predestinate. Whom he predestinated, he called.
These men were called by him. They didn't call on him, he called
them. He chose every one of them. They
didn't choose him. He kept reminding them that,
didn't he? You didn't choose me, I chose you. They knew who it was that called
whom, who it was that chose whom, who it was that saved whom, but
they did know him because he revealed himself to them. Salvation is to know. Our Lord
said this in his prayer to the Father in John 17. This is life
eternal. This is what it means to be saved,
to know thee the only true God. Not a God, not some God like
men today believe in. God wants to be God if you let
him be God. He is no God at all if you let him. You don't let
God do anything. Salvation comes when he lets
you know he is God. He reveals himself to you. This
is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God.
Meaning there's one who is truly God. absolute sovereign creator,
ruler, controller, despot of the universe, doing as he will,
like he said, like he said, with whom he will, because he will,
and nobody can say a thing about it. That's God. This is life eternal. Be born
of God, born of his word, by the preaching of the truth, truth
of God. And Jesus Christ, he said, this is life eternal, they
might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou
hast sent, the sent one. His oath, His covenant, His blood,
His oath, His covenant, His purpose before the foundation of the
world that God purposed in Jesus Christ, in Himself, in His mind,
in His own will, His own heart to save a lost people that couldn't
save themselves, dead in trespass. This is life eternal. God revealed
Himself, revealed Christ to, revealed the truth to, isn't
it? He that doesn't know this God, doesn't know this Christ,
the Christ, doesn't have life. These men did. They knew him
because he first knew them, loved them, revealed himself to them.
But how well did they know him? And this is what I want to try
to do. I can't do it. I don't want to
try to do anything. This is what I'm going to declare.
It's what our Lord said to these men. He said, if you only knew
me. He said to Philip, look at verse
nine. If I had a text, it would be
verse nine. He said unto Philip, Jesus saith unto him, have I
been so long time with you, and yet thou hast not known me, Philip? Have I been so long time with
you? He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. So he's, they're
full of doubts and fears. The Lord told Simon Peter right
before them, he said, you're gonna deny me three times before
the sun comes up. And he told the rest of them
too, you're gonna forsake me. All of you are gonna forsake
me this night. And then he told them, I'm leaving
you and I'm going away, didn't he? And so they're afraid, they're
fearful, they're full of doubts and fears and worries and unbelief. The two things he told them are
the two things that every true child of God fears the most. We fear that we will forsake
him and leave, won't we? Don't we? Isn't that what we're
afraid? That my sin is gonna overcome me, the world's gonna
overcome me, and I'm gonna leave. And he told them, you're gonna
forsake me, you're gonna deny me. And then he told them he was
gonna leave. And the thing the child of God fears is that the
Lord will finally be done with them. Okay, I've had enough of
you, right? You've sinned too much now and
it's over, I'm leaving, I'm gonna forsake you. That's what, he's
leaving us, we're gonna leave him. But now he's gonna allay
their fears. He's gonna tell them why he's
leaving, why they must forsake him. It was all in his purpose,
wasn't it? Our two biggest fears is the
Lord will leave us and we'll leave him. And it's a good sign,
a good evidence if you fear that. The world doesn't care. They
don't even believe in God. They don't care. They're not here.
I'm not talking to them. I'm talking to you. Do you fear
that? If you fear the Lord, you do.
Well, and the title of this message is Our Little Known Lord, If
We Only Knew Him Better. And this is why Paul said, oh,
that I might know him. If we knew Him better, our doubts
and our fears would be less. If we really knew Him, really
knew Him and believed Him and trust Him, we would have very
little fear, very little doubt, very little worry. We'd have
perfect peace. I think it's Psalm 910 says that
they that know thy name will put their trust in thee. His
name is who he is and what he does and what he has done. Lord
Jesus Christ. So I hope through this message
that if you don't know him, the Lord will reveal himself to you
and if you do, you'll know him a little better and trust him
a little more and have less doubts and fear. This world's full of
fear, isn't it? We have brothers and sisters,
believers full of fear. When our Lord told his disciples
too, they were full of fear, and he said, in the world you're
gonna have tribulation, but be of good cheer. Why? I own this
place. I've overcome this world. Everything,
even the breath of my people are in my hands. Isn't that what
everybody's worried about, the breath? Your breath is in his hands.
God in whose hands our breath is in all our ways. This is the
Lord Jesus Christ, not a figurehead, an absolute sovereign, reigning
and ruling, who came to this earth to do a purpose, to do
the will of God, and he accomplished it, went back, sat down, and
he's running this whole shooting march. Ain't nothing and nobody
outside of his absolute, divine, sovereign control. He said, all
authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. What does that
leave out? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Now if you know him, if you really believe that, doesn't Psalm 121 say? 121 say,
he that keepeth Israel. He doesn't sleep. He doesn't
slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel. He's keeping us. A fella had
trouble sleeping. He had insomnia. And he got up
and read that psalm. He said, hmm, well, if the Lord's
not sleeping, I think I will go sleep. This is the Lord, not a figurehead.
As he said, you don't make him Lord. He makes you to know that
he is. And then he rests. If we really
knew him, we'd have perfect peace. Isn't that what Isaiah 26.3 said?
Thou will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind has stayed
on thee. We're in the Lord Jehovah. He's
the rock of ages. That foundation. Everything's
built on him. It all riding on him. It's all
on his shoulders. He got big shoulders. These disciples heard from him,
they saw him, they heard things. Like he read, if everything that
he'd done was written, the world couldn't contain the book. And
John said many things he did in the presence of his disciples.
Didn't it was that? They heard. No man spake like this man. They
were alone out there on the water with him. Remember on that ship,
and he was asleep. He's the one that raised the
storm, remember? What's he doing? He's sleeping. That ship can't possibly go down. But they're scared, we're dying,
this is it. They went and woke him up. Don't
you care? Isn't that what they said? Lord,
don't you care? Care? Have I been so long time with
you? I came down, I left heaven, I left glory, I left my father's
throne to come down here because I care for you. Now cast all
your care on me. Come back here and go to sleep.
You're not floating this boat. Right? Sleeping. Rest, peace. This is the Lord,
the only one. They heard, they saw, they said,
no man. They said, what man or man is
this? That's just it. He's not just
a man. God was manifested. They saw the blind to see. They
saw the lame to walk. I don't mean they had arthritis
in their knee. They were born cripple. He saw
them with a word, get up. They saw the lepers clean. I
don't mean they had one little spot. They were covered from
head to toe. The flesh was falling off their bodies. He saw them
be clean with the word. They saw the deaf to hear. They
saw the dead to rise. Our Lord never attended a funeral
that the person didn't get up and walk away. Because you can't
stay dead in the presence of life. I've seen the same things. I've
heard the same voice. Not an audible voice, but I've
heard his voice. He called me from death unto
life one day. I am Lazarus. I'm that prodigal
son. How about you? Some of you. Many
of you. Huh? Weren't we? Saul of Tarsus,
right there he is. Saul of Tarsus in religion. Right? Right there. David, you might
not know this, but he auditioned for Jimmy Swaggart's piano position. If God hadn't come and called
you out of darkness into light, you'd be playing the piano for
that false prophet right now. Dead, in religion, but dead. That was my father, a young Saul
of Tarsus. But God, my dad didn't do anything. God did it all, but God called
him from the dead. I've seen people sit and sit
and sit and sit and sit, like me, hear message after message
after message, having ears to hear and not hear a thing, and
one day, in the fullness of time, God sent his message. When God
said so, in his time, he said, here. It's like a light came
on. It did. He did. They were like children. These
disciples were like children. They were, and we are too. And
they acted like children. Look at verse 36, Simon Peter,
chapter 13. Look at chapter 13, verse 36. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord,
where are you going? He told him he was leaving. Where
are you going? I want to come. Right, Walter? I want to come. Why can't I come?
He said, you can't come. Where I go, you can't come with
me. He's going to the cross. He's going to do a work on Calvary's
tree. The work of redemption is not a cooperative effort between
God and man, it's the work of God himself. It's the work of
Jesus Christ by himself. When he had by himself purged
the sins of his people, he sat down. You remember the story
of Abraham taking Isaac up on that mountain to sacrifice him,
his son? That's Christ crucified, okay?
When Abraham was taking that son of his, his only begotten,
well-beloved son, up there to sacrifice him unto God. He had
some young men with him and he said, you stay here, you can't
go up there. This is between the father and
the son. They're gonna do this. You're
not gonna have a part in it. When Christ went to, there were
12 men in the upper room. There were three in the garden
with him. But when Jesus Christ went to Calvary, he was alone
by himself. And he did this work because
salvation is of, definite article, the Lord, one. He said in this
text, John 14, one way, one truth, one life, and these three are
one, one person, one work, Jesus Christ, the name of Christ. And
Simon Peter, though, like a child, he was their everything. He was
there. When he called them, he said,
follow me, two words. Every one of them heard the same,
called him, follow me. They dropped everything. Woman
at the well dropped everything. Whoever God calls, they drop
everything. They dropped their old religion,
they dropped their knowledge, they dropped their profession,
they dropped their works, they dropped their will, they dropped
everything they ever thought they knew about. They dropped
their old God. They dropped their everything.
They leave father and mother and houses and land. They follow
Christ. Now, Christ is their life. And
they did. They did. All of these disciples
did. And they followed him. He was their everything. He was
their father. He was their mother. He was their
brother. He was their provider. He was their wisdom. He was their
righteousness. He was their sanctification.
He was their redemption. He was their provider. He's their
protector. He was everything. He was their
big brother. They never worked a job. They
never provided anything. They had one pair of shoes and
one suit of clothing and no job and no money coming in. How'd
they get by? Same way you and I are. He provides everything. We've
never provided one thing for our own. This is the Lord, the
earth is the Lord's in the fullness there of the world and they that
dwell therein. He's the one that knows it all
out. They knew that. And now he says he's leaving.
And they're to a man, every one of them. They're like little
children. Where are you going? Thomas said, where are you going, Lord?
What way you headed? We'll follow you. He said, no,
you can't go. Oh, why not? Did you ever do that? I remember
as a child, we'd go on, Dad would leave and be going somewhere.
I wanted to go. I said, I want to come. Can I come? No, you
can't come. Why not? And they were all saying
that. Because he's going to do a work
alone on Calvin. And Phillip said, Bart, show
us the father then. Just show us something. More,
show us a sign, an apparition, a vision of the Father. He said,
Philip, this is when he said, Philip, have I been so long time
with you and thou hast not known me? He that hath seen me hath
seen the Father. I am your Father, I am God. After all he'd seen, after all
Philip had heard, He still had doubts and fear. How much have
we heard? How much have we seen? What has
the Lord done for us? How many years? And yet we still
have doubts and fear. What's wrong with us? We don't
know him well enough to. We just don't know him well enough.
He said in verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe
in God. He's not asking a question. There's
no question mark there. But he's not saying, do you believe
in God? No, he said, you do believe in God. Why? Because he revealed
the Father to them. No man knoweth the Son, but the
Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father, but the Son, and
He to whom He will reveal it. He came to reveal the Father.
Who is the Father? It's Him. Then why? I don't understand. I don't either,
but I believe it. How can that child that's born,
that son that be given, how can he be the everlasting father,
God and everlasting father? I don't know, but he is. I believe
in him. Thomas, my Lord and my God. You believe in God, he said.
I believe in God. I didn't decide to do that. Faith is not of yourself, it's
a gift of God. It's according to the working
of his mighty power, Ephesians 1, 9, 10. Right? You believe
because God said, believe! He didn't ask you. Jesus Christ never asked anybody
anything. No, he didn't. Kings don't ask
their servants anything. Kings don't ask their subjects,
will you let me? They give commands. And if you don't do it, what'll
happen? That woman at the well, you know. She said, why is it
you being a Jew ask of me water? He didn't ask her for water.
No, he didn't do that. He said, give me the drink. You
read it. He didn't ask her, Larry. He
said, give me the drink. She said, that's his well. That's his bucket. She belongs to him. He never
did take a drink. He didn't come there to get a
drink. He came to give her wine. What's that? Ain't a what, it's
a who. He never did take a drink. He
left there, he came for what he came for, her. She said, why are you asking
me? No, she's an Armenian. Armenians think that God can't
draw anything, can't do anything unless we let him. I'll draw
for you. No, I have not come for you to
draw for me. I have come to draw you. And he did. His arm's not short. If he wanted to drink out of
that water and that well, he didn't need a bucket. This is God. This is Jesus Christ. And they knew him. He said, you
believe in God. Believe also in me. Why? Because
I am that I am. I'm God. God, who is God. God, our creator. God, who worketh
all things after the counsel of his will. God, who reigns
and rules in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. God, even in whose hands the king's heart is and
he turns it with us wherever he will. Who's gonna be elected? Are you in suspense? Just quit. It's who God puts there. We don't elect anybody. We sure
don't elect God. Choose God. He chooses us. Is
that right? They knew that. They knew that.
You believe in God. God who purposed all things,
predestined all things, ordered all things before the world began.
God who kills and makes life. God who wounds and God who heals.
God who creates peace and creates evil. Isaiah 45, that's God's
word. Deuteronomy 32, 39, that's God's word. God who doeth all things. God
who, he said, I declare the end from the beginning. Things that
are not yet done say in my counsel sustain. God who said I've spoken
it, I'll do it. That when God purposed it before
the world began, nothing could stop it. It's gonna happen, whatever.
That's God. And that God was manifest in
the flesh. He's not Jesus the man, like
people think. And you need to do, like he's
been saying, we've been saying, that's another Jesus. You need
to leave him outside your heart's door. Just leave, don't answer
the door. Right? Because he can't save
a flea. That's what they said when he was hanging on that cross.
He saved others as himself he can't save. God put him on that cross. He
voluntarily. One last show of who he was in
the garden, they came for him. They said, who do you seek? They
said, Jesus. I am. And every single one of
them fell to the ground. One last show of no man taketh
my life from me. And brothers and sisters, no
man taketh your life from you. God does. I had a dog 15 years
old. And I loved that dog. I chose him. I bought him. I
wrote a contract concerning him. I took him home, I set my love
on him, I taught him everything he knew. The first thing I told
him was sit. Then I told him, follow me. Heal. Stay right beside me. You'll
be safe. And he did. And he came when I called him.
I'm a good dog owner. I'm a good master. He came when
I called him. Our Lord's a better owner than
I am. His people come when they call. And when it was time, when
it was time, he started getting tumors all over him. I loved
God. Did one part with it. But when it was time, nobody
could tell me when it was time. That's my dog, and I said, one
day, it's time. And you know, I took that dog,
Larry, I took him down in the woods, and two or three weeks
before that, I had been digging his grave. I dug his grave, and
I took him down there with me, and I said, Abner, lie down in
that grave. I measured that grave. And then
when the day and the hour came, I said, it's time. Lord did that with Moses. Remember
that? And he does that with every one
of his people. Why? Because he's God. What are you afraid of? Who are you afraid of? Things
don't kill, God does. Is that right? What other peace could you have?
How could you have any peace? A loved one get cancer. My sister
died of cancer at 42. Oh, it's awful, isn't it? It's
God. My brother died at 21 from a
stray bullet. It wasn't a stray bullet, God
sent it. How could you have any peace
otherwise? But there's peace in knowing and believing that
thy God reigneth. that he does all things well.
And what he does, all things that he does, works together
for his purpose. And one day we're gonna know
that purpose and we're gonna say, hallelujah, I'm so glad
you did this. One day we're gonna know as we've
been known, we're gonna say, I'm glad I couldn't change it.
And it all works together for good. Unspeakable joy, Brother
Darwin, unspeakable. And we're going to say, like
these disciples, why was I so tore up? We just know him better. He doesn't do anything wrong.
He doesn't do anything hastily. He doesn't do anything unwisely. It's not good. It's not the best.
It's not only good, it's the best. It's the only way. The
only way. Why don't we trust him? He said,
you believe in God, believe in me. Oh, where are you going? Where are
you going? Lord, I want to go. I want to
come. He said, if you'd known me, if you'd just known me, and
show us the Father. I am the Father. So this is life. This is life. Let me just tell
you a few things we need to know better about our Lord. allay
our doubts and fear and our unbelief. And it just reveals how little
we know of him. His perfect love. Perfect love. Behold what manner of love the
Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called sons
of God. Perfect love. What's perfect love? It's love
that never fails. Huh? First Corinthians 13, is
it nine? But charity never fails. Is that
what it says? Never fails. True love never
quits. God's love is perfect love. Whoever
God loves, he always loves. He has love with an everlasting
love before the world began. Set his love on him. There's
nothing lovely about any of us. We're not worth loving. Nobody's
worth loving but God. Rich in love. set his love on
some, not just a few, a number which no man can number. He shouldn't
have loved anybody. Oh, bless God. He loved the people
out of every tribe, kindred, nation, and tongue under heaven.
Every kindred, every family. And they're not noble. Not many
mighty, not many noble. You know, my background is Scotch-Irish. Everybody wants to be Irish.
Why? They're heathens. They went to war naked. My kinfolk
ran around naked, heathens. God chose out of every tribe,
kindred, nation, and tongue of people, set his love on them.
So much so, he gave them to his son, the son of his love, to
live for them, to die for them on Calvary's tree. And buddy,
whoever God loves, he saves. This is effectual love, this
is sovereign love, this is saving love. Do you love your children? I ask people this all the time.
They say God loves everybody, okay. Everybody's not God's child. Everybody's not God's children.
He said that. He said to some Pharisees, you're
of your father the devil. If God were your father, you'd
love me. And if you love me, it's because I love you. But
you don't, because you're not my child. You're not my sheep. Didn't he say that? But his sheep,
buddy. If he loves them, he's gonna
save them, wouldn't you? I have an only daughter and I
have two granddaughters. I love them. I don't think you
could love anybody more. If I could save them, I would. Don't you think? Would you? Would
you let them, people say, well, God loves you, but you know,
you can't violate your free will. Number one, you don't have a
free will, and if he doesn't violate your will, you'll go
to hell. If God doesn't say, I will, and
you shall, you won't. It is God that worketh in us,
both the will and do of his good pleasure, Philippians 2.13. Right? Not of him that willeth, him
that runneth, Romans 9. It's of God that showeth mercy.
And whoever God loves, he's gonna save them. What if your child
was walking out in the middle of the street and you love that
child? Here comes a car. Honey, please. Honey, please, come on, get out
of the street. I don't want to violate your
will. What kind of love is that? You
want that kind of love? I want love that loved me before
the world began, and it loves me now, and it'll always love
me. I want love that's gonna save me. That's the love of God.
Whom he loves, he saves. I ask people this all the time.
I say, does God love perfectly? Yes. Does God love eternally?
Does he love everyone eternally? They say yes. I said, do you
mean there's people in hell right now that God still loves? I don't want that kind of love.
I don't want the love to send me to hell. I want love that'll
take me all the glory. That's the love of God. Perfect
love. If you knew that, you say, how
can I know that God loves me? Do you love his son, Jesus Christ?
Do you love what you're hearing right now? Do you love the truth? Do you? It's not presumption,
it's not, do you? He said, you believe in God,
believe also in me. He said, the Father loves you
because you love me. That's what he said to them, right? You've
followed me. You've heard my, have you heard his voice? Have
you heard this and believed? Have you? Have you confessed
him? Yeah. Why? Because he did it. Or you
wouldn't have. God loves you. Smile. God loves
you. There was a bumper sticker on
that ark. It wasn't on the outside. It was on the inside. Smile. God loves you. Who was in that
ark? Why? It's who God chose. Those
animals, not one animal went in there. No, lions don't come
when you call them. Oh, no, no. He changed their
nature. Come. They went in that ark. Changed
my nature. Come. Wild asses coat. You look
at the wild asses coat. One day he said, come. I did.
He got on me and rode me. This is God of the Bible, this
is Christ, this is when salvation comes in. His perfect love, his
love never fails, always saves, never quits, no matter what,
perfect love ought to cast out all fear. He loves me, he'll
always love me, never quit loving me. We have little reason to
worry and doubt about the fear of one another, you know, husband
and wife and all that, because we're all a bunch of no good
sinners. liable to leave one another at any time, because
we're so little like Jesus Christ. He never leaves. You don't have
to worry about him leaving you. We're the unfaithful bride, he's
the faithful husband, right? That's my salvation. He said,
where's the bill of divorcement? Show it to me. I've never given
you one, he won't do it. He hates putting away. His perfect knowledge of you.
His perfect knowledge of you. He knows you. He knows you better
than you know yourself. David said, Lord, thou hast known
me. Psalm 139. You've known me. Not a word in
my mouth you don't know. There's not a thought in my head.
There's not one thing, single thing I've thought of doing that
you don't know. Not one single thing that I've done you didn't
know. Not one single thing I have done, do now, and will do that
you don't know. But what? Love covereth. Smile. Love covereth. Love doesn't expose. Love covereth. That's what Christ does. He went
to Calvary. He went and stood before Herod.
He never spoke a word. Why? He became me. And when the law, when we're
guilty, your mouth stop. And he died with all our secrets. He died with every sin, knowledge
of every sin of all of God's people. And he put them away
and they'll never be brought up again. Why? Love. My dad used
to whip me with a belt. He used to whip me. Yes, he did.
He took his belt off and thrashed me. I'd want to put him in jail
today, wouldn't I? But he did. All right. Did he
love me? I know he loved me. To this day,
he can't remember what I did for him to thrash me with that
belt. To this day, before he died. I tell him, Dad, I'm ashamed
of some things, but he doesn't remember. It's like it didn't
exist. Did you do that? I don't remember.
What is that? Love. His mercy. If you knew more about
his mercy. David one time got so down, so
depressed, so worried about his own sin, about everything. His house and people, world,
like we do. And he says, is mercy clean gone?
Is it clean? Gone. And then he came to himself.
The Lord brought him to himself and he wrote Psalm 136. 26 verses. Every single verse said, His
mercy endureth forever. Like a broken ring. His mercy
endureth forever. That's our salvation, Brother Darwin. His
mercy endureth forever. What's mercy? It's sparing us
for Christ's sake. It's kindness of God. It's mercy.
It's tenderness of God. If we only knew of His mercy.
He's so merciful, he delights to show mercy. What do you delight
in? What do you take delight in? Anything, anyone, something
you delight, you take pleasure in? Fishing, I know you know. Jesse, I know, I know. Walter,
I know, we were talking about it. The Lord takes pleasure in
them that fear him, in them that hope in his mercy. It gives him
great pleasure. It's the thing that he takes
most pleasure in, showing mercy. What's the thing I need the most?
What I need the most is what he takes great pleasure in. And
there's never a time you can't come to him and he won't show
you mercy. Never. That's all. If we only knew it
more. Well, he's gonna cut me off now. Not possible. Ready to pardon. He got ready
to pardon. I'm gonna tell you something. I've preached a little while
and I'm gonna tell you something. Little girl said that about my
dad years ago. She said, I like Brother Mahan's
preaching. He'll preach a little while and then he'll tell you
something. Meaning, a story. My granddaughter, Isabella, my
firstborn, Oh, I love her so much. I didn't think I could
love a grandchild like I did my child, but I do. Boy, isn't
that a good illustration? And God love his people like
he loves his son? He does. But one day, and I wish
I had that Bible with me, I left my Bible open, 1 Chronicles 13. I left it open there. I had a pen. laying on the Bible,
a pen. I stepped out of the room and
I came back in and Isabella was standing there, she was about
two years old, and she had a pen just writing her epistle all
over my Bible. The scribbling? That's my Bible. I said, Isabella! Stop! And I went up in front of her.
She was standing there in front of my footstool and I sat down
in the chair and said, honey, look what you've done. You've
marred my Bible. I wasn't happy. She didn't know
what she'd done. I had to make her realize what
she'd done. I had to grant her repentance. I had to make her feel guilty.
Before long, that lip was sticking out. I love her with every fiber
of my being. You know what, Brother David?
You know what I was gonna do? I'd already determined what I
was gonna do. I ain't gonna cast her out. She was forgiven before
she ever repented. I had to give her repentance.
I had to make her feel sorry. I had to make her understand
what she'd done. But Darvin, I'd already forgiven her. We killed the Son of God. We
marred the Son of God. He's got eternal scars on His
hands that we did. But God knew that. God purposed
it. You know what God said? That's
why He sent Him. And He determined, He purposed
to forgive them all before they did the act. Before they knew
what they'd done wrong. And He sent a gospel preacher
and act too. To make them all realize they'd
killed God's Son. Now they're in His hands to do
with as He pleases. And they all were fearful and
afraid of this Jesus Christ, and had no interest in, and had
rebelled and rejected and despised. But God, now here's love, had
already forgiven them. And Christ, you see, the effectual
fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth everything. And
this is our righteous representative, the very Christ that we killed,
the very Christ we marred. hanging on that cross, the first
words of His mouth, Father, forgive them. They know not what they've
done. But they're going to. And to
a man, to a woman, to a young person, they're gonna ask, they're
gonna realize, we've killed God's Son. We're not interested in
God's Son. We thought we did this. We thought we did that.
Hmm. And then, you know what? She marred that Bible permanently. I still have it. And you know,
listen to it. Every time I turn to 1 Chronicle
13, I see those scribble marks. And Bo, I think, oh. Honestly, I say, look at that
here. Scars, oh. That's my children. I did that. If we only knew. He's ready to
pardon. This grace, this goodness. He's
ready to pardon. He's ready to receive. He's a
long-suffering. He never turns away. Him that cometh to me, Christ
said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to thee. And him
that cometh to me, no matter what, no matter what you've done,
No matter how long you've strayed, they would all do. And he calls
you back by his grace, and he's a come to me, I'll never forget
that. Never, ever, never, never. We had a brother, ooh. We had
a brother that left his wife, left the gospel. I loved him
dearly, we all loved him dearly, and I told him, you can't do
that, you can't do that. You can't come here, you leave
your wife, you can't come here. She stayed. I said, one of you
got to go. And you left her, so you can't come. He left. Well, eventually, she left. Years
later, I felt compelled to call him. And that girl, she left
the gospel, so it appears that neither one of them knew the
Lord. Well, I called him up, said, John, I was just thinking
about you. I said, if you'd like to come
back and worship with us, we'd love to have you. He just broke
down. He said, I've been waiting on this call for years. I've been waiting on this call
for years. And that's been 10 or 15 years ago. He won't leave
my side. Oh, he's the most grateful person
in the universe. My second granddaughter, he won't
turn anybody away, he won't do it. If you know him, you gotta
come to him. My second granddaughter, one
time I was sitting up in my study, I had one in the attic, little
study in the attic, and she came up, she came up and said, Papa,
she said, I've come up here to tell you that me mom told me
I was not to come up here and bother you. Do you think that I told her
to get out? I said, honey, you come right
here and you sit on my lap. That wasn't meant for you. You
come anyway. You come boldly. Come boldly
anytime. Free access. I will never turn
you away. You can't impose upon love. That's his love. That's our God. That's our cry. Sovereign, just,
merciful, gracious, kind, ready to pardon, full of grace and
truth. How do you know someone? Let
me just quit with this. Faithful, long-suffering, patient, forgiving,
forgetting. How do you know someone? How
do you know someone? That person's got to make themselves
known to you, right? No man knoweth the Son but the
Father, neither knoweth any man the Father but the Son, and he
to whom the Son will reveal him, okay? 1 Corinthians 2, no man
knows the spirit of man unless the man reveal him. You don't
know me unless I reveal myself, and vice versa. Neither can we
find out God, neither can we know God until he makes himself
known, okay? But secondly, and once he does,
how do you get to know someone better? You talk. You communicate, don't
you? If you don't talk to somebody,
you don't know them. If you don't talk to somebody, you don't love
them. You live with them. You really get to know somebody
when you live with them, don't you? You married couple, well,
I'm not asking that. We thought we knew each other,
and then you start living together. Male and female. Dog and cat,
you know? And only love's gonna hold that
together. Well, we dwell with him, we commune with him, we
talk to him, we walk with him. Noah walked with God, Enoch walked
with God. Abraham, we draw nigh unto God,
he'll draw nigh unto you. That's how. God reveals himself
right here. I keep quoting Romans 10. God reveals himself through preaching.
Faith cometh by how? How? What does it say? Here. Are you searching and digging
in the scripture? You ought to do that, but it's not going to
come that way. It's going to come what's happening
right now. You tell me, when you have more
assurance, when you have more faith, when you have more peace,
when you have more joy, when you have more comfort, more consolation
than after you've heard some man stand up and if God blesses
it, you've heard him preach the gospel. And buddy, your fears
are gone for a little while. Right? That's what God, aren't
you glad? He said, come, where I'm at.
How do you know somebody? You go with them. You follow
them. You go where they are. Well, Christ said, we're two
or three together. That's where I am. You love him. You want peace. You want comfort. You want consolation.
You go where he is. Go with his people. No, we're
not practicing social distancing. We're practicing social closeness.
That's what sheep do. Sheep just get together and get
as close as they can. Why? Because they're under a
shepherd. All right? Now, you scatter and you'll be
afraid, but you gather together, together with his people, and
you see that the Lord is your shield, your covering, your protector,
and whatever is sent, he sent it. And he gives it, and he can take
it away. That's the Lord Jesus Christ. If we knew him better,
and he says, have I been so long time with you? I've preached
so many messages to you. Have you heard so many messages?
And you don't know me. What's wrong with us? Let's trust him, okay? Shall
we? There's peace. There's peace. Lord bless you. Thank you. Thank you.