Get To Know Him
Jesus thought it was important that you know who He is and why He has come.
Transcript
Alright, thank you very much and hello again, dear radio friends. How in the world are you? You’re doing alright? Bless your heart. I know some of you struck a day where things aren’t going the way you wish they would. The car has a flat tire or junior has the chicken pox, or the cat stayed out all night and you’re afraid she got into bad company. Or the plumbing doesn’t work or the roof leaks or you got a headache. Or father can’t find the shirt he wants to wear because today is a conference with the boss and he wants to look his best. Everything’s happening at once, because most of you listen to these broadcasts in the morning and I know mornings can be pretty hectic sometimes.
Well, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee.” Keep your mind on the Lord, keep your trust fixed in the Lord. Remind Him constantly that you belong to Him and that you’re trusting Him and see for yourself that God will bring you peacefully as well as safely through the most turbulent and hectic days. Yes, He will. “In everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” You pray your way through the day and you’ll have perfect peace. You make a habit of obeying God when He speaks to you and He will be with you. “Those things you’ve heard, seen and received and learned of me, do,” says Paul, “And the God of peace shall be with you.” So it’s the peace of God through praying and the God of peace Himself with you through obeying. I just threw that in free. Somebody needed it.
We’re in John Chapter 12. We just finished discussing the 43rd verse that remarks, rather cryptically, “They loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” They kept quiet about their faith in the Savior because they didn’t want to be criticized, they wanted to be popular. The desire to be accepted by others, the desire to be popular has led many a person into compromise and ultimate ruin. It is always too high a price to pay. Compromise is always too high a price to pay for acceptance. Will you remember that the next time you are tempted to compromise on some issue or other? Daughter, you’re out on a date and the boy says, “If you love me, prove it.” Son, you’re out with the crowd and they say, “Come on, here’s a joint or here’s a needle. Wanna be like the rest of us? Don’t be a wet blanket here. Come on, you can do it.”
Compromise is always too high a price to pay for acceptance. It’s the person who says, “No, I don’t want that because I belong to Jesus Christ and my body is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.” That’s the person who not only stands out from the crowd, but who is respected by the crowd. Did it ever occur to you that the people who were picking on Simon Peter as he stood outside of Pilate’s judgement hall, warming himself by the fire, and they picked on him and they said, “Yeah, yeah, yeah, you were one of them.” Did it ever occur to you that they stopped when Peter swore, began to curse and swear and said, “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He lowered himself to their level, then they stopped picking on him. But what a dreadful price to pay. All the rest of his life, although he had been forgiven, he certainly must have remembered. Those awful moments when he denied even knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. Don’t compromise. Stand firm for the things you know that are the will of God for you.
We go now into John 12:44, “Jesus cried and said, ‘He that believeth on me believeth not on me, it’s on me only but on Him that sent me. And He that seeth me seeth Him that sent me. I have come as a light into the world that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.'” I saw that word ‘cried,’ which means ‘shouted,’ and I thought, now, that happens to be used in other places in the New Testament. I wonder what were the places and times when Jesus shouted things? Would you be interested in a little run down of that? If the Savior who came down the stairways of the stars for the most important assignment in all of history, the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. If the Savior who came for the most important assignment in history and who knew all things, it says so concerning Him, He knew all things. Nothing that was there to surprise Him. He also knew what was important. He also was in complete control of His feelings and moods at all times. If He, then, the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ, shouted something, wouldn’t you think it was important?
Well, John 7:37 is a case in point. “Jesus cried, saying, ‘If any man thirst,'” that’s our word ‘shouted,’ He shouted it out, “‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, out of his innermost being, as the scripture hath said, shall flow rivers of living water.’ This spake He of the Spirit which they that believe on Him should receive.” “‘If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink, he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.’ This spake He of the Spirit.”
Now, Jesus shouted in that occasion because it’s important to thirst. If you really want to know God, you can know Him. The reason many people are weak and shallow in their spiritual experience, the reason that their conversation is venal and pointless, the reason they have nothing much to say about God when there is opportunity, is that they don’t really want to know God. They say a prayer now and again, especially if they’re in a jam, but to want to know God, to thirst after Him, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled,” said our Lord. “If any man thirst,” He shouted it out. He said, “Hey, if you’re really thirsty, come to me. I have the water of life. I am the water of life.” And the Holy Spirit of God dwelling within the believer will be like artesian wells of refreshment springing up into everlasting life. He thought it was important to be thirsty for Him. He thought it was important to commit yourself to Him. He thought it was important to be filled with the Holy Spirit of God who indwells the believer. Good idea?
In that same chapter, our Lord Jesus shouted it out, He said, “You know me and you know whence I am. I am not come of myself but of Him that sent me.” He thought it was important that you know that the Lord Jesus Christ is God in the flesh. He thought it was important that you know that Jesus is God in the flesh. And that in that period of His humiliation, those 33 years when He voluntarily laid aside His glory in order to come and inhabit a human body so that He could die for sins as God’s Passover lamb, during those years, He was voluntarily submitted to the Father’s will. “I do always those things that please the Father,” said He. “You know me and you know whence I am and because that is true,” said He, “He that sent me is true, whom ye know not but I know Him for I am from Him and He hath sent me.” Jesus thought it was important that you know who He is and why He has come.
Then there’s another time when He was shouting. And interestingly enough, this has to do with some truth that He preached. In the eighth chapter of Luke, you find it recorded that He shouted something. Let me turn the pages of my big Bible here because I can’t quote it exactly. Luke 8 and Verse 8. Now, our Lord Jesus had been giving the Parable of the Sower. “‘A sower went out to sow his seed, some seed fell by the wayside and it was trodden down and the fowls of the air devoured it. Some fell upon a rock, as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. Some fell among thorns and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it. And other seed fell on good ground and sprang up and bear fruit a hundred fold.’ And when he had said these things, He cried,” it means shouted, “He shouted, ‘He that hath an ear to hear, let him hear. He that hath ears to hear, let him hear.'” That means, if you have any way of hearing, really pay attention. Let him really hear. Let him really pay attention. That’s what he was talking about.
Now, why would He emphasize that? Why would He shout out something that had to do with this Parable of the Sower and the seed? Well, I think it’s pretty plain. He was emphasizing the immense and eternal importance of the Word of God. As He explained it to His disciples, later on He said, “The seed is the Word of God, those by the wayside are they that hear and then cometh the devil and taketh away the Word out of their hearts and they should not believe and be saved. Those on the rock are they which when they hear, receive the Word with joy but they have no root and in time of temptation fall away. Those that fell among thorns, are they which when they have heard go forth but are choked with cares, and riches, and pleasures of this life, bring no fruit to perfection. But on the good ground are they which in an honest and good heart having heard the Word, keep it,” that means obey it, “And bring forth fruit with patience.”
The Word of God working in the human heart. The immense and eternal importance of the Word of God. Number one, it needs to be distributed, sown, like seed in the hearts of people. Number two, you will not always have the same result, because people differ in their willingness or their ability to receive the Word. Number three, when the Word of God is received and obeyed, it brings forth fruit and makes a change in the person, and in the attitude, and in the circumstances because eternal life, eternal life is the result. Jesus thought the Word of God was important, so much so that He shouted about it. How important? Let me ask you this question just as our broadcast is coming to its close for today. How important is the Bible in your life? Are you obeying it? Are you putting it to practical use? I pray God that that may be so.
Father God, today, oh, may we pay attention to those things which are eternally important. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.
Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!
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