Could you take your Bibles, please, and turn to John, the Gospel of John chapter one. I am glad to be here, my wife and I, today. I'm a student of churches. I've been in over 300 since I retired. And there's a couple things I know about them. They're all doctrinally right. I wouldn't go to one that wasn't. But there's some things that the better churches have. One is good music. Thank you, Brother Cain. Did you know in the book of Job that the angel sang while God worked? He must like good music. I think it gets his attention. The other thing I've noticed about churches, some churches don't know how to listen. When you speak to them, you think you're trying to give them a root canal. They don't look at you. I don't mind you not laughing at my jokes, but they don't laugh. They're good people, too. You know what makes a church a good listening church? If they're accustomed to hearing something of value from this pulpit. And you are. I was just in Sunday school. I got three doctor's degrees and been to college, and I learned some things this morning I didn't even know. And so I appreciate your pastor. You don't know this probably, but when he was a boy, he panned my house. And I do hope he's, and he is, a better preacher than he was a painter. It took a long time to get the windows cleaned. Anyway, we are glad to be here. I'll take this off my sermon if you let me tell you this, okay? I was going to tell the preacher in private, but I think I'll tell you too. We print the Bible. Everybody knows that. We've printed over 200 million copies. We have some printing presses on different continents. 20 years ago or more, I put a printing press in India, along with another man. We had a printing press, a large, large printing press, a brand new print shop, and two four-family apartment buildings for the workers. But we had to form a corporation to do that. And we had to have more Indians on the corporation than foreigners. So we did that. And then we lost the whole thing. So the press sat there for 20 years and didn't print hardly anything. And to be frank about it, I griped a long time. And then I even quit praying. I thought, that's a wasted time. I thought that was a waste, a million dollars. The other man I started with, he said, well, Brother King, we'll call this tuition, because we learned a lot. So you'll get that later. So years passed, and I quit praying. And the other day, this past week, my phone rang, maybe two weeks. And one of the men that was with me in India said, Brother Keene, you'll be glad to know that they're up and running in this press now and putting the whole Bible in a Telugu language. And I apologize to God, because He does have a timing for things, doesn't He? And my timing and His timing has a hard time working together. He's got eternally, I don't even have time, I have to get things done. And so anyway, I apologize. I'm going to apologize to the guy I talked about, because I talked pretty hard about him. And then I apologize to God. And so we're in the process now. India has more unreached people groups than any country on earth. And I'm in the unreached people groups. And so with this large press now, we'll be able to print a whole lot of Bibles for the Indian people. The problem with folks who don't have the Bible isn't only that they don't have it. The real problem is God lacks testimony among them because the Bible is a testimony about God. I think good now I'm gonna go to John chapter 1 and I'll start at verse 35 and with your permission I'll read down through verse 42. Again the next day after John stood and two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked he saith behold the Lamb of God And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them, following and said unto them, what seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to be interpreted a master, where dwellest thou? He saith unto them, come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour. And one of the two which heard John speak was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother. He first findeth his own brother, Simon, and saith unto him, we have found the Messiah, which is being interpreted, the Christ. And he brought him to Jesus, and when Jesus beheld him, he said unto Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah, and thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation, a stone. Let's bow our heads, please, and make our prayer. Now, Lord, I'm well aware that if you don't do it, it won't get done. Jesus himself said he could do nothing without you. And Lord, if he can't do anything without you, that leaves the rest of us in a terrible strait. So we must have your presence. Lord, help us to put away anything that would interrupt our concentration. Lord, help us to pay attention. And Lord, I pray you'd save souls. Across this world today, I pray you'd save souls. And in this room, I pray you'd save souls. And Lord, I pray you'd be honored and glorified this morning. And I'll thank you for Jesus' sake. Amen. Now look at verse 38. Then Jesus turned and saw them following. and saith unto them, What seek ye? And they said unto him, Rabbi, being interpreted, Master, where dwellest thou? Now, let me tell you, you know that God is omnipresent, don't you? That means he's every place, all the time, in equal degree. He's as much in the desert as he is in the downtown. So we know He's omnipresent. That's not really what they're asking. They're asking, what's the best thing I can do to have that presence revealed to me? What's the best thing I can do to have your presence revealed to me? Did you ever feel like you couldn't find Him? Did you ever feel like your prayer didn't go higher than the ceiling? Did you ever feel like you're on a journey by yourself? What we need to do is do whatever it takes for Him to reveal Himself to us. We need to be like the wise men who saw the star and came looking for Jesus. And this chapter here is a wonderful chapter. I honestly believe it's the greatest chapter in world history. More things happen in this chapter than any chapter in the Bible. Let me explain that to you. In this chapter, we see John and Jesus in a joint ministry venture. John the Baptist and Jesus in a joint ministry. Well, I don't think that's anyplace else in the Bible. In this chapter, we also see God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. on earth in the same place at the same time. I don't know that that's ever happened, except that time right here. In this chapter, we see Jesus being baptized and then entering his public earthly ministry. That's an exciting thing. And we also see, I think, the birth of the church. Now you might disagree with that. Maybe you think the church started on the day of Pentecost. And it's okay with me if you want to be wrong. But I can't explain all of it. But I think the church, Jesus founded the first church. And it's in this chapter right here. And then some of the charter members are named. Philip, Andrew, John, and Nathaniel. They may have been others. And so, Jesus is also referred to by a lot of different names in this chapter. Jesus the carpenter. He's referred to as rabbi in this chapter, Messiah in this chapter, the Christ in this chapter, the lamb of God in this chapter, the king of Israel in this chapter, the son of God in this chapter, the son of man in this chapter. What are you saying, preacher? Before I, and I want to talk to you about what led these two men maybe to go beyond what the other fellows had done in this chapter, and they wanted to go and see where Jesus dwelt. I'll deal with that in just a moment. But I need to, first of all, tell you this. I need to tell you a couple of things that I hope you'll put down. You know what got them interested? Good Bible preaching. Can you prove that? Well, sure. Look at verse 37. And the two disciples heard him speak. That's John. These two disciples heard John speak, and look what happened. They followed Jesus. That's real preaching. When you're preaching can create a hunger in the hearts of your people to follow Jesus, you've just hit the mark. And I want to confess to you that it didn't always happen in my ministry, but good Bible preaching, I think we probably ought to get back to good Bible preaching, amen? You know, the preaching of the cross is foolishness of them that are carnal and of the world, but it's the power of God and the salvation. Don't get me wrong though, I love good music. I mean, I don't know enough, hardly tell what's good from bad. But I've been in Africa and a lot of places, and I preached about what they were doing there, but God was blessing it. So I'm not going to go into that. I'll leave that to you. But I do think there is good and bad music, but I think there's good and bad preaching. Thank you, Brother King. I think we straighten the preaching up, we'll straighten the music up. You know what? We don't need more programming. We don't need better methods. What we need is some great preaching. And I want to say this. I'll probably get in trouble for saying this, but I'm going home in the morning anyway. Live streaming won't replace good music. Now, if you're sick or infirmed or, you know, like me, immobile, I'm sure God will bless you if you watch it on TV. But there's something about hugging a person and shaking their hand and seeing them in the face and watching a preacher labor that just makes good preaching. And Paul said in Hebrews 10, 25, not forsaking the assemblies together. If we can, be together. You know, I never appreciated the value of good fellowship till we decided to try to have church and wasn't doing too good at it. And so we quit passing the offering basket. For some of my crowd, it didn't matter. But we'd quit crossing the offering basket. We quit using songbooks. I cannot read music. But anyway, I'd just like to involve one of being together, don't you? Thank you. So Paul said, not forsaking the assembly of yourselves together. So one thing I think we need to get back to is good preaching. It can be long, short. It can be humorous or serious. But we need to get back where when we're done, somebody wants to follow Jesus. The other thing I want to point out about this story before I get started is that public ministry alone won't cut it. They were all in the crowd. I guess what I'm saying is you have to have the crowd, but if that's all you have, you don't have much. You know, I pastored a long time and I preached a lot of sermons. If I wasn't paid at night, I wouldn't go back. So we don't always hit the ball out of the park. You know what they said? We'd like a little personal time. I think I'll call that personal devotions. Do you have, every day, a little personal time? Some place in your house you go to be alone with Him? Some place when your wife can't find you, she knows where you are? Some place where the kids know to be quiet now? Do you read the Bible every day and pray every day? You're gonna have to do that if you're going to grow in Christ. These men said, this is good. This baptism is great. All this is wonderful, but could we spend some time alone with you? And I like a good church service, and I know you do. But when I found out, sometimes my private time is more valuable to my personal growth than my public time. So anyway, they said, could we meet with you? The point being, We're not going to learn as much in public as we are in private. But being in private and in person will help us in our public worship. So I want you to write that down. Now, they asked a question in verse 38, where dwellest thou? I want you to answer that. What they're asking is, where's the best place to be to get the most out of it? where's the best place to be to get the most out of it? Also now, I'm gonna give you this thought. They suspected there was more to this than what they discovered yet. Now think about that. I mean, here they are, they're having all these things I talked about and being introduced to Jesus, and that's great, and Lamb of God, and that's wonderful. But they said, Lord, I think maybe there's something more to this than what I'm getting out of it. And don't raise your hand. Do you ever feel that way? You know why people quit going to church? Because they're not getting as much out of it as they thought they were going to. So the whole point is, they were saying, is there any more to this than this? Would you go to Romans chapter 5 just for a moment? And I want to show you a little thought here. Romans chapter 5. That's just back a little book, a little while in your Bible. Romans chapter 5, which is just about my favorite chapter in the whole Bible. Romans chapter 5. Now in verse 1, we would refer to your salvation. In verse 1, you became justified by faith. that's being saved. But, can I suggest to you, there's more to it than that. Being saved is wonderful, but there's some icing on the cake. There's some, something that we can add to our salvation and enjoy it more. So it says in verse one, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God. But verse two, by whom also, or by whom in addition to, we have access. So we have peace, we have access. Look at verse three, and not only so, we have something else. Look down here at verse nine. It says, much more than. Much more what? Much more than what you have. Look at verse 10. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son. much more. It seems kind of strange to say this, and God knows I mean this how I'm going to say it. There's more to him than probably what most of us know yet. When I got saved, I'll be honest about it, I got saved for one reason, hell. You know, we never hear much on it anymore, but I got saved But there's much more, I found there's much more to it than that. Look what he said in verse 11, and not only so, all that plus this. Verse 15, but not as the fence, so also is a free gift for you through the events of one, many be made much dead, much more by the grace. Verse 17, much more. Verse 20, much more. I asked myself, how much more? How much more? I kind of think of the prodigal son. I love that story because I ran away from home when I was 16. I'm not happy about it. And it broke my mother's heart and whatever. And I didn't do anything. I didn't break any laws, except I did take some slice of bread from a loaf in the store. The reason I took some slices, I couldn't get the whole thing in my shirt. So anyway, there's much more than just, not just, there's much more in addition to the forgiveness of sin. That's how I want to say that. It kind of reminds me of the prodigal son. You know, he blew it. He took up and lived in a hogsty, hog pen, eating swallow, came to himself and he said, this is not what it's all about. I'll arise and go to my father. And I'll say, father, forgive me. Just give me a bunk in the bunkhouse. I'm not asking to move back into the big mansion. Just give me something here and I'll work for you. And the prodigal father said, oh, no, I got more plan than that. In fact, I've been waiting for you because I got a ring I'm going to put on your hand. I got sandals I'm going to put on your feet. I got music for the banquet and a robe for your back. And then I'm going to kill the fatted calf. He had a lot more plan than just going home to the bunkhouse. I asked the class this morning, they didn't know, and you probably don't either, but who do you think was the most sad that the prodigal came home? Anybody want to answer that? You're afraid too, aren't you? Who is it? No. The fatted calf. I'm sorry. Paul said, We've got more for us than we can even ask or think. I'm telling you, I'd recommend it. You get all that. So then the question is, they ask him, where do you dwell? What that says is, God, Lord Jesus, I want to know more about you than you're just a carpenter. I want to know more about you than even that you're the lamb of God. I want to know more about you. So, they want to know more about him and guess what? He wanted them to. Amen? He wanted them to know more. You know what they, you know what he said? Come and see. Come and see. I like it. If he was here, And we would say to him, we'd like to know more about you. Can I tell you four places I think he might direct our attention to? Number one, creation. Creation. It says in Romans chapter one, I'll read that for you. Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen. by the things which are made, even his eternal power in Godhead." You know what he's saying there? He's saying there, creation tells a lot about me. Do you know why he created creation to start with? Did you ever ask yourself, why'd he do that? He was making a place where his new life form could fellowship. He's making, you know, man with a new life form. He made angels and seraphim and cherubim and the archangels. He made all those. But this life, new life form is going to have a new place to fellowship. And you know why we're different in all of the creation? We have a will. We have a will. And so God said, I can show you A lot about me by the creation. In fact, you're made in my image. If we hadn't have fallen, every man would have reminded us of him. And every woman, every child, every boy, every girl. He created us in his image so we could know him through others. I guess that's called testimony. So he created us so we'd have a place of fellowship with him. Guess what he said the first, the evening of the first day when he came to Eden to fellowship. Where art thou? You know where Adam was? He was not where he was created to be. He was created to fellowship with God and he's hiding that in a thicket. He's created to fellowship with God and she's clothed in leaves. And none of that self works is sufficient. It was not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but by his mercy, he saved us. So he came to fellowship with him and found out they weren't where they were supposed to be. They were not in fellowship with God. I wonder if you are yet. I got in fellowship with God, my wife and I, the second Sunday of October, 1958. I was created to fellowship with him. but I'd turn my life over to the devil. My friend George, who later became a preacher, went to, we graduated and he went to the military. And I went to the workforce. He got saved in Greenland. He got saved because he was in line in the mess hall to go to eat, and the man in front of him dropped dead. Just a letter and a hammer right there. It really put the fear of God in my friend. And the next day, he went to the mess hall again. He looked for a young man he saw the day before who prayed over his food. And he found the young man, and he said, sir, you must be a Christian. I saw you say grace over your food. And I'm not, but I need to be. Would you show me how to be saved? That little prayer over that oatmeal got me saved. Glory to God, and helped print 200 million Bibles. What are you saying, Brother Keene? I'm just saying that we can learn a lot about Him from creation, but not nearly all that needs to be known about Him. So the next place we go that He would take us to, He would take us to inspiration, the Bible. Would you write this down someplace? Creation was good, but didn't say as much as he wanted said, so he decided to write a book. Creation took six days. Inspiration took 1,600 years. I tried to multiply that out, but my computer on my phone wasn't that smart. But why did it take so long? A lot more he wanted you to know. I wonder how you're doing. Are you learning more by going and looking at inspiration every day? Reading the Bible, finding out new things. Sometimes I read the Bible. To be honest with you, I don't get much out of it, but I was obedient. Sometimes I read the Bible and I get a lot out of it. And so I'm, I just want to know, I want to get where I can know the most about him. That's what they said. And creation is a place. Inspiration is a place. And then, can I say this? Incarnation is a place. Incarnation, that means God in the flesh. That carpenter that works at the corner store and makes the yolks and all those things, we didn't know that he was God in the flesh. He's also a lot of other things, but he was God in the flesh. They said, his name shall be Emmanuel, God with us. Thomas said, my Lord and my God. Could I invite your attention just for a minute to Hebrews 1, Hebrews 1. Hebrews, I've read the book of Hebrews more often than any book in the Bible, except maybe with the exception of the gospels. I might have told you this before, but I want to tell you again if I have. I got saved, my wife and I got saved in 1958. And I was one of those guys, I thought she's supposed to do everything the Bible said and everything the preacher said. And, you know, I thought that's how it worked. So I signed up for a Bible class from Moody Bible Institute. in Chicago, and they send you a booklet. You'd fill it out, the blanks, and mail it back, and they give you a grade. And so the first book I took was the book of Hebrews. I had no idea why I chose that book. And I remember so vividly how it affected me. Look at Hebrews chapter 1 and verse 5. For unto which of the angels saith he at any time, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. And again, I will be to him a father, and he shall be a son. And again, when he bringeth in the firstborn into the world, he saith, let all the angels of God worship him. That's a key right there. Who only qualifies for worship? God. Well, God said, well, you all want to worship him. And so, that must mean he's God, but look at verse seven. And of the angels saith he, who maketh his spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire. But unto the son, he saith, thy throne, O God. Here's God calling Jesus God. Wow. Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever. Nine, thou hast love of righteousness and holy iniquity. Therefore, God, even thy God. Now, we got a problem. We either got two or three gods, or we got one that manifests himself in two or three ways. I'm writing a book. It's a book for Bible translation. And it's for folks that never had the Bible in the pagan countries. All pagans are polytheists. All pagans believe in multiple gods. So I'm writing this book, and the proofer of it said, we ought to say that he's three in one. We ought to say that God is not one, but manifests himself in three different ways. And I said, I don't think we want to confuse him this early. Let's just tell him he is the one God. And then we'll explain the spirit and the son and father. later, but I remember when I first learned that. Now, I know you can't get saved twice, but if you could, I did. I was so happy to hear that. I didn't know it. I didn't say, you mean you can get saved and not know it? You can, but you can't get saved if you rejected it. I didn't know enough to reject it. I never heard nothing like that. And so he's Emmanuel. He's God with us. He said, when you've seen me, you've seen the Father. And so where can I go best to see him? Well, you can go best to creation, inspiration, and incarnation. And lastly, you can see him best in the salvation of others. You know what my assignment is to have a good testimony? My assignment is to show Christ and show him in some of the most egregious situations. You know what he said? He said, if a guy smacks you on one cheek, turn the other. Can I tell you I used to box? That wasn't the plan. If I could do that, there's a power greater than me in me. You know what he said? He said, if they sue you for your coat, give them your cloak also. You know what he said? He said, hate your father and mother. Now, I know that doesn't mean what you think it does, but it did mean that he had great priority over them. Can you do that? So we need to show God by how we act. Would you go to 1 Corinthians, 2 Corinthians chapter 3 real quick, and I'm going to quit in a minute. 2 Corinthians chapter 3. Do you know that my pastor used to tell me, and I'm sure that you heard this too, that you're the only Bible somebody's reading. You know, the world is not read the Bible. You know what it does? It reads Bible readers. And you say you're a Christian, then you have to show a difference in you than them. Now here's what Paul said in 2 Corinthians 3, verse 1, Do we begin again to condemn ourselves, or need we, as some others, epistles of condemnation to you, or letters of condemnation from you? Watch it now. Ye are our epistles, written in our hearts, known and read of all men. for as much as ye are manifestly declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us written, not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God, not in the tables of stone, but in the tables of the heart. You know what he's saying there? Be careful the version you're publishing. You know, I print the Bible, and we're always fighting over the versions. I'm not fighting, I know what I believe and you can go ahead and discuss it, but it ain't gonna change nothing. I believe in King James Bible, I believe in the Masoretic Text, I believe in the Textus Receptus, and there's a whole big crowd out there arguing over translation. I want to be sure that what I'm living is a proper translation. Amen? Thank you, Brother King. Now, would you write this down someplace? Don't let anything substitute for knowing him. Don't let anything substitute for knowing him. You know, preachers can do that. We get big, you know, we get famous and all that stuff. And first thing you know, we so enjoy our reputation, we're overlooking his. And I think anybody can do that. I want to always keep him first in my life. So the Lord said, and I'm done now, the Lord said to Adam, where art thou? You know what he said? I'm hiding. I'm hiding from you. I'm a sinner. I don't want to be in your presence. And you know what the Lord did immediately? He said, I'm sorry about that, and I wish I could tell you something about the love behind the creation. He said, I'm sorry about that, Adam, but I'll work on that for you. And he went from creating to saving people. And he killed the lamb. You know that story. And he saved Noah and the ark. And I wonder what all he saved you from to bring you to the place where you could be saved. I can look back over my life and see sometimes that if God was mad at me, there'd have been a good time for him to kill me. But he let me live till the second Sunday of October, 1958. So now he's working on our salvation. Very expensive project. Very time consuming. Very expensive. It cost him his son to do it. How bad hell must be that he would rather his son die as you go? And if you have been saved, we ought to rejoice in that. Jesus said, rejoice not in the fact that the men are subject to your preaching, but rejoice in the fact that your name is in the Lamb's book of heaven. Did I ever tell you, say, on the Sunday of October, 1958, You got my name in the Lamb's Book of Heaven. You know, nothing happened like I thought it was going to. I heard some preaching and they said, you get saved and the stars will wink at you. None of them winked at me. Who art thou? I'm in God's plan of salvation, it'll cost me my life to be there, Jesus said. But he's crucified, buried, and rose again. Now I invite you to himself. Let's pray. I know many of you folks, because I have been here on more than one occasion, but I want to ask you this question. How many of you here know there's more to him than you thought there was going to be? Raise your hand real high. You know there's more to him than you thought there was going to be. Thank you. How many of you have not as yet received him as your savior and you'd like for me to pray with you about that? I wouldn't call your name, I wouldn't embarrass you, but I would ask the God of heaven to visit your soul. Could I pray for you? Would you raise your hand if I could pray for you? I wouldn't call your name even if I knew it. Probably won't know it. Okay. All right, let's pray. Now, Lord, they asked to go someplace where they could know him better. What that means is they knew he was the Lamb of God. And the good news is you said, come. Then you said, where art thou? Where are you at?