THE MISSING CHILD
   
I want to preach today on "The Missing Child" out of Luke chapter 2.  
Let's look at Luke 2, verse 39, and begin reading.
   
2:39 And when they had performed all things according to the law of 
the Lord, they returned into Galilee, to their own city Nazareth.
   
40 And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom:  
and the grace of God was upon him.
   
41 Now his parents went to Jerusalem every year at the feast of the 
Passover.
   
42 And when he was twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after 
the custom of the feast.
   
43 And when they had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child 
Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; and Joseph and his mother knew not 
of it.
   
44 But they, supposing him to have been in the company, went a day's 
journey; and they sought him among their kinsfolk and acquaintance.
   
45 And when they found him not, they turned back again to Jerusalem, 
seeking him.
   
46 And it came to pass, that after three days they found him in the 
temple, sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them, and 
asking them questions.
   
47 And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and 
answers.
   
48 And when they saw him, they were amazed:  and his mother said unto 
him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?  behold, thy father and I 
have sought thee sorrowing.
   
49 And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me?  wist ye not 
that I must be about my Father's business?
   
50 And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
   
51 And he went down with them, and came to Nazareth, and was subject 
unto them:  but his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
   
52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God 
and man.
   

   
Lord, we do thank you tonight for the precious blood of the Lord Jesus 
Christ.  We thank you for the mercy you've given each one of today.  
Without your mercy, Lord, we wouldn't have made it.  Thank you for the 
grace that is found in our Saviour.  Lord, I pray tonight that you 
would help me to preach faithfully, clearly, the things that you would 
have me to say.  And I ask you, Lord, that you'd open a direct line to 
each and every heart in this place.  We will thank you, and may we 
hear tonight from thee.  In Jesus' name.  Amen.
   
Now, you have a very familiar text and passage to folks who read their 
Bibles.  And you know a lot of things that might even be said in the 
message.  It's a case where Joseph and Mary have lost sight of Jesus 
Christ.  I'm preaching to saved people today basically, and I want to 
say that when I talk about losing Jesus Christ, I'm not talking about 
losing your salvation.  There's a sense in which Jesus Christ is with 
you, and then there's a sense in which He's not always with you.  It's 
sort of like a married couple; they might always be with each other, 
but they might not be with each other, if you understand what I'm 
saying.
   
Jesus Christ is sealed inside of Rex Harrison today, and He's done that
Himself, and He can't get out.  He cannot break His own word.  I'm 
thankful today I'm signed, sealed, and delivered.
   
But I know that I've experienced many times in my Christian walk and 
life an emptiness, and at times I've missed the Lord Jesus Christ.
   
That's what Joseph and Mary have done.  They've gotten involved in 
some things here that has caused them to miss Him.  I want to tell you 
that the most important thing that you have in your Christian walk and 
life is your fellowship with God.  I want to tell you that the most 
important thing is not the increase in numbers, but the most important 
thing is the increase of the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus 
Christ.
   
Paul said, "I count all things but dung for the excellency of the 
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
   
So let's get down with it and get into it, and then I'll get out of 
the way.  Look in verse 41.  The Bible says, "Now his parents went to 
Jerusalem every year at the feast of the Passover.  And when he was 
twelve years old, they went up to Jerusalem after the custom of the 
feast."
   
I want to say, first of all, that they lost Him in the keeping of 
their tradition.  Not all tradition is bad.  We read in the Bible in 
II Thessalonians that Paul exhorts the church in Thessalonica to keep 
some of those traditions that they've got by word or by epistle.  And 
then he warned about a brother that walked disorderly and not after 
the tradition that they received, over there in chapter 3 of 
2Thessalonians.  Some traditions are good.  You are observing a 
tradition here today, just by meeting together on the Lord's day, the 
first day of the week, to worship the Lord, fellowship and to sing 
praises to God, to pray and give thanks, to give cheerfully as God has 
given increase, and to hear the word of God preached and taught.  This 
is a tradition that has gone on in Christianity for centuries.  
Sometimes we get so zealous in our hatred for starched, stuffy 
religion that we forget some tradition is good.  As a matter of fact, 
this tradition that Joseph and Mary are keeping is a Bible tradition.  
It's something that was commanded.  It's the Passover.
   
But the point is they lost sight of the Saviour in keeping a good 
tradition.  You can go to church when you ought to go to church.  You 
can pray when you ought to pray.  You can read your Bible when you 
ought to read your Bible, and you can witness when you ought to 
witness.  But, brethren, those things can get into the way of the real 
purpose.  And the real purpose is fellowship with Jesus Christ, that 
you might honor and glorify Him, in your walk on this earth.
   
The Pharisees kept traditions.  Nobody in here kept traditions like 
the Pharisees.  They weren't all bad traditions; they kept all the 
ones in the law, and added a few themselves.  The Pharisees were good 
at keeping traditions.  But one day the Lord Jesus Christ looked at 
them and He said, "Search the Scriptures; for in them you think ye 
have eternal life, and they are they which testify of me."
   
Brethren, everything in our Christian walk and Christian life is to 
point us to Jesus Christ.  Paul said, "That I might know Him." I'm 
always encouraged when I read of Paul's conversion in the book of 
Acts.  He asks two questions.  And I have said, "Lord, if I could just 
ask those two questions, and if I could get those two answers to those 
two questions, what a blessed walk I'd have on this earth."
   
The first question Paul asked was, "Who art thou, Lord?" I know you 
might be saved today, but I'm going to tell you something.  After 
you're saved, you ought to get on your knees somewhere alone, and say, 
"Lord, I want to know you.  Who art thou, Lord?  I know you're my 
Saviour, and you died for me, and shed your blood for me.  But who art 
thou, Lord?  I want to know you better.  I want to count all things 
but dung for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, 
including my education and my upbringing, and my background, and all 
my smarts and abilities.  I want to count everything but dung for the 
excellency and knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord."
   
And then the second question--and I do believe they ought to be asked 
in this order; I think that's part of the problem with Christianity 
today--and the second question is, "What wilt thou have me to do?" We 
go off half-cocked and trying to do what we feel like we ought to do, 
and feel like God wants us to do.  And surely God wants us to serve 
Him in a way that we like to serve Him.  After all, isn't this 
aptitude Christianity.  And this--"I'm fitted for this job." And, "I'm 
fitted for that job." But it seems the men that I run across along the 
way that God's doing something with are not fitted for what God's 
doing with them at all.  They didn't have an aptitude for it; they 
weren't built for it; they weren't made for it.  Some of them don't 
even like it.  And yet, God places every member in the Body as it 
pleases Him--not them.  I don't like this modern Christianity that 
preaches and teaches that God saved you to cater to your whims and 
fancies.  God didn't save you to cater to you; God saved you so that 
you might serve Him; that's why God saved you.
   
They lost Him in the keeping of their traditions.  And don't we have 
the tradition?  They have a name that they live, but they're dead.  
They have a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof.  How 
many of God's people--Christians and preachers alike--how many are 
performing the service of God and keeping the traditions of God, and 
if you added up all the prayer time in a week, they couldn't stand and 
sing, "Sweet Hour of Prayer," with an honest heart.  I'm going to tell 
you something; if your prayer life stinks, then your tradition stinks, 
and your walk with God stinks.
   
Then I want you to know something else.  In verse 43, "And when they 
had fulfilled the days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried 
behind in Jerusalem." And then look up at verse 39, "And when they had 
performed all things according to the law of the Lord." Most 
Christians are like a convict who's in jail.  They're just putting in 
their time.  They lost Him by keeping the letter of the law.
   
Brethren, I believe you ought to do right, whether you want to or not.  
I was raised that way.  I wasn't raised like this modern generation; I 
don't even understand it.  I was raised to do what you're supposed to 
do if you felt like it or didn't feel like, and raised to do what 
you're supposed to do without question and without suggestion--just do 
what you're told.  I was raised that way.  But I'm going to tell you 
something; if all you do is keep the letter the law, and you're not 
operating under the power of the Holy Spirit, it'll defeat your walk 
in the Lord Jesus Christ.  The Bible says, "If you be willing and 
obedient, you eat the good of the land." There are a lot of Christians 
who are doing right because they know it's right to do.  And so 
they're going on doing right.  And I commend them for that.  But 
there's a lot of discouragement and defeat, and a lot of people 
quitting this day and age, because they have surrendered to do right, 
but they might have surrendered, but they've never submitted.  I 
looked in my concordance program on my computer today and punched up 
the word "surrender" in my Bible concordance, and little message came 
on the screen that said, "No Such Word in the Bible."
   
There's a difference between surrender and submission.  Ask anybody 
who's been in war and had to surrender under the hand of the enemy, 
and ask them if they submitted.  There's a big difference between 
surrender and submission.  I said, "I just gave up; I couldn't go no 
farther; I just surrendered." That's what Jonah did; and he was a 
happy fellow, wasn't he?
   
The letter killeth!  The letter killeth!  It's the Spirit that 
quickeneth!  It's the Spirit that gives life!  I'm not telling you 
that you shouldn't obey the things of God and the commands of God, but 
you must do it in the power of the might of the Holy Spirit of God, 
and not in your own might and power.
   
Then quickly, in verse 43, it says, "And when they had fulfilled the 
days, as they returned, the child Jesus tarried behind in Jerusalem; 
and Joseph and his mother knew not of it." You know, I imagine they 
lost Him in the hustle and bustle and the entanglement of the affairs 
of this life.  Isn't that easy to do?  I'll tell you something; I 
think it's harder to be a godly Christian in Southern California than 
anywhere else.  I don't know how it's done out here, and stay right 
with God.  The hustle and the entanglement of this life can get ahold 
of you so quick, and so fast, you'll lose sight of Him.
   
You would think that, with their own child, they'd know whether He got 
in the camel train heading back or not--but they didn't.  The Bible 
says in verse 44, "But they, supposing him to have been in the 
company, went a day's journey."
   
I want to preach to you independent, Bible-believing fundamental 
Baptists, because there's a good point for us here.  And that is, that 
they took His presence for granted.  Thank God I'm saved, and you 
can't do anything about it.  I can't do anything about it.  The devil 
can't do anything about it.  I mean as far as my security in the Lord 
Jesus Christ, I'm in Christ Jesus, I'm saved, and I'm on my way to 
heaven.  Like it or not, I'm on my way to heaven.  Amen?
   
You say, "Well, I always like it." Well, maybe you always like it; 
sometimes I don't like it.  But I'm on my way to heaven anyway.  
Nothing can be done about that.  And so, Jesus Christ is with me to 
the end, and He is with me always, and one of these days, the last 
trump will sound, and the voice will shout, and I'll fly out of here, 
because I'm signed, sealed, delivered, I'm hell-proof, and I'm heaven-
bound.  But I want to tell you today, the danger in that is taking His 
presence for granted.  The danger in that is this hyper-grace kind of 
Christianity that believes you can live like the devil, talk like the 
devil, dress like the devil, and say, "I'm saved and on my way to 
heaven." You can do all that if you want to, but don't tell anybody 
you're saved.  I didn't say you weren't saved.  I said, just don't let 
anybody know it.  They'd be a whole lot better off.
   
They take His presence for granted.  We know He's there.  How many 
times have you gotten down on your hands and your knees and prayed, 
only to get up and not even know what you prayed?  How many times have 
you opened the word of God and read through the Bible and read through 
chapter after chapter, only to close the Book, and not even know what 
you've read?  You know what you're doing?  You're taking the presence 
of your Saviour for granted.  You've become too familiar with it.
   
I don't like that.  I do it myself, but I don't like it.  You say, 
"You do it?" Yeah, I do it.  So does every preacher in here, if they'd 
be honest.  I'm just going to tell you something; I don't like it!  I 
know I'm saved and I'm on my way to heaven, eternally, but I don't 
want to take for granted the fact that Jesus Christ is sealed in here!  
Listen, I want His trip home to be joyful too; do you understand what 
I mean?
   
I'll give them something; it only took them one day to notice He was 
absent.  I've observed a lot of God's people over the years.  And I'm 
convinced that most of God's people are doing all the right things and 
everything else, and they have lost sight of Jesus Christ about five 
or ten years ago--and they don't know it yet!  Give them credit; they 
went one day, and all of a sudden they said, "Well, something's wrong 
here.  Where'd He go?  Where's Jesus?  Anybody see Jesus around this 
place?"
   
Wouldn't it be good as a church to get down on your knees once in a 
while and say, "Now, where are you, Lord?  Are you outside the door?"
   
Hey, listen, He stands three times in the New Testament after His 
resurrection.  He stands three times, and they are all three times of 
judgment--every one of them.  And the last time, He stands at the door 
of a local church, and He says, "How come I'm not inside?" He said, "I 
would just walk away and leave, but I'll tell you what.  If any man in 
there would like to have fellowship with me, just open the door, and 
the rest of them forget it--you and I can have some fellowship." You 
don't believe that?  Go read your Bible.  Quit believing your 
tradition; believe what the word of God says.  Just believe your 
Bible.
   
One day they lost Him.  But it took them three days to find Him.  You 
know, I've been saved now nearly two decades, and I'm ashamed to tell 
you this, but a lot of that time was spent out of fellowship with Him.  
A lot of that time I was backslidden.  You know something I know?  I 
know it might only take you one day to lose Him, but it's going to 
take you longer to get your fellowship back where it was when you lost 
Him than it did to lose Him.  You can get down on your knees, and I 
don't mean play games, I mean you can confess it, and you can get it 
all cleaned up in the wash, and you can get it right--but, brethren, 
there's a longer road back than there was down.  I don't care how far 
you've come, but it's a long way back.  It only takes ten seconds or 
three seconds or five minutes; it might only take you one day to lose 
sight of Jesus Christ.  But it's going to take some diligent search to 
get that fellowship where it ought to be.
   
The Bible says that they found Him after three days.  But then notice, 
in verse 44, that they sought Him among the wrong crowd.  "They sought 
him among their kinfolk and acquaintance." They sought Him among the 
wrong crowd; they didn't find Him there, the Bible says.  Listen, I 
hate to say what I'm going to say, but it has to be said; it's Bible.  
You know that I feel the coming of the Lord draweth nigh; and there 
are signs in the times of what's going on in this old world.  But 
there's another sign, maybe you've missed and haven't noticed.  The 
closer you get to the time of the Tribulation, and the closer you get 
to this thing winding down, then the more those verses that deal with 
it are going to come into play and into prominence--Luke 14 and 
Matthew 10.  And they talk about the Lord saying, "I have not come to 
bring peace, but a sword, and to set a mother at variance against her 
daughter, and a mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and a 
father against a son--yea, a man's foes shall be they of his own 
household." I'm going to tell you something, brethren; the sad truth 
of the matter is, most of your family, most of your friends--and some 
of them are saved--most of them don't share your same diligence in 
your quest to know the Lord Jesus Christ.  And they'll not be a help 
to finding Him; they'll be a hindrance to finding Him.  I've said I 
don't like to say it, and I don't like to say it; but it's the truth.  
It's something that's true.
   
Today, if you sit here with family and friends that encourage you and 
maybe even rebuke you and help you out and encourage you to get more 
diligent about the Lord Jesus Christ, and draw near and closer to Him, 
then you ought to get on your knees somewhere before you hit the sack 
tonight, and thank God--because there are a whole lot of people who 
don't have it like that.  Most family and acquaintance, when you get 
around them, you have to keep your mouth shut if you just want to get 
along and smile, don't you?  I'm telling you the truth today!  I'm 
telling you the truth.
   
Listen, Jesus Christ is to have the preeminence in all things.  If you 
want to know why everything's falling apart in this day and age, it's 
because God is a jealous God, and He'll not have anything placed above 
devotion to Him.  Nothing!  Not the church; not the family; not 
anything!  God will have nothing ahead of Him!  And when you put those 
things ahead of Him, as this modern Christianity has done, you'll lose 
sight of the Lord Jesus Christ!  You'll compromise the Book and 
everything that's right.  You're going to lose Him!  When the Son of
man come, will He find faith?  I doubt it.
   
Then I want you to notice something else.  Not only did they seek Him 
among the wrong crowd, and didn't find Him, but they were diligent in 
their search.  His mother comes to Him in verse 48 when they find Him, 
and she says in the middle of the verse, "Son, why hast thou thus 
dealt with us?  Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing." 
What father and what mother in this place today, if you lost one of 
your little children, you lost a little child and didn't know where 
they were, what father and mother, if they found the child, wouldn't 
make that statement?  You really think they slept for three days?  I 
don't.  Do you think they ate for three days?  I really doubt it.  Yet 
Baptists can't get together without pie and cake, can they?  They can 
get together without the Lord.  Oh, I know they think they have the 
Lord.  Bible-believing Baptists are guilty of what Southern Baptists 
are guilty, and all the rest of the outfits are guilty of.  They keep 
pointing that apostasy is everywhere else; I've got news for you; 
apostasy is in the ranks.  What, you're the people and wisdom will die 
with you?  Help yourself.
   
You see, brethren, if you're going to keep your relationship to Jesus 
Christ what it ought to be, you have to be diligent about it.  You 
have to work at it!  Never mind these Baptist charismatics who go 
around telling you, "Just keep the word, and just believe it, and just 
yield..." Listen, God places some responsibility on you.  Paul said in 
Ephesians 1:6, "I'm accepted in the beloved." And there's no 
condition, other than being saved.  But in 2Corinthians 5, "I'm 
accepted in Him, but I have to work to be accepted of Him." There's a 
difference between being accepted in, and being accepted of.  
"Wherefore we labor"--isn't that what it said?  You younger 
generation, that means work.  "Wherefore we labor, that whether 
present or absent, we may be accepted not in him, because we already 
are--but accepted of him." Better be careful!  Better be careful.  
They were diligent in their search.
   
Can you imagine, if it was this day and age, they would have put His 
picture on TV.  They would have plastered posters everywhere and got 
His name on the radio.  I'll tell you one benefit by seeking Him among 
their kinfolk and acquaintance--they weren't talking about the 
football scores.  They weren't talking about the world affairs.  You 
know what they were doing?  They were going to their family and 
acquaintances, and they were holding out the picture, and the tears 
were rolling down Mom and Daddy's faces as they said, "We've lost 
sight of Him.  Have you seen Jesus?  This is what He looks like.  Do 
you know Him?" I'll tell you one good thing that came out of it; His 
name got dropped everywhere they went.  Everywhere they went, they 
said, "Do you know our Jesus?  This is what He looks like." You know 
what that crowd knew?  That crowd knew that Jesus Christ was the most 
precious possession Joseph and Mary had.
   
If we were to talk to the crowd you get around, do they know what the 
most precious possession is you have?  Then what would they tell us?  
What do you talk about most?  What do you want to do most?  What makes 
you the happiest?  What gives you the most joy?
   
I'll tell you something today, there's a serious lack of closeness to 
Jesus Christ among Christians.  This old world needs to see some 
people who are fanatics for Him.  It needs to see some people who are 
not just fanatics to take stands and fight the government at every 
hand, but people who are fanatics to know Jesus Christ.  I can't help 
but wonder if God's people weren't more diligent in knowing the Lord 
Jesus Christ as they are in everything else they want to rebel 
against, then maybe it wouldn't be in the mess it's in.  But we like 
to point fingers everywhere else.
   
They knew how much Joseph and Mary loved Him, because they sought Him 
with tears.  Have you ever sought Him with tears?
   
When I got polio, my parents were drunks.  We didn't have any 
alcoholics in our day; they were all drunks.  No alcoholics; just 
drunkards.  I don't like this modern generation; they never call 
anything right.  Boy, I tell you, I got in a meeting the other night.  
I heard ol' Bobby Utley; man, I sure appreciate his preaching.  He got 
up and preached out of Job, what God thinks of an unsaved man.  He 
said, "Look, I went to the 1828 dictionary, and the word donkey is not 
even in the dictionary.  It's a new, modern word, so people don't have 
to hear the word jackass, because God thinks an unsaved man's a 
jackass, and God wants him to know it." Man, I almost walked!  I came 
out of my seat and shouted, "Amen!" boy!  Glory to God!  And some of 
you prude-and-do-wells, you say, "You'll never catch nothing coming 
out of my lips!" Yeah, nothing but gossip!  You've let the devil trick 
you into thinking that some words are just bad words.  But I'll tell 
you what; that might not be a good word, but doesn't that describe 
your old nature?  Yeah, it does; it describes you.  Just jinnies and 
jackasses; that's what describes you.
   
Their faith was rewarded because of their works.  Brethren, faith will 
lead to works.  Don't forget Ephesians 2:8,9--there was another verse 
in that chapter, I think; one or two more.  "We are created in Christ 
Jesus unto good works." And we're to have those good works, and we're 
to let men see those good works, so they might glorify our Father, 
which is in heaven.  I'm old-fashioned about it; you don't have to be, 
but I am.  I believe the Bible is.  Their faith was rewarded because 
of their works, and one of these days, you'll stand in the judgment 
seat of Christ, and be rewarded for the words that are done in your 
body, whether good or bad.  They found in.
   
When I had polio at four years old, as I started to say before we got 
that rabbit out of the way, my parents were drunkards.  They were 
saved drunks.  So they weren't really drunks, but they were drinking a 
lot.  Bible says, "Such were some of you," and some of you were, and 
some of you are still trying to do it.  But, you know what God did by 
putting their little boy in crutches and braces and slowing him down, 
a little bit?  I thank God all the time, I'm crippled.  I'll tell you, 
I'd be a mess if I wasn't crippled.  The Lord would have to do 
something worse than that to slow me down.  You know what they did?  
They got right with God.  They sought Him now, but they sought Him 
sorrowing.  It cost them something.  When my dad would roll over in 
the middle of the night, because I'd wake him up and holler for a 
glass of water, he'd say, "Get it yourself." You say, "Is that a mean 
dad?" That's a good dad.  Because he knew I'd have to learn to do 
things on my own.
   
But don't you know there were times that he rolled over, and when he 
thought about it, a tear fell in his eye, because he was sorrowing in 
heart?  
   
I'm just warning you today, you lose sight of Him, and you lose the 
fellowship with Him, you got to be diligent in getting Him back--and 
it may cost you some sorrow.  Paul says, "That I may know him, and the 
fellowship of his sufferings." I don't know how you know Jesus Christ 
without suffering.  Haven't figured it out yet.
   
It's been a real blessing being saved.  I've had a lot of blessings 
along the way--a couple this week I'm not going to take the time to 
tell you about them.  But, I want to tell you something; there's been 
a lot of sorrow along the way, and yet in the midst of that sorrow 
there's been joy.  And, you know what that sorrow has done?  That 
sorrow has drawn me closer and closer to the Lord Jesus Christ.
   
We don't like to hear about that, do we?  We run down the Bakkers and 
the Swaggerts and all the rest of them--but secretly, inside of us, we 
want to believe what they preach.  You will not know the Man of 
Sorrows without sorrow yourself.  You won't know Him.
   
Well, let's move on.  They found Him where they left Him.  That's 
deep, ain't it?  Normally, when I lose something, you know where it 
is?  Where I put it!  Unless a kid got it, or the dog--or some outside 
interference, out of the way--I'll tell you where they found Him, they 
found Him right where they left Him.  When I'm looking for my car 
keys, I can tell you where they are 95% of the time; they're in my 
left front pocket.  And I'll find them there in 25 or 30 minutes, too!  
You say, "Do you keep your religion while you're looking?" That ain't 
none of your business!
   
Now, there are a lot of implications here for Israel and prophecy and 
things that are going on in this text that we're not going to deal 
with, because we're applying it to you and me--like prophecy and 
things to come.  I notice that a lot of people really enjoy all that 
Bible knowledge, yet they're living like hell.  I wonder about that 
sometimes.  Mama said, "We sought thee sorrowing; why'd you deal with 
us like that?" It wasn't His fault--now, was it?  No, it wasn't His 
fault.
   
Look at verse 49.  I like verse 49.  Verse 49 is one of those verses 
that lets you know that the god of the news media and the god of the 
charismatics and the god of the liberals and the god of most 
Christianity is not the God of the Bible.  His mama tired, bags under 
her eyes, blackened eyes from lack of sleep and eating, wore out, pain 
showing on her face, tears running down it--mad and glad at the same 
time.  She said, "Why'd you deal with us that way?  We sought thee 
sorrowing."
   
And he said, "What are you looking for me for?" Isn't that what He 
said?  "How is it that ye sought me?  Didn't you know where I'd be?" 
Read the verse.  "How is it that ye sought me?  Wist ye not that I 
must be about my Father's business?" Kind of sarcastic, isn't it?  I 
like my God being sarcastic.  I need it!  The last thing I need is 
Snake Eyes in his "Glass Cathedral"--I don't need that nut!  What I 
need is a sarcastic God.  I need a God who will slap me upside the 
face, throw me down on the ground, and whip me up once in a while just 
to let me know how much He loves me.  If I don't get beat, then I'm a 
bastard, and so are you!  (There's another one of those good Bible 
words.) I like the Bible.  This one!  The one I have is the King James 
Bible; I just thought I'd tell you that.
   
That's what he's saying--"What in the world are you looking for me 
for?  Didn't you know where I'd be?" You say, "Where was He?" He was 
in the Temple, doing the will of the Father.
   
Hey, listen:  I don't care who you are or what you do.  When you lose 
sight of Jesus Christ, you're out of the will of God.  If you won 50 
souls last week, and your church ran 150 and baptized several--that 
wouldn't make any difference.  If you lose fellowship with Jesus 
Christ, you're out of the will of God.
   
"Didn't you know where I'd be?  I came to do my Father's business!  
That's what I came to do."
   
There's a blessing in here for us, though.  And the blessing is found 
in the Bible in the Book of Philippians, chapter 1.  You don't have to 
turn there.  He's in the Temple--doing the will of the Father.  Hey, 
you know what He's doing today?  He's in the Temple; and when I don't 
do the will of the Father, bless God, He's still doing it!  Thank God 
that "He which hath begun a good work in you shall perform till the 
day of Jesus Christ." If you don't perform anything you're supposed to 
do, if you don't work out your own salvation, if you don't labor that 
you might be accepted, if you don't do nothin' you're supposed to do--
He ain't laying down on the job!  Boy, that's a blessing!  Because 
there ain't nobody in this place here today who can stand up and say, 
"I'm always doing what I'm supposed to do!" There ain't nobody!  So 
I'll go with the hyper-grace crowd on that point, amen?  I'm so glad 
that He's still working on me.  I'm so glad that He hasn't quit doing 
the will of the Father.  What a blessing it is to know that He's 
inside.
   
When I read Romans 8, where it said, "The Spirit maketh groanings and 
utterings," and I got to thinking about when I got saved, and how it's 
been since I've got saved, I know why the Spirit makes groanings and 
utterings.  Listen, ever since I got saved, I've been wanting out of 
this place; and I got a sneaking suspicion ever since God saved me and 
sealed me Himself inside of me, He's been wanting out of this place!  
God didn't get any bargain when He saved you.  "Give your life to
Jesus"--don't do it!  Don't do it; it's just another mess He's going 
to have to take care of.  Repent and turn to God and put your faith in 
the Lord Jesus Christ; trust Him as your Saviour; He'll take your 
life.  But, I'm going to tell you something today; God didn't get 
nothin' when He got you; He got a dirtball with a will, that's all He 
got.
   
Self-esteem--throw it down the toilet, man!  That guy says the problem 
in our country is lack of self-esteem.  It is not!  You think too 
highly of yourself right now!  Yes, you do!  I'm repeating a couple of 
things here, but I'm doing it because some of you are here that 
weren't here the other night, OK?  And I'm going to tell you, some 
folks run down with their heads down and they just don't think enough 
of themselves--they think a whole lot of themselves, and they want you 
to tell them!  Self-esteem is puke out of the pit of hell.  
Hallelujah!  You don't need no self-esteem; "He must increase, I must 
decrease"--that's what you need!  You need to get out of the way; 
you're just messing things up.  When I got saved, all I did was just 
bring a whole brand new set of problems and trials for Jesus Christ to 
take care of; thank God He's doing it.  Thank God I can lay down in my
motel room this afternoon and get down on the floor and say, "God, 
there are some things you need to work on."
   
He says, "I'm working on them."
   
"But Lord, you're just going slower than I like."
   
He said, "If I went any faster, you couldn't keep up with me, 
cripple!"
   
Ain't it good?  Boy, it's good.  I'm glad to be saved.  I don't want 
to lose sight of Him any more.  I want to keep right on target with 
Him.  I want Him to have the preeminence in my life.  Everything.  I 
don't have any rights.  I gave every right up I had when I got saved.  
I don't have any right to preach what I want to preach.  I don't have 
a right to sing what I want to sing.  I don't have a right to go where 
I want to go.  I don't have a right to be what I want to be.  I don't 
have a right!  Thank God today, I'm a child of the King--but it isn't 
because I have a right to be.  I'm no child of the King because of 
anything I did.  I was a pauper in rags of righteousness on my way to 
hell.
   
Well, let's close this out.  I want you to notice in verse 50 that 
when you lose sight of Jesus Christ, you lose your understanding of 
what He said.  You know why these folks always run to the Greek?  You 
see, I divide Christianity into babies, brats, and big folks.  You can 
always spot a baby, because he's always talking in a language that 
nobody else can understand.  And if you want to talk with him, you 
have to go "Goo goo ga ga!" And sometimes he'll think you know that 
language when you do!
   
You know what their problem is?  They're trying to find out what it 
means, because they want to get out of doing what it says.  I done 
figured that out.  You say, "How did you figure that out?" Because 
that's exactly why I want to know what it means.  That's why you want 
to know what it means.  You know the danger of all this Bible 
knowledge?  Thank God for it; you ought to, you're supposed to study 
the Bible.  You're supposed to get it.  But one of the biggest dangers 
is that you can get enough Bible in there that you can pull a verse 
out and justify your sin.  Hello!
   
"They understood not the saying." If you lose sight of Jesus Christ, 
you'll pick up your Bible, and it'll soon become drab to you, and 
you'll say, "I don't understand; I don't get nothing out of it." Boy, 
I don't like reading my Bible and getting nothing out of it.  
Sometimes reading the Bible is hard work, and I don't like doing hard 
work and getting nothing out of it.  Sometimes I do, and I wonder why.
   
Notice something else as we come down here.  It said, "He went down 
with them, came to Nazareth, and was subject unto them." Isn't that 
strange?  Isn't that strange that the Creator of the universe was 
subject unto them?  Now, He wasn't subservient to them.  But He was 
subject unto them.  There's a difference.
   
When you think of God, with Joseph and Mary holding onto to His little 
hands, trying to teach Him how to walk.  God doesn't have to learn how 
to walk.  But you do, so He did that because you did it.  Isn't that 
something?  Boy, you talk about air pollution--and this is a good 
place to talk about it.  You talk about air pollution; there were no 
factories and all of that kind of stuff going on back when the Lord 
came down and was born in that manger.  But I'm going to tell you 
something; you know what He did do?  He left clean, pure, fresh air in 
glory, and then He stood, talking in the streets with sinners while 
they were breathing out air that came from sinful lungs, and yet He 
breathed that same air.  You and I can't understand that, but I'll bet 
that was something for God to do!
   
Subject unto them.  There's a sense in which He's subject unto us now.  
Not subservient, not to serve us.  He didn't save us to serve us, I 
say it again; He saved us that we might serve Him.  But the sense is 
this; He sealed Himself inside.  So, when you look at things, He's 
there.  And when you speak things, He's there.  And when you hear 
things, He's there.  And when you reach out and do things with your 
hands, He's there.  He can't get away; you can't get away.  And when 
you walk into places, He's there.  He's made Himself subject, and 
that, brethren, is how come one day you're going to answer at the 
Judgment Seat of Christ for the things done in your body--because He 
was there when you did them.
   
I like what Brother Jack Wood preaches when he says about the Rapture, 
"Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught."
   
You might not be doing anything more wicked than just sitting back in 
your study saying, "Aren't I a big preacher.  I'm really somebody." 
Just like ol' King Nebuchadnezzar--"Look at the work that I have 
built." Yeah, look at it!  You go to your little meetings and gripe 
and complain about the work that you have built; that's why you gripe 
about it--you built it.
   
I want to tell you something else.  The Bible says, "Jesus increased 
in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man," and that's 
exactly how the Christian's walk is to go--Jesus is to increase, not 
you.  The longer you're saved, the older you are chronologically in 
the Lord, the more He is to be seen, and the less of you.  And, if you 
ever stop in that quest, oh, I'm going to tell you something, you'll 
lose sight of Him.  If you ever think you've reached the plateau when 
you're where you ought to be according to that verse, you'll get so 
backslidden, we won't be able to tell you from a lost person.  That is 
one of those quests that you strive for, knowing that you never get 
it, but knowing you ought to strive for it.  You'll never attain, but, 
brethren, you ought to try.
   
 I'll tell you something else.  If they'd never found Him, if they'd 
never got fellowship back with Him, the crowd they were with would 
have never seen Him with them again.  Now, He would still be there; 
but the crowd they were running with would have never seen Him with 
them again.  Do you understand what I'm saying?  You're a child of 
God; if you ever lose that fellowship with Jesus Christ, and you never 
get it back; if you never get it back, all the people around you will 
never see Jesus Christ with you again.  He'll be there, but they won't 
see Him.  They'll see that old man, raring up day after day, time 
after time.
   
I want to tell you one more thing, and then I'm done.  Just as those 
wise men who sought the child, when they found Him and worshipped Him 
and did their business, the Bible said they left a different way.  
Joseph and Mary, the second time, left a different way.  They left 
with Jesus Christ.
   
Listen!  They didn't do any wicked thing to lose their fellowship with 
Him.  They didn't do drugs, they weren't drunkards, they didn't run 
out and commit fornication, they didn't lie and cheat and steal.  They 
lost Him doing good things.  Don't get very Pharisaical about it; 
you're liable to lose Him doing good things.  But when they left that 
second time, what a joyous occasion it was!  To go back home on the 
12th Passover with the child, Jesus.
   
Let's bow our heads.  Lord, I do want to thank you for the time that 
we've had today in the word of God.  Lord, I sure appreciate it.  I 
pray that every child of God, may they be diligent in their service 
and their quest to draw nigh to Jesus Christ, and may they seek to 
know Him better and better each day, more of Him, to learn what He 
loves and why He loves it, and what He hates, and why He hates it.  
Lord, that the fruit of the Spirit might be evident in their lives.  I 
thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name.  Amen.