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Advent Productions

Benjamin Ng

When Knowing Jesus Is Not Enough

Father in heaven, thank you so much for leading us in this past week.

Thank you Lord for the many blessings that you have given to us.

Thank you Lord for being our provider and also our protector.

And now as we come to study your word, we ask that you would bless us once again with wisdom, with your Holy Spirit to lead us and to guide us into all truth.

And so Father, please be with us now as we open your word.

Open our hearts and our minds to give us that understanding and the willingness to apply the truth that we are listening to today.

Thank you, O Lord, for we pray in Jesus' name.

Well the title of our message for this morning is, When Knowing Jesus is Not Enough.

And we're gonna go to our first text here found in John 17 and verse 3.

The Bible says, And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.

You see friends, eternal life according to John is all about knowing God and Jesus Christ.

That is what we will be spending throughout all eternity.

And sure enough, maybe to some of us that might sound kind of boring.

I'm going to go to heaven and just get to know Jesus more and more and more and more?

Well, doesn't that sound like a relationship to you?

But you see, eternal life is about knowing who?

But you see, the title of our message this morning is When Knowing Jesus, or when knowing God really, is not enough.

Let's go to another Bible text found in John 5 39.

Search the Scriptures for in them ye think ye have eternal life and they are they which testify of me.

You see friends to know Jesus is to have eternal life.

To know Jesus, we got to know Him through the scriptures and that is important.

We got to understand the God that we serve and be in this relationship with him.

To know Jesus is to know the Father is to have eternal life.

It seems like we're going through all these passages in John because if there was anybody that knew who Jesus was, it was John the Revelator, John the disciple.

John 14 6 and 7 the Bible says this, Jesus saith unto him, I am the way the truth and the life.

No man cometh unto the Father but by me." And then it says in verse 7, If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also, and from henceforth ye know Him and have seen Him." Jesus says that I am the way, the truth, and the life, eternal life.

And so Jesus said, if you had known me, you would have known my Father and you would have seen Him as well.

To know Jesus, to know the Father, that is my friends, eternal life.

But you see friends, it's possible to say that we think we know Jesus, right?

It's possible to go to church and go, of course I'm a Christian.

And you know, we have name droppers out there.

What do you call a name dropper is it's someone that they say I know this person but they've never met them before they don't really know them but they use their name to gain entrances into clubs and bars and places that no 1 else can get into unless you know this famous person.

But to have Jesus as a name-dropper is not enough.

You see, there is this importance of knowing who God is, but there comes a point in time when knowing Jesus only is not enough.

Well, before we get to that, I want to share with you 1 last text about knowing God, knowing Jesus.

When the Bible says about knowing the Father and knowing the Son.

Genesis 4 verse 1 the Bible says, And Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.

They had a knowledge of each other but this wasn't just a high and a bye, shaking of the hand.

No friends, it was an intimate knowledge.

Adam knew Eve his wife and what happened?

It wasn't just a surface-level friendship.

They had a deep intimate knowledge of each other and as a result They had a son together.

They had many children together And so this knowledge that we're talking about here even when it's talking about the knowledge of the Father and the Son, eternal life is all about knowing Jesus Christ and the Father right?

That is not just oh yes I know him of course we know Jesus He came and died on the cross 2, 000 years ago.

But that sort of knowledge is not enough.

We have to have a deep, intimate knowledge of God.

You see, when knowing Jesus is not enough, Ben, what are you talking about?

Because you're telling me that, and I see the Bible text, eternal life is all about knowing God, right?

But there is a time when knowing Jesus is not enough.

Let's come to our key passage that we're looking at today.

Matthew 25 1 to 13 and we recently studied this in the foolish and the wise virgins but this is that parable found in Matthew 25 and we're going to read through the whole thing starting in verse 1.

Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto 10 virgins which took their lamps and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

They that were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.

And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold the bridegroom cometh, go ye out to meet him.

Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps, and the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are gone out.

But the wise answered, saying, Not so, lest there be not enough for us and you.

But go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage and the door was shut.

Afterward came also the other virgins saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

The Lord say, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

Watch therefore for ye know neither the day nor the hour wherein the Son of Man cometh.

This is the parable of the wise and the foolish virgins.

5 are wise, 5 are foolish, they all slept, they all had oil, but the 5 wise had extra oil.

The foolish, they didn't take enough oil, they had oil in their lamps, but it went out while they were waiting for the bridegroom to come as all weddings usually experience a delay.

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When Knowing Jesus Is Not Enough

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