Begins by posing the question, "What seek ye?" from John 1:35, urging listeners to examine their deepest desires and motivations. It contrasts the world's pursuit of material possessions and vain glory with the Christian's call to seek God's presence, approval, and true riches found in His kingdom. The message highlights that true contentment and purpose are found not in worldly achievements or possessions, but in a wholehearted devotion to pleasing God and anticipating the return of Christ. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a reorientation of desires towards eternal values, exemplified by the life of Jesus.
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John chapter one. We'll begin to read it in the thirty-fifth verse of John one. Again the next day after John stood in two of his disciples and looking upon Jesus as he walked he said, Behold the Lamb of God. It could be that As Brother Wright has just now suggested, that there are some present this morning who have not beheld the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. You haven't gotten your first look at the Lord Jesus.
You haven't really trusted him as your Savior yet, but most of us have. This is addressed to those who have already looked upon him as the Lamb of God, the bearer away of the sin of the world. This is looking upon him as he was. I don't know anything that helps us much more than looking upon the Lord Jesus as He walked. I mean by that, considering His way, thinking about Him, for the Lord Jesus is our Savior, and He is also our example. The Lord Jesus is exactly what God wants you in me to be. He is so pleased with His Son that He opened heaven three times to say so.
At His baptism, on the Mount of Transfiguration, and in the twelfth of John just before his crucifixion. The Father testified that he was delighted, pleased with the Lord Jesus. And you're pleased with him. If you're a Christian, you're pleased with him. All of your friends, you would like to change a little bit. You don't always tell them, but you work at it. Husbands even make some attempts to change their wives. And wives work at it from the time they get him. Sort of like the colored woman who said to the preacher when he said, you take him for better or for worse and so on. And she interrupted him and said, I'll take him just as he is. I think I can fix him up.
That's exactly what we try to do. You want to fix your friends up. You want to change them a little bit. We're not satisfied with ourselves, alone with our friends. But you're perfectly satisfied with the Lord Jesus, aren't you? There isn't anything about him you'd want to change. So let's look at him a little bit this morning as he walked. The two disciples heard him seek, and they followed Jesus. They took his advice. When Jesus turned and saw them following and said unto them, What seek ye? That's my text this morning. What are you looking for? Last night, our brother Mr. Olson talked about fulfilling our desires, the desires of those that fear him.
Our brother, Mr. Lindsted, has been telling us about a queen who had desires and those desires were satisfied because she came to a great and wise man? Now I want to know what you want. Well, I know there are a lot of different reasons for coming to a conference. Somebody said to me a while back, it bothers me, he said these conferences are getting to be regular matrimonial bureaus. And I said, why not? I'm in favor of this. We want our young people to marry Christian young people, don't we? Why shouldn't they go to a conference and meet some of the right people? A lot better than going to some other places, meeting the wrong kind of people. There's nothing wrong with coming to a conference just in hopes that you might attract the attention of a nice-looking fellow or girl.
There's nothing wrong with that at all. Just don't let that be your predominating motive. That's all. Just have a little something else on your mind, especially while you're in the meetings. Try to get something else worthwhile from the conference. There's nothing wrong with... with wanting to meet other young people, and we who are older. We like to come to the conferences to meet our friends and see how old they're getting. Essentially, we've seen them last, you know. We're glad for all of the opportunities that come with this conference. But I want to know if you had any real reason for coming. What are you looking for? What do you want? What do you want?
They say that desires are the key to our character. If you know what a man really wants, more than anything else, you know what he's like on the inside. Not what does he have, but what does he want? That reveals his character. Your desires, expressed or unexpressed, you may never tell anybody what you really want. You may be ashamed to say, some of the desires that go through your mind and heart. But what you want is a revelation of your character. What does the world want?
What are the desires of the people of the world? What are they living for? Well, First John chapter two says, all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. This is all there is in the world. The devil showed all the kings of the world in a moment of time. It doesn't take him long to show all his goods. He doesn't have anything else. There isn't anything else in the world except the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. There are two things that the Bible condemns and the world approves.
Covetiousness and desire of vain glory. You say to a man of the world, wanting what you don't have is wrong. He looks at you and bewilderment. He said, what's wrong with that? That's what we call ambition. The Denver Post pinched on their paper every day. This world owes its progress to dissatisfied people. This is the philosophy of the world. This is what they teach in schools. They teach you never be satisfied with anything. Always be reaching for more. If you want more, you're a fine fellow.
You're on the right track. And Christians say it, too. Not long ago, a man said to me, well, I don't see anything wrong with wanting to get more, because after all, if you aren't reaching for more, you're going backwards. You can't stand still. Going backwards? I think it's about time he got oriented which way is backward. If you're talking about spiritual progress, there's nothing more backward than covetousness. For the Lord says covetousness which is idolatry. Now that's what God says about it. I didn't make that up. God says that covetousness is idolatry. When you love things, you're partaking of the materialistic philosophy of this world.
What does the world think about things? They teach our kids in college the eternality of matter. Is matter eternal? Of course it is. There was a time when there was no matter, no substance, only God. God created the things which we see. By faith we understand. We know these things. We believe that God made everything. So matter is not eternal. Therefore, matter is a secondary consequence. God himself is of first importance, of prime importance, and things are definitely second best.
You don't believe that, do you? Oh, yes, you say I believe it from my ears up, but I'm not sure that I believe it down in here. I'm not sure that it ever filtered down through my neck and got to my feet and hands. I just believe that on Sunday, but on Monday, well, if you don't look out for number one, who's going to? Yes, that's the philosophy of the world. In the first century, materialism was almost a religion. It was a definite philosophy, a system of philosophy. I'm not so sure but what has come back in the twentieth century. I believe that materialism today, in the United States especially, is actually a philosophy.
After all, it takes things to make us happy. Isn't that what they said on TV? Isn't that what they say in the newspaper every day? You must have these things to be happy. You have to have these things if you don't smell right, if you don't look right, if you're addressed right, you're a failure. You can't be a happy person if you don't have these things that we have to sell. That's the idea of the whole thing. They do everything they can to make your covetous. If you spend too much time with your mind open to that filth box, you're going to believe this philosophy. That's just what you're going to do.
The second thing that the world thinks is important is what God calls desire for vain glory. Not only getting something, but being somebody. Is it important that you be somebody? Is it important that you have not only your own self-respect but the respect of all around you. Is it important to you that you be somebody? Young people are oftentimes tormented with a desire to be acceptable, to be well thought of, to be popular. It's cost too many girls their modesty and their purity because they wanted to be popular.
It cost too many fellows their testimony in school because they wanted to be popular. It cost too many of us who are older, too. Any real usefulness were God because we wanted to be well-potted. You want who to think well of you? That's what really counts. Whose approval do you want? I remember when I was a boy hearing a story about a man who was taking tickets at the depot. That is, he inspected the tickets before the people went through the gate to go to the train. And the train was about to pull out, and there was a crowd of people, and they all wanted through, and some of them were arguing with him, and some were cursing him, and they were pushing and shoving.
He went carefully about his business, inspecting each ticket, and getting him on their way. And somebody said, so you don't seem to be very popular. And he jerked his thumb toward the superintendent's office up on the second floor, and he said, I'm just trying to be popular with the man up there. That's all that really counts for me. That's my job. What kind of popularity do you want, really? What kind of approval do you want? Desire for vain glory. Desire to be somebody. This was Satan's sin, wasn't it? The devil said, I will be above the most high God. I'm going to be somebody. I'm not going to be like my parents, the young fellow said.
My dad never amounted to anything. I'm going to amount to something. What do you mean? I'm out to something. I'm out to something for which world? You've heard the story of William Shelley, the great writer. I hope you've read his books. If you haven't, you certainly ought to. He lived in the last century. He was a real Greek scholar. His nephew went to college, went to Oxford, as I recall the story. And he wanted to study Greek, and when he met with the Greek professors, they were amazed at what he already knew of Greek. And after talking with him for a little while, they said, We're not sure that we can teach you anything about Greek. Where in the world did you get all this? Well, he said, From my uncle.
Well, who's your uncle? Mr. William Kelly. Never heard of him. We'd like to meet your uncle. A man who can teach a young fellow this much, we'd like to know him. So they went to call on Mr. Kelly. They found him living in very modest quarters. They found him a very unassuming man. They talked with him, and the more they talked with him, the more they respected his knowledge. He's a very erudite person, a very knowledgeable person, and they said to him, Mr. Kelly, where do you minister the word? Where do you teach the Bible? And he said at a certain little hall in the neighborhood, how many people do you speak to on a Sunday?
Oh, he said about fifty or sixty. They said, Mr. Kelly, do you know that a man with your ability doesn't need to waste his time on a little group of people like that? You could make a name for yourself in the world. And he said, gentlemen, which world? Now he was either a fool or he was a worthy representative of the Lord Jesus. What do you think? Well, he said, I think he could have gotten both worlds. That's the philosophy today. Not long ago I was talking to some young people and I heard one of the girls saying, I'm going to graduate from college next year and I'm going to be rich.
And it just hurt me. It was like a knife in my heart because I knew that she came from a family where her parents really loved the Lord and I knew that they were sending her to school hoping that she could be a more useful Christian because of her education. So when I got a chance, I got her aside and had a little talk with her and I said, now look, I heard you say that your desire, your ambition is to be rich. And this is dangerous because the Bible says they who will be rich, not those who are rich, those who want to be rich, fall into a snare and the temptation of the devil. I said, you're headed for trouble if you go on like this.
She said, I want to please the Lord, but I don't see any reason at all why I can't be a good Christian and rich too. I said there's been a great many of them that have tried fence straddling, sitting on two stools, holding on to two worlds, and nobody's arms are long enough to hold on to both worlds. You have to make up your mind which one you're going to go in for. And I believe that with all my heart. I think this is what's the matter with our emaciated Christianity today. We're trying to live for two worlds. We're trying to hold on to both. We're trying to get everything that we can get here and be somebody here rather than seek the approval of the Lord there and the riches that are real.
But I wanted to say a little bit about the Lord himself. When he said to them, What seek ye? They said unto him, Rabbi, which is to say, being interpreted, Master, Where dwellest thou? Now I'm glad that they were not looking for what? By whom? What seek ye? No, they said we're not looking for what. We want to know where you live. So he said to them, Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt, and they blew with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour. I don't know what they learned about the Lord Jesus, but I'll tell you a little bit of what I've learned about it. The second chapter of Philippians is a marvelous desertation on humility.
It begins with the Lord Jesus himself. It tells us of the seven successive downward steps of our Blessed Lord, ending at the cross of Calvary. And then it says that God has exalted him and given him a name above every name. Our risen Lord Jesus is exalted today. but he first was humiliated in death. And then he goes on to tell us about two young men. And these young men were humble also. And of course, in writing the biography of the Lord Jesus and of these two young men. And this is always the case. When you write a biography, you write your own autobiography.
Because the things that you tell about a person are always the things that you think most important. And so if you read between the lines, you can see the autobiography of the Apostle Paul. in this same book, the same chapter, Philippians two. But one of these young men was Timothy, and he said, I don't have anybody else like-minded. And verse twenty-one says, all men seek their own, not the things that are Jesus Christ. Paul was in Rome, and he wrote this. And if you'll read the letter to the Romans, you'll know that there's some godly Christians at Rome. That last chapter, the sixteenth chapter of Romans, Paul salutes many of those godly Christians, and yet he said, Here I am at Rome, and there is one single person except Timothy that I can say truthfully really sees the glory of the Lord Jesus.
I tell you, brother and sister, you don't know your own wicked heart. You don't realize how selfish you are. You don't realize how difficult it is to really put the Lord Jesus first. It's almost impossible. A man will go on for years. I knew a man who was a godly man, a man who gave liberally to the work of the Lord, and who shepherded the work of the Lord in his neighborhood, and who advanced the work of the Lord in other places. He went on well for God until his son got into a jam. And when his son got into trouble, the brethren took it up, and he said, if you put my boy out of the meeting, I'll go out too.
And he spoiled his usefulness. And that man never regained it again. It's so hard to be wholeheartedly, altogether for God. We give up. We give in. We turn away. We deviate. But here's the man, the young man, as far as we know, his entire life was lived for one purpose. Well, as you say, he was Timothy. He was, I'm not a missionary. I'm not a preacher. You don't expect me to live. Do you think that God has a double standard? Do you think that God wants missionaries, preachers, Christian workers of various kinds to live one kind of a life, and then he says it's all right for the rest of them to live on a low level?
Do you think that? Isn't the Lord Jesus your example, as well as an example of a Hudson Taylor? This young man never saw his own thing. But the Lord Jesus himself, of course, is a supreme example. We're told in Romans, verse three, even Christ pleased not himself. What are you looking for? You get up on Saturday morning, not when the conference is on, but any Saturday morning. You get up and you say, well, that's my day off. Let's see. What do I want to do today? So you just figure out what you want to do today.
That's what you do. That's pleasing yourself. He said, I like it. I'm sure you do. The flesh does like it. But you're building that kind of character. And you're going to grow up to be a self-pleaser. Your world will never be any wider than your own little vision, your own little room, your own little home. This is my world. This is what I live for. This is where I live. I like it here. This is not godliness. It's not like our blessed Lord. The Lord Jesus never got up on a Saturday morning and said, What will I like to do today?
Christ pleased not himself. He said himself, I do always the things which pleased my Father. It's a lovely verse in the first chapter of Colossians, verse ten. which in Bishop Moodle's translation reads like this, anticipating his pleasure. Anticipating his pleasure. Now this is the test, the real Christianity. Not when the elder brethren are watching it. Not when you're in a crowd of other Christians. But when it's just you and the Lord. What do you say? What do you do? Do you ever say, Lord Jesus, I'm just going to do this because I believe this will please thee.
Nobody will ever know it. Nobody will ever see it. Nobody will ever approve. In fact, they may criticize me for it. They may misunderstand. But, Lord, I believe this will please thee, and I'm going to do it for thee. You ever do that? That's the way our Lord Jesus lived. Always in the sight of his heavenly Father. Always seeking to please His Father. What about His covetousness? Well, that's ridiculous, you say. The Lord Jesus was never covetous. He didn't have anything. By the standards of the United States, you may not have very much.
By the standards of the people of China, you may be a very wealthy person. You got a bathtub, haven't you? You have a telephone? What about by the standards of the Lord Jesus? What did he do when he wanted to talk about a penny? He asked somebody to show him. What did he do when he wanted to sleep? He went out on the mountainside and laid him down to sleep. Every man went to his own house. Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. That's the last verse of the seventh of John and the first verse of the eighth. Well, you say, you don't expect us to live like that.
No, I don't. But I wish we did. I wish we had that kind of Christianity. Do you know what it costs to put on a conference like this? It costs several hundred dollars to put on a conference like we're having today. Do you know what kind of a conference they have in South Korea? A friend of mine attended a conference in South Korea. They had it out in the pastures. because this would be a way from other people where it wouldn't be any disturbance and where they could have a nice time together for three days. Do you know what they did about meals? They brought some food for the babies in bags and the rest of them decided that prayer and fasting would be good for their spirit because they were poor.
There was no place to cook out there. So they had nothing to eat for three days. You know what they did for water? They drank out of the creek. Do you know what they did about sleeping accommodations? It was summertime. and not the rainy season. So they brought little pallets with them, which they spread out on the grass, on the ground, and that's where they slept. You know what they did for seats? They sat on the ground. I should say they're awfully stupid, aren't they? Those Koreans, I tell you, they're really backward. Yes, that's the way we think about it. Oh, if they could just reach our American standards of things, I'm not so sure of what their standards are higher than ours. They went there for three days to hear the Word of God. The Lord Jesus certainly lived like this.
No reputation. You couldn't think of the Lord Jesus being desirous of vain glory. You couldn't imagine the Lord Jesus attracting attention to himself. You couldn't imagine his insisting that he get proper press agent representation. You can't imagine the Lord Jesus wanting the right kind of publicity. He made himself of no reputation, and so did his service. When they asked John the Baptist who he was, he didn't even want to tell him anything. Finally he said, well, I'm just the boys. Can you imagine a popular preacher today being satisfied with that kind of publicity? Well, I know these things make us uncomfortable, but I want to tell you something.
It makes me just as uncomfortable as it does you. The Lord's been speaking to me about some of these things, and I'm not going to hold it back at all. I hope you get good and uncomfortable. until it makes a difference in the way that we live. Now, just let me sum up like this. He said, what do you seek? Let me show you something in chapter twenty where the Lord Jesus asked another question. He had had nothing in the lives of these people to indicate that they were seeking him. They had come to him for the first time. And so he said to them, what do you seek? But now here's one who was very attached and very devoted to the Lord Jesus as she sowed by her standing at the sepulchre weeping.
Chapter twenty, verse eleven. Mary stood without at the sepulchre weeping. And as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the sepulchre, and see if two angels in white sitting, the one at the head and the other at the feet were the body of Jesus, said Lane. And they said to her woman, Why weep as thou? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they have laid him. When she had said thus, she turned herself back. She wasn't interested in angels. Not very many people have ever seen the vision of angels. She thought she had stayed and gotten enough of this so that she could go home and brag about it. But she wasn't looking for angels at all. She turned her back on these angels. Then she saw Jesus standing, and you know that it was Jesus.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? You see, Jesus knew her heart. He knew that she was devoted to him. He didn't say to her, What seekest thou? She wasn't seeking for any what. She was seeking for him. Her heart was right. She loved him. In the forty-second Psalm in verse one, we read, As the heart panteth after the water broke, so panteth my soul after thee, O God. Thom eighty-four says, My heart and my flesh cries out for the living God. Now put that at the top of your list.
Young Christian, what do you seek? Above all other things, seek the presence of the Lord. Seek it every morning before you leave the house. Don't just hurriedly kneel down and run through a prayer. As Brother Alp Gibbs says, you might as well have it printed. and just wave at it as you go by. That was my sentiment. Don't pray that kind of a prayer. Take time to get into the presence of the Lord. Get some assurance that you have been in His presence before you face the day. That may be the day you're going to get the worst temptation you ever got in your life. And if you face that day without His presence, you'll be sorry for it your whole lifetime and perhaps for all eternity.
Don't start out without His presence. When you find yourself becoming perfunctory in your religious observances, stop and take time to get really in the presence of God. Desire more than anything else, His company. Our brother Mr. Lin said, ask the question today, how long has it been since you sat down and had a good talk with our Solomon? I didn't say how long has it been since you did some service for the Lord. We're all busy serving. But we're not very much about communing. We don't really desire his presence. Then the second thing that you might think about is to seek, first of all, his approval.
Do you want the Lord to say to you, well done, thou good and faithful servant? Well, you say, who wouldn't want that? Well, all right, then you'll have to work at it. Because he's not going to say it to everybody. He's going to say, welcome into heaven. He's going to say to you, I love you. You're my redeemed child, but He's not going to say, well done, our good and faithful servant unless you have done well. Not successful, but faithful. Seek this. Say day by day, Lord, help me to earn to win thy approval. My son said to me, what I want more than anything else is your love and approval, Dad.
I said, you've got my love more than you ever had before, but my approval you're going to have to earn. I'm not going to approve something that I know is wrong. Neither is God. If you want the approval of the Lord, you're seeking the right kind of a desire. Seek the riches that really count. Luke chapter sixteen and verse eleven says, If you don't use Another man's goods and a man of unrighteousness, as you ought to, who's going to give you the true riches? Would you like to be rich? I would. I've always wanted to be rich. There's nothing wrong with wanting to be rich. It depends on what kind of riches you want.
I'm ashamed to tell you sometimes I wanted the wrong kind of riches. Do you want the right kind of riches? Seek ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. and all these things will be added unto you. Go into the things that really count. I traveled for eight and a half years with our dear brother Mr. A. and O'Brien. He was like a father to me. When I heard of his death, the first thought that crossed my mind was, that man has gone to heaven and taken all his marvelous knowledge of the Word of God with him. What a shame he couldn't have left that to me. That's my first thought. Then when I thought it over, I thought, well, that was his riches.
That's what he spent his life accumulating. Why shouldn't he take that home to heaven with him? That's his eternal riches. And then I remembered there's just as much in the gold mine as he ever dug out. So if I want the same riches that he had, I can go here and get them. Are you seeking those riches? Young people, do you have a definite time set apart each day for the study of God's Word? Are you getting hold of helpful books? Are you keeping notebooks on your studies? You do this in college. You do it in high school. Why shouldn't you do it in the study of the greatest subject on earth? Accumulate some real riches. Well, the things that you dig out of this book will be yours.
They'll be yours a hundred billion years from today. They'll be yours. They'll be part of your everlasting possession. We're not possessing our possessions. Well, there are many other things you'll think about, but just let me mention one more. Second Timothy, four and eight. those who love his appearing. What do you desire more than anything else? What are you waiting for? Why do you say, I'm waiting for the Republicans to get in? Oh, yes. I remember when the Republicans were in and you're waiting for the Democrats to get in. Well, you say, I'm waiting for the end of this Cold War. Yes, I remember when folks were waiting for the end of the Hot War.
And then I remember when they were waiting for the end of the peace, they thought we might have more prosperity if we did have war. Some of them secretly. What are you waiting for? What do you think will really change things? Oh, you say I'm waiting till I'm twenty-one or eighteen. I'm waiting till I get through school and I can get out and do things. I'm waiting for the time when I can get married. Remember, you're just waiting for the medicine to take effect, so your rheumatism quit hurting. What are you waiting for? What do you really want? Brother and sister, there's only one thing, one event. Oh, I don't know if I can even call it an event because it's His coming.
There's only one real hope, the blessed hope, the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. Do you love His appearing? What seek ye? What are you looking for? What do you want more than anything else? This is the index, the key to your character.