In this sermon, the preacher discusses the importance of having a personal revelation of who Jesus is. He emphasizes that simply relying on the Bible as evidence of God's presence is not enough. The preacher references Romans 8:16, which states that the Spirit bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God. He challenges the congregation to question how they truly know God and encourages them to seek a deeper, personal experience with Him.

...will every day to know what you need and be able to relate to you as we get into this matter of preaching. There's several passages of scripture that I want to bring to your attention tonight because in these days I know that one of the most difficult things to do, and yet one of the most difficult things to do is the fact that we need to know how to know the voice of God. And we'll be constantly wanting to hear from the Lord. And we'll be constantly asking, you know, is the Lord speaking? Does he speak this way? Does he speak that way? How does he speak when he does speak? You know, which way does he do it? And I want to share with you tonight something of how the Lord speaks to people on a level that I believe that you already know. And in doing this, you know, establishing the fact that the Lord works on a basis that you do already know in his speaking to each of our lives. And in 1 John, the 2nd chapter, the 20th verse, we have these words, "...but ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things." And then in the 27th verse of that same chapter, "...but the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him." And of course, some people have taken this, or these two verses, out of their context and just said, well, you aren't supposed to teach and so on, but if that was the case, if you weren't supposed to study and teach and so on, we wouldn't have any reason for a Bible, would we? We'd just completely do away with the Bible and then everybody would walk by inspiration alone, by spirit leading. But the Bible does not give us grounds to do that, and so we know that the teaching here is heading in a different direction and it takes us to a place that I believe we can settle down and come out with something to walk with. The Lord Jesus began to call the men around him that he felt that the Father wanted him to have. And as he called these men around him, he began to teach them. And as he began to teach them, he taught them with several different means of teaching. He performed miracles or allowed the Father to perform miracles through him in their presence. And now and then there was a situation that they faced and he allowed them to face the blunt of it, so to speak, such as feeding the 5,000. He turned to Philip and asked him how he was going to feed the 5,000 and so on and so forth, and Andrew was in on that. Jesus constantly taught his disciples about who he was, about what he was up to. But as we look at or take a careful look at these men as they walk with Jesus and move with Jesus, we find that one day there was a breakthrough. There was a breakthrough in his ministry. And this breakthrough came on the level of revelation to a man. And in the 16th chapter of the book of Matthew, we find the Lord Jesus talking to his disciples in the 13th verse, when he had entered into the coast of Caesarea Philippi. And he asked his disciples, Whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say thou art John the Baptist, and some say Elias, and others Jeremiah. One of the prophets, he said unto them, But whom say ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And he goes on, And I say unto thee that thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will be on my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. There is no question tonight that the Lord Jesus is the rock. And there is no question about the fact that he is talking about the Church. But I wonder in this day of superhumanism, when the deity of Christ is no longer a question. You can't say that liberalism and modernism is completely dead. But friends, liberalism and modernism is not a real issue in our hour. Did you know that? It's not a real issue in our hour. But textualism, humanism at its height, is a real genuine issue. In other words, we would fight for the deity of Christ and tonight and while we are fighting for the deity of Jesus, we'll humanize the way to get to him. And yet right here in this verse, he tells us that the very foundation of the Church, the Church is built on the revealed Christ. And those that know him, not intellectually, emotionally, not intellectually and emotionally and even by willpower, by choices, but those who have had the curtain pulled back and they have got a glimpse of Jesus Christ, the revealed Christ, those make up the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the Church of the living Christ. That's the real genuine body of Christ. And I believe in this hour, we can see a breakthrough right here as the Father opens the heart of this man, Peter, and he gets a glimpse of Jesus. And I believe that the Bible teaches that there was a different level of knowing Jesus at this point on in this man's life. And let's just follow this thought through the Bible for a few moments as we introduce this subject, because I want you to see this and get this deep into your heart, because this is so important. Turn to the 20th chapter of the book of John, and as you turn to that 20th chapter of the book of John, you find a woman there by the name of Mary. And if there was any woman that knew Jesus outside of his mother, this woman certainly knew him. She walked with him. She listened to him talk. She watched the miracles he performed. And she, I'm sure she had several meals with him. In fact, I wouldn't, I'd be afraid to say how many times she probably ate with the Lord. And she knew the Lord as he walked on the face of the earth physically. She knew him. And I'd be afraid to say how much she did really know about Jesus. But she knew a lot about him. Listen to these words with Mary. Now, the Lord Jesus has gone to the cross. He's died and he's been placed in the tomb. And there he is in the tomb. And Mary goes to the tomb. She goes to the sepulcher, weeping. And as she wept, and I'm in the 11th verse of that 20th chapter of the book of John, she stooped down and looked into the sepulcher. And she saw two angels in white sitting there, the one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been placed. And they said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? She said unto them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I know not where they've laid him. And when she had thus said, she turned herself back and saw Jesus standing. Now, this is interesting, isn't it? She saw Jesus and knew not it was Jesus. She didn't know that it was the Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Woman, why weepest thou? Whom seekest thou? She supposing him to be the gardener, said unto him, Sir, if thou hast borne him hence, tell me where thou hast laid him, and I will take him away. And here is Mary talking to Jesus, and she thought he was a gardener. It's amazing to me that all that she knew about Jesus, now that he's died, now that he's been buried, now that he's been resurrected, and there he is, there he is, she didn't even know Jesus. And this is our Savior she's looking at now. This is our Savior. All before then, you can't say that he wasn't our Savior, but all the work he was sent to do, he had not completed yet. And now he is there in his completeness, and she did not know him. But the next verse lets us in on a beautiful sight. Jesus said unto her, Mary. I tell you, you can look at that word Mary there, and really let the Holy Spirit take that portion of scripture and just open it up to your heart, and you can just see God just opening her heart, can't you? When he said Mary, he reached into the depth of her heart and just opened it all up, and she turned, and when he called her name, she turned herself and said unto him, Rabboni, I, which is to say, Master. Boy, you can just see her turning it all over to Jesus here, right here. She lets him have everything. And friend, here the Lord opens her heart, and she is able to see Jesus for who he is. Peter saw Jesus for who he is. Here Mary sees Jesus for who he really is. Now, you know the basis of worship? The basis of worship, and I'm not going to preach on worship tonight unless the Holy Ghost gets a hold of me, you know, but the basis of worship, the very heart of worship, is a recognition of God for who he is. And I'll tell you, both of these occasions, you see Peter and you see Mary, and they are recognizing the Lord for who he is. And when people have their eyes open, they have their heart open, the Lord lets them see who he really is. Friends, you'll have worship, and you'll never have it till you do. You can't sing worship up. You can't sing worship up. It's, the Holy Ghost has to open people's hearts to the Lord who is the very heart of worship. Now, you go on a little further, and you find two men on the road to Emmaus, back in the book of Luke. And they were going along the road there, and they were talking, they were having a conversation about what just happened in Jerusalem. And of course, they were followers of Jesus, and the Lord Jesus had been crucified and buried, and now he'd been resurrected. And they were just walking along the road, beginning in the 13th verse of that 24th chapter of the book of Luke. And as they walked, they talked about the things that had happened in Jerusalem. And all at once, they had someone to join them, and you know, of course, it was the Lord Jesus. And as the Lord joined these two men as they walked along that road and talked, they didn't know that it was the Lord. And after a while, it got time for him to preach, and he preached from Moses' day to his day, and they still didn't know it was the Lord. And friends, they finally got to the place where they would turn aside and have a meal, and then when they got there to turn aside and have the meal, they did, and they bowed their heads, and the Lord prayed, and their eyes were opened, and the Bible says in that 31st verse, and they knew him. Isn't that amazing? Up to that time, they didn't know him. Now, these men had been with Jesus. These men had walked with Jesus. They'd seen the miracles. They watched him heal people. They watched him raise possibly Lazarus from the dead. They watched Jesus do all the many mighty things he had done, and yet they did not know the resurrected Lord. They did not know the ruling, reigning Lord that had won victory over the devil and over death, and there he was, ruling and reigning. Friends, they did not realize it was the Lord, and yet as he bowed his head and prayed, they knew it was the Lord. They had their eyes opened. Now, they knew it was the Lord. Now, the point is tonight is this. How is it that we know the Lord? How is it that we know the Lord? These hands have not felt him. These eyes have not seen him, and yet we love him. We know him. How is it that you know the Lord tonight? Friends, I'll tell you what. You can say all you want to, but I've got news for you. You approach this business of Jesus Christ on the level of logic, on the level of reasoning. You approach this matter of Jesus Christ on this level, and you can't prove he's any more than a man. Now, can you? And yet you say you know him. Now, I'm not interested in you doubting whether or not you know him, because I figure if you doubt too much if you know him, you need a little operation anyway. But we'll probably get that operation before it's over. Was this water put up here for me? Somebody's right, I know. You know, it's taking care of me. Amen. Somebody's got their gift of service operating. But, Brethren, listen. You say, well, preacher, I just know. I know you know. But friends, how do you know? How do you know? How do you know? Oh, I know. You can come up with a humanistic level and say, well, the Bible says so. Well, what are you going to do about that bunch that knew they knew before the Bible was canonized? I mean, they needed to know a little bit more about it. You know tonight. I mean, back in those days when they knew, they knew so well that they were willing to walk into the fire and be burned. They were willing to have their heads cut off. Women expecting babies walked into the arenas and had wild beasts to tear them to pieces. They walked in there singing. Don't you think they knew that they believed in Jesus? Now, friends, how did they know? Now the Lord opened Peter's heart and he knew. I mean, he knew. Jesus said, Peter, flesh and blood hasn't shown you that. The Father in heaven has shown you that. And Mary, he called her name Mary. And she knew him. And those men on the road to Emmaus, he prayed and their eyes were open and they knew him. They knew him. How did they know him? How did they know him? Now, I know. Here's what we come up with today. And this is legitimate. But it's not sufficient. Are you listening to me? I know because the Bible says so. That's legitimate, but it's not sufficient. You say it's not sufficient? No, it's not sufficient because you can know in a fashion where the Bible says so or not. And therefore, you can know because the Bible says so, but because the Bible says so in the light of the way people do it today, it's a humanistic level. Well, I know I'm saved because, well, you see, preacher, the Bible says, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things are passed away. Now, that's a good, legitimate reason how you know you're saved. But I'll tell you what you can do. You can take a man out here and rear him in a good, strict, moral home all his life about the things of God, and he can go out and do wrong, and he can get so upset by just stealing because he violates his conscience, that that man could be disturbed and come up with the fact, well, he thinks he has a new nature. You go out here and see a man that has an accident, and he said, boy, I know I'm saved because I've been chastised. Other people say, well, I know I'm saved because I've been chastised. Now, I want you to know those are legitimate reasons. I'm going to talk about those in a little bit. But how do you know? You've never felt Jesus. Why, you could go on this a different way. How do you feel Jesus? People say all the time, boy, I felt Jesus. I feel Jesus. I mean, boy, we had a great time tonight. We come to the church house and we go home and say, God was in our church today. Well, what I want to know, how do you know God was here? Well, we felt him. Well, what did he feel like? I mean, I have trouble with these silent amens you folks are giving out. I know you're saying amen or oh me or something, but I can't quite hear them. Right? How do you know? How do you know? God speaks. God is present. God is real. These hands have never felt him. These eyes have never seen him. These ears have never heard him. You say mine have. I doubt that. You say, preacher, you doubting what I say? Yes, I am. Why do you doubt that, preacher? Because the Bible says that the natural things, the natural mind, the natural man cannot what? Huh? What do you suppose your ears are natural, part of your natural man? Your eyes? Sure. You just think about that a while. I don't think this old natural man can take the glory. I don't think. That's why, you know, people say, I heard God speak. I don't believe they'd have any ears left, brother, if they ever heard God speak. I saw God. I don't believe. Right? Now, I've had some tell me that they had dreams, a few things like that I've wondered about, but I'll tell you, when it comes to this old natural man, just in his natural self, seeing and hearing God and all that stuff, I'd rather walk around the corner and hear a mule bray than some of this stuff, you know, amen. Right? Of course, I believe God deals in abnormal ways. I believe God deals in any way that's necessary in order to communicate to man in order that man might obey the will of God. But when you've got good, solid, intelligent people that can listen, my dear friends, God doesn't go around knocking people down with a two-by-four falling on their head. He doesn't have to. But now, if it takes that, he can do it. Right? How do you know? How do you know God is here tonight? Well, the Bible says so. I'll tell you what, that's good. That's legitimate. That's absolutely true. But I'll tell you, friends, that's not enough, is it? Don't you want him here in a different fashion just than the fact that the Bible says so? Let's look at, let's look at Romans, the eighth chapter. Romans the eighth chapter, sixteenth verse. The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. God's Spirit bearing witness with our spirit that we are the children of God. Now, what does that mean? What's he talking about? What's he saying? Now, I believe that, that a man is made up of body, soul, and spirit. And I think you have a very difficult time understanding the Bible, understanding man, and understanding the work of the devil if you don't believe that man is body, soul, and spirit. And even people that believe that man is just body and soul, they still have to admit that soul and spirit are one, but they still have to admit spirit's there. Now, I don't know what all the, I don't know the way to describe to you and be absolutely scriptural the different parts of the body, the soul, and the spirit. But I do know that in the spirit of man, man has an intuitive ability. Man can know. He has an intuitive ability. And the Bible says, these things have been written that you may know. And it talks about knowing. And the Bible teaches that there's several ways of knowing, but one way is that you know a thing like God knows a thing. Now, let me ask you a question. Does God have to think to know? Does God have to think to know? Now, come on. Huh? All right. Then how does God know anything? Well, that's the reason he knows it. He's omniscient. But how does he know? How does he know? Does he have to think to know? Well, preacher, he doesn't have to know how he knows. He just knows. Right? Amen? Now, let me ask you a question. Does God have to think to know? Does God have to think to know? Now, when a person is saved by the grace of God, they are quickened and made alive. And that old spirit that was separated from God, that man being dead in trespass and sin, has been quickened and made alive through repentance and faith. And that man receives a new spirit. And that spirit is alive to God. Even though that man may get out of fellowship, that spirit is still alive to God. And man's spirit and God's spirit is one spirit, regardless of how much man sins after he gets saved. Boy, I mean, that's something else. That would make a back-slidden Episcopalian shout. Boy, just to think. Regardless tonight, you're one spirit. You're one spirit. And it's not God's inability to speak to your spirit that's the problem today in hearing God talk in your guidance life and all of that. It's your inability to pick up what God is saying in your spirit. For God's talking. That's why I said today, if you hear His voice, harden not your heart. In other words, your heart is hardened, it's calloused, it's wicked, and it can't pick up what God's saying to your spirit. But friend, God's talking. So, when man gets saved, he gets a new spirit. And God's spirit abides right there in that spirit. And when man and God are one, and they're bearing witness one with the other, man knows a thing like God knows something. That's right. That's what that means. It doesn't mean you feel like you're saved. It doesn't mean you think you're saved. You just know you're saved. How do you know you're saved? You don't have to know how you know. You just know. And if I didn't know that, I'd quit and get saved. A little old boy came to me, and some of you heard me tell this so much, but I've never gotten over it. And there's so much truth in this little old illustration, I like to keep on telling it. I like to use illustrations and say something. This little old boy came to me and said, Brother Man, I want to get saved. I said, Why do you want to get saved? He said, I'm a sinner. And said, I want to get saved. I said, Well, how do you know? That's why you know how these Frenchmen, they talk with them. He said, I don't know how I know. Now listen. But he said, I know. Now, what would have happened if he'd come up and said, I'm saved because all that's in comes from the glory of God? There's not one righteous? No, not one? Oh, what if he'd have quoted me about 15 verses of Scripture? That could have been taught him by a Sunday school teacher. Every bit of it could have been humanistic. Every bit of it. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with teaching people the Word of God. That's not what I'm saying. But I'm saying when the Holy Ghost deals with a heart, it's deeper than the intellect. And there's a knowing in a man's spirit and he doesn't have to know how he knows. He just knows. I said, Son, what are you thanking Jesus for? He said, Save it. I said, Saving you? I said, How do you know you're saved? I don't know, but I know. That's what it means. His Spirit, your Spirit bearing witness one with another. You know like God knows. Do you know? I can see some light come on some of your faces. You didn't know where I was headed, but you are listening right now, brother. Amen? And the reason I'm taking you here tonight, I'll be just very honest with you, if we're going to take you very far on down the road, you've got to get back to what you know you know in order to go on. Amen? And it's your ability to pick up this knowing God when God speaks to you that's going to enable you to stay straight as you walk on into maturity. Right? Every person I know that's really got off into error have basically got off at this point of misinterpretation of the voice of God. Right? But you know, that little old boy, we got down and prayed and after a while he said, Thank you, Jesus. I said, Son, what are you thanking Jesus for? He said, Saving you. I said, Saving you? I said, How do you know you're saved? I don't know, but I know. That's what it means. His Spirit, your Spirit bearing witness one with another. You know like God knows. You say, Well, Brother Manly, then when a person is really saved, can they doubt their salvation? Yes. You know why? Because from their spirit into their heart can be wicked or rebellious or resentful. They can have a heart that's not right and the heart can't pick up what the Spirit of God and Spirit of Man is saying. And that person, in other words, when they've got sin in their life, they can doubt their salvation or if they're rebellious. I break it down into two different things. In other words, if God's told you to do something, you haven't done it, you can doubt because you have not a sensitive heart to be able to hear and know what God is saying. But the moment you get your heart right with God, get right with God, I'll tell you, if you're really saved, you can get right with God. The moment you get everything cleared out, you'll know. You'll know. Right? My friend, do you know tonight? And of course, if you're not saved, we want to get you saved. We want to see you get saved. But the thing that I'm real interested in for all of you that are saved by the grace of God, I just want to take you back to something you didn't really know. And if you aren't absolutely certain that you know what you know, get it all cleared up so you can know, really know, and be able to hear the sweet voice of God. Yes, sirree, friends. I want you to know it's a great deal deeper than feeling. Right. It's a great deal deeper than intellectual understanding. Right? It's a great deal deeper than seeing with these eyes. Right? It's a great deal deeper than any kind of contact with any sense of capacity you have whatsoever. It's just God. It's deep calling unto thee. And what I'm saying is, don't be so stirred up that you can't explain. Just be excited that you can know. Amen. And you don't have to go around explaining. Just proclaim it. And God will make it real. Amen. Right? It's not your explanation of things that draws people to God and reveals Christ. It's the Holy Ghost making God real through you as you talk that makes people aware of God and draw people to Jesus. It's not even how spiritual you are that draws people to Jesus. It's the Spirit of God. It's not all your works that draw people to Jesus. It's the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God works through you as you grow in maturity and as you obey God. But friends, it's not you. It's God. And when the Spirit of God works in a person, they can know. Well, what are you going to do, Brother Manly, with these people that say, Well, I know because if any man be in Christ, he's made a new creature. I'm going to say, Praise God. Because if a man really does know, he can check it out further by seeing if he's been made a new creation in Christ Jesus. That's an absolute legitimate way by which to know you're saved. But friends, let me tell you, if you hang on to that and you don't know intuitively down in your heart what you really know, you're still in trouble. You'll go doubting every time something good comes along. Amen? Aren't you? You sure will. Others say, Well, like Hebrews 12, 8, I know I'm saved because if you be without chastisement wherefore all are partakers then are ye illegitimate, not sons. So I know I'm saved because I'm corrected. But friends, you can get corrected. And sure as the world, if you don't know in your heart, really know intuitively in your spirit that you're saved, you'll doubt your salvation again. But when you know you know, I want you to know. All you have to do is get your life straight and obedient to God, then you'll know what you know. You know, we've watched these women come up with these way out, you know, way out. I mean, you know, way out stuff. I've seen Jack's wife do it. I've seen my wife do it two or three times. I remember one time we were at a meeting, Jack, and you remember this, and your wife said, Mr. So-and-so is going to be elected president, you know, tomorrow or today. And we laughed. We were walking back from a Chinese restaurant. We're usually headed back from a Chinese restaurant if we have anything to do with. We love Chinese food. And I mean, really, I thought that was about the most outlandish thing I ever heard per day. This fellow is going to be elected president of this thing. And as you know, a couple of days later, he was elected. And I laughed. I don't know if they laughed, but I kidded Barbara a little bit about us. And she said, well, you know, that's a woman's intuition. Now, how many times have we said that about women that come up and made some way out statement, you know, some way out stuff, and then two or three days, a month, a year or so later, it happened just like they said it, right? You go to Webster Dictionary and check up on what it means to have intuitive knowledge, and you know what you'll find? The ability to know without reasoning. And do you know what? When you check up on how God knows something, that's exactly the way God knows. He knows without reasoning, right? Now how do you know? How do you really know that you know Jesus Christ? Well, you have to stick around, and we'll be around, and the Lord will get us around to walking with Him like He wants us to walk with Him, right? And I trust that He'll speak to your heart in these days. Would you bow your heads for prayer? Lord, we are grateful that we have the opportunity of knowing. And Lord, I'm so grateful tonight that we have the Bible, and that on top of knowing in our hearts, having the Spirit of God witness to us, having the anointing of God in us that we may know, I'm grateful that we've got the Bible, that we can stack up one argument after another. And Lord, tonight having never seen Jesus with these eyes, having never felt Him with these hands, Lord, having never tasted Him, but yet, Lord, we love Him. Lord, we know Him. And we'd stand and die on the fact that we know Him tonight. And Lord, I'm so grateful that there is a knowing that's so real to our hearts, even though it's mystical, but yet it's so real that we can stand and walk to the guillotine, walk to be burned to death, sacrifice our lives, go as missionaries, give all that we have. Lord, I'm glad that we can know You. And Lord, and know You so real in our hearts. Oh, Lord, thank You for this ability to know that You've created within us. Thank You, Lord. And teach us. Teach us this week how to know and how to be able to know the voice of God as we move from service to service and see Your glory. In Jesus' name, amen.