Good evening. We don't make our
Lord Lord, but we do crown him Lord, don't we? Revelation chapter
four, verse 10, the four and 20 elders fell down before him
that sat upon the throne and worshiped him that liveth forever
and ever. and cast their crowns before the throne, saying, Thou
art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for
Thou hast created all things, and for Thy good pleasure they
are and were created. Let's open our Bibles together
to Psalm 19, Psalm 19. What a blessing it is to be able
to come together and worship our Lord and worship Him in truth
and bow before Him as Lord. Psalm 19, verse one, the heavens
declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech and night unto night showeth
knowledge. There is no speech nor language where the voice
is not heard. God is declaring his power and
his presence and his glory throughout his creation. In verse four, their line has
gone out through all the earth and their words to the end of
the world, and in them he hath set a tabernacle for the sun,
which is as a bridegroom coming out of his chamber and rejoiceth
as a strong man running race. Every time we see that sun come
up over the eastern horizon, we're reminded of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the son of God who is himself the light of the world.
And that's what creation does for the believer, for those who
know him. We look at his creation and we
see the evidence of his grace and of his glory. Verse seven,
and here's how we know him. The law of the Lord is perfect,
converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is
sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are
right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is
pure, enlightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are
true and righteous altogether. Creation nor conscience can reveal
to us how it is that our Lord saves sinners. Only by His word
do we see that. Our Lord is telling us that this
is the revelation of His grace in Christ. Verse 10, more to
be desired are they than gold, yea, than much fine gold, sweeter
also than honey on the honeycomb. Moreover, by them is thy servant
warned, and in keeping them there is great reward. Who can understand
his errors? Cleanse thou me from secret faults.
Keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins. Let them not
have dominion over me. Then shall I be upright and I
shall be innocent from the great transgression. Let the words
of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable on
my side, oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Let's pray together. Our glorious, merciful, heavenly
Father, we come into thy presence asking you to accept us in Christ
and for Christ's sake. Lord, we dare not come before
thee without thy dear son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as all our
righteousness and all our acceptance and his successful work of redemption,
as all of our justification before thee. We pray that you would
be pleased to send your spirit in power and that you would bless
your word, Father, that you would open what no man can shut, open
the windows of heaven, Lord, open our hearts, open your word,
cause us to find our comfort and our hope and our faith and
all our salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's in his
name we ask it. Amen. Number 374 in the hardback, 374. Let's all stand together again. Jesus calls us for the tumult
of our lives while restlessly, day by day, His sweet voice sounded,
saying, Jesus calls us from the worship
of the vain girl's golden store, from each idol that would keep us, saying, Christian, love
me more. In hours of joys and in hours
of sorrows, Days of toil and hours of ease, Still he calls
in cares and pleasures, Christian love being for thee. Jesus calls us, by Thy mercies,
Savior, may we hear Thy call. Give our hearts to Thy obedience,
sure and lovely, best of all. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Proverbs chapter 30. Proverbs chapter 30. I pray and hope that we will be
able to leave here tonight. The Lord affirming to our hearts,
yes, we do know God. That's my message tonight, do
I know God? Do I know God? What an important
question that is. To know God is everything. The Lord tells us in John chapter
17, this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Nothing else
matters apart from knowing Him. In our text, we find in verses
two and three that if I know God, it is because He has convinced
me that I'm not capable of knowing Him. Look at verses two and three.
Surely I am more brutish than any man and have not the understanding
of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor
have the knowledge of the holy. One of the ways I know that I
know God is that I didn't come to know him on the basis of anything other than
his free and sovereign grace revealing himself to me. Look at verse four. Who hath
ascended up to heaven or descended? Who hath gathered the wind in
his fist? Who hath bound the waters in
a garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What is his name and what is
his son's name if thou canst tell? One of the ways we know that
we know God is that we know Christ. All that we know about God we
will learn in the person and through the successful redemptive
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. What is the means by which the
Lord is pleased to reveal Christ to us? Well, we'll look at the
next two verses. Every word of God is pure. He
is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou
not unto his words, lest he reprove thee and thou be found a liar. If I know God, the Lord has caused
me to acknowledge and to admit and confess that I have no capacity
within myself to know him. He has revealed himself in the
person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he has used the means of
his pure word to make the knowledge of himself known to us. That's
the way in which we know God. Paul said in 2 Timothy chapter
1, he said, I'm not ashamed. For I know whom I have believed. We're not talking about knowing
doctrine or knowing history. We're talking about knowing God.
Paul said, I know whom I have believed. And I'm persuaded that
he is able to keep that which I've committed, entrusted unto
him against that day. And then in Jeremiah chapter
31, the Lord tells the children of Israel that he's going to
make a new covenant with his people. And Jeremiah 31 is repeated
in Hebrews chapter eight, when the Lord said, I will make a
new covenant with them, not like the covenant that I made with
their fathers. For in this covenant, I will
write my laws upon their hearts, and impress them upon their minds.
And never again will one man have to say to his neighbor,
Know the Lord, for they shall all know me, from the least of
them even unto the greatest." So the Lord makes it clear that
life eternal is knowing Him. It's not knowing information
about Him, it's knowing Him. and every person, every believer
in his church, he will bring to know him. They will all know
me from the least of them, even unto the greatest. I know you're
thinking what I'm thinking. Do I know him? Do I know him? I hope that the Lord will affirm
that truth to your heart because the evidence of knowing him is
the pursuit that he puts in our hearts to know him. Turn to me
to Philippians chapter three, Philippians chapter three. Oh, what we know about our God
is so is so small to who he is. And, you know, oftentimes we'll
say, well, the more I learn about something, the more I realize
I don't know. That is especially true about our God. The more he reveals himself to
us, the bigger he gets. And the more we realize, you
know, I really don't know him very well, but I want to. I want to. He has put into my
heart a revelation of Christ and he has caused me to desire
to know him. Look at Philippians chapter 3
beginning at verse 8. Yea, doubtless I count all things
but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ. cast everything to the wind that
I might know Christ. Christ Jesus, who is the Lord,
for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count
them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not
having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith, that I may know him. As Paul said, this is my life,
to know him. And I've not yet apprehended
that which has apprehended me, but this one thing I do, I press
towards the mark for the prize. What is the prize? It's to know
him. Look what he goes on to say, that I might know him and
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his suffering. I want to know. that when he
raised from the dead, I raised from the dead. That's the power
of his resurrection. That when he died on Calvary's
cross, I died on Calvary's cross. In other words, how do I know
if he did that for me? Because that's my only hope.
It's my only hope. My only hope for eternal life
is the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. If he wasn't offered
up for my offenses and raised again because of my justification,
I have no hope. So my pursuit, my pursuit is
to know him better. Look what he goes on to say.
Verse 11, if by any means I may attain unto the resurrection
of the dead, Not as though I had already attained, either were
already perfect, but I follow after, if that I may apprehend
that for which I am apprehended of Christ Jesus my Lord. Brethren, I count not myself
to have apprehended, but this one thing, this one thing I do. Press to know him towards the
mark for the prize of the high calling. He is the prize. I am
thine exceeding great reward. I am thy shield. And what the
Lord told Abraham, and the Lord puts into the hearts of his children,
Lord, I want to know you. I do. You've given me that desire. You've worked in me, causing
me to will and to do after thy good pleasure. But Lord, look
at what I am. Go back with me to our text in
Proverbs chapter 30. Surely I am more brutish than
any man. David said, I'm a beast before
thee. Lord, I don't know you as I ought. Lord, surely I am more brutish than
any man and have not the understanding of a man. My understanding is
so limited. I neither learned wisdom nor
have the knowledge of the holy. Lord, if I'm going to know you,
it's going to have to be by your free and sovereign grace through
divine revelation. Lord, you're going to have to
condescend to where I am. You are in the heavens and I
am upon the earth, and you've told me to let my words be few.
Lord, this is who I am. And so one of the ways we know
that we know God is our complete inability to know him apart from
his sovereign grace. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
four. Sometimes those who know him act as if they don't. The church in Galatia was giving
a sympathetic ear to some men that had come in and added works
to the gospel of God's free grace. They basically came into the
church and said, yes, the Jesus that Paul preached to you is
the Christ. He's the long-awaited Messiah. He's the, he's the savior of
sinners, but he's not sufficient to save you. You also have to
keep the law of Moses in order to be saved. And they were entertaining
that possibility. And, and so Paul comes in and,
and, and, and look what, look what he says in chapter four.
beginning of verse eight, how be it then when you knew not
God, you did service unto them, which by nature are no gods,
but now after you had known God or are rather are known of God. Now we've looked at that in the
past and we thought, you know, it's more important that God
knows me than I know him, but I'm not sure that's what Paul's
saying here. It is important that he knows
me. But here's what Paul's saying, because if you'll read down with
me, look at what he says. Or rather, are known of God,
how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto
you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days and months and
times and years. I am afraid of you, lest I have
bestowed upon you your labor and bane. You see, I think what
Paul's saying in verse eight is maybe if you're going to give
a sympathetic ear to a gospel that mixes law with grace, then
maybe you don't know God. You see, it's not like he's saying,
you know, before you knew God or rather are known of God. He's
saying maybe you don't know God. If you're adding, if you're adding
works to the accomplished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
you may be giving evidence that you don't really know the Lord.
He knows you. You see, one of the evidences
of knowing the Lord is that you're not adding anything to his finished
work, anything that you could do. Look at verse 20 of this same chapter. I desire to be present with you
now and to change my voice for I stand in doubt of you. Who have bewitched you? You're
not standing in the liberty where Christ has made you free. You're
adding to the work of Christ and you're causing me to wonder
whether or not you even know the Lord. That's what's being said here. Now, the good news is that even
when we lose sight of him, he does never
lose sight of us. Listen to what Paul said in 2
Timothy chapter 2. If we believe not, he abideth
faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Oh, that's my comfort. When I'm unfaithful, he's faithful.
When I forget him, he never forgets me. It is most important that
he knows me savingly, and yet I need to know him. There's no
salvation outside of knowing him. To know God begins with the acknowledgement
and confession of our complete inability to know him left to
ourselves. Lord, I cannot achieve the knowledge
of the holy. Apart from divine revelation
given to us by free and sovereign grace whereby God comes to us
and makes himself known, we cannot know him. The natural man cannot receive
the things of the spirit, neither can he know them, for they are
spiritually discerned. Here's how I know I know God.
I'm completely dependent upon him to reveal himself to me.
I can't, I can't work up a knowledge of God. I can't, I can't, I can't
discover him and, and, and figure him out. But go back with me
to our text. Look, look at these two verses again, verses two
and three. Surely I am more brutish than any man. I have not the
understanding of a man. I neither learned wisdom nor
have the knowledge of the Holy Lord. This is who I am. You see,
the supernatural can only be known by the supernatural. That's
why the miracle of the new birth is the very first thing that
happens in the believer's life. We're not born into the family
of God because we believe. We believe and we see because
we're born into the family of God. He has to do that work. Prior to that work of grace,
we're blind, and blind men can't see. We're deaf, deaf men can't
hear. We're dead, dead men can't breathe. We're completely dependent upon
Him. Lord, if you don't call me, if
you don't save me, if you don't open my eyes and my ears and
my heart, If you don't open your word and open the windows of
heaven, Lord, you see, this is what man-made religion is all
about. It's men trying to figure God out. And here's where it
begins. Lord, I am more brutish than
a beast. And I have not the knowledge
of the holy. And Lord, if you don't come to where I am, you
see, it's like we just read in Psalm 19, you can, You can look at creation and
see that there is a God, and you can look at conscience and
know that that God demands an atonement. But you don't know
what that atonement is, and you don't know what the Lord has
done in satisfying His justice and fulfilling His law, apart
from Him revealing that to us. And so we're not looking at creation. We're not looking at conscience,
trying to figure God out. You know, there's a whole group
of religious hucksters who are trying to prove the existence
of God with science. You know, we can prove to you
that there is a God by showing you the evidence of his handiwork
in creation. And no, you can't. You might
prove to them the existence of a God, but you're not going to
help them with the salvation of their souls or the forgiveness
of their sin. This is a work of grace that
God has to do. And even after the Lord is pleased
to birth us into his family and
to open our eyes and to cause us to see, do we lose our complete
dependence upon his grace? Or do we find ourselves as that
unprofitable servant in fear of losing that even which we
have? You see, we never get beyond
our complete dependence upon Him. As we grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, We see more and
more of our need for grace. We see more and more of our inability
and our brutishness and our blindness and our deadness. So we never
get beyond verses two and three. We say, well, I know God now
and I'm good to go. No, no. We're always confessing
our need for his mercy and for his grace. As I said, the more
we see of God, the bigger he gets. And the more we realize we don't
know how much we don't know. The more convinced we are that
our God is sovereign, the more we realize that we don't even
know what sovereign means or what sovereign is. Isn't that
true? And so we're always brutish. We're always coming before the
Lord saying, Lord, the more I see that you are holy, the more I
realize that I don't even know what holy means and I don't know
what holiness is. Lord, it's too great for me. It's beyond my understanding
and my comprehension. Lord, if you don't shed the light
of the gospel in my heart, in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ,
I'll know nothing. And I'll lose what I do know
if you don't keep me. Isn't that true? How do I know I know God? Because
that's always my place before God. I'm never in a place before
God where I can demand anything from Him or expect Him to do
something based on something I've done. I'm always a mercy
beggar. We know God because we know we're
sinners. The more the Lord teaches us of His omnipotence, the more
we realize we don't know what omnipotence is. We don't know
what it means. The more we realize that he is
eternal, the glorious, eternal, self-sufficient I am, and we
believe that and we know him that way, and yet the more he
shows us of that, the more we realize, Lord, I don't even know
what that means. I don't know what that is. This is what we
were talking about tonight, Scott. It's not, you see, when men try
to define things that are too glorious for them to understand
with words that are other than scripture, they're adding to
the word of God is what they're doing. The more we experience his love
and rejoice in his love, the more we realize we don't know
what love is. We don't know what love means. Our fickled, faulty feelings
of love are so inadequate. Lord, I am a brutish man. I have no knowledge of the holy. I don't know who you are. But
you put in my heart a pursuit to know you that I might know
him. Now, what Paul said, it's how
we know we know him. We know we know him because we're
always dependent upon him to reveal himself. And we're always
in this pursuit to knowing more, not yet apprehended over that
might apprehend him. The more we know about his goodness,
the more we realize We don't know what good is. You know,
you have a good day or a bad day. I don't know what that,
you know, that's how we, that's how we measure goodness, don't
we? And yet God said, God said, why call us now me good? There's
none good, but God, what does that mean? I don't know, but
I want to know. I want to know more about what
that means. But Lord, I come before you as
a brutish man with no knowledge of the holy, completely dependent
upon you to reveal yourself to me, to call me out of darkness
into your marvelous light, and to keep me by your grace. Paul said in Romans chapter 11,
oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and the knowledge
of God, how unsearchable. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out who hath known the mind of the
Lord or who hath been his counselor. Our God is in the heavens and
we are upon the earth. And God says, therefore, let
your words be few. Our God is eternal, he's infinite,
he's immutable, he's holy, he's just, and he's good, and he's
love, and we believe that, and we don't know what it means. We define those words based on
our own experience, and we say, Lord, the knowledge of the holy? These things are unsearchable. Second reason we know that we
know God is that we believe that Jesus
Christ is God incarnate, that he is the successful sovereign
savior of sinners, and that the only hope I have of knowing God
is to know Christ. Isn't that what What the Lord said when Philip
asked him, he said, Lord, show us the Father. John chapter 14,
that's the chapter that starts out with, let not your heart
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me, for in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were
not so, I would have told you. I go and prepare a place for
you, and I'll come again and receive you unto myself. So that
where I am there, you may be also. And so he sets the thinking
of the disciples of where he's going and what he's going to
do. And I think it was Thomas that
said, Lord, we don't know where you're going and we don't know
what you're doing. And the Lord said, you know,
you know, you know me. And that's when Philip said,
Lord, show us the father and that will suffice. That'll be
sufficient. If you just show us the father. Oh, Philip, have I been with
you so long that you don't know that if you've seen me, you've
seen the father for I am the father of one. And that's what
he's telling us here in Proverbs 30. Look at verse four. Who hath ascended up to the heavens
or descended? Now, what is this a reference
to? Well, you remember when Jacob was fleeing for his life and
he had a vision in the night while he was lying there with
his head on a rock? The Lord showed him a ladder
that reached from heaven to the earth. And the angels were ascending
and descending on that ladder. And he woke up and he said, he
said, I've seen God. And he called the place Bethel,
the house of God. And the Lord made a covenant
with him that day and promised that his blessings would come
and descend upon him from heaven. And then when the Lord called
Nathanael in John chapter one, And turn with me there to John
chapter one. Here's Philip again, look at
verse 45. Philip findeth Nathanael and
said to him, we have found him of whom Moses and the prophets
did write, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. We found the
Christ, we found the Messiah. Well, they didn't know that he
found them. And he's gonna find Nathanael too. Look, and Nathanael
said unto him, can anything good come out of Nazareth? And Philip
said to him, come and see. That's what, you know, just come
and see. You wanna know God, just come
and see, come here. Hear what he has to tell us about
himself. Jesus, when he saw Nathanael
coming to him, saith unto him, behold an Israelite indeed in
whom there is no guile. I made a statement this past
Sunday that I've heard and you've heard it before. I've said it
before. Honest people don't go to hell. God causes his people
to confess their complete inability to save themselves. And, uh,
And that's what the Lord said about Nathanael. He's a true
Israelite indeed. In him there's no guile. He doesn't lie about himself.
Believers, the scripture, Isaiah said, and all my children tell
the truth. Now we bend the truth about a
lot of things. And we're always trying to present
ourselves to look better than we really are. But Here the Lord is talking about
our truth in terms of what we see ourselves as before God.
And God's people are without guile. They don't lie about themselves. They don't present themselves
to God based on anything other than his grace and his mercy. And Nathanael saith unto him,
whence knowest thou me? And Jesus answered and said to
him before that Philip called thee when thou was under the
fig tree, I saw thee. And Nathanael answered and said,
rabbi, thou art the son of God. Thou art the king of Israel.
What do you suppose, what do you suppose Nathanael was doing
under that fig tree? What was he, he was asking the
Lord to reveal himself to him. Lord, I want to know God. And
now God incarnate is answering that prayer and revealing himself
to Nathanael. And look what the Lord said.
And Jesus answered and said unto him, because I said unto thee,
I saw thee under the fig tree, thou believest thou me? Thou
shalt see greater things than these. And he said unto him,
verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven
open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of
Man. And the Lord told the Pharisees,
who is this son of man you keep talking about? And the Lord said,
you better walk in the light. Why you have the light? Because
darkness comes when no man can work. And then the scripture
says, and when the Lord spoke these things, he went and hid
himself from them. Oh, the greatest judgment of
all, that God would hide himself from us. Or don't hide yourself
from me, I need to know you. Reveal your grace and your glory,
and if you do, it's going to be in Christ. Go back with me
to our text. Look at, look at, look at the
verse, verse four. Here's the Lord saying, how am
I going to know God? Well, who has descended and who
has ascended from heaven? Who is it that was born of a
woman, born under the law, in the likeness of sinful flesh
in order to deliver us from the curse of the law? Who was it?
The Word was made flesh. The Word dwelt among us. Here's
the descending of God Almighty coming into this world, condescending
to where these brutish people are, these people who have no
knowledge of the holy. He has descended to where we
are. And he has ascended back into
glory, received of his father, having successfully accomplished
the redemption of his people. His word did not return void.
The Lord Jesus Christ returned back to his father with the names
of those for whom he lived and died. And he's seated in the
heavenlies at the right hand of God. And all of God's people
are in Him. And all the blessings of God
are in Christ. Here's how we know Him. Because
I can't ascend into heaven. Romans chapter 10 says, that's
not what you can do to make Christ come down or to bring Him up.
You can't do anything. He's the one who did the work.
He's the one who descended from heaven, and he's the one who
ascended back into heaven. And all of ourselves, and that's
what the Lord was saying to Jacob back there at Bethel, and that's
what he was saying to Nathanael. Wait until you see the angels
ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. This is gonna
be the glorious miracle of grace that'll enable you to know God.
You can't know God apart from the ascending and descending
of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he is the one who's gathered
the wind in his fist. Now in the Old Testament Hebrew,
the word for wind and the word for spirit is the same word. And the interesting thing is
in the New Testament language, it's also the same word for wind
and spirit. And here we have a picture of
the spirit of God, who the Lord Jesus Christ has in his hand. He's the one who gives us his
spirit. Who's bound the waters in a garment?
What is this water? He's not talking about the physical
oceans. He's talking about the washing of the water of his word.
He's the one who holds these things together. Lord, again,
I'm completely dependent upon you. I've not been into the heavens. Turn with me. Turn with me to
Matthew chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. Look at verse. Look at verse
25, and at that time Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, the self-righteous, the independent,
those who do not see themselves as brutish, beast, unable to
have any knowledge of the holy, but you've revealed them unto
babes. You've revealed them unto those who know they don't know
anything. Even so, father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of my father, and no man knoweth the son but the father, needeth
knoweth any man the father save the son, and he to whomsoever
the son will reveal him. And then the Lord says, you come.
All ye that labor, what are we laboring with? We're laboring
with our sin. We're overloaded with our sin. Lord, my sin, Isaiah said, your
sin has separated you from your God. Why can't we know God? Because our sin's in the way.
Who's gonna move that? Who's gonna get that out of the
way? Only the one who ascended and descended and ascended, the
one who knows the Father. He's the only one that can put
away that barrier. He's the only way that can put
away our sin. God, if Lord, if I'm gonna know God, the Lord
Jesus Christ is gonna have to put my sin away. And then he's gonna have to send
his spirit, the wind of his spirit and the water of his word. And
he's gonna have to cleanse me and he's gonna have to speak
to me. Lord, I'm a babe. I'm a brutish man. I have no
knowledge of the holy. I can't know God. I can't get to God. I'm completely
dependent upon you. Who hath ascended and who hath
descended? This is a rhetorical question.
You, me? We've been to heaven and come
back. The Lord says right here, all things are delivered unto
me and my father. No man knoweth the son save the father, and
no man knoweth the father save the son, and to them whom he's
pleased to reveal him. Where does that leave us? Lord,
if you don't reveal the father to me, I won't know God. And if I don't know God, I have
no hope. No hope of life. This is life
eternal, but they might know the Paul said in Philippians
that passage we read already. This is my pursuit that I might
know him. If I don't know him, all is lost. How am I going to know him? Christ
is gonna have to do a work for me. He's gonna have to save me. Look back with me to our text. Halfway through verse four, and
who hath established the ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is his son's name if
thou can't tell? Oh, listen to what David said
in Psalm 9 verse 10. They that know thy name will
put their trust in thee. We know Christ because he has
revealed himself to us by his name. You shall call his name
Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Successful, sovereign redemption. That's what his name means. Particular
redemption. He didn't die for everybody.
He died for his people. Is Emmanuel, God with us? His name shall be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. Oh, what a God. He makes Himself
known to us by His name. Do we believe what His name says
about Him? Has He given us faith to rest
the hope of our salvation on the revelation that He's given
us by His names? Many names in the scriptures,
he's called the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the
end, the first and the last. He's the first cause of my salvation
in the covenant of grace before the foundation of the world.
And he's the last cause of my salvation in that he will present
me faultless before the throne of God. And if he doesn't do
that, if he's not my Alpha and my Omega and everything in between,
that I won't be saved. He's the King of all Kings and
Lord of all Lords. He's not threatened by the unbelief
of man. He's not threatened by my sin.
He reigns sovereign. He's King. He's God. He's the Holy One of Israel.
He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily and He's the Son of Man.
He's the God-Man. God's perfect man and man's perfect
God. The one man, the mediator between
God and man. And the only way I'm gonna know
God is if the one who's able to place one of his hands on
a sinner without being defiled and places another hand on God
without being destroyed, he's the one who ascended and descended. How am I gonna know God if he
doesn't do that for me? He's the seed of the woman, the
son of David. He's the ancient of days. He's the bright and morning star. And yet how much, how much more
heat and light and radiance and mass is there to the sun than
what we see? If we were just a few miles closer
to the sun than what we are, we'd all burn up. You see, the Lord filters the
light of the sun through many miles of space and then through
our atmosphere and he just gives us little slivers of light from
this great star in the sky. And that is a poor example of
the light that we get from the son of God. But here's what the
Lord said as the son comes up as a bridegroom, Lord, Would you just send another shaft
of light my way and reveal a little bit more of your glory and your
grace to me? Or I won't know you. I won't
know you. We'll close. Look at verse five
and six. How do I know if I know God?
I want to leave here believing and knowing that I think I do
know God. I really do. Because I'm completely
dependent upon his free grace to reveal himself to me. I don't
have the ability to know God. And yet I do believe that the
ascending and descending of the Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation
of God to sinners. And I believe the names that
He gives us of Himself. And I believe God's Word. Look
at verse 5. Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in Him. Add thou not unto His words,
lest He reprove thee, and thou be found a liar. Now some of
us came out of self-righteous, pseudo-intellectual, self-professed
theologians, where we added, you know, we said sola scriptura,
we believe the Bible's the word of God, and then we would come
up with words like infralapsarianism, or superlapsarianism, or, you
know, what are we doing? You ever meet somebody and they
know your name and you don't know their name, and what do
you say to them? You have an advantage over me. You see, when you name
something or you know the name of something, it gives you power,
doesn't it? You remember when Jacob wanted
to know the name of God? And the Lord said, why ask thee
my name? For it is secret. And he said
the same thing to Manoah, when Manoah wanted to know the Lord's
name and he asked him, he said, Lord, tell me your name so that
when this, this promise that you made for us to have a child
comes to pass, we can honor you. And the Lord said to Manoah,
he said, he said, why ask you my name? You want, you think
you're going to get power over me? No, but that's what men do. That's
why doctors come up with such complicated words for stuff when
they could explain it a whole lot simpler than what they do.
And lawyers do the same thing. Why? Because they have a vocabulary
that gives them power. It's job security. And you know
who's worse at it? Preachers. Preachers. They come up with words like
eschatology and soteriology and Christology and they've got all
their categories of God fixed into a, you know, they've got
it all figured out and they don't know anything. What have they
done? They tried to have power over
God by naming things they don't understand and putting extra
words to God's word, whereby God says every word of God is
pure. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words. The only words we need to reveal
God is the words he's given us in his word. And when we believe God's word,
oh, there's so much more to it than what we understand, isn't
there? And so we just compare scripture
to scripture to try to know God. Is that not our pursuit in life,
to know God? Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would bless your word and remind us of our inability to
know you and cause us by your grace to look to Christ, put
away our sin, satisfy your justice, be all our righteousness before
thee. And Lord, guard us from trying to get power over you
by naming things that we don't understand. Lord, let us hang
the hopes of our salvation on thy word. For you've said, Lord,
that you've saved us by your word and that your word is pure
and profitable. Thank you for it. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. 226, let's stand together, 226.