All right, I'd like for us to
take our Bibles today and turn to the book of John, chapter
17. John, chapter 17. A few weeks
ago, I preached a message called The Being and the Nature of God. And I was considering the God
that we worship. There is a God in heaven. The scripture says that revealeth
secrets, and that's the God of His people, the God that they
know. And I want to deal with that
subject today, on knowing the God that we worship. And the
scripture is very specific concerning this glorious truth of knowing God. The scripture says in John 17
3, and this is life eternal. Now, if there's anything that
we want to know concerning life eternal, it's whatever the Lord
Jesus Christ is getting ready to say. He said, this is It didn't
say it leads to, or that it will become, but this is life eternal. That they, that is the people
of God chosen and elect in grace, might, look at that word, K-N-O-W,
know, thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast
sent. Now, I'd like to make a statement
that we're all aware of, and it's just that man by nature
is ignorant of God. Man is not ignorant of his being,
but he's ignorant of a personal knowledge and acquaintance with
him." Now this word, know. You know, to truly know somebody,
I can know that someone exists. I know that someone exists. I
know that the President of the United States exists. I've seen him on television,
I've seen, you know, I know that he exists, but to say that I
know him personally, intimately, I really don't. I don't know
him. When we talk about knowing God, there's a sense in which
a man knows of his existence, but knowing him, There's a difference. David declared in Psalm 42, 3,
he said, my tears have been my meat day and night while they
continually saying to me, where is thy God? Now, David, it was a grief to
him, and that grief was intensified by the reproaches of those that
didn't know his God. I've got in my family, and I'm
sure all of you that are listening know, that there are you that
believe, people that you know and love that don't know Him.
Don't know the God that you know. And David's tears were continually
up there when he said, where is thy God? But while a believer
is truly heavy hearted when the sweetness of God's dignity is
questioned and His person and His ability to accomplish His
will, there's no moving away from the certainty of His almightiness
and His reigning. Whenever David was asked by the
heathen in Psalm 115 verse 2, where is now their God? That's what the heathen, where
is their God? These people that say they know him, where is he?
David said, our God is in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever
he hath pleased. Isn't that just settling to the
heart? Where is thy God? Where is your
God? Where is your God? Our God's
in the heavens. He's ruling and reigning. He's
in the hearts of His people. He's among His people as they
assemble together, where two or three are gathered together.
He said, I'm in the midst of you. What's He doing? Whatever He wants to do. How do you know? Because I know
Him. He's revealed Himself to me. And again, contrary to the
foolish boasting of men that all say we know God, and we know
that all men are born ignorant of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
told a woman at a well in Sychar, He said, you worship you know
not what. Isn't that the truth? Man that
is born ignorant and continually in ignorance does not know. The God of the Bible. You say
you know Him, but you don't. You don't know Him. We know what
we worship, the Lord said, for salvation of the Jews. So, whenever
God Almighty sent His servant Moses, being God's choice to
go to Pharaoh, and you tell Pharaoh to set my people free, Moses
was obedient. And Moses said, the Lord said
to let his people go. And Pharaoh said, who is the
Lord that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? Who are you
talking about? He said, I know not the Lord,
neither will I let Israel go. Now, the amazing thing about
that is that the Spirit of God left that man to himself to actually
verbalize and openly admit his ignorance. Man normally won't
do that. put across the fact or to let
somebody think they do know, but he didn't know God and he
didn't admit that he knew God. So when Saul of Tarsus was on
the road to Damascus, here was a religious man, but an ignorant
man, ignorant of God. He knew a lot of things, but
the Lord stopped him and he said, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? And Saul, a religious but ignorant
of God, the man asked, Art thou Lord? Man that has not been left
to himself without a witness of God. Man has not been left
to himself without, though, a witness of God's being. Men are born
without knowing God until life eternal. They're born ignorant
of that. But they do have a saving sense. They have a non-saving, I'm sorry,
sense of His being. They know that there is a God,
but they don't know Him over in Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter
1. Here's an amazing passage of
Scripture. Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to
21. The Scripture says in verse 18,
Romans 1, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against
all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in
unrighteousness. They have a knowledge of His
being, but they hold that truth in unrighteousness because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has
showed it unto them, for the invisible things of him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse, because that when they knew God,
Well, here it is. They know that there is a God.
They glorified Him not as God. Why? Because they didn't know
Him intimately. They weren't in union with Him.
But became vain in their imaginations and their foolish heart was darkened. God reveals Himself. He reveals something of Himself.
There's two revelations that are given. from heaven. Paul
said in the 16th verse of Romans chapter 1, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel. Here's a revelation. For it is
the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to
the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed from faith to faith. as it is written, the
just shall live by faith. So here's a revelation from heaven. There's a revelation of salvation
given from heaven to those that God Almighty has everlastingly
loved. But there's another revelation
given from heaven. And that revelation from heaven
is set forth in verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. God has revealed the salvation
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's revealed that from
heaven. And he gives his people a knowledge of himself. And he
does so through the gospel. Also God has revealed the wrath
of God. to those who hold the truth of
God in unrighteousness, he said in the latter part of verse 18.
So men are revealed to be dead in trespasses and sins, totally
depraved, unable to reconcile themselves back to God because
of their spiritual deadness. They're dead to ability, they're
dead in their desire for the Lord, they're dead to any saving
knowledge. but they still hold and possess
a knowledge of His being and of the judgment of Almighty God
for wrong that is done. Men know by nature that wrong
is wrong. You know this. A man killed another
man. There's a witness in himself. That's wrong. There's a witness
of right and wrong, but not of a saving knowledge. of the Lord
Jesus Christ. So knowing that God exists and
knowing God, that is possessing a heart, a new heart that loves
and reverences and honors and trusts Him is two different things. Man by nature knows that there
is a God. But man by nature doesn't know
Him. Know Him. When scripture talks
about a man knowing his wife, do you know that's different
than a man knowing that she exists? He's personally, intimately in
union with her. So every rational human being,
that is man that has got a rational mind of a man, and every demon
in hell knows that God exists, but only a believer. One that
Almighty God has regenerated and born from above. Only that
man knows God because he now possesses a heart to know Him. So knowing the difference in
these two. Let's just look back at John
chapter 17 for just a second. And look at the first three verses
of what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying. Now if there has ever
been a passage of scripture that we could truthfully say that
we're standing on sacred ground, holy ground. You know, whenever
the Lord told Moses, Moses was in the wilderness, he came to
that burning bush and he walked up and he said, I'm going to
go up and I want to see this marvelous sight of this bush
that's burning and it's not consumed. And God spoke to him out of that
bush and he told him, he said, Moses, you take your shoes off.
You're standing on holy ground. So here, we're on holy ground
right here. This 17th chapter of the book
of John is the record of the high priestly prayer of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We've read this many times, but
we would do well to listen to it again and listen to what the
Lord himself is saying. Consider who is speaking. That'd
be the first thing that I would admonish us to do. Let's think
about who is speaking. He says in verse 1, these words
spake Jesus and lifted up his eyes to heaven and said, Father,
and let's just stop there for just a second. Here is the Lord
of glory, the federal head and representative of his people
who is coming to this world to seek and to save that which was
lost. And he says unto him, Father, now just the fact that he called
him Father sets forth this truth that he's going to approach the
Father on the basis of God's covenant grace. Father, you who
are the Father of your chosen people, Father, the hour is come. This is the hour to which all
other hours have pointed. This is the hour to which heaven
itself has total respect. The hour of the laying down of
the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's only begotten Son. He approaches Him as Father. And then He says, glorify thy
Son. Here, again, listen. Oh, to the
approach of the Father according to or on the basis
of covenant relationship. You who are the Father of your
people. And He calls him His Father. Father, glorify Thy Son that
Thy Son also may glorify Thee. And here, the covenant God approached
by the covenant Son, the One who in everlasting, eternal agreement
according to God's covenant of grace to His people, the One
who has submitted Himself under the will and purpose, His meat
was to do the will of Him that sent Him. He calls upon Him as
the covenant God to show mercy to a people. He said, Father,
glorify Thy Son. Glorify Him how? Glorify Him
as the God-man mediator The covenant of grace. Openly
illustrate is what he's getting ready to say. Openly illustrate
me to be your lamb. That I might openly illustrate
you to be the God of choosing and electing grace and mercy. Lord, show me forth. Glorify
me as the lamb that you've seen slain from before the foundation
of the world. And then he says, in verse 2,
as thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. Now,
here again, in absolute submission. He, being God, could never be
given anything, but as the man, Christ Jesus, in the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was with God, And the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh. Flesh made in the likeness of
His people, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, yet without
sin. And here He is as the submissive
Son, revealing what the Father has done for Him. You have given
Him power. over all flesh. The Lord told
His disciples when He sent them into all the world and preached
the gospel, He said, All power in heaven and earth is given
unto Me. Here He is as the submissive
Lamb and He's calling upon His Father. He said, You've given
Me all power over all flesh to do, to order, to direct all things
that He might accomplish, God's will and purpose. If He was not
all powerful, How would He dictate? How would He rule and reign?
But He is. All power has been given unto
Him that He should give eternal life, now listen to this, to
as many as thou hast given Him. Now, I'm going to tell you something.
This is how God's people know Him. They know God. They know the Father to be the
electing God. They know that God Almighty has
eternally had a covenant of grace. That's what He told Moses, I
will have mercy upon, I will have mercy, I will have compassion
upon whom I'll have compassion. John, under the inspiration of
God's Spirit in Romans chapter 9 says, so then it is not of
him that will it. nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy." So if there was no other passage in all of the
Scriptures, I know what the world says concerning God's electing
grace, God's predestinating grace. But according to the Word of
the Lord, this is how God's people know Him. They know Him as the
Father who the Scripture sets forth is the choosing God. The
Father is attributed to the will and purpose of the Father who
chose. It is set forth according to
the Scriptures to the Son that He is the redeeming God in agreement,
perfect agreement with God's covenant. It's set forth concerning
the Spirit of God that He's the quickening God. That God Almighty
who chooses, redeems, and quickens His people. This is the God that
God's people know. They know Him. They know Him.
Not that He merely exists. They know Him in intimate agreement
with Him. Then He said in verse 3, this
is life eternal. That they might know Thee. The
only true God. Obviously there's false God.
But You are the true God. the true electing God, and Jesus
Christ, the redeeming God, whom thou hast sent. Now notice the
surety of life eternal. Knowing God. Now this is a great
mystery. Let's just go ahead and admit
it. I know something of myself. And I know, you know, I've been
with me for all these many years. But I'm gonna be honest with
you, there's some things about me I just don't understand. How
does, how do I, how do I work? How does a brain that, that just
dictate to my nerves and my muscles and stuff like this, and it just,
and without even thinking, there's things that I do, and even while
I'm doing, I'm realizing some things, I'm thinking of this
or that, My body just works. So there's some things I still
don't know, even though I intimately know myself. But think of the
mystery of knowing God. We see through a glass darkly. But even in the witness of seeing
through a glass darkly, we know this, that He is the true God. Your God. Who do men say that
I am? That's what he asked his disciples.
And the disciples said, well, some say Jeremiah, some say Elijah,
some say this prophet. Who do you say? Peter said, you're
the Christ. You are the true and living God.
You're God's Messiah. That's who you are. And the Lord
told Peter, he said, Peter, flesh and blood didn't tell you that,
but my Father, which is in heaven. So God is revealed. in his threefold character of
persons. This is the true and living God,
the Father who chooses, the Son who redeems and establishes righteousness
for his people, and the Spirit who quickens and seals and teaches
and guides and keeps the sheep of God's affection. Life eternal. Turn with me to Matthew 11. Life
eternal. is not accomplished by man's
knowledge, by man's ability, by wisdom. Here's how it's accomplished,
by revelation. Matthew chapter 11, verse 25
to 27. 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 prudent, and hast
revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight. All things are delivered unto
me of the Father. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father. Neither knoweth any man the Father,
save the Son. And He to whomsoever the Son
will reveal Him. So when we talk about the knowledge
of God, oh the depth, we know but how much we don't know. So
in John 17, the Lord declared the necessity of knowing God,
not merely, again, that He exists, not with a speculative acquaintance,
but knowing Him in the sense that we love Him, and we trust
Him, and we come to Him, and we regard Him as our God. That's what, you know, Thomas
said when he wasn't there when the Lord first met with him after
his revelation. Then he came back, Thomas said,
I won't believe unless I put my finger The Lord revealed Himself
to him and said, Thomas, put your hand right here. And what
did Thomas say? My Lord and my God. That's what
he said. So knowing as being in union
with, being one with the God who has been revealed and declared
unto us by the Holy Spirit, that right there is grounds of rejoicing. You that know Him. You that have
been given some knowledge of who He is, not again, not merely
who men think that He is, but who He's revealed Himself to
be by the Spirit of God. That's grounds of rejoicing. Jeremiah 9.24 says, Let him that
glorieth. What does that mean? It makes
his boast end or depends upon. Let him that glorieth. Glory
in this, that he understandeth and he knoweth me. That he trusts
and depends upon me. That I am the Lord, that capital
L, capital O, capital O, capital O. I'm Jehovah, which exercise
loving kindness, that is as it relates to his own people. Judgment, that is that he will
judge the wicked. and righteousness in the earth,
that is the way that he deals with all men, is right. Does God have the right to show
mercy to one and pass by another? Yes. Why? Because he's righteous. He does that which is right.
For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Look at Psalm
92. Psalm 92, verses 12 to 15. Psalm 92. Verse 12 to 15. The Scripture
says the righteous shall flourish like the palm tree. He shall
grow up like a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the
house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God. They
shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat
and flourishing to show that the Lord is upright. He is my
rock. and there's no unrighteousness
in him. You know what God's people are
gonna do, according to Psalm 92. They're gonna grow in grace
and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Jeremiah 31 verses 33 and 34
says, this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house
of Israel. After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my
law in their inward parts. I'll write it in their hearts,
and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they
shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his
brother, saying, know the Lord, for they shall all know me. From
the least of them unto the greatest of them saith the Lord, for I
will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin
no more." So knowing the Lord is not that which is accomplished
by the flesh. It's the revelation of God. according
to His everlasting pleasure to reveal Himself to His people
of His choosing. The Lord in His high priestly
prayer declared concerning God's people, knowing them, the Lord
said in John 17 6, I have manifested Thy name. I have manifested,
I have taught forth Your attributes and Your character to show mercy. manifested thy name unto the
men which thou gavest me out of the world." So, knowing God
is something that is according to God's will to a particular
people. It's knowing God, taught by God,
by Him who is God. God's prophet who's capable of
teaching God. But God The Lord said concerning
His Son, God. This is My beloved Son whom I
am well pleased. You hear Him. So the knowledge of God, knowing
Him, is a revelation that is given to God's people according
to God's everlasting will and purpose to reveal Himself unto
them and knowing Him and hearing of Him. Faith cometh by hearing.
Hearing by the Word of God is vitally joined. So the Scripture
sets forth that the Lord Jesus Christ reveals Himself unto His
people and they know Him. Oh, but they want to know Him
more. They want to know more of Him. That's what Paul said
in Philippians 3, 10, that I may know Him. That is, being found
in Him, I want to know Him more intimately. I want to know Him
personally. I want to know Him and the power
of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings be made conformable
unto His death. When those disciples that went
forth, those that know Him, the Lord sent them forth They came
back and they had been persecuted and they rejoiced. They came to the Lord. In Acts
5.41, they rejoiced from the presence of the council, rejoicing
that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the Lord's
sake. So knowing God, knowing God intimately,
that is life eternal. In closing, remember this. It's
accomplished, it's brought about in a way that is totally foolish
to this world through frail creatures doing what I'm doing. I haven't
told you one thing that I've not set forth from these scriptures
that Almighty God is a God that must be known for there to be
life eternal. When God is known, that is life
eternal. They know Him. They know Him.
That's life eternal. It's not a decision. It's not
walking down the aisle. You know, what is life eternal?
Well, that's me choosing God. No, that's God choosing me. It's
me giving myself unto the Lord. No, it's the Lord giving Himself
unto me. We get the cart before the horse. But how do we know
of it? How do we realize it? Well, through
the preaching of the gospel. 1 Corinthians 1.21, after that,
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. But
not just any preaching. A lot of people say, well, we
got a preacher. What are they preaching? 2 Thessalonians
2.14, whereunto he called you by our gospel. to the obtaining
of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is the only
means of salvation. It's the only means of knowing
God. The scripture says, the preaching
of the cross is to them that perish foolishness. What does
that mean? When we say the preaching of
the cross, what, that there was a crucifixion? Everybody believes
there was a crucifixion. The preaching of the cross is
to say that what we mentioned in the first part of this message. Father, the hour has come. The hour of all hours. In that
hour, which was actually six hours, but that time of His satisfaction
of God's will and purpose in the laying down of His life.
Everything pointed to the cross. What God eternally purposed in
Christ, what Christ eternally in agreement to God's will to
send Him as the Lamb did. What did He do? He finished the
work. It's finished. It's finished. So when we say
the preaching of the cross, that means God Almighty's eternal
purpose and will to save a people from their sins consummated in
that one point in time at the cross. It is finished. He says to those that are perishing
the preaching of the cross is foolishness all but unto us which
are saved, are being saved. It is the power of God. I pray that the Lord be pleased
to bless His Word to the calling out, which I know He will. He
told us He's gonna do that, but He said, you ask me for it. We
pray that the Lord might be pleased to bless His Word to the calling
out of His sheep. We know that His Word's not gonna
return void. It's gonna accomplish the purpose for which it was
sent. And that God might be pleased today, right now, today is the
day of salvation. Blessed to the glorifying of
His Son, through the hearing of the gospel for the eternal
good of his elect, for his sake.