Alright, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to John chapter 8. Our subject is knowing the Father. Our Lord is speaking here, and
He had said in verse 12, I am the light of the world. He that
followeth Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the
light of life. And then the Pharisee said, you
bear record of yourself, it's not true. And he said a few things,
then he looked down, let's pick up sort of where we left off. He spoke of judging and he said
in verse 16, if I judge, my judgment is true, for I'm not alone, but
I and the Father that sent me. It is also written in your law,
They were always boasting of their law. Here he is, the one
that gave it, and he says, it's also written in your law that
the testimony of two men is true. I am one that bear witness of
myself, and the father that sent me beareth witness of me. Then said they unto him, where
is thy father? And Jesus answered, you neither
know me nor my father. Now watch this, if you had known
me, you should have known my father also. These words spake
Jesus in the treasury as he taught in the temple and no man laid
hands on him for his hour was not yet come. Then said Jesus
again unto them, I go my way and you shall seek me and shall
die in your sins. Whither I go, you cannot come. Then said the Jews, will he kill
himself? You notice here, they didn't even respond to him
saying, you shall die in your sins. They didn't give that a
thought. The Lord looked them in the eye
and said, you're going to die in your sin. And they didn't
even respond to that. They didn't think they were sinners.
They didn't think they were sinners. They were more concerned about
convicting him. And they said this, will he kill
himself? Because he saith, whither I go
you cannot come. And he said unto them, ye are
from beneath, I am from above. Ye are of this world, I am not
of this world. I said therefore unto you that
you shall die in your sins. For if ye believe not that I
am, ye shall die in your sins. Then said they unto him, who
art thou? And Jesus said unto them, even
the same that I said unto you from the beginning, I have many
things to say and to judge of you, but he that sent me is true. And I speak to the world those
things which I have heard of him. They understood not that
he spake to them of the Father. Then said Jesus unto them, when
ye have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that
I am, and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father hath
taught me, I speak these things. And he that sent me is with me. The father hath not left me alone. For I do always those things
that please him. And as he spake these words,
many believed on him. Now you notice here, he keeps
repeating the father, I and the father. If you know me, you know
my father. And he keeps repeating, I and
the father are one. There's no salvation without
knowing God the Father. There's no salvation without
knowing the invisible God. And there's no knowing God who
is spirit, who is invisible. There's no knowing Him, but by
knowing the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's only through faith in
Him that we are saved. It's only through faith in Christ
that we're saved. But believe in Christ. We know
the Son, Christ, and we know the Father. And believe in Christ,
we believe the Father. He will have all men to honor
the Son. He'll have all men to honor His
Son. It pleased Him to give His Son all preeminence. And He's
gonna have every sinner bow the knee to His Son and confess Him
to be all, all in His salvation, all in the salvation of His people.
And those that He doesn't give grace to bow in this world, in
this day of grace, when they meet Him, they're gonna bow.
and confess he is exactly who he said he is. That's partly
what he was getting at when he said, when you have lifted me
up, I finished my work and I've risen, I've called the last one,
you're coming to me and you're gonna know I am that I am. They said to him, in verse 19,
where is thy father? This was a sneer. They thought
the Lord Jesus was illegitimate. They didn't think he was born
of a virgin, and this was a sneer. Where is your father? And Jesus
answered, you neither know me nor my father. If you had known
me, you should have known my father also. Now think of that
simple statement. That means if you know Christ,
you know God. If you know the Lord Jesus, you
know God. He said, if you believe not that
I am, you shall die in your sin. Believing Him, we're saved from
our sin and knowing Him. Believing Him and knowing Him
is knowing God. It's knowing God. This knowledge is not a matter
of book learning. It's not something we can get
just studying a book. It's not knowledge that a preacher
can give. This is divine revelation. It's knowledge only the Spirit
of God can give us in the heart and make us really know Him and
know His life. He's life. He is salvation. If
I have Him, I have life. He has to give this knowledge
in the heart. It's not just a head knowledge. It's not just knowing facts. It's knowing Him. It's really
knowing Christ. And the Spirit gives us this.
Look over at John 16. He said in John 16.13 I'm sorry, back up in verse Verse
8, he said, the Spirit's coming. Verse 8, when He's come, He will
prove the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Of sin, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more. Of judgment,
because the Prince of this world is judged. I have yet many things
to say unto you, but you cannot bear them now. Howbeit, when
He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth. For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
the Father hath are mine, and therefore I said that he shall
take of mine and shall show it unto you." This is a knowledge
that only the Lord can give us. The Spirit of God has to guide
us into this truth. And the father bore witness of
him. He said, my father bears witness
of me. He did it on the Mount of Transfiguration.
He said, this is my son, hear him. He does it through the spirit. But this word is what? The scriptures
are the word of God. And every word in this book,
from cover to cover, there's one message and it's the message
of Christ. It's speaking of Christ Jesus,
the son of God. They are they which testify of
me, Christ said. Now why is this so important? Our Lord has given us something
simple here, just simple statements, but this is life, this is life. The all-important thing he's
telling us here, to know God, we must know Christ his son. And to be saved from our sin,
we must believe on the son the father has sent. You can't believe
Christ, a man can't believe God without believing the Lord Jesus.
The Jews were claiming they believed God, but they didn't believe
Christ. And you can't believe God without
believing his son, the Lord Jesus. And there's no knowing the invisible
God except by knowing his son. He says here in verse 19, they
said, where's thy father? And he said, you neither know
me nor my father. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. He said, he that has seen me
has seen the father. That's just amazing to think
about God Invisible, God who is spirit, God who is overall,
walked among us. It would take God giving you
this understanding. If he stood there, I mean, if
a man just came into your midst and said, he's the Christ, nobody
would believe him. And rightfully so. There were
many that came claiming to be Christ. And what we see in these Jews
with all the knowledge they had and all the understanding of
the old covenant law and all the ceremonies they were engaged
in, God has to give us faith. God has to give us this knowledge. We won't know him and there is
no knowing him except he give it. He has to get the glory for
this. In him dwelleth all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. Now we have the advantage of
having the scriptures and we have the advantage of seeing
all the things He did. And we have the advantage of
seeing Him go to the cross and see that He's risen again. But
more than that, we have something they didn't have. You who believe
Him have something these men didn't have. He's given you faith
to see Him and believe Him. They didn't have it. There's
a lot in our day that look at these scriptures and look at
what Christ did and behold Him the same way these men beheld
Him. They don't believe Him. They don't believe this is His
Word. Think of the insanity of unbelief
that you look at this world and all things created in it and
would rather believe that the world just somehow came into
being and believe God is behind all this? That you'd rather just
go through the life and live and die and say, well, I believe
we just die like a dog than to believe God and know there's
an eternity awaiting and seek Him while He may be found? That's
the insanity of our natural depraved heart. Men would just rather
go through this world not thinking about God, not coming to hear
the scriptures preached, not having anything to do with Him,
and die just hoping they're right, that there is no God. When you
got all this mountain of witness that He's created in the heavens
and in the earth and all the things that are coming to pass
by Him, and men do not want to believe God. But you can take our Lord's life,
take His whole life, and you see every attribute of the Father.
God is omnipotent. He's all-powerful. He rules all
things. Our Lord Jesus Christ was omnipotent. Psalm 104.3 says, He layeth the
beams of His chambers in the waters, who maketh the clouds
his chariot, who walketh upon the wings of the wind. And our
Lord Jesus Christ came walking on the sea in the midst of that
storm like a hurricane. He came walking on the midst
of the sea calmly. And at his word, he stilled the
wind and stilled the waves and made the storm to cease. He sent
it. Of course he could steal it.
He's God. That's who he is. He's omnipotent
God. We see his omnipotence right
here in verse 20. We've seen this over and over.
He spake these words, teaching them in the temple, flat out,
looked them in the eye and said, you shall perish in your sin. And nobody laid hands on him.
Nobody touched him. You look at the sun in the sky.
He said, I'm the light of the world. You look at the sun in
the sky. The sun sets at the exact hour, the exact moment,
every day that God ordained before the world was made. Every single
day. It sets right when God ordained for that sun to go down on you
and me. It's coming up on somebody else
right at the time God ordained for it to come up. Every day
is this way. Everything's working exactly
according to His purpose. Well, the Son of Righteousness,
the Lord Jesus, He did not go to that cross and lay down His
life until the exact hour appointed. And He is omnipotent to control
everything about man until it's time for Him to lay down His
life. We see in Christ omniscience.
He knows all. He knows everything. He didn't
have to have anybody to testify to Him of what was in men. He
knew what was in the hearts of men. He said of Nathanael, before
you ever came to me when you were under the fig tree, I saw
you. He knows what's in the heart. He knows what's in the heart
of his people, where he put his spirit. He knows what's in the
heart of every sinner. We're just naked before him and
open before him, and he knows everything about us. That's a
blessing if you're a child of God because there's things you
and I don't know about us. There's sin we don't know that
we're sinning that He's saving us from. He knows everything
about us. We see in Him omnipresence. Omnipresence. He's God. He's God. while he was in this
earth, in a body, and he was one place at a time, but yet
the scripture says, this is what scripture says of him, no man
had seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, which
is in the bosom of the Father, he had declared him. Even when
he walked this earth, he never left the bosom of the Father,
because he's God. He's God. And we see something
of his omnipresence in the fact that that day, that night when
he came to them in the storm, and they had not gone very far
at all in that storm, but when he came into that ship, immediately
they were on the other side. There's no way to explain that
except for him. He's holy, he's righteous, he's
love, he's mercy, he's loving kindness. All the glory Moses
saw in the mount when he beheld the glory of God, that's Christ.
That's Christ. Hebrews 1.3 says he's the brightness
of God's glory. He said, this is what he's telling.
He said, I'm the light of the world. He's the brightness of
God's glory. The express image of God's person. It pleased God that all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily dwell in him. There he is, God. God who
cannot be seen, God who is spirit, is seen in this man, Christ Jesus,
and walked here among us. He said there in verse 23, I'm
from above, I'm not of this world. It would take God giving you
faith if some man said that to you. I am from above, I'm not
of this world. He's holy as God is holy. He said, verse 29, I do always
those things which please the Father. Holy as God is, righteous
as God is, He is perfect love. What He was doing was coming
forth and loving a people that had no love for Him, that hated
Him. The more He loved us, the more
we despised Him until He gave us a heart to love Him. And He
was laying down His life for people that hated Him and despised
Him. He's God, verse 24, if you believe not that I am, he's that
I am, he is I am. He's the one Moses beheld in
the bush when he said, take your shoes off Moses, this is holy
ground. He is the I am. If you believe not that I am,
if you believe not that the son of God came in human flesh, you
have died in your sin. He's God. He came down. He did
what only God could do and saved His people. You want to know
the Father? Come to know the Son. That's
what He's saying. He said, All things are delivered
unto me of my 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. And we have to be
brought to believe on Christ because He came to save His people
from our sin. He came to reconcile us to the
Father, and it's only through faith in Him that we have this
free salvation. He said in verse 28, when you
have lifted up the Son of Man, then shall you know that I am,
and that I do nothing of myself, but as my Father taught me, I
speak these things. He came to do the will of the
Father. He came for this purpose. He took flesh, flesh and blood,
and became the Son of Man for the purpose of being lifted up
on the cross like that brazen serpent so that His people might
look to Him and live. That's why He came. He was born
to die. That's why He came. came to reconcile
a people who were enemies in our mind to God, who hated God,
and who God could not take into peace with Him because of our
sin. He came to reconcile us to God, to make peace between
God in heaven and His sinful people on this earth. That's
why He came. Look over at 2 Corinthians 5.18. He said, all things are of God. Everything is of God who has
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ and has given to us the
ministry of reconciliation. That's our ministry, the ministry
of reconciliation. To it, God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and
hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then,
we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. You take a people who's angry,
who will not have anything to do with you, who hate you, who
despise you, and who justly deserve to die. Consider now this love of God
to send his only begotten son for that people, for us, to bring
us into friendship with him and reconcile us to him. That's what
He came for. He's the Prince of Peace. He
reconciled His people by putting away our sin, by bearing everything
we deserve until the death of the cross. And then He arose
where He ever lives and His very presence with God is the intercession
that guarantees His people will always have peace with God. And
not only this, He sends this gospel to us to tell us what
He's done for us. Not only that, He gives us a
life to believe Him. And brings us into peace. He's
just not going to take no for an answer. He did everything
and does everything in this thing of bringing us into peace. He
said, I'm the light of the world. I'm the light of the world. When
the Son of Righteousness arises in the heart, that's when we're
going to behold the light. And that's when we have. The faith and the confidence
and the willingness and everything to come to Him confessing what
we are is when the light shines. You know, if you're in a dark
room and there is no light on and there's a storm outside.
Did y'all see this last night? There's a storm outside and when
it lightens, you can see it all in the house. You turn the light
on, you don't see it in the house. When He turns the light on, He
makes you to see He's answered to the thunder and the lightning
of God's wrath and settled justice for you so that you can have
confidence now to come to Him and cast it all on Him and know
God will receive you. He'll take you into peace with
Him. It's by Him. Every blessing God
has for His people is in Christ and it's by Christ. He blessed
us with all spiritual blessing in Christ. He made us accepted
in Christ. Everything is in Christ. So there's
no salvation without knowing God. We gotta know God. We're
gonna have to know God's holy. He requires His justice to be
satisfied. We gotta know God's righteousness. Righteousness we can't provide. We gotta know God's merciful,
that he will be merciful. We gotta know how he can do that.
How can he be just and merciful? We gotta know how we can be at
peace with him. We gotta know how he'll receive
us. We gotta know the way to come to him. All that's answered. That's what
he's saying. If you know me, then you know
the Father. When you know Christ, you know
all about God and how He'll receive a sinner, because He's done it
all to make Him just and merciful in perfect harmony to receive
you. That's how you know you know Him. You know Him. He said, if you look at John
14, and I'm going to end with this, John 14, in verse Verse seven. Now, let's read
verse five. Thomas said to him, Lord, we
know not where you go. How can we know the way? Jesus
said to him, I am the way. This is what he's declaring in
these simple things. If you've seen me, you know the
Father. If you see, you know me, you know salvation. I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life. No man cometh
to the father but by me. If you had known me, you should
have known my father also. And from henceforth you know
him and have seen him. Do we have to continually be
taught? We have to continually be taught. Here is Philip. Been
with him. Heard him. Been taught by him. Now listen
to Philip. Philip said to Him, Lord, show
us the Father, and it will suffice it. Jesus said to him, Have I
been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip?
He that hath seen me hath seen the Father. How sayest thou then,
Show us the Father? Believest thou not that I am
in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak
unto you I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me, or else believe me for the very works
sake. That's what he has to continually
show us. If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father. Now go back there to John 8 and
look at verse 30. He says, as he spake these words,
many believed on him. Many believed on him. These words that he spake, these
words are to just fill us with so full
and just have our heart just overflow it that this is the
most profound thing we've ever heard right here. And are we not, do we not just
hear this and it's just too simple for us, isn't it? We need to see a picture. We
need to see a type. We need to see, we can glory
in the picture and the types and not glory in the one they
typify. We gotta hear some enthusiastic preaching. You gotta put on a
charismatic show. We can get carried away with
the preacher and miss the Christ he's preaching. But you see, there was some there. Now, we're going to see later
that many of them didn't believe. But wherever our Lord spoke the
Word in power, there were some that saw Him and seeing Him,
they saw God the Father. And they believed Him. And their
hearts were overflowing. I've seen God. I've seen salvation. I've seen the way. I've seen
the truth. I've seen the life. I've seen
the one who's all my righteousness. I've seen the one who's heaven.
I've seen heaven. Oh, if he speaks this, we'll believe
him. He can just take these simple
three or four words He'll just make the heavens open up to you. I see Him. I see God. I believe Him. Saved by Him. If you'd know the Father, know
the Son. If you'd believe the Father, believe on the Son. And
believing on Him, we shall be saved from our sins. We shall
be saved from our sins. Let's go to Him. Father, what a blessed revelation
you've given to your people that you sent your only begotten Son,
sent Him in our flesh so that we can behold Him, work these
works, and see all these things He accomplished for us as the
Son of Man. But even more important, Lord,
You gave us faith, You gave us spiritual eyes to know Him, to
believe Him, to know He is God our Savior. Thank You, Father,
that You reveal these things unto babes, You've hidden them
from the wise and prudent. Don't let us Become hardened
and don't let us become complacent. Make these words ever new to
us. Make us rejoice because it's
your words speaking into our heart. Take these words and make them
life in our heart. Make us behold Christ and find
that he truly is that life. Lord, thank you that you sent
your son. We ask you to work your will. We ask you to glorify
your name and we know you will hallow your name in our midst,
in the hearts of your people. Lord, we ask you to continue
to do this. Protect us, hedge us about. Make Your people to look only
to You. Make us find our joy and our peace and our comfort
in Christ alone. Lord, we ask You today to truly give us another glimpse. Give
us another crumb from Your table. Be with Your people everywhere.
Be with our brethren that are here and those that are not here,
those that are sick and in troubles. Oh, how we thank You, Lord, the
same Savior that walked this earth now sits in glory, knowing
everything we need, knowing how to comfort us, having all the
power to do it. Lord, we ask You now, be with
us, turn us to You, keep us looking to You. Thank You, Lord, for
Your grace, Your mercy, and all this free forgiveness and salvation
we have in Christ. Forgive us, Lord, for our sin.
Forgive us for our flesh, our unbelief, our... Forgive us for being sinners. Thank You, Lord, for Christ's
sake, in His name we ask these things. Amen.