Turn with me to 1 John 2. The last time we were here, we
ended on verse 20. 1 John 2. He said, But ye have an unction
from the Holy One, and ye know all things. Tonight I want to spend some
time highlighting some of these things which we know. What are these things that we
know? I want to first give you two
points regarding the nature and the purpose of what we know. The nature and the purpose first.
So first, this knowledge comes from an unction from the Holy
One. And therefore, these things are
spiritual things. They are spiritual in nature. They are things that are mysterious
to the natural man. They're not known by the flesh. They're not understood by the
flesh. No man knoweth the mind of God
except the Spirit of God reveal them unto that man. And so, by the nature of these
things, being spiritual in nature, they must be revealed. by God,
the Holy Spirit, because they are spiritual things, and they're
only revealed to the new man, that creation of Christ, that
which is born of His grace by the seed of Christ. I can tell
you about these things. I can say these things. I can
teach you some of the doctrinal truths. And you can learn those
truths. You can learn to repeat those
truths. You can memorize the scriptures that pertain to those
doctrines. But only God can reveal them
to you in the new man. I can't do that. Only God can
create the new man. You and I don't create the new
man. We don't give ourselves a new birth. He must be born
again and that birth is by the gift of the Holy Spirit given
to whom God will. And He reveals these things to
that new man. This is entirely a work of grace. This is speaking to that grace
and that power of the Lord Jesus Christ. What He works in us,
that knowledge that He works in us and reveals to us. Only God can circumcise the heart. We can circumcise the flesh,
but only God can circumcise the heart and lift that veil, remove
that veil of flesh. And secondly, that's the nature
of it, secondly, all that we know is given to reveal Christ
to us. The purpose of this knowledge
is to reveal Christ to us. It's specifically to reveal the
knowledge which is given unto us to show us the excellency
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's to make us to know the excellency
of the Lord Jesus Christ in all things. It's to drive us to Christ
for righteousness and to drive us to Christ for salvation. It
is to drive us to Him for all things, all that we have need
of, all that He reveals and makes known to us of our need, we find
it in Christ. It is to drive us to the Lord
Jesus Christ. For example, in Galatians 3.22
the scripture hath concluded all under sin that the promise
by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. The Scriptures reveal that all
are sinners in order to drive all sinners to Christ for salvation. And God the Holy Spirit reveals
spiritual knowledge to us to bring us to learn. Christ is
all. He's my all and He is all. Christ is all. Reading from Colossians
3 verse 10 and 11. Believers have put on the new
man. He makes us to know of his creation. We've put on the new man which
is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created
him. Where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond nor
free. It doesn't matter whether you
come from religion or no religion, whether you're educated or uneducated,
whether you're a free man or a slave, Christ is all and in
all. He's made that to all his people
regardless of their background and where they're coming from
Christ is all and in all and that's the purpose to teach us
in spirit and in truth that Christ is all and in all. Now with that
in mind let me highlight for us some of the things that we
are made to know some of the things that ye know. First we're made to know the
true and living God. We're made to know that there
is a God, and we are made to know who He is. There is a God, and He does exist. And He has created us for Himself. And He reveals Himself to His
people through the gift of faith. He reveals Himself to us through
faith. He tells us that without faith
it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God must
believe that He is. We must know and believe that
He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek
Him. Who this God is, that we may
know Him, is revealed unto us. He is made known unto us. As an example, in John 14, verse
8. Philip saith unto Christ, Lord,
show us the Father, and it sufficeth us. Give us a visible evidence. Give us proof of the Father.
Give us proof of the Father, and that'll be sufficient for
us. Jesus saith unto 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. And 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." So looking at the faithful works
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and hearing His words,
seeing the works that He did which no man can do, hearing
the words that He spake according as the Father spoke those words
to Him, that reveals the Father unto us. It makes us to know
that He is. What more do we need? Christ
has come in the flesh, the Son of God has come in the flesh
that we know Him. Listen to these following verses
and consider what these verses reveal to us about God in relation
to the Lord Jesus Christ. God so loved the world that He
gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should
not perish but have everlasting life. Or again, God sent not
his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world
through him might be saved. They tell us something about
the interest, the tender compassion that God has for a people here
that he would send his well-beloved son into this world, in the flesh,
to lay down his life for filthy, stinking sinners like us. That
he would do that for us and that he would draw us to himself. He's not an enemy. We see him
as the enemy because of that nature of Adam in us. We run
from him when we hear him. We run from him and we hide ourselves
from him because we fear him and think he means us ill. That's
what the world thinks about him, but what he's revealing in this
is, come, come, seek the Lord. Let us hear His word, who so
graciously sent His Son, not to condemn us, but to reconcile
us who had fallen in sin, have no righteousness of our own,
but to reconcile us to Holy God, that we might know the true and
living God. Additionally, Jesus Christ is
the manifestation of God in the flesh. and His coming further
reveals who God is to us and who gives us faith in Him, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
Himself according to the good pleasure of His will. He's revealing something about
himself in these verses. He's telling us who he is in
Christ and showing us the many sides of, I mean, it's trying
to put into language, the limitations of language, who the true and
living God is. Christ our Lord brings us into
fellowship with God and the Father. He brings us into a true and
living relationship with God. The same way that you move about
among people in your family, there is a living relationship
there. Things are moving and ebbing
and flowing. There's a relationship there
that's alive. Well, Peter says it this way,
to whom coming as unto a living stone. Disallowed indeed of men,
right? The natural man rejects them,
puts them off, but chosen of God and precious, right? We're entering into that which
God the Father delights in. God is revealing who he is, and
the one in whom he delights, and the one to whom he turns
our attention to, the Lord Jesus Christ. Ye also, as lively stones,
as living stones, he's made us alive, it's the same word, lively
stones, living stones, are built up a spiritual house. were made a spiritual house and
holy priesthood to offer up spiritual sacrifices. There is living movement. There are living creatures in
this house moving about. in fellowship with the true and
living God, acceptable to God, to offer up spiritual sacrifices
acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. There's a living union here,
brethren, between us and God, which He established, which He
sought us out to do, to do for us. It's a living, vital union. were living stones in a spiritual
house, made acceptable to him, received of him through Jesus
Christ, and we know this by faith, by faith, through the things
which he has revealed to us in the scriptures, not doubting
them, not fighting against them, not refuting them, but embracing
these truths because he's revealed them to us by faith, by his grace,
through faith. We're not strangers, we're children.
Like your children, when they come in the house, when those
that you know come in the house, he doesn't look at us and say,
who are you, and who let you in here? He receives us because
we are adopted members of the family of God by Jesus Christ
to know Him, to worship Him as living stones coming to a living
stone. There's a living, vital union
there. And understand that faith, it's
a spiritual gift. It's not of this flesh. For by
grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God. And in Galatians 5, it is the
fruit of the Spirit. It's of Him. Now, God reveals
Himself to us throughout these scriptures. He even gives us
Numerous names, which is a profitable study. Numerous names. Just a
few of them. He revealed himself to Abraham
as El Shaddai, Almighty God. When he gave Abraham his promises,
he said, I'm El Shaddai. I can do it. I can bring it to
pass, because I'm Almighty God, and no one can oppose my will.
No one can stop me or say to me, what doest thou? he's able
he's able he's he's the king and lord of heaven and earth
and does whatever pleases him Jehovah Jireh is another name
also given to to Abraham Jehovah Jireh the Lord will provide and
that's what he did he provided himself a lamb And so that pictured
in Isaiah and Isaac going free, and that lamb slain in his place,
a picture that God has provided a ransom for our souls. and revealed that to us, made
us to know that that was our death, that Christ died on the
cross. He stood in my place. He makes
us to know that. Jehovah subkinu, the Lord our
righteousness. He's our righteousness. He's
making us to know, I'm your righteousness. I'm your sanctification. I'm
your wisdom. I'm your redemption. I'm your
all. I'm your all. Jehovah Rea, the
Lord is my shepherd, from Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd,
Jehovah Rea. He's our shepherd. He provides
for us. He cares for us. All that we
need as his bride, as his beloved bride, he has promised to give
us all that we need and fulfill all our obligations. Everything
that we need, even the trouble that we have gotten ourselves
into, He comes in and provides as our shepherd, as our husband,
as our friend. And there's many other names
in scripture given to make us to know who He is and who He
is to the believer, to His people, to all who believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,
that come to Him, that trust Him, that look to Him, nothing
doubting. believing Him. And by His grace
we come to know Him through manifold experiences. He reveals Himself
to us through numerous manifold experiences, some trials, some
difficulties, some afflictions, some persecutions. I mean, even
in good times, but we tend to learn things when things are
difficult that bring us to our knees. That's when we learn the
most, but that's where he puts us into a place as it pleases
him and there reveals his faithfulness to us there. There he meets us
and he reveals himself as the faithful God. Like, for example,
when he revealed himself to Moses. He had Moses go to a rock, a
picture of standing on Christ, our foundation, our hope, that
immovable hope. And the Lord told him, he said,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim
my name, the name of the Lord, before thee. And here's a foretaste
of that name he gave to Moses when he was telling him about
this. And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and
will show mercy on whom I will show mercy." God revealed himself
to Moses as the one who is gracious to whom he will be gracious.
The one who will be merciful to whom he will be merciful.
He does that. And then the next day, The Lord
did exactly what he said. He passed by him, and he proclaimed,
the Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon
the children and upon the children's children, onto the third and
the fourth generation. And so he reveals these things
that we would look into that well and draw up these buckets
from that deep well of his riches that he is pleased to reveal
unto us in these experiences to know the depth and the meaning
of these things as living stones, as living stones. The Lord is
revealing himself to us through his word, the scriptures, and
Jesus Christ, and it's all because of his gracious purpose toward
us in Christ. He even says, thou shalt call
his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. He is the faithful Savior, the
one who's accomplished our salvation without fail. And so the point
is we know him through revelation, but only to those that he gives
this new birth by his Spirit. That's how we know him. Second,
another thing, as part of that work that God does in making
us new creatures, before we know that we are new creatures, God
makes us to know that we are sinners in his sight. By our
works, we're sinners by nature. Job was brought to say, I have
heard of thee. by the hearing of the ear. But
now mine eye seeth thee, and wherefore I abhor myself, I hate
myself, and repent in dust and ashes. It's one thing to hear
these things, right? We can learn doctrine, but only
God can reveal it in the heart. And when he reveals it in the
heart, we're going to know, what am I? Who am I to stand before
holy God? Think of what we read in Isaiah
6 when he saw God and his glory filled the temple. And it was
declared his glory fills the earth. And he said, woe is me. I'm undone. I'm an unclean man
dwelling in the midst of an unclean people. And then we saw that
angel. What a picture of grace who took
that coal. Isaiah did nothing but the angel
came and took that coal, that live coal off the altar, all
picture in Christ, and touched his lips and said, your sin is
purged. Your sin is purged. It's put
away. You're clean. You're clean. And then he heard.
Then he heard the word of the Lord saying, who will go for
us? And he had the heart of Christ in him. Here am I. Send me. I'll go. I'll go. That's Christ. That's a picture of Christ's
obedience. That's his heart given to his
people, that same heart. So God is going to bring us to
know what happened at the fall of man. He's going to teach us.
We don't know that right away, but he's going to teach us how
that we became enmity against God by nature, the depths of
our sin, to the degree that we understand I'm a sinner and can't
work my way out of this. I can't pay down the debt of
my sin and get myself free. I need the grace of God, because
I can't do this. He's going to make us to know
that. He's going to make us to know what rebels we are, how
we've fallen in sin and in trespasses and transgressions, how we come
forth dead spiritually. So that if we know anything of
God, it's because he revealed it to us. The psalmist tells
us he brought down their heart with labor. They fell down, and
there was none to help. Why? Why would God do this to
us? Why would he make his people
to hunger and thirst for righteousness? That same psalm said, hungry
and thirsty, their soul fainted in them. Why? To prepare our
hearts, to prepare good soil, to hear his word, to hear that
call of Christ to the weary, troubled, brokenhearted sinner. When he says, come unto me, all
ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. That's not a word for the righteous
and the content man. That's a word for the sinner. The weary sinner. The one who's
burdened with their sin. Burdened to know what a sinner
they are. Burdened to know, I'm going to face holy God. And here
I am a fool. And here I am not righteous.
Here I am thinking I'm something when I'm nothing. He makes us
to know that, to hear his word, to hear the gospel. And as we
hear that gospel, by his grace, he gathers his people in to hear
this gospel, and he keeps washing us with the water of the word,
the gospel word, and cleansing us and healing us and teaching
us the light of Christ is revealed. unto us. More and more we see
His light, His glory. We're made to know our sin and
our wretchedness before God that we might learn also the grace
of God given to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because otherwise
we don't see it. We don't see it until he makes
us to see it. If God sent his son to the world
to redeem his people, it means that we are so dead in trespasses
and sins, so ruined by the fall, that we need the salvation from
a savior. There's no law that could be
given to save us. There's no law that could be
given to make us righteous and to deliver us from eternal death.
I quoted some of this passage earlier, but I'll repeat it.
From Galatians 3, 1st Paul asks, is the law then against the promises
of God? God forbid. Let it not be. For
if there had been a law given which could have
given life, verily, righteousness should have been by the law.
God would have left it right there. And we would have had
to save ourselves and get it right by the law. But the scripture
hath concluded all under sin that the promise by faith of
Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe. And again,
Paul writes, Romans 3, 9, what then? Are we better than they?
No, and no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles,
those with law and those without law, that they are all under
sin, all under sin. And again, for the love of Christ
constraineth us, because we thus judge that if one died for all,
then we're all dead. Every one of us was dead in trespasses
and sins, unable to save ourselves by the law for righteousness.
We all need this Savior. We all need this salvation. And
so it says, This Savior, the one that died for all, this is
the Savior, the one that died for all, that they which live
should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which
died for them and rose again. That, brethren, is the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is the Savior. He is the salvation
of God for his people. All right, now this is the third
thing that we know. We begin to see the depths of
God's grace and mercy for us. In sending his darling son into
this world, not just God alone, but as a man. God that he might
satisfy fully, that he might satisfy the justice of God fully
for all for whom he dies. That's why he had to be God.
Only God can satisfy this perfect righteousness that we require.
And he's man that he might suffer and die the death of all his
people. This is the God-man mediator
who has accomplished the redemption of his people perfectly, sufficiently,
completely. And he's making his people to
know that. Because we go through difficulties,
and dark times, and hard times. And so he's making us to know
that one thing is certain, that Christ's sacrifice, what he's
done is he is able, he's sufficient. Keep following him. Believe his
words. Stay upon him. And don't be turned
from the Lord Jesus Christ. We are sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. For by one
offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. Do you believe that you're complete
in him? Do you believe that he has finished
that work? When he said it is finished,
that means all things are now in place. and that he is able
to accomplish that salvation in the hearts of all his people
till the day he comes and ends the work fully. He's able to
do it. I ask that question because there's
many that are still trying to justify themselves, to add to
the righteousness of Christ by their works just in case, just
to make themselves feel more confident. No, believe him. Trust Him. Venture wholly upon
Him. Rest everything upon Him. And
say, Lord, if you don't save me, I cannot be saved. That's
where He brings us to cry. That's what He brings us to know,
that if it's not Him, and all of Him, I cannot be saved. Because
I will get it wrong. I will get it wrong. I will bring
myself to death. If there's one thing for me,
I'll get it wrong. I'll fail. But Christ, Christ
is all. Christ is sufficient for the
believer who walks by faith in him. These are the things we
know, that Christ's death successfully put away my sin. He did it for me, and he put
away all my sin. And his resurrection justifies
me before holy God, God declaring, you're justified. I've put away
your sin. Put away your sin in my son. And he, Christ, is now
ascended to the Father and seated on the right hand of the throne
of God, ruling and reigning, and all his glory accomplishing
this salvation, sending out this word triumphantly to overcome
the hearts of his people, who by him, by grace and faith and
his power, overcome the world. overcome the world and this death
and destruction and wickedness of this world is overcome by
Him. We're being called out of death
and darkness into the kingdom of God by the grace and power
of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ because of what He did
in obedience to God for us. And this is worked out, continues
to be worked out in us and brought in us Paul said, we are bound
to give thanks all the way to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you
to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit, setting you apart
by the Spirit unto this gospel, unto this salvation and belief
of the truth. The glory of God is at stake
in our salvation. It's at stake. His name, His
glory is at stake. He's not going to fail. And therefore,
because that's so, His Holy Spirit comes in the day of grace for
us when God visits us in power, makes us to know what Christ
has done and accomplished for us, and each child of God being
made to know that Christ died for me. I'm the sinner. Not just
in a general sense, I'm the sinner. And he died for me to put away
my sins that he personally saved me when he hung upon the cross. And he will not leave his children
in darkness or to die eternally. He will do what is necessary
to deliver us from the throes of death, eternal death. He will
succeed because He has succeeded and has accomplished this for
us. Where unto? He called you by
our gospel. to the obtaining of the glory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Even Isaiah boasts of this Savior. He said in Isaiah 49, 9, that
thou mayest say to the prisoners, go forth, and to them that sit
in darkness, show yourselves. Come into the light. Oh, but
my works will be reproved. That's right, come into the light.
I've put away your sins. I've touched your lips with this
burning coal. It's purged, purged by the blood
of Christ. He will not leave us ignorant
of these blessed truths. And Isaiah adds, they shall feed
in the ways, and their pastors shall be in all high places. You see, we have an unction from
the Holy One, and ye know all things. You know these things.
He's feeding you in good pastures to know these blessed truths. He feeds us where the gospel
is faithfully preached, lest we should be deceived and turn
to the flesh to save ourselves. He won't let his people do that.
All the glory is Christ's. It's all the Son's. He's the
Savior. He's the head. He's the one who
saves us. And that brings us to the next
verse. Verse 21 I have not written unto you because ye know not
the truth, but because ye know it, and that no lie is of the
truth. So those for whom Christ has
died, he gives us this knowledge by the Holy Spirit, who teaches
and instructs us in the new man, who reveals this in the new man. Our Lord said, it's written in
the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. We come to Christ with this knowledge
revealed to us. That He's the Savior. And then
He reveals this more and more increasingly to us through the
preaching of the Gospel. Through the washing of that Word.
To wash away the vain, idolatrous, ignorant thoughts that we have
by nature. He removes them. He makes known
to us the Father. He makes known to us His salvation. What He's accomplished by His
death and resurrection. and what he's working in us and
has wrought in us by his grace and power through the Holy Ghost
to understand by faith he's all my salvation. Again, we come
to Him as living creatures, knowing we are sinners in ourselves,
but forgiven by His blood and grace, and we have His Spirit
dwelling in us who reveals Christ unto us. We experience the breadth
and the depth of these things through where He places us, and
where He chooses to visit us, and make these things known in
our hearts as living creatures, to know that he saves, that he
is the savior. He's gonna make sure we know
that and we repeat these blessed truths to you in the church and
declare these things to you in the church by the gospel because
you know the truth. And it pleases God to make you
to know that truth. Therefore, it's proper to establish
you in the truth. We declare these things to establish
the brethren in the truth. because we're growing as living
creatures do. The same way we feed ourselves,
we feed our children because they're growing and we want them
to be established and strengthened and nourished. So the Lord does
it for us as well. Paul said in Ephesians 3, 17
through 19, that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith, that
ye being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend
with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height,
and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge. It exceeds knowledge. It actually
even exceeds these things to our natural understanding that
ye might be filled with all the fullness of God. And Paul told the Philippians,
to write the same things to you to me is not grievous, but for
you, it's safe. That's why he repeats these things.
It's good for us to hear them. We need to hear them. They're
nourishing. So they're to establish us. They're
also repeated to encourage you, because we get discouraged. We
forget these things. We grow weary and tired out there. We get hit with all kinds of
afflictions and trials and difficulties and hardships and things that
hurt us. But we learn the grace of God
through these things, even though they are so contrary to this
flesh, and are very hard on this flesh. And it's hard to bear
in the flesh, but it is good in the new man, where the Lord
says, my strength is made perfect in weakness. And I'm humbling
you, I'm stripping you, he says, because that's where my strength
and power is revealed. Otherwise, these things go unnoticed
by us. And these things are repeated
to us to warn us against deceivers who come in with another gospel
that is no gospel at all, but are vain confidences of the flesh
and spiritually deadly lies. So he says in verse 22 and 23,
Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He
is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. And what
he's saying there is that when he says that Jesus is the Christ,
he's calling back all these things that we know. That we know that
the Christ was sent to do and has accomplished them. That's
what he means, that there's a wealth of meaning in Jesus is the Christ. He has accomplished our redemption
and it's all revealed to us in the gospel just as we heard tonight.
And so it entails all those things, who he is, who we are, where
he's seated now, and why he alone is the salvation of God's people
and there's not another. It's in Christ, and it's all
of Christ. Whosoever, verse 23, denieth the Son, as defined in
the preaching of the gospel according to the scriptures as we heard
tonight, the same hath not the Father. And he that acknowledgeth
the Son, as defined in the preaching of the gospel according to the
scriptures, well, he hath also the Father. He hath the Father
also. I pray the Lord, bless that word
to your hearts. You know these things, brethren.
You know them. And it's for our good, our establishing,
our edification, and to keep us in the way of truth and light. Amen. Our gracious Lord, we thank
you, Lord, because we know the nature of these things are spiritual.
And the purpose of these things are to drive us to Christ. And
they must be revealed, Lord. Father, Thank you for your grace. Thank you for revealing to us
the Lord Jesus Christ. Seal this word in our hearts. And Lord, we pray that Christ
may dwell in our hearts by faith, according to your grace, your
purpose, your will of salvation for your people, that we may
hear his voice as the sheep of God do, that we follow him whithersoever
he goeth. Lord, that we walk by faith,
trusting you for all things, and that, Lord, you would establish
this word, this work, this grace, this glory of Christ in us and
in our midst, Lord, to the praise, honor, and glory of your name.
It's in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen.