John 14, pick up where we left
off last week. Title of the message, If You
Had Known Me. And the subject is the unity
of the Godhead. If you had known me, you would
know the Father. You would know the unity, there's
no division between the Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit,
the Trinity, there's no division. One of the most important things
that we must understand is the Deity of Christ and His oneness,
His equality with the Father. They are one, they are one. This was, and still is, a point
of rebellion with the Jews. They do not believe he is God. They believe, and still believe,
he was a blasphemer. He was a religious hookster,
a phony. I thought this morning, this
thought came to me this morning, the have trouble with the sovereignty
of our Lord. They want their own will, free
will. We hear so much about free will. They have trouble with
the sovereignty of God, the sovereignty of the Lord Jesus Christ, saving
whom He will. The Jews have trouble with His
deity. They have trouble with His deity.
The issue with them is that this man is not God, but the Bible
says he's God, he is God. If he's not God, he can do me
and you no good, no good whatsoever. So we need him as God, and we
need him as a man, the God man. Now let's pick up here at Thomas.
Thomas said, after the Lord talked about going away, And coming
back, he's going to the father's house and coming back. And Thomas
said to the Lord, we don't know where you are going. How can
we know the way they are going to be taught one of the most
important lessons that they will ever learn? And that's the unity
of the Godhead. You're looking at the father
when you're looking at me. He had told them he's going to
his father's house, he's going to go and prepare a place for
them. and that he was going to come back and take them to that
place. And one of the things that I
noticed in reading this again is how freely his disciples spoke
to him. How freely they spoke to him.
They found him easy to entreat. The Lord treated them in such
a way that they could have a conversation with him as a friend to a friend.
They respected Him, they called Him Lord. He said in one place,
you call me Lord and Master, and you say, well, for so I am.
And they did, but yet they spoke to Him so freely. Our Lord treated them like little
children, His children, because they were, and we are, who believe. He treated them like little children,
and they could ask Him any question. Anything that troubled their
hearts, they could cast all their care upon Him. If we could only
really understand that, I believe it would make prayer easier.
If we could understand we are talking to God, yes. But we're
also talking to our brother, our elder brother. We're talking
to our friend. That's who we're talking to.
And we can cast all our cares upon Him. And this shows here
how truly meek and lowly He was and is. And so is the Father. So is the Father. Is the Son
meek and lowly? So is the Father. We see the
character and nature of the Father in the Son. We see that. And let's not make the mistake
of thinking that Christ is somehow different in person than the
Father is. Let's not make that mistake.
You see, listen, it's absolutely necessary that we understand
the unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. I know this,
and I know the disciples. They've been with Him for three
years. I mean right with him. And I know they've seen him in
the flesh, and I think that was part of a problem for them, because
they saw him as a man. But to have a real understanding
of him as God, even though they believed him to be the Son of
God, Peter said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living
God. They believed that. But yet somehow they had not
really put together that they were one. They are one. There's one God. There's not
two or three, there's one. It's like this. When you think
naturally of a father and a son, you automatically see a difference,
don't you? You see it like this, but you also see a difference.
You know, me and my father, in ways we were alike, but in a
lot of ways we're different. That's not so between a father
and a son. God the father, God the son.
They are not different in any way, shape, or form. No difference. Now he said in verse seven, and
this is a rebuke, but I think it's a rebuke that he's, that
he doesn't, it's not a mean rebuke. It's not a mean rebuke. It's
a, it's a gentle fatherly rebuke. If you had known me, You should
have known my father also and from henceforth from now on he
said from now on You know him And you've seen him and no and
no doubt philip is like When did we see the father? You see
the lord's gonna bring this together. He's gonna bring their unity
together Because remember this, they're babes, they're babes. Every believer starts out as
a babe in Christ. And they have to be instructed,
and the Holy Spirit is gonna reveal a lot of things to them
that can't be revealed to them at that, could not be revealed
to them at that time. They knew Him, but not like they're
going to know Him in a little while. The Holy Spirit's gonna
he's going to be given and he's going to take the things of Christ
as it says later on in this chapter and he's going to show them he
says he said he'll show them the things of mine to you and then you're going to know
you're going to know a lot of things you don't know now you're
going to know better what you know now what you're going to
do you know the Lord tells them that they know more than they
think they know they know more than they think they know They
know the Father, they knew Christ, they knew Jesus Christ, they
knew Him as the Son of God, but He's saying here, you know Him,
you just don't realize it yet, but you're going to. And when the Holy Spirit is given,
you're gonna go, hey. You know, I see things now almost
50 years later that I didn't see when I was a young believer. There's things I see now I didn't
see then. I understand now better. I saw them then and believed
them, but now I've experienced them. I've got some experience
under my belt. And I understand them better
because I've experienced them. And the Lord says, and from henceforth,
you know him and you've seen him. He that sees the Son, sees the
Father. Now Philip said to him, Lord,
you see that's respect, but he gets the, he, the atmosphere
is such that he can just say what's on his heart. Lord, show
us the Father and it sufficeth us. Show us the, give us a visual
of the Father. And that'll be enough. That'd
be enough. Let us see Him for ourselves.
Look over in Exodus 24. And I think this is no doubt
on their mind. In Exodus 24, a couple of scriptures
I want to show you. In Exodus 24, look in verse 9. Then went up Moses, And Aaron,
Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and
they saw the God of Israel. And there was under his feet,
as it were, a paved work of a sapphire stone, and as it were, the body
of heaven in his clearness." Now, over in Exodus 33, what
did Moses say? Lord, show me your glory. And
God said, I will. I'll put you in the cleft of
the rock and I'll make all my back. You'll see my back parts.
You can't see my face. But he said, you can see my back
part. Well, Philip, no doubt, is thinking, well, show us the
father. Give us a visual like was given to Moses back there
in Exodus. Give us a visual. Well, the visual
is standing in front of you. You have a visual. You're looking
at him. You're looking at the father.
In Isaiah 9, 6, unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given. And his name shall be called
Counselor, the Mighty God, Prince of Peace. What else is it called?
The Everlasting Father. This son, this child, and this
son given, one of his names will be the Everlasting Father. Because
they're one. There's no division. He's really
setting forth here His absolute Deity, and we must see that. We must see that. God is Spirit. He cannot be seen with these
eyes, but God in Christ can be seen. Where do we see the glory
of God, as it says over in Corinthians? In the face of Jesus Christ.
And one day we will see Jesus Christ face-to-face. And when
we see Jesus Christ face-to-face, guess who else we'll be seeing?
God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. We'll be seeing the whole fullness
of the Godhead. It says this in Colossians 2,
9, For in Him, in Jesus Christ, dwelleth, resides, all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily that can that could happen nowhere else
you don't see the fullness of the Godhead in creation you see
it in the person of Jesus Christ it says in Hebrews 1 3 who being
the brightness of his glory and the expressed image of his person you see me seeing the father
And if we don't see the Father, we really haven't seen Christ.
We haven't seen Him. We don't know who He is if we
don't see the Father in Him. And Jesus said unto him in verse
9, Have I been so long a time with you? And this is a sad statement,
but it's probably said of us at any point in our life as believers. Have I been so long a time with
you and you don't know me? You don't know me. You don't
recognize your father. You know, it'd be sad if my dad
walked in here and I didn't recognize him. To show you how sad it is, my
mother, you know, she's getting Alzheimer's, but anyway, she
didn't recognize my youngest sister, who takes care of her
every day. She didn't recognize her. She asked her, she said,
who are you? It's sad when you don't recognize
your own family. And it's really sad when we don't
recognize the father. Have I been so long time with
you and you don't know me. Do you not hear the voice of
your father calling you? See how our Lord has taken, he's
taken now, because he said this same thing to the Jews. In John
8, 19, listen to this. Then said they unto him, where
is thy father? This is a Jew speaking to him.
Where is thy father? Jesus answered, you neither know me nor my father.
If you had known me, you should have known my father also. Well,
he's saying that to them, but what he's saying to them, you
will know him. You do know him and you're going
to know him better. But he didn't say that to them. He just left
them alone. And this shows that salvation
is by revelation. God has to reveal Himself to
you by His Spirit, out of His Word, through the preaching of
His Word. And one day, if He does, you say, I see. And you
not only hear the voice of Christ, you hear the voice of your Father.
What was it the Lord said to that woman who had the issue
of blood, and she came and touched the hem of His garment? What
did the Lord say to her? Daughter, He called her daughter. See, it wasn't just the son speaking. It's the father speaking also. Our Lord is showing here the
oneness of the Trinity. They are not separated. To know
one is to know the other. You know, in Genesis, God said
this, let us make man in our image. And after all, not me.
He said, he said us. Who's he talking about? He's
talking about the Trinity. One God, three distinct persons,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And he said, let us do this.
Let us make man after our image and after our likeness. And this,
I never saw this before. But when God saves a sinner,
That sinner in Christ is, for the first time, made after the
likeness of God, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. The Father chose, the Son redeemed,
and the Holy Spirit regenerates. They're all three involved in
it. They're all three involved in the saving of a sinner. In
making you, conforming you to what? The image of Christ, which
is what? The express image of God. the
brightness of His glory and express the image of God. Also here, I want you to notice
when our Lord speaks of the Father, He's saying this also, and this
is something that we need to really get a hold of. When we
see our Lord moved with compassion, we see the Father moved with
compassion. When we see the Lord Jesus Christ stoop down and ride
on the ground where that adulterous woman is, we see the Father stooping
down and riding on the ground. Meek and lowly, as I said, so
was the Father. You see, the disciples, and this
is important, get this point. The disciples, like Martha, who
separated the resurrection from Christ. Christ said, your brother's
going to live again. She said, I know he'll live again
in the resurrection in the last days. And he said, Martha, I
am the resurrection. I am the life. Don't look at
an event. Look at me. I'm the resurrection.
Your brother's already alive in me. He's risen in me. We are alive in Christ. We're
risen in Christ. The resurrection is not something
separate. It's not some separate event we need to be looking at.
We need to be looking at Christ who is the resurrection. And
here's what he's saying. He's telling them, don't look
at me and then look over here at the Father. Philip says, show
us the Father. Give us a visual of the Father.
And he's saying, you're separating us. We're not separated. If you
hear me speaking, you're hearing him speak. If you see me, you
see him. When you see me walking, you
see him walking. When I speak, it's his words.
When I work, it's his work. It's his work also. The only way to know the Father
is to know the Son. They can't be known apart from
each other. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and
the Father in me? Now here's a real, here's a real
statement he makes. Do you not believe that I'm in
the Father and the Father in me? The words, the doctrines,
the teachings that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself as
a man. I didn't come up with this, but
now listen, put this together. The words that I speak unto you,
I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me, he
doeth the works. The Lord speaks of the words
as being the work of the Father. Lazarus, come forth. The Lord
sends forth his word. That's the words. Lazarus, come
forth. They are so united, they are
so one, that Lazarus coming forth is a work of the Father as much
as it is the work of the Son. It's as much a work. He says,
the words that I speak The words that I speak, they're not of
me, they're the work of the Father. The words are the work of the
Father. The effects of the word are the work of the Father. You
know, the Lord said to that lame man, rise up and walk. With the
ability to do that, he said, was not just of me, it was of
the Father. That's their oneness. They're
just like, I mean, it's just one. It's just one. Look over
in John chapter 5. In John chapter 5, look in verse,
let me get there, verse 19. Then answered Jesus and said
unto them, Verily, verily, I say to you, the Son can do nothing
of Himself. But what he seeth the Father
do, isn't that an interesting statement? He's not saying what
the Father tells him to do, that's what he does. He says, What he
seeth the Father do, for what things soever he doeth, whatever
things the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. What he sees the Father do, the
Son does. They operate the same. The same. That's why Paul, over in Acts
20, 28, telling the elders to take care of the flock of God
over which God made them overseers, he said, which God purchased
with His own blood. Jesus Christ did not quit being
God when He went to the cross. He didn't quit being God. That
is God in human flesh hanging on the cross. That's God. And the work of Calvary is also
the work of the Father, as it is the work of the Son. It's the Father who chose, it's
the Father who smote Him, the Son who suffered. I tell you,
they're so one, it's just you can't separate it, you can't
do it. And He's taking His disciples and He's teaching them of the
unity of the Godhead. You have seen the Father. You've
seen it. They don't work independently
of each other. You remember when that young
ruler came to the Lord and he said, good master. And he said,
why call us now me good? There's none good, but God's. None good, but God's the only
one that's good. You can't separate them. You
can't separate them. If he's not God, he's saying,
if I'm not God, I'm not good. If I'm good, I'm God. I'm God. And to reject me is to reject
the father. See, that's how serious. That's
how serious it was when our Lord was speaking to the Jews and
they said, we will not have this man to reign over us. That's
the same as saying we'll not have the father to reign over
us. Same thing. Believe me. amazing he has to say this to
the disciples who were with him for three years and saw everything.
Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me or else
if you don't believe my words which is sad to say to the disciples
that had been with him for a long time at least believe me for
the very work's sake what you've seen they saw all his miracles
they witnessed them You know, only a few people witnessed His
miracles that were right there, but they were there on every
one of them. They were there. You know, our Lord started out
telling His disciples, you believe in God, believe also in Me. Believe Me is what He's saying.
Believe what I'm telling you, or else believe Me for the very
work's sake. Believe Me what? I and the Father
are one. The Father's with me. You have
seen me, and in seeing me, you've seen the Father for three years.
For three years, you have walked with me. You have talked with
me. You watched me raise the dead.
You watched me give sight to the blind. You watched me feed
5,000. You also watched the Father do all this. He's no different
than I am. We're one. We are one. You know, Nicodemus said this,
no man can do these miracles except God be with him. Brethren,
God is more than with him. He is God. He is God. God's more than with him. God
was with the prophets. God was with Moses. But God, he is God. He is God. Only God, now listen, and I'm
gonna close. Only God can put away sin. An ordinary man, even if he's
called a good man, can't do that. Only God can put away sin. Only
God can take my sins, now listen, and make them His. Only God can
take my guilt and make them His. go to the cross, die under the
penalty of His own law, rise from the dead by His own
power, ascend back to heaven, and intercede for me, and present
me faultless before God Himself. God, there's only one God. God
is doing all this. It's what He said. God is doing
all this. Don't look at me as just a man because I have no
doubt His physical appearance was still a hindrance even to
them because they saw a difference. He's saying there's no difference.
There's no difference. Jesus Christ is that one and
only God. he'll show us later in this chapter
he when he says he's going to send the holy spirit the spirit
of comforter he said i'm not going to leave you orphans and
he you know what he calls him the spirit of truth what did
the lord say that he was i am the way the truth and the lie they're undivided they're undivided I don't have
to be concerned that the Son loves me and the Father does,
or if there's any kind of separation in any way, shape, or form. There's
one God who has redeemed us by His blood. That's good news. That's good news. Show us the
Father. Well, study Jesus Christ, and you'll see the Father. If
you see Christ, you see the font. All right.