Did I say John or first John?
It's John. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Let me read this. No man has
seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him. And my topic is the revelation
of the Lord Jesus Christ to the soul of a sinner. Let us pray. Oh, Lord, we come to the throne
of grace. Asking for mercy and grace. That
you would give us those words that need to be said. Give us
ears to hear those words. That you would have us to hear.
Lord, that takes your grace. Your blessing. And we ask for
both this morning. Worship with us, we beg. For
it's in your name and for your sake we ask, amen. When you talk about the revelation,
and I'll use the word revelation, but in scripture you could use
the term declare, publish, reveal, manifest, make known, to show,
All these words concern something concerning Christ and He's revealing
or showing or publishing or demonstrating or illustrating Himself in all
Scripture. Now having said that, I want
to say four things about all Scripture. All Scripture is given
by inspiration of the Holy Spirit. What that means to me is the
hand is the Holy Spirit And man is the pencil and that pencil
does exactly what that hand guides him to do. And every scripture
from beginning to end is at the hand of the Holy spirit with
man as the writing instrument, the pen or the pencil. All scripture
is the word of God. Very simple statement. Every
scripture comes from God himself. Christ is called the Word. So all Scripture must be something
concerning Christ. And all Scripture has a double
testimony. Every Scripture has two testimonies. And let me explain that this
way. All Scriptures declare that I want you to know Christ does
something, God does something that they may know I am God and
there's no other. That's what I call the testimony
of the God or a God. The other testimony in all scripture
is that my people may know that I am their God. And if you go
back and look at the scripture that way, particularly, well,
in the Old and New Testament, you see all the wonderful things
that God does for his people, and all those things he does
to prohibit and limit their enemies. Take, for example, Egypt. The
plagues. What was the purpose? That Pharaoh
and the Egyptians may know that I am the Lord God. Did they know
it? Absolutely. Even Pharaoh said,
you're God. But our scripture is also to
his people. The one saying, here's what you
are without Christ. All you have is a God or the
God even, but to his people. He says, now let me reveal or
declare myself to you so that you may know that I am your God. And you can say, he is my God. And I think all scripture bears
those two testimonies. One telling us what we are without
Christ and a natural self. The other saying, look what he
had done for myself. The God versus my God. And this revelation is declared
through all scripture. Let me read just two or three
scriptures concerning the A God, the God. That's revealed in all
scripture. Romans 119, that which is known
of God is manifest in them, meaning all men, who holds the truth
in ungodliness and unrighteousness, for God has shown it to them.
And what they're saying, everything that can be known about God is
there. Everything. And it goes on to
say, for the invisible things of God, 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. Now, what does that scripture
say? Every human being on the face
of this earth can look at the creation and say, there is a
God. And every religion does that.
And it's the God. And then he goes on to say, David
says in Psalms 19. The heavens declare the glory
of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork. David says in
another place, the heavens declare his righteousness. So here is
all the handiwork and work of God declaring, I am God. And it's there the scripture
says clearly seen. Yep. The scripture says, there's
none that understandeth, there's none that seeketh, there's none
that knoweth God. With all these testimonies of
what God is, is the God, and there's none else. And he proves
it over and over in the scripture. And that's when I come to this
verse in John 118. How does God reveal himself to
his people? How does God reveal himself to
the souls of men? No man hath seen God at any time.
The only begotten Son, Christ, who is in the bosom of the Father,
he hath revealed him. Matthew 11, 27, no man knoweth
the Son but the Father, neither any man the Father except the
Son, and to whomsoever the Son reveal him. So here it is, no
man can look at creation and say, this is my God. They can
look at creation and all the marvelous works and miracles
and say something about a God or the God, but not one of them
can say, this is my God, except the son of God reveal himself
to their soul. And that's what he said. Nobody
knows Him except those whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. What
is the revelation of God to our souls? It is an act of the Son
of God. It's something that He does.
He says, Here I am. This is who I am. And when he
says it to the soul, the soul responds. How does this play
out in the Old Testament or in the New Testament too? How did
God reveal himself in the Old Testament? Adam, he walked and
talked with Adam directly. Moses, well let's start with
Noah. Spiritually, thus says the Lord, Noah found grace in
the eyes of God. And if you want to look at election,
take the millions of people on the face of this earth, and God
chose one. And he did it sovereignly. But
here is Noah. He went directly to Noah and
said, Noah, build me an ark. Build me a form of salvation
for mine elect. Thus saith the Lord. Moses, talk
to him. Thus saith the Lord, go tell
my people what I've told you. The point I'm making is the revelation
of God to Moses was direct in a spiritual sense. Ezekiel,
he says, son of man, stand. and I will speak unto you. Then
you go prophesy what I spoke." Direct revelation of God to man. Now notice, the revelation is
to his prophets. Then the prophet goes and speaks
to his people. Jeremiah, write thee all the
words I have spoken unto you. God speaks to Jeremiah, says,
write them down, publish them. And Habakkuk, write, and he says,
when you write, write them plain and clear so there's no mistake. New Testament, all the disciples,
every one of them, with the exception of Paul, worked and walked and
talked with Christ on a daily basis. All right, now what I'm talking
about is here again is to direct revelation of God to His people. Now Paul was a special case. Paul says, I was caught up in
the third heaven. It was a paradise and I heard unspeakable words
which are not lawful to utter. I conferred not with flesh and
blood. Please God, by his grace, he
called me to reveal his son in me again, a direct revelation
from God almighty. We don't have that anymore. All revelation of God and his
word is complete and done and finished. There is no more direct
revelation. And the reason I'm saying this,
if God now reveals himself, it's not something he does directly. So the question comes up. What or how is He revealed to
our souls now? In the past, it was directly
to His prophets. And what did they do? They prophesied
and they preached. So everyone other than prophets
had to have some revelation from God, and it came from that preaching. So how do we obtain revelation
from God Almighty? I'll preach it. First Corinthians
121, where the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not
God. It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. Now look what he said. The wisest
man looking at the most wonderful work on the face of this earth
and see and say, this is the work of God. Praise be to God.
He's talking about the God, not the Lord Jesus Christ, not my
God. He says, I take the simplest,
most foolish thing there is. And he said, that's how I reveal
myself. By the foolish and the preaching
to save them that believe, it is the work of God, it's life
itself. It's a revelation. How? By the foolishness of preaching. Now, preaching doesn't say, but
his method like to pen in the hand of the Holy Spirit, inscribing
the words, the spirit of God. What do they preach? Oh, first
Corinthians two, two. Paul says, I have determined
to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and the crucified. Nothing else but the finished,
complete work of Christ. I know nothing else. He says
I don't preach anything else. Why? Because it leads to revelation
of who man is and who God is. He goes on to say in Galatians, or an angel from heaven, preach
any other gospel, let him be accursed. Preach anything but
Christ in crucifixion. I don't care who you are or where
you are. If you don't, Paul says you are
accursed. 1 Corinthians 1.10, the preaching
of the cross, and I'm going to say the preaching of the gospel,
of Christ and Him crucified is to them that perish foolish. But unto us which are saved,
it is the power of God. It is God revealing Himself to
the soul with all the power of God. And it's based on the words
that were preached. And what are the words? Christ
and Him crucified. That is preached. Who preaches? Romans 10, 15. And we have all heard these scriptures. I'm not doing anything new or
different. And we need to have these things
repeated over and over again. And if you're like me, hardheaded
and stubborn, and I still like Rupert's term, dumb as a box
of rocks, it takes it for us to understand, become clear to
it. How shall they preach except they be sent? Paul has pleased
God by His grace to be called to reveal His Son in him in his
preaching, what he was doing. Paul was called. You cannot preach
except God's grace does something first. and it's being called. After all this preaching, the
Apostle Paul and all the scriptures, who believes it? Who believes
it? And the question is asked this
way, Romans 10, 4. How shall they,
meaning anybody, call on him in whom they have not believed?
How shall they believe in him whom they have not heard? How
shall they hear without a preacher? Here is a presentation of grace
as a grace. In order to hear, to believe,
God has to give us ears to hear. In order to believe, believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ is the work of God Almighty. Can they do it without a preacher?
And Paul just said, well, I'm so pleased that he called me
to preach Christ and him crucified. And that's it. That's the gospel
in a nutshell. That is who preaches and who
hath believed our report. The simplest answer to that question
is I God, the Lord Jesus Christ, know
my sheep. I call them by name. They follow me. So here is A simple statement of the Lord
Jesus Christ testimony saying, I am your God. You are my sheep. I call you
by name. I testify. You testify of me. I testify of you. And when I
call you come, you follow me. You follow in the way of Christ. You follow in submission of the
truth of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. You follow in all
the truth in the form of Christ who is the truth. And all that sheep is, is a statement,
this is my people. This sheep represents the soul
of my people. And that soul responds, that
soul comes, I know him, and he knows me. Now, having said that, it takes
a preacher, it takes a gospel, it takes a message, and it takes
somebody to hear. How is the gospel of the grace
of God applied to your soul? How did you get there? Let me start this way. This gospel
is the free, sovereign grace of God in Christ. Free. He says, come and buy without
a price. Buy all you need. Why? It's already been bought and
paid for. It's free. You can't buy it.
Come with the empty hand of faith with nothing in it except Christ
in Him crucified. It's already finished, done,
complete. It's free. It's already bought
and paid for in the shed blood of Christ. His obedience, His
merit, all that He is. Free. Sovereign. Most people
think of sovereign as not of him that willeth nor of him that
runneth, but God that showeth mercy. But I'm going to say this. Thank God for sovereignty. If
God were not sovereign and did as he's pleased, there would
be no salvation. None. Why? If we are dead in trespass and
sin, and somebody external to us does not do something, we
remain dead. Without sovereignty, not a single
person would ever have eternal life. Because we are dead and
cannot do anything, and if God is not sovereign and come do
something for somebody, there will be no salvation whatsoever.
He is sovereign. He does as he pleases. The mystery
is, why does he choose who he does? And I'll make it more personal,
why me? So here is the sovereignty. And
the grace of God in Christ, and I'm talking about the free, sovereign
grace of God in Christ, is the gospel, Christ being crucified. What is grace? Doug, Ed, anybody
who wants to know what grace is, let me tell you what I think
grace is. Grace is the application or the
exercise of God Almighty expressing and exercising his love and kindness
for sinners who have no merit, no standing, no worth. Here is an expression, an application
of the love of God for a dead sinner, based totally on the
merit of Christ, because we have no merit. And what does he do? God himself
is the source of that. God himself has made Christ our
grace in his absolute full obedience to all the mandates and dictates
and decrees of God Almighty and God Almighty is satisfied. And
this grace he gives, it's free, it's sovereign, and it's the
love of God applied to somebody. And we can describe that love
as His tender love and care, there's so many expressions of
that, but grace is, to me, fundamentally, it is an application, a giving,
an exercise of the love of God for His people. That part of
the gospel, that part of the scriptures that says, you are
my people, I am your God, this is what I do for you. The free,
sovereign grace of God Almighty. How does he apply this grace? Oh, one of the first graces to
a dead sinner is called quickening. You who were dead and trespassing
sin, I have quickened. Not just that, I've quickened
you, Hal, together with Christ. What does that mean? He has given
us life. He has taken his breath, his
spirit, and breathed in our souls and said, live. And guess what? When he says live, we live. Quicken together with Christ. Like grace, it's inseparable
from Christ himself. And what happens when you quicken
and become alive? New ears, new mind, new heart,
a spirit, an eternal spirit. All these things. When somebody
asks a question, how can you hear if you don't have any ears?
God says, oh, I give you ears to hear. I give you eyes to see. You can look at my creation and
see Christ. You can look at my gospel and
see Christ. And the thing that's really important
about it is, in his light, all we see is Christ himself. Ears to hear what? The preaching
of the gospel. How can they believe except they
hear? And how can they hear except
they have a preacher? This multiple grace, added to
grace that God gives to reveal his son to us is perfectly suitable
for poor dead sinners. Eyes to see. What do we see?
When the question is, we alive? We see the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. We see the brightness of the
light. Darkness is cast away. We're our feet in the hands.
We walk in the way. We walk in Christ. Doug, I like
to think, no, we're not walking. He's carrying us. But it's in
Christ is the important part. We have the mind of Christ, the
thoughts of the poor sinner that Christ has revealed himself to. The thoughts say one thing. Oh
my goodness, he is everything that I can think about. He's
everything that I need. He is my all. Heart, this quickened
heart, it's a new heart. Take a stone of heart, change
to a heart of flesh, taught of God, and what do they learn? The excellency of the knowledge
of Jesus Christ, my Lord. That's a revelation. I have shown
that sinner the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
my Lord. He sees, he hears, he understands,
he knows, he responds. He testifies to Christ himself. A mouth. What do we do with our
spiritual mouth? Rupert called these songs aspirations. I wish that I had a thousand
tongues to sing his praises, but I don't. Another song is
having eternal days to sing his praises. Oh, at some point in
time, that will be true. But there's not enough, even
eternal days, to sing the praises of God Almighty. What do we sing? Christ is all to my soul. Praise, honor, and glory to his
work for my soul. Thank God for his grace that
he gives me the eyes to see what he's plainly revealing to my
soul. Thank God for his grace, because I cannot, would not,
and could not, because of my own. Paul probably says it best, what do we see when we see Christ? We have the excellency, I'm going
to call it the grace of the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ,
my Lord. That's what he reveals to our
souls. by preaching of the word, that
he gives the words to say, he gives the words to hear. Then
he opens the ears, he opens the eyes. It's just grace after grace
after grace. And it ends up singing praises
to his name. And I'm going to end it, and
I'm going to cheat a little bit, Rupert. I hope every believer Listen, it's a song. It's got
nine verses. It's pretty long. And Rupert,
I'm cheating, because it came out of the September 14th, 2014
bulletin. It's a song by John Newt. "'Tis a point I long to know.
Often it causes anxious thought. Do I love the Lord, or no? Am
I His, or am I not? You ever ask yourself that question? If I love, why am I thus? Why this dull and lifeless frame? Hardly sure can they be worse
who have never heard his name. See, I'm worse than the worst
sinner who knows nothing about God. Could my heart so hard remain? Prairie tasked and burden proof,
every trifle gives me pain if I knew a savior's love. When I turn my eyes within, all
is dark and vain and wild, filled with unbelief and sin. Can I
deem myself a child? You mean I'm a child, Doc? If I pray or hear or read, sin
is mixed with all I do. You that love the Lord indeed,
tell me, is it thus with you? Yet I mourn my stubborn will,
find my sin a grief and thrall. Should I grieve for what I feel
if I did not love at all? Would I have any of those feelings
if I didn't love him at all? And he goes on. Could I enjoy
his saints to me? Choose the ways I once abhorred?
Find it time to promise me if I did not love the Lord? Could
I enjoy the fellowship of a saint if I didn't love him a little
bit? Lord, decide. this doubtful case,
thou who art thy people's son, shine upon thy work of grace,
if indeed begun. Then he ends it with this. Let
me love thee more and more. If I love at all, I pray. If
I have not loved before, help me to begin today. Here is a picture of a man that
God has revealed the soul of his son to this person. And he given God the credit if
I love it all. But didn't make this statement.
Lord, you make the call. If I don't. Help me to begin
today.