If you have tuned in to this
program for the first time, let me tell you what you can expect
to hear, by the grace of God, every time you tune in to this
radio program. By God's grace, you will hear
a plain and simple message from God's Word. There is no message
from God except from His Word. You will hear, by God's grace,
a plain and simple and sinful man preaching a message of God's
mercy, love, grace, and salvation to sinful men. You will not hear
any entertainment. There will be no pleas for money,
no bragging on our church. But as Paul the Apostle said,
we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord. Again,
as he said, we are determined not to know anything among you
save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. So by the grace of God, always
and only, we preach God's Word, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I hope you will listen carefully
this morning as I bring you a message from the Gospel of John, chapter
17. If you have a Bible, You may
want to open it and follow along with me as I look at the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself from John 17. He is praying to
the Father on behalf of His people, not the world, but His people,
His chosen people, those He came to save. And in verse 2, He says
that God had given Him power over all flesh. that He should
give eternal life to as many as God had given Him. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou hast sent. This morning I want to look primarily
at that first part of verse 3. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, The only true God. This is what it means to
be saved. This is eternal life, spiritual
life, true life, the life of God that lasts forever. Life with God in heaven and the
new earth someday. This is what it means, he said. It is to know the only true God. First thing is to know the only
true God. By that, he is clearly implying
that there are many false gods who are not God, who are no gods
at all, but idols, man-made ideas or conceptions of God. So he
says this is life eternal. The first proof or evidence of
eternal life, the life of God, spiritual life, is for a human
being to know The true God, the only true God, the living and
true God, it said. The only true God. Now, the only
true God we must know is only known if He reveals Him. if He
reveals Him to us, if Christ reveals Him to us, if the Spirit
of God reveals Him to us. And He does that through what
I'm doing right now, the preaching of God's Word. Most men do not know the only
true God. Christ said that of Himself,
and He said that of the Father. He said, You neither know Me
nor My Father. He came to reveal the Father
to those the Father had given Him. Most do not know the only
true God, the God of the Bible, because their beliefs and descriptions
of God do not match the God of the Bible. God has clearly declared
Himself in His Word. This is absolutely the Word of
God, holy, inerrant, inspired, infallible Word of the living
God. pinned by men, it was given to
them of God Himself. Holy men spake as they were moved
by the Spirit of God. There was no private or personal
interpretation of man. Let me tell you who the God of
the Bible is in His own words. God, the word God means creator. In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth, man and everything. And Scripture
says all things were created by Him and for Him, and for His
pleasure they were created. God is the Creator. God is the
Originator, the Author, the Life-Giver. He is the absolute Ruler and
Controller of all things. In Him, Scripture says, we live
and move and have our being. People do not know God who say
things like this, God is trying to tell me something. No, God
doesn't try to do anything. Scripture says, God worketh all
things after the counsel of His will. Scripture says, God said,
I have spoken it, I will bring it to pass. When God said, let
there be light, there was light. Whatever God says comes to pass. People do not know God who say
God wants to do this. God wants you to let Him do this
or that, or wants you to do something. God Almighty is self-sufficient,
self-existent, independent of anyone and anything, not subject
to the will of man or anything. God wants nothing, desires nothing,
but is absolutely complete, content, self-existent, Wanting, needing
nothing. He's not a man like us. He's not hoping, wishing, wanting,
waiting. We are, not God. God knows all,
does all, wills all, and accomplishes all according to His will and
purpose and power. Well, the God of the Bible, has
described himself through three witnesses. Let me give you three
witnesses. Scripture says, God said, at
the mouth of two or three witnesses a thing is established. Let me
give you three witnesses raised up by God, men whom God spoke
to. Now, God does not speak out loud.
God spoke, Hebrews 1 says, in times past unto the fathers,
that is, the Jewish fathers, by the prophets, by men like
Moses, Samuel, David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. Let me just
give you three of these men and what God told them to write about
Himself. Moses. Moses, that great prophet,
Moses. In Deuteronomy 32, listen as
God speaks through the writing of Moses and describes Himself. This is the living and true God.
He who is God. He says in Deuteronomy 32, 39,
and I quote, See now that I, even I, am He. There is no God
with me. I kill and I make a life. I wound and I heal. Neither is there any that can
deliver out of my hand. End of quote. God is saying here
very clearly, there is no one who rules over anything but me. Paul wrote in Romans 15, the
powers, all powers that be are ordained of God. There is no
power but of God. No one has any rule, any control
over anything. No one does anything except by
the absolute power and will and order of God Almighty. God even says that the king's
heart is in the hands of the Lord. As the rivers of water,
he turneth it whithersoever he will. Every ruler, even the rulers
of the nations, their hearts are in the hands of God Almighty
to do with them as He pleases. He says, I am God. There is no
God with me. He says, I kill. Though wars
and famines and disasters and diseases are the means by which
men and women die and children, it is God that kills. That's right. That's what he
said. I kill. All souls are mine. I make alive,
he says. God is the author of life, the
giver of life. He says, I kill and I make alive. I wound, He says, and I heal.
Sicknesses, diseases, whatever it may be, God says, I send them. Whatever the means may be, germs,
whatever it may be, it is God in His infinitely wise and incomprehensible
will that sends it according to His purpose, and I heal. Though
doctors and medicines and so forth may be the means, it is
God that heals. Why is all this? Why do we say
all this? Well, for the glory of God. The glory of God for
all things were created by Him, for Him, by Him, through Him,
to Him, for Him. He upholds all things by the
Word of His power. This is the living and true God. And this is the comfort of God's
people, those who know that God truly is God, reigning, ruling,
controlling all things. And they are in His hands and
everything and everyone is in His hands. They have peace. They
have comfort. They rest, they do not fret,
they do not fear as other people do who have no God, or those
who pray to a God who cannot say. Religion says that God is
a bystander in these things, that God doesn't want these things
to happen. Then what good is it? What peace
can there be? What hope can there be in a God
who lets things happen to us that He didn't want to happen?
No, no, no. Our God is God. The God of the
Bible is God for the comfort of the people of God and the
praise of His almighty power and His glory. In Psalm 115,
David tells us, Psalm 115, David is asked by some, by the heathen,
by the unbelievers, they say, Where is your God, David? Where
is your God? And he says in verse 3, David
says in Psalm 115, verse 3, Our God is in the heavens. He hath
done whatsoever he hath pleased. The God of the heathen, the God
of most religion today, can only be God if men let Him. He can
only do what man lets him do. That's not the God of the Bible. That's not the true God. Isaiah
43 says, God will work, and who shall let Him? David said, Our
God, who is God, is in the heavens, reigning and ruling. He is the
one who sits on the circle of the earth. And He hath done,
and is doing, and forever will do, whatsoever. He hath pleased. In Isaiah, another faithful witness,
a man sent by God to tell us who God is. And he says in Isaiah
45, verse 5, I am the Lord, there is none else. There is no God
beside me. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me. that they may know from the rising
of the sun, from the east and from the west, there is none
beside me. I am the Lord, there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. Solomon himself said, God hath
made all things for himself, even the wicked, for the day
of evil. You see, I don't understand this
preacher. No man can. Can now by searching find out
God under perfection? No, we cannot. But this we must
do, believe and bow to this God. The fear of the Lord. You see,
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This God is the God
to be feared. This is the God to be called
on for mercy, for salvation. to be repented unto and called
upon in faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord reveal the
true and living God to you is my prayer. Tune in next week
as we look at Jesus Christ whom He sent. Amen.