If you would, please turn to
the first epistle of John. And I shall endeavor to continue
from the introduction bit I did last week, and I'm probably gonna
repeat myself. I don't mind doing it, I hope
y'all don't mind, but it works for me to kinda get my head in
the right place. But I do wanna read. 1 John chapter
two and verse three. Because we're gonna be lucky
if I get through the whole verse today. And hereby, we do know that we
know him if we keep his commandments. I'm just gonna stop right there. Because like I said, I don't
know that I'm gonna get past the first half of the verse this morning.
But it starts off, well, I'm not gonna do that yet. As I said
last week, the overall theme that I see in the epistle of
1 John is knowledge. Specifically, our knowledge,
believers' knowledge of Jesus Christ, of God the Father, and
of the Holy Spirit. Now, there is another major underlying
theme to this epistle, and that is also related to this part,
the knowledge of God. Love. There's a lot of words
about love in this epistle. Love of Christ, love of the Father,
and love of the brethren. And Paul has a lot, I mean John,
has a lot to say about love also in this epistle. But I do wanna
point out that everything starts here. From hereby, we do know
that we know him. Our knowing him is going to lead
to every other we know in this epistle. Our knowing him is gonna
lead to the love of the brethren. It's gonna lead to the love of
the father, to the knowledge of the father. Believers do love
God. Believers love Christ and believers
love one another. However, John is very clear in
this epistle later on that we love him because he first loved
us. Now notice very carefully, I
didn't say that God loves everyone. Here's a reason for that. He
doesn't. The scripture never states that
God loves everyone in the world. It says God loved the world,
but that's the word cosmos. But God's love is also specifically
states in the scripture is totally and completely in his son. And he loves us because he has
chosen us in His Son from before the foundation of the world.
The love that God has for us is in His Son. It's in Jesus
Christ and nowhere else. And everything John writes in
this epistle flows from the love of God. Because John and Paul
both are very specific. The Father loves His Son. Jesus Christ, the righteous. The love of the God of all creation
has for his people is in his son. We are loved in Christ Jesus. We believers are loved in Christ
Jesus and we know it. We know it. We know the love
of God. But we, even as believers, are
not lovable in and of ourselves. His love's in His Son. And if
you're in Christ, you're in His love. I love that, I do, I think
that's great. Therefore, the love of God is
shed abroad in our hearts. And what that means, poured out
in our hearts. His love, which is without limit,
is the source, the fountain of our love for him and his people,
our brethren, the brethren. We love because he loves. We
know because he's given us an understanding. Because God is
the source of all love and all knowledge, he's the source. That's why I picked that song
this morning. Come thou fount of every blessing. He's the fountain. We get the flow. But it comes
from him. And sometimes we can spread a
little bit. But it's a pale shadow of what
he does. And it's only because of what he has done and what
he is doing. And from that fountain, we get
everything we need. Now, all that being said, after
I talked about chapter one last week, John is also very clear
here about this. No one, not even us, now, comes
to know him without knowing their own personal sin and sins. I was listening to a message
on the way up here from Henry Mahan and he said a thing that
I thought bears repeating, okay? If you think you're unworthy,
you're right. But that's a good thought. That's
what John is telling us here. That's a good thought. The title of the message is,
Honest People Don't Go to Hell. If you know you're a sinner and
you know your sins, that's a gift from God. That's a gift from
God. Everyone doesn't know that. But we do. We know him. And I said the spirit of bondage,
that we haven't received again the spirit of bondage what to
fear. But we did receive it once. Now
we've received the spirit of adoption, whereby we can cry,
Abba, Father. But if you don't go through the
spirit of bondage unto fear, you ain't never gonna see the
spirit of adoption. If you don't know your sin and your sins,
you're never gonna know God. You're deceiving yourselves and
you're calling God a liar. Now if we confess our sins, he's
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. Yes, that is true. but I cannot
confess all my sins. So then John writes in chapter
two and verse one, and if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father. There's no way I can confess
all my sins, that's all I'd get done all day long and I'd never
be finished. And then a morning would come and I'd have to confess
then. We do confess our sins, we are. Not to each other, not
to a man. Because confessing to a man's
not gonna do you any good. It might make you feel good for
a minute to get something off your chest, okay? But that's
not gonna do your soul any good. We're to confess our sins to
God, not to man. We can confess our faults one
to another, that's fine. James says that, I believe. We
don't confess our sins, we confess to him. And if we sin, when we
sin, he is still our advocate. And then that next statement,
hereby, we do know. And I talked a little bit about
this, that we know him, but the world doesn't. We know him, and the world doesn't. John's strictly laying a division
here. throughout this whole epistle. This is we, this is us, this
is ye. There's never a word about them
as far as this stuff goes. We know him. The brethren, his
brethren know him and the beauty of it is we know that we know
him. I love that part, I do. After
chapter one, you know, I write these things to you that your
joy may be full. And by the way, you're a sinner
and you sin. But we have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and hereby we know,
because if you're a believer, a true believer has been through
this, knowing their sin, and they're still in it. There's
no reprieve from your sin in this world. There's forgiveness
with God. But that publican prayed, God
forgive me, the sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner now. I'll be a sinner tomorrow. But
I have an advocate with the Father. Only sinners can know Jesus Christ. Now the most important part of
this statement This is what I titled this sermon last week. I guess
this is part two. We know him. We know him. The most important
part about this is him. Him. You gotta know the right
him. Because who's Paul? I'm so used
to talking about Paul. Who is John referencing here?
Well, you have to go back to the end of verse one of chapter
two. Jesus Christ, the righteous. I love that title, the righteous,
because there's no other righteous. Any righteousness you have is
in him, or you have no righteousness at all. All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags in God's sight. It might look pretty good to
men. I still remember what Moose said about that when he preached back here last
summer. He says not only do we talk about
our righteousnesses, he says we put them on, sew them together,
make a coat out of them, go walking around in them. But what we're
wearing is filthy rags. And believers know that. But
the way I wanna approach this verse is I'm gonna ask, I got
five questions here. Referencing we know him. And the five questions are very
simple. They are who, how, why, what, and where. First of all, who do we know? Like I said, this is the most
important part. Because the world doesn't know
him. Who's the him? Jesus Christ,
the righteous. Oh, they know Jesus. A lot of
them got their own Jesus. Just listen to their description
of him one day, and you'll understand. They're talking about their Jesus,
and they're not talking about the Jesus Christ of the Bible.
They're not talking about Jesus Christ, the righteous. John writes that we know him,
him. We, being those who believe,
know a person. Well, actually, no, wait a minute.
We know the person, the person. We know the man, the God, Jesus
Christ, the righteous. John uses that personal pronoun
here because this person is singular. This person is singular because
John is writing of the specific one whom we know. Like I said, the world doesn't
know him. We know him. We know him. We know him. So what do we know
of him? We know he is the one that was
born king. He was born king. He was king
before he came. He was born king while he's here.
He's king now and he shall ever be king. We know that a child was born
and the son was given at the same time. Jesus had never set
foot on this planet till he was born. But the son of God is eternal. The child was born, but that
son, that son came down from heaven. He's always been with
the father. He's the eternal son. That's the one whom we know. Jesus was born on this planet,
made of a woman, made under the law, what? To redeem them that
are under the law. The blessed son was given, the
eternal son is just that, eternal. And he was announced to the shepherds
the night of his birth as just exactly what sinners need. Tonight, born in the city of
David, is a Savior. The Savior. I need a Savior. I need a Savior. But those angels
didn't stop there. That angel that made that announcement
didn't stop there. He says, is born a Savior, which
is Christ the Lord. The Lord. The Lord. Oh, I like that. Who do sinners
need? A savior, a savior. Sinner must have a savior because
this is the thing. We know he's shown us our own
unworthiness through the spirit of bondage to fear. We know our unworthy, we've got,
I mean, now we have a shallow version of it. He sees with perfect
light. And guess what? That demands
that we have to have a perfect sacrifice, a perfect savior. And no one is perfect but the
Lord, the Lord of glory. Isaiah prophesied him. that the
Redeemer's coming. He calls him the Redeemer, comma,
the Lord of hosts is his name. The only one who can save, can
be a true Savior is the Lord. The only one. Who do we know? We know the Savior who is Christ,
the Lord. What does it say in Romans? It
says we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus Christ. And we confess it with our hearts
and our mouths. Because if you don't know him
as Lord, you do not know him. I mean, we're surrounded all
about it. I mean, I've heard it for over
30 years when I cared to listen. I've kind of tried to quit listening.
Sometimes they're better than others. Make Jesus your personal
savior. And then you can make him your
Lord later. It doesn't work that way. He
doesn't work that way. Because salvation is of the Lord. It's his workmanship that we
are. You're not gonna know him as
Savior if you don't know he's Lord. It's just that simple. Because if he's not your Lord,
he is not your Savior. We know him. And we know him
right now as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who hath
saved us, his people. That's who we know. It says we
know him. This is who John's talking about.
He's talking about the Lord of glory. He's not talking about
some pitiful Jesus who wants you to let him have his way. That's not the way God works.
You will never see anything even close to that in the scripture.
It's not there. I know it's preached from a lot
of pulpits, but it's not in the scripture, and it's not the truth
of God, which is in Jesus Christ, the righteous. That's who we know. And that's
who the religious world doesn't know. That's who the religious
world doesn't preach, and that's who the religious world doesn't
confess, the Lord Jesus Christ. So the second question, how do
we know him? I got a one word answer. Grace. Grace, okay? Simply put, in one
sentence, we know him by revelation of the Holy Spirit. Paul wrote about it, God separated
him from his mother's womb. Called him by his grace. But
then you can do the next verse, it says, to reveal his son in
me. God has to reveal his son to
everyone, individually, to believers. How can a dead, alienated sinner
know God? There's only one way, by revelation
from God. Matthew 11 verse 25 states this. At that time Jesus answered and
said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because
thou hast hid these things from the wise and the prudent, and
hast revealed them unto babes. God reveals his Son in every
one of his children. Those sinners who know him are
those to whom he has been revealed and no others. Man does not have a correct knowledge
of God in his heart. I've heard that too, you know.
I've heard people preach it. There's
a divine spark in every man. And we use the gospel and witnessing
to people and talking to people and preaching to people to fan
that divine spark. There isn't one. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God, no, not one. But the Bible says people seek
after God. Yes it does. And it says we are
to seek after God. But it's not in us naturally. We seek him only when he's found
us. Just like we love him because
he loved us. It comes down from the Father
of lights. That's where all the good and
perfect gifts come from. Matthew 16 and verse 15 said
this. He saith unto them, this is Christ
speaking, whom say ye that I am? He'd asked them who they thought,
who other people said he was. Then he asked them, he says,
who do you say that I am? And Simon Peter answered. This
is Matthew 16, 16. And said, thou art to Christ,
the Son of the living God. Verse 17, and Jesus answered
and said unto him, blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for flesh
and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. It is a blessing from the Father
to know the Son. And we who know that we know
him are blessed of God the Father. By the Father of lights. Because
we can only know him according to the grace and the power of
God. Ephesians one states that. We
believe according to the workings of His mighty power. Not according to our common sense,
not according to our educated selves, not according to our,
oh, the feelings in our heart. We believe according to the workings
of His mighty power. That's how we know him, by revelation. Because the Holy Spirit has revealed
the things of God to us. How he has given us believers
his spirit. If I go away, if I don't go away,
the comforter's not gonna come. But if I go away, the comforter
is going to come. The Holy Spirit of God. Now,
He's with you. He's gonna be in you. And right
now, every believer has inside them, and this is, still blows
my mind. Inside is the Holy Spirit of
God. In a man. How is that possible? Power of God. The power of God,
it's the only way. John's not writing about lost
sheep in this book. He's writing about those that
the good shepherd has brought into the fold. And he's writing
to those that the good shepherd has brought into the fold. We
know him. The third part I wanna say about
how we know him is we know him through his gospel. Preached, Romans 10. Verses 13 and 14. I think I marked
this. If I didn't, I meant to. Four, Romans 10, verse 13. Four, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. How then shall they call
on him? And whom they have not believed.
And how shall they believe in him? Of whom? Hmm. of whom they have not heard.
And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they
preach except they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. The preaching of the gospel is
the way God has chosen to do this. That's the only reason we do
this. God said to. The truth of his gospel, the
spirit of God will reveal it to you inside. I don't know any other way to explain
this because this happened to me and it happens to me now. And as far as I hope, it's gonna
continue happening to me. His spirit bears witness with
our spirit that these things are so. These things are true. You understand? I don't know
how to say it. Because people think, well, you
just believe that. No, I know it, Mason. I know
it. I don't know how I know it other
than the spirit shows me. But this is the thing. I've heard
people read a scripture, and I know that scripture's so, because
it speaks to me inside, in my head, in my mind. Not an audible voice, but it's
there, and I know the scripture's so, and then I see there's a
man that read that scripture, he starts explaining it, and
starts not saying the same thing the scripture says. and the spirit
will bear witness that that man's not telling the truth. That the
scripture's right and man's wrong. And I'm gonna tell you this right
now, that's the way it always is. If I don't agree with the
scripture, it's because I'm wrong, not the scripture. Not the word
of God. The problem always lies with
man. And if I make a mistake, that's
just it, me making a mistake. There's no mistake in the scripture.
But that is something that I believe every believer, and I've talked
to other believers, Mason, you are nodding your head, others
have too, that this is the way it is. When you speak the truth
of God, you know the truth of God. Somebody hears it, they
know the truth of God. When you hear it spoken, How
can they believe in him of whom they have not heard? Now, we are saved by grace, through
faith, and that none of yourselves. But we believe by the faith God
gave us. And we believe him, his word,
his truth. And his people, will receive
his gospel. They will. The next thing, why
do we know him? The next question, why do we
know him? Well, first of all, why did God
hide and reveal what I read in Matthew 11? Why did God hide
and reveal? Christ said, I thank you, Lord,
that you've hid these things from some and revealed them to
others. Why would God do something like that? Well, the next verse
I didn't read purposely so I could read it here. Matthew 11 verse
26. Even so, Father, for so it seemed
good in thy sight, in God's sight. Why do we know him? Because that's
good in the sight of God. that we know the Son. We are told, quoted a bit of it, where the
Apostle Paul said, when it pleased God, who brought me forth from
my mother's womb and called me by his grace, what? To reveal
his Son in me. It pleases God and it's good
in His sight that we know Him. Do you have to know any more
than that? I got one more. I got another one. The question
is why? Well, here's the last thing I'm
gonna say about the why. Our salvation, our knowing our
sins, our knowing our sin, our knowing Him, glorifies God. You don't have to take my word
for it. John 17 verse four, Christ said, I have glorified thee on
the earth, I have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do. What's he talking about? Call
his name Jesus. for he shall, what, save his
people from their sins. That's the work he came to do.
Redemption. Redeeming of that which was lost. Redeeming of that which was chosen
before the foundation of the world. Mm, that glorifies God. Isaiah 60 and verse 21 put it
this way. Thy people also shall be all
righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, these are the
words of the Lord, that I may be glorified. The children of God, sinners
all, Everyone a sinner. Glorify God because they are
the work of his hands. We are saved by grace through
faith and that not of ourselves, it is the gift of God. We are
his planting. We are his workmanship. We are
his work and we are his creation. We are the work of his hands,
and God is glorified in that. Christ said it, John 17 and verse
eight. For I have given unto them the
words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have
believed that thou didst send me. Here's a tough verse for
the television. I pray for them, I pray not for
the world. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. He's praying to the Father. And
all mine are thine, and thine are mine, and I, Christ said,
Jesus Christ said, I am glorified in them. You know who that is? That's us. I pray not just for these people,
but for those that will believe on his name, on their words,
that they wrote of me. We're there. I don't know how
to explain it, and I'm not taking any pride in it, but this is
the truth, and I can rejoice in it, that Jesus Christ is glorified
in me, by me. by his work in me, not by anything
I've done, he's glorified in you if you know him. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that just amazing? The next question, what does
it mean to know him? I've got a sentence here that might sound boastful also,
but it's not. I'll tell you what it means to
know him. We have the mind of Christ. That's from 1 Corinthians
chapter two, the very end of it. Well now, you don't think
much of yourself, do you? No, I really don't. But I'm gonna
tell you this. I think a great deal of my God.
I think a great deal of my Lord and my Savior, Jesus Christ the
righteous. And his apostle penned those
words down. In first Corinthians two and
verse 16, that's what it says. We have, have, now. Not we're waiting on. The religious
world is waiting on everything. I don't have to wait for this.
It says we have the mind of Christ. And the word used there is translated
two words, two different ways. Usually it's translated either
mind or it's translated, here it is, understanding. The understanding
of Christ. The very same word is used in
Luke 24 and 25 when he said, then opened he their understanding. Same word, mind, that they might
understand the scriptures. And he opens and no man shuts.
Doesn't matter what it is he opens, if he opens it, it's open.
And if he opens their understanding that they understand the scriptures,
guess what? They're gonna understand the scriptures. And he opened
it, ain't no man shutting it, not even me. Not even you, not
even you. This is the part that I, I can
doubt and I have doubted and I probably will again, my part
in this. That I'm a part of this. That
he has actually done this for me. But you understand, by his
grace, I have never doubted him. I never doubted the scripture.
I doubt my understanding of it occasionally. Way too often to
mention. But this is the thing. He's perfect,
not me. The understanding I do have,
I understand. He gave it. The misunderstanding is mine. Anything I miss, it's my fault.
Anything I don't get, it's my fault. But our knowing of God
The fact that we know him is because of him opening our understanding. That's what it means to know
God. We know that we know him. And how do we know? Because he's
opened our understanding. Because unless he has opened
your understanding, it's still closed. And it's so tightly closed,
The God of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't
believe the gospel. You understand, I mean, we're
bad enough to deceive ourselves. We are. We're bad enough to deceive
ourselves. That's what he said here. If
we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. And we're good at
self-delusion. But once he's opened, no man
shuts. No man shuts. What does it mean to know him?
It means you know he is the fount of every blessing. And he has given us an understanding. Why? That we know him. It's in Hebrews. Second thing, what does it mean
to know him? To know him is eternal life. I gotta quit. Religious people have the wrong
idea about eternal life. Big surprise, I know. Eternal life is now. It's now. Right now. See, I get the impression
that a lot of Baptists are waiting for eternal life. No, no, if
you don't get it here, you ain't gonna get it hereafter. I mean, that's just the basic facts.
He that liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this? Do you believe
that? Do you believe that? That's what
he told Martha about Lazarus. Why? Because if Lazarus believed
on Christ, he'd never be able to die. Now he raised him from
the dead. He died again, but he raised
him from the dead. But the statement is the truth.
If you live and you believe in Christ, this Christ, Jesus Christ,
the righteous, you have right now everlasting life. And he told us what this everlasting,
eternal life is, in a nutshell. In John 17, verse three. This
is one of those, this is. There's a lot of those in the
Gospel of John. And this is, words of Christ, praying to the
Father, this is life eternal. That they might know The only
true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent We know that we know him And
we know we have eternal life right now Right now because this
is eternal life Now this body is going to change and My mind,
I hope, is going to be vastly improved. My memory, everything
I've got right now appears cursed. Well, that's because it is. But one day, one day, this body
is gonna put on, this mortal's gonna put on immortality. This
corruption's gonna put on incorruption. And there's gonna be a changing
in a moment and a twinkling of an eye. The dead in Christ are
gonna rise and we which alive and remain are gonna be changed.
But this don't change. We're still gonna know him. Because
we know him now. And guess what? We're gonna know
him better, but it's still gonna be the same him. It's still gonna
be the same him. He doesn't change. We're gonna
change. But we have eternal life now. We're not waiting for it. We're
not waiting for eternal life to come. It's here. It's here. And we know because
we know him. The last question is where. Where
does this happen? Wherever you are. That's my answer. Where does this happen that we
know him, that we come to know him? Where does this happen?
It happens wherever you are. Now, right now, if you're in
him, if you believe him, you know that you know him right
now, right here. But when this happened for the
first time, it happened wherever you were. Wait a minute, aren't we supposed
to come to Christ? Yes, you are. That's very good,
you are. Jesus Christ said it in the Gospels,
come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll
give you rest. Now, here's a biblical fact.
We are never told in the scriptures anywhere, really, to go to Christ. He says, come to me, come to
me. I'm not, you don't say go to
Christ, you say come to Christ. What's the end of that thing?
That change, I'll throw this in for free. After that change,
that moment, that twinkling of the eye, the dead in Christ shall
rise first, and we that are alive in the rain shall be changed,
and we're gonna ascend up, and so shall we ever be with the
Lord. We are told to come to Christ,
but here's how this works, and this is what most pulpits, most
preachers, most denominations won't tell you. You come to Christ
Jesus exactly where and when he finds you, and not before. It is not of him that runneth. It's not of him that will it.
It's not of the flesh. It's of God shows mercy. The shepherd sought his lost
sheep. And he sought until he found
it. That's us. That's us. Jesus Christ came to seek and
to save that which was lost. And that is those who were chosen
in him before the foundation of the world. Jew and Gentile,
bond or free, rich or poor, male and female. They were his before he came
and you were his before he came to you. because the good shepherd said,
I've got other sheep I have that are not in this fold, and them
I must bring. He makes them to be heavy laden. He makes them to labor. And then he gives them rest.
They'll come to him. He seeks and finds his lost sheep,
and they come to him, for they know him. And hereby we do know that we
know him. That's all I got time for today,
I went way over. Do you ever get the idea from
the way Walter and I preach but salvation is not up to you.
I hope so. That's what we're shooting for.
You understand? We wanna give God all the glory,
because it's his. It's his. Salvation, we say it,
and by God's grace, we try to preach it like we mean it. Salvation
is all of grace. and it's none of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. We know that we know him, how? By his grace. By his work. By his will. According to his purpose. Isn't that just amazing? And somehow, we're glorifying God here by
the fact that he saved us and that we know that we know him. Our God is glorified. Our Lord
Jesus Christ is glorified and the Father is glorified. And
we get to rejoice. And that ought to make you joyful,
that we know him and he's glorified. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful
for this day, this time. But most of all, thankful to
you for all you have done, all you are doing, and all that you
will continue to do. Thank you for saving us by your
grace. Through our Lord Jesus Christ,
His work, His will, His way, help us to go forth in His name. In Christ's name we pray, amen.