Alright, we'll be right here
in 1st John chapter 5 to begin with. Last week I brought a message
concerning the knowledge of God having to do with that passage
that is a prophecy of Jeremiah in Jeremiah 31 talking about
the New Covenant, the New Testament days and which was repeated in
the book of Hebrews chapter 8 where the Lord said they, through the
prophet, that they shall all know me from the least of them
to the greatest. And I was talking to you about
an article that I read where a fellow seemed to be putting
down knowledge and indicating in some way that a sinner can
be saved apart from knowledge, that knowledge wasn't necessary.
And I know people can argue about degrees of knowledge and how
much knowledge and all of that. But I wanna talk to you today
a little bit. I just wanna just follow that up with another message
on this concerning knowledge. Knowledge is salvation. And as
I put in the bulletin, the title is Knowledge and Eternal Life.
Knowledge and Eternal Life. And I thought about this in studying
for this message this week. You know, I'm not a debater. I don't go to formal public religious
debates. you know, where you got one guy
on one side and another guy on the other side and they, I don't
do it that way. It's not that I'm afraid to,
but I just don't, I don't think that's the way the gospel is
to be presented. Now I'll talk to people about the gospel and
sometimes I'll dispute with them in the synagogues and all of
that like Paul did. But I thought about this, if
I were in a debate on this issue, I really feel like I wouldn't
have to say one thing on my own. All I would have to do is just
read scripture. I mean, just read it. I'll never
forget years ago when Brother Mahan, up in Ashland, my former
pastor, when he was preaching at a certain church, and he admitted
to everybody, he didn't preach the gospel then, he preached
freewillism. And then there was an evangelist came in who preached
the sovereignty of God, electing grace, particular redemption,
all the gospel doctrines. And the Lord actually converted
a pastor, a Baptist pastor, taught him the gospel, and he began
preaching it. And he began having opposition from many in the congregation. And one morning in his what we
called Sunday school class, He got up and just started reading
Romans 9. He didn't say anything about
it, except the only words he used of his own was, turn to.
And he began reading Romans 9, and one of the men in the audience
stood up and said, Preacher, I don't believe what you're saying.
And Brother Mahan said, well, I'm not saying anything. I'm
just reading Scripture. And he said, well, I just don't
believe that. OK. And that's where you've got to
bring people to. What does God's Word say? Because this is our
authority. And God's Word says that knowledge
is salvation, and when God saves a sinner, He saves them by Christ,
who is the Savior, through the knowledge that He gives them,
that He teaches them. And it's not knowledge that is
just for the intellectual elite. It's not knowledge that you have
to be an Einstein to understand. Einstein himself probably didn't
understand it at all. So it's not just how high your
IQ is, that has nothing to do with it. And think about this,
you know. God, through Christ, by his spirit,
is the master teacher. I don't care how hard you are,
how dumb you are, how smart you are, God can get the job done. You believe that? They shall
all know me, he said. All, not just the theological
elite, but they shall all know, not just the pastors and the
preachers and the seminary teachers, they shall all know me from the
least to the greatest. Think about that. I heard a preacher
one time, you know, In a conference, somebody had
said something about him being from the state of West Virginia. And there was a put down. Of
course, you know, West Virginians, you know, they say almost heaven,
West Virginia. But it was a put down. And he
got up and first thing he said, well, I didn't ride into town
on the back of a turnip truck. And I thought, well, what if
you did? Jonah rode into town in the belly of a whale. Didn't
he? But that doesn't matter. Those
things that impress people, not many mighty, not many noble,
that's not impressive to God at all. God is the master teacher. And knowledge and eternal life
go together. And we read this last week, John
17 and verse three, Christ said it, this is life eternal. Here it is now. You wanna know
what life eternal is? He said that they might know
thee, know thee, know God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.
Eternal life is knowing God through as he is revealed in the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. In light of my knowledge that
he gives me of my sinfulness. Well, look at this 1 John 5 passage.
He says in verse 10, he that believeth on the Son of God hath
the witness in himself. Believe what? On the Son of God. Who is that? Well, that's Christ,
that's the God-man. And what is this witness? Well,
it's the knowledge that God has given that person And it says,
he that believeth not God hath made him a liar because he believeth
not the record. Now where do we get this witness
from? We get it in the power of the Holy Spirit through the
Word of God. That's the record. There's a
record. It's the written Word of God.
It tells me who Jesus Christ is and what he has done, why
he did it, where he is now. Those are simple truths. Who
is he? He's God manifest in the flesh.
I've had people imply that, well, because we can't wrap our little
minds around that truth, and it is a glorious truth, it's
a mind-boggling truth, therefore we don't have to know anything
about it. But that's not true. He is God, and he is man. I know it's true, and it still
flabbergasts me. But that's okay. But I know it,
because that's what the record said. He's the word made flesh.
He's Emmanuel, God with us. He's God manifest in the flesh,
had to be. He had to be God because he came
to work out the righteousness of God. He had to be man because
he had to die in order to do that. And so he's God man. And he says this is the record.
that God gave of His Son. God gave us a record. Verse 11
says, this is the record that God had given to us eternal life
and this life is in His Son. You want eternal life? It's in
this person. And God gave us a record of this
person. What do I know about this person? The only thing I
know about this person is what the record tells me. And the
reason I believe it is because the Holy Spirit has convinced
me of it. He convinced me of it. That's
why I cannot deny it. That's why I cannot ignore it.
And that's why I cannot leave it. That's right. I know it's so. If I would stand
up here and deny it so, that doesn't make it not so. It is true. Verse 12, he that
hath the son hath life. How do I know I have the son?
What does it mean to have him? What does that mean? Does it
mean I've got a copyright on him or a patent on him? No. It means I believe in him. He's
my Lord. He's my Savior. He's my righteousness. He's my Redeemer. He's my sanctification. He's my wisdom. I don't have
anything else. But if you have him, you have
life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Verse
13, these things have I written unto you that believe on the
name of the Son of God. He has a name. Now, name here
is not a label. It's not just something you call
somebody. Name here has to do with his
character, his nature, and his work. His name shall be called
Jesus. What does that mean? Well, here's
the knowledge of that name. He shall save his people from
their sins. That's his name. Doesn't say he shall try to save
his people, or he'll save his people if they'll cooperate.
No, that's not his name. That's a fake name. That's a
counterfeit, you see. He shall be called Jehovah Sid
Canu, the Lord our righteousness. That's his name. The Lord will
provide. That's His name. The Lord is
with us. The Lord is our banner. We can
go all the way through the scripture. He's the seed of woman. That's
His name. What does that mean? That means
He wasn't born of man. He wasn't born in sin. He didn't fall in
Adam in His humanity. He was born of the Holy Spirit
in the womb of the Virgin. His name, He's the Lamb of God.
Worthy is the Lamb that was what? Slain for our sins. That's his name. And you could
go on and on. He is our theology. To know him. Paul said that I may know him
and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is
of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ. That's the genitive case. That
means it's not talking about faith in Christ. Now we must
have faith in Christ. John's talking about that. But
when it comes to establishing the ground and assurance of the
salvation of his people, we need to talk about the faith of Christ. His faithfulness to do what he
promised to do according to the record before the foundation
of the world. He promised to do it before the
foundation of the world. That's salvation. And it says
that you may know that you have eternal life. How can I know
I have eternal life? Or do I have Him? I want to know
that. How about you? Well, I can only know it if I
have Him. And I can only have Him if I believe the record that
God gave of Him. Now tell me, doesn't all that
involve salvation knowledge? Revealed knowledge? He says that
you may believe on the name of the Son of God. Verse 14, this
is the confidence that we have in Him. See, our confidence is
not in ourselves. Our confidence is in Him, that
if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Now,
most people say, well, He's talking about prayer here, and that would
be included, but He's talking about salvation too. If you ask
for salvation according to His will, you'll have it. Christ said that, all that the
Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me, what?
I will in no wise cast out. But the key here is according
to his will. Now that holds true in prayer.
If I ask for something and God has willed it, I'll have it.
But many times I ask for things that God has not willed, don't
I? You do too. But in salvation, and I believe
that's the crux of what he's talking about here, in salvation,
If you ask for it according to God's will, you'll have it. In
fact, if you ask for it according to God's will, if you read the
Bible and have any knowledge of it, you'll find out you already
have it. Did you know that? Even before you know it. But what is his will now? Well,
here's his will. God loves everybody, Christ died
for everybody, now it's up to, is that his will? Well, where
do you read that in the Bible, in the record? I told a preacher
a couple weeks ago, I said, where in the Bible do
you find any true Christian evangelist standing up before a group of
people and saying blanketly, God loves you, Christ died for
you, now you make the decision or the rest is up to you. Where
do you find that in any example of evangelism from Genesis to
Revelation? And the answer is you don't find
it anywhere. Because that's not God's will,
his revealed will. God has a secret will and it's
gonna be done no matter what. But his revealed will is this,
go in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
I preached to 30 of them last night. Preaching to you this
morning. Preach on television. Now, I can't save any of them. And there's none of them that
I preach to who can save themselves. But I know who can. I know God
can save them. And I know how he does it. He
says, the gospel is the power of God and the salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also, for therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith. You know what from
faith is there? It's knowledge revealed. To faith,
that's knowledge believed. From knowledge revealed by God
through the Spirit in the Word. And it comes through sometimes
pitiful preachers like me. To faith, God-given faith, for
by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
boast. There's the record. From faith to faith, for as it
is written, the just, the justified, shall live by faith. They know
what God says, they know how God saves, and they believe it
by the power of the Holy Spirit. I preached on that passage last
night, People in India. We'll look back at 1 John 5.
He says in verse 15, and if we know that he hear us whatsoever
we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired
of him. Now I still believe that this emphasis here is salvation,
but it does include prayer, but think about this about prayer. How do we pray? You know the
two keys to prayer, as far as a believer is concerned, Number
one, we pray unto God through Jesus Christ, our great high
priest, on the basis of what he accomplished. Hebrews 4.14
says that. Seeing them, we have a great
high priest who has passed through unto the heavens. How did he
pass? Now listen, that's not saying,
well, we pray unto Christ who's just up there. He is up there,
he's seated at the right hand, but he passed through. He went a certain way unto the
Father. How did he do that? The way of
the cross. The way of death. The way of
righteousness. The way of his death, burial,
and resurrection. That's how he went there. So
that's the basis of prayer. Christ and his blood. And then
the second key to prayer is in this phrase we've already dealt
with, according to his will. Lord, thy will be done. I look
at this prayer list, and I say, Lord, please heal Brother Winston. Heal our sister Patricia. Heal
any of you if you're sick. I pray for you. I heal you. But
here's the key. Thy will be done. I don't know what his will is
for me, for you, in this world. I know what His will is for the
salvation of His people. This is the will of God, that
you believe on Him whom God hath sent. And what is it to believe
on Him? Look at the record. You see that? Well, let's go on. Verse 16,
if any man see his brother sin a sin, which is not unto death. Now, I love the King James translation. But sometimes, people the way
they read, of course I mean any translation, if the Lord doesn't
open your eyes, give you eyes to see, you're not gonna see
it anyway. But there's a little article in here, A, that shouldn't
be there because it's not in the original. Look at it, verse
16. If any man see his brother sin,
sin which is not unto death. He shall ask and he shall give
him life for them that sin not unto death. There is sin unto
death. I do not say that he shall pray
for it. All unrighteousness is sin. And there is sin not unto
death. What in the world is he talking
about? Well, you've got to go to the whole context of 1 John. And back in chapter 2, he talked
about those who apostatized from the faith. He's talking about
men and women who claimed to believe Christ, claimed to believe
the truth of Christ. These weren't men and women who
claimed to believe a false gospel now. These were men and women
who claimed to believe the true gospel to the point that other
true believers embraced them and had fellowship with them,
but for some reason, whatever reason, it may have been persecution,
threats on their life, and whatever reason, it may have been just
love of the world, for some reason, they turned away from the gospel
of Christ, the true Christ, forsook Him completely, and fell away
from the faith, apostatized. Okay? You say, is that even possible? Yes, it is. How do I know that?
Because I believe the record. That's how I know that. And John
says this about them. He says they were never saved
to begin with. They had never been born again
by the Spirit. They never truly knew Christ. They claimed to. And in our minds,
they may have looked like they did, but you know, we don't have
the wherewithal to see into everybody's heart. They looked like believers. But
they never were, John said. Now, when John wrote that back
over in 1 John 2, understand he was writing by inspiration
of the Spirit. He wasn't just giving his opinion. He said they never were converted.
How many times have you heard me say this? If the Holy Spirit
has given you the true knowledge of Christ, and brought you to
believe it. He's convinced you to the point
that you cannot deny it, you cannot ignore it, and you cannot
leave it. And that's what John says about
in 1 John 3. When he talks about over in 1
John 3, he makes this statement in verse 9. Whosoever is born
of God does not commit sin. He's talking about a specific
sin of apostasy there. That's the context. They cannot... If you're born of God, you cannot
leave Christ. You may stray away for a little
while, and you may get down in the dumps and act like a fool
sometimes, but He will not let you go. He will not let you apostatize. That is, fall away completely,
as Paul said in Hebrews 10, unto perdition. We are not of them
who fall away unto perdition. We may act like idiots sometimes,
but we won't fall away unto perdition. And so he says in verse nine
of chapter three, whosoever is born of God does not commit sin,
for his seed remaineth in him. His seed is his children, God's
true children, God's elect, the redeemed ones, the justified,
to whom God will not impute iniquity, to whom God imputes righteousness,
to whom God has given faith and brought to repentance, he says
they remain in him. And he cannot sin, he cannot
fall away, because he's born of God. And what that means literally
is that he cannot fall away because God won't let him. Christ will
not let us go. He said, no one shall pluck him
out of my father's hand. So when he gets over here concluding
his letter in 1 John 5, he talks about there's a sin unto death,
and he says, all sin is unto death. Did you know that? People
say they agree that a sin unto death, and they start looking
for some specific sin, which they really don't know what it
is. It's kind of like up to you, how you feel on a given day or
something like that. And they call it the unpardonable
sin. All sin is unpardonable and unforgivable without Christ. No sin is unforgivable or unpardonable
with Christ. Mark it down. You say, well,
people say, well, the unpardonable sin is unbelief. Well, what were
you before God saved you? What was I? I was an unbeliever. Unbeliever. What he's saying
is this. Those who have forsaken and apostatized
from Christ That's a sin unto death. And you're not to pray
for it, he says. What are you going to pray? Lord,
forgive them? They've forsaken the only way of forgiveness. You say, well, I pray for unbelievers.
He's not talking about all unbelievers here. He's talking about those
who had apostatized from the faith. And in all indication in the
book of Hebrews in here, it indicates that there's no turning back
from that. That's a sad thing. In my lifetime,
I've known two people who have done this. Does that mean God will never
save them? Well, that's the indication here. I'm not God, and I'm going
to leave it in His hands. How about you? That's not in
the record, other than right here. Don't pray for them. But
he said, there is sin not unto death. Thank God for it. I'm a sinner. But as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal
life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Don't worry about the unpardonable
sin or the sin unto death. Do you know Christ? This is life
eternal that they might know thee. the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. All right, look at verse
18. He says, we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not. That's
what he's talking about. If you're born of God, you won't
leave Christ. If that means that if you're born of God, you don't
commit any sin anymore, then none of us are redeemed or saved.
We might as well close the book and go home. He's talking about
that sin of apostasy. If you're born of God, if the
Spirit has made the gospel the power of God and the salvation
to you, you will not leave Christ. But he that is begotten of God
keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not. We persevere
in the faith, and we persevere because he preserves. And look at verse 19, and we
know. Here's that knowledge again.
What do we know? We know that we're of God. If
I believe in Christ and stay with Christ, I know this, I'm
of God, I'm in His family. I'm saved by His grace. And the
whole world, ooh, lieth in wickedness or in the wicked one. The whole
world? You know how everybody likes to go to these world passages,
oh, that's everybody that accept it. No, it ain't. Not here it's
not. And not in John 3, 16 either. He makes a distinction. There
are those who are of God and those who are of the world, and
they lie in the wicked one. And he says in verse 20, now
look at this, and we know that the Son of God has come and hath
given us what? An understanding. This is the
work of God, that we may know him that is true, not the counterfeits. I know the difference between
the true Christ and a counterfeit, do you? He's given us an understanding.
God's taught us by the Spirit, in the record, and even through
a preacher. Him that is true, and we are
in Him that is true. How are we in Him? In Him before
the foundation of the world. God chose us, gave us to Christ,
made Him our surety, imputed our sins to Him, imputed His
righteousness to us. sent Christ into the world to
redeem us by his blood and send his spirit to unite us with him
in life and faith and knowledge. Even in his son Jesus Christ,
this is the true God and this is eternal life. Now, little
children, keep yourself from idols. And he says amen. This knowledge is the revelation
of God to his people. This knowledge is the gift of
God to his people. Did you know that? He told his
disciples, unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the
kingdom. Isn't that right? This knowledge,
let me read you one more scripture and I'll quit, I promise. Listen,
anybody who wants to put down knowledge, listen to this verse.
This is Jeremiah chapter nine. And it's verse 23. What did Jeremiah's telling us?
That if we know God, we don't put knowledge down, we glory
in it. He said, we don't glory in our
knowledge, we glory in Christ. We glory in, that's true. If
we know Christ, that's what we're glorying in our knowledge, Him.
But listen to this, verse 23 of Jeremiah 9. Thus saith the
Lord, let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the
mighty man glory in his might, Let not the rich man glory in
his riches. And listen to this, verse 24.
But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth
and knoweth me, that I am the Lord which exercise loving kindness,
judgment, or justice and righteousness in the earth. And when did that
happen? When Christ came to earth and
died on that cross. The ground of our justification
was established on earth. God was a just God and a savior. And he says, for in these things
I delight, saith the Lord. May he bless his word to our
hearts. All right.