Turn, if you would, to John chapter
17. John chapter 17, we'll continue
our study in this wonderful chapter. We've been looking at this chapter
now, this will be week six, and we're only in verse three. There's
so much in this chapter, beloved. So much in this chapter. We've been left in awe and wonder
as we contemplate the scriptures which we've read and how they
bring forth before us the grand plan of salvation which God the
Father purposed along with God the Son and God the Holy Spirit
in eternity. And then they executed it in
time and space upon this world when Christ became a man and
came to the sinful, cursed world and redeemed us by his precious,
precious blood. And he did this for a people
called in the scripture, the elect of God. The elect of God. My, the chosen of God. And we see, we have seen in our
texts in the past studies of this chapter, that the ultimate
purpose of our salvation is that we might have eternal life. And
that we might glorify God forever, forever. And the only way we
have eternal life is in and through the Lord Jesus Christ in Him
alone. No other way, beloved. No other
way. And all this has come to pass.
Think of this. Our salvation in Christ has all
come to pass by the will and purpose of our great God. Is
that not merciful? Is our God not merciful that
He would save sinners like me and you? Is He not so full of
grace that He would save us? My, what a Savior! What a Redeemer
is Jesus Christ our Lord! And it's God who purposed to
save us from our sins. We didn't purpose that ourselves.
We were dead in trespasses and sins. We were enjoying our sins,
weren't we? Little did we know we were in
chains of bondage, beloved. And I'll tell you what, don't
ever let, do not ever let anyone bind you up with the chains of
religion. Paul wrote in Galatians, stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ hath made you free and be not again entangled with a
yoke of bondage. Beloved, do not let folks entangle
you in the yoke of bondage, saying you have to do this or you have
to do that. I'm free in Christ, beloved,
and so are you. Rejoice. Rejoice in this wondrous
salvation. This wondrous salvation which
comes to us by the shedding of Christ's precious, precious blood
and the giving of his life on Calvary for us. If you're one
of his people, he gave his life for you and for us. That's wondrous. That's absolutely wondrous that
Christ would do that. That God would leave his throne
in heaven, the word of God, and come to the sin-cursed world.
to redeem us with the shedding of His blood and the giving of
His life. I can't find mercy that even
touches that in this world. Nothing. I can't find the love
that even comes close to this. And I know how much we love our
spouses and our children, but our love even for them doesn't
come close to the love that God has for us. Agape love, amen. He loves us so much he gave his
life for us. My, my. Let's read our scripture
verses here tonight. And we'll see that we'll be introduced
to the fact that there is only one true God. There's only one
true God. Now the Greeks had many gods.
The Romans had many gods. The Babylonians had many gods.
The Egyptians had many gods. But they were just stone. They
had ears and they couldn't hear. Mouths and they couldn't speak.
Hands that they could not help with. And you know what? There's
such dumb idols that when a person moved, they had to pick them
up and put them in a bag and load them onto the wagon. And
that idol became a burden to the beast that was hauling it. My, but our God beloved, he's
alive. He's the one true living God.
We're gonna see that tonight. Look at these words here, verses
one to five, John 17. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come, glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. So he's going to
the cross to die. that he might glorify God with
his death. Because in his death, he's going
to redeem a multitude that no man can number. My, oh, my. And we praise God. And Sister
Jill sang one of my favorite songs, one of my absolute favorite
songs. The first Bible conference I
went to, I heard, he included me. Praise God, he included me. What a wonderful song. Wonderful
song. And look at this. It says, as
thou has given him power, God the Father has given Christ power
over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many
as thou has given him. Rejoice, beloved. You're one
of the ones who Christ the Father gave to Christ in eternity. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which Thou gavest me to do. And
now, O Father, glorify Thou me with Thine own self, with the
glory which I had with Thee before the world was. He is proclaiming
His deity, beloved. But look at this, God the Son
is in full submission to God the Father. Oh my. Verse three is where we'll
be tonight. I want us to focus on the statement
that they might know thee the only true God. There was a time
when we didn't know Him. And we didn't care to know Him,
did we? Dave, you and I have talked about that many times.
We had no care. Didn't want to know him. Didn't care about him. Everything was fine. Amen. Yeah.
In our eyes, we thought everything was fine. We're just living life,
not worrying about nothing. Meanwhile, bound up in chains. Bound up in chains. Chained by
sin. With Satan as our taskmaster. But praise be to God. Christ
has set us free. And if you be free in Christ,
you're free indeed. Amen. Oh, it's wonderful. It's
wonderful. Let's read this verse again.
And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. See the word
know in our text there? Now, I've often mentioned this
in past studies. This word here is gnoska. which
brings forth an intimate knowledge. So God the Father knows us, He
knows us intimately, and we know Him intimately, only because
He's revealed Himself to us. And now we have a new heart,
right? He's given us a new heart, took that old stony heart out
of us, give us a new heart now that hungers and thirsts after
Him, wants to know Him more and more, not so we can brag, but
so we can praise Him even more for what He's done for us. And
listen to this Greek definition of this word. It's to know in
a beginning or completed sense. And also it says to know in a
beginning sense, that is to come to know. There was a time when
we didn't know him. Now we've come to know him, haven't
we? Again, just like Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, that's
what God did to us. He was always there. We just
didn't know it, did we? Oh my, you know he was always
there with his elect, even before we were saved, protecting us,
guiding us, directing us, just like he is right now for us. We've always been his sheep,
right? Shepherd always watches over
his sheep. The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He restoreth my soul. He leads
me besides still waters. I'll up that up, Dave. Sheep
will not drink running water. They will not. They will not
at all. They do not like running water.
They only drink still water. That's all. That's all. It's
wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. My,
it's wonderful, beloved. So it means to know in a beginning
sense, that is to come to know, which God has revealed himself
to us, now we've come to know him. He's always known us, but
we just didn't know him. To gain and receive a knowledge
of it, it implies a completed action and is often to be taken
in the present sense to know or to become known. More importantly than us knowing
God is him knowing us. That's the most important thing.
And beloved, he's knowing us from eternity. We're vessels
of honor. We didn't even know it. Coming
to this world, shaking our fists, doing whatever we want, and here
we are, a vessel of honor. You know the scripture says in
Galatian that you can't tell the error from the servant until
the time is revealed? Couldn't tell us from goats before
the Lord regenerated us. Oh, see, that's why I have hope
for those around you. We don't know who God's elect
are. We have no idea. Keep praying for them. Keep lifting
them up. It's wonderful. We don't know. We can have hope
for them until they breathe their last breath. My, oh, my, it's
wonderful. Listen to that. I pulled out
the Greek literal translation for this verse, and it says,
now this is eternal life, that they may know you, capitalized
you, singular, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you
have sent. And this truth is brought forth
in John 8, 32. Do you know the same word? No.
Genoske is brought forth there when it says this. And ye shall
know the truth. Same word, genoske, 8, John 8,
32. And ye shall know the truth, genoske the truth. And the truth
shall what? Make you free. Who's the truth?
Christ is the truth, beloved, eh? Oh, isn't that wonderful? You're going to Ganowski him.
And he can make you free. He can make you free. Oh. And this knowledge of God here
spoken of in our text is not a knowledge of him by the light
of nature or by the works of creation. As a man or woman may
say that there is a God and not know him in Christ. I call them
God people. They have no knowledge of who
Christ is, but they still acknowledge that God created things, but
there's no saving knowledge there. None at all. Yeah. They have
a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. They're
religious, but lost. A man or woman may even say that
they know God and profess him in words, and yet in works deny
him. just as the heathens did, and
just as we did in religion. I did that in religion. I said,
I know him, but I didn't know him. I had no idea who he was. I was trying to work my way to
heaven, thinking I was better than everybody else. Oh, was
I in for a surprise. God showed me I need to make
my headquarters in the dust, because he is the sovereign Lord
and King over all. And when we make our headquarters
in the dust, all we can do is look. Right? It's all we can do. Look to our
Lord and live. So this eternal life and knowing
God, which is spoken of in our text here, which says, now this
is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you sent. The knowledge here spoken of
is by revelation. It's by the revelation of God.
Again, just as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren, it's
the same way. God reveals himself to his people
by the power of the Holy Spirit. You're born again, given faith
to believe on Christ, and then we trust him, don't we? And then
we keep looking to him. Have you ever stopped looking
to Christ? Sometimes we get our eyes in the world, right? But
soon we get We correct it a little bit, and
we're, oh Lord, I'm sorry. And we learn, don't we? As we
grow in Christ, as we grow in the knowledge and truth of Christ,
we learn to keep our eyes upon him. And to know that everything
we see in this world, no matter what's going on, it's going to
pass. And it's all happening according to God's plan. God's
plan. He knows the end from the beginning.
We don't, but he sure does. Oh my. So this eternal life and
this knowing God, which is spoken of in our text is again by revelation.
God must reveal himself to us or we'll never know him. That's
that plain, or we will never know him. And this knowledge
of God cannot come by our, by our works. We don't merit it.
We can't come to a point where we merit it because we don't
merit salvation at all. If we got what we deserve, we
go to hell. But this is God's grace, God's grace showing to
us, we who are needy sinners, salvation in Christ. And it also
can't be obtained by our own knowledge. It has to be revealed. And it's
revealed to us when we're born again by the Holy Spirit of God.
And when God reveals himself to a sinner, he reveals to us
who he is. Holy and righteous. And then
he reveals to us what Christ done for us. He redeemed us by
his death and by the shedding of his precious blood. Then he
reveals to us that Christ rose from the grave for our justification.
And all that time he's revealing that to us, he's revealing to
us that we're needy sinners. In desperate, desperate need
of Christ. And you know, as we grow in grace, we don't see ourselves
getting better, do we? Remember, Paul said at the end
of his life, not the beginning, at the end, I'm the chief of
sinners. So as he grew in grace, he saw himself as more and more
of a sinner in desperate need of Christ. Oh, a wretched man
that I am, yes. Who can deliver me from this
body of death, right? Oh, he says, no one can separate
me from Christ. Not death, not life, not persecution,
not famine. Nothing. Nothing. If you're in
his grip, you're in his grip for eternity, beloved. Oh, that's
wonderful. It's wonderful. He is the King
of Kings and the Lord of Lords, and he reveals to us that he
is the sovereign supreme. As Paul wrote, he is the only
potentate, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who only
hath a mortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach
unto, whom no man hath seen nor can see, to whom be honor and
power everlasting. Amen. That's our God. That's
the one true God that Christ is praying to and speaking to
and speaking of, that we might know Him. And not just know Him,
but know Him in an intimate way. Isn't it amazing that your old
heart, your old stony heart, you didn't want nothing to do
with Christ? Didn't want nothing to do with His Word? Didn't want
nothing to do with God? You know why? Because we're sinners.
But now that we're saved, we have a new heart, new life within
us. Oh, tell me about my Savior.
Tell me about what He's done. Tell me about the King of Kings
and the Lord of Lords and how He rules over everything supreme.
I can rest my soul in Him. I can rest my soul in Him. My. And that's the only true God
of the universe. Look at it in our text again,
now this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true
God and Jesus Christ whom you sent. My, oh my. My, oh my. And this is life eternal
that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent. My, oh my. Again, that was out
of the Greek literal Bible. I read there before Turn to John
chapter 3 if you would John chapter 3 now John writes in a certain
style but never forget the true author of this This gospel is
God the Holy Spirit. Never forget that the true author
of this book is God the Holy Spirit. Now the men that he used
have different personalities and in their writings that comes
out sometimes, but never forget that these words are authored
by God the Holy Spirit. He is the, and remember this,
he's the author and he's the finisher of our faith. There's
nothing at the beginning, nothing at the end, and nothing in the
middle that involves us. The only thing we've done is
sin. He's the author, everything in between, and the finisher
of our salvation. Praise be to God. Praise be to
God. This is wonderful. Look at this
in John chapter 3, and we'll read verse 19, and we'll see
again the style of writing which is by John alone. But again,
remember, the true author of these words is God the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 19. And this is condemnation. that
light is coming to the world, and men loved darkness rather
than light, because their deeds were evil. Now, notice something
here. This is very similar to what
we're seeing in John 17, 3, except our Lord says, now this is eternal
life. So he's bringing forth here,
look what he brings forth here, and this is condemnation. In
our verse, he brings, and this is, or now this is eternal life. So in John 3, 19, he proclaims
these words, this is the condemnation. John's not giving us a definition
of condemnation there. He's not giving us a definition
of, rather he's telling us the cause of it, which follows, that
light is coming to the world and man loved darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. Why do men go to hell? Because they love darkness. rather
than light. And you know what? If God hadn't
made us to differ, we'd be going there too. Yep. Let's go back to John 17 3. Now
we see the cause of eternal life is God the Father and the Lord
Jesus Christ. Look what it says in in John
chapter 17 verse 3. And this is life eternal, that
they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom
Thou hast sent. Now, who is the light spoken
of in John 3.19? Well, turn to John chapter 1,
if you would. John chapter 1. And see the contrast
between the two verses? Now, this is eternal life. that
they might know you, in the Greek literal, the only true God and
Jesus Christ whom you have sent. My goodness. Now look at this,
John chapter one. John chapter one, verses one
to nine. In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God. So that's telling us in the beginning,
before eternity, or way back in eternity. Eternity's eternity,
I talk with Joe Terrell, people say eternity past, eternity's
eternity. It's eternity, that's what it is. So back in eternity,
the word was with the Father. With the Father. And then look
what it says, and the word was God. So he was with God, and
he was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. So here we are seeing the eternal
deity of God, the Son, and His name is the Word of God. All
things were made by Him. Look at that. And without Him
was not anything made that was made. In Him was life, and the
life was the light of man. Look at this. And the light shineth
in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. And he didn't
even know who he was. Here's the prince of the world. The prince of light. And they
had no idea. And the light shines in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. That was us, wasn't it? Dead. Can't see the light. When you're dead, you can't see
the light. When you're alive, you can see the light, can't
you? But when you're dead, you can't see the light at all. And the light shineth in darkness,
and darkness comprehendeth not. There was a man sent from God,
whose name was John. The same came for a witness,
to bear witness of the, look at this, singular, The Light. Singular, capitalized too. There's
a title for Christ, The Light. Right there. That all men through
him might believe. He was not that light. So John
wasn't that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
Singular again. That was the true light, which
lighteth every man that cometh into the world. So the word of
God is the true light. Now look at verses 10 to 13. That true light is the Lord Jesus
Christ, beloved. And only He can give eternal
life. He obtained it, so only He can give it. Look what it
says in John 1, 10 to 13. He was in the world, so the true
light was in the world. Who was He? He's the Word of
God. And the world was made by Him,
and the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
look at this, did they have the power to come to Him? No, when
you're dead, you can't, I talked to a fellow today who said baptism
saves. I said, okay, I'm gonna ask you
a question. And he says, what's that? I said,
can a dead man get into a baptismal? No. Can a dead man walk an aisle? No. Can a dead man pray a prayer? No. Can a dead man seek God? No, they're dead. And I said,
yeah. And the word in Ephesians 2 means graveyard dead. And look,
we're so dead that God has to give us power, right? And He gives us life, beloved. His power is life-given power.
Life-given power. To them gave He power to become
the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Look
at this. Oh, look at this, verse 13. Verse
13 is just a destroyer of anything man seeks to do. which were born,
not of blood, so it doesn't come by tradition. Right? Just because the Lord saved me
and saved my wife doesn't mean our kids are going to be saved.
I hope and pray they will be, but that's up to the Lord, isn't
it? That's totally up to him. So not by a family lineage. Look at this. Knower of the will
of the flesh. You know, you often wonder sometimes,
do people really read their Bibles? What do they do with a verse
like this? You know, next time I run into some of my friends
who are Armenian, I'm going to ask them about this verse and
say, what do you do with this verse? Yeah, you just toss. They have to be like the penknife
king and start cutting scriptures out and throwing it away. They
have to. Because it's right there in black
and white, isn't it? Oh yeah, which were born not
of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor the will of man,
again. So not by the will of the flesh,
not by our doing, and then not by our supposed free will. And
our will again, again I'll say it again, I've said it many times,
our will is bound to our nature. If we have a dead nature, all
we're gonna do is choose sin. And the scripture says in that
state, there's none that seeketh after God, there's none that
understandeth, none at all. No, not one, there's none righteous.
My, nor the will of men, but of God. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Born of God, beloved,
by the circumcision made without hands, and no baptism can save
you, no prayer, praying a prayer that the preacher tells you to
pray can save you, no walking no while and crying on an altar
all day long can save you. Only God can save us. Only God
and Him alone. My, and praise be to God that
He saves us. Salvation's a gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. And then that John 13 there,
113 though, which were born not of blood, nor the will of flesh,
nor the will of man, but of God. God's had mercy on us, beloved.
The one true God has had mercy on us. Be in awe of that this
week. Be in awe of that, in wonder.
We're saved by grace alone, through Christ alone, by the mercy and
grace of God, all according to the grace of God alone, and by
God's will alone. So we praise the Lord Jesus Christ
for the saving of our souls. He's done it all. He shed his
blood. Calvary's cross to redeem us,
to purchase our souls, beloved. What a cost! The cost of redeeming
our souls was the shedding of His precious, holy, sinless blood. My, we're sinners from the top
of our head to the bottom of our feet. He's absolutely sinless,
and He's dying as a sinner's substitute. And our sins were
imputed to Him, and that wrath of God fell upon Him. And he stood before God's justice
as a guilty one, yet he's sinless. He's perfect. He's holy. Now
remember the Day of Atonement, the two goats. We've talked about
this before. They both had to be perfect.
No one knew who the lot was going to fall upon. And the lot falls
upon the one to be the sacrifice. And he's led forward, totally
unblemished and perfect. And his throat is slit, and the
blood is shed. And the priest that laid his
hands, which pictures the imputation of our sin, he's still a blameless
goat, isn't he? That hasn't changed, has it?
But by imputation, the sins of Israel were placed upon him.
But they could never take away sin. Again, they were figures
and pictures of how God was gonna lay our sin upon Christ, and
he was gonna bear it all. And then the scapegoat, who has
to be absolutely blameless too, right? Carries our sins away,
beloved. to a God by a fit man, yeah,
by a fit man. So Christ is the, he's the high
priest, he's the altar, he's the sacrifice, he's the fit man,
he's the scapegoat, he's done it all, beloved. Salvation's
of the Lord, it's all by him. Oh yeah, amen, it's all done
by him. We cannot obtain salvation at
all by anything we do. And you know what our greatest
need is? Eternal life. Our greatest need is to be saved
from our sins, isn't it? We can't save ourselves, but
praise to be to God. God saved us. God saved us. Christ saved us, and He did it
all alone. And what a privilege. What a privilege to be an heir
of God. What a privilege to be called a son, to have the Holy
Spirit in us cry, and then we cry, Abba, Father. What a privilege,
beloved. What a privilege. What an honor. One commentator said, this is
the greatest privilege given to man, to be a son of God. My, to be redeemed and saved.
Because we don't merit it. We don't merit it in any way.
We don't deserve it. Can't work our way to this eternal life.
Can't do anything. We've got no power. But Christ,
the one who saved us, got all power to give eternal life to
as many as the Father had given him. And who's the Father? The
one true living God, isn't he? Oh, my. Oh, so how can we know
God? We don't see him by nature. We
don't understand the things of God. And how can one who's alive
physically but dead spiritually, graveyard dead with no ability
to come to God, how can they come to God? How can they come
to know God? Oh, my. Look at John 17, 3 again. We'll read verses 2 and 3. Here's
the answer. As thou hast given him power over all flesh, Christ
has all power, and he should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given him. This is life eternal, that they
might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou
hast sent. Now turn, if you would, to Matthew
chapter 11. Matthew chapter 11. We see that God reveals himself
to us. He reveals to us what we are.
We're sinners. And then he reveals himself to us. You know what
we are? We're just babes. I'll tell you what. Talk to a
preacher in the state. He's been preaching for 40 years.
I'm still a little baby in Christ. Yeah, amen. Someone asked me
that one time, they were a self-righteous person, and they said, well,
you and I, we know so much we don't have to study anymore.
I said, you know what I feel like? You know what I feel like? I
said, you know, when my baby was little, my little fella and
my little girl, they'd be eating pablum, right? And they'd have
it just smeared all over their face. And they'd just have a
big old grin on. I feel like the baby. That's
how I feel still. I'm just eating up the word of
God, man, it's wonderful. It's absolutely wonderful. I
still feel like a baby with pablum all over my face. I hope I never
leave that. I'll be honest with you, I hope
we never leave that spot. So we still hunger, we still
thirst, and we don't think we know it all, because once you
think you arrived, I'll tell you, you're in a world of hurt.
You're in a world of hurt. Oh my. Look at this in Matthew
chapter 11. Look at, this is absolutely wonderful.
We're starting in verse 25. At that time, Jesus answered
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. Look
at that. Look at that title. He's King of kings and Lord of
lords. Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and
the prudent. Now think of that. These Pharisees, these religious
who's who in this world at that time. God's hid it from them. He's hid himself. from them. There was a time when when he
was hidden from us. He was always watching us. We
didn't know it, but he was hidden from us. And then when he chose
to reveal himself, look what it says next. The wise and prudent
and has revealed them unto babes. There we are. Even so, Father.
I love this. I love this verse here. Even
so, Father, for it seemed good in thy sight. It seemed good
in the sight of God to reveal himself to you and I. poor, wretched
sinners. But that scripture declares it
seemed good for him to do that to us. That would make you shout
like a Pentecostal, wouldn't it? I'll tell you. That's wonderful. That's absolutely wonderful.
My goodness. That's wonderful. And then it
says, all things are delivered unto me of my father. And no
man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither knoweth any man
the Father, save the Son. And he to whomsoever the Son
will reveal him, come unto me. All ye that labor and are heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest. Now that's rest from works. That's
rest from works-based salvation. And then look at this. Now he's
going to talk about rest for our souls. Take my yoke upon
you. You know, you put a yoke on a
horse, right? And sometimes those beasts of burdens, they gotta
carry a heavy burden, don't they? But look what the Lord says here.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly,
and you shall find rest unto your souls. Rest from our labors
and rest for our souls. And then he says, for my yoke
is easy and my burden is light. Isn't it not light? Look unto me and be you saved. That's light burden, isn't it?
It's not do this and do that and do this and do that and look
to me and be saved. It's look to me and be saved. Paul said
to that Philippian jailer, right? He said, what must I do to be
saved? Well, there's the I again, right?
Paul replies, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall
be saved. Isn't that wonderful? Just believe,
just look to him. My burden's light, he tells us
here. My yoke is easy, my burden's
light. Oh, praise God. And it's good
in God's sight to reveal to His chosen people who He is and who
the Lord Jesus Christ is. He's revealed to us who Christ
is. We didn't know who He was before. My, oh my. Now, there are many scriptures
which proclaim the one true God of the Bible. We're going to
go through a few of these. I'm going to give them to you if
you write them down, but I'm going to read them in the address.
But if you want to write them down for further study, you can
do that but what we're gonna do is i'm just gonna go through
a bunch of scriptures that's not all of them it's not exhaustive
it's a few scriptures in the old testament that proclaim that
there's one true god and then a few scriptures in the new testament
that proclaim that there's one true god like our king says here
he says here and this is life eternal that they might know
thee the only true god in jesus christ whom thou hast sent okay
so the first first uh... Text that I want us to look at
is Exodus 8, 10, if you write it down. And he said, tomorrow,
and he said, be it according to thy word that thou mayest
know that there is none like the Lord our God. So that scripture
proclaims that there's none like our Lord. There's none like our
King. Those false gods are nothing.
Our God's living. He's the one true living God.
In Exodus 9, 13, and 14, it proclaims this. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Rise up in the morning, and stand before Pharaoh, and say unto
him, Thus saith the Lord God of the Hebrews, Let my people
go, that they may serve me. For I will send at this time
all my plagues upon thine heart, and upon thy servants, and upon
thy people, that thou mayest know that there is none like
me in all the earth. See, our God, our God's not like
anybody we think. People think he's one way. He's
not that way. The Bible proclaims how and who God is. And you know
what? We believe it, don't we? We believe
what the word says. We don't question it. We say,
well, there's only one true God. He's revealed himself to me.
Hallelujah. Others may say, well, that's
foolishness. No, it's foolishness not to believe upon him, not
to believe upon him. And then Deuteronomy chapter
4, verses 35 and Deuteronomy 4, 39 say this. First verse 35,
it says, unto thee it was showed that thou mayest know that the
Lord, he is God. He's God. And there is none beside
him. Notice the similarity going through
here. There's none like him. There's
none beside him. There's no one else like him.
All these gods that these heathen folks, which we were, and which
we still see people do and bow into statues and stuff, right,
are false dead gods. They can't do nothing. Can't
do nothing. Isn't it funny that people have
to go to the store and buy a statue of Mary? They take it home. Does that statue say, hey, I
want to be over here? No, I'm going to put you over here. Doesn't
say nothing, does it? They choose where they want to
put it, and they put it in their yard, and it's just a piece of
dead rock, and it's a dumb idol. That's all it is. And they look
at that. They wake up in the morning and
go, oh, look at the statue. Can't do nothing. It's a piece of rock.
You best take a sledgehammer to it. I know people say, well,
wait, you can't say that. Yeah, I can. I came out of Catholicism. I can say that. It has no value
at all. It's a dumb idol, that's all
it is. Because our God says he is the one true God, and I believe
what he says. I believe what he says. I believe what he says
over man all the time. And in Deuteronomy 4.39 says
this, know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart,
that the Lord, he is God in heaven above. And upon the earth beneath,
there is none else. Now that's just laying it right
out, isn't it? Deuteronomy 4.39, that just lays it right out.
There's no God in heaven except Him, and there's no God on earth
except Him. None at all. Deuteronomy 6, verse
4 says, Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord, one Jehovah. One Jehovah. Deuteronomy Chapter
33, verses 26 and 27 says, There is none like unto God of Jethron,
who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency
on the sky. The eternal God is thy refuge,
and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he shall thrust out
the enemy from before thee, and shall say, Destroy them. Now,
if we ever get down, remember, the eternal God is our refuge,
and underneath us is the eternal arms of God. That'll lift you right up, won't
it? And I'll tell you, I was telling someone when I was out
west, I said, you know, more times than not, we grow when
we're in the valley. We're rejoicing on the mountaintop,
but we grow in the valley, beloved. And he's with us whether we're
in the valley or whether we're on the mountaintop. And his everlasting
arms are ever under me. I remember when my mom used to
hold me in her arms and my dad would hold me in his arms. Well,
it ain't nothing compared to how God holds us. I remember
when we held our kids. Our kids come running to us, they'd be
crying or something. Just hold them in your arms. Hold them
tight, close to you. And they'd soon settle down, wouldn't they?
We're just like kids. Dave, you've often said, we're
just like kids. We don't learn very fast, do
we? But God's so merciful and so patient with us and so loving
and beloved. Oh, my. 1st Samuel chapter 2 verses 2
and 3 it says this there is none holy as the Lord for there is
none beside thee neither is there any rock like our God talk no
more so exceedingly proudly let not arrogancy come out of your
mouth for the Lord is a God of knowledge and by him actions
are weighed my 2nd Samuel 7 22 Wherefore thou art God, O Lord
God, for there is none like Thee. Again, see this, we're seeing
this continuous thing going. There's none like Him. There's
none like me. There's none like Him. Because there's none like
Him. None like Him. Neither is there
any God beside Thee. Now look at that. All those gods
in this world that people make, they might be so sincere, but
they're all false gods. All of them. Neither is there
any God beside thee according to all that we have heard with
our ears. 1 Kings 8, verses 22 and 23 says this, and Solomon
stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the
congregation of Israel and spread forth his hands toward heaven.
And he said, Lord God of Israel, there is no God like thee in
heaven above or on earth beneath, who keepest covenant and mercy
with thy servants that walk before thee in all their heart. Now,
from the book of Isaiah, which is often called the Gospel in
the Old Testament, in Isaiah 37, 20, it says, now therefore,
O Lord our God, save us from his hand, that all the kings
of the earth may know that thou art the Lord, even thou only.
In Isaiah 44, verses 6 and 8, verse 6, thus saith the Lord,
the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first,
and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. In Isaiah
44, 8, fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee
from that time, and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses.
Is there a God beside me? Yay, there's no God, I know not
any. Ho, ho, ho, that's our king saying
that. That's our God saying that. I don't know any other God. Oh,
my. Oh, my. Then Isaiah, oh, this,
I love this. Isaiah 45, verses 6 to 7. that they may know from the rising
of the sun and from the west that there is none beside me.
I am the Lord and there is none else. I form the light and create
darkness. I make peace and great evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Amen. Amen. Isaiah 45, 18, For thus saith
the Lord that created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth
and made it, he hath established it, he created it, not in vain,
he formed it to be inhabited, so that Christ could come into
this world, beloved, and be our Redeemer. I am the Lord, and
there is none else. There's that saying again. None
else. My, oh my. And in this here,
wonderful verses, Isaiah 45, 21 to 22. Tell ye and bring them
near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from
that time? Have not I the Lord, and there
is no God beside me, a just God and a Savior? Oh, he's a just
God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me and be you saved. all the ends of the earth for
i am god and there is none else come unto me all ye that labor
and are heavy laden and i'll give you rest there's salvation
and none other but but the lord jesus christ who's god incarnate
in the flesh and then here These last verses in the Old Testament
that I'll bring forth is in Isaiah 46, verses 9 and 10. And you've
heard these before, and these are wondrous words. They bring
forth the ultimate sovereignty of God. It says this, remember
the former things of old, for I am God, and there is none else.
I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the
beginning. And from ancient times, before
time ever was, Right? The things that are not yet done. Saying my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Now, before I move to the New
Testament, think of this, think of those words. For I'll do all
my pleasure. It pleased God to save us. Oh my, what a redeemer. So we see there in those Old
Testament scriptures, and there's many, many more, we see the presentation
of the uniqueness of our God. There's only one true God, only
one, one true and living God. Now let's look at a couple of
scriptures quickly in the New Testament, and then we'll be
finished. Here's one. First one is 1 Corinthians 8,
verses 4 to 6. As concerning, therefore, the
eating of these things that are offered in sacrifice unto idols,
we know that an idol is nothing in the world, and there is none
other god but one. For though there be For though
there be that are called gods, whether in heaven or in earth,
as there be gods many and lords many, but to us there is but
one God, the Father, of whom all things, of whom are all things,
and we in him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by him. And then 1 Timothy, oh, 1 Timothy
chapter 1, verse 17. Now unto the King eternal, immortal,
invisible, the only wise God, be honor and glory forever and
ever. Amen. And then 1 Timothy 2, verses
5 and 6, for there is one God and one mediator between God
and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for
all to be testified in due time. And then Jude, oh, the wonderful
book of Jude, verses 24 to 25, now unto him that is able to
keep you from falling, to keep you from falling, and to present
you faultless. Faultless. No sin. No blemish. No blemish. Before the presence
of His glory, with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our
Savior be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now
and ever. Amen. You know how He's going
to present us faultless? Clothed in His perfect spotless
righteousness. Which we're clothed in right
now, beloved. Oh, it's wonderful, isn't it? This is the best news
you ever heard, eh? Best news I ever heard. This is wonderful.
And then let's read our text for one more time. John 17 and
three, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the
only true God in Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. Beloved
of God, eternal life, eternal life is not a profession of religion.
It's not a profession of religion. It's not a reformation. Man can
reform themselves, but this is not a reformation. Not a reformation
of manners, nor a knowledge of mere facts about God. This is
an experience of regeneration. You must be born again. And it's a revelation of God
to our heart, a new heart. which now hungers and thirsts
after righteousness. Again, Christ said, you must
be born again. Eternal life is spiritual life,
divine life, and the life of God in us. To know the only true
God is not merely intellectual. We don't just know him in our
minds. We can't learn about him by reading books. He must reveal
Himself to us. And He does that through this
beautiful, amazing book here called the Holy Bible. And when we know Him, when we're
born again of the Holy Spirit, when we're given faith to believe
on Christ, we love Him. We love Him. And the Father,
think of this too, the Father cannot be savingly no one, no
one savingly except in the Son and by the Son. Salvation's only
in Christ and Him alone. It's in no other. Neither is
there salvation in no other. No other name under heaven given
among men whereby we must be saved. No other name but the
name of Jesus. Oh, may God grant your faith
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ if you don't know him.
And if you do, rejoice. Rejoice, because he's revealed
himself to you. And you're free. You're free,
beloved. Just like I'm free. Isn't it
wonderful? Oh, it's wonderful. Heavenly
Father, we thank you for your goodness and mercy and grace
bestowed upon we who are poor and needy sinners. We did not
know our great need, Lord, until you revealed yourself to us.
And then, oh, then we saw our need. We saw how desperate we
are. And Lord, we see our need more
and more each day as you teach us about the things of you. We
praise you for giving fast faith to believe upon you. given us
a heart that hungers and thirsts after you, and we battle this
old flesh of ours, Lord, but praise God, you won the victory
for us. We may battle this flesh and lose, and then battle this
flesh and lose, and battle this flesh and lose, but we have victory
in you, Lord. We know there is therefore now
no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus who walk not after the
flesh, but after the spirit. Praise you, Lord Jesus. Praise
you for having obtained eternal life for us, and praise you for
giving it to us, all by thy work on Calvary's cross. We love you
only because you first loved us. In Jesus' name, amen.