Now, if you will, turn back with
me to Ephesians chapter 4. I want to talk to you for the
next little bit and try to answer this question, have I and am I learning Christ? Everything that he says in this
chapter He put this before it, if so be ye have learned Christ. The believer is a person who
has undergone and is right now undergoing a divine work of grace
within, a work of God. By grace are ye saved through
faith. And that, that is that faith,
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. Not of works, lest
any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. You see the tie in here? Those
who have faith are the workmanship of God. They're His workmanship. This is His hand. This is His
grace. This is His presence. This is
His power. This is His glory. He's a person who has undergone
and is undergoing a divine work of grace within. And this work
begins with the hearing of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And it
continues the same way. Verse 21 of our text plainly
states, if so be that you have heard Him. If you've heard Him. Now the
Gospel that saves is a Gospel that comes in power and demonstration
of the Holy Spirit. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and
verse 4, Paul said, my speech and my preaching was not with
enticing words of man's wisdom, Words appealing to men, appealing
to their natures and their ways and their traditional understanding.
That which is the acceptable things of this world. But he said, in demonstration
of the spirit and power. What in the world? That word,
I looked up that word. in the Scriptures. I looked it
up in my Strong's Concordance. It only appears one time in the
Bible. Right here. Right here. And the closest thing to it,
and that from which the word in the original was derived,
was manifestation. And so when he's talking about
a demonstration of the Spirit, he's talking about the truth
being manifested in you. The grace of God that you're
reading about is being demonstrated in you. In you. As those who have undergone and
are undergoing this divine power of grace in their heart, as this
Word is being preached, the Holy Spirit of God is demonstrating
its effects within you. Feeding you, just like you eat. And that food, it manifests itself
in strength and growth and so on in you. So it is when you
hear the gospel preached. He wasn't interested in impressing
men. His gospel was not after men.
I already read you that over in the book of Galatians. But
he stood and he preached the gospel to men in plain and simple
language. And the Spirit of God did the
wonder. He did the wonder. They didn't
wonder at Paul. They wondered at the work of
the Holy Spirit within. This work begins with a hearing
of the gospel. And the gospel that saves is
a gospel that comes in power. It demonstrates within. He alone has the power to convict
and convert and to reveal the life of God which is in Christ
our Lord. Verse 5 of our text, that your
faith, or in 1 Corinthians 2, that your faith should not stand
in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. The power of
God. That faith which God gives, God
grows. And that faith which God grows,
He preserves. He preserves. They'll never fall
away. Never fall away. He said, I give
my sheep, hear my voice. And I give unto them eternal
life. And they'll never perish. They're
not going to fall away. We're not of them who fall back
unto perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of
the soul. He preserves this work. This is a divine work. This is
the work of God. It's the work of God. And those
who hear are born of God. They're born of God. In the first
chapter of John's Gospel, he tells us that as many as received
him, to them gave he power. What is this power? Paul said,
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believe it. This is the power. To them gave
He the power. I asked Don one time, I said,
is that talking about ability or privilege? He said, uh-huh.
He's talking about both. Talking about both. He gave them power to become. sons of God. Not to profess to
be sons of God, but to become sons of God, even to them that
believe on His name, which were born. Boy, that takes it out
of our hands, don't it? That were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. But of God. And our Lord said, except a man
be born again, he cannot perceive the kingdom of God. He can't
see it. He can't see it. He don't understand it. He don't
know what it is. He can't tell about it because
he's never seen it. He don't know what it is. And
Peter said that this new birth comes by the incorruptible word
of God, and this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. And so I can make this statement.
Those who hear are born of God. They are born of God. Jesus said
this, or James rather, said this, Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Wherefore let every man be swift
to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath. And those who hear
have been given a new nature. He tells us in the book of Colossians
that God the Father hath made us meat, meat, to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in life. He's given us the ability
to do that. He's given believers the ability
to seek God. And of natural men, he said,
there's none that seeketh after God. He's given us an understanding. We know that The Son of God has
come and has given to us an understanding that we might know Him that's
true, that we're in Him that's true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ. He's given us an understanding.
But in Romans chapter 3, it says, of the natural fallen world,
there's none that understandeth. You see what I'm talking about?
I'm talking about a divine work of grace in you. in you, something
that you can't do, something that the will can't appropriate,
something that man's natural ability can't do. I'm talking
about something beyond you. It's the power of God within,
creating new life, born of God. We've been given a new nature.
Peter calls it being a partaker of the divine nature. Let me tell you something. There
is no possibility that a man born of God will not hear. He's going to hear. He alone will hear. He'll hear
when others can't hear. Our Lord said to His disciples,
He said, blessed are your ears for they hear. They hear. There was multitudes around them
who didn't hear anything. There was multitudes around them
who heard what they wanted to hear. But some of them heard
from God. Some of them heard from God.
Some of them heard in the heart. And that man who does hear will
acknowledge what he hears, and he'll be convinced of the truth. I'm going to tell you something.
You can't convince a natural man of anything. You can't convince
him of nothing. I don't care how well you know
this book, I can stand and tie somebody up into knots, but I
haven't convinced him of anything. He just convinced he can't out-argue
me, and he'll go with somebody else. He'll go with somebody
else, but I haven't convinced him of anything. But the Spirit
of the Living God can take a simple verse of Scripture, and He can
convince a man, and the multitude can't change his mind. That's
what it meant. Convinced. Convinced. He'll knowledge what he hears,
and he'll knowledge the messenger. Listen to this in 1 John 4, verse
6. John said, We are of God. He
that knoweth God, heareth us. He hears us. Explain that. I can't. I just know it's so. I just know
it's so. And he'll hear, and he'll acknowledge
that messenger, though the multitude stand against him. Everybody's
standing around saying, oh, better leave him alone. You better stay
away from him. Oh, you don't go wherever that colt meets,
do you? Huh? Everybody say that. But I'll
tell you this, when God opens your ears, you'll hear that man.
And you'll be convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt that that
man's sin of God You'll bow to that authority. You'll receive
His Word. Sure you will. That's exactly
what John is saying here. We are of God. Who said so? Huh? All you had was John's Word.
John said, God sent me. That's all they had. How'd they
know that? The Spirit of God. The Spirit
of God. He that knoweth God, heareth
us. He that is not of God, heareth not us. And then in Hebrews 10, verse
39, Paul said, We are not of them who draw back unto perdition,
but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. The believer
is a person who has undergone a divine transformation, a divine
work of grace within. He has eyes to see and a heart
to understand the truth. And he's renounced his former
life as being ungodly, unseemly, and altogether an abomination
of God. I don't know a single believer
who looks back on his past life with any kind of pride. He denounced
it. He understands exactly what it
was. God had condemned it. He sees
it as condemned of God. He mourns over it. He mourns
today over the sin that is yet in him. He mourns. He understands the truth. He
has renounced that former life as being ungodly and unseemly
and altogether an abomination of God. Even his righteousness
Isaiah said, are filthy rags. He's condemned in His own eyes. God ever brought you to that
point? Condemned in your own eyes. Only the Holy Spirit of
God can do that. He takes sides with God in His
own judgment. He's on God's side. I agree.
That's what David said, I agree with you. I agree. I confess
what I am, and I'm in full agreement with God. He's condemned in his
own eyes, and he justifies God in his judgment of himself and
of mankind. God said he's altogether vanity. Man in his best state, altogether
vanity. Only a believer will say amen.
He'll say, Amen. You're right. You're right. God
said He's altogether as an unclean thing. I won't even get into
the nastiness that that's talking about. But the believer, when
he knows it, he says, Amen. He says, Amen. God said there's
no goodness or righteousness in it. He said, Amen. Amen. God said He's altogether ignorant.
I tell you, I don't like being called ignorant, do you? I flat
don't like it. It ruffles my feathers. I get
up, somebody start telling me how ignorant I am. God said you're
altogether ignorant. Huh? I have to say amen. Don't you say it, but he can.
He can. And I have to say amen. He's
right. He's right. God said, I fell
in Adam and died to everything spiritual. That I'm nothing more
than living death, alive on the outside and dead within. Amen. And I tell you this, a believer
is a man shut up to Christ. He just shut up to Christ. He's
got nowhere else to go. He sees the fallacy of his former
love. He sees the fallacy of his former
religion. He sees no potential in himself. Where else is he going to go? None other foundation can any
man lay than that which is laid. There's no other way out except
Christ. He's a man shut up to Christ. And there's a teaching of Him. And there's a hearing of Him
as the truth is taught in Him. He is the way and the truth and
the light. He's the author and finisher
of our faith. He is the living head of the
church. He sits in glory as the reigning
ruling power over all things. He can give gifts or pass men
by. He can direct His preachers to
you or keep them from you. He can arrange His providence
in your favor or totally disregard you altogether. And to learn
Christ is to learn our need and our full dependency upon Him. That's what we learn. To learn
Christ is to learn His offices and what they're for. To learn
Christ is to learn God's eternal love and mercy and grace in Him. Herein is the love of God. Here's the love of God manifest.
It's in Christ. It's in Christ. And to learn
Christ is to learn how God must be just in His justification
of believing sinners. God's predestinating purpose
is altogether in Christ. that every believing sinner will
be conformed to his image. They'll ultimately be just like
him. But I'm going to tell you something.
This transformation don't happen overnight. He goes on here in this chapter,
if you paid any attention to me when I was reading a while
ago, he goes on in this chapter and talks about a taking off
of the old man, a putting off of the old man, and a putting
on of the new man. That's continuous. I do that every day. Every day. And I'm not talking about a progressive
sanctification here, but I'm talking about a growing in grace
and knowledge of Christ. This whole thing is in Christ,
and the believer knows that. That's why I went through all
of that before I come to this. It's all in Christ. That's where
it's at. That's where the life is. He
that hath the Son hath life. And as we grow in grace, we grow
in our need of Him. I begin to see more and more
my need of Him. What can I do without Him? Nothing. What can I say apart from Him?
Nothing. What can I do as a preacher that's
going to make any difference in my generation? Nothing apart
from Him. Nothing. It's all together in
Him. We become more and more aware
of our sinfulness and of our need of His mercy and grace.
We grow in grace and knowledge of Christ. We grow more and more
intolerant of this world and its philosophy. And then our
text here in Ephesians 4, verse 17, tells us that the Gentiles
walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened,
being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance
that's in them, their past feelings, feelings of love and compassion
and sympathy, feelings of devotion. But you haven't so learned Christ. You see what he's telling us?
There was an inward work of God's Spirit, a work within you, creating
new motives. If any man be in Christ, he's
a new creature. He's not what he was. That old
flesh is still there. That old flesh is still alive.
But there is in there a new man. A new man. New motives. New affections. It accomplishes things that he
couldn't accomplish on his own. And it's accomplished within
Him. Let me give you six things that
I believe define this saving knowledge of Christ. First of all, I believe it's
a personal and experiential and heart knowledge of Jesus Christ
as my Savior. My Savior. Now, I know He's the
Savior of somebody. Thou shalt call His name Jesus,
for He shall save His people from their sin. He's somebody's
Savior, but that don't do me any good until I come to know
Him personally as my Savior, my Savior. Every believer has
been brought through the sweet experience of grace to willingly
commit their souls and their lives into the hands of their
Savior. Have you done that? God ever
brought you there? He ever brought you there? You
cast yourself upon Him completely, totally, 100%. Save me or kill
me. Life or death, cast my soul upon
him. Paul said to Timothy, he said,
I know whom I have believed. I know him. I know him. I know Peter knew him, but he
said, I know him. I know him. Can you say that? Can you say that? I know him. I know whom I have believed.
I know where he come from. I know what he did. I know where
he's at. And I know he's coming back.
I know whom I have believed. And he said, I'm persuaded, persuaded
that this one whom I know is able to keep that which I've
committed unto him against that day. What did he commit to him? Everything he had. Everything
he had. Listen to this. Let's talk about
the father of all that believe, old Abraham. Abraham staggered
not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God. Now listen, being fully persuaded. Huh? Fully persuaded that what
he had promised, he was able also to perform. He knew whom
he believed. And there's a difference from
knowing all the facts and being convinced of the Holy Spirit.
And the difference is that those who truly believe by the power
of God's Spirit commit themselves to Christ lock, stock, and barrel. I'm His. Everything that I do
from that point on has a reflection on Him. how I live my life, the
words that I speak, the gospel that I preach, the money that
I give, everything has, it reflects on Him because I've committed
everything to Him. Everything to Him. I can't live
like I used to live. Because it reflects on Him and
I love Him. I honor Him. I cherish Him. Well, preacher, you think your
life is such that it honors Him? I weep over my life. But that's
what I want. That's what I want. I want to
honor Him. I want to. Believers rest in Christ. He
tells us in Hebrews chapter 4, You know, if you go back and
look at that, what he's talking about there in Hebrews chapter
3, he's talking about that bunch that gathered themselves against
Moses back in the wilderness, and contested his power, and
God took them out, opened the earth, and took them to hell,
and then they come on down, and those affected by their murmuring
and so on, they come down here to the promised land, And they
sent out some spies, and they all come back. Do you know that
there was only two men out of the millions in Israel who said,
let's go in? They said, let's go. Millions. I'm talking about millions
standing and saying, we can't do it. We can't do it. We can't
do it. They said, sure we can. Let's
go. Let's go. And when God finally
did let old Caleb go in under Joshua, finally did let him go
in, one of the things that the spies reported was that there's
giants in the land. You remember that? There's giants
in walled cities over there. There's giants. We can't go in
there. There's Anakins over there. Giants. You know what, Caleb? He was an old man. He was an
old man. Caleb said, I want that city. Let me have that city." And you
know God let him have it? And he went in and killed those
giants. That's faith! Faith! There is a difference, I am telling
you, between knowing facts and being convinced of the Holy Spirit.
When the Holy Spirit convinces you of the truth, you will stand.
I don't care how many millions stand up. How many millions are
there today standing up on this very day, at this very second
that I am talking to you about Christ, telling men and women
a different way than what I am telling you? They are not convincing
me. By the grace of God, I believe
what I believe. I don't care how many millions
there is. But the natural man, the multitudes affect him. You
really think you're right and all these people are wrong? Those
people don't enter into it. Let God be true and every man
a liar. That's what the Scripture says. And then secondly, to know Christ
is to know His nature and to act accordingly. Jesus Christ
is God. He's God. This is God come into
the flesh. Oh, I tell you, nothing burnt
those scribes and Pharisees, nothing burnt the hide off of
them like that. Our Lord said, I and the Father
are one. And they took him out and were
going to throw him over a cliff, but they couldn't. Why couldn't?
Because he was God come into the flesh and it wasn't his hour
yet. That whole outfit come down there
like a bunch of I don't even know what to compare him to.
But they come down there. He was in the garden praying.
He didn't have axes and swords and all. He didn't have a big
army. He had a few disciples. And they couldn't even stay awake
while he prayed. And they come down there with
soldiers and spears and swords to take him by force out of the
garden. And they said, who are you? And
he said, I am. And they fell back on the ground.
This is God coming into the flesh. Believers know that. They know
that. And they look back on that time
when they were singing them songs like me and Jesus got a good
thing going. And they spit on it now, because
they realize who He is. He's God. This is God. He's not your buddy, and He's
not your co-pilot, and He's not your servant. When Job saw the
Lord, he put his hand over his mouth and quit talking. He said,
I've got nothing else to say. When Isaiah saw the Lord, he
said, Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips. When Daniel
saw the Lord, his comeliness melted into corruption. And when
John saw the Lord, he fell down at his feet like a dead man. What's all that got to do with
the life we live? Faith does not disregard the
commandments of Christ because Christ is God. And if He tells you to do something,
we do it. We do it. Paul said, whether we live, we
live unto the Lord. Whether we die, we die unto the
Lord. Whether we live, therefore die,
we're the Lord's. Does that sound like a man who
just did whatever he come into his head to do? Whatever notion
of the day, I think I'll go do that. No. No, it sounds like
a man who knew God. He knew God. Those who know Him to the degree
in which they know Him bow to His deity and His Lordship. And then thirdly, to know Christ
is to know His offices and what they mean. He is our prophet.
He reveals to us the will and character of God. And Christ
is our priest. All of the redeeming work of
Christ which He accomplished here, even His intercession on
our behalf in glory, He did and does do as our high priest. Nothing
can be done in the church apart from our priest. Not under the old law and not
under the new. Everything goes through the priest.
And Jesus Christ also is our King. You reckon after David
took the throne in Israel, men did whatever they wanted to do? They might have done that unto
them judges, but they didn't do that unto the king. The king
can take them out of the way. There's a seated king in the
kingdom of God, and he rules. He rules. And by his wisdom and power and
love, he preserves all that was given to him. And he said, I
will raise it up at the last day. And then, fourthly, to know
Christ is to know and understand His finished work and what it
means toward God and toward themselves. My friend, you cannot know God
and believe what's being preached in our day concerning the life
and death of Jesus Christ. It's an utter impossibility.
And they can talk about it all they want to. His life as our representative
under the law constitutes the believer's righteousness. Paul
said Israel was still in a state of not being saved because they
wouldn't receive the righteousness of God in Christ, but were ignorantly
going about to establish their own. He prayed for their salvation. They weren't near about saved.
And yet men and women tell me, well, yeah, you can be saved
out there and believe that Tommy Rock. No, you can't. No, you
can't. I beg your pardon. Israel perished in their sins
because they refused to submit to it. He said Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness. To most people, that ain't what
this is. He said, for Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness. This is Romans 10, verse 4. To
everyone that believeth. Everyone that believeth. You find a man still arguing
about his personal righteousness, still laying some kind of hope
on his work, you're talking to an unsaved man. In him, the law of God on our
account is exalted and honored and God glorified in the process. And his death, his death is preached
almost across the board by every denomination that goes by the
name of Christian as a universal atonement. That can't be. It just cannot be. If the death
of Jesus Christ did not fully pay for our sins, satisfy the
justice of God, and quench the wrath of God, then I have it
yet to do. Not just a fact of it. Faith cannot atone for sin. Faith and good works cannot atone
for sin. Pledges and promises cannot atone
for sin. Sin demands the death of the
sinner. He has to die. The soul that
sinneth shall surely die. This is what God said. Was he
going to make an exemption on our part? No. We have to die. We have to die. The soul that
sinneth shall surely die. And either Jesus Christ stood
as my substitute and died under the wrath of a holy God, or I
must die myself, one or the other. Either I died in Him or I'm going
to die at His command. And there's no salvation apart
from substitution. And if He died in my place and
satisfied God's holy justice in my place, then I'm justified
in Him. I'm justified. There ain't no
gray area there. There ain't no middle ground there. I either
am or I'm not. One or the other. If he died for all men, then
all men are justified. There'd be no reason for judgment. But the scripture said, the good
shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. And they're justified
through that death and through his life. And then fifthly, those
who know Christ know his power and influence over all things,
and they act accordingly. Can you imagine living in a world
full of totally depraved men and women, totally depraved,
without any constraint from God? You can't hardly live with them
now. Just because somebody comes up
to your house and you say, they say, well, I'll build you a house
for $40,000. You going to shake their hand, walk away, and hand
them money? You said put it down here in writing. Put it down
here. Now sign it. Now sign it. Why would you do
such a thing? Because you don't trust them.
And you're right to not trust them. That's right. Can you imagine
living in a world where there was no constraint? None whatsoever? Can you imagine living in a world
full of totally depraved men and women with no constraint
at all? Can you imagine preaching to
a world full of God-hating rebels with no potential of life in
them at all, without the power of God to arrest them and convince
them? I can't imagine such a thing. I'd have to answer with Ezekiel.
He said, son of man, can these bones live? I don't know. You
know. You tell me. I'm not able to tell you. You
tell me. He said, preach to them. And then sixthly, to know Christ
is to know Him in such a way as to desire to be like Him.
Believers admire their Savior and they see in Him a character
worth possessing. They want to put Him on. I tell
you, have you ever seen a... I know you women have. Don't
lie to me now, I know you have. You go downtown and you walk
past the store and you see something and you just got to have it.
I've got to have that. Man, that's a lot of money, but
I've got to have that. Why? Because it'll look so good
on me. That's what believers see in
Christ. I've got to have it. I've got
to have that. That's what I want to be. That's
what I desire to be. That's what I hope to be. And every man with this hope,
purifies himself even as he pure. That's how he does it, because
he wants to be like him. He wants to be like him. His love supersedes the understanding. He said, the love of Christ passeth
knowledge, goes beyond it, supersedes it. And what about his mercy? See his mercy in the harlot taken
in the very act. See his mercy to the woman at
the well who worships you. He said, you worship you know
not what. See his mercy to the unseeking disciples who were
busy about their jobs. See his mercy to the woman who
had spent all she had on useless physicians and faulty cures. And see His mercy at Pentecost
on 3,000 souls who just the week before stood in the crowd and
said, crucify Him, crucify Him. Huh? And see His mercy on this
poor sinner whom the Lord sought out. Sought me out and called me for no other reason
than to glorify His mercy and grace. All those who have learned
Christ, Ephesians chapter 4, are renewed and constantly are
renewed in the spirit of their mind. They have the mind of Christ. And they have learned Him and
they are learning Him. And that's all they desire to
know. Everything I need to know is in Him. All the fullness of
the Godhead bodily dwells in Him. What else do I need to know? God does not save anyone and
leave them in their sins. He does not save a man and then
leave him to himself. God does not save a man so that
he can excuse his practice of sin. God does not save a person
and give him the liberty to commit sin to glorify His grace. Paul deals with all of those
excuses in the book of Romans. Those whom God is saving, He
is turning from this world, and turning from their natures, and
turning from their former religion. There is an inward and continual
change taking place, and where there is no change taking place,
There is no God. There is no God. Now, I'll tell
you one thing about the Lord Jesus Christ. Everywhere He went,
He effected a change. And everywhere He abides, He
effects a change. And believers want it. They want
it. They're disappointed because
they don't see more of it. I want more, don't you? I want
more. I want more. I preach the way
I preach and teach the way I teach because it's through this kind
of preaching that God's elect are matured and grow. This is
how we learn Christ. May God be pleased to reveal
Him to us today, for Christ's sake. Our Father, we thank You
for this day. We scarce can take in the glory
of it. A day, a day set apart in all
eternity for this message, for this man, and for this group
of men and women gathered here this morning. A day which will be given account
before the angels, before the very throne of God.
Our Father, teach us something about the solemnity of coming
in here to worship You and to hear Your Word. And teach us
something about the glory of Your grace and mercy in Christ.
We ask it for Christ's sake. Amen.