And I want to begin reading here
in verse 15, Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 15. The Apostle Paul write unto these
believers and said, Wherefore I also, after I heard of your
faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, cease
not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers.
that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory,
may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened,
that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what
is the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
and what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us who according
to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality and
power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,
not only in this world, but in that also which is to come, and
hath put all things under His feet. and gave him to be head
over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness
of him that filleth all in all." I am going to look at verse 17
and portion of verse 18 this morning, but I want to say in
a way of introduction that the Apostle Paul is amazing in the
way he writes. And he never stops sometimes
to explain himself. He no doubt, as he does in some
places, anticipates questions arising from our hearts. But
one thing you notice about this epistle, he doesn't stop to answer
these questions. And here's what I'm saying. For
quite some time, you and I looked at the first portions of this
chapter 1. And we were looking there at
the great truths, the deep truths of predestination and election,
God's eternal purpose. And then suddenly, he comes right
into this matter of faith in Christ and trust in Christ and
praying to the Father for the saints and giving thanks for
them. He comes from predestination
to prayer. and never skips a beat. Ain't
that amazing? He doesn't anticipate any questions. He doesn't say, now, I need to
stop here and explain to you that I realize that the doctrine
of predestination, that great purpose of God, what He's done
in eternity, seems to be so inconsistent with prayer. So let me go into
detail and explain all this to you. He says none of that, does
He? You know where these questions usually arise from. When we read
about God's purpose and God's grace, and these questions arise,
they don't arise from the Word of God. They arise from our hearts. The apostle went preaching, and
he was writing, and he made this wonderful statement. He said,
where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. And somebody
raises up and says, well, let us sin then, that grace may abound. Is that what you are saying,
Paul? We are not under the law, but under grace. So somebody
stood up and said, well, let us go ahead and sin as we will
then. But where do these questions come from? They come from the
carnal heart, don't they? They come from us, not from the
Word of God. And these things are consistent. You and I may not be able to
put them together. We may not know how they parallel
one with another, but they do. They do. The Lord Jesus, when
He was preaching that great message in John chapter 6, He was preaching
on the Father's elect in love. And he said, all the Father gives
to me shall come to me. And he uses this word, and Him
that cometh to me. Ain't it amazing that he didn't
use the word but? Ain't it something that he never
stopped there and began to argue about this and say, now listen,
but they must come. But let me stress this, they
have to come. No, he said, and they shall come. No questions. No questions. And there's not been any of you
when I've left this pulpit and we've discussed these things,
none of you have come up to me and said, that's so inconsistent.
Because the Bible takes this one tremendous step after another. And we just look at it and receive
the testimony of God's Word and say, that's what He says and
we believe it. If it's predestination, we believe it. If it's prayer,
we believe it. If it's hearing of the Lord Jesus
and trust in Him, we believe it. He said it and we believe
it. He said it and that settled it.
But I tell you, when we believe, it sells it in here for us, doesn't
it? So that's the one thing I wanted
to call your attention to. The Apostle goes from one great
truth to another, and he never stops to tell us how they're
linked together. They just link. That's it. They
just link. But he tells us here in verse
17 that he prays for them. He prays for them. You know we
pray. We pray for all kinds of people.
We pray for lost people. We have our children that we
pray for, our loved ones, our friends we pray for. My heart's
desire and prayer to God is that men would be saved. That's what
we pray for. But here the Apostle prays for
these believers. And he doesn't pray that they
be kept from temptation. He doesn't pray that they may
prosper in this world. He doesn't even pray that they
may be healthy. I'm sure there's a place for
that, and if you're sick, God helps us to remember you and
pray for you that He had touched your body. But the Apostle Paul
has got something here exceedingly more important on his mind. He prays there in verse 17 that
the Lord, the Father of our Lord Jesus, would give unto them the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Himself. The knowledge of God the Father,
the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there is no doubt
these people that he was praying for knew the Lord. They knew
God. They had heard of the Lord. They
trusted Him. They knew Him. But you know, to be honest, when
the Lord brings us to know Him in the beginning of this way,
we know so little about Him. Most of what we know about Him
is concerning us. It's not so much about Him, but
it's about Him saving me. I once was blind, and now I see. Yes, but what do you know about
Him that gave you sight? I know very little. All I know
is this about me. I was blind, and now I see. And these people were lost, and
the Lord had saved them. He had forgiven all their sins. And that's about all they knew
of him, that he had saved them. And now Paul writes to him here,
and he says, you have this new life. And I don't mean, God help
me, and I know that you know I don't mean, to undervalue the
Lord saving us, giving us new life. That's wonderful. That's
necessary, to be forgiven, to be saved. But Paul is telling
them here, this is just the beginning of this new life. This new life
that you have has this wonderful potential to be filled with a
knowledge of this glorious God in the Lord Jesus Christ. to
know Him, to know Him better, to know Him deeper, to know Him
more intimately, this redeeming God and our Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's what He prays for. I pray
for you believers there in this church, you who are known of
the Lord, whom He has saved, and this is what I pray for,
that He would give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. So my first point is this, this
morning, brothers and sisters. Here we have this great prospect,
this real prospect set before you and I. Something that is
amazing and wonderful and that you and I can realize even more
fully in our souls. And what is it? of God in Christ. What a prospect! What a prospect! I pray for you that you may come
to know the Lord and know Him better. Know Him more fully. Realize Him. Understand Him. The knowledge of Him. What would it be to know more? of this eternal God as He's revealed
in the Holy Scriptures, in the Trinity of His sacred person
to know Him better, knowing God who is so high that He has to
humble Himself to behold the things that's in heaven, the
eternal God and Creator and Sustainer of all things. coming to the
knowledge, a fuller knowledge of God the Father who sent His
Son into this world to reconcile us unto Himself. Bruce, I know
Him, but wouldn't you love to know Him better? How much do
you know of Him? Oh, so little. We hear of Him,
we read about Him, but how much true knowledge have we experienced
of Him in our soul? to know the Lord Jesus Christ,
to know Him in His deity, to know Him in His humanity, to
know Him in His two natures, to know Him in His sufferings,
to know Him in His death, to know Him in His resurrection,
to know Him there at the right hand of the Father, to know Him
in His redeeming love, to know Jesus Christ in His offices,
as my king to rule over me, to subdue my iniquities, as my prophet
to lead me and teach me, as my high priest on God's right hand
making intercessions for me, my advocate when I have sinned,
my access into the Father's presence, to know Him in His grace, to
know Him in His Word, to know Him in His promises, to know
Him. Oh, what a prospect that is! Paul said, this is what I'm praying
for you, that you may have this spirit of wisdom and revelation
in the knowledge of Him. Oh, what a prospect that is.
If I had to come here this morning and tell you we can't know God,
I'd have no message. Then what a prospect, what a
message I have to each of us this morning, that we can know
Him, and not only know Him, but increase in this knowledge of
Him, of this tremendous, eternal, triune God, our Savior. This
is what the Apostle Paul said about it. He had been on the
way a long time. He had been an apostle for many
years. And this is what he said, I count all loss for the excellency
of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. And that word there
means not only have I counted all things lost, I am counting
all things lost. Why? To gain this excellent knowledge
of Christ Jesus, my Lord. And be found in Him. Not having
my own righteousness, but the righteousness which is of God
by faith in Christ, that I may know Him. That I may know Him. Paul, you mean you don't know
Him? I know Him. I know Him. I want to know Him
better. I want to know Him better, that I may know Him. Some things
that's said about this knowledge that's very appealing to our
hearts, and you'll find this in 2 Peter 2 and verse 1, and
it has to do with this very thing, the knowledge of Him. And here's
what Peter says about this, and this is what's very appealing
to our souls when we think of the knowledge of God and of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Peter says this, Grace be unto
you. No, he says this, Grace and peace
be multiplied unto you. And that word multiply means
heaps upon heaps. You just keep stacking it. Heaps
upon heaps, abundance of grace. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you through the knowledge of God and our Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is multiplied and peace
is multiplied through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Who among us this morning doesn't
long for more grace? I mean the knowledge of it, the
true knowledge of it in our hearts. We want to know more of the freeness
of it, how sovereign it is, how abundant it is, and how abiding
it is. You and I are living in these
bodies, and the workings of sin sometimes is so great in it,
and I know you feel it in yourself. And sometimes you get so discouraged,
you get down because of it, and you think within yourself, how
can God have anything at all to do with me? Did you ever feel
that way? When you feel the working of
sin in you? And you have to be reminded of this. It's because
of His grace. By grace are you saved through
faith. And you know what our whole problem
is. We don't have much understanding of grace. By our natural inclinations,
our natural thinking, we think grace is something if we didn't
merit it to be saved by, we merit it to be kept by. We have to
earn it. We have to see ourselves getting
better and better and better. We forget the very meaning of
grace. It's free. God never saved us
because of anything we were. He never saved us because of
any potential that He saw in us. He saved us by His grace. He's the God of all grace. I
remember one time I was so down, and it's because of this very
thing, of seeing this working of sin in you, and your utter
inability. And I just went in my study one
day, and there I sit. And I was so down I couldn't
read, I couldn't pray, and on the wall I saw this plaque that
my wife, I guess, had put on the wall. And it simply said,
by grace are you saved. And I said, there it is. That's
it. Why am I down? Why am I so sad
and despondent? By grace are you saved. By grace? Is grace that free? Is grace
that sovereign? The God of all grace. The Bible
says Jesus Christ is full of it. The Word of God was made
flesh, and He was full of grace and truth. How big is the heart
of Jesus Christ? It's bigger than this universe,
and it's full of grace. Grace. Oh, how precious did that
grace appear the hour I first believed. What do we need then? Well, we need the knowledge of
this God, don't we? We need the knowledge of our
Lord Jesus and His grace. And who among us doesn't want
this? Not only the more knowledge of His grace in our soul, but
the greater increase of it. Grace itself. the grace of faith, and the grace
of love, and the grace of hope and patience and goodness. Be
strong in the Lord and in the power of His might, His grace. Be strong in that grace that's
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And what's one of the ways that
this grace is multiplied, Peter says? Through the knowledge of
God and Jesus Christ our Lord. You and I know people, and I
won't judge as to their condition of their souls. I'll take them
at their word, but they have professed the Lord, and probably
rightfully so, for years, 20 or 25 years, and they still know
very little of grace. Grace hasn't multiplied in their
souls. And you know what their problem
is? They have little knowledge of God and the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Savior. Grow in grace and in the knowledge
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. But he says something
else here. I just wanted to tell you this because this is linked
to what Paul is praying for these Ephesians. The knowledge of Him. And when we come to a greater
knowledge of Him, then grace is multiplied. It's heaped up.
It's heaped up. And he says, Peace be multiplied
unto you. You know what the word peace
means. It means quietness, tranquility, rest, free from disturbance. Peace. Peace. Let me tell you
three or four things right quickly about peace. Peace be multiplied. Peace be heaped up. Heaped up. And this comes through the knowledge.
I haven't got off of my message. This goes right along with it.
I'm just telling you something that appeals to us. This is the
prospect that the Holy Spirit is setting before us, this prospect,
that we can indeed grow in the knowledge of Him. And therefore,
grace is heaped up and peace is heaped up. The first thing
about this thing of peace, that God sent His Son into this world
to make peace. Between humanity and God, the
Son of God was sent of the Father to make peace. Why did peace need to be made?
A separation had been brought in. Sin had come in and brought
this separation between us and God. This division, this enmity. The Lord God said, why won't
I hear you? Isaiah 59, verse 2. Why won't
I hear you? He said. Because your sins have
separated between you and your God. Your iniquities have hid
His face that He won't hear you. There's this division. There's
this disturbance between me and you. So what did the Father do?
He said, My son, go down there and make peace. Remove that which
has brought this disturbance. and bring tranquility, peace,
bring peace. And no sooner had the Son of
God been separated from His mother's womb, and those angels appeared
there to the shepherds and said, I bring you good tidings of great
joy, good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people,
for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior. And what's He come for? to make
peace. God has sent Him to make peace.
And then they said this, Glory to God in the highest and on
earth, peace, goodwill towards men. You want to know the origin
of peace? Trace it back to the heart of
God. That's where it came from. He sent His Son to make peace. Secondly, we should remember
this, Jesus Christ made peace by the blood of His cross. He made peace. Sin had brought
separation. It had come up before God and
God's wrath had come down and they met. Those two awful things
met. And where did they meet at? There
at the cross. And there is where the Lord Jesus
Christ was punished for our sins in His own body. He put away
that. which had caused the disturbance. The blood of justice bathed itself
in Jesus' blood and says, I'm at rest. I'm not angry anymore. I'll never spite again. That
thing which caused my anger and brought my wrath has been moved. Now there's peace. Peace in the
court of heaven. And I'll tell you who experiences
this, everybody that believes it. Don't say, I need to make
peace with God. It's already been made. Just
believe it. Just believe it. And thirdly,
the Scripture says this about peace. Not only did it originate
with the Father, not only did He send the Son, not only did
the Son come and remove that disturbance and make peace, but
the Scripture says in Ephesians 2 and 14 that Christ is our peace. Now why would the Apostle Paul
say that? Because he just said that he's
made peace by the blood of his cross. But now he says that Christ
is our peace. Well, you know what I get out
of that. Not only did the Lord Jesus make
peace through the blood of his cross, but he's there in heaven
to secure that. There's no devils that can get
there to disturb the peace. There is no sin that can enter
there to disturb it. There is no accusation that can
enter there to disturb it. If anything enters there to disturb
our peace, it has to deal with Him, the Prince of Peace. He
is our peace. And He is seated there in the
Father's presence. Brothers and sisters, there is
no turmoil in heaven. The Prince of Peace is there.
The turmoil is in our hearts. The turmoil is in this world.
There's no turmoil in heaven. There's peace there. The Prince
of Peace is there to secure it. And fourthly is this, to confirm
the truth of all of this that I've just been stating, the Holy
Spirit is constantly preaching this gospel of peace to us. Paul said, how beautiful. are
the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
good tidings of great things." I'm preaching peace to you this
morning. Preaching peace by the Holy Spirit. Preaching peace.
God sent this Word to us, this gospel. And you can bet if God
sent this Word of peace, then it's valuable. And it's a sound
peace. It's a just peace. He wouldn't
have me here this morning proclaiming this gospel of peace to you if
it wasn't a just peace. You can believe it. You can believe
it. And you ought to believe it.
And fifthly and lastly on this heading of peace, this peace
can be known. It can be realized in our souls. Grace and peace be multiplied
unto you. Unto you. Peace to you. It can be realized in the soul.
I tell you, this is the most exciting day. It's the most exciting
time that I've ever lived in. I know, I know what we're facing
as a nation. I know what the world is facing.
The world is scared to death. This financial crisis that has
come, and we don't know where it's going to lead to. And more
even than that, what's going to happen in the next six months
or a year or two years. And the world is so fearful about
all of this. But I'm so excited. You know
why I'm so excited? My Sovereign Lord rules over
all of these nations, over all these circumstances. And that
calms me in my soul. He that feeds the birds of the
air, and He that clothes the lilies of the field, He's so
mindful of poor me, He'd let them go naked and starve to death
before He would let me. He's mindful of me. He's my Redeemer. And He's my friend. How could I be upset? And when
I think of that and know who He is and what He's done and
where He's at and what He's doing, I tell you, my soul refuses to
be disturbed. Everything that could disturb
it and disquiet it has been removed in the light of the knowledge
of Him. Now, if you don't know Him, and
you don't know Him as the sovereign Lord and Redeemer, And if you
don't know His love for you and His care for you and how mindful
He is of you, if you don't have the knowledge of Him, then you
may well be upset when you look around you and see what's going
on. And if you're here this morning
and you're His and you know that He's done a work in your heart
and you're still upset about these things, then I would ask
you this morning to look at this verse of Scripture that Paul
sets before us. There is this great prospect.
The knowledge of Him. The knowledge of Him. And you
see, you see, as you grow in the knowledge of Him, you see
if you don't have this grace and this peace multiply in your
heart. There are other Scriptures that
we could go to this morning. But first of all, that we realize
this. There is this great prospect.
presented before our eyes the knowledge of Him. The knowledge of Him. What a
prospect. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Oh, ain't that
wonderful? Learn of me. That's the invitation
of our Lord and Savior. Learn of me. Lord, is that possible? This is Paul's prayer. And it's
mine for you. And it's mine for myself. the
knowledge of Him. And secondly, and right quickly,
how in the world could people such as we are, even though we
may be believers this morning, how can we obtain the knowledge
of Him? Well, look here at our text again.
Let me read these two verses to you again. Verse 17, that
the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give
unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge
of Him the eyes of your understanding being enlightened. You see it. Some of you see it already. I
could just sit down and you say, I see it. I see it. But suffer
me a few minutes, would you? Suffer me just a few minutes.
Be patient a few minutes. This word wisdom and revelation
and You could go to several dictionaries and commentaries and get this
definition of wisdom and what the difference between wisdom
and knowledge is, and I could stand up here and just wear you
out with these things. But listen to this. One man said
this, and I like this. He said, Wisdom is the right
use of knowledge. Another man said, Wisdom is heart
knowledge. Wisdom is heart knowledge. In
other words, we're not seeking just to stuff our heads with
knowledge. We want to know Him in our hearts. That's what wisdom
is. When we read the Scriptures and
when we hear the preaching and as we sing and meditate, this
is why we do those things. This is the end of it all, that
we may know Him. And that's wisdom, to know Him. And this word, revelation, Revelation,
we hear a lot about this today, don't we? In the religious realms,
and I don't even have to encourage you to beware of those fellows
who say, God told me, just now told me too, that we're going
to have a big tsunami next year. Well, what happens if we don't
have a big tsunami next year? What does that mean? You know,
I'm always amazed that some of these religious people will make
these predictions and they don't come to pass and nobody holds
them to account for them. If I say, God told me there's
going to be this tsunami next year and there's no tsunami,
what does that mean? God never told me that. If I
say, I had a dream and my dream said this was going to happen
and that doesn't come to pass, what does that mean? I'm a false
prophet. So when Paul is talking about
a revelation year, he's not talking about that kind of revelation. Let me explain it this way. When
he says revelation, let me explain it this way. The Holy Spirit
has a double work. In revelation, the Holy Spirit
has a double work that He does. First of all, He has already
revealed everything that God is pleased to reveal of the mind
of God, the heart of God, the thoughts of God. And where has
He done that? Right here in this room. Everything
that you and I are going to know about God, we'll find it out
right here. Here is the full revelation of
the mind of God. This is not all of Him. If He
had written everything that could have been written about our Lord,
the world itself couldn't attain them. But this is what He would
have us to know. And it's enough. It's enough. The Bible says that the Holy
Spirit moved upon holy men of old, and they breathed out the mind of God. This is God's
revelation, His Word. That's the first work of the
Holy Spirit. This is the triune God revealed
on the pages of this book. But you know something? He's
hid. He's hid in this book. From Genesis
to Revelation. He's full. It's all about Him. But a whole nation missed Him.
They studied this book and they still missed Him. Because He's
hid. That brings us then to another
work of the Holy Spirit. He has another work. And it's
this. He opens the eyes of our understanding
and He reveals the Lord. He reveals our redeeming God. He reveals Christ Jesus in the
pages of this Holy Word. A double work. The old timers
used to have a saying, it was Greek and I can't remember what
it was, but it had this meaning. The Spirit in the Word, the Spirit
in the Reader. That's the double work. The Spirit
in the preacher, the Spirit in the hearer, and both of those
are necessary. It was necessary for the Holy
Spirit to come and reveal the mind of God, and now it's necessary
for the Holy Spirit to come to your heart and teach you from
this book. And that's what Paul is talking
about here. He said that the Father of glory may give unto
you this Spirit of wisdom and revelation that you may know
Him in the knowledge of Him. Turn with me to Luke, I think
probably the best commentary. Luke 24. The best commentary
on this, our text, is probably here in Luke, chapter 18. And
you'll see this probably when I just show you a few verses
here. Look here in Luke, chapter 24. And look at some places. We have
the Word. That's the revelation of God
that's already been given. Don't sit around trying to hear
the voice of God telling you what's going to happen tomorrow
or next year. We've got it right here. And we need the Spirit
to grow in knowledge of the Lord that's revealed on the pages
of these words. And that's called the opening
of the heart. The enlightenment of the understanding.
And we have all of that here in chapter 24 of Luke. First
of all, then look in verse 27. You remember these two men, these
two disciples, they were on the way to Emmaus. The Lord Jesus
had risen from the dead. They thought He was still in
the tomb, but He had risen. They were walking, the two of
them was, going on the road to Emmaus. And in verse 27, And
beginning at Moses, here's what the Lord Jesus did to those two
men. Beginning at Moses and all the prophets, He expounded unto
them in all the Scriptures the things concerning Himself. You know, He never gave them
one new revelation. He said, I want to show you something
out of the Scriptures. Lord, what are you going to show
us? Look over here also in verse 45. In verse 44, look at this. These are the words which I spake
unto you while I was with you, that all things must be fulfilled
which are written in the law of Moses in the prophets and
in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they may understand the Scriptures. There he is, isn't
he? There's the revelation. We have
the Scriptures. We have the opening of the understanding,
the enlightening of the eyes, the Apostle Paul calls it. But
you say, Bruce, the Lord Jesus is not here with us. Oh, dear
soul, I beg your pardon. He is here with us. Not in the
flesh. He's in heaven. But he said,
I'll pray my Father and He'll send you another spirit. And
He's really not another, is He? He's a different kind. Not flesh
like I am, our Master said. My Spirit. And what's going to
happen when He comes? He'll guide you into all truth. He'll take of the things that's
mine and He'll show them unto you. That's what the Apostle
Paul is praying for. The very same thing that happened
to these two men here on the road to Emmaus. There we have the Word. And we
have the Spirit in that Word. And now what needs to happen?
The Spirit in these ears, in these readers of the Word. But
something else I want you to remember here, and this is probably
just as important to get at the point that I'm talking about
this morning. Who were these fellows? Who were
these two men? That's so important. Verse 17. What manner of communications
are these that you have one to another as you walk and are sad? They were sad, despondent, discouraged. And look in verse 25. Look here
who they were. Then said He unto them, O fools! You know what that word fools
means? Unintelligent. Sensual. Flashy. Ignorant. That's who they were. and slow of heart to believe."
Now, I'm not commending these guys. I'm not saying, boy, this
should be our aim, to be like this. But I'm saying this for
this reason, to point out to us that these two men were not
brilliant men. They weren't men of great intellect
and education. They were plain men. They were
common men that probably dredged out a living by fishing or doing
carpenter work. And yet this is the very two
men that said, did not our hearts burn within us while He opened
to us the Scripture? Well, I miss those two verses,
don't I? Look in verse 31. And their eyes were opened, and
they knew Him, and He vanished out of their sight. In verse
32, they said one to another, Did not our hearts burn within
us when He talked with us by the way, and while He opened
to us the Scriptures? What am I saying? I'm saying
this, brothers and sisters. You and I don't know the Lord,
and we don't increase in the knowledge of Him because of our
natural abilities and our intellect. In our education, we grow in the knowledge of Him. We know Him because the Holy
Spirit makes Him known to our hearts. You know who came to the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus when He was here? And who increased in the
knowledge of Him? They were poor people. Common
people. Illiterate people. There was
a man who was born blind. Obviously, Glenn, that man in
John 9, couldn't read. He was born blind. Illiterate
man. And those Pharisees knew him. You're teaching us? They said.
You're teaching us? Look at yourself! You idiot! You're teaching us? We're educating
people. And you're teaching us! Yes, He did. And the Lord Jesus
said, Do you believe on the Son of God? Who is He, Lord? I that
speak unto you am He. He knew the Lord. How could He? He couldn't even read. That's
what we're talking about in our text. The Spirit. of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of Him. That woman Samaria was so ignorant,
professing to worship, but she never had worshiped a day in
her life. You don't know what you worship. You're so ignorant.
That's what the Lord told her. You're so ignorant, you don't
know who you worship. We've heard the Messiah's coming. Ah, but
speaking to the YMV, what a revelation! What a revelation to her ignorant
heart! I am He. And she knew Him. And the same way we come to know
Him by revelation of the Spirit is the same way we increase in
the knowledge of Him. It's not these wise men that
know Him. Look at your calling, brother. And Paul said, who knows
Him? You know the Greeks. This has often been said. And
this is amazing. It shows the providence of God
in these things. Before the Lord Jesus came, the Greeks used to
just about rule this earth. And they were some brilliant
men. The Greeks were brilliant. The Greeks seek after wisdom,
Paul said. And man, they had it too. I mean,
they were brilliant men. Brilliant philosophers. Brilliant
scientists. Brilliant mathematicians. Brilliant,
mighty men to make war, they all but conquered the known world
because they were so wise. But Paul said, by their wisdom,
they never knew God. You see your calling, brethren.
Not mighty, not many mighty, not many noble, not many learned,
not many intelligent, but God has chosen the foolish thing.
to confound the lies. You come to me this morning and
you feel the same way that I feel about myself. Lord, I'm an ignorant
man. I'm a fool. How can I know you? And some
of you, some of you, you work, you struggle, you go to school,
you work on your job, And sometimes you have to work long hours and
you've got a family that you raise or a house to take care
of. And we can earnestly say that we're busy. And besides, I'm so ignorant. I'm so simple. Well, let me say
this to you, brothers and sisters, if that's the way you feel about
yourself, don't be discouraged. Don't be discouraged. You don't
have to go to seminar. You don't have to have commentaries.
You don't have to go and sit down at the feet of somebody
else. Go right to the Heavenly Father Himself and say, Oh God
and Father, my Lord Jesus, give to me the Spirit of wisdom. Send Him into my soul. Open my
heart that I may know Him. And I bet you it won't be long. as you read simple passages,
and as you sit and listen to the preacher preach, you'll be
amazed in yourself that he has heard your prayer. And you that
had not much time and still don't have much time to pore over all
these Scriptures and listen to all these messages, yet, poor
simple you, have had your heart open to know Him and to know
Him better. And you'll rejoice in it. You
ladies washing your dishes, vacuuming your floor. I've heard people
right in the midst of their jobs, the Lord opening their hearts
and let them see something of Him they never saw before. He can show you more of Himself
in a split second than I can labor to show you in a lifetime.
Oh, my Father, give to me the spirit of wisdom. and the knowledge
of Him. Let's pray.