All right, well let's turn back
in our Bibles to the 16th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew. It
is good to see each and every one of you here this morning.
I trust the Lord has prepared our hearts that we might receive
that which He will give to our hearts if we're this morning
in a position to receive it. I want to read beginning with
verse 13 and read down through verse 20. Verse 13 through verse
20 this morning. When Jesus came into the coast
of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do
men say that I, the Son of Man, am? And they said, Some say that
thou art John the Baptist, some Elias, and others Jeremias, or
one of the prophets. He said unto them, But whom say
ye that I am? And Simon Peter answered and
said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona, for
flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which
is in heaven. And I say also unto thee that
thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church,
and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will
give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatsoever
thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged
he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus
the Christ. I want to talk about Christ being
known by the revelation of the Spirit this morning. Christ being
known by the revelation of the Spirit. And I want to begin by
saying that here in these verses, verse 18 in particular, we find
one of the earliest places in the New Testament in which we
find any mention of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
it's very significant, I think, that our Lord should connect
with the Church the right idea of Himself. Don't you? I really
feel that that's significant. That He should connect with the
Church the right idea about Himself. Now in this text we have here
this morning, I believe when the Lord Jesus said in verse
16, Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the
Son of the living God. Jesus had asked in verse 15,
Whom say ye that I am? Whom say ye that I am? I believe
that we have here in this text this morning the question which
must be put to everyone who would come into the Lord's assembly. Anyone who would want to come
in to the New Testament Church, anyone who would want to be a
member of the body of Christ on earth, anyone who would want
to come into the fellowship of the saints of God here on earth,
that question ought to be put to them, whom do ye say that
I, the Son of Man, am? Who is Jesus Christ? And if a
man can answer that question, then listen, if he can answer
that question right, Then, my friend, he is welcomed into the
church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You cannot be right in the rest,
one of the old writers said, unless you think rightly of him. Do you think rightly of him this
morning? Can you answer the question,
who is this man, Jesus Christ? Well, Peter answered, he was
the spokesman for the disciples, and he said, Thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. Now that is the right answer,
beloved. That's the right answer. There's some others here that
are referred to as men in our text, and they didn't give the
right answer, and they could not give the right answer as
to who Jesus Christ is. Now, your joining of the church,
if you do not know the right answer to this question, who
am I, or whom say ye that I am, if you cannot give the right
answer to that question, then I believe that it will be injurious
both to yourself and to the church if you join it. If you do not
have the revelation of Jesus Christ in your heart, and if
you do not know who that He is. Let it be Christ then, and then
the church. Let it be the Lord Jesus. As
far as our chief word here, it's not church, but it's Christ.
Do you belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? I would not ask you if
you belong to a church. I ask you if you belong to the
Lord Jesus Christ. If you know Christ, if you rest
in Christ, If Christ be to you the way, the truth, and the life,
and above all, if Christ be formed in you, then I believe that your
redemption is sure and certain if Christ has been formed in
you, if you know who He is, if He has been revealed by the Spirit
of God to your heart. Now, in putting the question
about Himself here, our Lord makes a distinction between two
classes of people. And first of all, He says here
in the 13th verse, in the last phrase, He says, Whom do men
say that I the Son of Man am? And then a little later, he says
here to Peter or to the disciples, but whom say ye that I am? So
the Lord puts a distinction here between two classes of people,
and he says, whom do men say that I, the Son of Man, am? Now
these men, they form their opinion of Christ. according to the flesh,
and according to reasoning, and according to current opinion.
They formed their opinion upon natural and not spiritual grounds. And what conclusion did they
arrive at? Well, their opinions were diverse,
were they not? Some say thou art John the Baptist. You're John the Baptist. Well,
and then some say that you're Elias and others say you're one
of the other prophets. You're Jeremiah. Now, the judgment
of men about Christ, they contradict the one and only truth. To say
that Jesus is John the Baptist, some may think that's a compliment,
but it's a contradiction of the truth. To say that Jesus is Jeremiah
or one of the prophets is contradictory to the truth. Now today, in our
world, some say that he's a good man. I've heard others, many
say that the Lord Jesus is indeed a good man. And others say, well,
as they did in the days of the Lord Jesus, nay, but he deceiveth
the people, that he is a deceiver. Others say that he's divine.
Well, there's something divine about him, although he's not
actually God. Others that he became God, though
he was not always so. Some think him a divine man.
Their opinions were contradictory. Now if he were John the Baptist,
he could not be Jeremiah. And these false witnesses we
see, they do not agree together. Every one of them is wrong. They
neither knew Him nor His Father. And this is the reason why that
their judgment is wrong. This is the reason why they do
not know who He is. Because they do not know Him
or His Father. He is spiritual, and men are
carnal. He is holy, but men are sold
under sin. He is the brightness of the Father's
glory, and this brightness blinds men so that they cannot tell
who He is. They're not able to figure out
just who this one is. Now the conclusions of flesh
and blood, my friend, are unblessed. And I mean by that that there's
no blessing attached to any opinion of men about Him. You ask a man,
what do you think of the Lord Jesus? Who is He? And if he says,
well, He's a good man, there's no blessing in that. There's
no blessing in that. There's only blessing if Jesus
is the Christ. There's no blessing in Him being
John the Baptist or Jeremiah or one of the other prophets.
The blessing comes through Him being the Christ, the Son of
the Living God. There's no blessing otherwise.
Now my question to you would be this this morning. Do we know
more of Christ than the world knows about Him? Do we know more
of Christ than just flesh and blood knows about Him? What flesh
and blood has revealed? How much do we know about this
one, the Lord Jesus? Do we know more about Him than
we've been able to find out on our own? Even reading the Bible,
do we know something about Him by the revelation of God's Spirit? Do we know something of Him as
Peter knew something of the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we know something
more than what the common ordinary religionist knows about the Lord
Jesus Christ? My friend, I tell you this morning
that if you know nothing more of the Christ or the Bible than
what the ordinary religionist of our day knows about Him, then
you will perish and go to hell. The ordinary religionist, he
knows nothing firsthand about who Jesus is. And we must come
to know who He is. Now notice, if you will, the
knowledge of the disciples of Jesus differs from that of the
world. And there's a great difference,
and I want to point this out. First of all, I believe that
the knowledge that the disciples had of the Lord Jesus Christ
differs in this way, that it's more serious, it's more thoughtful,
it is more personal. Now men do not particularly care
who Jesus Christ is. Men are in the world, they don't
particularly care. But I'll tell you this, our view
of Him, the view of the child of God is the test of our state. Is He God in the flesh? Is He
the sent one of the Father? Has He washed us in His blood? Are we clean everywhere through
His blood and through the atonement that He made? Is He God? Now
listen to me, that's personal. I asked you, do you believe that
He's God? Is He your Redeemer? Is He your
sacrifice? Is He your Savior? Is He your
sin offering? Now the child of God says yes,
amen. And the world says, well we don't
know who he is, we don't know much about him. He resembles
one of the prophets, but we really don't know who he is. But to
the child of God this is personal and serious. It's a serious thing. Jesus is the Christ. Now in the
next place, the disciples' knowledge is more definite. It's more clear
and it's more assured. Rutherford, one of the old Puritans
said, he said, tighten your grip, he says, on eternal things. He
says, realize the Christ and hold him fast. Know what you
know. No second hand information is
going to do. You've got to know Him yourself. And you've got to understand
through the revelation of the Spirit of God to your own heart
who Jesus is. Now can this knowledge of the
disciples, I believe this knowledge that they had was unanimous among
them. It was unanimous. Now I mentioned
that Peter was the spokesman of the disciples. And I know that, as we've mentioned,
He's a dozen things to the people of the world, but there was no
division among the disciples. They were of one mind. They were
all taught of the Father. And I'll tell you this, that
everybody that is taught of the Father comes to Jesus, and everybody
that is taught of the Father by the Spirit of God, they all
are unanimous on who He is. There's no division among them.
They know who the Lord Jesus is. No division among the elect
as to Him. The general verdict of the elect
is this, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now
again, the true disciples' knowledge of Christ differs from that of
men in that it's a permanent knowledge. And I like this, and
I'm going to say this in a couple of ways in this message this
morning because I like this. Men's mind is as changeable as
the wind. You ask one fellow one day what
he thinks and he'll tell you what he thinks. And he might
say, well, it's this way today, it's another thing tomorrow.
And the Lord Jesus might be up in the market today and down
in the market as far as he's concerned tomorrow. He might
have this opinion of him, and this opinion of his worth today,
and another opinion of his worth tomorrow. But beloved, the Lord's
people, He is always the same, always the same, wherever you
find them, if they're sick, or if they're prospering, or if
they're poor, wherever you find the Lord's people, He's always
the Christ. Always the Christ. Let things
change outwardly. Let our conditions change, our
circumstances change around us. It won't make any difference.
He is the Christ and He'll never be anything else. The revelation
and the opinion that the child of God has of Christ is always
the same. He is the Christ and that won't
ever change. And when you're dying on your
deathbed, you love to have it so. This is the Christ. And whatever
be your condition between now and that time, He'll be the Christ. That is, if you have had a revelation
of Him in your heart. Now the belief of disciples differs
from the notions of men in that it is more glorifying to Jesus. It's more glorifying to Jesus.
Listen, He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. and you
do not glorify him if you have any opinion less than that. If
your opinion differs from that, then you're doing dishonor to
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now John the Baptist, why he's
a worthy individual. I like to read about John the
Baptist. I like to preach sermons about
John the Baptist, but I want to tell you this. John the Baptist
was not worthy to unloose the shoe latchets of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm telling you, Jeremiah the
prophet of fire, he was a great prophet of God, mightily used
of God, but let me tell you something, it does deserve us to the Lord
Jesus Christ to call him Jeremiah, or one of the other prophets,
Elias, that great prophet of God. Surely, he was a great prophet,
but listen to me, the one that I'm speaking to you about this
morning, the one that is here, In our text, the Christ, the
Son of the Living God, there isn't any that measures up to
Him. Men compare Him to this or that
mortal. Might as well compare the Son
to a glow worm, my friend, because the Lord Jesus Christ is above
them all. Men are blind as bats. I recognize
that through our preaching men are not always able to tell how
exalted the Lord Jesus Christ really is. They're not able to
tell who He is maybe in all of His glory and magnificence because
we fail so greatly with words to try to depict Him and to preach
Him and extol Him before you. that my friend, listen to me
this morning, come angels and archangels. Well, I believe they
could help us a little, but they could not solve the problem.
They could not enable us to so speak of Him so that He would
be worshipped as He ought to be. Jesus is infinite, incomparably
more than what we're ever able to set forth. The Virgin's song
was this, My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath
rejoiced in God my Savior. Now we do not worship Him a thousand
part as much as He deserves. Even when we know Him to be who
He is, we still do not worship Him as He ought to be worshipped.
And then to say that he's John the Baptist. To say that he's
Jeremiah or Elias or one of the other prophets. My friend, how
it's I think dishonoring to the Lord Jesus Christ not to know
him for who he is. and not to set forth, as these
disciples did, the Lord Jesus Christ. Words are but air, tongues
but clay, and our Master's glory are too great to be set forth
by such poor means. Oh, that we knew how to extol
Him as He ought to be extolled. The brightness of the Father's
glory is not to be set forth by our words, Beloved they fall
far short and we cannot set forth his glories as it ought to be
it is also I think more influential To know him and the I think the
disciples opinion of him and view of him their knowledge of
him was much more Influential now I talked just a little bit
about this while ago, but you listen to me the world is not
influenced by believing that Jesus is John the Baptist. They're not influenced. I mean
that's not going to do anybody any good. You remember the book
of Acts? In Acts chapter 18 talks about
Apollos. And he knew only the baptism
of John. And they took him aside and they
explained to him, Priscilla and Aquila did, the ways of God more
perfectly, expounded unto him the ways of God more perfectly.
They taught him the truth about the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel
of redeeming grace. Well listen to me, but believing
that he's the Christ, the Son of God, to the believer, this
knowledge That Christ is the Son of God. This takes hold. This takes possession of our
hearts. It takes possession of our heads,
and our eyes, and our hands, and our feet, and our body, our
soul, and our spirits. This influences the child of
God to the very depth of His soul. This is the Christ, the
Son of the Living God. This is the Son of God. He's
Lord over us. He's our sovereign. He sits supreme
upon the throne of our hearts. And He rules and He governs our
lives. And when we're right, He is in
all our thoughts. He's our sovereign God. He has
influenced His people. I mean, that is when they believe
that He's the Christ. That is when He's revealed to
their hearts. I mean, it's all or nothing with
them. This is the Christ and He's our
all. Now then, the knowledge of Christ
possessed by true disciples, let me say this, make it clear,
is received in a special way. It's received in a special way. Now this is very important that
we understand this. Flesh and blood hath not revealed
it unto thee. Okay, Jesus says in verse 17. He answered he said to him Blessed
art thou Simon Barjona for flesh and blood hath not revealed it
unto you You know that Christ is the son of the Living God
But flesh and blood has not revealed it unto you now We've not learned
it by instruction of other men Paul put it like this now This
is very important Now if you look down here in verse 20, after
Jesus had said these things to the disciples, then charged he
his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus
the Christ. Well, I mean, what's that going
to do to your visitation program? What's that going to do to your
religious factory that you've got running and you're out here
printing all of these bulletins and all of these tracts and all
of these things that you're trying to convince everybody on earth
that Jesus is the Christ? Jesus said to his disciples,
don't go out and tell anybody that I'm the Christ. Now why
did he do that? He did that because he just got
through explaining and telling these people, these disciples.
He just gets through telling us here that the only way a man
can know that Jesus is the Christ really know it savingly in the
heart if he learns it in a special way. He's got to find it out
in a way that no man is possible for any man to find it out on
his own. Now this is important. We've not learned it by the instruction
of men. Paul said in Galatians 1 and
12, he said that he neither received it, that is the knowledge of
the gospel, he neither received it of man, neither was taught
it by the revelation of Jesus Christ. God must reveal Jesus
to us or we shall never see him. It doesn't make any difference
how faithful the preacher is. And the preacher ought to be
faithful in declaring who Jesus is, and preaching Christ up,
and declaring the glories and the magnificence of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and the saviorhood of Christ, and the ability, the
suitability of his saviorhood ought to be explained by the
preacher. But it doesn't make any difference
how able the preacher is. No man's gonna come to know what
Peter knew about Christ apart from him being revealed to him. It must be revealed to him from
heaven. Only the Father can do this.
Christ revealed in us is the Sovereign. Not by our own reasoning,
not Peter, nor we ever come to know who he is by our own reasoning. Man cannot by searching, the
book of Job says, find out God. Not God in Christ. Search all
you want. Read all the books you can find.
And you will not find out who God is, who Christ is, by searching. It will not come in that way. Not by merely reading the letter
of the word. These operate not of themselves
affectionately, but only as He backs them up and only as the
Spirit of God enlivens them and opens them up and makes them
known to the heart. Now can you follow me experientially
in this? Can you follow me in this? Are
you able to? Do you know what I'm talking
about? That Christ must be made known, revealed in a special
way. What Peter knew about Christ
was learned in a special way. What learned by sitting at somebody's
feet, Gamaliel's feet or some other teacher's feet, it was
learned by revelation of the Spirit of God in his heart. Can
you follow me in that? Do you know what I'm talking
about? Do you understand what I'm talking about? Has the Father
revealed Christ to you by a birth in you? Now a spiritual faculty
must be created in us by which we are enabled to see the Son.
Now that's a statement that you've got to give. A spiritual faculty
must be created in us by which we're enabled to see the Son
for who He is. Look in the book of 1 John chapter
5. Now here's a blessed verse and
some of you are familiar with it, but you ought to see this
verse of Scripture. I could quote it to you, but
I want to read it to you. I want you to know it's in the
Bible. 1 John 5 and 20, And we know that the Son of God is come,
and have given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and we're in Him that is true, even in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal
life. That's what I'm talking about.
A spiritual faculty must be begotten in us, given to us to enable
us to understand who He is. and that he is the Son of God.
Now listen to me, you cannot know the Father till you are
a son of God. You cannot be a son until you
are made a son by the Father. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And
we must be quickened and brought to life by the Spirit of God,
otherwise Jesus will be as little known to you as the light of
the sun is known to a dead man. My friend, I make that statement
and I will not back up on it. Unless the Spirit of God reveals
Christ to you, you just simply will not know who He is. It won't
matter who He is. But once He's revealed, My friend,
once he's made known, then the preacher's got his job cut out
for him. I mean once he's revealed. Once
the soul knows who he is. Once the soul delights in him.
Once the soul hopes in him. Once the soul rejoices in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Then, then, then there is something
for us all to do. We can rejoice together. We can
preach him. We can make each other happy
in him and rejoice and be glad in the Lord together because
we know who he is. He's the Christ, the Son of the
Living God. Now then, this knowledge has
its own peculiar marks. This knowledge that Peter received
in a special way has its own peculiar marks. Now, I want you
to get this this morning. You listen to me carefully as
I give these things to you. It comes not by flesh and blood,
we're told, but by the teaching of the Father, and it has characteristics
all its own. Characteristics all its own.
First of all, it comes with an infallible certainty to the heart. This revelation, this knowing
that Jesus is the Christ, it comes with an infallible certainty
to the heart. This is good. Now, if and when
the Father reveals Christ to your heart, The witness of God
in your heart cannot be questioned. It cannot be questioned. It won't
do any good for anybody to question it because it is certain and
it's infallible in the heart. Listen, we ought to be indignant.
when the glorious truths of God which has been revealed to our
hearts are questioned or disputed. And any time that it's questioned
in your heart, if God has revealed Christ to you, if His Spirit
has borne witness with your spirit, and if you know that Jesus is
the Christ and you know He's your Savior whenever You have
a question that comes into your mind, my friend. These questions,
when they cross your mind, we ought to chase them out as thieves
which defile the temple of the Lord because they certainly do
defile the temple of the Lord when you have them in your heart.
These questions about whether or not He really is the Christ,
whether He really is the Savior, whether He is really all that
God said that He was in His record, the record of the Word. You ought
to drive them out as thieves. Now you say, I do not know the
Lord has ever spoken to me in that way, to tell me with certainty
and infallibility that I am His and He's mine and that Christ
is indeed mine. the Son of God and that He's
my Savior. I don't know that He's ever revealed Himself to
me. I don't know that He's really ever said anything to me in that
way. Well, I'm sorry for you. Ask
Him to do so. Ask Him to speak to you. Ask
Him to show you these things because the Lord must deal with
you. His Spirit must come in contact
with your spirit. There must be an inward illumination
by the Holy Spirit or else you'll never truly be blessed You will
never be called blessed by the Lord Jesus Christ unless He comes
in contact with you, unless there's this revelation of the Spirit
of God in your heart, this illuminating work of God revealing Christ
to your soul. It was not only what Peter knew,
but the way in which he found it out, which made Peter blessed. Now that's to be understood.
Do you know what I'm saying? As the old preacher said, that's
a wide creek and you may get your feet wet if you don't jump.
I mean really jump when you go across that creek. Let me tell
you something right now. It's not only what Peter knew,
it's how he come to know it that made him blessed and the way
he came to know it. was that it was revealed to him. I mean, it was just God made
it known. It wasn't because he could read good, it was because
God made it known to his heart, revealed it to him. Now, the
truth that is thus revealed comes with a force that's far transcending
the arguments of pure reason. Now did you get that? What the
Holy Spirit writes on the soul is most sure. It's the most sure
thing in our lives. There ain't nothing else sure,
my friend. But if the Holy Spirit ever writes
in your heart that Jesus is the Christ and you just know it by
the Holy Spirit, that's the most certain thing in your life. I
mean, that's more sure than that you will find something to eat
at your noon meal today. I mean, it's more sure than that
your automobile is going to start in the yard. It's more sure than
the love of your wife or the love of your husband. It's the
most sure thing in the world. Let me say that the demonstration
of the Spirit is the most certain of demonstrations. To the illuminated
by Him, the witness of the Father is absolute certainty. All for
more of it. Has the Spirit of God ever illuminated
your mind? Have you ever been taught to
Jesus? Have you ever been brought to
know who He is? Now, note there's another characteristic
of this revelation of the Father which is important. I said this
revelation, this revelation takes on special and peculiar characteristics. Number one, it's certain and
infallible. If God ever tells you that you
belong to Him, you're His. You're His. And it won't make
any difference about how many times you stub your toe. It won't
make any difference about how this old nature acts or reacts
after that time. Nothing's ever going to change
that. It's infallible and certain. The Spirit of God has revealed
Christ in your heart. Because Christ died for you.
Because Christ, He received you as a gift from the Father before
the foundation of the world. And you're His. Chosen in eternal
election. And it's been revealed to you,
made known to you that you're His, that God made special choice! And it's been made known to you.
Now, there's another characteristic. When the Father reveals Christ
to a man, He at the same time reveals the man to Himself. Now this is so very important.
The discovery of sin and ruin of self leads to humiliation,
it leads to contrition, it leads to repentance, it leads to renewal
of heart and mind. Now the reason why that you've
got a whole lot of people that's still proud as peacocks in Baptist
churches and are running around acting like you know that they're
just something that are mighty and something that's spiritual,
knows humility about them, there's no brokenness about them, there's
no contrition, there's no mourning and loathing of self in these
people is because they have never had the revelation of the Spirit
of God in their hearts. Whenever Christ is revealed to
the heart, Man is revealed to himself. He knows something about
himself at the same time. I'm telling you what right now,
I can spot them a mile off. I can talk to these religionists
and I can tell you when they got it in their heads. I can
tell you when that's it. I can tell you by just talking
to them and listening to them, whether they ever had Christ
revealed to them or not. I don't claim to be God and I
don't claim to have any particular and peculiar insight, but there's
something about the spirit and attitude of a man who's received
the revelation of the Spirit of God in his heart, is that
man is always down on himself. He's never upping on himself. He's never going around blowing
his own horn, blowing his own trumpet, telling you about how
good he is, what he's done, what he's accomplished, and how he's
done this in religion, and that in religion, and how he's accomplished
this and that, and how much he's done here and how much he's done
there. No sir, my friend. His attitude is Christ is all
and I'm a sinner of nothing at all. That's his attitude. His
attitude is this is all the work of God from the beginning to
the end. All glory and praise be unto Him forever and ever.
It's His work. It's His work. It's His. It's not mine. I don't have anything
to do with it. I never got involved in it. It
was Christ that revealed Himself from heaven to my poor soul.
And when He did, He showed me what I was. And he showed me
that there wasn't anything. He showed me that I just was
nothing. He showed me I was a poor, ruined, hell-deserving, lost
sinner. And there wasn't anything I could do except just rejoice
in mercy shown and mercy revealed. Mercy extended to this poor sinner. And I'm telling you what, you
watch it in your conversation with people. And they ever once
get on the big eye, mark her down, honey, there's something
wrong someplace. When a fella gets on the big
eye, mark it down, something wrong. That fella don't have
Bible religion. He does not have the religion
of the apostles. He does not have true God revealed
religion of the heart. He doesn't have it until it's
revealed and that'll make him different. Then I think a man,
he kind of wants to be holy. He kind of wants to be because
he knows he's not. As long as a fella got the idea
he's just a little bit holy. Now he'll never have any desire
to be holy, but when God reveals Christ and reveals the man to
himself and he knows his ruin and his sin, then he kind of
wants to be like God a little bit. He'd just like to somehow
or other get to be like God if he could. That's holiness. That's
a desire for holiness. Joy, bliss and faith, hope, love,
patience, zeal, and joy in the Holy Ghost comes from a discovery
of the glories of Christ in the heart by the revelation of the
Spirit. That's how all that comes. You wonder how you got all that?
That came by the revelation of God in the heart by the Holy
Spirit. That's how it came. That's how it gets in there.
Can't get it in there any other way. Ain't no way to get it in
there. It's got to come in this manner.
It's got to be revealed. It's got to come by the operation. Many, many things happen in the
soul when God operates on the soul. These are some of the things
that happen. Now next, there comes with this
revelation, also one of the characteristics of this revelation, there comes
with it a remarkable restfulness. Remarkable restfulness. Now it
is like the dove that returned to the ark. In the time when
the water was still upon the earth, the dove was let out,
flew out, found no place to rest its feet. Nowhere. Wasn't even a twig sticking up.
It could rest its feet on so it returned to the ark. And there, can't you imagine,
when it found that ark and lit there on the ark, then it was
restful. It was restful. So it is with
the soul. It's peace with God, therefore
being justified by faith. We have peace with God. It's
the peace that passes understanding. And I think that I can't describe
it for you. You must feel it yourself. And
if you have had the Spirit of God to work in your heart and
reveal Christ to you, then you have felt it yourself. We read
in the Gospels that after our Lord had spoken to the winds
and waves that there was a great calm. Not only a calm, but there
was a great calm. And I believe in the soul of
a child of God that whenever Christ is revealed, there's a
calm. There's a restfulness. Somehow or other, you just know
that there's been an eternal issue settled. Somehow or other
you just know in your soul that this business of salvation and
heaven and eternal life and this business of being rescued from
sure and certain judgment, that it's all settled. You just know
it. There's just a calmness, a restfulness
that comes over the soul. Now you can join every catechism
class in the country and you can get the best tutors you can
find and they can't give you what I'm talking about. They
can't give it to you. Ain't nobody can give it to you.
There's no way you can get it. Nowhere you can buy it. There's
not a market that sells it. You can't get it. But from Him,
revelation of the Spirit of God in your heart of Christ gives
this calm, this great calm. Let that thing come apart at
the seams if it must. There's a calm in the soul. All
is well! All is well! Hey, what are you
going to do about this? What are you going to do about
that when we're going to do this? How are we going to work this
out? What's all of this going to come to? It doesn't matter.
There's a great calm. The Lord Jesus, He that ruled
the wind and waters, still can speak and there'll be calm. And
when He speaks, there is calm. There's rest. Remarkable quietness
in the soul. That's one of the characteristics
of this revelation. of the Spirit of God in the heart.
Well, there's one more thing. This revelation of Christ in
the soul, it brings this inward repose, this repose which is
the pledge and earnest of the heavenly rest. I mean, it's just
a down payment on what it's going to be like in eternity. You ever
had that? I'll tell you what right now.
If that's what heaven's about, this business, you know, we read
about in Isaiah, you've read it and I've read it, we talked
about it different times, about the trees clapping their hands
and the hills breaking forth into laughter. If you've ever
experienced that calm rest that the Lord can give, if heaven's
like that, then it's alright, we'll go anytime the Lord chooses,
because that's a glorious, glorious rest. Glorious calm. Well, one more thing, I'll mark.
This conviction of the Father in the soul of His child And
I mentioned a while ago that when I was talking about permanency,
I mentioned that I was going to talk just a little bit more
about this because I've got to do it. It's important that we
do it. This conviction of the father in the soul of his child,
it abides forever. Now the man who obtained his
religion from people, who got his religion second-handed, the
man who has homemade religion, the man who borrowed his aura, is a man who can have his religion
taken from him. He's a man who can lose it. He's
a man who can just simply find himself to be in a position where
that he doesn't have anything to hold on to anymore. But that
which we have learned from the Father can never be unlearned. I want you to get that. Nothing
can erase what the Holy Spirit of God engraves on the heart. Nothing can ever erase that. So I want to say, beware of all
this bar. I want to say, beware of homemade
religion. You cannot drink salvation out
of another's cup. You must drink for yourself. You must experience it yourself. It must happen to you. And if
it doesn't happen to you, then you don't have Bible salvation. Now the last thing, and I have
to hurry here, this knowledge secures privileges to its possessors. This knowledge that Peter had,
and he was the spokesman, I said, for the disciples, and it secures
privileges for those who have And the first privilege, well,
what did Jesus say? Let me show it to you here. He
said, blessed art thou. Blessed art thou! Well, now that
means something to me, because I know who Peter was, and I know
he wasn't no better than I. I know he was made out of the
same stuff I'm made out of. And I know he made some mistakes
and had some problems. I know he got confused, and I
know that the old man took over in his life a time or two. Don't
you know that? He did. And I know that Jesus
prayed for him because he had to be prayed for. If he hadn't
prayed for him, he'd have lost it all. He couldn't have kept
it. He couldn't have sustained himself. I know what kind of
man he was. I know what he was made out of.
But Jesus said, blessed art thou, son. Blessed art thou. Well, how was he blessed? That's
the question I want to ask. How was he blessed? Well, first
of all, he was blessed because he had eternal life. Well, how
do you know preacher that he had eternal life? I know it because
in john 17 it says this is life eternal That they might know
thee the only true god and jesus christ whom thou hast said and
peter knew him Didn't he know him? He didn't know it. He said
you're the christ the son of the living god jesus said well
now flesh and blood didn't reveal it But my father revealed it.
He knew him and so he had eternal life And everybody here this
morning that knows Him are blessed. How are you blessed? You've got
that life that's everlasting. You've got that life that never
ends. You've got that life that throughout eternity will be enjoyed
and enlarged every day as we fellowship with the eternal God. This is eternal life I'm talking
about. This is true salvation and knowledge of Christ in the
heart. Do you know him? Have you laid
your head? Have you ever laid your head on his bosom? Have you ever really laid your
head down on him? He that knows Christ is a favored
man or woman wherever they are. Now I want you to get that because
some of you are feeling sorry for yourself this morning. Some
of you may be cast down and discouraged. Blessed art thou, Simon son of
Barjona. Blessed art thou. Well, I said
this... Say, Preacher, I'm ill. Well,
I realize that's a trial, but you're blessed. If you know Christ,
you're blessed. You may be ill and you may be
terminally ill. But you're blessed if you know
Him. Now you've got to get this, beloved. I want to tell you,
you search around one of these days and start raking around
through the muck, trying to find something to hold on to. I mean,
when this thing's coming apart at the seams for you, you're
going to be looking for something. You better listen to me. I'm
telling you that a man, if he knows Christ by the revelation
of the Spirit, is blessed. He's blessed. Now listen to me. Are you going down in the world?
Your stock going down? You say, well, preacher, things
are getting worse for me every day. Well, now, it may be so. It may look that way, it may
look that way, and it may be that way. Blessed art thou, Simon,
son of Barjona. A man is blessed if he knows
Christ wherever he is, whatever is his circumstances. Are you
educated? You say, I'm educated, preacher,
why don't glory in that? Glory in Christ, glory in God. If you know Him, you say, preacher,
I'm uneducated, I'm simple-minded. You may be simple-minded, but
you're blessed if Christ has been revealed to your heart.
There's been many a man or woman that departed this life and went
into eternal glories. Blessed people, because they'd
had the Spirit of God revealed to them, couldn't read a word.
But they knew Christ. Knew Christ in their heart. It
was revealed to us. Knew everything they needed to
know to be blessed. A man doesn't need all of this
stuff that the world talks about to be blessed. He's blessed if
he's had the revelation of the Spirit of God in his heart. If
he knows who Jesus is, he is blessed. And making a difference
what else he doesn't have. Or what he does have. It boils
down to that. Now you see, if you can boil
it down to that, tramp it all down, run it all through the
sieve, that's all that's going to be left. And you're blessed
if that be the case. I mean, whenever your old body
is, we lay it in the grave. I mean, when the flesh comes
off these bones, and you're nothing but just bones, and we lay it
in the grave. And you've been eat up with disease
and cancer and whatever else. It's all right. Blessed art thou,
Son of Virginia. You're blessed. That's your condition,
that's your situation. It can't change. You're blessed. Get your mind on that. Get your
heart on that. Focus on that. That's where it
all is. I'm telling you, there isn't
anything anywhere else. This is where it is. It's through
the revelation of the Spirit of God in your heart. Are you
mourning? Are you mourning over your adversity?
Does the world curse you? Fret not. Does the devil trouble you? Tremble
not. Resist him. Resist him. Stand
against him. You're blessed. That can't change. That's permanent. Well, Jesus
says, Thou art blessed. He whom Christ blesses is blessed. And none can reverse that. Is that alright? None can reverse
it. I think Simon Peter was blessed
from the time that he had the revelation of the Spirit in his
heart. Whatever happened, he hung him on a cross upside down,
and history tells us that's what happened to him. That's the way
he left this world, hung upside down, nailed to a cross, his
head down, his feet up. Somebody said, how could he be
blessed in that situation? He is blessed because he knew
That which only God's elect know. And if a man is one of God's
elect, then that man is on top. He's on top of the world. He's
on top. And he can never be down. I don't
care if you put him, how you bury him, or what, will you use
a backhoe and put him 20 feet down? It don't make any difference.
A child of God, one of the elect of God is up. He's blessed. And it can never be reversed.
Never be reversed. It don't make any difference.
Now, I expect you to be tried with that. I have been. You'll never get out of this
thing without being tried about that. I mean, you're going to
come to face this thing one way or the other. If the Lord has
so favored you and blessed you and honored you that he revealed
Christ to your heart, he's going to make you know how precious
that is. The Lord's over with. He'll make you know how precious
it is. He'll just make you know how important this is. And what
a wonderful thing it was that He did all this for you and your
position. He's just going to make you focus
in on this before it's all over with. And He's going to make
you rejoice in Him and Him alone before this is all over. He'll
do it. He'll do it. But that's alright
too, isn't it? That's alright. That's alright. Okay. Now let me just give you
these closing remarks. I want you to remember this.
That Jesus can only be seen by his own light. Can only be seen
by his own light. Christ is a book in which no
man can read except Christ himself shall spell the words to it. Now that's important to see.
Jesus, may we say it this way, is his own interpreter. He's
the door, but he is also the key. Jesus only. He is to be seen, but he supplies
the light in which he is to be seen. Jesus came forth from God,
and the power to know Jesus also comes forth from God, so that
all comes from God. In the final analysis, as an
unto God, let us return this, adoring the Father, the Son,
and the Holy Ghost, one God forever and ever. Amen. May the Lord
add his blessing as he would desire to do so to this message
and this truth that has been preached here this morning.