We're gonna be in the book of
Hebrews, both hours. First hour will be in Hebrews
chapter eight, if you would like to turn there. Hebrews chapter eight. I have a simple question this
hour that I want each of us to ask ourselves. It's a personal
question. It's also what I've titled this
message, do I know the Lord? Do I know the Lord? Now I can
look at you and you can look at me and we can say, well, I
think they know the Lord because of this or because of that. But
when we examine ourselves, we should never find hope in knowing
the Lord in something we see in ourself. Faith looks to Christ,
not in self. Not in self, the question is,
do I know the Lord? And I hope the Lord would be
pleased to cause us to be able to answer that question this
hour. Hebrews chapter 8, let's read
our text, verse 10 through 13 says, for this is the covenant
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith
the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds
and write them in their hearts. And I will be to them a God,
and they shall be to me a people. And they shall not teach every
man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, know the
Lord. And I want you to notice that's
capitalized, know the Lord. I'm gonna teach every man his
brother, saying, know the Lord, for all shall know me. All shall know God, from the
least to the greatest. For I will be merciful to their
unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember
no more. In that he sayeth the new covenant, he hath made the
first old, now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish
away. Something can be true. Something can be true and still
not be the truth. Something can be true and still
not be the truth. The old covenant was true. The old covenant was good, but
the old covenant was not the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the truth. The old covenant could not bring
life because it was not the truth. Even though it was true, it wasn't
false, it was true, but it wasn't the truth that brings about life. The Lord said, you shall know
the truth and the truth shall make you free. Well, the law
never made anyone free, did it? The law only condemned, the law
only showed what we are by nature, what we're seeing. Couldn't save
because it was not the truth, it was just a truth of the Lord.
The Lord tells us clearly Jesus Christ is the way, he is the
truth, and he is the life. No man come to the Father but
by him. By his choosing, by his causing,
by his making, he is the truth. I can know true things I can
know true events that took place in scripture. I can know true
facts. I can know all of scripture. I could have it memorized. I
could know all the parables. I could know all the miracles
of the Lord. I can know all these true things
and still not know the truth, the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Here in our text, I pointed out
while we were reading that that no in verse 11 is capitalized. And I want to draw attention
to that one and the one below it, because even though in our
English language, they give the same word in the Greek language,
it's two different words with two different meanings. It's
two different words with two different meanings. And it was
the Lord by grace caused that capital K to pop out at me. I wouldn't just read right. I
read over it so many times, never noticed it. I was like, wait
a minute, that's capitalized. Why? And now normally when you
find you're asking yourself those kind of questions, there's always
a reason, just about always a reason. And there is certainly a reason
right here for it to be capitalized. The first no is the word genosco,
genosco. And the definition of that is
a Jewish idiom for intimacy between husband and wife. And for those
of you who don't know idiom, is a group of words having a
different meaning than the words used. An idiom is a group of
words that have a different meaning than the words used. A good example
of that would be, it's raining cats and dogs. Is it really raining
cats and dogs? No. No, it's a group of words
meaning something different. And that's this is what he's
saying here that they're teaching their brother. They need to love. The Lord, they need to be intimately. They need to have a personal
relationship with God. That's what they're saying that
they're teaching. They'll no more teach and say. The second no here is
the word Edo. And it means to see, to be given
understanding, to have knowledge of the Lord. To see, to be given
understanding, to have knowledge of the Lord. This is a gift,
isn't it? Side is a gift, to have understanding. We've been
looking at understanding in Proverbs and we looked at it Wednesday
night. That's something that comes from the Lord. What is
the Lord saying here? He's saying, well, first of all, He doesn't
want our heart. Everything's already His. He doesn't need
us. He doesn't need our heart. And that's what the false preaching
is saying, do, you need to do this, you need to give this,
you need to, that's the false, that's the abominable preaching
that's going on today. The Lord says, you're not gonna
do that anymore. Not my people. My people are gonna know me.
They're gonna have understanding of me. They're gonna have knowledge
of me. They're going to see. They're going to see me. They're going to hear my voice. The Lord said, my sheep hear
my voice. He's saying you're not gonna
tell others to do anymore to the contrary. Those that know the
Lord know him because he has revealed himself to them. Because of what we do, but because
what he has done, because what he chose to do. And he says these
beautiful words to you and I, I'm going to write my law on
your heart. It's no longer going to be due on the outside. He said, I'm going to put it
on the inside, on the inward part. You're going to love the
Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. You're going
to love your neighbor as yourself. How is that? Because when he gives
repentance and faith, that accompanies love as well, doesn't it? And
that love, that's a gift from the Lord. We love God the way
he is. We love him as sovereign. We
love him as holy. We love him as righteous. We
wouldn't change one thing about him. Why? Because we know the
Lord. We know the Lord. And we certainly
never look at our love to see if we know him. We don't examine
and say, okay, do I love him? Or, you know, Lord asked Peter,
Peter, do you love me? Peter, he loved him. He said, Lord, you know, I love
you. You know, it's frail. You know, it's not. I can't depend
on my see what my love got me whenever it got put to the test.
My love. See what it got me. I denied you three times. Peter,
do you love me? Stop looking at your love and
feed my sheep. That's what the Lord was telling
him. Don't look at what your love is. Look at what I'm commanding
you to do. Feed the sheep. Tell them about
me. If you love me, feed my sheep. The Lord's people, the elect. Oh, and that word
all, that's important that we look at that. So it says, for
all shall know me, all. That word is the word pas, P-A-S,
pas. And it means some of every nation,
every tribe, every kindred, and every tongue. It's the elect
of the Lord, all. I'm gonna teach every one of
my people, every one of my sheep. They all be taught of God, shall
be given eyes to see. Did you know that the Lord, you
will never find in all of scripture that the Lord gave someone a
chance to receive their sight. He said, see, and they saw. He said, receive your sight,
and they saw. He doesn't teach men how to see,
he gives them the ability. He didn't teach us how to see,
he gave us the ability, is that not true? Imagine talking to
a blind man and I say this, I guess you could call it sarcastically
or facetiously. If you talk to a blind man, you
say, okay, if you'll try a little bit harder, maybe you can see. If you'll squint a little bit
more, if you'll do these eye exercises, maybe you can see.
Well, that's just foolishness, isn't it? It's a blind man, can't
be cured, has to be healed, has to be made to see. And this is
the same in salvation. You and I can't be cured, can't
be healed in and of what we do. The Lord has to say, receive
thy sight. The Lord gives faith to see him. You'll never find the Lord telling
a deaf man how they can hear. Lord tell, think about that.
Talking to a deaf man, you say, well, this is how you can hear.
Well, they can't hear a word you're saying, they're deaf.
This is how you can hear. If you do this, well, that's
not gonna do them any good, they're deaf. No, he says, hear my voice. Receive thy hearing. When he speaks the word of power,
they hear his word. Men act like that the Lord is
up in glory, begging men, begging lame men to walk, begging lame
men to walk. Lord never begged a lame man
to walk, did he? The impotent ones, he never begged
them to gather your strength, and then I'll heal you. Take
the first step, lame man, and then I'll heal you. He can't
walk. He's lame. No, he's lame. The Lord said, receive, be thou
made whole is what he said. And oh, then we run to him, do
we not? Lord has to give new legs. The
Lord doesn't offer healing to the leper, does he? Doesn't say,
would you? He always draws the confession
from everyone. What would you have me do for
you? He draws the confession of what they need. But he never
offered in a sense of you have a choice to make. He always said
be thou made whole to the lepers and they're cleansed from head
to toe. Truly they who are in Christ are new creatures. We
have new ears, we have new eyes, we have a new heart, we have
new legs, we have new hands. We don't think the way we used
to think. We don't believe what we used to believe. We've been
made alive. Do I know the Lord? If I'm a new creature in Christ,
I know the Lord. If he's made me a new creature
in Christ, I know him. He gives the gift of grace, repentance,
and faith, and he says, follow me. Think about the disciples. Each time he came to another
disciple, he'd come to them, and did he negotiate with them? Did he bargain with them? We
were talking about moving up here, and I was praying, Lord's
will be done in us coming. But at no point did I feel like
that It was about pros and cons. It was about servitude under
the Lord. That's what it was about. It was about preaching the gospel, a life
of servitude. That's what it was about. It wasn't about, okay,
well, we can have this and have this and have this and have this,
so that kind of outweighs all the bad. No. No, preaching the gospel, that's
what we're doing together right now. It's about servitude one
to another. When the Lord came to the disciples,
he didn't say, if you don't mind, come this way. No. He spoke with
the voice of power, the word of power and truth. And he said,
follow me. And you know what happened? He
walked away from them. And what'd they do? They left their nets.
They got up and they followed him. Why? Because he's God. He's God. They were given eyes
to see. They were made to know him. Lord said in John my sheep hear
my voice. And I know them that word no
is that first word no that's capitalized that's that Janice
go Janice go that's intimately I know them see it's not that
we give Christ our heart. It's that he gave his heart to
his people, a new heart, a new heart. Everything that God is
satisfied with, he has to provide and he provided the very heart
of the Lord Jesus Christ given to his people. It's not that
I get to choose that, he chose to do that. Now he knows his
people intimately, he loves his people. I know them, and what
did that accomplish? She said, I give unto them eternal
life, and they will never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them
out of my hand. My father which gave them to
me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out
of my father's hand. I and my father are one. The book of John chapter 3 verse
16 says, for God so loved that he gave. He so loved that he
gave. See, he knows his people and
he's known of them. He's known of them. Do I know
the Lord? Well, to know him is to believe on him. To know Him
is to believe on Him, to have no confidence in your flesh,
to be made to realize by God's Spirit you are totally depraved,
completely incapable of attaining salvation in and of yourself,
completely unable to merit anything that God would be pleased with,
completely, it's impossible for us to offer anything up to the
Lord. If you know Him, you know that's true. Can't offer anything
to Him, not as righteousness. Not as a righteousness. To know
him is to understand we didn't just fall in the garden in our
father Adam, we died. And what can a dead man do? What
can a dead woman do? Nothing. Well, I guess they can
lay there and rot, that's it. That won't accomplish anything
in salvation, is it? No. Greg read this back in the men's
study. It's enrollment said by one man, sin entered into the
world and death by sin. But by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous, be made righteous. To know the Lord is
to put all your trust in his obedience, all your trust in
his righteousness, all your trust in his offering, his service,
his merits, his blood, his body, not looking at self at all and
trusting in self at all. To know him is to plead nothing
but the blood. To plead nothing but the blood.
That song says, not of good that I have done, nothing but the
blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can for sin atone? Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Now mankind, our problem by nature,
Lord leaves us to ourself, we're guilty of running to what we
see as good, what we feel is good, what makes us feel good.
The gospel does not make our flesh feel good. The Lord didn't
come to save our flesh. The Lord didn't come to save
our flesh. But men will go to churches and
they'll hear words and they'll feel good about the life that
they're living and what they're doing and the experiences that
they've had. And they see over the course
of their life that they're getting better, they think, and they
latch onto that as being their salvation. They believe that
that is their salvation. We, how many times, and think
about this, they go to entertainers is what they go to. That's what
a lot of churches are, is just entertainment. Every time somebody
asks us about our church, it always starts out with what do
you have for the kids? What activities do you have for
the adults? Do you have a young married couples class? Do you
have this? Do you have that? I was like, yeah, we got every
bit of it. Sunday morning at 10 and at 11 and on Wednesday
nights at seven, we preach Christ. And he takes care of the kids
and the adults, just like with the gospel. And that's the end
of the conversation every time. They're not interested. They
want entertainment. But think about this, physically
speaking. Physically speaking, what have you really needed?
The people. The people that you actually
needed in your life. Have you ever needed a doctor?
Yes. I've needed a doctor. Have you
ever needed a teacher? Yes, all of us attended some
form of school, did we not? We needed a teacher. Didn't know
how to do all the stuff that we know now, we had to be taught.
Did you need your parents to teach you? Parents to, yes, we
needed our parents. Didn't need entertainers. Never
needed an entertainer. Not needed, liked entertainment.
Never needed an actor. I like watching shows and things,
but I never needed. And never once did I think, oh,
I need that person. Never once have I needed. a sports
player, the star. I've never needed that person.
See, when it comes to spiritual things, it's the exact same way.
What we need, the Lord, first of all, has to give us that need. He has to create that need. But
is it not true that the Lord Jesus Christ, he says in his
word, they all shall be taught of me. He is our teacher that
we need. Is it not true? He's called the
great physician to his people. We need to be healed, cleansed
of our leprosy, cleansed of our sin. He is our doctor. He is
our great physician. And is it not true? He is our
heavenly father. That's who we need. We don't
need entertainers. We don't need actors. We need
the truth. I said to start with, we can know a lot of true things
and still not know the truth. Do I know the Lord? Do I know
him as my great physician? Do I know him as my heavenly
father? Do I know him as the teacher of his people? Do I know
him? I can know doctrines. I can know
fundamentals of scripture. I can know every fact there is
to know about what the Lord says in his word. I can know everything
about that. But if I do not know the Lord
Jesus Christ, I have no hope. I am lost. Do I know him? Thank God he said, I came not
to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. I didn't come
to call the educated, and that's what he said, not many. Not many
mighty, not many noble, not many wise. He didn't come, I'm glad
he didn't say any. I like the letter M there, don't
you? Many. Many, I'm not saying I'm
noble, wise, or anything else. I'm just implying that it's whosoever
will, and the Lord's the one that gives the will to do so.
He's the one that causes us. We need a new will, don't we?
Otherwise, we won't. We won't. Now he says, I came to seek and
to save that which was lost. You're going to know him. He's
going to come to where you're at. He left the 99 to find the one
sheep. And he said, I won't lose one.
Won't lose one. He says, I know my sheep and
am known of mine. How are we known of him? How
do we know him? We're taught of him. We're taught
of him. We're taught by him. Something
amazing about grace, and I think you'll agree with me on this,
especially if you've experienced it, is every time that you get
to the point where you have some understanding of what the Lord's
done in saving you, you have a little bit of understanding
of the grace that it took to save you and the agony that the
Lord endeared on the cross, and what you'll find is the Lord
will reveal something else to you. You'll stand back, seeing
the grace of the Lord, and say, well, that half's not been told
to me. The half's not been told. I heard with the hearing of the
ear, but my eyes have seen the king once more. And it seems
like grace just keeps getting bigger and bigger, doesn't it?
You know, it doesn't change though. Our understanding grows. Our
understanding grows. Our need grows. That's growing
in grace. He shows that truly everything
he required, he provided to redeem his people. Do you know him? Do you know him? John said, John
3, 27, a man can receive nothing except it be given from heaven.
A man can receive nothing except it be given of heaven. That really
takes all the I like math, and a lot of times I use math whenever
I process information. They say that's a left brain
or a right brain thing. I don't know. It doesn't really matter.
I don't guess. But that's how I process information. He said,
a man can receive nothing. Well, that's zero. That's zero. Except he'd be given of heaven. And the scripture tells us that
all good things comes down from the father of lights. That's
the Lord, isn't it? If we're gonna receive something,
he's gotta give it. That's what he's saying. You
can't get it on your own. You're gonna have to, it'll have to
be given to you. It'll have to be given to you. And what is it we receive? Well,
we receive these words of understanding. He must increase and I must decrease. That's what growing in grace
is. Somebody asked me recently, can you tell your congregation
is growing in grace? And what they meant by that.
And I don't know why people ask me these questions. It's none
of their business, first of all. But I try to be nice to them
as best I can. I'm like, well, just come sit
down and listen. Maybe the Lord will save you, is what I'm thinking.
But growing in grace is not up. It's down. He must increase. I must decrease. We see less
of ourself. This is do I know the Lord? If
you do, you're decreasing. You die daily, die daily to the
flesh. We we repent daily. Lord, save
me now. Save me now. This doesn't stop.
It gets we see the danger of not being found in Christ more
and more, not less and less. But I've got to have you or I'm
going to perish. To know Him is to know nothing
but Him. It's to know nothing but Him in salvation. It's not
to know Him and something else. It's just to know Him. He is
all. He is more than enough to His
people. Paul put it this way, to know
nothing save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That's what Paul
said. To know him is to know that you're the sinner and he
is the savior. It's not to add one thing. It's to know, to not
add one thing to the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
on the cross of Calvary and the salvation of his people. In closing,
I want to turn to Philippians chapter three. To know him is not just to have an experience,
not just have some understanding of things, but this is what it
is to know him right here. Philippians three, verse seven
through 11 says, for we are the circumcision, which worship God
in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. Though I might also have confidence
in the flesh, if any other man thinketh that he hath whereof
he might trust in the flesh, I more. Circumcised the eighth
day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew
of Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee concerning zeal persecuting
the church, touching the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.
But what things were gained to me, those I counted loss. I think I started reading at
verse three, but I told you verse seven, didn't I? I apologize. What things? Well, look at verse
three again. I don't want you to miss that.
For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit
and rejoice in Christ Jesus. And let's look at these words.
We have no confidence in the flesh to know the Lord means
you have no confidence in your flesh. And then he gives us his
pedigree here, but look at verse seven, what he says about his
pedigree. But what things were gained to me, those I counted
loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but for loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus,
my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, but do
count them but dung. To know him, you count everything
but dung, but him, that you may win Christ and be found in him
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness, which
is of God by faith, that I may, what's that word? Know him, that
I may know him and know the power of his resurrection and know
the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable unto his
death, if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. He's not saying to have experiences. He's not saying to know biblical
facts and principles. To know him, to know him means
you have no confidence in your flesh that you don't have any
righteousness of your own whatsoever. Do I know him? Do I know him? Well, do you have righteousness
of yourself? Do you have confidence in your flesh? If you do, you
don't know him. You don't know him, but if your righteousness
is his righteousness, if God has made in him and to you all
your righteousness, all your sanctification, all your wisdom,
you know him, you know him. To know him is to trust in him
as all your righteousness before God. You remember the Samaritan
woman at the well, and often we talk about her and, But once
it gets to the point where it says she left her water pot behind,
we kind of end it normally there. I was reading this week past
that a bit. I didn't know some of the information I collected.
She went into the city, and we know the part where she says,
come see a man. Some of them came and saw him. Some of them
came to the Lord, and they asked the Lord, said, will you stay
with us? And he stayed with them two days. And it says, and many more believed
because of her word. But he says here, No, because
of his word. He says, and many more believe
because of his word and said unto the woman, now we believe.
And this is it. This is, do I know the Lord?
This is how it's not going to be based upon what somebody else
has revealed to us. It's not going to be based upon
what somebody else has told us. The Lord has to reveal himself.
They said, now we believe not because of thy saying, not, not
the woman at the well saying, for we have heard him our self. We've heard him ourself and know
now we know. That He is indeed the Christ,
the Savior of the world. This is what it is to know Him.
To know Him as the Savior of the world, the Savior of His
people. To hear Him, we've heard Him. I've heard with the hearing
of the ear, but now I've seen Him, now I hear Him. That's how
we know Him. To believe every attribute of
Him and love Him. Love Him. Love every attribute
of the Lord. To know Him is to bow in complete
submission to His isness, everything about Him. We just bow to Him.
Only God's people are given the ability to bow. Only a man that's
alive can bow. You have to be made alive to
bow, don't you? Given repentance and faith to
bow. Do I know the Lord Jesus Christ? Let's pray. Father, if
we do not know you cause this to be the hour where we do introduce
yourself to us. Save us, we pray. We ask this
in your precious name, Amen.