Let's see. Well, it's good to
see you all. I just wanted to remember those
who requested prayer. I had to pray for Nancy Bird and the family
of Bradley Ledford. Debbie's brother, Randy, is not
doing well. Remember him in your prayers. Don't sound like he's
typical in the cancer situations. He can't eat, which is, you know,
what kills most cancer patients is that they can't eat. And so
remember him in your prayers. Also, Kathy Robinson got a PET
scan the other day. We didn't hear the news on it
yet to find out. Doctors have told her for years
that she has cancer somewhere, but they can't find it. So maybe
they found her at the PET scan. Remember her depression, she's
obviously sick too. Let's begin our worship service this morning
with hymn number 474. 474. Not have I gathered, but what
I have received. Praise let this noble day, and
I am pleased. Oh, spend this good day, I'm a sinner. You've got me in glory. I'm only a sinner. Save my grace. Once I was foolish and sin ruled
my heart. Causing my first battle from
God to the Lord. take my praise This is my story, God be glory. I'm only a sinner, saved by grace. Tears of faith, don't bear regret. me. I pray. This is the story, God be glory! I'm only a sinner, save my praise! Suffer a sinner, his heart overflows! Loving a stranger to tell what
he knows... What's more to tell him? Would I embrace? I'm only a sinner... Save my grace... Only a sinner... This is my story. God be the glory. I'm only a sinner saved by grace. After scripture reading and prayer,
we'll sing hymn number 37. I'll break the heart. Have a
Bible with you. Turn to Proverbs chapter 30. verses 1 through 5, Proverbs
30. The words of Edgar, the son of
J.K., even the prophecy. The man spake unto Ithiel a new
power. Surely I am more brutal than
any man, and have not the understanding of the man. I neither learn wisdom
nor have the knowledge of the holy. Who hath ascended up into
heaven and descended? Who hath gathered the wind in
his fists? Who hath bound the waters in
a garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is
his son's name, if thou canst tell? Every word of God is pure. He is a shield unto them that
put their trust in Him. Let's pray. Our Father, most
glorious God, great and wondrous, majestic
and holy, dwelling in a light where unto no man can approach, heavens being thy throne, the
earth being thy footstool, Thou art God and there is none
beside Thee. There is none like unto Thee. You declare the end from the
beginning. You bring to pass things that
are not. You do your pleasure and your
will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth, and none can steal a hand and say of you, what doest
thou? We bow this hour to your greatness and your sovereignty.
knowing that you're God. And you have loved us with an
everlasting love, and therefore, because you loved us, you have
drawn us to yourself. Your son came into this world
to die in the room instead of those you chose from all eternity. And he accomplished their salvation
and redemption by his perfect sacrifice and his perfect death. having lived a perfect life and
made himself a suitable sacrifice without sin, without blemish,
holy and perfect. We ask this hour, Father, for
those who are sick, those who've been mentioned in our prayer
list, Lord, Thou knowest every case. We ask, Father, Your blessing
upon them. We know because sin is in the
world, sickness is in the world also. We know that sickness is
just a matter of the flesh. We pray you'll fix our hearts
and minds upon Christ. Give him understanding and knowledge. Father, we pray for ourselves
this hour that you might be pleased to give us worship. Enable me
to declare the gospel and say right things concerning you.
Don't leave me here by myself. Uphold me. Speak through me. My words are nothing, but your
words are everything. They are pure, and they are a
shield to those who put their trust in me. Help us now, we
pray, to see our Savior, high and lifted up, seated at thy
right hand, laying first our sins. This we pray in his precious
name. Number 37, How Great Thou Art. My God, did I in awesome wonder
Consider all the world Thy hands had made? I see the stars, I
hear the rolling thunder Thy power throughout the universe
displayed Then change my soul, my Savior God, into Thee I'll
break the heart, I'll break the heart Then change my soul, my
Savior God, into Thee I'll break the heart, I'll break the heart When through the woods and forest
glades I wander and hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees. When I look down from lofty mountains
grander and hear the brook and feel the gentle breeze. Then change my soul, my Savior,
not to Thee. How great Thou art! How great Thou art! Then change my soul, my Savior,
not to Thee. I'll bring the water, I'll bring
the water. And when I think that God is
sure not sparing, send him to death. We carry. Then stretch my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, and break Thou art, and break Thou art. Then stretch my soul, my Savior
God, to Thee, and break Thou art, and break Thou art. When Christ shall come, with
shout of acclamation, and take me home, what torch shall fill
my heart? Then I shall bow in humble adoration,
and there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art! Entrench my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. I'll break Thou heart, I'll break
Thou heart. Entrench my soul, my Savior God,
to Thee. I'll break Thou heart, I'll break
Thou heart. Let's pray. Our Father, give me approach in the
name of Jesus Christ, our King, our Master. The unspeakable gift
that you have given to all your children and with Him have freely
given them all things. We know that we have nothing
that we haven't earned, save an eternal hill for our sin.
But You have freely given us grace and mercy, supplying every
need, every comfort. As we return to Thee that which
You've given us, Knowing full well it belongs to you, let's
do so with joy and a heart full of thanksgiving. We pray in Christ's name, amen. so so the the the so attention back to Proverbs chapter
30. The life of the believer is marked
by a lifelong paradoxical existence. He desires to be holy because he is holy. He seeks to be righteous because
he is righteous. He knows and understands all
things, yet the chief thing he knows is he does not know yet
as he ought to know. He seeks to be wise because Christ
has been made his wisdom. He knows Christ, yet his lifelong
ambition and avocation is to know Christ. Paul said after 30 years of preaching
in prison for the cause of Christ in the Philippian church, he
said that I may know him. This is all I want. He looked at his
life. According to the flesh, he was
the best of men. Pharisee of the Pharisees. Touching
the law, he said I was blameless. I was born a Jew, that's my lineage. I was circumcised the eighth
day. I've kept the law even before the law was thought about being
kept. He said all that, every bit of it, is nothing but manure. Nothing but manure. What I want
in my life, as I sit in prison, is to know Jesus Christ. And this passage is a record
of the words of a very wise man. Aguirre is most likely Solomon, who is generally held as the
wisest of men. His wisdom has become proverbial. When men wish to express the
heights of wisdom, they often speak in terms of the wisdom
of Solomon. And he was wise because God answered
his prayer when he was anointed king. He did not ask for riches. He did not ask for power. He
asked for wisdom to rule the people, and God gave him that.
His wisdom was renowned, and even heads of states, such as
the Queen of Sheba, came to learn from him and was astonished at
what she found. God did make him rich and powerful. And Solomon, knowing he was but
a man, saw the effect of that on the human psyche and mentality. Verses 7 through 9, this is what
he said toward the end of his days. Two things have I required
of thee, Lord. Deny me them not before I die. Feed me with food convenient
for me, lest I be full, and deny thee, and say, Who is the Lord?
Or lest I be poor and still, and take the name of the Lord
in vain. Just give me what I need. That's all I ask, Lord, just
give me what I need. And this was one of the richest
men that ever lived. the wisest man, some say, that
ever did live, save for the Lord Jesus Christ. This name, Agur,
given to him here, means gatherer or collector. And if you read
the remainder of this chapter and the final chapter of this
book, this most surely speaks of his innate curiosity about
things. The horse's leash, the coney,
the turd, the ant. He watched all these things and
wondered why they act the way they act. It says he was the
son of Jeke, whose name means the blameless. This simply means
that he was a child of God. He was a prophet because the
passage says that his words are a prophecy. The Latin Vulgate
renders him as the gatherer, the son of a vomiter. The Latin
word vomit does not mean what it means to us. It means to release
out or express. A vomitorium was a place where
gluttony was practiced, but it was merely an exit, a door to
let folk out of a building. The Latin meant this. Not only
did this man gather and collect information, he did not keep
it for himself. He put it out. He declared it. There's merely another way of
calling him a prophet. The wise man is said to prophesy
and preach to two people, Ithiel and Yucal. The context better
refers to what he said, his message, his prophecy, rather than who
he was preaching to. The name Ithiel and Yucal means
respectively God with us. That sound familiar? And yukal
means devourer. As a disciple, consumes the words
of his teacher. These are names of our Lord.
Thou shalt call his name Immanuel, which is interpreted God with
us. That's what ifal means. Anytime you see the word al at
the end of a word in the Bible, it means God's the instigator
of that whole situation. See the letters el at the end
of a name, Immanuel. Israel, and so forth. And one who speaks the words
of God, that was the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I say what my
father tells me to say. In short, Edgar was a gospel
preacher. He was a preacher of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this man's words are the
expression of the desire of the child of God. He spent his life
in the pursuit of knowledge, but not just any knowledge. He
wanted to know Christ. Now, we live in an age where
religion has taken such knowledge for granted. They call it a starting
place or a starting line. They don't talk about the race
or the goal or just where it starts. Preachers have diminished
the person and work of Christ to a simple plan of salvation,
which is little more than parroting the phrase, the death, birth,
and resurrection of Christ and saying, I have preached the gospel.
Though Paul, the apostle, calls us knowledge as the gospel of
unsearchable riches, without controversy or gray mystery this
gospel, religion has fixed it so that men may leave the pursuit
of this knowledge and go on to bigger and better things such
as a doctrine of future events, or doting questions that engender
strife self-help for dummies. Christ to religion has become
little more than a parenthetical expression in man's pursuit of
religious notoriety. But that's not how it is with
the child of God. To the child of God, Jesus Christ
is the subject of all subjects. To faith, he is the singular
object. He is the horticulturist's tree
of life, the botanist's flower like the rose of Sharon or the
lily of the field, the astronomer's sun and star, the geologist's
rock, the composer's song, the poet's rhyme, the lover's romance,
and the believer's all in all. Before us are the words of the
wisest man to ever live in his pursuit of gathering of things
worth knowing. That's the title of my next message,
Things Worth Knowing. In verses 2 and 3, we see the
understanding of wisdom. The words are not an expression
of false and vain humility. It says, Surely I am more brutish
than any man, and have not the understanding of the man. I neither
learn wisdom, nor have the knowledge of the Holy One." That's what
he's looking for, of the Holy. I want to know about the Holy
One, but I'm a Buddhist man. I don't know anything. I don't know anything. When he
says he's a Buddhist man, this is not an expression of false
and vain humility. These words are comparative in
nature. He is not endearing to appear
humble. nor is he fishing for a compliment,
though such an expression is often the father of one who seeks
the accolades of men by affecting meekness. He is speaking of himself, a
point of reference, and the point of reference he's holding himself
over against is the Holy One. When he sees the Holy One, when
he considers the Holy One, His first words is, I'm more Buddhist
than any man, and have not the understanding of a man. I've not learned wisdom, nor
have I knowledge of the Holy, nor do I know the Holy One. He is as much as saying that
all the information that he has, all the wisdom that he has, all
the knowledge that he has gathered in his life pales in comparison
when he dwells on the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The
voluminous library that is in his head is but a thin scratch
when he seeks to find out God. His pursuit of this knowledge
of knowing the Holy One proves all other pursuits of knowledge
frivolous by comparison. And in light of the knowledge
of the Holy One, he says, I'm a dunce. I'm a dunce. And he knows that he's not touched
the hem of the garment and lays himself brutish without understanding
and unlearned. He is every believer. Paul said
to the Corinthian church, when a man thinks he's something when
he's not, he deceives himself. The great mathematician rejected
the title of a wise man when it was ascribed to him. Socrates
thought, though reputed, the wisest man of his age professed
that he knew nothing but this, that he knew nothing. And Apollo,
Apollo's oracle was asked, who was the wisest man? And his answer
was, he that is sensible of his own ignorance, especially in
divine things. There's a Latin phrase, hoc tentum,
scio me nihil scire. That means, all I know is that
I know nothing. T.T. Shields, the great preacher
in Canada, said, we would sooner empty the Atlantic Ocean with
a teacup than we would, by searching, find out God. That which is revealed belongs
to us and our children. We might know all the books,
all the words of this world. Edgar does know where he will
find that information. He knows where the source is. He knows the source of it. In
verse 5 it says this, Every word of God is true or is pure. He is a shield unto them that
trust him. Every word of God is pure. The
word of God is a light unto our feet and a lamp unto our path. The entrance of the word of God
giveth light to the simple and understanding to the simple Every
word of God is pure. And Eger knows that the word
of God is received by faith. He says it's pure to them that
put their trust in Him. That's who it's pure to. Eger
knows that only the words of God are pure and true, and nothing
can be added to them or taken from them. He is declaring that
the words of men are not to be trusted, except as they declare
the words of God. In verse four, he begins to speak
of what he wants to know about the Holy One. He figures if he
can know these six things, he'll probably get some glimpse of
the greatness and the majesty of Almighty God. He declares
a theological gem. He says in verse four, who hath
ascended to heaven? Who hath gathered the wind in
his fists? Who hath bound the waters in
a garment? Who hath established all the
ends of the earth? What is his name? And what is
his son's name, if thou can tell? If I can find out the answer
to those six things, I might have some clue, some mark of
understanding and knowledge about the Holy One. Those are some
powerful questions, aren't they? Some powerful questions. Edgar is only answered in the
plots as they relate to the who, in whom this power and glory
is confined. Someone is able to gather the
wind in his fist. Who is that? Someone has put
the waters in a garment. Who is ascended to heaven and
descended from heaven? I'd sure like to know who that
is. He wants to know the who. Salvation
is knowing God. This is eternal life, the Lord
said in John 17 3. This is eternal life. What is
eternal life? Well, it's walking down an aisle.
No, it's not. No, it's not. Well, it's being
religious. No, it's not. Well, it's coming
to church. No, it's not. What is eternal life? This is
eternal life. That they know the true and living
God, even Jesus Christ, who be his sin. Since Aviar discounts
his own wisdom as the means of knowing the holy, that knowledge
must come from somewhere else. Barnard used to say salvation
is about revelation. It is. You can study this book
all your life. All your life and never know
what it means. There are theologians in this
world who can tell you chapter and verse of every book of this
Bible. They can explain the history, the archaeology, they can do
all that, but they have no idea what this book is about. And
no man can't know that unless God Himself reveal it to him.
Our Lord would men despise what He preaches and what He preached
and despise what John the Baptist preached in Matthew chapter 11?
They hated John the Baptist because he was a kind of a rough and
tough preacher, and they said, you're not going to cause us
to mourn. And then the Lord Jesus Christ come along preaching the
message of grace and mercy for sinners. I came to seek and save
that which is law. They said, he's kind of like
playing a flute. He's kind of piping. We're not going to ask
this to you. And our Lord looked at both of
those peoples. He said, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent and revealed them unto man. For even
so it seemed good in Thy sight. No man knoweth the Father but
the Son. No man knoweth the Son but the
Father. He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him. after shutting every door, except
for God helping someone, after discarding the Jewish religious
people who either laughed at what he said or was angry with
him for what he said, after dismissing them all together and saying,
no man can come, no man can know, he lifted his voice and said,
come to me, ye that labor, and are heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. Who's labored in heavy labor?
Those children to whom the gospel has revealed, those children
whom God has loved from all eternity, but they labor under what? Under
religion's heavy yoke and bondage. Come unto me, all you that are
labored and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you, and what? Learn of me, and ye shall find
rest unto your soul. Come unto me. All things were delivered unto
me of my Father, the Lord said. And no man knoweth the Son, but
the Father kneweth the Father. Any man that fathers may the
Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal. Paul said, when
he pleased the Lord, to reveal his Son in me. Galatians 1.15. The first thing that Edgar prophesies
is necessary to knowing the Holy One is to know who hath ascended
unto heaven and who hath descended. To know Him who has done this
is to know something about the Holy One. Well, who is that? Turn over to John chapter 3.
Our Lord is speaking to Nicodemus. John chapter 3. Verse 13. Our Lord said, No man
hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And He's talking about
Himself. Who isn't sinning? Now when the
Lord takes us home, when he takes us home, we can't get there on
our own. We couldn't be saved on our own. We can't be delivered
on our own. And we can't go to heaven on
our own. We're just not going to float out into the atmosphere.
God's got to come and get us. Got to come and get us. Not Jesus
Christ. He said, I came down from heaven. I did sin. Not only that, after
I've done the work that I intended to do, and finished the work
that I came to do, I sinned. He has the rights of ascendancy
because he completed the work. Every other man that's gone to
heaven has been carried there by the angels, by the Lord Jesus
Christ, Christ alone by his substitutionary sacrifices. A man has earned
the right to simply discard gravity and ascend into the very presence
of the angels. Who is the sinner? I knew that. I knew who had the sin to do
that. I might know something about
the Holy One. There He is. It's Jesus Christ. It's Jesus
Christ. The second thing that Agatha
prophesies is necessary for knowing the Holy One is that the Holy
One is He who commands the Spirit. He who commands the Spirit. Look
over at Isaiah chapter 40. This great chapter, the Lord
speaks of comforting his people by the coming of John the Baptist
to announce the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in
verse 9, O Zion, that's the church, that bringeth good tidings, that's
the gospel. Get thee up to a high mountain,
O Jerusalem, city of peace, that bringeth good tidings, the gospel.
Lift up the voices, lift it up. Be not afraid. Say unto the cities
of Judah, behold your God. I invite you to spend some time
in this 40th chapter finding out about God. He sent forth
his glorious power and greatness. But first he sent forth his gentle
shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ, the good shepherd of the great
church. Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come
as a strong hand, and that is salvation. His arms shall move
for him. Behold, his reward is with him and his work before
him. What's that word? He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. and carry them in his bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young." Verse 12 says,
Who hath measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, and
meted out the heavens in a span? I was reading the other day about an
astronomer who said they got this new telescope. And it just
goes on and on and on. He said, I don't believe there's
an end to this thing. But to man's understanding, there'll
never be an end to the universe. It's too great. How big is it? From here to here. God's created the heavens in a span. spirit of the Lord, for being
his counsel, hath taught him." Who did that? Who directs the
spirit? John chapter 16. I can know that. I might know
who it is that is the Holy One. I might catch a glimpse of that. Verse 13 John 16. How be it when he, the spirit
of truth, is come, he will guide you in all truth. For he shall
not speak of himself, for whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he
speak. And he will show you things to
come. He shall glorify me. This is Christ speaking. for
he shall receive of mine and shall show it unto you. Who directs the Spirit? The Lord Jesus Christ. If I could
know who directed the Spirit, I could know something about
the whole. Who did that? The Lord Jesus
Christ. The third thing that Hagar prophesies
is necessary for knowing the Holy One is He who has bound
up the waters in a garment. Now water in Scripture is very
important. It represents the Word of God.
And the written and living Word of God is bound up in one thing
and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. We have this Word. This is the
written Word and it's about Jesus Christ. I said, in John chapter
5, verse 39, to those who studied the Bible, you do studies of
Scripture, for anything you think that you had eternal life there,
they would testify to it. They testified to me. Genesis
to Regulation is about the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the written Word, which
he said, Aguirre said, was pure and a shield to those that trusted
him. This is the written word, but who is Jesus Christ? He's
the word. He's the divine communication.
He's the way God speaks to people, the only way. In the beginning
was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God, and the word was made flesh. and dwelt among us, and
we beheld His glory as the only begotten of the Father, full
of grace and full of truth." When he's talking about lining
up the waters in the garment, he's talking about the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. It's all the Gospel that's bound
up in Jesus Christ. No one knows the Holy One but
by the Gospel. You don't know God any other
way. Only through the preaching of the gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ do men know God. This Word is sharper than a two-edged
sword. It divides the joints and the
marrow. It discerns, discerns, discloses,
reveals the very thoughts and intents of your heart. And you
who have read it and spent some time in it, on more than one
occasion will run across a portion of Scripture saying, you must
be talking about me. This speaks of me. This is my problem. This is my
joy. This is my understanding. It discloses all things. Our
Lord said in John 7, 37, I don't speak my doctrine. This is the
doctrine of the Father. How is a person born again by
this Word? By this Word alone. You were born, Peter said, not
a corruptible seed, but incorruptible, even the Word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. And this word is preached to
you by the gospel. That's how it happens. I was
listening, I was watching the documentary on the L.A. flood
in the mountains yesterday. And this old mountain woman way
back in the woods, that's her heart, skinny as a rail, tough
mountain gal, you know, she's made of leather. You knew it. I said, what did you do when
it's come? She said, well, we got the one thing, and it ain't
never gonna go away. My house might go. My family
might go. I might go. But the word of God
ain't going nowhere. The word of God is forever. I said, thank you for that, lady. The fourth thing that Edgar prophesies
is necessary to know, and the holy one is that the holy one
is he who has established the ends of the earth. He's established
the ends of the earth. This is the encompassing phrase
that declares the only one is He who controls all things. Who controls all things by His
power. And we know that speaks to the
Lord Jesus Christ. I have the Lord, He said, I changed.
Now look over at Isaiah chapter 46. Verse 9 says this, remember the
form of things of old, for I am God and there is none else. I
am God and there is none like me. I declare the end from the beginning.
What does that mean? That means before you ever started
anything with this thing called creation, and time, and history,
and people, and beasts, and creepy crawling things, From that point on, everything
he did here, creation and providence, all the way was to bring everything
that he did to that end. I declared the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I will
do all my pleasure. calling a ravenous bird from
the east to feed a man, from the east, the man that executed
my counsel for a barren country. Yea, I have spoken and I will
also bring you to pass. I have purposed it and I will
also do it. Do it. I have purposed it. Now people
say, people like preachers like to say, well God has a purpose
for your life. He has a wonderful purpose for your life. He does.
And He'll do it. Well, what if I never know Him?
You're operating according to His purpose. Just live with that. Either He's God or He's not.
He's the God of Scripture. I purposed it and I will also
do it. I have determined it. It will come to pass. He said,
I'll call a ravenous bird from the east to feed my coffee to
Elijah on the mountain because he's hungry. I'll take a raven.
We get our word ravenous from the word raven. Because they are ravenous birds.
It means they eat meat. They love meat. He put a piece
of meat in the mouth of a raven. He said, you take that and you
feed my prophet Elijah on that island because he's hungry. And
that raven did not eat that meat. Why? For God's purpose did he
wouldn't. I call a ravenous bird mean.
I call a man from a far country, somebody you ain't never heard
of, step into your land and preach the truth to you. He said, I'll
do that. I purposed it, and it shall stand. He said to his people, I know
what your end is. I know I'm going to bring you
to an expected end. I know that, Jeremiah 29, 11.
The fifth thing that Avid prophesies as necessary for knowing the
Holy One is the Holy One is He who has a name. He who has a name. He says in
verse eight, therefore, excuse me, that's Isaiah, let's get
back to Proverbs. Verse four, who hath ascended to heaven and
descended? Who hath gathered the wind in his face? Who hath
bound the waters in the dark? Who hath established all the
earth? What is his name? And what is his son's name? If
thou canst tell. He has a name. The Holy One has
a name. This refers to the revelation
of God in His authority and power. There are those in this world
in the form of godliness but deny the power of Him. To know
the Holy One is to know Him as He is and for who He is. Reprobation
begins according to Romans chapter 1 by refusing to acknowledge
God as He is. Everybody's knowledge is God.
Everybody does. They don't start falling off
a bridge. They're living out as God all over the place. They
say, God help me, God help me, God help me. Soldiers in World
War II said, there ain't no atheists in foxholes. That's what he meant,
you know. Everybody believes in God when
it's convenient. And his name is bandied everywhere.
People say it all the time. But he has a name. Jehovah. The Savior, Elohim, the all-powerful,
El Shaddai, God of the bosom, Jehovah Sidkenu, the Lord, our
righteousness. He has a name. What's his name? I shall call his name Jesus.
Why? That's a derivative of the Hebrew
Joshua, which means Savior. Now, so call His name Jesus.
His father was named Joseph. His mother was named Mary. His
uncle was named Zacharias. Why are you going to call Him
Joseph, Jesus? Here's why. Because He shall
save His people from their sin. That's what he's going to do.
That's why you call him that. He has a name. He has a name. To know the Holy One is to know
him as he is. To know him by his name, to know
him as you wish he is, is not the way you know him. To know
him as he is. to find out that he is absolute
sovereign of the entire universe, running the whole shooting range.
For the believer, his name is Jesus Christ the righteous, in
whom dwells the fullness of the Godhead bodily. This is the God
we know. We've learned some things about
the Holy One. and gain some knowledge of the
Holy One. Now what do I set out to do from
here? Is to keep on knowing, to know Him more. To learn about
Him. To seek to find Him in all things. As old Scott Rich used to say
to us, if we could see things through the eyes of Christ, we
wouldn't change a thing. We wouldn't, not if He's in control
of all things. His name is the Son of God. The Son of God. This is lively and never-ending
pursuit of the child of God. I remember reading a story in
one of Spurgeon's sermons many years ago about the days when
they threw Christians into those pits in Rome for the lions to
eat them. This was an allegory of a story. This Christian was thrown into
the pit, and here came this ferocious lion, his mane huge, his monstrous
body, his ripped, rippled muscles came charging toward him with
a loud roar. And he said, I knew I was about
to die. He said, and he got real close,
and I could feel the heat of his breath, and he opened his
mouth, and I could see those long fangs heading toward me,
and I passed out. He said, and a little while later,
I woke up. He said, I wasn't hurt. He said, I looked up and there
was a lion laying dead at my feet. Had a huge wound in his
hand. And I looked around and I saw
a man with a sword walking out of the arena. And here's what I said, I want to
know that man. I'll spend my life. I'm trying
to learn about that man, because that man saved my life. Jesus Christ saved my life by
bruising the serpent's head with the sword of truth. And I want
to know more. That's why I read this book.
That's why I meditate on this book. That's why I think about
it. To know Him is eternal life. It's a lively pursuit. Paul,
as I say, in Philippians chapter 3 said, Oh, that I may know Him
and be found in His righteousness. Not my righteousness, which is
the law, but be found in His righteousness. To know the Holy
One, the wisest man on earth. Boy, I sure would love to know
this. Father, bless us to understand
and pray for us today. Amen.