Christ the Known

Well, this morning we carry on from Matthew 7. We began verse 21 last Sunday. And we're keeping that context together as a whole. Verses 21 through 23 belong together as a unit. We looked at especially last week this idea of Jesus warning against externalists.

That was the term that Charles Spurge and the great British preacher use externalists. In other words those who only care to look the part. But they don't have the inward reality. The very thing that Jesus condemned in Matthew 6 halfway through this Sermon on the Mount what he called the hypocrites.

Or The those that the prophets of old condemned. Those that would seek to worship God with their lips But keep their hearts far from him. And so we spoke last week about keeping the heart. Not being a mere externalist not being merely one who says Lord Lord.

But one who keeps their heart to the Lord. One who as we'll see and focus on this morning one who truly knows.

The Lord.

Matthew 7:21-23 and the Warning Against Externalism

And so Matthew 7 beginning in verse 21. Not everyone who says to me Lord Lord shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father in heaven. Many will say to me in that day Lord Lord.

Have we not prophesied in your name cast out demons in your name done many wonders in your name. Then I will declare to them. I never knew you depart from me you who practice lawlessness. Well as we've been saying in this home stretch from the Sermon on the Mount Jesus has been giving us a word that we need to respond to.

This is a sermon as every sermon Should close with a demand for a response a call for application. Jesus here is again warning us against the mere profession of Lord Lord if that profession is empty. I think we said something like this last week everyone who enters the kingdom of heaven says Lord Lord.

It's only by the confession that Christ is Lord and believing that in the heart that one is able to enter into the kingdom of heaven. So everyone who says Lord Lord belongs in the kingdom of heaven, but not everyone who says Lord Lord will enter it.

When we're in glory when we're in the kingdom everyone that will be around will be those who are worshiping the Lord saying Lord Lord. But not everyone in this life who says Lord Lord will enter that kingdom.

And you see that here in the progression of verses 22 and 23. It's not just saying Lord Lord. As I think we said putting a gold chain with a cross on it around the debauched life as celebrities tend to do.

It's not a mere token of Christ. It's the kind of life that can even claim Lord we prophesied in your name Lord not only do we know you we prophesy in your name. In other words, we speak we proclaim things about you Lord.

Look at the mighty things We've done we cast out demons in your name. We've done many wonders in your name. If you're understanding how this flows in light of the gospel Jesus himself Validates his own ministry as a prophet sent from God as the mighty one indeed the very Son of God.

By the demonstration of his own power. By the work of casting out demons. If I by the finger of God cast out demons and surely I've come as The Son of God or surely the kingdom has come Upon you or Paul saying we didn't come merely with words, but with manifestations of power.

The kingdom is not mere words, but in fact it consists in power. And so we find that in all these striking ways the things that would seem to be the most certain. The things that would seem to validate that one truly has known the Lord and is operating by the power of God.

May have those within them That don't know the Lord at all or more precisely the Lord doesn't know them. Haven't we done all this in your name Lord Lord, and he says I never knew you. Whatever name you were doing that whoever you were professing is Lord.

It wasn't me. I never knew you. Now Jesus says verse 22 many will say this. Yeah, if you're feeling the weight as we must as we come to the close of this sermon on the mount. Just as we said there are many on the broad path.

Many that can't see the narrow way few find it few endured it. Well, there's many on the broad path. There's many that say Lord Lord. But he does not know them. He says I never Knew you. And then we come full circle to the concern at the very beginning.

These are not they who are doing the will of the Father in heaven. Jesus says they're workers of lawlessness. To work lawlessness to practice lawlessness is to not do God's will. God's will is God's law.

That's his prescriptive will that's what he's given to us God God's will. God's desire for us is our sanctification. Our sanctification looks like conforming to his law and so we see here those who work lawlessness are those who Have not done the will of the Father in heaven.

And these are the ones many there will be who say Lord Lord. We could put it simply in the terms of 1st John 2 verses 4 and 5. He who says I know him but does not keep his commandments is a liar and Truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word.

Truly.

You could say whoever does the will of the Father in heaven truly that love of God is Perfected in him and by this we can know that we are in him. How do we know that we know him? Because we know that we do the will of the Father in heaven.

Jesus says why do you say Lord. Lord, but you don't do the things that I command. What does it mean for you to Lord if you're just gonna live your own life in your own way? Don't call me Lord. You might think you know me.

I don't know you. If I'm Lord to you that's gonna look like something in your life. That's what John is saying here. Whoever says I know him, but doesn't walk in his way doesn't perform his will. It's just lying doesn't know him at all.

Certainly. The Lord does not know him. Well, let's just take a big step back before we press into this idea of knowing the Lord. The the first thing I want to say is this. We're again born as thistles and thorns.

We're not born as good trees bearing good fruit. We're certainly born alienated from the life of God ignorant to him in that Romans 1 sense. The first point is this the world does not know the Lord. The world does not know the Lord.

Many in the world think they do. Many in the world claim. They do many will say Lord Lord. But he is unknown to them. Paul depicts this this is something that begins at the fall Romans 128. Even as they did not retain the knowledge of God.

So he gave them over to a debased mind to do those things which are not fitting. Notice how knowing and doing are tied together even there in Romans 1 what happens when you do not know God? You're not able to do the will of God.

That's what Romans 128 is saying even as they did not care or did not like to retain God in their knowledge He gave them over to a debased mind. In other words now, they cannot know him now. They refuse to know him.

And what does that mean? They cannot do the things they ought to do. They cannot see the need to do it. They have no desire to do it quite the opposite. They're repelled by it. They need as we've said a new heart.

They need a whole new life. They need to be reborn created afresh by the Spirit of God. And so notice again this combination of knowing and doing this is a world dilemma. This is how we are born as human beings.

We're born into this cursed condition. Alienation from God ignorant in our mind not wanting to retain a knowledge of God unable to do the will of God. I think of Acts 17 Paul preaching at the Oropagus and he's he's pointing out the ignorance of mankind in this sense.

He says as I was passing through and considering the objects of your worship I even found an altar with this inscription to the unknown God. That was the Greek piety. We're gonna worship the gods. And if there's a God we're missing let's build an altar to the God.

We're missing an altar to the unknown God and Paul says I'm here to declare to you the unknown God the God that is to be worshiped alone the one you worship without knowing him him I proclaim to you. Well, essentially every human being is a worship is seeking to worship something.

And we're all worshiping something in our lives often idols in our lives and Often there's many that say Lord Lord that think they are worshiping and knowing the true God and Jesus says I don't know them.

I Don't know them. I like their gold chain. But I don't know them. I Like the mighty works. I like the hoops. They jump through. I like the lifestyles that they've adopted, but I don't know them and Ultimately in that life just like you can tell a tree by its fruit in their works in the way they conduct themselves.

They show forth that they have not known him. This is how Titus 1 says that they profess to know God. But in works they deny him Talk is cheap. They profess to know but in their work and the way they carry out their life.

They deny him. It's one thing to say Lord Lord, it's another thing to live Lord Lord. They profess to know they profess Lord Lord, but scripture is clear. They do not know him. He was in the world. The world was made through him, but the world did not know him.

So that's the first point is the world doesn't know the Lord. But the second point is this the Lord knows his people. There's many who say Lord Lord that the Lord says in that day. I'll tell them I don't know them.

But let's appreciate. There are also many in that day. The Lord will say Come enter into my joy. Good and faithful servant. I've known you now. He knows his people the Lord knows his People. He doesn't in the broadest sense in this covenantal sense.

No humanity in a broad general sense. He knows humanity or he condescends to understand the way of man. Psalm 144 3 Lord. What is man that you would take knowledge of him? Or the Son of Man that you're mindful of him.

That's speaking of God's condescension to either interact with and deal with humanity at large. But this type of knowledge in the Hebrew idiom this intimate acquaintance this kind of knowledge Really belongs only to those who have known the Lord through faith.

Nahum 1 7 the Lord is good a stronghold in the day of trouble. He knows those who trust him. He knows those who have believed upon him. How does he know them. He's called them by name John 10 for when he brings out his own sheep He goes before them the sheep follow him for they know his voice.

He knows them. He calls them. They know him. John 1 48 the the classic example of this Nathanael said to him How do you know me and Jesus said to him before Philip called you while you were under that fig tree.

I saw you and that was world altering. To Nathanael We don't even know why but it was something so intimate so personal that Nathanael Spontaneously confessed that indeed Jesus was the one sent from God.

So what we know in This intimate way of communion what we know is God's voice God's calling. God's love to us wrought in Christ in that sense. We know him in a moment I'll make a distinction between that kind of knowing versus a knowing about him.

Knowing about versus actually knowing. The Lord's people know him. That's the third point. So world does not know him. He knows his people and third point his people know him. John 10 14 I'm the Good Shepherd.

I know my sheep and I am known by my own. I Know them therefore they know me. I call them therefore they hear my voice. First Corinthians 8 3 if anyone loves God, this one is known by him. That love is a response to God.

We only love because he first loved us. And so if we love God, we're known to God. Why he has first known us. He has first called us. He has first drawn us to himself. All of my knowledge of God depends upon his act to know me.

That means we as believers are those who have put on the new man renewed in knowledge. According to the image of him who created him that's Colossians. The idea is that part of becoming this new man part of being made new in Christ is no longer having a debased mind.

Unable undesiring to retain this knowledge of God that we lost in the fall. But now we're given a knowledge of God now, we're given this intimate communion with him. I know him. That can only be said truly by a believer.

There's all the difference in the world between one who has not known him savingly in Christ Saying Lord Lord and going on in their own way and one who says Lord Lord. Crying out like an infant with that spirit of adoption.

That's something that only a believer can do. And so the question right up front before we press into knowing him is simply this do you know him? Or will you belong to one of the many that will say of course, I know him.

Look at all that I've done in my life. I say Lord Lord. I show up on Sunday. I've even adopted all sorts of little differences in my life. Of course, I know him. It's beyond question beyond dispute and Jesus is saying no.

No don't settle for that. Do you really do you really know me? Do you really mean? Lord when you profess it, do you know me? Martin Lloyd-jones he says Do you know him. I'm asking whether Not not whether you believe certain things about him.

Listen like James says even demons believe they shudder. I'm not asking whether you believe certain things about him. I'm asking have you met him? Have you encountered him have you found yourself in his presence in Such a way that you can also know what it's like to feel his absence.

Do you know him in a way that a worldling could never understand? Does he speak to you not in the wrap your head in tinfoil kind of way, oh wait, what's that Lord? Yes, Lord, I hear. But in a way that somehow our souls become sensitive to his voice to his leading to his prompting.

He might as well speak to us. We open his living word and it cuts down deep it bears down deep into our soul. That's him speaking to us. And do we speak to him? Do I pray to a dry ceiling and walls surrounding me or do I pray to the living one of God.

Do I speak to him the most vital question. This is Lloyd-jones again The most vital question to ask about all who claim to be a Christian is this do you have a soul thirsting for God? Do you long for this?

Is there something about you that is always waiting for that next manifestation of himself? Lord when when I when will I see you as you are. Lord draw near to me Lord bless me refresh me Lord do not hide your presence from me Lord.

Help me to see your face. This is what it means to know him and so. So knowing him means in the first point this moving from knowing about him to knowing him. Not enough to hear his teaching in the context of Matthew's gospel.

Many are beginning to be drawn out to hear this mighty one who's done Inexplainable things who is this mighty man of God? This is why they gathered out to see John the Baptist. There was no prophet quite like John the Baptist when people are wavering.

You know, his disciples are wavering about him. Jesus says well What did you come out in the desert to see a reed swaying in the wind? You come out to see someone that was just going with the flow. That's not why you came out to the desert.

You came out to see a mighty man of God You came out to see a man who clearly had known the Lord in a way that you had not you wanted to hear from.

Him.

Well, how much more so the Lord Jesus and he's gathering crowds by the thousands. Our brother alluded to scraps of bread and fish Multiplying that in to feed the multitudes. And there's multitudes there when he's teaching that will then turn away from him.

It's one thing to be drawn out to the spectacle to the sight to the teaching to the charms to the external forms. It's another thing to know him. The first thing is to know about him. But the second thing is to actually know him.

So that means at some level as Lloyd-Jones is getting at it's not just certain beliefs about him. It's not something you could reduce to a catechism or some sort of doctrinal formula. This is not knowing him descriptively.

It's knowing him personally. Jesus Christ we often say this May be connected to baptism or hearing someone's testimony. We say something like is the Lord Jesus your personal Savior. Not your Savior on paper not your Savior in abstract.

Do you know him?

Do you know him? Do you love him?

Is he your Lord?

Is he your Savior? Do you know him personally not descriptively? Yes, of course. I know him. I've memorized the Westminster larger catechism about his person and attributes in order. No, no, no, no. That's all wonderful and good and probably necessary.

But do you know him? Do you know him? Not descriptively but personally because he's a person when we're talking about faith. It's not primarily faith in doctrine so much as that doctrine Articulates and elaborates what it means to have a relationship with him.

I know him in these ways according to sound doctrine. So the doctrine has a role to play in that but it only voices and grounds and articulates what is already true of us. I know him personally. He saved me.

I don't know how. Give me the doctrine to help me understand how he saved me. Give me the pattern of sound words that helps me articulate and understand what he's done for me. But I know him, but I love him, but he saved me.

Everyone in this room that's been born if I were to sit down at lunch and say what was it? Like when you were born. Well, what was the doctor's face like when you came out? What was the room like what kind of noises were you hearing?

You know, what was it like when you were first held by your mother you would all give me a blank stare like I have. No idea. You had to be taught this is what it was like when you were born this is what happens in delivery.

The umbilical cord is caught and the nurses do their thing and you you all are oh, okay. That's what happened. That's what it was like when I was born. Oh, that makes a lot of sense now now I can I can situate my own experience.

You don't know what it was like you were just born. So is everyone who's born of God? We're. I was talking about this with someone this week. It's like a.

Lot of our.

Testimonies like sometimes we're witnessing to someone and we're in our mind so much when we walk away we're like I should have brought up that and I shouldn't have said this and why was I stuck on that one thing and Oh, it would have been perfect if I had just remembered that.

But you know what it's like when when you come to faith. If I sit down with someone who you know The Lord used someone in your life to witness to you and I say, you know. What were what were they saying?

Like what argument really convinced you? I have no idea. I.

Don't remember. I.

Just know they were talking to you about the Lord and the Lord saved me. It wasn't some perfect logically crisp argument that was undeniable though. That may have played a part in it. It was just being born again was coming to life.

The reality is you came to know him because he first knew you and so this idea of this personal relationship a Faith lays hold of that union of that communion of that intimate relational knowledge of Christ.

So we don't always have the word knowing or knowledge, but we have Synonymous phrases or language that goes along with it. For example, the way that Paul prays in Ephesians 3. He prays that God would grant you Ephesian believers believers at large by extension that God would grant you According to the riches of his glory to be strengthened with might through his spirit in the inner man that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.

Christ dwelling in your heart that is knowing Christ faith laying hold of that. By faith Christ now living in me. To such an extent as Paul would say elsewhere. It's not even I'm living anymore. It's Christ living in me.

That's how radical this Re-identification has been in his life. It's not even I who live. Paul died it's now Christ who lives in Paul. Christ is the source of my life. He's dwelling in my heart by faith that you being rooted and grounded in love may be able to comprehend with all of the Saints.

The width the length the depth the height to know the love of Christ. This is again this this intimate knowledge, that's not a descriptive knowledge. That's not a knowledge on paper. That is a knowledge in the heart born by faith from a new birth.

He says in fact to know the love of Christ in this way passes all knowledge. It's not a knowledge human beings can muster up. This is not a sales pitch. Yeah, maybe I'll try that. It's not up to you. This is a knowledge that surpasses all knowledge.

This is a knowledge that comes from above this is a knowledge that can't be bartered for and negotiated for. In fact, the only way to receive it is to recognize your inability to receive it Lord. You have to do this.

I can't do it for myself Lord. You must give the very thing that you seek Lord. All I can do is hang my head low in humility and repent and ask that you would save me. His saving is entirely up to him.

Paul dwells upon this and and all these ways. He has known the love of Christ in this knowledge that surpasses everything. Paul keeps his heart. Why can he keep his heart. Because Christ is dwelling in his heart.

He's known him in that way. Do you know him in that way? So keeping your heart in line with last week keeping your heart Will be the result of this desire what Lord Jones called a soul thirst. To be more intimately acquainted with him Lord.

In other words, I don't want to just know about you. I want to know you. I don't want to just hear about you Lord. I want to speak to you. I want you to speak to me Lord. I don't want to just be in a place where you're described Lord.

I want to see you Lord, I don't want to just be near your people. I want to be with you. That's the kind of knowledge that's being held out.

Lord.

Lord casting out demons doing many wonders in his name that can get you pretty far in the eyesight of man. But you milk you still may fall short of this knowledge of Christ to those he says I never knew you do we know him?

Well, let me tell you when I was growing up. I Grew up hearing all sorts of things about Jesus. I have a shoebox downstairs that has crayon scribblings of.

Of.

Second Commandment violation scribblings of Jesus on the cross. They're very very messy. Which meant from a very young age. I was hearing about Christ in him crucified and in my young imagination I was Drawing the the snowman Anthropological figures that children always draw, you know big circles big eyes.

I Crucified these are the things that were capturing my imagination. I was hearing about him. I was hearing about him week after week and month after month and year after year. I knew about him. I knew about him so well that I could go to middle school and if others talked about Christianity I had something to say about him.

I could defend him. I had made all sorts of little changes in my young life according to what I could see with my young eyes. I could really say in a way. I I thought that I knew him. I really did think that I understood what I needed to understand.

I thought that I knew all that I needed to know. Until I really came to know him and then I realized no I Knew a lot about him so much so that I thought I knew him. Like if you watch a video, you know someone who's obsessed with maybe a certain figure a certain.

You know a speaker a musician and they they watch everything they can they listen to every song they memorize every lyric. They've watched every interview and they've seen so much of those things that they almost think I know them.

I Know what they would say in a certain situation. I can actually quote you things that they've said to those exact questions. I have all their posters in my wall. I mean definitely it's like I know them, but you actually don't know them.

And so you'll often see these moments, right? Maybe a young boy running up to his favorite NBA player, you know. Well LeBron, will you sign and he's like get a get away from me. And the kids usually shattered.

That's my hero. I thought we were best friends. And he's going. I don't know you kid. You might know every stat and everything about my life my background. I don't even know who you are. Well, that's what it was like for me growing up in churches, I I really thought I understood what I needed to understand.

I thought I knew what I needed to know. Until he revealed himself to me. And then I really knew him not from the outside but from the inside. Not from the ear not from the eye not from the experience, but from the heart.

That's the difference between knowing about and knowing so there's a difference. I was drawing pictures of Jesus on the cross. I was very moving to me from a young age. But I never understood from my own soul's point of view that he died on the cross not.

Abstractly.

Not somewhere out there for some reason but as Paul could say He gave his life for me and I knew that at a soul level not in some generic sense. Jesus died for sinners. But I could say in a knowing way No, Jesus died for me and the life that now I'm gonna live.

I'm gonna live in him. I'm gonna live by faith in the Son of God who gave himself for me. Because now I know him now I hear him now I see him now I love him in a way. I could never love him unless I had known him.

Do you see the difference between knowing about and knowing? It's the difference between knowing God as an object in my mind or as some concept of religious belief and knowing God as a person. Do you have a relationship with him?

What does that relationship look like? Is it the equivalent of a zoom call every three weeks? Do you actually know him. Do you commune with him? Are you intimate with him? Are you like Nathanael under that fig tree and there's things just between you and him.

Do you bear it out you bear out your soul to him in ways you could to no one else on earth? Because you know, he knows you like no one else on earth and he sees it all. And isn't that a comforting thought to you?

Like J. I. Packer says in that great book knowing God a classic book. He says they're not tremendous relief and knowing God's love to me is realistic. Based at every point on a prior knowledge about the worst things in my life.

So that there's no discovery about me that is waiting for him. There's nothing that can disillusion him about where I really am and what I'm really like and there's nothing therefore that can quench his Determination to love me and bless me.

Is that not a bewildering thought to you? We gain others love by Concealing and diverting the worst aspects of who we are internally. And so we gain their approval in their love. We end up being born into or making a marriage covenant with the people that we're gonna love most and it's just because we have those thick Relationships that they can bear a little bit more of those hideous things that they see.

But even then there's so much that's hidden so much that remains in words so much that stays just at the thought level and God sees it all he knows it all to a depth that we can't even go and He still chooses to love me.

I don't have to hide from him. I Don't have to go further into the far country. All I have to do is return to this father who loves me with a perfect love. Do you know him in this way? It's not some vivid dream.

It's not some vision. It's not some fat in your life. It's an actual knowledge. It's it's actually something that has come into your life and given you a whole new life. It's not a knowing that you adopt in stride in the way that you're going.

It's not a knowledge that you can just compartmentalize and carry into the things that you're already pursuing. It's the kind of knowledge that opens your eyes and gives you a whole new life and turns you 180.

It's not like me when I go to the Wikipedia homepage and I'm like, oh that's when Paraguay became a nation interesting. It's not some random tidbit. That's a bonus. Oh, that's a little new layer in my life.

I'm gonna add Christ in this. No. If my life has not been transformed into a newness of life, how could I how could it be said that I know him? When he is life itself, he's the way the truth the life.

He's life-altering. He's world-transforming. The grave couldn't hold him and he's gonna enter into my heart and have almost no impact. How could that be? Do we know him in this way? Listen to Spurgeon.

Do not be satisfied with thinking that you know him hoping that you know him just know him. It's nothing to have heard about him nothing to have talked about him to have eaten to have drank with him to have preached him or even to have worked miracles in His name.

To have been charmed by his eloquence to have been stirred with the stories of his love to have been moved even to Imitate him. This gains you nothing if you don't know him. Jesus says there's many who will fit that bill Lord Lord, but he never knew them.

They never knew him. Now, of course to know him is something that has to be granted by the father. We're praying for our brother's mother this morning and we were praying in this very way. Weren't we pray that the Lord will reveal himself to her?

Pray the Lord will show himself. Pray the Lord would open her eyes. Well when we pray like that, what are we admitting? What are we recognizing? This is not something you stumble into if you can see and know the Lord.

It's because you've been granted to see and know the Lord you've been given that sight from above. Remember Peter when he comes to confess that Jesus is the one they've been looking for. He in other words is the Messiah.

The hope of the ages the desire of the nations. That meant for them like we're. You know, we're gonna see the Romans under our feet in a matter of time. This is great. Get your swords and he get your gun like we're gonna go.

That was the idea. They didn't understand that for him to be the Messiah if they had read the scriptures more carefully meant He'd be stripped bare and crucified on a tree become a curse for all of his people.

Of course when Peter makes that confession, we usually jump to the the downer that comes after that. Surely you will not suffer surely. We'll make sure that the Son of Man does not suffer and Jesus rebuking him says Satan get behind me.

We usually go there and that we end up then missing the glory of what Peter has actually come to see. Jesus had asked the question What do men say about me? And then who do you say that I am what others think?

What do you think and Peter says? We say that you are the Christ. You're the Messiah. You're the Son of God. I'm not saying Peter wasn't bright. He wasn't just some lowly peasant fisherman on a boat. He probably ran something more like a fishing business think Bubba Gump Shrimp Co Co.

That's probably more where he was. I think he had all sorts of Skills and an acumen as a fisherman, but he certainly was not some savant. It wasn't like you know, there's his father walked by and there was some trigonometry equation on the chalkboard like Goodwill hunting.

Oh, what's going on with Peter? He didn't figure out this in his own wisdom. I you know I've been studying the prophets and I've been working these things out and I think you are the Christ the Son of God.

Jesus doesn't say well Peter. How'd you get that? That's amazing. He says Blessed are you Simon bar Jonah flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. But my father in heaven revealed this to you. How were you able to see and know me Peter?

It's because my father Gave you sight gave you knowledge. Revealed me to you. So flesh and blood can't do this. Flesh and blood can't muster this up. We pray this way. This is our own testimony if we understand it rightly.