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Scripture Reading: Isaiah 40:9-26 | Text: John 17:3

“This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

Introduction

Why do we exist?

“I desire to know God and my soul. Nothing more; no, nothing at all.”

Augustine

Charles Spurgeon said that the proper study of the Christian is the Godhead.

I do not want to propose but convince you about the subject matter of my sermon this morning…

I suppose we may ask ourselves this morning if this is even a possibility. How do we know one who is unknowable? How do we know Him whom no man has seen nor can see, and dwells in unapproachable light? How do finite minds comprehend the one who is incomprehensible?

But before we ask how, I think it is important to ask if… do you want to know God. You can always gauge the desires and inclinations of your heart by asking questions.

And right-thinking people will ask –as we did moments earlier– why do I exist? Indeed, why am I alive to witness a new year?

I want to suggest to you a reason that transcends time, and that is to know God. It is not simply an aim for 2022, but for however long the Lord is pleased to keep us on earth.

The text before us this morning is a very precious one, and I think the fact that the subject we are considering were uttered in the context of a prayer lends itself to our special consideration.

Background

1. This is a prayer uttered by the Lord as he approached the crucial hour of His life and mission on earth. The first five verses are a prayer specifically for Himself and this mission.
2. And what is his request? “Glorify your Son that (in order) the Son may glorify you.” What does this mean? Simply put, see me to the end. The glory of the Son is incomplete if the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension do not take place. The purpose of His incarnation, which we spent December celebrating, was to this end and so He prayed, “glorify your Son.”
3. This is crucial because, in Isaiah’s servant songs, the Son is described as the obedient servant i.e., the one who accomplishes the will of the Father; and having done so, He will reign victorious because He will triumph over death.
4. It is in the Son’s accomplishment that the Father is glorified… and so he prays accordingly.
5. In verse 2, He recalls the specifics of the mission He was given i.e., you gave me authority over all flesh that I may give to those whom you have given me eternal life.
6. And then in verse 3, He explains what this eternal life is. And I find it interesting that He did this? Doesn’t the Father know what eternal life is? Obviously, the reason He spoke this way was for the benefit of the disciples who were granted the blessed privilege of hearing the Son communing with the Father.
7. Eternal life, in a word, is to know God!

I will explore our topic under three headings…

Outline

• The specific object of our knowledge – the only true God
• The means of attaining this knowledge – the Son of the only true God
• The goal and essence of our redemption/redeemed existence.

The Specific Object of Our Knowledge – The Only True God

1. Here, our focus is on two words: only true. Now, if you are good students, you will recall that the opening line in chapter two of our confession is “The Lord our God is but one living and true God.”
2. This is what Jeremiah writes: “But the LORD is the true God; He is the living God and the everlasting King. At His wrath the earth quakes, And the nations cannot endure His indignation.” (Jeremiah 10:10)
3. Why would the Lord in speaking to the Father qualify His name and identity? Since we have established that this prayer was/is for the benefit of the disciples, then we know that it is for their sakes (and ours) that he spoke in that manner.
4. There are many gods, which in actual fact are no gods (1 Cor. 8:4, 6). And I want to suggest to you that this is not a trivial point. Because we are far removed from certain idolatrous practices does not mean we are not susceptible to the worship of false gods.
5. What we are to know is clearly defined… it is not a god fashioned after our own imagination, but one who has spoken clearly, sufficiently and powerfully in His word. And there is none like Him?
6. Recall the question in verse 18 of our Scripture reading: “To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?” (Isaiah 40:18)
7. The only true God is –completing the definition from the confession– the one: … whose subsistence is in and of Himself, ² infinite in being and perfection; whose essence cannot be comprehended by any but Himself; ³ a most pure spirit, ⁴ invisible, without body, parts, or passions, who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; ⁵ who is immutable, ⁶ immense, ⁷ eternal, ⁸ incomprehensible, almighty, ⁹ every way infinite, most holy, ¹⁰ most wise, most free, most absolute; working all things according to the counsel of His own immutable and most righteous will, ¹¹ for His own glory; ¹² most loving, gracious, merciful, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and truth, forgiving iniquity, transgression, and sin; the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him, ¹³ and withal most just and terrible in His judgments, ¹⁴ hating all sin, ¹⁵ and who will by no means clear the guilty.
8. That is perhaps the best summary of who God is penned by men outside of Scripture. If you want a shorter version, the WSC, Q. 4 answers “what is God” as God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
9. In the passage of our Scripture reading, we read in verses 21-23: “_²¹ Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? _²² It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. _²³ He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless.” (Isaiah 40:21-23)
10. Is this your God? Or is He daddy? You must realize that if you do not know the true God, you are worshipping a false god. There is only one true God and He has disclosed Himself in the pages of Scripture.
11. Children, where do you learn how to love and obey God? In the Bible alone.
12. And dear friends, this knowledge comes with evidence. Once crucial one was used as a description by Paul of the saints in Thessalonica: “For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God” (1 Thessalonians 1:9)
13. What Paul is saying here in essence is that anything outside God is dead and false.

The Means of Attaining this Knowledge – The Son of the Only True God

1. Everything that our Lord did, John summarizes in 20:31, “30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these have been written so that you may believe
   that Jesus is the Christ (Messiah), the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” (John 20:30-31)
2. Our Lord is not promoting a double knowledge of God i.e., we know the Father, then the Son. The Bible is very clear that is only in the Son that the Father is revealed and known; which is why he adds “whom you have sent.”
3. One writer puts it very clearly: “it is but one knowledge and communion with one God that comes through Jesus Christ who is one in essence, coequal and coeternal with the Father and the Holy Spirit in the tri-unity of the Godhead… it is not a case of knowing a number of God’s, for there is only one true God (Deut. 6:4)
4. I am highlighting this because many believers struggle to speak rightly of the One God revealed in three persons and it is for this reason that Muslims accuse Christians of worshipping three gods.
5. But the thrust of this point is that the Son of God took upon flesh that He might reveal the Father to us. And we are right to say that the extent of that action tells us how wonderfully glorious God is.
6. You know it is ironic that men will travel far to explore and discover things (cite examples) and that’s a good thing; but friends, the greatest discovery we do not seek… indeed, we are not required to seek… God came down to earth, while we were still in darkness, to reveal Himself to us.
7. If you find anything more condescending than that, I’d like to know. And he did it that we may have eternal life by which we can know God.

This brings us to our third and final point…

The Goal and Essence of Our Redemption/Redeemed Existence.

1. To understand this point we must understand what took place in the Garden. Eternal Life is a gift to those who are dead in trespasses and sins, and death came about because of Adam’s transgression.
2. What this means is that Adam knew God. The hint is clear from these words that the ultimate aim for which God made man was that He may be known. This is the chief end of man’s existence.
3. What the fall did was turn this glorious purpose around such that self, not God, became the focus of our existence. Paul calls this vanity or futility of the mind: “17 So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, 18 being darkened in their understanding, excluded (alienated) from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; 19 and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness.” (Ephesians 4:17-19)
4. That phrase “have given themselves over” means they are committed to pursuing everything that stands in opposition to God.
5. The evidence is all around us… we have an inordinate obsession with ourselves… just look at social media… and Christians, who ought to know better, fall into the trap under the guise of sharing our lives.
6. Listen to this very apt description from Job as he described the wicked: “They spend their days in prosperity, And suddenly they go down to Sheol. _¹⁴ “They say to God, ‘Depart from us! We do not even desire the knowledge of Your ways. _¹⁵ ‘Who is the Almighty, that we should serve Him, and what would we gain if we entreat Him?’” (Job 21:13-15)
7. The world tells us to “become a better you…” Have you ever stopped to reflect on the Lord’s call to those who want to follow Him? “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.” (Matthew 16:24). You can’t deny yourself and have yourself at the same time.
8. If we are disciples, it means that we have received the gift of eternal life, which assumes we are known by God.
9. I want you to think carefully about what I am saying… Christ gives eternal life, not to all flesh (mankind), but those among them whom the Father has chosen. There are no words to describe this… If you’re a child of God you have been granted the unique privilege of knowing Him.
10. What is eternal life? I’ll go with the title of an old book: “the life of God in the soul of man.” Life is who we are i.e., our existence… eternal defines the quality of that life, which basically means to be alive to God i.e., to see God for who He really is. A God who is high and might but dwells with men in loving fellowship.
11. I want to point out two observations about the knowledge of God:
    • It is a personal knowledge. This is to say that there is a crucial difference between knowing about God and knowing God. Knowing about God is simply the first step to knowing Him… To know someone in the sense in which the word is used involves the person being known i.e., the person who is being known knows that he’s is being known. That is exactly what intimacy implies… if this is not the case, then we are not truly knowing.
    • It is a present knowledge. There are some people who are waiting to fellowship with God in heaven… well, I’m sorry for you because if you don’t fellowship with Him now, you will not get into heaven.

Application

If life eternal is knowing God and Jesus whom He sent, let us:

1. Be sure that we truly know God. Brethren, like the Bereans, we must search the Scriptures to see that these things are so.
2. Be sure by living in obedience to His commands. “By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:3-4)
3. Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. (2 Peter 3:18)
4. Strive to know Him more intimately and personally. This means denying all things for the excellency of the knowledge of Him. Paul’s prayer should be ours “That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death; 11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.” (Philippians 3:10-11) “One thing I have asked from the LORD, that I shall seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD and to meditate in His temple.” (Psalms 27:4)
5. Let us long for Him in days of dryness of soul: “_¹ As the deer pants for the water brooks, so my soul pants for You, O God. _² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?” (Psalms 42:1-2)

We glorify the Father only by living for the life He sent the Son to accomplish on our account.

Listen to the first resolution by Jonathan Edwards (written at 19):

Resolved, that I will do whatsoever I think to be most to God’s glory, and my own good, profit and pleasure, in the whole of my duration, without any consideration of the time, whether now or never so many myriads of ages hence. Resolved to do whatever I think to be my duty and most for the good and advantage of mankind in general. Resolved to do this, whatever difficulties I meet with, how many soever, and how great soever.

AMEN.