Welcome to Harmony Primitive Baptist Church. It's a great blessing to be back here with you again and I do stand in great need of your prayers in light of what Brother Dan has already put before us. I have amazingly in my mind it seems to tie together what's been on my mind also in light of what Brother Dan has been preaching to us about in Galatians. And he and I had a conversation after services last Sunday, and then we had Bible study. That was last Sunday, we had Bible study, wasn't it? And some things were brought up. I pray that the Lord would tie this together with some of those things that we discussed. If you want to put a title on what I will make an effort to say today, it would be a knowledge of him and the benefits of knowing him. First of all, I want to say that it is a great, blessed privilege that We have gospel ministers to preach to us, and that we have the written word. That goes without saying, right? Unfortunately, I think a lot of us take that for granted, don't we? That it is a blessed privilege that we have that, and that we have men that will study God's word and preach to us. And what happens along the way sometimes, and thankfully I've not seen it so much in this one, but in this religion or in the old Baptist church, we'll begin to idolize the one who stands before us. And this is something that Brother Dan and I talked about last Sunday. Not only will we idolize that one that stands before us, but we will, unlike the Berean brother, we would take everything that he says as the gospel, believe it, and rightfully so. But let's be careful. And let's compare it to the written word of God, like the Berean brother did. So I really want to start with John the Baptist, because here's the discussion that we have before us that the preached word or the preacher himself can impart life. That's being taught. Or they can help the Lord impart life. Lord needs no help in imparting life to his children. If you'll turn with me, turn to Luke. We'll go over a few of the things that I think the gospel minister is Commanded to do or or what his what I call a privileged Purpose is this is the privileged purpose of a gospel minister here, we'll start with the Very first chapter of Luke in the 76th verse Luke says and thou child shalt be called the prophet of the highest referring to John, for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways. And here's his command, what he will do. To give knowledge, knowledge of salvation unto his people. By the remission of their sins through the tender mercy of our God, whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us. Notice that John will give knowledge of what? Not give the salvation, but knowledge of that salvation. How did the salvation come? By the remission of sins. By who? By Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Dayspring. Then he says, and he reiterates, whereby the day spring from on high visited us to give light to them that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death. To what? To guide our feet into the way of peace. Brethren and sisters, I think you have just heard the gospel minister's charge. I think you have just heard what his responsibility is. His responsibility has never ever been to give life. And by the way, nor is it the church's responsibility to give life. And I know y'all know these things, but it is confusing in a world where you will hear that you must hear, as we talked about, you must hear the gospel preached. to be saved. We're going to hear that in the church. So we need to be mindful of what the New Testament says the gospel minister's responsibility is. And I use the word responsibility, and I'd like to get away from that. To me, it's a privileged purpose. To me, it's more of a privileged purpose when the Lord blesses a gospel minister to preach his word to his people. If it was this way in the day of John the Baptist, and we're following the New Testament, is it not still that way today? Nothing has changed. Nothing at all has changed about the gospel minister and the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look at what one of, I think, outside of the Lord Jesus Christ, one of the greatest preachers of all time, the Apostle Paul, what he says about this subject. Lord willing, we will go through the second chapter of 1 Corinthians, at least the first 10, 11 verses. The apostle Paul starts off by telling the church at Corinth, and I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom. Right off the bat, Paul could have used excellency of speech and wisdom, couldn't he? He was raised at the feet of Gamaliel, right? He knew the scriptures, I would dare say, forward and backwards. He knew the scriptures. And he had good speech. He could have used his wisdom and excellency of speech to teach, right? He didn't do that. Why? Why didn't he do that? He was fearful and mindful that in our nature, our carnal nature, we would put him up on a pedestal. That they, the church at Corinth, would put him up on a pedestal and idolize him instead of the one that they should be there worshiping. That's why he didn't do it. And he says, for I determined not to know anything among you, know anything among you, save Jesus Christ and him crucified. That was his purpose. That's what he was determined to know, was nothing but Jesus Christ and him crucified. And he says, and I was with you in weakness and in fear and in much trembling. In other words, hey, the Apostle Paul is putting himself on the same level as they are. I'm the same as you. I was in much fear. I just, as a side note here, it amazes me if you'll stop and consider the persecution that the New Testament church was under during this time. We've not seen, nor I pray we would ever see, the persecution that the saints of God, who openly worshiped the Lord, the persecution that they were under. Paul is placing himself on their level. And he says, and again, he reinforces, And my speech, verse four, and my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in demonstration of the spirit and of power. Paul's saying, look, I'm not doing this man's wisdom. This is God using me to preach to you about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And then he tells you why. That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. He didn't want them relying on him. You know, that must have been hard. Can you imagine? Here's these apostles that were able to heal. You see where I'm going with this? I mean, see, they could heal the sick. They could heal the blind. Wouldn't it be natural for you and I to worship that person? To think, man, that person laid hands on that young maid and she got up and walked out healthy. There was a lot of reasons for Paul to be fearful, and any of the apostles or any gospel minister, to be fearful that Those that they spoke to would put more faith in them than they would in God. And your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. And by the way, that's where they got that power to heal too, wasn't it? But if I walked over and tapped Brother Leon on his knee that he just had replaced and relieved, all of that was able to really, wouldn't it be kind of, You'd look at me and go, hmm. Well, when the apostles did that, that power that they had came of God. And he wants them to know that. He says, how be it we speak wisdom among them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to naught. Those princes at the time, he's referring to as the Sanhedrin court, that put our Lord, who made the decision, to crucify our Lord. They didn't understand. And they had. Those priests and kings had the word of God taught to them. Those Jewish brethren had the word of God taught to them their whole life. He said, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto glory. which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Aren't you glad that you know some things that are hidden from others? He says, but as it is written, I have not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Then he says, but God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. Can't reveal them to someone who has not been born of the spirit. can't be revealed to them. For the spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of a man which is in him. In other words, and this was a text I believe that Brother Dan touched on last week. In other words, that carnal part of you is never gonna understand anything but the carnal things. That's what it means, the spirit of man. That's all you're gonna know. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. Unless you've been born of the spirit of God, you will not understand or know the things of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God. Why? That we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. That freely. Nothing in this world is free, right? This is freely given to us that we might know. Well, so the Apostle Paul has confirmed, I believe, the same thing that John the Baptist did. And Paul has proven over and over again that man, in these short texts here, that it's not man that saves. It's not man that gives. Wisdom or knowledge of him, but through the spirit by the spirit and he he out of all the ones that could preach Paul Could have preached and impressed the congregation that he spoke to with his wisdom, but he didn't do it that way and Which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. Isn't that amazing? But which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. Just says what I tried to explain. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him. But we have the mind of Christ. In other words, if we know him, the more that we can learn about him, the more we would be able to enjoy an abundant life. I know you've heard that. We've been given an abundant life, and we have. There's benefits to the child of God in knowing him, and not just knowing who he was, what he did, but knowing him, intimately knowing him. Every child of God, every child of God, after the work of regeneration has performed in them, they will experience their depravity. Now, some of us experience our depravity to a greater degree than others. I will say to you, the greater degree you experience that it's experiential, not just saying I'm depraved. But in your soul, when you experience that you are worthy to burn everlasting, then you'll want to know more about the one who saved sinners, won't you? To whatever degree you have experienced your depravity, that's the degree in which you can love the Lord and want to know Him. So when you, those who are being taught that you can work your way in, you can do this or you can do that, you must do this, you must do that, when they experience that depravity, when they have an experience of depravity within them and they go, whoa, wait a minute, I'm not, I can't do those things. There's no way that I can perform to that level. You must be looking for a savior. Won't you be looking for a savior? So the more you know of him and what he did, we sang that song, I asked Brother Dan, hallelujah, what a savior. There's in those five verses right there, Go back and read that sometime. Because we sing it a lot. Or we sing a lot of songs, but we really don't pay attention to what's being said by that author. Go back and read that. There's five things right there that we need to learn about our Savior. He was a man of sorrows. He bore the shame and scoffing for all of his children, whoever that is. We were guilty, vile, and helpless. He was lifted up to die. Full atonement, can it be? Utterly amazed. So when you have an experience of depravity and you don't have the knowledge of Him that took care of everything that needs to be taken care of in order for you to live with Him in glory, if you didn't have the knowledge of Him, how miserable would you be in that experience of depravity in life? I mean, you'd have no place to turn. What a great benefit it is to the child of God to know of him. As we read throughout the New Testament, we're taught the things that honor glorify God. Jesus himself teaches us, right there where Brother Dan was reading, how that we can have an abundant life. Teaches us that those things that are made available to us living in such a way that would honor and glorify God. I've always felt like anything that would honor and glorify God is a benefit to you. I made the statement last, a couple of Sundays ago, I think, about the dietary laws back in the Old Testament that we really don't adhere to them. But any law, anything that would The giving of God is a benefit to the child of God if we follow them, isn't it? I made the comment that we would probably be a little more healthy if we still follow those dietary laws. In natural life, we would be healthy. Although they were types and shadows of things to come, they were literal also. And I think that it was that way. I think you'll find that in every law of God. That's why the just one fulfilled all those laws. Isn't it a benefit to know and understand when persecution comes? that this God, this Lord that we know about and learn about through the preached word and through the written word of God, that he's faithful? There's so many examples in the Old and New Testament. of the saints of God who were under persecution, God delivered. And I'm talking about persecution for following him. I'm talking about persecution for testifying of him. Look at Stephen. When Stephen was under such great persecution that he was stoned to death, what did he do? I said almost the same thing the Lord said. Lord, don't lay this to their charge. He looked to heaven, and I believe in that very instant, he had the greatest peace that man could have on the face of the earth. He knew he had testified of the Lord, done what was right, and was being stoned to death for doing that, had no concern. Just as the Lord loved those that crucified Him, Stephen said, Lord, don't lay it to their charge. Isn't that amazing? How? How could one say that or do that in such great proof? I can't imagine being stoned to death. As the rocks are being piled on Him, and he has the love of God in his heart, so great, he knew, see he knew, he had knowledge of him that could deliver and did deliver. What a great benefit that is. I hope and pray that we never come under such persecution for testifying of our Lord, but it's possible that we could. Here's one great benefit that I've rejoiced in as I get a little older. When the death of a loved one comes, how miserable would it be if you had to question where they're at? See, I have the knowledge of Him that paid that debt for that loved one. I know where they are. What a great benefit that is. I would be miserable in life if all the ones, and everyone in here has experienced it, how miserable would life be if you had to question that? Where would they be? I'll close with this thought. There's countless benefits of knowing him. When we live a life that would honor God, when we live a life of love toward one another, and do so without regard of ourselves, In that moment, we will sit in a heavenly place with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Why? Because he bore our sin, that burden. I hope someday I'll learn enough of him that I can live the life that he would have me live and testify for him. and for others. May God bless you is my prayer. I hope this has been a blessing for you. Thank you for visiting Harmony Primitive Baptist Church.