Sunday, April 22, 2012
DO YOU KNOW GOD? OR DO YOU KNOW ABOUT GOD?
Job 42:5
Which is
better -- to hear or to see? I say it is
generally better to hear than to see.
John speaks about the danger of the lust of the eyes. I John 2:16, “For all that is in the
world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world.”
Jesus Himself spoke of plucking out the eye that offends, not the ear
that offends. Oh that the spies would
have paid attention to the Word of God which they heard, rather than the giants
whom they saw with their eyes. Fill in
the blank: “We walk by ________ (faith),
not by _______ (sight)” (II Cor. 5:7). And “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by
the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). O be
careful little ears what you hear, but be especially careful about what you see
with your eyes.
But then we
come to Job 42. Let’s read again from Job
42:1-6…
Then Job
answered the Lord and said: 2 "I know that You can do everything, And that no purpose
of Yours can be withheld from You. 3 You asked,
'Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered
what I did not understand, Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 Listen,
please, and let me speak; You said, 'I will question you, and you shall answer
Me.' 5 "I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, But now
my eye sees You. 6Therefore I
abhor myself, And repent in dust and ashes."
We have
seen in this section that Job was truly a changed man. He came to recognize that God can do
anything. He came to understand that God
knows everything. And as a result, Job
came to a place of genuine repentance before God. It was the sustained Word of God which
brought about the change. It is no
different today. It is God’s revelation
of Himself in the Word that changes people.
Why? Because the written Word of
God points to the living Word, the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who died on the
cross that we might have real life.
This
morning we are going to focus on verse 5, where we see Job’s changed perspective
on God. As we come to these words, we
find that the principle I just defended is turned upside down. Now seeing is superior to hearing. But notice that it is a special kind of
seeing. Job has not just seen the beauty
of God’s creation. His eyes have not
beheld the splendor of heaven. Nor has
he seen the mighty miracles which the Israelites saw, as they came out of
Egypt. Rather, Job says to God, “But now
my eye sees You.”
Is that not
a bold statement? We know that God
painted for Job a vivid picture of behemoth and leviathan, but Job walks right
by those glorious creatures and proclaims with certainly, “But now my eye sees
You.” In light of what scripture says
elsewhere, we might conclude that Job is standing on dangerous ground. To no less than the Deliverer and Lawgiver
Moses, God said, “You cannot see my face, for there shall no man see me and
live” (Ex. 33:20). God had to
hide Moses in the cleft of the rock, so that the great prophet could see only
His back parts when He passed by. We read
in Revelation 1 that John saw the risen Christ, and as a result he wrote: “And when I saw Him, I fell at his feet as
dead” (Rev. 1:17). That same
John wrote in John 1:18, “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him.”
So how is
it that Job can say, “But now my eye sees You”?
Job doesn’t say, “I caught a
glimpse of You,” as might be said of Isaiah, but “My eye sees You.” Job claimed that he was looking at God.
Please hear
me. A good and sound principle of
biblical interpretation is this: View
what is said as literal, unless there is good solid reason to view it
otherwise.” And so it is here. There is good reason to understand that Job
is not speaking literally. He is not
here contradicting what we read in other parts of the scripture. Nor is he boasting of some great and unusual
revelation that has been hidden from other human beings. When Job says, “But now my eye sees You,” he
is not talking about a physical eye which has literally seen the Lord of glory.
So if Job
did not want us to understand that he literally saw the Lord of glory, then
what is he saying? Let me put it in a
nutshell. In verse 5 Job is underlining
the difference between knowing about God and knowing God. “Lord, in the past I knew all about You, but
now I am experiencing Your presence. I
know You, Lord.” This morning I want us
to think about some simple questions: Do
I know about God, or do I know God? Am I
learning about God, or am I coming to know God?
Is my burning desire to learn more about God, or to become better
acquainted with Him day by day?
I. Is There a Difference Between Knowing about
God and Knowing God?
Let’s begin
to explore this issue by asking the simple question: “Is there a difference between knowing about
God and knowing God?” Yes, there
certainly is. It is very easy to
illustrate this difference by simply looking at personal relationships. Let’s consider someone that has been in the
news a great deal. We could choose one
of the Presidential candidates, or even the President himself. Yes, let’s focus on our current President,
Barack Obama. Does anyone here know
President Obama? No one. Does anyone here know something about
President Obama? Everyone does. If nothing else, you know that he is
President of the United States. Most
everyone knows that he will be seeking re-election as President. Most everyone in this nation knows that he
has a wife and two daughters. Some of
you could give a half hour lecture on the President, because you have learned a
great deal about him. Regardless of
whether a person approves of his Presidential performance or disapproves, he
will know something about him. So here
is a good example of knowing about a man without actually knowing him. If you called the White House and asked for
permission to speak to President Obama, you wouldn’t have a chance to do so
unless you actually knew him. You would
not be asked if you could rehearse his Presidential policies, or if you could
reproduce his family tree. The only
pertinent question would have to do with your personal acquaintance with the
President.
So it is
with our knowledge of God. There is a
big difference between knowing about God and actually knowing God. Not only can we demonstrate this difference
with an illustration, but we can also find it in the Word of God. One example is this simple statement of Job
in 42:5,
“I have heard of You by the hearing of the ear, but now my eyes see
You.” Job is talking about more than the
ears and the eyes. He is alluding to the
fact that when it comes to personal relationships, seeing is preferable to
hearing. Before Rhonda and I were
married, I had the privilege of hearing her voice very regularly. We talked on the phone for a few minutes each
week, but I listened to her voice on a cassette tape from two to three hours
every week. I learned much about Rhonda
by doing that. Because we were separated
by 500 miles, the cassette conversations were a great blessing. However, there was something even
better. As often as possible, I would
get in my car and drive those 500 miles so that I could actually see her with
my eyes. But when I say that I could
actually see her with my eyes, I am talking about more than just staring at
her. What I really mean is that I could
interact with her. Rather than just
hearing her voice, I could see her expressing as she spoke. I could see the smile on her face. I could know her in a way that I could not
know her at a distance of 500 miles. As
great as the cassette correspondence was, it couldn’t compare with seeing
Rhonda in person.
That’s what
Job is talking about. As we read through the many speeches of Job
from chapters 3 through 31, it was plain to see that Job knew a great deal about
God. He set forth many wonderful truths,
but all the while he was speaking the truth about God, his heart was becoming
hard toward God. Pride was building
within him, and he felt that God was trying to destroy him. Then in chapter 38, God began to speak to Job
and continued to do so through the end of chapter 41. As we have seen during our last two sessions,
after hearing directly from God Himself, Job was a changed man. His attitude and perspective changed
dramatically. Here in 42:5 we see that
Job has now learned the difference between knowing about God and truly knowing
God. Now he is humbled and responds to
the Lord with a simple trust. No, he
doesn’t understand everything about God’s ways.
No, he cannot explain all the why’s and wherefore’s of his suffering,
but he has come to see that it is more important to be personally acquainted
with God than to be able to answer all the questions about His ways.
So we must
understand that there is indeed a great difference between knowing about God
and knowing God. When we acknowledge
that difference, then we can more honestly ask the question: “Do I know about God, or do I know God?”
II. Can I Be Deceived?
In order to
determine whether we have only a knowledge about God or have a personal
acquaintance with God, we might ask another question: “Can I be deceived?” In other words, is it possible that I could
think that I know God, when I really only know about Him? When I ask you, “Do you know God, or do you
just know about Him,” most of you will quickly respond, “Of course, I know
God.” That’s okay, but is it possible
you could be wrong? Could you be fooling
yourself? Is it possible that you think
you know Him, when you really don’t? I
get the sense that Job himself thought that his great knowledge about God
translated into knowing God, but that wasn’t true. I don’t think we would want to say that Job
did not know God at all. After all, at
the beginning of the book God referred to Job as being blameless and
upright. But as time went on and his
suffering increased, Job had a tendency to rely upon his knowledge about God
instead of drawing near to God in personal relationship.
Concerning
the possibility of deception in this area, there is no better example than the
Pharisees of Jesus’ day. Did the
Pharisees know about God? Yes. More than anyone else, they had great
knowledge about God. No one could
compare with them when it came to knowing about God. If a person wants to know about God, what is
his primary resource? Certainly, it is
the Bible. In Jesus’ day it was normal
for Jewish boys to learn the law (Torah).
By the age of 12, they had memorized those first five books of the
Bible. The very best of these students
would move on to the next level and begin to memorize the entire New Testament. This education continued through the age of
15. After that, the very best of the
best would then apply to follow a particular Rabbi. At some point, they would have memorized all
of the New Testament. The Pharisees were
the cream of the crop, when it came to the Jewish education system. In other words, they were giants when it came
to raw knowledge of what the scriptures said.
Speaking to the Jewish leaders, which undoubtedly included the
Pharisees, Jesus described them accurately, when He said, “You search the
Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life…” (John 5:39). [The KJV reads, “Search the scriptures…” The Greek can be translated as an indicative
or an imperative, but the indicative mood seems to fit best with the context]. The Pharisees were the Bible experts of their
day.
Now comes
the logical question: “Did they know
God?” First, let’s answer this
question: “Did they think they knew
God?” They certainly did. If you read through the four gospel accounts,
you will quickly form the conclusion that the Pharisees thought they knew God
better than anyone else. We see their
attitude of superiority in John 7. Jesus
was speaking in the temple during the Feast of Tabernacles. Let’s begin with His well-known words in
verse 37 and read down through 49. Read
John 7:37-49…
On the last
day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If
anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. 38 He who
believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of
living water." 39 But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet
glorified. 40 Therefore many from the crowd, when they heard this saying, said,
"Truly this is the Prophet." 41 Others said,
"This is the Christ." But some said, "Will the Christ come out
of Galilee?42 Has not the
Scripture said that the Christ comes from the seed of David and from the town
of Bethlehem, where David was?" 43 So there was
a division among the people because of Him. 44Now some of them wanted to take Him, but no one laid hands on
Him. 45 Then the officers came to the chief priests and Pharisees,
who said to them, "Why have you not brought Him?" 46 The officers
answered, "No man ever spoke like this Man!" 47 Then the
Pharisees answered them, "Are you also deceived? 48 Have any of
the rulers or the Pharisees believed in Him? 49 But this
crowd that does not know the law is accursed."
Here we see the attitude of the Pharisees. Of all people, they thought they truly knew
God. They believed that while others
were deceived, they knew too much to be deceived.
The
Pharisees thought they knew God, but did they?
Let’s go back to what Jesus said in John 5. We read verse 39 earlier, but now let’s
continue. Read John 5:39-47…
You search
the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they
which testify of Me. 40 But you are not willing to come to Me that you may have life. 41 I do not
receive honor from men. 42 But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. 43 I have come
in My Father's name, and you do not receive Me; if another comes in his own
name, him you will receive. 44 How can you believe, who receive honor from one another, and
do not seek the honor that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think
that I shall accuse you to the Father; there is one who accuses you--Moses, in
whom you trust. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe Me; for he wrote
about Me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe
My words?"
Jesus Himself makes it clear that the Pharisees did not know
God, despite what they thought.
So we see
that it is very possible to be deceived.
A person can be convinced he knows God, while in reality he does
not. One more scripture should convince
of this truth beyond doubt. Let’s read Luke
13:23-30…
Then one
said to Him, "Lord, are there few who are saved?" And He said to
them, 24 "Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I
say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the
door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, 'Lord,
Lord, open for us,' and He will answer and say to you, 'I do not know you,
where you are from,' 26 then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in Your
presence, and You taught in our streets.' 27 But He will
say, 'I tell you I do not know you, where you are from. Depart from Me, all you
workers of iniquity.' 28 There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see
Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and
yourselves thrust out. 29 They will come from the east and the west, from the north and
the south, and sit down in the kingdom of God. 30 And indeed
there are last who will be first, and there are first who will be last."
These people thought they knew Jesus because they had been
close to Him. They had heard Him
teach. Some of them had shared a meal
with Him. They thought they knew
Him. But notice Jesus’ words: “I do not know you” (vs. 25). And again in verse 27, “I tell you I do not
know you.” Though they had been in
Jesus’ physical presence, there was no lasting relationship between them and
the Lord. They were deceived.
III. Can I Really Know God?
Now comes
the big question: “Can I really know
God?” Obviously, we all have the
opportunity to know about God. We can
study His Word and find out that He is holy, righteous, and perfect. We can learn that He is all-powerful and
all-knowing. We can discover that He is
a God of love and a God of wrath.
Because He has revealed Himself, we can know much about God. Praise His name for that privilege, but we
have already seen that there is a difference between knowing about God and
knowing God. We began with the question,
“Do I just know about God, or do I know God Himself?” But we can’t really deal with that question
until we are convinced that it is possible to truly know God personally. Can a human being know God? Can a mere man have a loving personal
acquaintance with the God who made this universe and the billions of people in
it? David was astonished by that thought
and penned the words, “When
I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars,
which You have ordained, 4 What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son
of man that You visit him?” (Ps. 8:3-4).
To answer that question, we turn to
God’s Word. Let’s get right to the heart
of the matter and consider the words of Jesus.
In John 17, we have what is truly the Lord’s Prayer, as Jesus prayed to
the Father just a few hours before He would be arrested. Let’s read John 17:1-3, “Jesus spoke
these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: ‘Father, the hour has
come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority
over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him. 3 And this is eternal life, that
they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have
sent.’” Notice that Jesus is talking
about knowing about God. Instead, He speaks
of knowing God and the Son whom He has sent.
According to Jesus, a human being can actually know God. As a matter of fact, everyone who truly has
eternal life knows God. Conversely, if a
person does not know God personally, he does not have eternal life.
Pause there
for just a minute. When we consider the
question, “Do I just know about God, or do I really know God,” we must
understand that this is not a question about which we can afford to be wrong,
is it? If you never come to know God,
then you do not have eternal life. And
if you do not experience eternal life, you will suffer eternal death, where you
will be separated from God forever and ever in hell. So we can say that there is nothing more
important than whether or not we know God.
Good news
-- you can know God. Jesus confirms that
truth in His prayer, as He defines eternal life. According to I John 1:2, Jesus Himself is
eternal life. No wonder He says that to
know God the Father and Christ the Son is to have eternal life. This can be a reality for every person here
this morning. It is not likely that any
one of us will ever personally know the President of the United States, or one
of the justices of the Supreme Court, or the Queen of England, but you can know
God. Isn’t that incredible.
At this
point we need to make something very clear.
Though there is a point at which a person comes to know God for the
first time, knowing God is not limited to a brief encounter. Do you remember when President George W. Bush
came to Alamogordo a few years ago. We
have a nephew who went to the gathering and actually got pretty close to the
President. You understand that by
“close” I don’t mean that he developed a strong personal relationship; I mean
that his body was within a few feet of the President’s body. That will probably be as close as he will
ever get to a President, but it was only for a minute. He can look back on that brief moment when he
was close to the President. But that’s
not the way it is with Almighty God. As
one of His creatures, you can know Him on a continual basis. You can talk to Almighty God today and
tomorrow and the day after. You can be
close to Jesus the rest of your life on this earth and for all eternity. Paul was well aware of that when He spoke of
His great longing “to know Him [Christ], and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings” (Phil. 3:10).
It was the
same apostle Paul who in Galatians 4 put an interesting spin on knowing God. In this chapter Paul talks about the
privilege of actually being a son of God.
Though we become His slaves, we are also His sons (and daughters). Now listen to what he writes in Gal.
4:7-9, “Therefore
you are no longer a slave but a son, and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. 8 But then, indeed, when you did
not know God, you served those which by nature are not gods. 9 But now after you have known
God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and
beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage?” Paul indicates that even better than knowing
God is being known by God. Of course,
the two go together. If you know God,
you are known by God. If you are known
by God, then you know God. Someone has
said that the great question at the judgment seat of God will not be, “Do you
know God?”, but “Does God know you?” No
doubt, that concept finds its roots in the words of Jesus in Matt.
7:21-23…
"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. 22Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in
Your name?' 23 And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart
from Me, you who practice lawlessness!'
Think about
it -- to know God and be known by Him.
Is there any greater privilege that we could ever imagine? Never.
This is the ultimate. It is
beyond imagination. Some people would
pay tens of thousands to know some celebrity or some sports hero, but no amount
of money can purchase a relationship with God.
I didn’t say it was free; I said that it couldn’t be purchased with
money.
So then how
is it possible that mere humans like us could come to know God and be known by
Him? God sent His Son into this world to
reconcile His enemies to Himself. That’s
right -- at one time every single person in this room was the enemy of
God. Some of you are still His enemies
to this day. But praise God that He sent
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, that we might have His eternal
life, that we might know Him. Apart from
what Jesus did on the cross, it is impossible to know God because our sins
separate us from Him. He cannot have
anything to do with those who are in their sins, because He is absolutely holy
and righteous. Jesus took our sins upon
Himself. The just died for the unjust,
that He might bring us to God. The only
righteous person who ever lived took the wrath of God upon Himself, so that we
might know God, that we might have real life.
The privilege of knowing God cost Him more dearly that we will ever
fully understand. It was not with silver
and gold that we were redeemed, but with the precious blood of Christ.
Conclusion: How Can I Know God and His Son Jesus?
So if we
can indeed know God and His Son Jesus in a personal way, how does that become a
reality? Please allow me to answer that
question from several different angles.
I could answer it very accurately by quoting Jesus Himself, “The time is
fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe the gospel” (Mark
1:15). There can be no
relationship with God until one repents and believes. Though you may appreciate God and even what
He has done in sending Jesus, you will never know Him until you repent and
believe. But why not? Because it isn’t just about head knowledge;
it is about life change. When a person
repents and believes, it is an indication of the new life that God has birthed
on the inside. If you are willing to
admit that you don’t know Him, that you have been a rebel against God, then
repent and believe. Give up on yourself,
despising your sin, and throw yourself on the One who died in your place on the
cross.
Let me
answer it another way. Seek Him with
your whole heart. Remember that knowing
God and the Lord Jesus Christ is not a one-time experience, any more than
knowing a human friend is a one-time experience. That relationship begins at a point in time,
but it continues. If your relationship
with God is going to grow, then seek Him with all your heart. We know the verse from Jer. 29:13, “And you shall seek me and
find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart.” In Psalm 119, we find the Psalmist repeatedly
confessing that He is seeking God wholeheartedly. “Blessed are they that keep his testimonies,
and that seek him with the whole heart” (vs. 2).
“With my whole heart have I sought thee” (10). Half-hearted devotion will not result in a
more intimate relationship with our Lord.
Or consider
the words of Ps. 37:4, “Delight thyself also in the Lord, and he shall give
thee the desires of thine heart.” Understanding
this verse requires some thought. On the
surface, we might think that if we just delight ourselves in the Lord, He will
give us whatever we want. Actually, that
is true, but it doesn’t mean that if I want a million dollar home and then
delight myself in the Lord, He will give me the million dollar home. No, if I truly delight myself in Him, He will
most likely show me I don’t need a house like that. What happens when a person truly delights
himself in the Lord? The Lord changes
his heart. How? He changes his heart to want the very things
the Lord wants. And what the Lord wants
most of all is you and to have a close fellowship with you. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, the
Lord responds by making fellowship with Him a greater delight. The desire of our heart becomes more and more
of Him. Isn’t that beautiful!
To put it
another way, if you want to know the Lord, walk in the Spirit. Gal. 5:25, “If we live in the
Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.”
Since it is the Spirit who gave us life, let’s live according to His
life-giving direction and power. If we
are led by the Spirit of God, it is inevitable that we will come to know God
better. We could say the same basic
thing like this: “Abide in Christ.” Those are the words that come of out of John
15:4, where Jesus says, “Abide in me, and I in you.” If we live, remain, continue, abide in Jesus,
we will certainly come to know Him better, even as we come to better know the
friend with whom we hang out a great deal.
Just spend time with Jesus. Let
us do what we sing about…
Turn your eyes upon Jesus; look full
in His wonderful face,
And
the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and
grace.
We can say
it in many, many ways, but here is the bottom line. We can know God the Father and His Son
Jesus. We don’t have to be content with
knowing about Him. And God Himself is
not making it difficult. He longs for us
to know Him. He sent His own Son to the
cross in order to make it possible. The
crucial ingredient is desire. Do you
truly want to know Him? If the answer is
“No,” don’t despair. Pray. “Lord, you know that my heart is cold and I
have little desire to know You. But I
realize that is both wrong and foolish.
In my head, I know that there is nothing so important and nothing so
sweet as knowing you more intimately. So
please change my heart.” Praise God that
He is faithful to answer that prayer!
May we be
increasingly able to say with Job, “I have heard of You by the hearing of the
ear, but now my eye sees You.”
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