Sunday,
June 2, 2013
KNOW GOD
There is a place of
quiet rest near to the heart of God,
A place where sin
cannot molest near to the heart of God.
O
Jesus, blessed Redeemer,
Sent from the heart of God,
Hold us who wait before Thee
Near to the heart of God.
There is a place of
comfort sweet near to the heart of God,
A place where we
our Savior, meet near to the heart of God.
There is a place of
full release near to the heart of God,
A place where all
is joy and peace, near to the heart of God.
Think about the words of that
song. Obviously, it uses figuratively
language. No one can describe the heart
of God. Nevertheless, we know what the
writer is talking about. His desire is
to be in God's presence, to be close to God, to be able to sense God's
nearness. Is that reality? Should we expect God to be as real to us as a
person whom we can see, hear, and touch?
Let's suppose that a young man gets
acquainted with a young lady through letters of internet correspondence. He has not met her in person, but he has
spent lots of time communicating with her.
Those communications are dear to him.
Nevertheless, there is a goal beyond those communications. His desire is to meet her in person, to talk
with her face to face. As good as the
long-distance correspondence is, it is not nearly so sweet as regular
face-to-face encounters.
Do you see the application? God has revealed Himself to us in His
Word. Praise God for every word in the
Bible. May we never make light of
it. However, there is a goal beyond what
we find in the written Word. God is a
person, as seen in the truth that He revealed Himself most completely in His
Son, the God-man. He is more than
capable of personal encounter. We read
specifically of Enoch and of Noah, that they walked with God. Though we do not read it quite as directly of
Adam and Eve, the offhand comment that "they heard the voice of the Lord
God walking in the garden in the cool of the day" (Gen. 3:8) implies that
there had been a strong personal relationship between God and that first couple
of human beings. How directly can a
human being relate to God?
We often talk about having a
personal relationship with God and with His Son Jesus Christ, but what do we
mean by that? Do we mean to say that
God's presence can be as real to us as our spouse, our children, our parents,
our friends? Or is it just a figure of
speech to make it clear that God is real, and that Christianity is more than
just a set of doctrines? How personal is
our God?
I.
Knowing about God Or Knowing God?
Brothers and sisters, friends,
seekers, let's take a moment this morning to step back and consider something
that is very basic to our understanding.
We were dealing with it last week toward the end of our study, when we
came to I Cor. 2. I would like to read
this chapter again this morning. You
will notice that I have listed it in the bulletin and suggested that we read it
a few times each week. Let me get us off
to good start this morning. I
Cor. 2:1-16...
And I,
brethren, when I came to you, did not come with excellence of speech or of
wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God. 2 For I determined not to know
anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. 3 I was with you in
weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. 4 And my speech and my preaching were
not with persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit
and of power, 5 that your faith should not be in the wisdom of men but in the
power of God. 6 However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not
the wisdom of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to
nothing. 7 But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the ages for our glory, 8 which none of the rulers of this
age knew; for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
9 But as it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into
the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love
Him." 10 But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the
Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows
the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no
one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received,
not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know
the things that have been freely given to us by God. 13 These things we also
speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit
teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14 But the natural man does
not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him;
nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 But he who is
spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For
"who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we
have the mind of Christ.
Here's the question I want to set
before us: "Is there a difference
between knowing about God and knowing God?" Of course, we all know the answer to that
question. "Yes, there is a big
difference." We know the answer in
our minds because we have heard it many times and even repeated it ourselves,
but do we really understand the difference at a personal level?
Do you know God? What did you and the Lord do together
yesterday? What did you say to Him? What did He say to you? Did you do anything for Him yesterday? For what things did you thank Him? Did you find any time this past week to just
get alone and enjoy Him? Were you
overwhelmed with the knowledge that He is your Father? Do you know God? Do those questions make you
uncomfortable? Do they sound a little
bit spooky to you? Do you think of God
in those kinds of personal terms?
Does this have anything to do with
the Holy Spirit? It has everything to do
with the Holy Spirit. As Almighty God
became personal through Jesus when He walked on the earth, He becomes personal
to us through His Spirit. The difference
between knowing about God and knowing God is defined by the presence and work
of His Holy Spirit. Come back again to I
Cor. 2:9-12...
But as
it is written: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart
of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him." 10 But
God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all
things, yes, the deep things of God. 11 For what man knows the things of a man
except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of
God except the Spirit of God. 12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the
world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have
been freely given to us by God.
Earlier we sang, "My Jesus, I
Love Thee." Love is a personal concept. We can love peanut butter, fishing, and even
noble ideas, but not in the same sense that we love a person. We don't just love the Jesus who is described
by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, but we love the Jesus who died, rose, and now
lives in us through His Spirit.
I serve a risen Savior;
He's in the world today.
I know that He is
living, whatever men may say.
I see His hand of mercy;
I hear His voice of cheer,
And just the time I need
Him He's always near.
He lives, He
lives, Christ Jesus lives today.
He walks
with me and talks with me along life's narrow way.
He lives, He
lives, salvation to impart.
You ask me
how I know He lives...
He lives
within my heart.
II.
Knowing God and the Word of God
This whole concept of whether we
know God or just know about Him also has a great deal to do with the Bible, a
fact to which I have already alluded.
Disciples of Jesus are students of the Bible. Why?
Because that is where we find the words of Jesus, the actions of Jesus,
and the very nature of our Lord. Praise God
that He went to so much trouble to leave us a black-and-white record of His
Son. Nevertheless, we are in danger of
substituting the written record for Jesus Himself. Jesus, the heaven-sent Messiah, cannot be
contained in a book, not even the Bible.
The Bible greatly aids us in knowing Jesus, but to know the Bible is not
to know the Son.
The goal of the follower of Jesus is
not to learn the Bible. To put it
another way, our goal is not to increase our knowledge. But shouldn't we long for more knowledge of
the Bible? Yes, but that is not our
goal. Knowing and understanding the
Bible is a means to an end, but it is not the end. The goal is to know Him, and that is not the
same as knowing the Bible. We know that
is true, because we know well that it is possible to have tremendous Bible
knowledge and not know the Lord Himself.
We can illustrate that from the
Bible times and from the present. The
Pharisees illustrate many truths well, and this is one of them. They had more Bible knowledge than anyone
else, but they did not know God. You
might say, "They knew God, but they didn't know Jesus." No, they didn't know God. If they had known the Father, they would have
recognized and received the Son. More
recently, consider Joe and Michelle Saladin.
The great majority of us know them, because they were with us until
months ago. Joe has much more Bible
knowledge than Michelle. When we met
them, there was absolutely no comparison; Joe knew ten times as much as
Michelle. Nevertheless, Michelle knew God
when Joe did not.
Think with me about the apostle
Paul. Was he a man who had biblical
knowledge? We can't really phrase the
question that way, because Paul didn't have the New Testament in his hands, he had
it in his possession. Paul was a great student
of the Old Testament, as he himself had been a Pharisee. But more than that, he had received the
glorious truths of the New Covenant from the Lord Himself. When he was defending his apostolic authority
to the Galatian believers, he made this statement (Gal. 1:15-18)...
But
when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb and called me
through His grace, 16 to reveal His Son in me, that I might preach Him among
the Gentiles, I did not immediately confer with flesh and blood, 17 nor did I
go up to Jerusalem to those who were apostles before me; but I went to Arabia,
and returned again to Damascus. 18 Then after three years I went up to
Jerusalem to see Peter, and remained with him fifteen days.
Though we are not told in certain
terms, it seems most likely that Paul spent most of those three years in the
Arabian desert. Rather than getting his
understanding of God's marvelous work through Christ from the other apostles,
he got it directly from God. And what an
understanding he had. We learn that from
letters such as Ephesians and Romans.
Has there ever been a man who understood more thoroughly the eternal
plan of God? Paul loved the truth of
God, taught the truth of God, and rested in that truth.
Now comes the question: Was that enough for Paul? Let me take us back to a passage we know very
well. One of the brothers read it for us
just two or three weeks ago. Let's read
it again from Phil. 3:3-14...
For we
are the circumcision, who worship God in the Spirit, rejoice in Christ Jesus,
and have no confidence in the flesh, 4 though I also might have confidence in
the flesh. If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more
so: 5 circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of
Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee; 6 concerning
zeal, persecuting the church; concerning the righteousness which is in the law,
blameless. 7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for
Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the
knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in
Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is
through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that
I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His
sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to
the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already attained, or am
already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ
Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have
apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and
reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal
for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
The man who possessed more divine
truth than anyone else was the man who had no equal when it came to longing to
know the Lord Jesus. Hear him, brothers
and sisters, "That I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and
the fellowship of His sufferings."
Don't miss that last phrase. Paul
was saying, "I just want to know Him.
Not only do I want to know His power, but I even want to share in His
sufferings." There is something
powerful about suffering together.
"Roger, (whose dad had a life-threatening stroke last week) you
have five brothers and sisters. You have
suffered together, as you have watched your dad in this helpless position. Has this suffering brought you
together?" Yes, suffering has a way
of doing that. Roger wouldn't have
chosen to suffer in this way, but he can testify that suffering together has
drawn them closer. Paul had such a
longing to know Jesus that He was willing to share in His sufferings as a means
to be closer to Him. Paul wasn't longing
to know more biblical truth; he was yearning to have more intimate fellowship
with his Lord.
III.
How Can We Know God More Intimately?
So I am asking us the question: Do you long to know God? Do you want to know Him on a personal level? Alex recently reminded us of a man who could say, "As I speak to you right now, I am far more conscious of the Lord's presence with me than I am of you being with me"? Do we want to know Him like that?
If that is our desire, how do we get
there? Our tendency is to take the bull
by the horns and make it happen.
"Well, I need to think of him more often. I am going to set my watch to alarm every
hour, and then I will think of Him every time I hear it." Or, "I am going to make it a point to
pray in the morning, and at noon, and in the evening, just like Daniel
did." Those are not bad things, but
such discipline can only take you so far.
When you truly love another person and love being with that person, you
don't have to set alarms. The desire
fills your heart. We can't create that
desire. God must do it, but surely we
have a part.
Please turn with me to John 17. Let's read John 17:1-5 (but skipping verse
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... 4 I have
glorified You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given Me to
do. 5 And now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory
which I had with You before the world was."
You may have noticed that in that
short passage Jesus used the words "glorify" and "glory"
five times. In verse 1 that glory is
centered in the cross. Jesus would
glorify the Father by being obedience unto the death which the Father had
planned for Him, even death on a cross.
In verse 4 He refers to the glory of that cross, as if it had already
been accomplished. Then in verse 5 He
speaks of the glory which He had with the Father before He came to earth and
which He prayed would soon be restored.
So both He and the Father would be glorified through His death, and then
the glory would be complete when He rose again and ascended back to the Father.
Did you notice anything else
interesting when I read that passage? I
skipped verse 3, where Jesus gives us a definition of eternal life. "And this is eternal life, that they may
know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent." I find it interesting that Jesus defines
eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son and that this little definition
of is right in the middle of His intense words about His death and
resurrection. If you want to know God
more intimately, focus on the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If you want to enlarge upon that
theme, consider the entire Upper Room Discourse, as found in John 14-17. All of these words are spoken shortly before
Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection, on the very eve of His death. And all through it, Jesus tells them how He
is about to leave them, but they can take heart because He is sending His
Spirit. We can't separate knowing the
Lord from an emphasis upon His death and resurrection.
Go back to that pivotal passage in
chapter 7. John 7:37-39...
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.
How those rivers need to flow, but
they could not flow until Jesus was glorified.
And how would He be glorified?
Jesus Himself tells us, just as we have read in John 17 -- through His
death and resurrection. Praise God that
Jesus has now been glorified. He has met
the divine condition. So what is our
part? To keep on thirsting for Him, keep
on coming to Him, keep on drinking from Him.
That is a great definition of what it means to believe on Him (verse
38), and it also spells out how we can know Him. But as we come to Him and drink from Him, we
must drink deeply of His death and resurrection. It is through His death and resurrection that
we are able to know Him, and it is through continuing in that same death and
resurrection that we grow in our acquaintance with Him. No wonder Paul said, "But God forbid
that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ" (Gal.
6:14).
Again, notice the role of the Holy
Spirit. We see it in verse
39, "For the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not
yet glorified." It is the Spirit
who is at the core of our thirsting, coming, and drinking from Jesus. Knowing the Lord and the work of the Spirit
are tied closely together by Jesus Himself.
We can know about God by utilizing
our minds and nothing more. Some of you
are probably Jeopardy fans. That game
show is a great demonstration of what the human mind can do. It is amazing that people can have command of
so much knowledge in so many areas. Now
if you narrow the subject matter down to nothing but the Bible, a sharp and
well-disciplined mind can take command of its subject matter. In other words, a person who has a deep
desire and willingness to work at it can learn what the Bible has to say. Such a vast store of biblical knowledge is
not necessarily a bad thing, but it does not translate into knowing God. You say, "Is it possible to really know
the Bible and not come to know God?"
Absolutely. No one knew the
teachings of Jesus better than Judas Iscariot, but he betrayed Jesus.
Conclusion
Come back again to I Corinthians
2. Notice
those last three verses... (I Cor. 2:14-16)
But the
natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are
foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. 15 But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is
rightly judged by no one. 16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that
he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.
We
looked at verse 14 last week, but now notice verse 16. Quoting from Isaiah 40, Paul asks a
rhetorical question: "Who has known
the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct Him?" The answer, of course, is, "No
one." No one can begin to know His
mind, much less give Him advice. But
then Paul follows it up with very surprising words, "But we have the mind
of Christ." He doesn't say that we
know the Lord's mind, but He says that we have His mind! How can that be? The answer is in the context of this
passage. No mere man, no natural man, no
man without the aid of the Spirit, can know the mind of the Lord. Why not?
Because only the Spirit knows the mind of the Lord (verse 11). But when the Spirit works in a man, he has
the mind of Christ. We like to think
that this is true of every Christian.
Perhaps you can say it is true potentially, but it requires the work of
the Spirit, just like the rivers of living water in John 7 requires the work of
the Spirit. The good news is that we who
belong to Christ have the Spirit, and He can work in our lives, making our
possession of the mind of Christ a reality.
Having the mind of Christ is not
important because it gives us great knowledge, not even great knowledge of the
Bible, though that is involved. When the
Spirit works and we have the mind of Christ, then we know the things that have
been freely given to us by God (vs. 12).
In short, we delight in knowing God, not just knowing about Him. Mental knowledge is subordinate to personal
acquaintance and even intimacy with our God.
Oh that we might know Him, and the
power of His resurrection, and a sharing in His sufferings, being made
conformable to His death!
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