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God Wants Us to Know Him
1 Chron 28:9
9And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
It was the desire of David that his son, Solomon, would know God. The only way Solomon would be able to serve God with a perfect heart and with a willing mind was to know him.
It is my strong desire that each one of you would know God in the same measure and with the same results. I don’t want us to wait until I finish preaching to seek him but could we reach out to him right now and seek him? He will be found of you! He will show himself to you! You can know him in these next few minutes in a very personal way…
GOD MUST ENLIGHTEN OUR EYES IN ORDER FOR US TO TRULY KNOW HIM AND THE THINGS OF GOD.
The highest knowledge possible to man is the knowledge of God. This cannot be gained by human reason alone. It is acquired only as God reveals Himself to man- whether it be in nature and conscience; in history or providence; in the Bible, or by preaching. It is possible, however to be acquainted with what the Bible says, and know where certain truths are found in the Bible, and yet not really know the Word.
Leading educators say there are 4 degrees of knowledge.
v First degree – ability to recognize certain facts, things, or ideas. For example, any one of us can identify the picture of President Clinton even though we never have met him. We may have seen our mother bake a cake; we saw the finished product, but we have never personally experienced the process.
v 2nd degree of knowledge is that of the ability to recall facts or info: a scripture, shopping list, certain identifying features of a person. Yet there is no knowledge by actual experience. You remember what is on the shopping list, but you haven’t yet taken the items from the shelves, pushed the shopping cart through the check-out area, and paid for the groceries.
v 3rd degree – able to explain the facts to others. Can tell why each item of groceries is on the list: “I am buying these eggs, flour, sugar, salt, vanilla, and powdered sugar because they are the ingredients I lack to make a cake.”
It is not until the person actually goes home and mixes the proper amount of each ingredient together, heats the oven to the correct temperature, bakes the cake, frosts it, and eats a piece, that he can say he has a full knowledge of the cake. That’s the 4th degree of knowledge: acting upon what a person is aware of and understands – becoming a participator in the experience.
· It is vitally important that each one of us know God for ourselves – that we go beyond merely knowing about God and accepting the facts of his existence, to experiencing him fully in the inner man. The Bible must become more than just a rule to live by; the word of Christ needs to dwell in us richly, and work in us mightily to conform us to the image of Christ by transforming our very nature.
· A poor self-image comes from a lack of achievement. A lack of achievement stems from failure to follow through with our good intentions. Those good intentions came because our emotions were stirred. Sure, our emotions do motivate us, but decisions made on the basis of emotions lack the foundation to enable us to follow through.
· You may hear a fiery message and be moved to pray more or become a soul winner, only to find yourself fall back into your previous pattern of unconcern and laziness. Having our emotions stirred is a part of the process of change, but there has to be more. You may be able to recognize, recall and even explain God to others, but he has got to become so much a part of your life that your actions show that you have truly come to know him.
THE HIGHEST FORM OF KNOWLEDGE IS TO KNOW CHRIST JESUS
Phil 3:8-11
THE DRIVING AND CONSUMMATE DESIRE OF PAUL WAS TO BE IN THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD WHEN THE LORD COMES TO RAPTURE HIS PEOPLE! HE DETERMINED THAT HE WOULD WIN CHRIST, EVEN THOUGH TO DO SO MEANT SUFFERING THE LOSS OF ALL THINGS. HE LONGED FOR “THE EXCELLENCY” OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF CHRIST.
· Even if all the wealth and honor that could be conceived of were his, he would be willing to renounce them in order that he might obtain the knowledge of Christ. He would be a gainer who should sacrifice everything in order to win Christ. Paul had not only acted on this principle when he became a believer, but had afterward continued to be ready to give up everything in order that he might win Christ.
· He held everything else to be worthless in comparison with that knowledge, and he was willing to sacrifice everything else in order to obtain it. He highly valued this knowledge.
· This apostle had not really known the God of his fathers, except in a limited way, before the time of his conversion to Christianity in Acts 9. Prior to his encounter with the risen Christ, he had diligently studied the scriptures, sitting at the feet of a learned instructor named Gamaliel. His knowledge of God had been sorely limited. He had been able to quote the scriptures and could quite possible even explain them to others, but his understanding of the will of God was flawed.
Acts 6 – seven men chosen by the church and appointed and prayed over by the apostles to serve the needs of certain widows. 1 of those men was Stephen, a man who was full of faith and of power and of the Holy Ghost. Great miracles and wonders were done by God through Stephen. Acts 7 is the manuscript of a sermon he preached in the audience of a high echelon of Jewish elders, scribes and Pharisees…
· Being full of the Holy Ghost, he saw the heavens open and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing on the right hand of God. Told what he saw. It infuriated the congregation. Cries of “blasphemy” went up from them. Tore off their outer garments and grabbed up stones to cast at him. Laid their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. By accepting the responsibility of guarding their clothes, Saul was consenting to Stephens death. He heard the prayer of the first martyr as his blood was being poured out from the sharp stones piercing his body. Stephen called upon God, saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”
· From that time, Saul made havoc of the church. Great persecution came to all the saints. Saul hunted down those who believed on Jesus, beat them, and committed them to prison. While on his way to a nearby city to get letters that would authorize him to persecute the church even more, something happened…
· Jesus Christ alone perfectly knows the Father, and reveals Him to man.
Matt 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.
This knowledge of God in Jesus Christ is “life eternal”.
John 17:2-3 As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
· [This is life eternal] This is the source of eternal life; or it is in this manner that it is to be obtained.
· Simply to have heard that God is one is not to know him. Simply to know that Jesus a Savior is not to know him. To have been taught in childhood and trained up in the belief of it is not to know it.
· THE APOSTLE JOHN SPOKE FOR ALL THE OTHER APOSTLES AND FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST IN HIS DAY WHEN HE SAID “THERE ARE SOME THINGS WE KNOW AND I AM WRITING THESE THINGS SO THAT YOU ALSO MAY KNOW THESE GREAT TRUTHS:.
1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; (FIRST OF ALL) that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.
1 John 5:18-20 “SECONDLY,” HE SAID, We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not.
19And (THIRDLY) we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness.
20And (FOURTHLY) we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
· This is the God Saul came in contact with on the road to Damascus. This is the God he immediately began to preach, as he convinced the Jews by proving from the scriptures that Jesus was indeed the Christ.
· Not only did it become the consuming passion of Paul to know Christ in ever increasing dimensions, he wanted everyone to have that knowledge of God.
Eph 3:19
[And to know the love of Christ] To know this; to feel this; to have a lively sense of it, is one of the highest privileges of the Christian. Nothing will so much excite gratitude in our hearts; nothing will prompt us so much to a life of self-denial; nothing will make us so benevolent and so dead to the world;
[Which passeth knowledge] There “seems” to be a slight contradiction here in expressing a wish to know what cannot be known, or in a desire that they should understand that which cannot be understood. But it is the language of a man whose heart was full to overflowing. He had a deep sense of the love of Christ, and he expressed a wish that they should understand it. Suddenly he has such an apprehension of it, that he says it is indeed infinite. No one can attain to a full view of it. It had no limit. It was unlike anything which had ever been evinced before. It was love which constrained Christ to become incarnate; to leave the heavens: to be a man of sorrows; to be reviled and persecuted; to be put to death in the most shameful manner-on a cross. The apostle desired that as far as possible everyone should understand that great love which the Lord Jesus had manifested for a dying world.
[That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God] What an expression! How rich and glorious!
· They were to be “full of God.” One commentary says it means “that you may have the richest measures of divine consolation and of the divine presence; that you may partake of the entire enjoyment of God in the most ample measure in which he bestows his favors on his people.”
· It was to be with “all” the fulness of God; not with partial and stinted measures of his gracious presence, but with “all” which he ever bestows.
· This kind of fulness is spiritual, elevating, pure, and Godlike. We dwell with God; walk with God; live with God; commune with God; are like God.
Eph 5:18 And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;
· All intoxication is prohibited in the Scriptures-no matter by what means it is produced. There is, in fact, but one thing that produces intoxication. It is “alcohol”-the poisonous substance produced by fermentation. This substance is neither created nor changed, increased nor diminished, by distillation. It exists in the cider, the beer, and the wine, after they are fermented, and the whole process of distillation consists in driving it off by heat, and collecting it in a concentrated form, and so that it may be preserved.
· Wherein is excess. It occurs only in two other places in the New Testament, where it is rendered “riot.” It means that which is unsafe, not to be recovered; lost beyond recovery; then that which is abandoned to sensuality and lust; dissoluteness, debauchery, revelry.
· Drunkenness is a sin that seldom goes alone, but often involves men in other instances of guilt: it is a sin very provoking to God, because it evokes a false sense of joy, strength and courage that is not only short-lived, but alcoholic substances are harmful to our bodies and to our minds.
· Instead of being filled with wine, you need to be filled with the Spirit. Seek for a plentiful measure of the graces of the Spirit, that would fill your souls with great joy, strength, and courage, which things sensual men expect their wine should inspire them with. We cannot be guilty of any excess in our endeavors after these. We ought not to be satisfied with a little of the Spirit, but to be to be filled with the Spirit. It is by this means we shall come to understand what the will of the Lord is; for the Spirit of God is given as a Spirit of wisdom and of understanding.
· Be filled with the Spirit is best clarified as: Keep on being filled; be continuously filled with the Spirit
AS WE INCREASE IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD, HE FILLS US WITH THE KNOWLEDGE OF HIS WILL
Col 1:9-10 For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of his will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding;10That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God;
IT IS THE WILL OF GOD THAT EVERYONE COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH.
1 Tim 2:1-6
JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS SENT AS A FORERUNNER OF THE LORD TO GIVE KNOWLEDGE OF SALVATION
Luke 1:76-77 And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest: for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
77To give knowledge of salvation unto his people (HOW?) by the remission of their sins,
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH COMES TO THOSE WHO HEAR THE GOSPEL AND ACT UPON IT. JESUS MADE IT PLAIN THAT WE MUST DO MORE THAN BELIEVE ON HIM.
John 8:31-32 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free
HOW DID JOHN REMIT THE SINS OF GOD’S PEOPLE?
Luke 3:3-6
PEOPLE SAW (PERCEIVED, UNDERSTOOD) SALVATION ONLY WHEN THEY GOT INVOLVED IN THE TRUTH BY CONFESSING THEIR SINS AND BY SUBMITTING THEMSELVES TO BE BAPTIZED.
MARK 1:5 SAYS:
5And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins.
SOME ARE NEVER ABLE TO COME TO THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUTH
2 Tim 3:1-8 7Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. WHY NOT?8Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO KNOW THE TRUTH BECAUSE THEY RESIST IT. WHY DO THEY RESIST TRUTH? BECAUSE THEIR MINDS HAVE BEEN CORRUPTED AND THEY HAVE BECOME REPROBATES. HOW DID THEIR MINDS GET CORRUPTED SO THAT THEY BECAME REPROBATES CONCERNING THE FAITH? THE ANSWER IS REVEALED IN ROMANS 1.
· They held the truth in unrighteousness. They had known God, but did not glorify him as God, neither were they thankful. Eventually, God gave them up to uncleanness. They were corrupted; their hearts were darkened.
28And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient;
· God wants you to know him, and he wants you to retain that knowledge through all of life. There is no other way to live!
