"Knowing God"

Scriptural Text: Jeremiah 9:23-24

“KNOWING GOD”

In a splendid sermon (Pulpit Digest‚ March–April 1983), Lewis A. Drummond of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary said: “When everything else is over and said and done, only one thing ultimately matters: Do you know God? Can you face eternity with Him?”

And what does it mean to know God in such times?

Knowing God Through Trusting in His Sovereignty (Ps 46:10, Hab 2:14)

Be still, and know that I am God;

I will be exalted among the nations,

I will be exalted in the earth. (Ps 46:10)

For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord,

as the waters cover the sea. (Hab 2:14)

What could possibly be better than wisdom, power, and wealth? Jeremiah answered the question. “Let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me” (v. 24).

That is not just knowing about God; that means knowing God.

Pain and rejection and failure was forced upon Jeremiah, but there were one central pleasure in his life, he had an intimacy with God.

When he was doing what he was commissioned and designed to do, Jeremiah felt the pleasure of God. “Blessed is he who mourns for he shall be comforted” (Matt. 5:4)."

“Conviction must of necessity precede conversion, a real sense of sin must come before there can be a true joy of salvation …. Those who are going to be converted and who wish to be truly happy and blessed are those who first of all mourn.” (Commentary)

As was given to you, Jeremiah the mourner:

“To mourn is to care deeply, to know godly sorrow for sin, to be deeply concerned about the evil in the world and to know the meaning of suffering because of the sin, injustice, and perversion in society.”

Jeremiah knows God, and God Knows him.

Christ knowing God (John 10:15; John 7:29; John 8:55; Matt. 11:27; Luke 10:22; John 17:25)

John 10:15 (ESV) 15just as the Father knows me and I know the Father; and I lay down my life for the sheep.

John 7:29 (ESV) 29I know him, for I come from him, and he sent me.”

John 8:55 (ESV) 55But you have not known him. I know him. If I were to say that I do not know him, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and I keep his word.

Matthew 11:27 (ESV) 27All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Luke 10:22 (ESV) 22All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.”

John 17:25 (ESV) 25O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.

How Do You Know That You Know God? (1 John 2:3-6, Ps 25:14)

Knowing God is simply a dimension of living.

We want to be sure. We want to know that we know God. Can we have that assurance? Yes,

1 John 2:3–6 (ESV) 3And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. 4Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, 5but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: 6whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Psalm 25:14 (ESV) 14The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.

Point:The psalmist and Jesus together make the point very clear: intimacy with God flows from reverence and obedience toward him. As he makes himself known to us, we assuredly come to know him. (Hosea 6:3, John 17:3, Gal 4:9, Philippians 3:8–11)

Hosea 6:3 (ESV) 3Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.”

John 17:3 (ESV) 3And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

Galatians 4:9 (ESV) 9But now that you have come to know God, or rather to be known by God, how can you turn back again to the weak and worthless elementary principles of the world, whose slaves you want to be once more?

Philippians 3:8–11 (ESV) 8Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

9and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—

10that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death,

11that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.

It takes all time and eternity to know God. (Oswald Chambers)

No one can know God who has not first known himself. Go to the depths of the soul, the secret place of the Most High, to the roots, to the heights; for all that God can do is focused there. (Meister Eckhart)