Please open your Bibles with me this morning to Jeremiah chapter 9. Jeremiah chapter 9 is where we’re going to be this morning, looking at two specific verses here.

As Jason said already, Andrew is away this morning preaching at a winter retreat for a friend of ours in Georgia. And so he has left me with the great task to be able to preach to you. It’s always an encouraging thing. It’s always a joyful thing. It’s always a terrible, dreadful thing, as well. I am especially struck by that reality this morning as we talk about the concept of knowing God.

I think, even as we talk about knowing God (knowing the Lord), we are tempted to have small thoughts about Him. We may be even tempted to think, well, I think I already know God. I think I already know the Lord, and yet there are some more things I can learn from the Bible; but I think I got a pretty good handle on the Lord. And it’s exactly when we make those kinds of statements that we find ourselves to be in a terribly dangerous place. And as 2018 is in full swing (now the 14^th day of the brand new year), I want to set our minds on THE greatest pursuit, (not only for this year) but for all of our lives. What’s the one thing that (if you could only do one thing), you should be doing in this life? It’s knowing God.

So as we think about that concept, I want to read these verses to you; and then we’ll work through them together. We’ll set up the context and do those sorts of things. My main burden is certainly to explain these verses. But I must confess to you, my main burden really is to give us an opportunity to meditate on these verses and then to apply these verses as well. I want simply to hold up this idea and get your eyes on God, and who he is and how he has worked throughout history, because that is what we are here for, is it not?

And so, in Jeremiah chapter 9 we read these two verses, verses 23-24:

Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.”

A couple of months ago now, my wife and I stood up here at the baptismal with a group of other Christians as well; and we were baptized (which may have come as a shock to some of you—why is an elder being baptized?). We realized that the point that we thought when we became Christians, the point where we thought we were born again as children was not actually true. We realized that we thought that we had known God in a saving and intimate way. But the reality is, we had not known God until well into our twenties.

We came to a point (both of us actually) around the same time before we even knew each other in the Lord’s providence, where we realized that what we were saying we believed; and who we were saying we worshipped did not actually match up with the way we were living our lives. And so God, in his infinite kindness and graciousness toward us, began to peel back the layers of sin in our lives.

We both came to a point where we understood that we had really thought more of God as someone who is supposed to help us to live the life that we wanted to live, instead of someone that we were supposed to submit to and surrender to (if we wanted any chance to live at all). And so, God worked that incredible saving work of new birth and regeneration in our hearts.   For me, that began a process that now has led me here to pastoral ministry.

I was in a church that my family had been in for generations. I just got out of the army and had been studying the word of God, and that’s what he used to convict me and to cause me to be born again. So I had a strong burden from the very beginning of my conversion that people who said that they knew God did not actually know God.

So my new life, then, was built on the fact I had better know God, if that’s what I claimed. And then I deeply wanted others to know God, as well. I had an unshakable burden to know God myself and then to see others come to know him, as well. So, I began teaching the Bible and leading prayer groups and trying to do the best that I could with the limited knowledge that I had. It turns out that I’m not alone in that concern and in that desire: the concern that far too many people do not really know the Lord.

In his book, The Knowledge of the Holy (first published in 1961), A.W. Tozer laments this low view of God and a lack of recognizing God’s majesty. He says: “The low view of God, entertained almost universally among Christians, is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. Certainly, we know that the world does not know God. How tragic is it when the Church does not know God!”

Tozer wasn’t alone in that. Just twelve year later, J. I. Packer would publish his amazing work called Knowing God. And, by the way, if you have never read either of these books, please put them on your 2018 reading list.

Packer’s entire ministry was built on the fact that, as he surveyed the Christian landscape, he saw numerous people who said that they knew God but did not really truly know God. They had high thoughts of themselves and very low thoughts of God. He writes, “The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God—ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with him—lies at the root of much of the Church’s weakness today.”

After Packer (or really around the same time there but coming into the light more) was R.C. Sproul who recently (a few weeks ago) went to be with the Lord. His ministry also was built on an overwhelming burden that people did not really know God. In a 2014 Ligonier National Conference (Ligonier Ministries is the ministry that he birthed, and that goes strong today even in his absence), there was a group of panels. And, in fact, if you want to look it up, it’s “Question & Answer Session II” in the 2014 National Conference.

There is a panel laid out of all the speakers there and they field questions from the audience. The first question is something like, what do you see is the worst or biggest problem that the church faces today? And one-by-one they went down the row, and R.C. Sproul was sitting on the very end there. They all gave very profound and very excellent answers. Then it comes to R.C. Sproul and he gives his answer.

Then, he summarizes his answer, which is always helpful when your answer goes a little longer than you had wanted it to, maybe; wrap it back up and summarize it with bullet points. R.C. Sproul says, the first problem, the very first problem, the most significant and dreadful problem that the Church has today, is that we do not know God! And he said the second problem then, is that we do not know the gospel because we do not know God!

You hear it on the radio waves. You read it in books in the Christian book store. The message of “me” has invaded the Church. God is supposed to help me. Do you want a better life?   Well then, come to Jesus. Jesus says we must die to self. Me has to take a back seat, because when I get to know the real me, there is nothing good in me. And yet, even so, God comes to get me.

The Q&A went on. There was a question later asked in the panel, and you could tell that R.C. Sproul was a little bit fired up. Maybe he was fired up already, but he was certainly fired up by this question. The question was asked, since God is slow to anger and patient, then why (when man first sinned) was his wrath and punishment so severe and long lasting? We hear that question, and we might say, well, that’s a good question; I kind of wondered that.

R.C. Sproul had something else to say about that. He called a time out, literally. He says: “Time out, time out, time out; didn’t we just have this question?” And he proceeds to dissect the question. He says:

This creature from the dirt had the audacity to defy the Almighty God; and instead of dying instantly, he was clothed with grace; and he was given a promise of redemption. And the worst of the curse didn’t fall on mankind but fell on the serpent, the one who deceived the woman. And we’re asking, why was his punishment so severe?

And then he yells, “What’s wrong with you people?!” (laughter) And they did that (laughed), and he doubled down. He said, “I’m serious. What’s wrong with you people?!” And there was a hush that fell over the crowd. He says, “This is the problem with the Church today.” [This is in 2014.] He says, “This is the problem with the Church today–we don’t know God!”

Brothers and sisters, you might find yourselves tempted to think that you have a good handle on God. And I want to acknowledge that, if you are in Christ, you know God in a saving way; and nothing will ever separate that. Praise God! But I want you to also know that you can know God and yet still have a whole bunch of categories where you don’t really know God.

The failure to know God really is not a modern problem. It actually traces its origins all the way back to Genesis 3. But for our purposes, we’re going to see its origins from Jeremiah 9. You’re already there, so let’s walk through the context of this passage together. Where do these two verses fit into? They sound like great verses. Maybe you even have a mug at home with these verses on them, and that would be appropriate. But maybe you don’t really understand where these verses fit into the revelation of God’s word. Let’s just start in chapter 9, verse 1. It says:

Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh that I had in the desert a travelers’ lodging place, that I might leave my people and go away from them! For they are all adulterers, a company of treacherous men. They bend their tongue like a bow; falsehood and not truth has grown strong in the land; for they proceed from evil to evil, and they do not know me, declares the LORD. Let everyone beware of his neighbor, and put no trust in any brother, for every brother is a deceiver, and every neighbor goes about as a slanderer. Everyone deceives his neighbor, and no one speaks the truth; they have taught their tongue to speak lies; they weary themselves committing iniquity. Heaping oppression upon oppression, and deceit upon deceit, they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.

And so, from the very beginning, we need to understand that these two verses (verses 23 and 24) fall not in a context of happiness in the land of Judah but fall in a context of extreme wickedness. You name it—they did it—rebellion against God, false preaching, worshipping idols, sacrificing their children by burning them to a god called Moloch. Even the priests in Jeremiah’s day did not know God. It was an awful, awful situation.

And so, what happens when there is a failure to know God in any way, shape, or form? What happens in that case? Sin. Why does sin happen? Sin happens because there is a failure to know God. Why was this scene in Judah so awful and so terrible? The Lord tells us in verses 3 and 6: “[T]hey do not know me, declares the LORD; they refuse to know me, declares the LORD.”

Hosea grabs this idea in Hosea 4:1-2: “Hear the word of the LORD, O children of Israel, for the LORD has a controversy with the inhabitants of the land. There is no faithfulness or steadfast love, and no knowledge of God in the land.”

What happens when there is no knowledge of God in the land? Verse 2: “[T]here is swearing, lying, murder, stealing, and committing adultery; they break all bounds, and bloodshed follows bloodshed.” A failure to know God will always, always result in sin against God.

We read on in our context (Jeremiah 9), and we discover from verses 7-16 that God is not going to take this lightly. He has been patient. He has been forbearing. He has given them opportunities to repent. In fact, there have been small little pockets of faithfulness that have popped up, but they always went back to their idolatry—always went back to the false god. They always went back to the things that they could see that offered a false hope just because you could see it, instead of fixing their eyes on the things they could not see and trusting in the promises of God.

Verses 7-16:

Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts: “Behold, I will refine them and test them, for what else can I do, because of my people? Their tongue is a deadly arrow; it speaks deceitfully; with his mouth each speaks peace to his neighbor, but in his heart he plans an ambush for him. Shall I not punish them for these things? declares the LORD, and shall I not avenge myself on a nation such as this? I will take up weeping and wailing for the mountains, and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness, because they are laid waste so that no one passes through, and the lowing of cattle is not heard; both the birds of the air and the beasts have fled and are gone. I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a lair of jackals, and I will make the cities of Judah a desolation, without inhabitant.” Who is the man so wise that he can understand this? To whom has the mouth of the LORD spoken, that he may declare it? Why is the land ruined and laid waste like a wilderness, so that no one passes through? And the LORD says: “Because they have forsaken my law that I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice or walked in accord with it, but have stubbornly followed their own hearts …

[Isn’t that the message of the world? Follow your own heart.]

… and have gone after the Baals, as their fathers taught them. Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: Behold I will feed this people with bitter food, and give them poisonous water to drink. I will scatter them among the nations whom neither they nor their fathers have known, and I will send the sword after them, until I have consumed them.

What is Jeremiah writing of? What is God speaking of? He is speaking of the Babylonian captivity, the time when God’s patience would run out with his people, and he would send a far more wicked nation, Babylon, to conquer this nation of Judah and to destroy Jerusalem: to level the temple, to massacre thousands upon thousands and then to take the rest into captivity with them … so that Jerusalem would be like a wasted place.

In verses 17-20 then, God tells the people of Judah, “come and call the professional mourners.” In those days you would pay people to come to your funeral, or come to a sad occasion. They were professional mourners; they were the best at crying, apparently. And so, he has this section where he tells them to call the professional mourners; have their women come teach their daughters to cry.

Then he finishes that section. Right before our two verses of focus (verses 23 and 24), comes verses 21 and 22. Why should they cry? Why should they lament? For death has come up into our windows. Do you see the word-picture there? Death has come up into our windows. Like a thief in the night opens your window while you’re sleeping and climbs in without you knowing. You’re asleep. You have no idea what’s happening, and death comes into your home and invades your home.

It has entered our palaces, cutting off the children from the streets [there are no more children playing on the streets because they’re dead] and the young men from the squares. [There are no more young men hanging out in the squares because they’re dead.] Speak, “Thus declares the LORD: ‘The dead bodies of men shall fall like dung upon the open field, like sheaves after the reaper, and none shall gather them.’”

Do you see the bleak and dark and utterly awful passage and context we come to this morning? It’s in that context that we read what we are not supposed to boast about, and what we are, in fact, supposed to boast about. These people had trusted in the wrong things; therefore, God’s punishment was about to come upon them, which would leave them in a situation described in verse 22–bodies strewn everywhere, like (excuse the phrase, but God uses it) dung upon a field.

Do you know God? Do you know this God? Do you find yourself ever saying things like: well, I like to imagine God to be this way? Or, when you read passages like this one: “bodies like dung in a field” because God had sentenced them to death, do you explain that away by saying, well, that’s not my God! I can’t believe in a God who would do that! Sadly, that’s a popular idea right now amongst many famous Christians: I couldn’t believe in a God that would kill his own son? Well then friend, you don’t believe in the God.

Does this make you sweat under the collar a little bit? If an unbelieving friend or family member came to you and said: Hey, I’m having trouble with a passage in the Bible—it’s Jeremiah, chapter 9, verse 22. It talks about dead bodies being strewn on the field like dung. Can you explain that to me?

Let me ask you, brothers & sisters: in that moment would you honor the God of the Scriptures or would you fail to know God? Would you paint the reality that is there, or would you try to dumb it down a little bit, because, after all, we don’t want to offend anybody? Would you explain to them that that is exactly what mankind deserves? Would you explain to them that the breath that had just entered into their lungs is a gift from the Almighty Creator?

He has given it to them. He has given them time, and he has given to them patience. He has given them an opportunity through the preaching of the gospel to respond to him so that instead of death, they can have life. Or would you say, well, that’s just the Old Testament. That was just Judah; they were really, really bad; but today, Christians are pretty good over all.

It turns out that a failure to know God is not just a problem that exists today. It’s not just a problem that existed in the 1960s. It’s a problem that has existed ever since sin has come into this world. And so, how does God address this problem? That’s what we want to look at this morning.

Now that we have a good understanding of our context, I want to focus us in on two particular points for us this morning. As I said, I want to explain these, but mostly I want us to meditate on these. I want these to have the impact on our lives that they should have. And then I want to help us to apply them and think how to walk away from here after we have heard God’s word together.

1.  Life’s Empty Aims

So the first thing that I want us to look at, we find in verse 23. We’ll call it “Life’s Empty Aims.” Verse 23: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches.’”

So, the things that Judah had boasted in, the things that they had found their confidence in, and the things that made them feel worth and value, God is telling them, do not boast in those things. And even as we think back to the situation that Judah found themselves to be in, the reality is, the situation is very similar today, isn’t it?

Do we not find boasting in our world in things like wisdom and might, in riches? Do we not keep a list of the world’s most wealthy people? Are there not competitions called Strong Man competitions? Do we not value education and give out certificates that say, this person’s pretty smart? (They don’t actually say that, but you know what I mean.) Isn’t this the world’s system: to boast in things that strictly are of the world–things like wisdom and might and riches? What had Judah done? They had let the world system creep into their way of living, and I wonder if we might find the very same thing as we analyze the Church.

Certainly, we can think about the Church as a big picture: the universal Church. But I think it is most helpful for us to think about what’s right here in this auditorium this morning. Let’s not keep it out there. Let’s bring it in here. This is not a sermon to think: O yeah, so-and-so needs to hear this. This is a sermon to say: God, I need to hear this.

They had boasted in life’s empty aims. Nothing that they valued was actually of any real value. They hold up wisdom as though it were the thing to be attained in life. And yet, remember the example of Solomon? Apart from Jesus Christ the God-man, Solomon was the wisest man to ever live. He had one thing to ask of the Lord, and he asked for wisdom. And God gave him that wisdom. And what did he do with that wisdom?

Well, at first he started off pretty good. But eventually he realized if he could just make some treaties with other countries by marrying their women and accruing for himself multiple wives, then maybe that would be a good thing for the nation; you know, we need to think about the nation. The problem was then those wives—well, first of all that’s a problem. But the problem was then those wives drew his heart away from YAHWEH—and he began to worship other gods.

Solomon set himself to think about the meaning of life in the book of Ecclesiastes. In Ecclesiastes 1:16-18, he says this:

 I said in my heart, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me, and my heart has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.”

 [In other words, I’m the smartest guy alive.]

And I applied my heart to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind. For in much wisdom is much vexation, and he who increased knowledge increases sorrow.

That’s why every once in a while, you might find yourself needing to take a break from the news, from the drama in Hollywood to the drama from Washington D.C. and in everywhere else. Sometimes it’s just too much. I gotta turn it off, because with much wisdom comes much vexation. And so, what is the end of the matter? How does Solomon resolve all of these things that he finds to be vain and empty: just like chasing the wind, a pursuit that will never work out for you? It says in chapter 12:13-14: “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every deed into judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil.”

So Solomon, the wisest man alive, sets himself out to study multiple things, including wisdom; and he finds (here’s the point) … fear God. Live for God. If you want wisdom without God, you are pursuing a vain pursuit. It’s empty. It’s meaningless. It’s nothing, and it will never satisfy. It is, in fact, empty.

But then, of course, there’s might. If wisdom doesn’t meet the standard, then maybe might will. Maybe strength will accomplish that. After all, power is the name of the game, right? The Lord says, “Let not the mighty man boast in his might.” You might be mighty, but is there any room for boasting in that?

Think of the example of Goliath. Perhaps that’s the ultimate example that there is no room for boasting in might. Goliath was a mighty man, was he not? The entire army of Israel, including King Saul (who was not a small guy), was deathly afraid of him. Day after day, he would go out and taunt the armies of Israel in taunting their God. And day after day, no one stepped up to the plate to fight him.

Except one day, this teenager (who was not even yet old enough to serve in the army), went on a mission from his father to take food to his brothers. He overhears this blasphemer taunting the armies of the Lord; and he says, who is this, and why are you putting up with this? I’ll fight him! How did that end up for Goliath? Well, first he laughed. He was pretty excited to be fighting a (maybe between thirteen- to sixteen-year-old) boy.

David says: hey, listen, God’s helped me kill bears; he’s helped me kill lions. He’ll certainly help me kill you, you uncircumcised Philistine—you mocker of God! Certainly, Goliath didn’t believe it, until that stone hit him in the head. I suppose he didn’t believe it then, because he fell down dead, and then his head was no longer attached.

How did might work out for Goliath? How did might work out for Muhammad Ali? “I’m the greatest! … Float like a butterfly and sting like a bee!” And he did, didn’t he? Probably, arguably, the best boxer to ever live. But how did that work out for him? Think of the picture of him struggling with all his might to light the Olympic torch at the Atlanta games.

You’ll find no joy; you’ll find no contentment; you’ll find no peace in wisdom. You’ll not find it in might. But what about riches? After all, we are a capitalistic nation, right? Riches, money—money is the name of the game—money talks, right? “Let not the rich man boast in his riches.”

Perhaps the example of this would come to us from the Lord Jesus himself, from Luke, chapter 12, where he talks about the parable of the rich fool–the man who kinda sat back on life and said, hey, I’ve got a lot of stuff here. In fact, I’ve gotten so much stuff, I need to tear down my old barns. I need to build new, bigger barns so that I can fit all my stuff in it. And once my stuff’s in it, then I’ll just relax and hang out. It was his retirement plan. Once my stuff’s all gathered up, I can live high-on-the-hog for a while. I’m just going to relax and just live for me. I’ve given a lot already. I’m just going to live for me now.

Jesus says in Luke 12:20: “But God said to him, Fool! This night your soul is required of you, and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?” In other words, you’ve never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul. “So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich toward God.”

So we come to understand there is no room for boasting; there is no joy; there is no satisfaction in things that the world offers to you: wisdom, might or riches. But notice what the text does not say. Sometimes that’s a helpful way to study your Bible. Write down the things that it does not actually say. What does it not say?

It doesn’t say, let the wise man not have wisdom; or let the mighty man not have might; or let the rich man not have riches. It just says, don’t boast in those things. Is it wrong to have those things? No, it’s not wrong to have those things. Well, then, what is wrong? The problem is when you have those things and don’t realize that those things have been given to you as a gift. And by its nature, every gift has a giver, right? The gift just doesn’t pop up out of thin air. Someone has to give it to you. Well, who has given that to you? It turns out, the one who made you.

So, it’s not wrong to have those things; it’s wrong to boast in those things. It’s wrong to have confidence in those things. It's wrong to think that those things are what make you have worth. It turns out your net worth really isn’t all that important in God’s eyes. He says, listen, when you were born, you were just a lump of skin and a little bit of hair. And when you die, you’re just gonna return to the ground. And they might dress your body up in a fancy suit or a fancy dress, or something like that; but your skin’s just gonna turn right back into the dirt that it was made from. And you’ll take nothing with you.

So, it’s not that those things are wrong inherently, but it’s that they are wrong detached from the one who has given them to you. And so, life has certainly some empty aims. Anything that this life would offer us apart from God is an empty aim. But then, secondly, let’s look at “Life’s Greatest Goal.”

2.  Life’s Greatest Goal

Verse 24: “[B]ut let him who boasts boast in this.” First of all, notice that God says there is something to boast about. It is okay to brag; you just have to brag about the right thing. “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me”—two synonyms for essentially the same idea. We could parse this out and talk about what it means to understand God, and then parse it out and talk about what it means to know God. But God is presenting both of those ideas to summarize one big idea, and that is the best thing that you could ever do—is to know God. What is life’s greatest goal? … to know God.

Hosea 6:6 says: “For I desire steadfast love and not sacrifice, the knowledge of God rather than burnt offerings.” One of my big concerns with what I see in the Christian world today in running too quickly to practical application of the Scriptures, is that we run to application before we actually understand the one whom we’re trying to live for.

So we read our Bibles or we pick up books or we listen to sermons; and we go, okay, give me something good; give me something for life; put some handles on it; let me take it home with me. Well, hold on. You need to know God first. Before anything can ever be applied to you, you need to understand who God is. And so, I think it comes from a good desire; we want to live for God. And so, we want to know the things to do in order to live for God; but the problem is, we’re not getting to know the God who we are trying to live for.

Here’s the reality. As you grow as a mature Christian, you’re going to be able to practically apply the word of God right to your own life. And you’ll be able to pass up those books on the bookshelf, maybe. (I have a whole stack of them.) As you grow in the wisdom and understanding and knowledge of the Lord, guess who helps you? The Holy Spirit, the God who lives inside of you, the one who has sealed you for the day of redemption: He is your teacher. He will guide you and help you to apply the word of God to your life.

The greatest goal of life is to know God. J. I. Packer, from his book, Knowing God, said:

Once you become aware that the main business that you are here for is to know God, most of life’s problems fall into place of their own accord. What makes life worthwhile is having a big enough objective: something which catches our imagination and lays hold of our allegiance. And this the Christian has in a way that no other person has. For what higher, more exalted, and more compelling goal can there be than to know God?

He’s right, isn’t he? He’s just getting his material from the Bible. Let the one who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me.

What does it mean, then, to know God? We’ve been talking a lot about that concept. What does it mean, then, to know God? Well, sometimes it’s helpful to know what it does not mean. It does not mean to simply know about God. James 2:19 tells us even the demons know about God and they have the sense enough to shudder. We don’t always have that sense, do we? It’s not enough to know about God.

Knowing God doesn’t mean to know about God. It doesn’t mean to accumulate a fact book in your head so that you can pass the almighty quiz when you get to heaven. (Here’s a little inside tip … there’s no quiz.)   It doesn’t mean to know about God. Instead, to know God is to be brought into a relationship with Him.

That’s what it means, to be brought into a relationship with him: to know God, to be able to say, I don’t just know about him, I know him. I’ve seen him work in my life. I’ve tried him and tested him, and seen that he is good. I’ve built my life upon his promises, and I’ve seen time after time he is faithful to them. I’ve seen that he never fails. Even though this life will fail me—my flesh will fail me, my pursuits will fail me, my income will fail me, everything in this life will fail me—God has never failed me.

To know God is to be brought into a relationship with him. You know, when somebody asks you: I was talking to so-and-so yesterday. Do you know so-and-so? And you say: well, I know of him, but I don’t know him. It’s not what we’re talking about here: not knowing of him. We’re talking about knowing him. To know God is to be brought into a relationship with God.

There’s a problem that exists, however, with that interaction—to be brought into a relationship with God. That problem is called my sin. Every one of us has that problem. It’s an epidemic that has swept the entire creation. Sin. And sin keeps us from knowing God. Isaiah 59:2: “But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” So, if the greatest goal in life, if the greatest thing to pursue in life is to know God, but my sin has separated me from God, how in the world am I supposed to know him?

I have to understand that I can’t naturally know him. Something has to happen. What has to happen? God has to reveal himself to me. I can’t go to him in order to know him, because my sin has separated me from him. So, the one that I have offended has to step in toward me to initiate something, an interaction, a relationship with me. And glory to God, he has done exactly that!

If that problem of separation exists: if God is up there and I am down here and there is no ladder that reaches me up to him, what am I supposed to do? I’m hopeless without him. What am I supposed to do?

The good news is that God has come to us. The only way to know the one who is both at the same time knowable and unknowable is if he comes to us and reveals himself to us. How has he done that? Through his word: through the word written down and most especially, through the Word made flesh. In other words, to say it more simply, he reveals himself through the Bible and through the Lord, Jesus Christ. That’s exactly how God has revealed himself to us.

How can I know anything about God? Well, it’s not sitting around and using my imagination. Every morning I wake up and I open this [Bible] and I read it and I devour it and I say: “God, I just want to know you. Teach me who you are.” I understand that here [in the Bible], this is exactly what he does. God reveals himself in his word and he reveals himself most especially, in his Son, the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We’ve been studying the Gospel of John, so let me give you a couple quotations from the Gospel of John that talk about this. John 1:18: “No one has ever seen God”. So the people that say they went somewhere and saw God, apparently they are making God a liar. “No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he [Jesus] has made him known.”

John 12:44-45: “And Jesus cried out and said, ‘Whoever believes in me, believes not in me but in him who sent me. And whoever sees me sees him who sent me.’”   John 14:6(b): “No one comes to the Father except through me.” And then in verse 9(b): “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.”  So how do you know God? You must know God through his Son. You must know God the way that God says you must know him. You can’t invent your own way to know God. God shows himself through his word: the word written down and the Word made flesh. Those are the only ways that we can know God.

And so then, I must pursue God on God’s terms, not on mine. I do not have the audacity to think that I can pursue God in my own personal way. Perish the thought and woe to the person who does! I must pursue God through his word and through his Son. That’s how I know God.

And so, right now I just need to say: if you realize it, if the Holy Spirit has convicted you and you realize that you do not know God, friend, come to Jesus now. Come to Jesus now! He stands waiting to embrace you. Repent of your sin and turn to him in faith. Place your trust in him. Acknowledge that he is the only way that you could ever know God. He is the only way that you could ever have life and come to him. God wants you to know him. It’s just that you don’t get to decide how that happens. Come to Jesus now.

The verse continues, and we’ll move through these a little bit more quickly. “Let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” To know God is to know God’s attributes. To know God is to know God’s attributes. And then to see those traced out throughout all history in Scripture, and then traced out in your own history as well.

To see and know God’s steadfast love … to see and know God’s justice that he will not let any sinner go unpunished. And he will not let any righteous person receive a punishment that they do not deserve. And you might say, well, this life has thrown quite a bit at me. And I would say, if you are not in hell right now, then you are getting far more than you deserve. That breath that you just took into your lungs right now, that’s God’s. And you don’t deserve it because you’ve rebelled against him. And yet, you just took another one, didn’t you?

His steadfast love, his mercy, his goodness, is revealed to us everywhere. He delights in those things. So that is to say that God is this picture of steadfast love and justice and righteousness. And he fully expects his people, who say they know him, to live out the very same principles that he lives by. So if you know God, guess what happens in your life? You get more and more godly. John talks about the opposite of this effect in I John 2:4-6:

Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him; whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked.

Do you know God? Well then, if you do, God is at work in you to produce his character; to make you more and more like the Lord, Jesus Christ. So if you look at your life and go: well, I really don’t see a whole lot of that. I don’t really see a whole lot of steadfast love and justice and righteousness. When I watch the show that I watch, I kinda find myself rooting for the one who wants to cheat in some particular way and stick it to the man. If you know God, God will be at work in you to produce his character. Will you nail it? No. You’ll fall flat on your face time and time again. But you’ll understand the only safe place to run when you do that is back to him.

And so, I want to finish our time with four points of application as we think about this concept of knowing God and living for God. The first thing that you need to do, that all of us need to do, that I certainly need to do, is to acknowledge how little you know of God. Acknowledge how little you know of God. Yes, you might know him and you might be in Christ for 257 years (that’s a safe number because no one’s that old), but God is limitless, is he not? God is bottomless, is he not? If you ever get to a point when you think you know everything there is to know about God, you better be careful. And you better repent.

Why is there still sin in our lives? Why is it that you can’t shake that thing that seems to plague your life? It’s because you don’t know God as you should know God. Why is it that you don’t pray like you want to? It’s because you don’t know God as you should know God. Why is evangelism a particular area of weakness for you?   It’s because you don’t know God like you should know God. So, let’s acknowledge how little we know of God.

And then secondly, study your Bible in order to know God. It is a sad reality that far too many good churches, good seminaries, Bible-believing places, are known not for the fruit of the Spirit, but for division, for factiousness, for just being all-around jerks. You can never check the fruit of the Spirit at the door when you’re engaging with someone over a particular subject.

If godliness is not in your life, it does not matter how much Bible knowledge you have. It doesn’t matter if you’re the only person in all human history who has figured out the exact timing of the end times. It doesn’t matter. If you don’t study your Bible in order to know God, then the character that is supposed to be produced in you by studying your Bible in order to know God, will be lacking in your life.

Again, J. I. Packer says: “To be preoccupied with getting theological knowledge as an end in itself; to approach Bible study with no higher motive than to know all the answers is the direct route to a state of self-satisfied self -deception.” Amen and amen! The more you know, the more you ought to be humble; the more you ought to find that you don’t know as much as think you know.

And so, the third application for us, then, is to always apply your knowledge to yourself first. Everything that you ever hear, everything that you ever read has to be applied to you first. Isn’t that Jesus’ principle of talking to someone else about their sin? You might be able to help them with the little speck in their eye, but the problem is you’ve got a giant railroad tie coming out of your own eye. So you’re not gonna be able to get close enough to them, because it’s going to hit them every single time. Take the log out of your own eye, and then you will help your brother take the speck out of his. Always apply your knowledge to yourself first

Paul talks about this. He tells this to the Corinthians who were a church full of know-it-alls (or so they thought). He says this knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. Isn’t that the truth with knowledge? The more you know, the more you realize there’s a whole lot more out there to be known; and I just don’t have the time, or ability, or certainly the mental capacity to be able to take it all in. Always apply your knowledge to yourself first.

And then, lastly, ask God to make this happen. Don’t think that you can rely or depend upon yourself, and your efforts, and your time, and your power, and your strength, and your energy, because what you’ve just done is made your Christian life all about you. Ask God to make this happen.

J. I. Packer says this, and I think it’s true: “Prayer is perhaps one of the greatest areas in a person’s life where they will be able to tell how they really know God. Prayer is a gauge on whether or not we really know God.” Ask God to make this happen in your life.

I want to close our time this morning with the way that Charles Spurgeon once opened his time on a Sunday morning as a very, very young preacher. This is from a sermon called “The Immutability of God.” If you want to look that up, you can find all of Charles Spurgeon’s sermons—at least the ones that they have recorded, the ones that weren’t lost (though those are being found)—you can find those online.

It has been said [said Spurgeon] by someone that the proper study of mankind is man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe it is equally true that the proper study of God’s elect is God. The proper study of the Christian is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest speculation, the mightiest philosophy, which can ever engage the attention of a child of God, is the name, the nature, the person, the work, the doings, and the existence of the great God, whom he calls his Father.

There is something exceedingly improving to the mind in a contemplation of the Divinity. It is a subject so vast, that all our thoughts are lost in its immensity; so deep that our pride is drowned in its infinity. Other subjects we can compass and grapple with; in them we feel a kind of self-content, and go our way with the thought, “Behold, I am wise.” But when we come to this master science, finding that our plumb line cannot sound its depth, and that our eagle eye cannot see its height, we turn away with the thought that vain man would be wise, but he is like a wild donkey’s colt; and with the solemn exclamation, “I am but of yesterday, and know nothing.” No subject of contemplation will tend more to humble the mind, than thoughts of God.

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands the mind. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe. The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity.

And, while humbling and expanding, this subject is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore.

Would you lose your sorrows? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a couch of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead.

May God grant us grace to have deep and high thoughts about him, as we make knowing God life’s greatest goal.

Our Father, we come to you, and even as we come to you, we acknowledge that we do not deserve to come to you. We acknowledge that you are immense. And that word is the best that we can do to capture it. We could never fully know you, Lord God. But at the same time, we want to. We desperately want to.

And so, we pray that our desire would meet your grace. In your word we would study, we would be diligent to know you so that we would live for you, because you are the only one who deserves our worship. You are the only one who deserves our praise. You are the only one who deserves any attention from us. And so, God, by your grace, work that in us.

And then, Lord, work out the peace that Spurgeon spoke of. Work out the balm for every wound. Plunge us into the immensity of the Godhead, so that the cares of this life would slip away from us. And that we would be lost in your grace, and lost in your goodness, and lost in who you are because we love you so much. And yet, Lord, we know we only love you because you first loved us.

Do this work of grace. It’s a work that we could not do ourselves. But we want it. And so God, please, please do it. We pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.