The Importance of Knowing God — Aeron Morgan

Before Christmas and over Christmas and the New Year, I've had this just burning in my heart, the infinite majesty of God. And so that is what is going to occupy our thoughts during these times of ministry in this camp.

The New Covenant’s Promise of Knowing God

The infinite majesty of God. Tomorrow morning we will come particularly and spend the sessions tomorrow in a couple of verses in the Psalms. But tonight, in this introduction of the theme, I want to turn you to the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 8, on the importance of knowing God.

And in Hebrews, chapter 8, verse 10, and reading to verse 12, the writer of this letter says,. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them.

Now it says in the English Authorized Version, a God. But it is more correctly, I will be to them, their God. And they shall be to me a people. That is, my people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord.

For all shall know me from the least to the greatest. For, important word that, it's a causative word, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Christ’s Supremacy and the Better Priesthood

Now this is unquestionably a remarkable epistle and it focuses, of course, upon the supremacy of Christ. And in this context here, it's the superiority of His priesthood to that of the old Levitical priesthood.

And thank God, friends, it's a better priesthood that carries with it a better hope through which believers might personally draw near to God and ultimately realize perfection. That's not what happened under the old.

But it does take place under the new. And in the opening verse of this chapter, you'll notice the writer says, and in my paraphrase of it, now regarding that which we have considered up to now, the chief point is this.

We have a great high priest and he excels all who went before him. And he is the finality of them all in their ministries. There's no one like Jesus. And this epistle, of course, impresses that so much.

So that beyond this blessed Son of God, we have no need for any other priest. Praise the Lord. Because he occupies the place of supreme power, you'll notice it says in the first verse, at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high in the heavens.

So his is an unceasing, a perpetual, an effectual priestly ministry. It says in the previous chapter, verses 24 and 25, that he ever lives to make intercession for his saints. So none compares with him, whose ministry is in the true sanctuary, not of earth, but of heaven, and fulfilled under a new covenant, not of works, but thank God of grace.

I said to dear brother Benny tonight, when I greeted him, I said, are you still saved? He said, by the grace of God. And we all must have that testimony. We are what we are, by the grace of God. Now, in fact, the writer summarizes here, five points of the supremacy that belongs to Christ, being a better priest than Aaron.

He is declared by the Father to be after the order of Melchizedek. And of course there are many scriptures that we could refer to in chapters 5, 6 and 7 that mention that. So our perfect and our prevailing high priest is said to be one who ministers in a better sanctuary.

He is one who offers a better sacrifice. He is one who is the mediator of a better covenant. He is one whose work rests upon better promises. And that is why he is one who has obtained a better ministry as a whole.

No one compares to our Lord Jesus, our great high priest. And so in position and localization, he is not on earth, but in heaven. And from that heavenly sanctuary, he is ruling over the whole spiritual house of Jews and Gentiles.

Thank God the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no distinction now. Jews come the same way as the Gentile comes. Through Christ who died for us upon the cross, shed his blood that we might know the forgiveness of sins.

Reconciliation to God is only through the cross. So whether he is Jew or Gentile, he must come that way. And this, of course, this epistle makes it so clear. In chapter 3 and verse 6 we read,. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end.

The New Covenant’s Internal and Universal Blessings

But notice now, not only does the writer substantiate the fact of Christ's supremacy, but he also proceeds to establish the superiority of the consequent relationships and advantages secured by those who are under this new covenant.

Our supreme mediator Jesus has ratified this new covenant with his own precious blood. This is a better testament, a superior testament because it is internal, not external. Written upon the tables of our hearts and not stone tables or tablets.

It's inclusive and far-reaching in its scope. It's not restricted now, thank God, from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. He has drawn sinners to himself, embraced them in his love, cleansed them in his blood, made them his very own.

What a day it's going to be when all that he has purposed is consummated, it's completed, and the whole church for the first time will be together in one place before the throne, worshipping the Father and the Son.

Far-reaching. And it's immense in its spiritual impact because as we have read, and I made the emphasis on it, verse 12 in chapter 8 here, I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.

Praise the Lord. So now, we draw in on our theme and right here in chapter 8 is given to us the very heart of the New Covenant's achievement and objective. It is the glory, friends, it's the glory of knowing God.

Not just knowing the forgiveness of sins, it's knowing God. And not in some inactive head knowledge, but in that closest possible, personal relationship. Having a revelation of who God is. And now, by the grace of God, enabled to commune with Him.

I wonder if we really take this in. Look at those verses again. I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts. I'll be to them their God. They shall be to me my people. They shall not teach every man his neighbor, every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know me from the least to the greatest.

For, again I say, don't overlook that causative word. For I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I in no way remember them anymore. This obviously does not refer to every living being, that every living being is going to know Him.

But, all those who by faith are embraced in this new covenant, who are partakers of the glorious benefits of this new covenant. The privileged friends are personally knowing God. And it is He who has made it possible for that which has constituted the barrier between God and us.

This has been removed by the blood of Jesus. Our unrighteousness, our sins, our iniquities. You see, as long as sin remains, union with infinite holiness is not possible. But how remarkable this is, that not only does God forgive us our sins, but He no longer remembers them.

That's a staggering truth. About such forgiveness of sins, FF Bruce said this, and I quote, If men's sins are remembered by God, His holiness must take action against them. If they are not remembered, it is because His grace has determined to forgive them, not in spite of His holiness, but in harmony with it.

So God having forgiven us, friends, has been a righteous act on God's part because of the atoning work of Jesus at the cross. So God now is just, and the justifier of them who believe in Jesus. Praise the Lord.

So we've been reconciled to God. And reconciled to God that we might know Him in conscious personal awareness, to be close to Him in profoundest communion. And as we just gaze upon Him to be fashioned more and more into the glory of His likeness.

Knowing God Through Spiritual Transformation

You see, there's nothing on earth to compare with this. This glory of knowing God, this profound relationship with Him, as we commune and gaze upon Him and get to know Him, we are changed into His likeness.

From one degree of holiness to another degree of holiness, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. It means, friends, that God is a real person who thinks and wills and feels and loves and desires and enjoys and that He delights to communicate with us.

Oh, Dr. Tozer so marvelously expresses it. He said the continuous unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion.

Nothing to compare with this of knowing God. You know, in the context of our text tonight, it mentions Israel. What a tragedy that Israel did not enter upon all that they might have enjoyed because of their unbelief and because of their hardness of heart.

And I wonder sometimes if perhaps we also don't fully grasp what God in grace has brought us into. Friends, we are not dabbling in some human philosophy. We are caught up and embraced in an awesome revelation.

The infinite majesty of God. Our conscious knowledge of the Most High God in communion is as real as any other fact of experience that we know. We know God. Don't be sufficed with a mere intellectual or philosophic knowledge of God.

But grasp the revelation of Scripture that since we are made in the image of God we do now have a capacity to know Him and to know Him in a personal and a purposeful relationship. So when we come to Christ and we've been renewed by the Holy Spirit, that very moment of incredible spiritual regeneration, that brings a supernatural quickening of a whole being in its sensitivity to this living, this eternal, this personal God.

I wonder if the majority of Christians really appreciate what it is they've come to embrace by way of faith. This is staggering. This is profound. We who were dead in trespasses and sins made alive through the Spirit and in touch with the infinite.

So when the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in, heaven has begun right here on earth. Praise the Lord. Not just waiting for the second coming to enter into the fullness of life.

Then it will be in this perfection. Then it will be in all its glorious, consummated wonder and majesty. But now to know God, to commune with Him, to have some measure of understanding by the Spirit of the eternal, the infinite, the magnificent, the majestic, the only true and living God.

Praise the Lord. But hear me on this, friends, because since God has revealed Himself to man, not only in creation, Psalm 19, and not only in this written word, which is His self-revelation, not only revealing Himself in and through His Son, Jesus Christ, but in all this marvelous way in which God has come in reality to us, surely He means to bring us to Himself in order we might know Him, believe Him, understanding the reality and the glory of God's being.

Again I say, you see, it's not like Israel of old against whom the prophet Hosea prophesied for God that Israel shall cry unto Me, My God, we know Thee. We'll read of that in Hosea 8 and verse 2. But sadly, when they said, O God, we know Thee, it was not the cry of endearment and reverence, but of pretense and falsehood and make-belief.

They said, oh yeah, we know You. They didn't know Him. And friends, God is not taken in by our show, our exhibitionism, however smart and convincing such a show is in the eyes of others. But what we want to simply address in these couple of days together has to do with the infinite majesty of God.

The Danger of Replacing Knowing God with Prophetic Speculation

And my question tonight, and I'll answer it very simply and briefly, why is knowing God so important? Now let me just pause here a moment because there was the thought that we might have been addressing the great subject of the second coming of Christ.

And I've known a lot of people, friends, who have all kinds of ideas about the second coming. And they seem to have dotted every I and crossed every T. And they can tell you what the pale horse means and the black horse.

And they can tell you all the signs and symbols. And they've got it all worked out. And it's all up here. It's all in their head. It's an intellectual thing. And they boast in their knowledge of end-time events and prophecy.

And some of those folk, their lives, have not been in harmony with what they professed. This matter of knowing God, friends, is all important. It is crucial. Knowing God for who He is. And especially in a day when so much preaching in our churches has its emphasis on man.

It seems to me, friends, that generally speaking, we have lost the once lofty concept of the majesty of God. So that a very pertinent question is this. What does a wrong or inadequate knowledge of God result in?

And this helps us to see why a true knowledge of God, according to the Scriptures, is so vitally important. And so my answer has a few parts to it. Where there is no personal knowledge of God, number one, friends, there will be an absence of the fear of the Lord.

The Fear of the Lord and Heart Holiness

And when we speak of fear, we are not referring to any kind of sinister dread, but the fact that perverted notions of God remove all reverence for Him. And I haven't the time to elaborate on this, but some of the antics that take place in many churches these days indicate they have no fear of the Lord.

You cannot read the Scriptures without gaining this understanding that the fear of the Lord is an integral part of our relationship with God. This disposition of reverential awe that is mingled with adoring love, that which inspires trust, promotes humility, it engenders a passion for heart holiness.

My wife and I were in America for a few months and we were watching a program on TBN, that's the Trinity Broadcasting Network, and there was this fellow preaching. And he was talking about, you know, when I came to know the geyser upstairs, he said.

The geyser upstairs! The geyser upstairs! That word geyser perhaps is foreign to some of you. But sometimes you say, oh, that old geyser. It's really an insulting word. And many other things that man expressed himself.

I thought, well, you know. Oh yes, he talked about God as this guy, my chum, the geyser who made the universe. Incredible. Friends, when you know God, there's a true fear of the Lord that comes. And this passion for heart holiness so as to be worthy of the One who is all-holy.

Listen to these scriptures. Psalm 111 verse 9 and 10. He sent redemption unto His people. He has commanded His covenant forever. Holy and reverend, awesome to be feared is His name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

A good understanding of all they that do His commandments. His praise endures forever. Psalm 147 and verse 11. The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him. In those who hope in His mercy. This is the godly fear that is spoken of in Hebrews 12 and verse 28 and 29.

It is of grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire. You can see here, friends, that we have no options when we speak of relationship with God.

God establishes this fear of the Lord as our primal duty. Listen to Ecclesiastes 12, 13 and 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God and keep His commandments for this is the whole duty of man.

For God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil. God requires that we fear Him in view of who He is. May I say whilst that is fearful in many aspects, I want to say to friends that the true awe of God being so crucial to our life in fellowship with Him also carries with it great blessing.

Great blessing. Psalm 25 and verse 14. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. And He will show him His covenant. Psalm 33 and verse 18. The eye of the Lord is upon them that fear Him. Psalm 103 verse 17.

The mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear Him. The wonderful blessings that come to us as we walk in the true fear of the Lord. But you can only come to that place of true awe when you know who He is.

Church Growth Through Walking in God’s Fear

Well I think God is like this human finite mind of mine. It cannot comprehend God. The only way I can know God is as He reveals Himself and He does so through His Word. In fact there's a wonderful blessing for the church.

A church that walks in the fear of the Lord. Listen to this. It's Acts 9 and verse 31. Then have the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria. That is when Saul of Tarsus was marvelously changed by the power of Christ and of the Gospel and became Paul the Apostle.

And it says that they had rest and were edified. Listen. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort or the instruction of the Holy Ghost they were multiplied. I've never been to a seminar on church growth but I've ever heard this mentioned.

A way to see the church grow is for the church to walk in the fear of the Lord. How important. And so where there is no personal knowledge of God there'll be an absence of the fear of the Lord. And secondly, there'll be an abnormal worship of the Lord.

Knowing God as the Foundation of True Worship

Our spiritual life, friends, will never rise higher than our knowledge of God. Don't mistake that. We come at worship of God whom we do not know. I'll mention something tomorrow of the gay bishop, Bishop Robinson who participated in the inaugural session of the President of America last week.

And he was one who gave one of the prayers. Rick Warren was the other one. And this Bishop Robinson who was married and had children forsook them and has his own male partner. And he was giving one of the prayers.

Unto, he says, the God of many understandings as pagan. As pagan. Friends, we cannot worship a God whom we do not know. That's idolatry. And so you have it without me expounding it in Acts 17 when Paul sees these worshippers in Athens and Mars Hill.

But he says, you know, there was an inscription over the altar to the unknown God. He said, listen, there is a God. The one true and living God. And you are in ignorance at this altar. In fact, he says, and the word is used in the King James Version, the word superstition.

Which literally has to do with demon worship. And so here they were before the unknown God inspired in demon worship. He says, I want to tell you about this true God. And there he proclaimed the Gospel.

The true Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, worship is wholesome or dishonorable in accord with our true or our false thoughts of God. Worship, friends, is not an aesthetic thing. It's not primarily an external thing.

It's an expression of the heart in response to a revelation. Do you know, some of the most godly and, to me, profound worshippers of God that I've met with have been folk in wheelchairs. We had a lovely brother in Toowoomba when I was pastoring there who had cerebral palsy from being a child.

Oh, it was a pleasure to be in his company. And his love for God, and his reverence for God, and his worship for God, and his passion for God. Now he couldn't have gone around the church dancing and swinging his hands.

No. Because worship, friends, is not an external thing. Oh yes, there is expression. And thank God for the expression that we are able to bring. But it is primarily an inward thing. It's a matter of the heart.

The Consequences of Rejecting Knowledge of God

And that's why, if you went back to Hosea chapter 4 and verse 6, God says, My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I will also reject you. That you shall be no priest to me, seeing you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.

In other words, God says, you can't fulfill your priestly ministry because you don't know me. And unless we know God, friends, we cannot worship Him in truth. I tell you, this is pretty solid. And yet it's blessed when we think that we can know God.

And oh, when our hearts are enlightened, when our minds are illumined by the Spirit of God, and by the eye of faith we see God for who He is. We enter into a new dimension of spiritual life and reality and experience.

God is real. God is real. And of course, where there is no personal knowledge of God, there will be an aversion to holiness before the Lord. You see, everything about our lives hinges upon a true knowledge of a holy God.

Listen to David, Psalm 96 in verse 9, O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. Fear before Him all the earth. Solomon had this to say, Proverbs 8 in verse 13, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse, evil speaking mouth do I hate, says God.

What a contrast to our world where there is every effort to condition us to accept sin as the norm. That sin, in fact, is not normal. It's abnormal. Rather, it's the fear of the Lord that conditions us to holiness as the norm.

This is what God made us for. He didn't make us for sin. He made us for holiness. Never lose sight of this truth that sin is fatal to the fulfilling of man's end as God intended. Because as you are well acquainted with the Scripture in Romans, the wages of sin is death.

Sin is abnormal. It is unnatural. It's an intrusion. It's in opposition to the spirit and the working of God's righteous kingdom. In fact, sin is the rejection of God. Sin aligns us with the devil. It's that serious.

And it's the basis, of course, of John's admonition. In 1 John 3, verse 4 and verse 8, whoever commits sin transgresses also the law for sin is the transgression of the law. He who commits sin is of the devil for the devil sins from the beginning.

For this purpose was the Son of God manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil. God wants us to see as put an end to sin. Thank God through Christ and through the cross, we finish with sin.

We died the same when He died. And we rose when He rose again to live a newness of life. And thank God, friends, we now seek to honour Him and to please Him. Is our doctrine of God important? My word it is.

Knowing God and Bearing Effective Witness

Very important. And let me just conclude. If there is no personal knowledge of God, there'll be an ineffective witness for the Lord. If you and I personally, and the church, if the church does not know the God whom she professes to serve and make known, how can she bear any saving witness to a desperately needy world?

A world heading for dreadful judgement. We were in the departure lounge at Sunshine Coast Airport yesterday afternoon. And I said to my wife, I said, where shall we sit? She said, oh, anywhere, anywhere.

And so I went around near to the gate that we were departing from and sat there. And she sat by this lady. Soon they got talking. My wife had the most wonderful opportunity and witness for Christ to this lady who was truly searching.

And this woman said to her, she said, isn't this amazing? And there was a couple of hundred people in that hall waiting for their planes. Of all these people here, she says, God brings you to sit by me.

It was all in the providence of God. And then my wife was able to share with her the God whom she knows, the Christ whom she knows, the Gospel that she has known effective in her own life. If we don't know God, friends, how can we witness for Him?

How can we communicate Him to a dying world? We must know Him if we are to be effective in our witness for Him. You know the prodigal son, when he was a young fellow, he went into the far country. And you all know the story very well.

One day it says he came to himself. And he said, listen, in my father's house, they, speaking of the hired servants, they have bread enough and to spare, but I perish with hunger. That boy knew that in father's house, just what was there.

And he determines, I'm going home. And of course, he had it all planned out what he was going to say. And the terms on which he wanted to be accepted back into father's house. I would say to my father, Father, I've sinned against Heaven before you.

I'm no more worthy to be called your son. Make me one of your hired servants. You know, he never got down to his terms. Because you can only come to the Father on the Father's terms. And wonderfully reinstated at home as a son.

The world tonight, friends around us, perishes while we, like the elder brother who had no care, full of prejudice and selfishness. Because though he was in father's house, he didn't really know his father.

The Blessing of Personal Knowledge, Peace, and Hope

And if we don't know God, then there will be no inward peace or hope as an anchor for the soul. Because our God is a God of peace. He is the God of hope. And without a felt personal relationship to Him, the soul just flounders in helplessness on the tempestuous sea of life with no blessed prospect.

Thank God we have a faithful God tonight. As we send a very appropriate song proclaiming greatness to God. And among all the great aspects of God, the great faithfulness of God, I pray that God will help us over these couple of days to have a glimpse into what the Scripture has to say about our God.

The infinite majesty of God. Because I tell you tonight, friends, a life without that intimate knowledge of God is barren and fruitless. It's a useless burden on the earth. Nothing substitutes for a God-fearing and a God-favored and a God-filled life that's lived for His glory.

Oh, that we might press in to know God as we have never known Him before. A little phrase I've never forgotten of Torsos. He says, He waits to be wanted. You can know God as much as you desire to know Him.