The Need of Knowing God
The Need of Knowing God THE NEED OF KNOWING GOD
By J. B. Nelson The very fact that Jesus commissioned his apostles to “Go teach all nations—Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” proves the need of knowing God.
Cudworth said, “Ignorance is the curse of God.” The Psalmist adds strength to this when he said, “The wicked shall be turned back unto Sheol, even all the nations that forget God” (Psalms 9:17).
Someone has said “Where ignorance is bliss it is folly to be wise.” I am sure it is better for all to be ignorant of many of the sins of the world, but it is not a bliss to be ignorant of God; but on the other hand it is degrading, destructive, and enslaving to be in such a state. Knowledge of God brings peace of soul, joy of mind, and blissful contentment to the one who fully appreciates and understands the divine purpose of God’s knowledge revealed to man. The happiest people on earth today are those who know, trust and serve Jehovah. The miserable ones are those who disregard all God has said.
Ignorance Enslaves Individuals and Nations
It was Solomon who said, “Good understanding giv- eth favor—To the wise the way of life goeth upward” (Proverbs 13:15; Proverbs 15:24). The prophet Hosea told Israel “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me; seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I also will forget thy children.” (Hosea 4:6).
What was true in Old Testament times regarding those who were ignorant of God is equally true in the New Testament dispensation. The apostle to the Gen-tiles said to the church at' Ephesus, “That ye no longer walk as the Gentiles, also walk, in the vanity of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is m them, because of the hardening of their heart.” (Ephesians 4:17-18). May we hear him again as he speaks to the church at Colossae, “And you, being in time past alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil work” (Colossians 1:21). What brought on this state or condition? The answer comes in thundering tones,—Ignorance, Ignorance, Ignorance.
Why the teeming millions of earth today that do not worship the Christ ? It is on account of the absence of the knowledge of God. It was ignorance that caused the death of Christ. It was Peter who said: “And now, brethren, I know that in ignorance ye did it’, as did also your rulers.” (Acts 3:17). Paul confirms this when he incriminates the rulers for the murder of Jesus: “Which none of the rulers of this world hath known; for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory” (1 Corinthians 2:8).
Many people of today arc persecutors of Christ and the church and believe as Paul did before his conver-sion that they are doing God service (Acts 26:9). There are those who make light of the doctrine of baptism and snigger when they behold Christians eating the Lord’s supper—all because of their ignorance of the Bible teaching upon these subjects. Knowledge expels darkness and exposes ignorance and turns fun making and bitter criticism into respect and reverence. To Know God Is To Know The Bible
For all we know about God, Christ, Holy Spirit, heav-en, hell or our origin, we get' it from God’s Holy Book, the Bible. “Jehovah appeared again in Shiloh; for Jehovah revealed himself to Samuel in Shiloh by the word” (1 Samuel 3:21). It was by the word that Samuel knew Jehovah. It is by the word of God that all are made to know Him. There is no other source of information. The prophet Isaiah said to Israel, “Bind thou up the testimony, seal the law among my disciples..... To the law and to the testimony; if they speak not according to this word, surely there is no warning for them” (Isaiah 8:16; Isaiah 8:20). There is no need of comment on these quotations.
It is in God’s book, the Bible, we find Jehovah, for he was revealed in the volume given by inspiration. Hear the testimony of the Bible on this point, “Then said I, lo, I am come; in the roll of the book it is written of me.” “Seek ye out of the book of Jehovah and read” (Isaiah 34:16).
Let us go to the New Testament for further proof. “All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth the Son, save the Father; neither doth any know the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him” (Matthew 11:27). “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him” (John 1:18). “Many other signs therefore did Jesus in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book; but these are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye may have life in his name” (John 20:30-31). In Luke 16 the rich man was told that in Moses and the prophets’ warning could be found by which to keep his brethren out of hell.
Beloved, read God’s Holy Book, exhort others to read it, and meditate upon it day and night (Psalms 1:1-2), and you will not only know God and your duty to him, but you will be constrained to flee from the wrath to come.
We need to know the Bible because in it, God reveals man’s duty to Himself.
Hear, again, the Apostle Paul to the Church at Corinth, “Know ye not that ye are a temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man destroyeth the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, and such are ye, and what agreement hath a temple of God with idols ? For we are a temple of the living God; even as God said I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God and they shall be my people” (1 Corinthians 3:16-17; 1 Corinthians 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16).
We might add an additional statement from the same writer, “Or know ye not that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit which is in you, which ye have from God? And ye are not your own; for ye were bought with a price; glorify God, therefore, in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:19-20).
It is not at all to know our duty to ourselves for we need to know our duty to others. During the world war the Salvation Army had a slogan that merely read, “To Others.” The Bible clearly reveals our duty to others. Jesus taught the lesson of our duty to others in the case of the good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-27). Pure and undefiled religion is to look after the widows and orphans (James 1:27). We need to know our duty to all mankind. Jehovah is the source of all good. “Every good and every perfect gift is from above, com-ing down from the Father of lights, with whom can be no variation, neither shadow that is cast by turning” (James 1:17). “For none of us liveth to himself, and none dieth to himself” (Romans 14:7). Cain asked the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). Yes, my dear friends, we are our brothers’ keeper. So to know our duty to our brother we must know what God has revealed to us concerning him. To know our duty and then refuse to perform is a sin before God (James 4:17). To Properly Know God is to Know Our Duty to God
“And now Israel, what doth Jehovah thy God require of thee, but to fear Jehovah thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love Him, and to serve Jehovah thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of Jehovah, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good” (Deuteronomy 10:12-13). “Whatsoever is commanded by the God of heav-en, let it be done exactly for the house of the God of heaven” (Ezra 7:23). We need to know the New Testament in order that we may know our duty to God in the church. God’s laws should be in the hearts of his people and must be before they can claim to be his people and expect the spiritual blessings found in Christ. “But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith Jehovah: I will put my laws in their inward parts, and in their heart will I write it and I will be their God and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor and every man his brother, saying, know Jehovah, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith Jehovah; for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin will I remember no more” (Jeremiah 31:33-34). This prophecy is quoted by Paul in Hebrews 8:9-12. It seems to me beyond the shadow of a doubt that the climax is reached when Jeremiah and Paul tell us that all will be wiped out, both sin and iniquity, and remembered no more. These things we need to know, and to know them we must know God, for He is the One who thru Christ will forgive and eternally save poor lost man in heaven.
Place of Salvation
The human family needs to know that there is not a promise of salvation out of Christ and to be in Christ is to be in the Church. The Church is in Christ (Galatians 1:21-22; 1 Thessalonians 2:14). The Church is in God and is in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:19; 2 Thessalonians 1:1). Salvation is in Zion and Zion is the Church, so when we get where salvation is had, we are in the Church (Isaiah 46:13; Hebrews 12:22-24; 1 Peter 2:6-8). The nations that have rejected God are today in heathenism, groping in ignorance, darkness, infidelity, idolatry and bloodthirsty in mind and heart. The greatest work today is to make known the knowledge of God. Paul declared that the church is the pillar and ground of the truth and t'o her was committed the dispensation of the grace of God (1 Timothy 3:14-15; Ephesians 3:2-5).
I am glad to see so many young men in Abilene Christian College preparing to break the bread of life, the knowledge of God, to the lost. Oh, the need of more men who know God, so that the teeming millions may have an opportunity to learn God and His will, by their preaching. The knowledge of God will civilize the heathen; it will humanize him; it will moralize him, and it will Christianize him. Let us not stop with anything short of Christianizing the poor dupes of earth. A better knowledge of God and his teachings will keep the Church morally clean and financially honest. Let me say to you young preachers, as you go forth preaching, live financially honest and morally clean. Pay your debts, be true to every promise, flee from all forms of lust. Keep yourselves pure in heart and life and you will wield a great influence both in and out of the church. The church needs to be taught that she may better know her duty on supporting the gospel. A better knowledge of God will cause “cranky” brethren to see the difference in law, forms, customs and incidentals. Let all church “leaders”, elders, preachers, teachers, urge upon all, more Bible study. Beloved, there certainly is a need of knowing God. A better knowledge of God will make better husbands, wives, sons, daughters, neighbors and friends. Life everywhere will be sweeter. May the knowledge of God fill the earth as the waters cover the sea, is the prayer of one who loves God, the Bible and the church above everything in this world, if I know my own heart. On with the knowledge of God to the ends of the earth. May we be able to say with David: “But his delight is in the law of Jehovah; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.” It was the knowledge of God taught Ruth that caused her to say to her mother-in-law, Naomi, “For whither thou goest, I will go, and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God, where thou diest, I will die, and there will I be buried” (Rth_1:16-17).
It is comforting to the soul to know God. It is sweet to be a child of God. 0, may knowledge increase until Christ comes.