I want to read verse 7 this morning.
Verse 7, here of Jeremiah chapter 24. And I will give them an heart
to know me, that I am the Lord. And they shall be my people,
and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with
their whole heart. Now, we remember something about
the context. I just want to mention this briefly,
that Jeremiah has been shown a basket of figs. And in that basket of figs, he
saw good figs. The Lord said in verse 3, What
seest thou, Jeremiah? And Jeremiah said, Well, I see
figs. And then he said, the good figs,
very good, and the evil, very evil, that cannot be eaten, they
are so evil. And the Lord went on to say what
he was going to do, that the remnant, which was typified by
the good figs, that remnant of grace, which God intended to
save, which God intended to give in heart, that they might know
him, The Lord separated them, as it were, by His providence
and said, now I'm going to return them to the land. And I'm going
to plant them. I'm not going to pull them down.
I'm not going to pluck them up. I'm going to plant them back
in the land that I promised them. But then these that are reprobates,
these that are typified by the evil figs, the Lord says, I'm
just going to deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms
of the earth for their hurt. to be a reproach and a proverb,
a taunt and a curse in all places whither I shall drive them. And I'll send the sword and the
famine and the pestilence among them till they be consumed from
off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers. Now
then, so we see here the elect, the remnant, the elect remnant
separated from the reprobates. And the Lord says concerning
the elect remnant, I'm going to give them a heart to know
me. I'm going to give them a heart to know me. And so my subject
this morning is heart knowledge of God, heart knowledge of God. Now the heart of man has been
smitten with blindness on account of sin. And we know that even
those that are chosen of God from old time in old eternity
that we were all the children of wrath. even as others. Everyone that's born into this
world, born of a woman, is born in sin and has a depraved nature. Now such blindness that has come
upon us on account of sin is such that we're unable to know
God, that we do not have spiritual faculty enough to know the living
God. Man in a state of nature does
not know the living God. He does not know God. He may
know many, many things, and he may even have fashioned a God
in his own mind, a God out of his own imagination. He might
have a God of stone, a God of wood. He may have many gods,
little G-O-Ds, in his life, but he does not know the living God. He does not know Jehovah God. Now, it is implied in this text
that in the heart of the natural man that there is such an ignorance
of Jehovah. Though in Him we all live and
have our being, that in the heart of the natural man, that there
is such ignorance of Jehovah, that we have such an impotence,
that sin is brought upon the mind and heart, that since being
ignorant of God, we're incapable of finding Him out. We cannot
find out God. By searching we cannot find out
God with our intellect. Now this is most assuredly taught
here in this text this morning. The very fact that a promise
is made in the everlasting covenant that to the elect The chosen
of God shall be given hearts to know the Lord is a clear proof
that without the divine teaching and without the reception of
a new heart from the Lord, beloved, that man not only does not know
God, but he cannot find out. who God is, and he cannot know
God. In 1 Corinthians 2, verse 14,
it says, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually deserved. Meaning this, that
the natural man, the man born into this world, born once, in
a state of nature, he has not the ability to receive the things
of the Spirit of God because these things can only be received
by a heart that has been given by God, by spiritual faculties
that are given by the living God. Turn back if you will, hold
your finger here in the text, to the book of 1 Corinthians
chapter 1. And listen carefully as I read, beginning here with
verse 20. Well, let's back up to verse
19 and get that in too. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. 1 Corinthians 1 verse 19. Where
is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where is
the disputer of this world? Hath not God made foolish the
wisdom of this world? For after that in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them to believe. For the Jews
require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach
Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the
Greeks foolishness. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God, and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Now, beloved, we can boast of
our intelligence and we often hear men and women boast of their
intellect, the power of their intellect, but it's a vain thing
when it comes to finding out who God is. The intellect is
a vain thing when it comes to knowing God. Now you have eyes
and you see, but your eyes are closed, your ears are deaf, and
your heart is dumb before God when it comes to spiritual things
and when it comes to knowing God. And your soul has become
so dull that only he who formed the ear can make you hear, and
only he who has fashioned the eye can give you sight. Both
the hearing ear and the seeing eye, the proverb says, the Lord
hath made even both of them. and all the condescension of
God, that He would stoop to give men a heart, those men who know
Him not, and those who have rebelled against Him, and those who have
chose not the knowledge of the Lord. Isn't it marvelous, isn't
it wonderful that God is willing to stoop and to condescend to
give us a heart to know Him. Now man forgets God, but God
never forgets His own. Those that he's chosen, those
that are dear to him, beloved to him, they're never forgotten
by the Lord. Man knows not God, yet God knows
him. And the foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. The
Lord knows those that he's chosen and those that he set the seal
of election upon. Now, we know that God visits
his people. As he said here, I'm going to
visit my people. And he visits us in grace, beloved,
giving us a new heart and a right spirit. This is because of the
visitation of God. Now, this knowledge is more than
just to know that there's a God. Because only a fool, as the psalm
says, would say in his heart, there is no God. This is more
than just knowing that there's a God. This heart that the Lord
gives, that men might know that he is Jehovah, that he's the
living God, the true God, this is more than just somebody running
around saying, I believe in a supreme being. No, the text promises
that the favored ones, that those to whom this gift is given, that
they shall know God to be Jehovah. They shall know Him to be Jehovah
God. So the original text has it,
I'll give them a heart to know me, that I am Jehovah. God leads men to see the God
revealed in Scripture. and manifested in the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ that he is God, and he is that one
who made the heavens and the earth, and he's the living God,
and he is that one that fills eternity, and the one that is
to be worshipped. Now man fashions for himself,
as I mentioned a little earlier, a God after his own liking. out
of wood, stone, or out of his own imagination. Man whittles
him out of God, and he likes his God, and he wants to worship
this God, and he says, I know this God. My God won't do this. My God won't do that. My God
loves this. My God loves that. But man by
nature rejects God as He is revealed in the Scripture. He does not
know that the Lord is Jehovah, the Sovereign of the Universe.
He does not know that the God of the Bible is a God who has
a will of His own. And that his will is the only
free will in all the universe. That the God of the Bible is
a God of all mightiness and all power. And this God that is revealed
in the scriptures is a God that works his own will and does according
to his own will. in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. And none can say unto him, What
doest thou? And none can stay his hand. He's
an absolute sovereign in full control in the world. But men
whittle him out of God. that they're satisfied with.
They whittle them out a little God that they can worship and
they can push him around like they would push a peanut around
and they just say this is our God. Now the Holy Spirit when
he creates in the elect a heart to know that Jehovah is God teaches
them that the God of heaven and earth is the God of the Bible
and that there is none else. That there is none else. Now
if you know the Lord Beloved, your secret is with him and his
secret is with you. He has manifest himself unto
you as he has not manifested himself unto the world. God has
divided. God has set a seal upon a people
and God reveals to them that he is Lord, that he's God, that
he's Jehovah. And he does this by giving them
a heart. to know that He is the Lord. Now, the number one thing that
I want to mention here is this. Let me tell you a little bit
about the source of this heart. The source of this heart. And
I will give them a heart to know me. Now, beloved, the source
of this knowledge that is able to grasp that the God of the
Bible, that He's Jehovah, the Almighty, the Sovereign, the
Ruler in the world. Now, we're clearly taught in
this text that this is a divine work. I will give unto them,
I will give them a heart to know me. I'll give them a heart to
know me. Now who could better do this than the Lord? None but
the Creator can give a man a new heart. The change is too radical
for any other hand. There isn't anyone but the Almighty
God that can give a man a heart which has a disposition to repent
and a disposition to believe savingly on the Lord Jesus Christ. Only God can give an individual
that kind of a heart. Well, I would like for you to
turn, if you will, back to the book of 1 Corinthians again,
and I'd like to have you to look with me at some verses in the
2nd chapter of 1 Corinthians. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2, I
want us to look beginning with verse 9. But as it is written,
I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that
love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the
deep things of God. that Paul, speaking of himself
and all of God's people, have received not the spirit of the
world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the
things that are freely given to us of God. Which things also
we speak not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which
the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Now, as we look back to verse
11, he said, For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the
spirit of man which is in him? Now, a man knows himself, and
he knows the things of man, and no other man understands everything
in another individual until that individual is pleased to reveal
that. Now, we can understand the things
of man with natural faculties, but the things of God, we must
have this new heart. We must have this heart from
God. Because he goes on to say, even so the things of God knoweth
no man. The things of God knoweth no
man. Eye hath not seen, ear hath not
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him." But now Paul
says this, it's that we might know those things that God has
given to us, His Spirit, and when we have received this new
heart. this art of knowledge, that we
might know God. Then, beloved, we know the things
that are given to us of God. And it's not right to stand up
in a testimony meeting and say, well, I have not seen or ever
heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him, and leave it there.
No, beloved, those that God has loved, God has for them gifts
and blessings and they know these gifts and they know these blessings
because the Spirit of God and this new heart has been given
to them and they're able to understand the things of God because they've
been given the divine Spirit that searcheth All the mind of
God knows the things of God and reveals them unto the heart of
man. But you see the reason that this
is a work of God. It must be God's work because
nobody can give a man spiritual faculties. Only God can give
spiritual faculties. God is the author of this heart
that knows Him. Now then, all the preaching and
all the teaching and all the reforming in the world cannot
give a man a heart that knows the Lord. God Himself must take
up the work. The Lord Himself must do it.
As surely as God has made you, God must new make you, or you
will never, never will you know Him. unless God gives you this
new heart. It is evidently a work of pure
grace because the text says, I will give them a heart. Not that they'll grow into it,
not that they'll be able to purchase it someplace, but he said, I
will give it, I will give it, I'll give it unto my people,
this heart to know me. Now He freely gives to whomsoever
He wills according to His own declaration, I will have mercy
upon whom I will have mercy. In John 5 and 21 it says, For
as the Father raiseth up the dead and quickeneth them, even
so the Son quickeneth whom He will. The Son makes alive whom
He will. And so, beloved, the Lord says,
I give, I give this. This is pure grace, beloved. It's a work of God and it's pure
grace. It also is a work which God has
covenanted to do. Listen to these words in Hosea.
Chapter 2 and verse 19. He said, I will betroth thee
unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in
mercy. I will even betroth thee unto
me in faithfulness. And thou shalt know the Lord. And thou shalt know the Lord.
And in Hosea 8 and verse 2 it says, Israel shall cry unto me,
My God, we know thee, we know thee. And isn't it an amazing
thing? Have you ever woke up in the
middle of the night? Has it ever been impressed upon your heart? Have you ever just been awakened
with the idea in your mind I know the Lord. The Lord knows me. I know Him. I know God. Well, that's exactly what you
find there. Turn to the book of Hebrews chapter 8. The book
of Hebrews chapter 8. And listen, I said this is a
promise of the covenant that God said He's going to give us
a new heart to know Him. Now in verse 10 we begin in the
8th chapter of Hebrews. 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 in their minds and write them
in their hearts. And I will be to them a God and they shall
be to me a 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. Verse
11. And all shall know me from the
least to the greatest, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness
and their sins, and their iniquities will I remember no more. And
so this 11th verse makes it clear that in that day when the Lord
gives His people this heart to know Him, He said, won't be any
need to run around every man teaching his neighbor saying,
know the Lord. Because every one of the elect shall know the
Lord, even the least to the greatest will know Him. Because they shall
be given a heart by the Lord. This is a work that He covenanted
to do. And if you ever get this heart,
it's because God Almighty gave it to you. So He promised this
blessing, a blessing all divine, a blessing guaranteed to those
with whom the Lord has entered in into covenant. And you know
the Lord has entered into covenant with our representative, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He's not entered into a covenant
with us as individuals, but only as we stand in the Lord Jesus
Christ, as we were chosen in Him. And so the Lord has entered
in to covenant with us, and this is a promise of that everlasting
covenant. I'll give them the heart to know
me, that they might know that I'm Jehovah, that I am the Lord,
the living God. Now notice in the second place
the seat of this knowledge. The seat of this knowledge. I
will give them a heart to know me. Observe that it is not said
I will give them a head to know me. That's not what the Lord
said. He said I'll give them a heart to know me. Now the problem
is not all together with man's head, but the problem is with
his heart and the problem is with his affection. Man's heart
is set on sin. Man is in love with sin. The
heart is the seat of his blindness. There is where you find darkness,
is in the heart of the natural man. The man who is alienated
from God, separated from God for the want of love and faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now beloved, the light must come
to the heart. That's where the light must come
to the heart. Salvation. And hear me out. Salvation is not something that
you do with your feet. It's not something you do with
your hands. Salvation is a heart work. It's a heart work faith,
my friend. Repentance and faith is heart
work. It's not something that's done
in the brain, in the head. It's done in the heart. And certainly
God plants in man a disposition that is repentive toward him,
a disposition that is different than it was before about sin.
And he changes his mind only when God changes his disposition,
when God affects his heart and his affection. knowledge of the
Lord by this. Do you approve of the character
of God? Do you approve of the character
of the God of the Bible? Do you admire Him as He has revealed
Himself to be? Do you admire Him? Do you know
and see his sovereignty, his absolute control of all things? And do you admire his hatred
for sin? He's not an old grandfather that
his grandson can sit on his lap and he laughs at his sin. The
God of the Bible does not laugh at sin. The God of the Bible
is going to punish sin. The God of the Bible hung His
Son, His own Son, on a gory tree outside the city of Jerusalem
and there the Lord Jesus Christ paid the price for our sins. And He justified us by His death
on Calvary. God demanding of Him full payment
for our sins. It shows that God hates sin. And then His immutability. God
never changes. Somebody said, when things change
in the world, the preacher's got to change his doctrine. My
friend, as long as we have an immutable God, a God that never
changes, our message remains the same. Our message about Him
is the same. We're not going to change it,
however much things change around us. Are you satisfied this morning
with the character of God? Now His jealousy. Do you still
admire Him even though He's a jealous God? He's an exact God, a demanding
God, a holy, a thrice holy God. Is this your God? That's the
God that's revealed on the pages of the Bible. He is a holy, righteous,
and jealous God. Now then, if you admire the character,
if you have been given this heart to know Him, then you admire
His character. You wouldn't have one thing to
be changed about the living God. You'd have Him to remain just
as He is. Now, the next thing is this.
First of all, there's admiration. The second thing that comes with
this heart is that all true knowledge of God is attended by affection
for Him. Affection. I'm talking about
love in spiritual language. To know God is to love God. Do you hear me? To know God. If you got a heart to know Him,
Then, beloved, you love the Lord. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love, says 1 John. Where the Lord is fully known,
I'd like to say that He is intensely loved. The cry of His bride,
His church, His mouth is most sweet. Yea, He is all together. What? All together what? Lovely! That's right. He is all
together, the Lord Jesus Christ, all together lovely. As we love
God, we know Him, and as we know Him, we love Him. That's what
I'm trying to say. There is affection in the heart
where this heart knowledge of God is given. Now the next thing
is this, and the last thing is this. There is what we call,
what I would like to call adhesion. where the Lord gives this heart
knowledge there is adhesion. To know a thing by heart is to
know it thoroughly. When somebody knows something
in their heart, if you know a lesson in your heart, you know it thoroughly. I mean it's gone clear through
you and it's got a hold of you and you really know it. You really
and truthfully know it. Now if we have this God-given
heart to know Him, then the knowledge we have of Him will never be
taken from us. It will never be taken from us.
Because the Lord has given us a heart to know Him, and the
scripture says this in Jeremiah 32 and 40, I'll put my fear in
their hearts that they shall not depart from me. They will not depart from me. To know the love of Christ which
passes knowledge is not a fleeting attainment. but shall abide with
us and increase until we know, even as we are known." The love
of Christ in our heart, it's there, it's fixed, and it will
abide there. The Lord is not going to pluck
it out. He's not going to tear it down.
He's only going to establish and build it up and plant it.
more firmly in the hearts of his people. This knowledge shall
not pass away, but shall be perfected when the day breaks and the shadows
flee away. It'll be perfectly complete. Now, beloved, do you have this
knowledge of God? Do you admire? Do you love? Do you cleave to the God of the
Bible? Do you know Jehovah God? Are you His people? Do you belong
to Him? Has He given you this heart?
Can you hope that you've been taught of the Lord according
to that promise in Hebrews chapter 8 and verse 11? They shall know
Me from the least even unto the greatest. Now beloved, this knowledge
is essential to being a Christian. You cannot. You say, I live in
America. You can live in America and go
straight to hell when you die. The only people that are Christians
are people that have been given a heart by God to know Him. And if you've been given this
heart, this spiritual faculty to understand the things of God
and know God, then you are a Christian. And that brings me to this point,
the third thing, is the necessity of this knowledge, the necessity
of it. Let me just enforce this a little
bit. To know God, is a very needful preparation for the understanding
of all truth. To know God is a very needful
preparation for the understanding of all truth. You may learn the
doctrines of the Bible, but you do not truly know those doctrines
until you know the God of the doctrine. Now you listen to me,
there's a whole lot of fanatics out here running around in the
world that picked up a little piece of scripture here, a little
piece of scripture there, and they're running around, they
act like they know God, they're saying they're God's representative,
and they don't know a thing on earth. about the God of the Bible
or the truth of God as it's revealed in Scripture and the reason is,
is because they're trying to learn a little bit of doctrine
without knowing the God of the doctrine. Now you may understand
the precepts. of the Bible in the letter of
those precepts and the promises in their outward wording. But
neither precept nor promise do you truly know until you know
the God from whose lips those precepts and those promises actually
fell. Is that right? I'm telling you,
this knowledge of God is a necessity for the understanding of the
doctrines and for the understanding of any truth of God. Now, the
place which God occupies, it must be settled in our minds
or we'll have no order whatsoever in our knowledge, nothing but
a conglomeration of truth and error. Now, a sage one time said,
He said, Man, know thyself. Man, know thyself. Well, I venture to say that no
man knows himself until he has given a heart by God to know
God. Then and then only will a man
know himself. Is that right? I believe that's
right. A man must know God first because it is by the light and
the purity of God that we see our own darkness and our own
sinfulness and our own defilement in a state of nature. You don't
have enough life to know your death until God gives you life. until he gives it to you. You
must have a standard. It's kind of like the fellow
said about the straight stick. If you put a straight stick down
the side of a crooked stick, you know the difference. And
my friend, you must have a standard by which to measure yourself.
And you cannot tell where you stand until you get a straight
standard. God is the standard and until
a man knows the standard, he does not know how for short that
he's actually fallen. Romans 3 and 23 says, all have
sinned and come short. Of the what? Of the glory of
God. Now the glory of God there in
that text is talking about the character of God. It's talking
about the character of God as it's revealed in the moral law
of God. That character of God which is
righteous and holy and perfect. That character of God which as
we measure ourselves by it, reveals our sinfulness, because by the
law is the knowledge of sin. And so, beloved, we've all sinned,
we've all come short, but until you know God, you don't know
how far short you have actually fallen. Now, the proper study
of man, then, is God. Is God. Without that knowledge,
we're in utter ignorance of God and ourselves. Now, beloved,
listen to me. We must come to see that even
though we say and make a statement like that the proper study of
man is God, we must come to see our impotence and to see that
we cannot, as we explained early at the onset of our message this
morning, that we have not the faculties to understand God until
they're given to us, and that shuts us up. to a place of crying
to God, of seeking God, of knowing that we're dependent upon Him
to give us light or we'll never have any light. And next, this
knowledge of God is necessary to any real peace of mind. Now listen, you living in this
world, and you may be at peace with everyone you know, There
may not be anybody in this world that you have a quarrelsome word
with, and you may just be at peace with everybody, but my
friend, you're not at peace with God until you've been given a
heart to know God. Until God has revealed Himself
to you, you're not at peace with Him, and you'll be miserable.
You say, I've just got everybody else in a palm of my hand, but
I know there's a God. And I somehow or other cannot
get this. I cannot get reconciled to Him.
And you'll never be reconciled to Him until you get into Jesus
Christ and until your sins are put away, washed away in the
blood of the Lamb. Now how can a man possibly be
at peace with God until this dreadful ignorance of God is
removed? Until it's removed by God giving
him a heart. to know Him. There is no peace
to the heart while God is unknown. He's the God of peace and there
can be no peace till the soul knows Him. The language of the
Old Testament is, acquaint now thyself with Him and be at peace. Now, this knowledge of God, that
this knowledge is necessary is very clear. For how could it
be possible for a man to have spiritual life and yet not know
God. When the Bible says in John 17
and 3, and this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. Did you
get that verse? John 17 and verse 3. Don't ever
forget it. If you want to sum up what eternal
life is, it's knowing God. It's knowing God. Listen to this
verse in 1 John 5 and 20. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us an understanding that we might know
Him that is true and we're in Him that is true even in His
Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and what? Eternal life. That's what it
is. We've got to be given this knowledge,
this heart, to know God, or we cannot, we are not saved. Now,
sinner, you must know the Lord. Into God's heaven you cannot
come till He has given you a heart to know Him. You just simply
can't go to heaven until God gives you this heart. And if
you do not have this heart, divinely given, a heart that knows, a
heart that admires, a heart that loves, a heart that pleads to
God, then you're not going to heaven when you die. You say,
well, I think I've got it worked out, preacher. Well, you just
work on it right on down until you breathe that last breath,
and you're still going to hell unless this heart is given to
you. Now, that may make you uncomfortable,
and you might never have heard anybody make such a radical statement
like that before, but in this place we preach. the God of the
Bible, we preach the truth of God as it's revealed in the Bible,
and that's what the scriptures teach. Now then, last, fourthly,
last, the excellency of this knowledge. The excellency of
it. Now this is very important, and
you just listen to me a few more minutes if you can. If you can
bear up, just listen to me. Now then, the excellency of this
knowledge is this, that it turns out are idols. It turns them
out. Now Paul in Galatians 4 and verse
8 said, Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service
unto them which by nature are no gods. Which by nature are no gods.
But now, after that ye have known God, or rather, are known of
God, How turn you again to the weak and the beggarly elements,
whereto you desire again to be in bondage? That's Galatians
4 and verse 8. A knowledge of God in the heart,
it creates an abhorrence for idols. It creates, I think, an
abhorrence for idols, especially those idols which had enslaved
our own hearts. before we were converted. The gods of our own fabrication. The gods of our own imagination. Now, you know, if you just go
out and start talking to people, you'll find out that people do
have gods that they fabricated. And you think I'm just, you think
I'm just filling up space here with words. But everybody's got
a God that they have fabricated or imagined. And this is their
God. These be thy God, O Israel. These be thy gods. These gods
of the imagination. But only let the Lord reveal
himself to the soul. Let the heart know the true God
and the old idols. are cast to the moles and the
bats. The idols are gone. God's revealed himself. Don't
have any God. Oh, no, no, that's not my God.
That's not my God. You hear this fellow talk, that
fellow, that's not my God. The God that I worship is the
God of the Bible. The God that has revealed himself
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The more idols are gone!
And that's why it is that our many religionists have such a
difficult time with a Calvinist and listening to a man preach
the God of the Bible and exalt the God of the Bible is because
they're worshiping in reality a God of their own fabrication,
a God of their own imagination. That's right. They didn't have
any other way of getting a God except to imagine one up and
to fabricate one. The only way anybody's going
to believe in the true God, the God of the Bible, is to have
been given a heart to know Him. You follow me? You see what I'm
saying? Okay, that's exactly the point this morning. Now when
you get a view of God in Christ, you will say, what have I to
do anymore with idols? I don't need no more idols. What
do I need an idol for? I've seen the glory of God in
the face of Jesus Christ. I have seen heaven's best. The
Lord Jesus Christ, His person and His work solved all of the
problems of my soul and I'm saved by His mercy and His grace. What
do I need an idol for? I don't need an idol for a crutch. I don't need one. Somebody said,
don't you need a priest to pray for you? No! I don't need any
earthly priest to pray for me. Don't you need some saint to
take your prayers unto God? I don't need any! The Lord Jesus
Christ is the only mediator between God and man. I don't need an
earthly priest. I got a heavenly priest. I got
a high priest. What do I need an idol for? I
don't need any idols to pray to. I don't need any because
the Lord Jesus Christ His sacrifice was a sweet-smelling sacrifice,
and it perfumed all the praise and all the prayers of the saints. And as they are delivered up
unto the Father by the Lord Jesus Christ, there are sweet-smelling
sabers in His nostrils. I don't need any idols. God's
people don't need any idols. They don't need any crutches
to worship with. They've got a living Christ that's seated
at the right hand of the Father and we don't need any of these
religious icons and so on and so forth. Now then, beloved,
God so enarmors the soul of the converted man. He so engrosses
every spiritual faculty that he cannot endure, the child of
God cannot endure an idol. However dear that idol was in
former times, once this heart of knowledge is given, and God
is revealed in the heart, the true God is no one, then, beloved,
you just simply cannot endure these idols anymore. Can't endure
them, there's no place for them anymore. Now, may we all cry
to God this morning, blessed Lord, let us know thee, then
we shall know our idols no more. Let us know you. And if we know
you, then we will not know our idols anymore. Now the second
good effect of the knowledge of God is that it creates faith
in the soul. If you've ever had this heart
given to you, then there's faith. Listen to Psalm 9 in verse 10.
They that know thy name will put their trust in thee. They
that know Thy name will put their trust in thee. It is inevitable
we'll trust God if He's revealed Himself to us. If God has revealed
Himself to you. Now, where there is no faith,
it's because a man does not know God. If God gives you this heart,
there's going to be faith. in the heart, faith in the living
God. Know Him, and beloved, you trust
Him. Now, third thing is this. This knowledge of God not only
turns out our idols, it not only creates faith, it also creates
good works in the heart. In 1 John 2 and 3 we read, Hereby
we do know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. Now, beloved, this morning when
you think about this, you must regard it as an absolute certainty
that wherever there is a heart knowledge of God, wherever God
has been pleased to give this gift, that there will be obedience
also to the whole revelation of God. There will be a seeking
out of light, understanding of God's commandments, of God's
truth. And when I speak of the commandments, I'm not just speaking
of the ten commandments, I'm speaking of everything that is
taught in the Word of God that we as God's people ought to be
doing or that we ought not to be doing. And so you'll have
this obedience unto God if you have this heart knowledge of
the Lord. Now the knowledge of God is as
a tree which bears twelve manners of fruits. The soul that knows
the Lord is like a tree that David talked about in the psalm,
planted by the rivers of the water which bringeth forth fruit
in its season. There'll be effects that comes
from this heart knowledge. Daniel says the people who do
know their God, shall be strong and do great exploits. A heart to know the Lord begets
and nurtures every virtue and every grace and is the basis
of the noblest character, the food which feeds grace till it
matures into glory. The grace of God, this heart
knowledge that God has given us It, my friend, will bring
forth in us obedience unto God, faithfulness in the ways of the
Lord. The fourth thing, and we're going
to come to a conclusion here just in a moment or two, to know
God has a transforming power over us as believers. And we
read in 2 Corinthians 3 and 18 this verse, But we all with open
face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed
into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit. of the Lord. Everything that
we learn, is this not true? Everything that we learn and
know affects our character in some way. A constant sight of
any object, be it good or bad, it tells upon us, does it not?
It tells upon us. Now every thought which crosses
the mind, it affects it somewhere or another for the better or
for the worse. A sight of God through the knowledge of God
that is given to us is the most wonderful, sanctifying influence
that can be conceived of. My friend, if you ever see God
as He's revealed in the Scripture. Brother Henry talked about Isaiah
chapter 6 and verse 1, where Isaiah said, In the year the
king Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord. high and lifted up. His train filled the temple.
Know God, beloved, and view God in the scriptures and you'll
grow to be like Him. You'll grow to be like the Lord.
And God's people are being conformed. As Henry also taught there on
Sunday afternoon, we're being conformed to the image of the
Lord Jesus Christ. The knowledge of God has a further
effect. It will cause us to praise Him.
In Judah is God known. His name is great in Israel.
Wherever the Lord is known, He will and must be magnified. This
God, He will be magnified. If He has given us a heart to
know Him, it is not possible for us to have low thoughts of
Him and to say derogatory things about Him or to act miserly toward
His cause if He has given us a heart to know Him. Now there
are some people I know who I could not help but to act towards in
a generous manner. Just couldn't help but do it.
Have to do it. Because to know these people,
it just elevates you in some way. And you must do the good
and the generous thing wherever they're concerned. Because just
to know them, somehow or other brings it out of you. You just
gotta do the good and the generous thing towards them. So when once
we know God, It is much more so, for to know Him constrains
us to praise Him, not only with our lips, but with our lives.
It makes us feel that nothing is good enough for Him and that
we could die for His namesake if we were called upon to do
it. because we have had God revealed to us and we've seen the Lord,
we've been given this heart. Now, we wish for a glorious high
throne, one writer said, on which he may be exalted above the highest
heavens. Once we have viewed him, we wish
that he was, we just wish we could preach him up and preach
him up and up. And a King of Kings and Lord
of Lords is the way Revelation puts it. Now to sum this morning
of this message. If you have received this heart
to know the Lord, then you bless Him. You bless God for every
minute of your existence. Because without it, you could
not enjoy any other covenant blessing. You could enjoy no
blessing of the covenant without first receiving this heart from
God to know Him. Never cease to praise the Lord,
for He has favored you above measure in giving you such a
priceless blessing, this heart to know Him. Now what should
we do if we do not have this heart? If we don't have this
heart, what should we do? Say, preacher, I don't think
God's given me a heart to know Him. Well, I think you ought
to turn to the Lord and confess your ignorance. Because as one
writer put it, a sense of ignorance is the very vestibule of knowledge. And when an individual comes
to see that God has every right to give this heart, or he has
the right and the sovereign prerogative to withhold this heart, I believe
that will have such an effect upon the individual that he'll
become a beggar after the Lord. Go before God in the name of
Christ with an acknowledgment that you know nothing and that
you're dependent entirely upon Him. if you ever are to know
Him, that you're dependent upon Him to give you this heart and
to ask Him for it. Have you ever asked God to give
you this heart? Well, ask Him. Tell Him how ignorant
and blind and in need you are. The Lord is not deaf. He's not
deaf. His ear is open. Confess! all before Him, your need, and
take your place as a son of Adam, one who has been blinded by the
fall, and one who is in a state of ignorance, and one who has
no spiritual faculties. Although you've got all of these
natural faculties, and you're just way up there with everybody
else, or above a lot of people, You just don't have any spiritual
faculties. Now that'll cut the ground right out from under you.
That'll humble you. Everybody's on the same level
at the foot of the cross. You get a smart... I've had people
in churches before told me, said, well, we chose so-and-so to be
Sunday school teacher because he was one of the most educated
people in the church. Hell, that fella probably is
one of the... probably is the worst candidate for the job.
Just because he's the best educated certainly doesn't mean that he
knows God better than anybody else. Because you don't know
God by wisdom, you know Him by revelation. You know God by revelation. That's how you come to know Him.
So you go before the Lord, confess it all, and say, Lord, let this
be a promise to me, and fulfill it to me. I will give unto them
a heart to know me.