How Does One Know God?

Q: What does the Bible say about knowing God?

The Bible teaches that knowing God is essential to eternal life, as revealed in John 17:3. In John 17:3, Jesus states that eternal life is defined as knowing the only true God and His Son, Jesus Christ. This knowledge goes beyond mere intellectual assent; it is a relational and experiential understanding of God. The Scriptures emphasize that to know God is to enter into a covenant relationship with Him, one that transforms our hearts and minds and directs our lives according to His will.

Q: How do we know that eternal life is a gift?

Eternal life is a gift given by God, not an offer or a reward for actions, as affirmed in John 17:2. Eternal life is described in Scripture, particularly in John 17:2, where Jesus says He has the authority to give eternal life to as many as the Father has given Him. This shows that eternal life is not presented as an offer in the sense of a conditional grant, but rather as a sovereign gift from God to those chosen for salvation. The nature of this gift underscores the grace of God, highlighting that it cannot be earned through deeds but is received through faith in Christ.

Q: Why is regeneration necessary to know God?

Regeneration is necessary because, without it, we remain spiritually blind and cannot comprehend the things of God. In John 3, Jesus tells Nicodemus that one must be born again to enter the kingdom of God. Regeneration is an act of God whereby He imparts new life to those who were dead in sin, enabling them to understand spiritual truths and truly know Him. Our natural inclinations are at odds with God because of sin; thus, we need a transformation of heart and mind to turn towards Him. Only through the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit can we come to faith and knowledge of the true God.

Q: How can one know the true God?

One can know the true God through His Word, personal regeneration, and revelation in Christ. Knowing the true God involves a threefold process: first, one must engage with the Scriptures, which reveal God's character and will. Second, regeneration by the Holy Spirit is necessary, as it grants understanding and the ability to respond to God. Finally, revelation comes through Christ, who is the ultimate manifestation of God in human form. As we seek Him in Scripture and through the work of the Holy Spirit, we grow in our understanding and relationship with God.

Now, I'm going to be speaking
to you today on this subject. How does one know God? How does one know God? Can a person know God? If so,
how? Now, I'll be reading from John
chapter 17, verses 1 through 3. Now, I want you to listen
very carefully to this message. I'd like for you to, first of
all, to find the Scripture. and read it along with me. I'm
going to refer to these three verses almost word for word at
the beginning of the message. But here's the subject now. How
does one know God? Now listen to the scripture,
John 17, verse 1. These words spake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour is come. glorify thy son, that thy son
also may glorify thee. As thou hast given him power,
authority over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to
as many as thou hast given him. And this is eternal life. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, that they might know Thee, the only true God,
and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." This is eternal life. Now, my friends, these words
are taken from the Lord's Prayer. This is the Lord's Prayer. The
great Mediator, the great Intercessor, The great high priest has come
before the Father, and he's praying for Zion. He's praying for his
church. He's praying for his people.
That's what he tells us here in John 17, verse 9. He said, I pray for them. I pray
for them. I pray not for the world. This
prayer is not a general prayer for all mankind. I pray not for
the world. I pray for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and thou hast given them to me." You see that in
verse 9? And then in verse 20 he said, and I pray also for
them which shall believe on me through their word. So we're
listening in on the great high priest as he prays to the Father
on behalf of his church. I feel like Moses when he stood
there on the mountain and saw the bush that burned but was
not consumed. And God said, Take off your shoes,
you're on holy ground. This is indeed holy ground."
We're listening in on the Son of God as He speaks to the Father. Now, let's look at these verses,
beginning with verse 1. It says in verse 1, And these
words spake Jesus. What words? He's taught, the
writer there is talking about the preceding words in John chapter
13, 14, 15, and 16. Our Lord has been instructing
and encouraging His disciples. If you read chapters 13, from
the time He met with them at the Lord's, at the Passover,
the Lord's table, washed their feet. He began to talk to them
about things that they would suffer, things that would come
to pass. He'd been instructing them. He'd
been encouraging them. He'd been warning them. He told
them that the sort of treatment that they could expect. He said,
they'll cast you out of the synagogue, and folks that'll kill you will
think they're doing God a favor. And you can expect this. Marvel
not, my brethren, that the world hate you. It hated me before
it hated you. They hated me without a cause.
So these words spake Jesus. The preceding words in chapters
13 through 16. Now watch the next line. after he'd instructed his disciples
and taught them and encouraged them, and then he lifted his
eyes to heaven, and he's going to speak to the Father. Now,
he'd been speaking for hours to the disciples, and now the
Son of God, the great shepherd of the sheep, the great shearer
to the covenant, the great high priest, speaks to his Father,
prays to his Father on behalf of his disciples. He then lifted
his eyes to heaven and he said, Father, now the next line, the
hour is come. The, the hour is come. This is the hour of which he
spake so often. You remember at the wedding feast
in Cana of Galilee and his mother said there without, they have
no more wine, he said, Woman, what have I to do with thee?
Mine hour is not yet come. And on another occasion he said,
For this cause came I to this hour. Shall I say, Father, let
this hour depart? No, for this cause came I to
this hour. And then on another occasion
it says he walked through their midst. He walked through the
midst of people filled with hatred and seeking to kill him, and
nobody touched him. Why? His hour had not yet come. This is the hour. He said, Father,
the hour is come. This is the hour predestined
from all eternity, from all ages. This is the hour in which all
the promises and prophecies of the Old Testament, all the pictures
and types would be fulfilled. This is the hour. This is the
hour of redemption. This is the hour God spoke about
in Genesis 3.15, when the seed of Wormwood would bruise the
serpent's head. This is the hour portrayed by
Moses when he lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. This is the
hour, and God told us about when every Passover lamb was slain. This is the hour, the hour's
come. And then he said, the hour is
come, glorify thy son. Glorify thy son that thy son
may also glorify thee. Now, what does he mean here,
glorify thy son? Well, as God, he needed no added
glory. All glory and majesty is his. He has a name above every name.
He has all preeminence. Angels worship and adore him. As God, he needs no added glory. But here, as I told you a moment
ago, he's not praying as God. He is praying as man and mediator
and intercessor. He's praying as our Redeemer.
He prays as our high priest. He is our intercessor. Here,
He's speaking on behalf of us. He's our representative. Jesus
Christ is identified with all of His people, the host of believers
of all ages, and He's praying as a mediator. And He's saying
here, Father, sustain me and support me. and uphold me in
all that I must endure to redeem my people. As God, He needed
no support. As God, He needed not to be upheld. He upholds all things by the
word of His power. But as a man, as the God-man,
as the representative, He prays, now glorify me, sustain me, support
me, uphold me in all things. that I may glorify you, that
I may accomplish your purpose. See, the Son came into the world
to accomplish the will of the Father. He said, listen, in John
6, He said, All that my Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I'll in no wise cast out. For I came
down from heaven not to do my own will. I came to do the will
of Him that sent me. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that of all which He hath given me, I'll lose nothing,
but raise it up at the last day." So here the Son, representing
His sheep and His people, He prays that the Father will glorify
Him, that He may glorify the Father, that He may accomplish
the will of the Father, the purpose of the Father in redeeming us.
See, the glorious work of redemption was given to Christ Jesus, laid
upon His shoulders. And in performing that work of
redemption, listen to me, the son honors the father. He reveals and he honors and
he manifests the father's attributes, the law, the justice, the holiness,
the mercy, the love, the grace of God is all manifested and
glorified. In redeeming his people, Christ
glorified his father. enable the Father to be just
and to justify us. And then notice next, he says,
Thou hast given me authority over all flesh. Authority over
all flesh. My friends, Jesus Christ is not
an impotent, weak, frustrated reformer. Jesus Christ is God,
a man on a mission, the God-man on a mission. He's God. He's
King of kings and Lord of lords. And as God, Creator, King of
the kingdom, He has all authority. He has all power over all creatures
in all the universe. Isaiah 9, 6 tells us that. It says, unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be on his shoulders. He said in Matthew 28, 18, All
authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. God has given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow and every tongue shall confess that he's
Lord. God hath made this same Jesus
both Lord and Christ. Don't feel sorry for Christ Jesus. Don't pity the Son of God. He
has all authority and all power and all majesty and all glory. He'll do what He will with whom
He will. He's King. And the Jesus that's
being preached today is another Jesus. And the gospel that's
being preached is another gospel. And the spirit that people are
talking about is another spirit because God does what He pleases
to do. He works according to His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth.
He told one of the old prophets, he said, I'll show you something.
You come with me down to the potter's house. And the prophet
went to the potter's house and the Lord, and God said to the
prophet, do you see that potter working on that clay? Well, he
said, I'm the potter and you're the clay. And if it pleases me,
I'll make out of the same lump one vessel under wrath and another
under honor. The son quickeneth whom he will.
Jesus Christ is God. And then he said, he said, Thou
hast given me authority over all flesh, that I should give
eternal life to as many as Thou hast given me. And my friends,
eternal life is not an offer. It's a gift. Nowhere in God's
Word is eternal life pictured as an offer. It's a gift. Thanks
be unto God for His unspeakable gift, the gift of God's eternal
life through Jesus Christ our Lord. This is the record God
hath given us eternal life. Eternal life's not an offer.
It's not a reward for service rendered. It's a gift. Thanks
be unto God for His gift. Eternal life's not a prize auctioned
off. It's a gift. It's a gift given
to those given to the Son by the Father. That's what He said.
Thou hast given me authority over all flesh that I should
give, not sell, give eternal life to as many as Thou hast
given me. And if you read John 17, this
prayer of the high priest, this prayer of Christ, you'll find
that six times, six times he uses this phrase, those whom
Thou hast given me. He uses that phrase, if you want
to jot it down, verse 2, verse 6, verse 9, verse 11, verse 12,
and verse 24. As many as thou hast given me,
thou hast given me authority over all flesh, that I should
give eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Now watch
the next line. And this is life eternal. This is eternal life,
that they might know thee. that these people might know
Thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent."
Here, the Son of God is defining eternal life. You want to know
what eternal life is? Well, Christ defines it here.
He said, I have the power to give eternal life to as many
as Thou hast given Me, and this is what it is. It is that they
might know God, that they might know the true and living God,
the only true God, he said, the only true God. Eternal life's
not to get religion. It's to know the only true God
and the Redeemer. Eternal life is not just to reform
a person's life or lifestyle. It's to know the true and living
God. Eternal life is not just to attend
church and adopt some traditions and doctrines and do what some
preacher or church says you're supposed to do. It's to know
God. Eternal life is to know God, to love God, to trust God,
to believe God. This is life eternal that they
might know Thee. My friends, I'm reading from
the Scriptures, and a hallowed part of the Scriptures, the Son
of God speaking to the Father. Well, now the question comes,
well, how does one know God? How can a person know God? Not
just some God, his own God of his own imagination, but how
can a person know the living God, the true God, the only wise
God, our Savior? David said, As the thirsty deer
panteth for the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee,
the living God. How does one know the living
God? Well, will you let me answer
that for you? I believe that I can. First of all, I answer
in this fashion. How can one know God? I'll tell
you where I'd start, by reading God's Word. Would you know the
true and living God? Then the Bible must become your
textbook. Now, if you want to know the
Baptist God, then buy you some Baptist material. If you want
to know the Catholic God, buy you some Catholic material and
read it. If you want to know the Methodist or Church of God
God or the Mormon God or whatever, the Buddha, buy you some material
that these people put out and they'll tell you all about their
God. But if you want to know the living God, the true and
living God, buy you a Bible. Now that's true. We must dismiss
our thoughts pertaining to God because we, by nature, do not
know God. We're born strangers to God.
The Scripture says your sins have separated you and your God.
Christ said no man had seen God at any time. No man knows the
Father but the Son and He to whom the Son will reveal Him.
So we're going to have to dismiss our thoughts and the opinions
of others, our own opinions and the opinions of others, and let
God speak for Himself. What does God say about Himself?
Well, there's only one place He speaks. I never heard Him
speak out yonder in the wind, have you? I've never heard God
speak from the sky, have you? The only time that God speaks
is when He speaks through His Word. His Word. We're gonna have to let God speak
for Himself. What does He say about Himself? He says in his
word, let the wicked forsake his thoughts and the unrighteous
man his ways, and let him return to the Lord. For my thoughts
are not your thoughts, and my ways are not your ways. Moses
is an example for us here. Moses says, Lord, show me your
glory. Show me your way. And God spake
to Moses and showed him his way, showed him his glory. He said,
I'll cause my glory to pass before you. On another occasion, as
I mentioned a moment ago, standing by that bush, he said, Lord,
who are you? When I go down into Egypt to
deliver the children of Israel and they ask me, well, who sent
you? Well, what am I going to say? Who are you? And God answered
him, I am that I am. And I'll tell you this, the Scriptures
are the final authority on the character of God Almighty, on
the purpose of God, or the ways of God, the majesty of God, the
holiness of God, the mercy of God, the love of God. Well, I
think God does things this way. Well, you can be sure that's
not it if you think it, or if I think it, because our thoughts
are not God's thoughts. We're going to have to find out
what God says. Let God be God. God spoke to our fathers by the
prophets. The scripture says, let God be
true and ever man a liar. Now, here's the second thing
I would suggest. That's the first thing. Would
you know God? You're going to have to get into the book. You're
going to have to get into the book and find you a preacher
who's in the book and who's preaching the Word verse by verse, line
by line, precept upon precept. Secondly, how can a man know
God? By regeneration. Now, when Nicodemus, the ruler
of the Jews, the religious man, he didn't know God. He knew religion.
He knew the law. He knew the traditions of his
fathers, but he didn't know God. And when he came to Jesus Christ
to discuss the things of God, our Lord simply told him, you
must be born again. You must be born again. He said,
except a man's born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
He can't understand it. Except a man's born again, he
can't enter the kingdom of God. So you must be born again. Here's
the only way you're going to know God. Christ said, Nicodemus,
I've told you earthly things and you don't understand. How
are you going to understand when I tell you heavenly things? You've
got to be born again to even understand, to hear, to understand,
to see the mysteries of the kingdom of God. You've got to be born
again. Nicodemus said, well, how? How can a man be born again? Can he enter his mother's womb
and be born? The second time, Christ said, if that happened,
you'd be just like you are now, because that which is born of
flesh is flesh. It may be born a dozen times
of flesh. It's still flesh. It still thinks flesh and lives
flesh and supposes flesh and has fleshly ways. It's flesh
is flesh, that's all. But a man's got to be born of
the Spirit of God, of the Word of God, by the power of God. We're born with a mind. Everybody's
got a mind. We've got mental powers. People
think, but they don't think straight. Our minds are twisted and warped
and out of kilter and out of focus and enmity against God.
So we're going to have to have a new mind. And everybody's got
a will. You've got a will. I've got a
will. Every human being's got a will. That's one of the characteristics
or attributes of a creature. He has a will. But our wills
are in bondage. Our wills are out of whack. You
will not come to me, God says. The natural mind is enmity and
the will is cripple. And we will not. And not only
that, but we have affections. We love things. What do we love?
Ourselves. We don't love God. We love darkness. This is condemnation. Lights
come into this world. Men love darkness. There's something
happened to our affection. You know what happened in the
garden? God made a perfect man, an upright man, a holy man, and
that man's sin, he represented all men, and when he died, we
died. And when he died, something happened to his mind, something
happened to his thoughts, something happened to his will, something
happened to his affections. We've got a soul, too. heart,
but it's deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked."
So with this fleshly mind and will and affections and heart,
we can't know God. Got to be born again. Got to
have a new mind, new heart. I'll take that stony
heart out and give you a heart of flesh, God says. God gives
a new mind, a mind that thinks on God, a mind to love God, heart
to love God, a will to submit to God. And only with that new
heart, mind, and will will a man come to God. You say, how does
this happen? I don't know. Our Lord described
it to Nicodemus this way. He said, you hear the wind, you
see what it does, you can't tell whence it cometh or whither it
goeth. Even so are those that are born of the Spirit of God.
The Lord quickeneth whom he will. But I tell you what I do. There
was a man called Bartimaeus who was stone blind. He sat by the
wayside begging and Christ came by. And he said, Jesus, thy son
of David, have mercy on me. And Christ said, what do you
want? He said, that I may see. And that's if I were you, I wanted
to know God. I say this to myself. I'd get
into the Word. And secondly, I'd ask God to
give me a heart to love Him, a will to choose Him, and a mind
to lay hold upon the mysteries of God. All right. Thirdly, how
can a man know God? By His Word, by regeneration.
And thirdly, by revelation. What are you talking about revelation?
Well, I John 5, 20 says this. And we know that the Son of God
hath come, the Son of God hath left heaven's glories and come
to this earth, and hath given us an understanding that we may
know Him that is true, and we're in Him that is true, even in
His Son. This is the true God. This is
eternal life. Do you hear that? Let me repeat
it. And we know that the Son of God
has come. That's right. He came into this
world. The disciples said to Him one
day, Show us the Father. He said, He that has seen me
has seen the Father. I and my Father are one. God
was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself. The Son of
God has come. The Word was made flesh and dwelt
among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. And He has come and
hath given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true." What did He say? Eternal life is to know the only
true God. He said, I'm the way, the truth,
and the life. I'm the truth. I'm the way to
know God, I'm the truth of God, and I'm the life of God, and
no man comes to the Father but by me. You see that? He has come and given us an understanding
that we may know Him that is true and that we're in Him that
is true, even in His Son. And this is the true God, and
this is life eternal. God's power, God's purpose, God's
righteousness, God's love. is seen in Christ. You want to
know what God thinks? What God proposes and purposes? You want to know what God's actions
and attitudes are towards the things that you encounter every
day? Then study Jesus Christ. Learn Jesus Christ. Look at Him
and in Him you'll see all that God has for you and all that
you need to see. Would you know God? Get into
the Word. Ask for eyes to see. And then
he that seeth the Son, and believeth on him, hath eternal life. Now
this message is entitled, How Does One Know God? And on the
back of the message is another one I'll preach next week. Send
two dollars and we'll send it to you. Till next week, God bless
you.

How Does One Know God?

What does the Bible say about knowing God?

How do we know that eternal life is a gift?

Why is regeneration necessary to know God?

How can one know the true God?

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How Does One Know God?

What does the Bible say about knowing God?

How do we know that eternal life is a gift?

Why is regeneration necessary to know God?

How can one know the true God?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

Comments

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