The Greatest Knowledge Ever Revealed

We read two portions of the Word of God, John chapter 17, verses 6 through 8, and 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verses 9 through 16. And you will see that these passages have to do with the knowledge of God. Our Lord prays and he says to his Father, I have manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest me out of the world.

Thine they were, and thou gavest them to me. And they have kept thy word. Now they have known that all things whatever thou hast given me are of thee.

For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me. The Apostle Paul writes, 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. For what man knoweth the things of a man except the Spirit of man which is in him? Even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who 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 Spirit teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 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 discerned.

But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And may God help us to use that mind for his glory.

Each age in history has had its specific name. Some historian with a sense of humor called the 40s the Aspirin Age. I think some future historian will call the 70s the Explosion Age.

We certainly had the Social Explosion, with the burning down of banks and the taking over of school buildings and the exploding of young people. We had a tremendous economic explosion, and the debris is still falling. We've had an explosion in nationalism, with new nations being born regularly.

And over and above all of this, we've had perhaps the greatest explosion of all, the knowledge explosion. I think you people realize, because you are illiterate people, that our technical knowledge is doubling every ten years. There are over 100,000 technical journals being published in the world today.

When the Library of Congress started, it started with Thomas Jefferson's very fine library. And yet every day, the Library of Congress receives in new books five times the number of books they had when they started with Jefferson's library. Before the 1970s end, Columbia University will add its five millionth book.

In one year, the United States of America and the United Kingdom publish over 65,000 new titles. And by 1980, the world publishers will bring out every year 700,000 new titles. I'm glad God did not call me to review books.

I don't know where I'd start. Now, the interesting thing is this. With all of this technical know-how, with all of this tremendous flood of literature, why is it we have more problems than we've ever had before? We see people making more stupid blunders than they've ever made before.

We seem to have less wisdom than ever before. We seem to be generating educated fools. Why is this? I think there's an answer.

And the answer is this. The world today has divorced knowledge from the source of knowledge, which is God. When you divorce knowledge from the source of knowledge, God, then you have all kinds of problems.

You have facts, but you don't have truths. You have practices, but you don't have principles. You have accomplishments, but you don't have standards.

And this explains why our good friends the scientists come up with marvelous new technical equipment that creates more problems than it solves. We have divorced knowledge from the source of knowledge, which is God, and we no longer learn the way God wants us to learn. God wants us to learn with meekness and humility.

God wants us to look upon the world he has made and receive truth with meekness and humility. Instead, people are conquering truth with pride and arrogance. And truth, instead of being a tool to build with, has become a weapon to fight with because God's been left out.

And so I say to you today, no matter what you may know, and this congregation knows a great deal, if you do not know God, you don't know anything. No matter what you may know, no matter what may be your field of expertise, no matter how skilled you may manipulate either words or concepts or test tubes or machinery, if you don't know God, you don't know anything. You say, Pastor, it's a very drastic statement.

Yes, it is. Most true statements are drastic. You see, when you don't know God, what you have is separated from the totality of what he wants to do.

God built this universe and God built you, and God is working as he is working to put something together. But what we're finding is this. People are learning and learning and tearing things apart.

Paul put it very beautifully when he said about the Lord Jesus Christ, he is before all things and in him all things hold together. He is the key to knowledge. He is the one who is wise.

In him is the sum total physically, bodily of all of God's wisdom. And so I say to you today, the most important knowledge you can have is the knowledge of God. And if you'll build everything else on that knowledge of God, life will be different for you.

When you separate your skill, your learning from God, you lose. Now, in order to help us as weak, ignorant people to know God. In John chapter 17, our Lord talks about this knowledge of God.

In verses six through eight, our Lord answers the four basic questions that lead us to the knowledge of God. If you know the answers to these four questions, my friend, then you can have this knowledge of God, which is the most important knowledge in all the world. Question number one, what is this knowledge? There are many people who claim to know God.

You can walk down Wells Street and people will come out of their little shrines and tell you what they know about God. Or you can go down to the south side of Chicago and go through the university buildings and they'll tell you what they know about God. What is this knowledge? Jesus says, I have manifested thy name.

It is the knowledge of the name of God. Now in the Bible, name means nature. Whenever God changed a person, he changed his name.

Thou shalt no longer be called Abram. Thou shalt be called Abraham. Thy wife shall no longer be Sarah.

I, her name shall be Sarah. From now on, Jacob, your name is Israel, a prince with God. I know who you are.

You're Simon. You shall be called Peter. Whenever God changes a person, he changes his name.

That's why when you were saved, God gave you a new name. Christian, child of God. Now God's name reveals God's nature.

And our Lord Jesus says, I have come to reveal God's name. God's name is not discovered by human ingenuity. God's name is not dug up in some archaeological ruin.

God's name is revealed. There are some things in this world that men cannot apprehend only with human mentality. These things have to be revealed.

God has so built this universe that men of ingenuity and intelligence can derive from it laws and facts. And they can build machinery. But there are some things that have to be revealed.

And this is one of them. God's name. God's name in the Old Testament was I am.

Moses said to the Lord. Who shall I say sent me? What name shall I use? Tell them that I am have sent thee. I am Jehovah.

I am that I am. And Jesus picked up this little name. I am.

And as you go through the Gospel of John, you find him revealing. I am what? I am the bread of life. If you're hungry, God can satisfy you.

I am the light of the world. If you're lost and wandering in a maze of shadows, I can lead you. I am the resurrection and the life.

If you're dead in trespasses and sins, I can raise you up. I am the good shepherd. If you need someone to guide you, God will guide you.

I am the door. If you'll just enter in, you'll be saved. I am the way.

The truth and the life. I'll bring you to God. I am the true vine.

Draw upon me and you'll be fruitful. You see, God is I am. And Jesus said, I am.

He revealed to us that God is whatever you need. In the New Testament, God has a little different name. Father.

You don't often find God called father in the Old Testament. The idea is there, but it's not amplified. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ says he is father.

What a father is to a son. God is to you. People have such weird ideas about God.

You ask the average person, what is God's name? And he'll say, judge. Well, it's true. God is a judge.

God does judge sin, but first he's father. He likes to forgive sin. You ask someone else, what is God's name? Spoilsport.

He's ruining my life. If God loved me. Oh.

What is God's name? Confusion. No. You see, people have such weird ideas.

You know why? The true knowledge of God is the knowledge of his name. And the knowledge of his name comes through Jesus Christ. What is this knowledge? It's the knowledge of the nature of God.

Do you know God? Do you know how God thinks and how God speaks? Do you know how God would respond to various situations in your life? What is this knowledge? It's the knowledge of the nature of God. Our Lord answers a second question. Who can have this knowledge? Now, the world says, well, it's the philosophers, if you have studied the classics.

And nothing wrong with the classics. They're like poison. Know what they are like, but don't let them get into your system.

If you've studied this, then you'll know God. Oh, no. No.

God does not lie at the end of an argument. God doesn't lie at the end of a formula. In the beginning, God.

Who can have this knowledge? Jesus tells us, I have manifested thy name unto the man whom thou gavest me out of the world. Only the saved people have the true knowledge of God. I am reading just now a systematic theology by a man whose salvation I question.

I would not pass judgment upon him, but I question whether he really knew God. And yet he writes a systematic theology. And he writes it from a philosophical point of view.

And I can just see this man's brains grinding and grinding, groping for some way to express what he wants to say. What a relief it is to put the book down and pick up my Bible. And find David, the psalmist, quietly saying, the Lord is my shepherd.

I shall not want. It takes the saved to know God. Now, who are these saved people? Seven times in John chapter 17, Jesus calls his people, those whom thou has given me out of this world.

You see, Jesus Christ is God, the Father's love gift to me. God so loved he gave. And would you believe that I am God, the Father's love gift to his son? You say that's some gift.

I know. It amazes me. But seven times in this chapter, our Lord says, those whom thou has given me, those whom thou has given me.

These are the saved people. Now, not the people of the world. The world does not understand God.

Chapter 17, verse 25. Oh, righteous father, the world hath not known thee. That's pretty obvious.

But I have known thee. And these have known that thou has sent me. Who can have this knowledge? Only those who are saved.

Chapter 17, verse three. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou has sent. You say, I want to know God.

Then you better come to Jesus Christ. But if I come to Jesus Christ, I'm a sinner. That's the kind of people who come to him.

And when you put your faith in Jesus Christ, he saves you. And then you know God. The Holy Spirit comes into your heart.

And the first thing you say is, Abba, Father. It's a personal knowledge. Jesus said to his disciples one day, whom do men say that I am? They said, well, some think you're Elijah, and some think you're one of the prophets, and some think you're Jeremiah.

Whom do you say that I am? Peter said, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And Jesus said, blessed art thou, Simon. Flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father in heaven.

It's the Father who reveals the Son through the Spirit. It's the Spirit who reveals the Son through the Word. And you've got to come to God and have sin taken care of, the blinded mind enlightened, the darkened heart washed clean, before you can know God.

This is illustrated so beautifully in the Gospel of John. I know you people know the Gospel of John well, but just let me remind you of it. Over in John chapter 4, the Lord Jesus finds a Samaritan woman by the well.

She was not a very good woman. She'd been living a wicked life. What did he try to do? He tried to lead her to know himself.

In verse 9, she looks at him and says, how is it that thou being a Jew? In verse 12, she says, are you greater than our father, Jacob? In verse 19, she says, oh, I perceive that thou art a prophet. In verse 25, she says, I know Messiah is going to come. And Jesus said to her in verse 26, I that speak unto thee, am he.

Let me translate that. I am is speaking unto thee. And she believed.

And she leaves her water pot and she goes into the city in verse 29. And she doesn't say, there's a Jew out here, or there's somebody greater than Jacob, or I've met a prophet. She says, come see a man who told me all things that ever I did.

Is not this the Christ? She'd come into the knowledge of God. The same thing happened to a blind man over in John chapter 9. A blind beggar. Jesus healed him.

In verse 11, they said to this man, who did this? He said, a man called Jesus. There must have been many people called Jesus in that day. In verse 17, he says, he's a prophet.

In verse 31, he says, if any man be a worshiper of God, God will hear him. A man called Jesus, a prophet, a worshiper of God. In verse 35, the Lord Jesus found him and said, do you believe on the son of God? He answered and said, who is he, Lord, that I might believe? Jesus says, thou hast both seen him.

It is he that talketh with thee now. And he said, Lord, I believe. And he worshipped him.

He found the son of God. Here's a godless woman. Here is a begging blind man.

And both of them, little by little, came into the knowledge of God through Jesus Christ. Who can have this knowledge? Only the saved. We may not have riches.

We may not have power. We may not have prestige. But we have something the unsaved world doesn't have.

We know God. Our Lord answers a third question in John chapter 17. What is the value of this knowledge? Why bother to know God? As long as I know my business, I know how to balance my checking account.

As long as I know how to make my family happy. Why bother to know God? Look at verse 7, John 17. Now they have known that all things whatever thou hast given me are of thee.

When you know God, you have the potential for knowing all things. That stuns some of you. But it's true.

Let me explain it. When you know God, you know the greatest person in all the universe, the one who made the universe. Behind this universe is mind and heart.

This is not an impersonal, unkind universe. Behind this universe is a heart and a mind. And that heart and mind belong to God.

And when you know the heart and mind of God, you know the world better. I love to read the Psalms because the psalmist understood the weather. He understood the birds that fly and the fish that swim.

He understood the winds and the icy storms. He understood the little creatures that came crawling out at night to look for their food. When you read the Psalms, you read the writings of a man who knows his world because he knows the maker of the world, God.

I speak to some people right now who are living in an unfriendly world. You don't understand this world. There's so much about it that fights against you.

Why don't you get to know the one who made it? When you get to know God, you get to know yourself better. You know why? You were made in the image of God. I think our modern psychologists are going at this thing backwards.

They're trying to understand man apart from God. You can't do it. We're made in the image of God.

Satan said to Eve, Now look, if you'll do this, then you'll know. Oh, you want knowledge. Here's the tree of knowledge.

Don't you want knowledge? Eve said, Yes, I do want knowledge. And she tried to get knowledge apart from God. And as a consequence, lost her knowledge of the world and lost her knowledge of herself and of God.

Instead of running into God's arms, she ran away from God. Instead of helping her husband to do right, she helped him to do wrong. That's always what happens when you have knowledge apart from God.

It becomes a weapon to fight with instead of a tool to build with. But when you come to know God through Jesus Christ, when you're saved, when you're born again, when you have the Holy Spirit, when sins are forgiven, then you know yourself better. And the better you get to know God, the better you know yourself.

And the more you become that better self that God wants you to become. When you get to know God, you know how rich you are. Jesus said, They know that everything you've given to me came from you.

Whatever you gave me, I've given them. Oh, the people who walk around living in spiritual and emotional poverty because they won't lay hold of all that they have in God. Recently, I was interviewed by a student who was supposed to gather information about his pastor for a course.

And I was glad to cooperate. One question stumped me for a few minutes. The question was, What is the most frustrating thing about the ministry? There wasn't a big space there to fill in either.

And I thought to myself, Well, on certain days, certain things frustrate you. But then the Lord said to me, You know that one thing that frustrates you about yourself? You know what frustrates me most about myself? I know far more than I live. And the thing that frustrates me about the people I try to help is they won't lay hold of what God has for them.

They walk around as cripples, emotional cripples, spiritual dwarfs. Oh, when we could be skipping up on the mountaintops, mounting up with wings like eagles. That's the frustrating thing.

What's the value of this knowledge? Why, my friend, when you know God through Jesus Christ, you're saved. When you know God through Jesus Christ, you have eternal life. You're going to heaven.

You don't have to be afraid of life or death or time or eternity. When you know God through Jesus Christ, you know your world and you know yourself. And you aren't a stranger to yourself.

And the world's not a stranger to you. And God's not a stranger to you. And God smiles down upon you and says, There's one of my children.

I'm going to take care of him. Our Lord answers a fourth question. How do we receive this knowledge? In John 17, 6, he told us what it is, God's nature.

In John 17, 6, he told us who receives it, God's children. In John 17, 7, he tells us why it's important. It makes us rich.

It enriches us. Now, in John 17, 8, he tells us how we get it. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me.

And they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee. And they have believed that thou didst send me. And at the end of verse six, they have kept thy word.

Now watch the sequence here. God, the father, gave the word to God, the son. God, the son, gave the word to his disciples.

They received it. They believed. They obeyed it.

That's what that word kept means. They've kept thy word. They've obeyed thy word.

And the result is they had assurance. They know surely that I've come out from thee. Get that sequence.

God, the father, gives the word to God, the son. God, the son, gives it to his disciples. They receive the word.

They believe because faith comes by hearing the word. In believing, they obey. In obeying, they have assurance.

Let me tell you why some of you don't know God better. You don't know your Bibles better. Let me tell you why husbands and wives don't get along with each other.

They don't spend time in the word. Let me tell you, young people, why you're drifting. You're not spending time in the word.

How do you get to know God better? A Sabbath day's journey on the golf course? No. Oh, I can see God in the trees. Yes, you can.

Yes, you can. But if you want to know God, you take this gift that God has given to you and you live in it. You read the Old Testament and meet the God of history, the God of law, the God of power.

You walk into the four gospels and meet the God who picks up the baby in his arms, the God who stills the storm, the God who says, Father. You walk into the book of Acts and see the God of power working through the lives of people, doing miraculous things. You walk into the epistles and meet the God of wisdom and knowledge.

You walk into the book of Revelation and you see God on the throne making all things new. Wherever you turn in this book, you meet God. But you don't turn in this book.

You have more important things to do. It's much better, much more important to watch television and devour the newspapers and do all sorts of things. Everything is more important than getting to know God.

How do we get this knowledge? How do we receive this knowledge? We come to this book beyond the sacred page. I seek thee, Lord. The psalmist said, my soul pants for God, thirsts for God.

Does it? Does it? Did you spend time this morning in the word of God, meeting God? You see, if I'm going to get to know God, first of all, he's got to have my heart. He's got to have my mind. If he's going to share this knowledge with me, he's got to have my heart.

My son, give me thine heart. He's got to have my mind. We have the mind of Christ.

He's got to have my will. They kept the word. They obeyed the word.

When people come to me and say, you know, Pastor, I don't seem to get much out of my Bible. My first question sometimes is, are you obeying what you already know? If any man is willing to do his will, he shall know the doctrine, said Jesus in John 7, 17. Obedience is the organ of spiritual knowledge.

A disobedient saint doesn't get to know God as he should. And Paul wrote and said, oh, dear friends, your eyes have never seen. Your ears have never heard.

Your heart could never begin to imagine all that God's prepared for you right here and now. But God's revealed these things by his spirit. Where? In his word.

Do you mean to tell me if I allow the spirit of God to teach me from the word of God, that God will begin to do great things in my life? Yes. Do you think God is glorified by a limping dwarf saint? Do you think the heart of God is rejoicing over some Christian who is in bondage and slavery? No, no. God wants us to be our best.

You see, when God can give us his best, then we are at our best and then we can glorify him the best. How do we receive this knowledge? Well, John, chapter 14, verse 21. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my father, and I will love him and will manifest myself unto him.

You've got to obey. That's the will. You've got to love.

That's the heart. You've got to learn. That's the mind.

If I turn my mind and my heart and my will over to him, he moves in. And my heart and his heart beat together and my mind and his mind think together. And it is God that worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

But we're too lazy. We'll sit for hours in a rowboat, drowning worms, but we get tired if we stay too long at church. We're too lazy.

The old saints spent time in the word of God and prayer. They wanted to know God. They didn't care if they didn't know the batting averages.

They wanted to know God. It didn't bother them if they didn't know the names of all the winning racehorses. They wanted to know God.

We don't want to know God today. And the tragedy is, people die and go out there and meet a stranger. They live in a strange world.

They're strangers to themselves. Then they go out into eternity and meet a stranger. It doesn't have to be like that.

Can you look up to God just now and say, Father, Now, if you can't, you better come and give your heart to Christ. The greatest knowledge in all the world is the knowledge of God. Paul had been saved for 30 years when he wrote, You can have this knowledge.

Come to Jesus Christ. Come humbly to the word. Let the spirit of God reveal God to you.

And when you know God, that's all you need to know. Everything falls into place. You fall into place.

People fall into place. History falls into place. The weather falls into place.

Everything falls into place when we know God. We can't explain everything, but we accept. And we obey.

And we love. If you and I would spend half of the time getting to know God, that we do getting to know the other things of life. Oh, what a what a life we would live.

Jesus prayed that we might come to know him. Let's answer that prayer. Gracious Father.

Forgive us for investing time and money and energy. In learning many things apart from you. In this complex world, there are many things we need to know.

But help us to relate all of it to you. May we have no dissociated knowledge. May we have no knowledge that is apart from God.

May we bring everything, oh Lord, into the light of who you are. And what it is you want to do. May we have the mind of Christ.

Functioning. Forgive us for neglecting the word and prayer and worship. Oh God, cleanse us.

And I would pray for those who have never begun in their knowledge of God. Who have never come to trust him. That even today they might trust him for Jesus' sake.

Amen.