GLORYING IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD

H. Jensen

Jeremiah 9: 23–25; John 14: 5–7, 15–17; 17: 3, 7, 8; Philippians 3: 8, 10, 11

I was thinking, dear brethren, of this word in Jeremiah, which is God’s word, as to the value of knowing God, understanding and knowing God. God speaks about it as a glory. Anyone who has the knowledge of God it is glory to them. That is God’s own word. It is a wonderful thing to have the knowledge of God as we do in our day. The Scriptures are indited with that purpose in mind, that men should come to a knowledge of God through the word, through the written word. Then there is also the great matter of the knowledge of God through experience. That is also written about in the Scriptures. There is the knowledge of God, too, that comes through having part in the body which our brother has been speaking about. The purpose of God in setting these gifts in the assembly, that are referred to in 1 Corinthians 12, apostles and prophets and teachers and so on, has in view that the saints should come to the knowledge of God. That is a very great glory. I think we need to be encouraged in the day of small things when there is not any glory publicly. There is nothing outwardly that is glorious about being a Christian, for example. The glory is inward; the glory is related to the fact that the Spirit of God has imbued the saints with a knowledge of things that are outside the world.

There are persons who glory in their wisdom, there are persons who glory in their might, there are persons who glory in their riches. It is remarkable how God touches on those three things. You might say they are the main things that people glory in, although there are many more. Men glory in their wisdom or their riches or their might. You can almost put one of those labels on anything that people take pride in and glory in.

God says, “Let not the wise glory in his wisdom”. Universities are full of people who glory in their wisdom. The business world is full of those who glory in their riches and the nations are full of men who glory in their might. But God puts it all aside when He says, “but let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me”. I think it shows how far superior the people of God are. Yet there is a danger with us of thinking highly of those men who are so wise in this world, or very rich in the things of this scene, or those who are mighty and powerful. There is a danger with us as believers of looking up to them with some adulation, and feeling there is some outstanding glory or prestige attached to them. Not that we should not respect such, that is not the point because some are due respect. But God is saying, “let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me”. How fine that is to know God! Every believer knows God to some extent, some more than others. How thankful we are that we have a great knowledge of God in the present time of the recovery of the truth. No glory outwardly, but inwardly what a glory it is to know God.

I thought these scriptures in John, which are the Lord’s own words, show what the saints of this dispensation possess in the way of knowledge. First of all in John 14 He speaks about this great matter of knowing the Father. He says, “If ye had known me, ye would have known also my Father, and henceforth ye know him”. You might say He is somewhat indicating that they did not know much about the Father yet, “If ye had known me”. Well, they did know Him, and in John 17 He speaks that way to the Father, that they did know Him, and they had received the truth; they received what the Lord had brought to light. How thankful He was that the disciples received what He brought in the way of knowledge. It was through Jesus that they came to know the Father. Men in the Old Testament did not know the Father; the disciples came to know the Father through Jesus. How fine that is, and it is the same with us. Men speak reverentially about God, but how few speak to God in relation to His place as Father in the present economy. How few know anything about that, but the Lord Jesus has revealed God as Father, and if we come to know the Lord Jesus we come to know the Father.

Through Him and by Him, we come to know the blessed God, the almighty God, as Father.

How wonderful that is! He says, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life”, everything centres in Jesus. He is the way into these great things, and He Himself embodies the truth of all that is to be known of God. It says in Colossians, “in him all the fulness of the Godhead was pleased to dwell” (Colossians 1: 19). When Jesus was here, the fulness of the Godhead was there in Him. We can hardly take it in, that the Father, the Son, the Spirit were all there in relation to the manhood of Christ. What food for contemplation it is. So that is how the Father has become known to us.

Then it speaks in these verses I read later about the Spirit, how when He came they were to know Him. The world would not know Him, and the world does not know the Holy Spirit.

You go round in the world and talk about the Spirit, and it is an absolute mystery. No one knows anything about the Holy Spirit in the world’s system at all. He is not the power by which the world’s system is operating. He is the power by which the assembly should operate, by which the body should function, as our brother has been saying. Therefore we come to know Him, and in that way we come to know that the Spirit of God is here actually, not only objectively. Part of our knowledge is to know objectively that the Spirit is here, and we have come to know that we can serve and worship Him objectively because He is God.

But then we come to know more than that because He is functioning in the body. As we see that the body does function, He alone causing it, we realise that the Holy Spirit is actually here. We come to know Him, come to know that He is serving, come to know that He is operating, come to know that He is here

on behalf of Christ, and opening up the glory of Christ. Think of the glories of Christ that have been opened up in the days of recovery that we are in, from Mr Darby’s time down, the many glories of Christ that have been opened up. How? By the Spirit! That also is how we have come to know Him, that He has opened up and made known the glories of Christ.

Then in John 17 the Lord speaks about this matter of eternal life. It is remarkable that He should say this to the Father, “And this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. There has been a struggle in the days of recovery over the truth of eternal life, and it has been a real struggle, because the Holy Spirit was intent that the brethren should understand what eternal life is. There is a sphere of things which is an out-of-the-world condition of relationship and being that the saints can enjoy.

That is what eternal life consists of, and the Lord says, “this is the eternal life, that they should know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. You might say, that all we enjoy in relationships that are out of the world, apart from the world’s system, relationships of life that are eternal, are all related to the knowledge of God. God has brought to light a condition of things where we enjoy relationships that go right into eternity.

So that we know what being brethren of Christ is in reality, not just in the letter of Scripture, but we know what it is to be brethren of Christ together, and have part with Him in relation to the service of God. That is related to the knowledge of God because God has revealed Himself as Father and we are all brethren. We are like Christ, we are brethren of Christ and sons of God. This is all related to the knowledge of God, the way He has revealed Himself at the present time. Who of men knows these things, but the saints and those who have part in the assembly? Those who have part in the body that our brother has been speaking about.

Then He says, “and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. What a wonderful privilege it is to know Jesus Christ the sent One; the One who has come into manhood, and as here in manhood being sent of the Father, sent to do the will of God, sent to carry out the work of redemption, sent to finish all that was laid upon Him. That is what, I believe, it means, “Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent”. Well, we know about Him, we know the Lord Jesus in relation to all that He has been sent to do, and it is the knowledge that we can glory in, the knowledge of these things concerning the Father, the Son and the Spirit.

I read in Philippians because Paul seems to indicate that is what he is after, the knowledge of these things. He was prepared to give up the riches that he had, the might that he had, the place that he had, a place of prominence. This chapter shows that he has given them all up, counted them all as filth. What a mighty man he was in Israel and he gloried in that might at one time, he surely did. How rich he was, you might say, as an Israelite, and he had gloried in that. Now he is setting it all aside, saying he just counts it all as filth. Why? Because he wanted “to know him, and the power of his resurrection”. How he valued the knowledge of God. Let us value it, dear brethren, the knowledge of God, the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

No other family will ever know God as the saints of the assembly, in such a wonderful revelation. So Paul says, “to know him”, here it is to know Christ that he is referring to, I believe, because the antecedent is Christ, “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord”. And then he says, “to know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being conformed to his death, if any way I arrive at the resurrection from among the dead”. I just read that to indicate the value that the beloved apostle Paul placed on the knowledge of God, that he would set everything else aside to have that knowledge.

How testing that is, how little most of us have sacrificed! At least I must say that for myself, how little I have sacrificed to have a real and greater knowledge of God, a greater knowledge of Christ and His resurrection. May we be encouraged that this is our glory, beloved brethren, that we know God, and we rejoice in what He is pleased with. As it says further in Jeremiah, the things that please Him are loving-kindness, judgment and righteousness. Those are the things that God rejoices in and He wants His people to know about those attributes that are His. We do know them in the most outstanding way in our time as revealed in Jesus. May we be encouraged for His name’s sake.

Word in meeting for ministry, Los Angeles
9 July 1996