Knowing God

Knowing God has to do with obedience. Take by faith that Jesus will answer your present need.


Scripture: Psalm 91:15-16

Transcript

And hello, radio friends. How in the world are you? This is your good friend, Bob Cook, and I’m glad to be back with you for a few moments of sharing from God’s Word. What we try to do is to put a handle on the Word of God so you can get hold of it for yourself. A learned discussion that goes on and on may be pleasant enough but it does us no good unless we are able to get hold of the truth for ourselves and apply it to our own lives. And that, of course, is what I’m after day after day.

Now, we talked about the first “because” phrase, “because he hath set his love upon me,” you recall that. Now we got another one, “Because he hath known my name I will set him on high. I will answer him, I will be with him, I will deliver him, I will honor him, and I’ll satisfy him with long life, and I’ll show him my salvation.” What a set of promises that is. I get blessed just reading them over and when we start to think about them and talk about them, there’s no telling what will happen. I may have a spell and go right to glory, you never know. [chuckle]

Well, He says, “Because he hath known my name… ” Now, the names of God, here are a few of them: Jehovah Jireh, the Lord will provide; Jehovah Nissi, the Lord my banner; Jehovah Shalom, the Lord will send peace; Jehovah Shammah, the Lord who is there, that’s a great one, the God who’s there; Jehovah Tsidkenu, the Lord our righteousness; and Jehovah Jehozadak, our high priest. These are just some of the names of Jehovah God. “My name, because he hath known my name,” do you know then the God who provides? Well, you don’t really get to know that unless you have a need and He provides it.

Over in Deuteronomy it said, “He led thee and He allowed thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which though knewest not.” He allowed thee to hunger. You see, you wouldn’t really appreciate God’s supply unless you had a need. I carry that little card in my wallet that my sister gave me many years ago that said, “When you’re down to nothing at all then for the first time you may be aware that God is enough.” Oh, He allowed thee to hunger. Don’t fight the needs that you face, but turn them over to your blessed Lord so He can supply the need and teach you that He’s enough. The Lord will provide.

Have you gotten to know His name, the Lord my banner? Do you stand tall and proud for Jesus? “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father, which is in heaven.” Our Lord Jesus wants you to be proud of Him, not proud in a stuck-up sense, but proud in a glad, glorious, belonging sense.

Jehovah Shalom, the Lord send peace. You know something about the peace that passes understanding that comes when you commit everything to the Lord in prayer. The Lord gives peace. The Lord who is there, Jehovah Shammah. Oh, that is a great one. You can’t see around the corner but He’s already there. Hallelujah. He never forsakes. He said, “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee.” He’s always there. And then the Lord our righteousness, you don’t have any of your own. You and I are permanently defiled by sin, we have a sin nature but God gives us His new nature, and by faith we accept the righteousness of God. Now, the righteousness of God is manifested, Paul writes, in Romans 3, “Not that which is of the law but that which is of the faith of Christ.” The righteousness of God means out of and belonging to. The righteousness that comes out of Him belongs to God by faith.

So we conclude that a man is justified not by the works of the law but by the faith of Christ, Paul says. He himself becomes our righteousness. There’s the point. It’s not what you are, it’s what He is that counts. And you by faith can appropriate all of that. You can have what someone has called “the exchanged life.” And you exchange all of your need and misery for His righteousness and beauty. And you take it by faith. Christ is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. You can take by faith all that He is for all that you need. I do this every day, don’t you? Many of you do, I know. You can take by faith, just as you trusted Him to save you, so you can trust Him to fulfill your life with all that He is. You can take by faith what Jesus is for your present need. Christ has made unto us wisdom, made unto us righteousness, sanctification and redemption. That’s great. “He hath known my name.”

Now, you come over into the New Testament and oh, what a wealth there of meaning you have. Have you looked recently at the names of the Lord Jesus Christ? The Thompson Chain Reference Bible is the one I use ordinarily to do my Bible teaching. And there, I’ve looked back in the index under the titles and names of Christ, and there are four columns. No, two columns. Two columns of names. Let me give you a few. I don’t wanna bore you but this is just a thrilling rundown. This is the different names that are applied to the Lord Jesus Christ our Savior. He’s the second Adam, He’s the advocate, the Almighty, the Alpha and Omega, the Amen, the Apostle of our profession, the Arm of the Lord, the Author and Finisher of our faith, the Author of Eternal Salvation. That’s all the As. Then the Bs. He’s the Beginning of the Creation of God, He’s the Beloved Son, He’s the Blessed and the Only Potentate, He’s the Heavenly Branch and He’s the Bread of Life. That’s the Bs.

Then the Cs, He’s the Captain of Salvation, He’s the Chief Shepherd, He’s the Christ of God, He’s the Consolation of Israel, He’s the Cornerstone, He’s the Counselor, He’s the Creator. There’s a Scripture for every one of these, by the way, but I can’t go into all of them. Then the Ds, He’s the Day-spring, the Deliverer, the Desirer of all nations, the Door. Then the Es, the Elect of God, the Everlasting Father, the Faithful Witness, the First and the Last, the First Begotten, the Forerunner. And then He’s the Glory of the Lord. He’s called God in a number of places. And God blessed in Romans 9. The Good Shepherd, the Governor, the Great High Priest. He’s the Head of the Church, the Heir of all things, the Holy Child, the Holy One, the Holy One of God, the Holy One of Israel, and the Horn of Salvation. He’s the I am, the Image of God, and Immanuel. He’s Jehovah and Jesus, and Jesus of Nazareth, and the judge of Israel, and the Just One.

He’s the King, the King of the Ages, the King of the Jews, the King of Kings and the King of Saints. He’s the Law-giver and the Lamb, the Lamb of God, the Leader, the Life, the Light of the World, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Lord of All, the Lord of Glory, the Lord of Lords, the Lord our Righteousness. Isn’t that great? This is just a list of the names of the Lord Jesus, and you could preach a sermon on every one, could you not? Oh, that’s great.

He’s the Man of Sorrows, the Mediator, the Messenger of the Covenant, the Messiah, the Mighty God, the Mighty One, the Morning Star, the Nazarene, the Only Begotten Son. He’s our Passover, he’s the Prince of Kings, the Prince of Life, the Prince of Peace, the Prophet. He’s the Redeemer, the Resurrection and the Life. He’s the Rock, the Root of David, the Rose of Sharon. He’s the Savior, the Seed of the Woman. He’s the Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls. He’s Shiloh, the Son of the Blessed, the Son of David, the Son of God, the Son of the Highest, the Son of Man, the Son of Righteousness. He’s the True Light, the True Vine, the Truth, the Witness, the Word, and the Word of God. That’s just one listing of the names of our Savior. Oh, my.

Now, He said, “Because he hath known my name… ” To know something means to have an experience of it. In the Bible sense, if you know something, you have an experience of it. It’s not just in your head. I can know the name of a person. Good morning, Mr. Jones, or Smith, or Brown. Good morning. I could know the name so that I recognize it. But to say, “I know that man,” that means I have to have some relationship with him. I have to have some experience of him in terms of interacting with his life. That’s different, isn’t it? Now, that’s the meaning, then, of the Scripture that says, “Because he hath known my name.” How do you get to know God in this sense? “The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenant,” it says in Psalm 25. To know God means to yield to Him and to commit yourself to Him. This word “fear” in the Old Testament is a combination of awe, respect, love, and trust, and obedience. To fear God means that you respect Him, you love Him and you obey Him.

And so, the matter of knowing God comes about when you commit yourself to Him in yielding and in obedience. “He that loveth me will keep my words,” He says, “And I will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” To have God living with you, that’s really knowing God, isn’t it? Yes, it is. How do you get to know God? Number one, you accept His free offer of forgiveness. Some of you listening to me right now have never been what the Bible calls born again. That is to say, you’ve never confessed your sins to God and asked Jesus to save you. That’s the first step in knowing God. You really won’t know Him nor will He acknowledge you until you have yielded to Him as Lord and Savior. You see, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God,” Jesus said. “He that believeth on the Son is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.”

It’s a very clear matter that the start of knowing God is yielding to the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior and opening your heart to Him. Do that before you’re one hour older, will you? If you’ve never done that, start there. Then what? Then you start the process of obeying Him; moment by moment you seek to obey His will, and He then reveals himself to you. “The secret of the Lord is with them that obey Him, fear Him.” And so God will reveal Himself to you if you obey Him. Back to that verse that I’ve quoted two or three times now, “If a man loves me he will keep my words and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him.” That word “abode” means live like you live in a house as a permanent residence. God’s mailing address is gonna be your life. He’s gonna be living in your life. Paul said, “The secret that we preach among the nations is Christ in you, the hope of glory.” “Nevertheless, I live,” he told the Galatians, “Yet not I but Christ liveth in me.” And so, this whole matter of knowing God has to do with obeying Him.

And then look into His word as I’ve just listed for you the many names of the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, look into God’s Word and where you find one of these names, which delineates a function of His glorious life. Think and pray about it and ask God to reveal in your life the reality of that particular function. He’ll do it. Oh, how rich is the experience of knowing God’s name. Now, we’ll finish this up the next time we get together.

Dear Father today, we pray that we may get to know Thee by obeying Thy will and yielding to thy Holy Spirit, I ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Till I meet you once again by way of radio, walk with the King today and be a blessing!



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