KNOWLEDGE, FALSE AND TRUE.
WHAT is the true knowledge? How may we obtain it? What is its end? its object? its result? It is stated in the text we quoted in the beginning: "And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." It is not a new Bible doctrine. It is older than modern systems. Said the old Idumean emir: "Acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace; thereby good shall come unto thee. Receive, I pray thee, the law from His mouth, and lay up His words in thine heart." That higher knowledge, the only true knowledge, is knowing God—not knowing of God, but knowing God. Knowing Him, we know all, for God comprehends all. How may we know Him?—Only through Jesus Christ; for He is the only Man who has perfectly revealed God to the children of men. He declared to the worldly educated: "I know Him; and if I should say, I know Him not, I shall be like unto you, a liar; but I know Him, and keep His Word." "All things are delivered unto Me of My Father; and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and He to whomsoever the Son will reveal Him." - What is it then to know God?
- How may we know God?
We can not know a thing by knowing of it. We know of many people; we really know but few. To know a thing or a person we must come into harmony with it or him, and only so much as we are in harmony do we truly know. He does not know music who is not in harmony with the music. Until he is in harmony there is discord and harshness. We do not have sympathy or cooperation in a good work until our souls are in harmony with it. Even so can we never know God until our souls are in harmony with Him. We may hear about Him, we may know of Him, but until our heart-strings vibrate in harmony with His mighty heart of love, our wills respond to His great will, we do not know Him, we can not know Him. But how may we know Him? How did the Man Jesus know Him? If we learn that, we may learn how we may know Him. For the Anointed of God did not come to teach a knowledge which He did not experimentally and practically know. He had no text-book to which to refer for definitions in abstruse theories or sciences. He referred to no key the solution of intricate problems which vexed His pupils. He knew them all in His own divine life by knowing God. He had worked out the problems in the nights of prayer when others pleasured or slept. What was the foundation of that knowledge? 1. It was absolute submission to the will of God. It is expressed in the following words of the apostle: "Have this mind in you, which was also in Christ Jesus; who, being originally in the form of God, counted it not a thing to be grasped to be on an equality with God, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, being made in the likeness of men; and being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, becoming obedient even unto death, yea, the death of the cross. Wherefore also God highly exalted Him, and gave unto Him the name which is above every name," etc. This was the mind which ruled Jesus Christ. Hear Him again: "For I came down from heaven, not to do Mine own will, but the will of Him that sent Me." "Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of Him that sent Me, and to finish His work." John 4:34. "Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known Me, Philip? he that hath seen Me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Show us the Father?" John 14:9. And because Christ thus emptied Himself, poured out His life, submitted His will, for all time, it pleased God to fill Him with divine plenitude of power and grace. "For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell." And when the Father dwelt in Him, Jesus represented not Himself but the Father. All of Christ's excellences were the excellences of God. He could say: "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself; but the Father, that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works." And at the close of His wonderful earth life He could in confidence submit His soul, His cause, and His all, to God, and declare: "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do." How shall we receive the same life?—By having the same mind, by yielding all, once for all, and every day, every moment. Thus speaks the Master: "Then said Jesus unto His disciples, If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for My sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" And thus speaks Christ through one who knew Him:— "Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord; for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith; that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being made conformable unto His death; if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead." Phil. 3:8-11. "For the which cause I suffer also these things; yet I am not ashamed; for I know Him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to guard that which I have committed unto Him against that day." 2 Tim. 1:12, R.V. Says the beloved disciple:— "And hereby we do know that we know Him, if we keep His commandments. He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him. But whose keepeth His Word, in him verily is the love of God perfected; hereby know we that we are in Him." 1 John 2:3-5. What blessed instruction and assurance is this! God through Christ has called us into this same blessed school. Listen again; in His prayer to the Father He declares of His disciples: "They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Thy truth; Thy Word is truth. As thou hast sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." And, that they might be fitted, He fills the empty, willing vessels even as God filled Him. "That ye might be filled with all the fulness of God." "And in Him are ye made full." And thus as Christ revealed God the Father to the world, but did not reveal Himself, so will those who empty themselves for Christ's sake reveal the Son to the world. In this are knowledge and positive assurance which the conjecture or hypothesis of the world can not give. We may speak with all truth, "For I know Him whom I have believed." Knowing Him, we shall see and know ourselves in the clear light of Heaven's revealing. Only so can we know ourselves; for God only knows the heart of man. But knowing the Creator, He will reveal to us the creature. This harmony with God, emptiness of self, glad submission to His will, the reception of His Word,—simple faith,—brings into our entire being the life of God, eternal life, of which His Holy Spirit is the earnest. "These things have I written unto you, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, even unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God." And we further "know that to them that love God, God worketh all things with them for good, even to them that are called according to His purpose." Do not be discouraged, therefore, if you have not obtained all that you longed for in the way of book culture in the great schools of the world. You may not have so much to unlearn. Moses, after being learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, found it necessary to take a forty years' post-graduate course with God in the deserts of Midian, working for his board in the meantime caring for the sheep of his father-in-law. Paul, after graduating in a course that was the first among his own countrymen, confessed, "What things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ." And he learned more in his three years' retirement in Arabia, yea, in the few days following his journey to Damascus, where the Lord met him, than he had learned in all the previous years before. O, make the knowing God the basis of all your knowledge! Knowing Him, having His Spirit, filled with His words, you may be able to discern between the good and the evil, you may separate the wheat from the chaff. And then the possibility of knowing God! What does it mean? Does it mean that you will be cramped and narrow and short-sighted? Nay, verily, God's commandment is exceeding broad, and its dimensions lengthwise are eternity. What a field for investigation, for expansion—the unfenced realms of God! Only finite capability will limit the opportunity or quantity. Would you be a painter? What glorious scenes, what vistas of beauty, will then open before you? There will be no need to hasten. Tuition will be free. Would you study astronomy? You may have longed to study that and other interesting7studies here, but may have given it all up for Christ's sake. Do not mourn your hope as dead. It wants more glorious birth, with better facilities. In the redeemed land it will not be hypothesis, but fact. The eye will not gaze through an atmosphere hazed by sin; it will be as clear as the azure air of heaven's dome. The vision will not be dimmed with mortality. You will not be confined to the heights of medium mountains, but gifted with superhuman powers; you may wander from world to world, from sun to sun, and forever bring home to a sinless earth new proofs of God's wonderful works. Would you study music?—There are no such masters of melody on earth as heaven knows. There is music everywhere there, even as discord here. The rolling of the spheres will be the grand bass to the sweet treble of the growing flowers and songs of birds which ears attuned to the harmony of God will hear. But the sweetest music of all will be the grand new song learned only in the school of experience, learned only in knowing God. The minor chords will be absent; it will be only grand major symphonies, sweet enchanting melodies, and glorious songs of triumph, in which all may have a part, with none of the envyings and jealousies which earth now knows. Knowing God, most wonderful knowledge! How easy will be all the minor lessons; how clear all sciences of inanimate things! Who would not know Him, and Jesus Christ, whom He sent?