THE TRUE KNOWLEDGE

OF GOD
 DISCUSSION OVERVIEW
I. THE POWER OF KNOWING THE
TRUE GOD
II. THE PRIORITY OF KNOWING THE
TRUE GOD
 INTRODUCTION
The knowledge of God in the heart transforms a person. We find a
stellar model of such a transformation in the life of the prophet Daniel.
This man suffered unspeakable trauma as a youth when the Babylonians
conquered the kingdom of Judah, desecrated the holy temple of God,
and carried Daniel away as a captive to a foreign land. Forced to work
as a personal servant to the very king whose armies had crushed his
people, Daniel could easily have grown bitter and cynical. He might have
conformed to Babylon’s brutal, pagan ways to advance his career.
Instead, he served the one true God for decades with humility, faith,
integrity, prayer, righteousness, and courage.
The secret of Daniel’s godly conduct is that he knew his God and gave
him all the glory (Dan. 2:28–30).
God’s people derive their faith, hope, and love from their
understanding of who God is and how he works in the world.
Wilhelmus à Brakel said, “The foundation of religion is the character
of God.”
I. THE POWER OF KNOWING THE
TRUE GOD
 As a locus of systematic theology, the doctrine of God is called theology
proper, for the word theology comes from a Greek word that literally means
“speech or words (logoi) about God (theos).”5 The one true God is
distinguished from all others by his glorious nature and his Trinitarian
personality as the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
 Our purpose in studying the doctrine of God is to live unto God through
Christ. Daniel foresaw a time of great trials and temptations for God’s
people, but he said, “The people that do know their God shall be strong, and
do exploits” (Dan. 11:32). The Westminster Annotations comment that, in its
historical context, this statement means they shall “persevere in his pure
service” while “manfully resisting, and overcoming all temptations, enduring
all torments, and cruel kinds of death.”6 The knowledge of God has
strengthened his people through the ages, and it can strengthen us today if,
by grace, we receive it into our hearts.
 We should not think that the knowledge of God strengthens believers
because of an inherent power in theology. Sadly, it is possible to have much
head knowledge of theology with no godliness at all.
The demons know God in this sense and tremble with dread (James 2:19).
However, when someone knows God truly by faith, this knowledge unites
him to God through Jesus Christ. To know God experientially is to trust him
(Ps. 9:10).
Therefore, the study of God is full of both potential and peril. We can never
be neutral in this great pursuit. We might “have a zeal of God, but not
according to knowledge” so that our theology, however scholarly, is a form
of rebellion against God and his saving righteousness (Rom. 10:2–3).
We might profess to know God, but deny him with our abominable, defiled,
and disobedient works (Titus 1:15–16).
 We must proceed in dependence upon Jesus Christ, for he alone gives us
an understanding of the true God that delivers us from the false gods and
idols of this world (1 John 5:20–21). Like Moses at the burning bush, we
stand on holy ground (Ex. 3:5).
Our posture must be worship, and our theology the fuel of doxology, just
as Paul’s deepest theological reflections propelled him into praise( Rom.
11:33–36)

 This is no casual sentimentalism, but wonder, awe, and fear at the majesty
of God.
II. THE PRIORITY OF KNOWING
THE TRUE GOD
 Knowing God and making him known is the heartbeat of authentic human
existence. Since we are made in God’s image, our knowledge of God or lack
of it defines us. Calvin began his catechism with a strikingly familiar
question: “What is the chief end of human life?” He answered, “To know
God.”
 Therefore, the knowledge of God is central and supreme for all human life.
This is so for several reasons.
First, knowing God is the pinnacle of human privilege (Jer. 9:23).
 God does not forbid glorying and boasting, but he demands that we find a
worthy occasion to glory. But if education, power, and wealth are not
worthy, in what should we boast? (v. 24).
 To know God is more enlightening than an advanced degree from a
prestigious school, more strengthening than a great army, and more
enriching than a vault full of gold. Worldliness diminishes a man’s soul and
makes him petty; knowing God ennobles a human being.
 Charles Spurgeon said, “Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing will so
magnify the whole soul of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation
of the great subject of the Deity.”
 Knowing God is better than anything this world can offer us. “There be
many that say, Who will shew us any good? Lord, lift thou up the light of
thy countenance upon us. Thou hast put gladness in my heart, more than in
the time that their corn and their wine increased” (Ps. 4:6–7).
 William Ames, preaching on this text, said, “The highest good of people in
this life cannot be obtained from goods.” Rather, “our true and highest good
consists in the union and communion we have with God.” The joy we find in
him “overcomes, by its own sweetness, all human delights and happiness.”
Second, knowing God is the heart of the covenant. The people of Israel failed
to keep their part of the covenant because they lacked experiential knowledge
of God (Jer. 9:3; Hos. 4:1, 6). God adorned the new covenant—the restored
and enlarged revelation of the covenant of grace—with amazing promises
(Jer. 31:33–34).
When Jeremiah recorded these words, Israel was corrupted by covetousness
and deceit “from the least of them even unto the greatest of them” (6:13). The
Lord would reverse this situation. The gift of knowing the Lord makes
people into true covenant members and covenant keepers.
 At the core of the covenant is the promise of a new heart, a “heart to know
me, that I am the Lord: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God:
for they shall return unto me with their whole heart” (24:7).
Third, knowing God is the essence of eternal life (John 17:3). We might think
that knowing God through Christ is only the means to gain eternal life, but
Christ identified this knowledge as life itself, the very life of heavenly glory
begun on earth.
 In the context of other teachings about eternal life in the Gospel of John,
Christ’s words imply that the knowledge of God illuminates the minds of
men and guides their lives (John 1:4; 8:12), engages their faith in Christ
(3:15–16; 6:47), delivers them from perdition (3:15–16; 10:28),
 Often the turning point in a Christian’s spiritual decline is a fresh view of
God. God gave Job a visible and audible demonstration of glory, and it
silenced his complaints and satisfied his soul (Job 42:1–6). Asaph found
himself spiraling downward in envy and bitterness, until, in “the sanctuary
of God,” he rediscovered the justice and goodness of God (Ps. 73:17–18, 25–
28).
The afflicted author of Psalm 102 spends the first eleven verses complaining
of his sorrows, but the turning point appears in verse 12 with the words
“But thou, O Lord, shall endure for ever.”
 The knowledge of God fosters growth in grace and peace. “Grace and
peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus
our Lord” (2 Pet. 1:2). Thomas Adams (1583–1652) commented, “The
means of multiplying grace and peace in our hearts is knowledge of God.”
Such knowledge is “the pipe or bucket” to draw “the water of life” to us. Peter
reminds us that God “hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and
godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and
virtue” (v. 3). The phrase “all things” emphasizes the sufficiency of knowing
God to empower, motivate, and direct a life of godliness.
 The knowledge of God is both theological and spiritual. The Lord
communicates this knowledge through the “great and precious promises” of
his Word, so that “by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature,
having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:4).
Peter Davids shows that “partakers of the divine nature” refers to the renewal
of God’s ethical image in us, in opposition to the world’s “corruption” and
“lust.”36 Clearly, the kind of knowledge that the apostle Peter commends here
is neither “barren nor unfruitful” (v. 8), but is a knowledge given by the
“divine power” of God’s effectual calling (v. 3).
False ideas of God lead to shallow and syncretistic spirituality; true knowledge
of God produces deep and meaningful godliness.
 CONCLUSION
Nothing is more central to human life than the knowledge of God through
Christ. The apostle Paul counted all the honors and preferments of this world
to be “but dung” compared to “the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord” (Phil. 3:8).
How about you? Do you regard knowing God as your greatest privilege? Have
you entered into a true covenantal relationship with God through the grace of
knowing him? Are you full of gratitude for this gift and eager to grow in it?
Does the knowledge of God crush your pride and subdue your lusts, and
produce a growing love for God and men that evidences itself in good works?