How can I get to know God better?

But God was not, and could not be, fully known until the only-begotten Son which is in His bosom came forth to reveal Him, then, and not till then, was God manifested in flesh. Then, and not till then, did any, either men or angels, behold Him fully revealed. In the Old Testament Scriptures His power and wisdom and the glory of His many attributes were disclosed, but in Jesus His nature is revealed, so that if we would know God, in the fulness of His nature and the blessedness of His love, we must read the New Testament Scriptures. David longed for a complete and all satisfying revelation of God to his soul, and in the Psalms he cried, “O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me... then will I go unto the altar of God, unto God my exceeding joy” (Ps. 43:3). God has answered the deep longing for the light and the truth that was ever in the souls of His saints in that old dispensation, and in the New Testament days, the fulness of the times, He “sent forth His Son, made of a woman,” and He is THE LIGHT and He is THE TRUTH. As we read the Gospels we see the light and hear the truth. Behold the Lord healing the lepers and blessing the children, moved with compassion for the widow in her sorrow and raising her dead son to remove that sorrow, stilling the storm to relieve His disciples of their fear, and feeding the multitude lest they fainted on their homeward way, weeping with bereaved and faithful Mary, and yearning with tears over unfaithful and rebellious Jerusalem. Hear Him saying to an outcast sinner, “Thy sins are forgiven,” and to another, “Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more.” See Him stretching out His hands to weary and sin-sick men, and saying to them, “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest.” Behold His acts of kindness and listen to His words of grace, and in beholding and hearing Him, you will behold and hear the Father. How attractive God has become in Jesus: we see God in Christ, not imputing our transgressions to us, we draw near to Him with confidence, we feel that He is all we need, a Saviour God and the all-sufficient object of our otherwise empty, unsatisfied hearts. But we were not there to see and hear these things. We are dependent on a record of them, and that record we have in the Bible. It gives us the divinely inspired account of all that Jesus said and did that are necessary for our faith and salvation.

But God was not, and could not be, fully known until the only-begotten Son which is in His bosom came forth to reveal Him, then, and not till then, was God manifested in flesh. Then, and not till then, did any, either men or angels, behold Him fully revealed. In the Old Testament Scriptures His power and wisdom and the glory of His many attributes were disclosed, but in Jesus His nature is revealed, so that if we would know God, in the fullness of His nature and the blessedness of His love, we must read the New Testament Scriptures. David longed for a complete and all satisfying revelation of God to his soul, and in the Psalms he cried, "O send out Thy light and Thy truth: let them lead me … then will I go to the altar of God, to God my exceeding joy" (Ps. 43:3). God has answered the deep longing for the light and the truth that was ever in the souls of His saints in that old dispensation, and in the New Testament days, the fullness of the times, He "sent forth His Son, made of a woman," and He is THE LIGHT and He is THE TRUTH. As we read the Gospels we see the light and hear the truth. Behold the Lord healing the lepers and blessing the children, moved with compassion for the widow in her sorrow and raising her dead son to remove that sorrow, stilling the storm to relieve His disciples of their fear, and feeding the multitude lest they fainted on their homeward way, weeping with bereaved and faithful Mary, and yearning with tears over unfaithful and rebellious Jerusalem. Hear Him saying to an outcast sinner, "Thy sins are forgiven," and to another, "Neither do I condemn thee, go and sin no more." See Him stretching out His hands to weary and sin-sick men, and saying to them, "Come to Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest." Behold His acts of kindness and listen to His words of grace, and in beholding and hearing Him, you will behold and hear the Father. How attractive God has become in Jesus: we see God in Christ, not imputing our transgressions to us, we draw near to Him with confidence, we feel that He is all we need, a Saviour God and the all-sufficient object of our otherwise empty, unsatisfied hearts. But we were not there to see and hear these things. We are dependent on a record of them, and that record we have in the Bible. It gives us the divinely inspired account of all that Jesus said and did that are necessary for our faith and salvation.

God's object in recording these scenes is to give us a deeper knowledge of the Christ whom you and I know. I do not say you all know Him. There are many believers today who do not seem to know Him. They would not deny His existence, His love or grace; but still I meet many a saint who is not at home with Christ Their walk, ways, conversation, and whole manner of life show that they are at home in a different scene altogether. I believe the great point of these manifestations in resurrection is to impress upon our souls the blessed truth that an unchanged Christ is before our hearts. If you have travelled with Him through the Gospels, you will have learned much of His character. I will ask you, Have you done it? I do not ask you, Have you read your Bible, but, Have you travelled with Christ through the Gospels? Do you read them so as to put yourself in His company? You will never know Him otherwise; because the Spirit of God is not going to make revelations of Christ to you and me if we are lazy in perusing the record He has already given us of Him. I do not believe it for one single moment.

Further, you will never find truth, even in the Bible, if you sever it from Jesus. But the moment the same blessed One, who has shown me in His own life and death what man is, has also shown me in the very same what God is, then all the clouds break and the difficulties vanish. Now I know God, beholding Him in Jesus. New thoughts of God dawn on the soul, and submitting to Him, I am made perfectly happy; perhaps not all at once, but as surely as my soul has received Jesus, and learnt what the true God is in Jesus, I have eternal life, and shall find unbroken peace; but in Him I receive all that I want, all that God intends for my soul, because the truth is in Jesus. Thus, then, as a believer, I know God; I know that which the heathen never did nor could reach. Their understanding was darkened. Having no knowledge of Jesus, they had no full or saving means of knowing God. But this is precisely what the gospel brings close to every poor, needy soul who hears it now. And what is it then that I learn of God, when I look at the truth as it is in Jesus? I learn first this — a God that comes down to me, a God that seeks my soul to do me good, a God that can follow me with love, selfish as I am, and pity my ignorance, and not this only, but One that can instruct me, and is willing to do it, spite of my wilfulness and stupidity; in short, a most gracious and faithful God He makes Himself known in Jesus. I find One who, after using other means, spent Himself in love upon me, that I might know Him; One who undertook to bear the judgment of my sins. For Jesus came and took all sins upon Himself for every soul that believes upon Him. I learn now that even the hateful self which has so refused and slighted Him — for this He has suffered, and completely deals with it. It has been judged in the cross of Christ; and if my soul believes that God is good enough to do all this for me, to suffer all this for me, to take and bear the whole consequence upon Himself in the person of His beloved Son; if I see this and bow to it, and receive it from God, what can shake or harass my soul more? My sins? Certainly if anything ought to trouble my soul, they most of all. But what is the cross for? What has God done there? What has He told me in the gospel? If it was God revealing Himself in His beloved Son, if it was Jesus the Son of God that was made sin there, why should I have a single doubt or anxiety upon that score? All depends upon this: Have I bowed to what God has wrought and given me in the cross of Christ? If I am despairing about sin, it is in effect making the cross of Christ of none effect, and the work of Christ a vain thing. He has perfectly done His task, and I am entitled so to rest upon it, as to know that my sins never can come up against me more. Ought I not to be a happy man, and to rest in the most perfect peace because of what Jesus had done and suffered? Here faith can repose. Christ's death has such value in the mind of God, that He loves to give this peace in consequence. Such is the truth as it is in Jesus. What a wonderful depth and breadth of truth there is, if you look at it thus! What a poor thing my own experience is, compared with the truth as it is in Jesus! Spiritual power is much more proved by discerning Jesus in others, than by measuring or comparing what people are in themselves, which, indeed, is far from wise. But yet what a disappointing thing it is to see Him merely as He is reflected in others! I must look at the truth as it is in Jesus: in what He was here below, as One who has shown me all through His life and up to His death what God is and man too, Himself the model-man.

If there is in any heart a desire to return to God, it has been produced by the gospel, and the gospel is the preaching of Christ. It tells us of the goodness of God, and where He is to be found. By nature we neither know God, nor where to find Him. Job says, "Oh that I knew where I might find him! I would come even to his seat!" The gospel makes God known to us. We learn that He is merciful, and gracious, and full of kindness and love to man; and we learn this in Christ, in whom He is to be found; and we turn to Christ, and in turning to Christ we turn to God, for in Him we meet a Saviour-God. And from Him we get living water—life in the power of the Spirit.

God is; and another scripture says, "He that comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him" (Heb. 11:6). I have first of all to get in my soul the sense that God is. You may say, I do not know Him. That is quite true, and the question is, How can you know Him? You cannot learn Him from nature; but He reveals Himself by His Son and by His Word. "God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in times past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by his Son" (Heb. 1:1-2). The great thing to get hold of is this, that God has spoken. What you and I have to do is to listen, and I am certain of this, if you listen, you will believe, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. If you listen to God's Word, it will have an effect upon you, it will produce a deep, real mark upon you — a mark which reason will not produce, because reason may turn a man away from God, and often does; but faith, the fruit of the reception of the Word of God, always leads a man to God.

Now, how shall the believer have his mouth filled with the words of his God? How shall he know what God says to him? By deep, painstaking, prayerful labour over it. The knowledge of even the letter of the word is not gained at once. Continual feeding upon the word is requisite, the whole soul needs to be taken up with it — "Thou shalt meditate thereon day and night." By filling the affections with the words of the sacred volume, by loving labour over the book of our God, by seeking the Holy Spirit's teaching, praying for the eyes of our heart's enlightenment, and for the spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God, the heart becomes so stored with its words, that we are able to observe to do, according to all that is written therein. And thence flow spiritual prosperity and good success. The great aim of the child and servant of God should be acquaintance with, and obedience to, his God's mind.

But how are we to increase in this knowledge? Colossians 1:9-10 tells us that Paul prayed for it without ceasing for the saints. Surely then he prayed for it for himself. If the desire is awakened for it in our hearts, let us pray for it, let us cultivate intercourse with God in the reading of the Scriptures and in prayer and praise, bringing Him into all our circumstances, as, on the other hand, we seek to be interested in His interests and joys.

Above all God is made known in and through Christ, and it is in and through Christ we get to know God.

God has given us His truth that our thoughts may be fashioned like unto His own. This is to enjoy communion with Him. Our previous study, on standing and state, naturally prepares the way for the consideration of this blessed theme of realized fellowship with God, “Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began” (2 Timothy 1:9). He, who has thus so richly blessed us, desires to have us in living, happy communion with Himself, and this is the instinctive desire of every renewed soul. By nature and practice we are alienated and an enemy to God by wicked works, but when grace has wrought in the soul—when new birth has taken place—at once there springs up a yearning for fellowship with the blessed One whom now we address by the Spirit as “Abba Father” (Romans 8:15; Galatians 4:6). Now this communion is not a human thing. Man in the flesh can have no fellowship with God. It is only known and enjoyed in the power of the Spirit. The direct means for its maintenance are the Word of God and prayer. In the Bible, God speaks to me. In prayer, I speak to Him. I use the word prayer here in its widest application; not merely as offering petitions, but as lifting up the heart to God in praise likewise.

We have some blessed examples of this in the experience of Paul. Take, for instance, the first eleven chapters of the epistle to the Romans. In chapters 1 to 8, God, by His Spirit, unfolds what we might call the glorious, divine philosophy of the plan of salvation; while in chapters 9 to 11 he unfolds His dispensational ways. What is the result of the soul’s apprehension of all this? It leads to an outburst of praise that fairly bubbles up in exultant joy from the apostle’s soul in verse 33 of chapter 11: “O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!” This is communion; and a most hallowed and blissful thing it is to be taken up with the marvelous counsels and ways of God. In Ephesians 1 we have another lovely example of the same thing. In the early part of the chapter there is a wonderful opening up of God’s eternal purpose. Then from verse 15 the apostle is in prayer that others may enter into and enjoy these precious things, so infinitely beyond mere human comprehension. Again, in chapter 3, the truth of the great mystery, which we take up in the next section, is opened up, and in verse 14 he says: “For this cause [that is, because of the power of this truth over his own soul] I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ”—and what is the burden of this prayer? That the believers to whom he writes “may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height [of this stupendous mystery]; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God” (verses 18,19). And once more a volume of praise goes up from his own heart: “Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20,21). The truth gets such a grip on Paul’s soul that he longs for all saints to share it, and his heart goes out to God, the Author of it, in unbounded adoration. Again, I repeat, this is communion. It is not a happy feeling or a state of religious excitement. It is the soul’s enjoyment of what God, in His Word, has made known for our edification. He calls us His friends, and He would have His friends share His thoughts. There can be no true fellowship with God apart from feeding on the Word of God. Reading good books will not take the place of this thoughtful meditation on the Holy Scriptures. Undoubtedly, the Spirit-taught soul will soon begin to discern God’s mind, and see His glory manifested even in inanimate nature; but he needs a mind well stored with Scripture to lead him up to this.

I want to speak of the blessedness of drawing near to God. You will have noticed that in each of the Scriptures read we have the thought of access to God. We have been engaged in this conference with the highest possible truth in the Christian dispensation and I want to say with emphasis that our being formed by the truth does not in the ultimate depend upon the knowledge of the word of God, important as that is; nor does it depend upon Christian fellowship, important as that is; but if we are to really take in the truth and be formed by it then we must know something of nearness to God. If I were asked for some special word of importance for believers, and especially for young Christians, I would say above all else cultivate personal history with God; nothing can take its place.