In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of knowing God and having a personal relationship with Him. The New Covenant's achievement and objective is not just about knowing the forgiveness of sins, but about truly knowing God. The speaker highlights the significance of having God's laws written in our minds and hearts, and the intimate relationship that comes with it. Worship is not just an external or aesthetic act, but a disposition of reverential awe and adoring love for God, which inspires trust, promotes humility, and leads to a passion for heart holiness.

Before Christmas and over Christmas and the New Year, I've had this just burning in my heart, the infinite majesty of God. And so that is what is going to occupy our thoughts during these times of ministry in this camp, the infinite majesty of God. Tomorrow morning we will come particularly and spend these sessions tomorrow in a couple of verses in the Psalms. But tonight, in this introduction of the theme, I want to turn you to the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 8, on the importance of knowing God. And in Hebrews chapter 8, verse 10, and reading to verse 12, the writer of this letter says, for this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their mind and write them in their hearts and I will be to them. Now it says in the English authorized version, a God, but it is more correctly, I will be to them, their God, and they shall be to me a people, that is my people. And they shall not teach every man his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest for, important word that, it's a causative word, for I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Now this is unquestionably a remarkable epistle and it focuses of course upon the supremacy of Christ and in this context here, it's the superiority of his priesthood to that of the old Levitical priesthood. And thank God friends, it's a better priesthood that carries with it a better hope through which believers might personally draw near to God and ultimately realize perfection. That's not what happened under the old, but it does take place under the new. And in the opening verse of this chapter, you'll notice the writer says and in my paraphrase of it, now regarding that which we have considered up to now, the chief point is this, we have a great high priest and he excels all who went before him and he is the finality of them all in their ministries. There's no one like Jesus and this epistle of course impresses that so much. So that beyond this blessed son of God, we have no need for any other priest. Praise the Lord because he occupies the place of supreme power, you notice it says in the first verse, at the right hand of the throne of the majesty on high in the heavens. So his is an unceasing, a perpetual and effectual priestly ministry. It says in the previous chapter verses 24 and 25 that he ever lives to make intercession for his saints. So none compares with him whose ministry is in the true sanctuary, not of earth but of heaven and fulfilled under a new covenant, not of works. But thank God of grace. I said to dear brother Benny tonight when I greeted him and I said, are you still saved? He said, by the grace of God. And we all must have that testimony, we are what we are by the grace of God. Now in fact the writer summarizes here five points of the supremacy that belongs to Christ being a better priest than Aaron. He's declared by the father to be after the order of Melchizedek. And of course there are many scriptures that we could refer to in chapters 5, 6 and 7 that mention that. So our perfect and our prevailing high priest is said to be one who ministers in a better sanctuary. He is one who offers a better sacrifice. He is one who is the mediator of a better covenant. He is one whose work rests upon better promises. And that is why he is one who has obtained a better ministry as a whole. No one compares to our Lord Jesus, our great high priest. And so in position and localization he is not on earth but in heaven. And from that heavenly sanctuary he is ruling over the whole spiritual house of Jews and Gentiles. Thank God the middle wall of partition has been broken down. There is no distinction now. Jews come the same way as the Gentile comes. Through Christ who died for us upon the cross shed his blood that we might know the forgiveness of sins. Reconciliation to God is only through the cross. So whether it's Jew or a Gentile he must come that way. And this of course this epistle makes it so clear. In chapter 3 and verse 6 we read but Christ as a son over his own house whose house are we if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of hope firm unto the end. But notice now not only does the writer substantiate the fact of Christ's supremacy but he also proceeds to establish the superiority of the consequent relationships and advantages secured by those who are under this new covenant. Our supreme mediator Jesus has ratified this new covenant with his own precious blood. This is a better testament a superior testament because it is internal not external. Written upon the tables of our hearts and not stone tables or tablets. It's inclusive and far-reaching in its scope. It's not restricted now. Thank God from every tribe and tongue and people and nation he has drawn sinners to himself embrace them in his love, cleanse them in his blood, made them his very own. What a day it's going to be when all that he has purposed is consummated it's completed and the whole church for the first time will be together in one place before the throne worshipping the Father and the Son. Far-reaching and it's immense in its spiritual impact because as we have read and I made the emphasis on it verse 12 in chapter 8 here I'll be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more. Praise the Lord. So now we draw in on our theme and right here in chapter 8 is given to us the the very heart of the new covenant's achievement and objective. It is the glory friends it's the glory of knowing God not just knowing the forgiveness of sins it's knowing God and not in some inactive head knowledge but in that closest possible personal relationship having a revelation of who God is and now by the grace of God enabled to commune with him. I wonder if we really take this end look at those verses again I will put my laws into their minds and write them in their hearts I'll be to them they are God they shall be to me my people they shall not teach every man his neighbor every man his brother saying no the Lord for all shall know me from the least to the greatest for again I say don't overlook that causative word for I will be merciful unto their unrighteousness and their sins and iniquities will I in no way remember them anymore. This obviously does not refer to every living being that every living being is going to know him but all those who by faith are embraced in this new covenant who are partakers of the glorious benefits of this new covenant the privilege friends of personally knowing God and it is he who has made it possible for that which has constituted the barrier between God and us has been removed by the blood of Jesus our unrighteousness our sins our iniquities you see as long as sin remains union with infinite holiness is is not possible but how remarkable this is that not only does God forgive us our sins but he no longer remembers them that's a staggering truth about such forgiveness of sins FF Bruce said this and I quote if men's sins are remembered by God his holiness must take action against them if they are not remembered it is because his grace has determined to forgive them not in spite of his holiness but in harmony with it so God having forgiven us friends has been a righteous act on God's part because of the atoning work of Jesus at the cross so God now is just and the justifier of them who believe in Jesus praise the Lord so we've been reconciled to God and reconciled to God that we might know him in conscious personal awareness to be to be close to him in profoundest communion and as we just gaze upon him to be fashioned more and more into the glory of his likeness you see there's nothing on earth to compare with this this glory of knowing God this profound relationship with him as we commune and gaze upon him and get to know him we are changed into his likeness yes from one degree of holiness to another degree of holiness even as by the spirit of the Lord it means friends that God is a real person who thinks and wills and feels and loves and desires and enjoys and and that he delights to communicate with us oh Dr Tozer so marvelously expresses it he said the continuous unembarrassed interchange of love and thought between God and the soul of the redeemed man is the throbbing heart of New Testament religion nothing to compare with this of knowing God you know in the context of what of our text tonight you know it mentions Israel what a tragedy that Israel did not enter upon all that they might have enjoyed because of their unbelief and because of their hardness of heart and I wonder sometimes if if perhaps we also don't fully grasp what God in grace has brought us into friends we are not dabbling in some human philosophy we are caught up and embraced in an awesome revelation the infinite majesty of God our conscious knowledge of the most high God in communion is as real as of as any other fact of experience that we know we know God don't be sufficed with a a mere intellectual or philosophic knowledge of God but grasp the revelation of scripture that since we are made in the image of God we do now have a a capacity to know him and to know him in a personal and a purposeful relationship so when we come to Christ and we've been renewed by the Holy Spirit that very moment of incredible spiritual regeneration that brings a a supernatural quickening of a whole being in in in its sensitivity to this living this eternal this personal God I I wonder if the majority of Christians really appreciate what it is they've come to embrace by way of faith this is staggering this is profound we who were dead in trespasses and sins made alive through the spirit and in touch with the infinite so when the eyes of the soul looking out meet the eyes of God looking in heaven has begun right here on earth praise the Lord not just waiting for the second coming to enter into the fullness of life then it will be in this perfection then it will be in all its glorious uh consummate wonder and and and majesty but now to know God to commune with him to have some measure of understanding by the spirit of the eternal the infinite the magnificent the majestic the only true and living God praise the Lord but hear me on this friends because since God has revealed himself to man not only in creation psalm 19 and not only in this written word which is his self-revelation not only revealing himself in and through his son Jesus Christ but in in all this marvelous way in which God has come in reality to us surely he means to bring us to himself in order we might know him knowing believing understanding the reality and the glory of God's being again I say you see it's not like Israel of old against whom the prophet Hosea prophesied for God that Israel shall cry unto me my God we know thee read of that in Hosea 8 in verse 2 but sadly when they said oh God we know thee it was not the cry of endearment and reverence but of pretense and falsehood and make belief they said they oh yeah we know you they didn't know him and friends God is not taken in by our show our exhibitionism however smart and convincing such a show is in the eyes of others well what we want to simply address in these couple of days together has to do with the infinite majesty of God and my question tonight and I'll answer it very simply and briefly why is knowing God so important now let me just pause here a moment because there was the thought that we might have been addressing the great subject of the second coming of Christ and I've known a lot of people friends who have all kinds of ideas about the second coming and they seem to have dotted every i and crossed every t and they can tell you what the pale horse means and the black horse and they can tell you all the signs and symbols and they've got it all worked out and and it's all up here it's all in their head it's an intellectual thing and they they boast in their knowledge of end time events and prophecy and some of those folk their lives have not been in harmony with what they professed this matter of knowing God friends is all important it is crucial knowing God for who he is and especially in a day when so much preaching in our churches has its emphasis on man it seems to me friends that generally speaking we have lost the once lofty concept of the majesty of God so that a very pertinent question is this what does a wrong or inadequate knowledge of God result in and this helps us to see why a true knowledge of God according to the scriptures is so vitally important and so my answer has a few parts to it where there is no personal knowledge of God number one friends there will be an absence of the fear of the Lord and when we speak of fear we are not referring to any kind of sinister dread but the fact that perverted notions of God remove all reverence for him and I haven't the time to elaborate on this but some of the the antics that take place in many churches these days indicate they have no fear of the Lord you cannot read the scriptures without gaining this this understanding that the fear of the Lord is an integral part of our relationship with God this disposition of reverential awe that is mingled with adoring love that which inspires trust promotes humility it engenders a passion for heart holiness my wife and I were in America for a few months and we were watching a program on uh tbn that's the trinity broadcasting network and there was this fellow preaching and he was talking about you know when I came to know the geyser upstairs he said the geyser upstairs the geyser upstairs that word geyser perhaps is foreign to some of you but but sometimes all that old geyser it's it's it's really an insulting word and many other things that that man expressed himself I thought well you know oh yes he talked about God as this guy my chum the geyser who made the universe incredible depends when you know God there's a true fear of the Lord it comes and this passion for for heart holiness so as to be worthy of the one who is all holy listen to these scriptures psalm 111 verse 9 through and 10 he sent redemption unto his people he hath commanded his covenant forever holy and reverend awesome to be feared is his name the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom a good understanding of all they that do his commandments his praise endures forever psalm 147 and verse 11 the Lord takes pleasure in them that fear him in those who hope in his mercy this is the godly fear that is spoken of in Hebrews 12 and verse 28 and 29 it is of grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire you can see here friends that we we have no options when we speak of relationship with God God establishes this fear of the Lord as our primal duty listen to Ecclesiastes 12 13 and 14 let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter fear God and keep his commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work into judgment with every secret thing whether it be good or whether it be evil God requires that we fear him in view of who he is and may I say whilst that is fearful in in many aspects I want to say to friends that the true awe of God being so crucial to our life in fellowship with him also carries with it great blessing great blessing psalm 25 and verse 14 the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show him his covenant psalm 33 and verse 18 the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him psalm 103 verse 17 the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting upon them that fear him the wonderful blessings that come to us as we walk in the true fear of the Lord but you can only come to that place of true awe when you know who he is it's not a matter of well I think God is like uh no this human finite mind of a mind it cannot it cannot comprehend God the only way I can know God is as he reveals himself and he does so through his word in fact there's a there's a wonderful uh blessing for the church a church that walks in the fear of the Lord listen to this it's acts 9 and verse 31 then have the churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria that is when Saul of Tarsus was marvelously changed by the power of Christ and of the gospel and became Paul the apostle and it says they had rest and were edified listen and walking in the fear of the Lord yes and in the comfort or the instruction of the Holy Ghost they were multiplied I've never been to a seminar on church growth but I've ever heard this mentioned a way to see the church grow is for the church to walk in the fear of the Lord how important and so where there is no personal knowledge of the of God there'll be an absence of the fear of the Lord and secondly there will be an abnormal worship of the Lord our spiritual life friends will never rise higher than our knowledge of God don't mistake that we come at worship of God when we do not know I'll mention something uh tomorrow of the gay bishop Bishop Robinson who participated in the inaugural uh session of the the president of America uh last week and he was one who gave one of the prayers Rick Warren was the other one and and this Bishop Robinson who was married and and had children forsook them and has his own male partner and he was getting one of the prayers until he says the God of many understandings has pagan has pagan friends we cannot worship a God when we do not know that's idolatry and so you have it without me expounding it in in act 17 when Paul sees these worshippers in Athens and Mars Hill but he says you know there was an inscription over the altar to the unknown God he said listen there is a God the one true and living God and and you are in ignorance at this altar in fact he says and and the word is used in the King James version the word superstition which literally has to do with demon worship and so here they were before the unknown God inspired in demon worship he says I want to tell you about this true God and there he proclaimed the gospel the true gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ you see worship is wholesome or dishonorable in accord with our true or our false thoughts of God worship friends is not an aesthetic thing it is not primarily an external thing it's an expression of the heart in response to a revelation do you know some of the most godly and and to me profound worshippers of God that I've met with have been folk in wheelchairs we had a lovely brother in Toowoomba when I was there who had cerebral palsy from being a child oh it was a pleasure to be in his company and his love for God and his reverence for God and his worship of God and his passion for God now he couldn't have gone around the church dancing and swinging his arms and no because worship friends is not an external thing oh yes there is expression and thank God for the expression that we are able to bring but it is primarily an inward thing it's a matter of the heart and that's why if you went back to Hosea chapter four and verse six God says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge because you have rejected knowledge I will also reject you that you shall be no priest to me seeing you've forgotten the law of your God I also will forget your children in other words God says you can't fulfill your priestly ministry because you don't know me and unless we know God friends we cannot worship him in truth I tell you that this is pretty sad and yet it's blessed when we think that we can know God and oh when our hearts are enlightened when our minds are illumined by the spirit of God and by the eye of faith we see God for who he is we enter into a new dimension of spiritual life and reality and experience God is real God is real and of course where there is no personal knowledge of God there'll be an aversion to holiness before the Lord you see everything about our lives hinges upon a true knowledge of a holy God listen to David psalm 96 in verse 9 oh worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness fear before him all the earth Solomon had this to say proverbs 8 in verse 13 the fear of the Lord is to hate evil and arrogance and the evil way and and the perverse evil speaking mouth do I hate says God what a contrast to our world where there is every effort to to condition us to accept sin as the norm that sinning friends is not normal it's abnormal rather it's the fear of the Lord that conditions us to holiness as the norm this is what God made us for he didn't make us for sin he made us for holiness never lose sight of this truth that sin is fatal to the fulfilling of man's end as God intended because as you are well acquainted with the scripture in Romans the wages of sin is death sin is abnormal it is unnatural it's an intrusion it's in opposition to the spirit and the working of God's righteous kingdom in fact sin is the rejection of God sin aligns us with the devil it's that serious and it's the basis of course of John's admonition in 1 John chapter 3 verse 4 and verse 8 whoever commits sin transgresses also the law for sin is the transgression of the law he who commits sin is of the devil for the devil sins from the beginning for this purpose was the sin of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil God wants us to see as put an end to sin find God through Christ and through the cross we finish with sin we died the same when he died and we rose when he rose again to live in newness of life and thank God friends we we now seek to honour him and to please him is our doctrine of God important my word it is very important and let me just conclude if there is no personal knowledge of God there'll be an ineffective witness for the Lord if you and I personally and and the church if the church does not know the God whom she professes to serve and make known how can she bear any saving witness to a desperately needy world a world heading for for dreadful judgment we were in the departure lounge at sunshine coast airport yesterday afternoon and I said to my wife I said where shall we sit she said oh anywhere anywhere and so I went around near to the gate that we were departing from and sat there and she sat by this lady soon they got talking my wife had the most wonderful opportunity witness for Christ to this lady who was truly searching and this woman said to her she said isn't this amazing and there was a couple of hundred people in that in that hall waiting for the airplanes of all these people here he says God brings you to sit by me it was all in the providence of God and then my wife was able to share with her the God whom she knows the Christ whom she knows the gospel that she has known effective in her own life if we don't know God friends how can we witness for him how can we communicate him to a dying world we must know him if we are to be effective in our witness for him you know the prodigal son when he was a young fellow he he went into the far country and you all know the story very well one day it says he came to himself and he said listen in my father's house they speaking of the hired servants they have bred enough and to spare but I perish with hunger that boy knew that in father's house just what was there and he determines I'm going home and of course he he had it all planned out what he was going to say and the terms on which he wanted to be accepted back into father's house I would say to my father father I've sinned against heaven before you I'm no more worthy because your son make me one of your hired servants you know he never got down to his terms because you can only come to the father on the father's terms and wonderfully reinstated at home as a son the world tonight friends around us perishes while we like the elder brother who had no care full of prejudice and selfishness because though he was in father's house he didn't really know his father yeah and if we don't know God then there will be no inward peace or hope as an anchor for the soul because our God is a God of peace he is the God of hope and without a felt personal relationship to him the soul just flounders in helplessness on the tempestuous sea of life with no blessed prospect thank God we have a faithful God tonight as we send a very appropriate song proclaiming greatness to God and among all the great aspects of God the great faithfulness of God I pray that God will help us over these couple of days to have a glimpse into what the scripture has to say about our God the infinite majesty of God because I tell you tonight friends a life without that intimate knowledge of God is barren and fruitless it's a useless burden on the earth nothing substitutes for a God-fearing and a God-favoured and a God-filled life that's lived for his glory oh that we might press in to know God as we have never known him before a little phrase I've never forgotten of Torsos he says he waits to be wanted you can know God as much as you desire to know him