Experiencing God No.9 Wisdom & Knowledge

For this reason I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles, surely you have heard about the administration of God's grace that was given to me for you, that is the mystery made known to me by revelation as I have already written briefly. In reading this then you will be able to understand my insight into the mystery of Christ which was not made known to men in other generations as it has now been revealed by the Spirit to God's holy apostles and prophets. This mystery is that through the gospel the Gentiles are heirs together with Israel, members together of one body and sharers together in the promise in Christ Jesus.

I became a servant of this gospel by the gift of God's grace given me through the working of his power. Although I am less than the least of all God's people, this grace was given me to preach to the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ and to make plain to everyone the administration of his mystery which for ages past was kept hidden in God who created all things. His intent was that now through the church the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms according to his eternal purpose which he accomplished in Jesus Christ our Lord.

In him and through faith in him we may approach God with freedom and confidence. I ask you therefore not to be discouraged because of my sufferings for you which are your glory. For this reason I kneel before the Father from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name.

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his spirit in your inner being so that Christ may dwell in your heart through faith. And I pray that you being rooted and established in love may have power together with all the saints to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the power of Christ and to know this love that surpasses knowledge that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to his power that is at work within us to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever.

Amen. And to Ephesians in chapter 1 and to a prayer of Paul's which is reproduced at least in intent in the third chapter which Ruth read to us a little while ago. Ephesians chapter 1 and verse 17 has these remarkable words.

I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened. Well those of you who've been coming along to the tabernacle during the last eight or nine weeks will be aware that this verse which we looked at as long ago as that was unintentionally on the human level though I hope providentially designed to be the launching pad for a series of addresses which I've entitled experiencing God experiencing God.

Let me read to you a quotation. There are unfortunately even many evangelical Christians who deny that God has any direct dealings with men today and hold feeling and emotion at a discount. They frequently substitute for true emotion a flabby sentimentalism.

They are afraid of the power of the Holy Spirit and so afraid of certain excesses which are sometimes found in mysticism and in certain people who claim to have unusual experiences of the Holy Spirit that they quench the spirit and never have any personal knowledge of Christ. Indeed they go so far as to deny the possibility of such knowledge. Well those were words preached some 15 years ago at Westminster Chapel pulpit by Dr. Martin Lloyd-Jones and it is this concern that I have following this man who had such great impact and influence on my life that I have been trying to share with you in a way that I perhaps not endeavored to tackle the subject during the years I've been at the tab.

I do believe that the knowledge of God is not merely academic it is experimental and the reason for bringing these series to your attention is one because the Apostle Paul offers this tremendous prayer. I keep asking God that he might allow you to know him better and secondly I must confess because it is said from time to time by those who perhaps betray their ignorance of our situation here that somehow or other the tabernacle is not open to the Holy Spirit and I in particular am not prepared to acknowledge any special encounter with the living God at a personal level. Now the latter is a pure nonsense.

I do believe that God reveals himself to his people in many and in varied ways and if there is anything that I long for our church family here in the tab it is that we might know God more and more and more. You see knowledge of God is not immediately available to the person on becoming a Christian. I mean by that that there's a lot more for them to gain.

Knowledge of God could perhaps be likened to using Joy's illustration visible one and changing it a little to a balloon that's full of air and yet it's so strong on the outside that you can blow and you can blow and you can blow and though it would be accurate to say at the beginning it's full of air it would also be true to say that there is a greater capacity for fullness. There is more room so to speak. Now if you'll take that very simple illustration that just strikes in on my mind I think you will have in mind what the Apostle Paul is here saying when he offers this great prayer I pray that that you might know God more and more after all these Ephesians were not ignorant of God.

Paul has spoken to them earlier on about the doctrine of adoption. He's told them in the fourth verse that he chose us the Lord God chose us in Jesus Christ before the creation of the world to be homely and blameless in his sight. He knows that they've been tutored about predestination.

Verse 5 he predestined us to be adopted as his sons. He looks to some great encounter they had with the Holy Spirit. Verse 13 having believed you were marked in him with a seal the promised Holy Spirit.

All these things Paul credits the Ephesians with and yet he goes on to say and yet I am constantly praying that you might know him more and more and more. Well then let me try and bring this little series to some form of conclusion. Why is an experience of God so very important? My answer first of all is this because it restores the original intention that God had for man.

Now think this through. Way back in the garden of Eden before the fall here were our first parents Adam and Eve. Now I'll warrant that there's some poetry there's some metaphor in those first three chapters but nonetheless there is a basic literal meaning which you cannot escape and it is this that at the beginning of time Adam and Eve made in the image of God bearing a unique faculty that no not one of the animal kingdom has enjoyed an experience with the Lord.

You've got that lovely imagery of God coming down in the cool of the day and talking to to Adam. There's something of God in Adam and there's something in Adam that God wants to relate to. Adam is made in the likeness of God but sin comes into the world.

I've no need to go into the story you're aware of the account perhaps better than I am and eventually our first parents are evicted from Eden and they go and live east of Eden and a couple of things happen immediately when they sin. The first is this their knowledge of God is fragmented. Their knowledge of God is fragmented.

They have a little but it's very very small and the second thing is their experience of God ceases to exist ceases to exist. The main artery between them and God has been severed through sin. Now will you accept that that's a basic picture that you get in Genesis reproduced throughout the whole of the Old Testament.

Now bearing that in mind I ask you what did Jesus Christ come to do? If you were to take one verse of Scripture which encapsules which describes his life's work what would you settle for? Well there are several but I'd suggest one in John's Gospel the 17th chapter and I think it's the second verse. This is life eternal Jesus speaking and I'm quoting the AV this is life eternal that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. What is Jesus speaking of? A knowledge of God purely intellectual know the word knowledge goes beyond the intellect it affects the personality as I've been teaching during these last several Sundays.

Now how does Jesus make this clear? Well I take you back to the beginning of his ministry. Here he is accosted with a great man a man by the name of Nicodemus and he comes to the Lord Jesus Christ he's a religious teacher and he has a theological problem he wants to know God and the Lord Jesus begins to spell it out to him in the third chapter of John's Gospel and he uses such striking language as this he says that for a man to know God he must be born again. Nicodemus doesn't fully understand he thinks in terms of a new natural birth but Jesus says no the six flesh gives birth to flesh but the spirit gives birth to spirit.

In other words if you are to know God Nicodemus then that knowledge of God can only be brought about by being reborn through the midwifery of the Holy Spirit. So what is Jesus saying? That for Eden to be regained a man must have surgery applied to the end that he is not just a patched-up human being but he becomes a new creation. And who brings this about? The Holy Spirit.

So you cannot know God without knowing something of the indwelling of the Spirit within your life. That's why the Apostle says I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the glorious Father may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation. The word spirit there is inaccurately in my opinion headed with a small letter in the authorized version.

It is obvious patently obvious from the context and the fact that the Holy Spirit has been referred to in the 13th verse with one of his attendant ministries listed that Paul is still referring to the same Holy Spirit of God in the 17th verse. And he is saying that one of the one of the ministries of the Spirit is to bring a man wisdom and revelation so that he might increasingly know this great God. So you see my point I argue it so many Sundays so many years here at the tabernacle that it is impossible to be a Christian without having some experience of the Holy Ghost.

The only one who can introduce you to God the Father is the Holy Spirit. I go further the only one who can create a hunger in your life for the salvation blessings which Jesus achieved at the cross of Calvary is the Holy Spirit. So we are utterly dependent on the Holy Spirit for the knowledge of God and our experience of the Spirit can be manifold.

It may have many permutations. That's the reason why I think alas there is controversy in the evangelical church is to present a tidy doctrine of the Spirit in these days. I don't believe you can present a tidy doctrine once you've got a doctrine of the Spirit.

He is so sovereign. He is so great. He is so beyond our ability to reduce to a formula that he blows some of our doctrinal categories aside.

But be that as it may the point becomes very obvious that you cannot know God apart from the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Now why does the Apostle, I'm staying very carefully in my reasoning on this 17th and 18th verse so please stick with me if you will, why does the Apostle Paul refer to the Holy Spirit bringing wisdom and revelation? Because apart from wisdom and revelation you can never know God. You say you don't understand what I mean.

All right well I'll make it clear. At least the Apostle Paul will make it clear. A far greater tutor than I could ever hope to be.

Here he is returning back to 1 Corinthians and chapter 2. Actually we'll dip into both chapters 1 and 2. 1 Corinthians. Be glad if you will look them up. I'll set the context as you're finding your place in the scripture.

The Apostle is contrasting two types of wisdom. There is the wisdom of this world and there is the wisdom of God. The 21st verse if you found the first chapter helps to set up the perspective.

Since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not know God. God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. There are two wisdoms there.

The wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God. The wisdom that man naturally has in varying degrees and then there is a given wisdom. A wisdom that comes by the Holy Spirit.

Now what does this wisdom compel? Well it compels and I could give you a number of examples but I'll satisfy myself with just one. It compels you to have a fresh look at the cross. When the Greeks look at the cross and the Jews look at the cross.

What do they think? Well let me continue from the 22nd verse. The Jews demand miraculous signs and the Greeks look for wisdom but we preach Christ crucified a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles. What do they say of the cross? Well the Jews they applaud it.

It became for them a great barrier. They couldn't get over it. The idea of God dying it's a nonsense and for the Greeks it was the epitome.

It was the essence of failure out of foolishness. That's what the wisdom the combined wisdom of Jewry and Grecian thought brings in in respect of the cross. Ah but look at the Apostle in the 24th verse.

But but to those whom God has called both Jews and Greeks when they see the cross of Calvary and Jesus dying they have in front of them a sight of Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. So when you survey the wondrous cross as often you do as we sing that lovely lovely hymn. You are exercising one of the great gifts that God has granted to you.

If you have an inkling of understanding of what was going on on that skull-shaped hill. I wonder if you followed me. I pray you have.

Let me take another run at it just in case you haven't go to the second chapter. And here Paul still on this same this same business. I'm still with Corinthians contrasting the two wisdoms.

And he speaks in the sixth verse about a message of wisdom that he speaks amongst the mature. Not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are coming to nothing. No we speak of God's secret wisdom.

A wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it. For if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

Would Caiaphas would Pilate if they'd fully understood what Jesus was all about. Who he was. Would they have been so so idiotic as to send God to the cross.

No says the Apostle. But they were approached this this phenomenon from Nazareth on a purely human basis. They applied human wisdom and in their folly they send him to the tree.

But when you and I when we look at this cross we don't see as some liberal commentators would would argue as they criticize evangelical theology. We don't see the gospel of the slaughterhouse. We're not ashamed of the blood of Jesus Christ.

Indeed it's our proud boast that we're washed in his blood and we have our sins thereby forgiven. Now how did you come to that conclusion my friend? That's a very interesting question for you to both consider and endeavor to answer. I argue from Scripture you came to that conclusion through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Drop down to the 10th verse still with 1 Corinthians and the second chapter. But God has revealed it to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things even the deep things of God.

Now the 12th verse this is what we speak not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God for they are foolishness to him and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned. Now don't we have illustration of this time and time again even in our little humble congregation in the tabernacle in the center of Worthing.

Sometimes people will come into our church and a gospel address is proclaimed and maybe the preacher whether myself or someone else it's immaterial at this moment feels a special anointing of the Spirit and the congregation those who are sensitive to these things know that the man has been taken up is he's using a vocabulary he's into a world that is beyond his own natural ability they recognize it through the foolishness of preaching God is speaking to them and they thank God for it. But the man whose eyes are not open the man who has had no encounter with the Spirit he goes out and he says it's nonsense I didn't understand it at all. You see there are two wisdoms the natural wisdom and this given wisdom from above and I argue this most emphatically that the knowledge of God experience of God is bequeathed to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit that's why Paul prays that these people might have the spirit of wisdom and revelation.

You say what does he mean by revelation well it's easy for me to answer he's not referring to anything additional to Scripture there is nothing beyond Scripture that God will show men and women but he will show them the depths of Scripture. Scripture is very much like our sea down there off the off the beach you swim out and you go into deeper and deeper depths and if you have the ability you could drop down and down and down until mid-channel the depths are almost fathomless now that's the Scriptures how is it that men can read the Scriptures for 70 odd years and yet they'll still get entranced by something they never saw before apart from the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation I could not continue as a preacher why not well you see I've read this book so many times that's not a boast you would expect me to have read it or else I shouldn't be here but the thing that fascinates me is that when I read it I delight in it there are times when suddenly the word starts to glow and I see something I've never seen it before I must share this with the people the spirit of revelation I use myself forgive me for the personal illustration many of you could testify to exactly the same thing and now some of you who perhaps feel in in my sighting experiences that great men of women of God have had in past centuries that you're enfeebled by comparison and in a state of utter disillusionment you hear me and hear me correctly right now how can you say you've never experienced God at all I say for 99% of this Sunday morning congregation you wouldn't be here what attracts you to this word after all it's not attracting 90% of worthy citizenship who rarely come into a church whatsoever what attracts you to it well you say it's to do with the gospel it's to do with the thought that God loves me and he's shown me that love through Jesus oh yes but how do you know that why is it that you have this understanding and other people haven't you may not be an emotional person you may be quite impassive at that level but you confess there are times when this table down here means more to you than life itself as you take bread and as you drink wine why I ask you again there's no reason at the human level read our philosophers read some of the modern existential philosophers they say that this is an utter nonsense they too or some of them have read the Word of God veteran Russell of yesteryear reckons that he couldn't make head in the tail of it and yet you read it and to you it becomes the the milk of life why is this I say because God has granted to you in some measure in some degree he's granted you the spirit of wisdom and the spirit of revelation so I want to argue this as I proceed that having known God in some degree as these Ephesians most clearly did they knew of the doctrines of God they knew the God of the doctrines they'd had a mighty anointing a baptism of you if you please the sealing of the Holy Spirit yet even then the Apostle says I pray God indeed I keep asking that you might know him more and more and that's what you need yourself to keep on asking to keep up the desire if you shall if you seek me says the Lord you shall find me if you search for me with all your heart sometimes there's not much if I may coin a word stickability amongst Christian people in the area of experiencing God oh yes we're moved by a hymn or an address but you know by the time lunch comes it's more or less all gone there's a certain ointment that I'm told I've never had to use it yet thankfully maybe the day will come that helps rheumatism but you don't just paste the ointment on your joint or whatever affected part of the body you want to help you rub it in and the more you feel the pain the greater your desire to get rid of it so the greater the application now it seems to me that when our Lord speaks about the parable of the importunate man who keeps knocking on the door in the context of receiving the fullness of the Spirit that's the application Jesus makes in Luke 11 he's in effect given warrant to Paul saying I keep asking I don't know just ask once and I'm not just asking for myself I'm asking for you now I'm suggesting that you do the same for yourself behold I stand at the door and knock says the Lord Jesus if any man shall open the door I will come in and sup with him now I believe that verse could be used to some degree evangelistically but it's basically for Christian people and the idea is of an encounter with the Lord Jesus far more willing for him to come to us then we are to open the door don't push the imagery too far it's just poetry and yet it has a wonderful principle that if we have a desire if we are willing then he is willing for us to know him more and more I'm not suggesting I never have during the whole of these nine weeks that there's a person in the tabernacle who confesses Jesus as Savior who doesn't know God in some degree of course you do but in some degree the balloon can be blown more if I can go back to the simplistic illustration of 20 minutes or so ago and let me say this that the experiences of God are variable and they are utterly within his providence they are variable and utterly within his providence drop down to the latter part of my text I'm back with Ephesians 1 the Apostle praying that the father may give them the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better I pray also that the eyes of your heart or as the AV puts it the eyes of your understanding may be enlightened here the Apostles thinking is regarding spiritual vision which is all part of experiencing God now in some degree these people had known it the fourth chapter makes it very plain Paul is contrasting their experience with that of the Gentiles he says of the latter the unbelievers they are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God but you're not like that what are these Christians like well may I suggest using that metaphor of risk restoration of sight that the Christians are like blind Bartimaeus you say what you mean by that well you remember that lovely story this man hears that Jesus the son of David is going by his village street and he places himself where Jesus is he's worked out what the royal route is going to be as you might if you're in London hoping to see the Queen and he stands there and the crowds grow and he cries shouting that the Lord Jesus might turn and look on him and he's not put off by the way the crowds rebuke him and criticize him he knows that Jesus is probably passing that way and he puts himself where he thinks Jesus might go and I believe that there's a wonderful illustration there for us you say you know him but you want to know him more then see yourself by the ways along which he travels the way of holiness the way of selflessness the way of scripture reading the way of the table of the Lord the way of joining together in prayer worship the way of early in the morning or late in the evening on your own making time Jesus of Nazareth he passes this way and that way and the other way I cannot guarantee your specific experience I can't predict that it's going to be like my experience it could be far greater for I confess living at the pauper level in this whole area of experiencing God but this I do know that the Lord Jesus wants to know me more and I want to know him more and more also and so I'm asking him Lord will you enlighten my understanding here I am I believe that you're passing by you're in scripture Lord you enliven scripture I'm reading it today I've never gone through the gospel of Mark before Lord but you caused it to be inspired meet me in that gospel Jesus won't you pass through and make one of those texts shine out so that I think yes that's for me Lord God you reveal yourself in the Psalms here I am this morning and I'm making my way through the Psalms won't you speak to me give me the spirit of revelation let one of those verses just stand out in the page so that I know that you're there Lord in the quietness of my own heart just like Elijah having known something of an earthquake experience having known something of the disturbances of life I now need you to come and to speak to me in your still small whisper won't you do that Lord here I am like Moses I'm on the cleft of the rock I'm not at Sinai I'm at Calvary oh God make Jesus so real to me hide me in the cleft of the rock oh God I'm like Jacob at Peniel I won't let you go until you bless me I'm keeping coming and I'm coming and I'm coming and if the angels say I'm nagging your Lord then I don't mind because I've got a right to nag as the heart pants after the water brooks Oh God my experience is like that of David I want you more and more well that's what the Apostle was praying for and the part of these Ephesian Christians they knew God but he said there's more and the knowledge of God will be mediated through this gift of wisdom and revelation as he speaks to us through his word and at times when he even dare I say it dispenses with his word and there's a naked encounter of the presence of Almighty God and you've gone through the word to the great God of glory himself and you know that he loves you and you love him and there's nothing greater in the whole of life than to know that may it be our experience more and more as Christian people here at the tabernacle amen now a hymn struck me earlier on this morning which I thought had such beautiful words and I wasn't sure whether we knew the tune but Betty has managed to pluck out one that a tune we would know so can I ask you to sing very carefully the words of Horatius Bonner as we offer the prayer in three five five in hymns of faith not what I am O Lord but what thou art and make the singing of that hymn a reality in our experience great God for Jesus Christ's sake amen