06/12/2026
What do we know about Jesus, God, and our faith? Have we read the Bible cover to cover, and memorized key scriptures? Have we taught Sunday school lessons, or preached God’s Word and the Gospel of Jesus Christ from the pulpit? Perhaps we have studied theology, spoken on the subject of Church history, or become conversant in all the councils and creeds... but does our intellectual pursuit of God bring us an inch closer to knowing Him? My real question this morning is this... “Do we know God, or do we simply know of Him?”
“And the Lord God planted a garden in Eden, in the east, and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground the Lord God made to spring up every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was in the midst of the garden, and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”
Genesis 2:8-9 ESV
Adam and Eve knew every tree in the Garden, and they knew the two special trees that were there in its midst. They walked past them all the time, but there was only one that they were forbidden to eat from... the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. They could describe that tree in minute detail; they could tell you the shape of its leaves, the texture of its bark, and the beauty color and scent of its flowers. It would be my guess that they could even describe to us the smell of that tree... to include the fragrance of its fruit. However, knowing all these things allowed them to describe this tree and gave them knowledge about it, but in order to really know it for what it was, they had to experience it fully... to take it in... to disobey God and consume it. So, Satan tempted them, and consume it they did.
They went from temptation to the knowledge of sin with a single bite. They had walked beneath that tree many times. They had touched its bark, felt the smoothness of its leaves, and held its fruit in their hands, but those things weren’t enough to give them anything more than a cursory knowledge of it; to really know this tree and what it held they had to eat of its fruit. And consume it they did. When they ate of its fruit they came to know this tree in its fullness, and in so doing their eyes were opened, and their souls were lost.
Knowing what something is, even in great detail, doesn’t give us the true understanding of it... to have that truth we must experience it... we must consume it, and know it intimately. It wasn’t enough for King David to know what Bathsheba looked like or her mannerisms as she bathed. He had probably walked past her many times, and perhaps even held her hand; after all she was the wife of one of his great commanders, his mighty men... and yet that wasn’t enough. David had to know more than who she was, and to be able to describe her down to the most minute detail... he had to know her completely by taking her sexually; by consuming everything she was... by tasting what was forbidden him.
These are but two of the ways in which we come to know sin in its completeness, and intimacy, but they illustrate what is required for us to know Jesus Christ and the Father as well. Certainly, we can study them, and we can come to the place where we are experts in all that has ever been written about them, and even teach others from our mastery of these texts, but despite all of this... we don’t really know them. We haven’t taken them fully... we haven’t consumed, or internalized them. We are like celibate men and women on the eve of their wedding, like a chef who has prepared a dish but is yet to taste it, or an athlete that has watched a new game played, but is yet to have played it himself. Listen to what Pastor Andrew Murray has to say on this subject…
“The mind can think about God and know all the doctrine of salvation, while the inner life may not know the saving power of God. We may know all about God and even about love; we may even be able to think beautiful thoughts and say compassionate things, but unless we actually love deeply from the heart, we do not truly know God. Only true love can know God, and the knowledge of God is life eternal.” - Andrew Murray
Yes, we know the rules, we have seen the cross, and we even recognize who the man is that was crucified there... who knows, we may have even washed His body and wrapped Him in burial cloth, but until we haven’t walked with Him on the road to Emmaus, or placed our hand into His side as Thomas did, and we haven’t experienced the heartbreak of Peter when he realized he had denied Him, or wept over Him as Mary did then what have we?. Until we have done these things, until we have internalized Him, until we have truly come to love Him, then all we possess is a knowledge of Him... we only know Him as that man on a distant hilltop, or the smell of ripe fruit blowing across our path.
“And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.”
1 Corinthians 13:2 ESV
Are we ready to know who God truly is? Are we ready to know who Jesus Christ is? Are we ready to breathe in the Holy Spirit? Are we prepared to love and be loved like never before in our lives? If so then we are on the brink of the greatest discovery in our lives... we are stepping into the fullness of relationship with the divine... we are eating the fruit of eternity.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the love you have for us that waits patiently for us to reciprocate and love you in return. Thank you for calling to us, and making a way for us to come to you. Thank you Holy Father for your Son Jesus Christ who teaches us more than just who you are, but shows us how to love you, and to obey you, in a way that only true love can. Thank you our Father of Grace for the obedience of your Son who went to the cross and took on our sins out of His love for you… and for us. Help us Holy Father to love as you do, and to know you as more than an acquaintance, but as our loving Father, and with the fullness of a love realized and requited. Help us LORD to do more than read of your great love with wonder. Help us to know this love by its taste, and the satisfaction of it as we consume it. Walk with us Heavenly Father and tell us those things about yourself that only sons and daughters are meant to know, and likewise we will confide our deepest selves in you. Give us the ultimate gift every child longs for... to know the depth and goodness of their parents... a love that is unquenchable. We praise you Father, and sing your praises in the sanctuaries of our hearts, and the quiet of our prayer closets. We worship you and long to know you better each and every day. With your hand in ours, we say, Holy, Holy, Holy, are you, and in your eyes we see the radiance of your love, and the reflection of our own. In this way we will know you and love you with all our heart, mind, soul, and strength.
“So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.”
1 John 4:16 ESV
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Amen!
Rich Forbes