What Does it Mean to ‘Know’ the Lord?

Happy Day 2 of the Feast of Tabernacles for this year. Greetings to those who are in this room, those who are in the mother's room, or those who are logging on in one way or another. I hope we're all having just a wonderful Sabbath day. Not day 2 of the Feast, not Sabbath. And I want to say thank you to the soloist, the special music. What a voice! What a good voice and good words to match as well. Well, brethren, as we're hearing a lot about the Feast of Tabernacles, we are here at a time picturing the future of when the Kingdom of God will be upon the earth. We've heard that, and we're going to continue to hear that as we go through this Feast. It's a time when God is going to be working with all people, a time when all will know the Lord. In Jeremiah, it says, they shall all know me from the least to the greatest of them, says the Lord. It will be a time for all nations of the earth to know the Lord, according to Ezekiel. For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. The earth will be thoroughly covered and saturated with the knowledge of the Lord. Well, what does it mean to know the Lord? Did you ever think about that? Do you know the Lord? As a question we may have heard in the past, it obviously not going to be a question that we hear in the Millennium, because all will know the Lord from the least to the greatest. Again, did you know, did you ever wonder how people in the Millennium will know the Lord? How will they come to understand? This knowing involves a relationship, a close relationship. It's not something that's done from a distance. It's a close relationship. It comes from experience. In our case, it involves knowing God. Well, actually in anybody's case, knowing God. Not from a distance, but from experience, from close up. It involves knowing God, you know, not just about God, but knowing God in His ways. As Mr. Elliott wrote recently, it's about God teaching and re-teaching those of us who will be learning. And it's about us learning and continuing to learn through repetition. The repetition will help us go over and over. The way we learn today is the way people will be learning in the Millennium. It's about learning and repetition, working together, gaining experience together. So today I'm going to talk about knowing the Lord and having a right relationship with God for us now, as well as for those who will follow after us in the Millennium. So what does the expression mean, know the Lord? How will it happen? Turn to Galatians the fourth chapter. Galatians the fourth chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 8. Galatians 4 and verse 8, which gives the essence of knowing the Lord. It says in verse 8, but brethren, indeed, when you did not know God, you served those by nature which are not gods. But now after you have known God, or rather known by God, and I'll just stop right there where it talks about knowing and being known. Who knows what knowing the Lord is going to be in that sense? To know and to be known. Who knows us is important. Who we know is important. This word known has the essence of establishing the relationship that I'm talking about today, of knowing the Lord. Again, establishing a relationship. It's the base word for those two words in verse 9 for known. They are, well, it is ganasko. Ganasko. That's at least a transliteration. G-I-N-O-S-K-O.

G-N-O-S-K-O. And it means to come to know, to come to understand, to become acquainted with, to know. And this word is not talking about knowing from a distance. It's knowing up close and personal. It's not talking about a casual relationship, but a more deep and intimate relationship. The word, likewise, for the word known in the Old Testament in the book of Jeremiah, just to pick an example, the word is yada, again, the base word that was translated into known. It's yada. And again, the same type of definition. It says, to know by experience, to know, to become acquainted with. It all starts with God. God initiates the contact, as we all know. None can come to God, unless God calls them. It all starts with God and He calls us. Like the summer camps this past year, there was a theme. The theme was, follow me. Follow me. I'm sure that's familiar with the children and probably some of who were helping at the summer camps as well. Our children have a decision to make. We have a decision to make. People in the millennium are going to have a decision to make. So let's take a look at a few examples of what I'm talking about, just to illustrate this knowing. Turn, let's look at the example of Abraham. Turn back to Genesis, the 22nd chapter. Genesis, the 22nd chapter. I'll start reading in verse 1. Genesis 22 in verse 1, it says, It came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham and said to him, Abraham, and he said, Here am I. And then he said, Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering, as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you. Verse 3, So Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and Isaac his son, and split wood for the burnt offering, and arose and went to the place that God had told him. Then the third day Abraham lifted his eyes and he saw the place far off. Some things to note as we go through here. This is the account of Abraham obviously being tested with Isaac.

In verse 3 it says that he got up early. He didn't procrastinate. He didn't, again, he didn't procrastinate or try and dodge the responsibility. He got up early and started going about the business. And so in verse 3 it says he traveled three days. Now think about Abraham traveling three days of where he's going to go and you know sacrifice his son. Think of it, you know, what are the thoughts in his head? You know, you're walking along. What are the thoughts ahead? You know, do I really need to do this? He could have all sorts of justifications or reasons or rumblings, you know, for not doing what God said. But he didn't. He rose up early. He decided to go. He's going along the way. He traveled three days. And then in verse 5 it says, and Abraham said to his young men, well verse 4, they came to the place where they saw it far off. Verse 5, and Abraham said to his young man, stay here with the donkey. The lad and I will go yonder, and we will come back to you. Interesting phrase, we will come back to you.

This wasn't wishful. I don't believe it's wishful thinking.

Abraham was pretty confident when he said, we will come back to you. Then I'm going to skip over the next few verses which talk about the technical details and about Isaac being sacrificed or at the beginning of his sacrifice. Dropping down to verse 11, it says, the angel of the Lord called to him, called to Abraham from heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham. And he said, here I am.

I've got some pages that stick together in this Bible.

And in verse 12, the angel said, do not lay your hand on the lad or do anything to him. For now I know that you fear God and have not withheld your son, your only son, from me. So God says something, or the angel says something very interesting at this point. He says, now I know. I mean, think about this. At this particular time, God has been serving, God and Abraham, and Abraham serving God for around 45 years. How many here have been in the church 45 years? I'm sure there's several. But in any case, after 45 years with Abraham and God, it says, you know, now I know. It's a rather interesting phraseology. God probably had a pretty good idea of what Abraham was going to do. He said, we're not tested beyond our means. But through that trial, through the trial of sacrificing Isaac, God learned something more about Abraham, and Abraham learned something more about God.

God learned something more about Abraham. Abraham learned something more about God.

Now, it takes faith to trust in God. It takes more than just belief. Now, let's turn to Hebrews 11.

Hebrews 11, and we'll take a look at a couple of points. Hebrews 11 and verse 6. This is a familiar passage of Scripture to many of us. 11 verse 6. It says, without faith it's impossible to please him. For he who comes to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. So it's more than just believe. You have to believe and take action. Again, and it's more than just believe. You know, we look at the demons. They believe, and yet their belief is in vain. The demons, as it says, believe and tremble. So belief has a really important part of worshiping God. It takes faith to trust God. Now it's easy to have faith when things are going well. You know, when we pray and we get an answer, and the answer is yes. It's easy to have faith, and it's enjoyable to have faith. It's harder when we ask something, and the answer is no. And it's really difficult, it's really difficult when it seems that, you know, we pray and nothing is changing. Nothing seems to happen. It's really hard to have faith when it doesn't appear that God's doing anything.

It's hard to trust God when it seems like there is no answer. Well, switching gears slightly, if you're going to talk a little bit about experience, again, being known or knowing. Some things we only learn through experience. It can be a good experience, or it can be a very hard trial. Either way, we can learn something from experience. This was something that Abraham had to go through by himself, you know, the sacrifice of Isaac. He had to go through that by himself with God. It was an experience. He knew God by doing, by again having experience and interaction with God. Looking at a happy experience, again, as I mentioned, it doesn't have to be a hard or sore trial. It can be a happy occasion, such as, well, the Feast of Tabernacles. You know, here we are. This is just a wonderful experience, an enjoyable time. We look forward to it every year. And how would you explain this to somebody else? Let's say, you know, we have a great time. We rejoice. We keep a festival to the Lord. This is God's feast, and it's so much more than a vacation. But let's say we go home and we're all pumped up and hyped and, you know, we're buzzing, and a new person starts to attend in our congregation. What's the Feast of Tabernacles? You know, what's it all about? How does that work? How do you explain that to a brand new person? Well, it's not easy, not easy at all. You could say, well, you know, we went to restaurants.

We had various activities. We stayed at a resort. We stayed at a hotel. We went to the beach. We went to mountains. You know, we did all sorts of cool things. We stayed in, say, in a motel or hotel. And on top of all that, we went to church for eight days. That's kind of, you know, when you're telling somebody about how great this is, it's, I'll say it's a hard sell. It's a hard sell because it's hard to describe that experience. And that's because this feast is a spiritual feast. It's not a physical feast, so to speak, although obviously we're physical. We're here in a physical place. It's experienced individually as we walk with God. Through experience, we get to go know God more and more. And then likewise, through experience, God learns more and more about us, about what we're like. As was mentioned, we live in Cincinnati, Ohio, which is about an hour down the road from Dayton, Ohio. And I mentioned that in the days that have gone by, we used to have a very active, well, it's a YOU group, a teen activity. And as we weren't the only one, that was pretty much national and maybe even international. I'm not sure about that. But in any case, we would go to Dayton for a myriad of activities, mostly for teens. You know, basketball, cheerleading, performing arts, volleyball. And we went several times a year, and Dayton was just a nice northern city. Nothing spectacular in that sense. Dayton was Dayton. But in one year, we decided to go to Dayton for the Feast of Tabernacles. And it's amazing. Maybe I shouldn't use that word of amazing, but in any case, it's impressive. We went to Dayton and we know for the feast, and it was different. It was different. It's like God flipped a switch that, you know, no feast and then feast. All of a sudden, it wasn't just Dayton anymore. It was a whole lot more than that. I don't know if others have experienced that. In fact, you can experience the ending of that as well. If you've ever stayed at a feast site after the eighth day, it is a different place. And again, I say it's a different place. Obviously, the beach is still there, the mountains are still there, the hotels are still there, but it is different, and it's noticeably different. You may want to try it sometime, although you only get so many days off from work, I understand that. But it's like God flips a switch and says, oh, you know, now it's a festival time.

So that's an example of something that we can go through, and we can learn from that. We can learn from that. As I say, it's a hard sell trying to talk to someone about the feast who's never been to a feast before. Let's look at a couple more examples. We'll take a look at the disciples on the Sea of Galilee. Let's turn over to Mark, excuse me, Matthew the eighth chapter.

Matthew the eighth chapter. I'll start reading in verse 23. See, we looked at the example of Abraham.

We'll look at the example of the disciples. Matthew eight, starting in verse 23.

It says that now when he got in the boat, and they're in the, they're on the Sea of Galilee, when he got in the boat, his disciples followed him. And suddenly a great tempest arose on the Sea so that the boat was covered with waves, but he was asleep. This is, can I say, that he had a certain vocabulary they worked with that originally written in Greek and then translated into Old English and into English. And we get the idea, you know, they were in serious trouble here with this, but I came up, or I saw, a way that might illustrate this a little bit more, where it talked about, you know, the seas being rough. Thanks to Jerry Seinfeld of a routine years ago, it says, you know, the sea was angry, and that really fits it, you know, it was, it was angry. That boat was swamped. They were in serious trouble. And continuing on, it says, and suddenly a great tempest, or the sea was angry. And so the boat was covered with the waves, but he was asleep.

And his disciples came to him and woke him, saying, Lord, save us, we are perishing.

And verse 26, it says, Why are you fearful? Oh, you have little faith. Well, you can imagine, you know, that the sea is not all that big, but it does generate big storms. It does it did it back then, and it still does it to this day. It generates big storms. And so he said, Why, you know, why are you of little faith? They were afraid for their life. You think about this, a good percentage of the disciples were fishermen. They were used to being out on that very sea, that body of water. And here they were afraid they were going to get swamped and drown. So it says, then he arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. There was a great calm. It's kind of interesting that at this point that there's really two miracles that happened here. One was the wind stopped blowing, and two, once the wind stopped, the water is still moving. It's got to come to a stop also, and it did. Christ dealt with the wind, and he dealt with the waves. Continuing on in verse 27, it says, then the men marveled, saying, who can this be? That even the wind and the sea obey him. Notice this response. Who is this?

Who is this? It's not saying, you know, they didn't ask one another, well, you know, how did he do that? They said, who is this? Because they didn't quite know yet who they were dealing with. But they learned, and they learned through experience. Turn ahead a few pages to Matthew the 14th chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 22.

Matthew 14 and verse 22, it says, immediately, and this is where Christ had fed the multitudes of 5,000 men with loaves and fishes, perhaps up to 15,000 people. Right after that miracle that the disciples witnessed with their own eyes, it said Jesus made his disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side while he sent the multitudes away. But when he sent the multitudes away, he went up to the mountain himself to pray, and when evening had come, he was alone there. But the boat was now in the middle of the sea, tossed by the waves, for the wind was contrary.

Now in the fourth watch the night, Jesus went to them walking on the water.

He was walking on the water, and immediately, immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good cheer.

Well, I skipped 26. He says, When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It's a ghost. But they cried out, and they cried out. But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, Be of good fear. In his eye, do not be afraid. And then Peter has this situation where he says, Well, if it's really you, you know, did I come to you on the water? I'm going to skip ahead in that very part. But the point is, again, the winds were strong, really strong at this point. Violet storms come up quickly. The disciples had been rowing for hours, many waters, many hours. It was difficult. It was cold. It was wet. It was like 3 to 6 a.m. It was not an easy thing at all. They felt like their life were in jeopardy, in danger. And then I'm going to drop down to 32, where it says, verse 32, And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. So again, Christ stopped the weather. Then those who were with Him, with Him in the boat, came and worshipped Him, saying, truly, you are the Son of God. Notice the disciples. The disciples had a different response this time. They did not ask, who is this? No, they did not ask that at all. They knew who it was because of their experience in dealing with the Son of God. They learned through experience who He was. Now they might have asked Him, you know, how did you do that? But they did not ask, who are you? Because they knew. They knew. The disciples had a constant life of testing and delivery. This was not a one-time event. It was not a two-time event. It was done several times. Likewise, in our case, we go through various trials. We have problems. We have difficulties.

Excuse me.

We have troubles and difficulties, but God is with us no matter what the circumstances are.

The Tyndale commentary on the parallel account of this in Mark 6, it says, the disciples were in a constant testing and delivery mode. There are lessons in the waves and in the seas. Excuse me, in the waves and in the sea. Yes. God's path for the disciples was right through the storm. The disciples were doing what they were told. Christ had told the disciples, go ahead. You go ahead with the ahead of me, and I'll catch up with you. They were doing what they were told. Sometimes we're doing what we are told. We know what was right, and we still end up with a problem anyway. It can happen. It does happen. The disciples were in a constant testing and delivery mode. There are lessons in the wind and in the waves. God's path for them was through the storm. The disciples were doing what they were told, as I've just mentioned.

They did not sail off without Christ, but they were in another trial, and the wind and the waves were strong. God wanted them to learn something by going through that storm. He sent them away.

There are lessons in the winds and the waves. Christ was in charge, and He is in charge. Sometimes when we're in a trial, God's path for us is right through a storm. The wind blows hard, and we are tossed around. We think we know the answer, you know, what God needs to do to help us, or what we need for God to do to help us, to answer what God will do. Quite often, or is it all the time, when it works out, it works out in a way differently than we think. Rather than what we have all figured out in our own minds, what we need to have happen, when the answer comes, it usually is better than what we thought out. It's quite often. It doesn't work the way we think.

God is able to quiet the dangerous storm, whatever that storm is. And when we're in a trial, you know, we may have thought, you know, excuse me, when the disciples were in a trial, they may have thought, well, Jesus is on the mountain praying. And according to Mark, He was on the mountain praying. He can probably see us, and yes, He could see them in the sea. He'll send an angel to calm the storm, or something else. But in their time of need, as they're being buffeted about by the sea, by the water, by the wind, in their time of need, in a totally unexpected way, Christ walks over on the water and climbs in the boat, and the boat in the water stops bobbing around. Not one of them thought, well, you know, Christ is going to come to us by, you know, walking on the water. That just wasn't in their mode of thinking, not at all. Another example of the disciples. Let's turn back to John the sixth chapter, John the sixth chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 66.

This is a passage that is normally read at the evening of the Passover. John six, and maybe I'll just paraphrase going through here. It talks about Peter and the other disciples. As I mentioned, the passage that's usually read around the Passover. It's the amount of Christ telling people, the account of Christ telling people, that in order to serve him, you have to eat his flesh and drink his blood. Well, many did not understand what Christ was talking about, and they went away.

Peter did not understand what Christ was talking about either, but there is one thing he did know. He knew through experience, through walking with God, Jesus Christ was the Son of the Living God.

This is a being that they came to worship while he was here, you know, on the earth the first time. He knew through experience, Peter knew through experience of walking with God. Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. Paul had a similar experience, and I'll reference 2 Timothy 1 verse 12. Paul had a similar experience in attitude.

He says, For this reason I suffer these things nevertheless I'm not ashamed for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that is able to keep what I have committed to him until that day. Paul knew whom he believed. He knew through experience, through good times, and he had them, and hard times, and we can read about many hard times, he had plenty of hard times to the point of death.

The way people will know God in the millennium is going to be through experience, either positive or negative. The way people will know God, excuse me, the way people of God know God today is through experience. Turn to Philippians the first chapter. Philippians the first chapter, and I'll start reading in verse 3. Philippians the third chapter. Paul is writing, he says, I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine making requests for you all with joy, for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.

Verse 6, being confident of this very thing that he has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. It's a very inspiring passage. It's a comforting passage. It's one that I enjoy to read. In fact, while I like the book of Philippians as well, it's a very encouraging book.

But anyway, this passage is inspiring and it's comforting. William Barkley, in his series on the New Daily Study Bible, has an interesting comment about verse 6, which we just read. It says, there's a picture here in the Greek text which is not possible to reproduce in translation. The point is the words Paul uses for to begin and to complete are technical terms from the beginning and ending of a sacrifice. Paul's whole sentence thinks in terms of pictures and a sacrifice. Paul is seeing life of every Christian as a sacrifice ready to be offered to Jesus Christ. It reminds me of Romans 12.1, which I'll again only refer to, Romans 12.1, where Christians are called living sacrifices.

Living sacrifices, do you ever think of ourselves as living sacrifices? We give our whole life to God. At the Feast of Tabernacles, we worship God. After all, this is His feast. And I'd like to encourage all of us to pray for a meaningful as well as enjoyable Feast of Tabernacles. I'll repeat that I encourage all to pray for a meaningful and profitable Feast of Tabernacles.

And we are commanded to rejoice. We hear that and we understand that's a command that we latch onto. That's one we like. And we should rejoice, but we need to rejoice with a purpose. It's not just one big party that God has called us to you for eight days. It's an enjoyable occasion, but it does have a purpose.

We come here to learn more about God. And again, God learns more about us as well as we keep the Feast, and for that matter, you know, as we go forward in our lives. So I'd like to encourage all to pray for, again, a meaningful and enjoyable and a profitable Feast. I pray, I ask that you as well suggest that you pray for this feast site, for all of us here, for our feast family, so to speak. Again, to have an enjoyable and a meaningful and profitable Feast.

And while we're at it, there's a whole big world out there, a world of God's people.

Obviously, there's more than are not God's people than are, but there are God's people scattered all around the world at this time, keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. We need to all pray for one another, that we all can come to unity and we all can come to a successful Christian life. So I'd encourage us to pray, again, for ourselves, for our site, for other Christians around the world.

And continuing on in in Barkley's commentary, it says, it says, on the day when Christ comes, it will be like the coming of a king. And of course, it's not like the coming of a king. It is the coming of a king. On that day, as Christ returned, the king's subjects are required to present the king with gifts to mark their loyalty and to show their love. When we stand before Jesus Christ, and we all will stand before Him in one way or another, when we stand before Jesus Christ, what will we have to offer Christ at that time? Take a minute and think about that. What will we have to offer Christ, king of the world, newly crowned? What will we have to offer Him at that time? Money, gold, silver, jewels, lands, other possessions? All that is going to be left behind.

Everything physical is going to be left behind. We stand before Christ the king. We stand before Him, and we offer Him ourselves. That's what we have to offer at that time. And at that time, He knows us.

And we know Him because of the relationship that we have, the relationship development over time as we have walked with God. Turn to John the 20th chapter.

John the 20th chapter. Now start reading in verse 30. John 20 in verse 30, it says, And truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in His book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have faith in His name.

Brethren, we need to believe that God is who He says that He is.

People in the millennium, likewise, are going to have to learn to believe that God is who He says that He is. People in the millennium are going to learn what we are here today learning at this time.