Jeremiah 31:34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me… If we regard this passage as instructive in its order, the knowledge of God follows close upon the application of the law to the heart. The work of grace usually begins, so far as we can perceive it, by the Holy Spirit's bringing the law into contact with the inner man. The law outside of a man is forgotten; he may profess a reverence for it, but it does not affect his desires and thoughts. But when the Holy Spirit begins to put the law into the inward parts, the immediate result is the discovery of our shortcomings and transgressions. law-work is grace-work in its darker dress. It is the axe which rough hews the timber which grace goes on to fashion and smooth. By the operation of the law upon the conscience, convincing the man of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, the Holy Spirit works towards the transforming of the heart. He takes away the stone out of it, and makes it to be a fleshy, tender, sensitive thing. Then with His own finger He writes the Divine law upon the mind and the affections, so that the Divine commands become the centre of the man's life, and the governing force of his action. The man now loves that law which before he, at his very best, only feared: it becomes his will to do the will of God. I. THE ONE ESSENTIAL KNOWLEDGE. "This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." To know God is to live in the light. This knowledge brings with it trust, peace, love, holiness, and acceptance. 1. This knowledge is emphatically the knowledge of God. "They shall all know Me." They may not know everything about God. Who could? Only the infinite can comprehend the infinite. The regenerate, however, know the Lord, though they do not, and cannot, understand His incomprehensible glories. "They shall all know Me, saith Jehovah." Believers can say, "Truly our fellowship is with the Father"; can you say that? Were you ever conscious of the presence of God? Has He ever manifested Himself to you in any special way! One said to a Christian lady that he did not believe in the Scriptures, and she replied that she believed, in them, and delighted to read them. When asked her reason, she replied, "Perhaps it is because I know the Author." Personal acquaintance with God turns faith into assurance. The knowledge of God is the basis of a faith of the surest and sweetest kind: we know and have believed the love which God hath towards us. Knowing God, we believe in the truth of His words, the justice of His sentences, the goodness of His acts, the wisdom of His purposes, yea, and the love of His chastisements. 2. Note, next, that it is a personal knowledge. Each renewed person knows the Lord for himself. You cannot see God with another man's eyes; you cannot know God through another man's knowledge. Ye must yourselves be born again! Ye must yourselves be made pure in heart, or you cannot see God. 3. Next, this knowledge is one which is wrought in us by the Spirit of the Lord. It is the duty of every Christian man to say to his neighbour, and to his brother, "Know the Lord." God uses this effort as His instrumentality for saving men. But the man who really knows the Lord, does not know Him solely by such instruction. All Zion's children are taught of the Lord. They know God by His revealing Himself to them. 4. Note, carefully, that this knowledge of God becomes manifest knowledge. It is so manifest that the most earnest workers who desire the conversion of their fellow-men no longer say to such a man, "Know the Lord," for they perceive most clearly that he already possesses that knowledge, so as to be beyond the need of instruction upon that point. 5. Next, this knowledge of God is universal among the regenerate. The regenerate man with one talent knows the Lord; the man with ten talents boasts not of them, but rejoices that he knows the Lord. 6. This is the distinguishing mark of the regenerate, that they know the Lord. The knowledge of God lies at the bottom of every virtue and grace. The Lord is no more to us a stranger of whom we have heard — of whom a report has come to us through many hands. No; the Lord God is our friend. II. THE ONE GRAND MEANS OF OBTAINING THIS KNOWLEDGE OF GOD. "For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more." 1. Without the pardon of sin it is not possible for us to know the Lord. The thought of God is distasteful to every guilty man. It would be good news to him if he could be informed, on sure authority, that there was no God at all Darkness covers the mind, because sin has blinded the soul to all that is best and holiest. While sin lieth at the door, there is a difficulty on God's part, too. How can He admit into an intimate knowledge of Himself the guilty man, as long as he is enamoured of evil? Beyond this, an awful dread comes over the guilty mind, even when it begins to be awakened. Conscience testifies that God must punish sin. 2. In the pardon of sin there is made to the pardoned man s clear and unmistakable revelation of God to his own soul The knowledge of God received by a distinct sense of pardoned sin is more certain than knowledge derived by the use of the senses in things pertaining to this life. 3. This personal manifestation has about it a singular glory of overwhelming self-evidence. How a man sees God when he comes to know in his own soul the fulness of pardon intended by this matchless word, "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more"! Can this be so? Does the Lord make a clean sweep of all my sins? Can it be that the Lord has cast them all behind His back? Has He blotted out the record which accused me? Has He cast my sin into the depths of the sea? Hallelujah! He is a God indeed. This is a Godlike act. O Jehovah! who is like unto Thee? Mark, also, how freely, out of His mere love, the Lord forgives, and herein displays His Godhead! No payment on our part, of suffering or service, is required. The Lord pardons for His own name's sake. 4. When the soul comes to think of the method of mercy, it has a further knowledge of God. In the extraordinary plan of salvation by grace through Christ Jesus, all the Divine attributes are set in a glorious light, and God is made known as never before. Oh, the splendour of redeeming love! 5. The immutability of Divine pardon is one of the most brilliant facets of the diamond. Some think that God forgives, but afterwards punishes; that you may be justified to-day, but condemned to-morrow. Such is not the teaching of our text. "Their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more." Our debts are so fully paid by our Lord Jesus that there is not an account upon the file of omniscience against any pardoned one. ( C. H. Spurgeon.) Parallel Verses KJV: And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. |
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