From a sermon delivered on December 6th, 1874, by C.H. Spurgeon, published in the Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, No. 1206, Pgs. 836-850.
“I will give them a heart to know that I am the LORD, and they shall be my people and I will be their God…” – Jeremiah 24:7
See Part II here and Part III here.
Introduction
There is nothing of greater importance to man than that he would know his Creator, a truth very near to the heart of Spurgeon. Over the course of what will be a five-part series, we will be taking an overview look into the necessary doctrine of the knowledge of God. Can we as finite beings truly know the infinite and incomprehensible God? Does God make himself known to all of humanity in the same way? What does it mean to move beyond a surface knowledge of God to, as Spurgeon puts it, a “heart-knowledge of God”? How may we attain such a knowledge?
These crucial questions are what we will be seeking to answer, though briefly, in the journey ahead. We will look first to what God has said to us through his Word as our ultimate authority on these matters, as well as to the help of Spurgeon who offers us useful insight into some key texts on this topic, particularly in his sermon entitled: The Heart-Knowledge of God, delivered on December 6th, 1874. As we explore this weighty subject, may our prayer be that of Paul’s in Ephesians 1:7, “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ…may give you the Spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of him.”
God’s Revelation
In laying the groundwork for this series, the question at hand becomes, how can man know his Creator who is incomprehensible through our finite intellect and reasoning? The answer can only be found through God’s revelation of himself to us. God can be known because he has made himself known. God has revealed himself to us. This revelation is perceived through our consciousness in view of God’s creation (Rom. 1:19-20), is sensed within our human conscience through God’s moral law (Rom. 2:14-15), and most significantly, is spoken through the Holy Scriptures (2 Tim. 3:16).
How wonderful it is that God did not create the world and then leave us hopelessly alone without the faculties to perceive his glory! As noted above with reference to Romans 1:19-20, Scripture tells us, “what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Rom. 1:19-20). On knowing God through creation Spurgeon writes:
“Any man possessed of reason may know that there is a Supreme Being, who created all things and preserves the universe in existence. The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament showeth his handiwork. The tokens of divine skill and power are so abundant that ‘The invisible things of God from the creation of the world are already seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead.’”[1]
Man’s Distance from God
This knowledge, however, as clearly as it can be perceived through our senses, still leaves man on the outside of a saving knowledge of God; it is insufficient for the task. This is not due to any insufficiency on the part of God or in the ways by which he has revealed himself, but it is due to our sinfulness which has blinded our eyes and rendered us incapable of seeing the absolute beauty of God and cherishing him as we ought. This is the consequence of the sin that has entered the world and that permeates our being. Consumed by it, we naturally suppress the knowledge of the truth and turn away from the God who has made himself known. We want no part of him, and in our sinful delusion, we desire a world without him in it (Rom. 1:18, 21). On suppressing the knowledge of the truth Spurgeon writes:
“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. He cannot know God, because his whole heart, and mind, and spirit are in such a state that he is incapable of knowing and appreciating the Holy One of Israel. Darkness covers the mind, because sin has blinded the soul to all that is best and holiest. The lover of sin does not know God, and does not want to know him.”[2]
In this state, man not only has a distorted view of God as he reveals himself, but also remains in a position of hostility towards God, the very one by whom his continual existence is owed. Man willfully puts himself at a distance from the living God and lives contrary to his design. Instead of fixing his eyes upon God in adoration, man settles his affections upon objects of his own creation and the worship of self. In this abandonment, God becomes far from man in his sinful state, and correspondingly, man’s heart becomes far from him. Without divine intervention, our own passions and lusts will be continually sought after, and the object of our worship will be set upon created things over and above the Creator of all things (Rom. 1:25). On this distortion of worship Spurgeon writes:
“Man fashions for himself a god after his own liking; he makes to himself if not out of wood or stone, yet out of what he calls his own consciousness, or his cultured thought, a deity to his taste, who will not be too severe with his iniquities or deal out strict justice to the impenitent. He rejects God as he is, and elaborates other gods such as he thinks the Divine One ought to be, and he says concerning these works of his own imagination, ‘These be thy gods, O Israel.’”[3]
God’s Merciful Intervention
The truth of our depravity reveals that the bare knowledge of God, as discussed so far, is of little value towards salvation given mankind’s helpless state. But it also directs us towards a deeper, saving knowledge of God that is of infinite value. Spurgeon notes that, “The knowledge intended here is much deeper than that which comes from observation, and only affects the intellect.”[4] This knowledge of God mentioned is one that finds its root, or seat according to Spurgeon, in the heart. It is a knowledge involving our affections, a change in heart, accompanied by new inclinations. It is through this knowledge alone that we can know truly, though never comprehend fully, the one true God. It is through him alone that this saving knowledge may be imparted to sinners. This knowledge is imparted through divine intervention in the loving condescension of Jesus Christ and the regenerating work of the Spirit upon our hearts. When it is recognized just how far we have distanced ourselves from God in our sin, the beauty and necessity of this intervention becomes increasingly clear.
With this intervention, no matter how far from God your sin has separated you, he has promised in Christ to remove it “as far as the east is from the west” (Psalms 103:12) and count it against you no more. In freeing sinners from their condemnation, God creates a new heart within them by His Spirit. This new heart is one that is capable of knowing him, that desires to draw near unto him, and that is no longer made of hardened stone but of softened flesh (Ezek. 36:26). On this conversion Spurgeon writes:
“The Holy Spirit…when he illuminates their minds, leads us to see that Jehovah is God, and beside him there is none else. He teaches his people to know that the God of heaven and earth is the God of the Bible, a God whose attributes are completely balanced, mercy attended by justice, love accompanied by holiness, grace arrayed in truth, and power linked with tenderness”[5]
Concluding Remarks
As we come to a close in part one of this series, the key takeaway in anticipation for the following articles is this: while God’s natural revelation is insufficient on its own to bring us to a saving heart-knowledge of himself, God in his merciful plan of redemption has established an even more glorious way – the regenerating work of the Spirit made possible through the sacrificial work of Christ. Looking ahead, we will dive deeper into what it means to have a heart-knowledge of God, and how it is that we may attain such a knowledge. For now, let this serve the reader as an introduction to the greatest knowledge that man could ever obtain as we close with this word from Spurgeon:
“It is not enough to know that our Creator is the Jehovah of the Bible, and that he is perfect in character, and glorious beyond thought: but to know God we must have perceived him, we must have spoken to him, we must have been made at peace with him, we must have lifted up our heart to him, and received communications from him. If you know the Lord your secret is with him, and his secret is with you, he has manifested himself unto you as he does not unto the world. He must have made himself known unto you by the mysterious influences of his Spirit, and because of this you know him.”[6]
[1]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, 837.
[2]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 34, 89-90.
[3]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, 837.
[4]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, 837.
[5]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, 837.
[6]Charles Spurgeon, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Vol. 20, 838-839.
Jaron Button is a Th.M. student at Midwestern Seminary in Kansas City, MO. He serves as a Research Assistant for Dr. Chang and The Spurgeon Center, and as Corporal for Midwestern Seminary’s campus security. He is married to Tiffany and together they are members of Northtown Trinity Church in North Kansas City, MO.