True knowledge of God goes beyond mere information to an experiential understanding, as illustrated by Samuel's initial lack of personal knowledge despite his upbringing. The sermon emphasizes that God's Word provides principles, not just facts, and that the Holy Spirit applies these principles to life situations, enabling believers to discern God's will. This understanding is crucial for navigating life's challenges and for spiritual growth, leading to conformity to Christ's image. The message concludes by urging listeners to actively engage with God's Word and Spirit to live out God's purposes.
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We can all give a heartfelt amen to what God has given us through His servant this evening. And I do trust with you that this will be a week together when we shall truly meet with the Lord Himself. I should like to ask you to turn to the first book of Samuel for a moment or two, if you will. First Samuel chapter three, reading from verse four. Then the Lord called Samuel, Samuel, and he said, Here am I. And he ran to Eli and said, Here am I, for you called me.
But he said, I did not call, lie down again. So he went and lay down. And the Lord called again Samuel. But Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, Here am I for you called me. And he said, I did not call you, my son. Lie down again. Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him. You know, there's a great deal of difference between having information about God and knowing the Lord himself. Samuel was a boy who was brought up at the beginning by believing parents.
his father being in the service of the Lord. He then went on to be with Eli, and one can imagine the great amount of information that must have been stored up in his head and in his heart concerning God. He knew a good deal of the history of Israel, of God's providence with his people. He knew a great deal of all that God had provided for worship and sacrifice. He had a great deal of information. And yet we read that Samuel did not yet know the Lord in a personal, experiential sense.
Now, I'm not suggesting that we gathered here are in exactly that position. Probably all of us I've experienced the saving grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we can say, I know the one, I know the person in whom I have believed. But I don't know how it is with you, but one of my problems is that so often there is a difference between the amount of information I have in my head concerning the things of God and that which has become part of me. the degree to which the truth of God possesses me, the extent to which you and I are living epistles, commending and living out the truth of the Lord Jesus.
It's so easy for us to know the facts, to know Bible stories, to know something of the types, of prophecy, of Christian doctrine. We have a great deal of information. But why has God given us His Holy Word? Just that we may understand it and learn it as we would any secular textbook, a thousand times know. God wants this truth to affect our lives, that you and I may become different people, that we may know the Lord, that we may know God's will, and that we may, by His grace, do His will. That is part of the purpose that God has in giving us the Scriptures, as well as sending His Son the living Word into this world to save us.
Many people, you know, spend a good deal of time trying to work out a formula in this way or in that way that they may have some pat answer whereby they may know God's will. Some people are always in a kind of a nervous uncertainty not knowing whether they should do this or do that should go in this direction or that direction for them the knowledge of the will of God is a very difficult thing but you know sometimes we confuse difficult things with simple and profound things which are not necessarily easy it isn't difficult to know God's will it isn't easy to do God's will Let me put it this way.
One hundred percent of the will of God for every detail of your life and my life is in God's Word. All of God's will for you and me is in His Word. Now if we are ignorant of God's Word we'll always be ignorant of His will. We'll always be running around like a chicken with its head off, asking advice from this person and that person, should I do this and should I do that. But you say it isn't as easy as that. I'm faced with all sorts of specific decisions that require definite answers, and I don't find those answers in God's word.
But perhaps the reason for that is we fail to understand the way in which God wants us to understand His Word. The Bible is a book of principles. And so often we understand or learn or come to a knowledge of the facts of Scripture, but we fail to discern those basic spiritual principles that really represent in essence, God's will for you and for me. And unless you and I learn to extract from God's word those principles which represent the character of God, the nature of God, the purposes of God, will always be uncertain.
I remember the first time I was in Manila, and I was rather surprised to find a young businessman working for the Shell Oil Company, who had a Bible class in Manila, he was a young man of only twenty-six years of age. And do you know who was attending that Bible class? A considerable number of young missionaries. All of them had been to Bible school and got diplomas. He'd never been to Bible school. All of them were in so-called full-time Christian service. He was a businessman. All of them were known as foreign missionaries.
He was not known as a foreign missionary. But what was the problem they faced? Well, they'd been to their Bible schools and they'd got a great deal of information about the Bible. They'd lived in a structured situation where people told them, you must do this and you mustn't do that. This is right, this is wrong. They had their loose-leaf notebooks full of details. They could analyze this book, and he was point one, point two, point three, and so on, the conclusion. They had lots of information. They knew a great deal about God, but some of them had not had very much experience of the Lord Himself. Now they were in a foreign country.
The climate was difficult. Health was not always a simple matter. They seemed to be subject to attacks by Satan. There was indifference and opposition. They didn't know which way to turn. And you know one of the great problems in the mission field is what is sometimes spoken of as missionary mortality. Do you know that in the country of India, according to statistics that are given, that one-third of all the missionaries who go out there return within three years? Japan is a country, I think, that is known for a number of missionaries that have nervous collapses and have to be invalid at home. And I'm convinced part of the reason is that many of those dear believers have never learned to understand what it means to walk with God, to get direction from God, and to move along being confident in knowing God's will, God's way, God's purpose, and in His strength they can face the opposition.
As long as there's someone to tell them, you do this and then you do that, and then you do this and then you do that, as long as they live in what is called a kind of a box, in a structured situation they feel secure. But as soon as they're out on their own, they just don't know how to get along. And I'm convinced the basic reason is they've never really learned to understand God's word in terms of those principles of God's will. But you say, supposing I do know those principles, how is that going to affect my life? Well, one of the wonderful things about Scripture, it isn't alone. It's always the Spirit and the Word.
The Word and the Spirit, never one without the other. I hear that there are a lot of people these days who are sort of troubled because of those who claim they've got a gift of speaking in tongues. Now, do you know that there are two types of Christians in the world? There are those who place all their emphasis upon the Bible and none upon God the Holy Spirit, and they tend to become dry and doctrinaire and rationalistic. And there's not much heart and life about them. And then there are other people who negate God's Word and they place all their emphasis upon their feelings, upon the Holy Spirit, upon experience.
And they tend to go off in tangents. and led astray in many, many respects. But the perfect balance that God wants us to maintain is the Word of God, His objective truth, and then the Spirit of God that takes that Word of God and makes it a living message to your heart and life and mind. The Spirit of God who takes these principles that we understand with our mind and have accepted with our heart and will, and God, the Holy Spirit, applies them to the actual situations that you and I face, and we have an assurance of knowing what God's will is.
We were mentioning some of these things coming in the car today. Do you take the matter of women in a place of worship wearing a head covering? Now there are lots of people who know that's the thing they're supposed to do and they do it, but what they fail to realize is this, that this is but an outward sign of a scriptural principle that's got to be operative in their lives. And if all they do is to put a hat on their head, and that doesn't really represent an inner attitude of heart based upon a principle of God's Word, it's just an outward thing without much value.
They may carry out the letter, and that is important, but it's the Spirit that gives life. You take this matter of baptism. That is an outward sign of an inward thing that God the Holy Ghost has wrought in our hearts. And if all we have is the outward sign, it doesn't do very much good. But back of that is a glorious principle of reality of our identification with the Lord Jesus himself in his death and in his burial and in his resurrection. So what we are going to try to do in the mornings we have together is to consider four or five basic principles of Christian life that we find in God's Word.
And I want to try to talk about them very practically, and I hope that by God's Spirit he will apply these principles to my life, afresh and anew as I speak, and that he will similarly apply them in your life. And so we'll try to think together about this principle of faith. which is a dominant characteristic in the life of the believer. We'll try to think together of the principle of the fact and the principle that Jesus Christ is Lord. And what does the Lordship of Christ, or what should this mean practically in your everyday life and mind?
Oh, it's so easy to call Jesus Lord. But our Lord Jesus said, Not everyone that calls me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom. Or we can easily use words. But there is to be a reality back of those words. I've known some people, I don't like to sing that hymn, My Jesus, I love thee. They prefer to sing, Lord Jesus, I love thee. But what is the use of being particular about that expression? It is of some use. Yes. but how important that the principle of the Lordship of Christ be operative in your life and mine. And then we'll consider the principle of obedience, and then the principle of discipleship, and then the principle of eternity that God has placed in our hearts because we've been born again.
And my hope and prayer is that as we consider these things together, not considering our own ideas, but from God's word, If you will really speak to you and me, and we shall wholeheartedly respond to him, and as a result of it all, there will be a greater degree of our being conformed to the image of our Lord Jesus Christ. For that is our predestination. We are predestined to be made just like the Lord Jesus Christ himself. And having been born again, that process of sanctification has begun, and God the Holy Spirit is working in your heart and life and in my heart and life to make us more and more like our blessed Savior.
And the glorious prospect we have in the future is this, that what God has willed, He's going to perform, and sometimes in spite of our unwillingness, or indifference or coldness of heart, or even in spite of our opposition, we who are born again, ultimately are going to be presented before the presence of God Himself, completely like the Lord Jesus. But the Apostle Paul said, I want to lay hold of that thing for which God laid hold of me. When Christ saved me, he had a purpose. He had a goal. He had something in view. Now Paul says, I want to make God's purpose for my life my purpose.
I want to be in complete agreement with God and His will for me. I want to lay hold or apprehend that for which I also have been apprehended by Christ Jesus. So may this be the intent of our heart. And may we be open before the Lord. And while we'll have a holiday here and a time of rest and recreation, may there be in the truest sense spiritual recreation by the Holy Spirit as we consider the Lord and His Word. May it be so for His namesake. Shall we look to Him for His blessing? O God our Heavenly Father, again we want to thank thee and praise thee for this fresh privilege thou hast given to each of us to come together in this place, to hear thee speak to us.
Lord, give us ears to hear. Give us hearts to respond. But, Lord, may we also realize the responsibility of these days, that if thou hast given us this opportunity of pausing in the midst of busy lives to consider thee and thy holy and precious word We have a responsibility to seek thee the Lord while thou mayest be found. This is a day of opportunity thou hast given to us. Lord, help me to seize it. Lord, grant that all of us may seize it. That we may receive that fullness of thy blessing that thou hast for us this week.