Turn with me in your Bibles to Jeremiah chapter 24 and verse 7. 24 and verse 7. And we're returning. We haven't been there for a couple of weeks on our series. A heart for God, or a heart after God, or having the heart of God. All of those things are included. And we dealt with, I think it was three weeks ago now, a pure heart, which is part five. Here this morning, I want to move to part six. And my message and all of these messages interlock. In fact, it's remarkable how the verses interconnect and you find all of these things are synonymous in the same place or they overlap. And so my message here this morning, part six, a heart to know God. Part six, reading from Jeremiah 24 and seven. and I will give them an heart to know me." What a remarkable verse. What a remarkable promise. What a remarkable proclamation from a real God. I will give them a heart to know me. Do you desire it this morning? that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, for they shall return unto me with their whole heart. Will you pray with me here this morning? Father, we thank you for the Word of God. And as we've already heard, Lord God, it's your Word, your truth, your light. that leads us into the knowledge of our God, of our Christ. And Lord God, I'm so grateful, I'm so humbled even to stand here, oh God, to handle these verses. Lord God, we do not glory in our wisdom. We do not glory in our strength. or in our riches or any other thing. But standing here, gathered here this morning, we glory in that we understand and that we know God. What a privilege this morning. We don't treat it lightly. It's not a casual statement that rolls off our tongue, nor deliver us from taking it as a casual thing. It is a life-changing, It is a supernatural thing that we could know that you are God. You have given us a heart that we might know you. If you didn't do that, we could never know you. We could never have fellowship or communion or walk with you. But I'm so glad that you took out of me the heart of stone and put within me a new heart A gracious heart, a heart that actually knows you, perceives you, understands you, comprehends you, that hears you, that sees you, that knows you. And we bless you this morning. In Jesus' mighty name. Amen. It says in Jeremiah chapter 32 verse 39, and it's God speaking, and I will give them one heart. It says in Ezekiel 11 verse 19, and I will give them one heart. It says in Ezekiel 36, 26, a new heart also will I give. You. Our scripture here in Jeremiah 24 and 7 is talking about another element of the heart that we're talking about. We're talking about that heart that God gives us and that we are to have and protect and guard in order that God might bless us as He really desires to do. This is a heart to know Him. We've already dealt with a broken and contrite heart. We looked at a humble heart. We looked at a God-fearing heart. And we looked last time at a pure heart. And what you find is these are not all different kinds of hearts that different individuals have. They are all aspects of one heart. What I'm doing is building a picture of the one brand new heart that God gives as a divine gift. Notice in these verses, God gives it. You cannot learn it. You cannot create it. You cannot manufacture it. I cannot put it in you. A church cannot give it to you. No one can do that. This certain kind of heart, this one heart is a gift of God. I will give them a heart to know me. If you know God this morning, God gave that to you. It wasn't your righteousness. It wasn't you seeking after Him. It wasn't that you're so brainy, or intelligent, or educated, or you're a book reader. None of that. If you know God, if you have a heart within you that says, I desire to know you, I know you, I love you, I fellowship with you. Do you know what has happened? God has done heart surgery within you. It's an amazing thing. It's a remarkable thing. It says in 1 Chronicles 28 and 9, and this is King David speaking to his son Solomon. And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind. For the Lord searcheth all hearts, and he understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts. If you seek him, he'll be found of you. But if you forsake him, he will cast thee off forever. David, speaking to his son, said, have a heart to know God. This is above anything else. It's not wisdom you should be after. It's not knowledge you should be after. It's not riches you should be after. It's not ministry you should be after. It's not a nice house you should be after. All those things could destroy you, I want to assure you. It's not great fame or reputation in the church. That definitely could destroy you. You know what we should be after? A heart to know God. David, a man who was after God's own heart. A man who had God's own heart operating in him. A man who understood God. He says to his son, know thou the God of thy father. One thing you want in this church this morning, you want to know the real God. You want to know the God of the Bible, of Abraham, Isaac, of Jacob, of David, of Abraham, of Moses, of Keith Malcolmson. Because I am fully assured that my God is not a man-made God. It's not a religious God. It's not a manufactured God. It's not a God of my own imagination. You see, the God, the knowledge of God I have received did not come out of my mind. I did not mould Him in my image or according to my thoughts. I received a knowledge of God that transformed my entire life. That is the God I want you to receive. That's the God I want you to come to know in a very deep way. I've got three points here that I find in Jeremiah 24 7. In this one verse about being given a heart to know God. I believe I've got three points. And this is them, very simple. True revival. In this verse, this is what I see. True revival, true salvation, and true Christianity. I believe in a heart to know God. This is the very central essence in seeing true revival, having true salvation, and walking and experiencing and enjoying true Christianity without God giving a heart to know Him. You will not have true revival. It'll be false. You will not have true salvation. It'll be a counterfeit. It'll be of yourself. And you will not experience true Christianity. So if you take the heart of God out of this, it's all sham. It all falls apart. First of all, true revival. How do I find true revival in this first Jeremiah 24 and verse 7? Let me just give you the context of this verse for a second. We have just read here in Jeremiah 24 and verse 7, that I will give you a heart to know me. What is the context? Look at verse 1 and the lead into this. God has just shown a vision to Jeremiah. The Lord showed me. And behold, two baskets of figs were set before the temple of the Lord." So God gives them this unusual vision, two baskets, two kinds of figs. And you're going to read here in these verses, one of them are good figs, very good figs. The other one is filled with bad figs, very bad figs. Two baskets of figs near the house of God. And he sees this in vision. But what does it represent? Read on here in verse 1. It says, after, so he had this vision after something, after that Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, who had invaded the land and took over Israel. That's who he is. Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, had carried away Captive, Jehoniah, the son of Jehonakim. Jehonakim had been the king in Jerusalem, in Judah. He was the king. Now he's being carried away to Babylon. I'm bringing you to this first point about a hard to know God, true revival. This verse is applied in a certain historic situation. And so Nebuchadnezzar carried away the king from Jerusalem. the king of Judah and the princes of Judah with the carpenters, the smiths from Jerusalem and had brought them to Babylon. Now he's going to explain what has that got to do with the vision of two baskets. So you've got now in the whole history of what has happened here, you have a context. There are three carrying away from Israel to Babylon, three going into captivities, three times over a period of 20 years. It begins and it carries on for 20 years, and there's three major carryings away of the people. When this prophecy is given, and this verse about having the heart of God, when we receive this chapter, Two of them have just taken place. The second captivity has gone to Babylon. You've had most of the people carried away prisoners into a pagan, idolatrous, Wicked system, and yet it's of God. Because God is punishing His people because of their coldness and their disobedience, and they don't listen to Him, and they're not pure in their hearts. So what does He do? He raises up, God raises up Nebuchadnezzar, not the devil. God raises him up to invade the land, to carry them away. But do you know what Nebuchadnezzar does? He leaves certain people in the land who he thought were useless. Carry all the skilled ones away, all the gifted ones, all the pure ones away. You remember, Daniel was one of the first to get carried away to Babylon. He was one of the first young men in the first captivity, he went down to Babylon. But then the ones who are left were useless. And you know, poor Jeremiah, the prophet, he had to get left in Jerusalem with all of this bunch that are left behind, while all the rest are in captivity in Babylon. Poor Jeremiah, that's all I can say, that he had to stay there with this bunch. And you know what? He starts giving them prophecies. And this is a word from the Lord very clearly. Look at verse two. One basket had very good figs, even like the figs that are first ripe. And the other basket had very naughty figs, which could not be eaten. They were so bad. What do these two baskets represent? Then said the Lord unto me, what seest thou, Jeremiah? And I said, figs, the good figs, very good, and the evil figs, very evil, they cannot be eaten. They are so evil. Again, the word of the Lord came unto me saying, thus saith the Lord God, the God of Israel. You're gonna see over the next chapters that those left behind, And they're under King Zedekiah. Babylon, or Nebuchadnezzar, placed a man called Zedekiah as the last king ever of Jerusalem. The last Israeli king. The last king of the line of David to serve. And he's appointed by Nebuchadnezzar, and he is left in the land. And you find in the following chapters, when Jeremiah prophesies unto him, they hated him. They literally hated this man of God. 11 years before the last captivity, and the temple's destroyed, and the wall's destroyed, and everything is burnt down, and all of them are scattered. 11 years. And you've got Sedekiah, and you know what? They go, shoo, we survived it. Thank God, all of them that deserved it got carried away into captivity. And we are here because we serve God. And God has blessed us. And that means God is with us. And we know God. And Jeremiah prophesies unto him and says, no, you do not. Do you know what the two baskets are? The basket of good figs are those that have gone into Babylon. That's the good figs. Those that stayed behind in Jerusalem with Zedekiah, they are the bad figs that you can't do anything with. And Jeremiah has to stay with them for 11 years. And they're so rebellious that they think the others have been punished, and the others are suffering, and God is against the others. They have lost their land and their home, and they'll never return in their lifetime. And those in Jerusalem say, all the troubles have passed. All the sorrows are gone. We have weathered the storm. We have come out the other side. But there was no repentance. There was no brokenness. There was no holiness. You know, it shocks me at the minute, when I look at the worldwide church over this two years, what has gone wrong with the church? Two years of a worldwide crisis and I am not hearing repentance from the church and the preachers of the church. I'm not hearing it in Europe. I'm not hearing it in America. I'm not hearing it in Asia. I'm not hearing it across the waves. I'm not hearing it on the internet. I'm not seeing it on the television. Where are the prophets of God in this hour? What has happened that we have lived through one of the greatest crises and most Christians are going, shoot, we don't need to wear a mask anymore and we can go to work and we can get on a plane and it's back to ministry as normal. Do you know that's what happened here in this time? That they began to say, it's all over, and we're still in the land, and we're blessed, and we're staying here, and we do not like that prophet Jeremiah. He always prophesies bad and evil. And you know what he prophesied? Do not go down to Egypt. Don't associate with them. Make friends or move there. Do you know what they done? They said, you're a liar. You're a false prophet. So they all went down to Egypt. They're bad, bad figs. But do you know what? The good figs went into captivity under Babylon. The good figs become slaves. The good figs lost their homes. The good figs actually lost everything. Do you realise the blessing of God at times? I believe we've lived through a very interesting time in the church, the body of Christ. I believe the good figs went into captivity, and God left all the dross in their pulpits, and their big churches, and their big ministries, and their missionary endeavors, and he left them alone. They're proud, and they're arrogant, and they're liars, and they're compromisers, and they're heretics, and God just left it all there. That's what I've seen in my lifetime. And all through the years I go, I'm suffering, I'm going through hell, I'm in prison cells, spiritually. And I go, I love you, I know you, I desire you, I fear you. Why is it these men who do not fear you, they're not being chastised, they're not being dealt with, they're not repenting, and yet they maintain ministry. What a tragedy. What an absolute tragedy that we are living in. It says in verse 5, Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel, Like these good figs, so will I acknowledge them that are carried away captive into Judah, whom I have sent out of this place into the land of the Chaldeans for their good. Do you know at times God moves in the church to send us into troubles, into hard times, into affliction, because you know what He's going to do? In the very next verse, it is remarkable. Look at what it says, verse 6. For I will set mine eyes upon them for good. In Babylon, in captivity, when they've lost everything, an entire people. and I will bring them again to this land, and I will build them, and I will not pull them down, and I will plant them and not pluck them up. And notice the next verse, and I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God, and they shall return unto me with the whole heart. Do you know, at the end of 70 years, there were three returns. There were three going into captivities. There were three returns after 70 years, as God prophesied. Three movements. In a period of 100 years, there were four major revivals, ending with Nehemiah, who saw two revivals. It was extraordinary. And listen, there was a major move of God. Do you know what you had in that revival? Those who came back were very different than Israel had been all the way back to Solomon. You know, from the days of Solomon to the days of Zedekiah, there was idolatry in Israel, in the land, in Jerusalem, in the royal house. They had idols and they followed the ways of the world. Do you know when they come back again, they never, ever become an adulterous people again. They never turn to idolatry. They never bring false gods back in again. Do you know what God done in Babylon? He prepared a people for revival. In other words, in captivity, He afflicted them. He brought forth a heart that actually said, we want to know you. We want to know, are you tired of churchianity? Are you tired of denominations? Are you tired of mega ministry? All those online who listen to us, right across this world, people are tired of what's going on. Do you know what God has done? He has prepared an entire people, afflicted, scattered, isolated. You know what He's doing? He's preparing them for revival. He is going to gather them. Do you know what true revival is? True revival is when God gives His people a heart to know Him again. It's not money, it's not ministry, it's not mega buildings, it's not being known, it's not titles. You know what it is? God has given me a heart to know Him. This is revival. And what you have, what you see with Nehemiah and many of the prophets, a ministry, the new God. You see, I believe this is central to every revival. When we come right back to a time of a new revival, you know what God has to do? He has to so afflict that revenant. He has to so break them. He has to have them of a contrite heart. Do you realize what God's doing with you? If God isn't dealing with you, then you're bad figs. God help you if God isn't dealing with you. You are really in trouble. And anyone listening to us not being dealt with, you are seriously in trouble. Because God's gonna leave you and move on. But if you're in the fire and being dealt with, and God is breaking you, and he can crush you, and he can wound you, You know it's because he's going to heal you and bring revival. I want a genuine revival of the heart of God to know God again. Every real revival, God comes down in power. Remember the Welsh revival in 1904. God came down in a meeting with 17 young people. 17 young people, and the preacher, 26 or 27 years old, was preaching his first sermon ever that he'd ever preached. It wasn't eloquent, it wasn't long, it wasn't studied, it was from the heart. I want to know God. You know what happened? In six months, 100,000 people became born again in Wales. One-tenth of the entire population of the entire country became Christians in one year. Everything changed. The politicians noted it, and that's only one revival. On my shelf, I've got hundreds of books on revival from all through church history from the very beginning. It's remarkable what God actually does. When you go back to the beginning of Genesis 2-17, remember God speaking to Adam and Eve, He said, This is talking about knowledge. Either you've got a heart for God or in religion, you can actually learn to live this life by head knowledge, by information, by facts, but you don't know God. That's what's destroyed the church, that's why there's no revival. You know why? Because the church throughout my lifetime has eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. God says you can eat of any of the trees, but see that one tree, the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, education, understanding. You've got a mind that says, I know everything. I know what deception is. I know what real is. I know what the Bible says. I can argue about everything. I've got all of this knowledge. and you become proud and arrogant and callous, it's not about living for God. It's not about a walk for God. Adam and Eve, who walked with God in the cool of the day, He would come down in the evening at the end of the day, and He walked with them. Do you realize they swapped that for the knowledge of good and evil? Over in the New Testament, Jesus speaking in Matthew 7, and He said, Do you know those who are going to enter the kingdom of heaven? It'll be those that do the will of my Father. And then he talks about on that day, many will come saying, Lord, Lord, we have prophesied in your name. We operate in the gifts of the Spirit. We prophesied and in thy name cast out devils. We have power over the devil. And in thy name done many wonderful works, our Holy Ghost works. And then will I, Jesus is saying this is gonna happen, then will I profess unto him, I never knew you. I love the Greek. It says, I never in any way or at any time ever knew you. And they're banging on the door. Life is finished. It's the hour of judgment. And they said, but we're in revival. We're prophesying and we're moved of the Holy Ghost and we're casting out demons. And you know what he's saying? It's all figs, bad, evil figs. You are like Zedekiah. Remember, he got blinded. Last thing he saw was his sons before they blinded him. Isn't it interesting, the last church in Revelation of the seven is Laodicea and it's blind. The last king of Israel was blinded. Do you know what scares me? This is the last church age and most of the church and most of the preachers, they're blind. And they're saying, we're rich and we're prosperous and we have the Holy Spirit and we have God and we know God. Do you know what God is going to say? Jesus actually says, I don't know you. Hold on. God knows everything. God knows everyone. Yes. I'm talking about a heart to know God. Jesus says, I don't know you. Who are you? Oh, but Lord, I've done all of this. Or what about Luke chapter 13, 26? You see, Matthew 7 is for the charismatics. But Luke chapter 13 is for the evangelicals, the fundamentalists, the old time Pentecostals. Do you know what it says? Lord, we have eaten and drank in thy presence. We loved the Lord's table. We feasted on the word of God. And thou has taught in our streets. We love the preaching, the teaching of the word of God. Do you know what he's going to say unto them? I know you not whence ye are. Depart from me, all you workers of iniquity. There's going to be many in the church that are bad figs. There's going to be many very shortly who Jesus is going to say, I do not know you. You're a stranger to me. And they're going to say, but we've done all these things. We acknowledge. I love the preaching of the word. Says, yeah, but you're iniquitous. You're a disobedient child. You never obeyed the word of God. You didn't love the word of God. I don't know you. And the mark of it is you don't even love my word. And you say, you know me. You don't know me. You really don't know me. That's the first thing in this verse. True revival. The mark of true revival is that you receive a heart to know God. You know God. You actually know Him. You get a heart to know Him. Second of all, true salvation. True salvation. Do you realize this verse? I will give them a heart to know me. Is salvation. Real salvation. You say, what is it to be born again? What does it mean to be born again? What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to have a relationship with God? You know Him and He becomes your God. And you become His child. You see, you can't get saved or born again without coming to know God in a very intimate and a very real way. Let me just define this word, know, for a second. Because I had a friend many years ago. I had a friend, inverted commas. Have you ever had a friend? And just before we got married, Candice listened in. I had it in loudspeaker as I talked to this friend. And I come off the call and she said, huh? She says, what you call a friend and what I call a friend's a bit different. I said, I know, I know. But this friend of mine, when I got to know him, I would mention someone, he said, I know them. I go, really? Yes. And then it mentioned something, I know them. Really? And this would go on and on and on. And I used to be in awe, this guy knew everybody. I mean everybody, he knew them. And then I started to find out, it didn't mean he'd ever even met them or spoken to them. He saw them on television or he heard about them or he read their, he said, I know them. And it took me a while to figure this out. And I'd be there knowing someone who no way had contact with it. He goes, I know them. And I went, what you call knowing and what I call knowing is two very different things. In the car driving here, I let my message slip and Candice related the story of when her mom went to buy her her first violin as a young girl. And on the phone, this is the reason she bought that violin. Because the woman who'd come on the phone to sell the violin, she said, oh, it's my husband's, and he used to play his violin with one of the top, most famous violinists of that generation. And she said, he played with him. And so Candice's mom went, well, if this man played with this top professional, boy, that must be some violin and it'll have been looked after. And that's the violin I'm getting for my daughter. Well, she got to the house and the husband is footering around in the back of everything. And she looks at it and inspects the violin and then buys it for her precious young daughter who's going to start playing the violin. and says, did he really play with, yes, yes, yes, he played with him on this violin. And just before leaving, here comes the husband and says, is it true that you actually played with him? And he dropped his head and I can't tell it like her, and said, well, well, on the LPs. never met the man, didn't know the man, never wrote to the man, just put the LPs of this famous violinist and would play along to the LPs. Do you know what's happened with the church of this day? The term no God has been destroyed. People say they know God in salvation. They do not know God in salvation. In Jeremiah 31-33 it says, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. He's talking about a new covenant, a new relationship with God that's future. Ezekiel talks about it in Jeremiah and other prophets. And they say in the future, God will make a new covenant. Not like the old covenant. The old covenant said, do this and do this and do this or else you die. But with the new covenant, do you know what God does? He gives you a new heart and enables you to live this life. That's why I'm not scared with the word of God. I read things in the Bible and I go, I can't do that. I can't live this Christian life. I can't make all the right decisions. I won't be willing to pay the price. I've never worried about that because I go, Lord, it's you working within me. You put a heart within me that says, I will pay the ultimate price. I will make the right decisions. I will follow you. I want you to do it in me. It's not laid on me to do. And you know what? Sometimes you need to hit a brick wall and fail and find that it's not within yourself. And then you say, oh God, work this within me. Put your heart within me. You do the work, not me trying to be something. This new covenant, after those days saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts and ride it in their hearts. Notice where God puts his word, in their hearts and will be their God and they shall be my people. How do you have this relationship where God becomes our God? This is a hard to know God. He gives himself to you. You have God in real salvation. You know, when you get born again, God says, you have me. You have Jesus. He's the great high priest. He's your great high priest. He's a healer. He's now your healer. He was the creator. He can do anything in your life. He is the great intercessor. He becomes yours in real salvation. That's why it's so important to know God. I don't want to be deceived in this, or you've lost out on the real God. If you get real salvation, you receive a heart to know God, the real God. That's everything. But if you get deceived in this, you're in trouble. The word Yeda, for know, means a personal, first-hand experience. It's not talking about academic knowledge. Not talking about hearing things with the ear. Not talking about others telling you what you can have or ought to have. It is a covenant relationship. The word Yeda is used 947 times in the Old Testament to know God, or to have a heart to know God, is that you come into a relationship with God, personal, intimate, firsthand. See your experience with God, is it secondhand or firsthand? See, along this way, you come to a place where you go, I don't want to hear about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I don't want to hear about Paul's God or Victoria's God or Ellen's God or anyone else. I want to know this God. I want to experience this God. I want personal, intimate experience. It says here about writing His word on your heart. That's where it begins. Verse 34, And they shall teach no more every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. That's in the old covenant. For they shall all know me. With the new heart and the new covenant that God writes His word on, you don't need anyone to tell you, know the Lord. You need to know God. Do you know what it says? With this heart, you get a knowledge of God. You don't need anyone to teach you that God is real, that He created all things, that He has all power, that He is everywhere. You know, when you get born again, you receive a heart where you go, I know He is real. I know He created things at the beginning. I don't believe in an old earth. I don't believe in millions and billions of years. That's absolute trash and heresy. No real Christian can believe in billions of years of evolution and tie it into the Bible. You're either going to believe in evolution or the God of the Bible. But with this new heart, you know this. You don't need someone to teach you, but it says here, for they all shall know me." Every genuine convert knows God. I don't care how weak they are, how small they are, how feeble they are, how young they are, a real convert knows God. I mean, he is intimate, personal, firsthand. He's not saying, well, they said it and I'm trying to believe it. They preach about this, so I'm going along trying my best. You know what? He's your God. He is a God that will reveal Himself to you. It is very, very real. And it says here that He will teach you. He will teach you from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the Lord. I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more." How does he bring you into this? He forgives your sin. These verses in Jeremiah 31 about not needing to be taught to know God, but that you'll receive a heart written with the Word of God where you know Him. As a part of genuine salvation, it is quoted in Hebrews chapter 11, when the Apostle Paul is talking about real salvation through the blood of the Lamb. You're forgiven, you're washed from your sin, you're redeemed, God shewed you mercy, all your sin is gone. Do you know what that is? You have received the heart of God. You receive it from Him in a very real way. The word to know in the Bible, it's used in Genesis 4 and 1 and Adam knew Eve. A very personal, one-to-one personal relationship. No third person, no five people. When you know someone, it's personal between you and them. Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived. So that means they experienced the most intimate relationship possible between a man and a woman, private, personal. Unique between one man, one woman, and it says she conceived and bear Cain, her son. That's what the word no actually means. You know what God says about Abraham? I know him that he will command his children and his household after him. Wouldn't you want God to know you in a certain way that he says, I know what they're gonna do with the children. When their children grow up, I know what they're gonna do. I would worry about a lot of people. And yet God says, I know Abraham. I know what he's going to do with his kids. I know how he's going to train them. And because of that, I'm going to show him certain things. I'm going to reveal certain things. Listen to what it says in 1 John chapter 2, 27, but the anointing. which ye have received of him abideth in you. And ye need not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teaches you of all things and is truth. Now these verses have been misused in the church. I've met people, and believe it or not, they're in Limerick, and I've met them in Germany, and I met them in England, and I met them in America, and I've met them everywhere. And do you know what they say? I don't need to be part of a church. I don't need a teacher. I don't need a pastor. I don't need anyone. These verses say, I know God, I don't need anyone to teach me. And you know what they do? They take the entire Bible, hundreds of other verses, they only pull out one or two, they twist them, misunderstand them, misinterpret them and say, I don't need you. I know the Holy Spirit's gonna teach me. So they stay at home, they're in pain, in the head of everyone who encounters them. They cause problems in the church, and they prove that they actually do not know anything. They're actually terribly ignorant. Listen to what it says in 1 John 2. Again, speaking about this anointing that teaches you everything. It says, teaches you all things and is truth. See, as soon as you get error coming in. Hold on, why did God put teachers in the church if you don't need to be taught? The same men who taught that you don't need anything. Do you know what it's talking about? It's salvation. It's talking about this relationship in Christ. It isn't talking about you don't need teaching about Christian life or about the church. It's talking about this sentiment relationship with God. You have an anointing that teaches you, and that anointing, that spirit is truth. And if it ever deviates from truth, it's a lying, deceiving spirit. It is no lie. And even as it has taught you, ye shall abide in him. So this anointing that teaches you, and no one else can teach you this, what does it teach you? It's according to truth, and it keeps you in Christ. Show me someone who doesn't abide in Christ and in the teaching of God's word. And they're the ones who say, I don't need anyone to teach me. I know everything. The Holy Spirit is teaching me. Chances are they've got a false salvation. Because this real salvation, it makes me to know Jesus Christ. I know the Lord Jesus Christ. It says in John 17 3, and this is one of the first verses I ever memorized, and you ought to memorize it. This is life eternal. How do you define eternal life? Oh well, eternal life means you go to heaven. Oh, eternal life means that you're saved. How would you define eternal life? What does it mean that you have eternal life? Well, Jesus says here, this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent. What is eternal life? I know God. I actually knew Him. This is true salvation. But let me bring you to my third and final point here as I close. And this is my most important point. True Christianity, true revival is going to be marked by a knowledge of God, the character of God. There's holiness there, and purity, and the grace of God, and the meekness of God, and the kindness of God. There's an awesome awareness of God in a real revival. You know when revival comes and God comes down in the church, men walk into the church and say, God was there. I had an old friend went up to the island of Lewis in Scotland, and he talked to a sinner who never got saved in the Lewis revival. An old godly, moral man who always went to church, but he never got born again. He was an old man. And my friend asked him, said, do you remember that revival under Duncan Campbell? Do you remember? And he lowered his voice, this old man. And he says, yes. He said it was when God came down. He's a sinner. But he lived through that, and he knew God came down on that island. You know what true salvation? They destroyed it. There's no God in it. You know the converts of this generation, they say a little sinner's prayer. They never give up their sexual fornication. They keep carrying on listening to the same music, living the same way. They never change. They're angry, they're bitter, they're jealous, they're covetous. You know, we get people born again today and they can still be covetous, and they're unforgiving, and they're spiteful, and they gossip. No knowledge of God. There's something wrong. Because see, when someone gets born again, a knowledge of God comes. You go, I know who this God is. But true Christianity, Jesus says in John 10, 14, I am the good shepherd and know my sheep. He knows them. And I'm known of mine sheep. Do you realize, Jesus says, the mark of a real sheep is they know me. I thought everyone was known of God and a lot of people know God. Jesus said a real sheep knows God. That's how you tell it's a sheep. A goat doesn't know God. And you know by their actions. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. and they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and one shepherd. In verse four it says, and the sheep follow me for they know my voice. They know me. The mark of a real sheep is they know Jesus Christ. They have personal intimate knowledge and they say, he is my shepherd. That's how you tell a real Christian. Do you know a real Christian can be discovered You can find out if a person is a real Christian or if they're a goat. And you don't want to be a goat. Do you know in the Middle East goats look like sheep? Do you know that? They're not like the West. You go to Israel and you look at them. I couldn't tell the difference. A shepherd can. So you look at the goat and you look at the sheep. And you go, their ears look the same. And they stand the same. They're not like our goat and sheep. And when you look at them, you go, no, I think this is the goat. No, no, no, let me change. No, I think this is the goat. And so it says in the Bible, the shepherd used to put a rod down, and when he's bringing them in, he said, no, no, you're a goat, you go that way, sheep that way. And he had to do that with every individual animal that came. Because at a distance, you can't tell, get them up here, you're a goat, you're a sheep, you're a goat, but you have to bring them under the rod. That's what they did. And you know what? A sheep always reveals itself by its character. It listens to the voice of the shepherd. In the east, do you know what sheep do? They follow the shepherd. In the west, a shepherd drives the flock with a sheepdog. Go on, boss. But in the East they don't do that. The shepherd walks in front and all he does is speak. Come on, this way, this way. You don't have to come. Real sheep come. Because they listen to Jesus Christ. That's how you know they're real sheep. They follow. They don't have to be driven. They don't need to be forced. Don't need to be forced to give. Don't need to be forced to be part of a church. Don't need to be forced to come out from the world. They don't need to be forced to read their Bible. A real sheep actually says, I want to follow you. Listen to some of the scriptures here. In John chapter 8, 19, then said he unto him, where is thy father? Jesus answered, you neither know me nor my father. If you had known me, you should have known my father also. He's dealing with the religious who had head knowledge. They read the Bible, but they didn't know Jesus. Neither did they know God the father. They did not know him. In Luke chapter 10, 22, all things are delivered to me of my Father. No man knoweth the Son, but the Father. And who the Father is, but the Son, and He to whom the Son will reveal Him. Do you know you can't know the Father unless the Son reveals Him? And you can't know the Son unless the Father reveals Him. It's a miracle of God. He says, I will give you a heart to know me. That's what real salvation is. And this is what real Christianity is. He takes out of you that old heart. You know with the old heart, you cannot know God. You actually think God's very hard. That old heart does. It goes, but God contradicts. He can't be kind. He can't be good. Why is there suffering? Thousand questions. But what about this? What about that? God, you're not kind to me. God, this isn't fair. Do you know the new heart knows God? It knows God's kind and wise and good and faithful and you can trust Him. The new heart knows that and rests even when it can't see anything. Absolutely nothing. And you know what? If you know the Father, Christ has revealed Him. And if you know Christ, the Father has revealed Him. Otherwise you couldn't know Him. You couldn't know him at all. Listen very carefully as I finish here because I want to show you the mark of true biblical Christianity is to actually know God. In 1 John 5 20 it says, And we know that the Son of God is come and has given us an understanding that we may know him that is true. So this is a knowledge of truth, and we are in Him that is true. even in the Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life. So notice here that you know when Christ has come to you because you are in Him and it's in truth. If there's lies and deception and error and it contradicts the Bible, you're not in God, you do not know Him. The mark of knowing Him is you're in Him according to truth and He is a true God, He cannot lie. Man made God's lie, deceive. False prophecy predicts and never comes to pass, never. It always deceives and confuses and changes as if God is always changing his mind. God doesn't do that. God knows everything. 1 John 4-6, we are of God. Okay, let's test. Is this church of God? Are you of God or are you of the devil? Remember what Jesus said to the religious who are morally clean? They never slept around. They never got drunk. They never stole. They tithed every little grain of salt. Weren't they morally right? And yet Jesus points them and says, you're of your father the devil. There's something wrong with your religion. You're actually wicked in your heart. but you're morally clean outside. So in 1 John 4, the apostle of love, what does he say? We are of God. How do you know you're of God? How do you know that I'm of God? How do you know this church is of God? How do you know you're not being deceived by this preacher? We are of God. He that knoweth God, and this is an apostle speaking in the New Testament. He that knoweth God, okay, here's the first test, heareth us. John is speaking as an apostle, a writer of Scripture. I can identify a real sheep that knows Christ. Do you know how? They listen to the teaching of the apostles. So we are of God. He that knoweth God, heareth us. And he that is not of God, heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Do you realize this divides it right down between goats and sheep? Lots of people can say, I know God, I believe in God, I'm trying my best. And yet the Bible says, do you listen to Him? How do you respond to the message this morning? You can get tired, you can feel ill, you can come and go, I understand that. But basically the word of God, I'm not standing here giving my own thoughts. To the Word of God, if I'm giving you the teaching of the apostles, does it have an impact on you? Or is it only a hearing and it has no effect on your life? You may be in a spirit of error rather than a spirit of truth. Simply said, but I believe truth is not enough. Do you hear it? It says in John 15, 20, remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. They have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they had kept my sayings, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my sake, because they know not him that sent me. Do you know those who persecuted Christ? They didn't know God. How do I know they didn't know God? Because how could you lie? How could you persecute an innocent man? How could you have him crucified, a man that healed the sick? These were people who said they knew God. That's impossible. See, when you meet someone in the church, and they'll call themselves a Christian, a born again Christian, and say they're filled with the Spirit, and they lie, and they connive, and they stitch you up. Most of you haven't experienced this in the church. I actually rarely have gone through a period of time for so long where I haven't experienced it. I'm just enjoying this. God help you if we ever get scattered as a church. You better know this. Jesus said, when men persecute you, For living for God, it's because they don't know God. 1 John 4 and 8, he that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. How can you go in a church and not be convicted? All over our world, you go in, you get nice sermonettes. None of these scriptures are dealt with. I know a real church when I walk in there and there is a conviction dealing with the heart. I know the real God is there. If I walk into church and everyone's talking about the Lord, talking about Christ, talking about the Bible, but nothing ever gets dealt with, there's something wrong. Fundamentally, it may look like a sheep, but it could be a goat. He that loveth not doesn't know God. I meet someone in the church, they're angry, they're bitter, they're jealous. They don't love their brothers and sisters. You don't know God. Oh, I do know God. I know I have dreams at night. God deliver us. Do you love your brother? I don't like them. Do you love your sister? Well, me and her don't. You're commanded to love, it's not a choice. This is the heart God gives you, the heart to know God. You know when I know God, I'm gonna love you. You can lie on me, I'm gonna love you. You can hurt me badly, I'm gonna love you. Do you know when you speak against me, I may well even do something good to you. I'm talking about knowing God. This is biblical Christianity. 1 John 2 and 4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments is a liar. Someone who says they know God, but they don't obey basic things. You try and bring it to him and say, brother, do you know the Bible? I don't care. I know what I'm doing. But the Bible says, I know God. No, you don't. If you don't listen to the commandments, you are a liar. Any Christian... who's not a biblically-based Christian, is a liar, a deceiver, and does not know God. You can have experience, you can have dreams, you can have visions, you can have feelings, you can have stories, you can have testimonies, but if you do not keep the commandments of the Spirit, you do not know God, you don't have a heart to know Him. When God gives you a heart to know Him, you keep His commandments. That's how I know that you know God. I actually can tell if you know God. You can tell if you know God. Do you keep his commandments? John 8, 54, Jesus answered, if I honor myself, my honor is nothing. It is my father that honors me. Of whom say ye that he is your God? Yet ye have not known him, but I know him. And listen to this, Jesus said this, because I keep his sayings. Jesus said, I know God, because I keep his sayings. Yet we have the church filled with people who say, I know God, I'm born again. I know I'm going to heaven. I know what the Bible says. They don't keep his sayings, but they want me to believe they know God. Preachers? Music teams. So Jesus says he knew God, he kept his sins. Titus 1 and 16. I'm just going through these verses as I close. Very important. Titus 1, 16. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. You can't know God if you don't do the works. Being abominable, disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate. You don't know God. 2 Timothy 3-5, having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof, from such turn away, don't have anything to do with them. See this type of Christianity that says, we know God, once saved, always saved, and they're drinking, they're not in a church, they're out there in the world, have nothing to do with them. I didn't say that about sinners. Be best friends to the homosexual in your corner. Be best friends to the drug seller down the back lane here. But see that man that says he knows God and he's born again and yet is disobedient. Avoid him, it's a command of Scripture. Don't have anything to do with him. Oh, well, I just keep in touch with him on Facebook. Why do you do that? Oh, I like to encourage them. Oh, so you're the spiritual one? Oh, well, no one else is running after them and looking after them. I wonder why? Oh, I could minister to them and just keep telling them to look to Jesus. They're in rebellion and they believe they're born again. You're wasting your time. This is a command of Scripture. Listen to what this says. Notice who listens to that type of person. Silly women laden down with sin. Led away with divers lusts. ever learning, never able to come to the knowledge of the truth. So they're in the church, they're always learning things and saying an awful lot and speaking to others, but you know what it says? They can never come to the knowledge of the truth. Now as Jannies and Jambrees, with student Moses, so do these also resist the truth. Men of corrupt minds reprobate concern in the faith. Or listen, 2 Timothy 4 and 3. For the time will come when they will not endure sound or healthy doctrine. But after their own loss shall they heap to themselves teachers having itchy ears." Talking about the church, Paul prophesies a day's coming in the church worldwide where you're going to have a lot of people in the church. They're going to stockpile through internet and YouTube and Facebook. and all the other medias, all their favorite preachers, from Joyce Meyer to Benny Hinn, and everything else in between. Rick Warren, you name them, they're everywhere. Heed to themselves, teachers have an itchy ears, and they shall turn away their ears from the truth and shall be turned unto fables. They don't know God. 1 Corinthians 15.33, being not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. Awake to righteousness. Now what has he just said? There's an environment around you of communication with certain things and people will corrupt you. It'll corrupt your good manners. So he says, awake to righteousness and sin not, for some have not the knowledge of God. I speak this to your shame. He said, some in the church do not have a knowledge of God, and yet they're affecting you. My final scripture. What is our message here? A heart to know God. Dealt with fear in God and a broken and contrite spirit and a humble heart. And will deal with a few others. What's this? A heart. I will give you, do you want it in salvation? Real salvation where he says, this is who I am. I'll forgive your sin. I'll cleanse you. I'll set you free. Do you want a false conversion or do you want this? The mark of real conversion is, I will give you a heart to know me. Intimate fellowship with a holy, pure God, and you can know me for yourself. This is real biblical Christianity. Philippians chapter three and 10. The Apostle Paul, a mature preacher, he had traveled, started churches, been whipped, been in prison. He knew much about God. He saw miracles, had dreams, visions, caught up to meet the Lord in the third heaven. He was an extraordinary teacher of the Bible. Listen to what he says after all of these things. Philippians 3 and 10, that I may know him. Oh, I know him already. After all of these years of walking with Jesus Christ in obedience and holiness, he got all this way and he says, you know, really all I want to do is to know him. I really want to know you, not about you, not with the hearing of the ear, I want to know you experientially. Because you know nothing else can satisfy your heart than to know you. I want to know you. And here this morning, do you know this God? Is He your God? Have you received this heart? Have you neglected this knowledge, this heart, because it's a heart He's given you to know Him? Have you neglected it and let the flesh come in, and troubles, and cares, and thorns, and briars? And has it been killing off the Word of God? Have you lost something that you once had? Oh, you started with saying, I just want to know Him. And now you reach a point where it's about ministry and doing things. All the things in the church from that camera to these instruments can be so dangerous and this pulpit because we could do all these things and yet we don't know them. And we're not there saying, I want to know you. In preaching this, I have one desire, to know Him. And I want you to know Him. That's my desire. I'm a shepherd. I want you to know the great shepherd. I want you to feed on the Word of God and hear the voice of Christ. Please stand with me. Lord Jesus, we praise you. Lord God, I pray this morning. Lord God, take, Lord God, these thoughts, these verses, these scriptures. Lord God, I pray send your word to the sheep, to the lambs, to the sheep foals. Lord God, I pray that you, the great shepherd, Lord God, this is what it means to know you as the great shepherd. We love your word. We love to listen to you. We listen to your commands. We take on board your warnings. We follow your directions. Every time we haven't done that, we've got caught in the briars, in the hedge. We ended up on our back, not able to put ourselves back on our feet. We got lost and went astray and we led others astray because we didn't listen to your simple words. Lord Jesus, we love you. We want to know you. My God, that I might know you and the power of your resurrection. Lord God, we want to know the power. We want to enter into your sufferings and experience the fullness of Christianity, real biblical Christianity. We don't want to be deceived. We don't want to be listening to false teaching. We don't want to be involved in false movements. My God, I don't want to be deceived in this last hour. I want to know you. That's the only cure. That I might know you. That I might know your voice. That you'd change my heart. Give me a new heart, oh God. Create in me a right spirit. Renew within me the joy of my salvation. Restore unto me the reality and the power of biblical Christianity. I want to know you. And because I know you, I love the brethren, and I keep the commands, and I walk in the light, and I love the truth. Lord God, raise up your church again in this hour. In Jesus' name.