Knowing God

Good morning, everybody. I think
that sounds about right. OK. Let’s pray. Holy Father, we thank you for
the opportunity for us to join together on this Lord’s Day.
I’m unified in Christ to worship you, praise you, and learn from
your word. I pray that the spirit can make use of my words to reach
the hearts and minds of your people and those who are not
yet of your people. Let the words of my mouth and
the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord,
my rock and my redeemer. We ask this in Christ’s name,
amen. Welcome, everybody. I will say
one thing real quick. I think there’s a couple of outlines
notes left on the table back there. So if anybody needs one,
please raise your hands. I know we were out at one point. So
that’s the last one. OK. If you need one, let me know.
We can make a copy, whatever you need. We have one extra here
with Patrick. So if you need one, just raise
your hand. OK. First, I’d like to say I’m glad
to be here with you today to deliver this sermon on knowing
God. Last week we looked at the holiness of God, and to me it’s
so fascinating and a bit unnerving when you take up a topic, thinking
you’re on solid footings in terms of understanding, and you find
out that you really are a novice. But this is key in our growing
in Christ as part of the sanctification process. We must always be teachable
and willing to verify and validate our understanding and perspective
against God’s Word. Nothing could be more true or
needed when learning about God, especially in the times we live
in with the absolute apostasy from, twisting, and denial of
God’s truth in His Word. God’s Word is the most amazing
wonder in its clarity, depth, and ability to speak to us in
all situations in life. Our passage today is going to
be Proverbs 9-10. Before we read it here, I just
want to give you a quick summary of the outline. We’re going to
read our passage, then we’re going to look at some background
to give some context. We’re going to then delve deeper
into the passage itself, look at supporting passages, look
at knowledge, look at what it means to know. And then I’m going
to explore the cautions that we need to be aware of when we
are gaining knowledge. And then we’re going to look
at God, and then we’re going to look at applying what we’ve
talked about today and hopefully what we learn as we go through
this. So if you can look with me, Proverbs 9, 10. The fear
of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge
of the Holy One is insight. And there are a number of other
passages that say very similar things. I’ve listed a few just
to add some more clarity around this. Proverbs 1.7, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Fools despise wisdom
and instruction. Proverbs 15.33, the fear of the
Lord is instruction and wisdom, and humility comes before honor.
in Job 28.28, and he said to man, Behold, the fear of the
Lord, that is wisdom, and to turn away from evil is understanding. I chose this verse because I
wanted to be very tightly focused around what it means to know
God, starting with the fear of the Lord. Why it is important
and how we get there. The phrase fear God appears 300
plus times in the Bible, though the number may vary depending
on your translational version. I think it’s important enough
to understand as a starting point of wisdom. The Bible is inspired
by God, by his very Holy Spirit. All else proceeds from this truth.
The Holy Spirit superintended the writers by inspiring them
to write explicitly what God wanted to reveal. Knowing God
spiritually and intellectually is critical for those who profess
to belong to Him. So why is it important to know
God? While it should be obvious as to why it’s important to know
God, we must also remember we are commanded to do so. It’s
vital to review our understanding of God and apply that knowledge
to all aspects of our lives. Our great purpose is to know
God, glorify Him, and enjoy Him forever. If you are truly a believer,
you will want to know about God. The Holy Spirit testifies to
us through the process of sanctification and will aid you and grow this
desire in you through your time on this earth. If you do not
desire to know God or hold non-biblical views of God, then you need to
ask yourself if you are truly a believer. I would sincerely
ask that you take the time to reflect on this and pray for
this passion to know your God, the Father, who loves his children.
He will help you. As we reviewed last week when
looking at the holiness of God, false knowledge of God will lead
to false gospels with no obedience, sexual degeneracy, apostasy,
heresy, and idolatry. We must teach, we must rebuke,
we must correct wrong understanding through the diligent teaching
of God’s truth in his word. And we must do so in love. We
understand that some believers simply have a lack of understanding
or have picked up false teachings along their journey. To them
we want to lovingly embrace and correct them with all gentleness
and grace. There are others, even in the church, who are not
truly believers. We’re happy to have them among
us, but we must be on guard to protect the flock. We also want
to engage them and show them the infinite love of God and
the love that he has for his children and do all we can to
help them understand and pray that God would regenerate them
and make them a true part of the family of God. Make no mistake,
the evil one is real, and he seeks for any opportunity to
devour all he can to keep them from our Father. I pray that
each one of us sees the need for guarding this truth and sharing
the gospel of Jesus Christ with everyone as we show them our
love and the love of God. Love without this gospel and
the truth of our sinfulness and our need for repentance before
Christ is not God’s love. It is the empty, self-focused,
narcissistic love of man and self. The importance of knowing
God, assuming one is saved, provides for the growth of the believer
while building a bulwark against false teaching, doctrine, and
practice. This knowledge of God is gained
both intellectually and spiritually. So what does it mean to know
God? It means that you’re a true believer, repented of our sin
and saved by God. You cannot know God as your Savior
without this. It also means that you abide
in, walk with, and have fellowship with him. As part of this abiding,
walking, and fellowship, you will grow in your knowledge of
God spiritually. Desiring to know God, you will also grow
in your intellectual knowledge of God as you study his word.
It also means you purge non-biblical views and doctrines that conflict
with the revelation of God in his word. Knowing God means that
you are his. So now that we know why it’s
important and what it means to know God, let’s take a look at
our passage once again. I’m going to read at the end
Proverbs 9.10. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,
and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight. This verse speaks
to the first step in knowing God. The first piece of knowledge
is the fear of the Lord. This tells us to show the proper
reverence being shown to God. As his children, we are not fearful
as if we’re going to be abused or of his judgments against the
unbelievers, but we show our respect and our reverential affection. Certainly there is an aspect
of fear here. When we understand how majestic, perfect, and holy
God is, we do have an aspect of fear as the Israelites did
at the foot of the mountain when God spoke to them in Exodus 20.18. It’s a fear of offending so perfect
a being and believing who he says he is in the word. The offending
of this perfect being is when we sin against him. Knowing sin
is truly offensive to God opens our eyes to who we are in relation
to him. The fear of the Lord is the starting
point of true wisdom. A man begins to be wise when
he has that reverential fear and respect for God as that starting
point for truly knowing him. No one can be truly wise until
he fears the Lord. So the fear of the Lord is that
first element of knowledge in wisdom. Knowledge can’t exist
without wisdom. Wisdom cannot exist without knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to rightly
apply knowledge. Wisdom is the ability to digest
knowledge intimately enough that it can be explained to a child.
Know your God and his words so intimately and so deeply that
you can share it with others as if they were a child. We’re not talking about in a
condescending way, it just becomes so much of a part of you that
you can talk and dialogue with others because it is your first
love. It is sinful to obscure the truth of God in order to
preserve our pride and arrogance over the flock. The knowledge
referenced here is knowing who God really is. We learn of our
Lord in the word through the illumination of our minds by
the Holy Spirit. This knowledge is insight or
understanding. It is the evangelical knowledge
of God we see in Jesus Christ. This learning then shows us that
as the God of all grace, we are to have faith and hope in Him,
access unto Him, and communion with Him. This truth will tell
us of God in the persons of the Godhead, the Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. As a result of our salvation,
we have a spiritual relationship with the Father, by the Son,
and through the Holy Spirit. We are of Him, we believe in
Him, and are to commune with Him as all believers must. For the believer, the knowledge
must also include fellowship with God. This fellowship starts
with regeneration, repentance and faith, and the sealing of
the Holy Spirit within each one of us. This fellowship continues
to grow in us and transform us through the sanctifying work
of the Holy Spirit all the days of our lives. The word sanctification
simply means transforming us into Christ-likeness in all aspects
as new creatures. We are to relate and commune
with our God. We are to converse and abide
directly with God. We do not merely have access
to his presence. This fellowship is developed
throughout our lives in prayer, meditation, and the practicing
of the other Christian disciplines, in living in service to one another, studying and imbibing the word,
fellowshiping with the brothers and sisters, and praising and
worshiping our holy God. Engaging in communion with the
living God can be very scary. It is a letting go of self. You become childlike in your
trust when you become in fellowship, closely and intimately with the
creator of the universe. To this we are called by God. I pray that you will work to
develop in each of your lives and in the lives of your children.
And as we mentioned previously, this knowledge is to be spiritual
and intellectual. we need to stress, and we will
talk more on this later, that the knowledge gained intellectually
of God must be bound by the Bible and the Holy Spirit. This intellectual
learning, when done properly, will enhance and expand our understanding,
gratitude, and certainty of who God is during our pilgrimage
here on Earth. I’d like to take some time to
review a number of key verses that God revealed to us about
knowing Him. First, a couple of verses around
resting in God. John 6, 69. And we have believed
and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God. This
verse shows us that by his teaching actions and their knowledge of
the Old Testament, they came to know Jesus with the aid of
the Holy Spirit. This was revealed to them from above. In 1 John
5, 20. And we know that the Son of God
has come and has given us understanding. so that we may know Him who is
true, and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ.
He is the true God and eternal life. As His children and believers,
we know that Jesus has come, that He is true, and we are in
Him. Promises and encouragement, Jeremiah
24, seven. 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, for they shall return to me with their whole
heart. God gives us a heart to know this. This goes beyond the
intellectual and speaks to the spiritual. Thank your Father
for this. Not all have extensive knowledge
of God, especially those who are baby Christians. You do not
have to have a seminary degree to know God. In Jeremiah 31-33,
we are told that his law is written on the heart of the saved in
the new covenant. This is how we know that he is Lord. John
17-3, and this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. This is a fundamental
piece of knowledge. in knowing God. To know God and
his Son, Jesus Christ, is to have eternal life. For standing
in Christ, 1 Corinthians 3.16, do you not know that you are
God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys
God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy,
and you are that temple. We, his people, are holy temples
and we are to know that and that the Spirit dwells within us.
God is truly present in his people. We are his personal temples who
replaced the temple in Israel that was for the nation of Israel.
Do we understand how amazing this is and how precious each
one of us, each one of our bodies are in sinning against our bodies
and against our God in that temple? 1 Corinthians 6.19. Or do you
not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you,
whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you
were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.
As his people are temples with the Holy Spirit within them,
we know that we were bought with a price and that we do belong
to him. We must glorify God in our body by glorifying God through
obedience. There’s no longer a temple in
Jerusalem. The Holy Spirit has sealed us and abides in us, the
new temple. This is gloriously manifested
when each of us come together in union with Christ and the
Holy Spirit as his church. Those who do not know, 2 Thessalonians
1.8, inflaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not
know God. and on those who do not obey
the gospel of our Lord Jesus. To not know or obey the gospel
of Jesus makes one a non-believer. Do not be deceived, they will
not be saved. Do we understand? Do we not understand
the desperate need to tell those perishing of Christ and the one
way unto salvation? James 4.4, you adulterous people,
Do you not know that friendship with the world is entity with
God? Therefore, whoever wishes to
be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Friendship
with the world makes you an enemy of God. A believer must know
this, and we must strive to purge this from our lives each and
every day. To be a friend of the world is to be an adulterous
spouse. In all things, be transformed
and not conformed to the world. And for encouragement, 1 John
3.1, see what kind of love the Father has given to us, that
we should be called children of God. And so we are. The reason
why the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
We see that the unbeliever cannot know the love the Father has
given us as children of God because they do not know him. Do not
be surprised when the world persecutes you since they do not know him.
As the master was treated, so will his people be treated. Deuteronomy
9.3, know therefore today that he who goes over before you as
a consuming fire is the Lord your God. He will destroy them
and subdue them before you. Understand that God is passionate
and zealous for his people. He will destroy his enemy in
his time. His enemies are also our enemies. If God is for us, who can be
against us? Psalm 46.10. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations.
I will be exalted in the earth. This to me is so calming and
reassuring, and having faith and knowing that He is our God,
exalted above all else. Know this always. Remember, contemplate,
memorize, meditate. This is His universe and world.
The war is won. We have the distinct honor and
privilege to be part of this passion play in this time. Psalm
103. Know that the Lord, He is God. It is He who made us and we are
His. We are His people and the sheep of His pasture. Have faith. Trust and know that the Lord
is God of us, his people. Assurance of the highest degree.
Once his, always his. There is much deep doctrine here.
See who our God is and rejoice. We can know all we need to know
of God from his word. This is to be done in the church
primarily with her teaching, fellowship, and supplemental
learning, insofar as it aligns explicitly with the teaching
of the word. The elders and leaders in the church are here for this
purpose, to be under-shepherds for the great shepherd in protecting
his flock. Do not rebel against godly servant
leadership provided by God for your benefit. I know that in
this time, being anti-authoritarian is the rage amongst all and even
many people within the church. We have seen additional aspects
to knowing God and what awaits those who do not know him. Now
I would like to look at some key areas of caution to watch
for so as not to get diverted from knowing God. With so many
diversions, false doctrines, false teachers, and outright
lying deceivers, we must be diligent as undershepherds, mothers, fathers,
brothers, and sisters. We absolutely must defend the
faith, including the honor and integrity of our God. Truly,
it is God that defends. But we are his ambassadors, his
servants, his warriors. We are to contend for the faith,
to fight for his truth. We must have the knowledge of
our God revealed to us in his word. So with respect to knowledge,
there are two aspects to it that I’d like to review. They are
the intellectual and the spiritual. The spiritual aspect comes first.
It begins with our regeneration, repentance, and faith in the
sealing of the Holy Spirit upon our salvation. The intellectual
aspect came mostly from learning God’s word. This learning of
God continues in the believer throughout their lives. So let’s
look at each of these a little bit deeper. The knowledge of
God by the word. Understand that knowledge of
God alone does not mean you have salvation. We are commanded to
learn of our God to know him as he has revealed himself. The
trusted source for learning about God is the Bible. Of course,
there are a variety of tools to learn, to obtain additional
learning about God. These tools must be tightly tethered
to the Bible and must have the proper perspectives of God and
our relationship to him. We must discern and avoid sources
that conflict with the word or put man before God. We must be
focused on avoiding pride and arrogance in learning, as it
can twist and distort truth in the word or in the supporting
tools. We must not become unbalanced and become overly intellectual
in our learning of God. We must clearly understand that
intellectual knowledge is insufficient to truly know God as it does
not guarantee salvation. One only has to look at the endless
stream of biblical scholars today who are not believers and do
whatever they can to destroy faith in the word of God. Knowing
God by fellowship with God. This is not speaking to the forensic
knowledge that we just talked about, but to the spiritual reality.
To truly know God, we must have fellowship with God. It only
begins with true salvation as defined in the word. Prayer and
meditation are vital tools that will help us to abide and commune
with our God. The Holy Spirit will fan those
flames within you and our desire to know God and will aid us in
growing closer to him through his word and prayer. We must
not become imbalanced here either, and become driven by emotionalism,
mysticism, or the pursuit of experiences. We must clearly
understand that to truly know God, we must be saved and have
fellowship with him. Intellectual knowledge will enhance
this, but is not a substitute. So now looking at some cautions.
We will now review where to show caution in our pursuit of that
knowledge of God. The evil one does and will take advantage
of any means to interfere with his pursuit. And I just have
broken these down into two broad categories here with titles that might raise
a few eyebrows, posers and false professions. There is a growing
group of people that proclaim to be Christians while denying
the essential doctrines of the Christian faith. If the core
doctrines are not held by such people, or the word is manipulated,
not believed, or trusted, then their profession is that they
are likely not true believers. This does not mean we are determining
the salvation of anyone. It’s in the context of providing
oversight, guidance, and support for the flock. It also means
that we must not deny the reality or ignore their false beliefs
and teachings. I have little doubt that there
are some who are believers and are misled. We need to show grace
and proclaim the full counsel of God’s Word to them as we should
do for anyone in the church. We must guard the faith in the
flock. We must discern, rebuke, teach
against, and discipline heresy, apostasy, and false teaching,
and false professions of faith for their sake. The clear proclamation
of God’s truth in preaching and teaching will help the flock
to distinguish between deception and truth. Remembering that many
people attend churches today who believe they are saved and
have only heard of false gospel. We need to do our part to proclaim
that true gospel to them and to anybody else. The second point
under knowledge is pride. We must study God with the intention
that the knowledge gained of God is the means and not the
end. Our true end goal must be to
know God personally and practically. The pursuit of intellectual knowledge
is only of value if the end is to know God. Our end goal is
not to be intellectual scholars. It is when this pursuit of intellectual
knowledge becomes the end that it becomes heavily laden with
pride and arrogance. And this is a big problem in
America today. You’ve so institutionalized the
learning about God that it’s not believed you know much unless
you have a PhD. That’s not right. 1 Corinthians
8, 1 through 3. This knowledge puffs up, but
love builds up. If anyone imagines that he knows
something, he does not yet know as he ought to know. But if anyone
loves God, he is known by God. This is such a stunning rebuke
to those who are puffed up and think they know something. They
do not yet know as they ought to know. This is pride versus
true humility. As we gain more and more knowledge
about God, we can go in one of two directions, though some try
to go a third way by combining these two. These two ways are
from intellectual pride and arrogance or true humility. Application
and understanding of the truth of God will lead to true humility,
not elevation and condescension. This is often the pivot point
and struggle for many Christians, especially those with much higher
learning. This pursuit is rife with pride, arrogance, and condescension.
The truth is that many cannot see this distinction or the danger.
I call this out because in my experience this has been the
case. Attended four different seminaries in different denominational
aspects, and the one thing you see is the constant pressure
to become, to go to be a doctor, to be published, etc. And there’s
much, much. effort spent around puffing up
and pushing yourself from an intellectual perspective. I know
many who’ve left the faith because they started with intellectual
knowledge and they did not have that spiritual knowledge of God.
This is not a condemnation of higher learning. It’s just to
say you must exercise great care. to avoid ending up going down
that wrong path. There are many good seminaries
out there, and there are many bad ones. And even good seminaries,
our pride and our arrogance can seek to elevate ourselves in
those positions, especially when we are pursuing degrees. The
point here is just to point out that we need to focus on the
danger that exists there and show a lot of caution when pursuing
this kind of education. The Christian life is fellowship
and communion with God himself. The consumption and application
of teaching can only add to it if it’s properly obtained. Just
because someone has right doctrines or views doesn’t make them a
Christian. Nor does it mean that you have
fellowship with the Father and the Son. The first step, the
presupposition is the one must be saved by God in Christ through
the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to mention a couple
of examples where this kind of knowledge can get you off track
and can make you lose your footing. I was in this very camp myself
till only a few years ago. All the pursuit of knowledge
and through additional higher education, you start to feel
you’re above people, and you know more than people, and you
look down on people. I tell you, in all the classes,
almost 300 semester hours of higher education, 200 at the
graduate level, I’ve had more meaningful and deep conversations
with people who’ve never gone to seminary, who’ve been followers
of Christ all their lives. It is not an understatement to
say that in many of those situations, I can count dozens of people
that I was pretty close to who never once mentioned Christ in
our entire relationship. But they could talk about specific
doctrines for hours and hours. And so I just want to make sure
we’re aware of that. One specific example I’d call out is what
happened to my family in one of those scenarios was just the
exasperation of the children around this. It’s just what is
what it is. It becomes a form of legalism
where the Lord’s table was guarded so closely and so tightly that
these children, even though they had professed faith, even though
their lives were a great example, they could not be accepted as
members or receive communion until they could recite the Shorter
Catechism, Westminster Catechism, twice from memory. Only at that
point could they do so. And the daughter of the minister
had done so, but he didn’t feel she was ready. So she still was
not allowed to attend the Lord’s table, even though she had met
the requirements that were stated. So I just call this out because
we can get so hung up and wrapped around the axle with respect
to this knowledge, this intellectual knowledge, and this condescension
that feeds. I didn’t realize what I was doing
until God showed me. And I pray that you will avoid
such things especially the impact they can have on you and your
family. This requires we review the dangers
to gaining the knowledge of God. And I’ve broken these out into
three points. There were a couple of points
that I picked up from Martin Lloyd-Jones, but I felt like there was a third
that was needed. So again, three broad categories. Intellectual and philosophical.
Again, this is not a total condemnation. It’s just to give you an idea
of the three different kinds of groups that you can see these
challenges with where you have to be very cautious. These folks
typically do not submit to the word of God. They sit in judgment
of revelation, of God’s revelation. They see man’s fallen nature
and reason as the arbiter of this truth. They are practical
skeptics of inspiration as a result of this. These are typically
your pastor, your pastor, philosophers, theologians, scholars, Twitter
theologians. I spend a fair amount of time
on there just trying to keep up in a few of my threads with
people like James White and others and the conflict that happens
there. The lack of pride and humility, or too much pride,
and a lack of humility amongst people who are professing Christians
and interacting with one another is astonishingly poor. You can
have this in seminaries. You have it in popular culture.
It’s not that they’re all bad, and we’re not throwing the baby
out with the bath water, but these areas are ripe. for you
to be taken down the wrong trail. The second one is what I just
call emotive. They profess to submit to the
word of God, but they’re very selective and subjective about
how they do that. They have a range of acceptance
on a spectrum of commitment. Some doctrines very much agree
with others, not so much. Then they’ll cherry pick. They’ll read into scripture.
Eisegesis is a very popular thing. Instead of letting God’s word
tell you what it says, they read back into God’s word to make
it say what they want to say. So they ignore, they omit, they
twist. They typically unify around certain
essentials that use sources other than the Bible. Other books,
the Koran, the Book of Mormon. You have these other side authorities
that are viewed higher than God’s word. They tend to start in the
spirit but go back to the flesh. Legalism ended up with cult followings. And you see this with some who
are seemingly start out pretty sound and then over time you
see them sliding. And it’s very hard for people
to see them where they are today versus where they were. And so
they don’t take the corrective action they need to when you
recognize that they have moved away from their foundations.
A lot of this shows up with popular teachers, all the entertainment-driven
churches today, feminism, sexual immorality. race baiting, think
of Westboro Baptist Church, some aspects of the Pentecostal movement,
the word of faith, the cults, they’re all out there and they
all have varying means on how they define their true doctrines
of their faith. And people need to be wary of
that because they can get drawn in because Mormons especially
in my history, they are very good at reaching people for their
cause, and they’ll use a lot of the same words that we use
in the key doctrines of our faith, but they have totally different
meanings inside of what each of those means, and you don’t
know that until much later. Theoretical and Orthodox. They
do submit to the Word of God. These are speaking to the various
theological systems like the reform faith, the dispensational
faith, what have you. They have general unity around
the knowledge within themselves, essential doctrines, and they
manifest this in their lives. And there’s often a lot of crossover
agreement amongst them, though there are some key elements that
each of them would never compromise with the other on. They do tend
to legalize their positions, even if they deny that they do
so. And again, this is not a complete condemnation of an entire theological
system. It’s just that there are some
within who tend to go that way. They become legalists. I think
of things like King James only-ism in the Baptist church. I’ll say
rapturous because I’m not against the rapture in and of itself,
but I’ve been to more than a handful of churches that asked that question
within minutes of our arrival, and if you did not support their
view of the rapture, they asked you to leave. You were not welcome
there. So I indicate these as knowledge,
as pride, because I found invariably that many of them are unteachable.
They’re steeped in that positional pride of whatever position they’ve
taken. And they often take personal
offense at any suggestion where you might have questions or they
might need to reflect. It becomes very personal. And
my experience has become best to pray for God’s intervention
to show the truth and preach and teach with humility, grace,
and patience in an effort to reach them. Now that we have
an understanding of why knowing God is important, what it means
to know him, and how to guard ourselves in the process, we
need to understand who is God. God is triune. Sorry. The Godhead is one God in three
persons. There is often much discussion
over the right wording to use, but the bottom line is God is
one being and is comprised of three distinct persons who are
inseparable. They are not detachable parts
of God. The Father is the Creator, the
Son is the Redeemer, the Spirit is the Sanctifier. And generally
this is true, but each could be said to have aspects of each
other. For example, all three represent creation. Because each
person of the Trinity is fully God, they share the same purpose
and activity, but the way they think and act are distinctive
to each. Helpful verses on the Trinity, Matthew 28, 19, In Acts
2, 32 and 33, John 16, 13 through 15. When
the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth,
for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he
hears, he will speak. And he will declare to you the
things that are to come. He will glorify me, for he will
take what is mine and declare it to you. All that the Father
has is mine, therefore I said that he will take what is mine
and declare it to you. Now God the Father, he’s the creator
of all things, visible and invisible, sustaining and sovereignly ruling
over creation in an active relationship of love. He is sovereign over
the entire universe with his loving providential care, accomplishing
all of his plans and decrees. While we reviewed these attributes
last week, I believe it’s necessary just to touch on them here as
well. His attributes including truthfulness, faithfulness, graciousness,
wisdom, knowledge, power, holiness, righteousness, goodness. justice,
love, rationality, mercy, speech, hate, wrath, and jealousy. It is these that we share, at
least to some small degree, with God, although God possesses imperfectly. His other attributes include
eternality, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, infiniteness, self-existence,
immutability, self-sufficiency, sovereignty, transcendence, uniqueness,
and being spirit. These are the attributes that
he alone possesses perfectly. God is perfect in all his attributes.
The combining of all these attributes together in perfection is what
makes him holy. God’s essence is holy. It is
the crown of the Godhead. His name is holy. It defines
who God is. Of course, as part of the Godhead,
the Son and the Spirit also share in these attributes. God the
Son is the mediator of the new birth between God and man. He
is the prophet, priest, and king, without sin, having both a human
and divine nature. Jesus the Son was made sin for
us, crucified, died, buried, and raised from the dead, and
is seated at the right hand of God. The essence of knowing God
is found in Jesus Christ. He is the greatest mystery of
all, the Son becoming man while maintaining his divinity. This
is called the Incarnation. In becoming sin as a substitute
for us trapped in our sin, he was able to atone for us in reconciling
us to God. This atonement is the only way
to salvation. The book of John contains some
amazing statements about the deity of Christ and his incarnation,
or birth as a man. I’d like to quote them here.
From John 1, 1 through 14. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. Through Him,
all things were made. In Him was life. And that life
was the light of men. The Word became flesh. The perfect work of Jesus provides
the means by which we can gain salvation by being reconciled
to God. God the Holy Spirit, He proceeds
from the Father and the Son and is the same substance and equal
in power and glory with the Father and Son. The Holy Spirit functions
as the life-giving agent of creation and the new creation in us. He
is the principal agent in revelation, illumination, and persuasion.
He also brings about conviction, regeneration, and the transformation
of hearts. The Spirit applies the work of
the Son to the hearts and lives of Christ’s chosen people. The
Spirit unites believers to Christ. While this was a very high-level
introduction to who God is in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
this is a very deep well that we should prayerfully and humbly
learn more of as God has revealed to us. Now, let’s move on to application.
What we’ve learned, true and saving knowledge of God is not
only comprehension, understanding, and knowledge, but it’s decision
and action. The church’s big weakness today
is the ignorance of the true God. Our minds have been conformed
to the world. This must change, as Paul and
Peter tell us in the word. Biblical analogies that might
be helpful for knowing God, you see as a son knowing his father,
a wife knowing her husband, a subject knowing his king, a sheep knowing
its shepherd. And some foundational truth for
knowing God, that he’s spoken to us in his word. that he is
Lord and King over his world, that he is Savior, that he is
triune. Godliness is responding to God’s
revelation in trust, obedience, faith, and worship with prayer,
praise, and submission and service. Now, how do we know God? There
are a number of ways in which the man or woman of God shows
that he means to know God. Please understand that this view
is of a maturing Christian. We should strive to increase
in these areas all throughout our lives with the help of the
Holy Spirit. Do not be become discouraged.
That’s the work of the evil one. Seek help from the brethren,
because no one is an island as a Christian. We are to be one
in Christ. These are meant to demonstrate
the characteristics of the Christian who desires to know God. You
must be truly saved. Fulfill this when you have a
saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, your heart of stone is turned
to flesh by the Holy Spirit in regeneration, and you have repented
of and turned from your sin, and indicated by faith that you
believe in Christ as your Lord and Savior. You will abide in
Christ through the Holy Spirit and maintain fellowship with
Him. You see the true God as He has revealed Himself. You
also see yourself as fallen, sinful, and in need of God’s
grace. You are undone when you see God in his revealed holiness.
You understand the need to learn and grow in your knowledge of
God by his word. Since you know how holy God is,
you will actively and aggressively seek to purge sin in daily repentance. Your desire to know God helps
ensure that you represent God accurately as indicated in the
word. Your love of God is displayed by obedience to his word. Your
privilege of having fellowship with God is known by your deep
and abiding prayer life. You will serve God, his people,
and fulfill your role in the Great Commission as called by
God according to his word. You will grow in true humility
the more you learn about God and progress through this process
of sanctification or growing in Christlikeness. You will grow
in personal holiness the more you learn about God and progress
through that process of sanctification. You will be diligent to avoid
apostasy, heresy, dead orthodoxy, emotionalism, and compromise.
You will strive to maintain balance between the intellectual and
the spiritual aspects of knowing God for the sake of maintaining
your first love. We do these things through the
application of the most common Christian disciplines, including
prayer, meditation, studying God’s word, fellowship with other
believers, and having fellowship with God, worshiping God, praising
God, and serving others. I’d like to look for a moment
at what it means to be in fellowship and for applying it to our lives.
I believe this is a fundamental area that’s lacking because it’s
so contrary to what the world tells us to do. The evil one
most decidedly does not want us to be in true fellowship with
the Father. He wants us to be handicapped in our relationship
with him. And what does fellowship mean? Well, we spoke about fellowship
a little bit earlier, but I’d like to expand a little bit here.
There’s two main points. Partaking in the life of God.
In 2 Peter 1.4, we can see this, we talk about we have actually
received divine life. And the caution here is don’t
go beyond scripture into mysticism. We are sealed with the Spirit.
We are in God. God is in us. We are to share
with God through conversing, abiding, delighting in Him, having
joy in His presence, praising Him, and desiring to speak with
Him. The second point, partner with Him in His interest and
great purpose. We are continually to meditate.
We are continually to pray. In so doing, we are going to
do all we can in furthering the kingdom of God and of life. How
do you know you’re in fellowship with God? Examine your prayer
life. I’ve read this many times and
heard this many times in the sermons and books and leading
up to this sermon. Prayer is the best evidence for a man’s
view of God. It was pretty humbling for me
because I was not a strong praying man up until only a few years
ago. You know God is present in all,
and what this simply means is you have that surety, you have
that knowledge, you have that calm understanding and faith
that you know God is present in all things. You know this
both spiritually and intellectually. And you understand that he is
our consolation. He is our holy desire and our
longing. And what you’ll find is you’ll
see that he starts to reveal his will to us. Because as you
commune with him and your will is aligned to his will, his will
becomes more visible to us. We see him opening and closing
doors in accordance with his word. I say in accordance with
his words because I know of several that we’ve known over the past
years who tried to skew the word to justify divorcing their husband
simply because they didn’t like him. And the people that they
were part of the church of let them do so. So we need to be
in accordance with God’s will. His will will not contradict
what his word says. He provides a strength and we
recognize it. You know that you are not alone,
either spiritually or intellectually. You know that God is real, and
God confirms it in you via the Holy Spirit. And it’s interesting,
because this I read too in multiple places. Those who are in fellowship
with God often manifest certain characteristics. And sometimes
I get a little irritated when people have some of these characteristics.
They have a great energy for God. They have great thoughts
of God. They pray for God’s cause. They
show great boldness. They have great contentment.
Please understand that the things covered in this application section
is not a call to legalism. We obey Christ and all that he
has commanded out of love for the love he has shown us in reconciling
us to God through God’s grace alone. The legalist seeks to
obey because they think they can do something to merit or
count towards their salvation. That is not the case with us.
Reflection on our behavior and obedience because we love the
Lord is not legalism. It is the proper response to
reflect and strive to become more Christ-like. We are the
sons and daughters of the living God. So we purify ourselves by
eliminating sin and repenting during our pilgrimage of the
sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. In conclusion, the God
of popular religion is not holy. As we looked at in the holiness
of God last week, He is an idol created by man that is not the
God of the Bible as revealed by God. Our purpose is to know
God, the true God, our Creator, Redeemer, Protector, and loving
Father. Wrath and judgment on this country
and the false church has already begun. We’re always told we’re
at the crossroads. I don’t know if you’ve noticed
this. We’re always told, crossroads ahead. If we don’t change things
this next election, things are going to get bad. And my position
is, no, we’ve already gone through the crossroad. We’ve long since
passed that crossroad. The word clearly tells us that
we are already under judgment. We must know our God, purify
ourselves, repent humbly of our sin, grow closer to Him, and
fulfill our commission to share the love and salvation of Christ
with the whole world. Once you understand what it means
to know God and you grow in your knowledge of God and in fellowship
with Him, you’ll have greater reverence, awe, and fear of our
Lord. Our growth in Him will increase
and the Holy Spirit will transform us into Christ-likeness. We will
be the light shining on the hill for our God and Savior. This
is what the world needs most. This quote from J.C. Ryle’s Knowing
God. We see now what it meant for
the Son of God to empty himself and become poor. It meant laying
aside a glory, a voluntary restraint of power, an acceptance of hardship,
isolation, ill treatment, malice, and misunderstanding. Finally,
a death that involved such agony, spiritual even more than physical,
that his mind nearly broke under the prospect of it. It meant
love to the uttermost for unlovely human beings, that they, through
his poverty, might become rich. This is our God. This is what
God has done for His people. How can we not respond in gratitude,
love, and obedience? How can we not respond in praise,
worship, and with our very lives? While we must remain clear on
who God is, know that He will and does tenderly, lovingly,
and with all forgiveness, want us to abide with Him and to conform
to His Son now and through eternity. The supremely important fact
is that God knows us. Know him because we love him.
How truly unbelievable our fellowship is with God, the creator and
sustainer of the universe, the all-powerful, majestic, holy
God. The question for each of us then
is, do I know God? So we have this confirming clear
command given by Peter in 2 Peter 3, 17 and 18. But grow in the
grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him
be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. For
those who do not know God, please speak with anyone here about
salvation in Christ. While we must count the cost
of receiving the gift of salvation, we must also seek God while he
may still be found. Our sincerest prayer is that
you would know God and be reconciled and saved to be part of his family
and ours. For those who do know God, please
understand that knowing God spiritually by salvation means that you are
saved and you belong to him. I pray that all here would know
this truth and revel in it. Our holy, almighty God and Father
loves His children. He loved us so much that He gave
His only Son to die for us to reconcile us to Him. He provides
His Holy Spirit to illumine us, guide us, and protect us while
we remain on this earth. What could be more tender and
loving? Let’s pray. Holy Father, we thank you for
giving us your word to learn and apply to our lives. I pray
that you’d help each and every one of us to truly know you and
have the desire to know you and to purge ourselves of all sin,
all iniquity, anything that would offend you, Lord, to show how
much we love you so that we can become more intimate with you.
Send us forth knowing you to witness to the world boldly,
with humility, regarding this truth and the mercy and the love
of the gospel. In Christ we pray. Amen.