Knowing God Week 3 (Sept. 26)

PRAISE AND THANKSGIVING

O My God,

Thou fairest, greatest, first of all objects,

my heart admires, adores, loves thee,

for my little vessel is as full as it can be,

and I would pour out all that fullness before thee

in ceaseless flow.

When I think upon and converse with thee

Ten thousand delightful thoughts spring up, ten thousand sources of pleasure are unsealed, ten thousand refreshing joys spread over my heart,

Crowding into every moment of happiness.

I bless thee for the soul thou hast created,

for adorning it, sanctifying it,

though it is fixed in barren soil;

for the body thou hast given me,

for preserving its strength and vigour,

for providing senses to enjoy delights,

for the ease and freedom of my limbs,

for hands, eyes, ears that do thy bidding;

for thy royal bounty providing my daily support,

for a full table and overflowing cup,

for appetite, taste, sweetness,

for social joys of relatives and friends,

for ability to serve others,

for a heart that feels sorrows and necessities,

for a mind to care fo my fellow-men,

for opportunities of spreading happiness around,

for loved ones in the joys of heaven,

for my own expectation of seeing thee clearly.

I love thee above the powers of language to express, for what thou art to thy creatures.

Increase my love, O my God, through time and eternity.

Read Mon Oct 25^th from Tabletalk magazine.

Definition of God from Westminster Larger Catechism: God is a Spirit, in and of himself infinite in being, glory, blessedness, and perfection; all-sufficient, eternal, unchangeable, incomprehensible, everywhere present, almighty, knowing all things, most wise, most holy, most just, most merciful and gracious, long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth.

Packer talks about the attributes of God that can only involve God : These are referred to as God’s Incommunicable Attributes. These attributes highlight God’s transcendence.

Those attributes that are perfected in God, but yet we share are referred to as God’s Communicable Attributes. These attributes refer to God’s immanence.

Q: Infinite in being (Communicable or Incommunicable)?; Unchangeable? Eternal? Most wise? Most holy? Most just? Most merciful and gracious?

Packer here asserts humility as the key. I hope in seeing God, there would be great humility of heart:

1 Corinthians 8:1-2: “This knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. If anyone imagines hat he knows something, he does not yet know as he ought to know.”

We should be moved when you see God for who He is in Scripture.

As you drink from the fountain: you will find your horizontal relationships blessed! You have more fuller Godlier relationships.

Packer asserts that the mark of a person that knows God is someone that obeys God!

Psalm 119 “Blessed are those whose way is blameless, who walk in the law of the Lord! Blessed are those who keep his testimonies, who seek him with their whole heart, who also do no wrong, but walk in his ways!”

That’s why those that know God, cherish His Word! You can’t claim to know God, and walk contrary to how God has commanded us to walk. You can’t.

Packer poses the question: “How can we turn our knowledge about God into knowledge of God? The rule for doing this is simple but demanding. It is that we turn each truth that we learn about God into matter for meditation before God, leading to prayer and praise to God.

Q: What’s the difference between prayer and meditation?

Packer: “Meditation is the activity of calling to mind, and thinking over, and dwelling on, and applying to oneself, the various things that one knows about the works and ways and purposes and promises of God. It is an activity of holy thought, consciously performed in the presence of God, under the eye of God, by the help of God, as a means of communion with God.”

Times spent in silence pouring over the Word is when God can speak to us!

Q: Has anyone had any life altering moments already in their pursuit of knowing God?

Chapter 2

Packer highlights this idea of “Knowing versus Knowing About.”

Can someone in the class explain the analogy. Sometimes we think knowing a lot about God means that we know God well. But it doesn’t.

1.) One can know a great deal about God without much knowledge of him.

Contrast the Pharisees and the children during Jesus’ ministry.

2.) One can know a great deal about godliness without much knowledge of God.

Evidence of Knowing God

1. “Those who know God have great energy for God.”

Daniel 11:32 “…but the people who know their God shall stand firm and take action.”

I think for us this means fulfilling the Creation Mandate through the Great Commission. They want to tell other people about how to know GOD!

Daniel – name means “God is my judge.”

Hananiah – “Yahweh is gracious”

Mishael – “Who is what God is?”

Azariah – “Yahweh is helper.”

Daniel and his friends seek mercy from the God of heaven concerning this mystery…(Dan 2:17)

Read Dan 2:24-45 – Daniel exclaims God’s excellencies to Nebuchadnezzar

Head of Gold – Babylonian Empire

Chest of Arms and Silver – Medo-Persian Empire

Middle and Thighs of Bronze – Greek Empire

Legs of Iron; feet of clay – Roman Empire

Stone – Messianic kingdom

2.) Those who know God have great thoughts of God.

Read Daniel 4

Dan 2:20

“Blessed be the name of God forever and ever, to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons; he removes kings and sets up kings; he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding; he reveals deep and hidden things; he knows what is in the darkness, and the light dwells with him. To you, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, for you have given me wisdom and might, and have now made known to me what we asked of you, for you have made known to us the king’s matter.”

Nebuchadnezzar’s Lesson Daniel 4:28-36

3.) Those who know God show great boldness for God.

I think of Chapter 3 when Nebuchadnezzar built the giant statue of himself and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refused to bow down before it.

Read Chapter 3

4.) Those who know God have great contentment in God

Romans 5:1 “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ

The fact that we are now at peace with God, implies that we were once great enemies of God. But now, we have a content relationship with Him, where we know Him as Perfect Father. Dr. Broggi’s evangelistic tract states the question: “Would you like to know God as your friend.” The Bible teaches that we go from enemy to friend. Please enjoy the benefits of that relationship!

2 Timothy 4:6-8 A Legacy of Endurance in the Faith (Sept 22 at Community Bible Church of Beaufort, SC)

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. ⁸ Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.

After my father was killed in a USMC plane crash, this verse was found taped up in his locker. God had sovereignly been preparing him for death. Just two months before he had written my mom saying, “It is well with my soul.” My father is a giant in the faith to me. At my age he felt God calling him to seminary so that he could be an evangelist. He had a huge heart for the Gospel and the glory of God. On Sept 23, it will have been 24 years since the accident, but more importantly this year marks the year that I am the same age as my father (26). A moment that I have looked forward to since I was a boy. It’s hard to believe that I am now the same age as him, this spiritual giant... My father who was a legend and has been a legend in the faith to me, whom I have looked towards his example for guidance, did not live longer than I have lived now. This month has been a huge milestone in my life. I chose this passage of Scripture for this reason, and also because uniquely enough, the Apostle Paul, one of my other heroes of the faith was being prepared for death by God as well.

Just as God had sovereignly been preparing my father for his death, God was preparing the Apostle Paul for his. This letter was the last letter the Apostle wrote and these verses are some of the last words that the Apostle ever penned. These words were written from a Roman prison in 66 – 68 AD. In 64 AD Nero had blamed Christians for the burning of Rome and so Paul after he was arrested, knew that he faced certain death. It was now a crime to be a Christian (Christianity was seen by Rome now as different from Judaism). He also knew that the way he was to die was to be-headed because he was a Roman citizen. ⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come.

I think our passage of Scripture clarifies three huge points for living the Christian life. 1.) True believers should have assurance their salvation 2.) What type of faith should true believers have? 3.)We as believers MUST persevere in this faith.

1.) True believers should have assurance of their salvation.

Many so-called Christians today claim assurance, when they have no reason to do so, and those that have every right to live each day with an assurance of their eternal destiny are living in the fear of condemnation. Many think that because they have prayed a prayer, made a “decision,” or walked an isle that they are saved. Others claim salvation because they are church attendees. As my Uncle Keary says, “You know someone is NOT a Christian, when you ask them if they’re a Christian and they point to a church building. The Gospel is simply that we are sinners (something that American Evangelicalism has forgotten) in need of a Savior. And Christ who is the Son of God came, lived a perfect life, died for sinners, and rose for their ultimate glorification. A brief aside here, as Dr. Broggi says, “Not everyone is a Christian that knows the Gospel, but all Christians must know the Prepositional Gospel!” The Gospel is that and nothing else. It is not helping others. Or being God’s hand and feet…as Brian McClaren and Rob Bell and the Emergents would have you believe. You loving somebody in Africa never saved anybody!

If you have ever heard Dr. Broggi share the Gospel, one of the questions he asks is how sure are you on a scale of 1 to 100 that if you were to die that you would go to heaven. Listen carefully, if you truly are banking everything on Christ, you should say 100% because that means you have your complete faith in Christ! To not have 100% confidence is to not believe what Christ has promised and to not believe Christ’s promises is to not believe in Christ! As the writer of Hebrews says, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” If you don’t have 100% conviction and assurance in Christ, how can you claim to have true faith? But friends, if you are a born again believer, and you have believed the Gospel and placed your faith in Christ and are resting in Him solely for your salvation, than you have every right to an assurance of your salvation. And that’s what Paul is talking about in our passage of Scripture.

In the prison, he is alone except for the physician Luke (4:11), but he is seeking Timothy to come see him (v. 9). He has every right to be desperate. He’s been deserted because of the persecution and he felt that the state of the church was sliding into sin(chap 3). But Paul finds a deep and satisfying hope in his assurance. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing.”

Should the Lord tarry, we all face impending death. And I hope that each of you know that if you have faith in Christ, that you can stare death in the face and like Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Cor. 15 “O death where is your sting!” Don’t be like Ghandi who said, “My days are numbered. I am not likely to live very long – perhaps a year or a little more. For the first time in 50 years. I find myself in a slough of despond. All about me is darkness. I am praying for light.” Listen friends, many of us can live 50 years and hope on something less than Christ, but anything less than Christ will leave us in darkness! Be like the Apostle, and stare death in the face because you have confidence in “THE LIGHT!” Jesus Christ in whom you have placed your faith. But what type of faith gives that type of assurance?

2.) What type of faith should true believers have?

a. When we talk about faith in Christ, we should talk about it the way Paul talks about it in 2 Timothy 3:15 a few verses earlier“…and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” You see friend, our faith is in Christ! We don’t simply believe in what he accomplished. I think that’s where many falter. They think simply because they believe the historic facts of the Gospel, about Jesus’ life, and they believe them to be historically true, that they have faith. I have met so many who believe the historic facts of the Gospel but have not placed their faith in Christ! Many are also relying on works or some simply do not want to submit to Christ’s Lordship. Like the Rich young ruler, the costs of faith are too high! He doesn’t have complete faith in Christ, he also has faith in money and possessions. Almost in a condemnation of our easy believism, Jesus said “Not everyone who says Lord, Lord will enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” What Paul means is that we should bank everything and have complete trust in the person of Christ because of what he has accomplished for all those that believe!

b. Which leads me to this point about faith. True faith believes in Christ for all that he is and who he is revealed to be through Holy Scripture! That means Creator, Lord, Master, Savior, Friend, Pioneer, Provider, Teacher, Advocate, Perfect Priest, Judge, along with all of His other attributes. To believe in Christ, but to reject Him as Creator or your Lord is NOT saving faith! Don’t think that you can know about Christ and not submit to Him as your Teacher and your Mediator with the Father. That’s not how it works. True faith rests completely in Christ for all that He is.

c. In the text, Paul is looking back at his life in a sweeping reflection that gives him great confidence. Just as he has lived his life as a living sacrifice as an act of worship (Rom 12), he is now joyfully ready to give his life as a drink offering sacrifice to the Lord. But he has great confidence! Great confidence in Christ in whom his faith rests. Please draw your attention to verse 7. The “fight,” and the “race” are both incredible analogies for faith. We know this because in 1Timothy 6:12, Paul tells Timothy “Fight the good fight of the faith.” The Greek word for fight is best defined as a grapple or a match as in a grueling boxing match! So when Paul says he has fought the good fight, he means that he has fought the fight of faith! When he says that he has run the race, he means that he has run the race of faith! When he says that he has kept the faith, he means that he has not departed from believing totally on Christ! Paul taught that for you to be saved, you must continue in faith to the end. You might be thinking, wait a minute, I believe in eternal security from the moment I first believed and was justified! And so do I. But I believe something more, because the Bible says something more. The Bible says that we must continue in faith! Paul says earlier in 2 Timothy:

2 Timothy 2:11-13

The saying is trustworthy, for:

If we have died with him, we will also live with him;

¹² if we endure, we will also reign with him;

if we deny him, he also will deny us;

¹³ if we are faithless, he remains faithful—

for he cannot deny himself.

Mark 13:13

¹³ And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

1 Corinthians 15:1-2

Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, ² and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

Colossians 1:23

²¹ And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, ²² he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, ²³ if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

These verses are often quoted in support of the Arminian belief that you can lose your salvation. But what we have to understand is this: those that are JUSTIFIED, WILL PERSEVERE. PERIOD. That’s why Keith Green wrote that song about 2 Timothy 4, “The Battle is Already Won. The Race has already been run. We just have to claim the victory.” True believers know they will win the face of faith. They know they will win the fight of faith because we are kept by Christ.

Jude 24

²⁴ Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, ²⁵ to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

John 10

“I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name bear witness about me, ²⁶ but you do not believe because you are not part of my flock. ²⁷My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. ²⁸ I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, who has given them to me,is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and the Father are one.”

Romans 8:29-30

And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

The reason why you continue in faith is because you are kept by the Spirit of Christ! As John Piper says, The reason why you believe day in and day out is because Christ keeps you!

That’s the doctrine of perseverance of the saints. And Paul in our passage is rejoicing because he knows that he’s persevered and will inherit eternal life.

This leads me to the third point.

3.) Paul’s Assurance is his Perseverance

Paul is banking everything on Christ in whom he has put his faith. But here’s the incredible thing, in Paul’s assurance, he points towards the perseverance of his faith, not his Damascus Road experience. I know many of us, if we had personally been converted by seeing the Lord Jesus Christ, would base our assurance on that fact. But Paul doesn’t, he points to the perseverance of his faith over all the struggles that he encountered. I think many of us, when we look for assurance look towards our initial conversion, and then that’s when Satan comes and brings doubt about the conversion’s genuineness. But that is not where Paul looks in this passage. He looks to his persevering, fighting, running faith. He knows that he’s in the fight of faith because he’s been fighting! He’s been running, his whole life and it’s been hard! I think of 2 Cor. 6

³ We put no obstacle in anyone’s way, so that no fault may be found with our ministry, ⁴ butas servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: by great endurance, in afflictions,hardships, calamities, ⁵ beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger; ⁶by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love; ⁷ by truthful speech, and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left; ⁸ through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise. We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; ⁹ as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and behold, we live; as punished, and yet not killed; ¹⁰ as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing everything.

Later on in 2 Corinthians 11:23 Paul exclaims “with far greater labors, far more imprisonments, with countless beatings, and often near death. ²⁴ Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. ²⁵ Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; ²⁶ on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; ²⁷ in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure. ²⁸ And, apart from other things, there is the daily pressure on me of my anxiety for all the churches. ²⁹ Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to fall, and I am not indignant?

He knows he’s been in the race of faith because he’s been running! Paul said in Acts 20:24, “But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.”

Have you ever been in a grueling wrestling match or fight. I think back to playing high school football, when every play is a sprint and also bone crushing hits. Agonizing…or a race. I love to run. Love to run. The Lord really speaks to me when I run. Many of you need to exercise more so you can understand these analogies that Paul is talking about…but sometimes, there are times when running that you don’t think you can take another step. 2 months ago, I went on a 10 miler that went up the mountain with other Marines. And every step seemed to be worse and worse. The other runners on the last couple miles were in noticeable pain, but I was disguising mine. So much so, that one of them said, “Look at Castleberry, he just keeps getting stronger the longer we run.” But really...I was in agony as well, which I conceeded to them when we finished.

To Paul it was finishing the race of faith that counted! Why, listen friends, the test of true Christianity is not how you start, but how you end the race. In Luke 8, in the Parable of the Sower, the seed that fell in the thorns and the rocky ground was not saved. And I think in modern evangelicalism, we rush to give assurance to these types of seeds even when they are not growing. Yes, there are times in Christian’s lives when they may not be growing. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, they’ve fallen in the Sloth of Despond. But the mark of every true believer is that they keep on fighting, running, and hoping in Christ. That’s how we know we are saved, when we are sustained daily in the fight, the race, the life of faith. Why? Because the Lord keeps true believers. Jude 1:1 says, “…to those who are called, beloved in God the Father and kept for Jesus Christ.” In the parable of the soils, the seed that fell on the rocks and the thorns did not grow. It started to grow, but was not kept. What does that mean? It means that some people profess faith, but they are never justified, because they do not truly believe, and they are not kept in the faith and they are not really saved and they renounce their faith. But we know that all true believers are kept by the power of Christ to the end. That’s what Jesus was praying for before the Cross (John 17:11) “…And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Application:

1.) Assess whether or not your faith in Christ is genuine.

2.) Look forward in your fight of faith. Paul was looking forward to “finishing his course.” Set milestones for yourself in your fight of faith and know how to wage your fight against:

The schemes of the devil

Ephesians 6:12

² For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Know Scripture. Satan will tempt you the same way he tempted Adam. “Hath God said.”

Our own flesh

Romans 7:15-20

¹⁵ For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. ¹⁶ Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. ¹⁷ So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. ¹⁸ For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. ¹⁹For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. ²⁰ Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

John Owen said “Either be killing sin, or sin will be killing you.” You have to have a time of introspection so you can know your own weaknesses and put that sin in your flesh to death.

The World

1 John 5:4-5

⁴ For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. ⁵ Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

Fill your mind with Scripture, not Television.

3.) Use your own fight of faith for your own assurance and rest knowing that Christ will keep you from falling. Let’s pray.

Knowing God Week 2 (Sept. 19)

Knowing God Week 2 Chapter 1 (part 1)

Introduction –

Spurgeon quote from Knowing God:

But while the subject humbles the mind, it also expands it. He who often thinks of God, will have a larger mind than the man who simply plods around this narrow globe….The most excellent study for expanding the soul, is the science of Christ, and Him crucified, and the knowledge of the Godhead in the glorious Trinity. Nothing will so enlarge the intellect, nothing so magnify the whole soulf of man, as a devout, earnest, continued investigation of the great subject of the Deity. And, whilst humbling and expanding, this subjest is eminently consolatory. Oh, there is, in contemplating Christ, a balm for every wound; in musing on the Father, there is a quietus for every grief; and in the influence of the Holy Ghost, there is a balsam for every sore. Would you lose your sorrow? Would you drown your cares? Then go, plunge yourself in the Godhead’s deepest sea; be lost in his immensity; and you shall come forth as from a cough of rest, refreshed and invigorated. I know nothing which can so comfort the soul; so calm the swelling billows of sorrow and grief; so speak peace to the winds of trial, as a devout musing upon the subject of the Godhead. It is to that subject that I invite you this morning.

Exhortation – The Bible clearly speaks that God is the only one who can satisfy our souls!

Psalm 73:25-26 “Whom have I in heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth that I desire besides you. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart aand my portion forever.”

Roger Yoderan’s wife quotes this passage of Scripture when her earthly husband is taken from her.

Philippians 1:20-21 “as is is my eager expectation and hope that I will not be at all ashamed, but that with full courage now as always Christ will be honored in my body, whether by life or by death. For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”

For Paul, death was gain, because he got Christ; the caretaker of our souls. Maybe your world is being rocked right now, maybe it’s not. But it’s just a matter of time. Where’s your treasure?

Matthew 13:44-46 “The kingdom of heave is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field. Again, the kingdom of heave is like a merchant in search of fine pearls, who on finding one pearl of great value, went and sold all that he had and bought it.”

‘Theology’ – composed of two Greek words: Theos (God) and Logos (word, or meaning, or rationality)

God has chosen to reveal Himself to us. And not only that, the God of the universe planned to enter into a relationship with us. Our heavenly Father has revealed Himself to us. And the best way to know God is to know Christ (2 Cor. 4:4-6) – In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in hour hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

The best way to know God is to Know Christ! To study Christ, because Christ and the Father are one, and Christ does the will of His Father!

Draw your attention to Luke 24:13-27 where Christ walks with two of his disciples from Jerusalem to Emmaus testifying how the OT Scriptures testify about Him.

-“O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself.

All of the OT is the revelation of the character of God and His unfolding plan of redemption. It’s all about God and it’s all about Christ and the Spirit. Christ appeals to Scripture as the way to know Himself. He doesn’t give them a Charismatic experience. He doesn’t perform a miracle yet, he simply opens up the Scriptures to show authority about God. We should do likewise. As we seek God, we should keep the Scriptures in the forefront.

Q: What attitude does Packer say we should assume when someone tells us “there is no road to knowledge about God”?

5 Foundational Truths Christians have of the Knowledge of God according to Packer:

1.) “God has spoken to man, and the Bible is his Word, given to us to make us wise unto salvation.”

2.) God is Lord and King over his world; he rules all things for his own glory, displaying his perfections in all that he does, in order that men and angels may worship and adore him.

Q: Is it egotistical for God to rule all things for His own glory.

This points to what Piper said in Desiring God: “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him.”

3.) God is Savior, active in sovereign love through the Lord Jesus Christ to rescue believers from the guilt and power of sin, to adopt them as his children and to bless them accordingly.

I like how Packer phrases that. We are all “rescued” through the Gospel. We all, but for the grace of God, would have made shipwreck of our lives if it weren’t for our sovereign rescue.

4.) God is trinue; there are within the Godhead three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit; and the work of salvation is one in which all three act together, the Father purposing redemption, the Son securing it and the Spirit applying it.

Q: Does anyone have a good explanation of the Trinity for the class?

5.) Godliness means responding to God’s revelation in trust and obedience, faith and worship, prayer and praise, submission and service. Life must be seen and lived in the light of God’s Word.

Knowing God Week 1 (Sept 12) - Preface

Knowing God Week 1 (12Sept2010)

The Lord started to give me a vision for this class in the Spring. And as I prayed and thought about it, I realized that I had to bring others on the journey that the Lord has brought me on.

Psalm 68:5 “A Father to the Fatherless.” – I think that God has taken care of me at the requests of my father, and because of His sovereign plan. My heart was always attuned to the things of God and I hungered for His Word. But it was on a mission trip to China in 2002, that the leader of the trip, Mike Douris dropped this book in my lap. And it changed my life (Pleasures of God).

I was exposed to statements like: “What is the chief end of man? A: The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.” Piper said, The chief end of man is to glorify God by enjoying Him forever. I want to remind you. God doesn’t change. And God is infinitely happy and He has great joy in Himself in His Trinitarian affections. God is not merely to be studied…but intimately worshipped.

Jesus said in John 4 to the woman at the well. You must worship God in Spirit and in Truth. I am looking for true worshippers.

Presupposition

1.) Holy Scripture is our only authority, because it is the inerrant Word of God. SOLA SCRIPTURA. Because God is our only final authority.

Ultimately, the backlash to Luther nailing the 95 thesis to the door at the Wittenberg Chapel on October 31, 1517 was a debate over authority. The Catholic Church argued at the Council of Trent almost thirty years later for two forms of authority: church councils/pope and Holy Scripture. Luther thought differently. Thus the catch phrase and one of the 5 Solas of the Reformation: Sola Scriptura. Scripture alone is our authority, because it is God's Word. Luther was famous for saying “One peasant armed with one verse of Scripture is more powerful than popes and councils without Scripture.” At the Diet of Worms in 1521, Luther is famous for saying:

Unless I am convicted by the testimony of Scripture or by evident reason – for I trust neither in popes nor in councils alone, since it is obvious that they have often erred and contradicted themselves – I am convicted by the Scripture which I have mentioned and my conscience is held captive by the Word of God. Therefore I cannot and will not recant, since it is difficult, unprofitable and dangerous indeed to do anything against one’s conscience, God help me. Amen.

A.W. Tozer –

The low view of God entertained almost universally among Christians is the cause of a hundred lesser evils everywhere among us. A whole new philosophy of the Christian life has resulted from this one basic error in our religious thinking.

With our loss of the sense of majesty has come the further loss of religious awe and consciousness of the divine Presence. We have lost our spirit of worship and our ability to withdraw inwardly to meet God in adoring silence. Modern Christianity is simply not producing the kind of Christian who can appreciate or experience the life in the Spirit. The words, “Be still, and know that I am God,” mean next to nothing to the self-confident, bustling worshiper in this middle period of the twentieth century.

This loss of the concept of majesty has come just when the forces of religion are making dramatic gains and the churches are more prosperous than at any time within the past several hundred years. But the alarming thing is that our gains are mostly external and our losses wholly internal; and since it is the quality of our religion that is affected by internal conditions, it may be that our supposed gains are but losses spread over a wider field.

The only way to recoup our spiritual losses is to go back to the cause of them and make such corrections as the truth warrants. The decline of the knowledge of the holy has brought on our troubles. A rediscovery of the majesty of God will go a long way toward curing them. It is impossible to keep our moral practices sound and our inward attitudes right while our idea of God is erroneous or inadequate. If we would bring back spiritual power to our lives, we must begin to think of God more nearly as He is.

Jonathan Edwards

The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God , is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here….These are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams; but God is the sun. These are but streams; but God is the ocean.

Henry Scougal

The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love..”

David said in Psalm 104:31-34 –

May the glory of the Lord endure forever, may the LORD rejoice in his works, who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke! I will sing to the LORD as long as I live; I will sing to the Lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.

The other day, GA and I went to a dock by our house and looked at the sunset. And it was incredible. But as we looked at the sunset our hearts turned to worship, because our affections were towards God, the maker of the sunset, and not the sunset itself. We gave glory to Him in worship and we were awed that God could make such beauty. It’s not bad to be stunned.

John Piper – Pleasure of God

One of the tragedies of growing up is that we get used to things. It has its good side of course, since irritations may cease to be irritations. But there is immense loss when we get used to the redness of the rising sun, and the roundness of the moon, and the whiteness of the snow, the wetness of rain the blueness of the sky, the buzzing of bumble bees, the stitching of crickets, the invisibility of wind, the unconscious constancy of heart and diaphragm, the weirdness of noses and ears, the number of the grains of sand on a thousand beaches, the never-ceasing crash crash of countless waves, and ten million kingly-clad flowers flourishing and withering in woods and mountain valleys where no one sees but God. I invite you…to look, as though it were the first time, not at the empty product of accumulated millennia of aimless evolutionary accidents (which no child ever dreamed of), but at the personal handiwork of an infinitely strong, creative, and exuberant Artist who made the earth and the sea and everything in them. I invite you to believe (like the children believe) “that today, this very day, some stroke is being added to the cosmic canvas that in due course you shall understand with joy as a stroke made by the Architect who calls Himself Alpha and Omega.”

John 17:3 “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only ture God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.”

Psalm 34:8 “Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

C.S. Lewis – “If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.”

J.I. Packer - “The conviction behind the book is that ignorance of God – ignorance both of his ways and of the practice of communion with Him – lies at the root of much of the church’s weakness today.”