WEBVTT 00:00:00.330 --> 00:00:07.389 Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord. Today 00:00:07.389 --> 00:00:10.310 we want to talk about knowing the God that we 00:00:10.310 --> 00:00:17.949 worship. If someone asks you, how can I know 00:00:17.949 --> 00:00:23.809 God? I would suspect that most of the people 00:00:23.809 --> 00:00:27.149 sitting here in this congregation could give 00:00:27.149 --> 00:00:31.120 a good evangelical response to that. that we 00:00:31.120 --> 00:00:38.439 know God by faith in Jesus Christ who died for 00:00:38.439 --> 00:00:46.119 us on the cross. We know the answer as to how 00:00:46.119 --> 00:00:49.280 to know God. The question mark comes yet to our 00:00:49.280 --> 00:00:54.359 minds though. If we know that answer, why are 00:00:54.359 --> 00:01:00.740 the effects in one's life of knowing God? so 00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:08.400 little dominant among us. Why is there so little 00:01:08.400 --> 00:01:21.560 joy and liberty and self -mastery if we know 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:29.049 the answer as to how to know God? then why are 00:01:29.049 --> 00:01:35.329 the marks of knowing God so infrequently found 00:01:35.329 --> 00:01:40.849 among God's people? That is a question that I 00:01:40.849 --> 00:01:43.150 want to address not only today but in coming 00:01:43.150 --> 00:01:47.629 weeks as we think about knowing the God that 00:01:47.629 --> 00:01:53.230 we worship. The deepest need that we have is 00:01:53.230 --> 00:01:59.329 not merely to know about God but to know God. 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:06.730 A .W. Pink said, an unknown God can neither be 00:02:06.730 --> 00:02:12.090 trusted, served, nor worshiped. Is it possible 00:02:12.090 --> 00:02:14.849 that one of the reasons that we express so little 00:02:14.849 --> 00:02:21.050 trust in God, that we serve Him so superficially, 00:02:22.569 --> 00:02:27.580 and worship Him so little, is that although we 00:02:27.580 --> 00:02:33.879 know enough to get saved, we know about God that 00:02:33.879 --> 00:02:38.939 much, we have failed yet to come to really know 00:02:38.939 --> 00:02:48.060 God. We cannot worship, serve or trust a God 00:02:48.060 --> 00:02:54.699 that is unknown to us. In the December 1990 issue 00:02:54.699 --> 00:02:59.819 of Life magazine, the question was emblazoned 00:02:59.819 --> 00:03:04.379 across the front, who is God? Maybe you saw it. 00:03:05.379 --> 00:03:09.520 The editors of Life interviewed 23 people from 00:03:09.520 --> 00:03:12.419 many walks of life and from all over the world. 00:03:13.479 --> 00:03:16.280 There was a lot of variety revealed in the answers 00:03:16.280 --> 00:03:20.960 that they gave to the question, who is God? The 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:25.159 answers came from Buddhists and Baptists, from 00:03:25.159 --> 00:03:29.680 Muslims and Mormons, Jews and Hindus. In fact, 00:03:29.819 --> 00:03:32.860 there were some who responded who weren't even 00:03:32.860 --> 00:03:37.800 sure that there is a supreme being at all. Interviewed 00:03:37.800 --> 00:03:41.819 for the magazine were Oral Hersheiser and Bishop 00:03:41.819 --> 00:03:48.280 Tutu, a cook and a taxi driver, a farmer and 00:03:48.280 --> 00:03:53.000 a church organist. A man dying of leukemia and 00:03:53.000 --> 00:03:58.020 another who is struggling with AIDS. The results 00:03:58.020 --> 00:04:01.180 of their compilation of answers to who is God 00:04:01.180 --> 00:04:06.879 resulted in confusion as to the answer to the 00:04:06.879 --> 00:04:11.599 question. Indeed, across the top of the page 00:04:11.599 --> 00:04:14.020 running through the entire article were over 00:04:14.020 --> 00:04:19.189 140 names for God. from many nations and cultures 00:04:19.189 --> 00:04:24.149 of the world. The implication being that although 00:04:24.149 --> 00:04:28.629 there were many names, they all referred to the 00:04:28.629 --> 00:04:34.269 same supreme being. The groping after God and 00:04:34.269 --> 00:04:37.730 the blindness about God was widely evident, including 00:04:37.730 --> 00:04:43.610 in the remarks of Roger Rosenblatt, who is an 00:04:43.610 --> 00:04:46.819 editor at large for life and a columnist who 00:04:46.819 --> 00:04:49.819 writes for them. His was the last of the articles. 00:04:52.860 --> 00:04:55.959 He had gone through an experience of his father 00:04:55.959 --> 00:05:01.240 having a severe heart attack and dying. And as 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:07.019 he recounts that sad time in his life, he wrote, 00:05:07.259 --> 00:05:12.120 the face of my God is a veiled face like my own. 00:05:12.680 --> 00:05:18.319 Now you see us, now you don't. This is not true 00:05:18.319 --> 00:05:23.180 of everyone's God. The testimonies here, he means 00:05:23.180 --> 00:05:29.040 in that article, mine included, suggest a deity 00:05:29.040 --> 00:05:37.100 customized to individual needs. A deity customized 00:05:37.100 --> 00:05:42.439 to individual needs. Interesting words. Yet, 00:05:42.459 --> 00:05:45.060 if I and the other witnesses who are strangers 00:05:45.060 --> 00:05:49.560 to one another were gathered in a room instead 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:52.860 of in a magazine, we would know one another by 00:05:52.860 --> 00:05:56.980 the God each turns to. I've always wondered how 00:05:56.980 --> 00:06:03.139 my God sees me, judges me," he writes. Whether 00:06:03.139 --> 00:06:07.240 he finds me generally satisfactory with a few 00:06:07.240 --> 00:06:12.259 recurrent flaws or so hopelessly unimprovable 00:06:12.259 --> 00:06:19.740 as to be his puniest laughing stock. He writes 00:06:19.740 --> 00:06:23.980 further about his God. He will not tolerate the 00:06:23.980 --> 00:06:28.060 easy emotion or the shabby thought. He has no 00:06:28.060 --> 00:06:31.879 shabby thoughts of himself, though if one believes 00:06:31.879 --> 00:06:36.920 the Bible, he has behaved abominably from time 00:06:36.920 --> 00:06:41.129 to time. I will never understand, for instance, 00:06:41.689 --> 00:06:44.589 why in the book of Exodus he kept hardening Pharaoh's 00:06:44.589 --> 00:06:48.230 heart after delivering the plagues, so that Pharaoh 00:06:48.230 --> 00:06:52.230 would continually renege on his promise to let 00:06:52.230 --> 00:06:55.889 Moses and his people go. It was God, not Pharaoh, 00:06:55.910 --> 00:06:59.189 who did the hardening. What was he out to prove? 00:07:00.009 --> 00:07:05.569 How tough he was? So Mr. Rosenblatt shares with 00:07:05.569 --> 00:07:09.209 us very transparently his own confusion. about 00:07:09.209 --> 00:07:18.629 his God. Perpetrated in the article, written 00:07:18.629 --> 00:07:22.870 throughout it in a popular way, was the satanic 00:07:22.870 --> 00:07:30.490 lie that everything is true and that all truths 00:07:30.490 --> 00:07:36.750 are equal. The article in life was a marvelous 00:07:36.750 --> 00:07:40.430 example of good old American pluralism at its 00:07:40.430 --> 00:07:42.930 finest, or its worst, depending on how you look 00:07:42.930 --> 00:07:50.329 at it. However, pluralism, as well illustrated 00:07:50.329 --> 00:07:56.509 in that article in life, and the Bible, pluralism 00:07:56.509 --> 00:08:02.529 and the Bible are opponents. The two cannot coexist. 00:08:03.370 --> 00:08:07.949 Because the Bible says, in opposition to pluralism, 00:08:08.850 --> 00:08:14.009 that there is only one truth, not many truths. 00:08:16.370 --> 00:08:21.290 And that this one truth finds its source in the 00:08:21.290 --> 00:08:25.769 infinite personal God which the Bible reveals. 00:08:28.529 --> 00:08:31.110 Certainly life should be congratulated for asking 00:08:31.110 --> 00:08:35.940 a significant question. But it said that its 00:08:35.940 --> 00:08:40.899 authors largely neglect the one book with the 00:08:40.899 --> 00:08:46.500 answer to the question, who is God? And it portrayed 00:08:46.500 --> 00:08:52.279 their answer as being a theological cafeteria. 00:08:53.980 --> 00:08:56.259 So as you pass through life, you simply pick 00:08:56.259 --> 00:09:00.559 up the ideas about God that fit your own characterization 00:09:00.559 --> 00:09:05.000 of what your God ought to be like. We're going 00:09:05.000 --> 00:09:07.539 to find as we go through the decade of the 90s 00:09:07.539 --> 00:09:11.139 that will be an increasingly popular way to think 00:09:11.139 --> 00:09:15.320 of God. There will be an increasing number of 00:09:15.320 --> 00:09:19.299 people who will believe in God, which they will 00:09:19.299 --> 00:09:27.279 customize to fit their individual needs. But 00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:33.429 that's not the God of the Bible. The Bible is 00:09:33.429 --> 00:09:38.789 not a result of man's probing intuition. It's 00:09:38.789 --> 00:09:42.250 not the result of man's reflecting on his experiences. 00:09:45.230 --> 00:09:49.629 The Bible is not the product of the evolution 00:09:49.629 --> 00:09:56.110 of religious feelings and ideas. Rather the Bible 00:09:56.110 --> 00:10:04.940 is God's own self -disclosure. The Bible is God's 00:10:04.940 --> 00:10:10.299 way of telling us who He is. And that's where 00:10:10.299 --> 00:10:15.379 we find the answer to this question. In the Bible, 00:10:15.399 --> 00:10:21.440 God reveals Himself to us. He tells us what He 00:10:21.440 --> 00:10:34.080 thinks. For all scripture is God -breathed. What 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:38.059 grace and goodness this exposes in God. For there 00:10:38.059 --> 00:10:41.860 is no knowledge that is greater or more desirable 00:10:41.860 --> 00:10:46.460 than the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God 00:10:46.460 --> 00:10:53.480 is both practical and relevant. It saves the 00:10:53.480 --> 00:10:59.600 soul from lostness and enlightens the soul in 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:07.659 its darkness. back in January of 1855, which 00:11:07.659 --> 00:11:12.700 is before most of us were born. The minister 00:11:12.700 --> 00:11:17.620 of New Park Street Chapel in England, Southwark, 00:11:18.059 --> 00:11:21.419 England, said these words to his congregation. 00:11:22.740 --> 00:11:25.279 His name was C .H. Spurgeon, by the way, and 00:11:25.279 --> 00:11:27.879 when he said these words, he was only 20 years 00:11:27.879 --> 00:11:30.799 old. How many of you are older than 20? Would 00:11:30.799 --> 00:11:34.950 you lift your hand? That's not a hard confession 00:11:34.950 --> 00:11:39.610 to make, is it? Well, here is a man who is younger 00:11:39.610 --> 00:11:42.590 than all of us who just lifted our hands, but 00:11:42.590 --> 00:11:49.009 listen to his words about God. It has been said 00:11:49.009 --> 00:11:53.450 by someone that the proper study of mankind is 00:11:53.450 --> 00:11:58.210 man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe 00:11:58.210 --> 00:12:01.470 it is equally true that the proper study of God's 00:12:01.470 --> 00:12:06.009 elect is God. The proper study of a Christian 00:12:06.009 --> 00:12:12.129 is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest 00:12:12.129 --> 00:12:15.870 speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can 00:12:15.870 --> 00:12:18.789 ever engage the attention of the child of God 00:12:18.789 --> 00:12:24.149 is the name, the nature, the person, the work, 00:12:24.490 --> 00:12:28.629 the doings, and the existence of the great God 00:12:28.629 --> 00:12:34.639 whom he calls his father. Those are the words 00:12:34.639 --> 00:12:43.620 of a 20 -year -old man 140 years ago. J .I. Packer, 00:12:43.919 --> 00:12:49.539 in his book Knowing God, says this. Knowing about 00:12:49.539 --> 00:12:52.039 God is crucially important for the living of 00:12:52.039 --> 00:12:56.220 our lives. As it would be cruel to an Amazonian 00:12:56.220 --> 00:13:00.330 tribesman to fly him to London, Put him down 00:13:00.330 --> 00:13:03.250 without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave 00:13:03.250 --> 00:13:06.909 him as one who knew nothing of English or of 00:13:06.909 --> 00:13:13.029 England Leave him defend for himself So we are 00:13:13.029 --> 00:13:15.850 cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this 00:13:15.850 --> 00:13:19.009 world without knowing about the God whose world 00:13:19.009 --> 00:13:25.049 it is and who runs it The world becomes a strange 00:13:25.049 --> 00:13:31.860 mad painful place and life in it a disappointing 00:13:31.860 --> 00:13:35.159 and unpleasant business for those who do not 00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:39.860 know about God. Disregard the study of God, he 00:13:39.860 --> 00:13:42.960 writes, and you sentence yourself to stumble 00:13:42.960 --> 00:13:47.419 and blunder through life, blindfold as it were, 00:13:48.139 --> 00:13:51.320 with no sense of direction and no understanding 00:13:51.320 --> 00:13:55.279 of what surrounds you. This way you can waste 00:13:55.279 --> 00:14:01.539 your life. and lose your soul. So I come back 00:14:01.539 --> 00:14:05.419 to my point that knowing the God that we worship 00:14:05.419 --> 00:14:10.620 is the greatest and most important knowledge 00:14:10.620 --> 00:14:15.320 that we can gain in this world. There are several 00:14:15.320 --> 00:14:20.360 foundation stones of truth for our study of the 00:14:20.360 --> 00:14:25.320 God whom we worship. I want to list these merely 00:14:25.320 --> 00:14:28.750 today We will talk about them as we work our 00:14:28.750 --> 00:14:32.889 way through this subject. The first foundation 00:14:32.889 --> 00:14:36.610 stone is that God is absolutely sovereign over 00:14:36.610 --> 00:14:44.750 all His creation. Secondly, that this sovereign 00:14:44.750 --> 00:14:57.679 God can and wills be known. That this God subsists 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:01.480 as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the unity 00:15:01.480 --> 00:15:08.100 of His Godhead. That God displays His perfections 00:15:08.100 --> 00:15:12.240 so that His creatures, whether human or angelic, 00:15:12.299 --> 00:15:19.960 might worship Him. As triune deity, this God 00:15:19.960 --> 00:15:24.399 provides salvation for sinners. And finally, 00:15:25.419 --> 00:15:28.899 The purpose or the end of God's revelation and 00:15:28.899 --> 00:15:35.259 our knowing Him is His own glory and our blessing. 00:15:38.779 --> 00:15:43.279 That we might come to this knowledge means that 00:15:43.279 --> 00:15:48.879 we will come to trust and obedience, to faith 00:15:48.879 --> 00:15:55.850 and worship, to prayer and praise, to submission 00:15:55.850 --> 00:16:01.470 and service. Packer says, life must be seen and 00:16:01.470 --> 00:16:04.269 lived in the light of God's Word. This and nothing 00:16:04.269 --> 00:16:11.210 else is true religion. And so knowing God, knowing 00:16:11.210 --> 00:16:17.929 God is our greatest necessity as well as our 00:16:17.929 --> 00:16:22.590 highest privilege. Consider with me this morning 00:16:22.889 --> 00:16:28.629 what this knowledge does for us. Consider with 00:16:28.629 --> 00:16:32.950 me what this knowledge of God does for us. In 00:16:32.950 --> 00:16:37.789 the first place, it transforms our relationship 00:16:37.789 --> 00:16:42.169 to God. It transforms our relationship to God. 00:16:44.370 --> 00:16:48.210 I refer again to this author, J .I. Packer, and 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:50.309 if you don't have the book Knowing God, you ought 00:16:50.309 --> 00:16:55.820 to get it. As he writes regarding this matter 00:16:55.820 --> 00:16:58.700 of knowing God, he says that those who know God 00:16:58.700 --> 00:17:02.559 are characterized four ways. He writes this in 00:17:02.559 --> 00:17:06.799 four simple propositions. He says those who know 00:17:06.799 --> 00:17:12.299 God have great energy for God. Those who know 00:17:12.299 --> 00:17:17.640 God have great thoughts of God. Those who know 00:17:17.640 --> 00:17:23.009 God show great boldness for God. Those who know 00:17:23.009 --> 00:17:29.869 God have great contentment in God. Think about 00:17:29.869 --> 00:17:34.009 that. And think about how that can transform 00:17:34.009 --> 00:17:39.390 your relationship to Him. Those who know God 00:17:39.390 --> 00:17:45.109 have great energy for God. Daniel of old was 00:17:45.109 --> 00:17:50.799 a man who knew God. and in the midst of a pagan 00:17:50.799 --> 00:17:53.980 culture that exerted tremendous pressure upon 00:17:53.980 --> 00:17:59.660 him to compromise and to accommodate his theology 00:17:59.660 --> 00:18:06.539 and to change his lifestyle. Daniel stood firm. 00:18:09.880 --> 00:18:14.700 Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare 00:18:14.700 --> 00:18:18.910 to have a purpose firm. and dared to make it 00:18:18.910 --> 00:18:25.930 known. Daniel dared because he knew God. He had 00:18:25.930 --> 00:18:30.869 great energy for God. He was a man who knew how 00:18:30.869 --> 00:18:36.170 to pray. And when it was commanded that no other 00:18:36.170 --> 00:18:40.670 God should be prayed to but Nebuchadnezzar, not 00:18:40.670 --> 00:18:43.490 only did Daniel continue to pray three times 00:18:43.490 --> 00:18:47.240 a day, But he opened the window to his room so 00:18:47.240 --> 00:18:51.940 everybody could see that he was praying. Great 00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:59.319 energy for God. Packer says the invariable fruit 00:18:59.319 --> 00:19:04.500 of true knowledge of God is energy to pray for 00:19:04.500 --> 00:19:10.140 God's cause. But then convictingly he continues 00:19:10.140 --> 00:19:14.309 his writing. If, however, there is in us little 00:19:14.309 --> 00:19:18.650 energy for such prayer and little consequent 00:19:18.650 --> 00:19:22.710 practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet 00:19:22.710 --> 00:19:29.769 we scarcely know our God." In other words, I 00:19:29.769 --> 00:19:35.309 can measure how much I know my God by how energetic 00:19:35.309 --> 00:19:41.089 and intense my prayer life is. And if I pray 00:19:41.089 --> 00:19:46.210 little, what that says is that I really don't 00:19:46.210 --> 00:19:52.630 know God. It doesn't mean you're not saved through 00:19:52.630 --> 00:19:55.670 faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for 00:19:55.670 --> 00:20:04.490 our sins. It means you don't know God. Those 00:20:04.490 --> 00:20:07.940 who know God have a great energy for God. Those 00:20:07.940 --> 00:20:14.619 who know God have great thoughts of God. I refer 00:20:14.619 --> 00:20:20.160 again to Daniel and to the thoughts that this 00:20:20.160 --> 00:20:26.859 young man had regarding God. In his teen years, 00:20:26.880 --> 00:20:35.849 in his twenties, he was a man who knew God. He 00:20:35.849 --> 00:20:38.670 was able to stand before Nebuchadnezzar and teach 00:20:38.670 --> 00:20:44.710 him that the most high ruleeth in the kingdom 00:20:44.710 --> 00:20:53.170 of men. Such great thoughts of God filled his 00:20:53.170 --> 00:20:57.009 mind that he was able to pray like this. Blessed 00:20:57.009 --> 00:21:01.109 be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom 00:21:01.109 --> 00:21:05.069 and might are his. And he changeth the times 00:21:05.069 --> 00:21:07.970 and the seasons, he removeth kings, and setteth 00:21:07.970 --> 00:21:12.170 up kings, he giveth wisdom. He knoweth what is 00:21:12.170 --> 00:21:15.730 in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with 00:21:15.730 --> 00:21:23.170 him. And he prayed, O Lord, the great and dreadful 00:21:23.170 --> 00:21:26.130 God, keeping covenant and mercy to them that 00:21:26.130 --> 00:21:29.089 love him, and to them that keep his covenants, 00:21:29.349 --> 00:21:33.470 O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee. To 00:21:33.470 --> 00:21:36.329 the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness. 00:21:36.930 --> 00:21:40.890 The Lord our God is righteous in all his works 00:21:40.890 --> 00:21:47.730 which he doeth. Great thoughts of God come to 00:21:47.730 --> 00:21:53.950 those who know God. Those who know God show boldness 00:21:53.950 --> 00:22:01.809 for God. Daniel did. So did Shadrach, Meshach, 00:22:02.109 --> 00:22:07.849 And to bed we go, as one Sunday school student 00:22:07.849 --> 00:22:13.950 put it. They were commanded to bow down to this 00:22:13.950 --> 00:22:16.210 image that Nebuchadnezzar built and they would 00:22:16.210 --> 00:22:19.029 not bow and on that great plain over there in 00:22:19.029 --> 00:22:23.910 Iraq. And we have seen pictures of those planes, 00:22:24.049 --> 00:22:31.619 haven't we? P -L -A -I -N -S. And we see how 00:22:31.619 --> 00:22:39.900 flat and barren it is. You put up a statue and 00:22:39.900 --> 00:22:44.079 command that people bow down to it. And you stand, 00:22:44.140 --> 00:22:48.000 you're going to stand out. Those men knew it, 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:52.619 but they knew God. They said, our God's able 00:22:52.619 --> 00:22:57.240 to deliver us. They said this to Nebuchadnezzar. 00:23:00.539 --> 00:23:03.079 Our God is able to deliver us, and even if He 00:23:03.079 --> 00:23:08.059 doesn't, He'll be honored. Great boldness for 00:23:08.059 --> 00:23:12.160 God is found in the lives of those who know Him. 00:23:16.180 --> 00:23:18.440 Those who know God have great contentment in 00:23:18.440 --> 00:23:25.960 Him. Peace patrols their souls. Their mind is 00:23:25.960 --> 00:23:29.980 at rest because it rests upon a God that they 00:23:29.980 --> 00:23:38.220 know, not just know about. Again, I quote Mr. 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:41.960 Packer, there is no peace like the peace of those 00:23:41.960 --> 00:23:44.700 whose minds are possessed with full assurance 00:23:44.700 --> 00:23:49.880 that they have known God. And God has known them 00:23:49.880 --> 00:23:54.119 and that this relationship guarantees God's favor 00:23:54.119 --> 00:23:59.569 to them in life through death and on. forever. 00:24:05.029 --> 00:24:11.990 Many of us know about God, but sadly in too many 00:24:11.990 --> 00:24:14.849 of us there is a lack of evidence that we really 00:24:14.849 --> 00:24:20.869 know of God. And I put myself in that category. 00:24:26.190 --> 00:24:32.250 We are able to quote scriptures. We can sign 00:24:32.250 --> 00:24:38.549 doctrinal statements. We can refer to ancient 00:24:38.549 --> 00:24:47.210 and worthy creeds of the Church. But our lives 00:24:47.210 --> 00:24:51.049 reflect little of the reality that God exists. 00:24:54.480 --> 00:25:01.440 If there is a danger in a Sunday school where 00:25:01.440 --> 00:25:05.759 children are taught of God with published curriculum, 00:25:06.339 --> 00:25:13.619 if there is a danger in a Christian school or 00:25:13.619 --> 00:25:20.000 a Christian college or a seminary, the danger 00:25:20.000 --> 00:25:26.400 is this. that the students will learn facts about 00:25:26.400 --> 00:25:35.839 God without being confronted with God. And when 00:25:35.839 --> 00:25:38.619 there is no confrontation with the living God 00:25:38.619 --> 00:25:44.720 Himself, the facts are sterile and produce impotence 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:53.589 in the life. Too many of us have studied God 00:25:53.589 --> 00:25:58.890 as though He were a project of biology. We have 00:25:58.890 --> 00:26:03.809 dissected Him. We have learned the words, the 00:26:03.809 --> 00:26:11.109 appropriate terms to use. We have theorized about 00:26:11.109 --> 00:26:17.250 God as though He were some math problem. Or as 00:26:17.250 --> 00:26:24.109 though He were a music score. but we haven't 00:26:24.109 --> 00:26:30.890 known God. When we know God, it transforms our 00:26:30.890 --> 00:26:37.490 relationship with Him. Secondly, when we know 00:26:37.490 --> 00:26:47.009 God, it transforms the values of our lives. When 00:26:47.009 --> 00:26:49.849 we know God, it transforms the values that we 00:26:49.849 --> 00:26:53.579 live for. And I invite you to open your Bibles 00:26:53.579 --> 00:26:56.619 to that text, if you've not done so already, 00:26:57.299 --> 00:27:01.940 in Jeremiah. The text that was read earlier. 00:27:06.619 --> 00:27:10.480 In these words of Jeremiah, we find three advantages 00:27:10.480 --> 00:27:17.039 that people may boast in. Wisdom, might, and 00:27:17.039 --> 00:27:24.079 riches. Indeed, we find here three classes of 00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:29.119 people that are prone to boasting. Scholars, 00:27:31.640 --> 00:27:42.359 warriors, or athletes, and financiers. Now it 00:27:42.359 --> 00:27:45.240 doesn't say that it's sinful to be a scholar, 00:27:45.440 --> 00:27:48.799 or a warrior, or an athlete, or to handle money. 00:27:49.000 --> 00:27:54.059 He doesn't say that at all. He says, if any man 00:27:54.059 --> 00:27:57.960 will boast, let him not boast in his scholarship. 00:28:01.980 --> 00:28:08.920 Let him not boast in his prowess. Let him not 00:28:08.920 --> 00:28:14.960 boast in his wealth. But if anyone will boast, 00:28:15.880 --> 00:28:22.839 Let him boast in this specific thing. Our world 00:28:22.839 --> 00:28:29.240 today boasts in the first three. Those are the 00:28:29.240 --> 00:28:31.900 people that are honored and worshiped as heroes, 00:28:32.220 --> 00:28:38.180 held up as models to our children. When was the 00:28:38.180 --> 00:28:41.000 last time you watched a television program that 00:28:41.000 --> 00:28:49.559 was titled, The Lifestyle of the Godly? Now, 00:28:49.619 --> 00:28:52.980 it's the lifestyle of the rich and the famous. 00:28:57.579 --> 00:29:00.559 If any man will boast, let him boast in this, 00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:11.880 that he understands and knows me. Can you understand 00:29:11.880 --> 00:29:19.109 God? Ultimately, the answer to that, of course, 00:29:19.210 --> 00:29:22.849 is no. We can never understand the infinite. 00:29:25.569 --> 00:29:30.750 But God says we can understand Him. In some limited 00:29:30.750 --> 00:29:33.650 sense, it is possible to gain that understanding. 00:29:34.150 --> 00:29:40.069 To discern Him is what the word means. We can 00:29:40.069 --> 00:29:47.700 come to discern how God thinks. and why God acts 00:29:47.700 --> 00:29:54.539 the way that He does. We can. And we can also 00:29:54.539 --> 00:29:59.700 know God. This is not the word for knowing God 00:29:59.700 --> 00:30:05.480 intellectually. This is not the word for a THD 00:30:05.480 --> 00:30:12.490 in the Hebrew. This word for knowing God and 00:30:12.490 --> 00:30:15.230 I say this with reverence and with holiness, 00:30:18.410 --> 00:30:22.009 is the same word for a man who knows his wife 00:30:22.009 --> 00:30:26.630 in the most intimate of relationships in the 00:30:26.630 --> 00:30:33.690 world. God says if you are going to boast, then 00:30:33.690 --> 00:30:39.809 boast that you have an intimate and personal 00:30:39.809 --> 00:30:51.069 knowledge. of me. When we know God this way, 00:30:51.789 --> 00:30:56.710 the values of life are transformed. No longer 00:30:56.710 --> 00:31:04.809 do we press and push for power and prestige and 00:31:04.809 --> 00:31:09.680 fame and wealth. Although those may be a part 00:31:09.680 --> 00:31:13.559 of our lives in the sovereign plan of God, those 00:31:13.559 --> 00:31:16.559 things do not become the values by which we measure 00:31:16.559 --> 00:31:19.779 our success. Rather, our success and our boasting 00:31:19.779 --> 00:31:23.779 is measured by how much we understand of God 00:31:23.779 --> 00:31:29.220 and how intimately we are acquainted with the 00:31:29.220 --> 00:31:38.650 infinite. How can we know God? Where do we begin 00:31:38.650 --> 00:31:46.109 to get this kind of knowledge of God? Let me 00:31:46.109 --> 00:31:49.910 assert that the answer is not found in the December 00:31:49.910 --> 00:31:58.029 issue of Life magazine. The answer is found in 00:31:58.029 --> 00:32:06.069 this book. You know that. The Bible. It is possible 00:32:06.329 --> 00:32:10.410 I am sorry to say, for us to know the Bible and 00:32:10.410 --> 00:32:17.529 to not know God. There are people who can quote 00:32:17.529 --> 00:32:22.990 scripture verses, who can argue theology in its 00:32:22.990 --> 00:32:27.329 fine points, but who do not have the knowledge 00:32:27.329 --> 00:32:32.450 of God that has transformed them in their relationship 00:32:32.450 --> 00:32:37.829 to Him or to other people. They do not have a 00:32:37.829 --> 00:32:40.549 knowledge of God that has transformed the values 00:32:40.549 --> 00:32:45.369 of their lives. That is worthless knowledge. 00:32:46.829 --> 00:32:54.369 Worthless. And God has no respect for it. The 00:32:54.369 --> 00:32:57.349 kind of knowledge that God says we may rightly 00:32:57.349 --> 00:33:04.309 boast in is the kind of knowledge that transforms 00:33:04.309 --> 00:33:08.630 us. The kind of knowledge wherein our theology, 00:33:08.890 --> 00:33:16.329 the facts, which we must begin to know, where 00:33:16.329 --> 00:33:21.730 those facts are applied to our lives, where we 00:33:21.730 --> 00:33:26.029 confront the living God as He is. But how do 00:33:26.029 --> 00:33:30.650 we do that? The first thing that we must do is 00:33:30.650 --> 00:33:34.049 to acknowledge how small is our knowledge of 00:33:34.049 --> 00:33:39.779 Him. to measure our knowledge not by our understanding 00:33:39.779 --> 00:33:43.160 of books in the Bible or our ability to outline 00:33:43.160 --> 00:33:50.160 them or to give theological answers. A knowledge 00:33:50.160 --> 00:33:53.660 not measured even by our service on behalf of 00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:59.559 God and how we perform, but a knowledge that 00:33:59.559 --> 00:34:06.380 is measured by our prayer life. and by the habits 00:34:06.380 --> 00:34:12.880 of our heart. And when we measure our knowledge 00:34:12.880 --> 00:34:15.519 of God by our prayer life and by the habits of 00:34:15.519 --> 00:34:19.420 our hearts, there are few of us that will not 00:34:19.420 --> 00:34:22.440 be brought to humility and repentance before 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:29.619 God. We start there. By measuring what our knowledge 00:34:29.619 --> 00:34:35.039 of God really is and acknowledging how short 00:34:35.039 --> 00:34:40.980 we are. And then we take the second essential 00:34:40.980 --> 00:34:44.920 step. It is that we begin to seek God with all 00:34:44.920 --> 00:34:53.079 of our hearts. To seek God in His Word. And to 00:34:53.079 --> 00:34:58.099 let nothing stand in the way of our knowing God. 00:34:58.860 --> 00:35:04.949 To make that the issue of our lives. to make 00:35:04.949 --> 00:35:15.989 that the press of our souls to know God. When 00:35:15.989 --> 00:35:18.389 we have taken those two steps, then we can go 00:35:18.389 --> 00:35:23.329 beyond that. But we can't even start until we 00:35:23.329 --> 00:35:25.889 first do a real measurement and acknowledge to 00:35:25.889 --> 00:35:31.289 God what we are and where we are. And we begin 00:35:31.289 --> 00:35:35.139 then with determination and discipline. to seek 00:35:35.139 --> 00:35:39.719 Him. He has promised that if we seek Him with 00:35:39.719 --> 00:35:44.639 all of our hearts, we shall surely find Him. 00:35:47.300 --> 00:35:58.460 Let's pray. What do you want to say to the Lord? 00:36:02.260 --> 00:36:16.699 Tell Him right now. Lord, measure us and open 00:36:16.699 --> 00:36:19.719 our eyes and force us to see your measurement. 00:36:22.900 --> 00:36:31.079 May we not be wise in our own conceits. May we 00:36:31.079 --> 00:36:33.980 not boast of those things that must surely pass 00:36:33.980 --> 00:36:41.030 away. that cause us to seek that knowledge that 00:36:41.030 --> 00:36:51.389 is the greatest and the most necessary. And as 00:36:51.389 --> 00:36:55.429 we go from here today, set our hearts on this 00:36:55.429 --> 00:36:57.949 knowledge like it has never been set before. 00:36:59.409 --> 00:37:02.050 I pray that you will light a fire in my heart 00:37:02.050 --> 00:37:05.250 and in the hearts of hundreds of these who listen. 00:37:07.360 --> 00:37:11.719 light a fire that cannot be quenched, a fire 00:37:11.719 --> 00:37:16.400 that will warm our souls, which will bring us 00:37:16.400 --> 00:37:21.440 to a true and intimate understanding and knowledge 00:37:21.440 --> 00:37:27.400 of you. Would you stand with me please, our heads 00:37:27.400 --> 00:37:32.659 bowed, and let's sing perhaps with a new understanding, 00:37:32.840 --> 00:37:45.730 this chorus. Open our eyes, Lord, we want to 00:37:45.730 --> 00:37:59.909 see Jesus, to reach out and touch Him, and say 00:37:59.909 --> 00:38:15.170 that we love Him. Open our ears, Lord, and help 00:38:15.170 --> 00:38:30.349 us to listen Open our eyes, Lord, we want to 00:38:30.349 --> 00:38:37.599 see Jesus and all God's people said.