Beyond the sacred page, I seek Thee, Lord. Today
we want to talk about knowing the God that we
worship. If someone asks you, how can I know
God? I would suspect that most of the people
sitting here in this congregation could give
a good evangelical response to that. that we
know God by faith in Jesus Christ who died for
us on the cross. We know the answer as to how
to know God. The question mark comes yet to our
minds though. If we know that answer, why are
the effects in one's life of knowing God? so
little dominant among us. Why is there so little
joy and liberty and self -mastery if we know
the answer as to how to know God? then why are
the marks of knowing God so infrequently found
among God's people? That is a question that I
want to address not only today but in coming
weeks as we think about knowing the God that
we worship. The deepest need that we have is
not merely to know about God but to know God.
A .W. Pink said, an unknown God can neither be
trusted, served, nor worshiped. Is it possible
that one of the reasons that we express so little
trust in God, that we serve Him so superficially,
and worship Him so little, is that although we
know enough to get saved, we know about God that
much, we have failed yet to come to really know
God. We cannot worship, serve or trust a God
that is unknown to us. In the December 1990 issue
of Life magazine, the question was emblazoned
across the front, who is God? Maybe you saw it.
The editors of Life interviewed 23 people from
many walks of life and from all over the world.
There was a lot of variety revealed in the answers
that they gave to the question, who is God? The
answers came from Buddhists and Baptists, from
Muslims and Mormons, Jews and Hindus. In fact,
there were some who responded who weren't even
sure that there is a supreme being at all. Interviewed
for the magazine were Oral Hersheiser and Bishop
Tutu, a cook and a taxi driver, a farmer and
a church organist. A man dying of leukemia and
another who is struggling with AIDS. The results
of their compilation of answers to who is God
resulted in confusion as to the answer to the
question. Indeed, across the top of the page
running through the entire article were over
140 names for God. from many nations and cultures
of the world. The implication being that although
there were many names, they all referred to the
same supreme being. The groping after God and
the blindness about God was widely evident, including
in the remarks of Roger Rosenblatt, who is an
editor at large for life and a columnist who
writes for them. His was the last of the articles.
He had gone through an experience of his father
having a severe heart attack and dying. And as
he recounts that sad time in his life, he wrote,
the face of my God is a veiled face like my own.
Now you see us, now you don't. This is not true
of everyone's God. The testimonies here, he means
in that article, mine included, suggest a deity
customized to individual needs. A deity customized
to individual needs. Interesting words. Yet,
if I and the other witnesses who are strangers
to one another were gathered in a room instead
of in a magazine, we would know one another by
the God each turns to. I've always wondered how
my God sees me, judges me," he writes. Whether
he finds me generally satisfactory with a few
recurrent flaws or so hopelessly unimprovable
as to be his puniest laughing stock. He writes
further about his God. He will not tolerate the
easy emotion or the shabby thought. He has no
shabby thoughts of himself, though if one believes
the Bible, he has behaved abominably from time
to time. I will never understand, for instance,
why in the book of Exodus he kept hardening Pharaoh's
heart after delivering the plagues, so that Pharaoh
would continually renege on his promise to let
Moses and his people go. It was God, not Pharaoh,
who did the hardening. What was he out to prove?
How tough he was? So Mr. Rosenblatt shares with
us very transparently his own confusion. about
his God. Perpetrated in the article, written
throughout it in a popular way, was the satanic
lie that everything is true and that all truths
are equal. The article in life was a marvelous
example of good old American pluralism at its
finest, or its worst, depending on how you look
at it. However, pluralism, as well illustrated
in that article in life, and the Bible, pluralism
and the Bible are opponents. The two cannot coexist.
Because the Bible says, in opposition to pluralism,
that there is only one truth, not many truths.
And that this one truth finds its source in the
infinite personal God which the Bible reveals.
Certainly life should be congratulated for asking
a significant question. But it said that its
authors largely neglect the one book with the
answer to the question, who is God? And it portrayed
their answer as being a theological cafeteria.
So as you pass through life, you simply pick
up the ideas about God that fit your own characterization
of what your God ought to be like. We're going
to find as we go through the decade of the 90s
that will be an increasingly popular way to think
of God. There will be an increasing number of
people who will believe in God, which they will
customize to fit their individual needs. But
that's not the God of the Bible. The Bible is
not a result of man's probing intuition. It's
not the result of man's reflecting on his experiences.
The Bible is not the product of the evolution
of religious feelings and ideas. Rather the Bible
is God's own self -disclosure. The Bible is God's
way of telling us who He is. And that's where
we find the answer to this question. In the Bible,
God reveals Himself to us. He tells us what He
thinks. For all scripture is God -breathed. What
grace and goodness this exposes in God. For there
is no knowledge that is greater or more desirable
than the knowledge of God. The knowledge of God
is both practical and relevant. It saves the
soul from lostness and enlightens the soul in
its darkness. back in January of 1855, which
is before most of us were born. The minister
of New Park Street Chapel in England, Southwark,
England, said these words to his congregation.
His name was C .H. Spurgeon, by the way, and
when he said these words, he was only 20 years
old. How many of you are older than 20? Would
you lift your hand? That's not a hard confession
to make, is it? Well, here is a man who is younger
than all of us who just lifted our hands, but
listen to his words about God. It has been said
by someone that the proper study of mankind is
man. I will not oppose the idea, but I believe
it is equally true that the proper study of God's
elect is God. The proper study of a Christian
is the Godhead. The highest science, the loftiest
speculation, the mightiest philosophy which can
ever engage the attention of the child of God
is the name, the nature, the person, the work,
the doings, and the existence of the great God
whom he calls his father. Those are the words
of a 20 -year -old man 140 years ago. J .I. Packer,
in his book Knowing God, says this. Knowing about
God is crucially important for the living of
our lives. As it would be cruel to an Amazonian
tribesman to fly him to London, Put him down
without explanation in Trafalgar Square and leave
him as one who knew nothing of English or of
England Leave him defend for himself So we are
cruel to ourselves if we try to live in this
world without knowing about the God whose world
it is and who runs it The world becomes a strange
mad painful place and life in it a disappointing
and unpleasant business for those who do not
know about God. Disregard the study of God, he
writes, and you sentence yourself to stumble
and blunder through life, blindfold as it were,
with no sense of direction and no understanding
of what surrounds you. This way you can waste
your life. and lose your soul. So I come back
to my point that knowing the God that we worship
is the greatest and most important knowledge
that we can gain in this world. There are several
foundation stones of truth for our study of the
God whom we worship. I want to list these merely
today We will talk about them as we work our
way through this subject. The first foundation
stone is that God is absolutely sovereign over
all His creation. Secondly, that this sovereign
God can and wills be known. That this God subsists
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the unity
of His Godhead. That God displays His perfections
so that His creatures, whether human or angelic,
might worship Him. As triune deity, this God
provides salvation for sinners. And finally,
The purpose or the end of God's revelation and
our knowing Him is His own glory and our blessing.
That we might come to this knowledge means that
we will come to trust and obedience, to faith
and worship, to prayer and praise, to submission
and service. Packer says, life must be seen and
lived in the light of God's Word. This and nothing
else is true religion. And so knowing God, knowing
God is our greatest necessity as well as our
highest privilege. Consider with me this morning
what this knowledge does for us. Consider with
me what this knowledge of God does for us. In
the first place, it transforms our relationship
to God. It transforms our relationship to God.
I refer again to this author, J .I. Packer, and
if you don't have the book Knowing God, you ought
to get it. As he writes regarding this matter
of knowing God, he says that those who know God
are characterized four ways. He writes this in
four simple propositions. He says those who know
God have great energy for God. Those who know
God have great thoughts of God. Those who know
God show great boldness for God. Those who know
God have great contentment in God. Think about
that. And think about how that can transform
your relationship to Him. Those who know God
have great energy for God. Daniel of old was
a man who knew God. and in the midst of a pagan
culture that exerted tremendous pressure upon
him to compromise and to accommodate his theology
and to change his lifestyle. Daniel stood firm.
Dare to be a Daniel. Dare to stand alone. Dare
to have a purpose firm. and dared to make it
known. Daniel dared because he knew God. He had
great energy for God. He was a man who knew how
to pray. And when it was commanded that no other
God should be prayed to but Nebuchadnezzar, not
only did Daniel continue to pray three times
a day, But he opened the window to his room so
everybody could see that he was praying. Great
energy for God. Packer says the invariable fruit
of true knowledge of God is energy to pray for
God's cause. But then convictingly he continues
his writing. If, however, there is in us little
energy for such prayer and little consequent
practice of it, this is a sure sign that as yet
we scarcely know our God." In other words, I
can measure how much I know my God by how energetic
and intense my prayer life is. And if I pray
little, what that says is that I really don't
know God. It doesn't mean you're not saved through
faith in Jesus Christ who died on the cross for
our sins. It means you don't know God. Those
who know God have a great energy for God. Those
who know God have great thoughts of God. I refer
again to Daniel and to the thoughts that this
young man had regarding God. In his teen years,
in his twenties, he was a man who knew God. He
was able to stand before Nebuchadnezzar and teach
him that the most high ruleeth in the kingdom
of men. Such great thoughts of God filled his
mind that he was able to pray like this. Blessed
be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom
and might are his. And he changeth the times
and the seasons, he removeth kings, and setteth
up kings, he giveth wisdom. He knoweth what is
in the darkness, and the light dwelleth with
him. And he prayed, O Lord, the great and dreadful
God, keeping covenant and mercy to them that
love him, and to them that keep his covenants,
O Lord, righteousness belongeth unto thee. To
the Lord our God belong mercies and forgiveness.
The Lord our God is righteous in all his works
which he doeth. Great thoughts of God come to
those who know God. Those who know God show boldness
for God. Daniel did. So did Shadrach, Meshach,
And to bed we go, as one Sunday school student
put it. They were commanded to bow down to this
image that Nebuchadnezzar built and they would
not bow and on that great plain over there in
Iraq. And we have seen pictures of those planes,
haven't we? P -L -A -I -N -S. And we see how
flat and barren it is. You put up a statue and
command that people bow down to it. And you stand,
you're going to stand out. Those men knew it,
but they knew God. They said, our God's able
to deliver us. They said this to Nebuchadnezzar.
Our God is able to deliver us, and even if He
doesn't, He'll be honored. Great boldness for
God is found in the lives of those who know Him.
Those who know God have great contentment in
Him. Peace patrols their souls. Their mind is
at rest because it rests upon a God that they
know, not just know about. Again, I quote Mr.
Packer, there is no peace like the peace of those
whose minds are possessed with full assurance
that they have known God. And God has known them
and that this relationship guarantees God's favor
to them in life through death and on. forever.
Many of us know about God, but sadly in too many
of us there is a lack of evidence that we really
know of God. And I put myself in that category.
We are able to quote scriptures. We can sign
doctrinal statements. We can refer to ancient
and worthy creeds of the Church. But our lives
reflect little of the reality that God exists.
If there is a danger in a Sunday school where
children are taught of God with published curriculum,
if there is a danger in a Christian school or
a Christian college or a seminary, the danger
is this. that the students will learn facts about
God without being confronted with God. And when
there is no confrontation with the living God
Himself, the facts are sterile and produce impotence
in the life. Too many of us have studied God
as though He were a project of biology. We have
dissected Him. We have learned the words, the
appropriate terms to use. We have theorized about
God as though He were some math problem. Or as
though He were a music score. but we haven't
known God. When we know God, it transforms our
relationship with Him. Secondly, when we know
God, it transforms the values of our lives. When
we know God, it transforms the values that we
live for. And I invite you to open your Bibles
to that text, if you've not done so already,
in Jeremiah. The text that was read earlier.
In these words of Jeremiah, we find three advantages
that people may boast in. Wisdom, might, and
riches. Indeed, we find here three classes of
people that are prone to boasting. Scholars,
warriors, or athletes, and financiers. Now it
doesn't say that it's sinful to be a scholar,
or a warrior, or an athlete, or to handle money.
He doesn't say that at all. He says, if any man
will boast, let him not boast in his scholarship.
Let him not boast in his prowess. Let him not
boast in his wealth. But if anyone will boast,
Let him boast in this specific thing. Our world
today boasts in the first three. Those are the
people that are honored and worshiped as heroes,
held up as models to our children. When was the
last time you watched a television program that
was titled, The Lifestyle of the Godly? Now,
it's the lifestyle of the rich and the famous.
If any man will boast, let him boast in this,
that he understands and knows me. Can you understand
God? Ultimately, the answer to that, of course,
is no. We can never understand the infinite.
But God says we can understand Him. In some limited
sense, it is possible to gain that understanding.
To discern Him is what the word means. We can
come to discern how God thinks. and why God acts
the way that He does. We can. And we can also
know God. This is not the word for knowing God
intellectually. This is not the word for a THD
in the Hebrew. This word for knowing God and
I say this with reverence and with holiness,
is the same word for a man who knows his wife
in the most intimate of relationships in the
world. God says if you are going to boast, then
boast that you have an intimate and personal
knowledge. of me. When we know God this way,
the values of life are transformed. No longer
do we press and push for power and prestige and
fame and wealth. Although those may be a part
of our lives in the sovereign plan of God, those
things do not become the values by which we measure
our success. Rather, our success and our boasting
is measured by how much we understand of God
and how intimately we are acquainted with the
infinite. How can we know God? Where do we begin
to get this kind of knowledge of God? Let me
assert that the answer is not found in the December
issue of Life magazine. The answer is found in
this book. You know that. The Bible. It is possible
I am sorry to say, for us to know the Bible and
to not know God. There are people who can quote
scripture verses, who can argue theology in its
fine points, but who do not have the knowledge
of God that has transformed them in their relationship
to Him or to other people. They do not have a
knowledge of God that has transformed the values
of their lives. That is worthless knowledge.
Worthless. And God has no respect for it. The
kind of knowledge that God says we may rightly
boast in is the kind of knowledge that transforms
us. The kind of knowledge wherein our theology,
the facts, which we must begin to know, where
those facts are applied to our lives, where we
confront the living God as He is. But how do
we do that? The first thing that we must do is
to acknowledge how small is our knowledge of
Him. to measure our knowledge not by our understanding
of books in the Bible or our ability to outline
them or to give theological answers. A knowledge
not measured even by our service on behalf of
God and how we perform, but a knowledge that
is measured by our prayer life. and by the habits
of our heart. And when we measure our knowledge
of God by our prayer life and by the habits of
our hearts, there are few of us that will not
be brought to humility and repentance before
God. We start there. By measuring what our knowledge
of God really is and acknowledging how short
we are. And then we take the second essential
step. It is that we begin to seek God with all
of our hearts. To seek God in His Word. And to
let nothing stand in the way of our knowing God.
To make that the issue of our lives. to make
that the press of our souls to know God. When
we have taken those two steps, then we can go
beyond that. But we can't even start until we
first do a real measurement and acknowledge to
God what we are and where we are. And we begin
then with determination and discipline. to seek
Him. He has promised that if we seek Him with
all of our hearts, we shall surely find Him.
Let's pray. What do you want to say to the Lord?
Tell Him right now. Lord, measure us and open
our eyes and force us to see your measurement.
May we not be wise in our own conceits. May we
not boast of those things that must surely pass
away. that cause us to seek that knowledge that
is the greatest and the most necessary. And as
we go from here today, set our hearts on this
knowledge like it has never been set before.
I pray that you will light a fire in my heart
and in the hearts of hundreds of these who listen.
light a fire that cannot be quenched, a fire
that will warm our souls, which will bring us
to a true and intimate understanding and knowledge
of you. Would you stand with me please, our heads
bowed, and let's sing perhaps with a new understanding,
this chorus. Open our eyes, Lord, we want to
see Jesus, to reach out and touch Him, and say
that we love Him. Open our ears, Lord, and help
us to listen Open our eyes, Lord, we want to
see Jesus and all God's people said.