Knowing God

But now that the new term has started, fellowship groups have recommenced. Every other week on a Wednesday night, we’re going to take an attribute of God, and we’re just going to take time to look at the Word and see what the Word has to tell us about that. And really, the question we’re going to be asking as we begin this series is, what is God like? What is God like? That’s the end goal of what we’re trying to achieve here. An attribute of God is simply something that is true about who God is or about what God is like.

And so, for example, we would say that God is holy, and so holiness is the attribute. Or we say that God is loving, and so love is the attribute. Or God is unchanging, and the technical term is the immutability of God. That’s the unchanging nature of God. And so those are the kind of things we’re going to be looking at over the next while. We don’t really have an end date of when we’re going to finish this, so over the next while anyway. And the aim as we do this is that we would have a greater understanding about who God is.

And we don’t only want to have a head knowledge of this, but we want that knowledge of God to then impact how we think about God, how we pray to God, how we trust God, how we worship God. And we want it to impact every aspect of our life. And I think there can be a mindset that the study of these sort of things, to go deeper in the faith, to study theology, to study doctrine, there’s a temptation to think that that’s only for those who want to take their faith seriously, or it’s only for those who go to Bible college, or it’s for the pastors of the church. There is a temptation that we think like that, and we think that the study of theology almost is removed from everyday life, that it doesn’t affect how I go to work on a Monday morning, or how I treat my family, or how I do all of these different things.

And yet I hope that as we look at this series, that mindset will be flipped, that actually the study of theology does affect today and tomorrow and the next day. That knowing God better should impact how we study and how we live our lives.

And so right at the outset, I thought it’d be helpful to give you a book recommendation. I’m sure many of us have heard of this book, Knowing God by J. I. Packer. It is such a super helpful book. I’ve dipped into it even this past week. And it says on the front that it is a spiritual classic, and that’s true. That is a really helpful, really accessible book to help us think about what God is actually like, that we can actually know God in a very real sense. And so that’s my book recommendation that you can read over the next couple of months.

So back to it. The plan tonight is we’re going to lay somewhat of a foundation for this series. We’re not going to actually get into an attribute tonight, but what we’re going to do is just lay the foundation about where we’re going to go. We’re going to think about how can we know God? How can we know what God is actually like? And what does it mean to know God? What does that mean? And so I’m going to give you 4 principles that we can think about and hopefully will help us as we set up this series.

1 We must know God as he has revealed himself

So the first principle is that we must know God as he has revealed himself. We must know God as he has revealed himself. If you could open your Bible to Acts chapter 17, Acts chapter 17. As we look at these principles, we’re going to try to root ourselves in what Scripture has to say. Again, nobody wants to listen to what I have to say. You want to hear what the Word has to say itself. And so we want to have a biblical basis for each of these principles that we look at.

Here in Acts chapter 17, if you have it open, you can glance at the text. It’s probably broken up similar to mine. Paul and Silas are together. And so verse 1, maybe you’ve got a little heading there above it, tells us that they’re in Thessalonica, which is the place that we’re studying on a Sunday night, that letter. And in verse 10, they move to Berea. And in verse 16, where we’re going to look here for a few moments, Paul arrives in Athens. And so when he arrives in Athens, look at verse 16 and look at what we’re told.

Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

So the scene here is that as Paul is in Athens and as he looks around the streets and the marketplaces and the houses and all of the different things, well, he sees that this is very obviously a very religious city. It’s a place, we’re told, verse 16 there, that was full of idols.

History tells us that in Athens around this time, these idols would have varied in sizes and shapes and forms. Many of these idols would have been several metres tall, and so it’d be very hard to miss them. Some of them were a little bit smaller, and they would be maybe this size, roughly 30, 40, 50 centimetres tall, and they would be placed either on a table in a home as soon as you went into it, or they’d be placed on the pillar or the wall as you enter into somebody’s home. And so the idea was that these idols were strategically placed in very public areas so that anywhere you went, well, you would be faced with an idol, which is why, as Paul says in verse 16, this city was full of idols. Everywhere and anywhere he turned, well, there were idols to be seen.

If you look down to verse 29, Paul describes these idols a little bit more for us, what they’re like. He says:

Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone.

And so these idols, which were placed everywhere, were made of these materials: of gold, of silver, and of stone. And so those different sizes and shapes, they would have also come with different material. And also history tells us that many of the idols, as well as being gold and silver and stone, would have been painted with lots of different colours. And so they would have been very creative. I reckon if we saw them, we would actually think they’re quite impressive. Sculptures that have been made. Remember, in those days they didn’t have the machinery or the tools that we have today, so this was all done by hand. And so they were very impressive-looking sculptures.

And so as Paul looks around, well, he sees this is a very religious place with lots of these idols dotted around everywhere. But if you jump back up to verse 22 and verse 23, look what Paul says.

So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious. For as I pass along and observe the objects of your worship, I also find an altar with the inscription, To the unknown god.

And so what Paul is saying as he begins this speech is that you are a religious people. You are worshipping the gods, but you’re not worshipping the true God. The idea here that they had an unknown god, an altar to the unknown god, was because they had gods to try to, kind of, cover all the bases. So they would have a god for the sun, they would have a god for the moon, a god for the stars, and they had all these gods dotted around the place. And then they had the one to the unknown god, just to make sure that everything had been covered. It’s the one that we might not know about, but he’s out there somewhere. And so we’ll create this just so that box is ticked.

And so Paul says, you are very religious, you believe in the gods, but you do not believe in the God, the one true living God. You don’t have a right understanding of what he is like. And so that’s why, look back to verse 23, look at how he finishes. He says:

Therefore, what you worship as unknown, well, then this I proclaim to you: the God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, he does not live in temples made by man, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him.

This is what Paul is doing. He has recognised these are religious people, they are worshipping gods, but they do not know the true God. And so what he does, he corrects their understanding. He proclaims to them who that real God is, that almost that unknown God that they want to know but they don’t know. He says, this is who it is, this I proclaim to you.

So Paul is telling these people that, you know, God is not a God that you can create. He’s not a God that you can come up with in your imagination. He’s not a God that you can tailor to your preferences. There is one true God and you need to know who he is.

It was really interesting on Sunday whenever Keith spoke at the Lord’s Table and he said that no matter where you go in the world, you go to different countries, the different cultures, to different people groups, to far-off people groups, to the people who have never heard the name of Jesus. No matter where you go, people have made up religions and idols and gods. Isn’t that interesting? What we see out there in the world is what Paul sees in Athens. People who are religious, people who want to worship, and yet people who don’t know that unknown God, and so they make things up to try to fill that void.

And yet it’s not only in the far-off people, it’s not only in those far-off tribes, it’s not only in Athens that we see this, but we see this in the world that we live in today. If you go into your workplace, you rub shoulders with people who are outside the church, you will see that this is the mindset of so many different people. I think especially in Northern Ireland, when we have a culture of a group of people probably a generation ago or so who have grown up in church and so they’ve a foundation understanding of the Bible and of who God is. And yet those people who might not deem themselves to be religious, their view of God, they have twisted it so it suits their understanding.

We see people, you can watch the news, you can watch TV, you can go on social media, you can talk to people and they have made a God in their head that suits their preferences, that suits their ideas, that suits their lifestyles. It might be a god who, you know, doesn’t care about a particular sin. A god who is able to turn his head every now and again so that we can live however we want. A god who’s loving and so wouldn’t want to judge anybody. And again, what we see in Acts 17 is what we see in the world around us. People who are worshipping a god but not the true God.

And the danger is that not only do we see it in far-off lands, not only do we see it in the world around us, but we can also see this mindset in the church as well. That we can have this mindset where we twist knowledge of God to suit ourselves. I doubt anybody in this room has a god that’s made of gold or silver or stone. And yet there is a temptation, as I said, to take aspects of truth and to twist them and to create a God that we want to worship.

We know that God is forgiving, and so we take that truth and we twist it, and we use that then as a free pass to live and to sin whatever way we want. Or we know that God is sovereign, that he is in control, and so we take that truth and we twist it and we live whatever way we want. We make reckless decisions, say, well, God’s in control anyway. Or we know that God provides for his people, and so we slip into a mindset to say, well, we should expect blessing, that we should expect comfort in this life, we should expect prosperity. And we mightn’t say those things out loud, and yet there is a subtle temptation that that’s the mindset that we can slip into.

And so that’s why we want to begin this series. We want to begin about who God actually is. What does God actually say about who he is? That’s why it’s important that we must know God as he has revealed himself. Not how we think, not how society thinks, not how the people out there think, not how the people in Athens think, but how God himself has revealed himself.

2 Thankfully, God has shown us what he is like

And so the second principle then, closely connected, is thankfully God has shown us what he is like. God has shown us what he is like. If you turn over to Psalm 19 where we were on Sunday. Psalm 19.

Do you know, as I was preparing this, I thought it was amazing. Do you know the God of the universe, the God who has no beginning or end, the God who created the world with the power of his word, the God who upholds this world, the God who needs absolutely nothing, he has revealed himself so that we can know him. Very unintentionally, Alex was speaking about this on Sunday morning when he was looking at Psalm 19.

You know, God hasn’t left it that we have to get creative to think what he’s like or to try to imagine or to construct our own version of God like the people in Athens did in Acts 17. He has revealed himself to us and there are 2 primary ways that he has. We see firstly in verses 1 to 6 that God has revealed himself through creation. We saw that on Sunday. Look at what David says in verses 1 and 2.

The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.

Every day and every night, creation is telling us something about God. I’m sure we’ve all experienced standing under a bright, clear sky, we might have one tonight, that you look up and you see those thousands and millions of stars hanging overhead. Or we see the sun every day rise and fall. Or we see the seasons changing year after year without fail. And as all of those things unfold, well, creation is telling us something about God. It’s revealing something about who he is. His fingerprints are all over creation.

And as we said, this makes sense when you go to those far-off people groups who have never heard the name of Jesus, when you see those people in Acts chapter 17, because as they look to the creation, as they look at the universe, well, they realise that there must be something that is bigger than we are. There must be something out there who is greater than we are.

You know, we can look at the stars and it tells us something about God’s glory, about God’s power, about God’s creation. And yet it’s important that we should all know that the stars don’t tell us everything. It reveals something about him, but it can’t tell us everything.

And so the second way that God has revealed himself is through his word. Look down to verse 7. David shifts gear. So verses 1 to 6, God speaks through creation, and now verse 7 onwards, he speaks to us through his word. He says:

The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes.

David moves from how creation speaks now to how God speaks to us through his word. And we know God hasn’t created the world and again left us to decide what he is like by joining the dots or trying to do a little bit of a treasure hunt around the world to try to reveal what he’s like. He’s revealed himself to us through his word.

Calvin has a really helpful illustration when he’s trying to balance these 2 ways that God has revealed himself. He says that whenever we look to creation, it’s as if we look at it with blurry vision. We see that there’s something out there. We can’t tell exactly what it is, but we know there is something. And then when we come to the Word, it’s as if we put on glasses. And as those glasses come on, well, everything becomes clear. And so he reveals himself in 2 ways, partially through creation but completely through the word.

That’s why if we want to know what God is really like, if we want to know the attributes of God, we have to go to see what he says in his word. We’re not to rely on how we feel about it. We’re not to rely on the experience we might have. We’re not to rely on bouncing ideas off each other. No, we go to what God has actually said about himself through his word.

And that’s why, again, you think about the practical outworking of this. That’s why here at Emmanuel we put such an emphasis on the preaching and the teaching of the word. That’s why we carve out so much time to study this word on a Wednesday night, twice on a Sunday, on a Thursday morning. That’s why we want all of our ministries to be focused on the word, because this is how God speaks. This is how God reveals himself. And so that’s why we put such an emphasis on this. When you think about it, what a privilege it is that we have this word in our language. We understand this word. We can read it and learn what God is like.

Ultimately, we see God revealing himself through his Son. Listen to what Hebrews 1:1–3 says.

Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets. But in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world.

Listen to verse 3:

He is the radiance of the glory of God, and the exact imprint of his nature.

Jesus doesn’t simply tell us about God. He doesn’t give us part of the picture of God. The author of Hebrews says he is the exact imprint of his nature. That’s why Jesus can say in John 14:9 that whoever has seen me, well, then you have seen the Father. He is the exact imprint of the Father.

And so when we read the Gospels and we read about the things that Jesus did, that’s how we can see the Father. Well, when we think about God’s holiness, we can see that in how Jesus responds to and reacts to sin. When we read of God’s compassion, we see that in Christ with how he treated those who were outcast and vulnerable in society. When we read about God’s power, well, we see that in the miracles of Jesus. When we read about God’s love, we see that most of all, don’t we? Through the sending of Jesus.

And so as we ask, what is God like? How can we know what God is like? We see it through creation, we see it in the Word, and ultimately we see it through the Son.

3 We can know God truly but not fully

But with that said, there’s an important caveat: we can know God truly but not fully. Turn with me to Romans chapter 11. Romans chapter 11. Now this is going to sound like a complete contradiction to everything that I’ve said up to this point.

We said how God has revealed himself through creation, through the Word, through his Son, and therefore we conclude we can know God. But the important disclaimer is that that doesn’t mean that we can know everything there is to know about God. Look at Romans chapter 11 and look at what Paul says in verse 33 onwards.

Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counsellor? Or who has given a gift to him that he might be repaid?

What Paul is saying is that there are depths to God we will never get to the bottom of. The theological term here, and I struggle with this pronunciation, is the incomprehensibility of God. It’s the idea that we can know God, but we can’t know him fully. Well, we can know him as he’s revealed himself, but we will never get to the depths of who or what he truly is.

One commentator said that to know God is to know that he is indescribable. When you think about it, this makes sense. God is infinite, we are finite. God is the Creator, and we are the creatures, the creation. Because if we could fully understand God, and if we could fully explain God, and if we could fully wrap our heads around who he is and what he is like, then we wouldn’t be understanding the God who’s presented to us in Scripture.

There’s a helpful illustration, I think it’s from Augustine, I was trying to remember, I couldn’t remember. And I think he’s talking about John’s Gospel, but it’s a helpful picture that we can use for all of Scripture, or the revealing of God. He says that Scripture is shallow enough for a child to wade in, but it’s deep enough for an elephant to swim in. And so the same water that a child can go and splish splash in is the exact same water that an elephant can go and swim in. The idea is that, you know, we don’t need a theology degree to know God. Even a child can know God. Yet at the exact same time, the greatest theologians who have ever lived, well, they have spent a lifetime and they are still to get to the depths of who he really is.

That’s the picture that’s being painted here. And I wanted to mention this at the start of this series because as we look at these different attributes of God, whether it be his wisdom, his love, his holiness, his sovereignty, we need to realise we’re only going to scratch the surface. And that’s not the preacher’s fault, but that’s the reality of the God that we’re trying to study. We could spend the rest of our lives looking at one attribute of God and still not get to the depths of it. That’s the wonder and the majesty of who and what God is.

And so over these coming months, there will be times that we will feel out of our depth, that we’ll not fully understand, that we’ll probably be left with more questions than answers. And if that’s the case, well, we’re all going to be in the same boat. But that’s the reality of finite creatures trying to understand the infinite Creator.

If you look at Romans 11 again, I want you to notice how Paul finishes this chapter. And if you know anything about the book of Romans, you’ll know that Romans chapters 9, 10 and 11 are some of the most controversial and most difficult parts of this book, and probably the New Testament, and probably the whole Bible potentially, to understand. And yet look at how Paul finishes in verse 36 of Romans 11. He says:

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.

The last couple of chapters, Paul has been trying to wrestle with God’s election, with human responsibility and salvation, with God’s purposes for Israel, with God’s mercy. And he’s tried to balance these and work these all out together. And do you see that he comes to a conclusion? In verse 33, his conclusion is, well, who can understand God? Who can understand the depths of his riches? And in verse 36, he doesn’t throw his toys out of the pram, does he? What does that realisation that we’ll never understand this do? Well, it leads him to worship. He doesn’t say it doesn’t matter anymore. He doesn’t say, let’s just forget about it. He doesn’t say that theology is useless. You know, he puts his hands up and says, we don’t understand, but we need to worship because of that. Because if we could understand, as I said, we wouldn’t be worshipping or understanding or knowing the God that Scripture has revealed.

4 Knowing God must change how we live

So fourthly then, the fourth principle is that knowing God must change how we live. Knowing God must change how we live. Turn forward with me to 1 John chapter 4. 1 John chapter 4.

There is a danger that, although we’ll never fully understand this, as we go into a little bit more depth of what God is actually like, at the end of this series, whenever that is, we’ll all come away with more knowledge about who he is. And the issue is that it’ll only be head knowledge. We’ll know more doctrine about who and what God is. And yet the danger is that we have head knowledge, but then it doesn’t affect how we live. It stays up here and doesn’t transfer into our hearts.

Look at 1 John chapter 4 and look at verse 7 and 8. John says:

Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love.

And so do you see here how closely John connects the knowledge of God and how that should play itself out in our life? Do you see what he says in the second half of verse 7? Whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. And so if we love, well, that is proof that we know God. That is proof that we understand that he is love.

John takes it further. Look at verse 9 and verse 10. He says:

In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

And so in verse 7 and 8, John states that God is love. And so that’s the theological truth, that is the knowledge of God, that he is love. And then in verse 9 and 10, he says this is the practical outworking of it. How do we know that God is love? It’s not just theory. Well, the practical aspect is that he has sent his Son, the end of verse 10, to be the propitiation for our sins. That’s how we know. And so there’s knowledge, and there’s practice. The 2 things go hand in hand.

And look at how he concludes in verse 11. He says:

Beloved, if God so loved us—which he does—what are we to do? We also ought to love one another.

And so what John is saying, the argument here, is that the theory is that God loves, there’s a practical outworking, it’s shown through the sending of the Son, and therefore if we claim to understand this, if we claim to know this, we must do the same. That love must be manifest, it must be practically lived out in our lives.

And so if I give you a couple of examples of this, if we learn in this series that God is patient and yet we are continually snappy and continually irritable and continually impatient with the people around us, well then the logic is that we haven’t fully grasped what it means that God is patient, because it will impact how we live our lives. We will not do it perfectly. Absolutely not. We are sinful beings, and yet it must impact how we live.

If we learn that God is gracious and yet we continue to be harsh with people, and we continue to be slow to forgive, and we continually hold grudges against other people, well then that is proof that we have not fully understood the doctrine that God is gracious. Because if we understand, it must affect how we live. The point I’m trying to make is that if our theology, if our understanding, doesn’t impact your tomorrow, then you don’t understand the theology.

And so as we begin this series, we want to delve into the depths and try to understand and try to gain more knowledge. And yet it’s not just knowledge for knowledge’s sake. It is knowledge that affects how we live. It’s knowledge that affects how we pray. It’s knowledge that affects how we worship the Lord.

So let me pray and let me ask God to help us as we begin this series.

Our Heavenly Father, we are so thankful that you have revealed yourself to us. We do acknowledge and confess that we will never fully understand the depths of you, and yet we pray that over these coming weeks you would help us through your Spirit to understand more of what we know about you. And we pray that you would help us not just to have head knowledge, but we pray that our understanding of you would impact how we live. That as we see that you are love, help us to love one another. And as we see that you are holy, help us to strive for holiness. And as we see that you are patient, God, we pray you would help us to be patient as we live. And we pray this so that you would be given all the glory.

Help us now as we come to a time of prayer. Thank you again for the access to your throne, that you hear our prayers, you hear our petitions. So help us to be quick to bring our concerns to you and our praise to you. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.