Knowing God (Pt. 2)

Knowing God (Pt. 2)

In the last message I stated “…they go on rejecting God by exchanging the truth of God for a lie, the lie of their mind.” The mind is not bad, we are called to love the Lord with all our heart, soul and mind (Mark 12:30), but when the mind is in control of both heart and soul, then there is a problem. This is something that I struggle with, I love to learn, but when my heart and my head disconnect then there is only judgment in what I say, and I do not do it for the glory of God, but to merely when an argument. This is sin. This is pride. So do not commit intellectual suicide by saying the mind is bad, it is necessary that you may spread the gospel to thinkers as well as to the spiritually ignorant. But do not forget your heart, or only sin will be found (pride).
Now to continue on, “The Mountains and the hills do not willingly worship (Piper).” They were made to worship! They know nothing else! They do not do it willingly because that is their soul purpose! But we close our ears, and worship the creation rather than the Creator (Romans 1:25). The wrath of God is revealed against mankind because of their acceptance of this lie, because of their suppression of the truth that all of creation screams out. The wrath of God is the first doctrinal thing we must learn. “So we will recognize our deep spiritual need and be prepared to receive the knowledge of God in the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior…(Boice).” We must come to God humbly with a contrite spirit (Isaiah 66:2) else we come boasting of our knowledge of spiritual matters, for in this He would reject us.
God’s wrath against mankind is perfectly just. For example, if I were to commit a crime against another man, then I would be judged according to that crime, and against the man I wronged. But since the crime is against a temporal man then my sentence will not be for eternity. However God is eternal, and since our sins are committed against the Eternal Being of God then it is perfectly just for us to be punished forever. Here are the words of Jonathan Edwards on this matter from his sermons "The Justice of God in the Damnation of Sinners:"

“Every crime or fault deserves a greater or less punishment, in proportion as the crime itself is greater or less. If any fault deserves punishment, then so much the greater the fault, so much the greater is the punishment deserved. The faulty nature of any thing is the formal ground and reason of its desert of punishment; and therefore the more any thing hath of this nature, the more punishment it deserves. And therefore the terribleness of the degree of punishment, let it be never be so terrible, is no argument against the justice of it, if the proportion does but hold between the heinousness of the crime and the dreadfulness of the punishment; so that if there be any such thing as a fault infinitely heinous, it will follow that it is just to inflict a punishment for it that is infinitely dreadful.
… Our obligation to love, honor, and obey any being, is in proportion to his loveliness, honorableness, and authority; for that is the very meaning of the words. When we say any one is very lovely, it is the same as to say, that he is one very much to be loved. Or if we say such a one is more honorable than another, the meaning of the words is, that he is one that we are more obliged to honor. If we say any one has great authority over us, it is the same as to say, that he has great right to our subjection and obedience.

But God is a being infinitely lovely, because he hath infinite excellency and beauty. To have infinite excellency and beauty, is the same thing as to have infinite loveliness. He is a being of infinite greatness, majesty, and glory; and therefore he is infinitely honorable. He is infinitely exalted above the greatest potentates of the earth, and highest angels in heaven; and therefore he is infinitely more honorable than they. His authority over us is infinite; and the ground of his right to our obedience is infinitely strong; for he is infinitely worthy to be obeyed himself, and we have an absolute, universal, and infinite dependence upon him.

So that sin against God, being a violation of infinite obligations, must be a crime infinitely heinous, and so deserving of infinite punishment.- Nothing is more agreeable to the common sense of mankind, than that sins committed against any one, must be proportionably heinous to the dignity of the being offended and abused; as it is also agreeable to the word of God, I Samuel 2:25. "If one man sin against another, the judge shall judge him;" (i.e. shall judge him, and inflict a finite punishment, such as finite judges can inflict;) "but if a man sin against the Lord, who shall entreat for him?"

The infinitely punishable act is that of sin, disobedience, pride, etc. And because it is a crime against God’s infinite glory than the lowest term of sentencing is eternity. Due to it being an infinitely heinous act then the least amount of punishment is that of Hell (dreadful). So you see that God is perfectly just in His sentencing and in the punishment itself. We must learn this to be able to come to Him humbly to receive the gift of eternity with Him, because the price has been paid, and we are free in Christ, if we are Christian.

Just for fun

I know that I usually write about pretty hard/heavy issues. So here is a little bit-o-fun just to make you laugh.




WOOF!

Knowing God (Pt. 1)

I have been sending these messages for the past couple weeks now, and I have yet to tell you why I send them. It is quite simple really, I send them because I love God, and I am unashamed of the work He is doing. I also feel that a revival is soon coming and that this generation is the one to lead it, so by sending these letters I pray that God is using me to kindle a fire within you to speak boldly of who Christ is and what He has done; that the world might know the One true God, and that He is greatly to be praised. Thus having clearly stated that I would like to begin a series of messages on God, His attributes, His Creation, His word…etc. so that we all may better know the God we worship.

Knowing God (Part 1)

“Nearly all wisdom we possess, that is to say, true and sound wisdom, consists of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves.” This is the opening line of John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion” and it states the main problem. Who really knows himself and God? Is there anyone that has ever lived that has truly known himself? That has known every sin that lies within all the deep folds of their heart and mind, is it even possible? I can only speak from my experience, and that is it is impossible to completely know yourself. If you are completely honest you do not know all the sins that you have committed. However it goes far beyond that, we are born sinful, before we take our first breath we are consumed by sin. The reason being for not completely knowing ourselves is that we do not completely know God; we have failed to know God.
Before we go and blame it on God, we must first look at one of His attributes, which is His omnipotence. He is all-powerful. Since the fault is ours we can take comfort in the fact it can be corrected. He can do anything; He can intervene. But if (and more comfortably) the fault is God’s than nothing can be done to correct the problem. “The Bible declares that the problem is not God’s but ours. Therefore the problem is solvable. It is solvable because God can take, and actually has taken steps to reveal Himself to us, thereby providing us with the missing key to knowledge. (James Boice)”
However men and women do not naturally obey or worship this God, although they do have an awareness of Him, “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead. (Romans 1:20)” From this we can see that man has willingly rejected God. Man can see his attributes in all of creation, but they turn away. Their heart screams, “Yes, there is a God!” But their mind yells, “There cannot be!” Thus they go on rejecting God by exchanging the truth of God for a lie, the lie of their mind.

Salvation

Romans 10:9-10, “That if you confess with your mouth Jesus Christ, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”
Ephesians 2:8-9, “For by grace have you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.”

Salvation is not just a precautionary measure for death, it is life, and the only way to salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, by the person of Christ alone. There is no other way! When I spoke Wednesday night I gave the analogy of Noah’s Ark. In the days of Noah when the flood rains began to come, the people ran to the hills and the mountains, but when the hills were consumed, and the mountains lost beneath the depths of the sea, the only thing that saved was the Ark. So it is with Jesus. When the fires of God’s wrath are poured out the ones that ran to the hills and mountains of their works, and fails religions, will be destroyed. That is the hard truth; man is nowhere near good enough to go into the presence of God without Someone covering for his sins.
By the sheer grace of God that person was sent and that person is Jesus. He is the One that from the foundations of the world was considered slain for the sake of mankind. He is the One that the entire Bible points to. He is the only One that can make you white as snow that you may come into the presence of God the Father. “Surely He has borne our grief, and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned everyone to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all (Isaiah 53:4-6).”
So this is my challenge to you. Do not just confess Jesus (Christianity) by your mouth, live it; love it, for by Him you have been saved. Go and debate your salvation with it’s Author, be sure of it, for this is no trivial matter it is, perhaps, the most weighty issue that you will ever encounter in your life. Do as Philippians 2:12 says, “…Work out your salvation with fear and trembling.”

Eph. 2:1-10,19-21

Ephesians 2:1-10
“And you have been made alive, [you] who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air [the Devil], the spirit who now works on the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others (or like the rest of mankind).
But God, who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show His exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
I.We are all the same according to sin
A.Vs. 3, “among whom we all also once conducted ourselves fulfilling the desires of the flesh, and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath just as the others.”
A. “We are all by nature children of wrath.” Because of our rejection of Jesus, we are the children of wrath, just like the rest of mankind even the murders and the liars. And this is our main fault. We are walk according to the course of this world. Therefore we sin, because the will of Satan is for us to reject God, and to not obey Him in every part of our lives. And because of the fall we are born that way and we like it. “We were shattered by the fall.” Because we are so occupied with ourselves that we reject the only thing that can save us.
II. We are all helpless to save ourselves from sin
A.Vs 8-9, “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest any many should boast.”
1. Thank of it in the terms of Noah’s ark. The ark was the only way to be saved from the flood, but the people ran to the hills, and to the mountains, but when the hills were consumed, and the mountains were lost under the depths of the sea, the only thing that saved was the ark.
2. Just as Jesus is the only way to God. Man tries to build hills, and mountains to Heaven, but when the fires of God’s wrath are poured out upon us, the only people that will be saved are the people that are found in Christ Jesus.
3. Look at the thief on the cross next to Jesus, he was literally a few hours from his death, but when he said to Christ, “Lord remember me when You come into your kingdom.” He was saved. “Today you will be with Me in Paradise,” came the His Saviors reply. Today, not tomorrow, but today, this was a man known for being a thief, but as he hung on that cross, receiving the just penalty for his actions he was saved
III.We have all come to the same Savior
A.Vs. 10, “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ…”
A.John 14:6, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father by me.”
1. O it is grace! Sheer grace! That we are saved. It is by the sheer grace of God that mankind was not destroyed after the fall, it is by that same grace that mankind was allowed to live on through the flood. It is by His sheer grace that Christ was even sent to die for our sins. It is by His sheer grace that you were born in a free country, into a Christian family, and are able to worship freely. It is by that same grace that you woke up this morning and that you have lived this long to hear this message, and it is still by that same grace that you take breath this very moment. In fact it is the sheer grace of God that allows you every breath you breathe.
IV.We all have the same Father
A.Vs. 4-5, “But God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive in Christ (by grace you have been saved…”
B.Vs. 1a, “And you He made alive…”
1.We all once conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, and of our mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. BUT GOD!
a.I once walked according to the course of this world, But God, who is rich in mercy saved me. I once conducted myself in the lust of my flesh and of my mind, But God, whose love is great saved me. I once was a child of wrath, But God, poured out His grace on me. I was once in the dead in the morgue because of my trespasses, But God has made me alive, through His Son Jesus Christ. This is the Father we share, His love is unending, His riches incomparable, His grace deeper than the oceans, and His mercy Higher than the heavens. This is the great God we share.
V.We are all going to the same destination
A.This is found near the end of the chapter, in verses 19-21, “Now therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, and Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
1.We are, if the Spirit of God lives within you, no longer strangers or foreigners, but we are apart of the Church Being built together in Christ, that we might be a place of dwelling for God in the Spirit. This is what you are if you have come to the realization that you are consumed by sin, and unable to save yourself from that sin. If you have come to salvation by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, by Christ alone, for there is no other way to come into the adoption of the Father. As the hills and mountains were consumed in the days of Noah, so will the works of man come to destruction. Let me leave you with these words of encouragement found in Ehp. 2:13, “But now in Christ Jesus you who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.” You who walked according to the course of this world, has been saved by the blood of Christ. You who conducted yourself according to the lust of the flesh and of your mind, has been saved by the blood of Christ. You who were once a child of wrath, the blood of Christ has saved you. You who were dead and in the morgue have been made alive by the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ has saved you.

If you are unsure of your salvation then please feel free to ask me questions about this Jesus. We are told in Philippians's 2 to, "Work out your own salvation with fear ad trembling." In my mind when it says to "work out" I think of a debate. To sit down and debate your salvation with God. So, if you don't know Him, please ask.

O God these words are true that you have saved us by the blood of Your Son. All we have to do is, as told in Isaiah, to Look to you and be saved. It is as simple as looking to Christ for the forgiveness of my sins, and they are gone, no works must be done, all that has to be done is Christ death, and it is finished. Be with us as we leave here tonight, and as we go to school tomorrow, that others may know that you are our God, and you are our Father. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.